Mass Merchant

Target’s first stores in Canada are not scheduled to open until 2013, but this week the company can get a glimpse of what it’s up against when Walmart Canada president and CEO David Cheesewright is scheduled to speak at the Jefferies 2011 Global Consumer Conference.

The most recent Leading National Advertisers annual report from Advertising Age shows Target posted the biggest increased in ad spending in 2010 among conventional retailers. The total amount the company spent increased 12% to $1.508 billion compared with $1.246 billion the prior year. That put the company 18th on the Ad Age list of the nation’s 100 largest advertisers. Only two retailers spent more than Target.

It was the biggest story in the retail world last week when JCPenney announced it had hired Ron Johnson as its new CEO with the incoming executive vowing to transform the way America shops by reinventing the department store. Such statements normally elicit a yawn because they are so common, but Johnson is the former SVP retail at Apple and spent the past 11 years overseeing the development and growth of the company’s wildly successful and widely heralded retail operation.

Bentonville, Ark. -- Wal-Mart Stores, announced Monday that the company has completed its investment for a 51% stake in South African-based Massmart Holdings Limited.

Brandon, Fla. -- Jacksonville, Fla.-based Regency Centers said it has leased restaurant space in Brandon, Fla., at Bloomingdale Square to Chipotle Mexican Grill.

Chipotle has leased 2,650 sq. ft., bringing the center to 96% leased. The tenant is slated to open for business in fall 2011.

The 267,736-sq.-ft. shopping center is anchored by a Walmart, Bealls and Publix Super Market alongside national retailers such as Dollar Tree, Hallmark, RadioShack and Bank of America.
 

Miami -- New York City-based Robert K. Futterman & Associates announced that Marty Arrivo has joined the firm’s newly established Miami office as senior managing director.

With eight years of commercial real estate experience working with property owners and regional and national retailers, Arrivo, who started with RKF last month, is responsible for tenant and landlord representation throughout Florida and nationwide.

The following excerpts are from the Workplace Class Action blog of Seyfarth Shaw LLP, one of the nation’s leading national employment and labor law firms. (To read the full posting, go to workplaceclassaction.com)

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its long-awaited and much anticipated opinion in Dukes, et al. v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. The Supreme Court reversed, and ruled in favor of Wal-Mart.

My husband loves Apple. In fact, I cannot remember one single trip to Mall of Louisiana (Baton Rouge) that hasn’t included a stop-in at the Apple store. There, he plays with the gadgets -- iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, iMacs, iPods -- and wanders the store, as content to browse the high-tech aisles as I am to shop the designer shoe department at Dillard’s.

Washington, D.C. -- In a ruling that may mean new limits on class-action suits, the Supreme Court on Monday ruled for Wal-Mart Stores in the largest sex-discrimination lawsuit in history as it put the brakes on a massive job discrimination lawsuit against the chain.

New York City -- Winn-Dixie Stores has filed suit against Dolgencorp, the parent company of Dollar General. The grocer confirmed that the suit was filed because Dolgencorp “knowingly violates legal, noncompete provisions of Winn-Dixie leases in shopping centers in which both businesses operate,” Winn-Dixie told the Jacksonville Business Journal in an email.