Supermarket/Grocery

New York -- According to multiple reports on Thursday, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s India unit has received a notice from a federal government agency regarding alleged violations of the country’s foreign investment rules.
 
A spokesman for Wal-Mart said: “We will be working to provide the authorities with relevant information,” but didn’t elaborate on the contents of the notice.

Bharti Walmart Pvt. Ltd., a joint venture between Wal-Mart and India's Bharti Enterprises Ltd., operates 20 wholesale stores in the country.

New York -- A Thursday report by the Financial Times said that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is in discussions with Turkish retailer Migros Ticaret AS to acquire an 80% stake in the company from London-based private equity group BC Partners.

The Times said that Walmart held meetings with Migros managers in recent days in Turkey but it had not placed a bid for the Turkish retailer. Sources have not been identified and Wal-Mart so far has not commented.

Shoppers in many markets have to drive past one of Dollar General’s more than 10,000 stores before they get to their local Walmart, a situation that will intensify in 2013.

Dollar General is opening stores so fast its store count sometimes changes multiple times throughout the day. It surpassed 10,000 units earlier this year and by the end of the company third quarter on November 2, it had opened 479 out of 625 stores planned for 2012. Next year, 635 new units are planned and by the end of next year the company’s store count will be in the vicinity of 11,000 stores.

Washington, D.C. -- A report released Thursday by the Commerce Department said that U.S. retail sales rose 0.3% in November from October, reflecting a bounce back after the effects of superstorm Sandy. Excluding fuel, retail sales increased a solid 0.8%. The median forecast of 81 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a 0.5% rise.

The 0.3% rise offsets a 0.3% dip in October from September.

Blue Bell, Pa. -- North Plainfield, N.J.-based Levin Management Corp. said that Pet Supplies Plus has opened a 7,650-sq.-ft. store at The Shops at Blue Bell, located in Blue Bell, Pa.

Levin is the exclusive leasing and management agent for the 103,000-sq.-ft. shopping center, which is anchored by Giant supermarket and tenanted by IHOP, Sovereign Bank, GNC, Supercuts and Planet Beach, among others.
 

Promotional activity among the nation’s leading retailers declined during November aside from several notable exceptions. There was a flurry of intense promotional activity around Thanksgiving weekend, as always, but for the months as a whole the number of inserts distributed by retailers declined 7% and the number of pages declined by 5%.

Growth in sales and membership income at Costco helped the company produce earnings per share of 95 cents and beat analysts’ estimates by two cents.

Purchase, N.Y. -- A SpendingPulse report released Wednesday by MasterCard Advisors in partnership with Wells Fargo found that spending at small retailers in November picked up a percentage point since October, showing a 5.2% year over year improvement.

This was enough to put its growth rate from October to November at 0.7%, more than the growth rate of total U.S. retail sales.