Tipsheet: Wmart Pumps Brakes | Costco +1.0% | Amazon Drivers Sue | Menard, Jr #46 Richest

 

Costco September Comp Sales +1.0% “Costco reported net sales of $11.06 billion for the month of September, the five weeks ended October 2, 2016, an increase of three percent from $10.75 billion during the similar period last year.” Press release

 

PUMP THE BRAKES – Wal-Mart plans to slow store openings, to invest in digital by Krystina Gustafson at CNBC. “Wal-Mart will open 130 U.S. stores, down from its original projection for 135 to 155. And next year, it will open just 55 U.S. stores. That breaks down into 35 supercenters and 20 of its smaller Neighborhood Markets.” Read more

 

TODAY – Walmart webcasts its 2016 Investment Community Meeting  Watch webcast

 

Amazon delivery drivers sue company over job status by Angel Gonzalez at Seattle Times. “The complaint, filed in federal court in Seattle, was brought forth by the same attorney who led two class-action lawsuits against Uber by discontented drivers. These lawsuits yielded a proposed $100 million settlement that’s still fighting its way through the court system.” Read more

 

Wal-Mart’s next move against Amazon: More warehouses, faster shipping by Nandita Bose at Reuters. “(Walmart) is now on track to double the number of giant warehouses dedicated to online sales to 10 by the end of 2016, according to Justen Traweek, vice-president of e-commerce supply chain and fulfillment. That pace is faster than the 8 large warehouses that industry consultants expected Wal-Mart to build by the end of 2017.” Read more

 

$13.75 MILLION IN DAMAGES – Costco has to pay even more now for selling fake Tiffany rings by Lisa Fickenscher at NY Post. “A New York jury walloped the discounter by ordering it to pay Tiffany & Co. a super-sized award of $13.75 million in damages — $5.5 million last week and an additional $8.25 million in punitive damages on Wednesday.” Read more

 

Forbes 400 – 2016 (Bezos #2, Menard Jr. #46, Hank & Doug Meijer #70, Trump #156) Top 400 list

 

Woman settles with Target over horrific shopping-cart toss by Emily Saul at NY Post “Philanthropist Marion Hedges, who has spent the last four years putting her life back together after the 2011 incident left her brain-damaged, is working out a settlement with Target, the corporation’s attorney Sal DeLuca told The Post on Wednesday.” Read more

 

**A message from Dig It® Handwear – Revolutionary garden glove protection for manicured female hands! Patented line of high-quality gardening gloves has unique “pillow-top” protectors built into each fingertip. No more chipped or broken fingernails! Order now for Spring ’17 delivery. View the line at digithandwear.com. Contact info@shiftmarketinggroup.net to request samples.

 

DEJA VU – Inside the Demise of Lands’ End CEO by Jennifer Reingold at Fortune. “I couldn’t help feeling a sense of déjà vu at the news. It’s the sequel to a movie we’ve seen before, in which a glamorous outsider takes the reins at a struggling retailer and, with full board support, promises to move it from middle-of-the-road to upscale. Customers and employees rebel, short-term results plummet and the board panics, abandoning the new strategy before it has a chance to fail—or to succeed.” Read more

 

Bezos Tops Vanity Fair New Establishment List Read more

 

MONDAY – Wal-Mart to beta test internal incubator for six entrepreneurial startups in own backyard by Kim Souza at The City Wire. “It’s a venture with Grit Studio, the incubator and startup effort spearheaded by former Wal-Mart executive Rick Webb…He said the Walton family is providing Grit Studio the office and meeting space on S.E. 5th St., in downtown Bentonville, just a few blocks from the retailer’s home office and close to its technology center.” Read more

 

7-Eleven Seeks North American Expansion, in Bow to Daniel Loeb by Megumi Fujikawa at Wall Street Journal. “Mr. Loeb, whose Third Point fund owns hundreds of millions of dollars in Seven & i Holdings common shares, had advocated for the company to focus on its convenience stores and turn away from department stores…Seven & i plans to increase its store count in North America to 10,000 by fiscal 2019; at the end of June, it had nearly 8,900 stores in the U.S. and Canada.” Read more (subscription)

 

Ex-Amazon Exec Named Advance Auto Parts CFO Press release

 

THE TRUST FALL – How Walmart plans to transform the way we buy groceries by Sarah Halzack at Washington Post. “Walmart holds produce tastings for team members so they know what they’re selecting for customers. There’s a reason that the instruction focuses so heavily on getting fresh foods right: Gilmore says that, for shoppers, letting Walmart pick out their fruit, vegetables and meat is “the trust fall,” the moment when they count on a stranger to understand what they want.” Read more

 

Niche Maternity Retailers Surge As Millennial Moms Redefine The Category by Rina Raphael at Fast Company. “What used to be limited to a few players is now a battleground for multiple competitors reaching out to moms-to-be. Sales at former strongholds, traditional brick-and-mortar maternity stores, are down and expected to further decline. Destination Maternity, which accounts for 20% of the market, will close 25 to 30 stores in 2016.” Read more

 

Wal-Mart increases stake in China’s JD.com at Fox Business. “In a regulatory filing late Wednesday, Wal-Mart said that it has upped its stake in JD.com to 10.8 percent from 5.9 percent.” Read more

 

Philip Morris’s Cigarette Alternative Could Hit U.S. in 2017 by Jennifer Kaplan at Bloomberg. “IQOS, which heats tobacco without setting it on fire, could be released as soon as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gives approval for it to be sold, Chief Executive Officer Andre Calantzopoulos said in an interview Wednesday at the company’s offices in Lausanne, Switzerland.” Read more

 

Venezuela Is Pawning Pieces of Iconic American Brand Citgo to Survive by Joe Carroll at Bloomberg. “This is the first time I’ve ever encountered a situation like this,” said Hongtao Jiang, emerging markets strategist at Deutsche Bank AG. “It’s not clear to anyone whether this is 100 percent safe.” Read more

 

Dialect maps show how Americans speak differently across the country (soda vs. pop) at Daily Mail. See the maps

 

Target plans to test vertical farm ‘in-store growing environments’ in 2017 by Dana Varinsky at Business Insider. “Down the road, it’s something where potentially part of our food supply that we have on our shelves is stuff that we’ve grown ourselves,” Casey Carl, Target’s chief strategy and innovation officer, tells Business Insider.” Read more

 

Before its Cabela’s deal is done, Bass Pro Shops must face antitrust scrutiny by Barbara Soderlin at Omaha World-Herald. “Will the Cabela’s deal trigger that kind of scrutiny? It wouldn’t be surprising, said Amanda Wait, a partner at the firm and a former attorney at the Federal Trade Commission, the agency likely to review this case.” Read more

 

Amazon expanding outside Seattle with giant new Bellevue office lease by Nat Levy at GeekWire. “It is unclear why Amazon is establishing a presence east of Lake Washington…it could be an attempt to pick off talent from Expedia, where many employees are looking at longer commute times once the company moves from Bellevue to the Seatte waterfront in 2019.” Read more

 

Tipsheet Extra Stories

Amazon is driving 80% of e-commerce growth for publicly traded web retailers

Evine Live scouting NYC, Beverly Hills locales in bid to attract A-listers

Nearly 70% of young adults in U.S. live with their parents

Warby Parker eyes second retail store in Boston

Theranos shutting down wellness centers

Kohl’s launches Kohl’s Pay nationwide

Read Tipsheet Extra Stories

 

QUICK-SUBSCRIBE to Eye on Retail Tipsheet here