Personnel Updates

• Barnes & Noble Inc. (56) announced the departure of its CEO, Demos Parneros.

• Petco Animal Supplies Inc. (28) has named Ron Coughlin as CEO, replacing Brad Weston.

• Walmart Stores Inc. (239) announced its U.S. Chief Marketing Officer is stepping down for a new opportunity at Sam’s Club. Tony Rogers has been named Chief Member Officer, a newly created role at Sam’s Club. He will begin his new role at the end of July. Walmart Stores Inc. has also announced the appointment of Janey Whiteside to the newly created role of Chief Customer Officer.

Industry Insight

• Amazon.com Inc. announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire PillPack, an online pharmacy that offers pre-sorted doses of medications and home delivery.

• Costco Wholesale Corp. will open its newest business center in Minneapolis, its first in Minnesota and 17th in the United States. The new store will be tailored to small businesses, with nearly 70 percent of the items not sold in traditional stores.

• Party City Holdco Inc. announced plans to open nearly 50 Toy City pop-up stores this year. The temporary locations will be rolled out alongside its seasonal Halloween City pop-ups.

Real Estate

• Amazon.com Inc. is building a second Seattle store under its checkout-free Amazon Go banner. The new store will be 1 mile away from the original and open this fall.

• Jet.com Inc. confirmed plans to open an e-commerce fulfillment center in the New York City borough of the Bronx this fall.

Technology News

• Dollar General Corp. launched its DG Go! app, which allows customers to use their phones to scan items as they shop, and checkout directly through the app. The app is being piloted in 10 stores in Nashville. However, Dollar General plans to roll it out to another 100 stores in the second quarter.

• Walmart Stores Inc. unveiled new online tools designed to ease the back-to-school shopping experience. Walmart is now featuring dedicated school supply lists within its mobile app, and is also debuting a service that helps teachers stock up on classroom supplies.

Just because we don’t mention it here doesn’t mean it didn’t happen – or we didn’t capture it. In the past four weeks, we’ve updated more than 424 companies in the Discount, Dollar, & Specialty Stores PLUS Database, with many of those companies’ records updated at multiple points.