“Dollar General sweetens cash bid for Family Dollar to $80 a share, or about $9.1B” by Andrew Ross Sorkin at CNBC. “Dollar General is willing to sell up to 1,500 stores if required by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, even though it feels its pledge to divest 700 stores in its prior proposal provides more than enough cushion to clear any regulatory review.” Read more

 

“Kickstarter users fundraise for products already sold on Amazon” by Kaja Whitehouse at NY Post. “The Bellevue, Wash., company launched a Kickstarter campaign seeking $20,000 for its high-tech knife, whose pitch is that it needs neither batteries nor electricity to generate heat. The problem? The knife officially launched last year and can be purchased on Amazon.com. The knife also was available for sale on the company’s Web site until late last Friday when That! took it down amid criticism.” Read more

 

Boston Consulting Group:  Mexico has Lower Manufacturing Costs than China at The Economist. “America and Mexico really are “rising stars”. American wage restraint and newly cheap energy have improved its attractiveness to manufacturers. And Mexican wages have grown less than 50% in dollar terms over a decade, leaving them 13% cheaper (adjusted for productivity) than China’s.” Read more

 

“Costco welcomes massive 93″ plush bear” by Billy Langsworthy at Toy News. “The bear is 93″ tall head to toe, or 55″ when sitting down and even has its own Facebook and Twitter pages. As the video below demonstrates, the bear is perfect for laying on, trampolining with, or smacking with pillows, although it makes a naff seesaw partner.” See the video / Read more

 

“Is gun battle a no-win for Kroger?” by Alexander Coolidge at Cincinnati.com. “Company officials say Kroger just wants to sell groceries, not enter political debates. “Our long-standing policy on this issue is to follow state and local laws and to ask customers to be respectful of others while shopping,” Kroger said in a statement.” Read more

 

“Eyeing that pricey handbag? Prepare to be insulted” by Bob Sullivan at CNBC. “Morgan Ward tested her theory with Darren W. Dahl of The University of British Columbia, in a study to be published in October’s Journal of Consumer Research. In one of the experiments they found that consumers who were treated poorly by sales staff were willing to pay 10 percent more than others.” Read more

 

“Price Check: Which Online Retailer has Best Prices?” by Valerie Hoff at WXIA-11 Atlanta. “Costco came in first with the best prices on coffee, batteries, diapers and cleaning wipes. Next was Sam’s Club, followed by Walmart. Amazon had the overall highest prices on the seven items we checked, though it did have the lowest on paper towels and trash bags.”  See the video / Read more

 

“We Can’t Reduce Inequality By Forcing WalMart To Pay Like Costco” by Tim Worstall at Forbes. “If WalMart had to pay labour like Costco does then we’d expect them to also employ labour like Costco does. That is, we’d expect them to reduce their workforce by more than half: that’s what they would have to do in order to get to roughly the same sales per head of staff, that thing which is the determinant of how much they can pay people.” Read more

 

“Two Months On From Hobby Lobby Ruling, Grocery Co-ops Dump Eden Foods Products From Shelves” by Clare O’ Connor at Forbes. “So far, larger nationwide grocery chains remain on board with Eden Foods…a spokesperson for Whole Foods, Eden’s biggest supplier, told Forbes that it’ll keep selling the Michigan company’s organic goods, but that shoppers have every right to “vote with their dollars.” Read more

 

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