Carrefour sticks price warnings on food to shame suppliers at Reuters. “Carrefour is putting stickers on products that have shrunk in size but cost more even after raw materials prices have eased…Since Monday, Carrefour has marked 26 products in its stores in France with labels reading, “This product has seen its volume or weight fall and the effective price by the supplier rise.” Read more

 

CEOs from Alphabet, Walmart, Pfizer meet White House officials on refugees at Reuters. “Chief executives from a wide array of U.S. companies will meet White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients on Thursday to discuss refugee resettlement and sponsorship programs, a White House official said.” Read more

 

Retailers are losing $100 billion a year from return fraud, bots and coupon stacking at CNBC. “In one example analyzed by Riskified, a company identified 137,000 fake accounts created by just 4,000 abusive customers looking to take advantage of a steep 35% discount promotion for first-time customers. It cost the company more than $14 million annually.” Read more

 

Retail sales pick up steam at Yahoo. “Retail sales rose 0.6% in August from the previous month, above Wall Street’s estimates for 0.1% growth. Sales excluding auto and gas increased 0.2%, above estimates for a 0.1% decline compiled by Bloomberg.” Read more

 

Dollarama raises annual sales forecast as demand for essentials thrives at Reuters/Yahoo. “The discount store operator said it now expects comparable store-sales growth of between 10% and 11% for fiscal 2024, compared with between 5% and 6% estimated previously” Read more | Q2 comp sales +15.5% Press release

 

American Eagle staff were threatened with guns and a machete while working in San Francisco mall, new lawsuit says by Eleanor Pringle at Fortune via Yahoo. “The brand is suing shopping centre chain Westfield for allowing its San Francisco site to “deteriorate into disarray”…The suit claims that in more than 100 instances between May 2022 and May 2023 staff were subject to “significant security incidents.” Read more

 

‘Linchpin’ in Amazon marketplace bribery scheme sentenced at Seattle Times/Merced Sun Star. “…ran a consulting business to help merchants who sold their goods on Amazon’s digital marketplace. They and four others were accused of participating in a three-year scheme to manipulate Amazon’s digital store by bribing Amazon employees to access confidential information they then used to help clients gain an unfair advantage over other sellers, according to court records.” Read more

 

Albertsons Companies Launches 30-Minute Grocery Pickup and Delivery Press release

 

How Gen Z is putting their spin on personal finances by Claire Thornton at USA Today. “A vast majority (89%) of Gen Z — or people born between 1997 and 2012 — said they have saved money on something in 2023, more than any other generation, according to a Harris Poll…Yet they’re also not shy about splurging on items. Seventy-five percent of Gen Z said they spent a lot on something in 2023, also more than other age groups.” Read more

 

Chicago Mayor explores city-owned grocery store “The City of Chicago is reimagining the role government can play in our lives by exploring a public option for grocery stores via a municipally owned grocery store and market,” said Ameya Pawar, Senior Advisor at Economic Security Project. “Not dissimilar from the way a library or the postal service operates…” Press release

 

Walmart faces disability violations by Serenah McCay at Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette. “The U.S. Equal Employment and Opportunity Commission claims Walmart’s Pathways Training Program, created in 2015, included a test at the end called the Pathways Graduation Assessment…”Walmart terminated employees with disabilities across the U.S., including two in Arkansas, who failed the test after three attempts even though the employees satisfactorily performed their jobs,” the agency said.” Read more

 

Lowe’s CEO Marvin Ellison Presents at Goldman Sachs 30th Annual Global Retailing Conference at Seeking Alpha. Transcript/Subs. required

 

Home Depot Management Presents at Goldman Sachs 30th Annual Global Retailing Conference at Seeking Alpha. Transcript/Subs. required

 

At Johnson & Johnson, a New Look but Old Hurdles by Peter Loftus at WSJ. “The rebranding is designed to reflect the focus on innovation in medicine and surgery, and put some distance between J&J and the consumer brands that most people have associated with the company. Its new logo uses plain red print letters to spell out Johnson & Johnson and drops the memorable cursive penmanship that was modeled after the signature of a co-founder.” WSJ subs.