This Morning:  Walmart's Doug McMillon Appears on CNBC by Matthew Belvedere at CNBC. "This 2 percent to 3 percent growth range number just feels like it's kind of perpetual," he said on "Squawk Box" from the Business Roundtable meeting in Washington, D.C. "We're kind of like we were last year year. And as I look ahead to next year, it feels like more of the same." See the video / Read more   "Amazon’s Jeff Bezos Has Chosen an Heir Apparent" by Jason Del Rey at Recode. "There is a succession plan,” Bezos said in an onstage interview on [...]

  "Online Sales Grew 8% on Cyber Monday vs. 13-15% Projection" at Reuters. "Consumers are not holding back their purchases for deals on certain days anymore and that trend is becoming increasingly clear," said Jay Henderson, strategy program director at IBM." Read more   ...IBM: Mobile Accounted for 38% of Traffic & 20% of Sales on Cyber Monday "Consumers spent more money on their desktops with an average order value of $136.60 compared to their mobile devices at $116.96, a difference of 16.8 percent." Read the release   ...IBM: Facebook referrals drove an average of $126.31 per order, Pinterest referrals averaged [...]

  "Black Friday Fizzles With Consumers as Sales Tumble 11%" by Lauren Coleman-Lochner at Bloomberg. "The NRF had predicted that 140.1 million customers would visit retailers last weekend, a small decline from last year’s 140.3 million. Instead, only 133.7 million showed up. An effort by some retailers to put items on sale ahead of Thanksgiving may have contributed to sluggish demand on Black Friday, Shay said." Read more   ShopperTrak: Sales at retail stores totaled about $12.29 billion on Thursday and Friday, down 0.5 percent from last year at Reuters via Yahoo. "The research firm stuck by its forecast for November and [...]

  Today: Brian Cornell (and Bullseye!) to Ring Opening Bell at NYSE "To commemorate the start of the holiday shopping season, Cornell will join other executives and store leaders to ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. The group will have two special guests: the young star of Target’s holiday TV commercials and Bullseye, Target’s bull terrier mascot." Read the release   "Santa Ana girl, star of Target holiday ad, will open stock exchange on Black Friday" by Marla Jo Fisher at Orange County Register. "Tatum is really one of the stars of the spot, so we [...]

  "San Francisco passes first-ever retail worker 'bill of rights'" by Claire Zillman at Fortune. "The ordinances will require businesses to post workers’ schedules at least two weeks in advance. Workers will receive compensation for last-minute schedule changes, “on-call” hours, and instances in which they’re sent home before completing their assigned shifts." Read more   ....Applies to Retailers with 20+ Locations that Employ 20+ in San Fran at Politico.  Read more   "How an innovative NYC boutique wooed Target’s CEO" by Leigh Gallagher at Fortune. "For Target’s partnership, events will include an evening discussion with Nate Berkus and make-up lessons [...]

  Ferguson Fallout:  ...Walgreens Completely Engulfed in Flames at KMOV  Read more   Smolders from Fire ...in Oakland via SF Gate "A couple of hundred protesters lit a bonfire in the middle of Broadway as the Starbucks store on Ninth Street was trashed and looted of equipment and bags of coffee beans. Thieves then smashed into the nearby Smart & Final and ran away with booze bottles, snacks, 12-packs of beer and bags of dog food." See the pics / Read more ...Store Robbed by Brown Looted on National TV via Breitbart.  See the video   "Wal-Mart's Chief Merchandising Officer Out" [...]

  "National Retail Federation CEO to banks: Breaches are your responsibility, too" by Phil Wahba at Fortune. "Those are their cards,” Matt Shay tells banks." Read the interview   "Target healing from breach, though shoppers remain at risk" by Kavita Kumar at Star-Tribune. "The roulette ball came up on Target,” said Charlie O’Shea, an analyst with Moody’s Investors Service. “It’s not as much of a shock as it was before." Read more     "Video Interview with Target EVP Kathee Tesija" by Jennifer Reingold at Fortune. "She seemed genuinely excited to have Cornell, the company’s first outsider CEO, on board. [...]

  "Amazon leases office space near Empire State Building" by Jay Greene at Seattle Times. "We have leased this building primarily as corporate office space and we intend to sublease to other tenants the ground-floor retail space,” Amazon spokeswoman Kelly Cheeseman said. Amazon has no current plans to open its own store in the space." Read more   "Best Buy's Big Q3 Surprise" by Kavita Kumar at Star-Tribune. "(Best Buy) reported its first sales lift in nearly two years and a near doubling of profit, shattering analysts’ expectations. And in another surprise, it did so with little help from the [...]