The Financial Post reports in its Tuesday edition Walmart Canada, Target Canada, Sears Canada and Lowe's Canada are either posting diminishing returns or operating losses, says a new state-of-the-retail-industry report from Desjardins Securities. The Post's Hollie Shaw writes Walmart, for example, increased its square footage in Canada by 10.6 per cent in fiscal 2013 and another 2.6 per cent in fiscal 2014, and will add 1.5 per cent in the current fiscal year, but "the huge infusion of capital has not yielded the returns to which Walmart is accustomed," the analyst argues. Home improvement chain Lowe's has had strong recent same-store sales growth, but that has been in part due to the closure and conversion of Rona's big-box stores, and the retailer is still losing money as it heads into its eighth year of operations in Canada. Meanwhile, multiple smaller Canadian chains including Reitmans, Le Chateau, Danier Leather and Bikini Village have been struggling and reducing store count as they compete with stronger players such as Gap, Joe Fresh and H&M. In the last two years, retailers including Best Buy and Future Shop, Toys "R" Us Canada, Staples and Indigo Books & Music have also closed some stores.