Tipsheet: Wmart Food Boss Speech | Diversity:Target #22, CVS #50 | Costco +3% | Cabela’s -8.9%
Costco April Comp Sales +3% “Costco reported net sales of $9.42 billion for the month of April, the four weeks ended April 30, 2017, an increase of five percent from $8.98 billion during the similar period last year.” Press release
America’s Most Loved Brands (Amazon 76%, Home Depot 70%, Lowe’s 70%, Dollar Tree 68%, Kroger 53%) at Morning Consult Intelligence. “Since January 2017, Morning Consult asked nearly 200,000 people to rank the world’s biggest brands…” Full list
Cabela’s Q1 Comp Sales -8.9% “…while apparel categories comped negatively for the quarter, they have shown signs of improvement and were down less than the consolidated comp.” Press release
Wal-Mart seeks anti-corruption certification, in talks with regulators at Reuters. “The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) developed the so-called anti-corruption compliance program and Wal-Mart is hoping to be the first U.S. company to get certified under it, said Jay Jorgensen, Wal-Mart’s executive vice president and global chief ethics and compliance officer.” Read more
Walmart U.S. food boss says ‘basics’ a company focus; addresses Single Parent scholarship event by Nancy Peevy at Talk Business. “Charles Redfield spoke to an estimated 220 suppliers and community leaders…“I’ve been in my position for 18 months or so right now and I think we’ve fundamentally changed every single process of how we operate our stores to get the basics right – to satisfy customers.” Redfield said.” Read more
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Staples Revamps Marketing in Bid to Shed Retail-Industry Baggage by Matthew Townsend at Bloomberg. “The rebranding campaign kicks off next week with nationwide television commercials in which stores are nonexistent and products are only shown in passing. There’s no mention of discounts either.” See TV ad/Read more
Doug McMillon Meets With College Students via University of Arkansas. “Students in the U of A’s apparel merchandising and product development program got a behind-the-scenes look at Walmart by sitting in on a corporate Saturday Morning Meeting and then visiting with CEO Doug McMillon.” Read more
Smart & Final Q1 Comp Sales -2.5% Press release
Can Wal-Mart’s Expensive New E-Commerce Operation Compete With Amazon? by Brad Stone & Matthew Boyle at Bloomberg. “AMAZON IS DOMINATING” reads a slide on a large screen behind him. In the video, Lore presents a plan to bet Wal-Mart’s future not on e-commerce standbys such as books, electronics, and toys, but on product areas only now becoming popular online, including apparel, fresh food, and “everyday essentials” like drugstore items. “We’ll need to take the offensive, swim upstream,” Lore says. “As Sam Walton said, ‘Opportunity lies in the opposite direction.’ ” Read more
2017 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity (Target #22, CVS #50) Top 50 list
Loblaw sees gains in its Shoppers Drug Mart fresh food business by Hollie Shaw at Financial Post. “…same-store sales fell 2.1 per cent at Loblaw stores, excluding gas bar sales…At Shoppers Drug Mart, same-store sales rose 0.9 per cent overall, with pharmacy sales growing 1.3 per cent and front of the store sales growing 0.6 per cent.” Read more | Press release
Amazon Is Spending Insane Amounts of Money on Research by Lindsay Rittenhouse at The Street. “Amazon beat German automaker Volkswagen AG’s global research and development spending in 2016, which ranked number one from 2012 to 2015, by spending more than $16 billion. And, it may have just secured its lead with a record $4.8 billion outlay in its first quarter, according to Bloomberg data.” Read more
eBay SVP of North America Hal Lawton goes behind-the-scenes with sellers Facebook video
Best Buy Will Now Sell Vivint’s Smart Home Installation Services by Leena Rao at Fortune. “The new deal, which was announced on Thursday, places Vivint experts in more than 400 of the electronics retailer’s stores so that they can give customers advice about smart home devices and installation.” Read more
Fred’s April Comp Sales +1.2% “Fred’s total sales for the month decreased 3.0% year-over-year to $159.1 million from $163.9 million in April 2016.” Press release
Speculation emerges about HSN’s future and ‘frenemy’ QVC by Margie Manning at Tampa Bay Business Journal. “Jason Bazinet, an analyst at Citigroup Global Markets Inc., raised the question during a Wednesday morning conference call, citing a difficult seven or eight quarters for HSN.” Read more
CNBC’s Tim Cook Interview Video/Read more
Small Retailers Seize on Trump’s Unpopularity – And Strike Gold by Rina Raphael at Fast Company. “The Trump candle smells of a mix between meat and suntan lotion, and comes with an orange wig lid. “It smells bad,” confirms J.D Dobson, “it’s meant to.” In fact, they don’t even recommend lighting it.” Read more
Estee Lauder’s latest quarter shows how it is defying slumping mall traffic by Lauren Thomas at CNBC. “As Wall Street worries about dying department stores and falling foot traffic in malls, Estee Lauder says its makeup business is growing steadily…” Read more
Tipsheet Extra Stories
Sorry Chuck: Real Simple Tests Trader Joe’s New $1 Canned Wine Against “Two Buck Chuck”
Blame Hipsters for Making These Foods More Expensive
Toddler locks himself in car at grocery store, thinks being rescued is hilarious (pic)
Seven bounty hunters charged with murder after they opened fire on the wrong car in a Walmart parking lot
CVS security guard allegedly made shoplifters take nude pics
You Can No Longer Buy Skippy Peanut Butter in Canada
Crooks Are After the Grease From Your French Fries
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