Management

American designer Kenneth Cole appointed a new CEO yesterday. The company's founder, who kicked off New York Fashion Week with a performance by his longtime friend and rock musician Jon Bon Jovi and ended it with an encore, said Marc Schneider will assume the role of CEO on Feb. 23. The new CEO will report to Cole. Schneider comes to New York-based Kenneth Cole Productions Inc. and has three decades of brand building, merchandising and retail experience.

Wal-Mart is spending $1 billion to make changes to how it pays and trains U.S. hourly workers as the embattled retailer tries to reshape the image that its stores offer dead-end jobs. As part of its biggest investment in worker training and pay ever, Wal-Mart told The Associated Press that within the next six months it will give raises to about 500,000 workers, or nearly 40 percent of its 1.3 million U.S. employees. Wal-Mart follows other retailers that have boosted hourly pay recently. 

On its most important holiday of the year, 1-800-Flowers.com wilted. Significant others across the country purchased bouquets to be delivered this past weekend for Valentine's Day, but for another year in a row, more than a few failed to arrive on time — or turned up horrendously disfigured. Naturally, a pitchfork mob formed on Twitter, calling out the floral retailer for ruining their Valentine's Day and demanding full refunds. Over the past 12 hours, customer service reps have been responding to complaints, averaging about one reply every five minutes.

Madewell sells youthful products developed by its creator Mickey Drexler. Recently Pete Nordstrom, the merchandising head of his company, inked a pact to sell Madewell styles in Nordstrom stores starting on March 2. While the products are priced somewhat below Nordstrom's typical prices, the products resonate with the youthful Nordstrom customer, and that's key to Nordstrom's rationale to carry some of the assortment in its stores. Madewell is a division of J. Crew Group Inc. Its Chairman and CEO, Mickey Drexler, is a brilliant merchant — one the most innovative in retailing. 

Target is laying off 550 employees in its Minneapolis corporate offices, following its failed Canadian expansion. Of those 550 employees, Target said Wednesday that “approximately 350 Minnesota-based positions” are being eliminated immediately. Most of the other 200 employees “are needed through the closure of the Target Canada stores and their positions will be eliminated following the liquidation period,” Target said in a statement.

Recently laid-off RadioShack employees are getting hit a second time. Former employees who were counting on severance pay are now in line with everyone RadioShack owes money to: landlords, consultants, suppliers and utilities, not to mention secured lenders. Terminated employees at RadioShack used to walk away with a lump sum based on their years of service. Two months before its bankruptcy filing last Thursday, the company changed its severance policy from a lump sum to weekly or biweekly payments until the full amount is reached.

In 2015, an Affordable Care Act provision requiring large employers to offer health insurance to staff working more than 30 hours a week kicked into effect. Now, some part-time staff at Staples say management has become extra vigilant about limiting their hours.                  

Home Depot said Tuesday it's looking to fill nationwide more than 80,000 positions for spring. Spring is the busiest season for the Atlanta-based home improvement giant as consumers focus on sprucing up their homes and lawns as temperatures turn warm. Available positions range from sales and cashiers to operations and online order fulfillment, the company said. Jobs include both permanent part-time and seasonal positions. 

When Paula Schneider took the helm at American Apparel's sprawling factory and offices in Los Angeles last month, she found more than 3,000 cutters, sewers and designers working up a storm — but just one planner coordinating it all. It was symbolic, the brand's new chief executive said, of the frenzied manner in which the company had been run under its founder, Dov Charney, fired last year because of accusations of sexual harassment and personal misconduct.

In the fashion business, it seems, everybody wants to be Ralph Lauren. The company epitomizes the so-called aspirational lifestyle brand, able to book huge sales at premium prices for everything from clothing to furniture to dinnerware. Kate Spade, another designer-inspired company, dreamed of following that path. In 2008, it recruited Craig Leavitt, a Ralph Lauren executive, as its CEO. But while shoppers continue to fawn over its colorful totes, satchels and clutches — sales were up more than 40 percent in 2014 — the company is learning that creating a buzzy lifestyle brand is more difficult than it seems.