Shoppers boost retail sales 0.9% in March by Shan Li and Samantha Masunaga at LA Times. “The lift in spending was a welcome sign after a winter of sales declines but fell below economists’ estimates of a 1% or higher jump in March from February.” Read more

 

Wal-Mart defeats bid for shareholder vote on gun sales by Jonathan Stempel at Reuters. “In Tuesday’s order, the appeals court said “Wal-Mart may exclude Trinity’s proposal from its 2015 proxy materials.” Read more

 

Consumer Reports: Costco has Best Price on Generic Prescription Drugs at ABC 7 News CA. “We priced the cost of five common generic prescription drugs at more than 200 pharmacies across the country. Costco was substantially less expensive than any other chain store,” said Gill.” Read more / See the video

 

Target nears $20 million MasterCard data breach settlement at Reuters via Fortune. Read more

 

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Best Buy to Sell $1,000 Drone by James Nash at Bloomberg via Mercury News. “Best Buy…plans to have the product in more than 400 stores starting May 31, Ryan Stanzel, a spokesman, said in an e-mail.” Read more

 

Dick’s cuts back on growth plans by Paul J. Gough at Pittsburgh Business Times. “It now expects to have between 735 and 750 stores by the end of the 2017 fiscal year, up from 603 at the end of fiscal 2014 but not as many as the 800 it expected it would have back in September 2013.” Read more

 

…Dick’s 2015 Analyst Meeting Presentation See the 66 slides

 

…Dick’s Updates Financial Targets Read the release

 

JC Penney executive inadvertently discloses same-store sales by Fred Imbert at CNBC. “In the email, the official said the company’s first quarter same-store sales to date have risen 6 percent, J.C. Penney said.” Read more

 

Amazon Search Share For Products Rises by Laurie Sullivan at MediaPost. “Where do you start when searching for products to buy online? About 43% of participants in a recent survey start with Amazon, up from 38% in December. Another 43% said they start with search engines, down from 55% in December.” Read more

 

Washington Post: Where the poor and rich really spend their money by Max Ehrenfreund. “…the rich, the poor and the middle class all spend about 19 percent their grocery budget on fruits and vegetables, about 22 percent on meats, and about 13 percent on breads and cereals.” Read more

 

Amazon billionaire Bezos discovers how things get sold in the real world on trip to Rome by Louise Boyle at Daily Mail. “The 51-year-old wandered around the stalls dressed casually in a pair of aviator shades and blue checked shirt with a woman and young boy before buying a few things.” See the pics / Read more

 

Reusable Grocery Bags Make You More Likely To Buy Organic Kale—And Also Candy Bars by Adele Peters at Fast Company. “To put it in a cute phrase, you no longer give yourself a cookie for recycling a bottle,” she says. “It’s become the norm. When bringing bags becomes the norm, it may be that you don’t get a cookie for it.” Read more

 

Target Workers’ ‘Closing Time’ Farewell Goes Viral See the video / Read more

 

This Pharmacy Startup Wants To Change The Way You Take Your Medicine by Sarah Hedgecock at Forbes. “…instead of sending all the Lipitor in one bottle and the Viread in another, pills are sorted together into clear plastic wrappers printed with the date and time at which they should be taken…The company now employs 66 people; 15 have the sole job of helping patients transfer their prescriptions from brick-and-mortar pharmacies over to PillPack.” Read more

 

North Carolina: Publix acquires two former Lowes grocery locations by Jennifer Thomas at Charlotte Business Journal. “We’ve opened eight stores in North Carolina within the past year, solidifying our commitment to growth within the state,” Publix CEO Ed Crenshaw says in a news release.” Read more

 

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Eye-on-Retail Tipsheet is created early every weekday morning and read by retail merchants and executives worldwide. We love data, earnings reports, executive presentations and stories off the beaten path that get at what’s happening in the world of retail. Contact us at info@shiftmarketinggroup.net.