Target tests food transparency ideas at Edina store by Kavita Kumar at Star Tribune. “In the produce department, a small research team has put up handwritten signs above strawberries and raspberries, noting which arrived in the store that day and which arrived a week ago. There’s a 50-cent price difference between the two. Nearby are two “smart scales,” on which customers can place a piece of fruit and answer questions on a screen about features they would be most interested in learning about…” Read more

 

…TEST PICS – Target’s food transparency test via Minnapolis/St.Paul Business Journal See the seven pictures

 

Department Stores Need to Cull Hundreds of Sites, Study Says by Suzanne Kapner at WSJ. “Green Street estimates that Penney would need to close a total of 320 locations, or 31% of its stores to return to its 2006 productivity levels, while Nordstrom Inc. would need to shutter 30 stores, or a quarter of its footprint. By comparison, Macy’s, which closed 40 stores last year, would only need to eliminate a further 70 locations, or 9% of its base, Green Street estimates.” Read more (subscription)

 

Experts: Whole Foods was right to counterattack on cake claims by Claudia Grisales at American-Statesman. “Whole Foods “would have benefited from this sort of activist and straightforward response to earlier controversies,” Irwin said. “People will think twice now before accusing the brand of something, especially when — as it appears in this case — the accusation is untrue.” Read more

 

…Pastor in Whole Foods cake controversy absent for Sunday service by Claudia Grisales at America-Statesman. “Brown hasn’t spoken publicly since Tuesday and hasn’t responded to multiple interview requests from the American-Statesman. Late Friday, his Twitter account appeared to be temporarily deleted, but was back online by Saturday.” Read more

 

Boycott over Target bathroom policy nets more than 400,000 pledges by Maegan Smith at Charlotte Observer. “As a company that firmly stands behind what it means to offer our team an inclusive place to work – and our guests an inclusive place to shop – we continue to believe that this is the right thing for Target” (Target) spokeswoman Molly Snyder told (Reuters).” Read more

 

** Trade show spotlight – 2016 National Stationery Show – The ONLY stationery market in North America!

“I want to keep hearing customers say “you have the best cards in the city”, and the Stationery show is a very efficient way for me to assure that.” Retail chain owner. On May 15-18 at Javits Center, NYC join 10,000 attendees and 800 exhibitors from around the globe for the only stationery show in North America. Last year’s photo gallery | Show categories | Upcoming trends you’ll see | Register

 

Amazon’s giant Seattle biospheres come into focus with installation of first glass panels by Todd Bishop at GeekWire. “GeekWire has been tracking the progress of the biosphere construction from foundation to exoskeleton. Now the westernmost sphere has been painted white, and the glass has started to go up. These new photos were taken this weekend by GeekWire contributor Kevin Lisota.” See the pics / Read more

 

JC Penney and Pinterest Team Up to Target Moms at a Mall Near You by Adrianne Pasquarelli at Ad Age. “JC Penney is targeting Pinterest-pinning moms in a new effort ahead of Mother’s Day on May 8…(JC Penney) will host its own Pinterest boards in 10 malls around the country. The 10′-by-9′-by-2′ digital boards will showcase apparel, beauty and hair inspiration. JC Penney also operates Sephora shops and salons within its stores.” Read more

 

Ex-Family Dollar & Giant Eagle Exec Joins Supervalu Board “Supervalu announced that experienced financial executive and corporate board member Mary Winston has been appointed to its Board of Directors effective April 27, 2016.” Read the release

 

Home Depot closing in heart of N.D. oil patch via Argus Leader. “It’s the most prudent business decision at this point,” Home Depot spokesman Stephen Holmes told the Williston Herald. The company opened the store in 2013 in Williston, the biggest city in North Dakota’s oil patch. At 6,000 square feet, the store was meant to complement Home Depot’s full-size store in Minot, about 120 miles east of Williston.” Read more

 

Wal-Mart brings hope to desolate corner in Hollywood, FL by Miriam Valverde at Sun Sentinel. “When we bought this property there was nothing here. There was a dead mall,” said Alberto Micha of Dania Beach-based Dacar Management’s acquisition in 2009. “But we saw the potential in the location. We thought it was a good investment, and that’s what happened. We were very lucky to get Wal-Mart involved.” Read more

 

Lowe’s Enlists Snapchat, Facebook Mobile Video in New Push to Reach Millennials by Nathalie Tadena at WSJ. “The home improvement retailer and Omnicom agency BBDO created the new series of social videos, which launch this month…For Facebook, Lowe’s will be the first marketer to take advantage of a flip video application on Facebook’s mobile feed that allows viewers to change the orientation of the video. The retailer’s “FlipSide” videos are short two-sided live action videos…” Read more (subscription)

 

Tipsheet Extra Stories

Warby Parker was too cool for malls … except for one in Dallas

NBC: Employees Stole Almost $300K of Home Depot Merchandise

Apollo Announces Successful Tender Offer for The Fresh Market

New Tide Pods pack has child-proof zipper

Retail giant Central Group is buying Zalora’s businesses in Thailand and Vietnam

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Walgreens, Duane Reade to pay New York $500G fine after probe found chain overcharged customers by Kenneth Lovett at NY Daily News. “Walgreens also referred to some products as “Smart Buy” or “Great Buy” even when the advertised price was the same as the original retail prices charges. The probe also found Walgreens and Duane Reade offered up “Last Chance” or “Clearance” items but in reality some of the products remained at a reduced price for as much as eight to 10 months.” Read more

 

Ulta CEO’s 2015 pay package nearly triples to $18.5 million by Lauren Zumbach at Chicago Tribune. “That’s triple the roughly $6.2 million (CEO Mary Dillon) earned in 2014. Dillon” Read more

 

Jim Walton, Mike Duke to exit Wal-Mart Stores board of directors, board shrinks from 15 to 12 by Kim Souza at The City Wire. “…as part of the board’s succession planning, it has nominated Helen and Sam Walton’s grandson, Steuart Walton, for election to the Walmart board.” Read more | Press release

 

LL Bean Takes a Jab at Fast Fashion in First Work Under New CEO by Adrianne Pasquarellli at Ad Age. “When did we stop valuing things to get better over time? When did disposable become our default?” a voice-over asks in the commercial. “At LL Bean, we didn’t stop and we never will.” See the TV spot / Read more

 

NY Times: ‘Whole Foods Effect’: When Small Food Makers Get the Call to Go Big by Amy Haimerl. “…the first batch they delivered to Whole Foods grew mold…possibly reputation-destroying black mold. “It was awful,” said Sue Conley, who started the company with her partner, Peggy Smith. “We hadn’t primed our new aging rooms, so other bacteria were competing with the fluffy white mold. It was a big mess.” But Whole Foods was patient…” Read more

 

SimilarWeb: Most Popular Retail Apps (Amazon #1, Walmart #7) See the top 10 list via Internet Retailer

 

Hudson’s Bay Company invests in new comms team amid international expansion by Sean Czarnecki at PR Week. “It promoted Andrew Blecher to SVP of corporate communications and PR to lead the unit…Blecher started his career in PR at Saks Fifth Avenue about 15 years ago.” Read more

 

Amazon to add 1,000 jobs in sixth Texas fulfillment center by Maria Halkias a Dallas Morning News. Read more | Press Release

 

What is Seamless Shopping? Q&A with CEO Doug McMillon via Walmart Blog. See the video / Read the Q&A

 

**A message from Black Flag® Brand: When the flag flies, pests die. The Black Flag® indoor/outdoor pest arsenal arms homeowners in the battle against invading bugs. Offering quick, decisive formulas that act fast and never back down, Black Flag insect and rodent controls get the job done, and take no prisoners. It’s time to Let It Fly. Check out our videos | Visit us on Facebook

 

Amazon Doesn’t Consider the Race of Its Customers. Should It? by David Ingold & Spencer Soper at Bloomberg. “The most striking gap in Amazon’s same-day service is in Boston, where three ZIP codes encompassing the primarily black neighborhood of Roxbury are excluded from same-day service, while the neighborhoods that surround it on all sides are eligible.” Read more

 

Wal-Mart CEO pay rises slightly to $19.8 million via Street Insider. “Greg Foran, head of the U.S. business, saw his total compensation fall to $11.5 million from $19.5 million, as his stock awards were cut by more than half.” Read more

 

BJ’s Wholesale Club Introduces New Pick Up & Pay Service via Yahoo Finance. Read the release

 

Upscale Shopping Centers Nudge Out Down-Market Malls by Suzanne Kapner at WSJ. “Almost all of the 40 stores that Macy’s closed last year were in “B” or “C” malls, according to Green Street…” Read more (subscription)

 

Report: 75% of the baby products purchased online occur on Amazon, Walmart and Target by Stefany Zorban at Internet Retailer. See the sales breakout / Read more

 

Amazon.com Inc is making its own version of best-selling items and companies aren’t happy by Spencer Soper at Bloomberg via Financial Post. “…Rain Design’s experience shows how Amazon is using insights gleaned from its vast Web store to build a private-label juggernaut that now includes more than 3,000 products — from women’s blouses and men’s khakis to fire pits and camera tripods. The strategy is a digital twist on one used for years by department stores and big-box chains to edge out middlemen and go direct to consumers.” Read more

 

At Neptune Home Depot, inspiration in aisle 16 by Jerry Carino at Asbury Park Press. “He’s extremely impressive,” Gonzalez said. “He’s awesome with customers. They love him. Every other customer who comes in here shakes hands with him.” As they should. Kevin Woolley is a walking, talking reminder that life deals us the cards but we choose how to play them. A brief encounter with him offers a major dose of perspective.” See the video / Read more

 

Tipsheet Extra Stories

Mom’s Open Letter to Woman Who Shamed Her for Buying Baby Formula in Target Has Been Shared 30K Times

Study: Stores employing beautiful staff may be hampering sales

Walmart Exec Wins 2016 North Pole Marathon

Sales of Mosquito Repellent Soar Ahead of U.S. Zika Outbreak Threat

Bentonville Film Festival organizers hope it becomes Arkansas’ South by Southwest

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Nordstrom to lay off about 350 to 400 people – majority of the cuts coming from HQ by Janet I Tu at Seattle Times. “The 400 positions represent nearly 6 percent of the company’s 7,000 employees who work for corporate divisions…The cuts should be completed by July and are expected to save the company about $60 million.” Read more

 

How Sam’s Club Is Widening its E-Commerce Lead Over Costco by Phil Wahba at Fortune. “(Sam’s Club’s) web site now gets 16 million unique visits a month and sells 51,000 different kinds of items…All that has given Sam’s Club a head start over Costco in the e-commerce battle. (Costco) still doesn’t offer customers the option of placing orders online that they can fetch from a store.” Read more

 

CVS invests in Curbside, a startup that lets you buy online, pick up at store by Jason Del Rey at Recode. “Drugstore chain CVS has invested in Curbside, a Silicon Valley startup that allows shoppers to order products online and pick up their orders from a local store without leaving their car. The drugstore chain and the startup have been working together since last year, when they launched a pilot test in three cities that now encompasses 350 CVS locations.” Read more

 

Sources: Target increases minimum wage to $10 an hour by Nandita Bose at Reuters. “Target management has informed store managers, who in turn have started informing employees about the wage hike and most employees who earn less than $10 per hour should see their base pay go up in May, two sources with direct knowledge of the situation told Reuters.” Read more

 

Las Vegas woman awarded about $13 million in lawsuit against Lowe’s by Kimber Laux at Las Vegas Review-Journal. “Sean Claggett, one of Hendrickson’s attorneys, asked the jury to imagine what the next 41 years for his client will be like, “being a burden on her kids, not being the wife she should be to her husband,” and not being able to pursue her passion of driving a school bus because of her injuries.” Read more

 

**A message from PaintPincher – Never Waste Paint Again! The PaintPincher is an ingenious 8-in-1 paint can spatula that recovers paint, stain, adhesives and more from gallon and quart cans, leaving them 99.9% clean. The PaintPincher is great for Pro and DIY painters and can save up to a cup of paint per gallon! See the video | See the sell sheet | Packaging pic | paintpincher.com Retailers request a sample at info@shiftmarketinggroup.net

 

Lowe’s Iris focuses on the future, loses sight of the present by Andrew Gebhart at CNET. “Lowe’s Iris generation two doesn’t hold up on its own merits as a good smart-home system. It is more responsive, but using the app is tedious and counterintuitive. Some pieces of hardware don’t work consistently…Wink, SmartThings and Insteon all have similar features for free, and all are a better buy than the second generation Lowe’s Iris system right now.” Read more

 

Bass Pro Founder Presents President George H.W. Bush with Giant Fishing Lure by Jake Walker at The Eagle. “(Johnny) Morris’s voice began to shake when he started to talk about the president. He said you can learn a lot about a person when you’re sharing a fishing boat with each other on the water, and Bush’s love for fishing was no secret to anyone. “There’s never been a more steadfast friend to all fishermen,” Morris said.” Read more

 

Q&A with Walmart Labs CTO by Joab Jackson at The New Stack. “When you come up with folks and say, “Hey, we’re going to be re-platform the world’s largest retailer.” People are just, “Yeah. That’s something interesting you got.” So, I was able to attract some really great talent to do that.” Read the interview

 

Costco exec Jeff Lyons delivers message to Nebraska farmers on chicken plant via AJC. “Supporters say the plant would create 1,100 new jobs and provide other financial benefits to the community…The meeting, however, was an invite-only affair on private property. Costco representatives said that there weren’t going to be any public meetings for residents to voice concerns while the company’s leaders were in town.” Read more

 

Tulsa: Costco readies first Oklahoma store for Thursday open by Samuel Hardiman at Tulsa World. “Anita Fulsom, assistant general manager, said customers tell them that they have traveled to Wichita or Texas to get to the closest warehouse. “Now that we’re finally going to be here, they don’t have to take a three-hour drive,” she said.” Read more

 

Supervalu Adds James Weidenheimer as Executive Vice President, Corporate Development and Chief Innovation Officer Read the release

 

NY Times: General Mills and 7-Eleven Join the Venture Capital Crowd by Randall Smith. “The traditional consumer packaged goods model of big advertising budgets, trade leverage and scale — a lot of those factors have been neutralized by these small brands,” said John Haugen, who heads the General Mills venture fund.” Read more

 

Tipsheet Extra Stories

eBay’s Hal Lawton Reveals Three Areas of Focus

Gay pastor ‘horrified’ to find ugly slur on Whole Foods cake

Minnesota company buys Staples Print Solutions

The 10 Best Workplaces in Texas (Container Store #2, Whole Foods #10)

Canada: Le Chateau to close another 40 stores in next three years

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Nearly half of U.S. households belong to Amazon Prime by Rachel Lerman at Seattle Times. “Piper Jaffray says households that make more than $112,000 annually are the most likely to subscribe to Prime…Nearly three-fourths of high-income households subscribe to the service, according to the report, an increase from about 55 percent in 2014.” Read more | PiperJaffray report

 

This Is Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz’s Advice to Target by Phil Wahba at Fortune. “Schultz told the Target audience that focusing on the basics was the key to the Starbucks’ renaissance. “For the Starbucks team, it all comes back to one person, one cup, one community, and getting the details right,” he said. “We needed to get back to basics, the values that our customers fell in love with in the first place.” Read more

 

How Nordstrom targeted colleges and boosted its Snapchat follower count by 60 percent by Clare McGrane at GeekWire. “University of South Carolina rose to the occasion, winning the challenge with just under 2,000 screenshots, said Nordstrom spokesperson Dan Evans. The prize was an on-campus shoe party on April 12. The event featured a guest appearance by supermodel and entrepreneur Karlie Kloss and a giveaway of $200,000 worth of Nordstrom shoe vouchers.” Read more

 

Walmart Execs Relieved Sanders Pulled His Punches At Sharpton Convention by Darren Sands at BuzzFeed. “Executives from Walmart, a big time sponsor of the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network convention, were nervous Bernie Sanders might go on the attack about Walmart in his pitch, as he is wont to do. Bernie camp says they just got a free pass.” Read more

 

Americans prefer to save money rather than spend more on U.S.-made products via Daily News. “Asked about a real world example of choosing between $50 pants made in another country or an $85 pair made in the United States — one retailer sells two such pairs made with the same fabric and design — 67% say they’d buy the cheaper pair. Only 30% would pony up for the more expensive American-made one…People in higher earning households earning more than $100,000 a year are no less likely than lower-income Americans to say they’d go for the lower price.” Read more

 

Amazon eyed up Everlane, Le Tote and more for acquisition in a wider fashion push by Ingrid Lunden at TechCrunch. “TechCrunch has learned from multiple sources that the e-commerce giant has eyed up several startups in the fashion sphere as potential acquisitions to update and expand its presence in the category. Everlane, Le Tote, Rent The Runway, Third Love and PreeLine are among the names we’ve heard in connection with the effort. “They are losing big time in apparel and are anxious to acquire brands,” one founder approached by the company told TechCrunch.” Read more

 

**A message from 2016 Sweets & Snacks Expo – the Show Floor is Sold Out! The 2016 Expo will set an all-time record in volume of confectionery and snack products with more than 720 companies showcasing nearly four acres of product innovation. The Sweets & Snacks Expo is the one place more confectionery and snack retailers and manufacturers come together to get inspired, make connections and find new best sellers. See all of this year’s exhibitors | 2016’s New Exhibitors | These retail execs will be taste testers

 

California fast-food workers shift focus from minimum wage to unionizing by Samantha Masunaga at LA Times. “The demand from the original strikes in 2012 was $15 and a union,” said Mary Kay Henry, international president of the SEIU. “Underpaid workers in California are now on a path to $15, but we think the way we can make these jobs good jobs … is through a union.” Read more

 

Pier 1 Imports’ Q4 2016 Results – Earnings Call Transcript Read the transcript

 

Home Depot employee tips off police about alleged pipe bomb maker at KMOV 4 St.Louis. “Herr allegedly asked the staff at Home Depot to cut it into 7.5 inch sections with each end threaded for a cap. Home Depot employees became suspicious and called police. Officers said they eventually executed a warrant at Herr’s hotel room at a Super 8 and found materials for making a pipe bomb.” Read more / See the video

 

Amazon creates homeless refuge on company site near HQ by Monica Nickelsburg at GeekWire. “Amazon now appears to be taking a more active role in addressing homelessness. The company is partnering with the non-profit Mary’s Place to create a temporary shelter for 60 to 70 homeless families…” Read more

 

China Halts Export-Subsidy Program After U.S. Challenge by William Mauldin at WSJ. “The subsidy program benefited seven industries, including textiles and seafood, by giving companies a small but crucial advantage in exports, contrary to the rules of the WTO, U.S. officials said.” Read more (subscription)

 

Consumer Reports in the Age of the Amazon Review by Paul Hiebert at The Atlantic. “…the researchers found that consumers tend to accept as true the collective wisdom that Amazon conveys about a particular item’s durability, safety, and performance. “We don’t want to say that online reviews are completely untrustworthy and have no value whatsoever,” Bart de Langhe, an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Colorado Boulder and the co-author of the study, told me. “But we do want to point out there are strong issues with them…” Read more

 

Tipsheet Extra Stories

Why Target’s iPad App Has Vanished From Apple’s App Store

Georgia firm would process chickens for Costco at Fremont plant – company faced past immigration raid

Walmart taps Univ. of Arkansas fashion design program

Canadian Tire’s augmented reality catalogue doesn’t cut out the paper

Fisher-Price recalls over 30,000 cradle swings due to fall hazard

The same guy who built the Amazon Echo just built the $700 magic juicer

Amazon renews vows with its online wedding registry

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