Dive Brief:

• Jeff Owen, a twenty-two-year Dollar General veteran, will come out of retirement June 15 to become EVP of store operations, the discount retailer said Wednesday.

• Greg Sparks, a former Safeway executive who joined the retailer in the position three years ago, departed suddenly Tuesday.

• Owen was overseeing some 5,000 of the retailer’s 12,000 stores when he left as SVP of store operations last July.

Dive Insight:

Jeff Owen began his career at Dollar General as a store manager in 1992 and worked his way up through the company the old-fashioned way, over more than two decades until he reached the C-suite.

He certainly has the experience and the familiarity with the company that could be handy as Dollar General works to figure out what omnichannel means for discount retailers and how best to compete with rivals like Dollar Tree, newly strengthened by its merger with Family Dollar.