Today’s Tipsheet: GameStop +4.4% | Sundance Wants 150 Stores | Kroger Sues Big Tuna | Starbucks +500 in China
GameStop Holiday Comp Sales +4.4% “…growing 4.9% in the U.S. and 3.2% internationally….Sales of new hardware increased 4.5%, as consumers were motivated by manufacturer promotions for Sony’sPlayStation 4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One.” Read the release
Walgreens to sell 56 Chicago-area clinics to Advocate by Lisa Beilfus via MarketWatch. “Privately held Advocate, the largest health system in Illinois, operates about 250 care sites and 12 hospitals. “ Read more
Kroger sues big tuna brands by Steve Watkins at Cincinnati Business Courier. “The suit in a federal court alleges that Tri-Union Seafoods, a unit of Thai Union Group that makes Chicken of the Sea tuna; StarKist, owned by a South Korean firm; and Bumble Bee Foods teamed up to fix canned tuna prices from 2008 until July 2015.” Read more
CNBC: What’s behind Wal-Mart’s lonely rally? by Alex Rosenberg. “Of the 30 stocks in the Dow Jones industrial average, only Wal-Mart is higher on the year. It’s also the seventh-best-performing stock in theS&P 500 index…Calling Wal-Mart “our best $35 oil idea” in a mid-December note, Nomura analyst Robert Drbul wrote that low oil and gas prices help Wal-Mart…” Read more
CANADA – Cross-border shopping expected to ‘all but die’ via Financial Post. “Overall, the low loonie is a positive for Canadian retailers,” said Arlin Markowitz, who analyses urban retail investment properties for CBRE. “It’s not only keeping Canadians’ purchasing power at home, but it’s also attracting tourists.” Read more
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Jeff Bezos on Fortune cover as Lord Vishnu irks Hindus at Hindustan Times. “Can’t tell what’s worse: the text, the visual, or the fact that it must have passed multiple layers of approval,” a Twitter user named Manu tweeted in response to Dash’s post.” See the cover / Read more
Ex-Walmart Exec Named Lowe’s Canada Divisional VP Of Merchandising via The Street. “Alan Blundell will report to Igor Halencak, Head of Merchandising and Marketing for Lowe’s Canada.” Read the release
Amazon’s India Rival, Flipkart, Changes CEOs by Jason Del Rey at Recode. “Sachin Bansal will become executive chairman…Binny Bansal, formerly chief operating officer, will now run the business day to day.” Read more
eBay Enterprise buys affiliate technology vendor AffiliateTraction by Zak Stambor at Internet Retailer. “EBay Enterprise says the move will give far more tools to the retailers who work with its affiliate marketing program, which has 59 retailer clients in the Internet Retailer Top 1000.” Read more
Robert Redford’s Sundance Ramps up – May Open as Many as 150 Stores by Lisa Fickenscher at NY Post. “Robert Redford’s Sundance Holdings is going bricks and mortar in a big way after more than 25 years as mostly a catalog and e-commerce site. The $165 million company has just five stores, but is ramping up to open as many as 150.” Read more
General Mills sues yogurt rival Chobani over ad campaign by Mike Hughlett at Star Tribune. “In fact, the television commercial that leads the Chobani Attack Campaign goes so far to convey that, because Yoplait Greek 100 is laced with a pesticide, it is so dangerous and unfit to eat that consumers should discard it as garbage.” Read more
STANDING JOB OFFER FROM JEFF BEZOS – This Millennial Might Be the New Einstein by Farah Halime via Yahoo. “Asked by e-mail recently whether his offer still stands, Bezos told OZY: “God, yes!” Read more
Texas board approves retailing degree at University of North Texas by Maria Halkias at Dallas Morning News. “UNT said its degree is the first in the U.S. to include the three main components of retailing: merchandising, digital and operations.” Read more
Starbucks Plans 500 More Cafes in China by Rachel Chang at Bloomberg. “We have no intention of slowing down and we remain very optimistic and bullish on the opportunities that Starbucks has in China…”John Culver, Starbucks President of the China and Asia-Pacific region, said in a telephone interview Tuesday. Read more
Charging a Smartphone While Driving Isn’t as Free as You Think by Jeff Green at Bloomberg. “By far, the cheapest way to charge a smartphone is at home, Bereisa said. With gasoline at $2 a gallon, it costs about 2 cents an hour to charge a phone in a car compared with about 0.06 cent at home, or 33 times less. “ Read more
Tipsheet Extra
This Harvard grad wants to bring a huge, exotic fruit to your dinner table
Nine Retailers Recall Store-Branded Children’s Cold Medicine Over Overdose Risks
Inside the town that Domino’s built: How the pizza chain’s founder established Ave Maria, a Florida community called a ‘Catholic’s paradise’
Retailer to test invisible barcodes for faster check-out
Is Under Armour Losing Favor With Women?
Why MasterCard’s CMO Predicts a Merger Between VR and the Internet of Things (video)