Mass Merchant

Target Corp is raising its minimum wage to $10 an hour, Reuters reported.

The reported increase comes amid an increasingly competitive job market and widespread calls by activists and labor groups for retail and restaurant chains to offer higher wages.

A leading payment card issuer and the world’s largest discount retailer are both launching efforts to reduce how long customers have to wait to check out with EMV-compliant payment cards.

Visa Inc. is rolling out a technology enhancement designed to optimize EMV chip card processing and speed up checkout times. The new solution, called Quick Chip for EMV, streamlines the processing of chip card transactions to enable customers to dip and remove their EMV chip card from the terminal, typically in two seconds or less, without waiting for the transaction to be finalized.

Consumers who want free two-day shipping of their Amazon.com orders but don’t want to make an upfront commitment have a new option.

Amazon is now making Prime membership available to U.S. customers on a month-by-month basis for $10.99 per month. Previously, Prime had only been available for $99 per year, which breaks down to $8.25 per month.

Retailers will have a new friction-free way to convert shoppers into buyers this holiday season as Google expects buy button functionality piloted last year to be broadly available by the fourth quarter.

Target Corp.’s latest limited-edition collaboration, with the Finnish brand Marimekko, was not a bust, but it also didn’t spark the excitement and shopping frenzy that marked the launch of the retailer’s previous exclusive collections — particularly its past partnerships with Missoni and Lily Putlizer.

Meijer has plans to open stores in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Cleveland and Minneapolis during the next five years, reported MLive.com. "We see Cleveland as the next city to go to," said CEO Hank Meijer, with the first stores opening in 2018 or 2019, the report continued. [MLive.com]

Consumers are taking stock of their financial health and how it will affect their decisions to make CPG purchases in the coming months.

According to the new first quarter 2016 IRI Consumer Connect survey, 67% of respondents feel their financial health will improve in the next six months. As a result, CPG spending will generally improve, but shoppers have some specific needs and wants to fulfill.

Dick’s Sporting Goods and Academy Sports + Outdoors have submitted letters of interest to buy some of the assets of Sports Authority Inc. that will go on the block in a bankruptcy auction, according to Reuters.

Modells Sporting Goods is also reportedly interested in some of the assets of the chain, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in early March.