Today’s Tipsheet: Target Lands “Food” Office | “QVC for Firearms” Coming | Michaels #1 in Adult Coloring Books | Amazon’s Free Bananas

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Neiman Marcus Brings Its Insane Holiday Fantasy Gifts to a Mall For First Time by Phil Wahba at Fortune. “The retailer has just staged an exhibit at the upscale Roosevelt Field Mall in Garden City, Long Island as part of its efforts to drum up interest among the wealthy shoppers in the New York City suburbs ahead of a new store opening on February 19.” Read more

 

Target’s ‘future of food’ collaboration lands Kendall Square office by Sara Castellanos at Boston Business Journal. “Target’s recently announced collaboration with the MIT Media Lab and global design and consulting firm Ideo has officially found a brick-and-mortar location where they plan to study and explore the future of food. The Food and Future CoLab signed a two-year lease earlier this week for a 7,200-square-foot office at 80 Broadway in Cambridge. The space could employ about 15 people beginning early next year.” See the space pics / Read more

 

Big Lots Q3 Comp Sales +2.6% “For the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015…estimated comparable store sales increase in the 1% to 2% range compared to a 2.9% comparable store sales increase in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014.” Read the release

 

Amazon opens ‘Community Banana Stand’ at Seattle HQ to give away free fruit by Jacob Demmitt at GeekWire. “Amazon has opened a “Community Banana Stand,” which is exactly what you would imagine. The stand is open every day between 8 a.m. and about 3:30 p.m., with free bananas available to anyone who walks by — employee or not.” Read more / See the stand

 

What rough quarter at Lands’ End teaches us about the clothing business these days by Sarah Halzack at Washington Post. “This quarter, the company tried to put the brakes on its promotion train…And yet by the second half of the quarter, the company decided to change course and ramp up the promotions again.” Read more

 

Why Pantone Released Two 2016 Colors of the Year by Christina Binkley at WSJ. “It’s twins! Color authority Pantone has for the first time anointed two colors of the year for 2016. Dubbed Rose Quartz and Serenity, they are shades of pale pink and baby blue.” Read more (Subscription)

 

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Amazon sees growth in Prime subscriptions and two key categories by Tonya Garcia at MarketWatch. “Cowen wrote in a report. “Since the inception of our survey, Amazon Prime households have more than doubled, growing from 18% in December 2012 to about 39% in November 2015.” Read more

 

These shoppers skew wealthier by Krystina Gustafson at CNBC. “Amazon shoppers, on average, earn roughly 12 percent more than those who shop at Wal-Mart. However, they earn 6 percent less than those who shop at Target, 19 percent less than Costco’s shoppers and 21 percent less than Macy’s.” Read more

 

Target Updates Smart Home Store at Twice. “But the most interesting part of the reset is the system Target is putting in place to continue to bring the latest and most innovative products to their store..the retailer has started working with Indiegogo…find the hottest companies that are being funded there. From that comes a new part of the store reset, where Indiegogo and its startups now command a corner of the location.” Read more / See the pics

 

Talk about upwardly mobile jobs: Digital retail by Mary Thompson at CNBC. “We right now have over 500 open roles,” said Niraj Shah, CEO of (Wayfair) “And we are very aggressively adding to the team in all our locations.” Read more

 

Michaels claims largest in-store selection of adult coloring books by Maria Halkias at The Dallas Morning News. “The retailer said Thursday it believes it has the largest in-store selection of adult coloring books with 175 titles…Sales increased 3.4 percent to $1.17 billion and same store sales increased 1.5 percent. “ Read more

 

Kroger execs talk gelato, Super Bowl and dogs on a health kick by Steve Watkins at Cincinnati Business Journal. “Schlotman also pointed out Kroger’s store brands now make up nearly 28 percent of units sold and 26 percent of sales dollars. Its Simple Truth natural and organic brand is a key to its growth in store brands.” Read more earnings call highlights

 

Amazon brings budget Fire tablet to China, partners with search giant Baidu by Jacob Demmitt at GeekWire. “Online shopping in China is dominated by Alibaba, which reaches about 80 percent of the Chinese population, according to comScore. Amazon.cn, meanwhile, reaches just 10 percent.” Read more

 

GunTV, a QVC for Firearms, is coming to cable soon by John Paul Titlow at Fast Company. “To work within gun laws, GunTV won’t actually sell firearms directly to its viewers. Instead, when a viewer calls GunTV, the network will place an order on behalf of that viewer with Sports South, a Louisiana firearms distributor.” Read more

 

Aldi pays $400k to shopper who slipped on disabled sign painted on the ground via Ten Play. “He needs further surgery and his wife left him (taking their two children) because she refused to move out of their third-story apartment to somewhere more accessible for Mr Sajad.” Read more

 

Tipsheet Extra Stories

Hawaii: Stores can’t keep mosquito repellant on shelf due to Dengue fever

12 Mind Tricks That Make People Like You And Help You Get Ahead

Mayor’s visit to Wayfair covers more than furnishings

Avon in Talks to Sell North American Business to Cerberus

How an Industrial Oops Led to Silly Putty Becoming a Stretchy Smash-Hit Toy

Woman leaves daughter behind after being caught shoplifting at Target

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Today’s Tipsheet: Costco +6% | D.Gen +2.3% | Bullseye Promotes Poppins | Costco’s Cheap Meds

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Costco November Comp Sales Flat, +6% Excluding Gas and Foreign Exchange “Costco…reported net sales of $9.68 billion for the month of November…an increase of three percent from $9.43 billion during the similar period last year.” Read more

 

Dollar General Q3 Comp Sales +2.3% “We achieved 7.3 percent sales growth, 2.3 percent same-store sales growth and adjusted diluted earnings per share growth of 11 percent,” said Todd Vasos, Dollar General’s chief executive officer.” Read the release

 

Reuters: Dollar General’s quarterly sales miss estimates “The company’s same-store sales rose 2.3 percent, also below the 2.7 percent growth expected by analysts polled by research firm Consensus Metrix.” Read more

 

Rite Aid Comp Sales for November +0.9% “November front-end same store sales increased 1.2 percent. Pharmacy same store sales, which included an approximate 267 basis points negative impact from new generic introductions, increased 0.7 percent.” Read the release

 

Target’s Bullseye to Promote ‘Mary Poppins’ by Adrianne Pasquarelli at Ad Age. “ABC and Target are pulling a bit of marketing magic out of their magical carpet bag when the brands broadcast “Mary Poppins” as part of the temporary return of The Wonderful World of Disney at 8 p.m. on Dec. 12. The brands will use Hollywood legend Dick Van Dyke, who starred in the film 51 years ago, and Bullseye, the bull terrier Target mascot, to promote the program.” Read more

 

H-E-B opens smallest store ever in downtown San Antonio by Katie Burke at San Antonio Business Journal. “The South Flores location…is not only the first downtown store for H-E-B, it’s the first grocery store in the entire downtown area.” See the 11 pics / Read more

 

Consumer Reports: Costco has the second lowest price for prescription drugs See the ranking by retailer

 

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Target settles class-action suit over data breach claims for $39 million by Evan Ramstad at Star Tribune. “The suit may set a precedent as the first time a U.S. retailer has absorbed most of the costs incurred by financial firms in a data breach. Home Depot and several other retailers are locked in similar litigation.” Read more

 

Supervalu replaces Save-A-Lot CEO by Clare Kennedy at Minneapolis/St.Paul Business Journal. “Eric Claus, 59, has for two years been chairman and CEO of Red Apple Stores Inc., a Mississauga, Ontario-based discount chain with 156 stores across Canada. Claus also serves on the board of directors for Rona.” Read more

 

Fred’s November Comp Sales +1.7% Read the release

 

Holiday Gift Giving Down in the Workplace “…with only 31 percent planning to give gifts to their co-workers at their level (down from 38 percent in 2014), 28 percent planning to give gifts to their boss (down from 34 percent in 2014), and 19 percent planning to give gifts to other colleagues (down from 24 percent in 2014).” Read the release

 

Sears Canada same-store sales rise for first time in 2 years at Reuters. “Sears Canada Inc said its same-store sales rose 0.4 percent in the third quarter – the first rise in two years.” Read more

 

Food Giants Announce Major New Labeling Initiative by Tamar Haspel at Fortune. “More than 30 food giants, including Pepsi, ConAgra, Hormel, Campbell Soup, Land O’Lakes, Coca-Cola, Nestle, Hershey, and General Foods, have signed on to participate in the SmartLabel Initiative. The SmartLabel will include ingredients, allergens, animal welfare, environmental policies, and, perhaps the most controversial attribute, whether the food contains genetically modified organisms (GMOs).” Read more

 

Controversial Coca-Cola ad depicts whites introducing soda to ‘poor’ Mexicans by Justin Wm. Moyer at Washington Post. “It’s outrageous for the indigenous,” Diana Turner, a spokesman for Consumer Power, told the Associated Press.” See the ad / Read more

 

…Coke Pulls Mexican Ad After Outcry by E.J. Schultz at Ad Age. Read more

 

Actor Nick Cannon Joins RadioShack As Chief Creative Officer “RadioShack and I are going to create a lot of cool things together in the coming months, and I can’t wait to tell you all about it,” added Nick Cannon.” Read the release

 

Tipsheet Extra Stories

Rev. Jesse Jackson says Amazon, Costco needs more minorities

Freshii will open its 8th location within a Chicago-area Target store

New Jersey Residents Claim Amazon is Delivering a Traffic Nightmare to their Town

A Sour, Hard-to-Eat, Occasionally Deadly Fruit Makes Comeback

Walmart #1 in Faith Equality Index

Dollar General Names John W. Garratt as Chief Financial Officer

OpenTable Reveals 100 Best Restaurants in America

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Contact Jason Long, jlong@eyeonretail.net

Today’s Tipsheet: Top 50 Innovative Co’s | H.Depot Reaches Settlement | Target: Cheapest Toys / Sells 25% of Adele Albums

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Target Goes Big on Discounts This Holiday Season, Bringing Some Headaches by Shannon Pettypiece at Bloomberg. “Its toy prices were 1.3 percent below those of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. during Black Friday and 5.2 percent cheaper than Amazon.com Inc., according to an online survey by Bloomberg Intelligence. Target also undercut Toys “R” Us Inc. and Sears Holdings Corp.’s Kmart chain, the survey found.” Read more

 

Amazon Received 12 times as Many Twitter Mentions as Walmart on Cyber Monday by Phil Wahba at Fortune. “…509,000 to 51,100. Target, though a much smaller digital retailer than Walmart, got 112,000 mentions. Though lets not give Target too much credit: a lot of that probably had to do the web site’s problems.” Read more

 

Cabela’s says it’s exploring strategic alternatives at CNBC. “Cabela’s is working with Guggenheim Securities as its financial advisor and Sidley Austin and Koley Jessen as its legal counsel to assist in the strategic review.” Read more

 

Target sells a quarter of Adele’s 4 million albums by Nick Halter at Minneapolis/St.Paul Business Journal. “The album…broke Target’s records for first-day album sales and for first-week album sales, said spokesman Lee Henderson.” Read more

 

Home Depot reaches settlement agreement with MasterCard over data breach by David Allison at Atlanta Business Chronicle. “However, attorneys representing the financial institutions suing Home Depot over the data breach are unhappy…”Home Depot began sending the communications hours before the Thanksgiving holiday, when Class Counsel and putative Class members would be otherwise occupied, requiring putative Class members to take action as soon as December 2…” Read more

 

Black Friday breaks record with 185K gun background checks by Nick Penzenstadler at USA Today. “More Americans had their backgrounds checked purchasing guns on Black Friday than any day in the on record, according to data released by the FBI this week.” Read more

 

Google, Battling Amazon, Sees Some Bright Spots in Holiday Shopping Data by Jason Del Rey at Recode. “ChannelAdvisor shows that Google shopping ads — otherwise known as Product Listing Ads — drove 24.3 percent more sales in the five shopping days starting with Thanksgiving than they did last year.” Read more

 

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Amazon Dominated 36% of Online Black Friday Sales, Says Slice by Katie Roof at TechCrunch. “A distant second, Best Buy brought in 8.23% of total online revenue, followed by Macy’s at 3.38%, Walmart at 3.35% and Nordstrom at 3.11%. It’s hard to say whether these impressive Amazon numbers are skewing high because Slice’s users are more active online shoppers.” Read more

 

Costco is the 14th Largest Pizza Chain in the US by Kate Taylor at Business Insider via MSN. “Ultimately, Costco is a bigger pizza chain than California Pizza Kitchen and nearly as big as CiCi’s Pizza — at least when it comes to sheer size.” Read more   Top 100 Pizza Companies List

 

A mobile app enables Chinese consumers to buy from overseas retail websites by Frank Tong at Internet Retailer. “A startup has sold more than $100 million in six months by letting those consumers shop for imported products via a mobile app. The app, called Red, was launched in January 2014, but at that time did not sell any products, only allowing consumers to review foreign products.” Read more

 

How Big Food Is Using Natural Flavors to Win Consumer Favor by Annie Gasparro at WSJ. “In consumer tests, “Some people told us they hadn’t seen that color turquoise in any food besides Trix, so we knew even if we could match it, it wouldn’t look natural,” said Kate Gallager, a cereal developer at General Mills. She decided to leave out both colors in the new cereal with natural colors and flavors to be launched in January…” Read more (Subscription)

 

50 Most Innovative Companies (Amazon #9) by Alan Murray at Fortune. See the top 50 list

 

Target Has Record Cyber Monday via A Bullseye View. “Jason Goldberger, president of Target.com and Mobile: “Early in the day, Target.com orders were coming in twice as fast as our busiest day ever. And by early in the night, Target had already surpassed the previous record for online sales.” Read more

 

Are Genetically Modified Pigs Next After FDA Approves Salmon? by Jade Scipioni at Fox Business. “Whitelaw used a new technique called gene-editing, where the piglets genetic code has been flipped to make their immune system slightly closer to a warthog’s—a wild African pig that is more resistant to the swine fever disease.” Read more

 

German supermarket chain EDEKA releases tearjerker of a Christmas ad by Jessica Estepa at USA Today. “Germany’s EDEKA supermarket chain went for heartwrenching in their latest advertisement. The commercial is one minute and 46 seconds of an emotional roller coaster..” See the ad / Read more

 

Tipsheet Extra Stories

Walmart scam arriving in mailboxes

Amazon Working on Augmented Reality for the Living Room

Patent Lawsuits Set One-Day Record with 257 New Cases, Most Filed in Texas

Dick’s Sporting Goods Funds Girls Ice Hockey League In Anchorage, Alaska Through 2018

The CEO Paying Everyone $70,000 Salaries Has Something to Hide

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Today’s Tipsheet: Target Didn’t ‘Crash’ | Wmart: 50% from Mobile | Pinterest ‘Buy’ Button Letdown | Star Wars Sweaters Not Ugly Enough

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Target: We didn’t ‘crash’ on Cyber Monday by Daphne Howland at Retail Dive. “Target was insistent Monday that its site hadn’t crashed, but rather that the retailer had resorted to a tactical metering of traffic that allowed customers to “stay in line” to complete their shopping expedition.” Read more

 

Walmart: Nearly half of our orders since Thanksgiving have been placed on a mobile device “…that’s double compared to last year… Mobile is making up more than 70 percent of traffic to Walmart.com.” Read the release

 

Target Canada creditors unsatisfied with recovery plan’s details by Marina Strauss at The Globe & Mail. “Some creditors of the failed Target Canada, including landlords and pharmacists, are uncertain about what its proposed recovery plan will mean for them, raising questions about whether it will win quick creditor approval.” Read more

 

Michigan Avenue Black Friday protests cost stores 25-50 percent of sales by Kim Janssen at Chicago Tribune. “If anything the police were kind of encouraging (protesters who blocked the entrance to the store) by allowing it,” she said. However, she added that if police had been too heavy-handed, “people might have rioted.” Read more

 

Sam’s Club CEO attends Breakfast of Corporate Champions by Moira Forbes at Forbes. “…women in HR roles have not been considered for board seats in the past…Get that talent and skills expansion in the right seats and talk about marrying that with growth of the company.” Read more

 

Neiman Marcus recovering from untimely website outages by Maria Halkias as The Dallas Morning News. “Asked if the outages, which included one that lasted 12-hours, had anything to do with an outside deliberate attack, Neiman Marcus vice president Ginger Reeder said, “We have seen no reason to suspect outside interference or sabotage, however the exact cause of the outage has yet to be determined.” Read more

 

Holiday Shopping Is Chilly for ‘Buy’ Buttons at Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest by Jason Del Rey at Recode. “Then there’s Pinterest…the company says more than 10,000 merchants have joined the program…but at least one of these big partners is seeing fewer than 10 purchases a day on Pinterest, according to a person with direct knowledge of the sales figures.” Read more

 

Williams-Sonoma laying off 85 at Arlington facility by James Osborne at The Dallas Morning News. “Williams-Sonoma is laying off 85 workers from its new Arlington facility, after deciding to close a new custom furniture operation.” Read more

 

Dick’s Sporting Goods takes another go at Houston market by Laura Furr at Houston Business Journal. “In 2007, Dick’s first announced that it planned to enter Houston with a two-story, 83,000-square-foot store at Interstate 10 and Bunker Hill. However, the chain called off the deal about a year later…” Read more

 

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Will Kroger speed up acquisitions? by Alexander Coolidge at The Cincinnati Enquirer. “While Kroger has avoided turnaround acquisitions, Mushkin said the company might consider more if it can fix Roundy’s. “It’s what they need to start doing,” Mushkin said. “This could prove their business model is superior and transferable.” Read more

 

REI’s move to close Black Friday pays off with 26 percent hike in online traffic by Molly Brown at GeekWire. Read more

 

Toymakers are tracking more data about kids — leaving them exposed to hackers by Andrea Peterson at The Washington Post. “Companies are increasingly producing and marketing high-tech toys that link dolls and games to the Internet — as well as information about the kids playing with them. But the V-tech breach shows this data isn’t always being guarded well.” Read more

 

Supermarket Chain Food Lion Roars for Doner by David Gianatasio at Ad Week. “For Doner, the win constitutes a much-needed reversal of fortune. This year, the shop bid farewell to JCPenney and AutoTrader, and also closed its Atlanta office.” Read more

 

The Declining Importance of Black Friday in One Chart by Phil Wahba at Fortune. See the chart / Read more

 

Are These Star Wars Sweaters Ugly Enough for Christmas? by Caroline Winter at Bloomberg. “The problem is that none is very ugly—at least by the standards of ugly Christmas sweaters. It’s not Hajjar’s fault. “With Star Wars, nothing offensive will get approved,” he explains.” Read more / See the designs

 

Tipsheet Extra

Gawker Hits Target: Target Employees “Treated Like Second Class Citizens by Employers and Customer Alike”

Forbes: On Cyber Monday Eve, Home Depot Drops The Digital Ball

Animal activists protest SF Castro Whole Foods

Home Depot employees present Christmas tree, ornaments and toys to girl who’s wheelchair was stolen

Carol Meyrowitz sells 64,086 company shares on November 30, 2015, with market value around $4,584,764

Woman sues Costco, California supplier in E.coli outbreak

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Contact Jason Long, jlong@eyeonretail.net