Consumers starting to buckle for first time in a decade, former Walmart U.S. CEO Bill Simon warns at CNBC. “They usually say 50-inch TV [is] $199 or something like that. And now, they say 50-inch TV [is] 40% off,” said Simon. “You use percentages when you’re not real proud of your price point. I think you’ve got inflation pushing the relative price points up.” Read more/Video

 

Walgreens pharmacy staff walk out, citing unsafe working conditions at Washington Post via MSN. “Thousands of Walgreens pharmacy staff across the country are walking off work this week, alleging that poor working conditions are putting employees and patients at risk. The walkout could impact hundreds of stores starting Monday and going through Wednesday, an organizer of the effort told The Washington Post…” Read more

 

Walmart Bets Online Doctors Will Lower Its $6 Billion Health Care Tab at Bloomberg. “Walmart Inc. will offer online primary care doctors to about 1 million people on its employee health insurance plan in an attempt to improve medical outcomes and lower costs. It will also be a big test of how much treatment can shift to the web.” Bloomberg subs. 

 

…Included Health Unveils New Virtual Primary Care Results Alongside Walmart Press release

 

Costco accused of sharing users’ health data with Meta at Seattle Times. “The lawsuit filed in Washington Western District Court alleges Costco used Meta Pixel, a code that allows companies to track visitor activity on their websites, in the health care portion of its website…“Advertisers should not send sensitive information about people through our business tools,” Meta said Monday. “Doing so is against our policies and we educate advertisers on properly setting up business tools to prevent this from occurring.” Costco is considered a Meta advertiser.” Read more

 

Nike reigns supreme among teen shoppers — here are the other brands they love the most at CNBC. “Amazon dominates as the online shopping site of choice. Shein comes up 2nd, but with just 7% of share compared to Amazon’s 59%. StockX and Temu moved into the top 10 after not making the list in the spring. Princess Polly and GOAT fell out of the top 10.” Read more

 

The big AI and robotics concept that has attracted both Walmart and Softbank at CNBC. “Symbotic’s stock is up near 190% this year, and Walmart owns 11% of its shares, as part of its deal to automate the retailer’s 42 U.S. regional distribution centers for packaged consumer goods.” Read more

 

Kroger Health pres. on bringing personalized healthcare to ‘new level’ at Yahoo Finance. “Kroger Health President Colleen Lindholz sat down with Yahoo Finance’s Anjalee Khemlani at the 2023 HLTH Conference to discuss the company’s retail pharmacies as well as the industry impact from weight-loss drugs. “We define ‘Food as Medicine’ as a dedicated, educated, and personalized approach to helping people enjoy food so they can live a healthier life and we can prevent disease before it starts,” Lindholz says.” Video & Transcript

 

Walmart’s former top woman executive reflects on her rise to the C-suite and hints at her next chapter at Fortune via Yahoo. “In a wide-ranging interview with Fortune, McKenna shared advice for women looking to chart a similar C-suite path…She credits Walmart for giving her assignments of increasing difficulty and outside her comfort zone, allowing her to prove her mettle. But she also notes the importance of taking ownership of one’s career. “I’ve been able to have these experiences, but I’ve had to take the leap into them as well,” she told Fortune a few weeks after stepping down.” Read more

 

Waffle House employees push for $25-an-hour wages and improved security at Atlanta Journal Constitution. “We’re rapidly growing because people see, ‘Oh, hey, there’s an actual effort to get a union going at Waffle House,’” Green said of the union, though the USSW does not plan to file a formal petition to unionize. A representative from USSW said that workers instead put “direct pressure” on companies by “participating in protected union activity” like petitioning.” Read more

 

Walmart GoLocal Announces Rina Hurst, Former Chief Business Officer at Shipt, as Vice President “Before Shipt, Hurst spent ten years at Target in a variety of roles across merchandising and business partnerships and began her career in management consulting.” Press release

 

HOME DEPOT ASSIST – 77-year-old veteran facing fines from city; instead, gets house remodeled for free at WLNS 6. “Rahn said DeWitt Township has been great to work with, giving the VFW post as much time as necessary to help Smith. Home Depot then reached out to the post, giving them a grant that would pay for the remodeling of Smith’s home.” Read more

 

Why Costco is so popular among the Amish at Business Insider. “One reason the couple says Amish people love Costco is because the stores where a large Amish community resides, like the one in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, cater to their preferred mode of transport: horse and buggy. “There is a shed in the parking lot for them to park their horses and buggies, and it’s just fantastic,” David said.” Read more

 

Home Depot Tracked a Crime Ring and Found an Unusual Suspect at Wall Street Journal. “For years, Robert Dell ran a drug recovery program at what was known as The Rock Community Church and Transformation Center in St. Petersburg, Fla. On the side, prosecutors say, Dell also ran an organized retail-crime ring. The pastor had been working as a fence, the middleman buying stolen goods from thieves and reselling them for a profit, according to prosecutors.” WSJ subs. 

 

Walmart’s Mexico unit to face anti-trust panel after three-year investigation at Reuters. “Specifics of the allegations were not immediately clear. In 2020, Cofece flagged concern about large retail chains imposing terms on their suppliers, saying such practices created risk for the smaller companies and could hit their finances.” Read more