Home Depot has partnered with a growth equity firm to invest $11 million in Homee, an on-demand property maintenance company, the Tampa Business Journal reports. Homee, based in Tampa, Florida, launched in July 2016 and “uses GPS-enabled smartphone technology to link …
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Dollar General Pilots App for Mobile Checkout
Customers at Dollar General stores in Nashville, Tennessee, can now pay for items directly through their smartphones, company CEO Todd Vasos announced in a May earnings call. Vasos says the app launched in May and will soon expand to include …
Read More »Supreme Court: States Can Require Online Retailers to Pay Sales Tax
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 21 that online purchases can be subject to the same state and local taxes as purchases made at brick-and-mortar locations, The New York Times reports. This week’s decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. establishes that …
Read More »Sears Hometown to Close Up to 100 Stores
Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores Inc. will close up to 100 of its 882 stores, the company announced in its first-quarter 2018 financial results. Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores is a Sears spinoff company that mainly sells appliances, hardware, tools …
Read More »Survey Says Retail Shrink Declined in 2017
A new survey from the National Retail Federation (NRF) and the University of Florida says that retail shrink, or losses from theft, fraud and other causes, decreased in 2017. Financial losses from retail shrink were $46.8 billion in 2017, down …
Read More »Report Says Lowe’s Requires Employees to Sign Arbitration Agreements
Lowe’s is requiring its salaried managers and assistant managers to sign binding arbitration agreements or possibly lose their bonuses, the HuffPost reports. The contract prevents employees from pursuing legal action against the big-box retailer in court or joining any class-action lawsuits …
Read More »Former NRHA President Blair Douglas Dies
Blair Douglas, past president of both the Canadian Retail Hardware Association and the North American Retail Hardware Association, died in Caledonia, Nova Scotia, Canada, on May 29. He was 65 years old. Douglas was born in Caledonia, Nova Scotia, and …
Read More »Spoga+Gafa 2018 Presents the Latest Trends in Gardening and Outdoor Living
Visitors to spoga+gafa 2018 in Cologne, Germany, will preview the newest innovations in green and outdoor living products at the world’s largest garden trade show. Spoga+gafa 2018 is scheduled for Sept. 2-4 and will cover about 2.5 million square feet …
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