Tipsheet: Costco Sues Titleist | Lore: “We’re behind” | Bezos +$27.6B this year
Walmart e-commerce CEO Marc Lore says the company will make more acquisitions by Edmund Lee at Recode. “We’re being pretty active, yeah,” he told Recode Senior Editor Jason Del Rey at the Code Commerce conference in Las Vegas. “We’re behind,” he added. “We need to catch up.” Read more | Full interview
Costco Sues Titleist In Battle Over Golf Balls via Fox Business. “Costco is asking the court to rule that the ball doesn’t infringe on any valid patent rights owned by Acushnet and that it hasn’t engaged in any false advertising in reference to the ball. In the complaint, Costco says that the suit is necessary because Acushnet has accused it of patent infringement and false advertising.” Read more
Your Target store is about to look a lot different by Krystina Gustafson at CNBC. “Coming to the Houston area in October, Target’s first fully redesigned shop will include two separate entrances: one for time-crunched shoppers, and another for those who want to browse fashion or beauty. The “speed” entrance will lead shoppers to the redesigned grocery aisle, which will include grab-and-go items…Outside, there will be reserved parking spots for shoppers who want their items delivered to their cars.” Read more | Press release
Target taps Kroger executive Jeff Burt to head grocery business by Krystina Gustafson at CNBC. “The 30-year Kroger veteran most recently served as president of the company’s Fred Meyer division. He will report to Target’s executive vice president and chief merchandising officer, Mark Tritton, starting April 10.” Read more | Press release
Kroger Names Joe Grieshaber President of Fred Meyer Stores, Dan De La Rosa President of Columbus Division Press release
Walmart Is Launching a Tech Incubator in Silicon Valley by Phil Wahba at Fortune. “Sometimes you invest in these big transformative ideas that maybe aren’t ready for prime time today,” said Seth Beal, a four-year Walmart executive leading the Store No 8 initiative with Katie Finnegan, a head of strategy at jet.com.” Read more
Trump’s China Tariff May Crack Home Depot Lampshade Supplier at Bloomberg. Read more
Forbes 2017 Billionaires List: Meet The Richest People On The Planet (Bezos #3, Waltons #16-18, John Menard, Jr. #128) Full list
…Jeff Bezos Is The Biggest Billionaire Gainer On The 2017 List by Kate Vinton at Forbes. “No billionaire has had a better year than Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos…Bezos’ net worth jumped by $27.6 billion in the past year — more than the total net worth of all but the 24 richest billionaires.” Read more
HUBBA BUBBA FOR ALL: Study says handing out gum to shoppers encouraged them to shop for more items and with a higher level of engagement by Francine Kopun at Toronto Star. “The act of chewing made the shoppers more alert. “If you’re more alert, you’re more likely to absorb the information that is in the store — the promotional and even the nutritional labels — and have the cognitive function to absorb that information” Read more
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Amazon Prime Air delivery drone drops off sunscreen during semi-public U.S. debut by Alan Boyle at GeekWire. “The drone demonstrated its delivery technique during Amazon’s MARS 2017 conference at a resort in Palm Springs, Calif.” Video/Pics/Read more
…Delivery robots and robo-farms: Here’s what’s headlining Amazon’s MARS meet-up Read more @ GeekWire
Tech Exec Joins Costco Board of Directors “Most recently, Ken Denman was the president and chief executive officer of Emotient, Inc., which built an artificial-intelligence based platform for measuring facial expressions to predict emotions. Emotient was acquired by Apple in January 2016.” Press release
Ebay takes on Amazon with guaranteed 3-day delivery on 20 million items by Sarah Perez at TechCrunch. Read more
Nordstrom turns to the cloud for point-of-sale system by Coral Garnick at Puget Sound Business Journal. “Koppel mentioned that migrating to the cloud means that the company’s spending on technology is transitioning from a build to a rent model.” Read more
Heard at Recode’s Code Commerce: “If you go to any kind of venture capital firm on Sand Hill Road and you say you want to build a retail business, you’re not going to raise any money.” Read more
Pottery Barn’s AR app will preview your future furniture by Rob LeFebvre at Engadget. Read more
Wal-Mart Signs Deal With Oak View Group To Get Marketing Presence In 21 Arenas at Sports Business Daily. “Wal-Mart has “signed a massive deal with the Oak View Group,” giving it a “major marketing presence at 21 big league arenas,” according to Don Muret of Sportbusiness Journal. Sources said that the agreement is “valued in the eight figures annually.” One source said that it is worth $40M.” Read more (subscription)
Meet Ad Age’s 40 Under 40 List
DO-OVER – eBay is overhauling its homepage again to personalize recommendations for each visitor by Jason Del Rey at Recode. Read more
Retailers Ask House to ‘Close the Book’ on Obamacare by Passing Repeal-and-Replace Legislation NRF press release
Lands’ End Q4 retail segment net revenue down 6.3% Press release
Walmart Will Hold Annual Shareholders’ Meeting on June 2 Press release
Ex-Gordmans CEO Jeff Gordman, another bidder poised to make offers for bankrupt company’s stores by Russell Hubbard & Paige Yowell at Omaha World-Herald. “Stage Stores Inc. also says it is seriously considering submitting an offer to Gordmans for the purchase of stores and assets so that it would operate at least some of the locations and one warehouse on an ongoing basis.” Read more
Baby Boomers Expect Deeper Discounts Than Millennials and Gen-Xers “Across every category including vehicles, smartphones, furniture, and home appliances, more than 70 percent of Baby Boomers said they would ‘definitely not’ or ‘probably not’ purchase an item in these categories at full price..Significantly less than half of Millennials stated they would ‘definitely not’ or ‘probably not’ buy vehicles (39%), furniture (40%), home appliances (42%) and home electronics (41%) at full price.” Press release
Tipsheet Extra Stories
Man repeatedly stabs Walmart greeter for no apparent reason
California Retailer Sues Ivanka Trump’s Company For Profiting Off Political Ties
Modcloth deal brings Walmart into same building as Amazon in Pittsburgh
What worked and what didn’t (lines, bots) at SXSW 2017
Kiddie Activity Centers Seen as Way to Make Malls Amazon-Proof
Brazil’s Biggest Meat Buyers Restrict Supplies After Tainted Food Scandal
Retail CFOs Forecast Sunny Outlook For 2017 – BDO Survey
Amazon director William ‘Bing’ Gordon steps down for consulting role
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