OPERATIONS / SUPPLY CHAIN

Mooresville, N.C. - Lowe's and Porch.com have expanded their strategic partnership to the more than 1,700 Lowe's home improvement stores across the U.S. Every Lowe's store in the country now features Porch as the in-store resource to help homeowners find home improvement professionals for nearly any project outside of Lowe's current installation services.

Minneapolis -- Target Corp. named veteran IT executive Bob DeRodes as chief information officer. The retailer also announced that it plans to incorporate MasterCard chip-and-PIN technology across its Target-branded REDcard portfolio by early 2015, and is converting existing payment terminals at its stores this year ahead of schedule.

New York -- Amazon has opened a Wearable Technology store on its website, which it describes as a one-stop shop where customers can discover the latest in wearable technology and research wearable devices including activity trackers, smart watches and wearable cameras.

Irvine, Calif. – PriceSpider has expanded availability of its Where-to-Buy (WTB) services. Previously available in the consumer electronics space, the PriceSpider WTB service is now also available and in use in the home appliance, toy, automotive parts, sporting goods and consumer packaged goods markets.

Seattle -- REI's members recently elected two new directors to represent their interests on the co-op's board of directors.

Karen E. (Kari) Glover and Sharon Philpott were elected to three-year terms and Cheryl Scott was re-elected to a three-year term. Earlier in the year, the REI board re-appointed Chloe Harford and Matt Compton to one-year terms.

New Albany, Ohio - Bob Evans Farms Inc. has appointed Kevin M. Sheehan, president and CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line, Kathy S. Lane, former CIO of TJX Companies Inc., and Larry S. McWilliams, co-CEO of Compass Marketing, to its board of directors. E. Gordon Gee, 70, is stepping down from the board effective immediately, following his acceptance in March of the permanent position of president of the West Virginia University.

Grapevine, Texas -- GameStop Corp. will close 120-130 of its 6,457 stores worldwide in 2014 and add 300 to 400 new tech stores under three different banners: Spring Mobile, Cricket and Simply Mac. The closures and openings are part of the company’s new “GameStop3.0” repositioning. The new strategy emphasizes mobile-gaming.

“The opportunities that have presented themselves we see as unique,” said GameStop CEO Paul Raines during an investor meeting last week.

Jacksonville, Fla. -- Stein Mart’s board of directors has appointed D. Hunt Hawkins and Brian R. Morrow to share the newly created office of the president. Both men will continue to report to CEO Jay Stein.