Walmart

Family Dollar is at the midpoint of its fiscal year, and on track to open a total of 300 new stores, the company announced in conjunction with the release of it second-quarter financial results. Dollar stores have emerged as a key competitive threat to Walmart as they have beefed up assortments of food and consumables and their abundant stores are often more convenient than Walmart’s supercenters. A few weeks earlier, Dollar General said it would open 625 stores during it fiscal year.

The PFresh initiative at Target, which results in the addition of fresh food and an expanded offering of consumables, arrived in more Target discount stores last month, further elevating the competitiveness with Walmart supercenters.

When Walmart executives speak about prices, inflation or the nation’s economic condition their comments create quite a stir, and that’s what we saw again this week when Bill Simon spoke to USA Today.

New York City -- Wal-Mart Stores plans to expand its presence in the smaller cities of China, Ed Chan, CEO and president of the company’s China operations, said today at an investor meeting by video conference, Bloomberg reported.

The discounter may also buy more land to build stores in China, which it predicted will be the world’s largest grocery market by 2014, according to the report. Wal-Mart is building its seventh Sam’s Club outlet in the northeastern port city of Dalian, on the first plot of land it bought in the country.

WASHINGTON -- The nation’s court is set to hear arguments on Tuesday in a decade-old legal fight that could cost Wal-Mart Stores billions of dollars if the 500,000 women claiming sex bias are allowed to band together in a class action.

Wal-Mart is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to end the massive sex discrimination lawsuit in which the women are claiming that the retailer favors men over women in pay and promotions.

KATY, Texas – Sue Miller Payton has been named director of marketing at Igloo Product Corp. In her new position, Payton will be responsible for all aspects of product marketing, promotion, advertising and public relations, cyber-marketing including all social media, special events and exhibits. She is based at the company’s corporate headquarters and primary manufacturing location in Katy, Texas.

Washington, D.C. -- The nation’s court is set to hear arguments on Tuesday in a decade-old legal fight that could cost Wal-Mart Stores billions of dollars if the 500,000 women claiming sex bias are allowed to band together in a class action.

Wal-Mart is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to end the massive sex discrimination lawsuit in which the women are claiming that the retailer favors men over women in pay and promotions.
 

Two new pricing studies out this past week show Target and Walmart are so close to one another on a basket of goods that shoppers would have a hard time discerning which company is the low-price leader.

A 400,000-sq.-ft., Wal-Mart Supercenter- and Lowe’s-anchored, regional shopping center opened on March 15 in Hamburg, Pa.

Tilden Ridge Shopping Center, owned by West Conshohocken, Pa.-based Ironwood Property Group and leased by Metro Commercial Real Estate, was almost six years in the making, and features a site that shares a traffic signal with a 250,000-sq.-ft. Cabela’s store.

Burlington, N.J. -- Purchase, N.Y.-based National Realty & Development Corp. said Monday it will expand Liberty Square Center in Burlington, N.J. The construction will take place over the next 12 months and is scheduled to be completed in spring 2012.