“California Legislature: Shift Breach Responsibility to Retailers” by Marc Lifsher at LA Times.  “Last week, two members of the Assembly touted a bill to strengthen consumer safeguards and limit the type of information collected and retained by retailers. The measure, AB 1710, may trigger one of the year’s biggest disputes over business-related legislation. “It’ll be a big fight, a tough fight,” said Bill Dombrowski, president of the California Retailers Assn.”  Read more

 

“How Home Depot’s Bernie Marcus won by refusing to let bitterness consume him” by Harvey Mackay at Atlanta Business Journal.  “In 1978, Bernie was fired as the CEO of Handy Dan Home Improvement Center chain…Bernie was 49 years old and had never been fired before. He called it “the low point in his life…Fortunately for Bernie, that influence was Sol Price, founder of Price Club, which has since become part of Costco. Price phoned Bernie and invited him to dinner at his home in San Diego…”  Read more

 

“Sam’s Club Picks MasterCard, Dumps Discover” by Peter Eichenbaum at Businessweek.  “Wal-Mart chose MasterCard Inc. to handle transactions for the merchant’s store-branded credit cards, ending a nine-year relationship with Discover Financial Services. The Sam’s Club warehouse unit also extended its agreement with General Electric Co.’s retail finance unit to provide the retailer’s store-branded cards in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.”  Read more

 

“Amazon launches Amazon Dash for delivery of groceries, household items” at Chicago Tribune via Reuters.  “Amazon.com Inc launched a new product named Amazon Dash on Friday that allows the user to add groceries and household goods to their shopping lists using the company’s AmazonFresh service…However, signing up for Amazon Dash is by invitation only while the AmazonFresh service is currently available only Southern California, San Francisco and Seattle.”  Read more

 

“Next up for disruption: The grocery business” by Dan Mitchell at CNN Money.  “Amazon, he believes, will finally prove that grocery delivery isn’t just about “hipsters doing fun things on their phones,” but rather will appeal to “the soccer mom who shops at scale…The unknown quantity in all this is Wal-Mart. It, too, is “experimenting” with delivery, and it alone has the resources and patience to compete head-to-head with a full-bore deployment of AmazonFresh.”  Read more

 

“Lunds goes after growth in a high-end niche with new concept store” by Mike Hughlett at Star-Tribune.  “The company plans to open a new Lunds supermarket — its 13th — next month in downtown St. Paul. But perhaps its most interesting project right now is Lunds and Byerly’s Kitchen…It’s got some grocery basics, but beverages and produce stand out. There’s a cheese shop and butcher’s counter too. But much of its 17,000 square feet is devoted to prepared food, from sandwiches to sushi to scads of hot dishes and salads, all made on site.”  Read more

 

“Walmart bets on India after recent break-up” with Bharti by Sagar Malviya at The Economic Times.  “The world’s largest retailer Walmart Stores has invested Rs 1,328 crore in its India unit, signaling bullishness on the country despite breaking with its joint venture partner last year, internal inquiries into wrongdoing that may have been committed locally and a foreign investment policy that doesn’t have too many takers.”  Read more

 

“Internet Ad Spend To Reach $121B In 2014, 23% Of $537B Total Ad Spend” by Ingrid Lunden at TechCrunch.  “In 2013, there was $13.4 billion spent on mobile ads, some 13% of all Internet ad spend and 2.7% of all global ad spend, but by 2016 that will rise to $45 billion, or 28% of Internet ad spend and 7.6% of total ad investments.  “Mobile will leapfrog radio, magazines and outdoor to become the world’s fourth-largest medium by the end of our forecast period.”  Read more

 

“J.C. Penney teams with supermodel Elle Macpherson for new lingerie line” at Dallas News.  “The collection will be in 300 of Penney’s 1,100 stores starting April 11. Penney says it will wait to see how the brand fares before deciding whether to roll it out to its other stores.”  Read more

 

Earnings Announcements this Week:

April 9:  Bed, Bath & Beyond

April 10:  Family Dollar, Rite Aid

 

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