Jewish & World News

Employees at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. WMT +0.48% are testing a new checkout system that allows shoppers to use their mobile phones to scan items as they walk through stores and pay at self-service kiosks, skipping the cashiers' lines. Called "Scan and Go," the new mobile-payment application is the retailer's latest attempt to reduce long checkout lines; the company says it spends $12 million per second on cashers' wages in the U.S. The new system doesn't allow customers to pay with a mobile device, but is meant to make scanning easier for them.

After seeing high customer demand for layaway during last year's winter holiday season, Wal-Mart is expanding the interest-free pay-over-time program for Christmas. The new program will last a month longer than last year's program and will include more items than the toys and electronics featured last year.

Its plans to open up shop in Brooklyn have faced stiff opposition, but that's reportedly not stopping Walmart from hoping for a location near Citi Field. According to the Daily News, the big box retailer is lobbying lawmakers to set up shop in the retail and entertainment complex that's planned as a central part of the area's redevelopment.

Disability rights advocates filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against Wal-Mart Stores Inc., claiming the retail giant refuses to make payment machines accessible to customers who use wheelchairs and scooters. The plaintiffs allege that Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart knowingly placed point-of-sale terminals beyond the reach of disabled customers at many of its more than 200 stores in California -- in violation of state law and the U.S. Americans with Disabilities Act.

The American consumer alone can no longer save the world, and nowhere is that more apparent than here inside the world's largest retailer: Wal-Mart.

Fayetteville, Ark. - Now on sale at Wal-Mart: college degrees for its employees. The purveyor of inexpensive jeans and lawnmowers is dipping its toe into the online-education waters, working with a Web-based university to offer its employees in the United States affordable college degrees. The partnership with American Public University, a for-profit school with about 70,000 online students, will allow some Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club employees to earn credits in areas like retail management and logistics for performing their regular jobs. The university will offer eligible employees 15 percent price reductions on tuition, and Wal-Mart will invest $50 million over three years in other tuition assistance for the employees who participate. Executives at Wal-Mart, the nations’ largest retailer, said the company was not interested in entering the online-education field in a broader way. The point of the program, they said, was to help employees get more education and to build a better wo...