“Costco has ‘limited exposure’ to card breaches: Former CEO” by Jeff Morganteen at CNBC.  “Obviously, I’m sure that Target and Neiman Marcus had taken the precautions that were necessary,” Costco co-founder James Sinegal said on “Squawk on the Street.” “We have a limited exposure to credit cards because we only accept American Express at our warehouses.” See the interview / Read more

 

“Top 25 ‘U.S. Buzz Brands’: Amazon #1 overall, Lowe’s #1 brick & mortar” at BrandIndex.  “Brands were rated using YouGov BrandIndex’s Buzz score which asks respondents, “If you’ve heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or word of mouth, was it positive or negative?” The Buzz Rankings chart shows the brands with the highest average Buzz scores between January and December 2013.”  See the Top 25 List

 

“Target Runs Full-Page Newspaper Ads to Apologize for Data Breach” by John Vomhof Jr. at Minn./St. Paul Bus. Journal.  “The ad appeared Monday morning in The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post and USA Today. It’s also appearing in local papers in the top 50 U.S. markets either Monday or Tuesday, depending on those papers’ schedules for ad submissions, Target spokeswoman Molly Snyder said.”  See the Ad / Read more

 

“Deloitte Announces Top 10 Retailers in ‘2014 Global Powers of Retail’ report (Costco #3, Home Depot #8…)”  See the Top 10 list

 

“Lowe’s turns to data aggregator for sales boost” by Ely Portillo at News Observer.  “Lowe’s is rolling out a partnership with Porch.com at about 140 stores in the Carolinas… Porch.com collects information on contractors and plots it on a map. That lets users, for whom the service is free, see what kind of home projects are in their neighborhood, and which contractors are doing them. People can also review and endorse contractors, and those professionals can pay Porch.com to advertise.”  Read more

 

“Lowe’s/Porch In-Store Signage Pics (and more)” by Rebecca Greenfield at Fast Company.  See the pics / Read more

 

“Amazon Fresh wooing potential San Francisco customers with free food” by Blair Hanley Frank at Geek Wire.  “Twitter has lit up with reports from around the city that Amazon is delivering bags of food to the doorsteps of city residents, as a promotion for its grocery delivery service…Re/code said that the common thread between all of the customers they’ve encountered is an Amazon Prime subscription.”  Read more

 

“REI’s new CEO ready to sharpen its retail edge” by Amy Martinez at Seattle Times.  “Three months after taking the helm at REI, Jerry Stritzke looks every bit the part of CEO at the Northwest’s popular outdoor-equipment retailer.  Stritzke, 53, walks the grounds of REI’s Kent headquarters sporting a three-day stubble and none of your typical CEO attire. Jeans, flannel shirt and Patagonia vest have replaced the suit and tie he wore as president and chief operating officer at posh New York-based handbag-maker Coach…”  Read more

 

“IBM Study:  Showrooming left in the dust as shoppers go online” by Krystina Gustafson at CNBC.  “Although the number of shoppers who showroomed last year ticked slightly higher—to 8 percent from 6 percent in 2012—the spending attributed to the practice was drastically lower. While nearly 50 percent of online purchases in 2012 came as a result of the practice, that number fell to 30 percent in 2013.”  Read more

 

“Family Dollar Presents at 2014 ICR XChange Conference”  Listen to the Webcast / See the PowerPoint

 

“The rise of Walmart, in one animated map” by Daniel Ferry at Washington Post.  See the GIF

 

Follow @retaileyeretail