Two startups from Target + Techstars accelerator moving to Minneapolis by Kavita Kumar at Star Tribune. “St. Paul-based Local Crate, a meal kit delivery service similar to Blue Apron, said it has created a retail meal kit during the program that will be sold at 10 Target stores around the Twin Cities starting Sunday…Savitude, which gives clothing suggestions based on a person’s body shape, will be tried out on Target.com. And StoryXpress, the firm moving to Minneapolis from India, is finalizing an agreement to create thousands of product videos for items sold on Target.com.” Read more

 

Sen. Rand Paul on Healthcare: “I’d like to you to be able to join Costco and be one of 85 million people and have Costco negotiate with the insurance company.” at USA Today. Read more

 

Zulily CEO Darrell Cavens to lead new ventures team at QVC, shopping for acquisitions by John Cook at GeekWire. “Our new group will bring together QVC, HSN, zulily and the Cornerstone brands to create a premier global retailer with extraordinary reach and unlimited potential,” said QVC President Mike George.” Read more

 

Rose McGowan goes after Amazon and Jeff Bezos in latest tweets calling out abuses in Hollywood by Kurt Schlosser at GeekWire. “Thursday afternoon she used a series of tweets to go after Amazon and Jeff Bezos, calling on the CEO to “stop funding rapists” and “stand with truth.” Read more

 

…Amazon Suspends Top Exec Roy Price in Wake of Harassment Claim at The Hollywood Reporter. “Roy Price is on leave of absence effective immediately,” an Amazon spokesperson said Thursday in a statement, adding, “We are reviewing our options for the projects we have with The Weinstein Co.” Read more

 

Walmart’s Social-Media Chief has 30 Times More Pinterest Followers than Walmart at Ad Age. “Lowe’s, with 3.4 million Pinterest followers, excels at Pinterest among retailers, she says, by focusing on their “core commitment to customers,” which is home improvement.” Read more

 

Google is essentially building an anti-Amazon alliance, and Target is the latest to join by Jason Del Rey at Recode. “On Thursday, Target and Google announced that they are expanding what was a years-old delivery partnership from a small experiment in a handful of cities to the entire continental U.S.” Read more | Target press release

 

**A message from deVaca – The coffee decaffeination process often requires the use of chemical solutions to strip away caffeine. Do you offer consumers a natural, caffeine free alternative? Boost coffee category sales with deVaca – the all-natural, non-GMO coffee substitute that features a dark robust coffee like flavor with a hint of chocolate sensuality. Details/Package pic | Request a taste: info@eyeonretail.net

 

Retailers Are Bottling Their Own Milk, Raising Pressure on Dairy Companies by Heather Haddon & Benjamin Parkin at Wall Street Journal. “Wal-Mart’s plant will supply milk to more than 600 stores across five Midwest states that are now supplied by Dean Foods Co. , one of the world’s largest milk producers. Dean will still supply Wal-Mart stores elsewhere, but the new plant will cost Dean roughly 100 million gallons of annual milk sales out of 2.5 billion total beginning next year, according to Dean.” Read more (subs.)

 

Walmart and Jet.com are dividing America to conquer it by Lisa Fickenscher at NY Post. “Jet.com e-commerce unit focus on shoppers in New York, Chicago, Boston and other large cities, while the 55-year-old discounter’s online store will focus on the rest of the country, The Post has learned. The two-Americas strategy — Jet.com for urban millennial customers and Walmart for the remainder of the country — was disclosed recently to a town hall meeting of Jet.com employees.” Read more

 

Mattress Firm finally joins the bed-in-a-box movement by Lisa Fickenscher at NY Post. “After bucking the $1.5 billion bed-in-a-box movement and even disparaging the industry as just “hype,” the Houston company will jump into the hot category on Friday.” Read more

 

Amazon Bookstores Offer Peek Into Whole Foods’ Future by Laura Stevens & Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg at Wall Street Journal. “Eric Jan, an app developer, has visited nearly every day since the store’s opening in August to browse and read. He goes for the experience, not to buy. He compares the feel of the store to AppleInc.’s retail experience. “There’s a feeling of exclusivity,” says the 24 year-old. “During the weekends there’s a line. You never see that for a traditional bookstore.” Read more (subs.)

 

Walmart’s ‘Always Low Prices’ slogan doesn’t apply at Jet.com by Lisa Fickenscher at NY Post. “A small basketful of items for sale on Thursday was clearly priced higher on Jet.com. A box of 54 Tide pods with Febreze costs $21.56 at Jet.com, or 20 percent more than on Walmart’s site.” Read more

 

Camping World Holdings Agrees to Acquire Uncle Dan’s Outfitters Press release

 

Home Depot Removes EPS Styrofoam from Holiday Packaging “…we were able to eliminate 341,000 cubic feet of it from our packaging. That’s 355 Greyhound buses-worth of non-recyclable foam kept out of our remaining landfills and waterways.” Press release/video

 

High tech 365 by Whole Foods store in Seattle area closing, but company says Amazon not to blame by Nat Levy at GeekWire. Read more

 

La Croix’s Seltzer Bubble May Be Ready to Burst by Kristy Westgard at Bloomberg. “Grandet, who has tried to meet with National Beverage several times in the past, finally got the chance to see the “wizard,” Caporella, last Friday…”If you think about it, what this company has is the brand name,” Grandet said. “It is very strong with millennials and they tend to turn their back to big brands. But there is no IP, so every one can do the flavored water and basically you come back to the valuation.” Read more

 

84.51° Unveils Kroger Precision Marketing Press release

 

Oil will crash to $10 a barrel with electric vehicle revolution, strategist says by Sam Meredith at CNBC. “We forget don’t we? I mean 120 years ago the world didn’t live on oil. Oil hasn’t always driven the global economy… The point is alternative energy in some forms is gathering speed (and) things are changing,” he added. The Longview Economics CEO forecast the price of oil would ultimately slump to $10 a barrel over the next six to eight years.” Read more

 

Tipsheet Extra Stories

They survived 6 hours in a pool as CA wildfire burned their neighborhood to the ground

‘Springsteen on Broadway’ soul-stirring — but don’t dare sing along

Congressional Black Caucus scolds Facebook over Black Lives Matter ads

Lowe’s Names 2017 Innovation and Vendor Partners of the Year

Amazon and Google are ready to disrupt small business lending, former Obama advisor says

55 to 65% chance that a La Niña will develop during the fall and winter of 2017-18

Mustard seeds for Dijon in short supply after ‘very dry and very hot’ summer

Read Tipsheet Extra Stories

 

**

Eye on Retail Tipsheet is must-read material for 20,000+ 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: Send story tips, press releases and advertising inquiries to info@eyeonretail.net

 

Website: www.eyeonretail.net