Monday Tipsheet: Amazon Penny Glitch | $8.3 Bil for PetSmart

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This company loves to move into locations where Sears fails by John Jannarone at CNBC. “There’s still a lot of empty boxes out there and there will be for a long time,” At Home CEO Lewis Bird III said in an interview this week. “We’re the only retailer looking for a big box format.” Read more

 

U.K: Amazon 1p sales bonanza after computer glitch misprices thousands of items, leaving angry retailers ‘losing £30,000 overnight’ at Daily Mail. “For an hour on Friday, between 7pm and 8pm, a problem with RepricerExpress led to hundreds of items being sold on Amazon at a fraction of their normal price. It is unclear whether the processed orders will be delivered to customers or cancelled, and whether retailers will be reimbursed for their losses.” Read more

 

What’s in store for Walgreen now by Brigid Sweeney at Crain’s. “Being able to meld the front end and the back end is going to be key,” says Vishnu Lekraj, a senior analyst at Morningstar. “Walgreen hasn’t done an effective job of this so far.” Though same-store sales and the size of customers’ purchases have increased, foot traffic is down.” Read more

 

NYC: Amazon Fresh definitely not stopping at Park Slope by Ben Fischer at New York Bus. Journal. “The company announced Friday it’s serving customers in nine additional Brooklyn neighborhoods, covering much of the western and northern reaches of the borough.” Read more

 

Will the same-day delivery war be won by a competitor you’ve never heard of? by Sarah Halzack at Washington Post. “Deliv’s model is geared toward a generation of shoppers who want service that is both predictable and flexible. It’s designed to accommodate a shopper who wants his purchase to arrive in the two-hour window between his haircut appointment and his kid’s soccer game.” Read more

 

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Stop blaming store size for weak results by Krystina Gustafson at CNBC. “DDR CEO Dan Hurwitz said, too much blame gets put on what the store, or “box,” looks like, when often it’s what’s inside the box that’s the problem.”Keep in mind when Best Buy couldn’t keep flatscreen TVs in the store, they weren’t talking about reducing the size of their square footage,” Hurwitz said.” Read more

 

Australia: Woolworths raises petrol prices when Costco turns pumps off in evening by Clare Colley at Sydney Morning Herald. “Woolworths has been slammed as giving motorists a”two-fingered salute” by raising its petrol prices minutes after its new discount competitor, Costco, shuts its bowsers at night. As soon as the new Costco petrol station turned its pumps off at 9.30pm on Thursday, Woolworths’ petrol prices rose 14c to 143.9 cents per litre.” Read more

 

PetSmart Agrees to BC Partners’ $8.3 Billion Takeover Bid by David Welch at Bloomberg. “It was a very competitive auction,” Raymond Svider, a managing partner at BC Partners, said in a telephone interview. “The company should never have been put in play. Growth slowed and the market overreacted. We feel fortunate.” Read more

 

Mystery solved! Amazon delivers giant boxes of toys to charities around the U.S. by Blair Hanley at GeekWire. “Employees from Amazon’s fulfillment centers will deliver a total of 15 boxes to groups around the country, including a Boys & Girls Club in Kenosha, Wisconsin and a children’s hospital in San Antonio, Texas. Each box contains over $5,000 in toys, gifts and other equipment that recipient organizations say they need.” Read more

 

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Eye-on-Retail is a daily tipsheet read by thousands of Retail Merchants & Executives every weekday morning. It’s created early AM and delivered around 8 AM EST daily. We love data, earnings reports, executive presentations and stories off the beaten path that get at what’s happening in the world of retail. info@shiftmarketinggroup.net.