"Tupperware CEO: Our Products Are Just Too Classy For America’s “Walmart Market”" by Mary Beth Quirk at The Consumerist.  "You think you’re doing Tupperware a favor by sloshing your leftover peasant fare into its plastic receptacles? Ha! Far from it. The company’s CEO says the plastic containers are just too classy to really hit it off with American consumers, since it’s a “high-quality product and a brand” and we’re just part of the “Walmart market.” Oh, okay."  Read more:  https://consumerist.com/2013/01/30/tupperware-ceo-our-products-are-just-too-classy-for-americas-walmart-market/   "Target’s Pending Arrival Fuels Canadian Retail Battle" by Matthew Rocco at Fox Business.  "Competition among Canada’s retailers is [...]

  "Amazon.com Announces Fourth Quarter Sales up 22% to $21.27 Billion"  "Net sales increased 22% to $21.27 billion in the fourth quarter, compared with $17.43 billion in fourth quarter 2011. Excluding the $178 million unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, net sales grew 23% compared with fourth quarter 2011.  Operating income increased 56% to $405 million in the fourth quarter, compared with $260 million in fourth quarter 2011. The favorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter on operating income was $2 million."  Read more:  https://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsLang=en&newsId=20130129006591&div=-1245645151   "Walmart, Target Among [...]

  "Home Depot CEO: Internet biggest challenge" by Jonathan Copsey at North Fulton.  "Blake spoke Jan. 24 to members of the Roswell Rotary Club about his company and how he saw the coming years...The most significant challenge facing the company, he said, was the threat of losing sales to Internet companies..."Retail is a detail-oriented business," he said. "You need the right amount of product in the right store at the right price."..."The Internet will have an enormous impact on the brick-and-mortar retailers," he said. "A third of all retailers will be wiped out because of dot-com competition."  Read  more:  https://www.northfulton.com/Articles-BUSINESS-c-2013-01-27-197125.114126-sub-Home-Depot-CEO-Internet-biggest-challenge.html [...]

  "How Walmart and Heineken Will Use Shoppercetion to Put Your In-store Experience in Context" by Shel Israel at Forbes.  "Retailers are installing 3D sensors directly over the area where customers stand in front of a retail store section. Let’s assume that its breakfast cereals. The sensors will see when a shopper picks up a particular box, seems to be reading ingredients and whether they buy or return the package. It can tell where in a section customers interact the most often.  As they reach for a particular cereal—or even just look at it—a display iPad—makes a special promotional offer, [...]

  "Shareholders show Costco CEO the love as profit rises 17%" by Amy Martinez at The Seattle Times.  "Jelinek, who took over as CEO last year from co-founder Jim Sinegal, kept with tradition and went through a series of highlights from 2012. Among them: • Costco had 92 warehouses that each reported more than $200 million in annual sales. • The chain’s Honolulu store boasted the most million-dollar days during the holiday sales season, with 32. Locally, the Issaquah store led with 13 million-dollar days. • It sold 113,000 carats of jewelry, including a $103,000 diamond ring in Gaithersburg, Md. [...]

  "Target Introduces Six New Brands … That You Can’t Buy in Stores" by Brad Tuttle At Time.  "Cheap chic retailer Target is renowned for brand collaborations good (the Missoni craze) and bad (the Neiman Marcus collection that no one wanted). Target’s new brand partnerships may be the most intriguing of all. Just don’t go looking for them in actual Target stores.  Last week, Target announced the debut of six new online-only brands, sold exclusively at Target.com. The brands include a women’s apparel outfit (Labworks), baby clothing (Zutano Blue), bedding (Room 365), home décor (TOO by Blu Dot), and others [...]

  "Walmart Canada announces expansion plans"  "Walmart Canada announced that it plans to complete at least 37 supercentre projects in the company's next fiscal year, which runs from February 1, 2013 to January 31, 2014. The company also announced it will be expanding its distribution network to support its ongoing store growth and expansion plans.  The distribution centre projects, construction of new stores, and expansion, remodelling or relocation of existing stores represents an investment of more than $450 million in the Canadian economy. These expansion plans are expected to generate more than 7,000 store, trade and construction jobs."  Read more: [...]

  "Wal-Mart Toughens Supplier Policies" by Shelly Banjo at WSJ.  "The tougher new policies replace the Bentonville, Ark., retailer's prior "three strikes" approach to policing suppliers, which gave the suppliers three chances to address problems before being terminated. Starting March 1, Wal-Mart will employ a "zero tolerance" policy to sever ties with suppliers that subcontract work to factories without the retailer's knowledge; Its previous "three-strike" policy gave suppliers three chances to comply with Wal-Mart's safety requirements..."Obviously our three-strike policy wasn't working as well as it could have," Rajan Kamalanathan, Wal-Mart's vice president of ethical sourcing, said in an interview. "Our [...]