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Bentonville, Ark. -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Monday that it has kicked off its "12 Days of Giving" campaign, awarding over $1.5 million to nonprofits that were nominated by Facebook users. By the end of the campaign, 145 grant recipients in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, will be honored. Twenty-five nonprofits that have stepped up to fight hunger are receiving a total of $130,000 on the first day of giving. Walmart's 12-day call for submissions resulted in more than 5,400 nominations from Facebook users who shared photos and short descriptions of a nonprofit's impact in its

Bentonville, Ark. -- A Friday report by Reuters said that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. disclosed an agreement Thursday to sell more than 70 million shares by a firm controlled by members of the founding Walton family. Walton Enterprises LLC, controlled by S. Robson Walton, Alice L. Walton, Jim C. Walton and the John T. Walton Estate Trust, registered for sale 70,615,608 shares of company stock. That represents about 2% of Wal-Mart's outstanding shares. The 70.6 million shares were registered on behalf of several Walton charitable trusts. The stock will be re-sold by these trusts periodically through the end of 2017.

ABILENE, Kan. — Broad-line retailer Duckwall-ALCO Stores increased sales and returned to profit in the third-quarter as the company continued to experience top-line growth across multiple categories. The company reported that net sales for the third quarter of fiscal 2012 increased 3.6% to $109.8 million, compared with the third quarter of fiscal 2011. Same-store sales, excluding fuel center sales, increased 2.7%. Net earnings for the third quarter of fiscal 2012 were $0.1 million, or 2 cents per diluted share, compared with a net loss of $2.1 million, or 55 cents per diluted share, for the third quarter of fiscal

Some online sellers are concerned about Amazon's new practice of displaying their real names instead of their business names in the Sold By field. Sellers say the new practice is applied inconsistently and said they were uncertain if the new practice was a glitch or intentional. Many believe it's a result of sellers providing their taxpayer ID to Amazon.com. And in at least one discussion thread about the issue on the Amazon boards, sellers received conflicting information. The problem is not just affecting sole proprietors who use a DBA to run their business, as one corporate seller explained "Like

Amazon.com Inc. and eBay Inc. saw "robust growth" in the first seven days of December, with eBay helped by sales of holiday gift items that were sold out elsewhere and Amazon seeing strong third-party sales, a Jefferies analyst said Friday. The analyst, Youssef Squali, said sales have improved at both online retailers when compared with last year, as measured by a key retail indicator. He said that sales at online stores that have been open at least a year grew 20.4 percent at eBay from Dec. 1 to Dec. 7 compared with last year at that time. Squali cited

New York -- Apple on Friday, opened its newest Big Apple store, a 23,000-sq-.ft. outpost in the landmarked Grand Central Terminal. The company said 2,500 people were waiting in line before the opening, and the store had nearly 4,000 visitors before noon. The space had been previously occupied by a restaurant, which closed earlier this summer. It is Apple’s fifth location in Manhattan, The store—one of Apple's largest—features sleek tables for product testing and two Genius Bars for technical support. In a nod to commuters, it is offering 15-minute express classes on Apple products.

Chicago -- A report released Wednesday by ShopperTrak said that sales increased just 0.2% year-over-year for the week ending in Dec. 3, representing a 22.5% decline from the prior week, which held the largest Black Friday in history — both in terms of sales and traffic. According to ShopperTrak, this sharp decline in retail sales is typical of the week following Thanksgiving. Although shoppers have an initial burst of activity spurred on by Black Friday sales promotions, they often stay home during the following week. “After the ‘Black’ weekend promotions play out, shoppers settle back and shop online for

Wayne, N.J. -- Toys “R” Us reported Friday an operating loss of $75 million for the quarter ended Oct. 29, compared with a loss of $62 million in the year-ago period. Adjusted EBITDA was $36 million, compared with $49 million in the prior year. Sales dipped to $2.7 billion from $2.72 billion a year earlier, and same-store sales fell 2.2% domestically and 3.9% internationally. "During the third quarter, we prepared for the upcoming holiday season and took some important steps to position the company for long-term growth," Jerry Storch, chairman and CEO, said, Toys “R” Us acquired a majority

NEW YORK — Saks Fifth Avenue has taken its brand beyond fashion retail with the launch of its redesigned SaksPOV website. Designed to offer a point of view from Fifth Avenue, the company said, the new site will feature multimedia content, designer features, Saks brand coverage and compelling lifestyle pieces. SaksPOV launched initially in December 2010. “We will use SaksPOV as an outlet to engage with our customers and as a portal for our fashion lifestyle content,” said Denise Incandela, chief marketing officer and president of Saks direct. The site includes “blogs we love, guest editors and Twitter followers.

As if Wal-Mart wasn't tough enough to compete with, brick-and mortar retailers have found themselves competing with more a fearsome competitor in recent years - Amazon.com. Retailers say they are tired of shoppers pulling out mobile devices to check online prices, but tempers reached the boiling point this week after retailers read about Amazon.com's new promotion. Amazon is encouraging the use of its mobile app by in-store shoppers and on Saturday will give consumers a 5% discount on items purchased through Amazon if they use its Price Check mobile app to compare prices at brick-and mortar retailers (see Wednesday's