Content about Wal-Mart Stores

Expectations are high that mobile payments represent the future of commerce, and a group of leading retailers this week formed a new organization to offer an alternative way to pay.

The group, Merchant Customer Exchange, will integrate a range of consumer offers, promotions and retail programs available via any smartphone. Participating retailers include Wal-Mart, Lowe's, Sears Holdings Corp. and Target. Additional members are expected to be announced in the coming months.  

According to a report by Reuters, that U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer on Friday said he was "seriously concerned" about whether the female plaintiffs suing Wal-Mart Stores have sufficient evidence to proceed with their re-filed gender discrimination lawsuit.

The group is again filing suit against Wal-Mart for allegedly denying them pay raises and promotions for gender-related reasons. The original class action suit of as many as 1.5 million current and former Wal-Mart employers was dismantled by the U.S. Supreme Court last year.

An initial public offering is in the works for Shanghai, China-based TCP International Holdings, maker of energy-efficient light bulbs.

The supplier to Home Depot and Wal-Mart Stores (among many others) makes about 3,500 kinds of compact fluorescent light bulbs, about 275 varieties of even more efficient LEDs and 12 kinds of halogen bulbs.

Wal-Mart Stores had positive news for analysts and investors gathered for the retailer’s annual meeting on Wednesday in Rogers, Ark. The chain said its same-store sales rose in July, August and September, reversing a two-year slump. It also announced that it plans to cut its capital spending in the United States, even as it increased cap spending abroad, as it continues to shift toward building smaller stores. 

In a ruling that may mean new limits on class-action suits, the Supreme Court on Monday ruled for Wal-Mart Stores in the largest sex-discrimination lawsuit in history, as it put the brakes on a massive job discrimination lawsuit against the chain. 

Wal-Mart Stores posted its seventh straight quarterly sales decline, falling short of its own projections for the holiday period.