Wal-Mart

If you're one to predict if the holidays will be successful by how many seasonal employees companies hire, than this year we're going to be seeing a lot of happy retailers. Several companies have announced that they’re ramping up their seasonal hiring for the holidays.

After years of thwarted efforts to break into banking, Wal-Mart is making its biggest foray yet into everyday financial services. The nation's largest retailer is teaming up with Green Dot, known for its prepaid payment cards, to supply checking accounts to almost anyone over 18 who passes an ID check. Daniel Eckert, senior vice president at Wal-Mart, said on Tuesday that the accounts would be available nationwide by the end of October. The accounts are intended to be low-cost alternatives to traditional bank checking accounts, with no fees for overdrafts or bounced checks and no minimum account balance.

New York might have failed in its efforts to tax sugary sodas, but that didn't keep retail giant Wal-Mart from trying to tax it anyway. This week, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced that the state reached a settlement with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. over false advertising claims. The settlement followed an investigation into claims that Wal-Mart advertised a sale on Coca-Cola soft drinks but actually charged customers across New York State more than the advertised sale price.

The retail sector is in flux, with established players like Wal-Mart (besides studying Bezos) vowing to open smaller, more intimate stores. At certain companies, "omnichannel" is the way of the future; at other chains, it's a four-letter-word. And still other retailers are closely watching Alibaba's ballyhooed entrance into the North American market. What to believe? What to dispel? What retail strategies will work and what should you discard? Here, I dispel the top five retail myths so that you can spend time doing what really matters: supercharging your chain's profitable growth:

In the middle of a probe over alleged corruption in its international division, Wal-Mart has caught its own spokesman falsifying a major detail about his biography. David Tovar, Wal-Mart's vice president of communications, and the company's spokesperson as it responds to allegations that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, has said he's leaving the job he's held since 2006, Bloomberg reports. That's after the retail juggernaut found out that Tovar had represented himself as a 1996 graduate of the University of Delaware, but in fact had no such degree, an unnamed source told Bloomberg.

The blue polyester vests that Wal-Mart Stores workers will soon be required to wear hail from Jordan, according to media reports. The garment's place of origin raised plenty of eyebrows due to the retailer's recent pledge to buy more U.S.-made goods, as well as the slate of workers’ rights violations at Wal-Mart suppliers in Jordan. Gawker received a tip Friday from a Wal-Mart employee in Minnesota, who snapped a picture of the vest's inner tag. The image was also distributed by a PR firm for labor organizing group OUR Wal-Mart. 

Christmas is still more than three months away, but the game is already on in the toy aisle with both Wal-Mart and Toys"R"Us publishing some of their holiday toy lists Wednesday. Winning the game for Toys"R"Us isn't just about picking the hit product, it's also about proving there's viable room for it to exist and win as a specialty toy retailer, as other specialty chains from Best Buy to Barnes & Noble also guard their respective foothold against rivals from Wal-Mart to Amazon.com. 

Several Wal-Mart employees are up in arms following the company's decision to change its dress code from a plain blue shirt and khakis to one that requires a collared shirt and a vest. According to Gawker, the discount retailer issued a statement on its internal website last month that starting Sept. 29, store associates can no longer show up to work without a collar. Although the company will pay for the required vest, employees are expected to foot the bill for the new shirts. According to Wal-Mart's corporate website, employees’ average full-time hourly wage is $12.92.

Retailers such as Amazon.com, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, eBay and others are adding same-day delivery to their list of services to meet the demands of today's 24/7 consumers. However, unless you have an unlimited budget and established distribution infrastructure, it can be hard to compete with the big boys of retail. In addition, some wonder if…

As ownership of smartphones and tablets continues to increase across the globe, more and more consumers are turning online to satisfy their shopping needs. With this transition, retailers are seeing a decrease in sales-per-square-foot of retail shopping space. Unfortunately for brick-and-mortar retailers, this trend shows no sign of stopping anytime soon.