Tipsheet: Amazon Demands Piece of Co. | N.Y. vs. Pharmacy Chains | Gas Outages Again
WANTED: TRUCK DRIVERS – Gas stations are running out of gas ahead of the holiday weekend at CNN. “Right now the outages are scattered across the country, said Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis for the Oil Price Information Service, which tracks prices for AAA. He said there have been outages reported in the Pacific Northwest, Northern California, Colorado and Iowa. There are also outages reported in Indianapolis and Columbus, Ohio, said Patrick DeHaan, spokesperson for GasBuddy.” Read more
An Opioid Case Like No Other: N.Y. vs. the Entire Supply Chain at NY Times. “The New York complaint also had named as defendants four major pharmacy chains: Walmart, CVS, Rite Aid and Walgreens. But in the weeks leading up to the trial, all but Walgreens were severed from the case.” Read more
Amazon Demands One More Thing From Some Vendors: a Piece of Their Company at Wall Street Journal. “Suppliers that want to land Amazon.com as a client for their goods and services can find that its business comes with a catch: the right for Amazon to buy big stakes in their companies at potentially steep discounts to market value. The technology-and-retail giant has struck at least a dozen deals with publicly traded companies in which it gets rights, called warrants, to buy the vendors’ stock in the future at what could be below-market prices, according to corporate filings and interviews with people involved with the deals.” WSJ subs.
Walmart launches low-priced private label analog insulin at Reuters. “(Walmart) said its more than 3 million customers with diabetes could save between 58% and 75% off the cash price of branded analog insulin products, or up to $101 per branded vial or $251 per package of branded FlexPen.” Read more
How Amazon Bullies, Manipulates, and Lies to Reporters at Mother Jones. “Amazon is the only company I’ve dealt with that has directly lied to me,” said one tech writer…“They’d often lie about things we had proof of,” said another reporter, citing times they had visual evidence contradicting the communications teams’ claims. “There will be videos of these big walkouts and they’ll say only a few workers participated.” Read more
Playboy owner to buy lingerie retailer Honey Birdette for over $330 million at Fox Business. “Honey Birdette…has around 60 physical stores primarily located in Australia, with a few in the U.S. and the U.K. The company expects revenue of more than $73 million for the fiscal year that ends this month, representing growth of over 40%.” Read more
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Amazon employee fired by a robot: It’s you vs machine’s algorithm at Bloomberg/Business Standard. “Bloomberg interviewed 15 Flex drivers, including four who say they were wrongly terminated, as well as former Amazon managers…Amazon knew delegating work to machines would lead to mistakes and damaging headlines, these former managers said, but decided it was cheaper to trust the algorithms than pay people to investigate mistaken firings so long as the drivers could be replaced easily.” Read more
Burberry shares tumble after saying CEO Marco Gobbetti will leave for Ferragamo at NY Post. “Gobbetti is credited with helping turn Burberry around by raising prices, appealing to younger shoppers and increasing the company’s exposure in higher-margin products like handbags.” Read more
Amazon opens buildings at the company’s headquarters to the public as a “cooling center” at GeekWire. “I’ll probably be here all day,” said Tiwari, a product manager at TikTok who was one of the first people to arrive when Amazon opened its Meeting Center, which also turned into a COVID-19 vaccination site earlier this year.” Read more
Me@Walmart app aims to improve store efficiency, support employees at Talk Business. “The mobile clock-in function was added and has become the favored way to clock in and out. The mobile time clock uses geofencing technology around the store, and employees tap the button once when they arrive at the store and can go right to work. Justin Tallman, stocking team lead at store No. 2686, said this saves employees five to 15 minutes…” Read more
Amazon delivery contractors quit Portland routes, citing ‘unsafe’ work expectations at Seattle Times. “The two companies have about 155 drivers between them, averaging 22,000 Amazon deliveries each day in the Portland area. That may not be enough to disrupt Amazon’s local deliveries and get the company’s attention. The Seattle-based company uses other delivery contractors, including the U.S. Postal Service, and has its own drivers, too.” Read more
Amazon is making more real estate moves east of Seattle, adding hundreds of Amazon Web Services roles in Redmond, Wash. at GeekWire. Read more
Tipsheet Extra
Venmo to raise fees on instant transfers starting Aug. 2
Jeff Bezos goes after girlfriend’s brother for $250K in legal fees
Target admits St. Paul Juneteenth display ‘missed the mark’
Instagram tests letting anyone share a link in stories
Home prices surge by most on record with flight to the suburbs
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