OPERATIONS / SUPPLY CHAIN

Plano, Texas – J.C. Penney Co. released its 2013 Sustainability Report, outlining sustainability initiatives pursued during fiscal year 2012 ended Feb. 2013. Highlights of the report included:

• Stores and Operations: Through the company’s energy conservation efforts, J.C. Penney has received Energy Star certification in more than 500 locations and earned the Energy Star Sustained Excellence Award for five consecutive years.

New York -- The National Retail Federation on late Tuesday sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker John Boehner that called for replacing the magnetic-strip credit and debit cards that are widely used throughout the United States with chip-based cards that store data in an embedded computer micro-chip and require the use of a PIN rather than a signature. The chip-based cards are widely used in Europe, Asia and Africa.

Jacksonville, Fla. – Stein Mart, Inc. has named Burton M. Tansky to the company's board of directors. Tansky was with The Neiman Marcus Group for 23 years, retiring as president and CEO in 2010.

Framingham, Mass. – Staples, Inc. is launching a new technology trade-in program. Staples already recycles electronic office products for free and now small businesses and consumers can trade-in a variety of used technology devices for Staples eCash Cards, which can be used in Staples stores or on Staples.com.

Seattle – Nordstrom plans to open its third fulfillment center at Conewago Industrial Park in Elizabethtown, Pa. Work has begun on the approximately 672,000-sq.-ft. building, with an additional 470,000-square foot mezzanine, which is scheduled to open in summer 2015, and the company is taking bids.

Cincinnati – The Kroger Co. has promoted two veteran company executives. Jay Cummins has been named president of the Smith's Food and Drug Stores division and Joe Fey has been named president of Kroger's Mid-Atlantic division.

Cummins, 62, has been serving as president of Kroger's Mid-Atlantic division. He succeeds Mark Tuffin, who was named senior VP of retail divisions in December 2013.

Framingham, Mass. – Unions representing employees of the U.S. Postal Service are reportedly threatening protests in response to the opening of new Postal Service retail centers in dozens of Staples stores. The unions say that the centers, which are staffed by Staples employees, unfairly replace unionized workers with lower-paid, non-union Staples workers and may lead to expansion of the centers to more Staples stores, affecting union jobs at nearby post offices.

Bentonville, Ark. – Wal-Mart Stores has reportedly registered a new company called “Wal-Mart India Private Ltd.” in India, setting the stage for entering the Indian grocery market with a new local partner. According to the Free Press Journal, an Indian publication, Wal-Mart registered the company on Jan. 15, 2014 with the Indian Ministry of Corporate Affairs.