Walmart

All of the proposals voted on at Walmart’s shareholders’ meeting last Friday were defeated, but the official tally of results filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission last night revealed one proposal that drew a surprisingly large number of votes.

With a topic of “Building stronger relationships with Walmart,” the room should be packed with suppliers next week when Walmart SVP Laura Phillips takes the stage at the Doing Business in Bentonville speaker series. The event will be held from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. on Wednesday, June 15 at the John Q. Hammons Center in Rogers, Ark. Click here for more information.

Bangalore, India -- A Wednesday report by Bloomberg said that Wal-Mart Stores, in its joint venture with Indian company Bharti Enterprises, plans to triple its wholesale outlet locations in India this year.

The report comes as Wal-Mart and other foreign retailers have been blocked from opening retail outlets in India, and are permitted only to set up wholesale locations.

The enormity of the Chinese e-commerce opportunity was mentioned last week by Wan Ling Martello at Walmart’s shareholders meeting, when the COO of global e-commerce described how China’s online market is projected to quadruple to $300 billion in five years. Walmart obviously wants to be part of that growth and looked to shorten its learning curve earlier this year by acquiring a minority stake in fast growing online grocer Yihaodian.

On average, across the retailer set, both the number of inserts and number of page counts decreased when comparing the month of May 2011 to May 2010. Notable standouts for the insert counts include a decline of 39% for Home Depot and an 11% decrease for Lowe’s.  While both Home Depot and Lowe’s dropped fewer inserts this year compared to last year, Home Depot’s decline was more pronounced from nearly seven inserts in 2010 to four in 2011.

Boulder, Col. -- Discount grocer Aldi ranks as the nation’s low-price grocery leader, according to a recent consumer survey conducted by Market Force Information.

Frank Yiannas, VP food safety and health at Walmart, was named vice chair elect of The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), an organization created in 2000 by The Consumer Goods Forum. Yiannas will assume the role of vice chair in February 2012 when current vice chair, Yves Rey, corporate quality general manager, at Danone becomes chairman.

Sidney, Neb. -- Cabela’s will open a store in Tulalip, Wash., in 2012.

The 110,000-sq.-ft. store will be located within Quil Ceda Village on the Tulalip Tribes Indian reservation, about 30 miles north of Seattle. It will be the outdoor retailer’s second Washington store.