Home Depot lays off 800 workers, says corporate employees will return to office 5 days a week at CNBC. "About 150 of the employees were based at Home Depot’s headquarters in Atlanta and the rest were in remote jobs, with most in the technology organization of the company and some on other corporate teams...Decker said the five-day in-office policy will begin the week of April 6." Read more   Tractor Supply Q4 comp store sales +0.3% Press release   Amazon Found ‘High Volume’ Of Child Sex Abuse Material in AI Training Data at Bloomberg. "Amazon believes it over-reported these [...]

Amazon cuts 16,000 jobs in the latest round of layoffs at AP. "Beth Galetti, a senior vice president at the ecommerce company, made the announcement Wednesday in a blog post...She said U.S.-based staff would be given 90 days to look for a new role internally." Read more   South Carolina is the Nation’s Fastest-Growing State at US Census. "Population growth in the United States has slowed significantly with an increase of only 1.8 million, or 0.5%, between July 1, 2024, and July 1, 2025..." Census data   ...What the Census Says About the U.S. Population, in Six Charts at WSJ. [...]

  Amazon cuts 16,000 jobs in the latest round of layoffs at AP. "Beth Galetti, a senior vice president at the ecommerce company, made the announcement Wednesday in a blog post...She said U.S.-based staff would be given 90 days to look for a new role internally." Read more   South Carolina is the Nation’s Fastest-Growing State at US Census. "Population growth in the United States has slowed significantly with an increase of only 1.8 million, or 0.5%, between July 1, 2024, and July 1, 2025..." Census data   ...What the Census Says About the U.S. Population, in Six Charts at [...]

  BAIN FORECAST: Retail sales growth will slow in the US, UK, France, and Germany in 2026 "Bain projects US retail sales to grow 3.5% year over year in 2026, to $5.3 trillion, slightly down from estimated 4.0% growth in 2025. Volume growth will be modest, with inflation projected to hover between 2.6% and 3.0%." Press release   Target’s incoming CEO Michael Fiddelke, sent a message to employees on Monday, calls Minneapolis violence ‘incredibly painful' at CNBC. "Fiddelke...will step into the CEO role on Feb. 1. In the video message to employees, he said he’s looking forward to starting the [...]

  Consumer spending pushes US economy up 4.4% in third quarter, fastest in two years at AP. "America’s gross domestic product — the nation’s output of goods and services — rose at a 4,4% annual pace in the third quarter, the Commerce Department reported Thursday, up from 3.8% in the April-June quarter and from the 4.3% growth the department initially estimated. The economy hasn’t grown faster since third-quarter 2023." Read more   Americans Travel the World Only to Wind Up in Costco at WSJ. "Some may ask why Costco fans fly halfway across the planet to visit the same temple [...]

  Can a $1,699 Espresso Machine Help Walmart Challenge Amazon? at WSJ. "Walmart’s internal research shows that shoppers equate stylish designs with better quality, said Creighton Kiper, who runs the home category for Walmart in the U.S...“I went to Walmart because other people weren’t,” said (Drew) Barrymore of some other celebrity partnerships. When its (Beautiful) products hit Walmart stores, they were a hit...Beautiful is now expanding its offerings at Walmart, including a new line of outdoor furniture." WSJ subs.   Top 100 Fashion Trends for 2026 at Trendhunter   Here’s the Best Way to Sell a Hot Rotisserie Chicken at Stanford [...]

  Inside the Mad Dash to Save Saks, America’s Last Luxury Retailer at WSJ. "Chanel’s tab is $136 million. At Kering, the company behind Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent and Balenciaga, the bill is nearly $60 million. And those are just two of the many brands owed money by Saks Global—a list so long it stretched more than three pages in the bankruptcy filing that landed in a Houston court early Wednesday morning. Even though the parent company of Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman was plainly veering toward bankruptcy in recent days, the filing was stunning in its sweep [...]

  December core consumer prices rose at a 2.6% annual rate, less than expected at CNBC. "Excluding volatile food and energy prices, the consumer price index showed a seasonally adjusted 0.2% gain on a monthly basis and 2.6% annually, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday. Both were 0.1 percentage point below expectations." Read more   Target’s Stores Become an ICE Battleground in Hometown Minneapolis at WSJ. "...immigration officials detained two Target employees inside the vestibule of a suburban store late last week...Both are American citizens and were later released...Video of the incident quickly circulated, sparking an outcry on social-media [...]