Electronics retailer Best Buy announced it would close 50 big box locations in the U.S. as it refocuses its operations around mobile.
The company said it will launch 100 new mobile locations as it retools its domestic store format.
The announcement was timed with the company's fourth quarter report, where it sharply beat analyst expectations on the bottom line. Over the final quarter of 2011, revenue grew three percent to $16.6 billion while earnings per share hit $2.47.
However, analysts polled by Bloomberg had forecast top line results of $17.15 billion, some $500 million more than the company reported. The quarter also benefitted from an extra week in the company's fiscal calendar — excluding the week would mean revenue actually fell 1.1 percent. Shares were down 6 percent in the first minutes of trading.
The company saw same-store sales decline 2.3 percent during the period, highlighting its difficulties as the U.S. economy gained steam during the first few months of 2012. Best Buy saw weakness across the board, with sales suffering in gaming, notebooks, digital imaging and televisions.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/best-buy-shutter-50-big-120457157.html

(Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc will add more self-checkout lanes at Walmart and Sam's Clubs stores as it continues to look for ways to lower costs and prices, Chief Financial Officer Charles Holley said on Wednesday.
Holley said he was "very pleased" with the traffic and sales at Walmart's U.S. stores this quarter, which started in February.
Pushing shoppers to scan their own items and make payments themselves, eliminating the cashier, has the potential to save Wal-Mart millions of dollars. For every one second in average transaction time at the Walmart U.S. chain, the company said it spends about $12 million in cashier wages.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/wal-mart-more-self-checkout-lanes-141140469.html

Cutting labor again and again.....

You just can't make this stuff up......

Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh will be inducted this year into the Hall of Famous Missourians. The news comes as the conservative commentator is under fire for comments he made on his nationally-syndicated show last week.

Limbaugh called Georgetown University law school student Sandra Fluke a “slut” and a “prostitute” after she spoke last week before a group of congressional Democrats in favor of President Obama’s birth control mandate for religious employers. Limbaugh has since apologized while several advertisers have left his show. Despite the controversy, House Speaker Steven Tilley (R, Perryville) is moving forward with plans to induct Limbaugh into the Hall.

“He (has talked) on the radio for hours at a time for the last 20 years," Tilley told reporters today. "I’m not going to go through and review every comment he’s ever made, just like I’m sure the people who inducted Mark Twain, Warren Hearnes or John Ashcroft didn’t. I think you look at their body of work.”

Attention came to the induction after a post published on Feb. 13 by Kansas City area sculptor E. Spencer Schubert, saying that he was working on a bust of Limbaugh for the Hall, made the rounds on social media.

Limbaugh is a native of Cape Girardeau. Tilley gave no date as to when the induction will take place.

More at link

http://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/rush-limbaugh-be-inducted-hall-famous-missourians-state-capitol