Walmart

BENTONVILLE, Ark. - A federal judge has granted class action status in a sex discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart, which will become the largest civil rights class action ever filed against a U.S. private employer.

DALLAS - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced today that it will widen its trial of radio frequency identification tags in northern Texas to several more products, among them large items like bicycles and lawnmowers, according to the Dallas Morning News and other published reports.

LONDON - British supermarket giant Tesco today announced that its first-quarter sales increased 12 percent as the company reduced prices and added new nonfood items, Bloomberg reported.

NEW YORK - Wal-Mart de Mexico SA (Walmex), after gaining about half of supermarket sales in the Mexico City area, has announced plans to expand into northern Mexico -- where it will come up against San Antonio-based H.E. Butt Grocery Co., which first opened shop there seven years earlier and is now planning to add 20 more stores, Bloomberg reports.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced Friday at its annual shareholders meeting that it had launched a series of initiatives to address concerns over its pay structure and opportunities for women and minorities.

NEW YORK - Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is getting ready to make big changes to its pay policy, potentially resulting in raises for new employees but penalties for higher-paid veterans, according to Reuters.

Shrinking labor unions are increasingly adopting a powerful strategy from which small retailers must learn to protect themselves.

FRANKLIN, Tenn. - Self-service shopping will generate transactions worth $70 billion in 2004, according to a new study from IHL Consulting Group. The study forecasts that the value of these transactions will increase to over $330 billion by 2007 as many more systems are deployed in the next few years.