“Walmart Building its First C-Store” by Paul Gatling at NWA Business Journal.  “Wal-Mart said Wednesday it is building a convenience store in Bentonville, a first for the retail giant.  A company spokesperson said the store at the northwest corner of the intersection of Arkansas Highway 102 and South Walton Boulevard will be open by the spring…Walmart spokesperson Deisha Barnett said. “We’re excited about the opportunity to test a new store and learn.”  Barnett said there are no plans to build additional stores like this.”  Read more

 

“Kroger’s Dillon on succession: ‘You ain’t seen nothin’ yet’ “ by Steve Watkins at Cincinnati Business Courier.  From the interview:  “Kroger’s private label products have to pass a tough test. Kroger won’t put its name on a product unless it passes a blind test involving hundreds of people, Dillon said. It has to match or beat the national brands, or Kroger won’t sell it under its own private label.  Read more

 

“A new retail concept — Here Today — aims to make discount shopping fun” by Kavita Kumar at St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “It’s difficult to describe because it really isn’t like anything else,” said Bill Shaner, one of the investors and a former CEO of Earth City-based Save-A-Lot. “If you take a combination of a Trader Joe’s, a HomeGoods and a Five Below and mesh them all together — put them in a pot and stir them up — that’s Here Today…Jason Long, owner of Manchester-based Shift Marketing Group, said Here Today may not be reinventing the retail wheel, but it does offer a different approach.” Read more

 

“10 innovation takeaways with Target CIO Beth Jacob” by Larry Dignan at ZD Net.  “Retail giant Target CIO Beth Jacob is working toward a day when multichannel commerce is just assumed and shopping becomes more social as technology blends into the consumer’s daily life.  Jacob oversees the massive retailer’s technology operations. Here’s a look at 10 takeaways from a recent video interview I did with her at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York.”  Read more

 

“The Tweet That Is Causing Home Depot To Make Nonstop Apologies On Twitter” by Kiley Kmiec at Next Impulse.  “Someone in the social media department at Home Depot may want to start looking for another job. Not surprisingly, the Tweet was deleted quite quickly. I am very sure that this was meant to be completely harmless, but sometimes social media folks need editors to get a second set of eyes on things.”  See the Tweet

 

“The great gluten-free scam” by Julia Llewellyn Smith at The Telegraph.  “While many of us are convinced that – coeliac or not – avoiding gluten will make us healthier, a study published last year in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics disagrees. It concluded: “There is no evidence to suggest following a gluten-free diet has any significant benefits in the general population.”  Read more

 

“No Stores? No Salesmen? No Profit? No Problem for Amazon” by George Anders at MIT Technology Review.  “Amazon is a tech innovator by necessity, too. The company lacks three of conventional retailing’s most basic elements: a showroom where customers can touch the wares; on-the-spot salespeople who can woo shoppers; and the means for customers to take possession of their goods the instant a sale is complete. In one sense, everything that Amazon’s engineers create is meant to make these fundamental deficits vanish from sight.”  Read more

 

“Mothers With Children Under 5 Most Active on Social Media” by Adario Strange at Mashable.  “Interestingly, the age of a mother’s children significantly impacts her online behavior, according to the report. Moms with children between the ages of 6 and 10 are less active on social media than those with younger children.  The study also found that as a mother’s children ages, her social-media activity decreases accordingly. The study also found that as a mother’s children ages, her social-media activity decreases accordingly.”  Read more

 

“Costco eyes Lowe’s Hometown of Mooresville” by Joe Marusak at Charlotte Observer.  “Atkins also said that approving a zoning text amendment to allow a Costco along Langtree Road would open the door for other big-box stores, such as Home Depot, to also move there.  “There is no interest in changing the town center zoning in that area,” Atkins told the Observer.”  Read more

 

“Sixty-Six Percent Of Consumers Will Shop For Holiday Gifts From Tablets”  “In addition, 25 percent of consumers will use both tablets and smartphones to shop for gifts.”  Read more

 

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