Consumer Affairs & Relations

Walmart and the Walmart Foundation is out with its annual Giving Report, which puts a monetary value on all the ways the retailer and its charitable arm sought to make a difference during the 2015 fiscal year.

From a big picture standpoint, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation donated more than $1.4 billion in cash and in kind donations, primarily food, and Walmart’s 2.2 million employees also contributed more than 1.5 million hours of their time outside of work to volunteer causes.

The former president of Trader Joe's has created a supermarket concept in the Boston area that offers fresh, healthy food at affordable prices. Now just a few months since opening, the store boasts over 300 customers visiting daily and has begun to look into expanding with a second location in the Boston area. [Food World News]

A week after Walmart announced it would launch a mobile payment solution, one of its chief rivals is reported to be working on the same.

Target Corp. is in the early stages of developing its own mobile wallet, according to Reuters, but it has not yet committed to launching the product.

Walmart has recalled marketing executive Tony Rogers from his post in China to lead the retailer’s domestic marketing efforts.

Dov Charney, the founder and ousted CEO of American Apparel, continues with his efforts to regain control of the company. But with the chain slated to emerge from bankruptyc in mid-January, time is running out, Bloomberg reported.

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Return fraud during the holidays is a growing problem for retailers—and also an extremely expensive one.

A CEO who took over family business when he was 27 years old is the next retailer to be spotlighted on the CBS television show, “Undercover Boss.”

Sam Dushey heads up Shoppers World, a family-owned and -operated full-line discount department store chain headquartered in New York City. In his 10-year stint as CEO, Dushey has grown the business from eight stores to 40 locations across 11 states and up to $250 million in annual retail sales. Dushey is now looking expand the company to 500 stores.

At its annual Analyst Day in New York Wednesday morning, CVS Health raised the midpoint of its earnings outlook for 2016.

Life could be so much simpler for retailers and suppliers – and better for most consumers too – if federal lawmakers could find a way to grant the industry this one, not-so-simple, holiday wish.

Pier 1 Imports says it is still confident in its omnichannel strategy despite a mostly flat third quarter in which the company struggled with the same soft store traffic impacting many other retailers.

For the third quarter ended Nov. 28, the specialty retailer said same store sales decreased 0.7%. Total sales decreased 2.5% (a 1.4% decrease on a constant currency basis) to $472.5 million, compared to $484.5 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2015. Net income $10.92 million, or 13 cents a share, vs. a profit of $17.86 million, or 20 cents a share, a year ago.