India tightens e-commerce rules, likely to hit Amazon and Walmart at Reuters. "India will ban e-commerce companies...from selling products from companies in which they have an equity interest...the government also said that the companies will be prevented from entering into exclusive agreements with sellers." Read more   U.S. Commerce Department won't publish economic data during shutdown: WSJ via Reuters. "The Commerce Department releases key figures on gross domestic product, inflation, personal income and spending, trade and new home sales..." Read more   Early holiday shopping numbers are on track to break season records by Rachel Siegel at Washington Post. [...]

  Last-Minute Shoppers Increasingly Trust Only Amazon to Deliver by Karen Weise at NY Times. "Olivia Zimmermann (bought) a Bluetooth speaker from Best Buy for her sister. It was supposed to arrive by Dec. 10, two weeks before Christmas. The speaker never showed up...“I just want a refund,” she told the retailer, and then added: “At this point, I have already ordered from Amazon because I know for a fact it will be here when they say it will.” Tiered subs.   Nike crushes earnings expectations at CNBC. "In North America, Nike's biggest market, sales rose 9 percent to $3.78 [...]

  Walgreens Q1 US comp sales: Pharmacy +2.8% / Retail -3.2% Press release   ...Walgreens Boots Alliance's plans $1 billion in cuts, stock drops at CNBC. "Targets will include global spending, organization and digitalization of the business. The initial focus will be on the U.S. and U.K., the company's largest markets." Read more   Pier 1 Imports Q3 comp sales -10.5% Press release   ...Pier 1 Imports Appoints Cheryl Bachelder Interim CEO "Ms. Bachelder succeeds Alasdair James, who has stepped down from the Company...Ms. Bachelder most recently served as chief executive officer of Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, Inc. from 2007 to [...]

  CVS THORN - Judge orders a lengthy review of CVS-Aetna deal that’s likely to keep it bogged down in the judicial process well into the spring by Josh Kosman at NY Post. "Specifically, Judge Leon ordered the Department of Justice to respond to 95 complaints that had been filed against the merger as of Monday. The DOJ, in turn, said it will take until February to respond to the complaints." Read more   LORE ON MAD MONEY - Food delivered 'right into your fridge' is the future, says Walmart's e-commerce chief at CNBC. "...the delivery person arrives "with a camera [...]

  Kroger launches Nuro unmanned vehicles to delivery groceries to customers in Arizona by Ben Tobin at USA Today. "Kroger announced its partnership with Nuro in June. The companies started a pilot program in August to test the unmanned delivery service. Customers can pay a $5.95 flat rate for same-day or next-day delivery. There is no minimum order requirement." Read more   Forget Drones. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos Needs Lots of Delivery Guys by Spencer Soper & Thomas Black at Bloomberg. "The Dragos now have 42 vans and 70 employees who each deliver about 250 packages in a typical day. Their profit is [...]

  Jay Jorgensen, Walmart’s global chief ethics and compliance officer, to exit the company in January by Kim Souza at Talk Business. "Daniel Trujillo, who has served as senior vice president and international chief compliance officer, will replace Jorgensen, according to an internal company memo sent Friday (Dec. 14) by Rachel Brand, Walmart’s chief legal officer." Read more   Delivery robot bursts into flames at UC Berkeley by Sophia Brown-Heidenreich at The Daily Californian. "Garnering more than 300 reactions and more than 90 comments within an hour of uploading, the video of the robot in flames made waves on the page. [...]

  Costco Q1 comp sales +8.8% (US +11% / Canada +2.4% / Other Int'l +4%) Press release   ...Reuters: Costco margin dip overshadows sales beat "We’ve seen a little bit more margin pressure as there’s been a little bit more retail competitive pressure out there, not only from supermarkets but Sam’s as well,” Costco Chief Financial Officer Richard Galanti said, referring to its grocery business." Read more | Transcript via Seeking Alpha   U.S. core retail sales accelerate in November at Reuters. "Retail sales excluding automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services surged 0.9 percent last month after an upwardly revised [...]

  Judge seems likely to block CVS-Aetna merger by Josh Kosman at NY Post. "I expect Leon to issue some kind of an injunctive order to keep them from integrating,” a source close to the case told The Post. Such a ruling, in turn, could kick-start a procedural saga that might delay the $69 billion merger for months, rather than the weeks that most investors anticipate, insiders said." Read more   Nielsen: 45% often or always use devices while watching TV by Sarah Perez at TechCrunch. Read more   Lowe’s to hire 2,000 software engineers amid company overhaul by Katherine [...]