Management

Starbucks, which laid off 39,000 employees over the two years ending last fall, is about to start hiring again. By year’s end, Starbucks will have a new barista battalion, some 3,500 strong, pulling on their aprons and dealing with steam burns. Next year will see 200 new Starbucks added to the nearly 11,000 existing ones. Those will need to be staffed up while 1,700 other Starbucks go through job-creation remodeling.

Target's Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Doug Scovanner plans to retire from his posts next year. The discounter said that Scovanner will retire on March 31, 2012.

Cabela's is finding that its smaller format stores are performing 30 percent to 40 percent better than its traditional locations in several key areas, so the retailer plans to build on these results by opening additional smaller format stores.

One month after eBay CEO John Donahoe brought in an outsider to head its Marketplaces business, eBay executive Dinesh Lathi left for a new role at retailer One Kings Lane, a home decor flash-sales site.

Jenna Lyons, the J.Crew creative director and president who famously was shown painting her son's toenails pink in a company catalog earlier this year, is reportedly in the middle of a messy divorce from artist Vincent Mazeau after almost a decade of marriage.

Customer loyalty programs span everything from online coupons and discounts to VIP rewards and free shipping promotions. Some retailers use a points system to reward frequent buyers while others use social networking sites like Facebook to generate product reviews and recommendations. Regardless of which method you prefer, loyalty programs are the lifeblood of e-commerce.

Retail industry veteran Vicki Cantrell will join the National Retail Federation as senior vice president, communities and executive director of Shop.org on Oct. 31. Cantrell has held prominent positions at Giorgio Armani, Gucci and most recently Tory Burch, where she served as COO and CIO during a period of significant expansion.

Harry & David has named Craig Johnson as its CEO. The company exited Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month. "With its successful restructuring now complete, improved capital structure in place and an outstanding harvest and holiday gift selection, the company is poised for a successful holiday season," Johnson said in a statement.

FedEx expects a 12 percent jump in holiday shipments this year and will add about 20,000 workers to handle the record volume driven by online shopping. The surge is driven by a combination of gradual economic improvement and ever-increasing internet sales, analysts said.

It's hard to refrain from publishing constant new stories about the indignities of working at Target, America's most clean and attractive union-busting big-box store. There are all too many current and former Target employees anxious to send us stories of exploitation and generally disgraceful workplace conditions.