Costco August Comp -2.0% (US +1.0%) “For the 52-week fiscal year ended August 30, 2015, the Company reported net sales of $113.7 billion, an increase of three percent from the $110.2 billion reported last year.” Read the release

 

Target’s Prices 25% Higher than Walmart in Back to School Study by Clare O’Connor at Forbes. “Profitero examined 3,849 of the exact same products with identical brands and barcodes across Amazon, Walmart and Target’s e-commerce sites on the same date (August 18th, around the annual peak for these purchases). The company found that Amazon’s prices were a fraction lower — 1% — than Walmart’s.” Read more

 

Wal-Mart to reopen five U.S. stores at center of union complaint by Nathan Layne at Reuters. “We are moving forward with the process to reopen all five stores. While we continue to conduct plumbing repairs and store upgrades, our goal is to begin serving customers by late October or early November,” Lorenzo said.” Read more

 

Five Below Q2 Comp Sales +3% “Net sales increased by 19.5% to $182.2 million from $152.5 million…The Company opened 32 new stores and ended the quarter with 417 stores in 26 states.” Read the release

 

Private-Equity Firms Carlyle, KKR Explore Bids for Petco by Dana Mattioli & Telis Demos at WSJ. “Petco, which is already owned by private-equity firms, is in the early stages of exploring a sale alongside its preparations for an initial public offering, the people said….people familiar with the matter said when it filed the IPO papers that the company could be worth about $4 billion.” Read more (Subscription)

 

Amazon expands Dash button to all Prime members, adds new brands, refunds price of button by Todd Bishop at GeekWire. Read more

 

Illinois law will bring lockable pill bottles, but will they work? by John Russell & Ameet Sachdev at Chicago Tribune. “Under a law that takes effect in January, Illinois will provide financial incentives to pharmacies to dispense addictive painkillers like Vicodin or Norco in locked pill bottles to deter people from gaining access, especially drug addicts.” Read more / See the pic

 

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Star Wars Merch on YouTube Today by Krystina Gustafson at CNBC. “Disney’s new “Star Wars” toys will be unveiled on YouTube during an 18-hour event that kicks off Thursday. Then, at midnight local time on “Force Friday,” retailers including Toys R Us and Wal-Mart will host exclusive events and giveaways to celebrate the launch.” Read more

 

J.C. Penney CEO Marvin Ellison to speak at A&M Retailing Summit in Dallas by Maria Halkias at Dallas News. “J.C. Penney CEO Marvin Ellison is speaking in Dallas at the annual Retailing Summit put on by the Center for Retailing Studies at Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School. Ellison speaks on the first day of the conference on Oct. 8-9 at the Westin Galleria in Dallas.” Read more

 

The future of Whole Foods: Exec dishes details on 365 stores by Anjali Fluker at Austin Business Journal. ““For most people, at least historically, grocery shopping ranked up there with taking out the garbage,” Sud said during the panel discussion at the ICSC Florida Conference.” Read more

 

Target wins St. Paul OK for liquor store by Josh Verges at Pioneer Press. “Target won city council approval Wednesday to sell liquor at the SuperTarget along University Avenue in St. Paul.” Read more

 

Sears Canada faces tight turnaround to revitalize flagging business by Marina Strauss at Globe & Mail. “Mr. Stranzl, who often works in a cubicle at the Toronto head office rather than his office (“I like to be in the mix”), said he does not have a timeline for a turnaround, but he feels the heat to bolster results.” Read more

 

Puget Sound’s largest-ever cargo ship – longer than an aircraft carrier – just arrived in Seattle by Steve Wilhelm at Puget Sound Business Journal. “The ship is able to carry the equivalent of 11,400 containers, each 20 feet long, making it more than 40 percent larger than the average ship…These ships are called “super-post-Panamax,” because they’re too large to fit even through the widened Panama Canal, which means they only can call West Coast ports with inbound cargo from Asia.” Read more

 

Build A Bears A-ha Moment: It’s About Making Memories by Kavita Kumar at Star Tribune. “When they pored through the data, (CEO Sharon Price) John said executives noticed their best stores got half their customers from at least 50 miles away. “That was an ‘a-ha moment’ for us,” she said. “Fundamentally, Build-A-Bear is not about stuffed animals. It’s about making memories.” Read more

 

Home Depot Website Glitch Provides Two Ratings For Some Products by Ashlee Kieler at Consumerist. “…we did a little digging to see what the discrepancy was all about and it turns out that Victor was on to something. A look at several products that include a portion of a star found that the rating loses that fraction of a star in the drop-down bar. Products with full stars are not affected.” Read more

 

eBay is 20 years old today by Paul Sawers at VentureBeat. “The first sale, so the story goes, was a broken laser pointer, which changed hands for a whopping $14.83. When Omidyar asked the buyer if he was aware that the item was broken, the response was: “I am a collector of broken laser pointers.” Read more

 

NY Times: Backpack Makers Rethink a Student Staple by Hiroko Tabuchi. ““I don’t really have to carry around textbooks anymore, like I used to in high school,” said Mr. Cho, a sophomore.” Read more

 

Tipsheet Extra

Amazon Prime members convert 74% of the time

Billionaire Steve Wynn buys Guess co-founder’s estate for $47.9 million (Pic)

B&G to pay General Mills $765 million for Green Giant

Dallas: Nordstrom says ‘bad choices’ were made when Deep Ellum got covered in Warby Parker posters

Wayfair to host a ‘Shark Tank’-like startup competition

Companies develop collars that monitor pets for pain, signs of disease and distress

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