“Amazon at odds with Germany over strong union tradition” by Jay Greene at Seattle Times. “As the protesting workers grill bratwurst and listen to a guitarist playing union songs, the rants aren’t the hot-button issues that often fuel strikes in the United States…Sure, the workers here want better pay and job security for zipping off boxes of books, shirts, razors and more to customers. But often, the first complaint these Amazon strikers raise is simply that the company doesn’t respect their rights as Germans to form a union and engage in collective bargaining.” Read more

 

“Sneak peek inside the new South Bend, Indiana Costco” by Heidi Prescott at South Bend Tribune. “Projects this size usually take 180 days or longer…But Costco is going up in 120 days, or 110 days if you only count the actual construction process after the foundation was poured.This week, Cullivan gave The Tribune the first tour of the site and a peek inside the store. He offered a behind-the-scenes glimpse of a process not many have the chance to see.” See the video / Read more

 

“Lowe’s Strikes $9.5M Deal In HR Managers’ OT Class Action” by Micheal Lipkin at Law 360 (Subscription required). “Lowe’s Home Centers Inc. on Friday agreed to pay $9.5 million to end human resources managers’ class action allegations that they were not actually managers and that Lowe’s misclassified them as exempt from overtime pay requirements.” Read more

 

WSJ: “The Next Big Question For Home Depot: What Happens To The Frank Blake Bobblehead?” by Shelly Banjo. “One question that will need to be answered is whether his Bobblehead, usually priced at $9.95, will go on sale, or whether its price will surge as it becomes a collector’s item…the retailer began making Bobbleheads of its top executives in 2007 and sells them at its corporate headquarters and online at prices ranging from $4.95 (for CFO Carol Tome) to $14.95 (for Home Depot’s mascot, Homer)…Mr. Blake is known to autograph his figurine’s head for employees.” Read more

 

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Costco CFO Richard Galanti: “We’re never going to be the one to deliver a quarter of milk and a box of fruity pebbles before 7 a.m. on Monday for your kids that you ordered at 10 p.m. the night before.” by Rachel Lerman at Puget Sound Bus. Journal.  Read more

 

“Walmart-controlled Yhd has become China’s first e-commerce firm licensed to operate online drugstores” by Doug Young at South China Morning Post. “What’s probably most significant is the fact that a very small player like Yhd beat out all the big companies to receive the first license, which probably owed at least partly to its Wal-Mart connections.” Read more

 

“Amazon Prepares to Challenge Google in Online Advertising” by Rolfe Winkler & Greg Bensinger at WSJ. “Initially, Amazon plans to replace those ads on its pages that Google chiefly supplies with a new in-house ad placement platform, said people familiar with the matter. In the future, that system could challenge Google’s $50 billion-a-year advertising business.” Read more

 

“More than 1,000 businesses affected by same malware as Target” by Salvador Rodriguez at  LA Times. “There’s a lot of retailers out there that have been compromised by this and they simply don’t know it yet,” Westin said, explaining that many businesses don’t have the tools in place to monitor for these kinds of attacks.” Read more

 

“How Thumbtack Plans To Be Your One-Stop Local Services Shop For Plumbers, Chefs And Belly Dancers” by Ryan Mac at Forbes. “Thumbtack is more of a marketplace, like HomeAdvisor and Redbeacon, but has a far wider variety of services than all of them. And on Thumbtack the providers bid on you…Thumbtack’s software distributes your request to relevant and nearby pros, who then respond with a price and description of their services.” Read more

 

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