Highlights from Yesterday's Walmart Investor Meeting:   "Walmart CEO Reports Substantial Progress on Key Strategies"  Acknowledging the challenging retail environment, Duke said: “We’re in a tough and unpredictable global economy. The competition is also tough. And the holidays are right around the corner -- raising the stakes even further on serving customers and delivering on performance. All of this is to say that near-term execution is critical for us.”  Read more   "Bill Simon's (Walmart CEO) Presentation"  PowerPoint presentation   "Rosalind Brewer's (CEO Sam's Club) Presentation"  PowerPoint presentation   "Neil Ashe's (CEO eCommerce) Presentation"  PowerPoint presentation   "Wal-Mart to [...]

  "Walmart's Mike Duke Kicks Off 20th Annual Meeting Today at 8:50 EST"  Watch the Webcast / See the Agenda   "Walmart Tops in Food Sales; 2.5 times that of #2 Kroger" by Kim Souza at The City Wire.  "The RNG report indicates Wal-Mart’s food and beverage sales this year are roughly 17% of the total market shared by the top 50 retailers, which include supermarkets, quick serve restaurants and warehouse clubs.  Wal-Mart’s food and beverage sales have posted a compound annual growth rate of 5.2% since 2009. The growth rate is half that seen at Whole Foods and Dollar [...]

  "Walmart Shelves Cleared in Food Stamp Glitch" by Carolyn Roy at KSLA 12.  "Shelves in Walmart stores in Springhill and Mansfield, LA were reportedly cleared Saturday night, when the stores allowed purchases on EBT cards even though they were not showing limits.  The chaos that followed ultimately required intervention from local police, and left behind numerous carts filled to overflowing, apparently abandoned when the glitch-spurred shopping frenzy ended."  See the Video / Read more   "Walmart customers riot when unable to use food stamp cards" by Kristen Reed at Clarion Ledger.  "People in 17 states found themselves unable to [...]

  "The Top 100 Beloved Brands" at Adweek.  No Walmart?.  Top retail brands: - Whole Foods #8 - Lowe's #10 - Costco #20 - Target #21 See the Complete List   "Fortune's 50 Most Powerful Women in Business"  See the Complete List - #12:  Carol Meyrowitz, TJX CEO  Read more - #24:  Gisel Ruiz, Walmart EVP & COO  Read more - #15:  Rosalind Brewer, Sam's Club CEO  Read more - #45:  Carol Tome, Home Depot CFO  Read more   "Where Wal-Mart Isn't: Four Countries the Retailer Can't Conquer" by Susan Berfield at Businessweek.  "Wal-Mart is the biggest retailer in the [...]

  "Target lays off 150 from its corporate staff in Twin Cities" by Steve Alexander at Star-Tribune.  "The move affected workers at the company’s tower headquarters in downtown Minneapolis, an office on Interstate 394 in the city and a campus in Brooklyn Park.Many retailers, including Target, have lowered their financial expectations for the rest of the year, citing a tougher-than-expected spending environment."  Read more   "Costco Stands Behind Its Cheap Rotisserie Chicken Strategy" by Kyle Stock at Bloomberg.  "When analysts started piling on Costco in a conference call this morning, Chief Financial Officer Richard Galanti served up a bit of [...]

  "Costco September Same-Store Sales Climb 3% but Q4 Profit Up Only 1%" by Jessica Wohl at Reuters.  "Analysts had expected September same-store sales to rise 3.7 percent, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.  Fourth-quarter net sales rose 1 percent to $31.77 billion."  Read more   "Costco's Announces Q4/September/52 Week Earnings and Sales"  Read Company Release   "Family Dollar Reports Record Sales and Earnings Results"  "Total net sales for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013 increased 5.8% to $2.5 billion compared with total net sales of $2.4 billion in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012. Comparable store sales in the quarter [...]

  "Two-Thirds of $150K+ Households Shop at Dollar Stores"  "Dollar stores are popping up all over the US, but it's not just discount shoppers taking advantage of these discount prices. According to new research from Mintel, just under one-third (32%) of respondents from the highest-income households ($150k+) claim not to shop at dollar stores, and half (50%) in this income group say that they are shopping at dollar stores the same amount this year compared to last year."  Read more   "The Home Depot Presents 2013 Innovation Awards"  "Home Depot today announced that Cree won the retailer's 2013 Innovation Award [...]

  "Walmart's CMO: Chief Marketing Officers should be Chief Innovation Officers" by Jack Neff at Ad Age.  "Walmart allocates marketing staff on a 70-20-10 ratio, with 70% working on "Now," or the things that drive the giant retailer's business today; 20% focusing on what's "New," such as a Facebook following of 34 million; and 10% focused on what's "Next."  It's not always easy, Mr. Quinn said, to protect the "next" from the "now."  Read more   "Dollar General Opens 11,000th Store"  "Dollar General Corporation today opened its 11,000th store, further distinguishing itself as the retailer with the most stores in the [...]