Kroger To Reportedly Eliminate 37% Of Corporate Workforce at Yahoo. "According to an internal staff memo Bloomberg obtained, (Kroger) will eliminate roughly 3,000 corporate positions." Read more | Bloomberg (subs.)   French supermarket fridges get hacked, heating to 122°F and sparking fires at CNBC. "European Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Christophe Hansen warned that “the weaponization of food has become a reality.” Read more   Visa wins approval to prepare a bank card clearing business in China at AP   Hardware Stores Have a Secret Weapon for Wooing Customers at WSJ. "Cats humanize the hardware store,” (Kaplanis) says. “We [...]

  Costco September comp sales (ex. gas & f/x) +7.6% : US +8% / Canada +4.9% / Other Int'l +7.7% / Digitally-enabled +19.1% "...net sales of $30.02 billion for the retail month of September, the five weeks ended October 4, 2026, an increase of 13% from $26.58 billion last year." Press release   Amazon is cutting fewer than 1,000 white-collar jobs, mainly in its stores division Fox News | Reuters (subs.)   When CEOs Brag About Price Hikes, She’s Listening at Bloomberg. "Lindsay Owens and her think tank are getting traction by blaming the likes of Instacart and Walmart for [...]

  How Christina Zhu turned Sam’s Club into Walmart’s unlikely growth engine in China at Fortune. "As a child, she watched her parents wake up at 4:30 a.m. on Sundays to go to the wet market. “They had to haggle, and high-quality produce wasn’t always guaranteed,” Zhu, born in 1973, recalled...Today, Chinese shoppers are “probably the group with the most choices [in the world],” and they have become “the most demanding customers,” she said." Fortune subs.   ACSI: C-Store Satisfaction Slides "Meijer rises 5% to 82, the study’s largest improvement, claiming sole possession of first place. Kwik Trip drops 6% [...]

  Walgreens Owner Nears Deal to Sell British Pharmacy Chain Boots at WSJ. "Walgreens was in the midst of a turnaround effort when Sycamore bought it. Its market value had dropped more than 90% from its roughly $100 billion peak in 2015. Selling Boots at the price being discussed would be an early win for Sycamore, which is poised to make a sizable return on the sale. It would also allow the firm to focus on reviving Walgreen’s U.S. operations." WSJ subs.   Forbes: 2026 World's Best Employers (Shopify #3 / Costco #4 / P&G #53) Full list   H-E-B Outpaces [...]