By Jason Long, jlong@eyeonretail.net

 

Amazon doubles holiday ‘lightning deals’ to 30,000 by Krystina Gustafson at CNBC. “The move is one piece of Amazon’s early Black Friday sales event, which starts Monday and runs through Dec. 22.” Read more

 

Target Senior VP: “We think it’s all going to be about drones and Star Wars” this holiday season by Kavita Kumar at Star Tribune. Read more

 

Walt Disney Co. is so determined to maintain the secrecy surrounding its hotly anticipated “Star Wars” movie that it asked its publishing partner to delay the release of a hardcover book tied to the film and forgo a potential holiday sales bonanza by Jeffrey Trachtenberg & Ben Fritz at WSJ. Read more (Subscription)

 

Fortune: Look out, Home Depot: Gracious Home is making a comeback (with ex-Walmart exec at the helm) See the video

 

Forget delivery drones, meet your new delivery robot by Jeniece Pettitt via CNBC. “God forbid a drone or a robot hits a toddler, or kills a cat or a dog,” Broughton said. “The liability is just too high.” Read more

 

Cramer drafts ideas for Wal-Mart at CNBC. “It could strike a deal with T-Mobile, and offer to slice phone bills low…Or it could offer customers free internet if they spent $100 at Walmart.com or $50 on specialty marked items in store. Heck, it could even tell Howard Schultz from Starbucks that it will give away coffee for free to anyone with a Wal-Mart credit card and reimburse Starbucks for the coffee. “That’s why I didn’t want CEO Doug McMillon to commit to that $20 billion buyback over the next two years…” Read more

 

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FBI Takes a Bullet in Banks’ $50 Billion Fee War With Retailers by Elizabeth Dexheimer & Robert Schmidt at Bloomberg. “The FBI has accidentally stepped in a hot-button political issue,” said Nick Holland, who tracked the incident as an analyst at Javelin Strategy & Research, a consulting firm that focuses on the payments industry.” Read more

 

QVC: The unlikely juggernaut of mobile shopping by Sarah Halzack at Washington Post. “With a strategy centered on “second screening” — the tendency to watch TV while also swiping and tapping on a gadget — QVC has become the fifth-largest mobile commerce retailer in the United States…In fact, it is projected to ring up a mobile sales haul this year that is nearly as large as Wal-Mart’s.” Read more

 

Salt Lake Costco becomes largest in the world by Jasen Lee at Deseret News. “We decided to add a business center and combined it with a (traditional consumer) warehouse for a hybrid,” said general manager Craig Jamieson. “Currently, we’re the largest Costco on the planet.” Read more

 

Walgreens willing to shed 1,000 stores on Rite Aid deal by Ameet Sachdev at Chicago Tribune. “The cap represents about 8 percent of the combined company’s 12,700 U.S. stores.” Read more

 

How Wal-Mart’s Halloween Swat Team Stops Offensive Costumes by Jeff Green at Bloomberg. “The Wal-Mart compliance team doesn’t simply react whenever a product provokes a public backlash. Each day, often with (Bao) Nguyen’s help, the group scours headlines and online products to identify items that might become newly offensive in light of the day’s news. It’s a responsibility that extends beyond Halloween.” Read more

 

Struggling retailer Kmart turns the blue light back on by Nathan Layne at Reuters. “The retailer started sounding the blue sirens used to flag the surprise, 15-minute long deals to shoppers at its 942 stores on Friday, and will kick-off a marketing campaign to highlight the move with a TV ad on “Sunday Night Football” on NBC.” Read more

 

WSJ: Retailers Work Harder to Lure Holiday Employees by Suzanne Kapner & Paul Ziobro. “Toys “R” Us Inc. is giving part-time employees the chance to double their hours compared with a year ago. Macy’s Inc. is looking to turn more part-time jobs into full-time positions and Target Corp. is offering holiday workers more money for the busiest shifts…” Read more (Subscription)

 

Tipsheet Extra

ConAgra selling private label unit to TreeHouse Foods

Amazon Kills Credit Card Reader And Square Competitor, ‘Register’

It Turns Out Shopping-Center Santas Actually Do Bring People in the Door

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