Tipsheet: D.Tree Cuts 370 | Golfsmith Bankruptcy? | Amazon Secret Flight | Wmart Buys 169 Near DIA

 

Dollar Tree to cut 370 jobs at former corporate HQ of Family Dollar by Katherine Peralta at Charlotte Observer. “Dollar Tree did not say Thursday how many employees worked at the Matthews location, but as recently as January the company had said it was around 1,200. The retailer said 100 of the jobs being eliminated were already vacant.” Read more | Press release

 

Walmart buys 169 acres near Denver Airport for what could be major distribution center by Molly Armbrister at Denver Business Journal. “Wal-Mart Real Estate Business Trust paid $13.5 million for the land, located near the intersection of East 56th Avenue and Jackson Gap Road in the proposed Porteos mixed-use development site.” Read more

 

First Amazon Prime airplane debuts in Seattle after secret night flight from New York by Alan Boyle at GeekWire. ““It’s hard for me not to be a little bit giddy, almost. This is the first time I’ve actually seen the plane in person,” Dave Clark, Amazon’s senior vice president of worldwide operations, said at a press preview that took place behind closed hangar doors at the Boeing Co.’s Seattle Delivery Center on Thursday.” Read more | Press release

 

Golfsmith Is Considering Filing for Bankruptcy by Lauren Coleman-Lochner & Kiel Porter at Bloomberg. “Golfsmith hired the investment bank Jefferies LLC to solicit buyers for the roughly 150-store chain, without success so far, said the people, who didn’t want to be identified because the process isn’t public. The company also hired Alvarez & Marsal to help it restructure, according to the people, who said that a sale could come as part of a Chapter 11 filing.” Read more

 

Target resumes selling Amazon products after four-year hiatus by Kavita Kumar at Star Tribune. “Thursday morning, the company added several Amazon products, including the Kindle, Fire tablets and Fire Sticks, on Target.com. The items will hit the big box chain’s 1,800 stores in October.” Read more

 

Court: Shopping at Home Depot Isn’t a Constitutional Right by Jacob Gershman at Wall Street Journal. “Although defendant argues he is prohibited “from entering large areas of the state” and from “shopping or working in any store that shares a parking lot with a Home Depot,” that surely is an exaggeration.” Read more (subs.)

 

Grocery strike averted: Workers reach tentative deal with Ralphs and Albertsons by Shan Li at LA Times. “Even in a short strike — say, a week or less — Albertsons and Ralphs would have lost about 2% to 3% of the Southland market, Flickinger said. If the strike stretched on for months, about 10% of the region might have permanently slipped away to non-union rivals such as Costco, Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s.” Read more

 

Wal-Mart’s new scheduling system looks to improve peak-hour staffing by Nandita Bose at Reuters. “The system, called Customer First Scheduling, was launched in all of Wal-Mart’s 650 small-format Neighborhood Markets in the last week of July with plans to eventually roll it out across the entire U.S. store network, although the company gave no timeframe.” Read more

 

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Canadian Tire to focus on in-house product lines and a digital future by Marina Strauss at Globe & Mail. “But in marking a divergence, Mr. Wetmore said he will seek an acquisition in line with Canadian Tire’s past takeovers, such as those of Forzani Group, whose sporting goods chains include Sport Chek as well as clothier Mark’s. In contrast, Mr. Medline had recently said he was looking for an e-commerce or digital specialist as a takeover target.” Read more

 

HSN CEO says election is distracting consumers by Courtney Reagan at CNBC. “HSN shares tumbled 9 percent Thursday, after the retailer reported a 4 percent drop in second-quarter sales and said it would sell off its TravelSmith and Chasing Fireflies businesses…One new opportunity she’s excited about is an upcoming partnership with Macy’s for Halloween, which (Mindy) Grossman says for consumers will be more like entering a haunted house.” Read more

 

Philly: Comcast’s new partnership lets customers pay bills in cash at 7-Eleven by Alison Burdo at Philadelphia Business Journal. “…(Comcast) subscribers can now pay their bills in cash at more than 7,700 7-Eleven stores, including at least 20 locations in Philadelphia…” Read more

 

Ingles Markets Q3 Comp Sales +2.6% Press release

 

Michaels buys Hancock Fabrics’ brand & intellectual property by Ed Arnold at Memphis Business Journal. “Michaels bought the rights to Hancock’s brand, patents and trademarks from U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware for $1.3 million. The deal also includes all the customer information Hancock had collected from more than 10 million customers.” Read more

 

Twitter lets retailers lure consumers with exclusive content by Zak Stambor at Internet Retailer. “Twitter today rolled out a tool called Instant Unlock Card that aims to compel consumers to tweet in order to access exclusive content from a merchant.” Read more

 

Sprite’s ‘Brutally Refreshing’ Ad Campaign Is Slammed for Being Brutally Sexist by Michal Addady at Fortune. “The advertisements appeared in Ireland and featured hackneyed jokes…Billboards and Sprite bottles were adorned with lines like, “A 2 at 10 is a 10 at 2” and “You’re not popular… you’re easy.” Read more

 

Food fight breaks out inside a Philadelphia Wawa at Daily Mail. “…an entire family is seen attacking a customer inside the convenience store, after first throwing different items of packaged food at each other…The Facebook video has had more than 600,000 views.” Read more / See the pics

 

Tipsheet Extra Stories

Ad Age: Food Startup Bought Up Its Own Products (at Target/Costco/Etc.) in Undercover Campaign

Walmart looks poised to leapfrog past Target if it buys Jet.com

Ex-Macy’s SVP of Customer Strategy joins media firm

PetSmart Gives Nearly $7.6 Million to Animal Welfare Organizations

Study: 9% have made one or more purchases from Jet.com (Amazon.com 92%, Walmart.com 76%, Target.com 63%, and Overstock.com 36%)

Read Tipsheet Extra Stories

 

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