Distribution

San Diego — Petco has opened its first store in Mexico and announced plans for continued expansion in Mexico and Latin America through a joint venture with Grupo Gigante of Mexico.

The companies plan to open as many as 50 Petco stores in Mexico and Latin America by 2020.

For many retailers, Halloween has become one of their favorite times of year. Spending on Halloween-related costumes, decorations, candy, etc. has grown to the point it represents the second-highest consumer spending holiday, only trailing Christmas with NRF estimates of this year’s spending total reaching $6.9 billion. But while a good scare is all part of the annual Halloween fun, retailers need to ensure their omni-channel customers do not get scared away by frighteningly poor digital commerce features and functions.

Grand Rapids, Mich. -- Meijer announced that it is now operating one of the largest all-clean diesel fleets in North America. As part of its ongoing green initiatives, the Grand Rapids, Mich.-based retailer's fleet utilized innovative technology to improve fuel efficiency and reduce its carbon footprint by nearly 60% since it first began implementing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's 2010 near-zero emissions standards three years ago.

Brentwood, Tenn. — Tractor Supply Co. has announced the opening of its first store in Wyoming. The new store marks Tractor Supply’s continuing expansion in the Western U.S.

The new store in Rawlins opened for business on October 19 and will hold a grand opening event on Oct.26. As of Sept. 28, Tractor Supply operated 1,245 stores in 47 states.
 

Pittsburgh – Dick’s Sporting Goods opens five new stores across the U.S. on Nov. 8. The stores will be located in Dover, Del., Palm Desert, Calif., West Des Moines, Iowa, Sioux Falls, S.D., and Findlay, Ohio.

Dick’s will operate a total of 554 stores in the U.S. upon opening the five new stores. The Sioux Falls store will be the chain’s first store in South Dakota. This total will include three in Delaware, 32 in California, five in Iowa, and 38 in Ohio.

New product launches in key categories and strong marketing helped Newell Rubbermaid gain market share during the company’s third quarter.

The leading consumer goods company said sales for the period ended September 30, grew a modest 2.1% to $1.5 billion while net income, aided by the sale of the company’s hardware business, increased to $193.3 million, or 66 cents a share, from $108.3 million, or 37 cents a share.

Sherwin-Williams cited higher paint sales volumes in its Paint Stores Group and acquisitions as helping to drive net sales growth. 

The company increased net income 12%, to $262.97 million from $234.95 million, during the third quarter of fiscal 2013.

Net sales grew 9.4% to $2.85 billion from $2.6 billion.

New York -- Amazon.com narrowed its loss in the third quarter and posted a better-than-expected 25% increase in sales. The online giant reported a net loss of $41 million, down from $274 million in the year-ago period, in line with expectations.

Amazon reported revenue of $17.1 billion, beating expectations by about 2% on strong sales growth, particularly in the U.S. market.