Wal-Mart

Paula Deen lost another chunk of her empire on Wednesday. Wal-Mart announced that it has ended its relationship with the Southern celebrity chef, part of the continuing fallout in the wake of revelations that she used racial slurs in the past. The world's largest retailer, based in Bentonville, Ark., currently carries a variety of products under her moniker, including food items, cookware and health and wellness products, at all of its 4,000 U.S. namesake stores. The retailer began selling her merchandise several years ago.

An article in Ad Age this morning profiles how Wal-Mart is leveraging local price-comparison TV ads to help it gain market share in groceries and consumables. Competing for the local consumer through channels such as local search, mobile apps, and print and TV advertising has become a focal point for retailers this year. What has…

One of the most dramatic effects of the new mobility is that traditional behaviors are no longer tied to familiar time and place constraints. In fact, they may not even be tied to a consumer's own familiar brands. The internet may have made shopping available to consumers 24/7 on the desktop, but devices have now made every moment everywhere shoppable. Wal-Mart Canada seems ready to grasp this opportunity of the always-shopping consumer by putting a buy button in an unlikely place — a bus shelter.

Mobile commerce is a driving force behind the dramatic and accelerating pace of change in the retail industry. More than ever before, consumers are relying on mobile devices to interact with brands and retailers. This has been the trend for the past several years, and so far 2013 has been no different. Four notable trends are leading the way this year

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. admitted to improperly handling and disposing of hazardous materials at its stores nationwide, pleading guilty Tuesday to several federal criminal and civil counts and agreeing to pay more than $81 million. The accusations against the retail behemoth spanned three criminal cases from the Justice Department and a related civil case brought by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Wal-Mart said

Wal-Mart is turning up the pressure to keep its shelves adequately stocked by proposing to tie executive compensation to the issue — and has asked an outside auditor to alert workers which items to focus on by plastering U.S. stores with neon green dots. Earlier this year, Bloomberg News reported that Wal-Mart had trouble keeping its stores stocked as it cut back on workers per store. That has cost sales and driven away frustrated shoppers.

Few retailers have brand permission to sell everything to everyone, according to Wal-Mart's Neil Ashe, who expects to win the e-commerce showdown with the help of brick-and-mortar. Ashe, CEO of Wal-Mart global e-commerce, spoke to investors yesterday at the Barclays 2013 Retail and Consumer Discretionary Conference in New York.

Michael Kors 553,161 956,368 73% CVS 7,273,276 10,877,674 50% American Apparel 380,814 534,573

Michelle Obama visited a Wal-Mart in February to extol the fresh, healthy food in the company's grocery aisles. But Wal-Mart, Ms. Obama's corporate partner in a campaign to make food healthier and more affordable, has been running into problems with food that's not so fresh. Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer and grocer, has cut so many employees that it no longer has enough workers to stock its shelves properly, according to some employees and industry analysts.

There's a wonderful Yiddish reflection that goes, "The difference between genius and stupidity is genius has its limits," which may explain the difference between Apple stores and J.C. Penney/jcp. What's interesting is the strategies for both retailers were set by the same person - Ron Johnson, formerly SVP of Retail Operations for Apple, currently CEO of jcp. It was J.C. Penney when he joined and announced his long and short-term strategies. Long term: re-do all of the stores in the 111-year old chain into mini-boutiques-under-one-roof, which