eCommerce

Walmart CFO Charles Holley participated in the Citi Global Consumer Conference this past Tuesday, and he had the challenge of appearing just one week after Walmart released first-quarter results. Given the timing, it would have been reasonable to expect that he wouldn’t have a lot of new information to share, and while he certainly covered a lot of familiar ground, there was one area that stood out.

Columbus, Ohio — Big Lots on Thursday trimmed its expectations for the year amid a fall in first-quarter earnings. In a separate statement, Big Lots said it signed an agreement to buy the Canadian closeout retail chain Liquidation World.

Based in Brantford, Ontario, Liquidation World operates 92 stores in Canada. It is Big Lots’ first expansion outside of the United States

Big Lots posted earnings of $52.5 million for the period ended April 30, compared with $55.9 million a year earlier.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — For the first time, Big Lots is expanding its retail operations outside of the United States with the announcement that it has agreed to purchase all of the outstanding stock of Liquidation World Inc., an Ontario based retailer which operates 92 closeout stores in Canada. 

New York City — Robert K. Futterman & Associates said it has secured a 1,500-sq.-ft. retail space for women’s apparel brand WINK at 129 Prince St., located between Wooster and Prince Streets in SoHo.  

WINK, which currently has a store at 155 Spring St., is scheduled to open its new Manhattan location this summer.  

 The new store will join co-tenants Apple, Lucky Brand, Cole Haan, Michael Kors and Ralph Lauren.

New York — Backed by an improving economy, a recent surge in jobs and ten consecutive months of rising retail sales, a broad range of retailers are poised to fill up empty retail spaces over the next 12 to 18 months, according to Colliers International,  the third-largest commercial real estate services company in the world.

Walmart is scheduled to hold its annual shareholders’ meeting one week from today, and the event is a tale of two meetings. One the one hand, there is the pageantry and puffery of the actual shareholders meeting, which runs from 7 a.m. to about 11 a.m. central time. If the company holds true to form the event will be a high-energy, star-studded affair that is long on style and short on substance with a dollop of official business thrown in. The event is designed primarily for the thousands of employees who attend from throughout the U.S.

The resignation of two top executives at Walmart China earlier this week initially seemed a rather stunning development given China’s importance to Walmart’s future and the fact that the company just held an analysts meeting in Shenzhen in late March. However, Walmart is now looking to capitalize on compelling growth prospects in the world’s second largest economy without the services of CFO Roland Lawrence and COO Rob Cissell. Walmart announced their simultaneous departure, but did not identify replacements.

By Scott Setrakian, [email protected]

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