iPads can be purchased in-store at Walmart locations and can be ordered through the Walmart website. However, orders placed online must be picked up at a store location. The $499 price tag for the basic model with 16-GB, Wi-Fi enabled system at Walmart and other retailers will face some stiff competition from Target. Starting Sunday October 17, Target will be offering store card holders a 5% discount which gives almost a $25 discount on the iPad purchase.

Apple had a busy month in October when the iPad was listed beyond the Apple stores and the specialty electronics stores. Besides Target, the iPad went on sale through Amazon where it was only sold previously through third-party vendors.

Walmart plans to sell all six versions of the Apple iPad starting at the $499 price fot the 16 GB and increase in price with the $829 price tag of the 64 GV Wi-Fi plus 3G iPad model.

Walmart Sales of Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPad Start Friday was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Employees were alerted to the strategy for merchandising via an internal memo earlier this month. Bill Simon, CEO, created four core areas in the merchandising department including general merchandise, food, softlines and consumables, and health and wellness. The change is said to make each customer channel even more competitive, allowing the retailer to improve how they ‘target and localize merchandise’.

Some investors were surprised at the move in light of declining same-store sales in the US for five consecutive quarters. The declining trend is predicted to continue in the third quarter. The decision is said to emphasize the theory that Walmart is focusing on prices instead of trying to overhaul its strategies completely.

Over the summer, Walmart tried boosting its sales with aggressive rollbacks on store prices. The company has said the move did not produce the results they were hoping to achieve. The economy was noted as a factor for consumers who were not inclined to spend even with big discounts.

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According to Engadget, the in-store inventory for the Target store show an unnamed product listing at the same pricing guidelines as Apple’s iPad. Sources say picture proof of the upcoming product launch show the iPad will be stocked in the ‘Digital Audio’ department alongside Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader and Apple’s iPod. It is believed that Target will sell the iPad at six different sales levels which range from $829 for the 64GB model with 3G and $499 for the 16GB WiFi-only models.

When iPad was launched early in 2010, Apply executives stated that sales would be limited in the number of locations including premium resellers and the national electronics retailer, Best Buy. Apple also stated expansion of sales to brick-and-mortar establishments would be expected over time. It is believed that Walmart, the largest US retailer, would be selling the Apple iPad by the end of the year.

Apple has experienced additional supply and demand issues even before expanding their retail locations. Continued strong sales have place long delays for consumers ordering online. Currently, Apple’s website has reduced shipping times to just 24 hours. It seems that any previous production issues have been resolved.

While there is no concrete evidences of the retail move for Apple, it does seem as though Apple’s plans to expand are moving forward.

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Bisphenol-A is an endocrine disruptor that has been linked to various medical problems including cancer, reproductive problems, and other sickness. While BPA has been in the coating of receipts for a long time, it wasn’t until last year when an organic chemist discovered the receipts contained a lot more BPA then once thought. The chemist never officially published the results of his study but the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit group promoting green health just released the information about BPA-covered receipts. Additionally, the group took it a step farther and provided consumers with a list of companies passing out the most contaminated receipts.

At the top of the pile, McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) has the highest concentrations of BPA on a single receipt. Walmart (NYSE: WMT) and CVS Pharmacy (NYSE: CVS) also produce receipts that contain a significant amount of BPA. Surprisingly, at least one location of the organic Whole Foods (NASDAQ: WFMI) chain was found to give out tainted receipts along with their healthy snacks. The testing overall showed that the amount of BPA in store receipts were higher than testing on other products including canned foods and bottled drinks.

The medical aspect of the spoiled receipts has not been tackled and experts do not know how much BPA enters a body after a person handles a receipt though it has been proven that BPA can be absorbed through the skin. Customers who handle a receipt coated with BPA can have the chemical be absorbed through the skin and anyone who handles a receipt and then eats or touches the mouth will ingest BPA. Consumers can decline receipts when appropriate and always be sure to wash hands before eating. Receipts should also be stored in a container away from other household items.

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Seventh Generation has been helping their consumers for the past twenty years to protect their homes with naturally safe and reliable household products. They are now raising their commitment by increasing their availability with the world’s largest retailer. Walmart has been making changes recently to adopt more sustainability in their company and also by what they are selling. Seventh Generation and Walmart’s partnership is the perfect fit for reaching their goals with this endeavor.

Walmart and Seventh Generation have a long term strategic partnership which will allow Walmart to sell a variety of cleaning products from Seventh Generation. Some of these products include their best-selling laundry detergents, dish soaps, disinfecting wipes, and all-purpose sprays. In September, Walmart.com will have more products available such as baby diapers and wipes. Expect more products to be available in Walmart Stores and online later in the year as well.

As stated on Market Watch, “Seventh Generation and Walmart are committed to helping people learn about natural alternatives and ways to protect themselves and their families,” said Chuck Maniscalco, Seventh Generation CEO. “Through increased access to safe, healthy, affordable, and sustainable products, Seventh Generation and Walmart have together embarked on a long-term, strategic partnership to grow this movement by demonstrating a shared commitment to education and making meaningful change.”

“As part of Walmart’s broad sustainability goal to sell products that sustain people and the environment, we are always looking to expand our number of sustainable offerings,” said Al Dominguez, Walmart’s vice president of chemical and paper goods. “Seventh Generation is a leader in offering natural and healthy products to families and we are excited about using our scale to make these offerings available to even more customers through our stores and on Walmart.com.”

Aside from just selling their products, Walmart and Seventh Generation will also be encouraging families to live better by being more environmentally friendly. They will do this through Walmart’s mom bloggers, Facebook and the 7GenBlog. Walmart and Seventh Generation express that these tools will help their customers receive the information needed to live a healthier and more environmentally friendly and sustainable lifestyle.

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According to the June 22nd press release available on Walmartstores.com, the results of the six week campaign which launched on May 1 and lasted through June 19, donations made at the register as well as in-store fundraisers raised $20 million for the Children’s Miracle Network. This amount exceeded the annual fundraising goal of $15 million.

The Children’s Miracle Network is committed to improving and saving the lives of children through fundraisers that go toward the 170 children’s hospital in the network. The non-profit organization supports hospitals that provide the highest level of medical care, prevention education and life-saving research. Walmart has been a major supporter of the Children’s Miracle Network since 1987. Since that time, $530 million has been raised and contributed to Children’s Miracle Network hospitals, from Walmart and Sam’s Club customers, associates and members. This is the largest amount every raised by a partner of the Children’s Miracle Network.

“Raising $20 million in such a short time period is a significant accomplishment, especially when you consider that most of this was raised a dollar or two at a time,” said Scott Burt, president and CEO, Children’s Miracle Network. “We couldn’t have achieved this amount without the generous Walmart and Sam’s Club associates who understand the power they have to create miracles at children’s hospitals by asking customers to give. We are also grateful to Walmart and Sam’s Club customers and members who responded to the ask, choosing to support their local Children’s Miracle Network hospital.”

“Our annual fundraising campaign allows for customers to donate directly to their local Children’s Miracle Network hospital, providing funding to sick and injured children in local communities,” said Margaret McKenna, president, Walmart Foundation. “We’re proud to have exceeded our fundraising goals and to be giving $20 million to children in need.”

Consumers who donated to the Children’s Miracle Network can rest assured that their donation not only made it to the organization but also contributed to overwhelming success of the campaign.

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The “Fighting Hunger Together” initiative through Walmart and the Walmart Foundation is intended to help hunger relief organizations work toward ending hunger in the United States. This initiative includes the donation of over 1.1 billion pounds of food from Walmart and Sam’s Club locations as well as distribution centers. In addition $250 million in grants to national, state and local hunger relief organizations.

On June 22, The National Recreation and Park Association received $2.1 million from the Walmart Foundation to be applied to their summer feeding programs according to a recent press release. The summer feeding programs are found in 30 park and recreation agencies across the country and will provide just under 5 million meals to children. The National Recreation and Park Association is just one of several agencies to receive assistance. In a June 18 press release from the Walmart Foundation, both the San Diego Food Bank and Mama’s Kitchen are noted as receiving grants totaling $65,000. The San Diego Food bank delivers food to drop off locations which provide meals to seniors with low or no income as well as working families with children. Mama’s Kitchen is located in San Diego and provides food for individuals who are chronically ill as well as their families.

Whether the grants are used to purchase meals or applied toward the expenses or costs incurred by these non-profits, the result is the same. By supporting hunger relief organizations, non-profits across the country can continue their work toward ending hunger in this country. Thousands of people, of all ages will benefit from the services provided by these organizations.

For more information on this initiative visit fightinghunger.walmart.com. Here you will find the locations of hunger relief organizations in your area. You can contact these locations if you want to get involved through volunteering or are in need of assistance yourself.

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If Walmart is able to move forward with their plans, several dozen stores would be opened. The locations would create about 10,000 store jobs and an estimated 2,000 unionized construction jobs to Chicago-area residents. The sizes and format of the Walmart stores would vary based on location.

Even in large, urban areas like Chicago, jobs are needed. Community groups are concerned about what kind of jobs will be brought to the community. Walmart has said the store locations in Chicago would pay ‘competitive wages’ and would generate more than $500 million in sales and property taxes. No other details about job descriptions were provided. However, the company did state they also have plans for $20 million in charitable partnerships over a five-year period, including the donation of 1.2 million meals annually to residents of Chicago plus another 200,000 meals for children starting this summer.

Expert analysts say that if Walmart were to break into the urban areas they are looking at, the retailer could add $80 billion in sales. The company is looking to open smaller stores around the country and has plans to build both new stores locations from scratch as well as taking over existing buildings as it continues to find new areas of growth in the United States.

Walmart (NYSE: WMT) Focused on Entering Chicago, Creating Jobs was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

If you’re planning to “settle”, know that settling is a loose term. The iPhone 3G is still a powerhouse of a smart-phone whose features and applications still rival features and applications on newer phones. Its ability to navigate the net in the palm of your hand is still smooth and streamlined. The applications store is what helps keep the iPhone so fresh. People are still designing and releasing more applications, also known simply as apps, which provide the iPhone 3g ever more useful, or just plan fun, options.

If you’re planning to wait then I would suggest saving money now. As much of a powerhouse the old iPhone is, the new one will trump it. The internet is a buzz with rumors of all the features the new iPhone has. It’s supposed to be slimmer, sleeker, and have two cameras, the traditional mounted, and then a front mounted camera for streaming real time video chat. Of course, these features are just speculation at this time.

It’s expected that the new iPhone will be amazing, particularly because Apple is specifically waiting to release it until after the Droid and The EVO get released.

It should be noted that not all Wal-mart stores will have the iPhone available at the $97 price, or if they do they will be few in numbers, so if you’re going to make a move on it, you won’t want to wait too long.

Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) Lowers Price on iPhone 3G was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Apple (NYSE:APPL) is expected to be announcing a brand-new iPhone in June. There is speculation that this move by Walmart is an attempt to sell out its current inventory of the older model phone. The deal is good only if consumers also purchase a two-year contract with AT&T, the exclusive service carrier of the iPhone. Walmart executives state they are committed to bring consumers the best prices. Their $97 pricing is under the $99 price tag other retailers are offering for the phones.

 Apple has already sold 8.3 million iPhones in just the last quarter, which is twice the amount sold during the same time frame a year ago but it is expected that once a new phone hits the shelves, interest in the old model will drop sharply. Last month, the new iPhone was in the news when a prototype was found in a bar and sold. Apple has since filed legal documents concerning the leaked details about the new iPhone model.

The roll back of iPhone prices at Walmart before Memorial day comes during a time when tech giants like Research in Motion and Google (NYSE:GOOG) are fighting for bragging rites in the smartphone niche. Smart phone sales in general are up just under 50% from where they were last year, according to CNN Money.

The official announcement for the iPhone 4G launch is expected from Apple in two weeks.

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As stated on Walmart’s recent press release, “We know our customers need to stretch their budgets wherever they can. Just in time for Memorial Day and summer vacations, we are delighted to offer a benefit they want – savings on gas,” said Jane Thompson, president, Walmart Financial Services. “It’s one more way we can help families save money.”

The Walmart MoneyCard costs $3 to purchase and is a reloadable Visa debit card that doesn’t require a bank account or a credit check and never has overdraft fees. Since it is prepaid it also doesn’t have any interest charged to purchases made on the card. The Walmart MoneyCard is also able to be used anywhere Visa debit cards are accepted. You even have the option of using it for direct deposit of your paycheck to the card. Another great feature is that you can budget and track your spending online with e-mail / SMS balance alerts.

As stated in the press release, “The Walmart MoneyCard is a smart way to manage money,” said Thompson. “It’s safer than cash because you’re protected if it’s lost or stolen. For many of our customers, the Walmart MoneyCard replaces cash and helps them do everything they need to do, such as paying bills or shopping online.”

New customers buying the Walmart MoneyCard will be enrolled in the cash back program automatically. Current customers who already have a Walmart MoneyCard will be easily able to enroll in this money saving program as well. The money saved on gas purchases will be added to the Walmart MoneyCard balance.

The Walmart Moneycard is issued by GE MoneyBank and additional services for it are provided by Green Dot. The Walmart MoneyCards are available in U.S. WalMart stores and are usable everywhere Visa debit cards are accepted. For protection on the cards, the Walmart MoneyCards are protected by the “Visa Zero Liability Policy” which protects the cardholder from unauthorized purchases on their card, fraud and theft if the card is lost or stolen.

Walmart estimates that last year alone customers saved $450 million dollars in fees just from using Walmart money services including: check cashing, bill payment, and money transfers.

Resources:

http://walmartstores.com/pressroom/news/9870.aspx

https://www.walmartmoneycard.com/walmart/homepage.aspx

Walmart’s MoneyCard Offers Cash Back on Prepaid Debit Card (NYSE: WMT) was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

According to their press release, this five year project called “Fighting Hunger Together” includes four main components:

• Donating more than 1.1 billion pounds of food from Walmart and Sam’s Club stores, valued at $1.75 billion.
• Grants totaling $250 million to support hunger relief organizations at the national, state and local levels.
• Mobilizing Walmart associates and Walmart customers. For instance, Walmart’s logistics team will lend their expertise to help food banks become more efficient in their operations.
• Collaboration with government, food manufacturers and other corporations that are fighting hunger to increase impact and reach a greater number of families in need.

According to the November 2009 USDA report, hunger rates in the United States are at the highest since 1995, and nearly 15% of households lack an adequate supply of nutritious food.

As stated in the press release, “Increasingly, we see opportunities to use our scale and reach to solve challenges in our communities. This is one of those times,” said Eduardo Castro-Wright, Walmart’s vice chairman. “By working together, we believe we can reach a day where no individual in this country has to go to bed hungry or worry if there will be food to put on the table tomorrow.” Walmart expects to be able to provide more than 1 billion meals to needy families in the U.S. through this project.

The first grants that have been announced from the Walmart Foundation to keep their commitment to end hunger include:

• $8 million donation to help the U.S. food banks improve their capacities. This donation includes $6 million towards purchasing 60 refrigerated trucks for “Feeding America” food banks. These trucks will help ensure that the donations from Walmart stores and other grocers are transported safely.
• $10 million donation to help ensure that children throughout the U.S. will be fed healthy meals throughout the school year and summer months.

As stated in the press release, “We are genuinely thankful to Walmart for their sustained commitment to fighting domestic hunger,” said Vicki Escarra, president and CEO of Feeding America. “With 49 million Americans struggling with hunger, our country is in crisis. Walmart’s multi-year contribution will help give Feeding America and our nationwide network of more than 200 food banks the latitude to more effectively serve the 37 million people who turn to us every year for assistance with access to nutritious food that is needed more than ever before. No one should go hungry and we thank Walmart for supporting our mission for a hunger-free America.”

To find out more information about Walmart’s planned food donations (including a state-by-state list) and where to find volunteer opportunites, visit walmartgiving.com.

More information on how customers and employees can get involved with supporting food banks, senior meal delivery programs and hunger relief organizations will be announced later this summer.

Walmart’s Commitment to Help End Hunger in the United States (NYSE: WMT) was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Due to on-going protests from labor unions and anti-chain consumers, Walmart has been shut out of different areas around the country. The new plan is to open smaller stores in places where real estate has declined and in urban areas. Taking over such spaces does not require consultation with a building code review board, so the mini stores may be able to bypass angry citizens and groups who want to stop the retail giant from coming to their towns.

Decidedly, shoppers go to Walmart due to their super-store reputation. They seek out the one-stop shopping experience where they can get their goods at low prices. With a smaller store, Walmart faces many disadvantages including smaller spaces, more difficult operations, and smaller staffing budgets.

To date, Walmart has already begun to experiment with its Neighborhood markets mini store operations including a 10,000 square foot store, a 20,000 square foot store, and a Hispanic-aimed Supermercado de Walmart operation sized at 40,000 square feet. The reviews of the experimental operations have been lukewarm and the company has not gotten very far expansion-wise.

However, executives foresee the opening of 400 or more small store annually. With other chains venturing out into niche operations, Walmart may be holding back to see how other progress is made. Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) was on a mission to add an infinite supply of stores and was highly successful at picking excellent site locations in a short period of time. The company continued to open shop everywhere until the time finally came where the efficiency and speed ended and Starbucks ending up closing more than 900 of their store operations.

The US can only accommodate so many Walmart stores regardless of their size and there is speculation that the company may be at its limit now, before the mini stores start operations. This week Walmart’s stocks are down and its shares are trading is unusually high.

Walmart (NYSE: WMT) Has Plans to Go Mini was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

While Walmart continues to go along with gusto, we’re left wondering what is going to happen to the sister company and it seems Walmart is too. There doesn’t seem to be too much of a plan in place to turn the discount club around. In the released annual report, there is mention of cutting inventory and eliminating ‘non-value added activities’ in an effort to cut costs. Specifically, the activities that are not instrumental in bring in new profits will go. Walmart tried reducing inventory but it wasn’t successful and it’s possible the same tactic could backfire for Sam’s Club as well. Walmart has fought back to improve profits but Sam’s hasn’t had the same luck.

There is talk of an investment of capital into remodeling stores. This may help lure more customers into the store but with an already basic warehouse format, customers aren’t expecting much in terms of upgrades so sales may not be affected by the changes. As of now, Sam’s is not planning to add any more stores in the US. Last year, Sam’s closed 10 units. Currently there are only five to ten new locations planned for 2010 bringing the total to under 600 stores. Sam’s Club competitor, the discount warehouse Costco (NASDAQ:COST) had sales rise 8% in 6 months. They have 575 locations but it is forecasted that Costco will bypass Sam’s in store count soon enough.

It seems during the down economy, Walmart is pleased to promote discounts to shoppers but have essentially dropped the ball on giving shoppers a reason to pay for a membership to shop at Sam’s because consumers can just as easily go to Walmart for much of the same merchandise at low process. Sam’s currently represents under 12% of the total sales for Walmart. The Walmart corporation is also planning a huge expansion overseas in 2010 with the establishment of 600 new stores. While Walmart will benefit regardless, Sam’s sales and growth potential seem to be at a standstill.

Walmart’s (NYSE: WMT) Got No Plans for Sister Sam was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

“Our results reflect the underlying strength of our business and our strategies to improve shareholder value,” Duke continued in his letter. “As amazed as I’ve been by the global growth I’ve seen during my 15 years at Walmart, I’m even more impressed by the opportunities that are ahead both in the United States and around the world. Specifically, we’re focused on enhancing shareholder value by driving three important priorities: growth, leverage and returns.”

Growth of Walmart

Walmart International growth will be driven by entering new countries and markets, while Sam’s Club will establish marketing to attract new members. In the United States, Walmart will look at major metropolitan markets for growth opportunities, and plan to make the existing assets of the company more profitable.

Lowering Walmart Expenses

Walmart is also focused on leveraging the size of the company and how to grow operating income faster than sales. This is done through lowering operating expenses and then passing those savings on to customers. The goal will be to bring more customers through the door.

Returns

“Our goal also is to continue to produce significant free cash flow to drive our ROI performance and deliver greater shareholder value,” said Duke.

Annual Meeting of Shareholders

The details of the Annual Meeting of Shareholders has been distributed in a proxy statement. The meeting is scheduled for June 4^th in Fayetteville, Ark. The entire annual report and proxy is available online at Walmartstores.com/annualmeeting.

About Walmart

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., (NYSE: WMT) operates more than 8,400 retail units under 55 different banners in 15 countries. The industry giant employes more than two million people around the world. Walmart came in first place among retailers in Fortune magazine’s 2010 Most Admired Companies survey.

Walmart’s (NYSE: WMT) 2010 Annual Shareholder Report was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

The incident began when Gipson sold a car to pay tuition expenses. Paid with money orders that equaled $4,100 which Gipson then attempted to cash in at the Meyer Park Walmart. Store employees accused Gipson of trying to “exchange counterfeit Walmart money orders for cash”. It was later determined the money orders were genuine and that Walmart had the woman wrongly arrested.

After being falsely accused and arrested, Gipson received a letter from company lawyers, claiming she owed the store money for taking merchandise and would face shoplifting charges if she didn’t pay $200.

A jury determined Gipson had been “defamed by being accused of forgery, counterfeiting, theft and shoplifting”, and awarded her $8.2 million in actual damages as well as $820,000 in punitive damages. While many people might feel this is excessive amount, others feel the only way to get a message across to a larger than life corporation is to reward large sums of money in lawsuits.

Walmart spokesperson, David Tovar, has stated the retailer feels the verdict was not supported by facts and that Gipson was arrested for traffic warrants. He also indicated the company is looking into their available legal options to appeal the case. Gipson’s attorney has indicated the corporation will appeal which could prolong resolving the case.

Whether or not Gipson will ever see any of that money remains to be seen. Walmart is not new to negative reports in the press, and unfortunately this case will not help the company improve their public image. In addition to the original issue of falsely accusing and arresting Gipson, the company allegedly has not offered any form of apology, requested the charges be expunged nor changed any company policies to prevent this from happening in the future. This may be due to the fact that Walmart has in the past been used in scams by thieves who use counterfeit money orders to steal money from their victims. Nevertheless, in this instance the money orders were genuine and a woman spent two days in jail as a result of a store mistake.

Gipson has plans to become an attorney.

Walmart Ordered To Pay Wrongly Arrested Woman (NYSE: WMT) was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

The teenager picked up a store courtesy phone and made the following announcement “Attention Walmart shoppers, all black people leave the store now.” The store had approximately 100 shoppers inside at the time. More than a dozen went to the customer service desk to call police.

The Washington Township police took custody of the teenager on Friday afternoon assisted by the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s office. After the large amount of media attention following the incident, it was an anonymous tip that pointed investigators in the direction of conversations on a social networking website. The teen was not the one posting information but police were able to gather evidence through conversations about the supposed prank and ultimately got a lead on a name. Walmart provided video surveillance footage from the event on Sunday.

The police in the case have stated the store’s intercom system can be accessed by anyone at any time. It is a matter of picking up a store courtesy phone and pressing a certain button that gives the access to the store-wide intercom system. The manager of the Walmart location quickly apologized via the system immediately after the remark but shoppers were already expressing outrage.

A spokesman for Walmart said they have updated the intercom system at the store, which is the first Walmart store location in the state of New Jersey,  to prevent additional incident. Company representative David Tovar stated “We again apologize to all of our customers and associates who has to listen to something so offensive.” In another statement released by the company, Walmart representatives said “We’re appalled by this incident and are amazed that anyone could be so backward and mean-spirited in this day and age.”

The suspect’s identity is not being released because he is a minor. He was arrested and released to his parent’s custody. The suspect was in the store with a friend and the friend’s mother. Neither the friend nor the mother was charged but investigators said there is a possibility either could face charges for not reporting the crime.

This is not the first time this type of incident has occurred within the same store location. During the investigation, it was revealed that there were at least two other similar occurrences in recent months.

16 Year Old Charged in Walmart (NYSE: WMT) Racial Case was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

According to a piece written by Corby Kummer in the Atlantic magazine, it appears Walmart may be helping small farms and local economies more than their competitor Whole Foods (WFMI). Whole Foods Market is also one of the world’s largest retailers, specializing in natural and organic foods. Despite the fact that Americans are showing an increased interest in where their food comes from and the quality of products going on the dinner table, the struggling economy has made it more difficult for some families to afford the high price tag associated with better quality foods. As a result, more consumers are turning toward the local discount giant, Walmart for lower priced groceries that are more affordable. In Kummer’s essay, he notes that he was surprised to discover the variety and quality of foods found at Walmart, as well as the fact that many of the products came from local farms. This lead to a discovery of a little known program called Heritage Agriculture offered by Walmart.

Through this program, local farms (within a day’s drive of Walmart warehouses) are encouraged to grow crops that otherwise would take days to truck in from out of state. This might prove to be a big boost for local farmers and economies as well, due to the fact that many small to medium sized farms are simply unable to compete with industrial farms. With a guaranteed buyer of their crops, these local farmers can focus on growing quality products that will be bought and consumed locally. Of course this benefits Walmart by giving them a larger piece of consumer spending. And at the end of the day, corporations must pay attention to the bottom line. It appears even if Walmart has to pay slightly higher prices to buy locally grown food, versus buying from large industrial farms, they save money on transportation and other costs associated with buying from non-local farmers. If those savings can be passed on to you and your family, while supporting the local economy- it could be a win-win situation.

Walmart To Help Local Economies (NYSE: WMT) was created by and is property of American Consumer News.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. announced plans on cutting over 11,000 employees at its Sam’s Club locations, their largest job cut ever. The move will affect mostly part-time employees who attempt to entice customers to purchase store items, such as food and electronics, by performing in-store demonstrations. The number of employee cuts represents roughly 10 percent of Sam’s Club’s workforce.

Wal-Mart Stores plans on outsourcing its in-store demonstrations to Shopper Events, an outside marketing company based in Rogers, AR in hopes of improving Sam’s Club’s sales.

Wal-Mart Stores has already closed 10 Sam’s Club locations in the last month, which has resulted in roughly 1500 losing their jobs. There are approximately 600 Sam’s Club warehouse locations across the United States.

Sam’s Club saw it’s revenue drop $11.55 billion last quarter, which is almost a 1 percent sales decrease, while Wal-mart stores saw a $61.81 billion increase, or 1.2 percent.

Eligible employees who have been cut will receive severance pay and benefits, and will also receive assistance to find employment at other Sam’s Club locations and Wal-Mart stores. Some employees who will be laid off might possibly find employment with Shopper Events.

To boost sales and productivity, Home Depot also plans on eliminating jobs. The company is ending three pilot programs, which will result in 1,000 employees being laid off. Home Depot will be closing a temporary hurricane recovery outlet in Waveland, MS; a clearance outlet in Austell, GA; and a small-format store in Wilson, NC. Cuts also include the consolidation of support staff in the human resources and finance divisions. The company said they have no plans to close any of the full-size retail stores.

Despite the cuts, the restructuring will actually create about 200 jobs in Atlanta, which is where most human resources administration will be handled.

Home Depot is the largest home-improvement retailer, and currently has 300,000 employees and 1,500 store locations. Last year, Home Depot cut 7,000 jobs and closed specialty stores across the United States, and has marked the third consecutive January in which the large chain has laid off employees.

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Having a price match service is really valuable to the consumers who are frugal and actively watching how much they’re spending on their weekly groceries. When you bargain shop and buy items that are on sale at more than one store, you end up spending more money on the gasoline or public transportation costs to get to each of the stores- and certainly more time – and don’t discount the value of your time! When you shop at Walmart, just take your weekly circulars for the local stores in with you, and if they are items you purchase, if Walmart’s price is higher than the sale priced item, they will match the price during checkout.

Sometimes people have a hard time with the cashiers in order to get the price match. It seems not all cashiers are properly trained on the policy- or they simply don’t want to bother with it. Either way, if you are there with your fliers and expecting a price match, simply ask the cashier to speak to a manager and you will get your items at the appropriate price. It may seem like a hassle, but if more people were to use the advertised policy, the cashiers would all be fully trained and prepared to honor it.

How to Get All Store Sales, All The Time, All in One Place was created by and is property of American Consumer News.