“Home Depot’s failure in China: Ignoring women” by Ruchika Tulshyan at Atlanta Business Journal.  ““Research data indicates that Home Depot should adopt urban boutique concepts,” the study said. These stores should be placed in malls or on street corners, rather than operate as “big-box” retailers. The stores should emphasize female consumers.  “In many cultures, women are the primary purchasing agent. Especially in China, women make the final decision in buying home décor products,” said Gao. “After the one-child policy in China, women became so scarce that brides were given full control of how they wanted their house to look after marriage.”  Read more:  https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/blog/femme-fortune/2013/04/home-depots-failure-in-china.html

 

“Walmart’s 6 New DC Stores Mix Urban and Suburban Layouts” by Dan Malouff at Greater Greater Washington.  “Each of the 6 stores has such unique characteristics that one wonders if Walmart is using DC as an experiment to see which types of layouts work in the urban environment. By comparing the sales at the more urban stores to the more suburban ones, Walmart will gain many valuable insights.”  See all 6 store layouts:  https://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/14555/walmarts-6-dc-stores-some-will-be-urban-some-wont/

 

“One year into the job, Target’s marketing chief already leaves mark” by Thomas Lee at Star-Tribune.  “When Michael Sheldon first heard Chief Marketing Officer Michael Francis was leaving Target Corp. in 2011, Sheldon’s heart sank.  The Minneapolis-based retailer had just hired Sheldon’s advertising agency, Deutsch Los Angeles, to work on several campaigns. A new CMO could only mean one thing, Sheldon thought.  “Put on the life preserver,” Sheldon said. “We’re going overboard.”Several months later, Sheldon sat among 150 other nervous agency types waiting to meet Jeff Jones, the man Target tapped to replace Francis. Spotting a chance to grab Jones for a few minutes alone, Sheldon introduced himself.  “It felt like there was no one else in the room,” Sheldon said. “It was utterly refreshing.”  Read more:  https://m.startribune.com/?id=204920431

 

“Williams-Sonoma stops selling pressure cookers after Boston Marathon” by Tina Ranieri at The Examiner.  “The high-end home goods retailers have taken pressure cookers off the shelves after the Boston Marathon. The pressure cookers will still be available on the Williams-Sonoma website in Natick, Mass.”  Read more:  https://www.examiner.com/article/williams-sonoma-stops-selling-pressure-cookers-after-boston-marathon

 

“Walmart Engages Stakeholders on Twitter” by Jen Boynton at Triple Pundit.  “Around 130 Tweeters participated, peppered Walmart with questions about everything under the sun. Many participants asked insightful questions about the contents of the report and Walmart’s process for pulling it together. The company also got a lot of tough questions about their social and environmental record.”

Example Walmart Twitter response:  “A2d: We’ve learned a lot — like don’t put a solar rooftop next to a golf driving range”

Read the Twitter chat:  https://www.triplepundit.com/2013/04/walmart-engages-stakeholders-twitter-chat/

 

“Content is the new retail store” by Amaryllis Fox at USA Today.  “Content is the new retail store. And publishers are increasingly interested in turn-key solutions to capture that potential commerce. Reading a recipe on Good Housekeeping? Buy the roaster and immersion blender you’ll need without leaving the page. It saves you the hassle of visiting a separate retailer to purchase the products you want, while giving those retailers a more useful, less annoying way to advertise their goods.”  Read more:  https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2013/04/19/google-netflix-cnn-youtube-mulu-media-outbrain-sears/2089393/

 

“Home Depot Sells Consumer Reports A Used Chainsaw, Refuses To Take It Back Because It’s Used” by Chris Morran at The Consumerist. “Consumer Reports recently sent a secret shopper to a Home Depot in New Jersey to pick up a Homelite UT10589A chainsaw…The shopper paid full price for the “new” saw, but when he opened it up, he found it covered in sawdust and packaged with leaking bottles of oil. It had obviously been used by a previous customer and returned…Regardless, when the shopper attempted to return the saw to the Home Depot store, it would not take the item back — because it had been previously used.”  Read more:  https://consumerist.com/2013/04/26/home-depot-sells-consumer-reports-a-used-chainsaw-refuses-to-take-it-back-because-its-used/

 

“Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. to present at the Barclays 2013 Retail and Consumer Discretionary Conference”  “Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. will participate in the Barclays 2013 Retail and Consumer Discretionary Conference on Wednesday, May 1 (8:30 am EDT). Neil Ashe, president and CEO of Global eCommerce, will provide an overview on the company’s approach to serve customers through e-commerce initiatives, at the conference.”  Read more:  https://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsLang=en&newsId=20130426005617&div=-1245645151

 

“The Many Loves of Ken Langone, Co-Founder of Home Depot” by Mark Gimein at Bloomberg.  “Langone was the prime mover in bringing General Electric Co.’s Robert Nardelli to run Home Depot. Even when things don’t turn out perfectly in Langone’s efforts, the all-around atmosphere of affection persists. “The board loved [Nardelli] and hates the way this ended up,” an anonymous source (maybe not Langone) chimes in when Nardelli and Home Depot split up.”  Read more:  https://go.bloomberg.com/market-now/2013/04/26/the-many-loves-of-ken-langone/

 

Thanks for reading…

 

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