Inside Best Buy’s push to get back to sales growth, cash in on AI craze at CNBC. “Best Buy on Tuesday announced new plans to try to reverse a two-year sales slump…said it would add trained sales teams to key parts of its stores, create more YouTube videos to pique customers’ curiosity and kick off a marketing campaign with a fresh tagline: “Imagine that.”  In an interview with CNBC, CEO Corie Barry said customers told Best Buy that retailers’ store experiences and the technology they offer have “lost a bit of [their] sparkle.” Read more

 

Listeria outbreak linked to deli meat leaves 2 dead, 28 hospitalized in 12 states at USA Today. “The agency said the sick people’s samples were collected between May 28 and July 5. During interviews, 16 of 18 said they ate meat sliced at a deli counter, most commonly deli-sliced turkey, liverwurst, and ham.” Read more/Map

 

Albertsons Companies, Inc Q1 ID sales +1.4% Press release

 

Target store employees’ new helper? A generative AI chatbot to answer their questions at Star Tribune. “Now in the testing phase, when Store Companion is rolled out chainwide in August, Target will be the first major retailer to employ a generative AI tool widely.” Read more

 

…Target Employees Hate Its New AI Chatbot at Forbes. “The retail company, which has seen slow sales, has made AI part of its growth strategy. But staff said that ‘Help AI’ is a poorly designed tool and a waste of resources.” Forbes Subs.

 

Alexa Is in Millions of Households—and Amazon Is Losing Billions at WSJ. “A decade later, the payoff for Echo hasn’t arrived. While hundreds of millions of customers have Alexa-enabled devices, the idea that people would spend meaningful amounts of money to buy goods on Amazon by talking to the iconic voice assistant on the underpriced speakers didn’t take off. Customers actually used Echo mostly for free apps such as setting alarms and checking the weather. “We worried we’ve hired 10,000 people and we’ve built a smart timer,” said a former senior employee.” WSJ subs.

 

Newsweek: America’s Best Retailers 2024

• Costco #1 Superstores
• Buc-ee’s #1 C-store (#3 overall!)
• Bass Pro #1 Outdoor Gear
• Tractor Supply #1 Home Improvement

Read more/See all categories

 

Returns of the ‘Amazombies’: Unwanted packages are a retail nightmare at Washington Post/Yahoo. “When Amazon signed deals to turn brick-and-mortar retail stores into Amazon drop-off points, it was supposed to be a win-win: easier returns would mean happier customers while bringing more foot traffic into ailing retail locations. But store employees say the “Amazombies” have become a plague on their working lives, wasting staff time without increasing revenue while creating long lines, frayed tempers, and mounting piles of boxes and plastic waste. Some UPS Store and Kohl’s locations have had to allocate additional staff just to handle the workload.” Read more

 

Padres pitcher Yu Darvish autographs paint mixer stick at Home Depot at Sports Illustrated

 

Back-to-school shopping comes earlier at Talk Business. “A recent survey by JLL found parents plan to spend 21.8% more on back-to-school shopping this year…JLL also found consumers plan to start shopping early this year to spread out the costs over multiple pay periods.” Read more

 

…Today: NRF Back-to-Class Webinar at 1pm ET Register

 

Amazon partners with Better Business Bureau in its first joint lawsuit against fake review brokers at GeekWire. “Amazon and the Better Business Bureau filed a lawsuit…against a business called ReviewServiceUSA.com that allegedly facilitated the sale of fake, positive reviews on Amazon product listings and Better Business Bureau profile pages.” Read more

 

Federal Reserve fines Walmart-linked Green Dot Corp $44 million after customers lost access to funds at NBC News

 

Drug Middlemen Push Patients to Pricier Medicines, House Probe Finds at WSJ. “The pharmacy-benefit managers, or PBMs, have devised formularies of preferred medicines that encouraged use of higher-priced drugs over lower-priced alternatives…PBMs have also made patients pay more to use their local pharmacy rather than a mail-order pharmacy affiliated with the manager, according to a committee report reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.” WSJ subs.

 

CANADA – Walmart, Costco sign on to grocery code of conduct – all the major Canadian grocers are now on board at CTV