Walmart

NORWOOD, Mass. — Hot Wheels has entered into a licensing agreement with Toy State, a leading manufacturer of licensed and highly stylized lights-and-sound toy vehicles. 

The agreement, which runs through 2016, gives Toy State the green light to design and build a new line of high-octane custom versions of Hot Wheels remote-controlled and lights-and-sound toys. 

Cicero, Ill. -- The town of Cicero, Ill., and Wal-Mart Stores announced an agreement on Tuesday to build a Walmart Supercenter on a portion of a former racetrack site.

Under the contract, Wal-Mart will pay $7.5 million for 24.67 acres of land at the long-vacant and dilapidated Sportsman’s racetrack to construct a 190,000-sq.-ft. store.

Cicero will continue to own 10 acres of the remaining Sportsman's property, which is reserved for future retail expansion and development.

The entire Walmart board was re-elected last Friday at the company’s shareholders meeting, but a substantial number of negative votes indicate some investors are not happy with long-time board members and key senior leaders.

For anyone involved in retail, it feels like the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) Spring Convention in Las Vegas signifies an important yearly milestone. Those of us in the industry can be forgiven for visualizing a “retail year” that begins immediately after the convention in May and runs until RECon opens its doors the following year.

The Sobey’s chain of food stores, whose parent company counts former Walmart Canada head Dave Ferguson among its board members, has added new square footage to its retail portfolio with the acquisitions of Safeway’s Canadian stores.

The $5.8 billion deal, announced late Wednesday will added Safeway’s 223 stores and 12 manufacturing facilities to Sobey’s existing operation which includes about 1,500 stores under banners such as Sobeys, IGA extra, Thrifty Foods, IGA, Foodland and FreshCo.

WASHINGTON — The Walmart Foundation has awarded the American Red Cross with a $3.5 million grant that will help 2,500 students receive training for entry-level healthcare careers through the Red Cross Nurse Assistant Training program.

The program is designed to help give students a career pathway into the industry, while also helping communities alleviate a shortage of adequately trained Certified Nurse Assistants.

EVANSVILLE, Ind. — Shoe Carnival has appointed Kent Zimmerman as VP of e-commerce. Zimmerman will oversee the company’s e-commerce and omnichannel strategies.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Sam's Club CEO Rosalind Brewer announced the launch of a collaborative program supporting small business owners and entrepreneurs in 25 cities. The Grow Your Business Boot Camp series offers hands-on training seminars backed by a funding commitment of $500,000 from Sam's Club.