Walmart

Five hundred suppliers, 200 merchants and 800 meetings equaled made in U.S.A. magic for Walmart as the retailer looked to accelerate domestic sourcing with a first ever event dubbed Open Call.

Walmart held the event at its Bentonville, Ark., headquarters on Tuesday, July 8, to discover domestically sourced products from new and existing suppliers that can help the company meet its goal of buying an additional $250 billion in American-made products in the next 10 years.

Having passed the calendar’s mid-point, we thought it would be interesting to take a look at the most viewed stories of the year to date on Chainstoreage.com.

By Jason Baker and Kenneth Katz, co-founders and principals, Baker Katz

Walmart is enhancing its perishable supply chain in the upper Midwest with a new distribution center in Mankato, Minn., slated to open in early 2015.

The retailer broke ground late last month on the 420,000-sq.-ft. facility located a little more than an hour southwest of Minneapolis. Once open in the Spring of 2015 the DC will serve stores in Minnesota and neighboring states of Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

Walmart is sponsoring the translation of an industry leading food fraud prevention course into Mandarin as part of a larger effort designed to position  the retailer as a leader in product quality, authenticity and safety.

The Walmart Foundation has kicked off a summer-long initiative to help children and families gain access to nutritious meals and learn healthy-eating habits. Walmart is also collaborating with Chef Lorena Garcia, chef and author with TV appearances on Bravo’s “Top Chef Masters” and NBC’s “Biggest Loser,” to launch the Eat Healthy Together Challenge on Twitter.

New York -- The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that Wal-Mart violated Quebec labor law by closing its store in Jonquiere, Quebec, in 2005.
 
In a 5-2 decision announced on Friday, the court ruled that the 190 employees who were terminated when the store was closed are entitled to compensation, according to CBC Montreal.  
 

By Jonathan Golovin, CEO of Retail Systems Inc.