Eddie Lampert, Sears' largest creditor and shareholder, won a last minute bid to buy the company out of bankruptcy for $5.3 billion. This prevented the complete liquidation of the stores, and will keep about 400 Sears open. The Wall Street Journal reports: With more than $7 billion in assets when it filed for chapter 11, Sears is one of the biggest in a string of recent U.S. retail bankruptcies. The company, which also runs the Kmart chain, has already closed about 200 of the roughly 700 stores it had when it filed for protection. The agreement, reached in early-morning hours Wednesday, … [Read more...]

With online shopping becoming more prolific for an array of different categories the trucking industry is reaping the rewards. You can now order everything from a couch to an outdoor kitchen and get it delivered and assembled. Bloomberg has the story. Wielding a cordless drill, Osborne hooked up all three appliances in about 45 minutes and sped off for the next home. Meanwhile, across the urban sprawl of North Texas, a colleague navigated a sofa bed down a tight hallway while another driver unpacked and assembled a patio table. The array of cargo would have been rare just a few years ago, … [Read more...]

Kroger has teamed up with Microsoft to transform its stores with high-tech upgrades. Amazon has also been working hard to bring technological innovations to brick and mortar retail, with mixed results. It could be that Kroger and Microsoft beat Amazon to the punch in the high-tech retail business. Matthew Boyle and Dina Bass write in Bloomberg: Kroger Co. and Microsoft Corp. are joining forces to bring the ease of online shopping to brick-and-mortar grocery stores. Kroger, America’s biggest supermarket chain, has remodeled two stores to test out the new features, which include “digital … [Read more...]

Amazon has been working to tackle one of the most difficult logistics challenges in the world, rural India. The company is building a logistics network from the ground up, and trying to turn India, a place with little experience with online shopping, into its next success story. Eric Bellman reports in The Wall Street Journal: Last year India’s rural shoppers accounted for more than $400 billion of retail sales. Investment bank Barclays PLC estimates Amazon in India recorded more than $7 billion in gross merchandise volume, an e-commerce measure of the amount of business transacted, in the … [Read more...]

Conagra's purchase of Pinnacle Foods is getting some criticism as the acquirer is slowing down shipments of Pinnacle's frozen foods. Annie Gasparro reports for The Wall Street Journal: Conagra Brands Inc. CAG -8.26% is losing momentum in the freezer aisle, calling into question its recent $8.2 billion purchase of Pinnacle Foods. Pinnacle’s Birds Eye vegetables and Hungry Man dinners have lost space in recent months. Conagra, which acquired Pinnacle in October, said Thursday that it was working to stop shipments of some new Pinnacle products that seemed unlikely to sell. “Pinnacle is … [Read more...]

Amazon is working hard to make its purchase of Whole Foods pay off, but it turns out translating groceries in ecommerce is more difficult than many imagined. Spencer Soper reports for Bloomberg: Amazon.com Inc. continues to struggle in the $840 billion grocery market, more than a year after it spooked the industry with the $13.7 billion acquisition of Whole Foods. The number of Amazon Prime members who shop for groceries at least once a month declined in 2018 compared with 2017, according to the results of an annual consumer survey released Wednesday by UBS analysts. The drop was … [Read more...]

For years Amazon has operated its retail business with little or no profit. A big reason for that has been what Amazon insiders refer to as CRaP products. The acronym stands for "can't realize a profit." Now Amazon may attempt to trim some of those products form its sales. Laura Stevens, Sharon Terlep and Annie Gasparro write for The Wall Street Journal: Now, as Amazon focuses more on its bottom line in addition to its rapid growth, it is increasingly taking aim at CRaP products, according to major brand executives and people familiar with the company’s thinking. In recent months, it has been … [Read more...]

In The Washington Post, Carrie Melgao laments the demise of Toys "R" Us, especially its annual toy catalogue. She writes: I’m one of those nostalgic Gen-Xers who remembers lying on my stomach, legs crossed at the ankles, poring over the Sears Wish Book every Christmas. I’d circle the Lil’ Lady Buggy, Barbie Dreamhouse, Sweet Tears baby doll, then present my list to the Santa at the local VFW. For years, my sons and I were able to re-create the tradition each winter with that season’s dog-eared Toys “R” Us catalogue. We’d cuddle up on the couch, circling the giant Imaginext Batcave and … [Read more...]

While Amazon has rapidly dominated the e-commerce market in the United States, America isn't the only place e-commerce is revolutionizing the way people shop. Cheap, internet connected electronic devices have opened the entire world to e-commerce, and consumers everywhere are taking advantage of the efficiency of shopping online. Indonesia's Jakarta Post explains the surge in online shopping there, writing: Global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company has forecast fast growth for e-commerce in Indonesia, predicting sales to reach US$65 billion annually by 2022, eight times the $8 … [Read more...]