Management

About 40 people marched on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue on Wednesday, stopping in front of retailers such as Uniqlo and Abercrombie & Fitch. A union executive said salespeople are treated like day laborers rather than employees. For retail workers, "underemployment" is a bigger problem than unemployment, according to a worker advocacy group that is organizing retail workersto protest "on call" scheduling and policies that allow them to work only one or two shifts per week.

Nordstrom has joined such other Washington-based retailers as Starbucks Coffee Company and Amazon.com in coming out in support of  approving Referendum 74, a Washington state ballot measure that seeks to affirm same-sex marriage with voters. (In July, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and his wife, MacKenzie, pledged $2.5 million in support of the measure.) Company president Blake Nordstrom sent out a companywide memo that detailed the retailer's "philosophical approach" to business, which includes a workplace where "every employee is welcomed and respected."

True Religion Apparel, the struggling maker of upscale denim, is apparently hoping a sale can repair its fraying financials. The company said on Wednesday that it was exploring strategic options, the euphemism often used when a company is considering selling itself. True Religion has hired Guggenheim Securities and the law firm Greenberg Traurig as advisers, and its board has set up a special committee to consider possible transactions. The company has received approaches from potential buyers.

The first retail worker strike against Wal-Mart has spread from Los Angeles, where it began last week, to stores in a dozen cities, a union official said Tuesday. Wal-Mart workers walked off the job in Dallas, Seattle, the San Francisco Bay area, Miami, the Washington, D.C. area, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Calif., Chicago and Orlando, Fla. said Dan Schlademan, director of the United Food and Commercial Workers’ Making Change At Wal-Mart campaign. Workers also went on strike in parts of Kentucky, Missouri and Minnesota, he said.

Macy's has announced that it plans to hire approximately 80,000 seasonal associates for its Macy's and Bloomingdale's stores for the 2012 holiday season. That would be an increase of about 2.5 percent over the retailer's 2011 holiday hires. The company's seasonal associates serve customers on the selling floor, work in store operations positions, interact with customers via the telephone in call centers, and staff the distribution and fulfillment centers.

Some good news was reported last week: Retailers plan to hire more seasonal staffers than last year in expectation of an increase in holiday sales, according to merchants and two reports out this month from consulting groups.

Toys"R"Us said it would hire 45,000 seasonal employees for the upcoming holiday shopping period, becoming the latest retailer to increase its hiring in anticipation of a modest bump in consumer spending. The toy store hired about 40,000 seasonal workers last year, roughly 15 percent of whom were kept on after the period ended.

Staples switched into turnaround mode yesterday, announcing plans to shave $250 million in costs by ramping up store closings, investing more in its online and mobile offerings, restructuring its international operations, and making leadership changes. The Framingham, Mass.-based office products company said it will close 15 U.S. stores by the end of the year and cut its overall North American retail square footage by 15 percent over the next three years.

J.C. Penney dropped the most in four months after Chief Executive Officer Ron Johnson's showcase of the stores’ new layout failed to inspire confidence in his remake of the 110-year-old retailer. The shares fell 11 percent to $25.83 at the close in New York, the biggest one-day drop since May 16. The Plano, Texas-based company was the biggest decliner on the Standard & Poor's 500 Index yesterday and has lost 27 percent this year.

Hollister has fired three male models it flew in for the opening of its first store in South Korea after the models mocked Asians in photos and on their social media accounts, according to various media reports. During the models' gig from Aug. 30 to Sept. 2, they tweeted photos of themselves making squinty eyes, mocking their Asian fans' accents and engaging in other offensive behavior such as flipping off the camera. A spokesman for Hollister parent company Abercrombie & Fitch said that the models were fired after the company investigated the incident