CVS, Walgreens and Wegmans announce changes to firearms policies by Kelly Tyko at USA Today. Read more

 

Nordstrom finally brings its mini ‘Local’ stores to New York at CNBC. “This builds on Nordstrom’s existing portfolio of three Local shops in California — on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles, in Downtown Los Angeles and in the Brentwood neighborhood of LA — that offer personal styling services and alterations, and serve as a hub for buying online and picking up in person.” Read more

 

Moosylvania: Millennials favorite brands:

1. Amazon
2. Apple
3. Nike 
4. Walmart
5. Target

Business Insider article

 

The human cost of Amazon’s fast, free shipping by Patricia Callahan at The New York Times via MSN. “An investigation by ProPublica identified more than 60 accidents since June 2015 involving Amazon delivery contractors that resulted in serious injuries, including 10 deaths. That tally is most likely a fraction of the accidents that have occurred: Many people don’t sue, and those who do can’t always tell when Amazon is involved, court records, police reports and news accounts show.” Read more

 

H&M stops buying leather from Brazil over Amazon fires at AP News. “Last week, VF Corp., the owner of Timberland, Vans and several other shoe and clothing brands said it also stopped buying leather from Brazil because of the rainforest fires.” Read more

 

Starbucks is developing a pick-up-only location in Manhattan at Fast Company. “The New York store, which is still in development, was inspired by the chain’s success with its Starbucks Now concept in China, where customers order in advance on mobile phones and pick up their half-caf, extra hot, grande coconut milk lattes in “express” shops without the wait and without having to talk to strangers.” Read more

 

**A message from Real Coconut Water: Really sweet, 100% pure coconut water. PL or branded organic in Tetra Pak. Sell sheet | Website | Samples: info@eyeonretail.net

 

Schnucks’ union members approve 3-year contract with grocer at St.Louis Post Dispatch. Read more

 

Neiman Marcus says there’s an art to sleeping, and now it sells mattresses for that by Maria Halkias at Dallas Morning News. “Neiman Marcus has partnered with four companies to start selling luxury mattresses online only. These aren’t the “S” brands of mattresses (Serta, Sealy, Stearns & Foster)…Neiman Marcus is selling brands most of us have never heard of: Aireloom, Royal-Pedic, Sferra and Shifman.” Tiered subs.

 

Alibaba dials up luxury push with $2 billion buy of Netease e-commerce arm at Reuters. “Alibaba Group has agreed to buy e-commerce business Kaola from Chinese gaming company NetEase for $2 billion, adding a platform that specializes in supplying curated luxury goods from abroad to domestic consumers.” Read more

 

Kroger unveils plans for a line of plant-based products, including sausage and deli slices at CNBC. “Simple Truth’s plant-based collection will launch this fall. It will include meatless burger patties and ground imitation meat as well as plant-based cookie dough, pasta sauces, sausages, deli slices, dips and more.” Read more

 

Why 47,000 grocery workers in California may go on strike by Nathaniel Meyersohn at CNN Business. “They need to open up a little bit and give us a little bit more piece of that pie that we deserve because we’re the ones in the trenches doing all the work,” said Jaime Escarcega, a Ralphs cashier in Riverside, California, who has worked at the chain for 14 years. “We feel like we’re coming up short.” Read more

 

Field Agent: The MVP Displays of Football Kickoff 2019 Pics

 

Nordstrom Will Let You Return Your Macy’s Online Order In Store by Jordyn Holman at Bloomberg. “The department-store chain, which opens two “Nordstrom Local” concept stores in Manhattan this month, will accept merchandise returns from rivals like Macy’s Inc. and Kohl’s Corp. in the new small-format locations, regardless of whether Nordstrom carries the same item.” Tiered subs.

 

Overstock.com promotes articles that feature its brand by April Berthene at Internet Retailer. “To get the most out of news articles that feature Overstock.com Inc., the home goods and mass merchant retailer is dedicating its marketing dollars to traffic going to certain news publications rather than to Overstock.com.” Read more

 

Amazon is testing a ‘new’ badge to help shoppers identify new products by Michael Grothaus at Fast Company. “Multiple sellers who spoke to CNBC said that right now it’s not clear what the criteria are for getting a product labeled with the “new” badge…But any product that does get the “new” badge could see a sales boost, as Amazon’s products that feature other badges typically stand out from the crowd.” Read more

 

Home Depot Management Presents at Goldman Sachs 26th Annual Global Retailing Conference

Richard McPhail, CFO (day three of new CFO job):

• I think you have to start with the perspective that the U.S. consumer right now is exceptionally healthy.
• We’re building about 30 flatbed delivery centers around the country. Our first one is open in Dallas at this point, just getting started.
  • …a truck of flatbed goods go out and make delivery stops as opposed to the current model where we drive around the stores and pick up those and deliver. 
• We have now installed that new way-finding and environmental package in over 1,400 stores. We see a 140 basis point lift in our customer satisfaction scores when we do that. 
• Pickup lockers…are now in over 1,100 of our stores.
• Right now or as of Q2, over 50% of our online orders were actually picked up in a store.
• We’re at almost a 0.5 million Pros on our B2B website currently, and by the end of the year, we’ll have a 1 million Pros onboarded.
• …if you look at the past decade from 2009 to the end of 2018, we added five stores over that period. And at the same time, we increased our sales per square foot from $279 a square foot to $449 a square foot present day.

 

Mark Holifield

• We’re now at about 20% private brand penetration.
• We have sourcing offices in Asia, along with a lab in our headquarters in Atlanta and also a lab in China, where we can actually do that (value engineering) product breakdown.
  • …So we’re able to understand the cost and work with our manufacturers to really take costs out of the process.
• In terms of country of origin, we’re continuing to shift…About six months ago, we opened the Southeast Asia sourcing office…

Full transcript at Seeking Alpha

 

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