Rebecca Day

Target will require customers to wear masks or face coverings beginning Aug. 1, it said Thursday. The new policy is in keeping with "guidance" from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "on the role masks play in preventing the spread of the coronavirus," emailed a spokesperson. Target will exempt young children and customers with underlying medical conditions. This "builds on the more than 80% of our stores that already require guests to wear face coverings due to local and state regulations," said the spokesperson. Store employees already wear store-provided masks. Target will provide disposable masks at store entrances. It will add signage and overhead audio messages and station team members at entrances to remind customers to wear masks. The retailer will steer shoppers to its "no-contact fulfillment options, including Drive Up, Target.com and Shipt, if they’d prefer," she said. Walmart and Best Buy announced customer such requirements this week (see report, July 16).

All Walmart shoppers will be required to wear masks beginning Monday, said the retailer Wednesday, citing the spike in confirmed COVID-19 cases across the country. It joined Best Buy and other retailers hoping to stem the spread of the coronavirus through the use of face masks, a political hot button.

It takes a lot for companies to move supply chains, said John Murphy, U.S. Chamber of Commerce senior vice president-international policy, on a Flexport webinar Tuesday. National security concerns about things like 5G could spur such action, Murphy said: But strong government action requiring companies to move supply chains would be limited to "a few select sectors.”

“Watch Google,” said a Friday streaming TV report from LightShed partners on the war for the living room among MVPDs, platform providers and media companies. Google could be a “much needed disrupter” in the connected TV world, reducing leverage Roku and Amazon currently hold, analysts said.

Spending intentions continued to trend upward, said a COVID-19 Cowen investor report Friday surveying 2,500 U.S. consumers June 25-30. Some 64% of households said they will spend the same or more over the month, up from 59% mid-June, with 13% of respondents expecting to spend more on media and at-home entertainment services during July, it said.

Online “booth fees” for 2020 CEDIA Expo Virtual Sept. 15-17 are $750-$7,500, said an Emerald X presentation titled “CEDIA Expo Exhibitor Discussions,” a PowerPoint it's using to pitch prospective exhibitors. Companies have a choice to opt out of the virtual show and get a refund over the next 30-60 days for registration fees they paid for the physical 2020 show.

Hype about Friday's Disney+ release of Hamilton, with theaters closed during COVID-19 lockdowns, showed consumers’ appetite for viewing theatrical content in a streaming format. In May, Disney Chairman Robert Iger tweeted the decision to bring Hamilton to Disney+, 15 months before planned theatrical release.

Capital Audiofest 2020 is no more and will instead roll over to 2021, Director Gary Gill told us Monday. The consumer high-end audio show reached agreement with the Hilton Washington DC/Rockville Hotel & Executive Meeting Center in Maryland “to move the show from 2020 to 2021 without any issues,” said Gill. The 2021 show is scheduled for Nov. 5-7

Voxx acquired a majority of competitor Directed’s automotive aftermarket business for $11 million cash and the assumption of certain liabilities. In the asset purchase agreement completed Thursday, Voxx bought the aftermarket vehicle remote start and security systems (RSS) and connected car (CC) solutions businesses of Directed and Directed Electronics Canada, Voxx said. Voxx DEI, a newly formed 75%-owned subsidiary of Voxx and Voxx DEI Canada, is the buyer, it said.

An “enormous amount of uncertainty is hanging over the U.S. economy,” said Phil Levy, Flexport chief economist, on a Wednesday webinar on COVID-19-induced changes in retail. Levy referenced a “grim” revised economic forecast last month from the International Monetary Fund showing a deeper contraction into 2020 and slower 2021 recovery than previously forecast.