Walmart Canada Scoops Up 13 Former Target Canada Stores by Marina Strauss at Globe & Mail. “(Walmart) said on Friday it has struck agreements to acquire Target store leases, one owned property and a distribution centre for about $165-million. It plans to invest another $185-million to renovate the 13 stores and distribution centre.” Read more

 

Judge: Settlement between Target and MasterCard can go forward by Kavita Kumar at Star-Tribune. Read more

 

Lowe’s To Eliminate Toxic Phthalates In Flooring By End Of 2015 “Lowe’s confirmed the new policy to the “Mind the Store” campaign in a recent email exchange, saying, “With more than 90 percent of our virgin product offering sold today currently phthalate-free, the remainder of the virgin product will be free of ortho-phthalates by the end of 2015.” Read the release

 

…”Mind the Store” calls out Lumber Liquidators, Ace Hardware and Menards to ‘follow suit’  Read the release

 

Walmart’s Doug McMillon Plays in ‘A League of Their Own’ Game by Kevin Kinder at Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette.”Country singer Sara Evans nailed the national anthem at Arvest Ballpark in Springdale on Thursday night. Her first inning on the mound didn’t go as well. She gave up six runs without recording an out before full-time Hollywood personality and part-time softball manager Rosie O’Donnell pulled her from the game.” Read more

 

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CVS Health To Present At Investor Conferences on 5/13 and 5/20 “Larry Merlo, president and chief executive officer, will be speaking to investors at the UBS Global Healthcare Conference on May 20, 2015, at approximately 9:30 a.m. EDT.” Read the release

 

Former Gov. Barnes’ firm leads suit against Home Depot over data breach by Ricky Leroux at Marietta Daily Journal. “Barnes said he believes the case will take between 12 and 18 months to come to a conclusion.” Read more

 

Twin Cities grocers have temporary egg shortages because of bird flu by Mike Hughlett at Star Tribune. “The highly lethal avian flu is in the midst of wiping out around 18 million egg-laying hens in Iowa and nearly 1.6 million more in Minnesota…“We are still getting some eggs, but the supply will get a little thin in the next couple of days,” said Mike Oase, vice president of operations at Kowalski’s.” Read more

 

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Jet.com Hires Ex-Amazon/Home Depot/Bath and Body Works Exec to Build ‘Extreme’ Company Culture by Jillian D’onfro at Business Insider. “Jet just hired a former Amazon HR exec, Deena Gianoncelli, to be its new chief people officer…Jet operates on three core values: transparency, trust, and fairness. Those are its business missions, but it wants to bring those values into its culture too. It strives to give its employees as much freedom as possible, so no one has assigned desks or set work hours.” Read more

 

Target CFO: ‘We were handcuffed by consensus’ by Nick Halter at Minn./St.Paul Business Journal. “Too many people (were) invited to too many meetings. Too many people had veto power over decisions that didn’t directly affect them,” Chief Financial Officer John Mulligan said Thursday.” Read more

 

Home Depot Chairman & CEO to Speak at Michigan State Commencement by Terri Hughes-Lazzell “Michigan State University’s Broad College of Business alumni Craig Menear, chairman, CEO, and president of The Home Depot, will address the college’s class of 2015 at Saturday’s Broad College Baccalaureate Degree Ceremony.” Read more

 

Costco Enters Southern Alabama Market for First Time by Jacqueline Quynh at WKRG 5 CBS. “Everything is on schedule, we’re excited to be here, my regional VP just left along with some of the buyers and we were talking about some of the line up they’ll be bringing in,” said Carlos Nunez, Costco General Manager.” See the video / Read more

 

Tipsheet Extra:

Target Removes Star Wars Shirt from Online Store (Listed Princess Leia as “Most Likely to be Rescued”)

Is Sam’s Club Charging Suppliers for ‘Tech Service’ Help Line?

Lowe’s moving Maui store next to Valley Isle’s first Target location

Read Tipsheet Extra

 

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Eye-on-Retail Tipsheet is created early every weekday morning and read by retail merchants and executives worldwide. 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.