Walmart News Now

05/05/2011 - 14:35

The Walmart Visitor Center in downtown Bentonville is set to reopen on May 21 after undergoing extensive renovations, which means the new facility will be able to accommodate the thousands of Walmart employees who will descend on the town for the company’s annual meeting on June 3.

05/02/2011 - 14:03

Sam's Club to offer skin health screenings

Sam's Club is offering skin cancer screenings to customers on May 14 as part of Skin Cancer Awareness Month.

04/29/2011 - 15:32

Walmart pledges $1 million for tornado relief

Walmart announced that through its charitable arm, the Walmart Foundation, it is committing $1 million in cash and in-kind donations to support emergency relief efforts following the recent Southern storms, Midwest floods and Texas wildfires.

04/28/2011 - 14:12

Walmart testing grocery delivery service

Regional supermarket chains that offer grocery delivery services may soon have some competition from Walmart if its program is expanded nationwide. According to several reports including one in The Wall Street Journal and another in The New York Times, Walmart is testing its Walmart To Go service in San Jose, Calif.

According to the company’s beta website, customers can shop online for food, beauty and household goods for a delivery fee starting at $5. The company is even offering first time users free delivery on orders of at least $49 when they use a special eVoucher.

04/28/2011 - 13:30

Lots of talk, but where’s the action?

Mike Duke presented at the Barclay’s conference Tuesday, and, as we predicted in last week’s WNN, he did not speak about first-quarter sales, which the company will report on May 17. Instead Duke focused on such broad goals as growth, leverage, but offered little detail on how the company plans to achieve them.

According to Duke, a main priority for Walmart is growth, particularly at its U.S. stores. This is not surprising since the company has been reporting negative comps for its Walmart U.S. business for the past few quarters. In order to achieve positive comps, Duke said, stores need to offer the right assortment.

04/28/2011 - 13:24

Consumers intend to splurge on mom

04/28/2011 - 12:23

Duke says shoppers are "under pressure"

Wal-Mart Stores CEO Mike Duke said rising gas prices are hurting the chain’s main customers, who are having an even harder time stretching their dollars to the next payday than they did a year ago.

04/27/2011 - 12:49

Children's Miracle Network gets support from Walmart

Walmart and Sam’s Club announced that they will be accepting donations for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, a charity that raises funds for children’s hospitals, at all Walmart and Sam’s Club locations between May 1 and June 13. Last year the six-week fundraising campaign surpassed the $15 million goal, raising $20 million for children’s hospitals across America, the company reported.

04/22/2011 - 10:23

OfficeMax taps Walmart exec for new role

Former Walmart merchandising and store operations executive Michael Lewis was named EVP and president of retail at OfficeMax.

04/21/2011 - 17:49

Everything you could ever want to know about Walmart

Walmart remains in full blown communications mode, and next week it rolls out the big gun when president and CEO Mike Duke is scheduled to participate in the Barclays Capital 2011 Retail and Restaurants Conference at 1 p.m. EST on Tuesday, April 26.

Duke’s appearance comes just a few days before the end of the first quarter, so don’t count on gleaning any insights into Walmart’s current performance from his comments. Walmart doesn’t do guidance updates, and with first quarter results scheduled for release just a few weeks later on May 17 it isn’t likely to start now.