"Amazon CEO Bezos: AWS is lean manufacturing, Kindle Fire for IT" by Larry Dignan for Between the Lines.  "Bezosisms": Innovation isn't always fun. "You also have to have a willingness to fail and be misunderstood for a while," Bezos said. "If you never want to be criticized, for heaven's sake, don't do anything that's new." A 10,000-year clock.  Bezos wants a 10,000-year clock developed to symbolize long-term thinking. It should be carved in the side of a mountain and have five anniversary chambers, Bezos said. The fifth one goes off at the 10,000-year mark. Advice to entrepreneurs.  Never ride the [...]

Target November Comp Sales Decreased 1%.  "Target Corporation today reported that its net retail sales for the four weeks ended November 24, 2012 were $6,183 million, a decrease of 0.1 percent from $6,191 million for the four weeks ended November 26, 2011. On this same basis, November comparable-store sales decreased 1.0 percent."  https://investors.target.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=65828&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1762842&highlight=  "Amazon, Wal-Mart Pull Ahead In Cyber Monday Traffic" by Amy Reeves in Investor's Business Daily.  "Experian said in a blog post that visits to Amazon's website increased 36% over last year's Cyber Monday, to nearly 35 million. It was the top e-tail site by visitor count. No. 2 Wal-Mart's visits rose 21% to 18.6 million, while Best Buy came [...]

Costco Wholesale Corporation Reports November Sales Results.  Costco Wholesale Corporation today reported net sales of $8.15 billion for the month of November, the four weeks ended November 25, 2012, an increase of nine percent from $7.51 billion during the similar four-week period last year.   https://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=83830&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1762306&highlight= "Walmart comes to India: Can mom and pop stores play with the big boys?" by Mercedes White in Deseret News. "Shopping in India has never been like getting groceries in the United States.  “If we need toiletries, groceries, or even fish, meat or chicken, we just call down to the local kirana,” says Ruksana Hussain, [...]

  "Online sales jump on Cyber Monday, eBay shines" by Alistair Barr at Reuters.  "Online sales were up 25.6 percent as of 3:00 pm EST on Monday, compared with the same period a year ago, according to International Business Machines Corp which tracks transaction data from 500 U.S. retail websites. In 2011, Cyber Monday year-over-year growth was 15 percent by 3:00 pm, IBM said.  Strong online sales growth on Thanksgiving Day and "Black Friday" sparked concern that shoppers were just buying earlier, threatening revenue later in the season."  https://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/26/net-us-usa-retail-cybermonday-idUSBRE8AM0TL20121126 "Starboard Adds Nardelli and Ex-Staples Exec for Office Depot Fight" in [...]

What's happening today:  Shoppers showed up in force both in-store and online this Holiday Weekend; Cyber Monday is upon us and a reminder of Amazon's online retail strength. Thanksgiving Day Promotions Win Over Millions of Holiday Shoppers, According to National Retail Federation.  Highlights of report:   According to the survey, a record 247 million shoppers visited stores and websites over Black Friday weekend, up from 226 million last year. The average person spent $172.42 online over the weekend, or approximately 40.7 percent of their total weekend spending, up from 37.8 percent last year. Lured by deep discounts and practical spending [...]

Happy Black Friday!! "To Lure Shoppers, Wal-Mart Tries Same-Day Delivery" by Jeff Brady at NPR News (audio and text).  Walmart testing same day delivery in Northern Virginia, Philly, Minneapolis, San Jose and San Francisco during holidays.  https://www.wbur.org/npr/165592058/to-lure-shoppers-wal-mart-tries-same-day-delivery "Canadian retailers cast ‘Black Friday’ net to keep shoppers at home — and spending" by Vito Pilieci in the Edmonton Journal.  "According to the Retail Council of Canada, 2012 is marking a bit of a watershed moment for Canadian retailers, who have for years watched as busloads of Canadians headed south to the United States to take advantage of post-Thanksgiving sale prices.  This [...]

Worker Organization Files Federal Charge against Walmart.  "The planned strikes, which OUR Walmart members announced would be part of 1,000 store protests on and leading up to Black Friday, are in protest of Walmart’s ongoing attempts to silence workers for speaking out for better jobs. Because the planned strikes are in protest to unfair labor practices like silencing workers through scheduling changes, reductions in hours, and even firings, workers are legally protected under federal labor law."  https://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsLang=en&newsId=20121120006518&div=-1245645151  "Why The Wal-Mart Black Friday Protests Won't Work" by Rick Newman in US News.  "One question for the hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of [...]

Yesterday's Lowe's Q3 Earnings Call Highlights  Heard on the Call... Strategy In the US, Lowe’s is focused on two large bodies of work this year -- value improvement and product differentiation. Through these efforts, Lowe's expects to deliver comp transaction growth and better gross margin by localizing assortment (i.e. store clustering), driving excitement in stores through better display techniques, and managing an appropriate balance of product costs and retail pricing.  Lowe's expects to have this work done by mid-2013. Accelerated line reviews and resets Expect to finish line reviews in 90% of categories by end of this fiscal year. Expect [...]