Walmart

Walmart Executive Vice President of Global Customer Insights and Analytics Cindy Davis has been confirmed as a featured speaker for IRI’s upcoming Summit.

Bentonville, Ark. -- Shoppers interested in purchasing products from women-owned companies will find it easier to do so at Walmart with the introduction of a new logo and related promotional effort. The new initiative launched March 11 will see a unique logo featured on retail packaging of products from women-owned businesses, available both in-store and online.

The ripple effects of Walmart’s wage action have extended to Plano, Tex., where home décor retailer At Home has upped the minimum wage ante with a more generous pay plan for hourly workers.

At Home, the company formerly known as Garden Ridge, operates 83 stores in 22 states. Beginning in May, the company said it would pay full-time hourly employees a minimum of $10 an hour and the minimum hourly rate for part-timers will increase to $9 an hour.

Shoppers interested in purchasing products from women-owned companies will find it easier to do so at Walmart with the introduction of a new logo and related promotional effort.

Boston – Kohl’s will be pleased to hear that women love shopping for clothes there. According to a new survey from Piper Jaffray, a leading 12% of female consumers selected Kohl’s as their preferred clothing brand/store/website for spring 2015. Macy’s took second place with 9%, followed by J.C. Penney and Wal-Mart (7%) and Amazon (5%).

Kohl’s has taken the top spot in Piper Jaffray’s biannual survey since fall 2013.

There has been a lot of discussion in the last several years about the strength of the grocery sector. I think it’s clear that a big reason behind that success has been the evolution of different formats and the explosive growth of a new generation of grocery concepts that represent a significant departure from the traditional grocery model.

New York -- From parking lots to refrigerated cases, Walmart has helped pioneer the use of LED lighting. And the discounter shows no signs of stopping, having recently made headlines with its use of solid-state ceiling lighting. Walmart will share insights and learnings gained from its LED lighting deployments at Chain Store Age’s 51st annual SPECS Conference, March 15 – 17, Sands Expo at the Venetian/Palazzo Hotel, Las Vegas.

By Brendan O’Brien, Aria Systems

You’ve undoubtedly heard about the Internet of Things (IoT) and you might think that it’s all about wearables and energy savings. You might conclude that it doesn’t have much to do with your retail business.

Well think again.

The business impact on the retail sector from the IoT – the monitoring, measuring and reporting of all kinds of interconnected devices – is going to be huge. Bigger than anything we’ve seen before in technology.

Miami Gardens, Fla. -- Palmetto Park has broken ground on the inline space at Palmetto Gardens Plaza, a 63,000-sq.-ft. shopping center located at 3799 NW 167th St. in Miami Gardens, Florida. Anchor tenant Wal-Mart Neighborhood Store was recently completed and is now open.  

Open-air centers go far beyond shopping