“Target’s new elves have a story to tell” by Sabrina Korber at CNBC. “The partnership between the companies began eight weeks ago, when Cornell approached Shechtman at the boutique. She had no idea who he was. “I was wearing sweatpants when I met Brian,” she told CNBC. “I was embarrassed at the time, but maybe I should wear sweatpants more often.” See the video / Read more

 

“Whole Foods gets pushback on new store from Hollywood elites” by Michael Theis at Austin Bus. Journal. “The report centers around the passing this week of a Malibu, California, ballot measure that requires new commercial development greater than 20,000 square feet be approved by public referendum. It also places a 30 percent limit on the percent of chain-store retail tenants allowed to operate in a shopping center.” Read more

 

“Wal-Mart ‘Gearing’ Up For College” by Tom Van Riper at Forbes. “In the first move of its kind, Wal-Mart is devoting floor space exclusively to college-themed merchandise in 2,700 stores during the upcoming Christmas shopping season. The gear is expected to roll into the stores on November 17.” Read more

 

“For outdoor retailers, Orange is the new Black” by John Ewoldt at Star-Tribune. “The planning cycle is getting shorter. They’ve compressed their purchasing closer to the actual deer opening date,” said Charlie Davis, vice president of merchandising at St. Paul-based Gander Mountain. “Deer hunters will wait until the week of, or the day before, the actual opening date.” Read more

 

Walmart’s Scott Huff, EVP Merchandising Operations, to Speak at Chamber Event on Dec. 1st  Read more

 

“Whole Foods CIO Says Apple Pay, Instacart Paying Off” by Steven Norton by WSJ. “Mr. Buechel said the firm has processed more than 150,000 transactions using the service since Apple Pay went live last month.” Read more (Subscription)

 

“Best Buy Express kiosks dispense electronics — and lots of profits” by Thomas Lee at SF Gate. “According to a source close to Zoom, Best Buy Express generates anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000 a month per kiosk. Do the math and that means the consumer electronics retailer, based in Richfield, Minn., generates roughly between $20 million and $120 million a year in sales off those machines.” Read more

 

“Let’s Call The Amazon Echo What It Is” by Greg Kumparak at Techcrunch. “They want their store “front end” to be floating in the ether all around you, just waiting for you to open your mouth.” Read more

 

“Meet The Network Of Guys Making Thousands Of Dollars Tweeting As “Common White Girls” “ by Ryan Broderick at BuzzFeed. “Cameron Asa is a 21-year-old communications major at the University of Tennessee. He’s also the owner of Tweet Like A Girl, a Twitter account with 1.2 million followers…He said the network  – which has no corporate sponsor backing it — was responsible for the “Alex From Target” sensation on Sunday. “I know for a fact it was the parody accounts that started it,” Asa said.” Read more

 

“Home Depot Hackers Stole 53 Mil Emails Addresses” by Dune Lawrence at Bloomberg. “The hackers went for the 7,500 self-checkout lanes because those machines’ reference names in the computer system clearly identified them as payment terminals, while some 70,000 standard registers were identified only by number, according to the (WSJ).” Read more

 

“Postal Service Will Deliver 7 Days a Week Starting Nov. 17 through Christmas Day” by Hailey Lee at CNBC. Read more

 

“Target taps General Motors executive as chief of compliance and risk” by Nick Halter at Minn./St.Paul Bus. Journal. “Jacqueline Hourigan Rice begins Dec. 1, according to a Target news release. She’ll be a senior vice president and report directly to Cornell.
Rice was most recently chief compliance officer at GM. She worked there for 17 years.” Read more

 

“Kroger Exits Springfield, MO Market” by Steve Watkins at Cincy Bus. Courier. “Kroger Co. has exited a market for the first time in a few years. Cincinnati-based Kroger, the nation’s largest operator of traditional supermarkets, is selling four stores in Springfield, Mo., pulling it completely out of that market. The stores are part of Kroger’s Dillons chain.” Read more

 

“Food Lion parent to sell Bottom Dollar stores to Aldi” by Jen Wilson at Charlotte Bus. Journal. “Delhaize Group, the parent of Salisbury-based grocery chain Food Lion, has agreed to sell Bottom Dollar Food’s 66 stores to Aldi Inc.” Read more

 

“This is Vudu Spark, Walmart’s very own Chromecast competitor” by Janko Roettgers at Gigaom. “The stick popped up in the FCC database this week, which tends to be a good sign that a release is imminent.” Read more

 

“Canadian Tire profits jump 22 per cent on strong sales everywhere” by Francine Kopun at The Star. “Canadian Tire is on a roll right now, pun intended,” Medline said during a conference call with analysts on Thursday to discuss earnings.” Read more

 

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Eye-on-Retail is a daily tipsheet read by thousands of Retail Merchants & Executives every weekday morning. Eye-on-Retail is unique because it’s timely, smart and fun. It’s created early AM every weekday and delivered between 7-8 am CST. We love data, earnings reports, executive presentations and stories off the beaten path that get at what’s happening in the world of retail. Contact us @ info@shiftmarketinggroup.net.

 

 

 

“Target to Shutter 11 Stores” by Kavita Kumar at Star-Tribune. “It also swatted away an investment firm trying to buy shares on the cheap and started selling tchotchkes made by 3-D printers, latching on to one of the hottest things in high-tech…The 11 stores will be shuttered by Feb. 1, around the end of Target’s fiscal year. In May, it also closed eight stores.” Read more

 

…the List of Stores Target is Closing.  See the list of 11

 

“Berkeley, CA Passes Nations First Soda Tax” by Laura Mandaro at USA Today. “More than three-quarters of the votes cast were in favor of Measure D, according to the Alameda County Registrar of Voters. The measure will place a 1-cent-an-ounce tax on soft drinks. It only needed a majority of “yes” votes to pass.  In nearby San Francisco, city voters rejected a similar measure to tax sugary drinks.” Read more

 

“Former Dollar General CEO, David Perdue, Wins Georgia Senate Race” by Cameron McWhirter at WSJ. “With more than 50% of the vote, Mr. Perdue is on track to avoid a runoff –and avoid a Democratic pickup.” Read more (Subscription)

 

“GOP Win Boosts Prospects For Stalled Data Security Efforts” by Allison Grande at Law 360. “Republicans’ takeover of the U.S. Senate on Tuesday increases the chances that Congress will pass long-stalled data security and cyberthreat information-sharing legislation, with the measures likely to be narrower and more business-friendly than many Democrats would prefer.” Read more (Subscription)

 

Canada: “Amazon.ca raises stakes in same-day delivery service” by Marina Strauss at Globe & Mail. “Amazon.com Inc. is raising the ante in Canada’s e-commerce battle by offering same-day shipping in Toronto and Vancouver just as retailers head into the crucial holiday shopping season.” Read more

 

“Eurozone Retail Sales Plunge In September” by Dina Spector at Business Insider. “Eurozone retail sales fell by 1.3% between August and September, verses an expected drop of o.8% Eurostat said the decline is due to falls in the non-food sector and a 0.1% fall in”food, drinks, and tobacco.” Read more

 

Forbes: “With GOP Senate, Freer Trade Is Up First” by Tim Ferguson. “The trade universe is wide but Asia is the big ballgame. Whether it is the Trans-Pacific Partnership or a less grand agreement, the first move–ironically– is likely to be “fast track” trade-negotiating authority for the president…Orrin Hatch, Republican of Utah, stands to chair the Senate Finance Committee, a key trade bottleneck and he has talked a good trade game (just don’t threaten the Utah vitamin industry).” Read more

 

“Costco Eyes Location in Downtown Jamaica (NYC), Developers Say” by Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska at DNAInfo. “Chris Xu…who spent $22 million in cash to buy a large property in Downtown Jamaica, said he was recently approached by a Costco representative to discuss the possibility of opening a store on that lot, on Archer Avenue and Guy Brewer Boulevard…the deal on his property hit a sticking point after the company asked for 600 parking spaces for its customers.” Read more

 

36% of Americans “hate” the practice of shopping on Thanksgiving by Clare O’Connor at Forbes. “…while another 26% “dislike” it. A mere 12% “like or love” the trend of stores opening on this special day.” Read more

 

“Ethan Allen CEO Aims for a More Modern Touch” by James R. Hagerty at WSJ. “Farooq Kathwari, the 70-year-old chief executive of furniture maker and retailer Ethan Allen Interiors Inc. has survived wrenching changes in the industry, such as the continuing surge in low-cost imports that drove many of his former rivals out of the business.” Read the interview (Subscription)

 

“In the business of fruit, who’s really top banana?” by Claire Zillman at Forbes. “Specialty fruit in 2009 it was 2% of sales, now it’s 15%,” Frey says. “When you used to hear ‘specialty fruit,’ you’d think pineapple and mango. Now it’s guava and starfruit.” See the Top 5 selling fruits

 

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Eye-on-Retail is a daily tipsheet read by thousands of Retail Merchants & Executives every weekday morning. Eye-on-Retail is unique because it’s timely, smart and fun. It’s created early AM every weekday and delivered between 7-8 am CST. We love data, earnings reports, executive presentations and stories off the beaten path that get at what’s happening in the world of retail. Contact us @ info@shiftmarketinggroup.net.

 

 

 

“How Alibaba Plans to Help U.S. Exporters” at WSJ. “MR. BERMAN: What U.S. small business products would make sense in the Chinese market? MR. MA: Last year we helped Washington state. We sold 150 tons of cherries. We sell Alaska seafood. We sold 80 tons of nuts to China. There are so many farm products here that can be sold to China; because of the pollution, people cannot have good quality products.” Read the full interview (Subscription)

 

Trending: Who is Alex from Target? by Emilee Speck at Orlando Sentinel. “The red-shirted Target employee can now add internet-famous to his resume. Twitter users began photoshopping memes, creating Tumblrs, Twitter handles and nonstop tweeting about “Alex from Target.” Thanks to the power of the internet “Official Alex from Target” now has more than 174,000 followers, according to @acl163’s bio.” Read more

 

“Walgreen aims to stop disclosures in lawsuit” by Ellen Jean Hirst at Chicago Tribune. “Make no mistake: This lawsuit is brought by a bitter former executive who, after he was told he would not become the CFO of the combined Walgreens-Alliance Boots company, and only after he was subsequently told that he would not be allowed to continue as the Chief Financial Officer (‘CFO’) of Walgreens, has lashed out with a series of threats, untruths and half-truths” Walgreen wrote.” Read more

 

“Amazon isn’t discontinuing its India operations; is likely to expand further” by Richa Sharma at Economic Times. “We, at Business Insider India, spoke to Amazon’s officials to find out the truth and were surprised when they rubbished the report and cited that this piece of news is nothing, but an egregious example of misreporting.” Read more

 

NY Times: “Stung Last Year, Retailers and Shippers Retool for the Holiday Season” by Rachel Abrams. “Given the expected spike in online sales, the big question will be whether retailers and carriers can plan well enough to avoid the same problems. “Is it a redux of last year, or did we learn any lessons to fix the problem?” said Sucharita Mulpuru, an analyst with Forrester, who wrote the report predicting this year’s holiday sales.” Read more

 

“Lowe’s Swarmed by Bee Activist Group on Halloween” by Mark Koba at CNBC. “”We’ve been reaching out to Lowe’s for the past year on this issue,” said Friends of the Earth’s Tiffany Finck-Haynes. “Finally in May of this year they did contact us but said they would follow the Environmental Protection Agency’s guidelines on pesticides.” In an email to CNBC, Karen Cobb, manager of corporate public relations at Lowe’s, reiterated what it told Friends of the Earth, adding “it is concerned about the loss of bees and other pollinators”. Read more

 

Amazon: 37% of Global Workplace is Female by Rachel Lerman at Puget Sounds Bus. Journal. “Amazon followed many of its fellow tech companies Friday and released its diversity statistics. The report didn’t bring many surprises — the workforce is mostly male, and mostly white. But it does have significantly more women in its ranks than Microsoft and Google.” Read more

 

Walmart: 65%+ of Customers Have Smart Phones by Kim Souza at The City Wire. “Stores will feature more “retailtainment” events like Frozen parties, or trade-in and up promotions for gamers like the early release of Call of Duty. Wal-Mart said retailtainment and store events are left up to store managers, although the corporate office does make broad recommendations which are followed about 80% of the time.” Read more

 

“Dollar General extends its tender offer for Family Dollar to Dec. 31” by Jennifer Thomas at Charlotte Bus. Journal. Read more

 

“Get ready for video ads in your Instagram feed” by Keith Wagstaff at CNBC. “Not seeing them? That’s not a mistake. As with Instagram’s photo ads, which launched last fall, each one is targeted at a specific audience. Ads from L’Oreal will launch in a week or two, a company spokesperson said, with more expected in the future.” Read more

 

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Eye-on-Retail is a daily tipsheet read by thousands of Retail Merchants & Executives every weekday morning. Eye-on-Retail is unique because it’s timely, smart and fun. It’s created early AM every weekday and delivered between 7-8 am CST. We love data, earnings reports, executive presentations and stories off the beaten path that get at what’s happening in the world of retail. Contact us @ info@shiftmarketinggroup.net.

 

“Target Lays Off 80 at HQ” by Kavita Kumar at Star-Tribune. “In addition to the layoffs, another 40 open positions at Target will not be filled, said Molly Snyder, a company spokeswoman. “We routinely evaluate our business to ensure we are positioned for profitable growth,” Snyder said in a statement. “As we open fewer general merchandise stores nationwide and focus more on smaller formats, we have made the decision to centralize our architecture, construction, engineering and facilities management teams to best meet the needs of the business going forward.” Read more

 

“How Home Depot CEO Frank Blake kept his legacy from being hacked” by Jennifer  Reingold at Fortune. “So how did Blake react? Let’s start by thinking about what he could have done. He easily could have handed off the problem to his successor…Blake didn’t do any of that. Instead, he acted the same way he has acted for the past seven-plus years when faced with a challenge: He took full responsibility, empowered his team to fix the problem, and kept the focus where it needed to be, squarely on the customer.” Read more

 

“Grocery Chain Sues Clorox For Refusing To Sell Bulk-Pack Products” by Ashlee Kieler at Consumerist. “According to the complaint, officials with Woodman’s say a representative from Clorox informed them that the company had created a “Differentiated Products Offering” and that the grocery store – which operates like a warehouse store – would be lumped in with other general market retailers, losing the ability to sell large quantity packs of products and, thus, losing business.” Read more

 

“Retailers Like Lowe’s Are Getting a Jump on the Holidays” by Stuart Elliot at NY Times. “Lowe’s, which has in recent years used social media platforms like Pinterest to advertise its coming Black Friday sales, plans to use Vine to tease shoppers about what is in store for Black Friday 2014. A dozen Black Friday Vines — scheduled to be released one a day, starting on Monday — will advertise deals on merchandise like DeWalt tools, Dyson vacuums, home safes and artificial Christmas trees.” Read more

 

“Lysol Bought The Top Google Search Ad For The Word ‘Ebola,’ And Then Changed Its Mind” by Lara O’Reilly at Business Insider. “But now, perhaps fearing a backlash from consumers accusing the brand of distastefully piggybacking on the public interest and concern around the deadly infectious disease, Lysol appears to have aborted the marketing campaign.” Read more

 

“Wal-Mart Expands Savings Catcher to Toys for Holidays” by Kim Souza at The City Wire. “CEO Doug McMillion did not provide any details to The City Wire when asked recently about the possibilities of an expanded scope to include general merchandise during the holiday period. His response were merely, “Thanks for the suggestion.” Read more

 

“Q&A With Costco’s CEO, Craig Jelinek” at Consumer Reports. “Over the past year, we have tested apparel items in plus sizes in about 60 percent of our U.S. warehouses; moving forward, we have decided to focus on expanding plus-size assortments on Costco.com.” Read the Q&A

 

“Apple Pay alternative CurrentC has been breached” by Wendy Lee at SF Gate. “An MCX spokeswoman told the Chronicle that the CurrentC app “was not affected” and that many of the e-mail addresses taken were from “dummy accounts used for testing purposes.” She did not immediately reply to questions on how the e-mail addresses were obtained.” Read more

 

“The 10 highest sales-generating malls in the U.S.” by Phil Wahba at Fortune. See the list

 

“Kroger CEO sees organics as ‘billion dollar brand’” by Steve Watkins at Cincinnati Bus. Courier. “It was introduced two years ago, and this year it will be a billion dollar brand,” CEO Rodney McMullen said of Kroger’s Simple Truth natural and organic brand. “When you think about a brand reaching that level in its second full year, not many companies can say that.” Read more

 

“Kroger leaders aren’t worried about Amazon in online grocery battle” by Steve Watkins at Cincinnati Bus. Courier. “We’re not fixated by it,” Kevin Dougherty, Kroger’s group vice president of digital and Vitacost, said of Kroger’s take on Amazon. “A decade ago, we decided we have to play our game and focus on our strengths. They may succeed, but what we do has worked for decades.” Read more

 

“Kohl’s Holds First Investor Conference in Seven Years” by Alison Bauter at Milwaukee Bus. Journal. “(CEO Kevin) Mansell said the company’s stores have “been efficient, but pretty short on inspiration.” The new agenda pushes the idea that engaging customers digitally on a very personal, granular level and in-person through an elevated in-store environment will provide the hook to keep customers coming back.” Read more

 

…Kohl’s CEO Sits Down for Interview “I don’t know if you know, but the University of Wisconsin-Madison is the single largest campus in the United States from which we recruit — we get more interns, we get more trainees. We have a massive internship program each year.” Read the Q&A

 

“Saks Backs Off Snaks 5th Avenchew Cease-and-Desist Order” by Teresa Novellino at New York Bus. Journal. “The news came as a big relief to Sarabella, whom we caught up with by phone this morning. “I’ve only been in business since June, and this wasn’t the kind of exposure that I wanted” Read more

 

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Eye-on-Retail is a daily tipsheet read by thousands of Retail Merchants & Executives every weekday morning. Eye-on-Retail is unique because it’s timely, smart and fun. It’s created early AM every weekday and delivered between 7-8 am CST. We love data, earnings reports, executive presentations and stories off the beaten path that get at what’s happening in the world of retail. Contact us @ info@shiftmarketinggroup.net.