Wal-Mart

Retail analysts took a dim view of Wal-Mart's bribery scandal, with most recommending that investors use the controversy to take profits while the controversy swirls around the world's leading big-box store.

On Saturday, The New York Times published an investigative article that reported executives of Wal-Mart de Mexico, the largest foreign subsidiary of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., may have engaged in “widespread bribery” to accelerate the company’s expansion in Mexico. After the article was published, Wal-Mart officials acknowledged the Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer is investigating possible violations of U.S. law that ban bribery in foreign countries. The Wall Street Journal reported Wal-Mart first disclosed the internal probe in a December filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 

Wal-Mart announced this week the nomination of Google executive Marissa Mayer to its board of directors. Mayer, 36, joined Google in 1999 as its first female engineer and 20th employee and quickly ascended the executive ranks, first as vice president of search and now as vice president of local and maps. She also sits on Google’s operating committee, an elite group of executives that oversees every critical product launch and decision. It’s not difficult to see why Wal-Mart would want Mayer. She's a minor celebrity as a young, self-described “geek” succeeding in a male-dominated field.

Wal-Mart said it will hire 100 additional developers in India as part of its @WalmartLabs unit, which is focused on growing the retailer’s social media and mobile presence globally. In November, WalmartLabs, under the retailer’s global e-commerce group, will build an operation in India to use social media and digital technology to attract shoppers.

Wal-Mart will expand its solar commitment in Colorado, with six SolarCity projects planned for the state. The projects will include the company’s 100th solar power installation in the United States and will help it to achieve its long-term goal of using 100 percent renewable energy for all of its facilities. The installations, totaling two megawatts on three stores in Westminster and one each in Lakewood, Highlands Ranch and Lafayette, also will help Colorado meet its renewable energy goals. Wal-Mart's SolarCity projects in Colorado are expected to generate approximately 3 million kilowatt hours of clean, renewable energy per year.

Wal-Mart has postponed its previously announced store openings in Washington, D.C., according to The Washington Post. Initially six stores were slated to open by the end of 2012. Now the company doesn't plan to open its first store in the city until the end of 2013. The retailer faced resistance from activists and opponents, eventually leading to the extended timeline. Only one of the six planned stores will open by the end of 2013. 

Wal-Mart launched its Women in Factories program, a five-year initiative that will empower 60,000 women working in factories in India, Bangladesh, China and Central America that supply products to Wal-Mart and other retailers. The program will teach critical life skills related to communication, hygiene, reproductive health, occupational health and safety, identifying personal strengths, and gender sensitivity. Up to 8,000 women will also receive leadership training to develop the work and life skills necessary for personal and career development.

Wal-Mart will lower grocery prices by $1 billion this year, hoping consumers will come in for the reduced costs and then fan out to other parts of the store. The retailer, the largest grocery retailer by sales in the U.S., is taking the step to continue or increase the progress its U.S. stores began to see in the second half of last year, when U.S. comparable-store sales turned positive.

Wal-Mart currently has 2.1 million employees and it may be looking for some more soon in an unlikely place: Ethiopia. While the country is the second most populated in Africa, it's never been known for having scads of money floating around, but that's not stopping Wal-Mart from considering it as a place in need of its retail wonders.

In 1949 the average grocery store stocked 3,700 products. Today, the average supermarket has 45,000 products, while stores like Wal-Mart stock 100,000 products. When it comes to options, consumers have every size, shape, color and price for every product imaginable. On top of that, you can go online to find millions more. Combine this new shopping environment, dubbed “consumer hyperchoice,” with busier schedules and the demise of the educated sales force and it makes for a stressful purchasing process for consumers.