Costco Q1 Comp Sales -1.0% / +6.0% (excluding gas & foreign exchange) “Net sales for the first quarter increased one percent, to $26.63 billion from $26.28 billion during the first quarter last year.” Read the release

 

Downbeat Americans may spend less for holidays: Survey by Steve Liesman at CNBC. “The CNBC All-America Economic Survey finds that just 22 percent of the public sees the economy improving, a 5-point drop from more buoyant levels a year ago.” Read more

 

Home Depot CEO Touts U.S., Digital Growth Opportunities by Thomas Barrabi at Fox Business. “Home Depot will not pursue international expansion or new acquisitions as part of its efforts to reach $101 billion in sales by 2018, Chief Executive Craig Menear said Tuesday at the company’s 2015 Investor and Analyst Conference…” Read more

 

Walmart Beats Pepsi in Bentonville Cricket Match by Sarah Nassauer at WSJ. “Among the spectators: PepsiCo Inc. boss Indra Nooyi and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. chief Doug McMillon. Months earlier, Ms. Nooyi had dared her counterpart to accept a Pepsi challenge—to a game of cricket. Now the CEOs sat chatting on white folding chairs under a tarp waiting for the rain to relent…Wal-Mart U.S. CEO Greg Foran, a New Zealand native, played with his company’s team.” Read more (subscription)

 

Apple executive seeks a touch of chic at retail stores by Katie Benner at NY Times via CNBC. “Angela Ahrendts, Apple’s senior vice president of retail, got a private demonstration of the fancy wireless speaker, the Phantom, and its sound quality seven weeks ago. On the spot, she said she wanted the space podlike device, which starts at $1,990, to be sold in Apple’s retail stores…” Read more

 

The 50 Best Places to Work (HEB, REI..) by Julie Verhage at Bloomberg. See the list

 

NY Times: Walmart’s Imports From China Displaced 400,000 Jobs, a Study Says by Hiroko Tabuchi. “…according to an estimate by the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive research group that has long targeted Walmart’s policies…“Unfortunately, this is an old report with flawed economic analysis that assumes that imports equal job losses and does not take into consideration that countless jobs are added through the global supply chain, distribution and logistics…” (Walmart spokesman) Mr. Lopez added.” Read more

 

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U.S. FDA still can’t identify source of E. coli outbreak at Costco by Anjali Athavaley at Reuters. Read more

 

Wegmans Wonderplace opening at Smithsonian by Todd Clausen at Democrat & Chronicle. “The 1,700-square-foot Wegmans Wonderplace is set to open on Wednesday in a new Innovation Wing at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C…The space will have roughly 100 artifacts and six interactive areas…” Read more

 

Co-founder of The North Face, dies in kayaking accident in Patagonia by Sasha Goldstein at NY Daily News. “The 72-year-old, well-known as an outdoorsman and conservationist, was paddling with a group on Chile’s General Carrera Lake when he and five others flipped into the chilly waters around 11 a.m. Tuesday.” Read more

 

Organic vs. Non-GMO Labels. Who’s Winning? by Jacob Bunge & Annie Gasparro at WSJ. “Natural-foods makers have spent years going after the industry establishment. Now, they are taking on each other. Surging sales of foods marketed as made without genetically modified crops are outpacing sales of food labeled organic in U.S. grocery stores…” Read more (subscription)

 

5 Stores with the Best Return Policies by Chris Morris at Fortune. “Nordstrom tops the list – in large part because it doesn’t put any real limits on its return policy…” See the top 5 list

 

Best Buy to Offer $100 off Apple Watches (Again) by Dawn Chmielewski at Recode. “The discount will continue through Christmas.” Read more

 

Coca-Cola’s Ingenious Holiday Bottle Has a Label You Pull Into a Festive Bow by Roo Ciambriello at AdWeek. “The delightfully festive bottles are available for Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Life, Coca-Cola Zero and Diet Coke. Sadly, you can only get them in the U.K.” See the video & pics / Read more

 

Tipsheet Extra Stories

Fortune: Target Invokes Willy Wonka for Its Store of the Future

Former Best Buy CEO joins second tech company board

Toronto: McDonald’s debuts North America’s first standalone McCafé — and it serves Egg McMuffins all day

Smartphones to die out ‘within five years’, says new study

Posh mall banishes Santa to a ‘prison-like’ chamber

Christopher & Banks tweaks assortment after customers say no to leggings, activewear

Read Tipsheet Extra Stories

 

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