Content about Economy of Canada

New York -- Kleinfeld Bridal, the iconic New York bridal retailer and star of the hit reality show “Say Yes to the Dress,” will open a 20,000-sq.-ft. salon in Hudson’s Bay’s flagship location in downtown Toronto in early 2014. The Hudson’s Bay Company has exclusive rights to the brand in Canada.

Atlanta -- Mother Nature Network and Walmart are teaming up to launch an online destination (mnn.com/leaderboard) that profiles the biggest innovations in sustainability – and the pioneers who are creating them.

New York -- Shares of Safeway Inc. shares rose as much as 9% on Wednesday on rumors of increased buyout interest for its Canada operations by Canadian grocer Metro Inc. and Loblaw Companies Ltd.

On Tuesday, Metro announced it was selling off nearly half its stake in Couche-Tard Inc. for $482 million.

In December, Loblaw announced plans to spin off the vast majority of its property assets into a real estate investment trust.

Laval, Quebec City -- Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. announced that it has signed, through its wholly owned indirect subsidiary, Mac's Convenience Stores LLC, an agreement to acquire 29 stores, 25 stores are located in Illinois, three in Missouri and one in Oklahoma. The transaction is anticipated to close in December 2012.

All the stores would eventually be rebranded under the Circle K brand. Couche-Tard’s Midwest division would operate 28 of them and the other one would be operated by the Southwest division.

Mississsauga, Ontario -- Walmart Canada on Friday opened its 200th supercenter, in Edmonton, Alberta. Today's grand opening marks a major milestone for Walmart Canada. The company opened its first supercentres in Ontario in 2006. Today, Walmart Canada has supercentres in six provinces and 373 stores nationwide serving more than eight million customers each week.

Mississauga, Ontario -- Target will sponsor a tour across Canada that will visit more than 20 communities ahead of the planned opening of its stores in the country, the retailer said Tuesday.

The tour will start in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and conclude in British Columbia in the middle of December. Target plans to open 124 stores in Canada starting in March and April 2013.

Bentonville, Ark. -- As holiday shoppers prepared to battle crowds on Thanksgiving weekend, Wal-Mart workers and supports geared up to protest at stores nationwide, openly criticizing the retailers’ wages, benefits and treatment of employees.

Nine people were arrested in Paramount, Calif., including three Walmart employees, for blocking a busy street. About 1,000 people protested there.

Toronto -- Canadian luxury fashion retailer Holt Renfrew & Co. said Monday it will launch a new discount chain called hr2, with a first store in March in Quebec, followed by planned locations across the country by 2015.

It said the stores will range in size from 25,000 sq. ft. to 35,000 sq. ft., smaller than Holt Renfrew’s nine department stores, and targeting women age 25 and up.

Mississauga, Ontario -- Walmart Canada said Tuesday it will complete 30 real estate projects by the end of October, including two supercenter conversions and 28 new stores totaling 2.4 million sq. ft. of retail space.

The new stores were former Zellers locations; 10 will be converted to supercenters and 18 will be Walmart Canada discount stores.

“This is an exciting month for Walmart Canada,” said Jim Thompson, COO, Walmart Canada.

Bentonville, Ark. -- Wal-Mart Stores said Tuesday that it is launching a new service called Rapid Reload, which allows customers to load money onto prepaid cards.

The service is affiliated with Green Dot Network, InComm's Vanilla Reload Network and First Data's Money Network.

For a fee of $3.74, the program allows customers, effective immediately, to add money to their card at a store register.

New York -- Nordstrom will announce on Thursday that it will open its first four stores in Canada by 2015, according to the Globe and Mail. Executives of Nordstrom and Cadillac Fairview, the landlord of the four malls where the stores will be located, set to unveil the sites at a news conference in Toronto, the report said.

The stores will be located in Pacific Centre in Vancouver, Chinook Centre in Calgary, Ottawa’s Rideau Centre and Sherway Gardens in Toronto, according to previous reports.