Amazon Wants Cheerios, Oreos and Other Brands to Bypass Wal-Mart by Spencer Soper & Craig Giammona at Bloomberg. “Amazon has invited some of the world’s biggest brands to its Seattle headquarters in an audacious bid to persuade them that it’s time to start shipping products directly to online shoppers and bypass chains like Wal-Mart, Target and Costco. Executives from General Mills, Mondelez and other packaged goods makers will attend the three-day gathering in May, Bloomberg has learned. Attendees will tour an Amazon fulfillment center and hear a presentation from Worldwide Consumer chief Jeff Wilke.” Read more

 

Nordstrom taps former Wal-Mart e-commerce exec for supply chain by Coral Garnick at Puget Sound Business Journal. “Brent Beabout will be Nordstrom’s new executive vice president of supply chain. He was most recently senior vice president of e-commerce supply chain for Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club e-commerce operations.” Read more

 

Trump administration may seek only minor adjustments to Nafta by Bob Davis & William Mauldin at Wall Street Journal. “According to an administration draft proposal being circulated in Congress by the U.S. trade representative’s office, the U.S. would keep some of Nafta’s most controversial provisions, including an arbitration panel that lets investors in the three nations circumvent local courts.” Read more @ MarketWatch | WSJ article (subs.)

 

People’s 50 Companies That Care 2017 (Wegmans #6, Publix #9) Top 10 press release | Top 50 slideshow

 

Brand Finance: 2017 Most Valuable U.S. Brands: Walmart #7, Home Depot #19 (down two), Target #37, Costco #49 (down two) Top 500 list

 

Bass Pro Shops’ $4.5 billion Cabela’s Deal Gets White Knight via Fox Business. “Cabela’s is now in talks to sell (the banking operation) business to Synovus Financial Corp., a Georgia-based bank with about $30 billion in assets and 250 branches across the south, the people said.​Under the plan being discussed, Synovus would resell the credit-card portfolio to Capital One and keep the roughly $1 billion in deposits held by the Cabela’s bank, the people said.” Read more

 

Sneak Peek at Store #2 for Hulk Hogan’s Beach Shop by Jim Carchidi at Orlando Business Journal.  22 pics/Video

 

Billionaire Richard Branson on how he met Jeff Bezos by Alan Boyle at GeekWire. “The last time I met Jeff was about 30 years ago in Seattle at Bill Gates’ home…“I nervously got up to talk, and before I left my chair, he said, ‘I’m a great believer that we should all be tested in life, so I’m going to hand out a bit of paper to the other 19 of you, and if you could, mark Richard nought-to-10 for what he has to say to you all.’ “I was like, ‘Ah, f—. I left school at 15.’…So I turned to Jeff Bezos and said, ‘Look, I’ll give you 10 if you give me 10.’ “That was 30 years ago. I haven’t spoken to him since.” Read Q&A

 

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Dollarama profit surges 17% as customers spend more money in the discount chain’s stores by Hollie Shaw at Financial Post. “Performance has been so strong, the country’s largest dollar store chain sees room for more stores in Canada than it had previously envisioned, pushing up its long-term growth target to 1,700 stores from an earlier estimate of 1,400.” Read more

 

Jeff Bezos provides a sneak peek at Blue Origin’s New Shepard spaceship (and suits) by Alan Boyle at GeekWire. Pics/Read more

 

Walmart invests billions to buy from women-owned businesses by Amy Westervelt at The Guardian. “Walmart announced Wednesday it has achieved its goal to buy $20bn worth of goods and services from women-owned businesses in the US over five years. The company also conceded that it’s failed to reach another goal set around the same time: to double the amount of products and services sourced from women-owned companies outside of the country.” Read more

 

Lululemon Says Lack of Bold Colors to Blame for Poor Start to 2017 by John Kell at Fortune. “Wall Street investors punished Lululemon’s stock, dropping over 18% in after-hours trading…Lululemon’s dour forecast targets indicates the once-hot “athleisure” trend is losing luster.” Read more

 

Jeff Bezos Displaces Warren Buffett as the World’s Second Richest Person by Joseph Hincks at Fortune. Read more

 

Gap’s CEO Responded to a 5-Year-Old’s Request to Make Girls’ Clothing Gender Neutral by Jennifer Calfas at Fortune. “I think we can do a better job offering even more choices that appeal to everyone,” Kirwan wrote in an email to Alice, as reported by the Post. “I’ve talked with our designers and we’re going to work on even more fun stuff that I think you’ll like.” Read more

 

Colleen Wegman named president, CEO of Wegmans by Todd Clausen at Democrat & Chronicle. “Her father, 70-year-old Danny Wegman, will remain chairman of the grocery store chain.” Read more

 

Target Exec on how Retail Drives Business and Social Impact at NRF. “As the executive vice president and chief external engagement officer at Target, Laysha Ward leads the company in its commitment to external relationships that drive business and positively impact the communities they serve. We spoke with Ward about her career journey…” Q&A

 

J.Jill Q4 Comp Sales +10.8% Press release

 

Amazon is shutting down Diapers.com — whose founder is now at war with Amazon by Jason Del Rey at Recode. “The shutdown will result in layoffs of 263 people, according to a New Jersey state filing. But Bloomberg, which first reported the news, said some of these employees would be able to apply for new positions at Amazon.” Read more

 

L.L. Bean Brings on the Via Agency as Agency of Record by Lindsay Stein at AdAge. Read more

 

Apple, Wal-Mart Stick With Climate Pledges Despite Trump’s Pivot by Christopher Flavelle at Bloomberg. Read more

 

Walmart okay with selling only Made-in-India products: India CEO at Economic Times. Read more

 

Tipsheet Extra Stories

Girl bumps into WWE star John Cena at local Target

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H&M Unveils New Brand as Firm Seeks to Revive Profit

Man Accused of Peeing on 50 Pairs of Childrens Shoes at Walmart Arrested

Read Tipsheet Extra Stories

 

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