Supply Chain & Merchandising

Online retailer Hollar is looking to take sales away from a segment that, to date, has proved relatively immune to digital growth: dollar stores.  

Influential and longtime Walmart executive Don Soderquist died after complications related to heart surgery. He was 82.   Soderquist joined Walmart in 1980 as executive VP of administration and logistics and was a driving force behind the company’s growth. From 1988 to 1999, he served as vice chairman and COO. He retired in 2000 and remained on the Walmart board until 2002.   

Hastings Entertainment is going out of business.

The Federal Trade Commission has given its blessing to a deal that creates the fourth largest supermarket company in the United States.   Delhaize Group, owner of Food Lion, and Royal Ahold NV, owner of Stop & Shop, on Sunday completed their $29 billion merger after they received regulatory clearance by the Federal Trade Commission.   

The Dallas area is getting its sixth Nordstrom Rack store.   Nordstrom said it will open a Nordstrom Rack at The Centre at Preston Ridge in Frisco, Texas. The approximately 33,000-sq.-ft. store is scheduled to open in fall 2017. The property is owned by Brixmor Property Group.  

Amazon.com is continuing its rapid pace of distribution infrastructure expansion with a planned new center in Houston.   The 855,000-sq.-ft. fulfillment center will employ more than 1,000 full-time workers. Employees will pick, pack and ship smaller customer items, such as books, electronics and toys.  

The first fully autonomous drone delivery to a customer home has occurred, and the retailer behind it is not who you would expect.   Leading convenience chain 7-Eleven partnered with independent drone delivery service Flirtey and the Nevada Institute for Autonomous Systems (NIAS) to complete two deliveries from a store in Reno, Nevada on Sunday, July 10. 7-Eleven merchandise, including hot and cold food items, were loaded into a Flirtey drone delivery container and flown autonomously using precision GPS to a local customer’s house.

Starbucks Corp.’s revenue fell short in the third quarter even as its earnings were in line with expectations.       The company posted $5.24 billion in consolidated net sales for the quarter ended June 26, up 7% over the year-ago period, but below analysts’ expectations of $5.33 billion. The increase was primarily driven by the opening of 1,876 net new stores over the past 12 months and a 4% increase in global comparable store sales.