"Target partners with Facebook to push its digital Cartwheel to shoppers" by Thomas Lee at Star-Tribune.  "In its boldest foray into digital retailing, Target is launching Wednesday a test version of Cartwheel, an ambitious collaboration with the world’s largest social network that will allow users to earn savings via Facebook and then use their smartphones to redeem those savings in stores.  Though retailers have used social networks like Twitter and Pinterest to promote products and influence opinion, generating real sales has so far proven elusive. By using mobile devices to help drive people to its stores, Cartwheel might be [...]

  "Walmart reclaims Fortune 500 top spot" at Fortune.  "For fiscal year 2012, sales rose 5.9%, to $443.9 billion. Despite relatively strong sales, Wal-Mart must hold onto its U.S. shoppers, which make up 62% of the chain’s net sales."  See the list:  https://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2013/snapshots/2255.html?iid=SF_F_River   "Target Announces Soft Opening of 24 Stores in Western Canada"  "Target is pleased to announce the soft opening dates for its first stores in Western Canada, including 22 locations opening on May 7 and two locations opening on May 14. The soft openings include stores in British Columbia, Alberta and Manitoba and follow the opening of [...]

  "Walmart Launches National Advertising Campaign to Show "The Real Walmart"  "Walmart today announced the launch of a national television and digital advertising campaign and accompanying website (www.therealwalmart.com). The campaign demonstrates how people across America count on Walmart to save money on the products they want and need, how the company provides tremendous career opportunities for its associates and how it creates efficiencies and works directly with manufacturers to help deliver low prices."  Read more:  https://media.prnewswire.com/en/jsp/latest.jsp?resourceid=6788014&access=EH   "Top 10 ideas from Retail over the last 12 months"  at Springwise.  "#3: In China, virtual reality stores turn open spaces into a [...]

  "Wal-Mart’s Prices Beat Dollar General in Most Categories" by James Callan at Bloomberg Businessweek.  "Wal-Mart prices were below Dollar General’s 100 percent of the time in household goods and more than 85 percent of the time in grocery, auto supplies, pharmacy and health and beauty aids, according to a study conducted by Bloomberg Industries during the past 22 months...Dollar stores “have a competitive advantage to Wal-Mart in that their locations are in residential areas,” said Poonam Goyal, a Bloomberg Industries senior analyst based in Skillman, New Jersey. “However, as Wal-Mart ramps up its neighbor market stores, that advantage will [...]

  "Retailers Wage War Against Long Lines" by Julie Jargon at WSJ.  "Supermarket giant Kroger Co. is winning the war against lengthy checkout lines with a powerful weapon: infrared cameras long used by the military and law-enforcement to track people.  These cameras, which detect body heat, sit at the entrances and above cash registers at most of Kroger's roughly 2,400 stores. Paired with in-house software that determines the number of lanes that need to be open, the technology has reduced the customer's average wait time to 26 seconds. That compares with an average of four minutes before Kroger began installing [...]

    "Walmart Announces Winning Team in 2013 Walmart Better Living Business Plan Challenge"  "The team from MIT started off the final round with a 15 minute presentation. Their idea, called Takachar, is to turn landfill waste into charcoal briquettes that local households in Mombasa, Kenya can use for cooking fuel. University of Michigan students followed with Covaron, an advanced material that can outperform high-grade engineering ceramics for a fraction of the cost and a fraction of the embedded energy.  After both presentations, the team from the University of Michigan was named the Grand Prize winner and received a check [...]