“Costco Comp Sales +5% in April”  “Costco Wholesale Corporation today reported net sales of $8.56 billion for the month of April, the four weeks ended May 4, 2014, an increase of seven percent from $7.98 billion during the similar four-week period last year.”  Read more

 

“Wal-Mart gets green light to build its drive-in grocery center” by Kim Souza at The City Wire.  “According to the plan the consumers will drive up to the kiosk and get a parking slot number where they will park and wait on the delivery of their groceries. Early descriptions of the drive-in facility were Sonic-like, a closer examination of the plans look to be more like a cross between a Boomerang Car Wash and a Sonic. The consumer drives up to the kiosk similar to Boomerang and then instead of pulling through the carwash they drive into a parking space and wait on the delivery, said Jon Stanley, city planner.”  See the drawings / Read more

 

“Forbes:  The Biggest Retailers Of 2014 (Home Depot #3, Target #5)”  See the Top 10 list

 

“Amazon adds 15 cities to Sunday delivery service” at AP via CNBC.  “The cities that Sunday delivery is expanding to are: Indianapolis; Lexington and Louisville, Kentucky; New Orleans and Shreveport, Louisiana; Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio; Oklahoma City; Philadelphia; Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Waco, and College Station, Texas.”  Read more

 

“What It’s Like To Be A Walmart Architect” by Charles Fishman at Fast Company.  “…But the “used” look wasn’t cosmetic. “We wanted that industrial feel,” says Massa. “We harvested the brick from the car barn, we used every brick we could save, we took them out, cleaned them, stored them, then rebuilt with it as much as we could.”  This is also true for some of the structural elements. “The trusses in the store are the actual trusses from the car barn,” Massa says.”  Read more / See the video

 

“How Target Missed the Mark in Canada” by Shelly Banjo at WSJ via Yahoo.  “This week at the Cloverdale mall location, shoppers were greeted by signs that the women’s denim jacket and miniskirt that were advertised in the weekly flier weren’t available at that particular location. “We apologize for any inconvenience,” the notices read.”  Read more

 

“Home Depot Pro not Happy with Curse Word in Ad” at Information Rot.  “Big Ass Fans from Home Depot. Is that really necessary? This email blast came to me on a subscribed list, as I am a “pro” with Home Depot…if you make it far enough to click through the ad, you find out that “Big Ass Fans” is actually a fan company, who apparently loves attention.” Read more

 

“Police backtrack on Target suspect claims” by Ed Brackett at USA Today.  “A Texas police department backtracked on claims it made earlier that it had arrested a man believed to be linked to the massive Target data breach, issuing a statement that said “it is not believed he was responsible” for the information heist.”  Read more

 

“Dallas:  Big grocery chains are feeling the little guys” by Maria Halkias at Dallas News. “After steamrolling into the North Texas market in the 2000s and gobbling up grocery sales, Wal-Mart is struggling here. Its market share fell in 2014 and in 2012.  Wal-Mart’s share of the Dallas-Fort Worth market fell from 27.8 percent in 2013 to 27.1 percent in early 2014. That’s just below the share it had in 2011, even though it opened 15 stores here during that time. Wal-Mart has almost 120 stores in the Dallas area.” Read more

 

“Alibaba’s IPO filing casts light on Amazon’s shortcomings” by Adam Satariano at Seattle Times.  “People may be very surprised by comparing the balance sheets of Amazon and Alibaba,” said Yan Zhang, professor of strategic management at Rice University, who has been tracking Alibaba. “Once they see the differences in the business models, they’ll understand why.”  Read more

 

“Roundy’s exits Twin Cities, parcels out Rainbow Foods locations” by Mike Hughlett at Star-Tribune.  “Roundy’s Inc. will sell the majority of its 27 Rainbow stores to a consortium of local supermarket companies led by Eden Prairie-based Supervalu, owner of Cub Foods.  Once the $65 million deal is completed later this year, 10 Rainbow stores will be rebranded as Cub, two will become Byerly’s outlets and six will retain the Rainbow name under different ownership. Milwaukee-based Roundy’s will continue to market its remaining nine Rainbow stores for now, but will close them if buyers can’t be found.”  Read more

 

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