Bloomberg With millions of Americans still sheltering in place and cooking their own meals, the grocery industry has been one of the few bright spots in an otherwise battered US economy. Unless, that is, you are Whole Foods Market, the upscale chain acquired three years ago by Amazon.com Inc. Trips to Whole Foods in September were down 25% from a ...
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Amazon extends its festive sales to one month in India
Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc is extending its Diwali sales event to an entire month this year, hoping to outdo rival Walmart Inc‘s Flipkart in the race to unlock latent demand as India’s shoppers emerge from drawn-out pandemic lockdowns. Both Amazon and Flipkart are pulling out all the stops for the country’s most important shopping season, which starts in mid-October. But unlike ...
Read More »GIC, TPG to invest $1b in Ambani’s retail unit
Bloomberg Singapore’s GIC Pte and private-equity firm TPG will invest a combined $1 billion in Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s retail unit, taking total inflows into the business to about $4.4 billion. GIC will spend 55.1 billion rupees ($753 million) for a 1.22% stake in Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd, while US-based TPG will take 0.41% for 18.4 billion rupees, the Indian ...
Read More »Walmart’s UK retreat leaves Asda with its ‘old problems’
Bloomberg Walmart Inc’s 1999 acquisition of Asda looked set to disrupt the UK supermarket business, with the US retailer using its deep pockets to shake up entrenched players like Tesco Plc and J Sainsbury Plc. The purchase never quite lived up to the hype. Asda struggled to defend its market share against bigger rivals and the German discounters Aldi and ...
Read More »H&M unit fined for snooping on staff
Bloomberg A Hennes & Mauritz AB unit was fined $41.4 million by a German data protection watchdog after managers trampled on the private lives of staff, storing details ranging from workers’ religious beliefs to their medical history. “Unfortunately, we had an incident in a subsidiary in Germany that was reported to the data protection authority at the end of last ...
Read More »Amazon’s Prime Day to start on October 13
Bloomberg Amazon.com is about to test whether consumers who have taken to online shopping in huge numbers during the pandemic will spend even more for deals during the company’s Prime Day sales event. The largest online retailer will offer discounts for paying members of its speedy-shipping and video streaming service beginning on October 13. The two days of discounts come ...
Read More »LVMH countersues Tiffany over ‘buyout’
Bloomberg LVMH countersued Tiffany & Co weeks after pulling out of its $16 billion purchase of the iconic New York-based jeweller, saying the decision was driven by the French government’s request to delay the deal’s closing and Tiffany’s mismanagement during the pandemic. The maker of Louis Vuitton bags contends Tiffany’s business was devastated by the coronavirus outbreak and that provides ...
Read More »Used-clothing platform Poshmark files for IPO 
Bloomberg Poshmark Inc, an online resale marketplace for second-hand clothing, said it has filed confidentially for an initial public offering. The number of shares and the price range for the IPO haven’t been determined, Poshmark said in a statement. The Redwood City, California-based company had put off a potential IPO to focus on boosting sales and improving its execution, people ...
Read More »Neiman leaves bankruptcy with less debt to face turmoil
Bloomberg Neiman Marcus has officially come out of bankruptcy, a process that left the upscale department store with a lighter debt load and new owners to confront the same industry trends that led to its financial woes. The new Neiman Marcus Holding Company Inc emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, saying it had eliminated more than $4 billion of existing ...
Read More »Walmart to hire 20,000 workers to meet demand
Bloomberg Walmart Inc will recruit more than 20,000 workers ahead of the US holidays to prepare for an expected surge in online shopping amid the pandemic, its first large seasonal hiring in five years. The world’s biggest retailer is readying itself for a holiday e-commerce battle with Amazon.com Inc by bringing on more seasonal staff to handle online orders at ...
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