Cyber Monday set a U.S. e-commerce record with $3.45 billion in sales by Jason Del Rey at Recode. "...setting a record for the largest day in U.S. e-commerce history, according to Adobe. The record marks a 12 percent increase over the same day last year...the total was just 3 percent higher than that of Black Friday, as the two big days of discounts become indistinguishable from each other." Read more   Albertsons in advanced talks to buy Price Chopper by Lauren Hirsch at Reuters via Fox Business. "...for around $1 billion, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday...Price [...]

  Amazon Worker Jumps Off Company Building After E-Mail Note by Spencer Soper at Bloomberg. "An Amazon.com Inc. employee was injured when he leaped off a building at the company’s Seattle headquarters in what police characterized as a suicide attempt. The man, who wasn’t identified by authorities, sent an e-mail visible to hundreds of co-workers, including Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos, before the incident occurred." Read more   Dick’s Sporting Goods acquires mobile scorekeeping company GameChanger Media by Anthony Ha at TechCrunch. "GameChanger...(is) used by 165,000 amateur baseball and softball teams to track scores and stats for individual players." Read [...]

  NRF: U.S. shoppers spend less over holiday weekend amid discounting by Nandita Bose at Reuters. "Shoppers spent $289.19 over the four-day weekend through Sunday compared to $299.60 over the same period a year earlier. The survey found that 154 million people made purchases over the four days, up from 151 million a year ago. However, there was a 4.2 percent rise in consumers who shopped online and a 3.7 percent drop in shoppers who purchased in a store." Read more   Adobe: Online spending over Thanksgiving and Black Friday grew nearly 18% to $5.27 billion compared with last year via [...]

  Home Depot's CFO talk to Jim Cramer by Abigail Stevenson at CNBC. "This year, Home Depot expects to sell 2.8 million live Christmas trees, and enough LED Christmas lights to circle the globe six-and-a-half million times. "We leaned to it in a big way, and we are going to have a knockout black Friday" (Carol) Tomé said." Video interview / Read more   ...Home Depot wants to grab a bigger chunk of Black Friday shoppers' spending by Krystina Gustafson at CNBC. "In an effort to capitalize on consumers' desire to decorate their homes, Home Depot — the largest seller [...]

  No Evidence of Aloe Vera Found in the Aloe Vera at Wal-Mart, Target & CVS by Lydia Mulvany & Zeke Faux at Bloomberg. "Aloe’s three chemical markers — acemannan, malic acid and glucose — were absent in the tests for Wal-Mart, Target and CVS products conducted by a lab hired by Bloomberg News. The three samples contained a cheaper element called maltodextrin, a sugar sometimes used to imitate aloe. The gel that’s sold at another retailer, Walgreens, contained one marker, malic acid, but not the other two." Read more   Dollar Tree Q3 Comp Sales +1.7% (+1.4% expected) "The same-store [...]

  Amazon’s secretive drive-up grocery store in Seattle looks ready to open soon by Nat Levy at GeekWire. "A recent report suggested the online retail giant’s pick up grocery locations in Seattle could open by the end of the year, and the Ballard store looks like it’s on track based on a recent visit to the site. The project just this week received a temporary certificate of occupancy from the city, which means major construction aspects of the project are done, and Amazon can begin to occupy the building even though there is still some work left to do." Pics / Read [...]

  Gap Q3 Comp Sales -3.0% "Gap Global: negative 8 percent...Banana Republic Global: negative 8 percent...Old Navy Global: positive 3 percent." Press release   ...Gap Shares Flop After Chain Says It Will Close More Stores Than Expected at Fortune. "Given that challenging traffic trends have continued, we are investing meaningfully in marketing across our portfolio brands during the holiday season,” outgoing Chief Financial Officer Sabrina Simmons said on an earnings call." Read more   Hibbett Sports Q3 Comp Sales +0.7% "At the end of the quarter, we opened our first store in California and are excited about the growth opportunity [...]

  Walmart Q3 US Comp Sales +1.2% "...driven by a traffic increase of 0.7%. Neighborhood Market comp sales increased approximately 5.2%. Net sales at Walmart International were $28.4 billion, a decrease of 4.8%." Press release | Q3 Earnings Call Slides   ...CNBC: Wal-Mart beats on earnings, raises lower end of guidance, but revenue falls short "Notably, Wal-Mart's digital sales — which have been a source of ongoing softness — picked up during the period, growing 20.6 percent excluding currency swings. Recently acquired Jet.com was included in the quarter for six weeks." Read more   ...Fox Business: Wal-Mart's comparable sales miss estimates "(Comp sales [...]