Costco Wholesale Corp.

The formerly online only retailer The Wine Cellar Group isn’t afraid of competition. The company is pursuing its brick and mortar ambitions with a new store in the backyard of Amazon.com and Costco, the nation’s largest seller of wine.
 
Born online in 1990, The Wine Cellar Group opened its first store in 2012 and has since grown to nine locations. Its newest store will be a Wine Cellar Outlet and is set to open later this year in the Heritage Square shopping center in the Seattle suburb of Issaquah, Costco’s hometown.
 

New-build shopping center construction was plodding last year — discounting the outlet category, which continues to grow at record speed. And, yet, sometimes one has to look at the quality of what is coming out of the ground — or expanding — and not just the quantity.

Slow traffic at its California stores proved a drag for Costco Wholesale Corp. in April.

The retailer reported flat same-store sales in April, below analysts’ estimates of a 1.2% increase.

Total sales in April rose 3% to $8.98 billion, helped by strength in Canada.

Excluding gasoline-price fluctuations and currency exchange rates, U.S. same-store sales rose 2%, below estimates for growth of 3.4%. Same-store sales in Canada increased 2% overall and 7% when excluding gas prices and currency.

When it comes to providing digital consumers with a quality online shopping environment, one well-known discount club chain comes out on top.

According to the “2016 Digital Experience Report” from application performance company Dynatrace, Costco led all online retailers in both performance and reliability. Apple followed in a close second place.

May in Las Vegas is when the dealmakers come out to, well, make deals, as the International Council of Shopping Centers hosts its annual RECon event at the Las Vegas Convention Center and Westgate Las Vegas Hotel. Held May 22-25 and attended by retailers and shopping center owners from around the globe, RECon will display such project wares as mixed-use destinations, outlet centers, and strip and lifestyle projects — and everything in between.

Shoppers may be using EMV-compliant, chip-enabled payment cards, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they like them.

Business research firm Field Agent recently conducted an audit of 100 chip processing systems at leading retailers Costco, CVS Health, Home Depot, Kroger, Lowes, Target, Walgreens and Walmart. It also undertook a survey of 300 consumers who use chip cards. In the survey, only 37% of the respondents reported a preference for EMV cards over the swiping variety; 63% said they would rather swipe a card than insert a chip card.

Shoppers may be using EMV-compliant, chip-enabled payment cards, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they like them.

Business research firm Field Agent recently conducted an audit of 100 chip processing systems at leading retailers Costco, CVS Health, Home Depot, Kroger, Lowes, Target, Walgreens and Walmart. It also undertook a survey of 300 consumers who use chip cards. In the survey, only 37% of the respondents reported a preference for EMV cards over the swiping variety; 63% said they would rather swipe a card than insert a chip card.

Do well by doing good. U.S. businesses are taking this adage attributed to Benjamin Franklin to heart.

It's good business. Happy employees are engaged employees, and that translates into productivity gains and ultimately to happy customers and a better bottom line.