News

Minneapolis — Best Buy Co. Inc. is partnering with shopping app provider Ibotta Inc. to drive Black Friday sales at Best Buy stores and on its website. Ibotta will provide Best Buy shoppers an exclusive cash back offer when they purchase more than $100 in-store or online at Best Buy.   

Winn-Dixie is partnering with the Hershey Co. to outfit stores with a “Candy Experience” section: a new concept that has replaced the traditional candy aisle in a Winn-Dixie in Baton Rouge, La.  

Tests show that the new candy section, best described as a “store within a store,” can lift confection category sales for retailers by strong double digits. The candy experience sits at the front of the store, a dramatically different location from an aisle where consumers must hunt around for the candy shelves.

Goodlettsville, Tenn. - Dollar General Corporation isn’t giving up. The deep discounter on Wednesday  affirmed its commitment to the acquisition of rival Family Dollar Stores. Dollar General’s comments followed the news that Family Dollar has delayed its shareholder vote on its $8.5 billion deal to be bought by Dollar Tree Inc. from Dec. 11 to Dec. 23.

Lowe’s said its third quarter same store sales spiked 5.1% a day after Home Depot reported an even stronger increase.

Total company sales increased 5.6% to $13.7 billion driven by increased productivity of existing stores as evidenced by a 5.1% comp increase. Home Depot said its third quarter same store sales increased 5.8%. Lowe’s profits increased 17.3% to $585 million while earnings per share increased 25.5% to 59 cents and were aided by $900 million in share repurchase activity.

  New York - Apple is expanding its Apple Pay across hundreds of supermarkets.  Associated Food Stores, Shaw's Supermarkets, Jewel Osco, Albertson's and Bi-Lo Holdings have joined Whole Foods Markets,  which was one of the original Apple Pay launch partners, to accept the new payment option.   Bi-Lo Holdings, parent company of Bi-Lo, Harveys and Winn-Dixie grocery stores, said it is now suporting Apple Pay across its entire southeastern footprint.

Minneapolis — Target Corp. gained some momentum going into the holiday season with a third quarter that beat both Wall Street and internal expectations as sales as its U.S. stores exceeded estimates and its troubled Canadian division showed signs of improvement. Its results were also driven by increased promotional activity. This was Target’s first quarter under the leadership of CEO Brian Cornell, who replaced Gregg Steinhafel in August.   

Some of the biggest names in the retail industry have partnered with a new online shopping and fundraising platform called iMyne, which aims to make it easy for consumers to earn money and give to their favorite causes after shopping online.

Like other rewards sites, imyne.com gives shoppers the option of earning cash back. But it also allows them to send their cash back to charitable causes. Top retailers such as Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Target, Sears, Home Depot, Gap, Best Buy, Saks, Zappos and more have all signed up as retail partners.

New York — BJ's Wholesale Club’s Mastercard program ups the ante in the wholesale club credit card category. The new My BJ's Perks MasterCard will offer members 10 cents off per gallon of BJ's gas, up to 5% back on purchases in-club and at BJs.com, 2% back on eating out and non-BJ's gas purchases, and 1% back on purchases made everywhere else MasterCard is accepted.