Tipsheet: Amazon’s PhD’s | FDA Vape Rule | Ark. Approves Self-Driving
FDA outlines e-cigarette rules, tightens restrictions on fruity flavors to try to curb teen vaping at CNBC. “If finalized, the policy will likely remove some flavored e-cigarettes and cigars from store shelves, the FDA said. It also limits sales of flavored nicotine pods to websites, vape shops and other retailers that impose age restrictions, according to the FDA’s draft rule.” Read more
Arkansas Senate approves Walmart-backed proposal to test drive self-driving vehicles by Wesley Brown at Talk Business. “It will now be sent to the governor’s office, where Gov. Asa Hutchinson is expected to sign the law that will make Arkansas the 30th state to allow driverless vehicles on local roads.” Read more
Rite Aid shakes up top management – will cut about 400 U.S. jobs – CEO out at Reuters. “John Standley, CEO since 2010, will remain in the post until the appointment of his successor, the company said. It also said Chief Financial Officer Darren Karst and Chief Operating Officer Kermit Crawford would also leave the company.” Read more
Dick’s Sporting Goods will remove guns from 125 stores by Josh Hafner at USA Today. “CEO Ed Stack said Tuesday that Dick’s will pull hunting gear from 125 stores starting in around August in response to its slumping sales in those stores, Bloomberg reported, a move that may spread to more stores next year.” Read More | Q4 Call Transcript @ Seeking Alpha
Neiman Marcus Group Q2 comp sales +0.7% Press release
Lumber Liquidators to pay $33 million criminal penalty at CBS. “The penalty comes after a seven-month 60 Minutes undercover investigation in 2015, which found Lumber Liquidators falsely claimed its flooring complied with California Air Resource Board’s maximum acceptable limits for formaldehyde emissions.” Read more/Video
Meijer continues the roll out of “Shop & Scan”, a mobile shopping checkout program, at 23 stores in Chicago and Northwest Indiana following success in Michigan test markets. Press release
Express Q4 comp sales -6.0% Press release
Imagining Amazon under a U.S. antitrust crackdown by Monica Nickelsburg at GeekWire. “Whole Foods, I imagine, would be relatively easy to separate because it did exist as a free-standing business not long ago,” (former FTC official) Kirkwood said. “It’s not like breaking up Amazon more internally, like separating out its cloud services business from its retail business. Those are, as I understand it, much more deeply linked and that would raise much more serious problems.” Read more
Eddie Lampert took $57.5 million from Sears — and the retailer wants its money back. by Lisa Fickenscher at NY Post. Read more
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Meet The Billionaire Who Defied Amazon And Built Wish by Parmy Olson at Forbes. “Forty-one percent of U.S. households don’t have $400 worth of liquidity,” Szulczewski says, referring to the Fed’s latest estimate…is now the third-biggest e-commerce marketplace in the U.S. by sales…Taking a 15% cut of their purchases, Wish doubled its revenue last year, to $1.9 billion.” Read more
Fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli — whose self-titled brand once ran at Target — is accused of shelling out $500,000 to get his daughters into USC at Business Insider. Read more
Topgolf to enter small and mid-sized cities (100K – 500K population) across the U.S. Press release
Amazon gets an edge with its secret squad of PhD economists by Lydia DePillis at CNN Money. “In the past few years, Amazon has hired more than 150 PhD economists, making it probably the largest employer in the field behind institutions like the Federal Reserve…(Amazon) was the only company with a recruiting booth at the American Economics Association’s annual conference in January, handing out free pens and logoed stress balls.” Read more
Build-A-Bear North America FY 18 = “low single-digit sales decline and modest profit” Press release
Verizon said on Wednesday its customers in Chicago and Minneapolis would be able to use its 5G wireless network from April 11 by paying $10 per month at Reuters. Read more
On 30th anniversary of web, Amazon shares first homepage by Kurt Schlosser at GeekWire. Pic/Read more
Signet Jewelers names CFO – bringing the leadership of its Kay, Zales and Peoples banners under one combined Mall Leadership Team Press release
Target Clean icon represents products formulated without a group of commonly unwanted chemicals at A Bullseye View. Read more
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