Former Canadian Tire CEO to take helm at troubled Sobeys after ‘extensive’ search by Hollie Shaw at Financial Post. “Michael Medline, who was abruptly replaced as chief executive of Canadian Tire last July, has been tapped to head troubled grocery chain Sobeys and its owner Empire Co…While Medline worked in a variety of executive roles at Canadian Tire and its sporting goods division for more than 15 years, he does not have direct experience in grocery retail.” Read more

 

Jeff Bezos is the anonymous buyer of the biggest house in Washington by Emily Heil & Kathy Orton at Washington Post. “Jeff Bezos has bought the former Textile Museum, a 27,000 square-foot property, intending to convert it into a single-family home, according to a person with knowledge of the sale. Bezos’s neighbors will include President Obama and his family, who are renting a property nearby for their post-White House home as well as future first daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband.” Read more

 

Amazon just poached one of Target’s rising stars to run Prime in important new markets by Jason Del Rey at Recode. “Amazon has hired Jamil Ghani, Target’s SVP of strategy and innovation, to run the Amazon Prime membership business in international markets, according to a person briefed on the move…At Target, Ghani was an up-and-coming executive tasked with figuring out how the traditional retailer would find new avenues for growth in a world increasingly dominated by Amazon.” Read more

 

Lowe’s preps for layoffs as it shifts to new store staffing model by Katie Little at CNBC. “…will be laying off “less than 1 percent” of its employees in the near future, a person familiar with the matter said Thursday. The source did not share the exact number of layoffs. Lowe’s workforce totals more than 285,000.” Read more

 

Target Earns Highest Paid-Search Traffic Share For Product Keywords by Laurie Sullivan at Media Post. “Target received nearly 30% of all paid-search traffic for the top 10 product-related keywords during the 2016 holiday season — more than 2.5 times the traffic of retail site like Walmart, which took 11% share…toysrus.com, 10%; eBay.com 9.8%; amazon.com, 7.1%; madeby.google.com, 5.9%; macys.com, 5.3%; fitbit.com, 4.1%; bestbuy.com, 3.4%; apple.com, 2.5%.” Read more

 

GameStop says holiday same-store sales slumped 18.7% by Ciara Linnane at MarketWatch. Read more

 

Trump Endorses L.L. Bean After Board Member Supports Him by Nick Turner & Molly Smith at Bloomberg. “Thank you to Linda Bean of L.L. Bean for your great support and courage,” Trump said on Twitter Thursday. “People will support you even more now. Buy L.L. Bean.” Read more

 

eBay takes on fashion resale startups with launch of authentication program by Sarah Perez at TechCrunch. “…called simply eBay Authenticate, which will allow sellers to opt in to have their goods verified. Buyers will be able to see that the items will be authenticated when viewing listings – a move aimed at boosting consumer trust, as well as increasing the prices sellers can charge.” Read more

 

American Apparel is moving to Canada by Lisa Fickenscher at NY Post. “Forever 21 held a recruitment event at American Apparel’s headquarters on Thursday, looking for job applicants to fill positions in accounting, design, IT and other professional positions, according to employees.” Read more

 

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U.S. News & World Report: Top 100 Jobs See the list

 

Amazon’s career guru shares playbook for tuition program by Casey Coombs at Puget Sound Business Journal. “We’re taking it to businesses across America and saying, ‘there’s no catch, no twist, no charge,’” said Juan Garcia, Amazon’s global leader for career advancement. “We will show you our playbook and help set up Career Choice.” Read more

 

Saks Fifth Avenue teams with a Milanese company on a collection of machine-washable suiting that respects traditional Italian design by Michael B. Dougherty at Wall Street Journal. “Eric Jennings, vice president and menswear fashion director at Saks Fifth Avenue, discovered Traiano last June, while attending menswear trade show Pitti Uomo, in Florence. “From a distance, [the company’s wares] looked like traditional Italian tailored clothing but as soon as we got up close and were touching the fabrics, we were like, ‘What?!’” Read more (subscription)

 

Sephora innovates business practices with mobile buying platform by Brielle Jaekel at Luxury Daily. “The beauty retailer, an innovator in modern business operations, has partnered with retail-buying platform RangeMe for a contemporary practice in product buying. Sephora will now be able to find new products from suppliers in a streamlined manner through a mobile application.” Read more

 

Sound Transit in talks with Amazon to place package delivery hubs at Seattle-area rail stations by Nat Levy at GeekWire. Read more

 

Panera Bread hits its goal of ditching all food additives by Sarah Whitten at CNBC. “Over the last few years, the company reviewed more than 450 ingredients that it sells in stores and reformulated 122 of them, including a large majority of Panera’s bakery-cafe recipes.” Read more

 

Top 10 Women in Retail Tech (PetSmart, Walgreens, Walmart, B.Buy, T.Supply, Jet) at Chain Store Age. List

 

Amazon Launches Anime Channel for $5 Per Month by Todd Spangler at Variety. Read more

 

Boy battling cancer gets his wish fulfilled – at Amazon fulfillment center by Kaila White at Arizona Republic via USA Today.”As he walked around the center, which is more than 1 million square feet and has more than 2,000 employees, he smiled, laughed, made faces and craned his neck to see the labyrinthine 8 miles of conveyor belts. To explain his excitement he used a metaphor. “This is the earth,” he said, mimicking its explosion with his hands. “Mind blown. It turned my life — I was upside down — back up.” Read more

 

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