Corporate Governance

WASHINGTON — The National Retail Federation released its 2012 holiday forecast on Tuesday, which shows sales increasing 4.1% to $586.1 billion, down from last year's 5.6% growth.

However, the NRF's 2012 estimate tops the 10-year holiday sales growth average of 3.5%.

CINCINNATI — Procter & Gamble has introduced its Pantene Expert Collection, which addresses the needs of both aging hair and extreme hair damage.

The Expert Collection brings two new premium hair care lines to Pantene: AgeDefy and Advanced+ Keratin Repair. The products utilize Pantene’s most advanced technologies and promise to help women experience healthy-looking hair with luster, bounce and damage repair.

Chicago -- Survey results released Tuesday by BDO USA revealed that 51% of retail finance chiefs foresee a 5.9% increase in online sales for full-year 2012.

That compares to 4.1% and 4.5% expected increases in same-store sales and total sales, respectively.

The BDO Retail Compass Survey of CFOs, which examined the opinions of 100 CFOs at leading retailers located throughout the country, found that CFO sentiments were conservative compared to last year, when the respondents predicted 11.9% online sales growth.

Nashville, Tenn. -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is facing its third regional gender bias lawsuit since the Supreme Court rejected a nationwide class action filed by female workers in California and Texas.

Three female employees sued Wal-Mart in federal court in Tennessee on Tuesday, claiming discrimination against female workers in the company’s Region 43 which consists of Tennessee and parts of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia and Mississippi.

Dallas -- The Merchant Customer Exchange announced Tuesday that Bed Bath & Beyond, Dillard's, Dunkin’ Brands, Gap, Sheetz and Wakefern Food Corp. are among those joining the existing lineup of merchants who are committed to creating a seamless mobile-commerce solution.

Bentonville, Ark. -- Wal-Mart Stores said Tuesday that it is launching a new service called Rapid Reload, which allows customers to load money onto prepaid cards.

The service is affiliated with Green Dot Network, InComm's Vanilla Reload Network and First Data's Money Network.

For a fee of $3.74, the program allows customers, effective immediately, to add money to their card at a store register.

Pleasanton, Calif. -- Grocer Safeway Inc. said Tuesday it has extended its corporate social responsibility commitment with the introduction of a new program it calls Heart of Safeway Pledge, which encourages consumers and communities to be more conservative and socially responsible.

Los Angeles -- Survey results released Tuesday by online shopping site PriceGrabber found that 88% of shoppers plan to research their holiday gift purchases in advance to find the best deals.

Of those, 38% plan to spend three to six hours researching holiday gift purchases, 29% plan to spend up to two hours, 19% said they plan to spend over 10 hours and 14% indicated between seven and 10 hours.

Lynnwood, Wash. -- Reporting ahead of most retailers whose results will be posted on Thursday, action sports retailer Zumiez said that same-store sales for the month of September rose 5.6%.

Total sales for the month increased 18.6% to $62.7 million, compared with $52.9 million for the same period last year.

Grand Rapids, Mich. -- Regional grocer Meijer said Tuesday it will hire 12,000 new employees in preparation for the 2012 holiday shopping season. Most positions will be part-time.

According to Janet Emerson, executive VP of operations for Meijer, “Our goal is to deliver the best customer experience and the lowest prices, and as we continue to grow it's so important that we have the right levels of staff and the right people in those roles."