"Target tries to win hearts and clicks of Gen Y" by Hadley Malcolm at USA Today.  "Millennials aren't smitten with Target, and the company knows it.  Last fall, Target learned that to Millennials, the company is nothing more than a big-box store. Buy from Target online? Who does that?  Not Millennials, apparently." Read more   "Walmart:  Fountain Drinks Coming Back to Stores?" by Kim Souza at The City Wire.  "(Bill) Simon added that the learnings from the Walmart to Go convenience store format in the past 90 days have been huge. On area is in the fountain beverages from milkshakes [...]

  "Costco Comp Sales +6% in May"  "Costco reported net sales of $8.78 billion for the month of May, the four weeks ended June 1, 2014, an increase of eight percent from $8.13 billion during the similar four-week period last year."  Read the release   "Walgreens Front-End Comp Sales +2.6% in May"  "Walgreens had May sales of $6.57 billion, an increase of 6.0 percent from $6.19 billion for the same month in fiscal 2013."  Read the release   "J.D. Power Reports: Ace Hardware #1 in Customer Satisfaction among Home Improvement Retailers (Menards Beats Home Depot and Lowe's)"  "Nearly one-fifth (17%) [...]

  "Target Gets Twitter Heat From Gun Control Group" by Christopher Heine at Ad Age.  "Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, a Michael Bloomberg-backed organization in favor of more gun control, is applying notable pressure on Target via Twitter this evening. The activist group is drawing attention to an open-carry gun policy that the retail giant evidently has in place for locations in states where such an action is legal. "  See the Twitter pics / Read more   "India likely to ease restrictions for foreign online retailers next month" at Reuters.  "India could allow global online retailers such as Amazon.com Inc to sell their [...]

  "Dollar General Q1 Comp Sales +1.5% "  "Net sales increased 6.8 percent to $4.52 billion in the 2014 first quarter compared to $4.23 billion in the 2013 first quarter. Same-store sales increased 1.5 percent resulting from increases in both customer traffic and average transaction amount. Sales increases in consumables significantly outpaced the Company's non-consumable categories, led by increased sales of tobacco products, perishables and candy and snacks."  Read more    "Fortune 500: Five Retailers Crack the Top 25 (Walmart #1, CVS #12, Costco #19...)"  See the Top 500 List   "Walmart Week:  Univ. of Arkansas Expects to Earn $1.26 Mil from Walmart Meeting [...]

  "Interim Target CEO Says Retailer Had Lost Its Way, Works to Overhaul Corporate Structure" by Matt Townsend at Bloomberg via SF Gate.  "John Mulligan said that even before December's massive data breach, the retailer had lost its way by becoming too cautious and bureaucratic.  The theft of credit card data from 40 million customers has forced the company to refocus on pleasing shoppers and reconsider everything from how it presents apparel to how it makes decisions, Mulligan said Friday.  "That came out of it, but I would have preferred to have gotten there a different way," he said. "We got a little [...]