Kroger's California subsidiary to bar Visa credit cards amid fee dispute at CNBC. ""Visa's rates and fees are among the highest of any credit card brand," Foods Co. said...The ban on Visa credit cards will take effect starting Aug. 14 and affect 21 Foods Co. stores and fuel centers in central and north California." Read more   Lumber Liquidators Q2 Comp Sales +4.7% Press release   How a warehouse fire sparked company-wide innovation at Gap by Elizabeth Segran at Fast Company. Read more   Phoenix will be the first city for Kroger's driverless grocery delivery by Steve Watkins at [...]

  Walmart's vision of using store employees to deliver online orders to shoppers’ not going as planned by Nandita Bose at Reuters. "Walmart is now testing a more modest service with just four Walmart employees who deliver goods from a single store in Woodstock, Georgia, Reuters has learned...Walmart is also overhauling the guidelines for employees and limiting deliveries to groceries and related items such as paper plates. Walmart spokeswoman Molly Blakeman confirmed that the retailer ended its first experiment early this year." Read more   Ten weeks into J.C. Penney CEO search, chairman Ron Tysoe said 'high-caliber candidates' are interested [...]

  Second-quarter GDP jumps 4.1% for best pace in nearly four years at CNBC. Read more   Done Chasing Millennials, J.C. Penney Tries to Win Back Moms by Suzanne Kapner at The Wall Street Journal. "Penney Chairman Ronald Tysoe said the board’s priority is to recruit a CEO with apparel experience...“The challenge is to reinvent, but you don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater,” Mr. Tysoe said. “To some extent, we did that.” Subscription   Target adds former Walmart exec to supply-chain team by David Clarey at Minneapolis/St.Paul Business Journal. "Gemma Kubat will be Target's senior vice president [...]

  United Natural Foods to buy grocery retailer Supervalu in $2.9 billion deal at CNBC. "United Natural Foods...offered Supervalu shareholders $32.50 per share in cash, a 67 percent premium to Supervalu's Wednesday closing price...United Natural Foods is the the primary supplier for Amazon's Whole Foods Market, and said it plans to sell some Supervalu retail assets after the deal." Read more   Walmart makes a bigger bet on its baby business following Babies R Us' demise at CNBC. "Walmart said that over the past year it's added 30,000 additional items to its baby assortment online. Searches for baby-related items on [...]

  Waymo strikes deals with Walmart, others to boost access to self-driving cars at CNBC. "Waymo autonomous vehicles will pick up customers and drive them to various locations in the Phoenix area. In some cases, customers will be offered savings or deals in order to be shuttled around in Waymo vehicles." Read more   Congressional committee hears opinions on the online tax issue by Allison Enright at Internet Retailer. "Eight citizens provided testimony before the committee, including online sellers, a representative of state legislatures and tax reform proponents." Read more   Lululemon names former Sears Canada exec Calvin McDonald as [...]

  Google CEO confirms Target as big cloud customer by Nat Levy a GeekWire. "The announcement follows reports last year that Target was shopping for a new cloud provider, reportedly deciding it wanted to scale back business with a company it is also competing with in Amazon." Read more   Shares of online pet pharmacy PetMeds drop the most in 6 years after earnings miss at CNBC. "President and CEO Menderes Akdag said the profit miss resulted from decreasing prices on products and increased advertising to attract new customers." Read more   Overstock is making a push into real estate at CNN [...]

  IKEA’s Strategy in India: If We Build It, They Will Come at Wall Street Journal. "The (first store in) India...set to open next month in the southern city of Hyderabad, will feature IKEA’s first in-house furniture-assembly team, with 150 full-time employees. IKEA created the optional service after research indicated many Indians would be unlikely to buy bookshelves and tables they had to screw together." Subscription   Why Amazon Is Warning the U.K. Government About 'Civil Unrest' by Grace Dobush at Fortune. "Brexit without a trade deal would lead to civil unrest within two weeks, Amazon’s top U.K. manager said. The [...]

  Costco launches online grocery shopping delivery in Canada, but only Ontario by Emily Jackson at Vancouver Sun. "Costco eventually plans to expand deliveries to the rest of Ontario and into Quebec. No timelines have been set for other regions in Canada...Costco Wholesale operates 99 warehouses in Canada." Read more   Best Buy Should Be Dead, But It’s Thriving in the Age of Amazon by Susan Berfield & Matthew Boyle at Bloomberg. Tiered subs.   Walmart cuts optical center jobs in Arkansas and Indiana by Kim Souza at Talk Business. "Just three years ago Walmart was ramping up its manufacturing [...]