Target expedites close of San Antonio store after extensive hail damage by Katie Burke at San Antonio Business Journal. “The store remained open in the aftermath of the damage…customers complained about plastic bags on the cash registers, smells and water covering the floors. I was at the store this past Saturday…but was met with the emptiest, darkest Target I’ve ever visited. There were empty shelves, clearance signs, piles of clothes hangars and enough inventory to barely fill a small studio apartment.” Read more

 

US retail sales rose 0.5% in May vs. 0.3% increase expected via CNBC. “Sales at clothing stores increased 0.8 percent, the largest gain since November. Online retail sales shot up 1.3 percent. Receipts at sporting goods and hobby stores jumped 1.3 percent last month.” Read more

 

EXPENSIVE DRAIN CLEANER – FAA fines Amazon $350,000 for shipping unmarked corrosive drain cleaner by Rachel Nielsen at Puget Sound Business Journal. “The Federal Aviation Administration is taking a firm line with Amazon, saying the online retail giant “has a history of violating” hazardous material regulations.” Read more

 

NY Times: Liberal Returns Policies for Consumers Can Reduce Retail Workers’ Pay by Rachel Abrams. “Earnestine Gay, a longtime worker in the fragrance department at Macy’s in Herald Square, clearly remembers a bottle of perfume that was returned recently. It was practically empty.“There was maybe a spray left,” Ms. Gay, 50, said. Yet Ms. Gay knew that the bottle, bought weeks earlier, would probably lower her commission because it would count against her sales for that week…” Read more

 

Walmart CIO Karenann Terrell Wins Award for Lifetime Achievement in CIO Leadership Read the release

 

WEDNESDAY STRIKE? – Macy’s, retail union still negotiating ahead of potential strike by Teresa Novellino at New York Business Journal. “If there is a strike, nearly 5,000 workers at four New York City stores, including the Herald Square flagship store, Queens Center, Parkchester, and White Plains, could walk off the job as early as Wednesday, June 15.” Read more

 

Target stores to go silent to honor 2 employees slain in Orlando via Pioneer Press. “One of victims worked for (Target) and another worked at a Starbucks inside a Target store. A third Target employee who works at an in-store coffee shop remains in critical condition as a result of the shooting early Sunday at the gay nightclub Pulse.” Read more

 

**A message from Alma Italy – Enjoy the innovative, yet simple elegance of Alma Cookware. Alma Cookware produces non-stick aluminum cookware products and delivers healthy and tasty foods with the security of a professional product. Featuring La Sughiera – the thick-tempered glass lid with upper hole allows for spice-adding and stirring without removing the lid. Featuring Egizia – this warm color pottery connects modern technology with a traditional rural aesthetic. Made in Italy | Website | Italy-America Chamber of Commerce | Retailers request samples at info@eyeonretail.net

 

NOT OUR FAULT – Alibaba’s Jack Ma: Fakes Better than the Real Thing by David Ramli & Lulu Yilun Chen at Bloomberg. “The problem is that the fake products today, they make better quality, better prices than the real products, the real names,” Ma said in Hangzhou, China. “It’s not the fake products that destroy them, it’s the new business models.” “The exact factories, the exact raw materials, but they do not use their names.” Read more

 

…Jack Ma says Alibaba wants to more than double its revenue to one trillion dollars by 2020 by Catherine Shu at TechCrunch. Read more

 

RS Metrics: Analysis for May showed auto traffic at Target stores was down 1.1 percent versus May of 2015, while traffic at Walmart was up 2.5 percent over the same period by Warner Todd Huston at Breitbart. Read more

 

Petco prepares for spike in fish sales following “Finding Dory” release – touts responsible fishkeeping Read the release

 

Australia: Aldi outspends Coles on advertising as Costco stays on sidelines by Madeleine Heffernan. “Patrick Noone, the head of Costco’s Australian operation, said Costco had no plan to start advertising as the $90 billion grocery sector heats up. “It’s not part of our model to do that,” he said. “As far as I know, we don’t globally.” Read more

 

Kroger Named to Computerworld’s Top 100 Best Places to Work in IT Read the release

 

Jeff Bezos plans first live-stream for Blue Origin’s suborbital spaceflight on Friday by Alan Boyle at GeekWire. “Allowing live video of a rocket launch and landing is old hat for the likes of rival billionaire Elon Musk and his company, SpaceX, but Blue Origin has never done it before.” Read more

 

Wayfair CEO Niraj Shah to Speak at the Goldman Sachs dotCommerce Day on June 15th Read the release

 

Williams-Sonoma announces retirement of Pat Connolly, Chief Strategy and Business Development Officer Read the release

 

Tipsheet Extra Stories

Former Restoration Hardware, CVS executive takes helm of Tampa firm

Lowes Foods marching into new market

Target staff defends woman breastfeeding when she is verbally assaulted

In-N-Out is facing a yellow pepper shortage

Trump vs. Bezos: Candidate bans Washington Post, gripes again about ‘owners of Amazon’

Europe’s Most Innovative Universities

Read Tipsheet Extra Stories

 

QUICK-SUBSCRIBE to Eye on Retail Tipsheet here