Fortune Best Workplaces in Retail 2024 (Wegmans #1, Sheetz #2, Target #3) Top 20 list

 

US holiday sales to grow at slowest pace since 2018, report says at Reuters. “U.S. holiday sales are expected to grow at their slowest pace in six years, data from Deloitte showed on Thursday as persistent inflation and dried up savings turn shoppers more frugal for the all-important shopping period. Holiday retail sales are likely to rise between 2.3% and 3.3% in the November 2024-January 2025 period, totaling up to $1.59 trillion, data report said, from a 4.3% growth to $1.54 trillion last year.” Read more

 

Amazon starts testing ads in its Rufus, shopping-focused chatbot at TechCrunch. “Ads will be shown based on Amazon search and conversational context, Amazon says, and Rufus may generate text to accompany existing ad copy in certain cases.” Read more

 

He Didn’t Realize Jeff Bezos Was Buying His $79 Million Indian Creek Home. Now He’s Suing. at WSJ. “Jay Parker, Elliman’s CEO of the Florida region, called Kryss personally to say that Bezos wasn’t the buyer and that the purchaser wouldn’t pay more than $79 million, according to a complaint filed…Kryss then agreed to sell at a 7.1% discount—only to find out after closing that the purchaser was in fact an entity tied to Bezos…” WSJ subs.

 

Signet Jewelers Q2 comp sales down 3.4% Press release

 

Target shopping cart ‘redesign’ prompts outrage from parents at NY Post. “On a gray section in the back of the bucket seat, there are also tiny holes that Darling says are the “Perfect size for toddler fingers — to get their fingers literally stuck in there.”…In this case, however, the court of public opinion didn’t take Darling’s side online…” Read more

 

NRF Names American Fashion Designer Tommy Hilfiger as The Visionary 2025 Press release

 

How Blenders founder Chase Fisher’s $5 ‘beater’ sunglasses led to deal with Deion Sanders at Fox Business. “So, I went to Target and the first thing I saw was a pair of $5 neon green sunglasses, and I wore them out to the club. I kid you not, everybody was coming up to me and asking about my shades…There was like all this buzz around my sunglasses, and I was like, ‘Damn, these are only $5 that I bought from Target.’” Read more

 

Famous Footwear Q2 comp sales down 2.9% Press release

 

Walmart Rolls Out Caroline’s Carts “Caroline’s Carts are designed for…people with limited mobility or injuries. The seat has a capacity to hold 35-250 pounds…all stores scheduled to be equipped with the carts by early 2025. The order from Walmart this year is greater than all Caroline’s Cart orders combined since manufacturing began in 2012.” Press release

 

Amazon rejects plea to stop selling taxi roof signs as cab scam spreads across Canada at CBC. “Toronto police report that since June 2023 the department has received 919 reports of the taxi scam, totalling $1.7 million in losses.” Read more

 

Market study says Amazon is spending up to $20B on Project Kuiper satellite network at GeekWire

 

Lululemon Is Seeing a Slowdown in Its Women’s Business. Has It Reached Its Ceiling? at WSJ. “Competing brands are a deeper problem than a lack of variety in the lineup, Jefferies analysts said in a note last week. “While we acknowledge that product newness and color are important factors, we believe the bigger challenge lies in heightened competition from brands like Alo and Vuori, which are rapidly gaining market share,” the analysts wrote.” WSJ subs.

 

Thrive Market Announces New Retail Media Network Powered By Instacart Press release

 

Tesco loses UK legal battle over ‘fire and rehire’ of staff at Reuters