Boot Barn CEO plans to double store count to 500 at CNBC. “We’ve said in the past that this is a massive retail opportunity that’s been hidden in plain sight for years,” (CEO) Conroy said. “It’s hard to understand when you’re in Manhattan or when you’re in Los Angeles, but when you fly across the country you look down and you’re looking at our customer.” Video/Read more

 

Big Brands, Online Startups Find Success Rests on Store Shelves at Wall Street Journal. “We gave up on the direct-to-consumer angle to work with retailers,” said Yanghee Paik, co-founder of Rael, which sells organic maxi pads, tampons and other feminine-care products. “We’re already asking people to convert from conventional products made by the P&Gs of the world. To also buy online is asking for a lot of change.” WSJ subs.

 

Why Amazon’s Move Into Food Delivery Could Get Tripped Up by Facebook’s WhatsApp Buy at Bloomberg via Fortune. “Amazon.com Inc.’s bid to buy into one of the U.K.’s most successful startups may get caught up in antitrust authorities’ fear that they made mistakes in the past. The Competition and Markets Authority has until Wednesday to decide whether to continue a two-month-old probe that froze Amazon’s bid of around $500 million for a minority stake in food-delivery service Deliveroo.” Read more

 

Kicking off next Monday, Instacart shoppers plan to take one action per day, for six days in protest of Instacart at TechCrunch. “We’re still just trying to get this one tiny thing: double the default tip percentage,” Instacart shopper and protest organizer Sarah (pseudonym) told TechCrunch. “We’ve tried endlessly to get them to raise the base guarantee pay. But we feel like, fine, at least give us the higher default tip.” Read more

 

Amazon remains low-price leader online against competitors by Kim Souza at Talk Business. “Analysts with Profitero surveyed prices across 12,500 products and 16 categories…Walmart’s prices were 4.1% higher than Amazon, while Target’s prices indexed 10.6% higher…Walmart..was competitive in the baby category, with prices just 0.2% above Amazon.” Read more

 

Proxy adviser ISS opposes plan by Hudson’s Bay chairman to take firm private at Reuters. Read more

 

CVS CEO on What’s Happened After Its Aetna Merger—and What Comes Next at Fortune. “Fortune sat down with Merlo for a wide-ranging conversation on meeting patients where they are, the value of Aetna to CVS’ expansion ambitions, and the pilot projects the company has coming down the pike. The top line takeaway? “The Aetna integration certainly has changed CVS into a full-fledged health care company,” says Merlo.” Read more

 

Build-A-Bear expects to close up to 30 stores at St. Louis Post Dispatch. Read more

 

Bezos says ‘the country is in trouble’ if big tech turns its back on the Pentagon at CNBC. “Look I understand these are emotional issues, that’s okay, we don’t have to agree on everything, but this is how we are going to do it, we are going to support the Department of Defense. This country is important,” (Bezos) added.” Read more

 

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French e-grocery app Jow has raised $7 million in new funding at TechCrunch. Read more

 

Someday There Might Not Be a Menswear Department at Bloomberg. “According to Pew research, 35% of Generation Z knows someone who identifies as non-binary and prefers gender neutral pronouns—and millennials and even Generation X aren’t far behind. Retailers, and in particular clothes sellers, have taken notice.” Tiered subs.

 

Amazon will open a new office in Manhattan in 2021 and accommodate more than 1,500 employees at CNBC. Read more

 

Forget fashion and beauty. These are the grocery store influencers at CNN Business. “Jen Coleman and Laura Wiertzema started their Instagram page, Costco_doesitagain, two years ago after success with a similar Target handle. Today, the Costco page has more than half-a-million followers…Katie Cooksey, who runs Kroger Krazy, a Facebook page with nearly 600,000 followers, said Kroger sends her its weekly advertising early and invites her to special corporate events.” Read more

 

How Nordstrom uses robots and shelves inspired by ants to deliver lipstick faster at CNBC. “Nordstrom is working with two tech companies, Attabotics and Tompkins Robotics, at one of its nine U.S. distribution centers.” Read more

 

Amazon expands Bezos’ elite ‘S-team,’ adding 6 execs from emerging branches of the company by Monica Nickelsburg at GeekWire. “The expanded leadership team will have 22 executives. The six members Amazon is adding to the S-team are:

Neil Lindsey — Vice President, Worldwide Prime & Marketing
Rohit Prasad — Vice President & Head Scientist, Alexa
Colleen Aubrey — Vice President, Performance Advertising
Matt Garman — Vice President, Amazon Web Services Compute Services
Christine Beauchamp — Vice President, Amazon Fashion
Peter Krawiec — Vice President, Worldwide Corporate Development Read more

 

Tipsheet Extra

Walmart donates 75 acres for ‘destination park’ in Bentonville

Field Agent: Best grocery displays Christmas 2019

Walmart apologizes for sweater that appears to feature Santa with cocaine

There’s a unit inside Amazon that will be a $31 billion business in four years, RBC says

Barneys Employees Brawl With Suspected Shoplifters

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