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BENTONVILLE, Ark., Sept. 22, 2022 — Walmart is ready to serve its customers this holiday season, offering better value and more convenience than ever as customers start their holiday shopping. More than half of Walmart customers will start their holiday shopping research in October¹ and Walmart is prepared to meet their needs and help them make the most of the season with an exceptional experience no matter how, when or where they want to shop.

Today, the retailer is announcing price investments for even deeper savings, three new and expanded returns options, a broader assortment with more top gifts, a new community giving platform and an enhanced omnichannel shopping experience to deliver for its customers all season long.

“Saving our customers time and money is in our DNA, and I am proud of how we’ve innovated to offer exactly what our customers need this holiday – deeper savings across

Pink leather blazers and emerald frilly dresses, along with other women’s clothing items, line the side wall of Marem, a new 1,470-square-foot clothing boutique that opened Friday, Sept. 16 in Baton Rouge.

The name Marem is a combination of the two owners’ first names, Marlo Rodrigue and Emily Rodrigue. Though not sisters or cousins, the childhood friends renovated a tanning salon into a trendy, colorful clothing store in three weeks with the help of their friends and family.

Marem, located at 4250 Burbank Drive, started as an online boutique in July 2020 — the peak of the coronavirus, but a time when most people spent much of their time online shopping. After bursting at the seams of their storage unit and getting repeated questions of a physical location from their customers, the young women decided to open their first location.

• Amazon started a building boom in 2020 amid soaring sales as the pandemic hit
• Now the retail giant has too much space and is slowing or canceling several projects, including at least five in Michigan
• Related businesses are affected, including a Novi-based transport company that is closing and laying off delivery drivers

Amazon opened a $150 million regional fulfillment center southeast of Grand Rapids in March 2020, as the start of the COVID pandemic propelled staggering growth for retail delivery across the United State.

The 850,000-square-foot building in Gaines Township, about four miles from the Gerald Ford International Airport, generated enough activity to employ 1,000 people as national e-commerce sales soared 50 percent from 2019 to 2021.

That’s when Amazon — in the midst of its pandemic building boom — sought to open two additional facilities across 68th Street to sort and deliver online orders to front porches, and officials