Target, like other retailers, did not have a Merry Christmas at AP. “Comparable sales climbed 1.4% in the November-December period, compared with a very strong 5.7% increase a year earlier. Digital sales rose 19%, also down from last year’s jump of 29%.” Read more

 

…Target said it found strength in apparel and beauty, while lackluster performance in key holiday categories like electronics, toys and parts of its home business offset those gains. at CNBC. Read more

 

Holiday sales may have been better-than-expected, up nearly 5%, Bank of America economists say at CNBC. “The lowest income group, with annual household income lower than $20,000, continued to lead in spending growth. The three-month moving average for the income group was up 4.7% year-over-year.” Read more

 

Amazon to invest $1 billion into India to help small and medium-sized businesses in the country come online at TechCrunch. “Bezos said the company is also eyeing making exports of locally produced goods from India…to be of $10 billion in size on Amazon platform by 2025.” Read more

 

…Pics and video from Bezos trip to India at Daily Mail. See here

 

H-E-B’s digital outpost in Austin is changing the company by Dwight Silverman at Houston Chronicle. Tiered subs.

 

Now Stores Must Tell You How They’re Tracking Your Every Move by Tom Simonite at Wired. “There’s a feeling of resignation about data collection,” (Professor) Turow says. “People think it’s just the way of the world in the 21st century.” CCPA warnings, he says, could end up like California’s ubiquitous Prop 65 notices, affixed to buildings, cars, phone chargers, and countless other products to warn that they contain chemicals “known to the State of California to cause cancer.” Read more

 

Most Inventive Companies of 2019 Based on Patent Activity by Bill Hankes at Sqoop. “Design Patents: Apple #4, Amazon #13, Target #38” Ranked lists

 

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Amazon removes FedEx Ground ban for third-party sellers at GeekWire. Read more

 

Baby Yoda is coming to a Build-A-Bear near you at CNN. “The news was announced at an investment conference on Tuesday by Build-A-Bear CEO Sharon Price John. “I’m excited to share that we’ll be one of the first companies to be able provide the new digital and internet phenomenon who is trending higher than all of the presidential candidates combined,” she said. “We now will have The Child, also known as Baby Yoda.” Read more

 

Khalil Mack’s Walmart Christmas donation was improperly handled at Fox Business. “A representative from Mack’s charity made the donation by paying more than $60,000 in layaway accounts at the store, according to NBC Chicago. However, the spokesman said that at least $20,000 of the funds possibly went to store associates.” Read more

 

Tipsheet Extra

Low-CO2 food labeling will be the next ‘low fat’ craze

Amazon seeks to block Microsoft from working on JEDI contract

Glassdoor: 50 Best Jobs in America for 2020

Steve Case’s ‘Rise of the Rest’ bus tour plans stop in Bentonville

US-China phase one trade deal: What Beijing has agreed to buy

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