Mass Merchant

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. — Kmart has designated this Friday as the official start of Halloween shopping with its "Orange and Black Friday" event.

Kmart's "Orange & Black Friday" event features: 50% off Halloween costumes and Halloween kitchen textiles, tabletop, decor, as well as a "Kmart Kreator" tool (www.Kmart.com/kreator), a social tool where users can create their own Halloween "Kreature" using costumes and accessories available at Kmart.

WAYNE, N.J. — Toys“R”Us has stepped up its efforts to be the destination for holiday shopping this season by offering a price match guarantee on all items available in its Toys“R”Us and Babies“R”Us stores nationwide. 

Wayne, N.J. -- Toys “R” Us on Tuesday said it will offer a price-match guarantee on all items in its namesake and Babies “R” Us stores this holiday season.

Beginning immediately and continuing through Christmas Eve, the company said it will match competitors’ in-store pricing on identical items, any time a customer presents a local competitor’s current print advertisement showing the item available for less.  

Bentonville, Ark. -- Wal-Mart Stores said Tuesday that it is launching a new service called Rapid Reload, which allows customers to load money onto prepaid cards.

The service is affiliated with Green Dot Network, InComm's Vanilla Reload Network and First Data's Money Network.

For a fee of $3.74, the program allows customers, effective immediately, to add money to their card at a store register.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Walmart is offering its customers a new way to load money onto prepaid cards.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The holiday hiring boost continues, this time at Meijer.

The retailer is preparing to hire thousands of new employees for its stores as it prepares for this year's holiday season and continued growth throughout the Midwest.

Lynnwood, Wash. -- Reporting ahead of most retailers whose results will be posted on Thursday, action sports retailer Zumiez said that same-store sales for the month of September rose 5.6%.

Total sales for the month increased 18.6% to $62.7 million, compared with $52.9 million for the same period last year.

Nashville, Tenn. -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is facing its third regional gender bias lawsuit since the Supreme Court rejected a nationwide class action filed by female workers in California and Texas.

Three female employees sued Wal-Mart in federal court in Tennessee on Tuesday, claiming discrimination against female workers in the company’s Region 43 which consists of Tennessee and parts of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia and Mississippi.