Unintended Consequence of Wal-Mart’s Raise: Unhappy Workers by Shannon Pettypiece at Bloomberg. "It is pitting people against each other,” said Charmaine Givens-Thomas, a 10-year Wal-Mart veteran. “It hurts morale when people feel like they aren’t being appreciated. I hear people every day talking about looking for other jobs and wanting to remove themselves from Wal-Mart and a job that will make them feel like that.” Read more / See the video   Home Depot & Others Pull Brands From Jet.com by Rolfe Winkler at WSJ. "Companies with multiple brands whose links have been withdrawn from Jet include heavyweights Wal-Mart [...]

  Retail's Top 25 Earners by Arthur Zaczkiewicz at Women's Wear Daily (Brian Cornell #2, Marvin Ellison #4, Doug McMillon #6)  See the top 25 list and how much they earn   Costco’s French Revolution by Angel Gonzalez by Seattle Times. "After four years mired in a thicket of red tape, Costco Wholesale is getting closer to opening its first warehouse in France, a key building block in its slow but sure-footed global push. Now the hard part begins. When the Issaquah retailer opens the store, possibly next spring, it will land right on the doorstep of some of the world’s [...]

  Target testing beacons to provide in-store shoppers coupons, recommendations by Kavita Kumar at Star-Tribune. "The experiment is Target’s first major foray into beacons. It is starting out with 50 stores in markets such as Denver, Chicago, Seattle and San Francisco as well as in 15 stores in the Twin Cities. In each of the stores, Target has placed anywhere between 20 and 50 beacons that transmit a signal about 20 feet away." Read more   Target CFO John Mulligan Joins McDonald's Board by Nick Turner at Bloomberg. "McDonald’s has faced criticism in the past for having an insular board [...]

  CVS Q2 Comp +0.5% (Pharmacy +4.1%, Front end -7.8%) "Net revenues for the three months ended June 30, 2015, increased 7.4%, or $2.6 billion, to $37.2 billion compared to the three months ended June 30, 2014." Read the release   Lowe's Taps Into Tech to Promote New Manhattan Locations by Ashley Rodriguez at Ad Age. "A lot of work went into figuring out what home improvement means for the Manhattan customer, for the Upper West Side customer, for the Chelsea customer," said Mr. Luster. "It was really important for us to be part of the community. We're not a flagship store here. We're absolutely [...]

  Lowe’s set to open its first store in Manhattan by Lisa Fickenscher at NY Post. "Anchoring the corner of Broadway and West 68th Street, in a former Food Emporium space, Lowe’s is unveiling what it describes as a “test store,” a smaller format that will be a model for other urban stores across the country. The chain is opening a second Manhattan outlet in September in Chelsea." Read more   Costco purchases land in southeast Redmond for long-delayed project by Angel Gonzalez & Sanjay Bhatt at Seattle Times. "Costco Wholesale has bought a big chunk of land in southeast Redmond, [...]