Tipsheet: New Grads: BJ’s #42 | Young: Nstrom #5, Target #12 | Ellison Q&A
Five Below Q2 comp sales +2.7% Press release
GameStop Q2 comp sales -0.5% Press release
…GameStop is reportedly working with Perella Weinberg Partners to explore a possible sale at Bloomberg via Internet Retailer. “The private equity firms Sycamore Partners and Apollo Global Management are GameStop’s two main suitors, DealReporter said.” Read more
Lands End retail segment net revenue -25.8% “…primarily attributable to the reduction of 57 of our Lands’ End Shops at Sears locations combined with a same store sales decline of 5.8%. Same store sales in Lands’ End Shops at Sears locations declined 6.7% for the quarter while same store sales in our Company operated stores declined 0.6%.” Press release
Forbes: Best Employers for New Grads (Kwik Trip #27, BJ’s #42, Wawa #55, Whole Foods #81, Wegmans #101, Costco #103…) Top 250 list
Tom Ward, VP of digital operations at Walmart, featured speaker at Chamber event held at Sam’s Club HQ Thursday by Kim Souza at Talk Business. “He said areas where there is already high brand affinity will likely not be slated for the (Spark) delivery services unless demand dictates. But he did say the retailer plans in the next few years to put grocery pickup in nearly every store that has the space and parking available.” Read more
The Buckle August comp sales -0.7% Press release
Walmart Canada Commits To 100% Alternatively Powered Fleet Vehicles By 2028 “…plans to acquire an additional 30 Tesla 18-wheeler semi-trucks, building on its original order of 10 trucks in November 2017.” Press release
Cato August Comp Sales +5.0% Press release
WALMART PREMIUM OUTDOOR BRAND EXODUS – Walmart Just Wanted to Sell Pricey Outdoor Gear. Then ‘All Hell Broke Loose.’ by Sarah Nassauer at Wall Street Journal. “We launched, and then all hell broke loose a little bit within the outdoor industry,” Moosejaw Chief Executive Eoin Comerford said in an interview. “I didn’t expect the reaction to be quite so vehement.” About a third of the premium outdoor brands have left walmart.com, Mr. Comerford said.” WSJ Subscription
Amazon’s ‘Artist in Residence’ builds his cardboard tour van creation by Kurt Schlosser at Geek Wire. “Cardboard is my preferred medium for large-scale objects…” Petersen said. “[Amazon] provided me with an entire closet full of cardboard and then I purchased some large cardboard as well that was unused. They are cardboard kings…” Read more
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Pending California Law Curbing Truck Driver Abuses Could Impact Retailers by Brittany Shoot at Fortune. “The bill, SB1402, which cleared the California state assembly on Wednesday, would hold retailers jointly responsible for state labor and employment violations at shipping ports where port trucking companies fail to pay wages, unlawfully pass on expenses to employees, and misclassify employees as independent contractors, among numerous other labor law violations.” Read more
FreshDirect Founder Jason Ackerman Steps Down as CEO – Co-Founder David McInerney Takes on the CEO Post Press release
Economy adds more jobs than expected in August at CNBC. “Nonfarm payrolls grew by 201,000 in August. Economists surveyed by Reuters expected a 191,000 increase. Average hourly earnings jumped by 2.9 percent, above the 2.7 percent increase expected. The unemployment rate held near a generational low of 3.9 percent.” Read more
Kroger’s prescription drug safety program for teens expected to grow to over 270 schools in the new academic year Press release
YOUNG SHOPPERS – Love List Brand Affinity Index from Goldman Sachs and Conde Nast (Nordstrom #5, Luxury; Target #12, Haircare; Walmart #22, Beauty retail) at CNBC. Top 25 list/Read more
Groupon Announces Sarah Butterfass as Chief Product Officer Press release
This Christmas, Where Will Toys “R” Us Shoppers Buy Their Toys? (Walmart 40%, Amazon 34%, Target 21%) at Field Agent. Read study
Costco members are apparently buying snorkels, flip-flops, and alcohol in Hawaii and returning them used or half-empty at the end of their vacation by Mary Hanbury at Business Insider. Read more
Tipsheet Extra Stories
Les Moonves Was Obsessed With Ruining Janet Jackson’s Career
Study suggests that intermittent fasting could be the key to longevity
J.D. Power Joins The Internet of Things Consortium
Amazon’s online advertising catching up to Google, Facebook
Where did the trash in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch come from?
Lululemon wins battle against patent troll in less than 24 hours
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Lowe’s CEO Marvin Ellison at Goldman Sachs Retailing Conference
Q: What led you to take this role at Lowe’s?
A: I had really no intention on doing anything, but spending the next couple of years working on trying to turn around an iconic retailer, but as I tell people, God laughs at our plans and this opportunity presented itself…to have an opportunity to run a company this large, this prestigious is the American dream. So how do you pass it up?
When I joined Lowe’s and the opportunity of the stores opened up Joe (McFarland) was the first one to raise his hand that want to come back into this space because he knows this so well.
There are no engineered standards at Lowe’s.
…one of the first things that Joe McFarland has done is we have started to put time and motion studies in place.
The negative comps in paint and lighting were the results of a very poorly executed reset…they were self-inflicted negative comps.
We are in the process of making sure that when we do and execute something like a reset that all of those activities are in one location under one leader, not in three different functions where it stands today.
…people like to win. And when they see changes occurring and results improving, it’s a lot easier to convince people to get on-board.
If you give an associate on the sales floor a choice between doing a task list of 15 things or serving the customer they are going to do the task list because you can measure if the task was done or not.
Joe is working with Don Frieson…to try a different (freight-in) model. And the different model, which I won’t go into ton of detail on has reduced the time by 60% to 70% that it takes to unload the truck.
You can’t improve service until you simplify what the associates are doing.
I was in a store earlier this week in Memphis, TN and we are looking at an end cap that was not very productive…the associates (said) I love it, because we never have to touch it…but if you are not touching it, wouldn’t that send a message that nothing is selling.
…we are looking at every end cap, every bay, every swing area, every drop zone, we are asking the question what’s the productivity that’s currently being generated.
I think the biggest supply chain initiative that we will talk in much more detail about at our upcoming Investor and Analyst Meeting is the ability to shift all of our customer delivery from the store to more of a central model.
Full transcript via Seeking Alpha
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