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New York City -- While it may take some to fully assess the damage, the impact of Hurricane Irene on retail sales is likely to split among retail sectors: Home-improvement stores selling emergency preparation products and clean-up items are likely to benefit the most from the storm, while apparel retailers and department stores selling non-essential items are likely to take a hit. Industry analysts noted that big-box stores, dollar stores, drug stores and supermarkets all experienced sales surges prior to Irene’s arrival as consumers shopped for water, batteries and other emergency supplies, with the biggest winners are likely to

New York City -- The impact of Hurricane Irene on retail sales is likely to split among category lines: Home-improvement stores selling emergency preparation products and clean-up items are likely to benefit the most from the storm, while apparel retailers and department stores selling non-essential items are likely to take a hit. Industry analysts noted that big-box stores, drug stores and supermarkets all experienced sales surges prior to Irene’s arrival, but the biggest winners are likely to be home centers. In fact, pre-and-post storm sales may aid same-store sales at Home Depot and Lowe’s each by 1% point in

Hurricane Irene sent East Coast shoppers into stores to stock up on essentials last week instead of the clothes, notebooks and other supplies that retailers were counting on selling as children get ready to go back to school.

The oppressive heat waves across the country have ended. Summer camps are coming to a close and children are scrambling to finish the reading lists they've ignored all summer. This can only mean one thing — the first day of school is just around the corner.

Amazon sites reached the largest global audience of selected global retail and auction sites in June, with more than 282 million visitors, according to ComScore research. That was 20.4 percent of the worldwide Internet population. Other top brands in the study included eBay, which reached 16.2 percent of global Internet visitors, China's Alibaba.com Corporation (11.3 percent reach), Apple.com worldwide sites (9.7 percent reach) and Japan's Rakuten Inc. (4.2 percent reach). Amazon and Apple.com worldwide sites showed more globally distributed audiences compared to most other brands in the study. Amazon sites attracted 35.4 percent of its audience from North America,

Wal-Mart is transferring management of its e-commerce business to store-level leadership in developed countries and said that two online executives are leaving the company.

Wal-Mart is planning to launch several new projects this holiday season based on the technology it acquired from the social media startup Kosmix back in April. Kosmix’s platform previously powered multiple services, including a Twitter search site called TweetBeat, a health vertical called RightHealth and a homepage where users could search the web by topic.

New York City -- Wal-Mart Stores is again looking into a possible deal to buy Carrefour’s Brazilian unit, according to reports by Bloomberg News and The Wall Street Journal. According to the reports, the acquisition would enhance Wal-Mart’s position in Latin America.

New York City -- Carrefour SA said Tuesday that it is not in discussions to sell its Brazilian unit to Wal-Mart Stores. Newspaper Valor Economico had reported that the U.S. retailer was in discussions with Carrefour to acquire the French retailer’s Brazilian unit. The acquisition would have made Wal-Mart the largest retailer in Brazil after the acquisition.