Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart, which has deployed its financial might to squeeze extra gallons of gas out of its trucks and shave pennies off the price of laundry detergent, did something unexpected this week: it muscled its way into a divisive social debate. In an announcement circulated and recirculated among incredulous gay-rights advocates, Wal-Mart posted a statement on its Twitter feed that asked the governor of Arkansas, its home state, to reject legislation that critics say could allow discrimination against lesbians and gay men. 

Greg Foran, in his eighth month as the new president of the U.S. division of Wal-Mart, recently met with analysts to discuss his outlook for the company. The meeting, attended by more than 100 senior analysts, was a disappointment since it was mostly just a review of basic merchandising and procedures. There were few hard facts, and I think that Mr. Foran is in awe at running 4,500 stores — a fact he repeated several times. He didn't project the impression of a strong, confident manager. His theme was that he's proceeding slowly and cautiously to make changes.

If your company's brick-and-mortar budget is a source of frustration, it's probably because there are several items devouring resources without moving your bottom line. Focusing more of your precious resources on these five areas will help sales by keeping you relevant and desirable:

With shallow pockets but a deep commitment to promote "living wages," women's advocacy group UltraViolet has peppered Target with cheap location-focused online ads, challenging it to match Wal-Mart's promise of $10-an-hour base pay. The nonprofit advocacy group launched its campaign on Tuesday. With a budget of just $5,000, it purchased online ads that appear on the browsers of people surfing the web within an approximately 1,000-feet radius of three stores in Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Nebraska.

If the ability to throw a 100-mile-per-hour fastball sits at one end of the human capital spectrum, stocking shelves and swiping barcodes is at the opposite. But the U.S. economy gets on quite nicely with just a few dozen ace pitchers, while it takes vast stadiums of cashiers — and no small amount of investment in human capital — to keep things humming. A modest bidding war has broken out among the retailers that hire from the bottom of the labor pool, buoyed in part by improving sales. 

Are retail innovation labs here to stay or are they just a fad passing through the industry? The largest internet-based retailer in the United States, Amazon.com, serves as an enduring example of what retailers should be doing to maintain longevity. Amazon's relentless pursuit of disruptive innovation has resulted in some of the more intriguing retail technology products, including augmented reality and the Fire Phone, in addition to securing Amazon's longstanding success. Beyond that, innovation labs invest in a company's culture, processes, supply chain and noncustomer aspects of the business.

For Krave Jerky, e-commerce represents a growth opportunity. While the company's primary business is in wholesale agreements with retail partners — e.g., Wal-Mart, Target, Amazon.com, Vitamin Shoppe — selling its gourmet jerky flavors online has become a key initiative.
 For that to happen, however, Krave needed to upgrade from its "archaic" website — both in look and functionality — to a sleeker, easier-to-use platform. It needed a site that could match the coolness of the brand, which was growing at a meteoric rate.

TJX Cos. said it would increase the minimum hourly wage of employees in 2,500 stores to $9, joining a growing number of U.S. retailers raising the pay for workers at the lowest end of the pay scale. TJX, which operates T.J. Maxx and Marshalls chains in 49 states, follows Wal-Mart and Gap in boosting their pay well above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. 

Wal-Mart workers will soon be able to use sick days as soon as they get sick. Right now, full-time employees in the U.S. don't get paid leave until the second day they're ill. To be paid on the first day out, workers must tap into their personal days. The company is doing away with the one-day wait starting next year as part of a host of measures to help its 500,000 employees, including a wage increase for entry-level workers.

Wal-Mart is spending $1 billion to make changes to how it pays and trains U.S. hourly workers as the embattled retailer tries to reshape the image that its stores offer dead-end jobs. As part of its biggest investment in worker training and pay ever, Wal-Mart told The Associated Press that within the next six months it will give raises to about 500,000 workers, or nearly 40 percent of its 1.3 million U.S. employees. Wal-Mart follows other retailers that have boosted hourly pay recently.