Walmart removes “Made in USA” logos from website after government inquiry by Phil Wahba at Fortune. “Walmart’s big push to appeal to patriotic shoppers was just delivered a setback. The giant retailer was forced to remove “Made in the USA” logos from its e-commerce site after an inquiry by the Federal Trade Commission into its labeling.” Read more

 

…The FTC said in a letter to Walmart‘s associate general counsel that it would not pursue action against Walmart because the retailer had taken voluntary steps to “prevent consumer deception” Read the FTC letter

 

Target resale program creates online buzz but actually ended weeks ago by Kavita Kumar at Star Tribune. “Angie Thompson, a Target spokeswoman, confirmed that the program ended at the end of September.” Read more 

 

The Hipster Hardware Store That Has Home Depot Scared by Tom Foster at Inc. “Jason Ballard remembers the time some guys from Home Depot came poking around in TreeHouse, his eco-conscious home-improvement store in a strip mall in southwest Austin…”So I marched up and said, ‘Hey, I’m Jason! How can I help you?'” Ballard recalls. With a little small talk, he got them to say they were in town from Atlanta. Then he asked where they worked. They admitted they’d come from the big-box home-improvement giant. Ballard wished them well and cautioned his employees to say nothing more.” Read more

 

Google’s New Tool Lets Retailers Find Shoppers Based on What They Search For — and Where by Dawn Chmielewski & Mark Bergen at Recode. “On Tuesday, Google gave an early holiday gift to the big box stores. The company announced a new ad product that takes two of its biggest strengths — search data and mapping data — and packages them for retailers, letting them identify shopping trends in individual U.S. markets.” Read more

 

Lowe’s CEO donates $2.5 million to UNC Charlotte by Katherine Peralta at Charlotte Observer. “Niblock’s gift is among the largest to the Belk College of Business in recent years. Charlotte-based Belk announced a donation in 2013 of $5 million over five years to support business innovation and data analytics.” Read more

 

**A message from Mobee’s Bees – Mobee has over 350,000 GPS tracked, Smartphone enabled ‘Bees’ located within 5 miles of every US retail store. Detect supply chain issues quickly. “Supply Chain Fix Alerts” have resulted in post-alert sales increases of up to +35%. www.getmobee.com Contact dowdy@getmobee.com to request a free pilot.

 

Fresh Market founder explores bid for company at Reuters. “No offer to Fresh Market has been made and none may materialize, the people cautioned. Shares of Fresh Market jumped as much as 14 percent on the news.” Read more

 

Wal-Mart’s Raises to $10 an Hour May Cost Retailers $4 Billion by Shannon Pettypiece at Bloomberg. “The problem is, the math is just awful,” said Scott Mushkin, an analyst with Wolfe Research LLC. Wal-Mart plans to spend $2.7 billion on increased wages and training over the next two years. If that boosts sales by 1 percent, that would only translate into about $350 million in profit, he said. “The return on investment is terrible.” Read more

 

Jeff Bezos Makes Surprise Appearance at Madrona Celebration by John Cook at GeekWire. “The discussion between Alberg — an Amazon board member — and Bezos was touted as “off the record,” and those in the room were discouraged from Tweeting or sharing anecdotes via social media. No video or audio was taken of the talk.” Read more

 

Walmart energy boss speaks at energy association meeting by Wesley Brown at The City Wire.”In his 25-minute presentation, (Mark) Vanderhelm reiterated the pillar of retail giant’s global sustainability goal of becoming 100% fully supplied by renewable energy by the end of 2020. He said the company now produces or procures 20% renewable energy globally every year, but said the next step of reaching its 7 billion kilowatt hour (kWh) milestone will be more difficult and complex.” Read more

 

Why the Nike store in L.A. looks so different from the one in Tuscaloosa by Sarah Halzack at Washington Post. Read more

 

The Slower You Shop, the More You Spend by Ellen Byron at WSJ. “If you sit down in an Origins store, you’ll probably spend about 40% more than you would standing up. This type of insight, backed by data, is behind a change going on at retail. Stores are trying to slow down the shopping experience, a movement known as “slow shopping.” Read more (Subscription)

 

Google Express expands overnight delivery to St. Louis, Rochester (before Twin Cities), Cleveland…

 

Tipsheet Extra

Target Showcases Disabled Child In Halloween Costume Mail Advertisement

Walmart Execs to Speak at NWA Technology Summit on Nov. 10th

Remote cat feeders, disease detectors & other inventions at this 24-hour caffeine-fueled university hackathon

Trader Joe’s confirms downtown Minneapolis store plan

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 the website at www.eyeonretail.net