Tipsheet: Judge Bars Macy’s from Detaining | ‘No Taco Plate Deals’ @ Wmart | Amazon Triggered Robot Race
Amazon’s second Prime Day will be July 12 by Nat Levy at GeekWire. “Amazon said it sold more units on Prime Day last year than its biggest Black Friday sale ever, as customers ordered a whopping 34.4 million items at a clip of 398 per second, even though some complained about selection.” Read more
Inside Kohl’s Plan to Win the Department Store Tech Wars by Phil Wahba at Fortune. “If the retailer’s top executives have their way, pretty soon Kohl’s stores will boast state-of-the-art features like undocked, mobile cash registers, holograms that show the latest runway collections, and robots that can take full inventory overnight at a 35,000-square-foot store…” Read more
How Amazon Triggered a Robot Arms Race by Kim Bhasin & Patrick Clark at Bloomberg. “…As (Kiva) contracts expired, they had to find other options to keep up with an ever-increasing consumer need for speed. The only problem was that there were no other options. Kiva was pretty much it. It’s taken four years, but a handful of startups are finally ready to replace Kiva and equip the world’s warehouses with new robotics.” Read more
NO ‘TACO PLATE’ DEALS – Hopeful suppliers share thoughts about Wal-Mart’s ‘Open Call’ by Kim Souza at The City Wire. “When asked about why so many were included in the Open Call but then told there was no shelf space in the category they were pitching, (mac and cheese, salsa and cocktail drink mixers) (Michelle) Gloeckler said products have to achieve a certain number of sales per store, per day and without sales records it’s difficult for products to make it on the shelf.” Read more
Pier 1 Q1 Comp Sales -2.5% “Net sales for the first quarter decreased 4.2% to $418.4 million, compared to $436.9 million in the same period last year.” Read the release
Judge bars Macy’s from detaining and fining suspected shoplifters by Julia Marsh at NY Post. “The law was never intended to “confer a license to embarrass, humiliate and harm innocent . . . consumers” (Justice) Mendez said.” Read more
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Virginia: Kroger employees rally for $15 minimum wage by Kevin Green at WAVY NBC. See the video / Read more
Visa Files Counterclaim to Wal-Mart by Phil Wahba at Fortune. “Indeed, at the time of (the contract’s) execution, Wal-Mart had already hatched a plan to eliminate the signature option at its physical locations,” Visa said in the filing.” Read more
Bay Area: Amazon leases 224,000-square-foot East Bay warehouse by Roland Li at San Francisco Business Journal. “(Amazon) has taken the entire 224,154-square-foot industrial building at 6015 Giant Road in Richmond, according to two sources familiar with the property.” Read more
Tractor Supply trims 2016 financial outlook on weak same-store sales by Sue Chang at MarketWatch. “…its same-store sales in the quarter shrank 0.5%…It also trimmed the full year same-store sales forecast to 2.5% to 3.5% from 3.5% to 5.0%.” Read more
Australia: Woolworths postpones deadline for final bids for its Masters and Home Timber & Hardware businesses until mid-July by Sue Mitchell at Financial Review. Read more
Fortune: 100 Best Workplaces for Millennials (Wegmans #40, Publix #74, Nordstrom #88, Whole Foods #90) See the top 100 list
Cabela’s Announces Closing of $1 Billion Securitization Read the release
Amazon Begins Selling Perishable Private-Label Foods by Greg Bensinger at WSJ. “Amazon this week began offering for sale on its website whole-bean and ground coffee under its new Happy Belly label…Similar to its rollout of private-label clothing lines over the past year, Amazon released its new products with virtually no fanfare.” Read more (subscription)
Birchbox cuts 12 percent of workforce as it looks for profits by Teresa Novellino at New York Business Journal. Read more
Belk Announces Retirement of Tim Belk as CEO “Tim Belk will retire as chief executive officer of the company in July 2016.” Read the release
Tipsheet Extra Stories
Grandma of boy who earned $300K+ from Kroger meet-up: We’re in danger
San Francisco: Fire breaks out on roof of Union Square Macy’s
Sobeys parent posts massive $942.6-million loss amid Safeway struggles
Cramer’s retail ranking: Stores that can survive Amazon (JCP #1)
Forbes: Retailers May Have Found A Smart Home Category That Works: Smart Kitchen
Indigo CEO Heather Reisman on reimainging the 21st century bookstore
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