As product demonstrations go, the one at a new Wal-Mart in Charlotte, N.
As product demonstrations go, the one at a new Wal-Mart in Charlotte, North Carolina, was devastatingly effective: A little girl took a baseball bat to a no-name "tote"--a 70-liter plastic container for holding anything you like--and tore it to shreds.
Sure, a few services have started offering a some movies here and there, most of which have been late, overpriced and plagued with problems, but it sounds like Time Warner is getting ready to do this thing for reals next year, with that fancy new Wal-Mart download service as a potential partner in such doings.
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It may surprise--or even infuriate--critics, but a new study finds Wal-Mart benefits rather than harms the American economy.
This same week that Apple announced a barrage of revenue-generating upgrades and new products, asset rich Wal-Mart made an announcement as well.
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From enormous new players like Wal-Mart or Target to independent pharmacies that have been family-owned for generations, companies are working in innovative ways and breaching traditional barriers to provide quality health care.
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That Wal-Mart statement came in response to a New York Times article last month alleging that top executives in Wal-Mart's Mexican division attempted to conceal a widespread bribery scheme from the company's headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas.
With the economy still in recession, droves of discount shoppers will likely buy their chips, salsa, dips, sodas, beers, hot dogs--and even new flat screen HDTVs--at Wal-Mart.
In the U.S., meanwhile, AOL has a new marketing partnership with Wal-Mart that is expected to result in a lower-priced service.
The pullback was strong enough to take Wal-Mart to new short term closing lows, as well as drawing near technically oversold territory.
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Two days later all 17 workers of the car-maintenance department at a Wal-Mart in New Castle, Pennsylvania voted against joining the union.
And those pesky city councils (egged on by unions) and neighbors (egged on by fearful local merchants) in some burgs organize against Wal-Mart building new stores or expanding old ones.
"Our performance relative to competitors was exceptionally strong in the fourth quarter, " said Wal-Mart's new CEO, MikeDukeMike Duke.
"Our performance relative to competitors was exceptionally strong in the fourth quarter, " said Wal-Mart's new CEO, Mike Duke .
Rather than forcing New Yorkers to drive to Wal-Mart stores in the suburbs, why not keep shoppers and tax revenue within the city?
Wal-Mart opened a new store in Chicago this week, a small format called Express developed to fit urban areas and gain a foothold in new markets.
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Even if a Kindle Fire owner never uses the device to buy something from Amazon.com, the e-commerce giant could still take a bite out of Wal-Mart with its new device.
In the meantime, Wal-Mart's new and improved stores draw roughly 10% more cash per customer than its other stores do, according to data from America's Research Group, which tracks the retail industry.
Her immediate strategy: To expand it in the accounts they had, get it started in major retailers like Target and Wal-Mart, consider new distribution points (airlines, convenience stores and amusement parks) and help consumers find it.
Some of Wal-Mart's new supercentres, which can range up to 220, 000 square feet in size, are now being designed to be just a fraction smaller than the 100, 000 square-foot limits on retail units that have been imposed in some parts of America.
The company tried to get around the ban by buying copies of new releases at places like Wal-Mart to stock kiosks but recently that became more difficult when Wal-Mart allegedly stopped allowing individuals to buy more than three copies of any DVD title.
But analysts noted that Best Buy has passed a period of easy market share growth that came after last year's collapse of archrival Circuit City, and may have misfired this holiday season by deciding not to compete more aggressively against its new direct competitors such as Wal-Mart and Amazon in favor of preserving profits.
Big Data may seem brand new, but in fact, giant companies like Wal-Mart have been pursuing it for years, and have invested hundreds of millions of dollars developing powerful new tools applications around retail point-of-sale.
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Wal-Mart is building huge new distribution centres in Houston, Charleston and other less-used gateways.
It's making nice with urban politicians and anti-Wal-Mart activists through a new ad campaign that touts its improved health insurance policy and charitable giving programs.
Wal-Mart continues to push into new categories with catastrophic consequences to traditional competitors.
For fiscal 2005, Wal-Mart plans to add 310 new stores and 30 new Sam's Clubs, to its stable of 3, 625 locations.
With its new focus on return on investment, Wal-Mart is taking a page out of the recent success stories of McDonald's and Best Buy, Shapira said.
To that end, the New York Times reports that in April, Wal-Mart began letting shoppers order merchandise online and pay for it with cash at a store when they picked it up.
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