Shopper spends $1M at a Toys ‘R’ Us just before store closes for good, plans to donate toys to local children by Kate Feldman at NY Daily News. “The anonymous good Samaritan walked into the Raleigh, N.C., store last week and told employees to box everything up, local station CBS 17 reported.” Read more

 

Amazon Prime Day will be 36 hours this year vs. 30 last year, starting at 12 p.m. Pacific, July 16 by Nat Levy at GeekWire. Read more

 

Walmart names Chief Customer Officer & CMO at CNBC. “Walmart has appointed  former American Express executive Janey Whiteside to the newly created role of chief customer officer…Whiteside’s team will include another new appointee, Barbara Messing, who will join Walmart as chief marketing officer in mid-August.” Read more

 

Tesco Forms Purchasing Alliance With Carrefour to Cut Costs by Thomas Mulier & Sam Chambers at Bloomberg. “Berenberg analyst Dusan Milosavljevic said by email that he’s skeptical on the deal, observing that “the buying synergies for cross-national deals in food retail have been very difficult to realize historically.” Tiered subs.

 

Under pressure, afraid to take bathroom breaks? Inside Amazon’s fast-paced warehouse world by Nina Shapiro at Seattle Times. “Seeking to write about the plight of the working class, he also worked at a call center, as an Uber driver, on a building site and as a home aide caring for the elderly. “Amazon was the worst employer, easily,” the author said by phone. When he took a day off sick, he received a “point.” Earn six and you’re fired, he said.” Read more (Tiered subs.)

 

New Era at Amazon’s Whole Foods Grates on Some Suppliers, Employees by Heather Haddon & Laura Stevens at Wall Street Journal. “There has never been a time in Whole Foods’ history more ripe for widespread labor organization,” a group of employees wrote in a letter last month as part of their efforts to organize workers.” Read more (Subs.)

 

…According to The Wall Street Journal, Whole Foods is laying off hundreds of in-store marketing employees. They were in charge of drawing out the familiar chalkboard signs, as well as organizing local events in an effort to connect Whole Foods stores with the communities they serve. by Kaitlyn Wang at GeekWire. Read more

 

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Shoplifters accuse Walmart, Bloomingdale’s of extortion by John Woolfolk at Mercury News. “They gave her a choice: Cop to shoplifting and agree to pay $500 for an online class…“Despite their glittering credentials,” the complaint says, the program’s producers “are all participants in a long-running, highly profitable extortion scheme…” Read more (Tiered subs.)

 

LeBron James’ deal with the Lakers is a gift for shopping upstart Wish by Jason Del Rey at Recode. “When I caught up with Wish CEO Peter Szulczewski around when the sponsorship deal was first announced — and when LeBron James was not yet signed — he called it “basically a no-brainer,” owing in part to the huge popularity of the Lakers in China, where the majority of the shopping app’s 600,000 merchants were based. It looks even better now.” Read more

 

Supervalu sets Aug. 16 for shareholder meeting and showdown with activist investment firm by Evan Ramstad at Star Tribune. “The activist investor pursuing control of Supervalu Inc. sought to take over its grocery-store chains, including Cub Foods, for nothing, the company told shareholders Monday.” Read more (Tiered subs.)

 

New Lowe’s CEO Marvin Ellison spends his first day at the Pro desk in Dallas Twitter feed

 

Temkin: Wegmans is Easiest Company for Customers to Work With “…followed closely by Subway, Citizens Bank, Ace Hardware, and Wawa Food Markets at 89%, and USAA, credit unions, and Publix at 88%.” Press release

 

Malls Vacancies Hit Six-Year High as Online Shopping Takes a Toll by Esther Fung at Wall Street Journal. WSJ subs.

 

Online hardware store BuildDirect brings in new leadership as it refocuses on Pros by Frederic Lardinois at TechCrunch. “Ken Stanick, the former director of Sales & Channels at Amazon Business, is joining as the company’s new chief revenue officer…Mukund Mohan, who was previously a director at Amazon Business…is joining as the company’s new CTO. Godwin Pavamani, the former global product leader for Prime Samples and head of Vendor Management PC/IT category at Amazon, is now BuildDirect’s chief merchandising officer…” Read more

 

Cowen and Co. lowers Nordstrom rating to market perform from outperform and dropped its share price target to $51 from $56 at CNBC. “Cowen said Nordstrom will likely need to shutter more stores, although it already has a relatively “healthier” footprint compared with peers.” Read more

 

Small butcher shops are in ‘a renaissance.’ How did they survive the supermarket offensive? by Dylan Jackson at Miami Herald. Read more

 

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