Short visits rise at Whole Foods stores with Amazon lockers

Shoppers are making more quick trips to Whole Foods stores that have installed Amazon.com (AMZN.O) lockers, giving the natural and organic retailer a new way to boost sales, research from location data advertising firm inMarket showed on Monday.

Source: www.reuters.com

Short “micro” visits, defined as three to five minutes in length, were up 11 percent at stores with lockers since Amazon closed its purchase of Whole Foods on Aug. 28, according to an inMarket report provided exclusively to Reuters News.

Walmart opening FedEx Office locations in 500 stores

FedEx Office, a subsidiary of FedEx, on Tuesday announced it will bring 500 new FedEx Office packing, shipping and printing locations to U.S. Walmart stores. At ShopTalk in Las Vegas the companies said a pilot program had successfully driven more traffic to the retailer while smoothing logistical problems.

Source: www.retaildive.com

I like the line from Doug Stephens — Walmart has clearly recognized that if it’s going to hold its own against Amazon, it needs to think less like an empire and more like a network.

Toys ‘R’ Us Store Closings: A How-Not-To Guide For Retail – Bloomberg

It’s a cautionary tale about LBOs and strategic shortsightedness.

Source: www.bloomberg.com

The retailer was saddled with hefty debt in a 2005 leveraged buyout in which Bain Capital, KKR & Co. and Vornado Realty Trust took the retailer private. In recent months, the company’s financial burden went from seriously challenging to unsustainable.

But the toy and baby-gear behemoth was afflicted by many other retail ailments. With rivals looking to get a piece of the sales its disappearance leaves up for grabs, it’s worth pointing out the other missteps that, if avoided, could perhaps have steered Toys “R” Us to an alternate ending.

IHL and Greg Buzek — Why Did Toys ‘R’ Us Fail?

(No official announcement made, but vendors not being paid and gift cards not being accepted) One of the frustrations in pushing back against the false Retail Apocalypse narrative are situations like Toys ‘R’ Us that people will point to and say – what about them? It’s pretty easy to find stories that fuel the

Source: www.ihlservices.com

It was not the market dynamics that took these companies under, it was the fact that their owners took on so much debt that it positioned them to only be successful if all the market dynamics went their way.  They decided to purchase a Formula One race car and forgot they have to dodge potholes on I-94 in Chicago to and from work. And when they fail the world wonders and laments the loss of these retailers and make it sound like this is an overall retail issue.  It’s not.

McDonald’s tech updates have some workers jumping ship

For Dudley Dickerson, the mobile-app orders were the last straw.
McDonald’s has been updating with new technology, delivery, a revamped menu and curbside pickup. But the “Experience of the Future” has employees handling more tasks — in many cases, they say, without pay raises or adequate staffing. So Dickerson, 23, handed over his spatula for the last time.
“They added a lot of complicated things,” Dickerson said in an interview. “It makes it harder for the workers.”
Many fast-food employees hop from job to job. But with unemployment so low, turnover is becoming a problem. Workers are walking rather than dealing with new technologies and menu options. The result: Customers will wait longer.

Source: www.sfgate.com