“Costco’s Annual Meeting Highlights; 112 Million Hotdogs & 69 Million Rotisserie Chickens” by Angel Gonzalez at Seattle Times.  “Last year Costco sold 112 million hot dog and soda combos; 69 million rotisserie chickens and 114,000 carats of diamonds, including a $68,000 rock, Jelinek said…Jelinek said that in the three days before Thanksgiving, the company sold 17.4 million dinner rolls and 1.6 million pumpkin pies. “For some of you that may not be exciting, but that’s really exciting for me,” he said.  Not all businesses did well: Photo prints amounted to $800 million, a 10 percent drop. “Most people don’t get prints made anymore,” Jelinek said. “We’ll be making decisions in the future where we’ll really go with this business.”  Read more

 

“The Economist’s Take on New Walmart CEO:  “The question is whether he loves it enough to force it to change” “  at The Economist.  “Mr McMillon will have to push harder. If supercentres are not to become obsolete, they must become “destination stores” where people go to eat and play as well as shop…Whether Mr McMillon is the right man to do all this is not clear. He knows Walmart well and has the confidence of the Walton family, which holds a majority of the shares. He is a consummate company man. The question is whether he loves it enough to force it to change.”  Read more

 

“Obama says Walmart, others to help jobless” by Sherisse Pham at CNN.  “The White House has secured commitments from some of the nation’s largest companies for a plan to boost hiring of the long-term unemployed.  “What we have done is to gather together 300 companies, just to start with, including, some of the top 50 companies in the country, companies like Walmart, and Apple, Ford and others, to say let’s establish best practices,” President Barack Obama told CNN Chief Washington Correspondent Jake Tapper in an exclusive interview.”  Read more

 

“Good PR:  Home Depot Regional VP Discusses Response to Atlanta Ice Store on Bloomberg; Sleeping in Aisles, Sitting on Homer Buckets” at Bloomberg.  See the video & in-store pics

 

“Interview with Kroger CFO, Mike Schlotman” by Dan Monk at WCPO Cincinnati.  “Between the time this deal was announced and completed, Harris Teeter grew by 15 stores. Will that continue?  A: It won’t surprise me if they open 10 to 15 stores a year. We’re very excited about the markets they’re in. Charlotte, the D.C. area, Baltimore area, fast-growing markets, a lot of customers, the kind of customers that are in Harris Teeter’s sweet spot.”  Read the full interview

 

“Amazon misses earnings, Prime price hike coming?” by JP Mangalindan at Fortune.  “Prime’s pros did little to soften the news disclosed during Thursday’s earnings call that Amazon was mulling over increasing the price of Prime in the U.S. by $20 to $40 — a bump that could affect millions of existing Prime members. The culprit? Increasing fuel and shipping costs.  As CFO Tom Szkutak pointed out, this is the first time in Prime’s nine years that Amazon has considered increasing prices.”  Read more

 

“Soon to be a Favorite for Store Walks…Target to Open First Store in Maui in 2015” at MarketWatch. “Target is pleased to announce plans to open a new store in the city of Kahului on the island of Maui in Hawaii, in March 2015. The store will be located on Hookele Street as part of the Pu‘unÄ“nÄ“ Shopping Center. This will be the first Target store in Maui.”  Read the release

 

“California Legalized Selling Food Made At Home And Created Over A Thousand Local Businesses” by Nick Sibilla at Forbes.  “In Los Angeles County, there are almost 270 cottage food businesses. Statewide, over 1,200 homemade food businesses have been approved.  Under the California Homemade Food Act, local governments cannot ban cottage food businesses based in private homes. Instead, home-based entrepreneurs can sell their goods after passing a “food processor course” (which can be done online), properly labeling their goods and practicing common-sense sanitation when cooking and baking.”  Read more

 

“TN Senate approves wine in groceries; House has next step” by Chas Sisk at The Tennessean.  “The Tennessee Senate on Thursday approved a bill that would let grocery stores, big-box retailers and convenience stores sell wine, largely following a plan put forward by the state House of Representatives earlier this week.  After seven years of debate, the vote suggested a law letting grocers sell wine may be rolling toward passage.”  Read more

 

“Rite Aid Same-Store Sales Up 1.8% in January”  “January front-end same store sales decreased 1.3 percent, of which 1.4 percent was attributable to a decrease in sales of flu-related over-the-counter products. Pharmacy same store sales, which included an approximate 124 basis points negative impact from new generic introductions, increased 3.2 percent.”  Read the release

 

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