Walmart Suffering Biggest-Ever Slump

Chain sick of customers checking out products before buying them on Amazon

(NEWSER) - In a sign of rising tension between online stores and their bricks-and-mortar counterparts, Target says it is going to stop selling Amazon's Kindle products. The company, one of the biggest offline sellers of Amazon's e-readers and tablets, has become fed up with shoppers using its stores as a showroom for Amazon, checking out products there before buying them online, reports the New York Times . Amazon encourages the practice and ran a promotion last year offering shoppers 5% off any item scanned at a store. More»

Chain plans to open 80 temporary stores in time for holiday shopping season

(NEWSER) - Toys R Us is getting ready to go on the offensive in the battle for holiday sales, the Washington Post reports. The company—which snapped up the KB Toys and FAO Schwarz brands earlier this year—plans to open 80 temporary "Holiday Express" stores in malls across the country, and will open toy shops in 260 of its Babies R Us locations. More»

Recession isn't over as far as consumers are concerned

(NEWSER) - If the recession is indeed waning, nobody told consumers. Retailers of every kind reported lousy sales for the quarter ended Aug. 1, the Wall Street Journal reports. Target’s same-store sales fell 6.2%, Home Depot’s dropped 9.1% and Saks’ plummeted a whopping 15.5%. And with unemployment, stagnant wages, and tight credit squeezing shoppers, executives don’t expect to see improvement until next spring. More»

(NEWSER) - In theory, Target should be thriving in the recession because it's a discount retailer. In reality, it's in a funk, even as rival Wal-Mart flourishes, reports Time. The difference? Target is viewed as a place to buy nice clothes at nicer prices—and right now, nice clothes seem like a luxury. Target’s profits fell a whopping 22.3% last year, while Wal-Mart has seen 22 straight months of growth. More»

But Wal-Mart, other discounters profit from downturn

(NEWSER) - November was the worst month for retail in a decade, reports the Financial Times, as stores from Macy's to Abercrombie & Fitch posted double-digit falls in sales. Mid-market stores like Target posted worse-than-expected numbers, while department stores crashed. But giant Wal-Mart, leading a small number of discounters, managed to avoid the gloom; the largest American retailer beat its own forecast with a 3.4% increase from last year. More»