Management

Holiday hiring by U.S. retailers may fall about 6.9 percent this year as shaky consumer confidence and more efficient store practices reduce demand for seasonal workers, according to Challenger, Gray

Home Depot, the world's largest home improvement retailer, plans to end medical coverage for about 20,000 part-time employees and direct them to government-sponsored exchanges scheduled to open next month as companies revamp benefits to fit the U.S. Affordable Care Act. Employees with fewer than 30 hours a week will no longer be offered limited liability medical coverage, Stephen Holmes, a spokesman, said by telephone. About 5 percent of Atlanta-based Home Depot's 340,000 employees are enrolled in that plan.

Of the $55 million in funding that Warby Parker has received over the past two years, arguably the most valuable investment has come from the pockets of J.Crew's CEO and Chairman, Mickey "Millard" Drexler. Earlier this year, Drexler surprised many by investing in the hip glasses company. As of today, he'll also join the company's board. Warby is gaining access to the creative mind that turned around Gap in the '90s and helped build J.Crew into the $2.2 billion business it is today. But not so long ago, Steve Jobs tapped Drexler to build a retail presence for Apple.

I grew up in Lafayette, Ind., the youngest of five in a family of modest means. I had big dreams and was ready to do the hard work to achieve them. My first job was in a busy ice cream store. I remember the owner saying, "If you can lean, you can clean." I learned that there's always something to do in a business, and that hard work is rewarded. I started playing the recorder in elementary school and went on to play all the wood instruments. In high school, I sang in the choir. 

Saks Incorporated reports that both Chairman and CEO Stephen I. Sadove and President and Chief Merchant Ronald L. Frasch will be be leaving the retailer upon completion of the merger with Hudson's Bay Company. Donald Hess, lead director of Saks board of directors, said, "Steve and Ron have been a great team over the last nine years. They're admired and respected throughout both the company and the retail industry. Their leadership, strategic focus, collaboration, creativity and enthusiasm for the business have molded Saks into an iconic omnichannel luxury retailer."

Home Depot has intimidated thousands of customers accused of shoplifting into collectively paying millions of dollars to have such accusations dropped, even though the company has no intention of suing, a class-action suit alleges. The suit claims that the big-box retailer is using California's Civil Shopping Law as "a profit center" by arbitrarily seeking "damages" from accused customers. 

The Muslim teen worker who scored a legal victory in an anti-discrimination suit against Abercrombie & Fitch, which cited its dress code in insisting she not wear a hijab to work, says the retailer's policy is "very unfair." A federal judge issued the ruling last week that Abercrombie & Fitch discriminated against Hani Khan, 18, when she was fired from its Hollister store in San Mateo, Calif., in 2010 because she refused to remove her head scarf on the job. Khan says she was approached by her manager after four months on the job.

Shellhammer, Goldberg, and their growing roster of international investors are betting that Fab.com will become the world's next great retailer. "They're building a global iconic brand that can be a $10 billion to $20 billion business," says Fab investor Geoffrey Prentice, a partner at European venture-capital firm Atomico. "In 10 years, they'll basically be in every living room." The startup has raised gobs of cash: $325 million and counting in venture backing from some 40 investors, including the hottest firms in Silicon Valley and the biggest e-commerce players in Asia, giving Fab a valuation of $1 billion.

Protests against Wal-Mart's wage and employee policies last week resulted in dozens of arrests in 15 cities, mostly for trespassing and blocking the entrances to buildings, the Huffington Post reported. The arrests came as demonstrations grew to a size that the world's largest retailer couldn't ignore. In a statement, a Wal-Mart spokesperson said, "It's just a show and, with very few exceptions, the cast members don't work at Wal-Mart nor are they affiliated with the company in any way." The statement also listed reasons the company believes most of its associates aren't participating in the protests.

Wal-Mart has fired an employee of a western New York store after he posted derogatory comments about Muslim customers on Facebook. The firing follows a request of Wal-Mart by the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations to discipline the assistant manager of the store in Hamburg, a suburb of Buffalo. Along with a picture of Muslim women in traditional dress, the manager's expletive-filled posting read: "Halloween came early this year. ... Do they really have to ... dress like that."