Thursday’s Eye-on-Retail Tipsheet: H.Depot, Wmart & Lowe’s @ G.Sachs Conf. | Target’s ‘little impact’ in Can.

“Wal-Mart Stores’ CEO Presents at 20th Annual Goldman Sachs Global Retailing Conference”

“Highlights from Wal-Mart Presentation at Goldman Sachs Retail Conference” by Kim Souza at City Wire. “Wal-Mart also is using more stores to fill online orders, after piloting that program in recent months. He said the number of stores filling online orders are in the double digits and growing. The locker tests have also been well received as Simon told investors it’s been interesting to see the users’ inclinations to repeat purchases.” Read more

“Wal-Mart Plans 500 U.S. ‘Neighborhood Market’ Stores” by Laurie Kulikowski at Market Watch. “Bill Simon, Wal-Mart’s president and CEO of its U.S. operations, said on Wednesday that the world’s largest retailer plans to have 500 of the smaller stores open within the next 18 months, up from a current 290. Simon spoke at a luncheon presentation at the Goldman Sachs Annual Global Retailing Conference. In an effort to reach more customers in urban settings and geographies that can’t support a traditional “Supercenter”, the Bentonville, Ark.-based company is focusing on two small-store concepts: its “Neighborhood Market” and “Walmart Express,” that are meant to compete directly with grocery stores, discount/dollar stores and drug stores.” Read more

“Home Depot’s CEO Presents at Goldman Sachs Twentieth Annual Global Retailing Conference”

Read the Transcript (Via Seeking Alpha)

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Comments from Frank Blake – Home Depot CEO:

* We continue to see good growth within the housing market adding say 2 to 2.5 points (in back half of year).

* We are a branded warehouse. We believe that brands are very important. They are very important to our pro-customers, they are very important to our consumers.

* We don’t plan to be turning over substantial portions of the store to private label brands.

* So we went through a period of time where almost every merchant had his or her own private label brand, we are really down to a handful of meaningful private brands

* In terms of what we see more specifically and there are number of categories that are now seeing growth that weren’t seeing growth frankly when the market was in a crisis mode. Very obvious one that was called out for us in the second quarter was appliances.

* We are also seeing (growth) in some other larger ticket projects like flooring, like kitchens remodel switches, what you would expect as the market starts to recover.

* It sort of feels like the country is coming back into lock step a bit more uniformly.

* Buy online pickup in-store, buy online ship to store have both been very successful programs for us about one out of every three now of our online transactions has actually fulfilled in the store.

* Obviously when the customers comes into the store he or she buys additional items when they are in the store.

* Buy online return in-store is a huge advantage with 2,000 stores. I mean, we are in close proximity to most customers homes, and it’s just a better and a more convenient process for them rather than boxing it up and shipping it back (Marvin Ellison).

“Lowe`s Presents at Goldman Sachs 20th Annual Global Retailing Conference”

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“Should Retailers Like Target Embrace “Showrooming” “? by Jake Anderson at Twin Cities Business. “Carl called attention to Target’s efforts to enhance both its physical stores and digital channels in order to remain competitive; for example, the company made free WiFi available in its stores and rolled out a new website called “Cartwheel,” which allows bargain hunters to interact and shop via Facebook. Another example is a new store-and-online initiative called “Baby 360,” which includes beefed up online content, product reviews, and recommendations for new and expectant mothers.” Read more

“Target has little impact on Canada mall traffic” by Viola Pruss at St. Albert Gazette. “Target’s May arrival created a brief increase in foot traffic but business is back to normal at St. Albert Centre, say mall business owners. Rene Rodriguez, manager of McBain Cameras, said Target has not impacted on his business in any way – whether that’s taking customers from his store or generating more foot traffic. “It’s basically been a net-zero change. The food court area has become more busy and the central hallway seems to be more heavy with foot traffic but that’s just my superficial impression,” he said.” Read more

“Kroger Q2 Earnings Call Today at 10am ET” Listen to the Webcast

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