NY Times: “Walmart Memo Orders Stores to Improve Grocery Performance” by Steven Greenhouse & Hiroko Tibuchi. “The memo — leaked for public use by a Walmart manager unhappy about understaffing — also tells stores to be sure to “rotate” dairy products and eggs, which means removing expired items and adding new stock at the bottom and back of display cases.” Read more

 

“Walmart Spreads Black Friday Across Five Days” by Craig Giammona at Bloomberg. “The “New Black Friday” will include five days of sales on Walmart.com and in stores, starting at 12:01 a.m. online on Thanksgiving and running through Cyber Monday, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company said in a statement today.” Read more

 

…Up Next: Black November? by Shelly Banjo at WSJ. “It used to be called Black Friday, then it became Thursday, now it’s a week long,” said Wal-Mart U.S. chief merchant Duncan Mac Naughton. “Maybe we should just call it November.” Read more (Subscription)

 

“Best Buy bucks trend by not pulling Thanksgiving all-nighter” by Kavita Kumar & Paul Walsh at Star-Tribune. “Best Buy will open most of its stores an hour earlier than last year, at 5 p.m. on that Thursday. But then it will close its stores at 1 a.m. and reopen them at 8 a.m. on the actual Black Friday.” Read more

 

“Amazon Expands Its R&D In Cambridge, U.K.” by Natasha Lomas at TechCrunch. “Amazon is expanding its R&D operations in Cambridge, U.K., with a plan to staff out a large research lab — expanding on the foothold it acquired when it bought Cambridge-based speech tech startup Evi Technologies two years ago, TechCrunch has learned.” Read more

 

“How a female veteran became a Wal-Mart exec” by Caroline Fairchild at Fortune. “I understand that Rosalind Brewer, the president and CEO of Sam’s Club, mentored you. How has she developed you as a leader? Absolutely. She has helped me develop as a businesswoman and build my business acumen…She really embodies how important it is to really be yourself and to bring your whole self to work.” Read the Q&A

 

“What Is a Pinfluencer? Well, They Now Have Talent Agents” by Nellie Bowles at Recode.”I know. I totally understand the skepticism. People hear Pinterest star and they’re like, what?!,” she said. “But after three years of doing this, seeing clients making hundreds of thousands of dollars and quit their jobs and pin full time, it’s real.” Read more

 

“Wal-Mart pushing suppliers for Millennial insights” by Kim Souza at The City Wire. “We need to collaborate more with our suppliers on this. We know Millennials want ‘now, new and always.’ Wal-Mart will also be Wal-Mart and that resonates as the now, but we need help with the new. That’s where our suppliers can join us and that’s the exciting part. This customer is moving faster. They are leading us more than we are leading them,” (Matt) Kistler said.” Read more

 

“Most People Confused How To Write Names Of Walmart, Lowe’s” by Chris Morran at Consumerist. “While the correct “Walmart” did end up being the most frequently selected answer, it still only represented 36% of all responses to this question, making it the second-lowest score in the entire quiz. “ Read more

 

“Republicans signal demise of internet sales tax bill” by Barney Jopson at Financial Times via CNBC. “A spokesman for John Boehner, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, said a bill to tax online shopping – which passed in the Senate last year – would not move forward in the final weeks of the current Congress, the lame duck session.” Read more

 

“Wal-Mart CEO & Actor Jon Voight Salute America’s Veterans at Bentonville Celebration” by Kim Souza at The City Wire. “Wal-Mart CEO Doug McMillon opened his segment with a photo of his father Morris McMillion, who served as a dentist during the Vietnam War. “Service men in Vietnam might not have thought they needed a dentist, but if they had a toothache in Vietnam, I can assure they needed a dentist,” McMillon said. “I am honored to remember my father’s service today.” Read more

 

“24% of millennials expect student debt forgiveness” by Amy Langfield at CNBC. Read more

 

“Talk of activist interest boosts Wal-Mart call volume ahead of earnings” at Reuters. “…amid rumors that the retailer could face activist pressure to spin off its Sam’s Club division.” Read more

 

72% of Americans said they want to know where their child is located in real time  Read the release

 

“O’Hare rated worst U.S. airport during winter” by Gregory Karp at Chicago Tribune. “Some 42 percent of flights are delayed at O’Hare during the winter, according to flight data site Hopper, which ranked America’s 20 largest airports.” Read more

 

Businessweek’s Top 85 Business Schools See the list

 

“Man trapped for three days between Marshall’s store walls” at Reuters. “Crews determined the man was stuck between the exterior and interior walls,” she said. Firefighters sawed a hole through an exterior wall to extract Felyk, Meehan said. He had plummeted about 20 feet from a vestibule on the roof sometime over the weekend, police said.” Read more

 

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