“CVS Q3 Front-End Sales Down 4.5%” “Front store same store sales would have been approximately 480 basis points higher if tobacco and the estimated associated basket sales were excluded from the three months ended September 30, 2014 and 2013.” Read the release

 

“Target quietly testing mobile payment app to rival Apple Pay” by Kavita Kumar at Star-Tribune. “Eddie Baeb, a spokesman for the Minneapolis-based retailer, confirmed that a group of Target’s headquarters employees has been trying out the CurrentC app in a couple of dozen Target stores around the Twin Cities. “Right now, it’s in a very early test phase,” he added, noting that there has been no date set to roll it out to the public.” Read more

 

“Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen Appears on CNBC” “When asked about expansion plans, McMullen said Kroger is eyeing markets where the company already has a presence, but sees potential for growth. “There are still a lot of markets where our market share is 10 or 15 percent. We find that by getting market share higher than that, it really creates a good return,” he said.” See the video / Read more

 

“Kroger gives shoppers a peek at its high-tech store of the future” at Cincinnati Bus. Courier. “The Cincinnati-based grocery chain is using new digital shelf-edge technology in the cereal aisle at its Cold Spring store that replaces paper price tags with screens. The new shelving displays allow video and sound, and they could make it cheaper for Kroger to change its prices each week.” Read more

 

“Online sales growth to slow this holiday: Forrester” by Krystina Gustafson at CNBC. “But in what could be a sign that the category is edging closer toward saturation, the digital sales growth rate is only expected to increase by 13 percent this holiday, marking their first deceleration since the 2010 to 2011 period.” Read more

 

“Wal-Mart’s Price to Oversee Asia, This Time From Arkansas” at Bloomberg. “Price will be reappointed president and chief executive officer of Asia, five months after leaving the post he had held since 2009 for a transfer to the U.S., Wal-Mart China spokesman Ray Bracy said in a telephone interview.” Read more

 

“PwC’s Negative Holiday Sales Projections an Outlier” by Maria Halkias at Dallas News. “There’s one outlier among this year’s holiday forecasts: PwC forecasts that individual shoppers will spend an average of 7 percent less than last year. For two consecutive years, most people in the PwC survey said the economy is the same or worse than it was last year…This year it was 72 percent of respondents. And 84 percent said they plan to spend the same or less than last year.” Read more / See other projections

 

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DC Area: Deal to bring Wegmans to Tysons falls apart by Jonathan O’Connell at Washington Post. “Shafer declined to say why the deal didn’t work out but it entailed far more complexities than the Rochester, N.Y. chain usually encounters in building its stores.” Read more

 

JCP Ups Ante on Thanksgiving by Phil Wahba at Fortune. “J.C. Penney said on Monday it would open its stores for Black Friday shopping at 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, an hour earlier than its closest competitors Macy’s, Kohl’s and Sears, and three hours earlier than it did last year, in the latest upping of the ante in the holiday sales wars.” Read more

 

“WinCo Foods Opens Two More – Nears 100” The Lewiston, Idaho store is located at 2001 17th Street, is 59,400 square feet in size and will initially employ about 100 individuals, 90 of whom have been hired locally. The North Richland Hills store is located at 5152 Rufe Snow Dr., is 82,600 square feet in size.” Read the release

 

“Publix Q3 Comp Sales +5%” Read the release

 

“Argentina suspends P&G operations” by Alexander Coolidge at Cincinnati.com. “Argentine authorities have suspended Procter & Gamble’s operations in the country after accusing the household products giant of tax fraud.” Read more

 

“Nordstrom to lay off 142 workers in Vancouver, Wash.” at Seattle Times. Read more

 

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