Target Shoppers Are ‘Getting Trampled’ for a Limited Edition Valentine’s Day Stanley Cup at People. “…released two Target-exclusive Quencher H2.0 FlowState Tumblers. The tumblers come in Cosmo Pink and Target Red and are a part of the brand’s “Galentine’s Collection.”…Another video on TikTok filmed at a Target in Goodyear, Arizona explained that tumblers sold out in less than four minutes. The video showed people of all ages rushing to grab one from the store’s display stand.” Read more

 

Carrefour pulls PepsiCo products over price hikes at Reuters. “From Thursday, shelves for PepsiCo products at Carrefour stores in France, Italy, Spain and Belgium will carry signs saying the store will no longer be stocking the brands “due to unacceptable price increases”, a spokesperson for the French supermarket giant said.” Read more

 

Online holiday spending reaches record $222B, driven by BNPL at Fox. “The figure, up 4.9% year over year, marks a new record for online shopping throughout the holiday season…according to Adobe’s holiday spending report…(BNPL) accounted for $16.6 billion in online spending, up 14% on an annual basis, during the season.” Read more

 

Weekly US jobless claims at two-month low; labor market gradually easing at Reuters

 

Consumer Reports finds ‘widespread’ presence of plastics in food at Reuters. “Among tested supermarket foods, Annie’s Organic Cheesy Ravioli contained the most phthalates in nanograms per serving, 53,579, followed by Del Monte sliced peaches and Chicken of the Sea pink salmon.” Read more

 

Behind Cheap Stuff From Shein and Temu: A Hard Bargain With Suppliers at WSJ. “Some suppliers that spoke with The Wall Street Journal said they were grappling with razor-thin profit margins and intense pressure to cut prices. Others said they were drowning in unsold inventory and were questioning whether dealing with Shein and Temu would be sustainable in the long run.” WSJ subs.

 

Walgreens Q1 profits up on an adjusted basis, but slashes dividend at Yahoo. “…is cutting its dividend by 48% to $0.25 a share from $0.48 a share for the fiscal first quarter of 2024…first quarter sales for the period ending Nov. 30, 2023, rose 10% year over year totaling $36.7 billion, beating Wall Street expectations.” Read more | Press release

 

Jeff Bezos Bets on a Google Challenger Using AI to Try to Upend Internet Search at WSJ. “Started less than two years ago, Perplexity has fewer than 40 employees and is based out of a San Francisco co-working space. The company’s product, which it calls an answer engine, is used by about 10 million people monthly. Those ingredients were enough to persuade Institutional Venture Partners, Bezos and other tech executives to invest $74 million in the company, the largest sum raised by an internet search startup in recent years.” WSJ subs.

 

Why Costco’s response to the surprising Virginia union victory stands out at Fast Company. “Costco CEO Craig Jelinek and president Ron Vachris (emailed) employees a letter…“Last week, in a close vote, Costco employees in Norfolk voted in favor of representation by the Teamsters union,” it began. “To be honest, we’re disappointed by the result in Norfolk. We’re not disappointed in our employees; we’re disappointed in ourselves as managers and leaders. The fact that a majority of Norfolk employees felt that they wanted or needed a union constitutes a failure on our part.” Read more

 

The Buckle, Inc. December net sales decreased 5.8% Press release

 

TikTok Eyes $17.5 Billion Shopping Business on Amazon’s Turf at Bloomberg. “TikTok aims to grow the size of its US e-commerce business tenfold to as much as $17.5 billion this year, according to people familiar with the matter…The 2024 merchandise volume goal for the US version of TikTok Shop — which melds online entertainment with impulse buying — was discussed in internal meetings in recent weeks and may still change depending on how the business goes…” Bloomberg subs. required

 

Alimentation Couche-Tard completes acquisition of European assets from TotalEnergies at Financial Post

 

Ex-Home Depot CEO reveals why more retail stores will be locking up their items at Fox. “I was blessed at Home Depot, we got shrink under control, we installed cameras in every store. We had a dark room where our security team was monitoring high-shrink stores. But back then, it was not legal to steal $1,000 to get a paint sprayer or a nail gun or something and just walk out with it,” (Nardelli) said.” Read more

 

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