Worker Organization Files Federal Charge against Walmart.  "The planned strikes, which OUR Walmart members announced would be part of 1,000 store protests on and leading up to Black Friday, are in protest of Walmart’s ongoing attempts to silence workers for speaking out for better jobs. Because the planned strikes are in protest to unfair labor practices like silencing workers through scheduling changes, reductions in hours, and even firings, workers are legally protected under federal labor law."  https://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsLang=en&newsId=20121120006518&div=-1245645151  "Why The Wal-Mart Black Friday Protests Won't Work" by Rick Newman in US News.  "One question for the hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of [...]

Yesterday's Lowe's Q3 Earnings Call Highlights  Heard on the Call... Strategy In the US, Lowe’s is focused on two large bodies of work this year -- value improvement and product differentiation. Through these efforts, Lowe's expects to deliver comp transaction growth and better gross margin by localizing assortment (i.e. store clustering), driving excitement in stores through better display techniques, and managing an appropriate balance of product costs and retail pricing.  Lowe's expects to have this work done by mid-2013. Accelerated line reviews and resets Expect to finish line reviews in 90% of categories by end of this fiscal year. Expect [...]

Breaking this morning...Lowe's Q3 Earnings Lowe’s Reports Third Quarter Sales and Earnings Results.  Highlights: Q3 comparable comp sales +1.3%  (vs. Home Depot Q3 comp sales +4.2%) Q3 net earnings of $396 million, a 76% increase vs. same period a year ago (vs. Home Depot Q3 net earnings of $947 million) Lowe's full year anticipated sales expected to be flat on a 53 week basis.  (THD anticipates +5.2% growth on same 53 week basis) Lowe's plans to open 10 stores in fiscal year '12 Full Lowe's Q3 press release:  https://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=95223&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1760033&highlight= Link to today's Lowe's Q3 Earnings Conference Call held at 9:00 [...]

Highlights from Target Q3 Earnings Call on 11/15/12 Q3 US sales increased 3.4% to 16.6 billion in third quarter 2012 from 16.1 billion last year Q3 US comp +2.9% Heard on the call... Online: Free wi-fi now rolled out across the chain. Target sees a halo effect from stores to their online site. Not currently offering "buy online ship to store" but it's something they're looking at. In store, Target has created QR codes for each of their top 20 toys, allowing guests to purchase by scanning the QR code in store and then having the toy shipped anywhere in [...]

Breaking News -- Highlights from Walmart's Q3 earnings release this morning... Q3 Earnings:  $1.08/share (vs. $1.07/share expected by analysts) an 11.3% increase from $.97/share in the same quarter a year ago. Q3 Net Sales:  $113.2 billion, an increase of 3.4% from Q3 last year. Q3 Comp Sales US:  +1.5% in 13-week period ending Oct. 26, 2012. Q3 Op Income:  $6.1 billion.  +4% from last year. Heard on the Call... "During the quarter we added approximately 13 million retail square feet through 173 net new, expanded and relocated units" "1.4% lift in ticket" "Market share increase of 50 basis points in [...]

Home Depot 3Q results edge up, beat Street's view by Mae Anderson in AP.  "Blake's statement signaled a "stronger tone" on the housing market than in prior quarters, said NBG Productions analyst Brian S. Sozzi, who called the remarks encouraging."  https://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h5wqndoxklbLIiQhqZaE6NLqJ6Ng?docId=4a922de3266b404ea8ce2fcf2b7096a8 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digging deeper into the Home Depot earnings call....   Pro business Frank Blake: "Larger Pro's doing better than smaller Pro's." Carol Tome: "But only 13% of Pro sales are with larger Pro's." Housing recovery Blake: “So the positive comp in this quarter..combined with every quarter this year..and strength in the core of the business..we’re not lighting rockets over [...]

Today at a glance: Home Depot Q3 earnings call @ 9:00am EST.  https://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=63646&p=irol-irhome&HD%20INVESTOR&viewTaskName=ExternalDirectView CVS to present at Lazard Capital Markets 9th Annual Healthcare Conference @ 9:00am EST. https://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=99533&p=irol-EventDetails&EventId=4864716  Dick’s Sporting Goods — conference call to discuss Q3 earnings @ 10:00am EST. https://www.dickssportinggoods.com/investors Rite Aid to present at Morgan Stanley Global Consumer & Retail Conference November 13 @ 1:35 EST.  https://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsLang=en&newsId=20121109005892&div=-1245645151 Walgreens  to present at Lazard Capital Markets 9th Annual Healthcare Conference @ 3:30pm EST.  https://investor.walgreens.com/ The News that Matters: Highlights from Twitter Chat on 11/12 with Brooke Buchanan, Director, Communication & Sustainability at Walmart.  Hosted by Aman Singh at CSRwire and Nick Aster at Triple Pundit: Walmart revealed [...]

"Rona president and CEO steps down after 20 years" from Maclean's:  "One of Rona’s largest shareholders says the home-improvement retailer’s board should launch discussions with U.S. rival Lowe’s following the sudden departure of long-time chief executive Robert Dutton..."Clearly, retailing has changed dramatically and you’ve got a tremendous competitor in Home Depot… the best course would be probably to open up discussions with Lowe’s.”  https://www2.macleans.ca/2012/11/09/rona-president-and-ceo-steps-down-after-20-years/ Target CMO Jeff Jones speaks from the Forbes CMO Summit on "The New Rules of Engagement"; from Jennifer Rooney at Forbes (Video):  “For me the one thing is almost the validation that we’re all struggling with [...]