Tipsheet: Amazon +100K in 3 | Target No Robots | Mattress ‘Car’ Loans
Amazon clobbered after a miss on the bottom line and soft guidance at CNBC. “Amazon’s fourth-quarter revenue guidance came in between $80.0 billion to $86.5 billion, far below the street’s average estimate of $87.4 billion, indicating the all-important holiday shopping season may be underwhelming.” Read more
…Amazon will spend nearly $1.5B in Q4 for one-day delivery initiative as shipping costs skyrocket by Taylor Soper at GeekWire. Read more
…Amazon tops 750,000 employees for the first time, adding nearly 100,000 people in three months by Nat Levy at GeekWire. Read more
…Amazon’s advertising business is growing like crazy at CNBC. “Net sales in Amazon’s “other” category, which primarily represents advertising, was $3.59 billion in the third quarter, up from $2.50 billion in the third quarter of 2018. The quarter saw 45% year-over-year growth in the segment…” Read more
Massive American Dream mall to open but will shoppers come? at AP. “This development will either sink or swim,” said Jason Goldberg, chief commerce strategy officer of Publicis Communications. “It’s going to be tough to get a lot of attention when you are next to a much bigger amusement park — Manhattan.” Read more
H&M opens new-look small boutique in Berlin, plans more at Reuters. “We need stores closer to where people hang out. We are not used to operating in smaller spaces,” said Anna Bergare, head of business development at the H&M Lab, which is testing new concepts and technology.” Read more
Walmart kicks off shorter holiday shopping season with deals starting Friday by Kelly Tyko at USA Today. “Beginning at midnight Eastern time on Friday, Walmart is launching Early Deals Drops on Walmart.com, which Bratspies said is earlier than ever. He shared some of what the company called “top deals,” which include a VIZIO 55-inch Class M-Series Quantum 4K Ultra HDR Smart TV for $398, a $100 savings.” Read more
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How Best Buy’s Corie Barry Went From Being Seen as ‘a Risk’ at the Company to Its CEO by Phil Wahba at Fortune. “Early on in her nearly 20-year career at Best Buy, Corie Barry was deemed a “risk to the organization” in a performance review. Unnerved by the assessment, Barry decided to work on what she was told were her shortcomings, rather than bolt. “You can decide somewhere here there is a nugget of truth, somewhere in here there are things I need to work on,” Barry told the audience at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women summit on Wednesday in Washington, D.C. “I buckled down.” And at the next assessment, she brought her own development plan.” Video/Read more
Carter’s Q3 net sales +2.1% Press release
Home-Improvement Boom Is Forecast to Fizzle by Ryan Dezember at Wall Street Journal. “Following years of 5% to 7% growth in spending since last decade’s housing crash, Harvard’s model has been predicting slower growth for the past year or so and an outright decline next year for the first time since 2010.” WSJ subs.
Authentic Brands Group emerged as the winning bidder for the bankrupt Barneys on Thursday after two rival attempts fell flat by Lisa Fickenscher at NY Post. “The only thing that appears to be keeping ABG from taking possession of Barneys is Barneys itself. The 96-year-old department store chain issued a statement Thursday suggesting that it’s still holding the door open for Ben-Avraham, who has offered to buy Barneys stores in addition to the brands, which could save jobs.” Read more
Walmart wants robots in stores. Target doesn’t by Nathaniel Meyersohn at CNN. “You won’t see robots in Target stores anytime soon. We really think, even in today’s environment, where people are talking about AI and robotics and different elements of technology, the human touch still really matters,” (CEO Brian) Cornell said.” Read more
Senators Ask FTC to Investigate Amazon Over Capital One Hack by Robert McMillan at Wall Street Journal. “The year before Capital One was hacked, a cloud-security consultant named Scott Piper, in an email, warned Amazon that such a server-side request forgery could be used to steal data from Amazon’s customers.” WSJ subs.
6-year, 0% loan for a mattress? Intense competition continues to grip mattress industry by Nathan Bomey at USA Today. “Mattress industry executives say they’re not extending loans to borrowers who can’t pay, so there’s no reason to be concerned. But the strategy bears resemblance to how the automotive industry got overextended in the lead-up to the 2008-09 financial crisis.” Read more
NRF: Holiday Shoppers Plan to Spend 4 Percent More This Year Press release
Amazon Sells Clothes From Factories Other Retailers Blacklist at Wall Street Journal. “A yellow gingham toddler top embroidered with flowers was among those clothes, listed on Amazon for $4.99 by a New York City retailer. The Journal traced the top to a factory in Chittagong, Bangladesh, that has no fire alarms and where doors are of a type managers can lock and keep workers in.” WSJ subs.
Bed Bath & Beyond pulls black jack-o’-lanterns following blackface comparisons at Fox News. “The black jack-o’-lanterns showed an “extreme lack of sensitivity,” NAACP Westchester regional director Wilbur Aldridge said, per News 12.” Read more
This retail employee is teaching workers how to stop the private equity industry from eating their jobs by Yasmine Gagne at Fast Company. “Sarah Woodhams: ‘(Private equity) made the mistake of going after a very beloved brand, Toys ‘R’ Us, and people took notice of it. People were finally loud about it, and that was sort of [KKR and Bain’s] downfall, because all of a sudden we were bringing predatory practices to light.”’ Read more
Tipsheet Extra
E-scooter ridership plummets 50% in San Diego
From turning shipping containers into grocery store kiosks to opening its first brick-and-mortar store
Walmart store manager running for Congress
What Handing Out Full Size Candy Bars on Halloween Says About You
Behind AT&T’s plan to take on Netflix, Apple and Disney with HBO Max
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