“Costco Turns Tables on Democrats” by Jay Greene at Seattle Times. “Employees and executives have donated more than $48,000 to Republicans and $17,000 to Democrats so far this year in (WA) state contests, according to filings with the state Public Disclosure Commission…Kinda conspicuous, isn’t it?” said Sinegal, the former Costco CEO and current board member, who acknowledged the liquor fight in Olympia was at the heart of the shift in donations..Sinegal said he doesn’t recall ever donating to a Republican before. (A search of election records suggests he’s right.).” Read more

 

“Target Aims to Be ‘in a class with the Costcos’ “ by Kavita Kumar at Star-Tribune. “We’ve always considered ourselves the leader among peers, in a class with the Costcos of the world who perform well quarter after quarter regardless of economic or consumer conditions,” (John Mulligan) said. “Right now, we’re too far back in the pack. And we need to get back to leading.” Read more

 

“Former Home Depot Managers Depict ‘C-Level’ Security Before the Hack” by Ben Elgin, Michael Riley & Dune Lawrence at Businessweek. “Home Depot’s in-store payment system wasn’t set up to encrypt customers’ credit- and debit-card data, a gap in its defenses that gave potential hackers a wider window to exploit, according to interviews with former members of the retailer’s security team…The former workers, including three managers, asked that their names not be used because they fear retribution from their former employer; some now work for companies that perform security functions for Home Depot.” Read more

 

“Wal-Mart’s new uniforms causing controversy—again” at CNBC. “As part of its newly mandated uniform requirements—which already had employees up in arms for adding an extra cost to their budgets—the company’s new vests were, in fact, not made in America, according to Gawker. Instead, they were made in Jordan…Michelle Gloeckler, executive vice president of consumables and U.S. manufacturing at Wal-Mart, confirmed the vests were made in Jordan, explaining the retailer made this decision because it couldn’t find a supplier in the U.S. to churn out 1.4 million vests under such a quick time crunch…Gloeckler said these replenishments would be made as soon as Wal-Mart can finalize the selection of a U.S. vendor.” Read more

 

“As Altuzarra collection arrives, Target hopes for a hit” by Kavita Kumar at Star-Tribune. “It is to demonstrate the style credibility of the brand,” said (Jeff) Jones. “When people line up, of course we’re thrilled. But that’s not why we do them.” That’s also one of the reasons Target once again teamed up with Net-A-Porter.com, a luxury fashion website, to sell certain pieces of the collection.” Read more

 

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“Shrinking middle class takes a toll on retailers” by Maria Halkias at Dallas News. “I don’t even know how to define the middle class anymore. It’s been hollowed out. There’s only growth in lower-income and upper-income classes,” Lewis said. So what choice do retailers have? They are forced to “discount their brains out,” Lewis said. “It’s the devaluation of brands and retail. We’re in the worst of the worst, and it can lead to real deflation, and then consumers stop buying.” Read more

 

“As Wal-Mart thinks small, this retailer says bigger is better” by John Kell at Fortune. “At Home is sticking with a more traditional method: big-box retailing. It operates 75 stores with an average of 120,000 square feet and hopes to expand to 600 locations across the U.S. The bet on big physical stores is for now an all-in strategy, as At Home doesn’t operate an online store. “We win on assortment,” At Home Chief Executive Lee Bird said. “We need the size to do that.” Read more

 

WSJ: “Alibaba Says Company to Expand Aggressively in U.S.” by Prudence Ho, Lorraine Luk & Juro Osawa. “Mr. Ma also said the company missed a “great opportunity” to list in Hong Kong. “We respect Hong Kong’s decision…Hong Kong shouldn’t change its principle for one company,” Mr. Ma said. Alibaba decided to list in New York instead of Hong Kong because Hong Kong’s stock exchange refused to accept its so-called “partnership” structure, which allows Mr. Ma and other executives to nominate more than half of the company’s board.” Read more

 

“Hudson’s Bay Co halves loss as sales jump 87% with help from Saks” by Hollie Shaw at Financial Post. “Saks, coming to Canada with its first two stores in 2016, is showing the greatest growth in its Off Fifth banner, where brands are marked down 20% to 60% from the original price. Same-store sales jumped 15% in the quarter.” Read more

 

” ‘Location, location, location.’ How where you live influences how you shop online” by Sarah Halzak at Washington Post. “David R. Bell makes the case in his new book, “Location is (Still) Everything,” that the neighborhoods we live in — and the acquaintances we encounter there — still have deep influence on how we shop. That may have seemed intuitive in an era in which shopping was done at the corner store. But Bell, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School who specializes in digital marketing and e-commerce, says those elements retain a strong pull, even on our online shopping habits.” Read the interview

 

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About Eye-on-Retail

Eye-on-Retail is a daily tipsheet read by thousands of Retail Merchants & Executives every weekday morning. Eye-on-Retail is unique because it’s timely, smart and fun. It’s created bright and early every morning and delivered between 7-8 am CT. We love data, earnings reports, executive presentations and stories off the beaten path that get at what’s really happening in the world of retail.

 

“Dept. of Homeland Security Asks Retailers to Watch Customers Behavior” by Stephen Dinan at Washington Times. “Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said his department will be issuing new guidance to retailers this week giving them pointers on how to spot potential terrorists among their customers by looking at what they’re buying. While saying the government cannot prohibit sales of some everyday materials, Mr. Johnson said retailers should be trained to look for anyone who buys a lot from what he described as a “long list of materials that could be used as explosive precursors.” Read more

 

Target’s Annual Meeting Highlights:

“Target revs up managers for holidays” by Kavita Kumar at Star-Tribune. “After Jamie Foxx and before Taylor Swift, the new leader of Target Corp. took the stage before thousands of his top managers and employees and laid out the company’s challenge in six words. “We need to be cool again,” Brian Cornell said Wednesday afternoon in the climactic event of Target’s annual two-day gathering…Target also announced it was teaming up with comedian and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres.” Read more

 

“With new CEO, Target ready to move forward” by Hadley Malcolm at USA Today. “(Brian Cornell) says changing the way Target is talked about by media is the biggest challenge the company still faces. Target’s internal data show customers have moved on from the data breach, he says, “yet every article that gets written about Target has a paragraph about the data breach. We have work to do, but we are in a much butter place than the media broadly gives us credit for.” Read more

 

“Wal-Mart rebrands Express formats to Neighborhood Markets” at The City Wire. “All 21 of the Express formats and all future small formats will bear the name Neighborhood Market. It’s a widely known and accepted brand that consumers can easily identify with,” said Wal-Mart corporate spokesman John Forrest Ales.” Read more

 

“Family Dollar Fate May Hinge on Decision by Billionaire Paulson” at Bloomberg. “If you get 22 percent on one side of the fence, it’s a pretty high hurdle for Dollar General to cross to win enough shareholders over,” Hebert said. “Winning over a majority of shareholders becomes substantially more difficult.” Read more

 

Former Home Depot CEO Bob Nardelli Appears on Fox Business to Discuss Breach: “Home Depot will do all the right things”  See the video

 

“Wal-Mart’s School Supplies Are a Little More Expensive Online” by Vanessa Wong at Bloomberg. “Analysts at Bloomberg Intelligence, compared 31 identical school supplies at Walmart stores and on Walmart.com—crayons, markers, pens, etc.—and found cheaper prices in the stores in three of four surveys. Wal-Mart’s official policy is to have the same prices online as in stores, spokewoman Jaeme Laczkowski says. The difference wasn’t great: at most, a 1.8 percent premium on a $118 checkout.” Read more

 

Forbes: “The 25 Companies Investing The Most In America’s Future (Walmart #5, Amazon #25)” by Christopher Helman. “A new report out today from Diana Carew and Michael Mandel at the Progressive Policy Institute details the 25 big businesses — dubbed “investment heroes” — that are placing the biggest bets on America.” See the list

 

“Wal-Mart joins U.S. crop-tour fever seeking food chain edge” by Karl Plume at Reuters. “The Pro Farmer crop tour last month involved 120 people, double the number a decade ago, from countries spanning Switzerland to Argentina…Wal-Mart sent representatives for the first time on this tour…”We are always looking for ways to better understand our business. We attend farm tours to learn about crops so we can make smart buying decisions in our efforts to pass on savings to our customers,” said Tim Robinson, Wal-Mart’s director of dry grocery, who traveled from Ohio to Minnesota with the tour.” Read more

 

“Restoration Hardware Comp Revenue Up 14% in Q2” “We did experience a sales shortfall during our Fourth of July Promotional Event as we underestimated the negative effect of the later Source Book mailing which led to lower than expected revenues in the second quarter.” Read the release

 

Study: Buy Online, Pickup In Store Will Boost Holiday Retail: “82% percent would consider doing so to receive a $10 rebate on a $50 item.” Read the release

 

Report: Sears may not have enough cash beyond 2016 by Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz at Chicago Tribune. “Sears took issue with the report, saying: “We don’t agree with their action given our demonstrated history of honoring our financial commitments while continuing to invest in our transformation. We have proven that we have an asset rich portfolio that provides us with what we believe to be substantial financial flexibility.” Read more

 

“RadioShack posts tenth straight quarterly loss” at CNBC. “RadioShack’s same-store sales declined 20 percent.” Read obituary

 

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About Eye-on-Retail

Eye-on-Retail is a daily tipsheet read by thousands of Retail Merchants & Executives every weekday morning. Eye-on-Retail is unique because it’s timely, smart and fun. It’s created bright and early every morning and delivered between 7-8 am CT. We love data, earnings reports, executive presentations and stories off the beaten path that get at what’s really happening in the world of retail.

 

 

 

“Home Depot confirms data breach” at CNBC. “Home Depot officially confirmed a data breach on Monday. Home Depot’s investigation is focused on transactions made as far back as April. There is no evidence that shoppers’ debit PIN numbers were compromised, according to a statement the retailer released Monday.” Read more

 

.…Home Depot’s Press Release: “We apologize for the frustration and anxiety this causes our customers, and I want to thank them for their patience and support as we work through this issue,” said Frank Blake, chairman and CEO. “We owe it to our customers to alert them that we now have enough evidence to confirm that a breach has indeed occurred.” Read the release

 

“Wal-Mart’s onshoring manufacturing effort hits snag with Redman problem” by Kim Souza at The City Wire. “The suit claims that Ellen Liu, executive director for Sales Chief, made clear her intention to derail the “Made in the U.S.” plan earlier this year. Between March and May, Sales Chief shipped $3.4 million of inventory to Redman in the U.S., but on May 24, Sales Chief revoked Redman’s credit terms requiring full payment of goods ordered, shipped and those in transit.” Read more

 

“Amazon Is Under Attack Like Never Before” by Jillian D’onfro at Business Insider. “People still think of Amazon as a retailer,” says SunTrust analyst Robert Peck, “But when you think about all of its investments, it has expanded into many new areas.” Read more

 

“Activist Investor Scores a Win at Walgreen” by David Benoit at WSJ. “Walgreen facing mounting pressure from analysts and shareholders, said it is giving activist investor Jana Partners LLC two board seats, a relatively large say for a shareholder with a little more than 1% of the company’s stock…The agreement with Jana is a big win for an activist investor.” Read more

 

***A message from Dig It® Handwear.  Garden glove protection for manicured female hands!  Patented line of high-quality gardening gloves provides unique “pillow-top” protection for female gardeners.  Nationally distributed in Canada – now offered to US retail for the first time.  High dollar ring – get ready for Spring ’15. View the line at www.digithandwear.com. See the wire rack.  Contact info@shiftmarketinggroup.net to get started.

 

“Twitter’s Buy Button” by Anthony Ha at TechCrunch. “Twitter is officially announcing that Buy button today …it will be visible to “a small percentage of U.S. users (that will grow over time).” As a result, users will actually be able to make purchases directly within tweets. If you see something you want, you hit “buy”, bring up a little information, enter your payment and shipping information while still Twitter (it’s encrypted and stored for future purchases), and complete the transaction “in just a few taps.” Read more

 

“In B2B e-commerce, Alibaba has solved the one problem Amazon can’t” by Erin Griffith at Fortune. “This means tinkerers, builders, entrepreneurs, and small businesses can order custom motors and parts from Chinese factories without having to travel there, find a scout, and forge a relationship with a manufacturer before doing business. It opens up the world of international suppliers to people who wouldn’t normally have access to it. They can buy in bulk through Alibaba, which acts as a trusted third party, vouching for the transaction.” Read more

 

“Can 1.3 Million Walmart Workers Deduct ‘Uniforms’ On Their Taxes?” by Robert W. Wood at Forbes. “The clothing must be specifically required by your employer, but the second requirement is the key. The clothing must not be suitable for taking the place of your regular clothing.” Read more

 

“How Walmart’s ‘Dress Code’ Costs Employees” by Erik Sherman at Forbes. “Although a representative had previously told me that the company had first made the announcement in July to give employees time to save up, people making $8 or $9 an hour, even with full-time hours, have little money available for additional expenses. Wal-Mart did remind employees that they could use their discounts to purchase the clothing at the store or its online site.” Read more

 

“Blogger hits the bullseye, designs for Target” by Jana Shortal at KARE 11 NBC. “But it was the call that came last year that’s the one that hit the bullseye. “All of the Pinners that Target enlisted are designers by trade,” Arends said, referring to the call to work on a design project for Target. Target Corporation contacted Kate, and two other major lifestyle bloggers, and enlisted them to design a party décor collection.” See the video / Read more

 

“British firm lays out US expansion ambitions” by Claer Barrett at Financial Times via CNBC. “Primark, the UK’s biggest clothing retailer by volume, has said it will open 10 stores in the US by 2016 as its international expansion supported a 17 per cent increase in full year sales.” Read more

 

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About Eye-on-Retail

Eye-on-Retail is a daily tipsheet read by thousands of Retail Executives every weekday morning. Eye-on-Retail is unique because it’s timely, smart and fun. It’s created bright and early every morning and delivered between 7-8 am CT. We love data, earnings reports, executive presentations and stories off the beaten path that get at what’s really happening in the world of retail.

“Target & Walmart Team Up on Sustainability” by Kavita Kumar at Star-Tribune. “The nation’s two largest discount retailers took the unusual step of co-hosting a meeting in Chicago to push beauty and personal care suppliers to be more transparent about the chemicals that go into their products…The forum was attended by about 75 people, including representatives from suppliers such as Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Estee Lauder and L’Oreal as well as other retailers such as CVS, Walgreens and Ulta. “It’s a pretty big deal,” said Janet Nudelman, director of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. “It’s surprising to see two such staunch competitors come together to tackle this problem.” Read more

 

Target Survey: Credit Suisse Surveys 2,000 Canadian Consumers (the Four Things they Found)” by Jonathan Ratner at Financial Post. “Target’s prices may not be compelling enough to drive basket growth. Credit Suisse’s channel pricing survey showed that its basket price premium versus Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has been widening…Meanwhile, an investment in loyalty could have a disproportionate impact on traffic since Target’s more frequent customers and those that value loyalty most both fall into the $50,000-$100,000 income bracket.” Read more

 

Report: Whole Foods has 2nd lowest grocery prices in NYC at NY Post. “The supermarket chain ranks the second cheapest in the city, behind Fairway Market, on a list of popular grocery stores in Manhattan, according to a report released by Bloomberg Intelligence. Despite Whole Foods’ reputation as a wallet shrinker, it beat out local faves FreshDirect, D’Agostino, The Food Emporium and Gristedes for the best prices, the study says.” Read more

 

“Rev. Jesse Jackson Calls Jeff Bezos” by Jessica Guynn at USA Today “Rev. Jesse Jackson is calling on Amazon.com to release its work force diversity numbers…The Rainbow Push Coalition will respond with an “action” if Amazon.com does not release the information, Jackson said.” Read more

 

“The Amazon.com of Stolen Credit Cards Makes It All So Easy” by Dune Lawrence at Bloomberg. “On Sept. 1, the website Rescator.cc alerted customers to a big new batch of product about to hit its digital shelves. ”Load your accounts and prepare for an avalanche of cash!” a post on its News page read.  The items, marketed under the names American Sanctions and European Sanctions, appeared as promised the next day, spurring such an enthusiastic response that the site was pushed offline at times by the high demand.” Read more

 

***A message from Relax Sacks – Get Ready For the Most Comfortable Chair On the Planet! Consumers love the comfort of our ‘big and fun’ bean bag chairs (up to 7.5 feet in size!).  Incredibly soft micro-suede covers and uniquely comfortable shredded foam filling make the Relax Sacks experience one your customers won’t want to miss. Great for living rooms, basements, kids rooms, dorm rooms, etc. Bring some fun and excitement to your stores! www.relaxsacks.com.  Email info@shiftmarketinggroup.net for more information.

 

Walmart’s David Cheesewright Presents at Goldman Sachs Retail Conference See the Ppoint / Webcast

 

“Home Depot working ‘around the clock’ to find data breach, CEO says” by Phil Wahba at Fortune. “The most important thing for us is making sure that our customers feel comfortable shopping at The Home Depot, and that’s going to be our guiding principle,” said Blake, who announced his upcoming resignation before the possible breach came to light. Just look at Target’s travails to see why he feels that way.” Read more

 

“Jeff Gordon Greets Fans at Charlotte Walmart” by Kacie Hollins at Fox 46 Carolinas. “The most devoted fans arrived Wednesday evening and camped outside through the night before returning to the store to reclaim their spot in line when it opened Thursday morning. Others skipped work or pulled their kids out of school to come down to the store to get an autograph and picture with Gordon.” See the video / Read more

 

Target’s Jeff Jones Attends Altuzarra for Target Launch Event Pic 1  Pic 2

 

CA: Gov. Brown says he will sign bill that would ban plastic grocery bags by Phil Willon at LA Times. “I probably will sign it, yes,” Brown said during the televised debate. “ In fact, I’ll tell you why I’m going to sign it …. There are about 50 cities with their own plastic bag ban, and that’s causing a lot of confusion.’’ Read more

 

Home Depot’s Frank Blake & Carol Tome Present at Goldman Sachs Retail Conference

 

Home Depot’s Frank Blake on breach:

When you are in a situation like this, you have a choice. On the one hand, you can wait to communicate anything until you have the facts at hand or you can communicate the facts as you know them. We chose the latter path.

The downside of that is we can’t answer all of the questions, because we have told everybody what we know.

We will have all of our terminals fully enabled for credit card EMV PIN and chip by the end of this year, so well in advance of the October 2015 deadline.

 

Carol Tome ‘Doggone Proud’ of Ted Decker:

Blake: Ted’s learned a ton from Carol. Ted also back in the day did our M&A transactions.

Blake: Ted has spent a number of years really as the chief financial person reporting to Carol with responsibility for both operations and merchandising and has enormous insights into the business.

Tomé: If I could just add a personal note, I am so doggone proud of him.

Blake: Yes, he is going to do a great job.

 

Craig Menear

Blake: When I first got this job and more than intimidated by it, my wife’s comment to me was remember, it’s not about you. And I would say the same thing about Craig, Craig is a great leader.

 

Blake on International

China: We shut that business down and don’t have any plans of going back. We couldn’t figure out how to make any money in China to just bring it to a point.

Brazil: We have looked at Brazil several years ago. Have no plans, I mean Brazil is one of those things every couple of years you say, ought to be in Brazil and then every couple of years you go, good not to be in Brazil. 

Pro

Blake: We already do a lot of deliveries from the store. It is something particularly we do for our pro-customers, but the system underlying that is quite antiquated.

Blake: The new system is going to allow much, much better visibility and much, much more efficiency in terms of how we utilize the assets.

Blake: The good news for us is that our pro customer is from if you look at how they shop the store. The margin rate characteristics of that customer, is pretty much the same as our consumer. And that’s our business model and that’s the business model we want to maintain.

Tome:  If you just look at the market opportunity looking at the census data, the NAICS 444 data, it would suggest that the addressable market for the Home Depot is $260 billion, of which $80 billion is that retail pro customer. So, now we have got a lot of room for growth within that addressable market.

 

Read the full transcript via Seeking Alpha

 

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About Eye-on-Retail

Eye-on-Retail is a daily tipsheet read by thousands of Retail Merchants/Executives every weekday morning. Eye-on-Retail is unique because it’s timely, smart and fun. It’s created bright and early every morning and delivered between 7-8 am CT. We love data, earnings reports, executive presentations and stories off the beaten path that get at what’s really happening in the world of retail.