Archive for month: April, 2014

“Target Expands Subscription Products & Adds Add’l 5% Discount (15% of Online Orders for Baby Items Come from Subscriptions)” by John Ewoldt at Star-Tribune.  “To attract even more shoppers, Target has added a new 5 percent discount on all subscription orders on top of the 5 percent discount for Redcard credit card holders. Shipping is free on subscription orders with or without a Redcard. If an item is on sale when ordered, customers get the sale price too.  While the new service is a time saver for harried consumers, it’s also a discreet way to order products that some might prove embarrassing in a shopping cart.” Read more

“Lowe’s settles EPA allegations on lead paint for $500K, Home Depot could be next” by Daniel Rothberg at LA Times (Survey required).  “Lowe’s has agreed to pay a $500,000 civil penalty and roll out a new record-keeping policy for contractors that could encounter lead paint…Ruth Ann Norton, who heads an initiative to prevent childhood lead poisoning, said she hoped that the agreement will influence other home-improvement firms, such as Home Depot and Sears. But she criticized the fine as too low…” Read more

“Wal-Mart CEO Doug McMillon Donates $1 Million to his Alma Mater” at The City Wire.  “It’s an honor and a joy to help launch the School of Global Retail Operations and Innovation at Walton College,” Doug McMillon said. “The University of Arkansas has given us so much, and Shelley and I appreciate the chance to give back.”  Read more

“New: ‘Walmart-2-Walmart’ Money Transfer System – Save $66.50 when you send $900” by Kim Souza at The City Wire.  “Walmart-2-Walmart has a clear fee structure depending on how much money is transferred. For amounts under $50 the transfer fee is $4.50, a slight discount from the $4.75 to $5 charged by other services. Eckert said the real value comes in the larger transactions as up to $900 can be sent for $9.50. Eckert said that same transaction would cost up to $76 with other service providers.”  Read more 

“Walmart’s New Transfer System Could Put Pressure on MoneyGram” by Hanah Cho at Dallas News.  “Shares of MoneyGram lost 17.7 percent, or $3.18, to close at $14.81. Western Union, the largest money transfer company, also took a hit, losing nearly 5 percent…In the fourth quarter, business at Wal-Mart represented 26 percent of MoneyGram’s total revenue, which includes money transfers, bill payments and money orders.”  Read more

“CVS Chief Marketing Officer Rob Price Exits” by Natalie Zmuda and Shareen Pathak at Ad Age.  “CVS Chief Marketing Officer Rob Price has exited the company to take on an as-yet undisclosed role, the company said. No successor has been named.” Read more

“Michaels Stores confirms data breach that could’ve affected 3M shoppers” by Danielle Abril at Dallas Business Journal.  “The breach affects both Michaels customers that shopped at stores between May 8, 2013 and Jan. 27 and Aaron Brothers customers that shopped between June 26, 2013 and Feb. 27.”  Read more

“Mi Pueblo –  21-store Chain of Hispanic Grocery Stores (CA) – might have to Liquidate”  by Dan Nakaso at San Jose Mercury News.  “If Mi Pueblo successfully emerges from bankruptcy protection, other lenders and suppliers will be nervous about doing business with the company, Reynolds said. “Once burned, twice wise,” he said. “That’s a little flip, but if I were a vendor and I got burned by the same family, I’d be in the situation of, ‘Show me the money.’ Everyone knows the kinds of problems Mi Pueblo is having.”  Read more

“Crazy Talk at CNBC?:  Why Amazon Should Acquire Sears” by Krystina Gustafson.  “Lewis wrote in his online newsletter, The Robin Report. “So just as Walmart’s 4,500 stores double as distribution centers, so would Amazon’s acquired Sears/Kmart stores.”  Read more

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Have a great weekend!

“The Sad, Slow Death of America’s Retail Workforce” by Derek Thompson at The Atlantic.  “According to data obtained by The Atlantic from EMSI, the retail industry gained about 49,000 jobs between 2001 and 2013, which means it grew by exactly 0.32 percent. Which means it didn’t grow.”  Read more

“Costco Shoppers Find Alternative in Zaycon” by Angel Gonazalez at Seattle Times.  “Some bulk buyers of fresh beef products, seeking relief from a big spike in meat prices, have found an alternative to Costco, with drive-through access instead of a crazy parking lot.  Dozens of cars queued up on Monday at Papa’s Tree Farm, nestled among orchards and cattle ranches in Maple Valley, to pick up 40-pound boxes of ground beef and 22-pound packages of ham from the back of a refrigerated truck owned by Zaycon Foods, of Spokane Valley.” Read more

“Who will win the battle for the millennial grocery shopper?” by Jeff Fromm at The Business Journals.  “Many mistakenly assume that Target would be chief among millennials when it comes to grocery retailers. In fact, Walmart remains the most popular choice among millennial parents among retail visits overall…Costco has a grave outlook with millennials. While the brand is beloved by many, this generation on a budget is unlikely to accept paying for a store membership.”  Read more

“William Blair Says Sell Wal-Mart Stock” by Teresa Rivas at Barron’s.  “We have previously highlighted the risks to retailers as e-commerce grows, but we have viewed Wal-Mart to be partly insulated…Increasingly, though, we are concerned that Wal-Mart’s store base is ill positioned for a consumer that is increasingly buying individual items online, reducing the appeal of Wal-Mart Supercenters with wide assortment.”  Read more

“New Sam’s Program:  Return Your $500+ TV within 6 Months and Receive up to Half of its Price Back”  “Any Sam’s Club member who purchases a television worth $500 or more can get a $99 4-year SquareTrade protection plan that includes delivery, set-up, haul-away and recycling of their old TV. Exclusive to Sam’s Club, the protection plan also offers a guaranteed buyback program that allows Sam’s Club members to trade in their TV within six months of purchase and receive up to half of its price back on a Sam’s Club gift card.”  Read the release

“Analysis: Retailer Tax Rates” by John Kiernan at Wallet Hub.  “Walmart: 31% – Target 34.9% – Costco 36.1% – Home Depot 37.2%…”  See the full list

“Americans for Tax Fairness No Fan of Walmart” by Clare O’ Connor at Forbes. “Walmart’s low-wage workers cost U.S. taxpayers an estimated $6.2 billion in public assistance including food stamps, Medicaid and subsidized housing, according to a report published to coincide with Tax Day, April 15.  Americans for Tax Fairness, a coalition of 400 national and state-level progressive groups, made this estimate using data from a 2013 study by Democratic Staff of the U.S. Committee on Education and the Workforce.”  Read more

“Home Depot workers honor late customer” at WPVI-TV (Philly).  “He was a regular at the store on Route 130 and when his niece went there to buy some things to create a memorial for Bill, the associates volunteered do it and constructed a 3 foot by 4 foot tribute to their loyal customer, made of wood bolts and rope.”  See the video / Read more

“Best Buy’s CEO: Web retailers should collect sales tax” by Adam Belz at Star-Tribune.  “Best Buy Co. Inc. CEO Hubert Joly on Tuesday urged Congress to force online merchants to collect sales tax from customers, in his most forceful public statement on the matter to date…“We don’t think the government should pick the winners,” Joly said in a speech to the Economic Club of Minnesota. “We don’t think the government should subsidize Amazon and eBay.”  Read more

….and his four tips for turnarounds by John Vomhof Jr. at Minn./St. Paul Bus. Journal.  “Best Buy Co. Inc. CEO Hubert Joly outlined some of the lessons he has learned along the way…3) Fire lots of bullets: “You have to fire a lot of bullets before you fire a cannonball…So, firing bullets means what? It means aiming for something and trying to see whether you can hit the target and whether it produces a good result…So, if you fire a lot of bullets, you get to try a number of things — and in retailing it is particularly meaningful to try a variety of things.”  See the four tips

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“Wal-Mart Cries Foul on China Fines” by Laurie Burkitt & Shelly Banjo at WSJ.  “In the U.S. and most other countries, it is usually manufacturers, rather than retailers, that have primary responsibility for the quality of the products they sell, whether it is ketchup or dried beef. But in China, the manufacturers “aren’t accountable…(Walmart’s) pushback runs counter to what experts say is the safer strategy—keep your head low—for foreign companies in China: “It’s not something you see often in China.” Read more

“Walgreens urged to leave US to gain tax benefit” by Ed Hammond at Financial Times.  “At a private meeting in Paris on Friday, investors owning close to 5 per cent of Walgreens’ shares lobbied the company’s management to use its $16bn takeover of Swiss-based Alliance Boots to re-domicile its tax base. The move, known as an inversion, would dramatically reduce Walgreens’ taxable income in the US, which has among the highest corporate tax rates in the world.”  Read more

“Irresistible Target deals, but only on some items” by John Ewoldt at Star-Tribune.  “Target spokesman Joshua Thomas said that the price-reduction strategy was never meant to be a broad sweep of prices but rather a focused effort on popular items, often at deeper discounts. It’s an extension of Target’s holiday strategy where, for example, all sweaters were discounted 40 percent before Christmas.”  Read more

“BJ’s Picks Up Crumbs from Cupcake Fad Collapse” by Venessa Wong at Businessweek.  “Getting goods into BJ’s is part of a new strategy to diversify beyond its cupcake-store business, which is no longer thriving. Falling same-store sales have forced Crumbs to close 17 stores since 2013, and the chain will continue to shutter underperforming locations this year.”  Read more

“Office-Supply Stores Seeing Profit Margins Erased” by Mary Ellen Biery at Forbes.  “The margin of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization was 0.2% of sales, on average, in 2013, compared with 5.1% in 2012. Gross profit margin, meanwhile, decreased to 41.8% from around 44% to 45% from 2009 to 2012.”  Read more

“Home Depot’s EVP & General Counsel, Teresa Wynn Roseborough, Addresses Ways Women Can Be Successful” by Lauren McDonald at Red & Black.  “A few disclosures about who I am as opposed to about what I have done — I do not cook, I cannot sing, it sometimes takes me hours to decide what to wear, my weight fluctuates and I am always a few drops of rain away from a bad hair day. I play golf happily but badly, I am a geek, I love the law and I absolutely love being a lawyer,” Roseborough said.”  Read more

“How Walmart cashier became a labor leader in China” by John Ruwitch at Reuters via ABS-CBN.  “Huang Xingguo took a job as a cashier at a new Walmart store in his hometown in southern China for a steady paycheck and the prospect of upward mobility after a string of sales jobs and a run as a day trader. Five years later, he has landed on the frontlines of China’s labour rights movement, an unlikely leader of several dozen workers seeking better severance pay after the store in the Hunan province city of Changde announced last month it was closing.”  Read more

“Guy Buys Scale On Amazon, And Now Amazon Thinks He’s A Drug Dealer” by Caroline Moss at Business Insider.  “One Redditor who went to Amazon in search of a mini digital scale is now getting suggestions for drug-related paraphernalia.  “Oh great, now Amazon thinks I’m a drug dealer”.  Read more / See the pics

“Home Depot’s Langone imparts business wisdom on Fairfield U.” by Tim Loh at Greenwich Time.  “Once, at a management meeting, Langone was approached by a store head who complained that none of the Home Depot corporate leaders had visited his location. “And I said, `Well, where’s your store?’ And he said, `Paducah, Kentucky.’ And I said, `Well, if I knew where Paducah, Kentucky was, I wouldn’t have gone either,'” he recalled.  With that, the Quick Center erupted with laughter.” Read more

“Tesco’s Troubles Pile Pressure on CEO Philip Clarke” by Peter Stiff at WSJ.  “Analysts expect the company to report its second consecutive fall in full-year profit on Wednesday, as it battles fierce competition in its home market and retrenches overseas.  Tesco’s tough times reflect a wider shift in the U.K. grocery sector, brought on by the rise of international discount chains Aldi Stores Ltd. and Lidl UK GmbH.”  Read more

“Pot vending machine making debut in Colorado” by Ricardo Baca at Denver Post.  “A different kind of machine, one customers can access, will debut in Colorado this weekend. It’s called ZaZZZ, and maker American Green calls it “an automated, age-verifying, climate-controlled marijuana dispensing machine.”  Read more

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March Sales:

“Costco comparable March sales up 5%, beat forecast” at MarketWatch.  “Growth was strongest in the U.S., where comparable sales climbed 6%. International sales rose 4%. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected same-store sales growth of 3.5%.”  Read more

“Costco Net Sales +8% in March”  Read the release

“Family Dollar Comp Sales -3.8% in March; Will Close 370 Stores”  “Lastly, we intend to slow new store growth beginning in fiscal 2015 to improve our return on investment. We are confident that these steps will position Family Dollar to deliver stronger returns for our shareholders,” concluded Levine.” Read the release

“Fred’s Comp Sales -1.2% in March”  “Fred’s total sales for the month increased 1% to $191.2 million compared with $190.1 million in March 2013. Comparable store sales for the month decreased 1.2% compared with a decrease of 3.0% in the prior-year period.” Read the release

“Bed Bath & Beyond Q4 Comp Sales +1.7%”  “During the fiscal fourth quarter, the Company opened three Bed Bath & Beyond stores, four buybuy Baby stores, one Harmon Face Values store and one Christmas Tree Shops andThat! store, as well as closed four Cost Plus World Market stores.”  Read the release

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“Wild Oats brand to relaunch in Walmart stores” by Howard Pankratz at Denver Post.  “This is part of Walmart’s strategy to “remove the premium that is associated with organic products,” spokeswoman Danit Marquardt said…”We are reinvigorating our brand by bringing great-tasting Wild Oats products to more consumers than ever before,” Wild Oats CEO Tom Casey said…(Walmart) did internal research that showed 91 percent of Walmart customers would purchase “affordable organic products in our stores.”  Read more

“How Target Secured a Pipeline of New Products From Top Brands” by Natalie Zmuda at Ad Age.  “In early 2012, at the urging of Eric Ryan, co-founder of Method, Target gathered the founders and chief executives from leading natural-product companies together in San Francisco. Two years later, the retailer is unveiling “Made to Matter — Handpicked by Target,” a unique program that is giving 17 brands a platform for launching their products.”  Read more

“2013 Harris Poll Canada: Top Brands (Big Box – Canadian Tire, Supermarkets – Metro Food Stores…)” “Mainstays like Tim Horton’s , Canadian Tire, Shoppers Drug Mart, Telus, WestJet and Canada Post continue to be held in high regard and have each earned Brand of the Year honours in their respective categories.”  Read the release

“It’s Really Hard to Be a Whole Foods Clone” by Annie Gasparro at WSJ.  “New geographies are more competitive now; the low-hanging fruit has largely been taken,” said Abid Rizvi, head of Americas consumer investment banking at Jefferies Group Inc…Part of the problem for specialists is that their success has attracted competition from industry heavyweights like Kroger and Safeway Inc.” Read more

” ‘Showrooming’ Hits Luxury Fashion” at WSJ.  “There was a sense that the luxury sector could not be successful online,” says Daniella Vitale, senior executive vice president at Barneys, a U.S. department store that generates about 15% of its sales from its website. “But that proved to be very wrong. Luxury consumers are the most valuable.”  Read more

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