Costco Wholesale Corporation Reports December Sales Results

Retailers might want to have extra staff available on August 5. The peak day of the back-to-school shopping season will be August 5, followed by Labor Day, September 4, according to a study by RetailMeNot. The firm's data shows consumers are likely to do the bulk of their spending in August.

Walgreens announced this week that it has joined a groundbreaking consortium that aims to reinvent the single-use plastic retail bag. Teaming up with other major retailers and with non-profit organizations in the Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag, Walgreens is committed to being part of the solution to the waste and recycling issues associated with the use of more than 100 billion retail plastic bags every year in the U.S. The goal of the Beyond the Bag initiative is to identify, test and implement viable design solutions and models that more sustainably serve the purpose of the current retail bag. Current alternatives to the plastic retail bag have yet to garner industry-wide support or widespread use by the public and many still have significant environmental impacts.

Target is giving thousands of its employees a raise. The retailer announced this week that it will start raising its minimum wage next month to $10 an hour, and will eventually raise it to $11 an hour for all U.S. stores. "Target has always offered market-competitive wages to our team members," Brian Cornell, Target’s CEO, said in a statement. "With this latest commitment, we'll be providing even more meaningful pay, as well as the tools, training, and support … that set Target apart." Although Cornell didn’t specify how many of the company’s current 323,000 employees will get the raise, it will apply to the 100,000 temporary workers that the retailer plans to hire ahead of the holidays. Target also committed to boosting its minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2020. Click Read More below for more of the story.