Corporate Governance

Bentonville, Ark. -- Wal-Mart Stores will introduce a holiday layaway plan effective Oct. 17 through Dec. 16. The program has a minimum layaway purchase of $50, and requires a 10% down payment. If the program is successful, Wal-Mart said it may extend it throughout the year.

When Wal-Mart phased out its previous layaway offer in September 2006, such programs had fallen out of popularity. But Sears and some merchants brought back layaways as the recession cut into spending.

San Francisco -- Gap has opened its first Banana Republic store in Russia, in Moscow's AfiMall City. In related news, the company will open its first Gap store in Belgrade, Serbia, on Friday.

“We are very proud to not only be introducing Banana Republic to Russia, but also opening our 200th franchise store,” said Stephen Sunnucks, president, international, Gap. “This is a significant landmark for our goal of growing our franchise store base to 400 by 2014.”

Ankeny, Iowa -- Casey's General Stores said that its net income climbed 6% to $39.3 million in the most recent quarter, fueled by new stores. But rising costs for some commodities cut into its profit margins and its results fell shy Wall Street expectations.

The company's overall profit margin fell to 14.2% from 17.2%.

Gloucester, Mass. -- TradeStone Software announced that Family Dollar Stores has gone live with TradeStone's Collaborative Sourcing and Supplier Community Management solutions. The implementation was done in only 100 days.

“In my years at Family Dollar, I don't know of an application that's been up as fast as we got TradeStone up and running," said Scott Zucker, VP IT solutions, Family Dollar Stores, Matthews, N.C.

Eden Prairie, Minn. --- Supervalu announced the sale of 107 fuel centers located in the Midwest, Intermountain West and West Coast regions following the acceptance of four separate bids to purchase the centers. The transactions include the majority of fuel centers within the Albertsons, Cub Foods, Hornbacher’s and Jewel-Osco banners.

San Diego -- PriceSmart's same-store sales rose 17.7% in August. Total revenue for the five weeks ended Sept. 4 climbed 21.5% to $148.3 million.

PriceSmart also announced that on August 19, 2011 opened its first warehouse club in Colombia. This warehouse club, located in Barranquilla, brings to 29 the total number of warehouse clubs in operation by the company.

PriceSmart, based in San Diego, had 29 warehouse clubs at August's end. The company runs membership warehouse clubs in Central America and the Caribbean.

Houston -- Increased sales across its brands helped drive The Men's Wearhouse’s second-quarter net income up nearly 33%, beating estimates.

The retailer earned $57.1 million for the fiscal quarter that ended July 30, up from $43 million in the same quarter last year.

Revenue increased 22% to $655.5 million. Men's Wearhouse said its purchase in 2010 of two British uniform and work-wear companies helped drive business.

SAN FRANCISCO — Staples charitable arm, Staples Foundation, has partnered with The Hispanic Scholarship Fund to expand educational outreach and scholarship opportunities for Hispanic students and their families. As part of this partnership, Staples Foundation is awarding a $100,000 grant to fund community outreach programming and 22 Staples scholarships for Latino college students majoring in business, according to the company. This is the first partnership between HSF and Staples

WASHINGTON — The National Retail Federation announced that it has sent a letter to the congressional “super committee” on deficit reduction urging the panel to focus on initiatives that will boost the economy and create jobs.

SAN JOSE, Calif. — eBay has announced that Devin Wenig is joining the company as president of its global eBay Marketplaces business unit, which includes eBay, the world’s leading online marketplace; eBay classifieds sites in more than 1,000 cities worldwide; and StubHub, the world’s largest online tickets marketplace. Wenig will report to eBay Inc. president and CEO John Donahoe.