Retail

Deerfield, Ill. – Net earnings for Walgreen Co. soared in both the fourth quarter and full fiscal year 2013. Net earnings during the fourth quarter totaled $657 million, an 86.4% increase from $353 million in the same quarter a year ago, while net earnings for the full year rose 15.2% to $2.5 billion, from $2.1 billion.

San Bruno, Calif. -- Walmart announced it is opening two new warehouses dedicated to filling online orders, one in Fort Worth, Texas, and one in Bethlehem, Pa., which will be its largest center to date. The new facilities are part of a next-generation fulfillment network that the retailer said will deliver U.S. customer orders faster and at a lower cost.

Neiman Marcus Group will begin to offer free standard shipping and returns for all domestic purchases made online through neimanmarcus.com and bergdorfgoodman.com as well as Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman stores. The announcement comes just in time for the holiday season. 

"The customer has always been at the center of the Neiman Marcus business model. Permanent free shipping and returns have been a top request and we are happy to be able to make this change just in time for the holiday shopping season." said Wanda Gierhart, chief marketing officer.

Pittsburgh – Internet coupon provider MyCoupons.com is launching a responsive design website. The new website presents a cleaner, contemporary, responsive design that adapts itself to all digital platforms: web, tablet, and mobile.

The new infrastructure also improves the user experience with better and faster search capabilities for the thousands of coupons and promotional codes available on the site from more than 9,000 online merchants.

New York – At least four law firms have launched investigations of Lumber Liquidators Holdings, Inc. following a raid by federal agencies on Lumber Liquidators’ Virginia offices in connection with the importation of certain wood-flooring products. The law firms of Pomerantz Grossman Hufford Dahlstrom & Gross LLP, Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC, The Shuman Law Firm, and Wohl & Fruchter LLP are all investigating whether Lumber Liquidators has committed federal securities violations.

Walgreens filled a record 821 million prescriptions which helped boost the company’s retail pharmacy market share for the fiscal year to 19.1%. 

Walgreens posted a sales gain of 0.8% for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, reaching a record $72.2 billion. Early morning trading boosted Walgreens' share price from a close of $53.80 on Monday to $56.06, an increase of 4.2%.

Lewisville, Texas – Consumers prefer prepaid cards that can be used anywhere to gift cards from specific retailers and physical cards to digital cards.

According to the new “People Prefer Prepaid Rewards” study from Parago, more than half of shoppers prefer prepaid cards over gift cards from Amazon, iTunes, Target, Walmart, Home Depot and more. In addition, two out of three shoppers prefer physical cards over digital cards.

New York -- Masayoshi Son, billionaire founder of tech/telecom company SoftBank Corp., has reportedly won bidding for the Tiffany Building in the Ginza shopping district of Tokyo. According to Forbes, Son paid about $36 million for the 10-story glass building.

The Tiffany Building houses the flagship Japanese store of Tiffany & Co. Son did not comment on why he bought the building.