Sam’s Club restructures its e-commerce team, moves unit under Sam’s Club management by Kim Souza at The City Wire. “Furner announced that Jamie Iannone, CEO of SamsClub.com, will also be the executive vice president of membership and technology for Sam’s Club and will begin reporting to him Feb. 1. Furner also created a new chief technology officer role for Sam’s Club which will be led by Hsiao Wang who will report to Iannone.” Read more

 

Why is Walgreens still selling cigarettes? Shareholders want to know by Lisa Schencker at Chicago Tribune. “Questions about why Deerfield-based Walgreens continues to sell tobacco products in its stores — more than two years after rival CVS Health stopped — dominated the question-and-answer portion of the meeting Thursday in New York…” Read more

 

Costco hopes to get Kirkland Signature golf balls back on shelves, shares stats on year by Janet I. Tu at Seattle Times. “The golf ball was a real coup for us,” Jelinek said Thursday at the company’s annual shareholders meeting. “We hope at some point we’ll get through the issues we have with the manufacturer and get it back in stock at some point.”…Among the interesting tidbits from the meeting, Jelinek said that 40 percent of new signups are of millennials. But “there’s only one problem with millennials and that’s that they don’t spend much money,” he said.” Read more

 

Wal-Mart revamps pay policy, speeds up training program at MarketWatch. “The retailer will abbreviate a training program that new employees must complete to earn $10 per hour. The six-month program introduced last year will now take three months to complete, said company executives.” Read more

 

Several retail chains on verge of bankruptcy after poor holiday sales by Lisa Fickenscher & Josh Kosman at NY Post.”…A fourth chain, outdoor retailer Gander Mountain — some of whose vendors stopped talking orders— just hired financial adviser Lazard, several sources told The Post.” Read more

 

…Wet Seal Will Close All 171 Stores in Latest Retail Bloodbath by Phil Wahba at Fortune. “The Wall Street Journal obtained a letter dated January 20, sent to staff at headquarters, saying Wet Seal had been unable to find a buyer or get a cash injection, forcing it to close down.” Read more

 

Former Lane Bryant exec has already landed another gig by Lisa Fickenscher at NY Post. “The women’s apparel retailing executive has been hired as the CEO of HoneyBaked Ham, a 60-year-old Atlanta-area retailer of precooked hams, turkey breasts and desserts.” Read more

 

‘Drop Shipping’ Looks Set to Go Mainstream as More Retailers Get on Board by Jennifer Smith at Wall Street Journal. “Home goods seller Pier 1 Imports Inc. and footwear chain Shoe Carnival Inc. are among the retailers that in recent months said they would begin using drop shipping to expand their online offerings. In a retail industry survey by supply-chain software vendor SPS Commerce Inc., 40% of respondents said they expect more drop-ship vendors in 2017.” Read more (subs.)

 

**A message from Lock-it Block-it – Get rid of the stick! It’s time to retire the ugly wooden sticks sitting in window tracks around the world. Wooden sticks fall out, require measuring and cutting and don’t adjust up or down (no summer breeze for you!). The Lock-it Block-it is a high-impact security bar that allows windows to stay open AND secure at the same time. 13 adjustment holes allow for inch-by-inch opening adjustments. Great for sliding doors/windows too! Watch the video. Retailers request samples: info@shiftmarketinggroup.net

 

Tesco is buying UK’s largest wholesale food retailer in a £3.7 billion deal by Oscar Williams-Grut at Business Insider. “However, Monteyne and other analysts flag that the deal will likely face close scrutiny from the competition watchdog because of the overlap in the convenience store market. Booker owns the Budgens, Londis and Premier chains.” Read more

 

hhgregg Q3 Comp Sales -22.2% Press release

 

Smartphone orders clog Starbucks shops, forcing coffee giant to revamp store designs by Taylor Soper at GeekWire. “Starbucks can’t specifically quantify how many customers it lost due to the congestion, but Johnson said it was the “most significant contributing factor” to the company’s 3 percent “comp”.” Read more

 

…Starbucks shares tumble on lowest same-store sales growth since 2009 by Sarah Whitten at CNBC. Read more

 

Amazon to close Kindle ‘Write On’ author community, pulling the plug on story lab by Todd Bishop at GeekWire. “Write On was called “doomed from the start” by the e-book industry news site Good e-Reader when the service launched in beta in October 2014…” Read more

 

Metro reaffirms Air Miles tieup after comments from grocery chain’s CEO about loyalty program’s ‘rocky’ times by Hollie Shaw at Financial Post. “Metro has reaffirmed its commitment to the Air Miles program after a report implied the grocery chain might be looking to drop the loyalty program in Ontario.” Read more

 

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