DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ 411 is going out of service for millions of Americans
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

Starting in January, AT&T customers with digital landlines won’t be able to dial 411 or 0 to reach an operator or get directory assistance. The human telephone operator, a job that came to be dominated by White women during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In 2021, there were fewer than 4,000 telephone operators, down from a peak of around 420,000 in the 1970s, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. “0” became universal for operator assistance and “411” was the number for directory assistance. By 2004, at the dawn of the smartphone age, 56,000 people were employed as telephone operators.

☆ McDonald’s CEO says layoffs are coming
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —McDonald’s is planning to cut some of its corporate staff, CEO Chris Kempczinski said in a memo to employees Friday. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal Friday, Kempczinski said that means company will announce layoffs. McDonald’s had around 200,000 corporate staff and workers at company-owned restaurants at the end of 2021, according to its latest annual report. More than two million people work at McDonald’s franchised locations around the world. Some of America’s largest companies have announced layoffs in recent weeks, including Amazon (AMZN), Salesforce (CRM) and Goldman Sachs (GS).

☆ ‘Maybe we cried too much’ over shoplifting, Walgreens executive says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

“Maybe we cried too much last year” about merchandise losses, Walgreens finance chief James Kehoe acknowledged Thursday on an earnings call. Kehoe’s message is a notable shift from comments about theft from Walgreens and other retailers like Walmart and Target over the last nearly three years. Companies and retail industry groups have tried to draw attention to shoplifting and “organized retail crime” rings smashing windows and grabbing aisles full of merchandise off shelves, urging lawmakers to crack down. One of the shuttered stores that closed had only seven reported shoplifting incidents in 2021 and a total of 23 since 2018, according to the newspaper. Overall, the five stores that closed had fewer than two recorded shoplifting incidents a month on average since 2018.

☆ Stitch Fix lays off 20% of workforce and its CEO steps down
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Parija Kavilanz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —Stitch Fix, facing economic turbulence, announced a double whammy on Thursday: CEO Elizabeth Spaulding is stepping down and the company planned to lay off 20% of its salaried staff. “We will be losing many talented team members from across the company and I am truly sorry,” Stitch Fix (SFIX)founder and former CEO Katrina Lake wrote in a blog post. Shares of Stitch Fix rose 6% on the news. Elizabeth Spaulding, CEO of Stitch Fix, announced she was stepping down on Thursday. But Stitch Fix has struggled as more shoppers return to in-person buying at stores and pull back on their online spending.

☆ Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe have tense exchange over Damar Hamlin response
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN —Skip Bayless spent a third straight day defending his controversial tweet about Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin, this time during a tense exchange Wednesday with his Fox Sports talk show co-host Shannon Sharpe. His absence followed co-host Bayless’ widely-criticized tweet questioning whether the NFL should have ended the Bills’ game Monday against the Cincinnati Bengals after Hamlin collapsed on the field. During the incident Monday, Bayless tweeted: “no doubt the NFL is considering postponing the rest of this game - but how? “Skip tweeted something, and although I disagreed with the tweet, and hopefully Skip would take it down. “I’ll admit up front that I’m still shook up what happened last night to Damar Hamlin.

☆ Victoria’s Secret brand CEO abruptly resigns
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

New York CNN Business —Victoria’s Secret brand CEO Amy Hauk has resigned less than a year into the job, the company said Tuesday. She will leave Victoria’s Secret in March. Martin Waters, the CEO of the brand’s parent company, Victoria’s Secret & Co., will take over as CEO of the brand. Shares of Victoria’s Secret dropped 8% on the news during after-hours trading Tuesday. But Victoria’s Secret sales have been uneven since the start of the pandemic.

☆ Inflation is killing the first dinner date
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-01 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Eighty-four percent of singles say they now prefer a casual first date, according to the survey. “Singles, more than ever, are open to free dates,” Rachel DeAlto, Match’s chief dating expert, said in an interview. Prior to the pandemic, around 8% of people were open to a video date before meeting in person, according to Match. “Less affluent people are being more careful.”People still want to date, he said, but they are making adjustments. “Why should I spend extra time and money just to go on a date that might end poorly?”

Holiday meals were also more expensive, and food prices outpaced inflation throughout the year. But while some items saw massive double-digit increases in 2022, others were a deal. In the year through November, several major electronics got cheaper: Smartphone prices plunged 23.4%, TV prices dropped 17% and computers got 4.4% less expensive. Elijah Nouvelage/AFP/Getty ImagesIn the year through November, food got 10.6% more expensive, outpacing overall inflation. Food away from home became 8.5% more expensive in 2022, with many restaurants hiking up menu prices in order to mitigate their own higher input costs.

☆ Don’t want that item? Returning it could cost you
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

It could cost you to return it online. Shoppers have become accustomed to free shipping and free returns in recent years, but Zara, H&M, J.Crew, Anthropologie, Abercrombie & Fitch and other chains are now slapping on fees of up to $7 to return items online. That’s a strain on retailers: For every $1 billion in sales, the average retailer incurs $165 million in merchandise returns, according to the NRF. Charging customers for online returns is just one of the ways retailers are trying to crack down on the cost of returns and prevent clothes from piling up in warehouses. Others are mulling a “returnless refund” policy, where they hand customers their money back and let them keep or donate items they don’t want.

Organizations: & $

☆ How personal injury lawyers took over your TV
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-25 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

New York CNN —Drive down any highway in America or turn on the TV for 10 minutes and you’ll probably see an advertisement for a personal injury lawyer. Call this lawyer to get compensated now,” a typical ad for a plaintiff’s personal injury attorney goes. Many personal injury lawyers advertise aggressively because of competition and the unusual business model many practices have adopted. John Morgan runs Morgan & Morgan, the largest personal injury law firm in America. Most personal injury lawyers work on a contingency fee, so they get paid only if they negotiate a settlement for a client or win a case at trial.

☆ NFL Sunday Ticket is leaving DirecTV and heading to YouTube TV
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

New York CNN —The popular NFL Sunday Ticket package is leaving DirectTV and heading to YouTube TV. The NFL announced the partnership with YouTube TV, owned by Google, on Thursday. Starting next season, NFL Sunday Ticket will be available as an add-on package on YouTube TV and standalone on YouTube Primetime Channels. In 2020, the NFL started streaming NFL Network and NFL RedZone to YouTube TV subscribers. The poaching of Sunday Ticket from DirecTV also represents a major boost to YouTube TV, one of the many online television services that seeks to replace cable and satellite television.

☆ Shoppers are still buying Nike sneakers
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: 1 min

How relevant is this ad to you? Video player was slow to load content Video content never loaded Ad froze or did not finish loading Video content did not start after ad Audio on ad was too loud Other issues

☆ How much should you tip your barista?
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-17 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

There’s also often an option to leave a custom tip or no tip at all. Although consumers are accustomed to tipping waiters, bartenders and other service workers, tipping a barista or cashier may be a new phenomenon for many shoppers. Others feel guilty if they don’t tip or embarrassed if their tip is stingy. One barista in Washington State said that he understands if a customer doesn’t tip for a drip coffee order. Nearly 60% of Uber customers never tip, while only about 1% always tip, a 2019 University of Chicago study found.

☆ 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.

☆ Kohl’s, Bed Bath & Beyond and Uniqlo add self-checkout
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Plus Uniqlo, Primark and other chains have started to roll out self-checkout machines at some of their stores. A Uniqlo self-checkout machine in Spain. This is a problem for self-checkout: customers aren’t used to removing security tags themselves, and most self-checkout machines aren’t equipped to do so. To get around this, some apparel stores are using wireless “radio frequency identification” security tags, known as RFID, on merchandise instead of hard tags. Stores such as Uniqlo have invested in new self-checkout machines that automatically recognize these tags, eliminating the need for customers to scan any products themselves or remove security tags.

☆ Family Dollar is a mess. It hopes lowering prices will help
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN Business —Family Dollar has lost ground in the dollar store race for years. “Family Dollar, from a pricing perspective, is in the best position in more than a decade.”The strategy appears to be working so far: Last quarter, foot traffic to Family Dollar stores increased for the first time in three years. Dollar Tree bought Family Dollar in 2014 for almost $9 billion, but these problems started before the acquisition, according to analysts. Some Wall Street investors have pressed Dollar Tree to sell Family Dollar. And new “H2” Family Dollar stores showcasing special Dollar Tree $1.25 merchandise sections and more freezers and refrigerators than traditional Family Dollar stores.

☆ American consumers got holiday shopping off to a strong start
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Shoppers returned to physical stores on Black Friday after avoiding much of in-person shopping the last two holidays due to Covid-19 concerns. Cyber Monday is the biggest online shopping day of the year, and this year set a new annual sales record. “It spurred online spending to levels that were higher than expected.”Retailers have dangled promotions to drive consumer demand and unload excess inventory. Consumers making more than $100,000 a year drove spending over the holiday weekend, Shay said on a call with reporters Tuesday. Overall, the National Retail Federation projects holiday sales to increase up to 8% from a year ago.

☆ Kroger and Albertsons want to create a grocery empire. The last supermarket mega-merger backfired
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

With the FTC’s blessing, Haggen, a small supermarket chain in the Northwest with just 18 locations, bought 146 of the former Albertsons and Safeway stores, including the one where Martinez worked. In an weird twist, Albertsons bought back dozens of the same stores it previously sold to Haggen in bankruptcy court — at a lower price. Now she worries Kroger will divest Ralphs as part of its merger with Albertsons in a repeat of the Haggen 2015 deal. To address antitrust concerns that the merger will stifle competition in local markets where they overlap, Kroger and Albertsons plan to divest stores. In 2015, Haggen bought a Vons grocery store (owned by Safeway at the time) in Carpinteria as part of the Albertsons and Safeway divestitures.

☆ Online Black Friday sales set a new record
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Jordan Valinsky | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Adobe, which tracks sales on retailer websites, said that this year’s Black Friday online sales were 2.3% higher compared to last year, with electronics, smart home equipment, toys and exercise equipment providing the biggest boost. Online shopping is expected to remain strong through Cyber Monday. The holiday shopping season looks very different now than it once did. Instead of doorbuster deals on Black Friday, many retailers began their holiday sales in early fall. By spreading out their holiday deals online, retailers have reduced the draw of Black Friday.

☆ JCPenney was once a shopping giant. Can it make a comeback?
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-27 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +14 min

People walk past a JCPenney store at the Queens Center Mall in New York in 2016. The Denver Post/Getty Images Shoppers hurry across an intersection in front of a JCPenney store in Denver in 1964. Anne Cusack/The Los Angeles Times/Getty Images Customers shop at a new JCPenney store in New York in 2009. Mary Altaffer/AP A customer goes down an escalator at a JCPenney store in Westminster, Colorado, in 2009. Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images JCPenney CEO Jill Soltau speaks during an interview in Fort Worth, Texas, in 2019.

☆ Shoppers expected to spend on Black Friday, despite inflation
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

The holiday shopping season looks much different than it once did. Instead of doorbuster deals on Black Friday, retailers began their holiday sales in early fall. Shoppers are once again expected to buy around key holidays like Black Friday and also buy later in the season, hoping to land deals. Overall, holiday sales are expected to grow this year, but at a slower pace than last year. Holiday sales will increase by up to 8% this year, the National Retail Federation projects.

☆ What's open and closed on Thanksgiving
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-24 | by ( Jennifer Korn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Many stores that were once open on Thanksgiving have changed policy since the pandemic, shuttering for the day before Black Friday sales. Here are the businesses and institutions that will be open and closed on Turkey Day. We’ll again be closed on Thanksgiving,” Walmart (WMT) US CEO John Furner said in an October interview on NBC. Costco (COST), Home Depot (HD), Nordstrom (JWN), Publix, Sam’s Club, Trader Joe’s and others have been closed on Thanksgiving for many years. As for retail pharmacies on Thanksgiving Day, CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid will be open with varying hours.

☆ Surprise: Dollar Tree’s $1.25 price strategy is actually working
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Other companies have also raised prices, so Dollar Tree has been shielded from major customer blowback. Sales at Dollar Tree stores increased 8.6% last quarter compared to a year ago, the company, which also owns Family Dollar, said Tuesday. “Our transition to the $1.25 price point has enabled our merchants to greatly enhance value,” Dollar Tree CEO Michael Witynski said on a call with analysts Tuesday. Dollar Tree has since brought back some of these items at $1.25 and expanded its offerings of meat, pizza, breakfasts and other consumable items. Dollar Tree is also adding more $3 and $5 items to stores, building on a previous strategy.

Jell-O GirlEarly Jell-O advertising depicted women as inept, needing the help of a simple recipe like Jell-O. Jell-O released flavors such as seasoned tomato, celery, mixed vegetable and Italian salad, and Jell-O salads were a colorful way to use leftovers in side dishes. In 1955, the company introduced the slogan “A Jell-O salad makes the meal.”“The Jell-O salad really hits the American sensibility and palate perfectly. Constance Bannister Corp/Getty ImagesBut as more Americans traveled and global cuisines entered the mainstream, the simplicity of Jell-O salads became a downside. “Upscale becomes the new mainstream and Jell-O salads moves into a niche,” Shapiro said.

☆ Shoppers are pulling back at Macy’s and Kohl’s
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

That’s squeezing Macy’s, Kohl’s, Target and other chains. Macy’s (M) sales dropped 3.1% last quarter from a year ago, while Kohl’s (KSS) tanked 6.9%. “Consumers are showing increasing signs of stress and pulling back from discretionary purchases,” Target CEO Brian Cornell said on an earnings call. Although Macy’s own store sales fell 4.4% last quarter, Bloomingdale’s sales grew 5.3% and Bluemercury’s increased 14%. Macy’s stock gained 12% Thursday as the results exceeded analysts’ forecasts.

Search resuls for: "Meyersohn"

25 mentions found