“Lowe’s to open two stores in New York City next year” by Ken Elkins at Charlotte Bus. Journal. “It plans to open the two Manhattan stores during the second half of 2015. Each will measure about 30,000 square feet…The stores will be located at 2008 Broadway at West 68th Street and at 635 Sixth Ave. at West 19th Street.” Read more

 

“Lowe’s ranked the best, Home Depot the worst in “fake hack” contest” One major retailer actually listed their employee schedule on Instagram. Of course, this type of information would allow for a very personalized attack on staff. One contestant found a confidential document with the signature of the CEO. One major retailer had posted a document that openly listed their password policy as the first three letters of their company + first three letters of the employee last name and a two digit code.”  See the 9 retailers ranked

 

“Family Dollar shareholders to vote Dec. 11 on $8.5B merger with Dollar Tree” by Jennifer Thomas at Charlotte Bus. Journal. “The meeting is scheduled for 10 a.m. at the Harris Conference Center on the Harris Campus of Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, according to the filing.” Read more

 

“New Call of Duty video game out next week, Wal-Mart sells a day earlier than GameStop, Amazon” at Star-Tribune. “Wal-Mart Stores Inc. says the game will be available at its stores starting at 12:01 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 3 for $60.” Read more

 

…Walmart Starts Selling Used Games Next Week by Jenna Pitcher at IGN. “Walmart will begin selling pre-owned games on November 3 in 1,700 stores across the U.S., the retail giant announced today.” Read more

 

“Newest Workers for Lowe’s: Robots” by Rachel King at WSJ. “The OSHbot will greet customers, ask if they need help and guide them through the store to the product. Besides natural-language-processing technology, the 5-foot tall white robot houses two large rectangular screens—front and back—for video conferences with a store expert and to display in-store specials. The head features a 3-D scanner to help customers identify items.” Read more (Subscription)

 

“Chip-based cards targeted after Home Depot hack” by Cory Bennett at The Hill. “Security researcher Brian Krebs first reported Monday that financial institutions had flagged tens of thousands of dollars of fraudulent chip-enabled credit and debit card transactions. “ Read more

 

“Ballmer: Amazon won’t be a ‘real business’ until it makes money” by Rachel Lerman at Puget Sound Bus. Journal. “In my world, you’re not a real business until you make some money,” Ballmer said. “I mean, I have a hard time with businesses that don’t make money at some point. I get it if you don’t make money for two or three years but Amazon’s — what — 21 years old and not making money.” Read more

 

“Radio Ad Round-up” at Radio Ink. “The Home Depot, with just over 35,000 commercials (last week), was second. No major surprises this week as Rite Aid finished third with just under 28,000, Walgreens was fourth with 25,745, and Macy’s rounded out the top five with 24,145.” Read more

 

“Sam’s Club Really, Really Wants You to Renew Your Membership” by Kim Souza at The City Wire. “Consumers often have a ‘not that I would, but I could’ mentality with products and services. Most Sam’s members will never take advantage of the health and legal services but it’s nice to know that they could if they wanted to,” Long said.” Read more

 

“Marissa Mayer Trying to Poach Top Amazon Sales Exec” by Kara Kwiser at Recode. “And among those she has been trying to entice, according to sources close to the situation, is Amazon’s head of global advertising sales Lisa Utzschneider. The well-regarded exec has been at the e-commerce giant for six years and, previous to that, she worked for a decade at Microsoft.” Read more

 

“Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s Stores to Open in Abu Dhabi in 2018” The Macy’s (205,000 square feet on four levels) and Bloomingdale’s (230,000 square feet on four levels) stores will offer a merchandise assortment, ambience and customer service similar to each brand’s shopping experience in the United States.” Read the release

 

“IL Pols Make Timely Pre-Election Amazon Announcement” “Governor Pat Quinn, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin and Amazon.com, Inc. today announced plans to create more than 1,000 full-time jobs and $75 million in investment in Illinois. Amazon is beginning site selection activities and it plans to open its first facility in Illinois next year.” Read the release

 

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