Northern California

Google must be seeing some success from its same-day delivery service because it's announced it will be expanding the service to the Southland. Right now, the trial run service will only be available for several hundred Google employees in Santa Monica, though should the company see success with this expansion, it could eventually be opened to the general public. Indeed, when Google launched its Shopping Express pilot in March 2013, it was only available for Google employees in Northern California. However, since September, the service has been available to all customers in San Francisco and San Jose.

Japanese apparel retailer Fast Retailing remains deliberate in its approach to the growth of its Uniqlo brand in the U.S., with plans for five more stores by mid-year. There are currently 1,300 Uniqlo locations worldwide in 13 countries, but only 17 stores in the U.S. The five new stores the company is adding this spring and summer will be located in King of Prussia, Pa., Stamford, Conn., and Daly City, Concord, and Milpitas, Calif. The company's other existing stores are clustered in the Northeast and Northern California. 

Japanese retailer Uniqlo will open 10 new U.S. stores over the next two months in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Northern California, and wants to expand with 20 more in 2014. But first, it needs to figure out Los Angeles. "Southern California is a very important market to us, and it's a priority market to us," said the company's COO. "We will think through the specific strategy for L.A., but right now, we're studying it. Do we open multiple stores right away versus have a flagship and wait a year to open up the suburban areas?"

Three former Target employees are suing the nation's second-largest discount chain for discrimination and retaliation, citing alleged racial slurs from managers and a training document that included stereotypical portrayals of Hispanics. The lawsuit, filed recently in Northern California's Yolo County, says that workers who complained about the conditions at a distribution center in Woodland were fired. The complaint alleges that white managers regularly used racial epithets when speaking with Hispanic workers.