Amazon’s ‘1-Click’ patent expires today by Monica Nickelsburg at GeekWire. “Amazon won the patent back in 1997 when the nascent company was still just an online book retailer.” Read more

 

Home-Improvement Retailers Scramble to Restock in Florida by Sarah Nassauer at Wall Street Journal.”Lowe’s is deemed part of “restoration and recovery” in most U.S. states, a classification that lets its trucks drive into storm-struck areas before citizens, said Rick Neudorff, emergency command center operations manager for the Mooresville, N.C., retailer. “A good portion of my responsibility outside of storm response, when it’s slow, is to build a relationship with those people,” Mr. Neudorff said.” Read more (subs.)

 

Foot traffic at Whole Foods stores spiked by more than 25% over two days last week by Lisa Fickenscher at NY Post. “Online sales also soared last week when shoppers were able to purchase more than 2,000 Whole Foods items on Amazon.com, according to One Click Retail, which found that Amazon sold $500,000 worth of products via its Prime Pantry and Amazon Fresh venues.” Read more

 

Amazon’s Fake Review Problem Is Now Worse Than Ever by Emma Woollacott at Forbes. “The data is confirming everyone’s suspicions: reviews in the last few months are definitely looking more unnatural,” he says. “As you can see, in June, July and August 2017, the average review weight drops off considerably, meaning that we’re seeing a lot more suspicious reviews posted recently.” Review chart/Read more

 

Pet-store puppies linked to bacterial outbreak among people in 7 states by Karin Bulliard & Lena H. Sun at Washington Post. “Federal health officials said Monday that they are investigating a multistate outbreak of Campylobacter infections traced to puppies sold at Petland, a nationwide chain of about 80 pet stores. The bacteria, a common cause of diarrheal illness that can spread through contact with dog feces, has sickened at least 39 people.” Read more

 

There Will Be More Retail Stores Opening Than Closing In 2017 by Richard Kestenbaum at Forbes. Stores opening/closing charts

 

**A message from Fabe – 100% Made in Italy pillow prevents neck and back pain. Fabe’s Ergo Praxis pillow supports and aligns the head and neck to prevent cervical pain. Created in cooperation with Ludes University in Switzerland – it gets the body in the right position for a good night’s sleep. Fabe Website | Retailers request samples at info@eyeonretail.net. Italy-America product connection

 

$150 Billion Misfire: How Forecasters Got Irma Damage So Wrong by Brian K. Sullivan at Bloomberg. “…something called the Bermuda High intervened and tripped it up. “We got very lucky,” said Jeff Masters, co-founder of Weather Underground in Ann Arbor, Michigan. If Irma had passed 20 miles west of Marco Island instead of striking it on Sunday.” Read more

 

Retailers turn in higher conversion rates during back-to-school shopping season by April Berthene at Internet Retailer. “Target increased its conversion the most month over month, by 16%, compared with 12% for Walmart.com.” Charts/Read more

 

Darkstore wants to be the ‘invisible retailer’ by Megan Rose Dickey at TechCrunch. “Darkstore, the on-demand fulfillment startup, recently partnered with T-Force Final Mile to expand to 33 additional markets across the nation…T-Force Final Mile is a last-mile delivery company that delivers items for IKEA, Office Depot and Amazon.” Read more

 

Facebook aims to transform retailers’ print catalogs into mobile ads by Zak Stambor at Internet Retailer. “Facebook says a “dozen or so” retailers have been testing the ad format, including J.Crew, West Elm and Williams-Sonoma. The social network plans to expand the format to businesses globally next month.” Read more

 

Foursquare Traveler Chain Loyalty “Walgreens customers choose Walgreens 63% of the time when traveling, and AM/PM customers choose AM/PM over other c-stores 40% of the time.” Download report

 

Living in China Takes 3½ Years Off Your Life by Te-Ping Chen at Wall Street Journal. “That is according to a new analysis by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago, which also finds that in northeastern cities like Harbin, which are located in the country’s industrial heartland, that figure is as high as 6.9 years.” Read more (subs.)

 

U.S. News Ranks Best Colleges Full list

 

When people are stuck inside, this stock wins at CNBC. “Netflix always does well when people are shut in. It’s as much of a storm play as Amazon, which gets new Prime members when local stores are closed for inclement weather,” Cramer said.” Read more

 

Sports Drink Makers are Waging an $8 Billion Thirst War by Larissa Zimberoff at Bloomberg. Read more

 

The happiest state in the union is Minnesota via NY Post. “The runners-up were Utah, Hawaii, California, Nebraska and New Jersey. The unhappiest was West Virginia, followed by Oklahoma, Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas and Mississippi.” Read more

 

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