“Breaking:  Walmart US Q3 comp sales decline 0.3%;  Sam’s +1.1%;  Neighborhood Market rose approximately 3.4%”  “Our most important priority is growing top line sales, including comp sales,” Duke added. “The retail environment, both in stores and online, remains competitive. Walmart has aggressive plans to help our customers enjoy the holiday season, and there is no doubt that we plan to win for our customers and shareholders throughout the holidays.”  Read more

 

“Wal-Mart posts earnings of $1.14 a share vs. $1.13 estimate” at CNBC.  “The company posted third-quarter earnings excluding items of $1.14 per share, up from $1.08 a share in the year-earlier period.  Revenue increased to $115.69 billion from $113.93 billion a year ago.”  Read more

 

“Costco Fronts $20 Million to Peanut Vendor Only to See It Go Bankrupt” by Robin Fornoff at Clovis News Journal.  “The largest processor of organic Valencia peanuts in the country was so strapped for cash, its single largest customer — Costco — had to front it $20 million. And most employees didn’t get paid for their work in the final days before the Portales plant was shuttered last month.”  Read more

 

“Costco to Open First Store in France in 2015” at 9 News.  “The warehouse club aims to open 15 stores in France within a decade, with up to 6 in the Paris region, said the head of Costo France, Gary Swindells, at a commercial real estate conference held in Cannes.”  Read more

 

“Home Depot Not Excited About ‘Mobile Wallet’ “ by Tom Kaneshige at CIO. “”We really like cash,” says Malcolm Nunes, senior manager of financial services at The Home Depot…A mobile wallet also raises the sticky issue of customer data, Roberts adds. Let’s say a third-party mobile wallet provider offers a digital coupon for The Home Depot and collects data on customers using it. Then the third-party provider can profit by going to a nearby Lowe’s to sell services armed with the number (and perhaps identities) of The Home Depot customers in the area.  “As the market leader, a [mobile wallet] would only take market share from us,” Nunes says.”  Read more

 

“John Menard Has ‘Picked on the Wrong People’ “ by J.K. Wall at IBJ.  “Both in and out of court Wednesday afternoon, Steve Hilbert was calm but defiant about the allegations made by hardware store owner John Menard against him, describing them as “totally personal” and a “vendetta.”  The 67-year-old businessman said Menard, the founder of the Menard Inc. chain of hardware stores, has a history of breaking contracts and being abusive toward women—but usually against people without the resources to fight back.  “This time he picked on the wrong people,” Hilbert said outside the federal courthouse downtown.”  Read more

 

“Target Expands its Beauty Concierge Program to 95 More Stores – Now at Nearly 300 Stores”  “Target has expanded its Beauty Concierge program to 95 stores in New York and New Jersey, the San Francisco Bay area and Dallas-Fort Worth.  Participating stores are staffed with a Target Beauty Concierge, a highly-trained, brand agnostic beauty enthusiast who is available to answer guests’ questions in-store.”  See the store list

 

“Canadian Grocers Loblaw and Metro Report Disappointing Earnings” by Marina Strauss at Globe & Mail.  “Loblaw, the country’s largest grocery chain, which said third-quarter profit dropped 29 per cent to $154-million and which lowered its 2013 forecast. Metro reported a larger-than-anticipated 40-per-cent drop in its fourth-quarter profit.”  Read more

 

“Ace Same-Store Sales Up 6.9% in Q3”  “Retail same store sales in the U.S. were up 6.9% for the quarter and stand at 4.4% year to date…“During the third quarter we also launched our meaningful investment in the rollout of the Paint Studio Initiative which will transform the paint department in over 3,000 Ace stores in preparation for the May 2014 national launch.” Venhuizen continued, “As part of our strategic alliance with The Valspar Corporation, this investment is a significant portion of our strategy to double paint market share for our Ace retailers.”  Read more

 

“Is Amazon cool or uncool?” by John Reeves at Motley Fool via USA Today.  “In order to develop a strategy for this vision, Bezos actually made a list of cool and uncool attributes of companies, which is included in the memo. Here are some of them:  Rudeness is not cool.  Young is cool.  Winning is cool.  Defeating tiny guys is not cool.  Explorers are cool.  Conquerors are not cool.”  Read more

 

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