Sales & Marketing

New York City -- Amazon plans to open a store in its Seattle hometown to display and sell its growing line of electronic devices, reported Reuters, which cited industry blog Good E-Reader as its source.

Analysts said Amazon could be inspired by the success of Apple in the retail arena.

Mississauga, Ontario -- Wal-Mart Stores isn’t about to let the grass grow under its feet in Canada. The discounter plans to spend about $753 million this fiscal year to expand its store presence in Canada, before rival Target Corp. begins its push in the country.

New York City -- Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is testing a mobile self-scanning device at its store in Burbank, Calif., according to a report on Fresh & Easy Buzz, an independent blog that follows the chain.

The scanning system, from Motorola, features a hand-held scanner device, which customers carry with them as they shop the store, the report said. Shoppers then scan the product codes on the items they purchase as they shop. The system allows shoppers to keep real time track of their purchases as they shop.
 

Schaumburg, Ill. -- Survey results released Tuesday by Nielsen found that nearly half (49%) of U.S. online consumers believe their personal finance prospects will be good or excellent over the next 12 months.

According to Nielsen’s Q4 global consumer confidence findings, the quarter’s results were the highest for 2011 and a six percentage point increase from Q3 2011. The number of U.S. respondents who described their job prospects as “bad” dropped from 28% to 19% between the third quarter and fourth quarter of last year as well.

There has been a lot of chatter in our industry circles — really, everywhere — about the recent big announcement from J.C. Penney CEO Ron Johnson regarding the iconic brand’s plans for the future. Anyone who’s visited a J.C. Penney lately — present company included — can see the brand needs to make some changes. They’ve been losing traction to competitors like Target and Kohl’s in recent years, and, in my opinion, have had some trouble defining themselves in a fairly crowded and competitive segment. Similar to the issues facing Sears, J.C.

Dallas -- 7-Eleven said Tuesday it has completed its acquisition of 55 Sam’s Mart stores in the greater Charlotte, N.C., area, part of the c-store operator’s plan to accelerate its growth in the region.

Terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

New York — J.C. Penney Co. on Friday said it fully backs its partnership with the popular television star and comedian Ellen DeGeneres. Its support comes after One Million Moms, an extension of the conservative American Family Association group, asked the retailer to dump DeGeneres as a spokeswoman because she is a lesbian.

Bentonville, Ark.  -- Wal-Mart Stores on Monday announced that the company’s 2012 Annual Shareholders meeting will be held on Fri., June 1, 2012 at 7 a.m. CDT, in Bud Walton Arena at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Ark. 

The meeting also will be webcast on the company’s website at http://walmartstores.com/investors. Following the meeting, there will be an informal 30-minute live question and answer session with company executives for shareholders.