Mass Merchant

SAN FRANCISCO— At an investor conference on Thursday, Gap CEO Glenn Murphy announced the company will close 200 of its 900 U.S. namesake stores even as it expands its outlet presence.

 While the company did not identify which stores will close, Gap said the 200 Gap brand closures over the next two years will be accompanied by a push to expand its Gap Outlet and Banana Republic factory chains.

New York City -- Wal-Mart Stores will donate as much as $5 million to New York City’s cash-strapped Summer Youth Employment Program, Crain’s New York Business reported. The donation will reportedly save 3,400 jobs.

Midlothian, Va. -- Bryn Mawr, Pa.-based WP Realty announced Thursday that it has acquired Chesterfield Marketplace located in Midlothian, Va.

This transaction marks WP Realty’s 10th acquisition of the year.

Chesterfield Marketplace is a one-story, 428,576-sq.-ft. community shopping center anchored by PetSmart, Staples and TJ Maxx, and shadow anchored by Home Depot and Toys “R” Us.

The portion of the center acquired, 197,942 sq. ft., is currently 54% occupied with 91,232 sq. ft. of available space.

Toronto -- Sears Canada has replaced more than 130,000 inefficient incandescent spotlights with energy-saving LED lighting in all Sears Home and full-line stores across Canada. The retrofit will reduce the company's electricity use by more than 16 million kilowatt hours (kWh) per year.

New York City -- The family of a 4-year-old Massachusetts boy who died after falling from an escalator at the Auburn Mall, in Auburn, Mass., have filed a wrongful-death lawsuit that alleges the escalator was "dangerous and defective" and did not follow state codes or the blueprint for its installation.

MINNEAPOLIS — Target ended last year with sales of $67.4 billion and earnings per share of $4, but if company chairman, president and CEO Gregg Steinhafel has his way, within six or seven years earnings per share will double to $8 and sales will top $100 billion.

WASHINGTON — The retail industry won a big victory in Washington, D.C., as the Senate defeated an amendment that proposed to delay swipe-fee reform for another 12 months.

PLEASANTON, Calif. — Safeway is bringing Coinstar's self-service coin-counting kiosks to its U.S. and Canada stores, the supermarket retailer announced Thursday.

Safeway said it agreed to install 1,400 Coinstar kiosks by the end of 2011, with installations slated to begin this month in Safeway stores and its banners, including Vons, Dominick's, Randalls, Tom Thumb, Genuardi's, Pavilions, Carrs and Pak N' Save.

With a topic of “Building stronger relationships with Walmart,” the room should be packed with suppliers next week when Walmart SVP Laura Phillips takes the stage at the Doing Business in Bentonville speaker series. The event will be held from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. on Wednesday, June 15 at the John Q. Hammons Center in Rogers, Ark. Click here for more information.

The enormity of the Chinese e-commerce opportunity was mentioned last week by Wan Ling Martello at Walmart’s shareholders meeting, when the COO of global e-commerce described how China’s online market is projected to quadruple to $300 billion in five years. Walmart obviously wants to be part of that growth and looked to shorten its learning curve earlier this year by acquiring a minority stake in fast growing online grocer Yihaodian.