Management

Toys“R”Us Chief Executive Officer Gerald Storch will step down following a drop in holiday sales at the world’s largest toy-store chain. Storch, 56, joined the company in 2006 after Bain Capital Partners LLC, KKR & Co. and Vornado Realty Trust purchased Toys"R"Us for $6.6 billion. He will remain chairman and stay on as CEO during a search for his replacement, the Wayne, N.J.-based company said today in a statement. While Storch improved profitability, the chain has struggled to boost sales amid competition from Amazon.com and discount retailers Wal-Mart and Target.

Overstock.com, Inc. today announced that its CEO and Chairman of the Board Dr. Patrick Byrne will be taking a personal leave of absence for medical reasons. Overstock.com President Jonathan Johnson will serve...

Everybody loves a turnaround story. RadioShack is betting that the now former president of daily living products and solutions for Walgreens, Joe Magnacca, will help author a turnaround story of its own for the small-box consumer electronics retailer. RadioShack stopped the presses late Thursday evening with news that Magnacca had agreed to join the company as CEO — less than one week removed from his promotion from a corporate senior vice president to executive vice president of Walgreens, in addition to his title as president of daily living products and solutions.

Home Depot Inc. plans to add more than 80,000 temporary workers ahead of its busiest season, about 14 percent more than a year ago, as a housing rebound spurs spending on remodeling and landscaping. The largest U.S. home-improvement retailer is hiring...

Last week we identified the best retail companies to work for; this week we go to the other end of the spectrum, identifying those retailers with the lowest rankings in the 2012 Good Company Index, a group that includes Sears, RadioShack, CVS and...

Lowe’s, the second-largest U.S. home-improvement retailer, plans to hire 45,000 seasonal workers, 13 percent more than a year earlier, and add 9,000 permanent employees as the housing rebound spurs remodeling. All of the positions are...

Staples has launched the Staples App Center, an online marketplace for cloud-based business applications. The App Center will allow small businesses to purchase and manage their apps all in one place. The center boasts a selection of...

Shopko has promoted Jill Soltau to president. Soltau will retain her position as the retailer's chief merchandising officer. In her expanded role, Soltau will continue to oversee Shopko's merchandising and product development, while assuming responsibility for marketing, e-commerce, inventory management and supply chain departments. Shopko will look to Soltau to continue focusing on the development and implementation of the company's merchandising strategy across all of its formats — Shopko, Shopko Hometown and Shopko.com — while also uniting branding and marketing strategy under her direction.

Rebuilding American manufacturing, practicing "conscience capitalism," and investing big in online shopping and mobile commerce top retailers' to-do lists this year. So said a cross section of retail CEOs during the National Retail Federation's Big Show this week in New York City. All of the CEOs shared their biggest growth opportunities and business goals for 2013, but it was Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer, that stole the spotlight.

The differences in organizational structure — including how employees are compensated — between retail companies were discussed by a panel at the National Retail Federation's Big Show in New York City this week. The panel included Brad Brown, senior vice president of e-commerce and direct sales at Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI); Ivy Chin, senior vice president of e-commerce at Belk; Jeffrey Liss, senior vice president and general manager, e-commerce and CRM at Charming Shoppes; and Jim Okamura, managing partner, Okamura Consulting.