Jessica Simpson is launching a size-inclusive clothing collection at Walmart for spring and summer that will be available on Walmart's website and in 800 stores across the US, with additional styles planned for each season throughout the year. The line is part of The Jessica Simpson Collection, which debuted as a shoe brand in 2005 and has since evolved into fashion and accessories.

Hy-Vee is purchasing Strack & Van Til Food Markets, a chain based in Northwest Indiana with 22 stores and 2,800 employees. Strack & Van Til will function as a subsidiary of Hy-Vee and retain its own branding, and the purchase will give Hy-Vee positioning in the eastern suburbs of Chicago.

NRF has promoted David French, its chief lobbyist for more than a decade, to the position of executive vice president of government relations and executive director of the National Council of Chain Restaurants. "Members of Congress, administration officials and industry influencers recognize David for his extensive knowledge of retail's impact on the economy and businesses large and small across the country," says NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay.

Macy's will open a small-format store at Centerton Square in Mount Laurel, N.J., this week, the first of two planned for this year in the state and among as many as 30 such stores it plans to open in the US by next year. The 30,200-square-foot store is one-fifth the size of a full-line Macy's store and offers immersive shopping features, as well as a selection of Macy's private-label and market brands.

Retailers have been introducing, redesigning and revving up loyalty programs since the pandemic in a bid to drive sales growth and create connections with customers who are demanding greater value and becoming more selective about what they buy and where. Experts say the best loyalty programs are easy to understand, work with all payment options and offer greater value and personalized perks.

Customer experiences, entertainment options and pop-up shops have helped shopping centers overcome the double whammy of COVID-19 restrictions and inflation, writes Shira Petrack of analytics company Placer.ai. Indoor malls have made consistent progress, but not as much as open-air centers, Petrack notes.

Despite recent news that Amazon is walking away from its "Just Walk Out" checkout technology, the company says it's simply tailoring the tech for venues where it works best, such as in stadium, airport and university shops where shoppers are making quick trips and purchasing fewer items, explained Amazon Vice President Dilip Kumar in this Q&A with Fortune. Since grocery shopping typically involves longer shopping lists, coupons and a desire to see real-time totals, "we felt like the Dash Cart is a much better platform for experimentation and continued invention in large-format grocery stores rather than Just Walk Out," Kumar said.

For Earth Day, NRF took a closer look at the latest data from GfK Consumer Life's Green Gauge sustainability research to learn about consumer views toward sustainability and what they expect from retailers. According to the report, 80% of Americans now agree that a waste-free lifestyle is an appealing possibility in the next 20 years. Read more on the latest data from GfK Consumer Life.

Twenty-five percent of jobs in California are supported by the retail industry. Source: NRF and PwC.

NRF is bringing together retail leaders across functions to exchange insights and discuss the latest retail law and risk management strategies at its Retail Law & Risk Workshop at NRF PROTECT, taking place on June 6 at the Long Beach Convention Center in Long Beach, Calif. The workshop will include three interactive, expert-led sessions and roundtable discussions covering insider threats, strategies for safely collecting and sharing loss prevention data with solution providers and law enforcement, and risk and liability surrounding artificial intelligence. Learn more about the upcoming workshop and how retailers can attend with an All-Access Pass.

A number of restaurant chains are in growth mode, and many are seeking new locations to meet changing customer needs, said Talia Berman, who, in her job at hospitality advisory firm Friend of Chef, helps match restaurants with the right New York City real estate. "Shake Shack is famous for looking at analytics to looking at things like traffic counts and median household incomes and building their cases for sites around that," she added. "And then there are all these other brands that just follow them."