"Jay Z and Mariah Carey, Coming to a Walgreens Near You" by Zack O'Malley Greenburg.  "The partnership stems from a meeting (former Def Jam chief Kevin) Liles had with executives from Walgreens. They were talking about foot traffic and demographics...Liles asked for a list of the company’s best-selling product categories, and discovered that the beverage segment was among the top. That’s when the inspiration struck, he says, to partner with major artists and create something capable of becoming a significant player in that niche."  Read more   "Eight Largest Cities Without Walmart" at MarketWatch.  "There are no Walmart stores [...]

  "Target Canada employees issue mea culpa in new video" by Hollie Shaw at Financial Post.  "A company video shared in social media by president Mark Schindele carries an apologetic tone and a commitment to turn things around...“Certainly, we think that we have disappointed our Canadian guests,” says Damien Liddle, senior corporate counsel, echoing a promise to do better voiced by multiple employees in the two-minute clip."  See the video / Read more   "@WalmartLabs Grabs Its First 'Silicon Alley' Startup With Acquisition of Fashion App Stylr" by Sarah Perez at TechCrunch.  "The app, which helps consumers find clothes they love in [...]

  "Target Hit with Register 'Glitch' and Long Lines on Sunday" by Kavita Kumar at Star-Tribune.  "Customers around the country took to social media Sunday night reporting long check-out lines due to ­registers not working.  Target did not elaborate on the exact problem or problems, but said it would provide updates as they became available. It also was not immediately clear how many stores were affected by the glitch.  "Earlier this evening, Target experienced a glitch that impacted the speed of checkout at some of our U.S. stores. Since that time, we’ve been able to restore our check-out process. Once [...]

  "Whole Foods' CFO dishes on the early days" by Colleen Leahey at Fortune.  "What was the atmosphere like when you first started? We were just about to open stores seven and eight [Richardson, TX, and Palo Alto, CA], so the company was very small. [Co-founder] John Mackey actually did the financial plan on a spreadsheet on one of those Mac computers—what were the first ones called? Those little square television-looking ones."  Read more   "Why Lowe's is Working with a Team of Science-Fiction Writers" by Natalie Zmuda at Ad Age.  "Mr. Nel declined to comment on budgets for either the [...]

  "Amazon to take on Angie's List/Home Depot/Lowe's by connecting patrons with service providers" by Deepa Seetharaman at Reuters via Columbus Dispatch.  "Amazon.com Inc. plans to launch a marketplace this year for local services, a broad term that encompasses anything from baby sitters to handymen, people familiar with the matter said...at least one of the startups contacted by Amazon focuses on home repair." Read more   "Target Wastes No Time With an Extremely Brief Annual Meeting" by Susan Berfield at Businessweek.  "Wait—that was it? Target’s annual meeting Wednesday afternoon in Dallas seemed to be over before it really began.  Apparently [...]

  "Michael Bloomberg Backed Moms in Action Take Their Fight to Target Shareholder Meeting"  "Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America today announced that it will host a "Stroller Jam," a gathering of moms and children with their strollers, outside of Target Corp.'s annual shareholder meeting in Dallas on Wednesday to continue its call on Target Corp. to prohibit the open carry of guns in Target stores."  Read the release   Today in Dallas:  Target Annual Meeting of Shareholders   Webcast at 1:30 PM CST   "Sozzi:  Carl Icahn Knows That Your Local Family Dollar is a Mess"  "An activist [...]

  "At Target, board vote should be 6 yes, 1 no" by Lee Schafer at Star-Tribune.  "(James) Johnson is no more responsible for Target getting hacked than any of the others, but he should have long since been gone from this board because of his disastrous turn as CEO of Fannie Mae. While he’s managed to remain a statesman, he is as responsible as anybody for putting in motion the practices that led to the 2008 economic collapse while collecting Wall Street levels of compensation to do it."  Read more   "Why a Publix-Whole Foods deal makes sense -- and why [...]

  "Wal-Mart Shareholders recap: Customers and new tech are the focus" by Kim Souza at The City Wire.  "(Doug) McMillon said the goal (of Click & Collect) is to adopt something like he saw at ASDA recently. He said the grocery order was placed online to pick up at the store. But on the way to the store, the shopper remembers three or four items left off the online order. When arriving at the store, the shopper can run inside and gather the three items left of the list and have them packaged with their online order and loaded in their vehicle." [...]