The business news thread

[Rewind]

I will be expecting Business Insider to publish a story in 2022 detailing how Amazon Go stores have led to a dramatic rise in our nation's unemployment numbers.

Amazon wants to open 3,000 cashier-less grocery stores
Business Insider, Nov 13 2018

Amazon will reportedly open 3,000 more Amazon Go brick-and-mortar grocery stores within three years. The four stores that have opened so far are small and carry a limited amount of groceries and prepared foods but Amazon has a major advantage over small businesses — the company has a vast amount of data it collects from customers to determine what items to stock.

https://www.businessinsider.com/amaz...-stores-2018-9

[Rewind]

Bernie Sanders pressured Amazon into raising its hourly minimum wage to $15 -- but Amazon also eliminated bonuses and stock awards for hourly workers. With friends like Bernie, Amazon's workers don't need enemies. Now he's going after Walmart, which has a minimum wage of $11 an hour.

Bernie Sanders unveils Stop Walmart Act
CNN Business, Nov 15 2018 6:07 PM ET

Fresh off a campaign to get Amazon to raise its minimum wage, Senator Bernie Sanders is now shining his progressive spotlight on Walmart. Sanders today introduced a bill, titled the Stop Walmart Act, that would prevent large companies from buying back stock unless they pay all employees at least $15 an hour, allow workers to earn up to seven days of paid sick leave and limit CEO compensation to no more than 150 times the median pay of all staffers. Calling Walmart the poster child for corporate greed, Sanders noted that the company made $13 billion in profits last year and paid CEO Doug McMillon more than $22 million, or 1,188 times the pay of its typical worker, who earned $19,177.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/15/busin...age/index.html

[Rewind]

"Here comes the b..........ankruptcy." Did you think I was going to say "bride"?

David’s Bridal to file for bankruptcy

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/15/davi...ankruptcy.html

[Rewind]

Brett made a deal to start selling J.Crew clothing on Amazon but J.Crew chairman Millard Drexler disapproved and now Brett is gone. Some trivia for you: Mitchell Cinader co-founded Popular Merchandise, Inc. in 1947 in New York City. His son Arthur Cinader changed the company's name to J.Crew in 1983. He picked the name "Crew" because he enjoyed rowing and he picked the "J" simply because it sounded good next to "Crew."

J.Crew CEO James Brett steps down despite signs of a turnaround at the clothing chain

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...117-story.html

[Rewind]

Wait till they find out it's only Monopoly money and not United States currency.

Toys Я Us workers finally get severance pay: an average $660 each

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/20-mill...-r-us-workers/

[Rewind]

In order to satisfy the Justice Department's antitrust concerns and gain approval for the $52.4 billion purchase of 21st Century Fox, Disney, which owns ESPN, agreed to divest itself of the 22 regional Fox Sports networks -- and look who's interested:

Amazon bids for Disney’s 22 regional sports networks
CNBC, Nov 20 2018 11:48 AM

Amazon is bidding for all of the 22 regional sports TV networks that Disney acquired from 21st Century Fox. Amazon’s bid includes the New York-based YES Network, which is partly owned by Yankee Global Enterprises. Apollo Global Management, KKR, Blackstone, Sinclair Broadcast and Tegna are also making first-round bids for the regional networks. Fox, which was seen as a front-runner to reacquire the channels it recently sold to Disney, did not enter a first-round bid.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/20/amaz...urces-say.html

[Rewind]

The first Gap store opened in 1969 in San Francisco. In the 1970s, the chain's jingle was "Fall into The Gap." There are now more than 2,300 Gaps in the US but pretty soon there will be a much smaller number of stores to "fall into."

The Gap is looking to close hundreds of stores at malls 'quickly and aggressively'

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/21/gap-...ressively.html

[Rewind]

Making bad investments, misappropriating company assets for personal use and under-reporting his income by 50% -- and now he's been fired and presumably will have no income.

Nissan board votes to remove Carlos Ghosn as chairman

https://www.yahoo.com/news/nissan-bo...115800612.html

[Rewind]

Here is encouraging news for those of us who still enjoy going to a real bookstore and buying real books printed with real ink on real paper: Amazon and Kindle have not driven independent bookstores to extinction. In fact, sales are up more than 5% this year.

Small bookstores are booming after nearly being wiped out

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/small-b...ness-saturday/

[Rewind]

Here is today's Chinese language lesson: "Toy" is 玩具 (wánjù) and "giraffe" is 长颈鹿 (chángjinglù). Practice these words. They will come in handy when you go toy shopping in Asia.

Toys Я Us gears up for holiday sales — in Asia
Bankrupt in the US, the toy chain has 450 stores across Asia and is growing, as it finds smaller is better,

https://www.wsj.com/articles/toys-r-...sia-1543062604