OPERATIONS / SUPPLY CHAIN

Deerfield Park, Ill. – Most Walgreens stores will be open until midnight through Christmas Eve, and most stores will be open Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, including 1,600 24-hour locations. On Christmas Day, most non-24-hour stores will be open from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m.

Bentonville, Ark. – Wal-Mart India is laying off roughly 100-150 senior to mid-level employees. The Financial Press quotes anonymous executives as saying Wal-Mart India, which currently employs about 1,100 workers, beefed up staffing in anticipation of an expansion that has now been put on hold.

Wal-Mart runs 20 wholesale stores in India. The retailer previously ran them in a joint venture with Indian company Bharti Enterprises, but since that partnership was dissolved in October 2013 Wal-Mart India has been taking on Bharti employees.

Washington, D.C. -- The U.S, Department of Commerce will reportedly start meeting with companies including Facebook, Apple and Wal-Mart in February 2014 to create voluntary guidelines for the commercial use of facial recognition technology. According to Bloomberg, the Department of Commerce plans to have formal guidelines ready for release in June 2014.

Boca Raton, Fla. – Office Depot is expanding 3D Systems Cube 3-D printing services to 150 Office Depot stores nationwide.

Customers can experience 3-D printing demonstrations in stores in eight states or print on their own by purchasing the Cube or CubeX applications from www.officedepot.com. Participating states are California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Nevada, Oregon and Texas.

Pleasanton, Calif. -- Safeway has made its online grocery shopping website more accessible and usable for Safeway shoppers with visual impairments.

Safeway collaborated with its visually impaired customers to make the necessary changes to its website. As such, the company has adopted the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.0 level AA as its accessibility standard.

Bentonville, Ark. – Wal-Mart Stores has named a new president and CEO of its Indian operations. According to multiple media reports, Krish Iyler, who has been a senior VP in Wal-Mart’s international unit since January 2013, will assume his new role on Jan. 20. 2014.

New York -- Restoration Hardware Holdings said that co-CEO Carlos Alberini is resigning, effective January 31, to become the chairman and chief executive of Lucky Brand Jeans. The move comes just days after Fifth & Pacific Cos. entered into an agreement to sell Lucky Brand to private equity firm Leonard Green & Partners.

Lakeland, Fla. -- Publix Super Markets said Miami Division VP, Bill Fauerbach, would retire at the end of March.

“Bill helped grow our culture and build a solid foundation on which the Miami Division will continue to grow. We thank him for his many contributions, and he will be missed by us all,” stated Ed Crenshaw, Publix’ CEO.

Fauerbach will be succeeded by Kevin Murphy effective April 1. Murphy has been a regional director in the Atlanta Division since January 2009.