Crisis Management

Sephora will be closing all of its stores in the U.S. for "inclusion workshops" on Wed., June 5. In a post on Sephora's Facebook page, the beauty retailer announced that on the morning of June 5, "every Sephora store, distribution center, and corporate office in the U.S. will close to host inclusion workshops for our…

Amazon.com exposed some of its customers’ names and email addresses on Wednesday because of a "technical error," according to emails the company sent to affected customers. BetaNews, which first reported the incident, said affected customers received an email that said Amazon had " … inadvertently disclosed your name and email address due to a technical error." The email…

Starbucks will close its 8,000 company-owned stores in the United States for one afternoon to educate employees about racial bias. The announcement follows an uproar over the arrest of two black men who were waiting for a friend at a Philadelphia Starbucks last week. The store manager called the police. The racial bias training will be provided…

Former Best Buy CEO Brad Anderson has resigned from the boards of five organizations following a report that he contributed to a nonprofit organization that distributed inflammatory anti-Muslim videos on social media. Minnesota Public Radio says Anderson resigned from its board of directors, as well as General Mills, Waste Management, Carlson and Mayo Clinic. Anderson contributed $25,000…

Sears Holdings Corp. said on Wednesday some of its customer payment information may have been exposed in a cybersecurity data breach at software service provider [24]7.ai, which provides online support services for Sears. In a statement on its blog, Sears said it was notified of the incident in mid-March, and the incident led to unauthorized access…

Hackers stole information for more than 5 million credit and debit cards used at certain Saks Fifth Avenue, Saks Off 5th and Lord & Taylor stores. Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), which owns the retail chains, confirmed the breach Sunday, and said it has "identified the issue, and has taken steps to contain it." In the…

Some of the largest brands in retail today sent a letter to President Trump outlining their concerns about the detrimental impact broadly applied tariffs could have on American families. According to the letter, members and the membership teams of the National Retail Federation, Retail Industry Leaders Association, and American Apparel & Footwear Association fought long and hard…

H&M says it has appointed a diversity leader after having been accused of racism over an ad showing a black child dressed in a hoodie reading “coolest monkey in the jungle,” reports The Seattle Times. The Swedish fashion retailer said late Tuesday on its Facebook page that the group's “commitment to addressing diversity and inclusiveness…

H&M apologized on Monday for an image appearing in its website that showed a black child model wearing a hooded sweatshirt that said “coolest monkey in the jungle.” The company removed the image on Monday and said it would also pull the shirt from its stores worldwide. The image was widely criticized online for its reference…

Consumers, financial organizations and retailers alike are still reeling from Equifax’s announcement of a data breach that may have affected 143 million Americans, as well as other consumers in the UK and Canada. It’s not the largest data breach — last year Yahoo admitted to a breach affecting as many as 1.5 billion customers —…