Costco Q3 adjusted comp sales +5.6%: U.S. +5.5% / Canada +5.1% / Other Int’l +6.9% / Ecom +19.5% “Net sales for the quarter increased 7.4 percent, to $33.96 billion, from $31.62 billion last year. Net sales for the first thirty-six weeks increased 8.3 percent, to $102.90 billion, from $95.02 billion last year.” Press release

 

…Fox Business: Costco says trade war will make ‘prices will go up on things’ “We want to be the last to raise them. And when prices are going down, we want to be the first to lower them,” (Galanti) continued. “We’re not afraid to use some of those monies to again drive business.” Read more

 

Gap Inc. Q1 comp sales: Gap Global -10% / Old Navy Global -1.0% / Banana Republic Global -3.0% Press release

 

…CNBC: Gap CEO calls quarter ‘extremely challenging’ “Peck partially blamed one of the “coldest, wettest quarters in memory” for the poor results, which he said influenced more shoppers to stay inside. He said business was “extremely slow” in February.” Read more

 

Williams-Sonoma Inc. Q1 comp sales +3.5%. By concept: Pottery Barn +1.5% / West Elm +11.8% / Williams-Sonoma -1.6% / Pottery Barns Kids and Teen +1.2% Press release

 

Ulta Beauty Q1 comp sales +7.0% “The 7.0% comparable sales increase was driven by 4.3% transaction growth and 2.7% growth in average ticket…For fiscal 2019, the Company plans to open approximately 80 new stores.” Press release

 

Salesforce says it won’t work with retailers that sell semi-automatic weapons by Jay Greene at Washington Post. “These types of rules are “corporate-policy virtue signaling” and discriminate against gun owners, whose rights are protected by the Second Amendment, said Mark Oliva, public affairs director of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a firearms trade group.” Tiered subs.

 

Big Lots Q1 comp sales +1.5% Press release

 

Longtime CFO at GameStop leaving as new CEO George Sherman puts his team together by Maria Halkias at Dallas Morning News. “James Bell, 51, succeeds Lloyd as chief financial officer…Chris Homeister, 50, fills the newly created job of executive vice president and chief merchandising officer. He was president and CEO of The Tile Shop. Earlier, he was at Best Buy…” Tiered subs.

 

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Amazon reportedly wants to buy Boost Mobile from T-Mobile and Sprint at Reuters. “Amazon is considering buying Boost – currently one of Sprint’s prepaid brands – mainly because the deal would allow it to use the new T-Mobile’s wireless network for at least six years, one of the sources said.” Read more

 

Walmart sues poultry industry for price collusion, omits Tyson Foods by Kim Souza at Talk Business. Read more

 

Spray cheese, beef jerky and stuffed olives to be counted as staples under Trump administration food stamp proposal by Tim Carman at Washington Post. “The real beneficiaries of the new rules, (CSPI’s) Wootan said, are not food stamp recipients but convenience stores, dollar stores, liquor shops and other retail outlets that could start accepting SNAP benefits. The National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) had lobbied for the changes, she added.” Tiered subs.

 

Trump vows rapid, high tariffs on Mexico unless illegal immigration ends at Reuters. Read more

 

Someone Bought a $400,000 Diamond Ring at Costco by Matthew Boyle at Bloomberg. “Look out, Tiffany — Costco is coming for you.Quarterly sales at the U.S. warehouse-club retailer got a boost from a customer who made a “significant diamond ring purchase, in the $400,000 range,” Costco Wholesale Corp. Chief Financial Officer Richard Galanti told analysts Thursday on a conference call.” Tiered subs.

 

Elizabeth Warren and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez rip Eddie Lampert at CNBC. Read more

 

North Face apologizes after openly gloating about gaming Wikipedia for free advertising by Nick Statt at The Verge. “North Face even gloated about its success with a short, two-minute video detailing how shots of famous locales were swapped for similar-seeming photos featuring North Face product placement, inorganically juicing North Face visibility in Google results.” Read more

 

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