Tipsheet: Secret Food Spies | Police Boycott Dunkin | Boxed Shops @ Costco

 

Boxed buys from rival Costco before hiking prices for delivery by Lisa Fickenscher at NY Post. “Boxed is offering the fresh food service in New York City, Atlanta, Boston and many areas of New Jersey…The grocery service will likely be rolled out next in Dallas or Las Vegas.” Read more

 

Tulsa tornado takes out PetSmart sign and causes widespread damage at Tulsa World. Pics

 

Inside the Secret World of Global Food Spies at Bloomberg. “A bowl of ice cream on a hot day in Shanghai gave American Mitchell Weinberg the worst bout of food poisoning he can recall. It also inspired the then-trade consultant to set up Inscatech — a global network of food spies…“Statistically we’re uncovering fraud about 70 percent of the time, but in China it’s very close to 100 percent,” he said. “It’s pervasive, it’s across food groups, and it’s anything you can possibly imagine.” Read more

 

Sprouts is the only ‘likely takeout candidate’ left among grocers, JPMorgan says by Lauren Thomas at CNBC. “JPMorgan analyst Ken Goldman wrote in a note to clients that — should anyone else be shopping for a deal — “Sprouts is large enough to move the needle for most large retailers but not so large as to generate huge integration or balance sheet risk.” Though, a takeout of Sprouts would make more sense for a strategic acquirer, like Target, than a financial one, Goldman added.” Read more

 

The police boycott of Dunkin’ Donuts is fully on at NY Post. “The brew-haha began Friday when a worker at a Dunkin’ Donuts/Baskin-Robbins at 1993 Atlantic Ave. in Bedford-Stuyvesant refused to scoop ice cream for two 73rd Precinct detectives — allegedly because they were cops.” Read more

 

Amazon wants to build a network of mobile drone maintenance and delivery platforms by Andrew Liptak at The Verge. “The patent essentially describes a standard shipping container that’s ben outfitted with an automated door on the ceiling, and a “retrieval apparatus comprises a landing surface configured to be raised or lowered along a vertical axis and rotated about the vertical axis.” Read more

 

**A message from Fabe – 100% Made in Italy pillow prevents neck and back pain. Fabe’s Ergo Praxis pillow supports and aligns the head and neck to prevent cervical pain. Created in cooperation with Ludes University in Switzerland – it gets the body in the right position for a good night’s sleep. Details | Fabe Website | Retailers request samples at info@shiftmarketinggroup.net. Italy-America product connection

 

Supervalu plots to keep Cub Foods on top of Twin Cities grocery scene by John Ewoldt at Star Tribune. “I’m the guy overseeing the projects,” Mark Gross, chief executive of Supervalu Inc., Cub’s parent company, said in an interview. “We’re giving Cub the capital, the leadership, the talents, resources and innovation. I’m optimistic.” Read more

 

Overstock blames a Google algorithm adjustment for a troubling quarter by Allison Enright at Internet Retailer. “We are traditionally quite good at SEO, and even can be said to punch above our weight on that score,” CEO Patrick M. Byrne (said) “…but this year the volatility introduced and the length of the tuning has been significantly greater than any previous year of which we are aware.” Read more

 

Target, Best Buy spent big to help halt import tax by Mark Reilly at Minneapolis/St.Paul Business Journal. “Best Buy spent $1.7 million on lobbying between January and June, twice as much as it spent in all of 2016. Target spent nearly $1.5 million, almost as much as it spent all of last year.” Read more

 

Boxed Pays for Worker Weddings. Will the Perk Survive Automation? by Jing Cao at Bloomberg. “Not only do all full-time Boxed employees get shares in the company—a rarity in the startup world—and unlimited parental leave, Huang also pays for weddings and college tuition for workers’ children, unique policies that cost tens of thousands of dollars per beneficiary…In Huang’s words, the “people who move atoms” are just as important as those who “move bits and bytes.” Read more

 

…Boxed’s founder explains how a box of Cheerios led him to found the company by Trent Gillies at CNBC. “When Boxed CEO Chieh Huang was growing up in suburban New Jersey, going to Costco forerunner Price Club was a family ritual…Years later, grown up and working in Manhattan, he was annoyed at having to pay expensive city prices for a simple box of cereal. “I didn’t have a car to go to a warehouse club. I felt, maybe millions of other Americans might have this problem.” Read more

 

Office Depot Announces Same-Day Delivery Coming to Three Markets “…is launching on August 28 in Atlanta, Georgia and Los Angeles, California; and on September 6 in Ft. Lauderdale/Miami, Florida.” Press release

 

Inside Kendrick Lamar’s Los Angeles Pop-Up Shop at Billboard. “Patrons arrived as early as 2 AM to be the first in line for the Damn. Pop-Up Shop…Of the 15 cities where Lamar planned to stage a temporary store, New York and Los Angeles are the only ones to last longer than a day, with the former running from July 20-23 and the latter until Aug. 11.” Read more

 

Blue Apron plans to move 1,270 employees from existing fulfillment center to newer, bigger facility in Linden, New Jersey at CNN Money. “Blue Apron said in a statement that about 800 of the affected employees have already agreed to transfer to Linden.” Read more

 

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