Discount Store

Matthews, N.C. -- Family Dollar will cut more than 100 jobs as part of a companywide restructuring. The cuts will occur in all divisions of the company, the Charlotte Business Journal reported. 

In a memo to employees, the company said the cuts will allow Family Dollar to make decisions more quickly and move faster to achieve its goals, according to the report.

The retailer is slated to open 300 stores in fiscal 2011, which began in September. It will renovate as many as 800 stores.

Completion of a previously announced acquisition combined with organic growth will result in the addition of 168 stores to Asda’s existing 386 units and push Walmart’s U.K. division past the 500-unit mark.

Tarrytown, N.Y.-based DLC Management Corp. has launched the redevelopment of Wing Park Shopping Center in Elgin, Ill.

DLC has pre-leased the redevelopment to a pair of anchor tenants: Walgreens has signed a 75-year lease for a 14,820-sq.-ft. prototypical store with drive-through that will be built to suit, and the existing Family Dollar will be relocating and expanding into an 8,400-sq.-ft. space. The overall redevelopment is 80% pre-leased.

The retail industry is abuzz these days with talk of small format stores; whether it is Best Buy Mobile, CityTarget or now Walmart Express. Bill Simon, president and CEO of Walmart U.S., added more fuel to the fire this week with comments about several 15,000-sq.-ft. test stores that would open during the second quarter in rural and urban locations. Simon also introduced the prospect of rapid organic growth and potential acquisitions even though the first stores have yet to open.

City of Commerce, Calif. — Discount store retailer 99 Cents Only Stores has received a proposal to take the company private from the company's founding family and investment firm Leonard Green & Partners LP for $19.09 per share, the Associated Press reported.

The offer would value the company at about $1.3 billion. According to 99 Cents, the purchasers would include the Schiffer-Gold family, which owns about 33% of its outstanding stock. David Gold is company founder and chairman, and his son-in-law Eric Schiffer is CEO.

CITY OF COMMERCE, Calif. — First it was Family Dollar, now 99 Cents Only Stores finds itself in buyout talks, as investors are seeing the value in discount store chains.

The company has received a proposal to take the company private from the company's founding family and investment firm Leonard Green & Partners LP for $19.09 per share, the Associated Press reported.

Washington, D.C. -- A Wednesday report by Bloomberg said that Wal-Mart Watch, a union-funded group that advocates for Wal-Mart Stores workers, said Justice Antonin Scalia should disqualify himself when the U.S. Supreme Court considers the company’s bid to derail a gender-bias suit on behalf of potentially one million employees.

Shareholders of Wal-Mart de Mexico elected three new female board members at the company’s annual meeting yesterday, bringing to six the number of women on the company’s eleven-member board.

The new members include Shelley Broader, chief merchandising officer of Walmart Canada, Olga Gonzalez, Walmart’s VP audit services for Latin America and Kristin Oliver, SVP people for the Walmart International division. Other women on the board include Cathy Smith, Blanca Trevino and Kristin Oliver.