Tipsheet: Nordstrom Cuts 400 | CNET Slams Lowe’s Iris | Target Ups Min. to $10 | Q&A Wmart Labs CTO
Nordstrom to lay off about 350 to 400 people – majority of the cuts coming from HQ by Janet I Tu at Seattle Times. “The 400 positions represent nearly 6 percent of the company’s 7,000 employees who work for corporate divisions…The cuts should be completed by July and are expected to save the company about $60 million.” Read more
How Sam’s Club Is Widening its E-Commerce Lead Over Costco by Phil Wahba at Fortune. “(Sam’s Club’s) web site now gets 16 million unique visits a month and sells 51,000 different kinds of items…All that has given Sam’s Club a head start over Costco in the e-commerce battle. (Costco) still doesn’t offer customers the option of placing orders online that they can fetch from a store.” Read more
CVS invests in Curbside, a startup that lets you buy online, pick up at store by Jason Del Rey at Recode. “Drugstore chain CVS has invested in Curbside, a Silicon Valley startup that allows shoppers to order products online and pick up their orders from a local store without leaving their car. The drugstore chain and the startup have been working together since last year, when they launched a pilot test in three cities that now encompasses 350 CVS locations.” Read more
Sources: Target increases minimum wage to $10 an hour by Nandita Bose at Reuters. “Target management has informed store managers, who in turn have started informing employees about the wage hike and most employees who earn less than $10 per hour should see their base pay go up in May, two sources with direct knowledge of the situation told Reuters.” Read more
Las Vegas woman awarded about $13 million in lawsuit against Lowe’s by Kimber Laux at Las Vegas Review-Journal. “Sean Claggett, one of Hendrickson’s attorneys, asked the jury to imagine what the next 41 years for his client will be like, “being a burden on her kids, not being the wife she should be to her husband,” and not being able to pursue her passion of driving a school bus because of her injuries.” Read more
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Lowe’s Iris focuses on the future, loses sight of the present by Andrew Gebhart at CNET. “Lowe’s Iris generation two doesn’t hold up on its own merits as a good smart-home system. It is more responsive, but using the app is tedious and counterintuitive. Some pieces of hardware don’t work consistently…Wink, SmartThings and Insteon all have similar features for free, and all are a better buy than the second generation Lowe’s Iris system right now.” Read more
Bass Pro Founder Presents President George H.W. Bush with Giant Fishing Lure by Jake Walker at The Eagle. “(Johnny) Morris’s voice began to shake when he started to talk about the president. He said you can learn a lot about a person when you’re sharing a fishing boat with each other on the water, and Bush’s love for fishing was no secret to anyone. “There’s never been a more steadfast friend to all fishermen,” Morris said.” Read more
Q&A with Walmart Labs CTO by Joab Jackson at The New Stack. “When you come up with folks and say, “Hey, we’re going to be re-platform the world’s largest retailer.” People are just, “Yeah. That’s something interesting you got.” So, I was able to attract some really great talent to do that.” Read the interview
Costco exec Jeff Lyons delivers message to Nebraska farmers on chicken plant via AJC. “Supporters say the plant would create 1,100 new jobs and provide other financial benefits to the community…The meeting, however, was an invite-only affair on private property. Costco representatives said that there weren’t going to be any public meetings for residents to voice concerns while the company’s leaders were in town.” Read more
Tulsa: Costco readies first Oklahoma store for Thursday open by Samuel Hardiman at Tulsa World. “Anita Fulsom, assistant general manager, said customers tell them that they have traveled to Wichita or Texas to get to the closest warehouse. “Now that we’re finally going to be here, they don’t have to take a three-hour drive,” she said.” Read more
Supervalu Adds James Weidenheimer as Executive Vice President, Corporate Development and Chief Innovation Officer Read the release
NY Times: General Mills and 7-Eleven Join the Venture Capital Crowd by Randall Smith. “The traditional consumer packaged goods model of big advertising budgets, trade leverage and scale — a lot of those factors have been neutralized by these small brands,” said John Haugen, who heads the General Mills venture fund.” Read more
Tipsheet Extra Stories
eBay’s Hal Lawton Reveals Three Areas of Focus
Gay pastor ‘horrified’ to find ugly slur on Whole Foods cake
Minnesota company buys Staples Print Solutions
The 10 Best Workplaces in Texas (Container Store #2, Whole Foods #10)
Canada: Le Chateau to close another 40 stores in next three years
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