Seasonal

Walmart and the Walmart Foundation give away so much money it is hard to keep track of it all and this was certainly evident during the holiday season.

On Thursday, the company announced another round of grants totaling $200,000 to 10 nonprofits groups as part of its “12 Days of Giving” Facebook campaign. Those grants mark the culmination of an innovating corporate giving campaign that integrated social media and resulted in a total of $1.5 million being awarded to 145 organizations in all 50 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico.

By Rich Arlington

Record snowfall last season spelled trouble for many roofs and parking garage decks. The continuous storms that dumped more than 2 ft. of snow in New England alone had facility owners frantically addressing weight load issues as heavy snow and ice threatened, and in some cases caused, roof and deck top collapses. The fallout: a rise in lawsuits as owners, insurance companies and snow contractors battle over snow and ice procedures followed, or not, in comparison with written contracts.

PLEASANTON, Calif. — Safeway, in a release issued Wednesday, thanked its customers and employees for their generosity for donating food and toys to a number of Safeway Foundation charities this holiday season.

By Craig Johnson

Despite being only the penultimate Saturday before Christmas, 2011’s “Super Saturday” December 17 broke the all-time record for holiday spending, with an estimated $26 billion in total retail sales, according to retail consultancy Customer Growth Partners. The total was just shy of the record $27 billion spent on Black Friday.

Westboro, Mass. — Micros-Retail, a division of Micros Systems, announced that Barneys has launched the Micros-Retail miStore mobile point-of-sale solution in Barneys’ flagship New York store, starting this holiday season. The retailer is a long-time customer of Micros-Retail for point of sale, loss prevention and order management solutions.

NEW YORK — Best Buy has informed some customers that it will not be able to fill their online orders, just days before Christmas, according to the Associated Press.

The chain said late Wednesday that "overwhelming” demand for some products from Bestbuy.com has led to a problem redeeming online orders made in November and December, the report said.

Westboro, Mass. -- Micros-Retail, a division of Micros Systems, said Wednesday that Barneys New York has launched the Micros-Retail miStore mobile point-of-sale solution in its flagship New York store, starting this holiday season. 

Chicago -- A report released Wednesday by ShopperTrak found that holiday shoppers boosted sales 21.7% over the previous week and 1.3% over the same week last year.

According to ShopperTrak, sales increases during the week ending Dec. 17 made this December on pace to have higher retail sales than last year. Month-to-date figures are up 0.5% over December 2010.