Mass Merchant

Discount grocer Aldi has made its U.S. mall debut, opening in Westfield Chicago Ridge, an 800,000-sq.-ft. enclosed shopping center in suburban Chicago Ridge, Ill. The mall is a property of The Westfield Group.

Brightly lit and colorful, the 20,000-sq.-ft. Aldi resembles a prototypical Aldi in most respects.

Allegations of illegality and intimidation are par for the course whenever union organizers lose an election, so it should have come as no surprise when workers at a Target in Valley Stream, N.Y. voted against unionization.

The National Labor Relation Board announced this past weekend that 137 workers voted against joining the United Food and Commercial Workers union while 85 workers supported the union. Had the drive been successful it would have been the first time workers at any of Target’s store were represented by a collective bargaining agreement.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Wal-Mart Stores announced that it has completed its investment for a 51% stake in South African-based Massmart Holdings Limited for ZAR148 per Massmart ordinary share.

Massmart will continue to trade on the JSE Limited to provide Massmart shareholders with the ability to participate in the growth opportunity of the combined entity.  

New York City -- Winn-Dixie Stores has filed suit against Dolgencorp, the parent company of Dollar General. The grocer confirmed that the suit was filed because Dolgencorp “knowingly violates legal, noncompete provisions of Winn-Dixie leases in shopping centers in which both businesses operate,” Winn-Dixie told the Jacksonville Business Journal in an email.

The following excerpts are from the Workplace Class Action blog of Seyfarth Shaw LLP, one of the nation’s leading national employment and labor law firms. (To read the full posting, go to workplaceclassaction.com)

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its long-awaited and much anticipated opinion in Dukes, et al. v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. The Supreme Court reversed, and ruled in favor of Wal-Mart.

Bentonville, Ark. -- Wal-Mart Stores, announced Monday that the company has completed its investment for a 51% stake in South African-based Massmart Holdings Limited.

Target’s first stores in Canada are not scheduled to open until 2013, but this week the company can get a glimpse of what it’s up against when Walmart Canada president and CEO David Cheesewright is scheduled to speak at the Jefferies 2011 Global Consumer Conference.