Strategy

Despite the failure of a “skinny” repeal healthcare bill in the Senate, the National Retail Federation remains committed to fixing the Affordable Care Act.  

Nordstrom is offering a deal to potential equity partners willing to fund a buyout.   The group of Nordstrom Inc. family members seeking to take the luxury department store chain private is offering preferential terms to potential equity partners willing to fund the buyout, according to Reuters. The group involved in the negotiations are company co-presidents Blake W. Nordstrom, Peter E. Nordstrom, and Erik B. Nordstrom; president of stores James F. Nordstrom; chairman emeritus Bruce A. Nordstrom; and Anne E. Gittinger. 

Finally, an experiential retail breakthrough for the guys!   The 3 million-sq.-ft. Global Harbor Mall in Shanghai, one of Asia’s largest, has installed “husband pods” to keep men occupied while their wives or other domestic partners shop.   Each pod is padded out with a comfortable gaming chair, state of the art monitors, computer, and gamepad where the retail-weary can while away an hour playing vintage games from the Nineties.   

Don’t expect Amazon to stop experimenting with cashier-less grocery stores anytime soon.   Despite announcing in June it would acquire Whole Foods Market for $13.7 billion, the online giant will continue evolving its Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go concepts, among other efforts. Its goal: to reinvent the way consumers shop for food, according to Business Insider.  

The Bon-Ton Stores is speeding up how it restocks merchandise.   The department store chain is replacing its manual, paper-based restocking process with a radio frequency identification (RFID)-based system. The solution, from Zebra, enables store associates to fully restock merchandise displays in a fraction of the time — a move that increases productivity and enables associates to spend more time servicing shoppers.  

Despite a drop in profits and same-store sales, Whole Foods Market still managed to surpass analyst predictions for the third quarter.   Net income for the quarter, ended July 2, net income fell to $106 million, or 33 cents per shares, from $120 million, or 37 cents a share, a year ago. This beat analyst expectations of 33 cents expected, according to Thomson Reuters.  

Staples met the first requirement on its road back to private ownership.   The office supplies giant, which is being acquired by private equity firm Sycamore Partners, has been granted early termination of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976. This act states that no merger or acquisition can take place until the United States Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice have determined that the filed transaction will not violate U.S. commerce antitrust laws.   

Amazon’s Prime Now debut in Singapore started off strong, but high user volume took a toll on the program’s first day of service.   The service, which offers free two-hour delivery on tens of thousands of items ordered through the Prime Now app, launched on Thursday morning. By that afternoon, users struggled to use the service, according to CNBC.