OPERATIONS / SUPPLY CHAIN

Wayne, N.J. – Toys ‘R Us Inc. plans to hire 45,000 seasonal employees at its stores and distribution centers nationwide, more than doubling the company’s workforce, as it prepares for the 2014 holiday shopping season.

The positions include sales associates, stock crew and omnichannel fulfillment teams, as well as distribution center workers and department managers.

New York -- PayPal has made its first direct entry into the virtual currency space. The company announced via a blog post that it has entered into agreements with leading Bitcoin payment processors BitPay, Coinbase and GoCoin. The agreements let PayPal’s digital goods merchants in North America accept Bitcoin, with a simple integration through the PayPal Payments Hub.

Seattle -- REI announced that Annie Zipfel has been promoted to senior VP marketing. With her, REI will not hire a chief marketing officer as previously announced, but instead add a senior creative leader to the company.

Zipfel joined REI in 2012 as the divisional VP customer marketing, and was named VP of the marketing division in January 2014. Prior to REI, she held leadership and strategic roles at Target and General Mills.

Boston – UsTrendy, a fashion e-commerce site with 20,000 designers from more than 100 countries posting their items for sale and receiving funding along with promotion for their clothing lines, is launching several new customer experience features in fourth quarter 2014.

These include:

Purchasers can customize clothing to fit by entering their measurements. They can also adjust the style of a garment, according to the designer’s choices.

San Diego -- Following the successful launch of 3D print in six markets across the country, The UPS Store announced it is is expanding 3D printing services to meet the growing demands of its small business customers to nearly 100 additional locations nationwide.

Dallas – Haggar Clothing Co. has hired Eve Richey as chief digital officer, effective Sept. 15. Richey, formerly VP of global digital marketing for Toms Shoes, will be responsible for creating a seamless approach to the consumer experience across a variety of shopping channels.

Richey will report directly to Michael Stitt, CEO of Haggar Clothing Co. She brings more than 14 years of experience developing and executing digital omnichannel strategies and implementing e-commerce solutions for brands such as Toms Shoes and Dell.

Boise, Idaho - Albertsons and Safeway Inc. announced the new senior leadership team and division leaders  for the combined company that will take effect upon the closing of their proposed merger. The deal is expected to close in a few months.

Safeway president and CEO Robert Edwards will serve as CEO of the combined company and current Albertsons CEO Bob Miller will become executive chairman.

New York -- Fairway Group Holdings Corp. has named Jack Murphy, a veteran retail executive with strong experience in specialty food retailing, as CEO.

Murphy was a co-founder of natural foods grocer Fresh Fields, which was sold to Whole Foods Market. Most recently he served as CEO of Earth Fare, an organics and natural food chain with locations in the Southeast and Midwest.