Discount Store

Walmart took prices up in April, and the average gap with competitors narrowed to 16.8% from 17.8% the prior month, according to the most recent monthly survey of prices conducted in the Dallas and Chicago markets by Credit Suisse. The firm also found that Walmart has been among the most aggressive in terms of passing through inflation to customers. During the past three months, Walmart’s prices on the 60 food, health and beauty and household items the firm tracks each month increased 2% during the past three months and over the past year prices have risen by 3.6%.

New York — Bill Ackman, the founder of Pershing Square Capital Management, has taken a “passive” stake in Family Dollar Stores, Bloomberg reported.  Ackman, speaking at the Ira Sohn Conference in New York, said he invested in Family Dollar Stores  because it’s “very reasonably priced” and may be acquired.

“It’s a good business, it’s done very well for a long time,” he said, according to the report. “It’s an attractive LBO transaction.” 

Cincinnati — Macy’s Inc. said it will open two new stores near Chicago and Milwaukee, including its first-ever location in an outlet mall.

New York — Nordstrom Inc. is scouting out sites to expand into Canada, Dow Jones reported.

"We already know we have a lot of Canadian customers," Nordstrom spokesman Colin Johnson said in the report. Also, Canadians make up the biggest share of Nordstrom's international online customers.

Johnson did not give a timeframe when Nordstrom might make a formal announcement, but did say the company would start with its full-priced stores before opening any Nordstrom Rack outlets in the country, according to the report.

WASHINGTON — Target announced that it will provide new libraries for 42 schools in the United States as part of the 2011 Target School Library Makeover program.

Las Vegas — The International Council of Shopping Centers has named Athleta, Smashburger, Aldi and Fossil as the 2011 Hot Retailer Award winners.

The annual awards, based on a survey of ICSC’s worldwide members, were presented Tuesday at the association’s global retail real estate convention, REConn.

Sharp pricing on an expanded assortment of food and consumables is one way for Target to get customers to shop its stores more frequently, but this week saw the company break out another type of trip generator with the cover of its weekly ad featuring tee shirts and shorts at an opening price point of $3.

At that price, moms have pretty low expectations of quality. Cut and color matter more than the finish work on seams, since the clothes only need to last for a couple months until summer. The garments will be outgrown by next summer and the cycle repeats itself.

With the dust settled from Target’s first-quarter earnings announcement last week, it has become quite apparent the company would not be faring well were it not for the beneficial effects of the PFresh remodeling program and last fall’s introduction of 5% REDcard Rewards.