This company loves to move into locations where Sears fails by John Jannarone at CNBC. "There's still a lot of empty boxes out there and there will be for a long time," At Home CEO Lewis Bird III said in an interview this week. "We're the only retailer looking for a big box format." Read more   U.K: Amazon 1p sales bonanza after computer glitch misprices thousands of items, leaving angry retailers 'losing £30,000 overnight' at Daily Mail. "For an hour on Friday, between 7pm and 8pm, a problem with RepricerExpress led to hundreds of items being sold on Amazon at [...]

  NRF: Retail Sales Up 0.6% in November by Stephen E. Schatz. "Gains were consistent with NRF’s holiday sales forecast, which anticipates an increase of 4.1 percent over last year." Read more   The price is (no longer) right: Retail's big game by Krystina Gustafson at CNBC. "Amazon and Sears are the most dynamic retailers. They can alter what they charge on 15 to 20 percent of their assortment at least one time a day during regular shopping periods. Wal-Mart falls in the midrange, changing prices on about 6 to 8 percent of its assortment on a daily basis." Read [...]

  "Walgreen CEO Is Out as Top Shareholder Pessina Takes Over" by Michelle Fay Cortez at Bloomberg. "Walgreen Chief Executive Officer Greg Wasson will retire, clearing the way for top shareholder Stefano Pessina to tighten his grip amid a merger with his European retailer Alliance Boots GmbH...Pessina, 73, will be acting CEO while the company searches for a successor...The move makes almost a clean-sweep of Walgreen’s former executives." Read more   "How Wal-Mart Made Its Crumbling China Business Look So Good for So Long" by Renee Dudley & Liza Lin at Bloomberg. "The practices -- including bulk sales to other [...]

  "Costco Q1 Comp Sales +7%" "Net sales for the quarter increased seven percent, to $26.28 billion from $24.47 billion during the first quarter last year." Read the release   WSJ: "Costco Profit Gain Falls Short of Forecasts" by Angela Chen. "Profit for the quarter rose to $496 million, or $1.12 a share, from year-earlier earnings of $425 million, or 96 cents a share. Revenue improved 7% to $26.87 billion. Analysts had expected a profit of $1.52 a share and revenue of $26.92 billion, according to Thomson Reuters." Read more (Subscription)   "Costco's a deal for shoppers. The CEO may [...]

  "Americans plan to spend most in 5 years this Christmas" by Steve Liesman at CNBC. "The average American plans to spend $765 this year, up 12 percent versus last year, and about 6.5 percent higher than the average across the survey's nine-year history." Read more   "Bill Gates' dad leaving Costco's board after 11 years" by Ben Miller at Puget Sound Bus. Journal. "Costco said in an SEC filing that "the voluntary resignation is not due to any disagreement with the company on any matter relating to the company's operations, policies or practices." Read more   UK: One in three items of [...]

  "Walmart Dominates YouTube During Thanksgiving Holiday Period With 39 Million Video Views" by Amy Gesenhues at Marketing Land. "Report shows Walmart owned 50 percent of total channel views for top 100 retail brands on YouTube from November 19 though December 2." Read more   "Economists see revved-up economy next year" by John W. Schoen at CNBC. "In case you missed it, the U.S. economy is picking up speed. That's the view of a panel of business economists, whose latest growth forecast calls for a 3.1 percent advance in U.S. gross domestic product in 2015—up from a 2.2 percent expansion [...]

  "Amazon Unveils Its Own Line of Diapers, Confirming Partners’ Biggest Fears" by Jason Del Rey at Recode. "By working directly with a manufacturer, Amazon will be able to price the brand aggressively, with a 40-count package of diapers starting at $7.99. That works out to about 19 cents a diaper, compared to competitor prices that mostly range from 24 cents to 34 cents." Read more   "Target Employee's Epic Black Friday Pep Talk Goes Viral" at RTV 6 ABC. "People of Target, brothers, sisters, hear me now," he said. "They're standing out there. Any moment now, those doors will [...]

  "Tinkerbell To Shine In Walmart Ads for NBC’s ‘Peter Pan’" by Brian Steinberg at Variety. "Walmart will have the heaviest presence in what is a sold-out program, said Dan Lovinger, executive vice president of entertainment ad sales at NBCUniversal...Set to air live at 8 p.m. on Thursday, December 4, NBC’s “Peter Pan” production shows the network doubling down on a gambit that worked well last year – and is gaining traction across the TV-scape." Read more   "Costco November Comp Sales +5%" "Costco today reported net sales of $9.43 billion for the month of November, the four weeks ended [...]