Lowe's brings 3-D printing to home improvement by Krystina Gustafson at CNBC. "In the latest project to come out of the home improvement store's innovation labs, Lowe's Orchard Supply Hardware store in Mountain View, California, on Wednesday will debut 3-D printing and scanning services that let shoppers customize their home accents and fixtures." Read more   Alibaba Secretly Invested In Amazon Challenger Jet.com by Ryan Mac at Forbes. "With promises that his company will offer cheaper prices than Amazon for products ranging from sporting goods to toilet paper, Jet’s founder Marc Lore has raised more than $225 million, a [...]

  Wal-Mart to build 115 new stores in China by 2017 at Reuters. "Wal-Mart Stores Inc will build 115 new stores in China by 2017 and upgrade 50 stores this year, the company's chief executive said on Wednesday." Read more   EPA: Top 30 Green Power Users Among Retailers (Walmart #3, Best Buy #7, REI #8)  See the top 30 list   ...National Top 100 Green Power Users (Kohl's #3, Walmart #16)  See the top 100 list   Uber Is Quietly Testing A Massive Merchant Delivery Program by Jordan Crook at TechCrunch. "Sources say that Neiman Marcus, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany’s, [...]

  Costco embraces Greek extra-virgin olive oil amid Italian crop’s woes by Angel Gonzalez at Seattle Times. "Chief Financial Officer Richard Galanti said the availability of the extra-virgin olive oil Costco usually purchases is down to one-tenth of the normal level. “We wanted to get a single source of good quality; for this year we went to Greece,” he said." Read more   Canada failure dents Target executives' compensation by Kavita Kumar at Star-Tribune. "Jeff Jones, the retailer’s chief marketing officer, also received a bump of $25,000 to his base salary for his “leadership in rebuilding the brand following the [...]

  Fortune: The Inside Story of Family Dollar's Sale to Dollar Tree by Shawn Tully. "When (CEO Howard) Levine, 56, stepped out of the elevator into Icahn’s 11,000-square-foot duplex, he and fellow Family Dollar board member George Mahoney were escorted by a butler to the expansive balcony. There they found Icahn mixing a batch of ­martinis—Ketel One vodka, up with a lemon twist—for himself and two lieutenants. “Can I get you a drink?” Icahn asked Levine. “I’d love one,” replied Levine, “but I’ll say no, since I want to keep my wits about me.” Icahn didn’t miss a beat. “Not [...]

  Wal-Mart to focus on food ‘upstreaming’ agenda by Kim Souza at The City Wire. "Earlier this month Wal-Mart quietly opened a sorting and culling operation in Los Angeles...Insiders at Wal-Mart said the new center in California is similar to an operation in McAllen, Texas...For instance if product can be purchased green and stored there for ripening. Or, if there is product that certain stores want by customer request such as smaller than specified Roma tomatoes then Wal-Mart could buy the whole field." Read more   Amazon First Quarter Sales up 15% to $22.72 Billion  Read the release   Proposed [...]

  Tractor Supply Q1 Comp Sales +5.7% - Plan 110+ New Store Openings in FY '15 "Comparable store transaction count increased 4.8% and average ticket increased 0.8%. The comparable store sales increase benefited from a solid performance in consumable, usable and edible (C.U.E.) products, including pet and heating consumables, while hardline products such as fencing, truck accessories and tools also performed well" Read the release   Corruption Allegation Costs Wal-Mart $612 million Since 2013 by Kim Souza at The City Wire. "The retail giant did not report the ongoing tally of FCPA expenses in any of its three reports issued [...]

  First CEO of Sam’s Club shares lessons learned from Sam Walton by Kim Souza at The City Wire. "Sam was like a father to me. He coached my first baseball team and after I graduated from Bentonville High School I joined the military and spent four years in the service. After I came home in 1964, Sam approached me about going to college. He wanted to help. He offered to front me the money for college or teach me the retail ropes. Not wanting to go in debt for college, I took him up on the job opportunity,” (Ron) [...]

  Target in Top 100 of Best Corporate Citizens at Corporate Responsibility Magazine  See the Top 100 list   ...Top CEO's of the Year: Larry Merlo from CVS "For us we saw (tobacco sales) as an obstacle to play a bigger role to healthcare delivery...You can imagine the spirited debate we had within the management team." Read more   Congrats: Home Depot's Trish Mueller appointed to Dave and Buster's Board of Directors  Read the release   How I gamed Target's big Lilly Pulitzer debut by Julia LaRoche at Business Insider. "Target quickly caught on to our strategy. Jason Goldberger, the [...]