Dollar General sets 14 job fairs in state
Dollar General Corp. is holding 14 hiring events across the state next week as part of plans to add 10,000 new employees nationwide.
Little Rock and Jonesboro will host two hiring events each. Others will take place in North Little Rock, Centerton, Pottsville, Batesville, Pine Bluff, Mountain Home, Tontitown, Beebe, Ozark and Yellville.
The 14 events in the state are among 600 the discount retailer will hold through Sept. 24 to help support expansion plans and fill current vacancies. Candidates must apply online at dollargeneral.com/careers.
Dollar General plans to open 900 stores in fiscal 2016 and 1,000 more in fiscal 2017. The company, which currently operates more than 13,000 stores, announced earlier this year that it was purchasing 41 former Wal-Mart Express locations. The acquisition included stores in Coal Hill and Mulberry.
-- Robbie Neiswanger
Wal-Mart bans Visa in 16 Canada stores
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will no longer accept Visa credit cards in 16 stores across the Canadian province of Manitoba beginning Oct. 24.
The ban extends a policy that began in July, when the retailer announced it would not longer accept Visa cards at three stores in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The company said in a statement on its website it decided to no longer accept Visa in Manitoba stores because of fees that "remain unacceptably high."
Wal-Mart Canada, which pays more than $75.7 million in credit-card transaction fees each year, said it remained hopeful of reaching an agreement with Visa on an acceptable fee.
Customers can continue to use other forms of payment, including MasterCard, Discover and American Express.
-- Robbie Neiswanger
Index's 3.92 surge led by Murphy Oil
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, climbed 3.92 on Thursday to 338.45.
"U.S. stocks surged higher Thursday after soft retail sales and production data helped to ease rate hike concerns," said John Blackwell, senior vice president and managing director of equity trading at Stephens Inc. in Little Rock.
Shares of Murphy Oil Corp. rose almost 3 percent.
Total volume for the index was 18 million shares.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business on 09/16/2016