Finance & Capital Management

St. Louis -- Discount grocer Save-A-Lot announced the openings of two grocery stores, one in Orange Park, Fla., and the other in Waveland, Miss.

The Orange Park store opened on Aug. 2, and the Waveland store opened Aug. 5.

Save-A-Lot Food Stores is a subsidiary of Supervalu Inc.

Seattle -- Mobile payments took another step forward with the announcement that Starbucks Coffee Co. has entered into a partnership with Square, a mobile-payment start-up. Starbucks will invest $25 million in Square -- part of the latest round of financing -- and Starbucks chairman, president and CEO Howard Schultz will join Square’s board of directors. Square was founded in 2009 by Jack Dorsey, creator of Twitter.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Dillard's posted an impressive 97% increase in earnings per share for its second quarter ended July 28. Net income for the quarter was $31 million, or 63 cents per diluted share, compared with net income of $17.6 million, or 32 cents per diluted share, for the same period last year.

Net sales for the quarter were $1.5 billion compared with net sales for the prior year period of $1.442 billion. Sales in comparable stores increased 3%.

New York -- The Pantry is giving its stores a makeover. The chain will remodel 10% of its store portfolio, or approximately 160 locations annual, until it completes the job, said Pantry president and CEO Dennis Hatchell on the company’s third-quarter sales call.

The remodeling program will be store specific, according to Hatchell. He said the chain now has the scan data to execute a customized store set, and that it has a series of distinct demographic types.

The retail industry in general may not be so keen on the new Affordable Care Act, but the nation's largest retailer has come out in support of a Democratic proposal to control spending.

Walmart stores is endorsing a new plan, co-authored by former Obama and Clinton administration officials that would slow healthcare spending and keep it in line with wage growth.

Read more from the Reuters report here.

Bentonville, Ark. -- The Walmart Foundation announced Tuesday the launch of its Partnership for Women’s Prosperity, a move to help economically vulnerable women gain financial and economic security through education, job training and employment opportunities.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — The Walmart Foundation alongside six women’s foundations – The Washington Area Women’s Foundation, The New York Women’s Foundation, Women’s Fund of Mississippi, Women’s Foundation of Minnesota, Women’s Foundation for a Greater Memphis and Women’s Funding Network – has launched the Partnership for Women’s Prosperity. The new national partnership intends to help economically vulnerable women gain financial and economic security through education, job training and employment opportunities.

NAPLES, Fla. — ACI Worldwide, an international provider of payment systems, has named Daniel Frate as EVP global markets and product management.

Frate most recently served as EVP and head of products and pricing at PNC Bank. Building on ACI's product leadership position, Frate will be charged with delivering customer satisfaction through tight alignment of product roadmaps with market needs. He will be based out of the company's Naples, Florida headquarters.