Management

Zale President and CEO Theo Killion and most of his top team are leaving the company in a dramatic Signet corporate reshuffle that includes bump-ups for longtime execs Mark Light, Ed Hrabak and George Murray, and the resignation of Signet's chief financial officer. George Murray, the former Sterling marketing vice president who has held the title of chief integration management officer since May, will replace Killion as president of the Zale division, which includes the assets of the former Zale Corp.: Zales, Gordon's, Piercing Pagoda and Zale Canada. Zale will continue as a separate division.

Dollar General announced on Friday that company Chairman and CEO Rick Dreiling is retiring, potentially reducing the chances of a merger with discount rival Family Dollar, according to at least one analyst. Dreiling will retire effective May 30, 2015, or upon the appointment of a successor. He's agreed to continue serving as chairman for a transitional period after a new CEO has been appointed. Dreiling has served as CEO since January 2008 and was named chairman in December 2008. Since his arrival, Dollar General's annual sales have increased more than 80 percent to $17.5 billion in 2013. 

O.K., that's a bit of an exaggeration. Angela Ahrendts, the former Burberry chief executive lured away to revitalize Apple retail and e-tail did not exactly speak - she wrote a diary entry-cum-inspirational post about her new job, titled "Starting Anew," on LinkedIn. That alone is worth

Gap's pay pledge has gotten the attention of job seekers. After announcing plans in February to increase hourly wages to $10 by 2015, employment applications at the Gap and Old Navy chains have surged by at least 10 percent from a year earlier, the San Francisco-based company said. The clothing seller has seen applications increase across all of its brands — including Banana Republic and Athleta — though the effect has been especially striking at the lower-end Old Navy chain, where the number of job seekers had been declining. 

An internal investigation at American Apparel has found that its CEO Dov Charney violated company policies, ranging from misusing company funds to failing to stop the discrediting of at least one former employee who had accused him of sexual harassment, a person close to the matter said. The company's board ousted the 45-year-old Charney as chairman on Wednesday, citing unspecified allegations of misconduct. It suspended him as president and CEO, and plans to fire him for cause, following a 30-day period stipulated in his contract.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is currently looking into the recent death of a worker in an incident at an Amazon.com warehouse, it revealed in a press release Thursday. The incident occurred on June 1 at an Amazon fulfillment center in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, the agency said. The Associated Press reported that the deceased is Jody Rhoads, a 52-year-old woman who was killed when machinery she was operating to move pallets crashed into shelving and pinned her.

Growing his e-commerce business from $5,000 in sales in year one (2008) to $27 million in sales five years later, Josh Neblett, co-founder and CEO of Etailz.com, which operates three e-commerce websites — GreenCupboards.com, ecomom.com and everyCasa.com; a soon-to-launch site, coybeauty.com; a brick-and-mortar store in the company's hometown of Spokane, Wash.; and etoolz, a division focused on developing proprietary software solutions and tools, is well schooled on what it takes to grow a business from startup to thriving operation. Neblett shared those insights yesterday at a session at the Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition in Chicago. Here's a list of his five things bootstrapped e-commerce businesses should do, followed by five things they shouldn't do:

Apparel retailer bebe announced Thursday that CEO Steve Birkhold has resigned, effective today. Birkhold will be succeeded by Jim Wiggett, currently CEO of Jackson Hole Group, as interim CEO. The company noted that it will commence a search for a permanent CEO. "On behalf of the board of directors, we're excited to welcome Jim to the team. Jim is a highly accomplished executive, with proven leadership capabilities, retail and merchandising expertise, and a wealth of strategic business knowledge, and we look forward to his insights into the strategic direction of the company," bebe Chairman Manny Mashouf said in a statement.

Despite a report from Valleywag that Fab.com is expected to close its doors by the end of the year, the e-commerce company is fiercely denying that it's in any financial trouble. "I can tell you that rumors that Fab is exiting the U.S. market are entirely false," Fab spokesperson Amy Juaristi said to Adweek. "We have money in the bank and a low burn rate that will carry us through several years. We are heads-down implementing our long-term strategy, creating a strong and lasting future for the company."

There's been a lot of talk recently about the eyebrow-raising pay gap between retail company CEOs and the store employees below them. At last week's Code Conference, Wal-Mart's CEO (who reels in $10 million per year) said he was no different then Wal-Mart's store employees, including the 30,000 who are paid at minimum wage. Two days before that, the Los Angeles Times ran an unforgiving piece on the subject, saying that "… many CEOs now pull down so much more than their own employees that it's an ugly insult to working families."