“Walmart moves further into Target territory – 1.5 Miles from Site of First Target” by Tom Webb at Pioneer Press via San Jose Mercury News.  “Walmart is in the midst of an aggressive expansion into the Twin Cities metro, a market still dominated by Minneapolis-based Target and supermarket leader Cub Foods. The fact that both Target and Cub’s parent Supervalu have headquarters here is widely seen as one reason Walmart shied away from this area for so long.”  Read more

 

“Home Depot Chairman Blake’s total comp steady at $11M” at Atlanta Business Chronicle.  “Blake got about $11 million last year, including a $1.06 million salary (basically flat), about $4.9 million in stock awards (up 6 percent), about $2.4 million in option awards (down 9.5 percent) and $2.6 million in non-equity incentive plan compensation (up 4.7 percent).”  Read more

 

“Walmart’s Asda to create ‘up to 12,000 jobs’ over five years” at BBC.  “The announcement came after Wal-Mart chief executive Doug McMillon met Prime Minister David Cameron in an Asda at Clapham Junction in London on Monday.”  Read more

 

“Claim:  Target Funneling Customer Traffic to Center Checkout Lanes to Increase Sales” by Brian Sozzi at Belus. “At assorted times of the day, from Monday to Sunday, the center three checkout stations were crowded, outright holiday season-like lines. It seemed odd at off-peak periods to have long lines, and even larger lines in peak periods, for instance on Sunday afternoon. After a while of thinking on this and observing/taking notes, Target may have implemented a plan to no longer operate its outer checkout lanes.”  Read more

 

“Walmart to Open 40 to 50 More Wholesale Stores in India Over the Next Four Years” by Laurie Burkitt at WSJ.  “Mr. Price said the retailer’s India-based cash-and-carry wholesale business will also roll out online sales this summer. He said the model will start small, with only one wholesale store posting its products for sale online. Mr. Price added that the store’s staff will deliver the goods to the mom-and-pop stores that order them as much as 40 kilometers (about 25 miles) away, he said.”  Read more

 

“Dollar General’s CEO Is Selling. Should You?” at The Motley Fool.  “Dollar General has enjoyed 24 consecutive years of successful same-store sales growth. This is a record Dollar General is proud of, and a reversal could spell trouble for the stock price. Same-store sales were up 3.3% for 2013 but only 1.6% for the fourth quarter.”  Read more

 

“Wal-Mart Swears Its New Pregnancy Policy Has Nothing to Do With Outside Pressure” by Susan Berfield at Businessweek.  “Of all the issues that Wal-Mart faces—protests over wages, factory conditions in Bangladesh, weak sales—this one is relatively easy to address.”  Read more

 

“Kohl’s Revamped Marketing Goes for the Heartstrings” by Natalie Zmuda at Ad Age.  “In the absence of a chief marketing officer — a role Kohl’s has had previously — Ms. Gass is leading the charge. She’s overhauling the retailer’s marketing, showing a preference for emotional, heartwarming messages over promotional plays.”  See the ads / Read more

 

“Neiman Marcus data breach tied to Russian group (Target’s hackers were ‘less sophisticated’)” at Dallas News.  “Investigators initially suspected that the Russian syndicate was responsible for the recent series of security breaches at Target Corp. and other retailers. But the trails diverged during the investigations.  Serious incursions at Target and Irving-based Michaels Stores are thought to have been perpetrated by two less-experienced and less-sophisticated hacking groups, or a mix of veterans and newcomers, according to people with knowledge of the cases.”  Read more

 

“Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and family donate $20M to Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center” by Taylor Soper at Geek Wire.  “This marks the second time the Bezos family has donated money to the Fred Hutchinson Center after it gave $10 million in 2009 to support similar immunotherapy research.”  Read more

 

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