Wal-Mart’s Suppliers Are Finally Fighting Back by Shannon Pettypiece & Matthew Townsend at Bloomberg. “Saying the new fees will hurt their own bottom lines, several vendors are hiring lawyers, and a top executive from at least one supplier visited Wal-Mart’s headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, in hopes of reversing all or some of the new terms…A smaller supplier, notified of the fees late last month and given two weeks to accept, said it won’t be able to make a profit on its Wal-Mart business under those terms unless it fires workers or cuts wages and benefits.” Read more

 

Wal-Mart contract changes still challenging suppliers by Kim Souza at The City Wire. “One pet supplier said their new agreement with Wal-Mart asked for an additional 1% discount on what was a 20-day payment term, except now Wal-Mart wants to extend the payment window to 90 days.” Read more

 

Fortune’s Most Powerful Women (Helena Foulkes #14, Roz Brewer #15, Ann-Marie Campbell #37, Michelle Gloeckler #38) See the full list of 51

 

Target supports national Equality Act to outlaw LGBT discrimination by Nick Woltman at Pioneer Press. “Target proudly stands with the LGBT community through all that we do,” said Caroline Wanga, the Minneapolis-based retailer’s senior director of diversity and inclusion, in a news release.” Read more

 

Kohl’s makes Fashion Week debut by Lisa Fickenscher at NY Post. “Not sure the backers of New York Fashion Week had Kohl’s in mind for a runway show. But the dowdy Midwest retailer made its runway debut this week…” Read more

 

Carrie Underwood hits it big time in the Big Apple as she unveils Calia at New York Fashion Week “While Carrie is used to sitting in the front row at fashion shows, this was the first time she was front and center as she hosted her own presentation.” See the pics / Read more

 

Sam’s Club Locations to Accept American Express Cards Read the release

 

Target to end ties with Cherokee apparel brand in 2017 by Kavita Kumar at Star Tribune. “Target will not renew its license once it expires on Jan. 31, 2017. The news, which was included in Cherokee’s second-quarter results, sent the brand’s shares tumbling more than 33 percent in after-hours trading.” Read more

 

Kroger Announces Appointments of Executive Vice Presidents via MarketWatch. “Mike Donnelly has been named EVP of merchandising, Chris Hjelm has been named EVP and CIO; Fred Morganthall has been named EVP of retail operations; and Mike Schlotman has been named EVP and CFO.” Read the release

 

Kmart Is First Out of the Gate With Holiday Ads — In September by Steven Perlberg at WSJ. “We understand it’s ridiculous to think about Christmas now,” says “Kmart Kelly” in the 30-second commercial, before listing reasons why doing so, as it turns out, is “ridiculously awesome.” See the ad / Read more (Subscription)

 

Target Style 2.0: Retailer Sends A Message Via Retro Spectacle With ‘Vogue’ by Barbara Thau at Forbes. Read more

 

FDA releases sweeping food safety rules by Lydia Wheeler at The Hill. “Small manufacturers of people food, those with fewer than 500 full-time equivalent employees, will have two years to comply with the rules, while full industry compliance is required within one year…The rules are expected to cost domestic human food manufacturing $382 million a year and foreign food manufacturers $820 million a year.” Read more

 

Boston: New Amazon warehouse hints at one-hour ‘Prime Now’ deliveries by Curt Woodward at The Boston Globe. Read more

 

Look Out, U.S Grocers, U.K.’s Free-for-All Heads Across the Pond by Saabira Chaudhuri at WSJ. “Analysts and others say the moves threaten to pressure discount chains like Wal-Mart and Supervalu Inc.’s Save-A-Lot, but could also further shake up the wider U.S. market.” Read more (Subscription)

 

The Container Store’s CEO Kip Tindell Inducted into World Retail Hall of Fame Read the release

 

Alice Walton selling $19.75 million Texas horse ranch by Carol Christian at Chron. See the 26 pics

 

Home Depot’s Craig Menear & Carol Tome Present at Goldman Sachs Retail Conferenece – Highlights:

Menear:

We think today that we are affectionately known with many of them as a great 7-Eleven for fill-in and we are working on how to become more of a primary source of purchase for them.

On narrower delivery windows for Pro’s: It is going a little bit slower than we had anticipated

Tome:

At the beginning of the year, we targeted $4.5 billion of share repurchases. Well, we have upped that to $7 billion for the year.

The truth is when we sold HD Supply, we would have loved to hold onto that facility’s maintenance business that they had.

Read the full transcript via Seeking Alpha

 

Tipsheet Extra

Target’s NY Fashion Week Party: Guests Ride on Carousel

Mystery solved: Lowe’s explains what’s inside of the big blue boxes in front of Charlotte store

Fortune: Three questions for CVS boss Helena Foulkes (2 min video)

Lorenzo Lamas’ Son A.J. Arrested for Allegedly Stealing From Target, Punching Security Guard

Former Wal-Mart workers protest at closed Pico Rivera store

Office depot involved in religious discrimination printing tiff

Read Tipsheet Extra Stories