“Costco June Comp Sales Up 6%”  “Costco today reported net sales of $10.89 billion for the month of June, the five weeks ended July 6, 2014, an increase of ten percent from $9.91 billion during the similar five-week period last year.” Read the release

 

“Family Dollar Q3 Comp Sales Decreased 1.8%”  “The Company now expects to open 350-400 new stores in fiscal 2015, down from approximately 525 new stores in fiscal 2014…intends to further expand its cooler program beginning in fiscal 2015…continuing to expand traffic-driving categories with a multi-year rollout of beer and wine, beginning in fiscal 2015.” Read the release

 

“Costco Reverses Itself – Puts Conservative Book Back on Shelf” by Angel Gonzalez at Seattle Times.  “Craig Jelinek came out to defend the company after critics accused it of pulling a conservative book…The book in question is “America: Imagine A World Without Her,” by conservative thinker Dinesh D’Souza…After being introduced in 249 Costco locations in early June, it had sold only 3,753 copies, or 15 books per location, as of the first few days of July. Jelinek added that the book is being brought back into the stores now that conservatives’ outcry has led to skyrocketing sales.” Read more

 

“More Relying on Walmart for Financial Services” by Deirdre Fernandes at Boston Globe.  “Walmart holds 30 percent of the approximately 150 check-cashing licenses in Massachusetts, easily eclipsing long-established franchises such as Boston Check Cashiers Inc. and All Checks Cashed Inc.” Read more

 

“Target Turns to Cause Marketing for Back-to-School Season” by Natalie Zmuda at Ad Age.  “Ms. (Jenna) Reck said Target will send out messages via social media when it hits milestones, such as $5 million donated. “It’s giving us more pulse points to connect with guests in a way that’s authentic,” she said…Ms. Reck said the retailer’s overall budget for the back-to-school season is up from a year ago, though she declined to offer any specifics.” Read more

 

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“Supervalu reverses HQ shift, will move 1,000 employees back to old building” by Sam Black at Minn./St. Paul Bus. Journal.  “The 185,000-square-foot, 35-year-old Valley View building is about a half-mile west of the current headquarters. Supervalu has been trying to sell its former HQ since 2012, when it hired CBRE Group to sell the building and 73-acre campus that overlooks Bryant Lake, but no deal ever came together. The property had an initial asking price of $28.5 million.” Read more

 

“Target Accelerates Sponsorship of MLB All-Star Game in Its Backyard (Bullseye gets a bronze statue!)” by Kavita Kumar at Star-Tribune.  “On Monday, baseball greats Cal Ripken Jr. and Ozzie Smith will swing by Target Center where hundreds of Target employees will be assembling school-supply kits for children who can’t afford them. Other events Target is sponsoring include a free movie night this Friday at Target Field Station where “Sandlot” and “Moneyball” will be screened. The retailer installed a bronze statue of Bullseye the dog at that location on Wednesday.” Read more

 

“Harris Teeter signs coffee deal with Keurig” by Jennifer Thomas at Charlotte Bus. Journal.  “Harris Teeter has signed a deal making Keurig Green Mountain Inc. the exclusive manufacturer of the grocer’s brand of single-serve coffee packs.” Read more

 

“Wayfair Partners with HGTV on Program Integration”  “In its comprehensive brand integration, HGTV features Wayfair.com products in a pop-up shop and on a design truck as part ofBrother vs. Brother’s Design Town, where contestants shop for products to bring their interior design visions to life.” Read the release

 

“Retailers watch West Coast ports labor talks, shift goods to other ports” by Kim Souza at The City Wire.  “The NRF estimates that a 10-day strike at West Coast ports could cost the U.S. economy about $2.1 billion a day and result in the loss of 169,000 jobs…dockworkers have stayed on the job since their contract expired June 30. One exception occurred Tuesday (July 8) when 1,000 dock workers in Long Beach and Los Angeles walked off the job, but they were ordered back to work by an arbitrator within two hours, according to a maritime association spokesman.” Read more

 

“Food, Babies, Sex:  What Marketers Should Know About Human Emotion and What Drives an Ad’s Success” by Douglas Van Praet at Fast Company.  “We evolved for over 99% of our evolution as hunter-gatherers fixated on finding food or dying. Today the obsessive emotional preoccupations of our forbears are still pulling our strings in the form of one of the most enduring ad meme themes: scarcity of food. You are simply not aware of this pattern because it happens below your own awareness.” Read more

 

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