Mass Merchant

It may be the right thing to do long-term, but Walmart’s plans to slow growth in China, Mexico and Brazil didn’t sit well with investors this week.

The revelation that Walmart would add between 21 and 23 million square feet of space versus the previously planned addition of 30 to 33 million square feet will result in Walmart International spending between $4.6 billion and $5 billion compared to a previously budgeted amount of $5 billion to $5.5 billion.

Secaucus, N.J. -- The Children's Place Retail Stores reported Thursday a loss of $15.1 million, widened from a loss of $9.8 million in the same quarter last year.

Second quarter net sales increased 5% to $360.8 million, compared with $343.5 million in second quarter 2011. Same-store sales grew 3.4%.
 

Washington, D.C. -- According to the National Retail Federation and BIGinsight’s 2012 Back-to-School survey, families with school and college-aged students as of Aug. 7 say they have more than half of their shopping lists to complete.

The average person with children in grades K-12 has completed 40.1% of their shopping, while college shoppers and their families have completed slightly more at 45.3%.

Overall, school and college shoppers this year are expected to spend a total of $83.8 billion.

New York -- Body Central announced Friday that Thomas W. Stoltz has been promoted to COO and named interim CEO.

Stoltz has served as the company's executive VP and CFO since September 2011 and replaces B. Allen Weinstein, the company's former CEO who retired effective Aug. 16.

Stoltz will also continue to serve as Body Central's CFO.

Merchant Customer Exchange is the name of a new mobile payments group in which Walmart and other leading retailers are involved.

Expectations are high that mobile payments represent the future of commerce and group of leading retailers this week formed a new organization to offer an alternative way to pay.

The group is called the Merchant Customer Exchange and currently consists of 14 retailers. Plans call for development of a payment application available for smartphones that offers secure technology to process transaction.

Jacksonville, Fla. -- Stein Mart reported Thursday that profit slipped to $730,000 from $1.3 million last year, but second-quarter results managed to meet Wall Street's view, as revenue climbed.
 
Sales for the period grew 2% to $276.4 million, beating the $275.9 million that analysts expected. Same-store sales rose 1.6%.

 

New York -- Bloomberg reported Thursday that Macy’s Inc. has filed suit against J.C. Penney Co. in New York state court over the rights to sell products branded by Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. in their respective department stores.

Macy’s sued Martha Stewart Living in January to stop it from executing a sales agreement with J.C. Penney, as Macy’s claimed an exclusive right to sell Martha Stewart products in certain categories.

New York -- Following Wednesday reports that large retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores, Target Corp. and 7-Eleven are developing a mobile payment network, Wal-Mart confirmed on Thursday that a new company has been formed by Wal-Mart and other leading U.S. retailers to develop and deploy an m-commerce solution much like the Starbucks Square initiative that was announced last week.