“Costco Comp Sales +7% in August” “Costco reported net sales of $8.8 billion for the month of August, the four weeks ended August 31, 2014, an increase of ten percent from $8.0 billion during the similar period last year…For the 52-week fiscal year ended August 31, 2014, the Company reported net sales of $110.2 billion, an increase of seven percent from the $102.9 billion reported in fiscal year 2013.” Read the release

 

“Wal-Mart exec outlines growth strategy for Latin America” by Kim Souza at The City Wire. “We plan to grow sales in three ways: Focusing equally on same-store sales gains, adding square footage and more e-commerce transactions,” Rank said…In 2014, the retailer will open 149 stores in Mexico and Central America.” Read more  Listen to Webcast

 

“Costco to Pay $335,000 to Settle Clean Air Act Charges (+$2 Mil for Improvements)” by Tess Stynes at WSJ. “Costco will be required to retrofit or replace commercial refrigeration equipment at 30 stores. Costco also will be required to implement a refrigerant-management system to prevent and repair coolant leaks and reduce its corporate-wide average leak rate at least 20% by 2017.” Read more

 

San Francisco: “TargetExpress stores to land in Financial District and Berkeley” by Annie Sciacca at San Francisco Bus. Times. “The 18,000 square-foot store will open at the southwest corner of Bush and Sansome Streets, next to the Montgomery BART station, while the Berkeley store will be a smaller 12,000 square feet at Shattuck Avenue and Allston Way in the city’s downtown corridor.” Read more

 

“Report: Data shows most US Home Depots hit by breach” at CNBC. “(Brian Krebs) said he found new evidence that the breach first surfaced on the website Rescator, where customer credit cards were listed according to store ZIP code. These codes showed a 99.4 percent overlap with Home Depot stores, he said. In all, there were 1,939 codes corresponding to Home Depot store locations.” Read more

 

“Icahn scores $200 million profit in sale of Family Dollar stake (has sold all of his shares)” by Benjamin Snyder at Fortune. “It’s unknown when the billionaire investor sold his remaining stake. Reuters suggested that the sale may have meant Icahn didn’t expect Dollar General to bid for the company and perhaps sold too soon.” Read more

 

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Cincinnati:  Bloomberg’s Moms Demand Action Runs Ads Slamming Kroger by Alexander Coolidge at Cincinnati.com. “The ads depict customers breaking Kroger rules with outside food, skateboards or dressed inappropriately – standing next to an armed shopper. A caption reads: ‘One of them isn’t welcome at Kroger. Guess which one.’ Smaller print explains Kroger’s policy against outside food, skateboards and dress, then asks: ‘So why would they allow this loaded gun?’ See the ad / Read more

 

Ablilene, TX: Former Walmart CEO Mike Duke at Distinguished Speaker Luncheon on Oct. 14th  Read more

 

“Long-time Amazon CFO To Retire Next Year” by Ryan Mac at Forbes. “On Wednesday, the Seattle company announced that the 12-year servant will retire next June and would be replaced by Brian Olsavsky, currently vice president of finance for Amazon’s global consumer business.” Read more

 

Yesterday: Dick’s Presents at Goldman Sachs Retail Conference  Webcast / Presentation

 

Today at Goldman Sachs Retail Conference:

Home Depot @ 10:35 AM ET  Webcast

Tractor Supply @ 11:20 AM ET  Webcast

Walmart International @ 12:20 PM ET  Webcast

 

‘El Mustachio The Magician’ Sought In Santa Cruz, California For Allegedly Robbing Costco by Ed Mazza at HuffPo. “Police in Santa Cruz, Calif., are looking for a mustachioed man they say repeatedly robbed a Costco store. They’ve given him the name “El Mustachio The Magician” for both his facial hair and “his ability to make Bose speakers disappear.” Read more / See the video

 

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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.

 

 

“Dollar General sweetens cash bid for Family Dollar to $80 a share, or about $9.1B” by Andrew Ross Sorkin at CNBC. “Dollar General is willing to sell up to 1,500 stores if required by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, even though it feels its pledge to divest 700 stores in its prior proposal provides more than enough cushion to clear any regulatory review.” Read more

 

“Kickstarter users fundraise for products already sold on Amazon” by Kaja Whitehouse at NY Post. “The Bellevue, Wash., company launched a Kickstarter campaign seeking $20,000 for its high-tech knife, whose pitch is that it needs neither batteries nor electricity to generate heat. The problem? The knife officially launched last year and can be purchased on Amazon.com. The knife also was available for sale on the company’s Web site until late last Friday when That! took it down amid criticism.” Read more

 

Boston Consulting Group:  Mexico has Lower Manufacturing Costs than China at The Economist. “America and Mexico really are “rising stars”. American wage restraint and newly cheap energy have improved its attractiveness to manufacturers. And Mexican wages have grown less than 50% in dollar terms over a decade, leaving them 13% cheaper (adjusted for productivity) than China’s.” Read more

 

“Costco welcomes massive 93″ plush bear” by Billy Langsworthy at Toy News. “The bear is 93″ tall head to toe, or 55″ when sitting down and even has its own Facebook and Twitter pages. As the video below demonstrates, the bear is perfect for laying on, trampolining with, or smacking with pillows, although it makes a naff seesaw partner.” See the video / Read more

 

“Is gun battle a no-win for Kroger?” by Alexander Coolidge at Cincinnati.com. “Company officials say Kroger just wants to sell groceries, not enter political debates. “Our long-standing policy on this issue is to follow state and local laws and to ask customers to be respectful of others while shopping,” Kroger said in a statement.” Read more

 

“Eyeing that pricey handbag? Prepare to be insulted” by Bob Sullivan at CNBC. “Morgan Ward tested her theory with Darren W. Dahl of The University of British Columbia, in a study to be published in October’s Journal of Consumer Research. In one of the experiments they found that consumers who were treated poorly by sales staff were willing to pay 10 percent more than others.” Read more

 

“Price Check: Which Online Retailer has Best Prices?” by Valerie Hoff at WXIA-11 Atlanta. “Costco came in first with the best prices on coffee, batteries, diapers and cleaning wipes. Next was Sam’s Club, followed by Walmart. Amazon had the overall highest prices on the seven items we checked, though it did have the lowest on paper towels and trash bags.”  See the video / Read more

 

“We Can’t Reduce Inequality By Forcing WalMart To Pay Like Costco” by Tim Worstall at Forbes. “If WalMart had to pay labour like Costco does then we’d expect them to also employ labour like Costco does. That is, we’d expect them to reduce their workforce by more than half: that’s what they would have to do in order to get to roughly the same sales per head of staff, that thing which is the determinant of how much they can pay people.” Read more

 

“Two Months On From Hobby Lobby Ruling, Grocery Co-ops Dump Eden Foods Products From Shelves” by Clare O’ Connor at Forbes. “So far, larger nationwide grocery chains remain on board with Eden Foods…a spokesperson for Whole Foods, Eden’s biggest supplier, told Forbes that it’ll keep selling the Michigan company’s organic goods, but that shoppers have every right to “vote with their dollars.” 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. Contact us at info@shiftmarketinggroup.net.

“Dollar General Q2 Comp Sales +2.1%” “CEO: ‘In regards to our proposal to acquire Family Dollar, we remain firmly committed to the acquisition. The financial benefits of our offer to Family Dollar shareholders are indisputable, and the proposed combination would unlock tremendous value for Dollar General shareholders. We continue to believe the potential antitrust issues are manageable and that our transaction as proposed is both superior and achievable.’ Read the release

 

CNBC Headline: “Dollar General says committed to Family Dollar deal” “Dollar General, the No.1 U.S. deep discount retailer, said it remained committed to acquiring rival Family Dollar and reported a 7.5 percent rise in quarterly sales.” Read more

 

“Ex-Kroger CEO Calls His $12.8M Pay ‘Ludicrous’ “ by Alexander Coolidge at Cincinnati.com. “Dillon added his payout was “a little more responsible” – compared with peer companies. His pay is the bottom 25 percent of CEO pay among rival companies. “Still you’d argue, I think, it was pretty damn high,” Dillon said.” Read more

 

“Costco to begin selling AppleCare+ for iPhone and iPad today” by Mike Beasley at 9 to 5 Mac. “An internal memo sent to employees at Costco stores indicates that the company will begin offerring AppleCare+ on iPhones and iPads sold through its wireless kiosks (today).” Read more

 

“Ikea Just Bought Some Awesome, Bendy Lighting Tech” by Mark Wilson at Fast Company. “Design LED Products does a lot more than make some light bulbs. Its specialty is something called the “Light Tile.” It’s essentially a grid of LEDs embedded in resin, forming an LED blanket that’s less than 1 millimeter thick. The blanket can be wrapped inside a product to make it glow while drawing very little power.” See the pic / Read more

 

Lowe’s Survey: 52 percent of Americans feel that having a smart home is at least somewhat important to them  Read the release

 

“Home Depot’s Marvin Ellison Sells $6,455,402 Worth of Stock” at Insider Trading Wire. Read more

 

“Arthur T. Demoulas is back at the helm of Market Basket” by Eric Convey at Boston Bus. Journal. “After an eight-week battle that threatened to destroy the 71-store supermarket chain…shareholders aligned with Arthur S. Demoulas agreed late last night to sell control of the business to a group led by ousted CEO Arthur T. Demoulas. The price is reportedly more than $1.5 billion.” Read more

 

Canada: “Rona shares rise to price offered by Lowe’s two years ago” by Nicolas Van Praet at Financial Post. “Customers are looking for deals right now, said Rona chief financial officer Dominique Boies. And that’s what’s driving traffic. “Our shareholders finally they like what they see,” Mr. Boies said. “They like the execution, they like the progress. So they’re not big sellers.” Read more

 

Miami: Sam’s Club Filling Up Shelves With Holiday Gear In August (Only 1 Reindeer Left) by Walter Makaula at CBS 4 Miami. “Sam’s Club in Doral, since August 18th, has a 1400 square-foot area dedicated to Christmas; with indoor and outdoor lights for sale, tree ornaments, wrapping paper, ribbons, and candles lining shelves. The store manager in Doral said competition is tough during the holiday season but right now—in late summer—there is no competition. “They [customers] get so excited. It’s like an excitement, or ‘wow’ factor that hits them right away,” said Bruce Siddens.” See the video / Read more

 

“Amazon is giving away 50, $5,000 college scholarships” by Ben Miller at Puget Sound Bus. Journal. “Finalists will be selected based on GPA, community involvement, and leadership experience, and then invited to complete an essay to advance to the final round. Winners will be notified in April 2015 and the scholarship awarded in July 2015.” Read more

 

“Dairy Queen Breach Connected to Malware that Hit Target” by Clare Kennedy at Minn./St. Paul Bus. Journal. “Brian Krebs reported a flurry of fraudulent credit card activity tied to a possible data breach at Dairy Queen stores in the Midwest and the South.” Read more

 

Report: “Amazon has sold no more than 35,000 Fire phones” by Charles Arthur at The Guardian. 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.

 

Walmart’s Duncan Mac Naughton Next Out the Door? by Kim Souza at The City Wire. “Some close watchers of the Wal-Mart corporate world say Mac Naughton may follow Bill Simon, former Walmart U.S. CEO, out the door. Simon was not picked to be Wal-Mart CEO, and Mac Naughton was considered a candidate for the Wal-Mart U.S. CEO job to which Foran was promoted.” Read more

 

“Costco leases 177,000-square-foot building for growing HQ staff” at Seattle Times. “Chief Financial Officer Richard Galanti said the lease gives Costco more room for part of its information technology staff and other operations. “We’re continuing to grow and trying to keep most of the administrative operations nearby,” he said. “IT is certainly a much bigger operation” for the company than it used to be, and the international staff is also growing, he said.” Read more

 

…taking over one of the buildings that Microsoft is abandoning by Becky Monk at Puget Sound Bus. Journal. “Microsoft still occupies the other two buildings in the three-building office campus.” See the pic / Read more

 

“Amazon’s tax maneuvers stir up storm in U.K.” by Jay Greene at Seattle Times. “As political theater, it would be hard to find anything better, unless, of course, you’re Cecil or Amazon. A corporate titan, hauled before the sharp-tongued inquisitors of British Parliament, unable to reply in kind because it would only make matters worse. So for more than 40 minutes, Cecil sits and takes a lashing. What’s caused the politicians’ ire? Amazon’s decision to place its European headquarters about 300 miles to the southeast, in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.” Read more

 

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“Best Buy US Comp Sales Down 2%” at CNBC. “Like other retailers and as reflected in this quarter’s performance, we continued to see a shift in consumer behavior: consumers are increasingly researching and buying online,” Hubert Joly, Best Buy president and CEO, said in a statement.” Read more

 

“Whole Foods is latest retailer to reject checks” by Maria Halkias at Dallas News. “As of Sept. 1, Whole Foods stores in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma will no longer take personal checks. Whole Foods has stopped taking checks in other markets in recent years. “Most of our regions no longer accept personal checks, but the Southwest is not the last one to make the transition,” said Lindsay Robison, a Whole Foods spokeswoman based in Austin.” Read more

 

“Sam’s Club Meets with Hundreds of Small Businesses to Find New Products for Members” “Sam’s Club is participating in the event to engage new suppliers, strengthen relationships with local suppliers, and identify new food and beverage products relevant to Sam’s Club members in the Southwest and Western regions…The San Diego supplier event takes place at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina, August 26-27, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.” Read the release

 

“Fresh Market Named Exclusive Retailer for Coca-Cola Life” by Jacques Couret at Atlanta Bus. Chronicle. “Coke Life, first introduced in 2013 in Argentina and Chile, is now available in 65 The Fresh Market store shelves in Georgia, Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina.” Read more

 

“GMA Recognizes Retired Walmart CEO Mike Duke with Hall of Achievement Award” at Grocery Headquarters. “The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) presented retired Walmart President and CEO Mike Duke with its 2014 Hall of Achievement Award before more than 400 industry leaders at the GMA Leadership Forum at The Broadmoor. The Hall of Achievement Award represents the highest honor given by the more than 100 year-old association.” 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. Contact us at info@shiftmarketinggroup.net.