Retail

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Bentonville, Ark. – Wal-Mart India is laying off roughly 100-150 senior to mid-level employees. The Financial Press quotes anonymous executives as saying Wal-Mart India, which currently employs about 1,100 workers, beefed up staffing in anticipation of an expansion that has now been put on hold.

Wal-Mart runs 20 wholesale stores in India. The retailer previously ran them in a joint venture with Indian company Bharti Enterprises, but since that partnership was dissolved in October 2013 Wal-Mart India has been taking on Bharti employees.

Rakuten LinkShare announced double-digit year-over-year growth during Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, driven primarily by transactions conducted on mobile devices.

By Graeme McVie, VP, LoyaltyOne, [email protected]

Statistics tell the story: the U.S. population is getting older at a dramatic rate. The Department of Health & Human Service’s Administration on Aging estimates that nearly 55 million people – nearly one-in-six – will be age 65 or older by 2020, compared with 40 million in 2010.

Algonquin, Ill. — Fuddruckers has opened a 6,600-sq.-ft. fast casual restaurant in the Algonquin Commons lifestyle center in Algonquin, Ill., a northwest suburb of Chicago. The new restaurant replaces a Cheeseburger in Paradise, according to Luby’s, Inc., the parent company of both brands and the owner of the site.

The Algonquin Commons restaurant will showcase Fuddruckers’ new interior scheme, which pays homage to the chains roadhouse look, while refreshing the look to cater to today’s more sophisticated tastes.

It has been a rough start to the holiday season for the closeout retail sector. Building #19, a New England-based closeout chain that became something of a local institution, recently closed its doors after 50 years in business (though it plans to reopen a few locations as specialty rug stores). A few days later, national closeout powerhouse Big Lots reported disappointing financial results for the third quarter.

The race to improve customer convenience by leveraging smart e-commerce logistics in the supply chain is heating up in the U.S. and internationally. So far, the U.S. is ahead of the pack in e-commerce sales, raking in $351.8 billion during 2012, a full 33.7% of all e-commerce purchases worldwide, according to the new Jones Lang LaSalle Global E-Commerce Report.