Tipsheet: Bernie @ WM Mtg | Costco #1 Hot Dog | TJX +5%
Home Depot Q1 U.S. comp sales +3.0% Press release
…Home Depot same-store sales misses on wet weather, lumber prices at Reuters. “Home Depot Inc reported its slowest growth in quarterly same-store sales in at least three years on Tuesday, missing Wall Street estimates, as the home improvement chain was hurt by wet weather in February and a steep fall in lumber prices.” Read more
TJX Companies Q1 comp sales +5.0% Press release
Kohl’s Q1 comp sales -3.4% (vs. expected -0.2%) Press release
…Kohl’s, JC Penney earnings disappoint, sparking selloff of department store shares at CNBC. “Shares of Kohl’s and Penney were both down more than 10% in premarket trading.” Read more
Bernie Sanders will attend Walmart’s annual meeting to push for higher pay and other labor reforms at CNBC. “If hourly workers at Walmart were well represented on its board, I doubt you would see the CEO of Walmart making over a thousand times more than its average worker,” Sanders told The Washington Post, which first reported the news.” Read more
AutoZone Q3 comp sales +3.9% “During the quarter…AutoZone opened 35 new stores in the U.S…(total worldwide store) count of 6,287.” Press release
JCPenney Q1 comp sales -5.5% Press release
…JCPenney Announces Shawn Gensch as Chief Customer Officer “Gensch joins JCPenney from Sprouts Farmers Market where he served as chief customer officer.” Press release
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Urban Outfitters to Start Renting Its Clothes by Khadeeja Safdar at Wall Street Journal. “…launching an $88 monthly service in the summer that allows shoppers to borrow six items…The new business, called Nuuly, will be run as a separate entity by David Hayne, chief digital officer at Urban Outfitters and son of the company’s co-founder and CEO.” WSJ subs.
U.S. Postal Service Starts Testing Self-Driving Trucks at TechCrunch. “TuSimple announced Tuesday that it was awarded a contract to complete five round trips, for a two-week pilot, hauling USPS trailers more than 1,000 miles between the postal service’s Phoenix and Dallas distribution centers. A safety engineer and driver will be on board throughout the pilot.” Read more
Nordstrom’s massive department store for women set to open this October in New York at CNBC. “The grand opening will be Oct. 24 for the more than 300,000-square-foot space, a spokeswoman told CNBC. Nordstrom opened its first full-price store for men in Manhattan, on West 57th Street, in April 2018. The women’s space is now under construction right next door.” Read more
Dressbarn plans to shut all 650 stores at CNBC. “…(Ascena will) focus on its more profitable brands. Ascena, which also owns apparel chains Ann Taylor and Loft, said the decision wasn’t an easy one…” Read more
SpartanNash Q1 retail comp sales -0.3% Press release
Flipkart founder: How I sold my business to Walmart for $16 billion at CNBC. “When we started Flipkart, we were really focusing on books, just one category and focusing on getting the customer experience right for our books,” said Bansal…That differed from the dominant approach in 2007, when the company started and several other businesses were trying to cash in on India’s growing appetite for e-commerce.” Read more
Amazon Prime Boss Named CEO of Google-Backed Quantum Computing Startup by Robert Hackett at Fortune. Read more
Watchdog group sues Walmart for selling “nonsense” homeopathic remedies by Rina Raphael at Fast Company. “The reason we are bringing these lawsuits is because the two bodies that regulate the drug industry–the FDA and the FTC –simply aren’t doing enough [in regard to homeopathy],” says Little. “If Tylenol, for example, put on its packaging, ‘will help regrow limbs after amputation,’ it would get closed down by the FDA.” Read more
McConnell introduces bill making the legal smoking age 21 by Andrew Siddons at Roll Call. “I recognize that I might seem like an unusual candidate to lead this charge,” he said. But he argued that Kentucky farmers had the same interest as anyone else in making sure their children don’t become addicted to nicotine. “Youth vaping is a public health crisis,” he said.” Read more
Walmart, Target, Bed Bath must face lawsuit over fake ‘Egyptian’ cotton at Reuters. “According to the complaint, the retailers sold Welspun’s “Egyptian” cotton well into 2016 even though Target and Bed Bath & Beyond had known for several months, and Walmart had known as early as 2008, that the cotton was mislabeled.” Read more
Postmates workers want minimum delivery guarantees and at least $15 per hour at TechCrunch. “Up until this past weekend, Postmates guaranteed its delivery workers at least $4 per job. Postmates has since gotten rid of that minimum job guarantee and changed the base rate per job, as well as changed the per-mile rate in some markets.” Read more
Amazon a winner as Supreme Court sides with Post Office on package delivery prices at Fox Business. Read more
Coca-Cola is bringing back New Coke in honor of ‘Stranger Things’ at CNN Money. “The third season of the show takes place during the summer of 1985 — when Coca-Cola debuted a new recipe…Bringing New Coke back is a way for Coca-Cola to “not take ourselves too seriously,” Stuart Kronauge, president of Coke’s sparkling business unit and SVP of marketing for Coca-Cola North America, told CNN Business.” Read more
What’s the best hot dog in America? Costco’s by Maura Judkis at Washington Post via Seattle Times. “They were universally loved by our tasters for their “solid salt and garlic balance,” “a very beefy hot dog with a lot of seasoning” and “good size, pretty good snap and well-balanced taste.” Top 15/Read more
Tipsheet Extra Stories
Whole Foods is ditching plastic straws
Stinky new corpse flower is set to bloom at Amazon Spheres
Why boomers aren’t downsizing homes as they age
Amazon Studios has returned Woody Allen’s movie
Health care is the top issue for Americans, according to a new poll
The world’s 50 most valuable brands—ranked
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