Wal-Mart

In an economy in which consumers will do almost anything to save a buck and retailers will do almost anything to make a buck, it's common for stores to roll out holiday goods this month.

Retail giant Wal-Mart may not be known as a Silicon Valley tech company, but the world’s biggest retailer is investing in Silicon Valley-style innovation. The company’s tech shop @WalmartLabs, was formed from the acquisition last year of startup Kosmix, which monitored vast streams of social media data to help businesses track sentiment about products and brands. 

Wal-Mart announced that it's bringing back layaway for the holiday season as part of its ongoing efforts to recover from recent missteps and draw back customers still struggling to make ends meet. The company discontinued layaway in 2006, during the heady days before the recession. 

E-commerce powerhouses Amazon.com, Walmart.com and eBay.com remain as the top e-retailers in the STORES Favorite 50. The fifth annual ranking of the industry’s top online retailers reflects the views of retailers’ toughest and most important judges — consumers.

vending, vending machine, wine vending machine, wine kioks, al-Mart Stores Inc., Walmart, Simple Brands, Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, vending in Walmart, Pennsylvania wine kiosks

New York City -- While it may take some to fully assess the damage, the impact of Hurricane Irene on retail sales is likely to split among retail sectors: Home-improvement stores selling emergency preparation products and clean-up items are likely to benefit the most from the storm, while apparel retailers and department stores selling non-essential items are likely to take a hit. Industry analysts noted that big-box stores, dollar stores, drug stores and supermarkets all experienced sales surges prior to Irene’s arrival as consumers shopped for water, batteries and other emergency supplies, with the biggest winners are likely to

New York City -- The impact of Hurricane Irene on retail sales is likely to split among category lines: Home-improvement stores selling emergency preparation products and clean-up items are likely to benefit the most from the storm, while apparel retailers and department stores selling non-essential items are likely to take a hit. Industry analysts noted that big-box stores, drug stores and supermarkets all experienced sales surges prior to Irene’s arrival, but the biggest winners are likely to be home centers. In fact, pre-and-post storm sales may aid same-store sales at Home Depot and Lowe’s each by 1% point in

Hurricane Irene sent East Coast shoppers into stores to stock up on essentials last week instead of the clothes, notebooks and other supplies that retailers were counting on selling as children get ready to go back to school.

The oppressive heat waves across the country have ended. Summer camps are coming to a close and children are scrambling to finish the reading lists they've ignored all summer. This can only mean one thing — the first day of school is just around the corner.

Amazon sites reached the largest global audience of selected global retail and auction sites in June, with more than 282 million visitors, according to ComScore research. That was 20.4 percent of the worldwide Internet population. Other top brands in the study included eBay, which reached 16.2 percent of global Internet visitors, China's Alibaba.com Corporation (11.3 percent reach), Apple.com worldwide sites (9.7 percent reach) and Japan's Rakuten Inc. (4.2 percent reach). Amazon and Apple.com worldwide sites showed more globally distributed audiences compared to most other brands in the study. Amazon sites attracted 35.4 percent of its audience from North America,