Retail Roundup: 360 Wal-Marts to be Powered by Wind, Online Retailers Fight, More

(MoneyWatch)  360 Texas Wal-Marts to be powered by wind -- Wal-Mart recently inked a four-year contract with Duke Energy, which will power hundreds of the chain's Texas stores using wind energy. DE is expected to provide up to 226 million kilowatt-hours of power annually to about 360 stores, resulting in the reduction of about 139,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide, the equivalent of what 25,000 cars would emit. Wal-Mart has been working on becoming a more sustainable business for three years, and CEO H. Lee Scott Jr. has said the company will one day be completely supplied by renewable energy. [Source: Washington Post]

Online retailers begin bare-knuckles brawl -- While retailers face off in attempts to lock-in frugal consumers shopping for the holidays, e-commerce sites are waging a battle of their own, teetering on the edge of now-razor-thin profit margins. This year may very well bring online retailers the first dire holiday season they have ever seen, according to a New York Times article that cites example after example of prices spiraling downward. Sony's fairly new HDR-SR11 high-def digital video recorder has a suggested retail price of $1,200, but Dell.com slashed the price down to $899, while the Web site for Abe's of Maine now features the product for $750. Lori Andre, owner of Lori's Designer Shoes, an accessories site, was forced to cut prices by unprecedented increments. "We've been in business for 25 years and never seen the bottom drop out like this," she says, explaining that last week sales on the site fell by nearly 25 percent. [Source: New York Times]

Mall of America not feeling nation's struggle -- While shopping centers across the nation remain quiet as stores struggle to attract customers, the Mall of America appears to be the exception: It's sales are up nearly 4 percent on the year. What's more: the weekend of Nov. 7-9 was among the 10 busiest weekends the center has seen since opening in 1992. The mega mall even ran out of parking spaces as shoppers flocked to hot spots like the new American Girl store, which drew in customers willing to wait three hours for a first peek. "We're optimistic about the holiday season because we have so many unique new store openings, many fantastic events, and we continue to be a destination for local, regional, and international guests, said spokesman Dan Jasper. [Source: Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal]