OPERATIONS / SUPPLY CHAIN

York, Pa. – The Bon-Ton Stores, Inc. is the latest retailer to plan to have its stores open Thanksgiving night. Bon-Ton will open its stores at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 28 and offer in-store doorbuster deals through 2 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 29.

Online doorbusters will begin at 6 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 27. Other retailers that have already announced plans to open stores at 8 p.m. Thanksgiving night include Macy’s, J.C. Penney and Kohl’s.

More stores will be open on Thanksgiving, which is also the first full day of Hanukkah

Those who fail to plan, plan to fail. It's hard to believe that September is already here — time for retailers to attend to the holiday shopping season. We at ShopperTrak recommend the following ways to prepare for the coming busy months.

> Maximize opportunities during the shorter selling season. 

Ridgefield, Conn. -- Schimenti Construction Company announced it appointed Gregg Bartel as VP of operations. Bartel joins the company from Kohl’s Department Store, where as VP of pre-construction & development, he oversaw site due diligence and development of retail and non-retail construction projects across the United States

Baltimore -- Under Armour announced that COO Kip Fulks has added president of product to his current responsibilities, while Henry Stafford is now serving as president of North America.
   
In the new positions, Fulks will further leverage his leadership experience in product, innovation, supply chain and IT, and Stafford will oversee North America wholesale, retail marketing, global retail and global E-Commerce.
 

Washington, D.C. -- The National Retail Federation calculated retail industry job gains at 15,200 in September, and 289,000 jobs year-over-year, a 2.4% increase over the same month last year and 2.0% higher than total private sector jobs over the past year.

Bentonville, Ark. – Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. has reportedly named two new managers for its China business. According to Bloomberg, an internal corporate memo indicates Wal-Mart is naming Adrian Blake as senior VP of business development in China and Rob Bray as senior VP of real estate in China.

Westlake Village, Calif. – Guitar Center is opening a Serato-branded digital music area in its Brooklyn, N.Y., store on Oct. 24. The 2,500-sq.-ft. area provides a space for DJs and producers to demo and buy Serato products.

Salt Lake City – Supply chain technology vendor Park City Group has named Gary Rocheleau, a 40-year retail industry veteran who most recently served as VP of retail marketing execution for Safeway subsidiary Vons Pavilions, as senior advisor.

Other previous roles Rocheleau has held include president of Grocery Works, Safeway’s home shopping and delivery company. He began his career with Lucky Stores, Inc., where he spent nearly 23 years and his last position was VP of grocery.