Beauty retail veteran Cheryl Mahoney has assumed a new post at CVS Caremark and the company has brought on board Alex Perez-Tenessa to serve as VP, retail merchandising-beauty/personal care, according to CVS Caremark. Mahoney, who previously served as VP of beauty and personal care, has assumed the new role of VP, retail merchandising – promotion and business development. She will be responsible for maximizing the impact and profitability of the CVS/pharmacy promotional efforts across all front store categories. 

Dollar General Corp. will open 635 new stores in 2013, creating some 6,000 jobs. The chain will also relocate 550 stores this year. With the addition of these jobs in 2013, Dollar General said it will have created approximately 30,000 jobs in the last six years. Said Rick Dreiling, Dollar General's chairman and CEO. "2013 will mark another growth milestone as we plan to open the organization's 11,000th store before the year's end when we will begin our 75th anniversary in 2014."

Skechers will have two commercials during Super Bowl XLVI, including one starring former San Francisco 49ers QB Joe Montana, but the performance and fitness shoe company did not say whether its biggest star, Mr. Quiggly, the French Bulldog who stole the show last year, would be back.

McDonald's is reportedly hoping Fish McBites take over for McRib as sales leader. The fish tidbits will come in three sizes (Snack, Regular and Shareable) and will include the same Alaskan pollock that's in the Filet-O-Fish, and will be released as a limited-time menu addition in February. Other items in the works are new burgers, chicken entrees and breakfast offerings that are performing well in test markets.

Subaru is getting ready to roll out its first hybrid as it continues to refresh its product line, which has doubled in its market share in the U.S. over the past five years. Officials from the Japanese automaker declined to offer any details about the new hybrid, which is expected to make its debut at the New York Auto Show at the end of March. But Kenichi Yamamoto, director of product management and coordination at Subaru of America, confirmed parent Fuji Heavy Industries is working on a hybrid model.

Amazon is erecting massive distribution centers in the nation's exurbs to shorten the distance between online shoppers and products. This week, the company announced a new on to be build near Silicon Valley. Amazon's newest million-square-foot warehouse is slated to go up an hour east of San Francisco in Tracy, California, a conservative farm town of 84,000. Amazon long kept its distribution centers out of California to avoid having to collect state sales tax. Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill that would have forced Amazon to start collecting the tax immediately, but he and the company agreed that if California …

A new pizza strategy at Chili's Grill & Bar, along with other menu enhancements, are expected to bolster the casual-dining chain's bottom line, executives at parent company Brinker International Inc. said this week. Chili's is rolling out the pizza, which uses new capabilities gained during the chain's kitchen retrofit program, to all company-owned locations this quarter, said Wyman Roberts, chief executive and president of Dallas-based Brinker. He said advertising will start during the fourth quarter. In addition to 1,549 Chili's restaurants, Brinker also owns the 44-unit Maggiano's Little Italy concept.

The Michigan Strategic Fund on Wednesday approved incentives for 14 projects across the state in which the companies plan to invest $1.1 billion and create 4,590 jobs. Among them: Whirlpool Corp., which is relocating work from Indiana to Battle Creek. Whirlpool wants to invest $18.9 million. Whirlpool chose Michigan over sites in Iowa and Mexico, as it secured a $2.4 million state grant. The appliance company also is being offered a $1.85 million, 12-year tax abatement from Benton Harbor.

The growth of convenience stores selling motor fuel was nearly triple the overall store growth in the c-store industry, according to new data released today by the 2013 Nielsen Convenience Industry Store Count. The U.S. convenience store count grew slightly to a record 149,220 stores as of Dec. 31. The increase in the number of convenience stores selling fuel was attributed to both fuel retailers adding convenience store operations as well as traditional convenience store retailers adding fueling operations.

Citing "false, deceptive" and "misleading affirmative statements of fact," two New Jersey men, John Farley of Evesham and Charles Pendrak of Ocean City, sued Subway on Tuesday to regain losses of 5 to 8.3% on the several "footlong" sandwiches they bought from the sandwich store that were missing an inch. The lawsuit is seeking class-action status for anyone who bought a sandwich in New Jersey from Jan. 22, 2007 to the present.