Management

The attorney general of the state of New York is investigating Macy's and Barneys following complaints from black customers that they were stopped by police after making expensive luxury purchases, according to the New York Daily News. The local New York media has dubbed the practice "shop-and-frisk." The office of Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sent letters on Monday to both retailers seeking information on their policies for stopping, detaining and questioning customers based on race, the report said, and gave them till Friday to comply.

We've ranked some of the lowest-paying companies based on hourly wages. The data comes from Glassdoor, a jobs and career community website. Of the 58 fashion retailers Glassdoor reviewed, Pacific Sunwear had the lowest hourly wages at $7.62, followed by Abercrombie & Fitch ($7.69) and Foot Locker ($7.71). For the purposes of the report, the data excludes salary information for managerial positions. The average hourly wages for the 10 lowest-paying retailers on our list was $7.80, which is $2.28 lower than the industry average for cashiers and salespeople, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

A 19-year-old college student from Queens says he was handcuffed and locked in a jail cell after buying a $350 designer belt at Barneys on New York's Madison Avenue because he is "a young black man." Trayon Christian told NBC 4 New York on Wednesday that he saved up from a part-time job for weeks to buy a Salvatore Ferragamo belt at Barneys. When he went to the store to buy it in April, he says the checkout clerk asked to see his identification. After the sale went through and he left the store, he was approached by police.

The Toys"R"Us board has chosen interim Chief Executive Officer Antonio Urcelay as chief executive, but has paired him with a former Wal-Mart executive as the head of the Wayne, N.J.-based company's U.S. retail operations. The announcement this week follows an eight-month search that followed the resignation of former CEO Jerry Storch in February. Urcelay, who previously headed Toys’ global operations, was named interim CEO soon after Storch stepped aside, but has kept a relatively low profile in the interim position. Hank Mullany, a former executive vice president of Wal-Mart, U.S., was named president of Toys"R"Us, U.S., effective Nov. 5.

A Pennsylvania man is suing digital retail giant Amazon.com because he says the company is putting its employees through rigorous security searches without pay. The class-action suit was filed on Sept. 27 by attorneys for Winebrake & Santillo LLC on behalf of Neal Heimbach of Allentown, Pa. Heimbach has served as a warehouse worker at Amazon's logistics facility in Breinigsville, Pa. — just 10 miles from Allentown — since 2010. He's seeking damages in excess of $50,000 because he claims the company required its more than 100 employees at the facility to undergo lengthy security searches.

Burberry Group's long-standing chief executive, Angela Ahrendts, is moving from Bond Street to Silicon Valley following the announcement that she's to leave the luxury fashion group for a new post at Apple. Burberry said that Ahrendts would step down by mid-2014, after which time Chief Creative Officer Christopher Bailey would be appointed to the dual role. He will also be joining the board in due course, the company said. Apple announced Tuesday that Ahrendts will take on the new post of senior vice president of retail and online stores, reporting to the high-tech company's CEO, Tim Cook.

Add Macy's to the list of retailers kicking off "Black Friday" on Thanksgiving Thursday. Macy's will open the doors at most of its 800 namesake department stores at 8 p.m. on Nov. 28. The company said the shift was voluntary for workers and that the move was "consistent with what many rivals are doing." Traditionally, retailers have waited until Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, to start their end-of-the-year push for sales. U.S. retailers have extended their hours on Black Friday in recent years to get a jump on the holiday season sales.

Target has unveiled its new sustainable product standard, which was developed over the last two years in partnership with industry experts, vendors and NGOs. The new standard is intended to help establish a common language, definition and process for qualifying what makes a product more sustainable. "We know that sometimes it's challenging to pick the sustainable, good-for-you products you're looking for. That's why Target is taking an important step toward greater transparency, which we hope will lead to more sustainable and innovative products," the company said in a statement on its website. 

J.C. Penney is reverting to its classic logo in a move to appeal to loyal — and likely lapsed – customers. Under former CEO Ron Johnson, the logo and company name was updated to simply jcp. That logo, introduced to much fanfare in early 2012, featured a square red frame, with "jcp" in a blue box in the top, left-hand corner — reminiscent of an American flag. The frame was used throughout J.C. Penney's stores and marketing. Scrapping the logo is just the latest attempt to roll back the former CEO's initiatives. 

Target laid off 150 corporate workers at its Minneapolis-area headquarters on Wednesday, about 1 percent of its local workforce, as executives tackled inefficiencies at a time of growing uncertainty about shoppers’ behavior. Many retailers, including Target, have lowered their financial expectations for the rest of the year, citing a tougher-than-expected spending environment. Target said last month that it would employ fewer seasonal workers over the holidays than it did last year, about 70,000 now compared with 88,000 during the 2012 holiday season.