Target Surprise: Ranked #1 in Shipping Speed by Kavita Kumar at Star-Tribune. “I had to dig a little deeper to make sure that was really accurate,” said Kevon Hills, StellaService’s vice president of research. But it was. The study by the New York-based research firm found that Target shaved three days off its delivery time. Target’s packages reached StellaService analysts in 1.8 days last month, at least a day quicker than many other retailers who made the top 25.” Read more

 

“Postal Service aims for grocery delivery beyond Amazon” by Jay Greene at Seattle Times. “For the past several weeks, the agency has been testing delivering prepackaged grocery items purchased from the Web giant to customers in San Francisco. According to a filing, the Postal Service is now seeking approval from the Postal Regulatory Commission to add new cities to the test.” Read more

 

Walmart SVP of Change Management, Celia Swanson, Speaks at Luncheon by Kim Souza at The City Wire. “Swanson shared that one of the first things the new Wal-Mart CEO Doug McMillon did after his promotion was to create a video on the importance of corporate culture. He also made the traditional Saturday morning meeting optional for the first time in the company’s history…“To his credit he made the meeting optional, but then put the pressure on himself to make the meetings so great that everyone would want to attend,” she added.” Read more

 

“Amazon’s Grand Plan to Avoid Holiday Delivery Snafus Again” by Brad Stone at Businessweek. “Amazon has built 38 new fulfillment centers in North America over the last year and a half and an additional 15 “sortation centers,” a new category of smaller warehouse where packages from the fulfillment centers are sorted by ZIP codes. The sortation centers allow Amazon to ship packages directly to customers…Overall Amazon now has 158 fulfillment centers around the world, ChannelAdvisor estimates, and more than 100 million square feet of fulfillment capacity.” Read more / See the location maps

 

“Tractor Supply plans new pet concept stores” by Eric Snyder at Nashville Bus. Journal. “Nashville Post reports that the concept is known as HomeTown Pet, and will be run independently from Tractor Supply. Concept stores are to open in Franklin and Fairview by mid-November.” Read more

 

J.D. Power: Pharmacy Customer Satisfaction Rankings (Mass: Sam’s – best, Walmart – worst)  “Among brick and mortar pharmacies, Good Neighbor Pharmacy (884) ranks highest in the chain drug store segment; Sam’s Club (865) ranks highest in the mass merchandiser segment; and Publix (886) ranks highest in the supermarket segment.” See the rankings

 

HuffPo: “These Amazon Warehouse Workers Smoke In Cages” by Dave Jamieson. “Amazon’s new fulfillment center in Baltimore includes 30-foot-long outdoor cages that allow workers to step outside while still being confined. Black fencing runs from the floor to ceiling, “making it impossible for anyone inside it to pass objects to anyone standing in the parking lot.” Read more / See the pics

 

“Sears Canada CEO Douglas Campbell resigns after one year in the job” by Hollie Shaw at Financial Post. “Mr. Campbell is the second chief executive to leave the embattled department store chain in just over a year, and by all accounts, he was an equally competent one.” Read more

 

“Target Announces Exclusive Collection with Faribault” at A Bullseye View. “The assortment of limited-edition bags, throws, scarves for men and women and tech accessories will be available on Target.com starting Nov. 2 and come in an array of exclusive stripes and plaids.” Read more

 

“DHL beats Amazon, Google to first scheduled drone delivery” by Mark Scott at NY Times via Seattle Times. “The flight — expected to take as long as 30 minutes, depending on weather conditions — would be the first time a drone without the aid of even a land-based pilot has been authorized for regular use in Europe, the company said…Like Amazon, which is running tests in Canada, and Google, which is conducting tests in Australia, DHL is hoping its monthlong trial will prove that the technology — dubbed parcelcopter — can replace some of the traditional ways of delivering parcels to remote locations.” Read more

 

“Jeff Bezos’s actions are true to his beliefs, says Amazon India VP Amit Agarwal” by Rashmi Menon at Economic Times. “We recently launched the pet supplies category. The first day, we had people from remote places in India buying guinea pig food. I would never have guessed that. I would have guessed a dog collar or dog food but guinea pig food! There were purchases for bird food and even food for lizards.” 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 really happening in the world of retail.

 

NY Times: “Finding a Door Into Banking, Walmart Prepares to Offer Checking Accounts” by Hiroko Tabuchi & Jessica Silver-Greenberg. “Walmart is teaming up with Green Dot, known for its prepaid payment cards, to supply checking accounts to almost anyone over 18 who passes an ID check…Daniel Eckert, senior vice president at Walmart, said on Tuesday that the accounts would be available nationwide by the end of October. The accounts are intended to be low-cost alternatives to traditional bank checking accounts, with no fees for overdrafts or bounced checks and no minimum account balance.” Read more

 

WSJ: “Fraudulent Transactions Surface in Wake of Home Depot Breach” by Robin Sidel. “Air Academy Federal Credit Union has caught roughly $20,000 worth of attempted fraudulent transactions tied to cards that were exposed from the Home Depot breach, said Brad Barnes, chief financial officer at the credit union in Colorado Springs, Colo. “It’s not huge, but for a three-week period it’s a big start,” he said. The credit union has beefed up staffing in its fraud department, particularly on weekends when criminals often try to use counterfeit cards.” Read more

 

Deloitte: Expect 4% – 4.5% Holiday Sales Increase by Krystina Gustafson at CNBC. “That represents a modest improvement over last year’s 2.8 percent gain to $944 billion.” Read more

 

“Self-checkout terminals eyed as possible culprit in Home Depot breach” by Richard Byrne Reilly at Venture Beat. “Security experts told VentureBeat that self-checkout terminals typically run Windows XP, use store-bought MS 56 or 128 bit encryption, and are easier to crack than POS terminals. While POS terminals are typically operated by cashiers, self-checkout, as the term applies, generally has no physical oversight.” Read more

 

Study: Shopping on Amazon up to 15% cheaper than buying from stores by Tricia Duryee at Geek Wire. “The study, conducted by William Blair, an investment bank, analyzed 4,000 items across 40 retailers to evaluate the competitive landscape. On average, it said Amazon’s prices are 5.9 percent lower at the 40 retailers when you are a non-Prime customer in a state charging online sales tax. The Amazon pricing advantage increases to 8.3 percent when shipping fees go away (in the case of orders exceeding $35 or Amazon Prime eligible items); and the price savings can go as high as 15 percent for Prime customers in states that do not collect sales tax.” Read more

 

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“In Germany, Amazon Keeps Unions at Bay” by Sarah Sloat at WSJ “German unions are accustomed to wielding formidable influence. Union officials sit on supervisory boards at blue-chip companies. They have a track record of wearing down foreign employers. Not so at Amazon.com Inc. For the 16 years the online retailer has done business in Germany, it has shunned the nation’s consensus-driven labor model. It ignores trade unions and largely dictates contract terms at its nine German distribution centers, where it employs about 9,000.” Read more (Subscription)

 

“GroupM Takes 49% Stake in Target’s Media Agency” by Alexander Bruell at Ad Age. “For Haworth, the alignment means “full access” to GroupM’s digital technology and trading tools, as well as a “global expansion platform” for the shop and its clients.” Read more

 

“Kroger: 20% of shoppers plan and prepare for grocery shopping by going online beforehand” by Alexander Coolidge at Cincinnati.com “Kroger keeps studying online shopping because 60 percent of all consumers consider trips to the grocery store their least favorite chore…”When you step into the future, grocery shopping may not always mean going to the store,” (Matt) Thompson told a packed auditorium at the D² Cincinnati digital marketing conference at the Horseshoe Casino Cincinnati in Downtown.” Read more

 

UK: 78% of online shoppers will turn to Amazon if their preferred brand’s website is poor at The Drum. “Only 22 per cent would go to a retail outlet. Highlighting consumer willingness to purchase directly from their preferred brands’ transactional sites, the research found that nearly half of all shoppers (49 per cent) expect to pay less when buying directly from a brand.” Read more

 

“Kmart Introduces ‘Trending Toy Ticker’ “ “The ticker will continually update with the top-selling toys as the season progresses, for parents who want the latest update on the most buzz-generating toys.” Read the release

 

“Best Buy pairs up with designers to dress up smartphones” by Kavita Kumar at Star-Tribune. “Best Buy Co. Inc. on Wednesday will announce three new collaborations with well-known designers — Nanette Lepore, Anna Sui, and Isaac Mizrahi New York — on exclusive lines of colorful, floral, and striped cases for smartphones, tablets and laptops. The tech accessories will be available for preorder on its website and will hit stores Oct. 5.” Read more / See the video

 

“Home Depot’s Carol Tome Sells $516,919 of Company Stock” at Insider Trading.  Read more

 

“Bed, Bath & Beyond Q2 Comp Sales +3.4%” Read the release

 

“AT&T starts bundling Amazon Prime with HBO and broadband” by Todd Bishop at Geek Wire. “AT&T is now offering Amazon Prime subscriptions as part of a bundle that includes broadband access, U-verse TV and an HBO subscription. The $39/month package, designed to appeal to would-be cord-cutters, was spotted by a reader at DSLReports.” 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 really happening in the world of retail.

 

“Labor Groups Seek Probe of Wal-Mart’s PAC” by Shelly Banjo at WSJ (Subscription). “Labor and advocacy groups are seeking an investigation into whether Wal-Mart violated federal election laws by soliciting employees for donations to its political-action committee in exchange for charitable contributions to a fund that helps Wal-Mart employees in need…Wal-Mart spokeswoman Brooke Buchanan said the company is confident its matching program is lawful and that the FEC will find the complaint lacks merit.” Read more

 

…HuffPo’s Take: “Walmart’s Plan To Encourage Political Donations Violates Election Law, Groups Claim” by Jillian Berman. “Walmart’s program is particularly controversial for two reasons, according to Holman. For one, it offers a 2-for-1 match instead of a 1-for-1 match…Also, Walmart doesn’t give workers a choice of charities for the company to send the matching funds…“Walmart came up with the entirely new scheme,” said Holman, who has written several studies on campaign finance. “This type of matching fund program goes way beyond anything the FEC has ever approved before.” Read more

 

“Kroger Private Label Business Approaches $20 Billion Annually” by Alexander Coolidge at Cincinnati.com. “Just two years after its introduction, the Cincinnati-based supermarket chain predicts its Simple Truth natural brand will become a $1 billion-a-year business…Kroger executives say its private label business now accounts for one quarter of all its sales excluding gasoline and pharmacy receipts – approaching $20 billion annually.” Read more

 

Fox 13 Tampa Bay: “How Walmart’s ‘Saving Catcher’ app drops the ball” by Chris Chmura. “Here’s the rub: our dollar-for-dollar price matches worked perfectly…We spent $15.36 in all, and we expected a credit of $7.03. Savings Catcher calculated $4.22. We had to contact Walmart headquarters to sort out the discrepancy. Through multiple phone calls, we discovered BOGOs are Savings Catcher’s Achilles heel. As it turns out, Savings Catcher calculates BOGO savings differently from the store…” See the video / Read more

 

NY Post: Auction of a majority stake in Sears Canada failed to attract any acceptable bids by James Covert. “Indeed, a flopped auction of the 62-year-old Canadian chain early this month was a key reason that the corporate parent of Sears and Kmart was forced last week to take out a $400 million loan as it prepares for the crucial holiday season, sources said.” Read more

 

***A message from Lock-it Block-it: Secure Your Windows – Secure Your Home. Lock-it Block-it is an adjustable window security bar that keeps open windows & doors secured to let the fresh air in! This patented security bar replaces clumsy wooden sticks and creates a new category for window security. And the average home has 16 windows! Easy to install – easy to use – grow your safety category sales with this truly unique product. See the new sell sheet / Watch the video / lockitblockit.com info@shiftmarketinggroup.net

 

“Home Depot Emails Customers to Inform Them of Credit Card Hack” at Mashable. “Home Depot told Mashable that the emails “started going out on Friday as part of the standard notification process,” but that they are being sent out “in batches to ensure they flow smoothly.” Which explains why some customers only received it on Sunday.” Read more

 

“Whole Foods CIO Invests to Satisfy Shopper Data Cravings” by Steven Norton at WSJ. “Mr. Buechel said capturing consistent, accurate and in-depth information “is not an easy task, but one we take very seriously.” He declined to go into specifics, but added that “it’s an area we also think technology will help streamline and automate the process going forward.” Read more

 

“Tesco Starts Accounting Probe of Inflated Profit Forecast” by Gabi Thesing at Bloomberg. “The shares plunged as much as 12 percent to their lowest in more than a decade after Tesco said that some income was booked before being earned and costs were recognized later than incurred. The result was that the company’s 1.1 billion-pound ($1.8 billion) projection for first-half operating profit was about 250 million pounds too high.” Read more

 

USA Today: “Grab these tech gadgets at the dollar store” by Marc Saltzman. “Yours truly spent some time rummaging through various dollar stores — including Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, Dollar General, 99¢ Depot and Dollarama (in Canada) — and the following are a few of the best tech bargoons.” See the Top 7 List

 

“German union calls strikes again at Amazon warehouses” at Reuters. “Verdi said in a statement it had called out workers to strike at distribution centers in Bad Hersfeld, Leipzig, Graben and Rheinberg.” 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 really happening in the world of retail.

 

“Kroger Testing Grocery Pick-Up Service in Cincinnati” by Alexander Coolidge at Cincinnati.com. “The service is not yet available to customers at the Liberty Township store. Kroger is in such early testing, only associates are using it. “We are now in the embryonic stages of a click and collect test at one of our local stores – so early in fact, we just started testing with our associates,” said Rachael Betzler, a Kroger spokeswoman.” Read more

 

J.D. Power Ranks Top Appliance Retailer Websites (Home Depot #2, Costco #5) “The incidence of using a smartphone or tablet to research information online has increased to 26 percent, up from 20 percent in 2013. More than three-fourths (76%) of shoppers indicate retailer websites are highly useful when shopping for appliances. Among smartphone/tablet owners, 57 percent access online content while at a physical store location.” Read the release

 

“Wal-Mart Mexico Unit Probed on Complaints of Cockfight” by Nacha Cattan at Bloomberg. “Fines of as much as 96,000 pesos ($7,240) could be levied if Walmex is found responsible, said Jose Luis Hernandez, commercial director of the city of Boca del Rio, where betting on fighting roosters is illegal. A Walmex spokesman, Antonio Ocaranza, said the roosters weren’t armed with blades, no betting took place at the store and no birds were harmed.“It wasn’t a cockfight,” Ocaranza said yesterday in a telephone interview.” Read more

 

“Target faces different challenges in Quebec: Survey” by Francine Kopun at The Star. “Quebecers are significantly less familiar with Target than shoppers in the rest of Canada…“This might be good news for Target in Quebec as the bar was likely not set as high,” according to Eric Blais, president of Headspace Marketing Inc…The survey of 1,000 women shoppers living near Target stores in Canada found that less than one-quarter of Quebec respondents (23.7 per cent) had ever shopped at a Target store in the U.S…Among women shoppers in the rest of Canada, more than half of respondents (54.4 per cent) had shopped at a Target in the U.S.” Read more

 

“Porch discloses $33M in total funding, with Lowe’s as major investor” by Todd Bishop at Geek Wire. “The company says it has raised $33 million to date, including a $27.6 million Series A funding round led by the Lowe’s home-improvement chain.” Read more

 

…Porch’s cofounder battling brain cancer by Hollie Slade at Forbes. “All this while Castro battled brain cancer after repeated trips to the doctor for what he thought was a sinus infection turned out to be a tumor. Writing about the experience on VentureBeat, Castro says if he’d still been working at Google or Expedia he’d have likely resigned but the chance to build a startup he’s passionate about keeps him busy instead.” Read more

 

Walmart’s Andy Murray (SVP Creative) ‘Unplugged’ by Kim Souza at The City Wire. “Today you’re getting me unplugged but since there’s just one person here from Wal-Mart and one from the media we’ll see how it goes. You will get your money’s worth, I am just not sure what will happen to me,” Murray joked…He admits that many supercenters look like they were frozen in time in 2006. “I counted 27 standees in one store many of these displays cluttering the entrance. I am not sure that’s how we want to greet today’s shopper,” Murray said. He expects to see more product demonstrations in stores saying they bring excitement and animation to the shopping climate as opposed to standing cardboard displays.” Read more

 

“Home Depot’s PR problems dwarfed by Target breach” by Krystina Gustafson at CNBC. “According to YouGov’s BrandIndex, which gauges daily brand perception among consumers, Home Depot’s rating fell from about 20 a week before reports of its data breach, to a score of 5, two weeks after…the dive was nowhere near as steep as the one experienced by Target, which saw its score fall from nearly 28 to minus 26 over a comparable period. At its lowest point during this time frame, Target’s perception touched minus 32.5; it’s since rebounded to around 15.” Read more

 

Family Dollar: Go Away by Ken Elkins at Charlotte Bus. Journal. “In a statement Wednesday morning, Family Dollar Stores Inc.’s board of directors advised the company’s shareholders to reject the $9.1 billion hostile takeover attempt by Dollar General Corp.” Read more

 

Dollar General: We’re Not Going Away “Dollar General has made every good faith effort to engage in constructive discussions with the Family Dollar Board of Directors,” said Rick Dreiling, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Dollar General. “At each turn, despite Dollar General’s superior proposals and to the detriment of the Family Dollar shareholders, the Family Dollar Board has refused to engage, leaving Dollar General with no choice but to launch a tender offer.” Read the release

 

Internet Retailer on Dick’s Website:  A few key changes would speed things up by Abby Callard. “Reddy says one JavaScript file and a couple of images add more than 250 kilobytes—almost half the total page weight. Dick’s could further improve its site through a process called “minification” of JavaScript files, he says, which involves removing any extra characters, white space and comments from source code.” Read more 

 

Fortune Exclusive: “Kohl’s CEO puts comeback plan into high gear” by Phil Wahba. “Mansell, a 32-year company veteran and CEO since 2008, is looking to kickstart growth through what he calls Kohl’s “Greatness Agenda,” which is as much about giving executives a framework for their thinking as it is about specific initiatives. “I’ve likened it a lot internally to how Kohl’s developed its original personality: the brands-value-convenience premise,” Mansell told Fortune in an exclusive interview. “We knew we needed to create a new path forward.” Read more

 

“Wal-Mart China Accused Of Firing Workers Who Claimed The Company Was Selling Expired Food” by Hayley Peterson at Business Insider. “Wal-Mart China spokeswoman Vivian Jiang told Bloomberg that the employees were terminated for “performance issues and for deviation from company policy.” “They were not terminated for talking to the media,” Jiang said.” Read more

 

“Walgreens Launches “Get a Shot. Give a Shot” Ad Campaign” by Lewis Lazare at Chicago Bus. Journal. “Walgreens has indicated it will send one dose of vaccine to Africa for every immunization administered at one of its drugstore outlets. The goal, says Walgreens, is to deliver 6 million doses of vaccine over a year’s time.” See the ad / Read more

 

HuffPo: “New Target Ad Features Gay Dads, Shuts Out All The Haters” by Emily Thomas. “A Target spokeswoman told The Huffington Post the new ad campaign “represents and celebrates” the company’s diverse community.” Read more / See the ad

 

“Here’s What Your Supermarket Will Look Like in 50 Years” by Marine Cole at CNBC. “Studio Industries is creating a physical pop-up grocery store through a project called the Future Market that will launch in New York City in the summer of 2015. The supermarket of the future will include smart shelves that will display products customized to every shopper based on an embedded food ID chip, according to Supermarket News.” Read more

 

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About Eye-on-Retail 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 bright and early every morning and delivered between 7-8 am CT. We love data, earnings reports, executive presentations and stories off the beaten path that get at what’s really happening in the world of retail.