Tipsheet: Trump Bashes Bezos | Costco Kidney | CVS Envelope Window | LL Bean Urban #1
Trump goes after Amazon day after report saying he wants to ‘go after’ the company at CNBC. “Unlike others, they pay little or no taxes to state & local governments, use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy (causing tremendous loss to the U.S.), and are putting many thousands of retailers out of business!” Trump wrote on Twitter.” Read more
Walmart commits to cutting 50 million metric tons of carbon emissions from its Chinese operations at Bloomberg. “There’s definitely a positive attitude from the Chinese government about the goals we are putting in place,” said Laura Phillips, the company’s Arkansas-based senior vice president of sustainability, said over the phone.” Read more
Family Dollar agrees to pay $45 million to settle long-running gender bias lawsuit by Katherine Peralta at Charlotte Observer. “According to the settlement, 37,000 female managers of Family Dollar stores allege that they were paid less than their male counterparts for doing the same job.” Read more
Toys R Us stores set to be bid on by Target, Big Lots and Aldi, among others at CNBC. “Out of the 58 “qualified bids” being considered, Target and Aldi both are looking at one location in Kendall, Florida, which is near a handful of college campuses. Big Lots is bidding on five stores — in Fresno, California; Exton, Pennsylvania; Durham, North Carolina; Woodbridge, Virginia, and Indianapolis.” Read more
52 percent of Democrats are now likely to purchase from Walmart compared to 44 percent five years ago at CNBC. Read more
A man looking for a kidney donor for 4 years might have finally found one — at Costco by Kerry Justich at Yahoo Finance. “While in the pet food aisle at Costco in Phoenix, Ariz., Duran was spotted by an 18-year-old who was curious about the “Kidney donor needed. Type B+. Ask me how” he was wearing…she decided to try and help him crowdsource an organ through social media.” Pics/Read more
Walmart changes annual shareholder meeting format, sets earlier business meeting by Kim Souza at Talk Business. “(Walmart) will separate the formal business meeting from the main event on Friday. The business meeting is slated for 10 a.m., May 30 — a Wednesday — at John Q. Hammons Center in Rogers. Shareholders will cast their votes for the proposals by the May 30 meeting which, will be webcast for those who can’t attend.” Read more | Press release
Vanity Fair Asks Sears CEO About Kidnapping by William D. Cohen at Vanity Fair. “Lampert has not talked publicly about (his 2003) kidnapping…When I asked him about it, he frowned. “You’re not going there, are you?” he says. “I don’t really want to talk a lot about it for a lot of reasons, but I know it’s not an unimportant event.” All he’ll say is that the experience was “not good” and “they could have made a different decision—let’s put it that way.” Read more
L.L. Bean opens first urban store by Catherine Carlock at Boston Business Journal. “At 8,600 square feet, L.L. Bean’s first urban store is among the larger retail footprints in Boston’s Seaport District. But the store is by far the smallest in L.L. Bean’s portfolio.” 33 pics/Read more
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Sprouts increases its credit limit by $250 million by Brandon Brown at Phoenix Business Journal. “…plans to open at least 30 more (stores) in 2018…This next year Sprouts is looking to move into four new states: Maryland, Washington, South Carolina and Pennsylvania.” Read more
Lawsuit claims CVS revealed HIV status of up to 6,000 people via NY Post. “…a letter that had information about getting HIV prescriptions through a CVS program was sent to about 6,000 participants in the state’s HIV Drug Assistance Program…CVS says the letter’s envelope window was intended to include a reference code for the assistance program, not the recipient’s health status.” Read more
JCP CEO: Excited that Shaq is joining the JCPenney Team as our Big & Tall spokesman. I’m 6 ft tall but Shaq is really tall! Twitter pic
New Hudson’s Bay CEO Helena Foulkes says execution lacking by Hollie Shaw via Vancouver Sun. “I think that the execution of (the transformation plan) was not good. It started with issues of alignment at the top, then essentially poor change management, so we had a lot of moving parts in the second half of last year with a good percentage of our folks in new positions and not enough clarity around their roles.” Read more
Everlane debuted a line of undergarments this week and the waiting list to buy them stands at 30,000 people by Melissa Wylie at New York Business Journal. Read more
Walgreens boosting hourly workers’ pay by $100 million per year by Lisa Schencker at Chicago Tribune. “Walgreens spokesman Michael Polzin said he couldn’t provide specific figures on exactly how much the move might change employees’ pay.” Read more (tiered subs.)
It’s only a year to go until Brexit — but top UK retailers are frustrated they can’t prepare for it by Silvia Amaro at CNBC. Read more
Rite Aid Completes Transfer of Stores to Walgreens Boots Alliance Press release
Tim Cook takes shot at Amazon HQ2 search and says Apple won’t conduct such a ‘beauty contest’ by Kurt Schlosser at GeekWire. Read more
Piggly Wiggly Independent Store Owners Enter into Agreement with Southeastern Grocers to Purchase Six Stores Press release
The vegans came to protest his restaurant. So this chef carved a deer leg in the window by Eli Rosenburg at Washington Post. “Ugar told CTV News that Hunter’s counterprotest had left her feeling “sad for a few days.” “He wanted to get us back, which I guess is easy to do. We’re only there because we love animals,” she said. “We were in shock,” she said.” Pics/Read more (tiered subs.)
Tipsheet Extra Stories
Christians raise hell about Sweet Jesus ice cream over controversial cross branding
FDA to consider what ‘healthy’ means and other claims food companies can make
Squatters to be ousted from vacant Sam’s Club lot in north Seattle
New Buffalo Wild Wings owner cuts 132 workers at HQ
These Salad Vending Machines Have Become One Of Chicago’s Hot Lunch Spots
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