Target: Early Black Friday & Alpine Villages "...each of Target's...stores will transform into nostalgic Alpine Villages filled with festive décor...(and) will have weekend events in each store throughout the season...Target's three-day Early Black Friday Sale is back Nov. 6-8." Press release   Advance Auto Parts Q3 comp sales +3.0% Press release   How a lapse in SNAP benefits could affect consumers and retailers at CNBC. "On average, a SNAP beneficiary spends $832 per month on groceries, 20% more than a non-SNAP shopper...Hanus estimates a high-single digit percent of Walmart’s sales are related to SNAP, while Dollar General and Dollar [...]

  Amazon laying off about 14,000 corporate workers as it invests more in AI at CNBC. "This generation of AI is the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the Internet, and it’s enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before (in existing market segments and altogether new ones),” Beth Galetti, SVP of people experience and technology at Amazon, wrote. “We’re convinced that we need to be organized more leanly, with fewer layers and more ownership, to move as quickly as possible for our customers and businesses.” Read more   Wayfair Q3 total net revenue +8.1% Press release   PayPal [...]

  Tractor Supply Q3 comp store sales +3.9%  "Net Sales Increased 7.2%...Comparable Average Transaction Growth of 2.7%...Gross profit increased 7.7%" Press release   As many retailers shrink their footprints, Dick’s Sporting Goods goes big at CNBC. "The retailer is building more sprawling “House of Sport” stores, which typically come in at 120,000 to 150,000 square feet, more than double the 50,000 for its traditional locations...“We needed to build the concept that will kill Dick’s Sporting Goods,” Edward Stack...told CNBC in an exclusive interview..." Read more/9:19 video   Time: The Best Inventions of 2025 Full list   Amazon introduces ‘Blue Jay’ [...]

  Inside Amazon’s Plans to Replace Workers With Robots at NY Times. "...interviews and a cache of internal strategy documents viewed by The New York Times reveal that Amazon executives believe the company is on the cusp of its next big workplace shift: replacing more than half a million jobs with robots." NY Times subs.   ChatGPT Should Make Retailers Nervous at WSJ. "...easy comparisons and direct checkout could hurt retailers’ customer loyalty and take away add-on sale opportunities. It could also dent retailers’ important ad revenue. Of the roughly $59 billion that companies are expected to spend on U.S. [...]

  Walmart U.S. CEO John Furner says American manufacturing comeback is real at CNBC. "Furner was uncertain about the future (of tariffs). “As policies change, they’ll change. Environments will change. That happens. Commodities change,” he said. “We’ve landed in a place where we have more rollbacks going into the fall than we had at the beginning of the year, and that’s something we’re proud of.” Read more   Inside the Empire (Dick's) That Sports Parents Built at Bloomberg. "I’m a little embarrassed by this, but I love Dick’s,” one fellow soccer dad tells me. “When we walk in, I say ‘I [...]

  Walmart Partners with OpenAI to Create AI-First Shopping Experiences "For many years now, eCommerce shopping experiences have consisted of a search bar and a long list of item responses. That is about to change. There is a native AI experience coming that is multi-media, personalized and contextual. We are running towards that more enjoyable and convenient future with Sparky and through partnerships including this important step with OpenAI,” said Doug McMillon, President and CEO, Walmart Inc." Press release   Albertsons Q2 identical sales +2.2% "...with strong growth in pharmacy sales being the primary driver of the identical sales increase. [...]

  Costco September comp sales (ex fuel & f/x) +6.0%: US +5.0% / Canada +9.3% / Other Int'l +7.5% / Digitally enabled +26.3% Press release   China's Golden Week holiday spending dips in latest red flag for economy at Reuters. "Chinese holidaymakers' average spending dipped to a three-year low over this year's eight-day Golden Week holiday...Average spending per trip...down 0.55% from the same period last year, according to Reuters calculations..." Reuters subs.   Amazon just opened the warehouse of the future in rural Indiana at Fast Company. "The delivery center, known as DII5 and located in the town of Elkhart, [...]

  Why Did Walmart Just Buy a Shopping Mall? at NY Times. "Walmart owns most of its store sites, but its new purchase makes it a landlord to other merchants, too. If the Monroeville project goes well, it could serve as a template for a new way for Walmart and other large players to grow. A multiuse center could open new revenue streams from housing, child and pet care facilities, health centers, and recreational spaces like bowling alleys and movie theaters..." NY Times subs.   Adobe: U.S. Holiday Shopping Season to Rise 5.3% YoY "Mobile devices...set to drive a record [...]