Target, Inc.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Universal gift registry MonkeyWish.com has added Target and Walmart to its growing list of retail affiliate partnerships, which now tops 100. The gift registry also has partnerships with Best Buy, Lord & Taylor, Nordstrom, Kohl's and Amazon.

The gift registry allows users to create free personalized wish lists and provides users access to products from retailers with which it is partnered.

Dollar General’s 10,000 plus locations will be open Thanksgiving Day from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., but it’s not taking the heat for doing so like rivals Walmart and Target.

Dollar General on Monday announced a series of online and in-store promotions, including special opening hours, designed to establish it as a holiday destination for gift givers as opposed to a convenient located stores that sell consumables.

Walmart has taken heat for violating some unwritten retail rule about not opening on Thanksgiving, but on Thursday it extended a benefit that many employees will find appealing.

Walmart has long offered employees a 10% discount on general merchandise, which is pretty hefty considering prices are already low. That discount is in place all year and then in December employees could also save 10% on food.

Minneapolis -- Target Corp. reported Thursday net income of $637 million for the third quarter, compared with $555 million in the prior-year period and beating Wall Street expectations.
 
The retailer previously reported that sales rose 3.4% to $16.60 billion in the quarter, and same-store sales climbed 2.9%.

Target is forecasting a fourth-quarter earnings range that at the high-end tops estimates.

A 2.9% third quarter same store sales increase and the sale of its credit card business pushed Target’s third quarter profit up 17.6% to 96 cents a share.

Total sales increased 3.4% to $16.6 billion in third quarter due to the 2.9% comp increase and the benefit of a net increase of 18 stores compared to the prior year. Target ended the period with 1,781 stores and was up against a challenging prior year comparison when comps advanced 4.3%.

The overall trend has been similar to what we saw last month with a marginal decrease in the number of circulars, while increases were seen in page counts per market. Average pages per market saw 10% increase this year October when compared with the same month last year.

Toronto -- Target Corp. announced Wednesday it is pursuing Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) certification for all Canadian stores opening in 2013.

Design plans include conserving energy and water, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and limiting waste sent to landfill, among other features.

Vince Bove was named SVP and chief marketing officer at Reflect, a Dallas-based provider of software for digital signage networks at some of the nation’s leading retailers.

In his role as SVP, Bove will be responsible for business development and sales in the central and western United States.　In his capacity as chief marketing officer, he will assist Reflect clients with insightful shopper engagement strategies for their brand at the point-of-sale, and help them utilize the capabilities of the Reflect product line.