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Some people don’t know that two dollar bills are real, so when Mike Bolesta used over 50 of them to make a purchase at a Best Buy store, an encounter with the police and Secret Service ensued. VIDEO

Walmart Inc. (WMT) met with government and business leaders in Washington on Wednesday to unveil a plan to spur growth in domestic manufacturing efforts that company executives say will create an estimated 1.5 million new jobs in the United States. The meeting included a discussion with key individuals on both sides of the aisle about the biggest challenges the U.S. manufacturing sector currently faces. Using an analysis by the Boston Consulting Group and Walmart sourcing data, the company crafted a 10-point plan to “recapture” an estimated $300 billion in imported consumer goods, stoking job growth in the process. “As we’ve...

Five years ago Best Buy Co. looked like a retail dinosaur, another victim of e-commerce juggernaut Amazon.com and other online sellers. The big-box electronics chain was suffering dwindling sales and profits due in good part to “showrooming,” when shoppers would come in to a Best Buy store to check out televisions, computers and other items in person, and then buy them at cheaper prices at Amazon or elsewhere online. Best Buy also was struggling with executive turmoil and facing a buyout threat from a major stockholder. The chain in 2012 named a new chief executive, Hubert Joly, but the Frenchman...

Walmart was apologizing on Monday after an appalling description of a product by a third-party vendor made its way onto the retail giant’s website. The retailer was slammed early Monday after the color of a netting weave cap — used as a protective layer between a person’s hair and sewn-in hair extensions — on its site was described as the color “N— Brown.” “Hey @Walmart what are you doing,” Twitter user Kwani Lunis tweeted with a screenshot of the problematic product listing. New York Times best-selling author Roxane Gay condemned the retail chain, tweeting that dropping the N-bomb on their...

Children's clothing seller Gymboree Corp. is closing 350 stores as its works to restructure in bankruptcy. The San Francisco-based company said Tuesday that it's mostly closing Gymboree and Crazy 8 stores. It also operates Janie and Jack stores. The company will have more than 900 locations after the stores are shut down. Gymboree filed for bankruptcy protection in June. Traditional retailers have been struggling to deal with strong competition from online companies and slowing mall traffic.

It turns out that all Americans, regardless of income, spend a large percentage of their income on what economists categorize as luxuries. People who make the most money spend the biggest chunk of their incomes on luxury goods, but even the poorest households spend a significant amount on luxuries, according to an analysis released recently by Deutsche Bank Research. The wealthiest families (the top fifth of earners) spend around 65% of their incomes on luxury goods and 35% on necessities, according to the study, which looked at spending habits between 1984 and 2014. Middle-income households weren’t far behind: They spend...

The potential energy of ecommerce has yet to be fully unlocked. Retail jobs are hemorrhaging throughout the United States. Credit Suisse predicts that 8,000 retail stores will close in 2017. Radioshack is closing 1,430 stores, Payless Shoes is closing 800 stores and Sears is closing 265 stores. According to the U.S. Census reported by The New York Times, department stores have lost 448,000 jobs in the last 15 years, offset by a net gain of 645,000 net jobs in the retail sector in that time, due to natural economic growth. Warehouse clubs (which presumably includes Wal-Mart as well its Sam’s...

Recent big acquisition news from Walmart and Amazon, ranked #1 and #3 in the Forbes list of the world’s largest retailers, confirmed rumors circulating since at least April that Walmart had its eye on online men’s fashion retailer Bonobos and Amazon was flirting with the idea of buying high-end grocer Whole Foods. While the deals differ markedly in size and scale, $310 million for Bonobos and $13.7 billion for Whole Foods, both represent a step beyond Walmart’s and Amazon’s mass-market roots and into the premium market where luxury consumers live. It’s a strategy that mid-market department store retail Hudson Bay...

The owner of the Net-a-Porter luxury fashion website is to hire at least 100 more IT experts over the next two years as it shrugs off the impact of the Brexit vote to open a tech hub in the UK. Designed by Nicholas Grimshaw, the architect behind the Eden Project domes in Cornwall, the hub, in west London’s White City, can house up to 650 IT experts. That is an increase from the 500 employed in the UK at present. The new building brings together the British teams from Yoox, the Italian luxury sales site, and Net-a-Porter, the group founded...

I haven't been inside a Sears store for more than 10 years, until Thursday, June 22. And, wow, did I learn a lot. Mainly, I came away with a better understanding of why Sears Holdings Corp. is closing an additional 20 stores on top of the 245 it already planned to shutter. And why it has failed to turn a profit in 29 out of the last 37 quarters and seen same-store sales decline in 11 of the past 12 quarters. I observed alienating treatment of a loyal customer at the store in Jersey City, N.J., which was also messy...

This is what I just found on Target's webpage. Remind you of anything? Here's a further hint: Target Finds #TakePride edition our curators put together a color-coordinated collection dedicated to being your authentic self in everything you do I guess they finally woke up to their tranny bathroom mistake, and are trying to be a little more subtle in their social statements [wink-wink]. Tell me, FReepers---is it working?

News that Amazon intends to buy Whole Foods Market for more than $13 billion was greeted jubilantly by financial markets, with Amazon’s stock rising 2.5 percent, almost enough to cover the entire purchase. At the same time, the shares of other grocery retailers, ranging from Kroger’s to Walmart, were punished severely, plunging as much as nine percent. That mixed reaction—riches for Amazon and excitement from consumers, amidst the decimation of an entire sector of the economy—proves the company’s power. The move takes it one step closer towards founder Jeff Bezos’ long-held ambition of becoming the “world’s store,” and it is...

Introduction Today, we take a look at the two online retail titans, consider how each business model differs and delve into the trends shaped by the financial results. The biggest difference between the two is that Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) primarily sells directly to consumers, building a network of warehouse and distribution centers with a goal of ever-improving fulfillment. Alibaba (NYSE:BABA), on the other hand, is less capital intensive and provides only a platform from which other businesses can sell directly to consumers. While both offer a platform for other sellers, AMZN is more focused on the logistics and engaging directly with...

One of the many holes in the “social contract” theory of government is that the power of the state is so often harnessed by interest groups to protect themselves against competition. Nobody ever agreed to that, but it happens all the time, inflicting losses on the consuming public. A recent instance of this is the aggressive lobbying campaign being waged by the American Optometric Association (AOA) against innovations that now make it possible for Americans to get accurate eye exams and lens prescriptions over the Internet. By using such innovations, millions of Americans who need vision correction could save substantial...

It seems the Trump family is making an effort to appear more approachable. After first lady Melania Trump caused a stir when she stepped out in a $51,500 coat during the G-7 summit last month, various members of the Trump family have been seen out in more approachable, everyday brands. Now it seems Dolce & Gabbana is out, while Target and J.Crew are in. Ivanka Trump, President Donald Trump's eldest daughter and one of his advisers, was photographed earlier this month leaving her house in the Kalorama neighborhood of Washington, DC, in a dress that was easily identified as a...

Outdoor shopping centres are drawing in customers who long ago wrote off the traditional mall experience through a modern mix of food, fashion and practicality. ATLANTA, United States — Pull into the parking lot of the Westside Provisions District, the mixed-use development in Atlanta’s gentrified Westside neighborhood, and you might have to hand your keys over to a valet to help you find a spot — especially on a Saturday afternoon. That’s because, unlike the downtrodden, two-penny outdoor shopping centres and abandoned enclosed malls weighing down the suburbs of the US, Westside Provisions is giving people a reason to swing...

Gymboree has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The children's clothing retailer announced the move Monday morning, only a few weeks after it partnered with a turnaround firm, AlixPartners, to assist with its operations and then missed a June 1 debt payment.

Some of the reasons Japan loves vending machines have nothing to do with an aging society of love of robots. Video series Vox Borders recently came to Tokyo, taking a look at aspects of everyday life in Japan. Something that caught host Johnny Harris’ eye, as with many new arrivals to the capital, is the incredible number of vending machines to be found in Japan. The purpose of vending machines is pretty self-explanatory (to sell things), but Harris wondered why Japan has so many, and seeks to answer that question in the straightforwardly titled video “Why Japan has so many...

At the rate his team is going, Fresno Mayor Lee Brand might have to raise his job-creation goals. The first-year mayor has said at several public events recently that he wants to bring 10,000 permanent, new jobs to the city. Those jobs, in turn, would produce a ripple effect leading to the creation of 10,000 more jobs in the local economy. What would Fresno and surrounding cities look like with 20,000 people who are now unemployed going to work? Significantly better. General funds would rise. There would be more revenue for public safety, road maintenance and parks. Families would prosper,...

Consider this before you assume you can have a long or lucrative career in the retail industry: Up to half of all current jobs in the retail sector are likely to vanish because of e-commerce, automation of jobs and the closing of brick-and-mortar stores. Millions of retail jobs — as we now know them — are going the way of gas station attendants. Just as ATMs replaced many bank tellers, automated check-out stations are supplanting retail clerks. And have you watched in-store “shoppers” who do Amazon price checks while they’re standing in the aisles? Have you noticed how many of...