Wal-Mart exec: Credit card upgrade a ‘joke’ by Jose Pagliery at WTTV 4 via CNN Money. “The fact that we didn’t go to PIN is such a joke,” (Mike) Cook told CNNMoney….“Signature is worthless as a form of authentication,” Cook said during a presentation at the conference. “If you look at the Target and Home Depot breaches … not a single PIN debit card needed to be reissued in those breaches. The card number was worthless to the individual thief and fraudsters, because they didn’t know the PIN.” Read more

 

Amazon Woos EBay’s Once-Loyal Merchants With Faster Sales Growth by Spencer Soper at Bloomberg. “We saw sales drop 10 percent on EBay and gain 10 percent on Amazon,” said Chance Knapp, chief executive officer of Vivo Technology, a laptop parts and accessories business, about a few product lines he moved last year. “It was like customers were actually shifting from EBay to Amazon.” Read more

 

Home Depot CEO Speaks at Logistics Summit by Mary Carr Mayle at Savannah Morning News. “At the Home Depot, if we were to stay customer-centric, we had to evolve from a company that measured its success in new square-footage growth to one that measured its success in productivity and efficiency. It was one of the hardest pivots we had to make.”…“In 2014 we grew our sales by $4 billion – and $1 billion of that was digital. We had 1.4 billion transactions coming through our stores, but we had 1.2 billion digital visits to our website.” Read more

 

Amazon and Target lead e-commerce awards list by Don Davis at Internet Retailer. “The final award to be announced at the June 3 event will be the Internet Retailer of the Year. The four finalists are Amazon and Wal-Mart, along with The Home Depot Inc…and Etsy Inc.” Read more

 

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Ottawa: Whole Foods ‘thumb their nose’ at rules: MPP MacLeod by Keaton Robbins at Ottawa Sun. “Prior to this week, we believed that Lansdowne Park was a designated tourist area and planned to remain open to serve the community and the attendees of an event at the arena,”(Whole Foods) said.” Read more

 

…In the end, Whole Foods closed for Easter Sunday by Robert Sibley at Ottawa Citizen. “Previously, store officials had tweeted it was going to be open Good Friday and Easter Sunday because the outlet was within a “designated tourist area.” Read more

 

Target Creates Palm Beach Party App For Pulitzer Collection by Sarah Mahoney at Media Post. “Target is using an app that brings the campaign to life, right down to a Palm Beach palazzo, actor Chris Noth and a monkey serving cocktails.” Read more

 

St. John’s shoppers clean out Target store on closing day at CBC  News. “Crowds showed up to take advantage of Saturday’s liquidation sale. All store merchandise was discounted by upwards of 70 and 80 per cent. “I got some shirts and I got some some tank tops, a belt,” said Turner. “It’s about $250 worth of stuff and I paid $25. It’s a good deal.” Read more

 

Lawsuit says Huntsville provided millions to lure Cabela’s by Brian Lawson at AL.com. Read more

 

Microlending gets an organic boost from Whole Foods by Hailey Lee at CNBC. “So far, Whole Foods has sent more than 500 employees to help implement microloan programs around the world.” Read more

 

Seattle: Where’s the booze on AmazonFresh? by John Cook at GeekWire. “It’s super annoying that Amazon has done this — removing beer without any announcement or setting any expectation as to when it might be returned,” he said. “It erodes my trust in them as a company. I wish they would communicate more around these things.” Read more

 

Recycling Becomes a Tougher Sell as Prices Drop by Georgi Kantchev & Serena Ng at WSJ. “Many in the recycling industry are hanging by the skin of their teeth,” says Chris Collier, CK’s commercial director, walking among the bales of unsold shreds. “Everybody is desperately chasing for money to stay alive.” Read more (Subscription)

 

Canada: Target’s retreat tactics raise questions about CCAA by Marina Strauss at Globe and Mail. “There is no question that the notion of using the CCAA as a liquidation strategy is contested in Canada,” said Janis Sarra, a law professor at the University of British Columbia and an insolvency expert. “There’s a live debate about whether or not it’s the appropriate tool.” Read more

 

Washington Post: Tech titans’ latest project: Defy death by Ariana Eunchung Cha. “I think that research into life extension is going to end up being a big social disaster,” Fukuyama said in an interview. “Extending the average human life span is a great example of something that is individually desirably by almost everyone but collectively not a good thing. For evolutionary reasons, there is a good reason why we die when we do.” Read more

 

Where Apple Products Are Born: A Rare Glimpse Inside Foxconn’s Factory Gates by Dawn Chmielewski at Recode. “Still, visible from the rooftop at Foxconn is a jarring reminder of past tragedy: Netting erected to prevent suicidal workers from hurling themselves to their deaths.” Read more / See the pics

 

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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 happening in the world of retail. Contact us at info@eyeonretail.net.