British retail giant Tesco has announced that it will set up a joint venture in China to develop its shopping center business in the nation. The joint venture will be 50% owned by Tesco and the remaining 50% will be owned by Asian investors, including HSBC Nan Fung China Real Estate Fund, Singapore's Metro Holdings, and [...]

Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST) recently posted October net sales of $5.68 billion, a 7% increase over last year's $5.30 billion. Comparable sales spiked 5% year-over-year.

Company Description

Costco Wholesale Corporation operates an international chain of membership warehouses, mainly under the "Costco Wholesale" name. The company currently operates 562 warehouses, including 409 in the United States and Puerto Rico, 77 in Canada, 21 in the United Kingdom, 7 in Korea, 6 in Taiwan, 9 in Japan, 32 in Mexico and 1 in Australia. Costco also operates Costco Online at www.costco.com and at www.costco.ca in Canada. The company plans to open an additional five new warehouses (including the relocation of one warehouse to a larger and better-located facility), prior to the end of calendar 2009.

Recent Events

In recent news, it was reported that Costco will stop carrying Coke products due to a dispute over prices as the retail giant is trying

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French retail giant Carrefour and China Unicom Guangdong branch have formed a strategic alliance and signed a cooperative agreement. Under the agreement, Carrefour will introduce China Unicom's WO brand 3G experience stores into its 16 outlets in five cities in the Pearl River Delta area. These stores will provide services such as 3G personal services, invoice [...]

Why Is Beijing Investing $200 Billion in One Company? The answer is simple. This rail company hauls 25% of the world’s freight – but it only has 6% of the world’s track. Right now, freight supply is 65% shy of demand. Sales for this company have grown on average 47% over the last five year. And now, with a $200 billion infusion, it’s about to jump even higher. Estimates show the potential gains at 356%. Click here for the full report.

By Bob Blandeburgo
Associate Editor
Money Morning

The much-anticipated earnings report from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) and new data from the U.S. Department of Commerce yesterday (Thursday) showed that consumers are not only reeling in their discretionary spending, but may also be pulling the reins on the necessities.

Retail sales fell 0.1% in July from the previous month, and 8.3% from a …

British retail giant Tesco has announced that its second energy-saving store in Shanghai, Wanda Zhoupu store, will be opened in September 2009. This will also be Tesco's first outlet to open after it registered in Shanghai as a foreign company. With the opening of this new store, Tesco will have 19 stores in Shanghai and 66 [...]

SpongeTech® Delivery Systems, Inc., a leading designer, producer and marketer of unique lines of reusable cleaning products for car, child, home and pet care usages, recently announced that the company received an initial open order of its car care products from Costco™, the largest membership warehouse club chain in the world. SpongeTech®’s proprietary, patent (and patent-pending) sponge-like car care products utilize hydrophilic (liquid-absorbing) foam and are pre-loaded with specially formulated ingredients, including soap, conditioner and/or wax, that are released when the sponge is soaked and applied to a surface with minimal pressure.

The company believes that this initial order from Costco demonstrates the wide market acceptance and demand of SpongeTech®’s innovative cleaning products. Costco currently operates 555 warehouses in the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, the United Kingdom, Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Mexico.

SpongeTech®’s chief operating officer, Steven Moskowitz, commented, “We look forward to our new relationship with retail giant,

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The France-headquartered retail giant Carrefour has announced that its major management restructuring in China is complete. Stephane Deutsch, the former financial director for Carrefour China, has assumed the post of general manager of Carrefour's South China area and vice president for Carrefour China; Pierre Bertholat, the former general manager for the South China area, becomes the [...]

Electronics retail giant Best Buy has announced the official opening of its Xinzhuang store in Shanghai. Xinzhuang is one of the largest white-collar communities in Shanghai. With the opening of its new Xinzhuang store, Best Buy not only further improves its layout in the Shanghai market, but, as local media reports, also has started to implement [...]

The Guangdong-based department store retailer Jusco, a subsidiary of the Japanese retail giant Aeon, has accelerated its expansion in the Chinese market with a new project in Popark, Guangzhou. Popark is jointly developed by Guangzhou City Construction and Development Property and the Hong Kong-headquartered Way Kon Group, and is a business project that will focus on [...]

Swedish furniture retail giant Ikea has announced that it will close its trade offices in Chengdu, Wuhan, and Xiamen and employees in these three offices will be dismissed. Ikea told local media that this decision is the company's efforts to integrate its purchasing businesses in China. In the future, its trade offices in Shanghai, Qingdao, and [...]