Corporate Governance

NEW YORK & REDMOND, Wash. — Barnes & Noble and Microsoft have completed their previously announced strategic partnership in Nook Media LLC, a recently formed Barnes & Noble subsidiary and a leader in the emerging digital reading and digital education markets.

FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. — Teen retailer Wet Seal continues to urge its shareholders to reject efforts by Clinton Group to replace the company’s current experienced directors with Clinton Group’s hand-picked nominees who lack relevant experience.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Membership-based retailer Sam's Club is offering free health screenings for women, the company said.

Sam's Club said it would offer screenings worth $150, including those for thyroid-stimulating hormone, prostate-specific antigen, blood pressure, body mass index, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, blood sugar and vision. In addition, the chain will give away more than 25,000 free breast self-exam tests with the screenings. The events will take place at every Sam's Club with a pharmacy on Oct. 13.

WALL, N.J. — Wakefern Food Corp. has partnered with NJR Clean Energy Ventures, a subsidiary of New Jersey Resources, to install a rooftop solar system at a Wakefern Food Corp. distribution center in Keasbey, N.J. The 2.4 megawatt solar system will supply power to a refrigerated warehouse, helping lower Wakefern’s long-term electricity costs and its greenhouse gas emissions.

CAMP HILL, Pa. — Rite Aid unveiled what it called its "next generation" Wellness store as the chain reported a decrease in same-store sales Thursday.

The store, in Lemoyne, Pa., is less than a mile from the 4,639-store chain's Camp Hill, Pa., headquarters. A ribbon-cutting Thursday morning marked the store's grand opening.

Three top executives from Walmart were among the 50 most powerful women recognized recently by Fortune.

The business publication put Sam’s Club president and CEO Rosalind Brewer at 12th on the list with Walmart U.S. EVP and COO Gisel Ruiz ranked 21st. Also making the list in 36^{th place was Susan Chambers, Walmart’s EVP of the global people division.}

Target this week joined the ranks of retailers who will no longer provide monthly sales and in the process denied Walmart merchants insight into the performance of a chief rival.

NEW YORK — Costco Wholesale Corp. reported a better-than-expected 6% rise in September same-store sales, helped by higher gasoline prices and a stronger dollar. Excluding the impact of gasoline prices and foreign exchange, comparable September same-store sales rose 5%.

Net sales rose 8% to $9.31 billion in the five weeks ended Sept. 30. Costco, which currently operates 608 warehouses, said it plans to open up to 14 new warehouses prior to the end of calendar year 2012.

New York -- Target Corp. will soon join the ranks of retailers who are no longer reporting monthly same-store sales. The discounter on Thursday said it will no longer report comparable sales, beginning in fiscal 2013.

New York -- Three female employees of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. filed a lawsuit Thursday in federal court in South Florida claiming the company discriminates against women in areas such as wages and promotion opportunities, the Associated Press reported.

The potential class-action lawsuit follows similar lawsuits recently filed in Tennessee, Texas and California. It also follows a 2011 U.S. Supreme Court decision that tossed out a national gender bias lawsuit seeking to represent some 1.6 million female Wal-Mart workers.