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As part of a plan to help communities recover from the damage of Hurricane Irma, Lowe’s will be hiring over 3,000 new employees across the state of Florida. This week Lowe’s Home Improvement Stores will hire 200 new employees in the Tampa Bay area alone. The hiring includes seasonal, part-time and full-time workers with positions... Read more »

According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, women hold 23% of roles in the technical ranks at the top 75 Silicon Valley companies. A report from the commission attributes the low number of women in tech roles to long hours, lack of advancement, isolation and inhospitable work cultures. But at Sephora’s corporate office in... Read more »

Retailers are starting to hire for the holiday season, and it looks like the trend for hiring is good. Like last year, 50% of retailers have announced increased hiring for the season. But they are getting more competitive for quality employees: 66% are willing to pay $10 or more per hour, up from 53% in... Read more »

Where there’s smoke, there’s smoke detectors. At least, that’s the goal. Few people think about fires until they experience one themselves. But more people report fires than you probably think: approximately one in 338 households each year. That’s more than 360,000 homes. What’s more: three out of five home fire deaths happen in homes without... Read more »

A report by DigitalBridge shows that 61% of consumers expect retailers to have some form of augmented reality (AR) in their shopping experience. 64% of consumers want to see the AR paired with artificial intelligence. Shoppers want to be able to visualize or “try on” products before buying them. AR gives retailers a way to... Read more »

Ace Hardware announced it’s acquisition of The Grommet this week. Ace Hardware and The Grommet first began working together in 2016 as part of a collaboration to bring new, unique and otherwise undiscovered products from independent entrepreneurs, also known as Makers, into select Ace stores. Successful products shared via The Grommet include FitBit, OtterBox and... Read more »

In an announcement yesterday, Shoppertrak, a leading provider of shopper analytics, predicted that Friday, November 24th (also known as Black Friday) will be the busiest shopping day of 2017. For the first time since 2012, there will be four Saturdays in December prior to Christmas Day, influencing shopper behavior. Saturday, December 23rd and Saturday, December... Read more »

Several fashion retailers who cater to younger consumers also have beauty sections in their stores –  H&M, Urban Outfitters and Sephora in JCPenny – but Forever 21 is making a big move in the beauty game with plans to open over a dozen stand-alone beauty boutiques under the name Riley Rose. The new stores are... Read more »

Late last Monday, iconic brick-and-mortar toy retailer Toys R Us filed for chapter 11 reorganization. Once a toy mecca with with their jingle on the tips of every Reagan-era kids’ tongue, more recently Toys R Us has accumulated a heavy debt load that has weighed on the company for years. Combined with tough competition from... Read more »