News

The U.S. Census Bureau released a report showing an increase of 0.6% in retail trade sales for June when compared to May. Sales were up 6% when compared to June 2012.

The figures are adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, and exclude automobiles, gas stations and restaurants.

CHICAGO — Cargill, an international producer and marketer of food, agricultural, financial and industrial products and services, has unveiled an assessment tool that identifies, prioritizes and quantifies risks and opportunities in its supply chains so improvements can be made to them.

Los Angeles -- Arden Group, owner of the 16-unit Gelson’s Market grocery chain, said that the company is exploring its strategic options and has hired financial adviser Moelis & Co. to help with the review process.

The options may include a possible sale of the company.

No timeline for any potential transactions has been outlined.

Winston-Salem, N.C. -- Krispy Kreme Doughnuts said its board has approved the repurchase of up to $50 million of the company's common stock, effective immediately. 

New York – Online apparel retailer Bonobos is automating its Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud infrastructure with the Opscode Hosted Chef solution. Using Hosted Chef and its Knife EC2 command-line plug-in for AWS, Bonobos' engineering team can now manage more than 150 cloud servers and ensure 100% uptime for its website operations. The retailer is automating processes including configuration management and application delivery, as well as responding to spikes in customer traffic and orchestrating application updates.

Boca Raton, Fla. – Office Depot is launching a new online school supplies checklist that allows teachers to build, store and share checklists of required school supplies through an online platform. Teachers can use a starter list with recommended supplies by grade level or customize their own checklist to share with parents, allowing them to make purchases directly from the website or print the list for in-store shopping.

Washington, D.C. – U.S. retail and food services sales totaled $422.8 billion last month, according to new advance estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. This represents a 0.4% increase from $421.2 billion in the prior month, and a more substantial 5.7% increase from $399.9 billion in the same month last year.

Brampton, Ontario – Loblaw Companies Limited announced it will acquire Shoppers Drug Mart in a deal worth about $11.9 billion, merging the Canadian grocery and drug retailers. Shoppers Drug Mart will retain its name and brand and operate as a separate division of Loblaw while expanding its product offerings to include Loblaw's private label and convenience food products. Shoppers Drug Mart gives Loblaw entry into the small urban store sector.

Walmart increased promotional activity in June with nearly a 50% increase in circular pages and 80% increase in ad blocks, according to the latest data from ECRM Analytics. The surge in promotional activity was notable given the behavior of key competitors who were less aggressive. Click here for more.

A Walmart employee in Canada was fired this week after confronting a customer who left a dog in a truck, according to a television report out of Ontario.