Walmart Guilty Of Gender Bias? Woman Takes On Retail Giant And Wins $31M by Cristina Silva at International Business Times. “Before her firing, McPadden said she revealed that customers at a Walmart store in Seabrook, New Hampshire, where she worked were getting prescriptions filled improperly because of inadequate staff training. She said a male co-worker who also lost his pharmacy key was not fired.” Read more

 

Amazon: Q4 Sales Up 22% Read the release – Street not impressed – shares fall big Read more via CNBC

 

…Amazon adds another 8,400 employees, tops 230,000 worldwide by Todd Bishop at GeekWire Read more

 

Circuit City revisited? N.Y.C. retail pros said to be resurrecting chain by Teresa Novellino at New York Business Journal. “The retailers, Ronny Shmoel and Albert Liniado, are working under the name Circuit City Corp. after Shmoel acquired the brand, its domain name, and associated trademarks in October from IT supplier Systemax, which had previously bought the Richmond, Va.-based company out of bankruptcy.” Read more | See renderings via Twice

 

Rite Aid January Comp Sales Down 1.4% “January front-end same store sales decreased 1.9 percent…Total drugstore sales for the four-week period decreased 1.3 percent with sales of $2.000 billion compared to $2.026 billion for the same period last year. Prescription sales accounted for 70.5 percent of drugstore sales.” Read more

 

Jeff Bezos celebrates the opening of the new ‘modernized’ Washington Post headquarters by Clare McGrane at GeekWire. “Bezos considered buying their old building before settling on this new space. “A lot of history had happened there — a lot of nostalgia,” Bezos told the Post. “But it was a better idea to move. I’m a huge fan of leaning into the future.… Too much glamorizing of the past would certainly lead to paralysis.” Read more

 

...WashPost Style front, lower right corner, Reliable Source column, “John Kerry, Jeff Bezos toast Post’s new space,” by Emily Heil: “[O]wner Jeff Bezos and publisher and CEO Fred Ryan invited a VIP crowd to … the ‘digital ribbon cutting’ marking the official beginning of The Post’s tenure overlooking downtown’s Franklin Square. … Ryan noted that the new offices boasted digital-age tools, like video studios, audio booths and plenty of screens via Politico Playbook.

 

Walgreens Pulls Back From Theranos via Fox Business. “(Walgreens) said it would suspend sending patient blood samples to Theranos’s Newark lab. Theranos operates Wellness Centers at 41 Walgreens pharmacies, one in Palo Alto and the remainder in Arizona.” Read more

 

**A message from Sweets & Snacks Expo—Find Your Next Best Seller! With the Super Bowl and Valentine’s Day around the corner, you’re already on the lookout for the hottest items to fly off your shelves. Join us in Chicago May 24-26 to network with industry leaders and help you build out your product catalog for the coming year. See the 2015 Innovation Winners. The Sweets & Snacks Expo hosts the most confectionery and snack companies, with 700+ exhibitors showing off their latest products and building relationships. Last Year’s Recap Video | This Year’s Exhibitors | Register Now

 

Why FX’s Bizarre New Clown Comedy ‘Baskets’ Is Obsessed With Costco and Arby’s by Jason Lynch at Adweek. “The production designer said, ‘What if we clear Kirkland, the brand? It’s the most bland brand. You never care about it,'” Krisel said. When the show approached Costco, they said, “Really? You want this?’ We said, ‘Could we make up like Kirkland vodka? Or, like … ‘ ‘Yeah, whatever you want to do.'” Read more

 

Your food might be stuck on a barge as El Nino swells rivers by Heesun Wee at CNBC. “Plumped waterways are impacting some barge traffic in and around the Midwest down to the Gulf Coast, and involves such channels as the Mississippi River, Maltsbarger said. Crops and food impacted so far include corn, soybeans and fertilizer, which is used in nearly every pocket of food production.” Read more

 

DON’T CALL IT A POP-UP – Pepsi Turns Restaurateur, to Serve Up Some Buzz by Sydney Ember at NY Times. “Pepsi is now moving into the restaurant business. The 5,000-square-foot space — on the same block as Milk Studios in Chelsea (Pepsi insists it resides in the ultrahip meatpacking district) — will become Kola House, a restaurant-bar-event space that the company hopes will be both social hub and testing ground for new products.” Read more

 

WSJ: Kroger Plans to Upend How it Organizes Booze in Stores by Tripp Mickle & Ilan Brat. “…the plan, introduced late last year, calls for a privately held distributor, Southern Wine & Spirits, to oversee how much display brands get in the grocery aisles of the more than 2,600 Kroger stores in 29 states. It also asks the alcohol companies—not Kroger—to pay Southern for the service.” Read more (subscription)

 

Etsy opens a pop-up shop at NYC Macy’s by Matt Linder at Internet Retailer. “The shop will give eight of the online marketplace’s designers a chance to showcase their wares, with shoppers being able to peruse from more than 50 offerings ranging from housewares to jewelry. Shoppers will be able to buy the items in store and take them home on the spot.” Read more

 

ONCE AN OLD SAM’S CLUB – 15 photos of Under Armour’s first Port Covington office building by Melody Simmons at Baltimore Business Journal. See the pics

 

Nordstrom will open a second Manhattan location by Teresa Novellino at New York Business Journal. “Nordstrom, which is opening its first department store in Manhattan — a massive flagship under construction on West 57th Street — has decided to double down on its N.Y.C. presence. Although timing was not disclosed, the company is planning to open a second, smaller Nordstrom store just half a block away at 3 Columbus Circle.” Read more

 

Uber Wants to Be Your Express Delivery Service for Everything by Andrew J. Hawkins at The Verge via Recode. “By adding just a few lines of code, businesses such as Nordstrom and 1-800-Flowers can now integrate UberRush’s one-hour delivery service directly into their digital products.” Read more

 

Tesco drops 24-hour trading at some stores at Reuters via Yahoo. “The company…said 76 out of its 400 24-hour shops would be affected by the change. They will now close at midnight and reopen at 0600.” Read more

 

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