Tipsheet: Instagram Tests Shopping | Cleaning Trophies | Academy Tests Investors

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Instagram is adding more shopping features at CNBC. “Instagram will start testing shopping through its short-form video feature Reels later this year. Instagram will also add shopping to IGTV, where users can watch longer videos, starting Monday. Monday’s move will appeal to creators and brands who routinely look to monetize their efforts on the app.” Read more

 

Pandemic pushes start of holiday shopping earlier than ever at AP. “Joel Bines, who runs the retail practice at AlixPartners, thinks the earlier shopping will stick even when the pandemic is over…“This is here to stay,” Bines said. “The new holiday season is October through January.”…Meanwhile, delivery company DHL is advising retailers to avoid holding big sales in December, since delivery could be delayed.” Read more

 

CLEANING TROPHIES – For some, finding Clorox wipes has become like winning the lottery at NY Times. “…one day in mid-September when the 41-year-old mother of two teenagers stopped at her local Target in San Antonio, she stumbled across what she had long been stalking: Clorox disinfecting wipes. “My daughter and I started screaming in the store, ‘Oh, my god! Oh, my god!’” Ms. Vanegas said. “I had given up looking for them in the last month. I had lost all hope.” Read more

 

Academy Sports Tests Investor Appetite for Retail at Wall Street Journal. “Shares of Academy Sports & Outdoors Inc. fell in their market debut Friday, even after the company lowered its asking price…(Academy), owned by private-equity firm KKR & Co., set a price of $13 for the 15.6 million shares expected to begin trading on Friday. At that price, the company would raise about $203 million at a valuation of roughly $1.1 billion….” WSJ subs.

 

Walmart signs trio of drone deals as it races to play catch-up with Amazon at CNBC. “It’s teamed up with Flytrex to deliver groceries and household essentials in Fayetteville, North Carolina. It plans to launch another pilot project with Zipline…for on-demand deliveries of health and wellness products early next year. And it’s testing deliveries of at-home Covid-19 test kits with Quest Diagnostics and DroneUp in Las Vegas and Cheektowaga, a suburb of Buffalo, New York.” Read more

 

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Inside Amazon’s “whirlwind courtship” of Whole Foods at Business Insider. “The idea of approaching Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos came to Mackey that spring, after a “restless” night…What happened next, Mackey described as the business world’s version of “love at first sight.”…The Whole Foods CEO and his three top executives met with Bezos and his team at his Seattle boat house. The meeting — on April 30, 2017 — ended up lasting three hours…” Read more

 

Alibaba plans to acquire a stake of up to 9.99% in Swiss duty free group Dufry at Reuters. Read more

 

Amazon is trying to crack down on fraudulent reviews. They’re thriving in Facebook groups. at The Verge. “One, called “Amazon Review Group Only USA” had a member named Douglas Meeks, nearly identical to the name of the number four reviewer on Amazon, Douglas C. Meeks. Meeks has reviewed products on Amazon that appear similar to those listed in the Facebook groups, including a razor from a Chinese company which he rated five stars.” Read more

 

Protesters march outside Jeff Bezos’ Beverly Hills mansion to demand the Amazon billionaire pay more taxes at Daily Mail. “At one point, members of the artivist troupe, Red Rebel Brigade Manifesto, wore red ensembles during a performative piece aimed at highlighting the global environmental crisis. As the group of determined protesters drew near Bezos’ mansion, they chanted ‘tax Bezos’ while someone played the drums.” Pics/Video/Read more

 

Tipsheet Extra

The plastic pandemic – Covid-19 trashed the recycling dream

University of Washington studies future of urban package delivery

Chick-fil-A still has slowest drive-throughs – and the most popular

Costco pays $4.25 million for two-acre lot in Hawaii for employee parking

American Express to open largest Centurion Lounge in JFK airport, and the first with 2 floors

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Eye on Retail Tipsheet is must-read material for retail execs every weekday morning. Tipsheet stories are carefully curated bright and early every morning to ensure fresh and unique content.

 

Subscribe to Eye on Retail Tipsheet here

 

Contact us: Put your product or service in front of the most powerful retail execs in the world, send advertising inquiries to info@eyeonretail.net

 

Website: eyeonretail.net

Tipsheet: H.Depot Promotes | Snoop @ WM Open Call | Sam’s CEO Iview

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Home Depot names Ted Decker president and chief operating officer, effective October 5, 2020 “Ann-Marie Campbell named EVP of U.S. stores and international operations…Jeff Kinnaird promoted to EVP of merchandising…Michael Rowe has been promoted to president of The Home Depot Canada…Richard McPhail, EVP & CFO, will assume the additional responsibility for the company’s corporate strategy and strategic business development.” Press release

 

Sam’s Club CEO Kathryn McLay speaks with Fortune “McLay, an Australian who became Sam’s Club CEO in November after a few years at Walmart, recalled that it was on a March tour of a store in Chicago that she realized how serious the COVID crisis would be, noting anxiety on customers’ faces as they panic-shopped. It was so hectic, she found herself helping bring carts back to the front of the club, as the chain calls its stores, in an all-hands-on-deck moment.” 2:18 video/Read more

 

Walmart sells Asda to billionaire British brothers and TDR for $8.8 billion at Reuters. “The new owners want to drive growth at Britain’s third-biggest supermarket chain by expanding its presence into smaller neighborhood shops to add to its large supermarket format, bringing it more in line with competitors Tesco and Sainsbury’s which offer both.” Read more

 

…Walmart expects to post $2.5 billion non-cash loss on Asda sale at Reuters. Read more

 

Amazon says 19,000 employees tested positive for COVID-19 at GeekWire. “(Amazon) compared rates to the general population…Amazon said that if the rate would have been the same among its employees as it is for the general population, it would have seen 33,952 cases among the workforce. Instead, its figure of 19,816 was 42% lower.” Read more

 

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Walmart’s Open Call event held yesterday – number of applicants increased 44% this year at Talk Business. “If Open Call is any indication, then ingenuity is alive and well in the U.S. as the number of applicants increased 44% this year to 4,800 and we scheduled 67% more meetings because we were not constrained by space. We value entrepreneurs. We were founded by one,” McMillon said in his opening remarks.” Read more

 

…Snoop Dogg had a cameo plug for his Indoggo “Gin and Juice” – coming soon to Walmart stores Read more

 

Lack of oversight and transparency leave Amazon employees in the dark on Covid-19 at NBC News. “On the evening of Sunday, Aug. 9, workers at the MKE1 Amazon fulfillment center in Kenosha, Wisconsin, received an alert from the company via text message: More of their colleagues had tested positive for the coronavirus…The next day, the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for the county. Managers ushered hundreds of employees into windowless rooms where they huddled shoulder to shoulder for half an hour, waiting for the storm to pass.” Read more

 

What Robots Can Do for Retail at Harvard Business Review. “Consider a hypothetical scenario of a retail robot scanning grocery store aisles and detecting that supplies of sugar-free peanut butter are diminishing at twice the rate of regular peanut butter. That real-time discovery then triggers an automated order…That’s not unlike what happens in high-frequency trading, which uses algorithms to detect and capitalize on small, momentary discrepancy in stock prices, which can aggregate into huge profits over time.” Read more

 

Amazon can’t be held responsible for teen’s powdered caffeine death, court rules at NY Post. Read more

 

Walmart vs. Amazon Prime food deliveries: TODAY puts them to the test at NBC News. “NBC investigative and consumer correspondent Vicky Nguyen set out to see which does better in terms of value, variety and speed.” 4:44 video

 

Tipsheet Extra

The Apple Watch heart monitor sends too many people to the doctor

Casey’s General Stores unveils new logo

Gadgets for groceries: coronavirus sparks Philippines online barter trade

It’s costing parents almost $800 to have their children learn remotely

Purple Heart veteran receives free car at Walmart ceremony

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Eye on Retail Tipsheet is must-read material for retail execs every weekday morning. Tipsheet stories are carefully curated bright and early every morning to ensure fresh and unique content.

 

Subscribe to Eye on Retail Tipsheet here

 

Contact us: Put your product or service in front of the most powerful retail execs in the world, send advertising inquiries to info@eyeonretail.net

 

Website: eyeonretail.net

Tipsheet: Bed Bath is Back | Dick’s +11 Stores | Holiday Spend -$100

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Amazon cozies up to Biden camp with cash and connections at Reuters. “Amazon appears to have taken an early lead making in-roads with the Biden camp, according to data gathered by Reuters from OpenSecrets and campaign finance records, along with interviews with over a dozen stakeholders including anti-monopoly groups, lobbyists, congressional aides, competitors and lawmakers.” Read more

 

Bed Bath & Beyond posts same-store sales gain for the first time since 2016 at CNBC. “Same-store sales rose 6%…Analysts had been calling for a decline of 2.1%, according to FactSet. Online sales helped drive the gains, with digital comparable sales surging roughly 89%.” Read more

 

U.S. weekly jobless claims fall; consumer spending solid in August at Reuters. “A separate report on Thursday from the Commerce Department showed consumer spending rose 1.0% in August after increasing 1.5% in July. Economists had forecast consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, advancing 0.8% in August.” Read more

 

On average, consumers plan to spend about $540 on holiday shopping this year — a nearly $100 drop from last year at CNBC. “This holiday season, shoppers aren’t planning on glitzy and gift-oriented celebrations. Instead, many are preparing for smaller gatherings, reining in spending and directing more of their dollars toward retailers that share similar values during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new survey by Accenture.” Read more

 

H&M plans to close 250 stores next year as the coronavirus pandemic pushes its customers online at NY Post. Read more

 

German privacy watchdog fines H&M $41M for spying on workers at AP. “Hamburg’s data protection commissioner said in a statement that the Swedish company collected private information about employees at a customer service center in Nuremberg, “ranging from rather harmless details to family issues and religious beliefs.” Read more

 

Our first-hand experience with Amazon’s new palm reader at GeekWire. “I’m sure it could have been less than 15 seconds if I hadn’t juggled my phone in one hand to get the picture above, or chatted up the security guard to let him know why I was taking a picture, or deliberated over which flavor of sparkling water to buy…” Read more/Pic

 

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More robots coming to the aisles of Schnucks stores at St.Louis Post Dispatch. “The added robots means a Tally will be in 62 stores — more than half of the chain…Schnucks said benefits of Tally include 14 times more out-of-stock detection and at least a 20% reduction in out-of-stock items in stores using Tally.” Read more | Press release

 

Amazon says rising injury rates are due to generous recuperation time at The Verge. Read more

 

The American Dream megamall in New Jersey reopens – has been dark for almost seven months during the coronavirus pandemic at CNBC. Read more

 

Pandemic stalls U.S. fast-food drive-thru times: study at Reuters. “Average drive-thru times at major fast food chains got 29.8 seconds slower in 2020, a survey showed on Thursday…” Read more

 

Amazon Transparency Launches in Japan, Australia “Transparency allows brands to uniquely identify each unit they produce through the application of unique codes on the product or its packaging. These codes allow Amazon to inspect and authenticate every unit enrolled in Transparency proactively…” Press release

 

Dick’s Sporting Goods Announces Grand Opening Of 11 Stores “…(opening) six Dick’s Sporting Goods stores, two combination Dick’s and Golf Galaxy locations and three Dick’s Sporting Goods Warehouse Sale locations in October.” Press release

 

Tipsheet Extra

California could start its own line of generic drugs

Walmart’s new store design proves browsing is dead

Working from home could become a legal right in Germany

Target donated $225M last year

The secret to Costco’s blueberry success story

Read Tipsheet Extra Stories

 

**

Eye on Retail Tipsheet is must-read material for retail execs every weekday morning. Tipsheet stories are carefully curated bright and early every morning to ensure fresh and unique content.

 

Subscribe to Eye on Retail Tipsheet here

 

Contact us: Put your product or service in front of the most powerful retail execs in the world, send advertising inquiries to info@eyeonretail.net

 

Website: eyeonretail.net