Latest Retail and wholesale News

What goes into designing that popular teapot or water bottle? 2 top creators discuss the process

Jan. 30, 2025 08:47 AM EST

Ever wonder how some of the stuff we use every day came to be? I think about it sometimes when I’m at the stove with my favorite sauté pan, with its perfect trifecta of size, weight and performance. Or when I’m struggling with the badly designed zippers on my otherwise-swanky...

AP PHOTOS: Meat and greet: Historic London market counting down the years

Jan. 30, 2025 00:22 AM EST

LONDON (AP) — Norman Gregory is an institution within an institution. He’s been working at the historic Smithfield wholesale meat market in central London since 1961, witnessing first hand the rapid transformation of the capital over the decades. And he’s mainly seen it at...

'Remarkably poor judgment': Wall Street Journal takes a critical eye to start of Trump's 2nd term

Jan. 29, 2025 14:45 PM EST

Amid all of the enthusiasm in conservative media for President Donald Trump's first week back in office, the Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal has notably applied some brakes. The Journal has editorialized against Trump's pardons of Jan. 6 rioters, called presidential...

Starbucks reports better-than-expected quarterly sales as turnaround efforts begin

Jan. 28, 2025 18:57 PM EST

Starbucks on Tuesday reported better-than-expected sales in its fiscal first quarter as some of its turnaround efforts start to deliver results. The Seattle coffee giant said its revenue was flat at $9.4 billion for the 13-week period ending Dec. 29. That beat Wall Street's forecast...

US consumer confidence dips again to start the year, according to business group

Jan. 28, 2025 11:54 AM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumer confidence dipped for the second consecutive month in January, a business research group said Tuesday. The Conference Board reported that its consumer confidence index retreated this month to 104.1, from 109.5 in December. That is worse than the...

Workers at a Whole Foods Market in Philadelphia become the 1st to unionize

Jan. 27, 2025 22:16 PM EST

Workers at a Whole Foods Market in Pennsylvania voted to unionize on Monday, becoming the first group of employees to pull off a labor win at the Amazon-owned grocery store chain. Employees at the Philadelphia store cast 130 votes — or about 57% of the ballots cast — in favor of...

Screen breaks and the right desk setup offer relief from work-related eye strain

Jan. 23, 2025 07:59 AM EST

NEW YORK (AP) — The trouble started every day at around 3 p.m., after Cathy Higgins had spent five or six hours staring at an array of computer screens at her desk. Her university job overseeing research projects involved peering closely at numbers and details on contracts, applications and...

Starbucks' policy change flushes out a debate over public restroom access

Jan. 22, 2025 13:45 PM EST

Starbucks’ decision to restrict its restrooms to paying customers has flushed out a wider problem: a patchwork of restroom policies that has left Americans confused and divided over who gets to use the loo and when. Rules about restroom access in restaurants vary by state, city and...

Rosy December for small business sales, but restaurants are left out

Jan. 21, 2025 17:53 PM EST

NEW YORK (AP) — Small businesses had a merry December, as shoppers wrapped up their holiday shopping. That's according to the Fiserv Small Business Index. In the U.S., the seasonally adjusted index for December was 146, up 3 points from November. The figure is...

Legacy news on its heels as second Trump era begins, but not abandoning mission

Jan. 19, 2025 11:12 AM EST

NEW YORK (AP) — As Donald Trump prepares to assume the presidency for a second time, he faces a news establishment on its heels — but not flat on its back. Last year's presidential campaign suggested that many traditional outlets are not depended upon, or trusted, nearly as much...