Tipsheet: Lowe’s “Blockbuster” Race Lawsuit | Kimmel Gives Bezos Shout-Out | Wmart Test Fights Aldi | Trump Voter’s Message to Retail
Wal-Mart launches new front in U.S. price war, targets Aldi in grocery aisle by Nandita Bose at Reuters. “Wal-Mart Stores Inc is running a new price-comparison test in at least 1,200 U.S. stores and squeezing packaged goods suppliers in a bid to close a pricing gap with German-based discount grocery chain Aldi and other U.S. rivals like Kroger Co , according to four sources familiar with the moves. Wal-Mart launched the price test across 11 Midwest and Southeastern states such as Iowa, Illinois and Florida…” Read more
A Trump voter’s message to retailers: ‘Keep your mouths shut about our president’ by Abha Bhattarai at Washington Post. “A few days later, Carson is back at the mall. It’s Sunday afternoon, just after church, and she sees something that startles her: a T-shirt that says “F*** America” prominently displayed in a store entrance. She walks in and asks the manager to remove it. “It’s not appropriate,” she says. When he refuses — it’s his opinion against hers, he tells her — she enlists the mall’s management. The shirt is removed.” Read more
Amazon wins 3 Oscars in a first for streaming studio — and Jeff Bezos gets a fun shout-out by Kurt Schlosser & Taylor Soper at GeekWire. “Jeff Bezos is the founder and CEO, and I want to say, congratulations to Jeff,” Kimmel said. “And I also want you to know Jeff, if you win tonight, you can expect your Oscar to arrive in 2 to 5 business days, possibly stolen by a GrubHub delivery man.” Read more
Publicis’ Starcom Wins Lowe’s First Media Agency Review in 10 Years by Patrick Coffee at Adweek. “The Publicis unit beat out Omnicom Media Group’s PHD and WPP’s Mindshare in the review, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter. Incumbent OMD, which had handled the business since 2005, did not participate. BBDO remains the client’s creative agency of record.” Read more
Groceries will be a topic of interest at Target investors meeting this week by Kavita Kumar at Star Tribune. “Target now seems to be backtracking a bit to rebalance the assortment, she said. “When you take out some core items and insert some more ‘niche-y’ brands, you’re cutting down on the familiarity” for customers, she said.” Read more
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Starbucks to Close Two Remaining Evolution Fresh Juice Stores by Madeline Farber at Fortune. “However, the company is still slated to sell the juices at its coffee storefronts.” Read more
Full List Of Oscar Winners at Forbes. List
Amazon nabs the top spot for online cosmetics sales – One of every five beauty purchases online is made via the Amazon marketplace by April Berthene at Internet Retailer. Read more
JackThreads is trying to find a buyer after its Hail Mary business model failed by Jason Del Rey at Recode. “It did so with a new, risky try-on-at-home model — called TryOuts — that let customers order as many products as they wanted without paying up front. They later paid for the ones they kept and sent back the ones they didn’t. Shipping both ways was free.” Read more
Lawsuit claims Lowe’s discriminated against a top executive because of race by Paul Boyd at WSOC TV. “The lawsuit says former Chief Consumer Officer Michael Jones was targeted by executives after raising “concerns about the firm culture” and the “inclusion” of minorities in 2015. The suit says he spoke out last year “about the treatment of several other African-American” employees and was fired. In fact, the suit claims “Jones is one of a series of African-American employees at the vice president level or higher … terminated disproportionately to their white counterparts in recent years.” Video/Read more
How Nasty Gal Went From an $85 Million Company to Bankruptcy by Sarah Chaney at Wall Street Journal. “As it grew, former employees say, Nasty Gal built out its management team and hired junior talent from retail outlets such as Urban Outfitters Inc. But their traditional retail backgrounds clashed with the startup mentality, these people said.” Read more (subscription)
Sycamore Partners buys The Limited for $26.75 million by Matt Linder at Internet Retailer. “Sycamore writes that it “plans to reintroduce the brand to the marketplace at a later date and will communicate with The Limited’s loyal customers about how to obtain the merchandise they know and love.” Read more
Report: Israel’s Holocaust museum asks Amazon to stop selling books that deny it happened by Monica Nickelsburg at GeekWire. Read more
$1 million lottery ticket purchased at BJ’s at Olean Times Herald. Read more
Microsoft Agrees To Pay $1.2M To End Consumer Receipt Suit by Nathan Hale at Law 360. “Microsoft Corp. and a proposed class of consumers who allege the company’s physical store receipts displayed too many digits of their credit card numbers submitted details of a $1.2 million deal to end the suit to a Florida federal court on Friday.” Read more (subs.)
Kroger’s seniors aren’t happy after senior deals, double coupons cut by Mary Hance at The Tennessean. Read more
Seth Rogen goes ‘bananas’ in Walmart ad for Oscars by Charisse Jones at USA Today. “For its Oscars debut, Walmart teamed up with top Hollywood filmmakers Antoine Fuqua, Marc Forster, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg to make 60-second “films’’ based on items listed on a Walmart receipt.” Video/Read more
Apple Files for a Patent to protect their Latest Modular Apple Store Display System at Patently Apple. Drawings/Read more
Tipsheet Extra Stories
Oscars In Memoriam Video Mentions Designer, but Uses Photo of Friend Who’s Alive
Sam’s Club believes odd looking meat is safe, blames oven ‘char’
FBI: Man in Wal-Mart vest robbed Albuquerque bank
Ten Truly Remote Places Where Your Boss Can’t Track You Down
Is the Instant Pot the Magic, One-Stop Kitchen Solution Fans Claim It Is?
JCPenney’s store closures could push hundreds of dying shopping malls over the edge
Wendy’s Is Going to Install Self-Ordering Machines in 1,000 Stores
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