Today: Brian Cornell (and Bullseye!) to Ring Opening Bell at NYSE "To commemorate the start of the holiday shopping season, Cornell will join other executives and store leaders to ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. The group will have two special guests: the young star of Target’s holiday TV commercials and Bullseye, Target’s bull terrier mascot." Read the release   "Santa Ana girl, star of Target holiday ad, will open stock exchange on Black Friday" by Marla Jo Fisher at Orange County Register. "Tatum is really one of the stars of the spot, so we [...]

  "San Francisco passes first-ever retail worker 'bill of rights'" by Claire Zillman at Fortune. "The ordinances will require businesses to post workers’ schedules at least two weeks in advance. Workers will receive compensation for last-minute schedule changes, “on-call” hours, and instances in which they’re sent home before completing their assigned shifts." Read more   ....Applies to Retailers with 20+ Locations that Employ 20+ in San Fran at Politico.  Read more   "How an innovative NYC boutique wooed Target’s CEO" by Leigh Gallagher at Fortune. "For Target’s partnership, events will include an evening discussion with Nate Berkus and make-up lessons [...]

  Ferguson Fallout:  ...Walgreens Completely Engulfed in Flames at KMOV  Read more   Smolders from Fire ...in Oakland via SF Gate "A couple of hundred protesters lit a bonfire in the middle of Broadway as the Starbucks store on Ninth Street was trashed and looted of equipment and bags of coffee beans. Thieves then smashed into the nearby Smart & Final and ran away with booze bottles, snacks, 12-packs of beer and bags of dog food." See the pics / Read more ...Store Robbed by Brown Looted on National TV via Breitbart.  See the video   "Wal-Mart's Chief Merchandising Officer Out" [...]

  "National Retail Federation CEO to banks: Breaches are your responsibility, too" by Phil Wahba at Fortune. "Those are their cards,” Matt Shay tells banks." Read the interview   "Target healing from breach, though shoppers remain at risk" by Kavita Kumar at Star-Tribune. "The roulette ball came up on Target,” said Charlie O’Shea, an analyst with Moody’s Investors Service. “It’s not as much of a shock as it was before." Read more     "Video Interview with Target EVP Kathee Tesija" by Jennifer Reingold at Fortune. "She seemed genuinely excited to have Cornell, the company’s first outsider CEO, on board. [...]

  "Amazon leases office space near Empire State Building" by Jay Greene at Seattle Times. "We have leased this building primarily as corporate office space and we intend to sublease to other tenants the ground-floor retail space,” Amazon spokeswoman Kelly Cheeseman said. Amazon has no current plans to open its own store in the space." Read more   "Best Buy's Big Q3 Surprise" by Kavita Kumar at Star-Tribune. "(Best Buy) reported its first sales lift in nearly two years and a near doubling of profit, shattering analysts’ expectations. And in another surprise, it did so with little help from the [...]

  "Wal-Mart closes loophole on PlayStation 4 scam" "We’ve updated our policy to clarify that we will match prices from Walmart.com and 30 major online retailers, but we won’t honor prices from marketplace vendors, third-party sellers, auction sites or sites requiring memberships." Read the release   "Nearly a year after breach, Target has its turnaround moment" by Kavita Kumar at Star-Tribune. "It feels like they’re getting back to what drove them in the ’90s and what has differentiated them from Wal-Mart and Amazon,” (Brian) Yarbrough said...“They are getting their mojo back,” (Jason Long) said. “It’s a big deal going into [...]

  "Lowe's Q3 Comp Sales +5.1%" "Sales for the third quarter increased 5.6 percent to $13.7 billion from $13.0 billion in the third quarter of 2013...For the nine month period, sales were$43.7 billion, a 4.6 percent increase over the same period a year ago, and comparable sales increased 3.5 percent" Read the release   "Lowe's earnings, revenue top expectations" by Terri Cullen at CNBC. "The company posted third-quarter earnings of 59 cents per share, up from 47 cents a share in the year-earlier period, on revenue of $13.70 billion. Analysts had expected the company to report earnings of 58 cents a share on $13.55 [...]

  "Home Depot Q3 Comp +5.2% (+5.8% in US)" "During the quarter we saw strong performance across all geographies led by growth in transactions and continued strength in the core of the store," said Craig Menear, CEO and president." Read more   "Home Depot 3Q earnings top expectations" by Terri Cullen at CNBC. "Earnings for America's largest home improvement company increased to $1.15 a share from 95 cents a share in the year-earlier period. Home Depot's quarterly revenue rose to $20.5 billion from $19.5 billion a year ago." Read more   Q3 2014 The Home Depot, Inc. Earnings Conference Call  Tuesday, [...]