THD Cuts 800 | He-Man 30M Views | Sam’s/TJs #1
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 cases to NCMEC to avoid accidentally missing something…the volume of suspected CSAM that Amazon detected across its AI pipeline in 2025 stunned child safety experts interviewed by Bloomberg News.” Bloomberg subs.
ACSI 2026 Customer Satisfaction Ratings: Supermarket – Trader Joe’s overtakes Publix / Sam’s Club stays atop the general merchandise industry Press release
Worries deepen in US South after days of grappling with snow, ice and widespread outages at AP. “…officials warned Wednesday that people stuck at home were running out of food, medicine and other essentials…Roughly 332,000 homes and businesses remained without power Wednesday, the vast majority of them in Tennessee and Mississippi.” Read more
How Build-A-Bear Found Success in the ‘Nostalgia Economy’ WSJ subs./Video 8:49
Amazon’s Promotion of ‘Melania’ Has Critics Questioning Its Motives at NY Times. “Amazon paid Ms. Trump’s production company $40 million for the rights to “Melania,” about $26 million more than the next closest bidder, Disney. The fee includes a related docuseries that is scheduled to air later this year. The budget for “Melania” is unknown, but documentaries that follow a subject for a limited amount of time usually cost less than $5 million to produce. The $35 million for marketing is 10 times what some other high-profile documentaries have received.” NY Times subs.
Walmart Boosts Pay Potential for Pharmacy Technicians, Elevates 3,000 Roles Press release
Some TikTok Shop sellers are pulling back as the platform moves to end independent shipping in the U.S. at Modern Retail. “Brands selling on TikTok Shop have been able to handle fulfillment on their own since the platform’s U.S. debut in 2023. Under the new policy, sellers who are not fully transitioned to TikTok’s logistics system by the end of the rollout risk losing access to a crucial sales channel that puts brands’ products in front of some 170 million users.” Read more
51% of Americans say they’ve cut back on their spending to pay for travel USA Today
Mattel builds He-Man movie buzz with new action figures at Reuters. “The toy launch builds on momentum from the new movie’s first teaser trailer, released last week, which has since racked up more than 30 million YouTube views.” Reuters subs.
Sephora CEO Guillaume Motte Outlines Global Ambitions at WWD