From drones to airplanes, and fleets of on-demand delivery drivers or employees dropping off packages, many retailers — most notably Amazon — have begun dipping they toes in the logistics and delivery game. Now it’s Target’s turn, as the big box retailer has acquired a transportation tech firm with the intention of speeding up deliveries to customers. [More]
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Walmart Claims ‘Back-To-School’ Sign On Gun Case Was A Prank
By 8.14.17
Walmart recently took a lot of heat on social media over a photo showing a back-to-school promotional sign over a gun display case. The retailer now says it has definitive proof that the sign was posted as a prank, but is not providing any additional details. [More]
Walmart Says ‘Back-To-School’ Sign Should Not Have Been Posted Over Gun Case
By 8.10.17
The nation’s largest retailer says it is now trying to find out why a back-to-school promotional sign was posted on a rifle display case at one of its stores. [More]
Walmart Testing Self-Scanning And Checkout By Smartphone: Yes, Again
By 8.9.17
If you’d rather not face another long checkout line at Walmart, the mega-retailer may soon have a solution for you: It has resumed tests of an app that would let customers scan items as they shop, using either a handheld scanner or a smartphone app. [More]
Two Men Simply Walk Out Of Walmart After Scooping Up 5 TVs
By 8.7.17
Two men in Pennsylvania were able to slip into the stock area of a Walmart store at lunchtime last Tuesday, walking out with five large flat-panel televisions. How? They didn’t disguise themselves as store employees, and were caught on camera, but no one stopped them. Now police are looking for help identifying them. [More]
Walmart Cancels SNES Classic Preorders, Shrugs
By 7.26.17
If the popularity of the NES Classic was any indication, this year’s SNES Classic, a mini Super Nintendo with pre-loaded games, will be a hit product well into the holiday season. Yet customers who thought they had placed pre-orders at Walmart learned that the device they were expecting won’t be coming. Their preorders were canceled. [More]
Which Major Retailers Sort Their Toy Departments By Gender?
By 7.25.17 — Updated: 7.26.17
While some toy companies have been giving up on long-held preconceptions about gender-specific products in recent years, we were curious how this was affecting retailers, so we checked out a few of the big chains. Here’s how the major stores sort their toy departments so you can shop by your preference. [More]
Walmart Squeezes Suppliers Again, This Time With Fines
By 7.13.17
It’s no secret that Walmart has had issues keeping shelves stocked in some stores, leading customers to head to competitors. While the company finally addressed the problem nearly two years ago, the big box retailer is taking additional steps to ensure customers have products to choose from when they visit, by holding suppliers accountable — financially — for shipments that show up before or after their intended arrival date.
[More]
Target Testing Curbside Pickup For Online Orders…. Again
By 7.12.17
Sure, Target isn’t new to the online retail game, but the big box chain seems to perpetually be playing catchup to rivals like Walmart and Amazon. Case in point: Target is once again testing a curbside pickup program, a year after shutting down a similar pilot program. [More]
What Happens When Walmart Decides To Close A Store?
By 7.10.17
At the beginning of 2016, Walmart did something unusual. The mega-retailer closed 269 stores, 154 of which were in the United States. While Walmart also opened hundreds of stores around the world last year, keeping its net store count the same, its pullout was devastating for rural communities where smaller retailers had closed their doors when Walmart came to town. [More]
Walmart Expands Use Of Giant Orange Vending Machines For Online Pickups
By 7.5.17
Walking into your local Walmart you could soon be greeted with a giant, orange vending machine, as the big box retailer expands the self-service kiosks in order to provide online customers with a quick option to pick up their orders without the apparent hassle of having to speak to a human being. [More]
Will Any Other Big Companies Make A Bid For Whole Foods?
By 6.22.17
Although Amazon announced last week that it would be buying Whole Foods for $13.7 billion, it’s far from a done deal. And in the time it takes to complete such a large merger, there could be a few other players who decide to belly up to the table and make a bid for the grocery chain. [More]
Hummus, Trail Mixes Recalled For Potential Listeria Contamination
By 6.22.17
What do granola, protein bars, hummus, and trail mix have in common? Other than being healthy and delicious snacks, they’re also items that have been recalled due to a massive recall of dried fruits and nuts that are potentially linked to the same processing plant. [More]
Walmart Telling Some Vendors To Stop Using Amazon’s Web Services
By 6.21.17
You may not know it, but a large number of websites use Amazon Web Services cloud servers to host their online content. Even though Walmart doesn’t offer anything that competes with this aspect of Amazon’s business, the retailer apparently dislikes the online giant so much that it doesn’t want its tech vendors supporting Amazon by using AWS. [More]
Police Rescue Puppy Locked In Hot Car Outside Walmart
By 6.20.17
No matter how many times you hear of children and pets having to be rescued from locked, hot cars, some people still think it’s not an absolutely horrible idea to leave their little ones trapped inside sealed-up vehicles in sizzling hot parking lots. [More]
Petco, Walmart Products Included In Recall Of Potentially Tainted Rawhide Dog Chews
By 6.19.17
The recent recall of potentially contaminated rawhide dog chews has been expanded to now include products sold by Petco, Walmart, and others. [More]
Feeling Unappreciated By Amazon, Some Sellers Are Defecting To Walmart.com
By 6.16.17
The recent flood of third-party sellers offering items for sale on Amazon has left some the e-tailer’s older marketplace merchants feeling left behind and unappreciated. So they’re taking their wares and going over to Walmart’s website, where they have fewer competitors and pay smaller commissions. [More]
Walmart Adds Men’s Clothing Retailer Bonobos To Its Collection Of Online Businesses
By 6.16.17
When someone says “retailers of upscale men’s fashion,” you probably don’t picture Walmart. Yet the mega-retailer is adding menswear company Bonobos, which started online and now has boutiques in cities and in Nordstrom stores, to its collection of online brands. [More]
