Department Store

San Francisco -- Gap Inc. announced that shoppers at more than 65 of its stores across the Bay Area can now use Google Wallet to pay with a single tap of your phone.

Google Wallet supports most Citi PayPass eligible MasterCard credit cards and the Google Prepaid Card.
 

Minneapolis -- Target Corp.’s profit increased a better-than-expected 3.7% in the third quarter to $555 million, up from $535 a year earlier. The retailer’s performance was helped by solid spending and improvement in its credit card business.

Revenue rose 5.4% to $16.05 billion. Same-store sales were up 4.3% in the quarter.

MINNEAPOLIS — Profits at Target grew 10.2% to 82 cents in the third quarter compared with 74 cents the prior year thanks to healthy sales growth and ongoing improvement in the company’s credit card business. 

New York City -- Off-price retailer Daffy's on Wednesday is opening a nineteenth location, in New York City’s Times Square.

The new 17,000-sq.-ft. store, located at 218 West 44th Street in the former New York Times building.

New York City -- Holiday sales growth will lag behind last year’s robust gains as consumers hold back in an uncertain economy. The roughly 3% growth will be driven by high prices due to inflation, rather than any increase in demand, according to a new report by Moody's Investors Service.

WASHINGTON — Retail sales edged up slightly during the month of October, the U.S. Census Bureau announced Tuesday.

Adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, sales totaled $397.7 billion. Retail trade sales rose 0.6% above September and 7.3% above the year-ago period.

Adjusted grocery store sales increased to $46.8 million from $46.3 million in September, while health and personal care stores saw adjusted sales of $23.3 million from $23.1 million last month.

Framingham, Mass. -- Staples Inc. reported Tuesday that profit for the third quarter climbed 13% to $326.4 million, from $288.7 million a year earlier. Earnings met Wall Street expectations.

Revenue rose 1% to $6.57 billion from $6.54 billion, missing analysts’ expected $6.71 billion. North American retail unit revenue was flat at $2.7 billion, with same-store sales down 1%. International revenue slid 7% on a local currency basis to $1.3 billion, leading the retailer to adjust its full-year forecast downward.

Bentonville, Ark. -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. on Tuesday posted the first quarterly revenue gain in its U.S. namesake business in more than two years, but the discounter's profit was down 2.9%. Profit for the quarter ended Oct. 31 was $3.33 billion, missing Wall Street expectations.