Deloitte: Canadian holiday spending is expected to drop 14% this year Press release   LendingTree: Halloween Spending Expected to Drop 16% Press release   YouTube Is Looking to Expand Into Audiobooks at WSJ. "The offering could be ready next year, the people said. YouTube has weighed bundling the product in its ad-free YouTube Premium service, which starts at $15.99 a month and includes access to music and videos, the people said." WSJ subs.   Seattle’s Famous Raccoon 'Jimothy' Hits Costco as a Dog Toy at USA Today   The first new sunscreen type in 25 years has arrived on US [...]

  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 [...]

  Target is lowering prices on nearly 2,000 home and apparel & accessories items "Apparel and shoes: ...select items priced 20% or more lower than last year...Home: A fully refreshed bedding assortment, with prices 15% lower, on average..." Press release   An outright ban on certain Canadian products took effect Tuesday at NY Times. "On Monday, U.S. officials released a notice saying Canadian products including whey protein, molasses, nonalcoholic beer, wine, vermouth and a variety of liquor would be “unconditionally rejected” by U.S. Customs and Border Protection starting at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday." NY Times subs.   Inside McDonald’s push to [...]

  Lowe’s is launching a drone delivery service in partnership with DoorDash, Alphabet at CNBC. "(Lowe's) said the new drone delivery service — a first in the home improvement retail space — will give customers access to over 100 products in a delivery window as fast as 20 minutes. A pilot program is already live in North Carolina, with plans for expansion." Read more   Amazon bets $3 billion on India's fast-delivery boom, sources say at Reuters. "A key focus of the planned investment will be adding new small neighborhood ​warehouses...The other key areas of spending, the first person added, [...]

  Here’s who we know is going to the Trump-Xi dinner so far: CNBC Nvidia’s Jensen Huang OpenAI’s Sam Altman Google’s Sundar Pichai Tesla and SpaceX’s Elon Musk Citigroup’s Jane Fraser Amazon’s Jeff Bezos Apple’s Tim Cook Dell’s Michael Dell   AutoZone Inc. Q4 comp sales +1.5% Press release   BJ’s Wholesale Club celebrates 42nd birthday "...the company is offering members 42% off dozens of items they love and rely on every day." Press release   Amazon Drones Overwhelm a Texas Suburb at NY Times. "In Richardson, a fleet of drones has started to deliver goods quickly. But the noise [...]