Office Depot and Alibaba team up to tap small and medium businesses at Reuters. “Office Depot’s customers will get access to Alibaba’s global network of over 150,000 suppliers to find more product options or a reputed manufacturer to produce their goods.” Read more

 

Children’s Place to buy Gymboree brand, while Gap snags Janie and Jack chain at CNBC. Read more

 

Target CEO: $7 billion investment in stores and technology is paying off by Jackie Crosby at Minneapolis Star Tribune. “Heading into Tuesday’s (investor) meeting, Cornell is quick to temper expectations that the multiyear effort is on the home stretch. “The reason we’re doing this is not to move the needle for the next three years,” Cornell said. “Back then, we said we were going to play the long game and make the right investments to ensure that this is a viable and thriving business, and that the Target brand is one of the winners in retail. It won’t stop in 2020. We’ve got a lot more work to do.” Tiered subs.

 

How Hudson’s Bay CEO Helena Foulkes Is Getting the Retailer to Focus by Phil Wahba at Forbes. “Saks Off Fifth is operating in a great space in retail, a successful part of retail. Our issue is not so much, ‘Do we like the space we do?’ We do. We haven’t been executing well. We had been running it more like a small department store rather than an off-price business.” Read more

 

…Lord & Taylor lives in retail’s “middle” ground — and that’s a hard place to survive by Kurt Wagner at Recode. “I think it’s in the toughest part of retail: The middle,” Foulkes said Sunday night at Recode’s Code Commerce event in Las Vegas. “It’s neither the high end luxury where you can really own it, nor is it low-cost…discount retailer.” Video/Read more

 

Holdout Jeff Bezos Confronted by Amazon Moms Demanding Daycare by Spencer Soper & Rebecca Greenfield at Bloomberg. “The women, who belong to a group of more than 1,800 employees called the Momazonians, are scheduled to meet with senior managers in coming weeks to make their case. They want the company to provide backup daycare for those times when regular childcare arrangements fall through.” Tiered subs.

 

How Best Buy, a building owner and the Y set up a downtown St. Paul teen hangout by Frederick Melo at Pioneer Press. Read more

 

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Los Angeles proposed ordinance addresses erratic hours for retail workers by Margot Roosevelt at LA Times. “A national movement to mandate stable hourly schedules for low-wage workers expanded to Los Angeles on Friday, as City Council members introduced a “Fair Workweek” measure that could affect some 70,000 retail employees in the city. Under a proposed ordinance, large retailers would have to give workers two weeks’ advance notice of what days and hours they are expected to work.” Tiered subs.

 

Amazon to open new US grocery chain separate from Whole Foods via TechCrunch. “The longer-term plan involves opening “dozens” of these stores in major U.S. cities, and Amazon may even consider an acquisition strategy related to this goal, which would see it pick up regional grocery chains with about a dozen stores under operation, the report said.” Read more | WSJ article (subs.)

 

CVS is closing its nearly 30 hearing centers at CNBC. “CVS is pivoting ahead of changes…Next year, the FDA will introduce regulations to allow hearing aids to be sold over the counter, eliminating the need for CVS to dedicate space in stores for audiologists to conduct hearing tests and fit people for the devices.” Read more

 

Authorities recover cockpit voice recorder from Amazon Air plane crash site in Texas by Alan Boyle at GeekWire. Read more

 

Kroger expands ban on Visa credit cards to 250 Smith’s Food & Drug stores at USA Today. “Kroger and Visa have been negotiating about the fee structure for months, but made no progress, (Kroger CFO) Schlotman says.” Read more

 

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