Amazon’s Prime Air 767s may be en route to Charlotte airport by Ken Elkins at Charlotte Business Journal. “Amazon is finalizing plans for a 397,800-square-foot distribution center at 10240 Old Dowd Road for a “receiving center.” That’s within 5 miles of Charlotte Douglas.” Read more

 

Analysts not convinced that a Kroger-Whole Foods deal will happen by Steve Watkins at Cincinnati Business Courier. “Kroger’s same-store sales growth declined during the second quarter…“That makes it harder to service debt in a deflationary environment,” Meyer said. “I think it would be unlikely Kroger would be interested.” Meyer put the likelihood at less than 50 percent.” Read more

 

Walmart and supplier bring rum production line to Arkansas by Aric Mitchell at The City Wire. “Cindi Marsiglio, vice president of U.S. Manufacturing for Wal-Mart: “I have been in factories around Arkansas since we’ve begun this initiative, and I’ve seen areas for growth and opportunity – job by job, factory by factory. Here today (with the Malibu Rum relocation) we have 6,000 shift hours, which translates into more shift hours (for existing employees) and seasonal into full-time employment.” Read more

 

“IT’S TIME TO STOP THE MADNESS” – Electronics retailer Hhgregg to close for Thanksgiving at AP via CNBC. Read more

 

Amazon Wants to Get College Students Addicted to Prime by Spencer Soper at Bloomberg. “The common thread with all of the schools so far is that their graduates typically earn more than the median for college graduates, providing Amazon with a pipeline of future customers with high earning potential. Amazon says it doesn’t consider grads’ income when selecting schools.” Read more

 

Internet Retailer: Study of 30 leading e-retailers finds that those merchants, on average, process returns in eight days by Kat Fay at Internet Retailer. “Apart from Sears Hometown, the longest refund time goes to Home Depot, which took 51 days to process a credit, followed by Williams-Sonoma at 44 days.” See 30 retailers ranked

 

Schnucks completes controversial warehouse layoffs by Lisa Brown at St.Louis Post Dispatch. “Last night was the last night for our 190 brothers & sisters in the Schnucks warehouse,” Local 688 posted Monday on Twitter. “They’ve been terminated for greed. #BoycottSchnucks.” Read more

 

Report: Nearly half of all shopping malls in the US could close in the next few years by Lisa Fickenscher at NY Post. “On the flip side, 29 percent of US malls were considered top-notch, according to Steve Jellinek, the author of the report.” Read more

 

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Amazon ‘Catalyst’ program reveals the first university projects it’s backing by Nat Levy at GeekWire. See the 12 winners so far

 

The U.K. is now the least expensive market in the world for a bevy of luxury goods, according to analysts by Saabira Chaudhuri & Simon Zekaria at Wall Street Journal. “Spending by foreigners on items for which buyers seek tax refunds—ordinarily big-ticket items—surged more than 36% in August in the U.K.” Read more (subscription)

 

NRF announces the 2016 recipients of “Dream Big” scholarships “Nordstrom, Whole Foods Market, West Elm, dressbarn, The Container Store and The Kroger Co., surprised their Dream BIG scholarship recipients in their workplaces to give them the big news.” Press release | Watch the video for each surprise

 

Ross Stores Opens 34 New Locations Press release

 

Walmart Invites America to a Free Health Check-Up on Saturday Press release

 

Cabela’s execs will face shareholders at long-delayed annual meeting, which could be the company’s last by Paige Yowell at Omaha World Herald. “The fact that they announced the date of the annual meeting in an SEC filing rather than in a press release is telling,” said Rob Berick…“I don’t think this is one where they are going to be disappointed with a low turnout.” Read more

 

“REGISTER 11 WILL NEVER BE THE SAME” – Mother gives birth in checkout line at Walmart by Aubrey McKay at Fox 13 Salt Lake. “The funny thing is that the customer was down on her knees and she insisted on paying for her merchandise and we’re like you know that’s just not important. You know, we were going to take care of her on it,” Haight said.” Read more

 

Target’s Latest Home Collab: Modern by Dwell Magazine at A Bullseye View. See the pics / Read more

 

“Big soda” sponsored 96 health groups — a big conflict of interest, study says at Washington Post via Denver Post. “The study remarked that it was particularly surprising that the ADA and JDRF were on the list, “given the established link between diabetes and soda consumption.” Read more

 

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