Best Buy names Corie Barry as its new CEO, Hubert Joly to become board’s executive chairman at CNBC. "Corie Barry, currently the company’s chief financial and strategic transformation officer, will become its new chief executive officer, effective June 11...current U.S. chief operating officer Mike Mohan will be promoted to president and COO, while the company conducts an internal and external search for a new CFO." Read more   FDA threatens to fine Walmart, Kroger and c-stores for selling tobacco to minors at CNBC. "The agency cited high rates of violations in nearly identical letters sent to retailers last week. [...]

  Walmart acquires adtech startup by Sarah Perez at TechCrunch. "Polymorph’s technology includes a high-speed ad server, a self-serve interface and server-side header bidding. This, says Walmart, will make advertising easier for thousands of brands and will deliver more relevant ads to consumers." Read more   J. Crew is considering an IPO for its Madewell clothing brand at CNBC. Read more   Stop & Shop supermarket workers in 3 states go on strike via Boston Herald. "Stop & Shop...has 415 stores across the Northeast but the strike affects 240 stores in the three states...According to broadcast reports, managers were keeping [...]

  Costco March comp sales +5.7% (U.S. +6.9%, Canada +3.8%, Other Int'l +1.6%, Ecom +20.6%) Press release   Fred's to close 159 stores and start clearance sales at 360 locations by Kelly Tyko at USA Today. "The closing stores represent nearly 29% of Fred's 557 stores and are located in 13 states with Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee losing the most stores...Only 37 stores or 7% of stores are not included in either the clearance or liquidation sales." Read more   Bed Bath & Beyond Q4 comp sales -1.4% Press release   ‘Jeff Bezos challenges rival retailers to match Amazon’s [...]

  Amazon exec tells employees that Go stores will start accepting cash to address ‘discrimination’ concerns at CNBC. "The spokesperson described the process as “you’ll check out, pay with cash, and then get your change.” “We are working to accept cash at Amazon Go,” the spokesperson said." Read more   Walmart Puts Reusable Bags at Store Checkouts to Reduce Plastic by Matthew Boyle at Bloomberg. "...rolling out ten new designs, each available for 98 cents, at the bagging stations of its 4,756 Walmart-branded stores. That’s more expensive than the previous version of reusable bags that it sold -- but those [...]

  75,000 more stores need to close across the US, UBS estimates at CNBC. "Assuming online sales’ share of total retail sales in the U.S. grows to 25% by 2026, from 16% today...about 21,000 clothing stores, 10,000 consumer electronics stores, 8,000 home furnishing stores and 1,000 home improvement stores should close, UBS says." Read more   Walmart Is Rolling Out the Robots by Sarah Nassauer & Chip Cutter at Wall Street Journal. "...at least 300 stores this year will add machines that scan shelves for out-of-stock products. Autonomous floor scrubbers will be deployed in 1,500 stores to help speed up [...]

  Lowe’s to cut over 200 jobs in Charlotte, relocate hundreds more to nearby HQ by Katherine Peralta at Charlotte Observer. "On Thursday morning, roughly 600 full-time employees at the Lowe’s corporate offices in Wilkesboro were informed that their jobs would be shifting to the retailer’s headquarters in Mooresville, about an hour away. About another 80 Wilkesboro-based tech jobs will be moved to the Lowe’s data center in Winston-Salem." Tiered subs.   Walmart CEO McMillon interviewed on CNBC: "I think ... the consumer is in pretty good shape. I think the customer is in about the same shape they were [...]

  Target raises its minimum wage to $13 an hour, with goal of reaching $15 by end of 2020 at CNBC. Read more   Walmart upgrades its baby registry at CNBC. "Online traffic to Walmart’s babies pages is up 30% year over year, according to the retailer...Walmart is adding “thousands” of new baby products online and “dozens” of new baby brands in-store." Read more   Amazon quietly removes promo spots that gave special treatment to its own products by Catherine Shu at TechCrunch. "As lawmakers pay more attention to the most powerful tech companies, Amazon has begun quietly removing some [...]

  GameStop Q4 total global sales -7.6% Press release   Loblaw looks to leverage loyalty data with online advertising business by Jake Emiston at Financial Post. "The pilot project, to launch Wednesday, will see Loblaw ask members of its PC Optimum loyalty program agree to become the audience for online ads that Loblaw itself will serve up across the internet, based on what it knows about its customers. In exchange, those members will get rewards points for each ad they see." Tiered subs.   These are the 25 most attractive employers in America, according to LinkedIn (Amazon #3) at CNBC. [...]