Walmart

New York -- Disney unleashed its considerable marketing prowess on Friday and retailers were hoping the company’s “force” would translate into big sales.

On Friday, the entertainment giant formally debuted hundreds of toys and other products related to its upcoming — and hugely anticipated — film, "Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”  

The new Star Wars film awoke a promotional force of epic proportions over the weekend, but now retailers are faced with daunting task of driving sales of merchandise tied to a movie that won’t hit theaters for more than three months.

More than 3,000 retail locations in the U.S. opened at midnight on Friday to unveil aisles of new merchandise tied to the upcoming “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” film, according to Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media.

A rapidly expanding retailer led by a former top Walmart executive is supposed to produce strong same store sales growth, leverage expenses and increase profits. So why isn’t Five Below?

Joel Anderson’s tenure as CEO of value priced retailer Five Below (where everything cost less than $5) is off to an uneven start. The company is achieving its profitability targets, but doing so with productivity improvement in its selling space that is surprisingly weak given the newness of its store base.

Mooresville, N.C. – Lowe’s Companies Inc. is making a big purchase that will enable it to build a big store on one of Hawaii’s biggest islands.

The retailer is purchasing an 11-acre property in Kahului, Hawaii for $18.7 million from A&B Properties Inc., a subsidiary of Alexander & Baldwin.

Lowe’s plans to build a 167,000-sq.-ft. store on the site, located on the island of Maui. The new store will be 16% larger than Lowe’s current store in Kahului, which it leases from a third party.

Cincinnati – Retailers seeking to attract back-to-school shoppers should make sure they are well schooled in the ins and outs of providing good customer service.

A new LoyaltyOne, Verde Group survey of 2,500 U.S. consumers shows that efficient service, more than price or product availability, drives store loyalty and repeat purchases for shoppers with kids younger than 18 at mass merchandise stores such as Walmart, Target and Staples.

Retailers invest in a variety of systems to track a wide range of supply chain and sourcing activities, but often overlook the need for technology to track ethical sourcing. Ethical sourcing refers to ensuring that products retailers sell do not involve exploitation or mistreatment of workers, unsafe facilities or production processes, stolen or counterfeit goods, or environmental hazards.

When online shopping club Jet.com launched in July, the retailer’s CEO said he aspired to have 15 million customers spending $20 billion by 2020.

From the looks of the website, the prices and the shopping experience, Jet.com has a lot of work to do in order to get anywhere close to achieving that goal.

The holiday force has awakened earlier than ever at Walmart with the Aug. 28 launch of a major initiative called Toy Week.

Walmart has released its top toy list of 25 products and announced details of a layaway program that is less restrictive than prior years. The program begins Aug. 28, two weeks earlier than last years, and those participating will find the price point of eligible items has been reduced to $10 with a minimum basket size of $50, there is no account opening fee and only a 10% down payment is required.

New York -- Walmart plans to stop selling AR-15 assault rifles and other modern sporting rifles, a move the company says is motivated not by politics but by falling consumer demand.

Walmart plans to stop selling certain types of assault and sporting rifles, the company said on Wednesday.

“There wasn’t a whole lot of demand for those products so we replaced them with products we have seen customers coming into purchase it," Walmart spokesman Kory Lundberg told Fortune. 

The move comes as the largest seller of guns and ammunition in the U.S. has been a large part of the national gun debate following recent shootings.