Walmart

Paris -- French retail giant Carrefour reported Thursday that sales in the second quarter dipped 0.3% to $26.5 billion, beating analysts’ expectations and prompting the retailer to issue earnings guidance to match 2012 expectations of $2.5 to $2.6 billion.

No Wonder Walmart’s U.S. sales are on the upswing. Kantar’s Marx media solutions group this week in its mid-year report noted free standing insert pages for Walmart increased nearly 82% to 2.5 billion pages during the first half of the year.

That’s not exactly the question a couple college professors ask in a new booked called, “The Physics of Business,” but it might as well have been. The authors suggest the forces of scale and efficiency are trumping innovation at U.S. companies of which Walmart is the largest.

When Craig Herkert left Walmart a few years ago to become president and CEO of Supervalu the situation that unfolded earlier this week at the grocer was not what he had in mind.

Walmart and Target were both winners this week as Target announced a deal with Neiman Marcus that makes the distinction between it and Walmart even sharper.

Martin Fry has joined Premier Retail Networks as chief operating officer, the company announced Monday.

TOWACO, N.J. — Bosco brand chocolate syrup is making its Walmart debut in 530 stoes in 12 Eastern states including Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia.

Bosco which comes in a 22 ounce squeeze bottle is all-natural and vitamin-fortified. Walmart will sell Bosco for $1.98.     

The rhetoric over allowing foreign direct investment in India is reminiscent of the rhetoric that would have occurred in the United States 30 years ago had Walmart’s critics knew then what they profess to know now.