Walmart

LOS ANGELES -- A group of women claming they were taken to strip clubs on business trips, demeaned as "little Janie Qs" by senior managers, paid less than men for the same jobs, and denied promotions filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart in federal court in San Francisco yesterday.

LONDON - After a lengthy legal battle to keep its designer goods off the supermarket shelves, jeans maker Levi Strauss has announced plans to break into the mass market, The Independent reports.

CHICAGO - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. on Friday said it has named Tom Coughlin, who has run its namesake discount stores and its Sam's Club warehouse store division, as vice chairman of the corporation.

CARSON CITY, Nev. - The Nevada Assembly on Tuesday approved a bill mandating that large grocery stores offer adequate health insurance for their employees, or pay back any health services the state provides.

CHICAGO -- Having cleared away most of its legal hurdles yesterday, beleaguered Kmart appears to be nearing the end of the line to emerge from more than a year of bankruptcy.

Prodding from Wal-Mart helped resolve a bitter feud over the composition of produce containers and move the industry toward the efficiency of a common footprint.

PEMBROKE PINES, FLA. - When a new Super Wal-Mart replacement store on Pines Boulevard at Southwest 184th Avenue opens next March, it will feature an unusual design.

NEW YORK - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said on Monday that sales at stores open at least a year were tracking 5 percent to 7 percent higher in the week ended April 11, while department stores said they are seeing a decline, even in a month boosted by the late Easter.