Walmart’s new threat to CVS: 30-minute prescription deliveries | CNN Business

October 23, 2024October 22, 2024 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Walmart, already partially responsible for the slow demise of America’s drug stores, is launching yet another CVS killer: 30-minute prescription delivery.

Walmart’s pitch to costumers is simple – fill your prescription, plus get some groceries delivered to your door, all in one order. Prescription delivery was the number one most-requested service by its customers, the company said in a press release.

“If you’re sick, we can deliver the necessary medicine along with everything else you need to feel better,” said Tom Ward, executive vice president and chief eCommerce officer of Walmart U.S. in a statement on Tuesday.

Walmart Launches Bettergoods Food Brand With ‘Unique’ Flavors | Entrepreneur

May 1, 2024April 30, 2024 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Walmart announced on Tuesday that it is putting a new grocery label on the shelves called Bettergoods — the largest private food brand launched by the retailer in two decades.

The move could help Walmart hold on to higher-income shoppers who have flocked to the retailer in times of higher inflation by filling Walmart’s grocery aisles with 300 new products tailored to vegan, gluten-free, and adventurous dietary choices.

Bettergoods has three focus areas: plant-based goods like $3.44 oat milk ice cream, culinary flair foods like bronze cut pasta for $1.97 or jalapeño chowder for under $4, and “made without” foods, like gluten-free products

Your company knows you’re reading this story at work | CNN Business

March 7, 2024March 4, 2024 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Last month, news surfaced that major companies like Walmart, Starbucks, Delta and Chevron were using AI to monitor employee communications. The reaction online was swift, with employees and workplace advocates worrying about a loss of privacy.

But experts say that while AI tools might be new, watching, reading and tracking employee conversations is far from novel. AI might be more efficient at it — and the technology might raise some new ethical and legal challenges, as well as risk alienating employees — but the fact is workplace conversations have never really been private anyway.

“Monitoring employee communications isn’t new, but the growing sophistication of the analysis that’s possible with ongoing advances in AI is,” said David Johnson, a principal analyst at Forrester Research.

Walmart and Target push to lower credit card fees | CNN

September 23, 2022September 22, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Frustrated by extra credit card fees when you shop?

A pair of bipartisan bills in Congress aim to lower the swipe fees, also known as interchange fees, that retailers pay every time a customer makes a purchase with their card. The effort is backed by retail giants including Walmart, (WMT) Target (TGT), and Kroger (KR), as well as convenience stores and independent grocers.

“Swipe fees for credit cards are higher in the United States than anywhere else in the industrialized world — more than seven times as high as Europe,” a coalition of businesses wrote in a letter to lawmakers last week. “They are an inflation multiplier.”

More Walmart ‘rollbacks’ are coming | CNN

February 23, 2022February 21, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Expect to see more bright-red “Rollback” signs at Walmart stores as inflation bites, the company said Thursday.

Rollbacks, or temporary price reductions on an item, are Walmart’s version of a sale. Walmart decides which products to drop prices on based on factors like discounts it receives from suppliers or excess inventory.

Walmart had more products on rollbacks last quarter compared to the previous one — and the company will continue adding them to highlight value prices for shoppers. Why every Costco product is called ‘Kirkland Signature’

“We use rollbacks to communicate not only the reality of prices are coming down at some places, but the emotion or perception we want customers to have about us,” Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said on a post-earnings conference call with analysts.

Fake Walmart news release claimed it would accept cryptocurrency | BBC News

September 13, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Cryptocurrency Litecoin saw a sudden surge in price on Monday over a press release about Walmart accepting it for payment – which turned out to be fake.

The release, published through a legitimate press channel, claimed that Walmart would accept the currency through all its digital stores.

Walmart later told US media outlets the announcement was “inauthentic”.

By that time, several major news websites and press agencies had spread the supposed news.

Walmart one-ups Amazon: You don’t need to leave home to return packages for free | CNN

December 21, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Walmart is attempting to solve one of the biggest pain-points of online shopping — the dreaded return — with a new service.

The retailer announced Monday that it will pick up items shipped and sold by Walmart.com from customers’ homes through a new partnership with FedEx (FDX). Walmart said the “incredibly convenient” option is free and will remain in place beyond the busy holiday shopping season.

To use the new service, called “Carrier Pickup by FedEx,” customers have the initiate return process on Walmart’s website or app, schedule a date for pickup and print a label. Then it will be picked up by a FedEx employee.

Walmart beat Amazon on Black Friday by one important metric | Fast Company

December 2, 2020December 1, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Volumes of future marketing analysis will surely be written about this year’s unprecedented holiday shopping season, but for now we’ll have to make do with industry reports that reveal people’s pandemic-era spending habits in dribs and drabs.

The latest drib (or drab?) comes from analytics firm Sensor Tower, whose new dispatch shows a record surge in new downloads of shopping-related mobile apps. Black Friday alone saw more than 2.8 million first-time installs of shopping apps, the largest ever in a single day, according to Sensor Tower’s preliminary estimates. Year-over-year growth, the report says, was about the same as last year at 8%, but it was more substantial when you look at the entire month of November—with 59.2 million shopping app installs compared to 51.7 million for the same period last year.

Baby born in toilet paper aisle at Missouri Walmart | UPI.com

March 23, 2020March 22, 2020 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

March 20 (UPI) — Something far more unusual than shortages happened in the toilet paper aisle of a Missouri Walmart store — a customer gave birth.

Jessica Hinkle, store manager at the Walmart store on Sunshine Street in Spingfield, said the woman’s water broke in the toilet paper aisle of the store Wednesday and the expectant mother warned employees her last child had been born after only 30 minutes of labor.

Walmart sued for sale of “nonsense” homeopathic remedies | Fast Company

May 22, 2019May 21, 2019 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Walmart is being sued for selling questionable alternative remedies.

The Center for Inquiry (CFI), a nonprofit dedicated to ensuring that “pseudoscience is prevented from harming society,” filed a complaint Monday on behalf of residents in Washington, D.C., against the giant retailer. The organization claims the superstore deliberately “creates a false and misleading impression in customers regarding homeopathic products, presenting them as an equal alternative to science and evidence-based medication.”

Source: Walmart sued for sale of “nonsense” homeopathic remedies