Thursday Tipsheet: Top 100 Powerful Brands | TGT Removes T | WMT ‘Prime’ Fighter | JCP +3.4%
Target removes T-shirt from stores after designer claims it was copied from her by Kavita Kumar at Star-Tribune. “Joshua Thomas, a Target spokesman, said in a statement that Target has a “deep appreciation for design” and so was concerned when this was brought to the Minneapolis-based retailer’s attention. “We’ve been in contact with the vendor that produced this tee,” he said. “We’ve also reached out directly to the designer.” Read more
Tenet: Top 100 Most Powerful Brands (Wgreen #33, Target #45, H.Depot #51, Family Dollar #100) See the top 100 list
Kroger CEO gets a $667K raise by Alexander Coolidge at Cincinnati.com. “The extra nearly $667,000 pales in comparison to last year’s $5.2 million raise, McMullen received as he prepared to assume the helm of the company. He became CEO on Jan. 1, 2014.” Read more
CVS Presents at Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2015 Health Care Conference View presentation
Costco Says It Won’t Shift Imports to East Coast at Nasdaq via WSJ. “That’s over now, so we don’t expect any more problems,” John Thelan, senior vice president for depots and traffic at Costco, said in an interview at a supply chain meeting in Washington.” Read more
Wal-Mart will test new subscription service to rival Amazon’s Prime by Phil Wahba at Fortune. “Wal-Mart will charge customers $50 a year for a service that will deliver online orders at no additional cost within three days, Ravi Jariwala, a company spokesman, told Fortune.” Read more
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Reputation Institute: Amazon Has #1 Reputation (Costco #32, Lowe’s #47, Home Depot #59, Cabela’s #71, Bath & Body #97) Download top 100 list here
TargetExpress is coming to Rosslyn (DC Area) by Sarah Halzack at Washington Post. “The store is set to open in October and will be located at 1500 Wilson Blvd. David Best, Target’s vice president of new formats, said the Rosslyn location was selected because of the mix of customers the company can target in the growing cluster of office buildings, apartments and condominiums near the Metro station.” Read more
Washington Post: Why Wegmans really is the best supermarket in the U.S. by Roberto A. Ferdman “At the moment, the average supermarket turns over its inventory between 18 and 20 times a year, according to Strategic Resource Group. Wegmans, by contrast, goes through its produce as many as 100 times a year.” Read more
Wal-Mart partners with Alibaba unit to offer mobile pay in China by Kim Souza at The City Wire. “Retailers offering mobile pay in China are creating a leapfrog effect over credit and debit cards.” (Dr. Raja) Kali said. “The fact Wal-Mart is testing this first in Shenzen, where they are headquartered is the equivalent of them testing something in Bentonville like they often do.” Read more
J.C. Penney Q1 Comp Sales +3.4% by Maria Halkias at Dallas News. “…expects 2015 sales to increase 4 percent to 5 percent vs. its previous forecast of 3 percent to 5 percent.” Read more
Roundy’s Q1 Comp Sales -1.6% by Alison Bauter at Milwaukee Business Journal. “…on fewer customer transactions overall, despite a small increase in average transaction size.” Read more
Macy’s Q1 Comp Sales -0.1% “Delayed merchandise shipments from the West Coast port slowdown and severe winter weather early in the quarter restrained business levels. Moreover, sales were negatively affected by lower levels of spending by international tourists visiting major U.S. cities.” Read the release
These 20 words show what’s on the mind of this top Amazon executive by John Cook at GeekWire. “At a talk Tuesday night at Seattle University about Amazon’s peculiar leadership principles, (Jeff) Wilke shared the top words in his “narratives.” “I didn’t know how it would turn out,” said Wilke, who joined Amazon in 1999 and leads the company’s powerful consumer business. “I was delighted that ‘will’ implies a promise and that ‘customers’ is the second word. Whew!” Read more
U.S. retail sales were unchanged in April at CNBC. See the video / Read more
Tipsheet Extra
Amazon’s ‘Life in Seattle’ recruiting video gets satirized
RadioShack name auctioned for $26.2 million
Macy’s to Push Best Stores Upscale (WSJ-Subscription)
A former exec realized how big Alibaba was going to be when Jeff Bezos copied part of its founder’s speech
More than 40% of Bee Hives Died in Past Year
Digitally-Influenced Sales in Retail Brick-and-Mortar Stores to Reach $2.2 Trillion by Year-end
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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 really happening in the world of retail. Contact us at info@shiftmarketinggroup.net.