- U.S. Home Sales on Track for Biggest Year in 15 Years “U.S. home sales rose in October as buyers continued to compete for a limited number of homes for sale. Existing-home sales increased 0.8% in October from the prior month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.34 million, the highest pace since January, the National Association of Realtors said Monday. October sales fell 5.8% from a year earlier. Existing-home sales are on track to surpass six million this year, which would be the strongest annual pace since 2006, said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist.” (The Wall Street Journal)
- Authentic Brands Raises $3.5 Billion, Pushes Back IPO “The company behind brands such as Brooks Brothers, Eddie Bauer and Sports Illustrated magazine plans to delay its initial public offering after getting a big new investment from two private-equity firms. Authentic Brands Group LLC, which develops and licenses its brands to retail operators, said Monday it sold stakes to CVC Capital Partners and HPS Investment Partners in a deal that values the company at $12.7 billion including debt.” (The Wall Street Journal)
- Is a Casual Dining Comeback in the Works? “The COVID-19 pandemic cast a dark cloud over the entire restaurant industry, but some segments have weathered the storm better than others. Despite the challenges of the last two years, many major casual-dining chains are reporting huge sales growth over 2020 as well as 2019, and they are experiencing some of the industry’s highest levels of customer satisfaction. According to Merchant Centric, a reputation management solution and aggregator of online guest feedback, casual-dining restaurants’ level of consumer satisfaction remained high at an average of 4.09 stars in the first half of 2021.” (Nation’s Restaurant News)
- How Online Shopping Is Polluting California’s Inland Empire “In California’s Inland Empire, dozens of mega-warehouses for Amazon, UPS and other companies are choking the cities with traffic and air pollution. Some argue that the jobs warehouses provide aren’t worth the cost, while others say it’s online shopping that’s the real problem.” (Los Angeles Times)
- Cities Are Not Only Tackling Covid, But its Pollution, Too “P.P.E. litter is fouling landscapes across the globe. Dirtied masks and gloves tumbleweed across city parks, streets and shores in Lima, Toronto, Hong Kong and beyond. Researchers in Nanjing, China, and La Jolla, Calif., recently calculated that 193 countries have generated more than 8 million tons of pandemic-related plastic waste, and the advocacy group OceansAsia estimated that as many as 1.5 billion face masks could wind up in the marine environment in a single year.” (The New York Times)
- Target Will Keep Stores Closed on Thanksgiving for Good “Target will no longer open its stores on Thanksgiving Day, making permanent a shift to the unofficial start of the holiday season that was suspended during the pandemic. Retailers last year were forced to turn what had become a weekend shopping blitz into an extended event with holiday sales beginning as early as October to limit the number of people in stores during the pandemic.” (CNBC)
- Work from Home Works Until You Need Time Off “How do we ‘take a day to stay home’ when we’re already doing everything from home?” (The Atlantic)
- Walmart Opens its First Drone Delivery ‘Hub’ Across Multiple Stores “Walmart is following up on a June investment it made into a drone technology and services company. The discount giant is partnering with DroneUp LLC to launch drone delivery operations at three stores in Northwest Arkansas. One store, located in Farmington, Ark, is currently offering drone delivery to eligible customers. The other two stores, in Rogers and Bentonville, Ark., are planned to launch in the coming months.” (Chain Store Age)
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