“Target Shut Down Internal Sites Including Info Retriever” by Paul Ziobro at WSJ.  “One system is a human resources website for employees called eHR. The other is a database called Info Retriever that suppliers use to access sales data for their products in Target. Info Retriever came back online for external users last week, according to company emails sent to suppliers that were reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.  Target spokeswoman Molly Snyder said limiting access was part of the company’s response to the data breach.”  Read more

 

“BuildDirect Raises $30 Mil, Ready to Take on Home Depot/Lowe’s/Menards” by Alex Konrad at Forbes.  “A survivor of the first dot-com bubble, BuildDirect has infrastructure to scale up its operations and will increase its headcount to almost 400 by the end of this year.  “Technology has been largely kept out of this space, and that’s our advantage,” says CEO Jeff Booth. who was a builder himself before founding BuildDirect.”  Read more

 

“Walmart Suppliers: Top 5 Things to Do to Fend Off Chargebacks and Deductions” by Kim Souza at The City Wire.  “#1 – Don’t Backorder.  When a supplier breaks a single purchase order into multiple invoices and multiple shipments for that purchase order, it results in multiple receiving’s at the warehouse. Because of timelines involved in the invoice payment process, this will increase deductions being filed. Dennis said suppliers should bill and ship one invoice per purchase order. This is referred to this as ‘Fill and Kill’ the PO.”  See the full list

 

“Target’s $165M insurance firewall” by John Vomhof Jr. at Minn./St. Paul Bus. Journal.  “Business Insurance magazine reports that the Minneapolis-based retailer has “at least $100 million of cyber insurance, including self-insured retentions, and $65 million of directors and officers liability coverage,” citing insurance industry sources. It lists Ace, American International Group Inc., Axis Capital Holdings and AIG among the insurers.”  Read more

 

“Walmart’s President of Health & Wellness, Dr. John Agwunobi, Outlines Strategies” by Kim Souza at The City Wire.  “He admitted that Wal-Mart has taken a back seat to other drug store chains when it comes to in-store clinics.  “We have 140 or so in-store clinics at this time and hope to add more in the future. We continue to test and study this option, but we haven’t found the answer yet,” Agwunobi said.  He added that while a couple of drug store chains — Walgreen and CVS Caremark — have actively opened in-store clinics in the past two years, he isn’t sure the ventures are profitable.”  Read more

 

“Sam’s Club:  Q&A with CEO Rosalind Brewer” by Heather Weekly at Capital Style.  “What’s your favorite way to unwind after a long day?  I’m hooked on Scandal. I enjoy reading. I love a great cup of hot green tea and a book. That’s living, and that’s great.” Read the full interview

 

“Survive The Zombie Apocalypse With This $4,000 Costco Food Stash” by Michael Peck at Forbes.  “Apocalypse or not, how in heaven’s name could a grocery list possibly cost $4,000? The answer is 30,144 servings of freeze-dried and dehydrated food, enough to feed four people for a year, according to Costco’s description…And for extra peace of mind, your food package “arrives on a pallet that is black-wrapped for security and privacy.” So your neighbors won’t storm your house after the zombies cut off the food supply…”  Read more

 

“The new normal: Target to drop health insurance for its part-time employees” by Jackie Crosby at Star-Tribune.  “All of a sudden where you used to work 31 hours a week, it’ll be cut to 28 hours or less — and that’s a huge hit,” said Hess, of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 789 in St. Paul. “You’ll see a department that might have one or two real full-timers and the rest will be these perpetual part-time people who will never have a chance for full-time hours because Target is looking at everyone as a cost.” Read more

 

“Would You Watch a Whole Foods TV Show?” by Simon Dumenco at Ad Age.  “Well, this was inevitable in the age of big brands acting like media companies: Whole Foods Market has teamed up with fledgling network Pivot to introduce a half-hour TV series called “Dark Rye.” It premieres tomorrow at 9:30 pm EST and is set for a robust 20-episode run.”  Read more

 

“CVS Caremark More Than Doubles Lobbying Expenditures” by Kent Cooper at Roll Call.  “CVS Caremark reported spending $4,908,939 on lobbying activities during the 4th quarter of 2013. This is more than double the $2,209,926 reported for the third quarter of 2013. For all of 2013, CVS Caremark spent $13,128,502.”  Read more

 

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