TARGET

MINNEAPOLIS — Target’s 2017 fiscal first-quarter comparable-store sales suffered a 1.3% year-over-year decrease, driven by small declines in both traffic and basket size. First quarter sales for the period ended April 29 also dipped slightly from $16.2 billion to $16 billion.

Adjusted earnings per share also slipped by 6.3% versus the prior year to $1.21 per share, but this far surpassed company guidance, which had been between 80 cents and $1 per share.

MINNEAPOLIS — Target could begin testing its Target Restock service, whereby customers will be able to fill a large box of a specific size with as many items as can fit in it, choosing from more than 8,000 household essentials, beauty and personal care items and dry grocery products, as soon as next month, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Original testing could be done in smaller markets of Minnesota to start.

NEW YORK — CVS Health and Target were named to DiversityInc.’s “Top 50 Companies for Diversity” list, which honors the nation's top companies for diversity and inclusion management. Specifically, the list recognizes companies that excel in such areas as hiring, retaining and promoting women, minorities, people with disabilities, LGBT and veterans.

WOONSOCKET, R.I. — CVS Pharmacy sites located inside Target locations are “moving in the right direction,” CVS Health President and CEO Larry Merlo stated Tuesday during the company’s 2017 fiscal first-quarter earnings conference call.

“We are continuing to see improving script performance versus prior quarters, putting aside the network changes,” he said. “Performance is being driven by strength of patient care programs and Maintenance Choice.”

Retail clinics within Target stores were another area of strength.

MINNEAPOLIS — Target is losing a senior digital executive.

Casey Carl, chief innovation and strategy officer, is leaving the retailer, effective May 5. His departure, first reported by The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, comes as the chain has been reducing some of its innovation initiatives, including a store of the future with robots, to focus on efforts that have a faster payback.

DALLAS – A national coalition of more than 50 leading U.S. companies known as the 100,000 Opportunities Initiative will come together on May 19 at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center to host the Dallas Opportunity Fair –  an unprecedented, day-long hiring event aimed at 16-24 year olds who are not in school and unemployed.

Drug chains are editing existing product assortments to clear more space for up-and-coming brands that court back shoppers who may have migrated to specialty stores. Several categories are heating things up in the beauty aisles, especially Korean beauty. Kline research reveals the category is growing at a 30% annual clip, and chains are seeking the right items to introduce more shoppers to the innovative and effective Korean entries.

PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y. — More than two-thirds of Americans shopped at Walmart, Target, Walgreens, Dollar Tree and CVS, either online or in-store, according to a new index from The NPD Group.