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Pop-up shopping mall using shipping crates while they decide what to do with the space permanently. 

calling Amazon Prime the "modern day loyalty program" ShopRunner is a competitor to prime that lets users get free shipping for an annual fee from a number of retailers e-commerce sites

I just bought this "$149" 3D Printer. Yes, it's the early, early bird special, and there $40 shipping and it doesn't exist yet and it won't ship until next April (assuming it really gets made) but other than that it's a $149 3D printer!

"Snap. Verizon offers iPhone 4. Forget the slight redesign, forget the lack of multitasking between data and voice, forget the pricing models for unlimited, tethering, and video chat over 3G. Now the store brand is competing directly with the actual iPhone. Naturally the pent-up demand by Verizon contractees will blow out the overall numbers. But much more importantly, Apple is free to ship an iPhone 5 across the board, where existing contractees can be marketed to with bundled services, i.e. the new TV, the new Enterprise, the new Office. One device, with the carriers battling for the most attractive rendering of services."

"Walmart began recruiting top Silicon Valley talent and acquiring start-ups last year. For instance, Walmart acquired Kosmix, a company that specializes in making web design more seamless, for $300 million. That team has been working for over a year to fix Walmart's systems and improve its website.  Walmart is investing in the "social gifting" market. A year ago, Walmart launched "Shopycat," which makes gift recommendations based on friends' Facebook profiles. The site is now called "Walmart Gifts" and allows customers to log in and get personalized recommendations based on Facebook and Twitter profiles.  The retailer got a better search engine. A dozen top engineers took 10 months to build it, and while the company won't discuss sales figures, they said the new system is more user-friendly. "If you search for cotton socks now, you'll actually find them," Manjoo writes.  Walmart is trying to lead the charge in same-day shipping. Its at an advantage considering that 96 percent of Americans live within 20 miles of a Walmart.  Walmart is investing like crazy in its mobile app. "Walmart imagines that as you go through an average day, you'll remember things you need--milk, bread, a new tennis racquet, a toy truck for your nephew's birthday--and tell the voice-enabled Walmart app. The app will list each item's location inside your local Walmart and include product info; eventually, it will also learn your preferences and offer recommendations. And once you're actually in the store, you'll be able to summon an associate to help you," Manjoo says. "

A new startup called Deliv hopes to provide retailers with a new way to please tech-savvy shoppers, by offering same-day local delivery for the same price - or less - than having items shipped. Crowdsources peoples around the area to deliver for it. More about convenience than speed -- time of day is most important

big news

Might end up being relevant for businesses using USPS to ship.

customize the bike you want int he show room or online and its shipped to local retailers to help assemble them.

"How much time do you spend on Reddit?  If you're anything like the average Redditor, it's quite a bit!  Yesterday Reddit reported, via Twitter, that in August the average time spent per visit was 17:29 minutes.  The month also closed with a shipping 3.4 billion page views and 42.9 million uniques.  Impressive, eh? While the 17:29 minute figure is only a one second increase from 17:28 in July, the page views and uniques saw a significant jump.  In July Reddit reported 3.1 billion page views and 39.5 million users."

While big-gun technology and payments companies worked on grandiose near-field communication (NFC) solutions, Starbucks shipped a basic, 2-D barcode-scanning system, built into its iPhone and Android apps. Essentially, it lets you carry your Starbucks card in your phone. The payment system debuted in January 2011 and customers seem to love it. As of April, Starbucks had processed more than 45 million mobile payments.

Sure, no real details but they did get $50MM and it sounds super singularityish