Mass Merchant

New York -- Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores Inc. is set to begin trading on the Nasdaq Capital Market on Friday after Sears Holdings Corp. completed a spin-off transaction of the home appliances, hardware, tools and garden equipment retailer.

Sears Holdings received $446.5 million in proceeds in the transaction, including a $100 million dividend paid by Sears Hometown prior to the separation and about $347 million from a rights offering.

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. —-- Sears Holdings has successfully separated out its Sears Hometown and Outlet Sores businesses.

Bentonville, Ark. -- Walmart is expanding its Centers of Excellence program to offer its associates health care with no out-of-pocket cost for heart, spine, and transplant surgeries at six of the nation’s leading hospital and health systems.  

New York -- Target Corp. opened a new retail concept, called C9 Active Apparel, in San Francisco, Women’s Wear Daily and other media outlets reported.

The 3,000-sq.-ft. store is devoted to the C9 by Champion activewear brand, which was launched by Target in 2004. It is located in Westfield’s Metreon center, which also houses a CityTarget store.

The new store has an industrial feel, with concrete flooring and exposed ceiling, according to the reports, with no Target identifying-logo or signage.

Organized labor was crowing this week about a protest, or was it a strike, involving 88 Walmart employees at 28 stores in 12 states who didn’t show up for work on Tuesday.

Neil Ashe, president and CEO of global e-commerce was clearly the most excitable person on stage Wednesday at Walmart’s 19th annual analysts' meeting. And for good reason.

Walmart created its global e-commerce group two years ago and Ashe joined the company back in January. Wednesday was his first opportunity to participate in the company’s annual analysts’ meeting and he made the most of it, slipping in a first ever reference to Walmart’s online revenues that now total $9 billion.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — The pace at which Walmart adds new selling space globally will remain unchanged next year, but improved productivity, more U.S. stores and expanding multichannel capabilities are expected to produce sales and profit growth.

Port Washington, N.Y. -- The majority of consumers intend to spend the same (67%) this holiday season than last year, and 10% plan to spend more while fewer that say they plan to spend less, according to the NPD Group’s 11th Annual Holiday Survey.