Monday Tipsheet: Costco Finds Vin Scully’s Ring | ‘Lumberjack chic’ | Haggen Wants 164

 

Retailers’ holiday hopes rise after busy weekend by Jayne O’Donnell at USA Today. “Shopping at a Target in Milford, Mass., Tony Faath says “the store was mobbed,” but clerks were doing their best to keep lines moving. And, unlike Black Friday, there were no crazed rushes to deals, shelves weren’t bare and “the shoppers seemed to be in good spirits,” says Faath.” Read more

 

Indian E-Commerce is On Fire. What Will Amazon and Alibaba Do About It? by Jason Del Rey at Recode. “On Saturday, Flipkart — perhaps the most popular online shopping site in India — announced a massive $700 million investment. This would be a crazy enough sum on its own, except the company had just unveiled a $1 billion investment in the summer and, earlier, a $210 investment in the spring.” Read more

 

Grocery chain Haggen plans massive expansion from 18 to 164 stores by Rachel Lerman at Puget Sound Bus. Journal. “Bellingham-based grocery store chain Haggen announced plans Friday to embark on a major expansion that will take the store from 18 locations to 164 across Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada and Arizona. Haggen is set to acquire the additional 146 stores as part of an Federal Trade Commission-mandated divestment when Albertson’s and Safeway merge.” Read more

 

Dodgers’ Vin Scully loses one golden ring in holiday loop around Costco by Bill Plaschke at LA Times. “Once they had loaded the trunk, Scully climbed into the front seat, glanced down at his Costco-weary hands, and noticed something missing. His 1988 World Series ring had disappeared from his finger. “I said, ‘Oh my God, I’ve lost my ring,’ ” Vin said.” Read more

 

The Psychology Behind a Mysteriously Fluctuating Holiday Sweater Sale by Chris Chafin at Fast Company. “When I ask Michelle Cordeiro Grant, JackThreads’ VP of Commerce, if they would think about changing their prices more than once a day, she laughs. “We’re not managing our business like a quant experiment,” she says, “where we ebb and flow like the stock market. I know places like Amazon do things like, but we do not.” Read more

 

‘Lumberjack chic’: Demand for L.L.Bean boot soars by Courtney Reagan & Krystina Gustafson at CNBC. “A survey by Evercore ISI found that L.L.Bean is the No. 1 footwear brand teens and young adults would like to own, at 26 percent. Nike ranked second at 13 percent, followed by Steve Madden and Ralph Lauren/Polo.” Read more / See the video

 

Shoppers can sue Target over data breach by Nick Halter at Minn./St. Paul Bus. Journal. “U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson of St. Paul denied Target’s request to toss out a class action lawsuit.” Read more

 

Tesco Faces Fresh Accounting Investigation by Ian Walker at WSJ. “The U.K.’s Financial Reporting Council on Monday said it has launched an investigation into Tesco PLC’s accounts for fiscal 2012, 2013 and 2014, following the recent accounting scandal at the supermarket chain…The FRC had previously said it was monitoring the situation.” Read more (Subscription)

 

Wal-Mart appoints new CEO for its Mexican business at The City Wire. “Enrique Ostale was chosen by Wal-Mart to as its next CEO for Wal-Mart de Mexico…Ostale served previously at the parent company as the top Walmex and Latin America exec. He will take over the new role on Jan. 1.” Read more

 

Staples: Breach may have affected 1.16 million customers’ cards by Tom Huddleston Jr. at Fortune. “At all but two of those stores, the malware would have had access to customer data for purchases made between August 10 and September 16 of this year.” Read more

 

Kingfisher sells B&Q China stake as DIY fails to take off by Jennifer Rankin at The Guardian. “B&Q opened its first store in China in 1999 and now has 39 outlets employing 3,000 people, but the London-listed group has struggled to transplant its business model to a country where doing odd jobs around the house is not seen as a leisure activity.” Read more

 

The days of the year when Americans are most drunk, visualized by Philip Bump at Washington Post. “The company released a report with a perhaps-surprising finding: People drink more in the winter. They created this graphic, an interactive version of which is at their site. The darker the color, the higher the average blood alcohol content for the day. (The drunkest day in February? Super Bowl Sunday.)” Read more

 

Stanford ‘lizard brains’ create gecko-like paws that allow humans to scale glass walls by Bruce Newman at Mercury News. “The Stanford students have patents pending on all this and have already begun negotiations with toy companies eager to get some cold hard cash to stick to their fingers. A Swiss entrepreneur has scheduled a meeting with the gecko gloves team in January to discuss possible rock-climbing applications.” Read more