Costco March comp sales (ex gas & f/x) +5.8% “…net sales of $12.92 billion for the month of March, the five weeks ended April 8, 2018, an increase of 10.9 percent from $11.65 billion last year. For the thirty-one weeks ended April 8, 2018, the Company reported net sales of $81.43 billion, an increase of 11.8 percent from $72.82 billion last year.” Press release

 

Walmart close to buying majority of India’s Flipkart, deal likely by June at Reuters. Read more

 

Rare Coalition Bands Together to Fight Trump Tariffs by Lindsey Rupp & Mark Niquette at Bloomberg. “This is nuts,” said David French, senior vice president for government relations at the National Retail Federation, which hosted a recent meeting of the coalition” Read more

 

….The NRF took executives from retail companies including Christopher Baldwin, president and chief executive officer of BJ’s Wholesale Club and chairman of the NRF board, to meet with Trump on Wednesday. But tariffs weren’t discussed because it was a pre-arranged meeting about the impact of the tax overhaul and deregulation, the NRF said.

 

Rite Aid Q4 retail pharmacy comp sales -1.7% (-2.3% pharmacy, -0.6 front-end) Press release

 

…Rite Aid Shareholders Sour on Albertsons Deal by Heather Haddon & Miriam Gottfried at Wall Street Journal. “The deal is absurd based on fair value of Rite Aid’s existing stores and what it could do with them,” said Steve Krol, a 64-year-old investor from Florida…One of Rite Aid’s 10 biggest shareholders said it planned to vote against the deal because it doesn’t give shareholders a fair premium.” Read more (subs.)

 

Bed Bath & Beyond Q4 comp sales -0.6% Press release

 

…Bed Bath & Beyond Plunges After Posting Gloomy Annual Forecast by Nick Turner at Bloomberg. “…tumbled as much as 14 percent in late trading…Earnings will be roughly $2 to $2.50 a share this year, the retailer said on Wednesday. Analysts were projecting $2.77 on average.” Read more

 

Bon-Ton may be headed for liquidation as judge denies $500,000 fee payment at BizTimes. Read more

 

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Toys ‘R’ Us is having trouble selling its store locations by Lisa Fickenscher at NY Post. “Of 140 stores that hit the auction block last week, just 50 received winning bids, and 30 of them were from the landlords themselves, some of whom scooped up their own properties for $5,000 to $10,000.” Read more

 

Sobeys confirms which B.C. Safeway stores are set to close by Patrick Johnston at Vancouver Sun. “Five other locations, depending on whether the company and the unions representing its workers — UFCW 1518, UFCW 247 and the bakers’ union — can negotiate a new collective agreement, could still remain open, the company confirmed. If they are, they will be converted to the FreshCo brand.” Read more

 

Lands’ End’s Unfashionable Comeback: Bringing Back Elastic Waistbands by Suzanne Kapner at Wall Street Journal. “Within a week of taking the helm of Lands’ End, Jerome Griffith knew what he needed to do to fix the struggling apparel seller: Get rid of the flashy clothes…“It all got marked down, and it didn’t sell at markdown because it didn’t fit our customers.” Read more (subs.)

 

Best Buy to open in southwest Charlotte as a hub for online customers by Katherine Peralta at Charlotte Observer. “…the company will open a 40,000 square-foot home delivery hub to deliver orders to customers in Charlotte, western North Carolina and parts of South Carolina who buy online.” Read more (tiered subs.)

 

Kohl’s chief administrative officer Richard Schepp set to retire this fall at BizTimes. Read more

 

Gap CEO Art Peck: Big data gives us major advantages over competitors at Mad Money/CNBC. “If you look at the difference between a customer who’s casually engaged and one who is really deeply engaged in our brands across channels, it’s at least 10 times the value of that [first] customer,” the CEO said.” Read more/Video

 

SHIPPING HEADACHE: “This capacity crunch is real and it’s getting tighter,” Colby Beland, vice president of sales and marketing at logistics provider CaseStack.” at Bloomberg. Read more

 

A massive, ‘semi-infinite’ trove of rare-earth metals has been found in Japan at CNBC. “The seabed contains more than 16 million tons of rare-earth oxides, according to the study. That’s equivalent to 780 years’ worth of yttrium supply, 620 years of europium, 420 years of terbium and 730 years of dysprosium, it added.” Read more

 

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