Tipsheet: Amazon Eyes Israel | Ecom 25% ’24 | WM PlayStation Fight
U.S. Retail Sales Fell 1.1% in November at CNN. “Sales were expected to be down 0.3% month-over-month in November, according to a survey of analysts compiled by Refinitiv.” Read more
NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index drops from record high as rising prices hit buyers at CNBC. “Of the index’s three components, current sales conditions dropped 4 points to 92. Sales expectations in the next six months fell 4 points to 85. Buyer traffic also decreased 4 points to 73.” Read more
E-Commerce to Total a Quarter of Global Retail by 2024, GroupM Forecasts at The Wall Street Journal. “After a year of sitting at home, a lot of our behaviors are going to be permanently oriented toward these direct- and digital-commerce behaviors,” said Jay Pattisall, a principal analyst at research company Forrester Research Inc.” WSJ subs.
Walmart will use fully driverless trucks to make deliveries in Arkansas starting in 2021 at The Verge. “And they plan on expanding to a second location in Louisiana, where trucks with safety drivers will begin delivering items from a “live” Walmart Supercenter to a designated pickup location where customers can retrieve their orders. Those routes, which will begin next year, will be longer than the Arkansas operation — 20-miles between New Orleans and Metairie, Louisiana.” Read more
Amazon encourages California warehouse and Whole Foods workers to get weekly Covid tests at CNBC. “The notice to Amazon employees told them to get tested outside of their scheduled working hours, and said they will receive up to 1.5 hours of compensation as reimbursement for costs associated with “time and travel.” The separate notice to Whole Foods employees said the costs of the tests will be covered.” Read more
Wish announces pricing of IPO at $24 per share Press release
Amazon: Trump corruption the only plausible explanation for Microsoft winning $10B cloud deal at GeekWire. “(Amazon) calls the errors so egregious that they “can only be explained by the impact of the President’s anti-Amazon bias on DoD decisionmakers.” Microsoft responded quickly, effectively calling Amazon a sore loser, twice over.” Read more
Swiss running shoe On opens first store in NYC at NY Post. Read more
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Robomart launches its mobile c-store in beta for West Hollywood residents at TechCrunch. “The offering is launching as a mobile pharmacy, offering 500 packs of 50 products…The eventual plan is to make deliveries via autonomous vehicles when all of the necessary regulatory and technological hurdles have been cleared.” Read more
Amazon said weighing shipping goods to Israel from UAE at The Times of Israel. “Doing so would allow Amazon to supply goods to Israelis directly, rather than through third-party sellers.” Read more
How Walmart Ensures Real People, Not ‘Grinch Bots,’ Buy PlayStation 5, Xbox at Yahoo Finance. “(CIO) Geisler noted that more consoles are coming soon and they are working hard to “get them into the hands of as many customers as possible.” The retail giant’s executive called on lawmakers to “do more” to prevent bots from accessing retail sites so customers have equal access.” Read more
…Fight Over Sold-Out PlayStation 5 at Walmart Ends With 3 in Jail at NBC 6 Miami. “The debacle began inside the store moments after Valeria Aguilar and her relatives say they waited in line for the Sony Playstation 5 for more than eight hours. “A guy from Walmart come to us and he said apparently there’s not 30 PS5’s, so people started to get mad,” Aguilar said.” Read more/Video
Tyson joins growing list of companies hiring chief medical officers amid pandemic at The Hill. “Tyson Foods joins companies including Royal Caribbean, Constellation brands and Salesforce in bringing in an in-house health care professional tasked with overseeing the safety and wellbeing of its employees.” Read more
Parole officer charged in ‘ticket switch fraud’ scheme at Target, prosecutor says at The Jersey Journal. “…an investigation determined that between July and October, Ortega used what’s called “ticket switch fraud” to change the labels on various higher value items for lower value items at the Target on Tonnelle Avenue in North Bergen.” Read more
A high school in Texas opened a grocery store for struggling families where good deeds are accepted as payment at CNN. “The high school partnered with First Refuge Ministries, Texas Health Resources and the grocery store Albertsons to open the store, which is completely run by students who manage the inventory, stock the shelves and help other students find and bag the products they need.” Read more
Tipsheet Extra
Amazon Fashion launches a custom clothing service
Neiman Marcus CEO may cut pricey perk for top execs: report
MacKenzie Scott is giving away $1 billion a month to charity
Top 25 companies on the S&P 500 for gender equality
Pink Dot delivery robots cruise West Hollywood
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