Friday Tipsheet: Walmart/Sam’s Earnings Call Highlights | BJ’s & Costco: More Turkey Time | Menard Saga Continues

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Walmart & Sam’s:  Dissecting the 11/14/13 Earnings Call:

Rosalind Brewer on Sam’s

* Q3: opened 13 new and relocated clubs.

* Sam’s Club comp of 1.1% without fuel.

* Comp traffic grew 2.4% and comp ticket by 1.3% driven by softness in our tobacco business.

* Grocery and beverage: low single-digit comp.

* Technology and entertainment:  mid-single-digit negative comp.

* Home and apparel:  mid-single-digit comp.

* Apparel and jewelry: double-digit comp.

* Membership income grew 8.1%

* Q3 operating income grew to $466 million, an increase of 9.4% over last year.

* Q4: plan to open two new clubs and one relocated club.

* Q4: plan to deliver a club comp sales increase excluding fuel, a flat to 2% for the 14 week ending January 31, 2014.

 

 Mike Duke

* Walmart U.S. grew net sales 2.4% to nearly $68 billion in the third quarter. Comp sales declined 0.3%.

* Traffic increased for both business and savings members this quarter.

* We’re utilizing our small formats to develop the market eco-system that is a critical part of our long term growth strategy.

* Global e-commerce continues to deliver impressive sales results, including sales from Yihaodian acquired last year, third quarter sales grew nearly 40%.

* Over the past two years, the cost per square foot for new construction of both super centers and small formats in the United States has come down by over 15%

 

Jeff Davis

* Q3 market share gains:  increase of 18 basis points in the measured category of food, consumables and health and wellness according to the Nielsen Company.

* We continued to see strength in produce, home, apparel and wireless.

* The quarter started slower than we would have liked. The comp sales picked up in September and October.

* The Halloween comp sales were higher than last year mostly driven by strength in candy and costumes.

* Grocery: low single digit negative comp at 0.7%.

* Produce and adult beverages: delivered a mid-single digit and high single digit positive comp respectively.

* Carbonated soft drinks: gained over 240 basis points of unit share according to the Nielsen Company.

* Health & Wellness, Prescription, Apparel & Home: low single digit positive comp.

* Stationary and crafts: low single digit positive comp with over 50 basis points of market share gain in stationary.

* Sporting goods: mid-single digit positive comp.

* TV’s: gained 80 basis points of market share for the three months according to the NPD Group.

* Opened 54 supercenters (including new stores, expenses, relocations and conversions).

* Opened 32 neighborhood markets and an additional express store.

* Walmart added 7.1 million net new square feet

* Q4 – plan to open about 50 stores, including new stores expansions, relocations and conversions. These will be comprised of both large and small formats and represent approximately 3.7 million incremental square feet.

* Have more than doubled our online assortment over the last year going from 2 million SKUs to more than 5 million

*  Brand callouts:  Avia, Russell, Farberware, Rachel Ray & Calphalon

 

Doug McMillon (Int’l)

* Canada – net sales grew 3.8%.  Comparable sales decreased 1.3%, with ticket up 0.2% and traffic down 1.5%.

* Canada – we now operate 380 stores across all Canadian provinces with 227 supercenters and 153 discount stores.

* Mexico – sales increased 1.7% over the last year and comparable store sales decreased 2.8% negatively impacted by the country’s economic slowdown. Ticket was up 0.4% and traffic was down 3.2%.

* China – Comparable sales were negative 0.9%. Comp ticket grew 7.1% in China while traffic declined 8%.

* Japan – Net sales increased 1.2% and we delivered positive comp sales. The first comp increased since the second quarter of fiscal year 2013.  Average ticket was up 2% and traffic was down 1.9%.

Read the Earnings Call Transcript

 

“John Menard (co-founder Menards) in need of ‘relationship counseling’ “ by J.K. Wall at IBJ.  “Hilbert contends that Menard has gone after him only because Hilbert’s wife, Tomisue, spurned Menard’s sexual advances toward her.  “John Menard doesn’t like to be told ‘no,’ and my wife told him ‘no.’ So that’s where we are,” Hilbert said Wednesday after giving testimony in the dispute between New Sunshine and Melania Trump.”  Read more

 

“Costco & BJ’s Refuse To Ruin Thanksgiving” by Jillian Berman at Huff Po. “Maybe call me old-fashioned, but I feel that it’s an easy decision to make [to stay closed on Thanksgiving],” Laura Sen, the CEO of BJ’s Wholesale Club, told HuffPost. Her company’s 201 stores are staying closed on Thanksgiving Day. The company tried out a Thanksgiving Day opening in 2006, and shoppers just didn’t respond, she said.”  Read more

 

“Rival retailer wins access to township records on Costco’s ‘secret meetings’ “ by Patrick Lester at The Morning Call.  “I want to know about the secret meetings going on,” Hugg said. “There seems to be a great deal going on under the radar here (PA). That’s what the public is entitled to know about.” Read more

 

“Walmart Canada stung as retail competition heats up” by Hollie Shaw at Financial Post.  “The unit of the world’s biggest retailer reported a third-quarter decline in customer traffic Wednesday and a drop in same-store sales, an important industry barometer of retail strength.  Like grocery rival Loblaw, Walmart is feeling an impact from the pricing war even as it helps to spur it.” Read more

 

“Retailers Expand Footprint in Silicon Valley” by Anne D’Innocenzio at SF Gate.  “Walmart says it’s so pleased with its results at Wal-MartLabs that it plans to open another tech office in nearby Sunnyvale in January. It also has smaller tech hubs elsewhere. “We are not a retailer in Silicon Valley,” says Neil Ashe, CEO of Wal-Mart’s global e-commerce operations. “We are building an Internet technology company inside the largest retailer.”  Read more / See the Pics

 

“Nordstrom profit slides, but retailer unfazed” at The Seattle Times.  “Revenue rose 3 percent to $2.88 billion from $2.81 billion last year. Revenue in stores open at least one year, a key retail metric, rose 0.1 percent.”  Read more

 

“Big Retailer is watching you: stores seek to match online savvy” at Reuters via @retailprophet.  “German fashion house Hugo Boss is using heat sensors to help place premium products. Luxury chocolate store Godiva has installed meters to count shoppers so it can match staffing to peak hours and measure the draw of window displays…”They are just trying to get real smart with data in the way the e-commerce guys are.”  Read more

 

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Thursday Tipsheet: Q3 Comps: Wmart -.3%, Sam’s +1.1%, Nhd Mkts +3.4% | Costco’s $20 Mil Peanut Loss

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“Breaking:  Walmart US Q3 comp sales decline 0.3%;  Sam’s +1.1%;  Neighborhood Market rose approximately 3.4%”  “Our most important priority is growing top line sales, including comp sales,” Duke added. “The retail environment, both in stores and online, remains competitive. Walmart has aggressive plans to help our customers enjoy the holiday season, and there is no doubt that we plan to win for our customers and shareholders throughout the holidays.”  Read more

 

“Wal-Mart posts earnings of $1.14 a share vs. $1.13 estimate” at CNBC.  “The company posted third-quarter earnings excluding items of $1.14 per share, up from $1.08 a share in the year-earlier period.  Revenue increased to $115.69 billion from $113.93 billion a year ago.”  Read more

 

“Costco Fronts $20 Million to Peanut Vendor Only to See It Go Bankrupt” by Robin Fornoff at Clovis News Journal.  “The largest processor of organic Valencia peanuts in the country was so strapped for cash, its single largest customer — Costco — had to front it $20 million. And most employees didn’t get paid for their work in the final days before the Portales plant was shuttered last month.”  Read more

 

“Costco to Open First Store in France in 2015” at 9 News.  “The warehouse club aims to open 15 stores in France within a decade, with up to 6 in the Paris region, said the head of Costo France, Gary Swindells, at a commercial real estate conference held in Cannes.”  Read more

 

“Home Depot Not Excited About ‘Mobile Wallet’ “ by Tom Kaneshige at CIO. “”We really like cash,” says Malcolm Nunes, senior manager of financial services at The Home Depot…A mobile wallet also raises the sticky issue of customer data, Roberts adds. Let’s say a third-party mobile wallet provider offers a digital coupon for The Home Depot and collects data on customers using it. Then the third-party provider can profit by going to a nearby Lowe’s to sell services armed with the number (and perhaps identities) of The Home Depot customers in the area.  “As the market leader, a [mobile wallet] would only take market share from us,” Nunes says.”  Read more

 

“John Menard Has ‘Picked on the Wrong People’ “ by J.K. Wall at IBJ.  “Both in and out of court Wednesday afternoon, Steve Hilbert was calm but defiant about the allegations made by hardware store owner John Menard against him, describing them as “totally personal” and a “vendetta.”  The 67-year-old businessman said Menard, the founder of the Menard Inc. chain of hardware stores, has a history of breaking contracts and being abusive toward women—but usually against people without the resources to fight back.  “This time he picked on the wrong people,” Hilbert said outside the federal courthouse downtown.”  Read more

 

“Target Expands its Beauty Concierge Program to 95 More Stores – Now at Nearly 300 Stores”  “Target has expanded its Beauty Concierge program to 95 stores in New York and New Jersey, the San Francisco Bay area and Dallas-Fort Worth.  Participating stores are staffed with a Target Beauty Concierge, a highly-trained, brand agnostic beauty enthusiast who is available to answer guests’ questions in-store.”  See the store list

 

“Canadian Grocers Loblaw and Metro Report Disappointing Earnings” by Marina Strauss at Globe & Mail.  “Loblaw, the country’s largest grocery chain, which said third-quarter profit dropped 29 per cent to $154-million and which lowered its 2013 forecast. Metro reported a larger-than-anticipated 40-per-cent drop in its fourth-quarter profit.”  Read more

 

“Ace Same-Store Sales Up 6.9% in Q3”  “Retail same store sales in the U.S. were up 6.9% for the quarter and stand at 4.4% year to date…“During the third quarter we also launched our meaningful investment in the rollout of the Paint Studio Initiative which will transform the paint department in over 3,000 Ace stores in preparation for the May 2014 national launch.” Venhuizen continued, “As part of our strategic alliance with The Valspar Corporation, this investment is a significant portion of our strategy to double paint market share for our Ace retailers.”  Read more

 

“Is Amazon cool or uncool?” by John Reeves at Motley Fool via USA Today.  “In order to develop a strategy for this vision, Bezos actually made a list of cool and uncool attributes of companies, which is included in the memo. Here are some of them:  Rudeness is not cool.  Young is cool.  Winning is cool.  Defeating tiny guys is not cool.  Explorers are cool.  Conquerors are not cool.”  Read more

 

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Wednesday Tipsheet: Menard/Trump Trial | Kmart’s 100% Annual Interest | Rona Tanks (Again)

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“Walmart Announces Plans for Black Friday 2013”  “Compared to last year, Walmart will offer 65 percent more inventory on televisions and double the number of tablets…this year a 32″ LED TV will be available at Walmart for $98. Last Black Friday, a 32″ LED TV sold for $148 at Walmart.”  Read more

 

“Kmart rent-to-own program turns $300 TV into $415 buy” by Lauren Coleman-Lochner at Bloomberg News via Star-Tribune.  “Kmart is introducing a rent-to-own program charging the equivalent of 100-plus percent annual interest, a move into a business that has drawn criticism for hurting low-income consumers.  The Lease-to-Own program touts instant gratification — customers without credit take a product home right away, make biweekly payments, then decide whether to buy out or return the product. A typical deal could turn a $300 television into a $415 purchase.”  Read more

 

Did Walmart really label an ad as “Low Income” on their site?  via @donte05.  See the pic

 

“Lowe’s Teams Up With Top Designers To Inspire Holiday Projects” at Digital Journal  “To help kick off the holiday season, Lowe’s teamed up with today’s top do-it-yourselfers and designers to create holiday-inspired rooms that are guaranteed to welcome any guest in style.”  Read more

 

“Why Wal-Mart can afford to give its workers a 50% raise” by Stephen Gandel at Fortune.  “Many critics argue that because Wal-Mart made $17 billion in profits last year, it can afford to pay more and even has an obligation to do so. That’s silly, too. Public companies have to make enough money to satisfy shareholders, or else their stocks tank and executives end up getting canned.  I came up with what I feel is a better, more scientific way to determine the answer. Then I called a couple of really smart economists to get it “peer”-reviewed…Read more

 

“Menard Trial Airs Dirty Laundry” by J.K. Wall at IBJ.  “On the same day Eric Weber, the former president of Indianapolis-based New Sunshine LLC, was in California signing a marketing deal pledging $1.2 million to the Kardashian sisters, he received an email firing him for “gross negligence.”  The email came from Matt Cotton, who until then had been manager at the Menards hardware store in Avon, but was installed in March by Menard Inc. to replace Weber as manager of New Sunshine.”  Read more

 

“Walmart uses beer evolution to win Millennials” by Kim Souza at The City Wire.  “The Millennial generation continues to make its mark on businesses eager to win favor with these 80 million consumers who like what they like and seldom settle for anything else.  Wal-Mart Stores and other retailers like Dollar General have said they want to be there for this generation and having the beer they prefer is one step in the right direction, according to Jason Long, CEO of Shift Marketing Group.”  Read more

 

“At Home Depot, building a strong corps of veterans” by Steve Vogel at The Washington Post.  “Frank Blake, Home Depot’s CEO, did not serve in the military, but his son, Frank Blake Jr., served as a signal officer with the Army’s 4th Infantry Division in the volatile area around Tikrit after the invasion of Iraq in 2003. His son’s experience helped shape the elder Blake’s view of how the company could support veterans.  “There are a lot of things I probably wouldn’t have understood, but for being around my son and his colleagues,” Blake said.  The younger Blake enrolled in a Home Depot junior officer management program after leaving the Army and is now a district manager for the company in Georgia.”  Read more

 

“Shoppers Drug Mart reports lower quarterly net income” at Reuters via Toronto Sun.  “Q3 Sales rose 2.4% to $3.29 billion, meeting analysts’ estimates. Sales at established stores, a key measure for retailers, were 2.2% higher.”  Read more

 

“Rona reports 13th consecutive quarter of declining same-store sales” by Ross Marowits at Montreal Gazette.  “Rona continues to struggle amid tough consumer spending in Canada and increasing competition from U.S. players Home Depot and Lowe’s. While Rona’s same-store sales are in decline, Home Depot recently said its Canadian store numbers have improved.”  Read more

 

“Office Depot Names Roland Smith CEO of Merged Chain” by Matt Townsend at Bloomberg.  “Smith most recently served as CEO of Delhaize America LLC, a chain of supermarkets with $18 billion in revenue that includes the Food Lion brand.”  Read more

 

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Tuesday Tipsheet: Wmart Doubles Down | Amazon/J&J Clash | Target’s Accidental Ship

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“Walmart Doubles Down on Thanksgiving” by Krystina Gustafson at CNBC. “The world’s largest retailer announced Tuesday that it will begin its in-store Black Friday sales at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, two hours earlier than last year.  In addition, Walmart.com will begin offering Black Friday sales on a limited number of items Thursday morning—likely before the turkey is even in the oven.”  Read more

 

“Food-Stamp Cuts Likely to Nick Retailers” by Jack Neff at Ad Age. “Kantar’s ShopperScape data indicate that about 8% of primary shoppers used the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and/or the Women, Infants and Children program to pay for groceries on their last trip. Usage was even higher at Walmart (10%), Dollar General (15%) and Family Dollar (18%), while supermarkets generally relied less on electronic-benefit transfers (7% of transactions).”  Read more

 

“Amazon and J&J Clash Over Third-Party Sales” by Serena Ng and Jonathan Rockoff at WSJ. “Johnson & Johnson and Amazon.com Inc. are clashing over complaints that Amazon isn’t doing enough to prevent people from selling damaged or expired J&J products—Tylenol painkillers and Rogaine baldness treatments, among others—on its website.  The behind-the-scenes dispute is a prime example of a widening fear among consumer-products companies: On the Internet, it is easier to lose control over a brand image.” Read more

 

“Target Fills Its Cart With Some of Amazon’s Tricks” by Paul Ziobro at WSJ. “According to consultancy Kantar Retail, 62% of Target’s shoppers also visit Amazon within four weeks of their Target trip, up from 33% in 2007. Target shoppers are most likely to also shop at Wal-Mart Stores Inc., but soon Kantar expects Amazon to take that distinction.”  Read more

 

“Wal-Mart’s Micro-Mini Opportunity” by Rich Duprey at Motley Fool.  “As Wal-Mart experiments with smaller-format concepts that step away from the previous superstore expansion model it championed, it’s drilling down to the most basic level. While this (C-stores) will be something it uses to learn from, it’s easy to see the convenience-store format being the next natural progression in store development.”  Read more

 

“Target Accidentally Ships New Xbox To Customers Weeks Early” by Kevin Mahoney at Twin Cities Business.  “Forbes, meanwhile, reported that Microsoft has banned the early recipients from using Xbox One’s online features until the official launch date.”  Read more

 

“When a Company (Lowe’s) Is No Longer That into You” by Sam Ford at Harvard Bus. Review.  “I was ready to take our relationship to the next level: a backyard fence…Every time I looked outside, I thought about Lowe’s, but I knew they’d call soon. Finally, after the weeks had turned into multiple months, I called them. The company that made the gate opener was no longer one of Lowe’s suppliers…The deterioration of my personal relationship with Lowe’s points toward a larger issue companies face: companies struggle with relationship management.”  Read more

 

“Best Buy sends out $10 use-it-on-anything coupons” by Steve Alexander at Star-Tribune.  “Sent by e-mail to customers over the last few days, the coupon is good at stores or Bestbuy.com until Dec. 24…Delivered to customers in the last few days, the coupon arrives in the form of a letter from CEO Hubert Joly, whose smiling image takes up nearly a third of the page.”  Read more

 

“Amazon Is Closer Than Ever to Running the U.S. Postal Service” by Marcus Wohlsen at Wired.  “But in a country where the laws of retail commerce have long since trumped religious custom on Sundays, shipping has remained a stubborn holdout. It’s extra surprising that the organization to finally break that tradition would be a lumbering federal agency rather than a private company.” Read more

 

“Tuesday Morning CEO sees the company as a treasure” by Maria Halkias at Dallas News. “Tuesday Morning Corp.’s new CEO didn’t need another challenge.  Last year, Michael Rouleau was enjoying an easy life in Seattle and winters in Scottsdale, Ariz. Then he started hearing from Dallas-based hedge fund manager Steven Becker…Becker, 46, eventually persuaded Rouleau, 75, to come visit Tuesday Morning’s headquarters in Dallas…Rouleau spent a day and a half there. “It was the most fun I’d had in years,” he said. “I sniffed a real opportunity.”  Read more

 

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Monday Tipsheet: Amazon Offers Sun.Delivery | H.Depot’s Bad Tweet Airs @ Today Show | Venezuela Seizes Retail Chain

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“Venezuelan military seizes major retail chain” by Girish Gupta at USA Today.  “Thousands of Venezuelans lined up outside the country’s equivalent of Best Buy, a chain of electronics stores known as Daka, hoping for a bargain after the socialist government forced the company to charge customers “fair” prices.  President Nicolás Maduro ordered a military “occupation” of the company’s five stores as he continues the government’s crackdown on an “economic war” it says is being waged against the country.”  Read more

 

“Amazon, Postal Service cut deal to deliver packages on Sundays” by Jay Greene at Seattle Times.  “The online retail giant has cut a deal with the U.S. Postal Service to extend delivery of packages to customers to every day of the week. That means Amazon Prime customers who pay $79 a year to get free two-day shipping on millions of products can order an item Friday and have it arrive before the weekend is over. And Sunday delivery will be available to customers who don’t subscribe to Prime as well.”  Read more

 

“China’s “Black Friday” Happens Today -More Spent Online Than Americans Spend Online on Black Friday & Cyber Monday Combined” by Juro Osawa at WSJ.  “In the U.S., it takes Thanksgiving, plus the approach of the year-end holidays, to trigger the biggest shopping weekend of the year. In China, all it takes is a sale by Alibaba.  Every Nov. 11, millions of Chinese shoppers flock to the e-commerce websites operated by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. They spend more on those sites during that one day of discounts than Americans do on all online retailers on Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.”  Read more

 

“Wal-Mart ‘Get on the Shelf’ winners chosen” by Kim Souza at The City Wire.  “Elvis inspired bedding and customized wristbands by SKRIBS will be the two newest products finding their way to Walmart.com shelves as the retailer recently wrapped up its annual “Get on the shelf” contest.  The Elvis Presley Home Bedding Collection will retail for $99.95 on Walmart.com…The company hopes to expand its line to include other legends such as Audrey Hepburn and James Dean.”  Read more

 

“Walmart Launches QR Code Store in Canada” at 2D Code.  “The Virtual Toy Stores in stations feature display walls of over 50, three-dimensional toy images which allow commuters to choose their favorite toy off the shelf, scan its corresponding QR Code and pay in one seamless transaction. Walmart will ship purchases directly to the buyer’s home with free shipping for the duration of the campaign.”  Read more / See the pictures

 

“Home Depot’s Bad Tweet Appears on Today Show”  “Home Depot is not naming the firm or individual involved in the tweet, but tells NBC News they’re reviewing internal policies.”  See the video

 

“Home Depot Isn’t Alone:  9 Worst Tweets From Company Twitter Handles” at ABC News.  “Despite company attempts to carefully share its social media messages, sometimes things go wrong with a company Twitter account.” See the Top Nine

 

“Kroger planning major $150 million expansion in Dallas area” by Alexander Coolidge at Cincinnati.com.  “Kroger says it plans to make a major expansion into Dallas-Fort Worth, spending $150 million to build five Texas-sized Marketplaces and expanding three others in the next two years.  The expansion is part of the biggest grocery store building boom ever undertaken by Cincinnati-based Kroger.” Read more

 

“Meijer Opens Store #204 (all 190,000 square feet of it)”  “With 22 stores spread throughout Illinois, the new supercenter is the latest in a $200 million investment this year that has included six new Meijer supercenters, extensive remodel projects for five additional stores in Michigan and Illinois, and a new distribution complex in Pleasant Prairie, Wis., just north of the Illinois border.” Read more

 

“50 Arrested in Walmart Protest” at Reuters.  “More than 50 people demanding better wages for Walmart workers in a protest organized by a union activists were arrested outside the retailer’s store in the Chinatown section of Los Angeles on Thursday night.” Read more

 

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Friday’s Tipsheet: Wmart’s 1st C-Store | H.Depot’s Bad Tweet | Costco Eyes Mooresville

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“Walmart Building its First C-Store” by Paul Gatling at NWA Business Journal.  “Wal-Mart said Wednesday it is building a convenience store in Bentonville, a first for the retail giant.  A company spokesperson said the store at the northwest corner of the intersection of Arkansas Highway 102 and South Walton Boulevard will be open by the spring…Walmart spokesperson Deisha Barnett said. “We’re excited about the opportunity to test a new store and learn.”  Barnett said there are no plans to build additional stores like this.”  Read more

 

“Kroger’s Dillon on succession: ‘You ain’t seen nothin’ yet’ “ by Steve Watkins at Cincinnati Business Courier.  From the interview:  “Kroger’s private label products have to pass a tough test. Kroger won’t put its name on a product unless it passes a blind test involving hundreds of people, Dillon said. It has to match or beat the national brands, or Kroger won’t sell it under its own private label.  Read more

 

“A new retail concept — Here Today — aims to make discount shopping fun” by Kavita Kumar at St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “It’s difficult to describe because it really isn’t like anything else,” said Bill Shaner, one of the investors and a former CEO of Earth City-based Save-A-Lot. “If you take a combination of a Trader Joe’s, a HomeGoods and a Five Below and mesh them all together — put them in a pot and stir them up — that’s Here Today…Jason Long, owner of Manchester-based Shift Marketing Group, said Here Today may not be reinventing the retail wheel, but it does offer a different approach.” Read more

 

“10 innovation takeaways with Target CIO Beth Jacob” by Larry Dignan at ZD Net.  “Retail giant Target CIO Beth Jacob is working toward a day when multichannel commerce is just assumed and shopping becomes more social as technology blends into the consumer’s daily life.  Jacob oversees the massive retailer’s technology operations. Here’s a look at 10 takeaways from a recent video interview I did with her at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York.”  Read more

 

“The Tweet That Is Causing Home Depot To Make Nonstop Apologies On Twitter” by Kiley Kmiec at Next Impulse.  “Someone in the social media department at Home Depot may want to start looking for another job. Not surprisingly, the Tweet was deleted quite quickly. I am very sure that this was meant to be completely harmless, but sometimes social media folks need editors to get a second set of eyes on things.”  See the Tweet

 

“The great gluten-free scam” by Julia Llewellyn Smith at The Telegraph.  “While many of us are convinced that – coeliac or not – avoiding gluten will make us healthier, a study published last year in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics disagrees. It concluded: “There is no evidence to suggest following a gluten-free diet has any significant benefits in the general population.”  Read more

 

“No Stores? No Salesmen? No Profit? No Problem for Amazon” by George Anders at MIT Technology Review.  “Amazon is a tech innovator by necessity, too. The company lacks three of conventional retailing’s most basic elements: a showroom where customers can touch the wares; on-the-spot salespeople who can woo shoppers; and the means for customers to take possession of their goods the instant a sale is complete. In one sense, everything that Amazon’s engineers create is meant to make these fundamental deficits vanish from sight.”  Read more

 

“Mothers With Children Under 5 Most Active on Social Media” by Adario Strange at Mashable.  “Interestingly, the age of a mother’s children significantly impacts her online behavior, according to the report. Moms with children between the ages of 6 and 10 are less active on social media than those with younger children.  The study also found that as a mother’s children ages, her social-media activity decreases accordingly. The study also found that as a mother’s children ages, her social-media activity decreases accordingly.”  Read more

 

“Costco eyes Lowe’s Hometown of Mooresville” by Joe Marusak at Charlotte Observer.  “Atkins also said that approving a zoning text amendment to allow a Costco along Langtree Road would open the door for other big-box stores, such as Home Depot, to also move there.  “There is no interest in changing the town center zoning in that area,” Atkins told the Observer.”  Read more

 

“Sixty-Six Percent Of Consumers Will Shop For Holiday Gifts From Tablets”  “In addition, 25 percent of consumers will use both tablets and smartphones to shop for gifts.”  Read more

 

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Thursday Tipsheet: Comps: Costco +3%, W.Foods +5.9% | Wmart #1 ‘Liked’ Brand | H.Depot Beats Target & Wmart Online

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“Costco Same-Store Sales Up 3% in October – Beats Street” at Reuters. “Sales at stores open at least a year rose 3 percent in the four-week period ended Nov. 3, including the impact of fuel sales and foreign exchange.  On that basis, analysts expected same-store sales to rise 2.6 percent for the month of October, according to Thomson Reuters data.”  Read more

 

“Costco Reports October Sales Results” (Company Release) “Costco today reported net sales of $8.15 billion for the month of October, the four weeks ended November 3, 2013, an increase of six percent from $7.66 billion during the similar four-week period last year.” Read more

 

“Whole Foods Same-Store Sales Up 5.9% in Q4 – Shares Slip” at Fox Business.  “Overall sales rose 2.2 percent to $2.98 billion. Wall Street analysts were expecting $3.04 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S…Same-store sales rose 5.9 percent for the fiscal fourth quarter ended Sept. 29, the slowest pace of the year.” Read more

 

“Wal-Mart, P&G discuss joint business planning” by Kim Souza at The City Wire.  “Febreze Case Study:  In joint planning, Wal-Mart and P&G could see a major gap in consumer spending toward air care products for the home and auto fresheners such as spray, plug-ins and no-spill diffusers. Air care was a $7 billion industry and there was nearly $4 billion being left on the table because consumers were not purchasing these products at Wal-Mart…Read more

 

“Home Depot Beats Wal-Mart, Target Online” by Shelly Banjo at WSJ. “Home Depot revealed in correspondence with the Securities and Exchange Commission this fall that online sales represented 2.4% of its $74.8 billion in 2012 net sales.  That’s a pretty small number, but it’s notable  because it means the seller of lumber, tiles and cabinets books a greater percentage of sales online than retailers like Wal-Mart and Target.”  Read more

 

“Walmart to Rake in Estimated $200 Mil in 2013 from Duck Dynasty merchandise” by Clare O’Connor at Forbes.  “By the end of 2013, Duck Dynasty product tie-ins will have raked in a massive $400 million in revenues according to industry sources. Sales in Walmart alone account for about half of that bounty, with some stores devoting entire aisles to Robertson-themed merchandise. Other major chains selling Duck Dynasty goods include Target and Kohl’s.”  Read more

 

“Walmart is the #1 Most ‘Liked’ Brand on Facebook (by far)” at Forbes.  See the Top Ten List

 

“BJ’s Puts Foot Down – Won’t Open on Thanksgiving”  “BJ’s is spreading its Black Friday deals across an entire week (Sunday, November 24 – Sunday, December 1), sparing BJ’s Members from having to wake at the crack of dawn (or even before dawn!) to line up for BJ’s great holiday sales on Black Friday…BJ’s is bucking the retail trend of putting sales on Thanksgiving above family time and will continue its tradition of not opening on Thanksgiving Day.”  Read more

 

“Walmart CMO Stephen Quinn First Inductee into CMO Hall of Fame”  “An extensive and impressive background, Mr. Quinn also worked in marketing, sales and finance roles for Quaker Oats, Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble and Nortel. He has managed several leading brands, including Tylenol, Johnson’s Baby Products, Quaker Oats, Aunt Jemima, Lay’s Tostitos, Doritos, Great Value, Equate and Walmart.”  Read more

 

“Lowe’s Sitting on Land Worth $1.1 Bil in Australia” by Eli Greenblat at The Age.  “Woolworths and its US  joint-venture partner, Lowe’s, are sitting on a land bank worth nearly $1.1 billion as they lay the groundwork for the national rollout of their Masters hardware stores across 100 sites…the Masters joint venture is still running up sizeable losses, with the sprawling hardware operation posting a full-year loss before interest and tax of $138.86 million in fiscal year 2013.”  Read more

 

“Wal-Mart Online Price Error Leads to $100 Can of Lysol, Kayaks for $11” by Renee Dudley at Bloomberg.  “Wal-Mart’s website was selling kayaks for about $11 and computer monitors for about $9 earlier today owing to a technical error that led the world’s largest retailer to shut down its online store for maintenance.  The pricing abnormalities were caused internally, said Ravi Jariwala, a Wal-Mart spokesman.  “We’re working quickly to correct” it, he said in a telephone interview, adding that there would be “intermittent site unavailability” until then.”  Read more

 

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Wednesday’s Tipsheet: Wgreen Comps +2.3% | Wmart Likes LEDs | Penney’s “dopes” Mending

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“Survey: Six fewer days between Thanksgiving & Christmas could cost retailers $1.5 billion” by Amrita Jayakumar at Washington Post.  “There are six fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, the shortest holiday season in more than a decade.  That could cost retailers $1.5 billion in lost sales, according to a report released Tuesday, in another signal of the high stakes for stores the holiday season.  That is one reason “holiday creep” started earlier this year, analysts said.”  Read more

 

“How Walmart Brought Low-Cost LEDs To The Mass Market” by Peter Kelly-Detwiler at Forbes. “I asked John Prince, Walmart’s Senior Buyer of Hardware Consumables, why Walmart felt that now was the right time to launch its LEDs.  “The first big reason we launched now is that LEDs finally got to the point where they were a viable alternative. In the past, LEDs have not been good enough that I could put them in my house and have a quality product. But the technology has now advanced so that we felt comfortable in putting our Great Value label on it.”  Read more

 

“Walgreens Front-End Same-Store Sales Up 2.3% in October” at WSJ.  “Walgreens had October sales of $6.37 billion, an increase of 6.1 percent from $6.0 billion for the same month in fiscal 2013.  Total front-end sales increased 3.5 percent compared with the same month in fiscal 2013, while comparable store front-end sales increased 2.3 percent. Customer traffic in comparable stores increased 0.6 percent while basket size increased 1.7 percent.”  Read more

 

“Is Black Friday dead?” by Katie Little at CNBC.  “Black Friday has reached unplanned obsolescence, and [on] Black Saturday and Sunday the stores get more and more deserted,” said Burt P. Flickinger, managing director at SRG Insight, a retail consulting firm. “By moving sales to Thursday, Black Friday loses its retail relevance.”  Read more

 

“Adobe:  Thanksgiving to Soon Surpass Black Friday in Online Sales; Cyber Monday to Break All Records”  “Thanksgiving Day sales are projected to surpass $1 billion and could overtake Black Friday within the next five years. The growing importance of Thanksgiving Day, the shortened holiday season and the growing role of mobile and social will make 2013 a very different shopping season than ever before.”  Read more

 

“Morale at J.C. Penney is mending” by Maria Halkias at Dallas News.  “They were called “dopes” (dumb old Penney employees) by a newly hired senior executive. Many suspected correctly that they were training their replacements. They cried with longtime co-workers who were sent packing…One former corporate staffer said there was definitely a lockdown in the last few months of Johnson’s regime.  “Paranoia started to set in, and they lost control of the story,” she said.”  Read more

 

“Target offers $200 trade-in on any undamaged iPad” by Steve Alexander at Star-Tribune.  “Target is offering at least $200 in store credit to customers who trade in any undamaged iPad, no matter how old, an attention-getting promotion that coincides with Apple Inc.’s release of a new full-sized iPad and an iPad price cut by rival Wal-Mart Stores Inc.”  Read more

 

“True Value Poaches New Chief Merchandising Officer from Ace Hardware”  “Ken Goodgame will join the company as senior vice president and chief merchandising officer, most recently serving as general merchandising manager for Ace Hardware. He will replace Mike Clark who announced his retirement, and brings diverse executive leadership in retail, consumer goods and hardware manufacturing.”  Read more

 

“Office Depot Sales Off 3% in Q3”  “Total Company sales for the third quarter of 2013 were $2.6 billion, down 3% compared to the third quarter of 2012 in both U.S. dollars and in constant currency.”  Read more

 

“Brookstone YTD Same-Store Sales Down 3.6%”  For the third quarter ended September 28, 2013, comp sales increased 0.7% and Adjusted EBITDA improved by 10% to ($5.0) million, while net sales decreased 7.3% to $88.3 million…For the thirty-nine week period ended September 28, 2013, consolidated net sales decreased 6.5% to $268.3 million and comp sales decreased 3.6%.”  Read more

 

“Walgreens CFO To Present At Credit Suisse 2013 Healthcare Conference Nov. 12” at The Street.  Read more 

 

“Home Depot To Host Third Quarter 2013 Earnings Conference Call On November 19”  at WSJ.  Read more

 

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