Fast Company
Walmart has tripled the number of online products it offers to 60 million items and will start offering discounts on online sales for those orders picked up at stores, as well as free two-day shipping on more than 2 million products on orders over $35. In addition, it will start offering exclusives from companies like Bose and Cuisinart and feature 20,000 holiday events at its stores where customers can try out new products before taking them home.
Chain Store Age
Target announced a series of tech enhancements to its stores nationwide, including the launch of a new app, called “myCheckout,” for store associates. The app, built by Target’s tech team, enables an associate to search Target’s website for desired products the customer can’t find in the store. The associate can then place an online order and have it shipped directly to the customer’s home. Target also has improved its self-checkout.
MTV
Lady Gaga has teamed up with Tudor, a luxury Swiss watch brand, to be the face (and wrist) of their “Born To Dare” campaign. Dressed in an all-white Tudor era outfit and also a gothic look, the two versions of Gaga go head to head and battle it out on the piano in the promo video. Directed by Mark Romanek, the director behind Michael Jackson's “Scream” video, she assures fans that it is her playing Mozart on the piano.
CNBC
It'll be a (mostly) white Christmas cup for Starbucks this year. The coffee chain's latest holiday design lets customers color it in themselves. The company says the cups — which are typically red-themed — will be in stores Nov. 1. A cup sleeve to go with the cup will be red. This year the cups feature splashes of red and green amid illustrations of presents, snowflakes and a Christmas tree with star on top.
Associated Press
Sales growth at Papa John’s is slowing, and the pizza chain is blaming it on the outcry surrounding NFL players kneeling during the national anthem. The company, which is a sponsor and advertiser of the NFL, said customers have a negative view of the chain’s association with the NFL. The company also cut its earnings growth expectations for the year and Papa John’s stock fell about 10% Wednesday.
USA Today
Google's burger emoji, which depicts the cheese beneath the hamburger patty, is sparking heated debate. The controversy began after Author Thomas Baekdal tweeted a photo of Google's burger emoji and Apple's burger emoji and pointed out the cheese placement. "I think we need to have a discussion about how Google's burger emoji is placing the cheese underneath the burger, while Apple puts it on top," Baekdal tweeted.
Chicago Tribune
Jewel-Osco, the largest traditional grocery store chain in the Chicago area, plans to launch a delivery service next week — the latest bricks-and-mortar grocery retailer to leap into online sales. Beginning Tuesday, most Chicago-area residents will have the option of ordering groceries online for delivery through Jewel-Osco’s new e-commerce department. Orders will be shipped from 11 stores, covering a large swath of the Chicago area.
Fortune
Tesla stock dropped more than 5% after hours as CEO Elon Musk explained what had gone wrong in the making of the new Model 3, the company’s first affordably priced electric car. The pressure had clearly taken a toll on his mental health. Rating what he himself has described as “production hell” on a scale of one to nine, where “level nine is the worst,” Musk admitted that he’d struggled to persevere through the difficulties.
Reuters
Luxury goods group Burberry said Christopher Bailey, the designer who turned the British company into a global fashion brand, will step down in March 2018. Bailey joined Burberry in 2001 and became chief executive as well as chief creative officer in 2014. The 46-year-old has decided it is time to pursue new projects. He turned the small trench coat maker into a global brand worth more than 8 billion pounds.
Bloomberg
A weaker dollar is helping two U.S. food giants, Kellogg Co. and Mondelez International Inc., break out of a prolonged sales slump. The news signals that U.S. food producers are finally getting some relief overseas, where the strong dollar had battered results. That’s helping offset a domestic market that remains sluggish for “big food.” As Americans change the way they eat and shop, many are turning away from traditional brands.