Consumer Affairs & Relations

San Francisco -- A Tuesday report by Reuters said that Wal-Mart filed a motion on Monday to dismiss a lawsuit filed last October by a regrouping of women whose earlier gender bias class action was ended by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Henderson, Nev. -- A Monday report by Reuters said that online shoe retailer Zappos was hacked over the weekend, affecting 24 million customers in its database.

The retailer, which is owned by Amazon.com, said that customers' names, email addresses, billing and shipping addresses, phone numbers and the last four digits of credit cards numbers and scrambled passwords were stolen. But it said the hackers had not been able to access servers that held customers critical credit card and other payment data.

NEW YORK — Retail industry sales are expected to rise, albeit not at the same pace as 2011, according to the National Retail Federation.

Retail industry sales will rise 3.4% to $2.53 trillion, NRF said, compared with a pace of 4.7% in the year-ago period. The expected slowdown in consumer spending, NRF said, will be influenced by a number of factors, including stalled unemployment rate and lack of newly-created jobs. But despite the lower projection, the industry is expected to garner stronger numbers than other industries, NRF said.

New York City -- A report released Monday by the National Retail Federation said that retail industry sales growth for 2012 is forecasted at 3.4%, a pace slower than 2011’s 4.7% growth.

Still, said NRF, the retail industry will grow at a rate faster than many other industries.

ST. LOUIS — The boards of directors for Ralcorp Holdings' Ralcorp and Post divisions were unveiled Friday by the company.

As previously reported, Ralcorp said its Post cereal business will be spun off to become its own entity.

New York City -- Consumer confidence rose more than forecast in January, reaching its highest level in eight months amid signs of an improving labor market.

The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of consumer sentiment increased to 74 from 69.9 at the end of December. The median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey called for 71.5. The measure has increased 9.9 points in the last two months, the biggest such gain since April-May 2009.

In an era when retail cashiers look warily at a $100 bill, hard to imagine what a man was thinking when he tried to pass a $1 million bill at a Walmart in North Carolina.

Washington, D.C. -- The National Retail Federation announced that Whole Foods Market is the recipient of its prestigious annual Innovator of the Year award.

Walter Robb, co-CEO, will accept the award on behalf of co-CEO and founder John Mackey during the Annual Retail Industry Luncheon at NRF’s 101st Annual Convention and Expo on Jan. 17.