Friday Tipsheet: Sam’s #1 in Cust. Service | Target Teaches Nordstrom | Meijer Likes WI

 

“Target Canada to open downtown anchor store in 2016” by Francine Kopun at Toronto Star.  “Unlike urban City Target stores in the U.S., it will not be a smaller store with fewer items, but a large location providing discount department store shopping to the tens of thousands of waterfront residents whose closest option today is the Eaton Centre. “It will be one of our largest stores in the entire country,” said Target Canada chief executive officer Tony Fisher, pointing out that the new store will also be easily accessible from the Financial District.”  Read more

 

“Top Ten (and Bottom Ten) Retailers Ranked on Customer Service (Sam’s #1, Amazon #2, Ace #1 in Hardware)” by Temken Group.  “Sam’s Club narrowly beat out Amazon.com for the top spot, receiving an 81% rating and an overall rank of 8th out of 268 companies across 19 industries. With ratings of 79% each, Costco, PetSmart, Ace Hardware, and BJ’s Wholesale Club also earned high marks from customers.”  See the rankings

 

“Nordstrom Learns From Target, Delays Push into Canada” by Marina Strauss at Globe & Mail.  “Nordstrom executives watched Target struggle to launch 124 stores in Canada over nine months – and another three last week – which many industry observers say was too much to execute properly… “There are absolutely lessons to be learned,” Ms. White said on Thursday.  “We are approaching it differently than them to begin with.”  Read more

 

“Meijer planning expansion into Wisconsin” by Karen Dybis at The Detroit News.  “Meijer Inc. will expand into Wisconsin next year, further broadening its Midwest footprint with a $146 million distribution center and six new superstores in its sixth state…In 2015, Meijer will open full-size supercenters in the Milwaukee suburbs of Grafton, Sussex and Wauwatosa. Guglielmi said. It also will open one in Kenosha, a lakefront city that is about 45 minutes north of Chicago, where Meijer has built a loyal following. It will add sites in Waukesha and Oak Creek in 2016.” Read more

 

“Supervalu reshapes wholesale division” by Mike Hughlett at Star-Tribune.  “(Supervalu) will consolidate its distribution business from three regions to two, forming new east and west teams. They will be located in Hopkins, where Supervalu has a large distribution center, and in Mechanicsville, Va.  Supervalu will significantly downsize its regional office in Pleasant Prairie, Wis., 35 miles south of Milwaukee near the Illinois border.”  Read more

 

“Automated shop for UK villagers who lost their local stores” at The Telegraph.  “Peter Fox spent two-and-a-half years honing the shop – which he describes as a ‘giant vending machine’ – before it was installed this week outside a pub in Clifton, near Ashbourne in Derbyshire.  Residents can use cash or credit cards to buy milk, eggs, toiletries, kitchen essentials, pet food and even umbrellas and the machine will send out an email when its stock levels are getting low.”  Read more

 

“FedEx Takes Sloppy E-Tailers to Task” at WSJ.  “Retailers’ shortcomings on their side of the delivery equation “is a big part of the e-commerce business that really didn’t get enough publicity last year because they were an integral part of the problem even more than the weather and the carrier performance,” the FedEx chief said.  FedEx didn’t name names on the e-commerce naughty list, but Mr. Smith said his company is working with its retailing customers on these issues.”  Read more

 

“Trending on Social Media:  Man finds live worm in package of fish from Costco” at WBTW News.  “The video posted on Facebook by Binh Nguyen has more than 227,000 shares. Craig Wilson, Vice President of Quality Assurance and Food Safety, confirms that a nematode was found in the package of wild pacific cod fillet earlier this month…”Although it’s, quite frankly, disgusting, I wish I could tell you it’s very very uncommon,” said Wilson.”  See the video / Read more

 

“Campers wait outside Cabela’s for 1st Georgia store to open; Ribbon cutting to be done with a bow & arrow sharp shooter” at WAGT 26 News.  “The 42-thousand square foot facility is the first one in Georgia and the Southeast…”  See the video / Read more

 

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