Walmart and other retailers battle ‘bots’ snatching up PlayStation 5 at Reuters. “Scalper bots have become increasingly mainstream, easily found by entering phrases like “Nike bot” or “PS5 bot” into online search engines. People can buy limited-time access to them for as little as $10 to $20.” Read more

 

The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women (Tome #11, McKenna #17, Brewer #48) at Forbes. Top 100 list

 

Stitch Fix shares skyrocket more than 30% on Q1 earnings beat, upbeat outlook at CNBC. “…reported a surprise profit and revenue growth of 10% from a year ago…reported earnings of 9 cents per share on revenue of $490.4 million, topping estimates for a loss of 20 cents per share on revenue of $481.2 million, according to Refinitiv data.” Read more

 

Kroger edges ahead of Costco to land in the top 10 of U.S. e-commerce companies at MarketWatch. Read more

 

Casey’s Q2 inside comp sales +3.5% Press release

 

Amazon’s warehouse storage policy causes small businesses to run out of holiday products at CNBC. “For Lautenschleger, it means he can only send in roughly 230 units per shipment of his fast-selling “Anchorman: The Game,” whereas he would’ve sent in thousands of units of a hot-selling item in years past.” Read more

 

AutoZone Q1 comp sales +12.3% Press release

 

Walgreens Appoints Pamela Puryear as Global Chief Human Resources Officer “Puryear joins WBA from Zimmer Biomet, a global leader in musculoskeletal healthcare, where she has served as senior vice president and chief human resources officer…” Press release

 

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Ingles Markets Q4 net sales +11.3% Press release

 

Walmart shuts down its VR shopping subsidiary Insperience at Protocol. “Walmart was just one of many companies to bet on location-based VR as a way to give consumers who don’t yet own VR devices access to immersive experiences. However, the prospect of sharing VR headsets with strangers has been a lot less appealing to consumers since the beginning of the pandemic, with VR centers and arcades shutting down for months across the globe.” Read more

 

Covid-19, Remote Work Make Austin a Magnet for New Jobs at Wall Street Journal. “For every person who moved to the Bay Area from Austin between April and October, 2.9 people moved in the other direction, according to an analysis from LinkedIn. That is a 39% increase from a year earlier. For New York, the ratio was 2.2, up 45% from a year earlier.” WSJ subs.

 

PriceSmart November net merchandise sales +7.9% Press release

 

First glimpse of Amazon’s new robotaxi: Zoox autonomous vehicle spotted during video shoot at GeekWire. “The car was photographed outside the Fairmont San Francisco hotel this weekend as crews captured footage. Pictures were posted on Reddit and Twitter.” Pics/Read more

 

U.S. needs more warehouses to handle record returns this holiday and in coming years at CNBC. “As much as 400 million square feet of additional warehouse space could be needed in the next five years just to process returns, CBRE said.” Read more

 

Facebook adds carts to WhatsApp to make shopping easier at TechCrunch. “In recent months, WhatsApp has added a number of features to supercharge the commerce experience on its app. It has unveiled QR codes, a dedicated shopping button, and the ability to share catalog links in chats.” Read more

 

Tipsheet Extra

Documentary that examines the 2019 El Paso Walmart mass shooting premieres

‘Parents are desperate.’ Zoom Santas are cashing in

Medical schools call 18 percent increase in applications ‘Fauci effect’

Nielsen plans TV-ratings overhaul by 2024 w/focus on multi-screen audience

In a year, we ingest the amount of plastic in a fireman’s helmet

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