Finance & Capital Management

Atlanta - U.S. regulators have sued a former sales executive at Carter’s Inc., claiming that he caused the company to misstate earnings by hiding the cost of discounts given to a retailer. 

According to a Monday report by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Joseph Elles induced Kohl’s Corp. to boost purchases from Carter’s from 2004 to March 2009 by granting unauthorized discounts that he didn’t disclose.

Of all the competitive threats facing Walmart, none looms larger in the minds of the retailer’s suppliers than the ongoing expansion and financial success of leading operators in the dollar store segment. That’s according to Walmart suppliers who participated in a survey conducted by Connecting Northwest Arkansas and identified such chains as Dollar General and Family Dollar as the greatest competitive threat to Walmart during the next five years.

Walmart removed all doubt about how it intends to enter Russia this week when it announced the closure of its office in Moscow. The office was opened two years ago to investigate opportunities in the country, but international division president and CEO Doug McMillon said it no longer made business sense to maintain the facility.

ARLINGTON, Va. and WASHINGTON - The National Retail Federation and the Retail Industry Leaders Association both issued statements supporting the final passage of a bipartisan agreement for extending critical individual and business taxes.

The folks in the electronics and entertainment area at Walmart had to be smiling this week at Best Buy’s admission that it lost market share to discounters during the third quarter. The share loss resulted in a 5% same-store sales decline at U.S. stores that was well below guidance that called for flat to modest growth. Earnings per share of 54 cents were well below consensus estimates of 60 cents and full-year guidance was reduced to a range of $3.20 to $3.40 from a range of $3.55 to $3.70.

CAMP HILL, Pa. — What Rite Aid might wish for Christmas is accelerated results borne from its Wellness+ loyalty card program, because even as the chain lowered its guidance for fiscal 2011 sales, it’s that differentiated loyalty program that’s going to buttress sales next year and beyond.

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — Stater Bros. on Wednesday disclosed a more than 4% decrease in sales for fiscal year 2010.

The California supermarket chain said sales for the fiscal year ended Sept. 26 were $3.61 billion, down from $3.77 billion in fiscal year 2009. Sales for the fourth quarter also experience a decline, dropping to $897.4 million, or 3.15%, since the year-ago period.

The word competition gets tossed around a lot in the retail industry as operators talk about market positioning -- who they do and don’t compete with. Oftentimes, companies will refer to direct competitors, but one thing about Walmart is that it has always tended to take the broad view of competition in that any company, no matter how small, who sold anything offered at Walmart was viewed as a competitor.