"Day 1 of Walmart's New Pickup Grocery Format in Bentonville" by Kim Souza at The City Wire. "The City Wire registered online to try the new grocery buying experience. The registration was easy, requiring only an email address and password, home address and phone number – very similar to the registration for the Savings Catcher program or a typical online purchase...The City Wire purposely ordered fresh produce to see the quality the pickers would deliver. Two Gala Apples were in the order, the color was nice, but one of them had a small blemish that would not have met [...]

  Forbes Richest 400 Americans (Walton's take 6, 7, 8, 9 - Bezos #15) at Forbes.  See the full list   "Amazon’s Grocery Delivery Business Coming to New York City" by Jason Del Ray at Recode. "Amazon is preparing to start its Fresh grocery delivery business in New York City as early as next month, according to two people who have been briefed on the plans...In New York City, Amazon will be competing against FreshDirect, a 15-year-old business that is said to do around $400 million to $500 million in annual sales, according to multiple grocery industry executives." Read more [...]

  Target Surprise: Ranked #1 in Shipping Speed by Kavita Kumar at Star-Tribune. "I had to dig a little deeper to make sure that was really accurate,” said Kevon Hills, StellaService’s vice president of research. But it was. The study by the New York-based research firm found that Target shaved three days off its delivery time. Target’s packages reached StellaService analysts in 1.8 days last month, at least a day quicker than many other retailers who made the top 25." Read more   "Postal Service aims for grocery delivery beyond Amazon" by Jay Greene at Seattle Times. "For the past [...]

  "Amazon Will Pump $55 Million into Secretive Silicon Valley Lab" by Deepa Seetharaman & Noel Randewich at Reuters. "Amazon is testing a simple wi-fi device that could be placed in the kitchen or a closet, allowing customers to order products like detergent by pressing a button, one of the people said. Lab126 is also interested in wearable devices, the other person said. Both sources stressed that such devices may never come to market." Read more   Report: Ron Johnson to Start a High-End, On-Demand Delivery Service for Gadgets by Susan Berfield at Bloomberg. "A report claims Johnson is starting [...]

  NY Times: "Finding a Door Into Banking, Walmart Prepares to Offer Checking Accounts" by Hiroko Tabuchi & Jessica Silver-Greenberg. "Walmart is teaming up with Green Dot, known for its prepaid payment cards, to supply checking accounts to almost anyone over 18 who passes an ID check...Daniel Eckert, senior vice president at Walmart, said on Tuesday that the accounts would be available nationwide by the end of October. The accounts are intended to be low-cost alternatives to traditional bank checking accounts, with no fees for overdrafts or bounced checks and no minimum account balance." Read more   WSJ: "Fraudulent Transactions [...]

  Home Depot's Carol Tome at Atlanta Rotary Club:  Do-it-Yourself Automotive is Next Big Opportunity by Maria  Saporta at Atlanta Bus. Chronicle. "In response to a question about what was the next area of opportunity for the company, Tomé said the company currently had “Do-It-Yourself Automotive” in pilot “right now” in some of its stores. “And they make lots of money,” she said as she exited the stage. “Stay tuned.” After her talk, Tomé said Home Depot has pilots in about 50 stores in select markets across the country. “We really like what we are seeing,” she said. “It’s replacing your windshield [...]

  "Labor Groups Seek Probe of Wal-Mart's PAC" by Shelly Banjo at WSJ (Subscription). "Labor and advocacy groups are seeking an investigation into whether Wal-Mart violated federal election laws by soliciting employees for donations to its political-action committee in exchange for charitable contributions to a fund that helps Wal-Mart employees in need...Wal-Mart spokeswoman Brooke Buchanan said the company is confident its matching program is lawful and that the FEC will find the complaint lacks merit." Read more   ...HuffPo's Take: "Walmart's Plan To Encourage Political Donations Violates Election Law, Groups Claim" by Jillian Berman. "Walmart’s program is particularly controversial for [...]

  "Fortune's Most Powerful Women 2014 (Rosalind Brewer #15, Ann-Marie Campbell #38)"  See the Top 50 List   "Walmart & Others Looted in Los Cabos, Mexico After Hurricane" at WNEM-5. "The problem is no longer the hurricane," resident David Garcia said in a radio interview. "Everything started with the looting. Not even eight hours had passed since the hurricane before people started destroying stores."...Inside a waterlogged Wal-Mart superstore, there was nothing but puddles, trash, empty shelves and graffiti on the wall: "Long live crime!" Read more   "Home Depot Hacked After Months of Security Warnings" by Ben Elgin, Michael Riley [...]