OPERATIONS / SUPPLY CHAIN

Woonsocket, R.I. -- CVS Caremark released its 2010 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report, which provides an overview of the company's commitments to environmental stewardship, improving patient health outcomes, ensuring its continued status as an employer of choice, and positively impacting people's lives through its social investments.

Dallas -- Zale Corp. announced the company’s CFO, Matt Appel, has been appointed as chief administrative officer. He will continue to serve as CFO.

Appel will be responsible for real estate, supply chain and logistics, merchandise planning and allocation, information technology, warranty, repair and credit products, as well as the ongoing management of Zale’s finance and control functions.

Secaucus, N.J. -- The Children's Place Retail Stores announced the appointment of Eric Bauer as COO. He will be responsible for supply chain, planning and allocation, store operations, finance, information technology and real estate.

Bauer most recently he spent eight years with The Gap, culminating in his appointment as executive VP brand operations COO, for Gap North America where he was responsible for finance, store operations, real estate, distribution, logistics, information technology and their Canadian operations.

New York City -- Rising fuel costs, higher commodity prices and increasing international market demand for food are pushing food inflation higher and higher, according to the Food Marketing Institute’s U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends report released Tuesday.

New York City -- Kroger Co. is increasing its efforts to stop organized retail theft rings, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported.

The supermarket company now has an executive in charge of organized crime investigations. He oversees investigators in each of Kroger’s 17 divisions across the nation.

Boulder, Col. -- Sunflower Farmers Market appointed Chris S. Sherrell as its CEO, the natural grocery chain announced Friday. He has worked with Sunflower since its inception in 2002 and most recently served as the company's president and COO.

Sherrell has served as the acting CEO since the middle of February, shortly after Michael Gilliland, the company's founder and then-CEO, was arrested in Phoenix following a prostitution sting operated by undercover Phoenix Police Department officers.

Chelmsford, Mass. -- Retail hiring is on the rise, according to the May report of the Kronos Retail Labor Index, a family of metrics and indices that analyze the relationship between the demand and supply sides of the labor market within the U.S. retail sector.

Chicago -- In its most recent consumer sentiment and behavior survey, Technomic, the Chicago-based food industry research firm, found that 84% of consumers believe that grocery prices have risen in the past three months and 62% believe restaurant prices have risen.

Bob Goldin, executive VP of Technomic, believes that the rapid rise in gas prices, now at record highs, has raised consumer sensitivity to price increases in grocery stores and restaurants.