“Millennials may kill Costco, and mobile app Boxed is happy to speed that along” by Erin Griffith at Fortune.  “Today (Boxed) announces it has raised $6.5 million in new funding to expand, adding to its prior $1.1 million seed round…Boxed launched last year to bring bulk shopping to mobile…Boxed doesn’t charge membership fees…CEO Chieh Huang says he expected the app to be popular with millennials in cities, many of whom don’t drive or don’t live near suburban Costco locations. But Boxed has been popular in rural areas simply because it’s convenient, he says.”  Read more

 

“Bezos Backed Pro.com Coming After Home Depot & Lowe’s” by Rachel Lerman at Puget Sound Bus. Journal.  “Pro.com makes money off commissions from the professional when a job set up through the site is completed. The company is focused on job generation rather than lead generation, Williams said.  That’s one of the main differences he sees between Pro.com and Porch…“(Pro.com) is much deeper into the transactional side of connecting the consumer with price information that leads to a qualified professional that leads to a booked appointment,” Williams said. “It’s much more e-commerce than a directory.”  Read more

 

“Macy’s 1Q profit rises, though cold chills sales” at Yahoo.  “Revenue slipped 1.7 percent to $6.28 billion. Analysts expected a profit of 59 cents on revenue of $6.46 billion. Revenue at stores open at least a year fell 0.8 percent.”  Read more

 

“Sears Canada For Sale” by Bertrand Marotte at Globe & Mail. “Sears Holdings Corp. said on Wednesday it is “exploring strategic alternatives for its 51% interest in Sears Canada, including a potential sale of Sears Holdings’s interest or Sears Canada as a whole.” Read more

 

“America’s Most Reputable Companies, 2014 (Amazon #21 – only retailer ranked)” by Susan Adams at Forbes.  See the Top 100 list

 

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“Target Gets in Early on Pinterest Ads” by Nick Halter at Minn./St. Paul Bus. Journal.  “(Target is) among 12 that will be featured while Pinterest tests the idea and gathers user feedback.  We’re keeping the test small so that we can collect as much feedback as possible, but we’re hoping to open it up to more businesses throughout the year,” Pinterest’s Head of Partnerships Joanne Bradford wrote in a blog post.”  Read more

 

“A report says Wal-Mart isn’t very “collaborative.” Is that so bad?” at Forbes.  “And what about Walmart, which, was named “least collaborative” of 10 brands by one of every 1,220 adults surveyed? King praised WalmartLabs, the retailing giant’s tech arm, which actually does a lot of work with social media and other collaborative tools. Walmart’s low score with consumers may be due to a “perception problem,” King suggests.  Read more

 

“Survey: Hacking is a major threat that Americans don’t care about” by Joe Garafoli at SF Gate.  “At least that’s according to the latest survey from Unisys Security Index, which regularly takes the temperature of the 10,000 U.S. consumers. It found that 37 percent of Americans said they were not concerned at all about computer viruses and spam, the largest proportion of the survey…Respondents were similarly unconcerned about the safety of online banking and transactions. The largest chunk of participants — 34 percent — were not concerned and 28 percent were only somewhat concerned.”  Read more

 

“Kohl’s Has ‘Hit a Wall’, Wants New Chief Merchant to Succeed CEO” by Suzanne Kapner & Joann S. Dublin at WSJ. “Mr. Mansell is planning a management shuffle, according to a person familiar with the matter. And he is also scouting for a new chief merchant who would be a candidate to ultimately succeed him, people familiar with the matter said…Kohl’s board is looking for Mr. Mansell, 61 years old, to demonstrate progress on those fronts at a board meeting Wednesday, the day before Kohl’s reports first-quarter earnings.”  Read more

 

“Rona: Wait Until Next Year” by Ross Marowits at The Canadian Press via CTV-Montreal.  “After years of declining same-store sales, Robert Sawyer said it would be “very ambitious” to achieve growth this year…”Sooner will be better but I think 2015 (is more likely),” he told reporters after the chain’s annual meeting…Sawyer denied that the Reno chain is losing ground to rivals Home Depot or Lowe’s, saying only 65 of its 530 stores compete directly with the U.S. chains. It also specializes in the contractor business which it rivals don’t touch, and doesn’t sell appliances like they do.”  Read more

 

“Cabela’s building 600k sf shipping center in Tooele, Utah”  by Tony Semerad at Salt Lake Tribune.  “The 600,000-square-foot building at 280 N. Industrial Loop Road will handle freight and product shipping to Cabela’s customers at the chain’s 54 U.S. stores across North America.”  Read more

 

“Retail Sales Unchanged in April as Consumers Tempered Spending (See Breakdown by Category)”  NRF Press Release

 

“Meijer Opens Two 190k sf Stores Outside of Indy”  “The Plainfield and Whitestown stores are creating more than 540 new jobs.”  Read more

 

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