News

Cars that drive themselves are yesterday’s news. The next big thing may be shopping carts that essentially do the same.   

Rural lifestyle retailer Tractor Supply Co. has been strengthening its IT infrastructure to support growth, and now is turning its attention to pricing.   Tractor Supply Co. plans to grow from 1,500 to 2,500 stores, and has been shifting to a Web-scale architecture and new ERP platform. Now the company is extending an existing partnership with merchandise optimization solutions provider Revionics Inc. through 2019.  

And then there were 10 — technology start-ups that is. And the lineup ranges from one that develops apps for supply chain inspectors to one that creates wearable technology that helps users prevent sexual assaults. 

Brookshire Grocery Co. is expanding with a new neighborhood format.    The Tyler, Texas-based supermarket operator will open 26 locations this summer under its new Spring Market banner. The stores will be on the sites of former Walmart Express stores that Brookshire is in the process of acquiring. (The acquisition is scheduled to close in July.) The locations range from southern Louisiana to west Texas.  

Target Corp. is donating $250,000 to the OneOrlando Fund in honor of the retailer's two associates and other victims killed in the nightclub massacre that occurred early Sunday morning in Orlando, Florida.   Target lost two employees, Mercedes Flores and Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo, in the mass shootings. Flores was a Target employee for eight years, and Ocasio-Capo for two years. A third Target employee remains in critical condition.   

Today’s consumers are more hurried than ever, and even traditional e-commerce apps may not move quickly enough to satisfy them.   New York-based specialty electronics retailer B&H Photo Video, which operates a single superstore as well as a global e-commerce site, is taking advantage of a new app-sharing feature from Google. Known as Android Instant Apps, it allows users to have a native app experience without actually download an Android app from the Play Store.  

If it seems like more if your inventory is disappearing, you’re probably not imagining things.   According to the 2016 National Retail Federation (NRF) Retail Security Study, conducted in collaboration with the University of Florida, retailers’ inventory shrink averaged 1.38% of retail sales, or $45.2 billion in 2015, up by 3% from $44 billion the previous year.  

Bed Bath & Beyond made another move to boost its online offerings by acquiring a home furnishings and home décor flash-sales site.