Mass Merchant

Englewood, Colo. -- Sports Authority said Tuesday it will open six new stores on Aug. 13.

The new stores will open in five states, and include the major markets of Miami, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Chicago and Milwaukee.
 

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — After exceeding more than $2 million in food and donations, Meijer announced that it once again has launched the Simply Give campaign throughout its stores.

City of Commerce, Calif. -- Discount retailer 99 Cents Only Stores reported Monday that net income for the quarter ended July 2 rose to $17.7 million, from $16.8 million in the year earlier period.

Total revenue rose 6.3% to $368.3 million, from $346.5 million a year ago. Same-store sales rose 5.9%.

Atlanta -- A report released Tuesday by First Data Corp., which tracks same-store consumer spending by credit, signature debit, PIN debit, EBT cards and checks at U.S. merchant locations, found that card spend growth slowed significantly in July. However, dollar volume growth at general merchandise stores, including value retail, rose 10.3%, the largest increase in 10 months, as value retailers increased merchant promotional activity and discounting to attract consumers.

Bentonville, Ark. -- Walmart announced on Monday that it is expanding its check and card cashing services to accept more types of checks and take more forms of identification from shoppers.

Target produced another month of solid same-store sales growth in July and had a lot of good things to say about its future prospects. But judging from the action in the company’s share price in the intervening days, it was as if second-quarter earnings per share had come in well short of analysts’ expectations. Target got caught up in the selling free-for-all that occurred on Friday when it appeared the United States was in for a credit rating downgrade followed by a further acceleration on Monday after the downgrade occurred.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Walmart announced that it has expanded check cashing and card cashing services at stores nationwide, including the ability to cash a payroll and eligible government benefits card to the penny.

The expansion includes cashing most types of pre-printed checks up to $5,000 and accepting more forms of ID for check cashing, as well as establishing Express Check Cashing check-out lanes at selected stores during peak hours, the company reported.

Reston, Va. -- Online U.S. retail spending in second quarter 2011 reached $37.5 billion for the quarter, up 14% versus year ago, comScore reported Monday. This growth rate represented the seventh consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year growth and third consecutive quarter of double-digit growth rates.