Friday Tipsheet: Target: 1.5% Gain & Buzzards | Trader Joe’s: NYC Lines | Costco: A Min. Wage it Doesn’t Like?

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“10 Ways Shopping At Wal-Mart In China Is Completely Different From How It Is In The US” by Ashley Lutz at Business Insider via SF Gate.  “Despite the recent scandal, the mega-retailer has become wildly popular in China. Wal-Mart plans to open 110 additional stores there in the next few years.  Shopping at a Chinese Wal-Mart is totally different from shopping in one in the U.S.  We highlighted some notable contrasts…”  Read more / See the Pics

 

“Costco CEO Can’t Fully Support $15 Minimum Wage Proposal (Without Looking into it Further)” by Nina Shapiro at Seattle Weekly.  “We at Costco could manage it,” (Jelinek) says.  What he says he doesn’t know is whether small businesses could manage it. And that’s why he says he can’t fully support a $15 minimum wage without looking into the matter more.  The plight of small businesses is one of the central questions everyone will be looking at as the $15 wage movement comes to Seattle.”  Read more

 

“NYC Residents Line-up at Trader Joe’s (Yesterday) Ahead of Snow Storm” by Pamela Engel at Business Insider.  “People have been tweeting pictures of the crazy lines at multiple Trader Joe’s locations.  The Union Square location has a line out the door.”  See the Pics / Read more

 

…and in Philly  See the Pics

 

“Walk 14 Miles, Get $5 in Store Credit at Sears & Kmart” by Sandra Guy at Chicago Grid.  “Sears officials have said the company has invested “several hundred” million dollars in the Shop Your Way program to transition 124-year-old Sears into an omnichannel (retailer)…The fitness tracking announcement follows a similar move by Walgreen Co., which recently introduced a program for Walgreens loyalty-program users to track their activity in exchange for points that can be redeemed for in-store cash.”  Read more

 

“Enter the Buzzards:  Class-Action Lawyers Hope Target Is a Bull’s-Eye” by Randy Maniloff at WSJ.  “As of year-end, about 40 suits seeking class-action status have been filed against Target in federal courts around the country. Seven were filed on Dec. 19, the same day the company disclosed the data breach. For some plaintiffs’ lawyers this was the Black Friday door buster to end all others.”  Read more

 

“Analyst:  Bullish on Target; Raises Holiday Estimate to 1.5% Gain” by Thomas Lee at Star-Tribune.  “Piper Jaffray & Co. on Thursday predicted relatively strong holiday sales for Target Corp. despite the recent theft of credit and debit card information at its stores.  Thanks to strong sales of video-game consoles and a solid debut of its promotion to buy online, pick up in store, analyst Sean Naughton said he believes sales at stores open for at least a year will rise 1.5 percent, compared with his earlier prediction of flat results.”  Read more

 

“Dominick’s Suspends Worker (On His Last Day) Over ‘Thanks Safeway’ Sci-Fi Video Skewering Store Closings” at Huff Po.  “The video, titled “Thanks Safeway,” was created by Steve Yamamoto and posted on YouTube on Friday, Dec. 27. Before long, the video was noticed by area media outlets and, come Saturday, Yamamoto was informed he had been suspended.”  See the video / Read more

 

“Wal-Mart recalls card table, chair sets after finger amputations” at NBC News.  “The Consumer Product Safety Commission said Thursday that Wal-Mart has received 10 reports of injuries, including one finger amputation, three fingertip amputations, sprained or fractured fingers and one report of a sore back.”  Read more

 

“Amazon Starts Collection of Sales Tax in Indiana, Nevada, and Tennessee” by Jasmine Harper at Morning News.  “The online retailer started in January 1 the collection of sales tax in every order in those three states. Thus, Amazon now collects those levies in a total of 19 states.”  Read more

 

“Whole Foods Commits $25 Million in Funding for Loans to Local Growers”  “Whole Foods Market announced today that its Local Producer Loan Program has reached the initial goal of funding $10 million in low-interest loans to local and independent food businesses, and has now committed up to $25 million in funding. The Local Producer Loan Program has provided 184 loans to 155 companies since its inception in 2007.”  Read more

 

“Man Defrauds Home Depot of Nearly Half a Million $ in Elaborate ‘Identical Shopping Cart’ Scheme” by Naomi Nix at The Star-Ledger. “Chalet and his partners would assemble two shopping carts with identical items and stash one in the store somewhere…They would then purchase the items in one of the carts with cash or fraudulently obtained store credit…Chalet and his partners would go back into the store with the receipt they got from the first cart and retrieve the second cart from its hiding place in the store.  The group would say they had forgotten to buy an item, and deceive the cashier into believing that they had already purchased the items in the second cart by presenting the receipt they had from the first cart.”  Read more

 

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Thursday Tipsheet: H.Depot Copies Apple | Target = #1 Mobile Retailer in ’13 | Walmart’s Free Pills

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“How Home Depot Copied Apple to Build an Ingenious New Bucket” by Joseph Flaherty at Wired.  “Home Depot’s new Big Gripper all-purpose bucket is a handy improvement on the old school, five-gallon contractor pail.  An ergonomic handle and patent pending “pocket grip” on the underside sets the product apart on the shelf, but more importantly, the design is a showpiece for a new approach to big box merchandising. Brick-and-mortar retailers have learned a lesson from Apple and are following their vertically integrated approach by developing high-quality, and exclusive, products to remain competitive in the age of Amazon.”  Read more / See the video

 

“Target is 2013 Mobile Retailer of the Year” by Chantal Tode at Mobile Commerce Daily.  “The Mobile Retailer of the Year is the most prestigious honor for smart, strategic and creative use of the mobile medium by a retailer. EBay won in 2009, Sears took top prize in 2011 and Walmart received the honor in 2012.”  Read more

 

“Walmart & Walgreens Offer Free Prescriptions for Obamacare Customers” at City Wire.  “Customers who have signed up for the public health exchanges should be able to access their benefits immediately. That’s why, starting (Jan. 1) through the end of January, we will fill up to a 30-day supply of prescriptions with no upfront cost to customers who have enrolled but have not yet received their plan identification information from their insurance providers, said John Agwunobi, president, health wellness for Walmart U.S.”  Read more

 

“Report:  Up to 40,000 Target Gift Cards Were Not Activated” by Kelli Grant at CNBC.  “Target confirmed Tuesday that a number of gift cards sold during the holiday period were not fully activated, so shoppers attempting to use them would find they had no value…A Fox station in Minneapolis reported that the foul-up could affect as many as 40,000 cards—a figure Target disputed…”The numbers that have been reported in the media are much higher than what we experienced.” Target spokeswoman Molly Snyder said in a statement.” Read more 

 

“2013 Holiday Shopping Season:  Winners & Losers” by Thomas Lee at Star-Tribune.  “Mobile retail:  2013 will likely be remembered the year that smartphones and tablets fully morphed from pure research tools into pure buying devices. The Consumer Electronics Association estimates holiday sales through mobile devices totaled $8.4 billion, or 14.8 percent of total online sales, compared to $1 billion, or 3 percent of total online sales, in 2010.”  Read more

 

“Costco gets another $110 million from US parent for Australian expansion” by Eli Greenblat at Sydney Morning Herald.  “The extra dollop of funding from its US parent has already helped Costco construct and open its fourth and fifth warehouse stores in Australia this year, giving it two locations in Melbourne and Sydney. The discounter is already building its sixth store, in Brisbane, and another is to follow in Adelaide soon.”  Read more / See the video

 

“Will Target debacle spell demise of the debit card?” by Mark Calvey at San Francisco Business Times.  “It just taught me a lesson. My debit card will not pay for a retail purchase ever again,” said Bert Lampley, a Charlotte resident who paid with his debit card at Target between Nov. 27 and Dec. 15 and recently found his bank account drained from fraudulent ATM withdrawals near the Chicago airport, according to a ABC News’s national report last Friday.”  Read more

 

“How to Sell More Booze than Costco – Deliver It” by Soumya Karlamangla at LA Times via Star Tribune.  “Decades ago, Hollywood’s lavish parties created a demand for businesses that quickly delivered alcohol. And now, this relic of Hollywood’s past is giving small liquor stores like Almor an edge in a market inundated with other ways to buy booze.  Although Southern California is dotted with stores that deliver alcohol to homes and businesses, the concentration is particularly high in and around Tinseltown. Within a 3-mile radius of the Hollywood & Highland Center are at least 10 stores that offer door-to-door alcohol delivery.”  Read more

 

“Target data breach ruins a man’s dream backpacking trip” by Anna Canzano at KATU.  “For Tim Nolan of Hillsboro, the breach ruined what was supposed to a dream backpacking trip in Central America. He found himself cut off from his own bank account, all because he picked up some toothpaste at the Sunset Esplanade Target in Hillsboro the day before he left…Nolan cut his trip short by 11 days. A disappointing end to a life experience he considered priceless.”  Read more

 

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