Protesters force Wegmans store in Rochester, New York to close at Rochester Democrat & Chronicle. “Protesters commemorating the one-year anniversary of Daniel Prude’s fatal encounter with the Rochester Police Department on Tuesday marched down East Avenue and encamped in the Wegmans parking lot, causing the store to lock its doors…The group blocked entrances to Wegmans’ parking lot with their own vehicles, set up a tent in front of the store and wrote messages on the ground in chalk.” Read more

 

…Wegmans store protest pics & video Syracuse.com | Daily Mail

 

At Home Inc. Q4 comp sales +30.8% Press release

 

Carrefour to Buy Walmart’s Former Business in Brazil at Bloomberg via Yahoo. “Advent International and Walmart agreed to sell Grupo BIG Brasil SA for about 1.1 billion euros ($1.3 billion), Carrefour said Wednesday. Brazil is already the French retailer’s second-largest market, and the deal would make that business almost as big as its European operations outside of France.” Read more

 

Orders for manufactured goods tumbled 1.1% last month at AP News. “The size of the drop surprised economists, though it is likely that there was significant disruption from severe winter storms that hit much of the country last month, on top of ongoing supply-chain problems.” Read more

 

Walmart begins application process for Open Call at Talk Business. “Walmart said Tuesday (March 23) the application process for Open Call is open through April 30 for entrepreneurs and companies to pitch their products at the virtual event slated for June 30.” Read more

 

Costco launches audiobook store, app for members at Fox Business. “The wholesale retailer recently started selling audiobooks on its website and released its own app for iOS, where buyers can listen to the audiobooks they purchase. Though the app is free to download, users need a Costco membership to sign in and listen to their audiobooks, according to the Apple AppStore description.” Read more

 

Amazon has appointed Tableau CEO Adam Selipsky as the new head of Amazon Web Services at CNN. Read more

 

**Find the future of the candy and snacks industries at the Sweets & Snacks Expo’s Innovation Avenue! Innovation Avenue delivers the leading brands of tomorrow for retailers truly looking for something cutting-edge to wow their shoppers. Indianapolis, June 23-25 2021. Most innovative new products 2019 & 2018 | Register now

 

Loblaw senior management changes: President, Sarah Davis, retires, and Galen G. Weston returns as Chairman and President “Robert Sawyer will join Loblaw as COO and Richard Dufresne, President and CFO of GWL, will expand his responsibilities to include becoming CFO of Loblaw on May 6, 2021.” Press release

 

Amazon’s Deliveroo stake to drop to 11.5% after London IPO at Reuters. Read more

 

Retailers and Landlords Clash Over What Counts as a Sale at Wall Street Journal. “Landlords don’t want stores used as warehouses,” said Annette Healey, executive vice president of CBRE Group Inc., a commercial real-estate services and investment company. “They want all of the space in the store to be dedicated to sales for that store. But most retailers feel that if the transaction originated online, it’s not a store sale.” WSJ subs.

 

Canada: Canadian Tire ranked most reputable company in commerce at Financial Post. “Amazon’s score dropped the most, along with other shipping companies stretched by online shopping surge…Canadian Tire jumped two spots to land at No. 1, while Shoppers Drug Mart, Kellogg, Sony and Campbell — which jumped seven spots — rounded out the top five.” Top 10 list/Read more

 

Amazon was supposed to kill Instacart. Instead Instacart became a mini-Amazon at CNN. “Nilam Ganenthiran, president of Instacart: “In many ways, we’ve become the grocery industry’s antidote to Amazon because we believe that brick and mortar retailers are critical to the future of grocery,” he said.” Read more

 

Post Consumer Brands to repay shoppers for black-market Grape-Nuts purchases at NY Post. “Post Consumer Brands…(is) offering up to $115 to anyone who paid at least $10 for a box of Grape-Nuts between Nov. 1 of last year and March 15.” Read more

 

Tipsheet Extra

Rise in ‘nuclear verdicts’ in lawsuits threatens trucking industry

Yum Brands buys social media ordering platform in second tech deal of the month

Fanatics valuation doubles to $12.8 billion after a new funding round

Amazon union push gives giant retailer a taste of its own progressive medicine

Pools and bucket-list trips: Canadians itching to spend pandemic nest eggs

Read Tipsheet Extra Stories

 

**

Eye on Retail Tipsheet is must-read material for retail execs every weekday morning. Tipsheet stories are carefully curated bright and early every morning to ensure fresh and unique content.

 

Subscribe to Eye on Retail Tipsheet here

 

Contact us: Put your product or service in front of the most powerful retail execs in the world, send advertising inquiries to info@eyeonretail.net

 

Website: eyeonretail.net