New Yorkers stockpile supplies as massive snowstorm looms at NY Post. “Do you know what is worse than 18 inches of snow? No food delivery,” grad student Jen Marcus, 24, said while loading up on groceries at a Morton Williams in Greenwich Village.” Read more

 

A border tax would throw a wrench into retail’s price wars by Krystina Gustafson at CNBC. “Costco is somewhat cushioned by its annual membership fee, which accounts for three-fourths of its operating income. Those two factors would make a border tax less burdensome than on a company like Target, analysts have said.” Read more

 

eBay is doubling down on its advertising business, just like Amazon by Jason Del Rey at Recode. “eBay is in the process of building up its own internal advertising sales team, cutting ties with the outside sales firm along the way. eBay is also eliminating product ads that link to other websites, and replacing them with advertising options that help brands drive sales directly on eBay.” Read more

 

FBI Actively Cultivated Informants in Best Buy’s Geek Squad by David Z. Morris at Fortune. “New federal court filings analyzed by the Orange County Weekly reveal a deeper relationship than previously understood between the FBI and members of Best Buy’s Geek Squad. The documents include information about the long-term training and management of Geek Squad staff as FBI informants, who used their access to customers’ computers to actively search for illegal material, primarily child pornography. The FBI had previously acknowledged a program that paid Best Buy employees $500 for tips about child pornography.” Read more

 

Gordmans Stores Files for Bankruptcy With Plan to Liquidate by Andrew Dunn at Bloomberg. “The company, which posted losses in five of the past six quarters, listed total debt of $131 million in Chapter 11 papers filed Monday in Nebraska federal court.” Read more

 

Amazon invests in Costa Rica as tiny nation carves out profitable niche in world economy by Angel Gonzalez at Seattle Times. “Amazon declined to comment for this story and wouldn’t provide access to its Costa Rica facilities. But last September, before Trump’s election, Amazon was trumpeting the addition of 1,500 jobs in Costa Rica, bringing its local head count there to 5,500. That’s less than 2 percent of Amazon’s total worldwide workforce of 341,400, but the company’s Costa Rican payroll makes it a big fish in this country of less than five million.” Read more

 

Wal-Mart Doubles Down in Brazil Despite Sluggish Sales by Samantha Pearson & Sarah Nassauer at Wall Street Journal. “Wal-Mart has said it plans to spend 1 billion reais, or some $320 million, over three years on upgrades to its hypermarkets in Brazil, mostly sticking with a strategy it has followed here for two decades.” Read more (subscription) | MarketWatch article

 

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World’s Most Ethical Companies Honorees (Target, Petco) See the list

 

Amazon scoops up yet another Seattle office building as it continues to juice downtown construction boom by Nat Levy at GeekWire. “This time around, Amazon has taken Tilt49, a 306,000-square-foot office building under construction at 1812 Boren Ave.” Read more

 

PetSmart Estimates Donating More Than 60 Million Pet Food Meals in 2017 Press release

 

Huggies Enter Parenting Minefield, Pushing Switch to Pricier Pull-Ups by Sharon Terlep at Wall Street Journal. “Huggies, still the dominant player, saw its share drop to 53% from 62% in that time. Overall, U.S. sales of training pants rose 5.3% to $1 billion in the 52-week-period ending Jan. 28, according to Nielsen. Diaper sales fell 4.4% to $3.9 billion during that period, the first decline in at least four years.” Read more (subscription)

 

No mass store closings for Buckle despite dismal sales report by Paige Yowell at Omaha World-Herald. “What percentage (of Buckle stores) would you say are in crappy malls?” one analyst asked Chief Executive Dennis Nelson on the call.” Read more

 

Dahua, Hikvision IoT Devices Under Siege at Krebs on Security. Read more

 

Costco Australia: We’re 28 per cent cheaper than Woolworths, Coles at The Age. “But the price gap had narrowed from 37 per cent, thanks to price cuts at Woolies and Coles, analyst Tom Kierath said.” Read more

 

Retired Amazon executive lists 100-acre Friday Harbor waterfront estate for $20 million by Patti Payne at Puget Sound Business Journal. “We built the (Amazon.com) website,” Ayre explains. “What you see and what you read – that’s (part of) what we did – art and editorial and production.” 20 pics/Read more

 

Tipsheet Extra Stories

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Arby’s reports data breach

Alberta man says he found piece of metal bolt in jumbo Costco muffin

WinCo ready to shake-up Tulsa grocery market

Amazon’s Fake #ResistanceRadio Becomes a Real Political Battleground on Twitter

Read Tipsheet Extra Stories

 

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