A night in Chicago with Walgreens CEO Stefano Pessina by Shia Kapos at Chicago Crain’s. “His private plane uses Chicago Executive Airport north of O’Hare, which is a short drive to Walgreens’ headquarters in Deerfield. Good thing. He says when he’s in town, he spends most of his time in the office. He puts his head down at night at a hotel in Wheeling. And he only visits Chicago now and again for dinner. “I don’t like to be in traffic,” Pessina acknowledged.” Read more

 

Walmart Launches OneOps, An Open-Source Cloud And Application Lifecycle Management Platform by Frederic Lardinois at TechCrunch. “So what can OneOps actually do? According to Walmart, one of the key benefits of the platform is that it works with multiple public and private cloud platforms out of the box. These include Microsoft Azure, Rackspace, AWS and CenturyLink Cloud, as well as any OpenStack cloud.” Read more

 

Amazon leases building south of downtown Seattle for mystery project by Todd Bishop at GeekWire. “One public document associated with the 6th & Holgate lease was signed by Amazon’s global real estate director, John Schoettler, not a lower-level manager, an indication that the initiative has the attention of people at the highest levels of the company.” Read more

 

NATURAL CONFUSION – More shoppers buying ‘natural’ food, yet most don’t know what it means by Hadley Malcolm at USA Today. “At least 60% of people believe a natural label means packaged and processed foods have no genetically modified organisms, no artificial ingredients or colors, no chemicals and no pesticides, according to the study by Consumer Reports. And 45% think that natural is a verified claim. It’s not.” Read more

 

How Walmart and P&G Are Trying to Reach Female Fans With Super Bowl Social Effort by Robert Klara at Adweek. “The centerpiece of the Walmart/P&G effort is a video produced by SheSpeaks, a media platform for female influencers that reaches 100 million consumers. The three-and-a-half-minute effort stars Mama McCourty, who knows a thing or two about Sunday football gatherings. McCourty’s twin sons, Devin and Jason, both play in the NFL.” Read more

 

**A message from ASD Market Week – ASD is the trade show with the highest ROI! On February 28 – March 2, 2016, we open the doors of the Las Vegas Convention Center to 45,000+ attendees looking to shop the world’s widest variety of wholesale lifestyle accessories and general merchandise at the lowest price points available. Discover hot new products and stylish finds from over 2,600 vendors in categories including: fashion & accessories, beauty & fragrance, gift & home, toys & novelties and many more. Learn more about ASD / See category list | See the show floor video | Register now

 

ZIKA HITS U.S. – Residents of Virginia, Arkansas test positive for Zika virus via Fox News. “In addition, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday that a young girl who traveled to El Salvador in late November had been infected with the illness, but had since recovered.” Read more

 

…Obama briefed on rapidly spreading Zika disease by Sarah Ferris at The Hill. “President Obama on Tuesday directed his top health officials to step up public outreach on the Zika virus, a mosquito-borne infection that is now expected to spread across the U.S.” Read more

 

WSJ: As Wal-Mart Closes, Town Looks to the Future by Sarah Nassauer. “Some locals say they hope Wal-Mart’s exit will leave room for smaller businesses to thrive again…“Winnsboro survived before the big box came,” she said, “and Winnsboro will survive without the big box.” Read more (subscription)

 

Warby Parker to open first Brooklyn store by Teresa Novellino at New York Business Journal. “This will be Warby Parker’s first brick-and-mortar store in New York City that is outside of Manhattan, where it operates four locations. Nationwide, the the onetime e-commerce-only company has about 20 stores.” Read more

 

Under Armour inks long-term deal with Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson by Ryan Sharrow at Baltimore Business Journal. “Under Armour will also develop product capsules inspired by the films Johnson is working on. The first product capsule will feature a Rock-inspired backpack and duffle bag in the next few weeks.” Read more

 

Belleville schools will miss Target’s money by Mary Cooley at Belleville News-Democrat. “This has been a stable funding source for that (fund), so I’d be remiss if I didn’t say it’s money we certainly appreciate” he said.” Read more

 

New Look GE Has Little Room for Consumers by Rick Clough at Bloomberg. “After agreeing to jettison its century-old home-appliances division this month, General Electric Co. may now shed its legacy business that sells lighting to retail customers.” Read more

 

Woolworths, Lowe’s fail to agree on a valuation for failed hardware JV by Eli Greenblat at The Australian. “Under the terms of the joint venture, both Woolworths and Lowe’s will now seek their own independent valuation for the Masters business over the next 15 days.” Read more

 

Walmart, Beverage-Makers Announce Water Donations for Flint via ABC News. “The retail giant, along with Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Nestle, announced Tuesday the collective donation will include up to 6.5 million bottles of water through December for at least 10,000 schoolchildren. Walmart says that since July, it has donated 14 truckloads of water and nearly 1,800 water filters.” Read more

 

Kohl’s Donates $2 Million to Discovery World “…for continued support of Kohl’s Design It!, an educational program that encourages kids to use technology to turn imagination into reality.” Read the release

 

Staples reportedly laying off hundreds, but stays mum by Megan Woolhouse at Boston Globe. “The job cuts were confirmed by a current employee and a former employee, both of whom asked for anonymity due to job and severance concerns.” Read more

 

Tipsheet Extra Stories

Walmart recommends shareholders reject “mini-tender” offer

Is Costco Being Overcautious About Going Online?

How Sephora is Helping Female Founders Launch New Beauty Companies

Real Housewives actress is not apologizing for Kmart rant

Polaris lays off 100 workers, half in Twin Cities

As sales of purses plummet, lingerie on the rise

Read Tipsheet Extra Stories

 

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