Sam’s Club CEO talks tech at event, says wholesale club is undergoing transformation by Wesley Brown at Talk Business. "(John Furner) told the Little Rock business community that the goal of the division is to eliminate friction for its customers and its associates...“And time is one of the most important things that we think about today when we consider what is valuable to the consumer and people who come to work for us,” Furner said." Read more   Michaels holiday comp store sales -0.2%...on a calendar shifted basis +2.3%...have seen more volatility in consumer shopping behavior...expect Q4 comp store sales [...]

  No mail will be delivered today in parts of 10 states as polar vortex chills postal delivery at USA Today. "The USPS announced that no mail will be delivered in parts of Michigan, Iowa, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania." Read more   Trader Joe's is ending grocery delivery services in New York City on March 1 and has no plans to roll out delivery in other markets. by Hayley Peterson at Business Insider. Read more   FedEx to Start Next-Day Delivery for Orders as Late as Midnight by Thomas Black at Bloomberg. "Less than [...]

  No mail will be delivered today in parts of 10 states as polar vortex chills postal delivery at USA Today. "The USPS announced that no mail will be delivered in parts of Michigan, Iowa, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania." Read more   Trader Joe's is ending grocery delivery services in New York City on March 1 and has no plans to roll out delivery in other markets. by Hayley Peterson at Business Insider. Read more   FedEx to Start Next-Day Delivery for Orders as Late as Midnight by Thomas Black at Bloomberg. "Less than [...]

  Walmart's Flipkart warns of major 'customer disruption' if new India rules not delayed by six months by Aditya Kalra at Reuters. "India’s new foreign investment restrictions will, from Feb. 1, bar e-commerce companies from selling products from firms in which they have an equity interest and also ban them from reaching deals with sellers to only sell on one platform." Read more   Amazon exec Jeff Wilke invests in furniture rental startup Fernish as part of $30M round by Nat Levy at GeekWire. "Lucas Dickey, one of the co-founders of the startup, spent four years at Amazon from 2007 [...]

  Amazon Mulls Building Physical Stores in London at Bloomberg via Yahoo. "The online giant selected a real estate agent in October, according to the Daily Mail. The stores will be built in London or counties including Surrey, Kent, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Essex and Middlesex, it said." Read more   Walgreens, CVS And Rite Aid Among Winners At Shopko Pharmacy Auction by Bruce Japsen at Forbes. "Purchase agreements have been signed, or are in process, for the pharmacy assets at 120 locations, which are expected to generate proceeds of approximately $52 million for the debtors and their estates,” a Shopko [...]

  CVS unveils 'Beauty Marks' in stores, warning shoppers of edited images at Reuters. "CVS Health Corp, is the first major American company to adopt such a policy in the face of rising concerns about doctored images setting unrealistic ideals of beauty, especially for young women." Read more | Press release   Google Express shopping loses support for products from Walmart by Ben Schoon at 9 to 5 Google. "Walmart has disappeared entirely from Google’s shopping platform...Target still hosts plenty of items to fill in the gap, but Walmart’s catalog is certainly larger. Costco also helps out..." Read more   [...]

  China will this year surpass the US in total retail sales for the first time: Forecast at CNBC. "The world's most populous country is expected to see its total retail sales grow by 7.5 percent this year to $5.6 trillion, compared to 3.3 percent growth in the U.S. retail market to reach $5.5 trillion." Read more   Microsoft wins cloud business from Albertsons at CNBC. "...signed a three-year agreement with Albertsons...to make Microsoft Azure the grocer's preferred public cloud. The partnership comes a little over a week after Microsoft disclosed a seven-year deal with Walgreens." Read more   U.S. voices [...]

  Walgreens pays $269.2 million to settle U.S. civil fraud lawsuits at Reuters. "The pharmacy chain will pay $209.2 million to resolve claims it improperly billed Medicare, Medicaid and other federal programs from 2006 to 2017 for hundreds of thousands of insulin pens it dispensed to patients it knew did not need them." Read more   Fortune's Most Admired Companies (Amazon #2, Costco #12, Nordstrom #20, Home Depot #21, Walmart #25, Target #32, CVS #35, Publix #45) Top 50 list   Ahold Delhaize's Q4 sales meet expectations at CNBC. "In the United States...Ahold sales rose 2.7 percent. Online sales grew [...]