Walmart

The Network of Executive Women (NEW) has confirmed retail executives from Walgreens, Home Depot, Family Dollar, Publix and Walmart as featured participants at the organization’s Leadership Summit this fall.

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.

Just as retailers like Walmart and Target unveil their top toy lists ahead of the holiday shopping season, Toys“R”Us has revealed its 2014 Holiday Hot Toy List. The annual list of 36 items is determined by Toys“R”Us play experts and packed with a wide range of brand new toys and games.

Six of the nation’s largest food companies and the Walmart Foundation are appealing to Americans with an innovative digital campaign to direct $3.7 million in donations to food banks.

New York -- Wal-Mart Stores has no plans to join Apple’s newly-announced mobile payments system, Apple Pay, which is due to launch in October.

Wal-Mart is supporting a retailer-owned mobile technology group, the Merchant Customer Exchange, which is launching its own mobile wallet application. The application, called CurrentC, is now in pilot and is expected to be rolled out nationwide in 2015, according to The Washington Post.  Best Buy is also among the retailers supporting CurrentC.
   

Houston – The Mansour Group has arranged the sale of the 99% leased, 223,223-sq.-ft. Almeda Crossing Power Center located in Houston, for more than $30 million. The seller was a Texas-based developer and The Mansour Group was able to deliver the property to a national REIT.

The center is leased to an array of national tenants including Ross, Marshall’s, Staples, PetSmart, Conn’s, Party City, Show Carnival, Dollar Tree, Anna’s Linens, Aaron’s and many others and is shadow anchored by a Walmart supercenter.

Walmart released its top toy list for 2014 the same day Toys “R” Us unveiled holiday strategies at its flagship store in New York.

Walmart unveiled new details regarding the digital strategy for its Asda division in the United Kingdom that could have implications for how the retailer serves the U.S. market.

U.K. shoppers love the internet and Walmart’s Asda unit is responding with growth of order online, pick up in store capabilities known as Click and Collect, dedicated facilities and the consolidation of Web sites.