Walmart Gives Retail a Brief Reprieve

A number of retailers have cited wage increases as one of the reasons for filing for bankruptcy. John Morberg, the CEO of Garden Fresh Restaurant Intermediate Holdings, made sure to highlight this issue upon that company's bankruptcy filing. On the flip side, Toys R Us includes wage increases in its go-forward business plan. Target recently announced wage increases too. But Walmart, which had previously announced wage increases didn't match Target in its earnings announcement on Tuesday, providing relief to a lot of retailers already squeezed by various macro trends. Speaking of Target and Walmart, they are innovating to compete with Amazon for the "last mile." This could get ugly.