Point of Sale: 1 company closes doors; another announces expansion

Portland says goodbye to Walmart

People in Portland, Oregon, will soon have to go somewhere else for their retail and grocery deals. Walmart plans on closing its two locations in the city. Yahoo News reports the multinational retail giant plans to close those stores at the end of the month due to less-than-desirable financials. A representative for Walmart, which boasts close to 5,000 stores nationwide, said the Portland locations weren’t meeting expectations.

Nearly 600 will be out of work after these closures. According to the Yahoo article, it’s possible record-breaking retail theft might be the main reason behind not meeting financial goals.

“Theft is an issue. It’s higher than what it has historically been,” said Walmart CEO Doug McMillon in December. “[Price] will be higher and/or stores will close [if Oregon authorities fail to address rampant shoplifting.]”

And here Walmart is three months later, shutting its stores down in the city.

Yahoo also notes other companies that have closed locations in Portland and cited its reasons for shutting down are similar. Check out the full article here.

The trading post

(Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves)

$20 million worth of oats

It’s a food I could never get into, but one I wish I could. Marketers always make overnight oats look delicious. Maybe once Oats Overnight expands its retail efforts, I’ll buy into the hype. The company recently raised over $20 million in Series A financing and plans to use that to bring customers into the product development process. Investors Observer reports that Oats Overnight connects with customers through a private Facebook page. That group is part of the research-and-development stages. Each month, the company touts potential new flavors to this Facebook group and its professional R&D team. They could be flavors like key lime pie, cookies and cream or chocolate chip cookie dough. Folks discuss the flavors, and the most popular ones are released a few months later.

You would be able to find those new flavors in stores like Whole Foods, Meijer and Walmart, but the company has plans to expand retail offerings. To do that, it needs more hands on the oats. The Investors Observer article also says part of the financing money will go toward new sales team members, including a vice president of sales position.

“The uniqueness in format and flavors that we bring to a traditionally stale category makes us a clear bet for buyers,” said Nina McKinney, Oats Overnight’s chief strategy officer. “This capital will help us execute even faster.” 

That’s not all the company has planned. It will also use some of the funding to build a new production and fulfillment center in Phoenix. The 85,000-square-feet facility will no doubt create more job opportunities at Oats Overnight.

Gigs and gadgets

(Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves)

Musk in Mexico

Elon Musk has plans for a new Tesla gigafactory in the state of Nuevo Leon, Mexico. FreightWaves’ Noi Mahoney says this site will build next-gen electric vehicles near the city of Monterrey. In announcing the news, the CEO said Tesla would increase production at all its sites and that the Mexico gigafactory will be “supplemental to the output of all the other factories.”

“This is not, to be clear, moving output from anywhere to anywhere,” Musk said. “It is simply about expanding total global output.”

This will be the sixth gigafactory for Tesla, with three located in the United States, one in Germany and another in China. Mexico News Daily reports Martha Delgado, the country’s deputy foreign affairs minister, said Tesla would be investing over $5 billion in the site and creating 6,000 jobs.

Once the facility becomes operational, Tesla will be able to make 1 million electric vehicles annually for domestic and international supply.

Officials say Musk could invest further in Mexico and believe this partnership will appeal to other companies that lead different parts of the supply chain.

There are no details on when construction will begin or a projected opening date.

SONAR steals

(Source: FreightWaves SONAR)

This week we’re checking out the Outbound Tender Volume Index (OTVI) in Omaha, Nebraska. OTVI shows tender load volumes for the U.S. Users can also look at specific regions and market granularity.

Omaha continues to be home to the outlier. The Outbound Tender Reject Index sits at 15.56%, nearly four times the national average of 3.55%. 

Outbound tender volumes have shot up with rejections. Volumes are up 15.4% week over week (w/w), whereas rejections have increased 402 basis points w/w.

Capacity is tightening in Omaha, bringing increased spot rates. Spot rates may have hit a floor in the rest of the country, but expect higher-than-normal ones in Omaha until outbound tender rejections start to fall.

Is SONAR for you? Check it out with a demo!

Need to speak to the manager? Shoot me an email with comments, questions or story ideas at sedwards@www.freightwaves.com.