By Jason Long, jlong@eyeonretail.net

 

Walmart’s top woman abroad heads to Chico’s by Erika Fry at Fortune. “Prior to joining Walmart, (Shelley) Broader served as COO and President of Michael’s, the arts and crafts superstore, and held a number of leadership positions with the Delhaize Group, the Brussels-based food retailer.” Read more

 

Costco Sparks Excitement in Madrid as Spaniards Spend Again by Maria Tadeo & Sharon Smyth at Bloomberg. “The Costco opening, along with a Primark store launch earlier in the month, reflects a more buoyant consumer backdrop in Spain, where unemployment is slowly declining and the economy is at the forefront of the euro area’s recovery.” Read more

 

Techstars’ retail accelerator at Target already received hundreds of applications by Kavita Kumar at Star Tribune. “So does he expect the number of applications to surpass a thousand? Broshar didn’t want to hazard a guess. The deadline for applications is mid-March and the first cohort of 10 startups selected to participate in the program will move to Minneapolis in June for the 3-month-long program.” Read more

 

Billionaire hedge fund investor Paul Singer buys stake in hunting outfit Cabela’s by Michelle Celarier at NY Post. “The billionaire hedgie, who runs $27 billion Elliott Management, revealed on Wednesday he has taken an 11 percent stake in Cabela’s…Shares jumped 17.6 percent, to $39.78, after Elliott suggested in a filing that the $2.32 billion market cap company might be a target for private equity.” Read more

 

Washington Post: Just 1% of items to draw 76% of our online shopping dollars this holiday season by Sarah Halzack. “Some 60 percent of those sales will be electronics, Adobe expects, and another 10 percent will be gift cards…” Read more

 

Dan Bartlett: There Is A Daily Referendum On Our Reputation by Paul Holmes at The Holmes Report. “One of the things I learned when I joined Walmart, is that there can be a fine line between being viewed as humble or being viewed as arrogant,” Bartlett said. “From the outside it can come across as this big, arrogant company. But from the inside, you come to understand it’s a deeply humble company.” Read more

 

Target CEO: Consumers Like to Experience Physical Stores via Bloomberg. “Brian Cornell, chief executive officer at Target, explains the advantage of having physical stores that work in conjunction with the brand’s online strategy.” See the video

 

WSJ: To open or not to open, that is the question facing American retailers this Thanksgiving by Drew Fitzgerald. “Black Friday has traditionally been a top sales day for retail overall, but times are changing. Melody Wright, chief operating officer of Midwestern department store Von Maur Inc., said that Black Friday is no longer a top five sales day as it was a decade ago.” Read more (Subscription)

 

Athena Database Pushes Ad Boundaries for Best Buy by Meredith Derby Berg at Ad Age. “The database has been publicly touted by execs as key to the company’s future since early last year. Now, CMO Greg Revelle says the marketing success surrounding back-to-school foreshadows the retailer’s plans for the all-important holiday season.” Read more

 

Wal-Mart suppliers hear from experts on new payment terms by Kim Souza at The City Wire. “More than 200 supplier participants took part in the webcast, with more were turned away because of a lack of capacity by the web host. The organizers said they will hold another session next week to address the overflow. Following are some of the (myths) addressed during the webinar…” Read more

 

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Gander Mountain Names New President “Derek Siddons, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, will assume the role of President, effective on the retirement of current president Michael J. Owens, on October 31, 2015.” Read the release

 

How Failed JC Penney CEO Ron Johnson is Redeeming Himself with Enjoy by Max Chafkin at Fast Company. “For Johnson, who was raised Lutheran, the decision to start Enjoy was partly spiritual. He had regular lunches with Ortberg, who encouraged him to think about work as an extension of his beliefs, as “love made visible.” Johnson has never talked about his faith publicly, but it’s been a part of who he is since he was a little boy.” Read more

 

Winn-Dixie trying to stand out by lowering prices of staple items by Justine Griffin at Tampa Bay Times. “McLeod said prices will be reduced on items like Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes and Domino granulated sugar by almost 20 percent. Some items will see price reductions of as much as 53 percent. “ Read more

 

Nebraska Furniture Mart brings dynamic pricing to stores by Don Davis at Internet Retailer. Read more

 

Amazon brings e-commerce to Fire TV and prepares to launch its own shopping channel by Todd Bishop & Tricia Duryee at GeekWire. “GeekWire has learned that Amazon is developing its own shopping channel, like QVC but with the ability to purchase products directly from the screen. That channel is expected to roll out next year.” Read more

 

Shipping from stores helps Target level the playing field with Amazon by Matt Linder at Internet Retailer. “The percentage of online orders delivered by Target within two days increased to 26% from August 2014 to October 2015 from 2% during the period of April 2012 to July 2014.” Read more

 

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