Amazon rivals turn to legal fine print to stem Whole Foods strategy by Jeffrey Dastin at Reuters. “A Reuters examination of real estate agreements and interviews with 20 retail landlords, lawyers and brokers show that the strings attached to operating in malls like City Center present an emerging and little-scrutinized challenge to Amazon’s quest to re-shape Whole Foods.” Read more

 

Harvard Business Review Ranks the World’s Best-Performing CEOs (Blake Nordstrom #44, Jeff Bezos #71, John Mackey #91) Top 100 list

 

Walmart CTO Jeremy King speaks at VB Summit 2017 in Berkeley, California at Venture Beat. “The secret to the expansion in inventory, said King, is artificial intelligence…“How do you determine [with] an automated fee coming from a vendor, whether the price is right or not?” King said, by way of example.” Read more

 

Amazon is shutting down its Amazon Wine business by Jason Del Rey at Recode. “The decision to shut down the business appears to stem from so-called tied house laws, which prohibit retailers that sell alcohol from accepting payments from suppliers to advertise their goods…Amazon had been lobbying to alter these laws, but it looks like they’ve realized it wasn’t going to happen. And it is quite likely that Whole Foods’ wine-selling business dwarfs that of Amazon Wine.” Read more

 

Wal-Mart asks suppliers to further reduce chemical footprint by Kim Souza at Talk Business. “The 10% chemical reduction over the next five years puts Wal-Mart in elite company as the first retailer in the U.S. to set time and percentage reduction goals. Wal-Mart has defined which chemicals it is targeting for reduction.” Chemical list/Read more

 

Reaper: Calm Before the IoT Security Storm? at Krebs on Security. “Now, experts are sounding the alarm about the emergence of what appears to be a far more powerful strain of IoT attack malware — variously named “Reaper” and “IoTroop” — that spreads via security holes in IoT software and hardware. And there are indications that over a million organizations may be affected already.” Read more

 

Meet the 10 people at Amazon who report directly to CEO Jeff Bezos by Eugene Kim at CNBC. List of 10

 

Kroger Names Executive Leadership Team to Support Restock Kroger Plan “Fred Morganthall, Kroger’s executive vice president of retail operations, will retire after 31 years…Mike Donnelly, currently Kroger’s executive vice president of merchandising, will assume responsibility for both operations and merchandising as executive vice president and chief operating officer, effective November 1.” Press release

 

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Under Armour to exit several categories; top exec takes sabbatical by Carley Milligan at Baltimore Business Journal. “Categories such as tennis, outdoor gear and fishing are among those reported to be cut. The Journal also reports Under Armour co-founder and strategic adviser, Kip Fulks, will take a sabbatical from the company.” Read more | WSJ article (subs.)

 

Amazon gets 238 proposals for its second headquarters by Mike Snider at USA Today. Read more

 

Walmart VP Maggie Sans speaks at Adrian women’s conference by Lonnie Huhman at Daily Telegram. “She said women make up more the 50 percent of Walmart’s associate workforce and 31 percent of its corporate officers, which is twice that of other Fortune 500 companies…The store chain now has 1,500 women-owned suppliers.” Read more

 

Amazon launches Handmade Gift Shop, offering more artisan items in latest blow to Etsy by Kurt Schlosser at GeekWire. “Amazon Handmade originally launched in 2015, and now offers almost 90,000 products in categories including for her, for him, for kids, for baby, for the couple and more. Items range from jewelry to tie clips to cutting boards, clocks and baby bibs.” Read more

 

rue21 adds Under Armour president to its board by Stacey Federoff at Pittsburgh Business Times. Read more

 

Sears will no longer sell Whirlpool appliances after pricing dispute by Suzanne Kapner & Andrew Tangel at Wall Street Journal. “Whirlpool will continue to make products for Sears’s Kenmore brand, a person familiar with the matter said. And Sears will continue to sell appliances from LG, Samsung, GE, Frigidaire,Electrolux , and Bosch, some of which also make Kenmore products.” Read more (subs.)

 

Camping World buys another RV dealership Press release

 

Former Yahoo executive will lead Hayneedle through expansion by Cole Epley at Omaha World-Herald. “Scott Doughman, who most recently was vice president of global partnerships at Yahoo, is now the web-based home furnishings retailer’s president.  Doughman replaces Jon Barker, Hayneedle’s last president (and chief executive), who left in March for an executive position at Sportsman’s Warehouse.” Read more

 

Eby-Brown purchases assets of AJ Silberman Press release

 

At Plated, The Future Of Meal-Kit Services Is Grocery Stores by Amy Farley at Fast Company. “By the end of 2020, any standalone meal-kit company will be dead,” said Nick Taranto, chief strategy officer and cofounder of Plated, speaking at the Fast Company Innovation Festival in New York City, “and we’re going to put them out of business.” Read more

 

Drug Makers Find New Profit Formula: Take Generics, Add Marketing by Denise Roland at Wall Street Journal. Read more (subs.)

 

Amazon will soon let you order from restaurants using the Amazon app on your phone by Deirdre Bosa & Sara Salinas at CNBC. Read more

 

Tipsheet Extra Stories

Home Depot unveils parking signs dedicated to fallen soldiers

Inside Jeff Bezos’ exclusive dinner last year at an artsy Boston restaurant

WeWork employees caught spying on competition

Amazon Takes Secrecy to a Comic Extreme

Owner of iconic Soggy Dollar Bar leads Virgin Islands relief effort

Snap has ‘hundreds of thousands’ of unsold Spectacles sitting in warehouses

In Washington Clash of Industries, King Corn Trounces Big Oil

Read Tipsheet Extra Stories

 

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