Walmart is developing a personal-shopper service for rich moms — and a store with no cashiers by Jason Del Rey at Recode. "A new Walmart subsidiary, called Code Eight, has recently started testing a personal shopping service for “busy NYC moms,” according to multiple sources, with the goal of letting them get product recommendations and make purchases simply through text messaging...Multiple people familiar with the project tell Recode that one goal of the initiative is the creation of physical stores that would operate without checkout lines or cashiers." Read more   HGTV Teamed With Wayfair to Create Its First Special Co-Produced [...]

  TODAY SHOW: Cybersecurity expert hacks Nordstrom gift cards by Jeff Rossen & Conor Ferguson. "Stickley says that Nordstrom gift cards have shorter PIN numbers than most retailers' cards, and initially had no protection from bots. He demonstrated the vulnerability by hacking a newly purchased Nordstrom gift card and draining all $50 from it." Video/Read more   KREBS: Man finds that a bunch of Sam’s Club gift cards he pulled off the display rack at Wal-Mart showed signs of compromise Pics/Read more   ...Man Caught up in Gift Card Scam at Fox 31 Denver. "Layton contacted Walmart but never got his [...]

  Flaw in Amazon Key delivery tech could leave your home vulnerable to thieves by Jeff Rossen & Lindsey Bomnin at NBC Today. "...hackers have figured out a loophole in the system that could allow the delivery person full access to your home without you knowing. Amazon knows about the flaw and says they've issued a software update. But cybersecurity experts says the vulnerability is still there." Video/Read more   ...TOMORROW: NBC Today reveals the major retailer with a gift card flaw that allows thieves to "drain the money on your card down to zero before you even use it."  [...]

  Best Buy reopens store in Puerto Rico after months of helping employees recover by Kavita Kumar at Star Tribune. "Best Buy spent about $750,000 to charter planes that made seven trips to take employees to the mainland and 14 trips sending much-needed supplies of diapers, water and food in the disaster’s immediate aftermath...Best Buy gave about 190 employees who had the most need $200 in cash in the first few days after the hurricane. In addition to continuing to pay workers their regular paychecks, the company also deposited an extra $1,000 in each employee’s account to help them buy [...]

  Costco Q1 Comp Sales +7.9% (w/o gas inflation & FX), E-commerce +42.1% "Net sales for the first quarter were $31.12 billion, an increase of 13.3 percent from $27.47 billion during the first quarter last year." Press release   ...CNBC: Costco quarterly profit beats on online sales strength Read more   Walmart's inventory robot "T.J." works up to 90 minutes a day at Springdale store - spends the rest of time in employee lounge by Kim Souza at Talk Business. "Wal-Mart is testing the robots in about 25 stores with the number increasing to around 50 by year end...The bot was named after the [...]

  Retail sales unexpectedly surge in November, +0.8% in Nov, vs +0.3% increase expected at CNBC. Read more   Pier 1 Imports Q3 Comp Sales -0.7% "CEO: 'Our third quarter financial performance was impacted by the hurricanes in Texas and Florida, as well as deeper than expected promotional activity in October and November. We saw improved sales in November...However, overall trends dropped considerably during the first two weeks of December.' Press release   ...William Savage joins Pier 1 Imports as Head of Global Sourcing. Most recently, Mr. Savage spent two years as President of the Home Division for Sears Holdings. Press release   Target [...]

  Lidl’s US growth spurt is losing steam by Lisa Fickenscher at NY Post. "When you are shrinking the size of the store by 50 percent that’s a pretty big shift,” said Dan Glickberg, with food consultancy Rodeo CPG. “It looks like they are retrenching from their initial strategy.” Read more   Online Petition Calls for Target to Drop Mario Batali's Product Line Amid Sexual Harassment Claims by Stephanie Chan at Hollywood Reporter. "The petition on Care2 is calling on Target CEO Brian Cornell "to disavow Batali's behavior by vowing to stop selling his cookbooks and branded products." (Target's website currently sells Batali pasta sauce and [...]

  Best Buy CEO Serves Waffles to Employees by Kavita Kumar at Star Tribune. "In addition to Joly, other top executives who greeted employees and took turns serving employees waffles, eggs, bacon, sausage and coffee were finance chief Corie Barry, chief merchant Mike Mohan, human resources chief Kamy Scarlett, as well as other officers." Read more (tiered subs.)   Unibail Buys Westfield for $16 Billion as Mall Owners Merge at Bloomberg. "The Paris-based company offered a combination of cash and stock that values Westfield at A$10.01 per share, or about 18 percent more than Monday’s closing price, according to a [...]