Mass Merchant

New York City -- A survey released Tuesday by Deloitte found that 87.7% of shoppers believe prices in food stores are escalating and 74% say the size of some packaged goods is smaller.

According to Deloitte’s new “2011 Consumer Food and Product Insight Survey,” thanks to higher food prices and rising gas prices, 72.7% of consumers are making fewer trips to the grocery store to save money and 40.8% are purchasing fewer items overall.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Walmart announced that it is making back-to-school shopping even easier with new store improvements. Back-to-school items are now organized, both in stores and online, in one place and categorized by school age group, so families can quickly and easily shop supplies appropriate for their child’s grade, the company reported. Many of the most common school supply list items are located down the center of the back-to-school aisle allowing families to quickly check these items off their list.

NEW YORK — Rising food prices and shrinking package sizes is a top concern for consumers, according to Deloitte's "2011 Consumer Food and Product Insight Survey."

Cape Town, South Africa -- A Tuesday report by Bloomberg said that South Africa’s parliament will let anti-trust regulators decide what conditions to impose on Wal-Mart Stores in its acquisition of Massmart Holdings Ltd.

The Competition Tribunal ruled on May 31 that Wal-Mart could proceed with its $2.4 billion purchase of a controlling stake in Johannesburg-based wholesaler Massmart on condition no jobs are cut for two years.

Shares of Target may hit $100 six or seven years from now, but looking ahead to next year Morgan Stanley analyst Mark Wiltamuth believes the stock should be trading at $64. He recently initiated coverage of the company with a “buy” rating and, like some other analysts, believes investors may be seeing a once-in-a-generation opportunity to purchase shares at valuation levels depressed by uncertainty around the company’s entry into Canada.

Denton, Md. -- Walmart will break ground on a new supercenter in Denton, Maryland, the week of September 19. The 152,888-sq.-ft.  store will also feature a Subway.

Walmart currently operates 35 stores and 12 Sam's Clubs in the state of Maryland.

At least one retail analyst saw Target’s Black Friday in July promotion last week as an exercise in creative marketing and evidence that even bigger things could be coming this fall when the retailer ends a relationship with Amazon and brings its online efforts in-house.

Citigroup retail analyst Deb Weinswig said the Black Friday promotion “should also help to reinforce Target as a destination for deals and value ahead of the up-coming back-to-school and holiday seasons.”

Shares of Target are mis-valued at current levels around $50 and could eventually double if the company delivers on plans achieve $100 billion in sales and earnings per share of $8 by 2016 or 2017.

That’s according to Bernstein Research analyst Colin McGranahan who noted in a recent research report that he spent time at Target’s Minneapolis headquarter where he met with chairman, president and CEO, Gregg Steinhafel, CFO Doug Scovanner and EVP merchandising Kathee Tesija.