Fans Lines Up at Midnight for new Star Wars Toys at CNN Money. “At Toys R Us in New York’s Times Square just before midnight, hundreds of people were waiting for hours to be first in line…The BB-8 and Phasma toys sold out quickly, to the dismay of many of the biggest fans.” Read more

 

…A Bullseye View: “Target Exclusive BB-8 Droid is Here, Plus So Much More” See the toy pics / Read more

 

Online back-to-school shopping increases 12% by Matt Linder at Internet Retailer. “Mobile sales jumped 42%, accounting for a quarter of all such online sales, according to IBM’s just-released Digital Analytics Benchmark report…For the first time however, mobile has nearly caught up with desktop when it comes to traffic share.” Read more

 

Amazon rolls out Sunday delivery to Twin Cities by Kavita Kumar at Star Tribune. “Twin Cities customers might soon be able to get same-day delivery. Amazon already offers it in more than a dozen metro areas. “We haven’t made any announcement yet,” Lindsey said when asked when it would arrive in the Twin Cities. “But stay tuned.” Read more

 

eBay: Two Minutes with our North America Chief Hal Lawton “What’s your leadership style? I would say interactive as well as results-oriented. I’m very much a non-hierarchical person…” Read the Q&A / See the video

 

Rite Aid August Comp +1.6% (Front-End +0.6%) “Same store sales for the 26-week period ended Aug. 29, 2015 increased 2.5 percent over the prior-year period. Front-end same store sales increased 0.5 percent.” Read the release

 

Bass Pro schedules October bash at Memphis Pyramid by Ted Evanoff at The Commerical Appeal. “The expo is scheduled Oct. 16 through Oct. 25. It  will be the first major event at the 750-employee riverside Pyramid marketed by Bass Pro throughout North America since the opening.” Read more  See the schedule of events

 

The Awesome Scale Of The New Apple Campus, Captured By Drone by Mark Wilson at Fast Company. See the video

 

Claim: CVS says stopping tobacco sales made a big difference by Jayne O’Donnell at USA Today. “The decision to stop tobacco sales at all of its drugstores a year ago caused people to buy 95 million fewer packs of cigarettes in 13 states, CVS Health says in a new study out Thursday.” Read more

 

Fred’s August Comp +1.2% “On a comparable store basis, year-to-date sales increased 0.8% versus a decline of 0.6% for the year-earlier period.” Read more

 

Sears Canada’s retail operations ‘basically worthless at this point,’ analysts say by Hollie Shaw at Financial Post. “Like almost every other Canadian merchant, they were lapping a quarter that contained Target with a quarter that didn’t,” analysts Perry Caicco and Mark Petrie said in a research note Thursday.” Read more

 

Man Masquerading As Walmart Employee Walks Out The Door With Four Big Screen TVs by Ashlee Kieler at Consumerist. “Authorities say the man, wearing a vest and employee badge, walked straight to the store’s stockroom, loaded up a hand truck with thousands of dollars worth of smart TVs and walked out the door to a waiting Nissan vehicle.” Read more

 

We’ve Hit Peak Barbecue, and Steak Prices Are Partly to Blame by Lydia Mulvany & Shruti Singh at Bloomberg. “The percentage of U.S. homes using their barbecue grill for a main meal in a typical two-week period slipped to 35 percent last year from 40 percent in 2009, according to market researcher NPD Group…“Barbecuing is not going away,” Seifer said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. “It’s just that it’s peaked.” Read more

 

Clorox Is Betting Big on Programmatic Advertising by Jack Marshall at WSJ. “To power its push further into programmatic, Clorox created a dedicated marketing technology group made up of data scientists and technology specialists who help manage its ad-buying programs and relationships with partners.” Read more (Subscription)

 

Facebook now holds the top two positions among app users in the U.S. by Michael De Waal-Montgomery at Venture Beat. See the Top 15 Smartphone Apps

 

Tipsheet Extra

Amazon Buys Video Delivery Company for $500 Mil

Fortune: Grocery store turns 99, its survival in doubt

Federal judge tosses ‘bread’ lawsuit against Wegmans

Hazmat crews called to St. Louis PetSmart

93% of B2B Companies use Twitter

Read Tipsheet Extra Stories

 

Eye-on-Retail Tipsheet is created early every weekday morning and read by retail merchants and executives worldwide. We love data, earnings reports, executive presentations and stories off the beaten path that get at what’s really happening in the world of retail. See our website at www.eyeonretail.net