General Merchandise

PLANO, Texas — Crossmark on Monday named Mark Ayer president and CEO of Crossmark Canada. Ayer joined Crossmark Canada as SVP customer development in April 2017.

 ARMONK, N.Y. — IBM and SAP SE on Thursday teamed up to provide a co-innovated solution for the retail and consumer packaged goods industries to help both increase profitability and improve the consumer experience.

MATTHEWS, N.C. — Family Dollar, in an effort to meet new potential branded and private-brand suppliers, is holding two Open Buy Days at its headquarters here in October. The first segment of the Open Buy Day, for household cleaning, paper, general merchandise and health and beauty care, will be held Oct. 19. The second segment will follow this on Oct. 26 for the food, beverage and pet categories.

SEATTLE — Amazon will be wasting no time onboarding Whole Foods, the online retailer announced Thursday. As the company closes the deal on Monday, Amazon will immediately implement lower pricing across the Whole Foods banner, including many popular produce and meat products.

Also, Amazon Lockers will be available in select Whole Foods Market stores, affording Whole Foods a click-and-collect offering. Customers can have products shipped from Amazon.com to their local Whole Foods Market store for pick up or send returns back to Amazon during a trip to the store.

STAMFORD, Conn.  — Global consumer retail leader, Daymon, expanded its portfolio of services Tuesday  to include national representation, an added service for select suppliers and brands across the United States.

Consumers continue to turn to online and specialty retail channels for their pet care needs, but drug retailers can do more to assist shoppers in making purchasing decisions in store.

How does Lewis Drug thrive in a crowded and super-competitive marketplace? The company’s success formula is no big secret, said Bob Meyer, SVP of merchandise and marketing, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to replicate. “[We try] to find niches in the marketplace where we feel we can do better than our competition,” Meyer explained.

 SEATTLE — Amazon has finally reduced the last mile equation to a matter of minutes with its Instant Pickup, a free service offering Prime and Prime Student members a curated selection of daily essentials available for pickup in two minutes or less at five of Amazon’s fully staffed pickup locations in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Berkeley, Calif., Columbus, Ohio and College Park, Md.