The Most Expensive Takeover in Retail Is Drowning in Debt by Eliza Ronalds-Hannon & Lauren Coleman Lochner at Bloomberg. “PetSmart’s owners thought embracing e-commerce would keep it competitive in the age of Amazon. Two chief executives and $3 billion later, they’re discovering it takes a lot more than web smarts to outrun an avalanche of debt.” Read more

 

Why Walmart is partnering with everyone except Instacart for its grocery delivery service by Jason Del Rey at Recode. “The sticking point? Instacart wants Walmart to list its grocery items for sale on Instacart’s app, while Walmart simply wants to use Instacart delivery people to fulfill orders that flow exclusively through Walmart’s own digital properties.” Read more

 

Amazon.com plays catch-up in Brazil by Brad Haynes at Reuters. “…(Amazon) may struggle to dominate retail in Brazil as it has elsewhere, according to a dozen executives, analysts and investors interviewed by Reuters. They compare the state of Brazilian e-commerce to that of the U.S. market 10 years ago — only Amazon’s slow rollout here gave rivals a chance to prepare.” Read more

 

Here Are the Floor Plans for Jeff Bezos’s $23 Million DC Home by Mimi Montgomery at Washingtonian. “Washingtonian filed a public-records request with the city’s zoning office to get copies of the blueprints for the renovations. They reveal a party pad of epic proportions…Note the new “garden-room” addition to the Wood house — one designer tells us that judging from the drawings, this solarium will be “fabulous.” Blueprints/Read more

 

Supervalu to sell and lease back handful of DCs, seek sale of Shop ‘N Save retail operations by Dan DeBaun at Minneapolis/St.Paul Business Journal. “A sale of Shop N’ Save would leave Supervalu’s retail arm with Cub Foods in Minnesota, Hornbacher’s in the Midwest and Shoppers in the mid-Atlantic region.” Read more

 

Sears’ head of real estate Jeff Stollenwerck is stepping down at CNBC. Read more

 

Instacart Is Fixing One Of The Most Controversial Parts Of Its Grocery Delivery Service by Biz Carson at Forbes. “The company is changing the default tip to 5% of an order total, up from nothing. It’s also lowering the service fee the company takes on each order to 5%, but is making it mandatory.” Read more

 

**A message from 2018 Sweets & Snacks Expo – Be first to market with the newest candy and snack products!  See the 2017 Innovation Winners. The single largest gathering of confectionery & snack companies under one roof. Chicago, May 22-24, 2018. Website | Exhibitors

 

Ten Emerging Beauty Brands Kick Off This Year’s Target Takeoff Accelerator Program “Target Takeoff is a mini retail boot camp that brings 10 up-and-coming startups to Minneapolis to work alongside business mentors to learn the ins and outs of the retail industry.” Startups overview

 

Walmart Beats $32M ‘Backyard’ Trademark Fine by Bill Donahue at Law 360. “A three-judge panel ruled that there had not been enough evidence for a lower judge to rule that Backyard BBQ products by Walmart Inc., infringed the Backyard brand sold by Variety Stores Inc., which operates more than 300 Roses and Maxway discount stores across the South.” Law 360 subs.

 

GE Lighting will become the only nationwide supplier to Lowe’s U.S. consumer retail outlets for light bulbs Press release

 

Metro’s profit drops 19.3% from year ago as sales edge lower by Ross Marowits at Canadian Press via Toronto Star. “Sales for stores open at least a year…were down 1.2 per cent, but would have been up one per cent excluding the shift in the holiday period, the company said.” Read more

 

Walmart named most talked about brand online Brand list

 

Companies are complaining they can’t find enough truck drivers to ship their stuff because of Amazon at CNBC. “As soon as these logging devices were implemented, it resulted in a 10 percent drop in productivity because these truckers were obviously spending more time driving than they should have been,” Csongor said.” Read more

 

Tipsheet Extra Stories

Amazon confirms new Fire TV Cube streaming device

Apple CEO Tim Cook will meet Donald Trump today

Jeff Bezos’ $65M jet seen at airports near potential HQ2 sites

Canada: Safeway stores succumb to real estate values

Subway Plans to Close 500 U.S. Stores

Warby Parker to open first Denver store this weekend

Read Tipsheet Extra Stories

 

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