In an effort to generate money before the holiday season, Sears Holdings Corp plans to raise as much as $380 million by selling off 40 million shares of Sears Canada Inc. through distributing its rights. They will be put on sale for its shareholders on Oct. 20 at $10.60 per share.

Sears Holdings has experienced losses since mid-2012 and responded by closing stores, cutting inventory and selling off property and assets. Its stake in Sears Canada will fall from 51 per cent to a low 12 per cent. Sears Canada will also apply for a Nasdaq listing.

Sears Holdings has been attempting to raise funds for a while, including a short-term loan of $400 million taken last month from CEO Edward Lampert’s investment firm ESL Partners LP. Selling off its shares of Sears Canada will help the parent company reach a total of $1.45 billion raised this fiscal year. As of August 2, the company has $829 million in cash and equivalents and long-term debt and capitalized lease obligations of $2.82 billion.

In a move that may benefit its competitors, Walmart Canada is raising its grocery prices in some markets, according to a new report by BMO Capital Markets. Analysts say they have witnessed trends that suggest, “Walmart Supercentre is finally passing through higher wholesale grocery costs in the form of retail grocery inflation.”

“Based on our surveys, [Walmart] had not been passing through the cost of wholesale grocery inflation to its customers until the last few months, while other grocers had started to slowly do so since the beginning of 2014,” said the report.

Statistics Canada noted a 1.2 per cent increase on food retail prices in 2013, led by fish, which experienced a 4.1 per cent price increase, and vegetables, which increased by 5.2 per cent.

“Retail inflation at Walmart Supercentre is clearly a positive development for other grocers as overall industry retail grocery inflation would not be sustainable if Walmart Supercentre were to hold its prices flat,” BMO Analyst Peter Sklar told the Financial Post.

According to BMO Capital Markets, while large grocers inflated their prices during the second quarter, food volume dropped. The 2014 Food Price Index Report by the University of Guelph predicted retail food prices would grow from 0.3 to 2.6 per cent this year.

According to tests performed by Consumer Reports Food Safety and Sustainability, most packaged foods in the U.S. that are labeled as ‘natural’ were found to contain a considerable amount of genetically modified ingredients. Urvashi Rangan, executive director of the non-profit survey company says the ‘natural’ label is misleading for customers.

The survey was conducted on over 80 processed foods that contain corn or soy, the two most commonly genetically engineered crops in the U.S. Each product was tested twice to measure the GMO content. If a product registered less than 0.9 per cent genetically engineered corn or soy, it was considered GMO-free.

Although foods labeled as ‘non-GMO’ or ‘organic’ were not found to contain any genetically modified ingredients, any products that were labeled as ‘natural’ or did not make claims on its packaging regarding GMOs contained the genetically engineered ingredients, including cereals, chips and infant formula, according to Consumer Reports.

The Grocery Manufacturers Association in the U.S. has been pushing the federal government to define how to use the term “natural” on food packaging, while allowing GMO foods to be labeled as natural.

Certain U.S. states are considering mandatory labeling of foods that contain genetically modified ingredients, and Vermont has already passed a labeling law. Consumer Reports’ policy arm, Consumers Union, supports mandatory labeling of any products that contain GMOs.

According to an infographic by SMS Store Traffic, the top 10 most productive shopping malls in North America are Bal Harbour Shops in Bal Harbour, Florida; The Forum Shops at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada; The Grove in Los Angeles, California; Pacific Centre in Vancouver, British Columbia; Yorkdale Shopping Centre in Toronto, Ontario; Toronto Eaton Centre in Toronto, Ontario; Mall at Millennia in Orlando, Florida; Oakridge Shopping Centre in Vancouver, British Columbia; The Mall at Short Hills in Short Hills, New Jersey; and Chinook Centre in Calgary, Alberta.

Meanwhile, the world’s top three largest malls are New South China Mall in Dongguan, China at 659,612 square metres; Golden Resources Mall in Beijing, China at 557,419 square metres; and SM City North Edsa in Quezon City, Philippines at 482,878 square metres. Rounding out the top 10 are Isfahan City Center in Isfahan, Iran; I Utama in Selangor, Malaysia; Persian Gulf Complex in Iran; Central World in Bangkok, Thailand; Mid Valley Megamall in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Cevahir Mall in Istanbul, Turkey; and Sunway Pyramid Subang Jaya, Malaysia.

A recent study by the University of Warwick in the U.K. found a link between fruit and vegetable intake and mental wellbeing. According to the survey in England that included 14,000 participants, eating five servings of fruits and vegetables every day leads to a better mental health.

The participants had their mental health assessed by the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale, and they were all older than 16 years old. The study, published in the British Medical Journal, also found in 2012 that mental wellbeing peaked when fruits and vegetables were consumed in seven portions per day.

Toronto-based Maple Leaf Foods has closed down its meat processing plant located in Moncton, New Brunswick. The company has operated the plant since 2000, and the closure will affect 100 employees working at the location. Maple Leaf Foods employs approximately 12,000 people in total, and exports hot dogs, deli meats and other meat products to locations in the U.S., Asia, and more.

Production of the plant has been transferred to other facilities in Winnipeg, Saskatoon, and Hamilton. This decision has been part of the company’s restructuring that was announced back in April. The restructuring is set to end in the next few months.

McCain Foods Limited has welcomed Shai Altman to its team as the new president after 10 months of operating without a president for its Canadian division. Altman will start his position on October 20 and replace Darryl Rowe, who stepped down from the Canadian president position last December. Before joining McCain’s team, Altman has worked at Wrigley.

“Shai’s passion, expertise and dedication to strategic growth will be of great value to McCain,” McCain president and CEO Dirk Van de Put told Canadian Grocer. “He will be a tremendous asset to both our Canadian business and our North American senior leadership team.”

The comfort and ease of online shopping is a growing attraction for consumers, so much so that malls are being forced to entertain shoppers just to keep them coming back.

The strategy several malls are using is to feature entertainment and digital attractions, as is the case with Cadillac Fairview Corp., one of the country’s biggest mall landlords. The mall developer will double its marketing budget next year as it looks into ways to entice shoppers to return, according to John Sullivan, chief executive officer of the company.

“We will put a fairly significant investment into an entertainment component in many of our malls,” he said at a panel session at the International Council of Shopping Centres conference.

E-commerce accounted for 4.5 per cent of total retail sales in Canada last year, although that number is expected to grow to 8.2 per cent by 2018, according to eMarketer.

Although Statistics Canada reported sales dropped from June to July 2014 by 0.1 per cent, this is based on its seasonally adjusted data, which are comprised of estimates.

In reality, July 2014 retail sales grew 6.6 per cent since July 2013 when not seasonally adjusted, which was the largest single-month gain in over two years. In addition, sales from May until July grew by 5.3 per cent year-over-year, which is again higher than numbers seen over the past two and a half years, which can be seen more in Food and Drug and Store Merchandise categories, as opposed to the Automotive sector as in years past.

Food and Drug sector stores experienced sustained sales growth over the last few months. Health and personal care stores saw an increase of 6.8 per cent for the three months ending in July 2014, compared with sales from the same period one year ago. Supermarkets also saw a gain of 1.3 per cent for the period ending in July.

Target stores launched in Canada to much fanfare, only to face disappointment when some store shelves sat empty due to stock issues and its prices were higher than its American counterpart.

Now, however, Target Canada has changed its strategy for the Canadian market and is offering prices that even beat out its biggest competitor Walmart Canada, according to a report in the Globe and Mail.

After a study comparing the two discount retailers was conducted by Kantar Retail of Boston, Target Canada was found to have prices that were 3.9 per cent lower than those at Walmart Canada across 33 national brands in the grocery, healthy and beauty aisles of the stores. This compares to a similar study conducted in 2013 that showed the two retailers had similar prices.

Now, Target faces challenges in shifting price perception among its Canadian consumers, according to report in the Globe.