"Rumor Has It...Second Walmart to Go Store Being Prepped in Orlando, FL" by Kim Souza at City Wire. "The new Walmart to Go convenience store opened recently in Bentonville is not the retailer’s first experiment with the small-store format. Wal-Mart historians and former corporate officers told The City Wire that the first convenience store for the company was located in Springdale in the 1990s."  Read more   "Brazil:  5,000 people line up for 7 hours for $4 tank tops" by Loretta Chao at WSJ.  "Low-priced fashion retailer Forever 21 Inc. opened its first store in Brazil this past weekend, [...]

  "Walmart: Trade-In Your Videogame, Get a Pair of Socks" by Ian Sherr & Shelly Banjo at WSJ.  "Wal-Mart itself ran a smaller trade-in program in 2009 where it allowed customers to sell used games through kiosks in certain stores, but the retailer failed to make it work. This time, Wal-Mart has teamed up with CExchange Inc., an electronic trade-in and recycling company based in Carrollton, Texas, which also works with RadioShack Corp. and eBay Inc...Wal-Mart thinks it can differentiate itself because "our customers can buy groceries, socks or a bike, which isn't the case at other retailers," Wal-Mart's chief [...]

  "Wal-Mart opens first Walmart to Go convenience store" by Kim Souza at The City Wire.  "It’s been more than a year of planning, but the Walmart to Go convenience-store format quietly opened in Bentonville on Saturday (March 15), with the grand opening set for March 19."  See eight pictures / Read more   "Home Depot goes into the movie business, will open 1st private store at movie studio" by Ellie Hensley at Atlanta Bus. Chronicle.  "(Home Depot) will open a first-of-its-kind private Home Depot store on the lot of the new Pinewood Atlanta Studios. The store will be closed to [...]

  Target's Thursday Statement:  “With the benefit of hindsight, we are investigating whether, if different judgments had been made the outcome may have been different” by Jennifer Bjorhus at Star-Tribune.  "Target confirmed Thursday that the company had detected “a small amount of … activity” by the cyberthieves before the full scale of the breach was revealed.  “That activity was evaluated and acted upon,” company spokeswoman Molly Snyder said in a statement. “Based on their interpretation and evaluation of that activity, the team determined that it did not warrant immediate follow-up.  “With the benefit of hindsight, we are investigating whether, if [...]

  "Breaking:  Dollar General Same-Store Sales +1.3% in Q4, +3.3% for Year"  "We successfully opened 650 new stores, ending the year with 11,132 stores serving customers in 40 states...Net sales increased 6.8 percent to $4.49 billion in the 2013 fourth quarter...Same-store sales increases were driven by sales of tobacco products and perishables."  Read the release   "How Target Blew It:  Missed Alarms and 40 Million Stolen Credit Card Numbers" at Bloomberg.  "For some reason, Minneapolis didn’t react to the sirens. Bloomberg Businessweek spoke to more than 10 former Target employees familiar with the company’s data security operation, as well as [...]

  "Walmart CFO Charles Holley at Bank of America Conference: Think Small" by Kim Souza at The City Wire.  "Holley told the group that there was still room for hundreds, if not thousands more small format Wal-Mart stores. He added that the small formats offer fuel and pharmacy along with an in-store kiosk that allows shoppers to order any product Wal-Mart offers elsewhere."...“You are going to see a lot more of these pick-up stations built here in the U.S.,” Holley said."  Read more   "Charles Holley's Presentation"  Listen to Webcast / See the PowerPoint   "Will Millennials Kill Costco?" by [...]

  "Target CMO Jeff Jones Navigates Marketing Post-Security Breach" by Natalie Zmuda at Ad Age.  "Though the breach will eventually cease to be top-of-mind for consumers, it's a given that media reports will drag it back into consumers' consciousness as the holiday season approaches. "We're in the early days of planning for that," Mr. Jones said."  Read more   "What 10 Brands' Terrible Websites Looked Like On The Day They Launched In The 1990s (Walmart's Greeter & Home Depot's Homer on the home page!)" at Business Insider.  See the Top 10 Then & Now Pictures   "McAfee Describes Target Hack as [...]

  "Lowe's Goes for the Pros (Home Depot Easiest to Compete With?)" by Ely Portillo at Charlotte Observer.  "Mike Horn, Lowe’s vice president of pro services, said that while Home Depot is Lowe’s chief rival, it’s also the easiest to keep tabs on and compete with. The real challenge for Lowe’s, Horn said, is to compete with lumberyards, specialty stores selling only plumbing or electrical equipment and mom-and-pop retailers who can devote more attention to each customer than a big-box store, even if they don’t always have the lowest price."  Read more   "Avoiding Target stores? You're not the only [...]