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☆ Fact Check-Video doesn’t show a ransacked Walmart in April 2023 in Fairfield, California
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

A video showing a ransacked supermarket with an alarm blaring in the background dates to at least 2020 and contrary to online claims, it does not show an April 2023 incident in Fairfield, California. “Fairfield, California Walmart...,” reads a tweet sharing the video (here) (archive.is/YcqlK). Walmart Media Relations senior manager Robert Arrieta told Reuters in an email that the incident in the video did not happen at a Fairfield, CA store. The Fairfield, CA police said in an April 20, 2023 tweet that no such incident took place in Fairfield (here). Video of ransacked supermarket dates to at least 2020 and was not filmed at a Walmart store in Fairfield, CA in 2023.

☆ Climate-Disclosure Rules Are Coming. Here’s How Companies Are Adapting.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Dieter Holger | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +5 min

International jurisdictions and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission are expected to finalize rules by this summer that will require public companies to report their greenhouse-gas emissions. Direct suppliers are known as tier 1 with that number increasing the deeper you go down the supply chain. Partnerships with suppliers: Large companies are working with small suppliers to overcome hurdles to accessing renewable power supplies, a relatively straightforward way to cut emissions. In October, it said its first group was five companies, including Amy’s Kitchen Inc., Levi Strauss & Co. and J.M. Targets for lower-emission alternatives: Nestlé SA is paying a premium to farmers in its supply chain that cut emissions by following regenerative farming practices.

☆ What Walmart’s pullback from Chicago says about Corporate America’s limits
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-15 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

New York CNN —A line of Chicago mayors heavily courted Walmart over the last two decades, brushing aside community protests. Chains like Dollar General and Family Dollar are expanding in low-income areas, but they don’t sell fresh groceries. Walmart is closing neighborhood markets around the country, and three of the four stores closing in Chicago fall into that category. In Chicago, Walmart is closing in both low-income and high-income areas, a sign that it’s struggling across the city. But it’s the stores in low-income areas that will feel the loss most.

☆ Walmart’s US chief marketing officer stepping down as retailer warns of tough year
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-15 | by ( Ramishah Maruf | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN —Walmart’s chief merchandising officer for its US operations is stepping down from the job as the retailer faces a tougher year ahead, an internal memo shared to US associates Friday said. In a memo viewed by CNN Business, Walmart U.S. CEO John Furner said Redfield wants to spend more time with his family. Redfield held his position at the retailer for a little more than a year, beginning in January 2022. Its strong holiday sales were fueled by groceries. “There are merchants, and then there’s our Chief Merchandising Officer Charles Redfield,” CEO John Furner said in a memo viewed by CNN Business.

☆ Why Walmart is closing half its stores in Chicago
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Walmart announced Tuesday that next week it will close four poor-performing stores out of the eight it operates in Chicago. Now, it's closing four Chicago stores. Walmart said its remaining four Chicago stores “continue to face the same business difficulties,” but it believes closing these four will give the others the best chance of staying open. There were fears that Walmart and other businesses would leave Chicago, but Walmart pledged to stay and invest in the city. Some retailers have also cited higher levels of theft and other crime in their city stores.

☆ Walmart Sues Credit-Card Partner Capital One
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-07 | by ( Annamaria Andriotis | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Walmart says Capital One hasn’t provided the customer service it is obligated to offer under a credit-card partnership—a claim Capital One disputes. Walmart Inc. is suing Capital One Financial Corp., seeking to terminate the companies’ credit-card partnership. Walmart’s lawsuit, which was filed this week, alleges that Capital One didn’t meet certain terms of the card partnership contract. The case was filed in the Southern District of New York.

☆ Walmart’s Supply-Chain Strategy: Better, Not Bigger
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Jinjoo Lee | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Walmart has set a goal of moving 55% of fulfillment-center volume through automated facilities. Walmart is going all in on its supply chain. The retailer, in its two-day investment community meeting that concluded Wednesday, reiterated its target to grow sales by about 4% annually over the next three to five years and to grow operating income by more than that. Chief Financial Officer John Rainey said on Wednesday that the company sees a path for operating-income growth to be markedly higher than revenue growth. The bullish message seems to have gotten through to investors: Walmart shares gained about 1.4% after the company’s presentation.

☆ Walmart CEO Plans to Stay in Role at Least Three More Years
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Sarah Nassauer | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

With Doug McMillon, Walmart’s 56-year-old CEO, planning to stay in the role, the company has more time to name a successor. Walmart Inc. Chief Executive Doug McMillon plans to helm the country’s largest retailer for at least three more years as the company continues work to identify a successor, according to people familiar with the matter. Mr. McMillon, 56, a Walmart lifer who has held the job since 2014, is the company’s fourth CEO since founder Sam Walton . His plans to stay in the role for more than a decade will extend the company’s timeline for finding its next leader, the people said.

☆ The US dollar is at a crossroads
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

New York CNN —Wall Street investors are reaching for their neck braces in preparation for yet another volatile swing in stock markets: A surging US dollar. What’s happening: The US dollar “finds itself at a significant crossroads yet again,” said Krosby. Don’t forget the debt ceiling: Another significant threat to the dollar is looming in Congress — the ongoing debt ceiling fight. “It would certainly undermine the role of the dollar as a reserve currency that is used in transactions all over the world. Initial claims have come in lower than expected in recent weeks and remain well below their pre-pandemic levels.

☆ Elizabeth Holmes wants to delay her 11-year prison sentence
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Jordan Valinsky | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN —Elizabeth Holmes, the former CEO of Theranos convicted of defrauding investors, is seeking to delay the start of her 11-year prison sentence because she has “two very young children” to be with. The court filing last week represents the first public acknowledgment that Holmes gave has given birth to her second child. Her lawyers laid out several reasons to delay the prison sentence pending an appeal of her conviction, arguing that she’s not a flight risk or a danger to the community. Last year, Holmes was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison for defrauding investors while running the failed blood testing startup Theranos. Instead, Theranos was relying on third-party manufactured devices from traditional blood testing companies.

☆ Sam’s Club Adding Distribution Centers to Speed Up Online Fulfillment
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Liz Young | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +4 min

Sam’s Club is expanding its supply-chain network as it looks to build on recent e-commerce sales growth by speeding up order fulfillment while cutting shipping costs. Sam’s Club said its plan is to shrink the average distance between its supply-chain facilities and its stores and members. Sam’s Club said it is designing its new stores to have more space for curbside pickup and delivery orders. The first new Sam’s Club fulfillment center is expected to open near Atlanta in the third quarter of this year. Mr. Godsey said Sam’s Club will employ the same number of people it would have without automation so it can handle more volume.

☆ Walmart: Watch Your Back, Amazon
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Jinjoo Lee | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

U.S. e-commerce sales at Walmart rose 17% last quarter from a year earlier. For the past five years, Walmart sacrificed margins to grow its e-commerce and new Amazon -like lines of business. This year could be the inflection point where that pays off. The retail giant on Tuesday reported that Walmart’s U.S. comparable-store sales rose 8.3% in its quarter ended Jan. 27 compared with a year earlier—healthier than the 4.2% that analysts polled by Visible Alpha were expecting. Net income for the company overall increased 76% to $6.3 billion, blowing past Wall Street’s estimates of 13% growth.

☆ Walmart expects a slowdown this year
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —Walmart had a strong holiday shopping season, but the year ahead will be more challenging for America’s largest retailer. Walmart (WMT) forecast slower sales and profit growth, disappointing investors and sending its stock down during morning trading Tuesday. Government inflation data shows that grocery prices have increased 11.3% over the last year, and more shoppers are turning to discount chains like Walmart to save money. Sales were slower for traditional holiday products like toys, electronics and clothing, a sign that some consumers were cautious on discretionary spending. Holiday sales were sluggish for many retailers, and the industry is expected to have a weaker 2023.

☆ Walmart’s ho-hum is the new fabulous
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Jennifer Saba | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

NEW YORK, Feb 21 (Reuters Breakingviews) - At Walmart (WMT.N), boring is the new fabulous. But Walmart benefits from being big, established, and, importantly, profitable, and the latter can’t be said for Amazon.com’s (AMZN.O) retail business. As the shine comes off of technology companies, Walmart’s failures are an afterthought. Walmart’s commitment to keeping prices low is reflected in its operating margins that currently hover at a slim 3%. Walmart’s enterprise value to this year’s EBITDA, at 12 times, is a hair more than Amazon’s.

☆ Walmart to Close Three Tech Hubs, Tells Tech Staff to Return to Offices
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Sarah Nassauer | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Walmart Inc. plans to close three of its U.S. technology hubs and require hundreds of workers to relocate to keep their jobs, according to a memo reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The retailer will also begin to require all its technology workers to come into the office at least two days a week. The retail behemoth will close offices that house technology staff in Austin, Texas; Carlsbad, Calif.; and Portland, Ore., according to a memo to staff last week from Suresh Kumar , Walmart’s global chief technology officer.

☆ Walmart to Raise Starting Hourly Wages to $14 From $12
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Sarah Nassauer | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A Walmart employee stocks shelves in Secaucus, N.J. The company’s recent moves have raised its average hourly pay to over $17.50. Walmart Inc. said it is raising wages for its U.S. hourly workers as the country’s largest private employer continues to fight to attract staff in a tight labor market for front-line workers. Starting next month, Walmart’s U.S. workers in stores and warehouses will earn a starting wage of at least $14 an hour, up from $12, the company said in a memo to staff Tuesday. Rivals, including Amazon.com Inc. and Target Corp., have a $15-an-hour minimum wage, while Costco Wholesale Corp.’s minimum is even higher.

Walmart said Tuesday it would raise the average hourly wage of its associates to more than $17.50 an hour — up from about $17 an hour. A Walmart representative also told CNBC Tuesday that its overall minimum wage would climb to $14 an hour, a roughly 17% jump for workers who stock shelves and serve customers. The range of salaries for store employees will also climb to between $14 and $19 an hour, from $12 and $18 an hour. About 340,000 store employees will get a raise, representing 21% of Walmart’s 1.6 million U.S. employees. "The labor market for most workers cooled somewhat over 2022, but it’s still hot," he said.

☆ Taylor Swift ticket sales debacle manages to unite bitter rivals
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Some people may even find a kind of beauty in the way the system was designed to keep special interests in check. “To have a strong capitalist system, you have to have competition,” said Senator Amy Klobuchar, who called the hearing. “You can’t have too much consolidation — something that, unfortunately for this country, as an ode to Taylor Swift, I will say, we know all too well.”(Nice one, Ames.) ICYMI, tickets for Swift’s Eras Tour, which begins in March, went up for pre-sale on Ticketmaster in mid-November. But the bigger question of whether Live Nation is a monopoly is up to the Department of Justice.

☆ Walmart is raising its minimum wage to $14 an hour
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

In many areas of the country, particularly southern states that have not adopted higher wage laws, Walmart’s starting wage often serves as the local minimum wage. Amazon (AMZN) and Target (TGT) have a $15 minimum wage, while Costco (COST) starts at $17 an hour. Walmart is trying to keep pace with rivals as well as cities and states that have been raising their minimum wages. The federal minimum wage has been $7.25 an hour since 2009. Washington State has the highest minimum wage in the country at $15.74.

☆ Walmart bans single-use bags in more stores
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

New York CNN —Walmart will eliminate single-use paper and plastic carryout bags at the register from stores in New York, Connecticut and Colorado this month. The company previously stopped giving out single-use plastic bags in New York and Connecticut and in some areas in Colorado. Plastic-bag bans reduce the number of these bags in stores and encourage customers to bring reusable bags or pay a small fee for paper bags. In New Jersey, a ban on single-use plastic and paper bags has meant grocery delivery services have switched to heavy-duty bags. Reusable bags — cloth totes or thicker, more durable plastic bags — aren’t a perfect solution, either, unless they are actually reused.

☆ 50 states sign up for Walmart’s opioid settlement framework
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Jordan Valinsky | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —Walmart said it has reached settlement agreements with all 50 US states as part of a $3.1 billion nationwide opioid settlement announced last month. In November, the retailer announced a settlement from multiple states’ attorneys general that accused the company of failing to regulate opioid prescriptions contributing to the nationwide opioid crisis. Those two chains have tentatively agreed to pay a combined $10 billion to settle lawsuits brought by states and local governments alleging the retailers mishandled prescriptions of opioid painkillers. US states, cities and counties have filed more than 3,000 lawsuits against opioid manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies, accusing them of downplaying the addiction risk and failing to stop pills from being diverted for illegal use. – CNN’s Shawn Nottingham and Kristina Sgueglia contributed to this report.

☆ Blockchain Fails to Gain Traction in the Enterprise
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Isabelle Bousquette | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +7 min

Newsletter Sign-up WSJ | CIO Journal The Morning Download delivers daily insights and news on business technology from the CIO Journal team. Some companies say they haven’t found a compelling enough reason to use it. Many didn’t have digital record-keeping systems and had to make large upfront investments before they could start using blockchain, Walmart said. Walmart is using blockchain to track leafy greens and green bell peppers. Earlier this year, the state of Jharkhand in eastern India began using blockchain to track seed distributions to farmers.

☆ Walmart CEO: Inflation on toys, clothing and sports equipment is easing
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

New York CNN Business —Finally, shoppers are getting some good news about prices: Inflation is falling on discretionary merchandise just in time for the holidays, Walmart chief Doug McMillon said Tuesday. “In toys, sporting goods, apparel, categories like that, prices have come down more aggressively,” McMillon said in an interview on CNBC. Sporting goods were up 3%, while apparel was up 4.1%. McMillon said budget-conscious customers were most pressured by inflation, but other shoppers “have money to spend.”Kroger (KR)also said last week that food inflation was easing. “If you look at in our fresh departments, clearly, inflation is slowing down in many categories,” Kroger chief Rodney McMullen said on a call with analysts.

☆ Some Retailers Are Learning to Love Bulked-Up Inventories
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Liz Young | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

Discount retailers Burlington Stores Inc. and TJX Cos. are among those happy to stock up as other merchants look to off-load goods. “Last year, our store inventories were just too lean going into the spring,” Mr. O’Sullivan said on a Nov. 22 call with analysts. The overall retail sector’s ratio of inventories to sales, a measure of how much companies have in stock compared with what they sell, remains tight by historical standards. The ratio for inventories to sales at those stores was 1.54 in September, up sharply from 1.39 in September 2019, according to Census Bureau figures. The company reported inventories rose 44% in the latest quarter compared with the same period a year earlier.

☆ Oracle CIO Jae Evans on Reshaping the Company’s IT Department
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Belle Lin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +5 min

Jae Evans joined Oracle Corp. as its chief information officer in April 2020, just as the company was navigating myriad uncertainties and office closures due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Newsletter Sign-up WSJ | CIO Journal The Morning Download delivers daily insights and news on business technology from the CIO Journal team. PREVIEWMs. Evans reports to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Executive Vice President Clay Magouyrk. What does your own internal cloud transformation look like? Integrating the shadow teams was addressed by developing common practices and tools including the [Oracle cloud] operations and security [standard], creating measurable [key performance indicators] and applying a “you build it you own it” mind-set.

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