Costco Q4 Comp Sales (Ex FE/Gas) +5.7%, September +6.2% "Net sales for the 17-week fourth quarter were $41.36 billion, an increase of 15.8 percent...Net sales for the 53-week fiscal year were $126.17 billion, an increase of 8.7 percent from $116.07 billion in the 52-week fiscal year of 2016." Press release   ...Reuters: Shrinking margins cloud Costco's profit beat, shares fall "Costco Wholesale Corp’s quarterly profit scraped past estimates, helped by a hike in membership fees, but a fall in gross margins fueled concerns of an intensifying grocer price war, sending shares down 3.6 percent in after-market trading." Read more   Costco debuts new [...]

  SELLER FLEX - Amazon is reportedly testing its own delivery service by Spencer Soper at Bloomberg. "The service began two years ago in India, and Amazon has been slowly marketing it to U.S. merchants in preparation for a national expansion, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the U.S. pilot project is confidential. Amazon is calling the project Seller Flex, one person said. The service began on a trial basis this year in West Coast states with a broader rollout planned in 2018, the people said. Amazon declined to comment." Read more   Whole Foods' parking [...]

  Kroger stock jumps amid acquisition rumors by Steve Watkins at Cincinnati Business Courier. "Bloomberg reported that Twitter speculation referenced Ahold reportedly has hired advisers to look into a possible bid for Kroger $32 a share, Bruno Monteyne, a London-based supermarket analyst at Bernstein, wrote in a research report Tuesday. But Monteyne believes any deal would have to be structured as a merger of equals." Read more (subs.)   Amazon said looking for physical stores, possible acquisition in France by Jeff Daniels at CNBC. "Amazon is on the prowl for approximately 15 store locations in France, especially in Paris, in the next two years, according [...]

  Berkshire Hathaway buys 38.6% stake in Pilot Flying J at CNBC. "Pilot Flying J is the largest operator of truck stops and rest stops in North America, with 750 locations and more than $20 billion in revenue. The company is 15th on Forbes' list of America's largest private companies." Read more   Walmart has acquired the logistics startup Parcel to help launch same-day delivery in New York City by Jason Del Rey at Recode. "(Parcel) handles scheduled and same-day delivery services in New York for online retailers like Bonobos and meal-kit companies like Chef’d and Martha Stewart’s Martha & Marley [...]

  Whole Foods suffers data breach in some stores by Angelica LaVito at CNBC. "Whole Foods suffered a data breach of credit card information used in taprooms and full table-service restaurants in some of the grocery chain's stores, the company said Thursday. Whole Foods noted these venues use a different point-of-sale system than the main checkout systems. Credit cards used at those systems were not affected, the company said." Read more   Ikea has bought TaskRabbit by Kara Swisher & Theodore Schleifer at NY Post. "The price of the deal could not be determined, but the contract labor marketplace company [...]

  Report: Amazon created more jobs last year than 46 states by Kurt Schlosser at GeekWire. "In terms of job creation, if Amazon was a state, those figures would put the company behind only Texas, California, Florida, and New York over that period of time, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics." Read more   Rite Aid Q2 comp sales -3.4% "...consisting of a 4.6 percent decrease in pharmacy sales and a 0.9 percent decrease in front-end sales." Press release   Wal-Mart Will Offer Free Same-Day Delivery in NYC by Matthew Boyle & Mark Bergan at Bloomberg. "In the New [...]

  Tesla could add C-stores and restaurants at car-charging stations by Luke Stangel at Austin Business Journal. "People are coming and spending 20 to 30 minutes at these stops,” Straubel said, according to Restaurant Business. “They want to eat, they want to have a cup of coffee, they want to use the bathroom.” Read more   Freshii a dud at Target; eatery will close all 18 Target store locations by Dan DeBaun at Minneapolis/St.Paul Business Journal. "A statement from Freshii reads. "Sales levels of these locations did not support a continued investment of resources by both parties." Read more   BJ’s owner [...]

  Bass Pro's $5 billion deal to buy Cabela's is complete; combined company's HQ will be in Springfield, Missouri by Paige Yowell at Omaha World-Herald. "Bass Pro did not respond to questions from The World-Herald about what would happen next with Nebraska workers; Bass Pro has said in the past that it would keep some presence in Nebraska." Read more   Amazon can't compete with off-price retailers, JPMorgan says at CNBC. "Here's the argument for off-price retail: Amazon's encroachment into the apparel industry more closely resembles a full-price department store, instead of a Ross or TJ Maxx model, JPMorgan's Boss [...]