News

The small ad was a little lost on the bottom of page 36 of Target’s 40-page holiday circular this week, but there among an offering of floor care products was a reminder of a Facebook initiative that could be worth as much as $50,000 to the Kids In Need Foundation. The ad encouraged readers to visit Facebook.com/TargetGiveJoy to create a wish list of up to five items for a chance to win a gift card equal in value to those items with Kids In Need receiving a $5 donation for each wish list submitted up to a total of $50,000. The program ends at midnight on Christmas.

The time to ponder that question is when everything is going right, which pretty much seems to be the case at Target these days. The company’s stable senior leadership team has articulated a clear strategy that is being well-executed and delivering expectation-exceeding results such as a 5.5% gain in November same-store sales and third quarter earnings per share that surged 28.5% to 74 cents.

Atlanta - U.S. regulators have sued a former sales executive at Carter’s Inc., claiming that he caused the company to misstate earnings by hiding the cost of discounts given to a retailer. 

According to a Monday report by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Joseph Elles induced Kohl’s Corp. to boost purchases from Carter’s from 2004 to March 2009 by granting unauthorized discounts that he didn’t disclose.

San Diego - Internet presence management firm Red Door Interactive said Monday that Quiksilver has selected it to help launch its new line of girls’ apparel and accessories.

According to Red Door, the fashion and action sports brand will implement an internet presence strategy, developed and executed by Red Door, designed to drive awareness and traffic to Quiksilver’s flagship stores and niche retailers by individuals who will engage with the brand.

Atlanta - First Data Corp.’s SpendTrend report, which tracks same-store consumer spending via credit, signature debit, PIN debit and EBT cards, found that in early December, year-over-year dollar volume growth was 6.6%, a decrease from November’s strong growth of 8.1%.

Purchase, N.Y. - A report released Monday by MasterCard Advisors said that retail sales through the second week of December generally continued November’s momentum, with several sectors recording moderate to strong gains.

MasterCard SpendingPulse reports on national retail and services sales and is based on aggregate sales activity in the MasterCard payments network, coupled with survey-based estimates for all other payment forms, including cash and check.

Bentonville, Ark. - Wal-Mart Stores said Monday that a recent poll of consumers voted Walmart the No. 1 preferred gift card that consumers most want for Christmas.

The poll, Top 20 Gift Cards of 2010, was conducted by GiftCardRescue.com.

Walmart also announced that Walmart.com will offer free shipping to home on nearly 60,000 items through 11:30 p.m. PST on Monday. The retailer has also extended the order cut-off date for its site-to-store service from Dec. 17 last year to Dec. 20 this holiday season.

Of all the competitive threats facing Walmart, none looms larger in the minds of the retailer’s suppliers than the ongoing expansion and financial success of leading operators in the dollar store segment. That’s according to Walmart suppliers who participated in a survey conducted by Connecting Northwest Arkansas and identified such chains as Dollar General and Family Dollar as the greatest competitive threat to Walmart during the next five years.

Walmart removed all doubt about how it intends to enter Russia this week when it announced the closure of its office in Moscow. The office was opened two years ago to investigate opportunities in the country, but international division president and CEO Doug McMillon said it no longer made business sense to maintain the facility.

Walmart has been a non-player in toys this year, according to Eric Johnson, director of the Center for Digital Strategies at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business. He was quoted in a Bloomberg article this week about how Walmart increased toy prices after Thanksgiving weekend. Johnson is regarded as something of a toy expert, so he pops up in holiday stories and he has been critical of Walmart this year.