US retail sales grow 3.1% during holiday season - Mastercard report at Reuters. "The increase is lower than the 3.7% growth Mastercard forecast in September, and has slumped from last year's 7.6% as higher interest rates and inflation pressured consumer spending...Ecommerce sales grew at a slower pace of 6.3% from last year's 10.6%...apparel and restaurant categories rose 2.4% and 7.8%, respectively...while sales of electronics fell 0.4%." Read more   Maersk to resume Red Sea voyages with Operation Prosperity Guardian in place at Fox News. "More details were expected to be released in the coming days, according to Maersk, adding [...]

  South Korea will Police ‘Shrinkflation’ at the Supermarket at WSJ. "Starting next year, the country will require companies to disclose on their packages and websites when grocery items drop in volume, but not price. To ensure firms comply, South Korea is establishing a dedicated price-investigation team to monitor any fluctuations. Officials are considering levying fines, too." WSJ subs.   Ikea says products will be delayed due to Red Sea diversions at CNBC   Walgreens’s Ambitions Lean on Its Technology. First, It Has to Build Up Its IT Department. at WSJ. "Walgreens Boots Alliance is on its third chief information [...]

  Target blamed theft and violence for 9 store closures. Crime is higher at locations it kept open nearby at CNBC. "I don’t want to use the word ‘stunt,’ because I don’t know exactly what went on in Minneapolis [where Target is based], but to me, it read like a stunt, looking to divert attention from the company’s lack of performance overall,” said Mark Cohen, a professor and director of retail studies at Columbia Business School..."They implied that the only reason they were closing the stores was because of theft. That may or may not be true. My guess is: [...]

  Retail sales rose 0.3% in November vs. expectations for a decline at CNBC. "Excluding autos, sales rose 0.2%, also better than the forecast for no change. Stripping out autos and gas, sales rose 0.6%." Read more   Temu files fresh lawsuit against Shein, accusing its rival of ‘mafia-style intimidation’ at CNBC. "They began to illegally detain merchants, forcibly asking for their phones, stealing our merchant accounts and passwords, stealing our business secrets, and simultaneously forcing merchants to leave our platform. Their actions are too exaggerated; we had no choice but to sue them.” Read more   Circuit City, angling [...]

  Lawmakers call on U.S. regulator to thwart Kroger-Albertsons deal at Reuters. "Senators Elizabeth Warren, Mazie Hirono, Bernie Sanders and Cory Booker and representatives Summer Lee and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said in the letter that Kroger's proposal to divest 413 stores to C&S Wholesale Grocers would not address harms to consumers, workers, and the grocery industry if the merger is allowed." Read more   Inflation slowed to a 3.1% annual rate in November at CNBC. "Excluding volatile food and energy prices, core CPI increased 0.3% on the month and 4% from a year ago. Both numbers were in line with estimates [...]

  Dollar General Q3 comp sales decreased 1.3% Press release   Chinese e-commerce platform Temu drawing shoppers from US dollar stores at Reuters. "As of last month, Temu accounted for nearly 17% of market share in the United States within the discount stores categories, according to data analytics firm Earnest Analytics. That compares to 8% for Five Below, 43% for Dollar General and 28% for Dollar Tree." Read more   Walmart CEO Doug McMillon @ CNBC "Doug McMillon said it’s gotten easier to hire people and get them to stick around. “It’s more normalized,” McMillon said in an interview with CNBC’s [...]

  CVS Plans to Overhaul How Much Drugs Cost at WSJ. "CVS’s roughly 9,500 retail pharmacies will get reimbursed by pharmacy-benefit managers and other payers based on the amount that CVS paid for the drugs, in addition to a limited markup and a flat fee to cover the services involved in handling and dispensing the prescriptions. Today, pharmacies are generally paid using complex measures that aren’t directly based on what they spent to purchase specific drugs." WSJ subs.   ...CVS aims to make pharmacy reimbursement process more transparent at Yahoo Finance. "CVS' new drug reimbursement model looks similar to that [...]