Dollar Tree says FTC wants 340 stores sold ahead of Family Dollar deal at Reuters. Read more

 

Rite-Aid Q4 Comp +4.5% (Front-End +2.0%) Read the release

 

Is Wal-Mart asking suppliers to fund Savings Catcher? by Kim Souza at The City Wire. “Wal-Mart spokeswoman Molly Blakeman said she was not unable to substantiate claims about supplier support of the Savings Catcher program prior to publishing this report.” Read more

 

Jeff Bezos’ rocket company to begin suborbital test flights this year by Irene Klotz at Reuters. “The so-called New Shepard spaceship is designed to fly three people and/or a mix of passengers and payloads to altitudes about 62 miles (100 km) above Earth. It will launch from Blue Origin’s west Texas facility near Van Horn, Texas, southeast of El Paso.” Read more

 

Millennials Say Amazon.com Provides Best Customer Service, Boomers Disagree by Pam Goodfellow at Forbes. “Nordstrom, along with Amazon, are the two retailers that appear in both Millennials’ and Boomers’ top five Champions.” See top five list for both

 

Wal-Mart’s Mexico Unit Logs Strongest Sales Growth in Over Two Years by Anthony Harrup at Nasdaq. “Sales momentum from the first two months of the year continued into March, with same-store sales in Mexico up 4.5% from the year-earlier month despite a negative calendar effect. The number of customers was down 1.7% in March.” Read more

 

***A message from Eye Dig It Safety Sunglasses: Don’t Sacrifice your Safety for Style. Set your sights on this pair of chic sunglasses to find the best of both worlds. Maximum visual perception and shatter/scratch-resistant protection, Eye Dig It helps protect eyes from debris and provide UVA and UVB protection…and women love the stylish look and feel.  Available in Black and Tortoise Shell. See the sell sheet. For product samples contact info@shiftmarketinggroup.net

 

Home Depot Back on Top as Radio’s #1 Advertiser at Radio Ink. “Home Depot has returned to the top as radio’s number one advertiser airing 48,777 commercials for the week of March 30, according to Media Monitors. Walgreens moved up to #2 (from #4) with 43,807 ads aired.” Read more

 

IKEA to shoppers in Beijing: Please stop napping on the furniture by Amy Eley at Today. “The Chinese location is no longer tolerating those who opt for sleeping over shopping since they prevent other customers from testing and buying products. IKEA spokesperson Mona Astra Liss told TODAY.com that no word on napping has been released for U.S. locations, but we suggest snoozing before heading to the mega-store.” See the pics / Read more 

 

U.K.: Costco has had “huge impact” on grocery sector by Fiona Briggs at Fortune. “Online is not a red herring but there’s a lot more at play than things shifting online,” he says. “If the internet did not exist, this would have happened anyway…Bryan Roberts, director of retail insights, at Kantar Retail, states: “ Costco has had a huge impact on the sector but never gets mentioned .” Read more

 

So much for all of that mall traffic from the Apple Watch by Julia Love at The Mercury News. “When the Apple Watch goes on sale later this month, Apple will encourage its loyal fans to buy the gadget online, rather than flooding stores, according to an internal memo obtained by Business Insider.” Read more

 

‘Star Wars’ Digital Collection: Walmart’s Vudu Offers an Early Deal by James Rainey at Variety. “Walmart’s Vudu digital media delivery service…was the only outlet to break slightly from the pack, at least initially. It posted a “limited-time offer” of $89.99 for the six-movie bundle, with individual episodes going for $19.99.” Read more

 

Hudson’s Bay is betting on new 1970s-style women’s fashions by Marina Strauss at Globe & Mail. “There’s a significant change in fashion,” Richard Baker, governor and executive chairman of HBC, said in an interview on Tuesday.” Read more

 

Harris Teeter is checking out of the Nashville market by E.J. Boyer at Nashville Business Journal. “It will sell three of its remaining four stores in that market to corporate parent Kroger and close the other one.” Read more

 

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Eye-on-Retail Tipsheet is created early every weekday morning and read by retail merchants and executives worldwide. We love data, earnings reports, executive presentations and stories off the beaten path that get at what’s happening in the world of retail. Contact us at info@shiftmarketinggroup.net.

 

Wal-Mart exec: Credit card upgrade a ‘joke’ by Jose Pagliery at WTTV 4 via CNN Money. “The fact that we didn’t go to PIN is such a joke,” (Mike) Cook told CNNMoney….“Signature is worthless as a form of authentication,” Cook said during a presentation at the conference. “If you look at the Target and Home Depot breaches … not a single PIN debit card needed to be reissued in those breaches. The card number was worthless to the individual thief and fraudsters, because they didn’t know the PIN.” Read more

 

Amazon Woos EBay’s Once-Loyal Merchants With Faster Sales Growth by Spencer Soper at Bloomberg. “We saw sales drop 10 percent on EBay and gain 10 percent on Amazon,” said Chance Knapp, chief executive officer of Vivo Technology, a laptop parts and accessories business, about a few product lines he moved last year. “It was like customers were actually shifting from EBay to Amazon.” Read more

 

Home Depot CEO Speaks at Logistics Summit by Mary Carr Mayle at Savannah Morning News. “At the Home Depot, if we were to stay customer-centric, we had to evolve from a company that measured its success in new square-footage growth to one that measured its success in productivity and efficiency. It was one of the hardest pivots we had to make.”…“In 2014 we grew our sales by $4 billion – and $1 billion of that was digital. We had 1.4 billion transactions coming through our stores, but we had 1.2 billion digital visits to our website.” Read more

 

Amazon and Target lead e-commerce awards list by Don Davis at Internet Retailer. “The final award to be announced at the June 3 event will be the Internet Retailer of the Year. The four finalists are Amazon and Wal-Mart, along with The Home Depot Inc…and Etsy Inc.” Read more

 

***A message from Orchard Road Canning – Designer inspired style brings life to the home canning category. Announcing the decorative series of canning caps featuring three custom designs: Wild Daisy, Fruit and Gingham. Available in Regular Mouth. Finally, something unique and differentiated to drive incremental sales in the home canning and storage categories! See the decorative designs. Request samples at info@shiftmarketinggroup.net.

 

Ottawa: Whole Foods ‘thumb their nose’ at rules: MPP MacLeod by Keaton Robbins at Ottawa Sun. “Prior to this week, we believed that Lansdowne Park was a designated tourist area and planned to remain open to serve the community and the attendees of an event at the arena,”(Whole Foods) said.” Read more

 

…In the end, Whole Foods closed for Easter Sunday by Robert Sibley at Ottawa Citizen. “Previously, store officials had tweeted it was going to be open Good Friday and Easter Sunday because the outlet was within a “designated tourist area.” Read more

 

Target Creates Palm Beach Party App For Pulitzer Collection by Sarah Mahoney at Media Post. “Target is using an app that brings the campaign to life, right down to a Palm Beach palazzo, actor Chris Noth and a monkey serving cocktails.” Read more

 

St. John’s shoppers clean out Target store on closing day at CBC  News. “Crowds showed up to take advantage of Saturday’s liquidation sale. All store merchandise was discounted by upwards of 70 and 80 per cent. “I got some shirts and I got some some tank tops, a belt,” said Turner. “It’s about $250 worth of stuff and I paid $25. It’s a good deal.” Read more

 

Lawsuit says Huntsville provided millions to lure Cabela’s by Brian Lawson at AL.com. Read more

 

Microlending gets an organic boost from Whole Foods by Hailey Lee at CNBC. “So far, Whole Foods has sent more than 500 employees to help implement microloan programs around the world.” Read more

 

Seattle: Where’s the booze on AmazonFresh? by John Cook at GeekWire. “It’s super annoying that Amazon has done this — removing beer without any announcement or setting any expectation as to when it might be returned,” he said. “It erodes my trust in them as a company. I wish they would communicate more around these things.” Read more

 

Recycling Becomes a Tougher Sell as Prices Drop by Georgi Kantchev & Serena Ng at WSJ. “Many in the recycling industry are hanging by the skin of their teeth,” says Chris Collier, CK’s commercial director, walking among the bales of unsold shreds. “Everybody is desperately chasing for money to stay alive.” Read more (Subscription)

 

Canada: Target’s retreat tactics raise questions about CCAA by Marina Strauss at Globe and Mail. “There is no question that the notion of using the CCAA as a liquidation strategy is contested in Canada,” said Janis Sarra, a law professor at the University of British Columbia and an insolvency expert. “There’s a live debate about whether or not it’s the appropriate tool.” Read more

 

Washington Post: Tech titans’ latest project: Defy death by Ariana Eunchung Cha. “I think that research into life extension is going to end up being a big social disaster,” Fukuyama said in an interview. “Extending the average human life span is a great example of something that is individually desirably by almost everyone but collectively not a good thing. For evolutionary reasons, there is a good reason why we die when we do.” Read more

 

Where Apple Products Are Born: A Rare Glimpse Inside Foxconn’s Factory Gates by Dawn Chmielewski at Recode. “Still, visible from the rooftop at Foxconn is a jarring reminder of past tragedy: Netting erected to prevent suicidal workers from hurling themselves to their deaths.” Read more / See the pics

 

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Eye-on-Retail Tipsheet is created early every weekday morning and read by retail merchants and executives worldwide. We love data, earnings reports, executive presentations and stories off the beaten path that get at what’s happening in the world of retail. Contact us at info@shiftmarketinggroup.net.

 

Wegmans top supermarket in Consumer Reports survey (Costco #6, BJ’s #42, Target #45, Sam’s #47) by Emily Babay at Philly.com. “The results, which appear in the May issue of the magazine, are based on nearly 63,000 responses that reflect about 111,200 shopping trips readers took between March 2013 and July 2014.” Read more

 

Greg Foran updates progress in Walmart U.S by Kim Souza at The City Wire. “Foran said there are some bright spots in the retailer’s fleet of some 4,500 stores, calling out four stores in Boise, Idaho, as models for others to follow. He told analysts if they wanted to see where Walmart store operations are headed they need to visit Boise.” Read more

 

Target gets into April Fools’ Day spirit with new FannyBasket by Nick Woltman at Twin Cities / Pioneer Press. “Target on Wednesday rolled out its new hands-free shopping solution, the FannyBasket. Because “70 percent of the time, 80 percent of Americans have a phone in 50 percent of their hands.” See the video / Read more

 

NY Times: Walmart Emerges as Unlikely Social Force by Hiroku Tibuchi & Michael Barbaro. “They’ve done a complete 180,” said Justin G. Nelson, co-founder and president of the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. “You have a company that frankly was abysmal on L.G.B.T. issues if you go back five years, but has now become an employer that has a nondiscrimination policy that includes sexual orientation and gender identity, that is headquartered in an incredibly conservative state.” Read more

 

***A message from Orchard Road Canning – Designer inspired style brings life to the home canning category. Announcing the decorative series of canning caps featuring three custom designs: Wild Daisy, Fruit and Gingham. Available in Regular Mouth. Finally, something unique and differentiated to drive incremental sales in the home canning and storage categories! See the decorative designs. Request samples: info@shiftmarketinggroup.net.

 

Number of ‘clicks’ is barrier for hiring older employees by Richard Eisenberg at Forbes. “…students who enrolled generally weren’t very familiar with using the Internet to look for work. Employers often don’t make it easy for them. “The job application for Home Depot required 38 clicks, Walmart required 49 clicks and CVS required 50 clicks. They’re tough to get through,” said Pappas. As a result, some of the students gave up.” Read more

 

Best Buy closed 48 stores last year, mainly under the Mobile banner by Nick Halter at Minn./St.Paul Business Journal. Read more

 

Analyst: Wal-Mart pressuring suppliers to cut promotional costs is more about the newspaper industry than it is about Wal-Mart by Ben Levisohn at Barron’s. “We have been watching the shift from print to digital for awhile. Most recently we discussed the opportunity at consumer electronics retailer hhgregg to dramatically cut print and save money from its advertising budget with a minimal impact to sales. Best Buy has started this as well. A key challenge to cutting print has been the support of vendors for weekly circulars.” Read more

 

Best Buy among first businesses fined for not giving paid sick leave to NYC employees by Reuven Blau at NY Daily News. Read more

 

Publix store to install system to help hearing impaired by Janelle O’Dea at Bradenton Herald. “Typically used in concert venues and restaurants, the hearing-loop device will be used in Publix Super Markets at the pharmacy and in the checkout line to help customers block out ambient noise and focus on their transactions.” Read more

 

Lumber Liquidators March same-store sales fall 17.8 pct at Reuters via Yahoo. Read more

 

Amazon’s Prime Now expands to Atlanta by Carla Cardwell at Atlanta Business Chronicle. “Prime Now is available from 8 a.m. to midnight, seven days a week. Two-hour delivery is free and one-hour delivery is available for $7.99.” Read more

 

J.C.Penney Likes Apple Watch by Nicholas Turner at Bloomberg. “(Neely) Tamminga, who also said that Apple Inc.’s new smartwatch will help bring consumers to shopping malls next month, has the equivalent of a buy rating on J.C. Penney’s stock. “The Apple Watch launch in April on the other side of Easter may provide natural traffic back into malls as folks seek out (or at least ogle) the latest and greatest from Apple,” she said.” Read more

 

Random: A Look Inside Mike Tyson’s Deserted Ohio Mansion at Architectural Afterlife.  See the pics

 

Highlights from Walmart’s U.S. Strategic Update Call with Investor Community

 

Greg Foran – CEO Walmart US

Building a strong and enduring business is both strategy and principles. Let me begin with the principles: One, tell the unvarnished truth.

Our processes require some rework, might be overnight stocking, markdown cadence, rotation of fresh food are just some.

We want this year to be the year of improving our stores.

So by the time we hit holiday season, our stores are clean, tidy, well merchandised and run by engaged associates. Today in the main, we’re not. 

If you’d like to know where I would like our business to be by the holiday season, visit Boise.

We’ve got too much inventory in the backrooms.

We’ve reduced the number of PDQs that are flowing to stores.

We started to reduce the price of products, nearing expiration date.

…We estimate this markdown initiative alone is delivering a retail run rate saving of over $500 million annually.

Some of the stores recently opened in our opinion are not quite as good as ones that we had opened in previous years.

Las Vegas store: Our store manager Donna and her associates have within just four short months taken the percentage of baskets with produce from 25% to 45%.

With over 4,500 stores, we are within 10 miles of nearly 90% of all Americans…That is a competitive advantage.

Tank tops: Andy Barron, our SVP for Softlines, and his team developed a cami or tank top for this season, great quality; unbelievable price, $1.68. We projected sales for this item to be 13 million units this season versus 6 million that we did the previous season. Andy came to me the other week and said he’s upped the order to 50 million units.

The apparel team has driven strong comps over the last year; as well seasonal continues to be a little highlight.

Our job at the home office in Bentonville is to serve the stores to in turn serve customers…But to be frank, in some recent years, we’ve slipped a little away from this.

We’ve got plenty of opportunity, but as I often say to my team, you get one point for talking about it, nine points to do it.

We’re giving a bit more freedom to merchandise to our stores; we want them to have fun with that; we want them to drive sales as a result of this.

This year we’ve introduced customer experience metric into our market managers.

One of my sons is a pretty good rugby league player in Australia. As we’ve said to one another for all the talk of kicks, passes and plays, the key ingredient in that game is belief; you either take it away from the opposition and feed your own or the equation goes the other way, belief.

I am not into gimmicks, I’m into simplicity ensuring that we negotiate the very best price and then pass that price on to our customers.

You got to give (store associates) enough to keep them interested and you got to give them enough to serve customers and then they’ll progress through the business and one day they will be doing our jobs. And we lost our little bit of that because we wound things down pretty tight.

A guy called Jack Shoemaker and Roger Corbett who is on our board have taught me a lot over the years about store layout, that creating a situation where you create a concave situation in your store. What does that mean; it means your walls are more powerful than the middle.

I was walking in that (electronics) department and we started taking the signs down. And the department manager who’s being with us for about 17 years came up and gave me a big hug and she said thank goodness we’re doing this.

We made a mess in that (electronics) area other areas I think we’ve done a really good job. But that one I agree with you, I think we missed.

We were eating beacon and eggs for breakfast the other day and my wife said it’s great value beacon and I can tell you it was fantastic.

 

Judith McKenna – COO, Walmart U.S.

I am very clear that the priority for operations for this year is to improve the customer experience.

The three things that matter most to customers are clean, fast, and friendly.

Grocery Pickup/Delivery Test: it’s been very strong as we’ve launched into Phoenix and into Huntsville in particular.

All neighborhood markets in the future will open up with a bakery and a deli.

 

Read the full transcript via Seeking Alpha

 

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Eye-on-Retail Tipsheet is created early every weekday morning and read by retail merchants and executives worldwide. We love data, earnings reports, executive presentations and stories off the beaten path that get at what’s happening in the world of retail. Contact us at info@shiftmarketinggroup.net.