Toy tycoon may submit last-minute $900M bid for Toys R Us by Lisa Fickenscher at NY Post. “…he will submit a last-minute bid on Friday to buy 274 top-performing Toys R Us and Babies R Us stores in the US for $675 million. That’s on top of a $215 million bid for the entire Canadian chain of 82 stores, as well as the company’s trademarks, Larian said.” Read more

 

Gap Follows J. Crew in Giving Up on the Bridal-Wear Industry by Justina Vasquez at Bloomberg. “Gap Inc.’s Weddington Way brand, which has operated shops within Banana Republic stores, announced plans to close down within the next few months.” Read more

 

Amazon finally opens up Prime Wardrobe to more customers by Sarah Perez at TechCrunch. “Unfortunately, the Amazon staffer’s tweet was deleted after we asked Amazon about it. It had read: “Amazon Prime Wardrobe is officially launched! Hooray! It’s been a fun project to work on.” Before we could screengrab the tweet, it was gone.” Read more

 

Trump Orders Post Office Review at Bloomberg. “The USPS is on an unsustainable financial path and must be restructured to prevent a taxpayer-funded bailout,” the president said in an order that was released Thursday night.” Read more

 

Bed Bath and Beyond Suffers Its Worst Stock Plunge in Nearly 8 Years at Fortune. Read more

 

Amazon completes Ring acquisition, drops price of original video doorbell under $100 by Todd Bishop at GeekWire. “The Ring deal “is just the beginning—we will continue to move quickly and work hard to empower customers with a suite of security solutions that provide an affordable, effective way to secure homes and neighborhoods,” said Dave Limp, Amazon’s senior vice president of Devices and Services.” Read more

 

Harris Poll: Childhood cancer ranked first among children’s causes to donate to at a retail register among moms Press release

 

Amazon plans to open its third bookstore in Bay Area by Katie Burke at San Francisco Business Times. “(Amazon) will be the new storefront on Berkeley’s Fourth Street, taking up an 11,175-square-foot portion of the former Crate & Barrel outlet that closed last month.” Read more

 

Lowe’s and 1-800-Flowers.com are among the first few retailers experimenting with Apple’s Business Chat for iPhones by April Berthene at Internet Retailer. Read more

 

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NRF Announces Speaker Lineup for PROTECT 2018 (JCP CEO, H.Depot VP Gulf, Kroger VP Houston) Press release

 

Home Depot exec named President & COO of tile and stone company by Peter Brennan at Orange County Business Journal. “Bedrosians Tile and Stone named Diana Kelly president and chief operating officer. She was previously regional vice president at Home Depot Inc., where she led a team of more than 16,000 associates in 82 stores.” Read more

 

Walmart’s opens new tech hub in Plano by Korri Kezar at Dallas Business Journal. “The hub is located inside a Common Desk coworking space at 5830 Granite Parkway in Plano…Today, the hub has a staff of 18 workers, but plans to grow to 22 within the next 30 days. By the end of the year, it’s slated to have 50 employees.” Read more/4 pics

 

Sears is closing its last store in Chicago by I-Chun Chen at Chicago Business Journal. Read more

 

Insect farms gear up to feed soaring global protein demand by Karl Plume at Reuters. “If we’re replacing 5 or 10 percent of the proteins that are normally in those feeds with insect protein,” Allen said, “That’s a lot of resources saved.” Read more

 

The Buckle March comp sales -1.1% Press release

 

Podcast with former Home Depot Chairman & CEO Frank Blake at Seeking Alpha. Listen

 

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