Tipsheet: Costco Crowd – Small | Target – Take Me Back | CVS & Clawbacks | Loblaw PC
CVS Health Is Sued Over ‘Clawbacks’ of Prescription Drug Co-Pays by Jef Feeley & Jared S Hopkins at Bloomberg. “Schultz said in one case she paid $166 for a generic drug that would have cost only $92 if she’d known to pay cash. CVS “remained silent and took her money” because the chain was in cahoots with the pharmacy benefit managers who got the extra co-pay money, she said in the suit.” Read more
Office Depot Q2 Comp -6.0% “Total reported sales for the second quarter of 2017 were $2.4 billion compared to $2.6 billion in the second quarter of 2016, a decrease of 9%.” Press release
Wal-Mart and JD.com partner for a Chinese version of ‘Prime Day’ by Stacey Yuen at CNBC. “We’re integrating with Wal-Mart in a much tighter partnership, which … potentially, Amazon might do with Whole Foods,” Cheng told CNBC. “But for us, we’ve already started on this strategy over a year ago with Wal-Mart.” Read more
Ahold Delhaize Q2 profit rises 68 percent on strong Dutch sales at Reuters. “The underlying operating margin of the U.S. operations of Ahold and Delhaize improved in the second quarter to 4 and 3.8 percent respectively.” Read more
“UNDER REVIEW” – Hampton Creek says the FDA has cleared its products, wants to hear back from Target by Sarah Buhr at TechCrunch. “The company maintains the matter in this latest incident has been closed as well and that all of its other retail partners had already concluded its products were “in good standing.”…Target spokesperson Jenna Reck says Hampton Creek products remain “under review.” Read more
Nearly half of all US residents live in an Amazon Prime household by Matt Linder at Internet Retailer.
Prime membership by income bracket:
Above $150,000: 70%
$125,000-$149,999: 63%
$100,000-$124,999: 59%
$25,000-$39,999: 44%
Less than $25,000: 36%
Staples credit rating deemed junk status in wake of buyout by Donna Goodison at Boston Herald. “The nation’s top two credit rating agencies downgraded Staples Inc. well into junk status yesterday due to the financials of Sycamore Partners’ pending $6.9 billion leveraged buyout of the nation’s No. 1 office supplies chain.” Read more
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Short Sellers, Options Traders Gear for More Volatility in Retail Stocks by Gunjan Banerji at Wall Street Journal. “Options traders are betting on a 13.4% one-day move in shares of J.C. Penney after the company’s earnings on Friday—a move that is greater than the average 8.5% after the past eight releases, Trade Alert data show.” Read more (subs.)
Disney pays at least $177 million to settle ‘pink slime’ case at Reuters. “Privately-held BPI sued American Broadcasting Company in 2012 for $5.7 billion, saying it and reporter Jim Avila had defamed the company by using the “pink slime” tag.” Read more
Dairies’ Fix for Souring Milk Sales: Genetics and Bananas by Mike Cherney & Heather Haddon at Wall Street Journal. “Milk sales dropped 14% in dollar terms the year through June from that period in 2013, according to Nielsen figures…Farmers in parts of the Northeast and Midwest dumped more than 250 million pounds of milk last year, a recent record, USDA data shows. They are on pace to dump even more milk this year.” Read more (subs.)
Oprah Winfrey joins Kraft Heinz in new supermarket food venture by Zlati Meyer at USA Today. “O, That’s Good.”: Marketed as healthy riffs on comfort food, the inaugural offerings include mashed potatoes with cauliflower mixed in, creamy parmesan pasta with white bean puree replacing some of the cheese and broccoli cheddar soup infused with butternut squash.” Read more
Pier 1’s Jeffrey N. Boyer, EVP & CFO, is leaving the Company effective October 3, 2017 to become CFO of Fossil Group Press release
Loblaw CEO strikes back against claim of ‘sabotage’ on minimum wage hike by Joyita Sengupta at Globe & Mail. “We made no value judgments. Clearly communicating an unplanned increase in costs to our business is not a campaign to undermine wage rates,” Mr. Weston said in a statement.” Read more
SMALL CROWD – More than a dozen Fremont, Nebraska residents raised concerns Tuesday that Costco’s planned chicken processing plant could hurt air quality in their community by Barbara Soderlin at Omaha World-Herald. “Site work has started on the project, but the plant operator awaits a permit before much more can be done.” Read more
ASOS is doubling down on the U.S., where it’s already a hot fashion site for twentysomethings by Jason Del Rey at Recode. “It’s been just four years since London-based e-commerce company ASOS launched a fashion site dedicated to U.S. shoppers, but it has already built a U.S. business that does around $240 million in annual sales and still growing north of 50 percent to date this fiscal year.” Read more
Ex-DSW COO Named Sally Beauty President Press release
BEER LOYALTY – Coors Light Wants to Gamify the Way You Buy Beer by Emily Price to Fortune. “The company launched Coors Light XP on Tuesday, a new feature and app that allows customers to collect experience points every time they purchase a 12 or 15-pack of Coors Light.” Read more
‘Kitten apocalypse’ averted in Sacramento – at least for now by Cynthia Hubert at The Sacramento Bee. “On Saturday morning, an hour before Petco opened, 100 people were waiting in line in hopes of taking home a new pet. On a typical weekend, three to seven animals might be adopted, Knepp said.” Read more
Tipsheet Extra Stories
Seattle home-improvement startup Pro.com pulls in $10 million from investors
Apple staffers reportedly rebelling against open office plan at new $5 billion HQ
Man sues Heineken & Kroger after he says he drank a beer with two geckos sealed inside
Ex-QVC honcho shopped for love, then sued her matchmaker
Contrary to rumor, Meijer project ‘very much alive’ in Central Illinois
Target’s Downtown Flagship Debuts ‘Made in MN’ Department
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