“Amazon, Postal Service Start to Implement Sunday Delivery across the U.S.; mid-March Launch in St. Louis” by Kavita Kumar at St. Louis Post-Dispatch.  “Packages (will) be delivered from about 15 hubs in the St. Louis region, with a goal of each carrier’s delivering about 12 parcels an hour. The estimated volume for St. Louis area ZIP codes is more than 7,000 packages for Sunday delivery…“It’s a big, big deal,” Long said. “…it’s just another incremental loss for brick and mortar.”  Read more

 

“Amazon to deliver on Sundays in St. Louis” at Fox 2 TV in St. Louis.  See the video

 

“10 Retailers With the Worst Customer Service (Walmart ranks lowest)” by Alexander Hess and Douglas McIntyre at Time.  “No retailer had a worse ACSI score than Wal-Mart’s 71 for customer satisfaction. Not only did the company have the lowest score of any department or discount store, but it also scored just 72 when graded as a supermarket — the lowest in that sector as well.” Read more

 

“Home Depot has 500 Parking Lots Ready for your Shop” by Maria Halkias at Dallas News.  “Home Depot, Wal-Mart, H-E-B, Lowe’s and other large store operators are carving out half-acre and 1-acre parcels to sell or lease in the parking lots of their older stores. In major markets such as Dallas, those pads can fetch $1 million or more from the restaurants, banks and smaller retailers that want in.”  Read more

 

“How Amazon is clobbering Walmart in mobile paid search” by Chantal Tode at Mobile Commerce Daily.  “New data from AdGooroo shows that Amazon.com generated 82.6 million paid search impressions in mobile during January, compared to 6.6 million for Walmart.com, pointing to how bricks-and-mortar retailers remain hesitant to spend on mobile advertising.”  Read more

 

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“Wal-Mart gobbles up Seattle-based recipe startup Yumprint” by Teresa Novellino at Puget Sound Bus. Journal.  “Prior to the acquisition, Yumprint has flown under the radar, but we now are learning that it is a website, iPhone app, and browser extension that helps users discover, search and save recipes from more than 20,000 websites, and helps shoppers create their grocery lists. It powers the displays for more than 2,000 food blogs.”  Read more

 

“Little Kid Amazes Costco Shoppers With Piano Skills (‘Free Sample’ Kid Nearly Ruins the Show!)” by Isaac Saul at HuffPo.  “The last thing you’d expect to get at Costco is a free concert.  But for a few unsuspecting customers, that’s exactly what happened. While shopping with his parents, a fedora rocking child name Felipe stopped at a piano in the store’s musical instruments section and started breaking it down.”  See the video

 

“Pew Research Study:  Only 11% of those surveyed would have a ‘hard time’ giving up Social Media” by Jeff Bercovici at Fortune.  “The drop in attachment to television is notable: In 2006, 44% said it would be very hard to give up. It’s even more striking when you break the results down by age, with only 12% of those in the 18-to-29 demographic answering that way.”  Read more

 

“Russia’s Online Retail Leader Says ‘Amazon Has No Chance’ “ by Diane Brady at Bloomberg.  “The dark horse leading the race right now is Ulmart, an online retailer that reported $1.2 billion in sales last year. It has succeeded by doing what Amazon does not. Instead of wooing customers with low-cost home delivery, Ulmart encourages them to pick up their orders at urban outposts and warehouses that double as stores.”  Read more

 

“Salon Hit on Walmart:  “Cult-like, corrupt and Christian conservative: Inside the campus group creating Wal-Mart managers” by Josh Eidelson.  “An insider reveals how Wal-Mart’s favorite campus group curries favor with business while pushing gospel to kids.”  Read more

 

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