Amazon’s second Prime Day will be July 12 by Nat Levy at GeekWire. "Amazon said it sold more units on Prime Day last year than its biggest Black Friday sale ever, as customers ordered a whopping 34.4 million items at a clip of 398 per second, even though some complained about selection." Read more   Inside Kohl's Plan to Win the Department Store Tech Wars by Phil Wahba at Fortune. "If the retailer’s top executives have their way, pretty soon Kohl’s stores will boast state-of-the-art features like undocked, mobile cash registers, holograms that show the latest runway collections, and [...]

  Wal-Mart says ‘Yes’ to every U.S.-made product pitched for Walmart.com by Kim Souza at The City Wire. "When Steve Bratspies, chief merchandising officer for Walmart U.S., made the announcement at the Open Call and U.S. Manufacturing Summit in Bentonville Tuesday (June 28) the crowd erupted with cheers. Bratspies said a few weeks ago he wanted to be able to tell everyone yes and after working with buyers for Walmart.com that is now a reality." Read more   WALMART CEO SPEAKS TO PROSPECTIVE SUPPLIERS AT END-OF-DAY MEETING by Kim Souza at The City Wire. "Your feedback is important to us [...]

  Walmart Canada’s COO Lee Tappenden to take over as Canadian head in August via Financial Post. "Prior to joining Walmart’s Canadian subsidiary, Tappenden held a number of global leadership roles including chief merchandising officer with Walmart Japan and vice-president of merchandising for the company’s international division." Read more   Home Depot tells its stores, ‘Get comfortable with days of inventory, not weeks’ by Paul Ziobro at WSJ. "Home Depot Inc. is bringing a new philosophy to its cavernous stores: Less is more. Instead of filling its warehouse-style racks to the ceiling with Makita drills, rolls of Owens Corning insulation and [...]

  COSTCO OVER THE "BIG HUMP" - Demand for the new Costco Visa not expected to slow down any time soon by Coral Garnick at Puget Sound Business Journal. "Monday and Tuesday many customers took to social media to voice frustration. That's when average wait times at Citi were as much as 30 to 40 minutes, Costco CFO Richard Galanti said. But, by Friday, wait times were averaging just five minutes." Read more   Best Buy tests in-home service to help customers figure out their tech needs by Kavita Kumar at Star Tribune. "The in-home consulting program launched in recent [...]

  Pride merchandise is growing business for Target and Macy's by Kavita Kumar at Star Tribune. "...this is the fifth year Target has sold pride merchandise. The first two years, the items were available only online. This year, they were sold in about 100 of Target’s 1,800 stores...At 70 of its 700 stores around the country, Macy’s has put up prominent “pride + joy” displays this month...The retailer has been carrying pride merchandise for about a decade." Read more   Next Tuesday: Walmart’s buyers have almost 800 meetings slated for its ‘Open Call’ by Kim Souza at The City Wire. [...]

  Costco card switch proves painful for many members by Janet Tu at Seattle Times. "Turns out, quite a few of them didn’t get their cards. Or they’re having trouble setting up online access to their new accounts at Citi. And they’re waiting exasperatingly long times to get through to customer service at Citi...Some wrote of being on hold with Citi for up to an hour and a few threatened to cancel their Costco memberships." Read more   Walmart’s David Cheesewright shares international game plan by Kim Souza at The City Wire. "Cheesewright told the media there is no room [...]

  Trader Joe's to pay $2 million to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by Sarah Whitten at CNBC. "Trader Joe's agreed to spend $2 million over the next three years to reduce coolant leaks from refrigeration equipment at 453 stores, and improve overall compliance. In addition, the company will also pay a $500,000 civil penalty for alleged violations to the Clean Air Act." Read more   FAA issues final commercial drone rules - setback for Amazon’s delivery ambitions by Nat Levy & Todd Bishop at GeekWire. "In short, the rules as written are a blow to Amazon’s ambitions to deliver small packages [...]

  STRIKE VOTE AT RALPHS/ALBERTSONS - Grocery union reports high turnout for strike vote by Natalie Kitroeff at LA Times. "The results of the vote won’t be available until Tuesday night. But grocery workers historically have followed the union’s suggestion...said officials from the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which represents about 47,000 clerks, meat cutters and merchandise stockers across Southern California. The union advised members vote to authorize a strike." Read more   Last-minute talks underway for many of Sports Authority's stores by Mark Harden at Denver Business Journal. "The Wall Street Journal reports that Sports Direct International, the largest sporting-goods [...]