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U.S. officials announced a broad range of actions against nutritional supplement companies Tuesday, alleging some made deceptive claims about the effectiveness of their products. Shares of GNC, Vitamin Shoppe and Herbalife all fell earlier in the day after federal agencies, including the Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission and Food and Drug Administration, announced they would…

Kohl's Corp. on Tuesday tabbed a rising Walgreens executive to fill the new post of chief operating officer — and to potentially become CEO. Sona Chawla, who has been president of digital and chief marketing officer at Walgreens, will join Kohl's on Nov. 30. She will take on broad responsibility over the nationwide retailer's operations and…

Yet more news of closures at Groupon, the daily deals and local commerce platform. TechCrunch has learned and confirmed that the company has ceased operations immediately in four more countries, all in Europe, where its business has been in decline: Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. The news comes amid a difficult period at Groupon, which has…

Urban Outfitters (URBN) wants to sell you grungy hipster outfits and authentic Italian pizza. The Philadelphia-based retailer said Monday that it will acquire The Vetri Family restaurant group, also based in Philadelphia, with an eye toward helping the business expand. The restaurant group was founded by Marc Vetri, an Italian-trained, James Beard award-winning chef. His…

Ever the optimists, millennials are approaching the holiday season with more vigor than older shoppers — putting them squarely at the top of many retailers' wish lists. According to a survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), 47 percent of millennials said they plan to spend more this holiday season, compared to just 25 percent of shoppers ages…

The employee perched on a stepstool by the checkout at Trader Joe’s in Union Square in Manhattan is like an air traffic controller: Register 6 for one customer. Register 9 for the next. The routine helps move traffic quickly through the store, where the lines can often snake around the aisles of whole grain cereal,…

Warby Parker is astonishingly successful, whether you judge it by the rave reviews of customers, its valuation or, more impressively, by the number of startups that compare themselves to the iconic eyeglass innovator. Over the last couple of years, I’ve met with dozens of entrepreneurs who have pitched themselves as the “Warby of ________.” Disrupting…

With the holiday shopping season on the horizon, YouTube is rolling out two products designed to help retailers. After testing a pair of shopping-based products with a few select companies, YouTube is making TrueView and shopping ads available to all retailers using Google AdWords. TrueView campaigns consist of interactive video ads that allow users to…

Retailers are striking back against union-backed ads portraying the industry as plagued by low wages, a lack of benefits and erratic work hours, as the minimum wage fight heats up in the 2016 presidential race. The National Retail Federation (NRF) ran two 30-second spots during Saturday night’s Democratic primary debate, highlighting the career opportunities in retail…

Despite promises to eliminate long waits on hold and speed consumers to responsive associates, the use of social media to handle customer service issues remains stubbornly ineffective for most retailers. A study of 500 of the top U.S. retailers from customer engagement software provider Eptica found only 20 percent were able to answer questions sent via…