Best Buy CEO Serves Waffles to Employees by Kavita Kumar at Star Tribune. “In addition to Joly, other top executives who greeted employees and took turns serving employees waffles, eggs, bacon, sausage and coffee were finance chief Corie Barry, chief merchant Mike Mohan, human resources chief Kamy Scarlett, as well as other officers.” Read more (tiered subs.)

 

Unibail Buys Westfield for $16 Billion as Mall Owners Merge at Bloomberg. “The Paris-based company offered a combination of cash and stock that values Westfield at A$10.01 per share, or about 18 percent more than Monday’s closing price, according to a statement Tuesday.” Read more

 

Apple and Wal-Mart Are Helping China Crack Down on Polluters by Lulu Yilun Chen at Bloomberg. “Ma’s strategy — backed by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. — is to scrape real-time data off government websites that compile readings from effluent monitoring equipment at some 13,000 of the worst water polluters. The data is then aggregated on an app called Blue Map.” Read more

 

The Retail Apocalypse Is Fueled by No-Name Clothes by Matthew Boyle at Bloomberg. “A few months ago, Amazon.com Inc. representatives met with fashion designer Jackie Wilson as part of the expansion of Amazon’s surging apparel business. They wanted her to make a knit top for women that would be sold under an Amazon-owned private label. And they wanted the fabric to feel heavy and high-quality…”They are not concerned at all about how many units they sell, and they’re not focused on margins,” says Wilson, whose company in Syracuse, N.Y., makes clothing for Kohl’s, American Eagle Outfitters, and J.C. Penney Co. “They’re concerned about customer satisfaction. They want five-star reviews.” Read more

 

Casey’s Q2 Grocery/Other Merch Comp Sales +2.5% Press release

 

**A message from BK Resources – Restaurant owners, plumbers & GCs need food service equipment – are they in your assortment? BK Resources is a leading supplier of stainless steel: commercial faucets, sinks, work tables, bar equipment, ice bins and more. Grab your fair share of this business! Catalog | Website | Custom/Sample requests

 

First rebranded Gander Outdoors store opens this week by Dan DeBaun at Minneapolis/St.Paul Business Journal. “Gander Outdoors locations intend to have larger water sport and active sports departments (biking and skiing, for example) compared with Gander Mountain.” Read more

 

As the Fed Deliberates, Amazon Is Making Its Job More Difficult by Harriet Torry & Laura Stevens at Wall Street Journal. “If the Amazon effect is big, or more broadly if structural forces pushing down on inflation are big, then at the margin that means an easier monetary policy” going forward, said Goldman Sachs economist Jan Hatzius.” Read more (subs.)

 

Doug McMillon to speak at NRF’s Big Show on January 14th at 3:00 pm Details

 

Retailers brace for surge in online orders by drawing shipping deadlines earlier at CNBC. “Early results from a study by customer analytics firm StellaService show that Dec. 19 is the most common deadline posted by retailers promising standard or free shipping for delivery by Dec. 25. That compares with Dec. 21 last year, and a common cutoff date of Dec. 20 in 2015.” Read more

 

One month after denying it will exit China, AWS opens its second region there by Catherine Shu at TechCrunch. Read more

 

Food Lion Celebrates 60 Years Today “…the company will randomly select customers to win 60 percent off their purchase at each of its more than 1,000 locations.” Press release

 

How a Canadian company came up with Fingerlings, this year’s hottest Christmas toy by Morgan Lowrie at The Canadian Press via Toronto Star. “Fingerlings began with a simple idea from brand manager Sydney Wiseman, who’d been watching videos of a South American breed of monkeys called pygmy marmosets, who are small enough to wrap their arms and legs around a human finger.” Read more

 

Mattel warns holiday sales will be lower than projected by Lisa Fickenscher at NY Post. Read more

 

Tipsheet Extra Stories

Will 2018 Be the Year of the Bank of Amazon? Experts Weigh In

The startup that was supposed to help Best Buy offer gadget rentals has shut down

Twin NBA stars pay off customers’ layaway orders at Walmart store

The silent treatment: Walgreens cashier stares down robber until he leaves

Man convinces armed captor to drop him off at work before robbing store

Starbucks customer laptops hacked to mine cryptocurrency

Read Tipsheet Extra Stories

 

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