Walmart

The March issue of Fortune contains the magazine’s annual ranking of the most admired companies and this year’s list shows Walmart slipped two spots from the prior year and now occupies the 11 position.

Thanks to the Internet, a lot of what passes for news these days is a report based on a report based on a report with few if any filters in place to verify the accuracy of information. With that qualification in mind, Bloomberg this week reported that Walmart’s market share in China declined to 7.5% in the fourth quarter of 2010 compared to 8.2% in the second quarter. The news agency said its report was based on a report in the English language Shanghai Daily newspaper whose report was based on a report from a market research company identified as CTR.

Walmat’s efforts to penetrate to New York have been the focus of considerable media attention the past few years so it is somewhat strange to find no mention of the company in a report out this week on commercial real estate trends.

Laura Pomerantz, a principal with the New York-based commercial real estate firm of PBS Real Estate noted that “2011 will see big changes on the streets of Manhattan. New and unexpected retailers are transforming shopping dynamics from Madison and Fifth Avenue to Times Square and the Upper West Side.”

DENVER -- Walmart announced that it has donated $100,000 to continue the Walmart Tribal College Scholarship Program. This program is providing 33 greatly needed scholarships for the spring 2011 semester, supporting one student at each of the nation's 33 tribal colleges and universities.

New York City -- While Walmart and Target continue to closely contend on price, Target’s basket price came in less expensive in the latest semi-annual pricing study by Kantar Retail.

“Walmart’s price positioning reveals that it has largely returned to a blanket EDLP approach, while Target’s TPC positioning is centered on price promotions to drive guests’ impressions and achieve actual basket price leadership,” said Leon Nicholas, senior VP of Retail Insights for Kantar Retail and contributor to the study. 

If Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2010 numbers were any indication, retail may well be prepping for some measurable bounce in 2011.

But the road to recovery isn’t going to be without frustrations, according to Chicago-based Jones Lang LaSalle’s North America Retail Outlook report, released in November.

The inaugural report examined retail real estate fundamentals such as vacancy levels, rental rates and investment sales volumes -- and drew the conclusion that 2011 would see a “slow and arduous retail sector recovery.”

VENTURA, Calif. -- The apparel industry has come together to form a coalition dedicated to reducing the environmental and social impacts of apparel and footwear products sold around the world. According to a press release, the group, to be known as the Sustainable Apparel Coalition will consist of leading apparel and footwear brands, retailers, manufacturers, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), academic experts and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.  

Target is set to report February same-store sales this Thursday and offer the first data point of the new fiscal year in which same-store sales are forecast to increase in the range of 4% to 5%. For February, the company has forecast a low single-digit increase and last week in conjunction with the release of fourth-quarter results confirmed it was on track to meet the low single-digit number.