Tipsheet: Ace #1 in H.Improvement | Wmart ‘Most Ruthless’ | Target #146 Green Co. | H-E-B Best CEO | Costco #12 @ Tmall
Nordstrom’s red carpet event at the Tony Awards could drive online sales by Coral Garnick at Puget Sound Business Journal. “For the second year, the Seattle-based retailer is sponsoring the Tony Awards red carpet event. This year, though, it is upping its game to include styling the stars and making products instantly available for customers to purchase online.” Read more
J.D.Power: Ace Hardware Ranks #1 in Customer Satisfaction among Home Improvement Retailers (Menards tops Lowe’s and Home Depot) “Overall customer satisfaction with home improvement retailers is 795, up from 788 in 2015.” See the rankings / Read the release
Newsweek: Top Green Co’s in the US 2016 (CVS #16, Best Buy #27, Home Depot #91, Kohl’s #98, Target #146, Kroger #164…) See the top 500 list
SurveyMonkey: America’s Perception of Fortune 100 Companies – Walmart Named ‘Most Ruthless’ “Walmart has the dubious honor of coming in first place as the company respondents dislike the most. Across all negative dimensions (negative global impact, worst for the country, desire to shut down, and ruthless), people said the company was the most ruthless and worst overall for the country.” Read the release
Michaels doubles-down on adult coloring – a ‘little nervous’ about election by Maria Halkias at Dallas Morning News. “…the company has added new titles, authors and books for tweens. It has also expanded the category with other surfaces to color such as note cards and T-shirts…“We’re a little nervous about the election and how that may impact retail…” (CEO) Rubin said. Fall and winter quarters are its biggest, with back to school, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.” Read more
China commerce ministry removes curbs on Wal-Mart’s Yihaodian deal via Reuters. “China’s Ministry of Commerce has removed restrictions on Wal-Mart Stores Inc’s deal in 2012 to raise its stake in online supermarket Yihaodian, and said the move would not impact the already competitive market.” Read more
WSJ: Survey Shows Rapid Growth in Online Shopping by Laura Stevens. “For the first time, consumers say they bought more of their purchases on the web than in stores, according to an annual survey of more than 5,000 online shoppers by UPS. The shoppers now made 51% of their purchases on the web compared with 48% in 2015 and 47% in 2014, according to the survey by UPS and analytics firm comScore Inc.” Read more (subscription)
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Trader Joe’s Pirate Store Should Walk The Plank, 9th Circ. Told by Daniel Siegal at Law 360. “Trader Joe’s urged the Ninth Circuit on Tuesday to revive its trademark infringement suit against a Vancouver man who buys groceries at its U.S. stores and resells them at his Canadian store Pirate Joe’s, arguing the pirate’s lax food safety protocols could poison the grocery chain’s good name.” Read more (subscription)
The 10 Fastest-Growing Careers in the Next Five Years (Online Retailing #1) by Anne Fisher at Fortune. See the top 10 list
These Are the Best CEOs in America, According to The People Who Work For Them (H-E-B Makes the Cut) by Julie Verhage at Bloomberg. See the list of 25
Are Amazon’s latest private label offerings part of a China strategy? by Scot Wingo at Recode. “…you can see that the top-selling items generally fall into these categories: electronics, shoes, shampoo/beauty, diapers and nuts…Digging deeper, if you look broadly at these categories of products on Tmall, there is definitely a supply/demand imbalance. The Chinese consumer has huge unsatisfied demand for these particular Western goods.” See top 20 Western Brands sold on China’s Tmall (Costco #12)
Handbag Shopping: More Time Means More Satisfaction by Elizabeth Holmes at WSJ. “Elizabeth McMullen takes a long time to buy a handbag—and that is something retailers should embrace. “It literally takes me months,” says the 29-year-old marketing coordinator at a bank in La Crosse, Wis. Ms. McMullen started the hunt for her most recent bag nearly six months ago…” Read more (subscription)
Home Depot CIO Matt Carey Joins Meg Whitman at HPE Discover See the pic
Amazon Makes Good On Its Indian Promise by David Meyer at Fortune. “Having already stumped up $2 billion a couple years back, Jeff Bezos’s giant said Tuesday that it would invest another $3 billion as it sees “huge potential in the Indian economy.” Read more
Smart Mirrors Might Be The Future Of In-Store Customer Analytics by David Lumb at Fast Company. “Oak Labs’ tech suite starts with the full-length fitting room mirror, which displays the items a customer has brought in to try on, thanks to RFID signals in the merchandise tags. This lets stores track items as they move from the store floor to the dressing room to the register…” Read more
Tesco Set To Reveal Sale Of Giraffe, Turkish Unit: Sky News via Fox Business. Read more
Sears Canada Q1 Comp Sales -7.4% Read the release
Keurig discontinues Kold soda machine and offers full refunds via LA Times. “…laying off more than 100 workers after its Keurig Kold home soda machine system fizzled out after less than a year on the market.” Read more
Tipsheet Extra Stories
London’s first naked restaurant opens – 44,000 on waiting list
Walmart gave away over $1.4 Billion in 2015 – #4 on philanthropy list (top 12 list)
New York: World’s biggest vertical farm – Giant 70,000 square foot ‘lettuce factory’ will produce 2 Mil pounds of food a year
3 Reasons Warren Buffett Should Buy CVS Health
Fire Phone, two years later: Yes, a few people are still using Amazon’s ill-fated smartphone
McDonald’s secret Luxembourg tax deal
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