Tipsheet: Amazon Invades Minneapolis | Roz Brewer’s Chicago Speech | Wgreen’s New co-COOs | PetSmart ‘Secret’ Campaign
Amazon to open tech office in downtown Minneapolis by Kavita Kumar at Star Tribune. “Amazon is moving in on Target’s home turf — literally. (Amazon) will open a new technology development center in downtown Minneapolis and will hire about 100 software engineers and managers to fill it.” Read more | Press release
At Target’s shareholder meeting comes a question about its bathroom policy by Sarah Halzack at Washington Post. “Justin Danhof, a director at the National Center for Public Policy Research, raised the topic at Target’s Wednesday shareholders’ meeting in Costa Mesa, Calif. Danhof asked Target chief executive Brian Cornell whether he believed that customers and investors who disagree with Target’s policy are bigots, as well as whether Cornell regretted implementing the policy. Danhof said Cornell responded to his questions by speaking generally about the retailer’s focus on diversity… “ Read more
Walgreens Boots Alliance appoints co-COOs via Reuters. “Alex Gourlay, executive vice president of Walgreens Boots Alliance and President of Walgreens, will oversee Walgreens and Boots in his new role. Ornella Barra, executive vice president of Walgreens Boots Alliance and president and chief executive of global wholesale and international retail, will supervise global brands, human resources and other business services.” Read more
Restoration Hardware Q1 Comp Sales +4.0% “Gary Friedman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, commented, “Our near term business performance is being pressured by the continued headwinds in the markets impacted by energy and currency, as well as a general slowdown in the luxury consumer market.” Read the release
…Restoration Hardware shares fell as much as 14% in after-hours trading on Wednesday after the company cut its outlook for the year via Business Insider Read more
Apple Pay competitor CurrentC is the disaster everyone thought it would be by Jason Del Rey at Recode. “A few weeks ago, I told MCX that I planned to report that the app was dead for good, based on my sources, and not that the launch had simply been “postponed” as MCX had stated when announcing layoffs. “That’s absolutely false,” a spokesperson told me at the time.” Read more
Evanston police investigate explosion inside Target bathroom at Chicago Sun-Times. “Emergency crews were called at 4:08 p.m. to the store at 2209 Howard St. following the explosion involving a plastic bottle inside the women’s bathroom, according to Evanston police.” Read more
American Apparel launches ‘Make America Gay Again’ campaign via New York Business Journal. “…launched sales of limited-edition t-shirts and tanks featuring phrases such as, “Make America Gay Again” and “Make America LGBTQ Again.” Read more
Amazon says it will share employee training know-how with other firms by Angel Gonzalez at Seattle Times. “Juan Garcia, Amazon’s global leader for career advancement, said in a LinkedIn post that the company is “open-sourcing” the program, known as Career Choice. That’s basically providing the blueprint free to other companies so they can “build upon it, tailor it for their own use cases, and improve upon it,” Garcia wrote.” Read more
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Target charges suppliers more to help offload unsold inventory by Nandita Bose at Reuters. “Target is asking many suppliers to take on up to an extra 3-5 percent of the cost of promotions and price cuts after slow sales so far this year…”Target is not leaving a lot of room for negotiation here,” said one supplier, who asked to remain anonymous. “They want to get this unsold stock out of their stores in the next three months.” Read more
Rosalind Brewer will speak to Chicago group “Women’s Leadership Series: ‘Highlighting Women Leaders, Open to All” on July 27th 2016.” See the details
Bass Pro donating 32K fishing rods to scouts across the country by Wes Johnson at Springfield News-Leader. Read more
CVS Pharmacy Now Open in Target Stores Throughout Oregon Read the release
Harps Foods Stores plans to acquire nine former Walmart Express formats in Arkansas, Missouri by Kim Souza at The City Wire. “Harps is a 100% employee-owned company and operates 79 stores in northern and central Arkansas, southern Missouri and eastern Oklahoma.” Read more
Shocking study reveals millennials don’t like doing stuff by Johnny Oleksiski at NY Post. “They’re the greatest generation — of couch potatoes…A study by Taylor Nelson Sofres, a consumer-research agency, found that, on average, millennials stream 2.7 hours of TV shows a day, while the earlier generation, Gen X, does about 1.8 hours.” Read more
Animals Go Shopping in PetSmart’s ‘The Secret Life of Pets’ Campaign via Ad Age. “(PetSmart) is the exclusive seller of “The Secret Life of Pets” products. The two-month effort will include custom packaging, pet apparel and toys, as well as special discounts on doggy day camp sessions, where PetSmart employees provide owners with a progress report on their animals’ daily activity.” Read more
Wayfair named Internet Retailer of the Year by Don Davis at Internet Retailer. “Omnichannel Retailer of the Year: Target Corp., Batteries Plus Bulbs LLC, Neiman Marcus Inc., Nordstrom…” See the winners
How retailers use emotion to make you spend more by Susie Poppick at CNBC. “A recent study found that while seeing a product first and a price second makes people focus on how much they like that item, viewing the cost first primes shoppers to more closely scrutinize the object’s worth, said Harvard Business School marketing professor Uma Karmarkar, a co-author on the research.” Read more
Target Employee Has Fun Giving the Closing Announcements in Different Accents See the 1:11 video
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