Wal-Mart Canada announced plans to rollout more than a dozen new supercenters in Canada over the next year. In addition, the company plans on expanding eight or nine existing discount stores to the supercenter format, and relocating two other discount stores. Supermarket News (May 9, 2008)
As shoppers looked for bargains, both Wal-Mart and Costco turned in April sales that beat analysts’ expectations. Sales at Wal-Mart locations open at least a year were up 3.2% in April, while Costco’s sales advanced by 8%. Sales at mall stores like the Gap were generally down. As one observer put it, “If you didn’t [...]
Crews on the outskirts of Albany are currently working to combine a standard-sized Wal-Mart store with a failed Sam’s Club warehouse to create a 260,000 square foot, two-story “supercenter.” The store, which will sell department store merchandise as well as groceries, liquor, automotive and other services, is 25 percent bigger than the average Wal-Mart [...]
Bedding, bath accessories, dinnerware and furniture will be available — all at prices up to 40% below competitors.’ The Wall Street Journal (Mar. 5, 2008) Paid subscription may be required.
Re-emphasis on its core, low-price marketing message — put in place early in 2007 – paid off for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., during the holiday shopping season. Profit increased 4 percent in the quarter. Associated Press via The New York Times (Feb. 19, 2008)
Target’s new general-merchandise store prototype will span 132,400 square feet, or about 6,000 square feet larger than the current model. The new SuperTarget store prototype (complete with grocery departments) will be 186,000 square feet, or 12,000 square feet larger than the current model. That’s close to the size of a Wal-Mart Supercenter (typically in the range of 197,000 [...]
Wal-Mart reported a half-point increase in stores open at least a year, shy of the two-percent gain analysts expected. The trend suggests that consumers are pulling back, even after a lackluster holiday shopping season. The New York Times (Feb. 7, 2008)
After bucking the broader trend and turning in a successful holiday shopping season, Wal-Mart pours it on, slashing prices from 10 to 30 percent on groceries, electronics and other products likely to interest shoppers ahead of the Super Bowl on Sunday. Reuters (Jan. 29, 2008)
Yes, they are big news for the magazine industry, but they probably won’t have a big, adverse effect on sales. Keith Kelly’s estimate that 20% of all magazine sales flow through the retailer is probably high by 3 to 5 percentage points and Harrington estimates that the remaining 1,100 authorized titles at the chain account [...]
Back in Sam Walton’s day, the company’s headquarters managers gathered every Saturday morning from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. Wal-Mart’s founder had a stock retort for staffers who groused about the practice, “If you don’t want to work weekends, you shouldn’t be in retail.” In recent years, the meetings have been bi-monthly and now, according to [...]