To clarify;
Consumer Reports investigation found that Kroger's "alternative profit" business-which heavily features its "precision marketing" division (84.51)-actually accounts for more than 35% of the company's net income.
Mr. Hawley simplified this metric to 33% (a third) of its net income
Wendy’s, the burger chain that asked “Where’s the beef?” and brought the Baconator to burger lovers worldwide, is getting grilled in its returns.
The chain, which boasts a market cap of $1.62 billion, is losing customers, closing down stores, and seeing consecutive declining sales—so much so that billionaire activist investor Nelson Peltz may be preparing to take Wendy’s private as it struggles to get customers through the door.
“Traffic is down, our value proposition has slipped, and franchisee economics are under pressure,” Wendy’s CEO Bob Wright told investors on Wendy’s latest earnings call. “We can’t just do what we’ve always done better. We do have to innovate.”
Peltz’s Trian Fund Management has assembled a consortium that could potentially submit an offer to take Wendy’s private in the coming weeks, according to reports from the Financial Times and Reuters. The group is expected to include Abu Dhabi-based BlueFive Capital and Flynn Group, one of the world’s largest restaurant franchise operators and a major Wendy’s franchisee.
Peltz has been preparing for a potential takeover as early as February, when Trian said in a regulatory filing that it believed Wendy’s stock was “undervalued” and disclosed the fund was reaching out to possible co-investors about strategic options, including taking the company private. Peltz personally owns roughly a 16.24% stake in Wendy’s while Trian holds roughly 7.85%, which, at over 24% combined, make up Wendy’s largest shareholder.
Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]: https://fortune.com/2026/08/19/wendys-nelson-peltz-take-private-customers/?utm_source=reddit/
One of the more interesting threads from recent earnings calls: companies are handling tariff refunds very differently, and the amounts involved are substantial.
The refunds stem from a February Supreme Court ruling that forced Customs and Border Protection to start returning duties collected under a since-struck-down law. That money is now showing up on the books of big companies like Home Depot, Amazon, and Walmart, each with its own approach.
The retailer collected $730 million in IEEPA tariff refunds in a single quarter, arriving in a lump sum near the end of June. CFO Richard McPhail said on Tuesday’s Q2 call that $685 million of that related to inventory already sold, cutting cost of goods sold immediately and producing a 145 basis point gross margin benefit. The remaining $45 million is still sitting in inventory and will flow through as that inventory sells.
That 145-basis-point benefit got trimmed by 60 basis points of unplanned cost inflation, leaving 85 basis points. A separate 60-basis-point drag from acquisition-related mix brought the net year-over-year gross margin improvement down to 25 basis points.
Billy Bastek, EVP of merchandising, pointed to resin, metals, fuel and energy costs that weren’t in Home Depot’s original 2026 plan, plus a shifting trade landscape: the prior tariff regime expired in July and was replaced by a new Section 301 regime targeting imports tied to forced labor. Home Depot folded the refund into its reaffirmed outlook and is using it defensively, to absorb cost inflation rather than cut prices.
The retailer beat expectations in Q2 as sales and comparable-store growth picked up, but cautious consumers and rising costs kept the recovery uneven.
Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]: https://fortune.com/2026/08/19/home-depot-730-million-tariff-refund-largely-offset-rising-costs-cfo/?utm_source=reddit/
Egg prices have finally stopped punishing American shoppers. A dozen averaged $2.19 in July, down nearly 26% from a year earlier as flocks recovered from avian flu. Now nearly 19 million eggs are carrying a different kind of problem—and the sell-by dates on some of them run through today.
The problem began in July, when Midwest Poultry Services voluntarily recalled white shell and brown cage-free eggs over potential salmonella enteritidis contamination.
The eggs were produced at farms in Texas between June 6 and July 3 and carry sell-by or best-by dates between July 20 and Aug. 17. They were sold under the Kroger, Simple Truth, Brookshire’s, Country Morning and Cal-Maine Sunups brands.
Then on Aug. 12, the Food and Drug Administration classified the recall under its highest-risk category after the eggs were linked to a salmonella outbreak that sickened at least 98 people and hospitalized 26.
The FDA said the Class I designation followed its assessment of the risk to the public and “should not be seen as an expansion or change to a firm’s voluntary public warning.”
Midwest Poultry Services could not immediately be reached for comment. Emily Metz, president and CEO of the American Egg Board, previously stressed that the classification does not represent a new recall. “What you’re seeing in the news today is not a new recall,” she said in a statement provided to the New York Times, adding that the company’s voluntary recall “is already complete.”
Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]: https://fortune.com/2026/08/17/egg-recall-salmonella-outbreak-fda-midwest-poultry/?utm_source=reddit/
A mall owner used to make money by keeping the malls full.
Real estate groups and venture capital took over.
And now, it pays more to keep the malls empty.
#malls #economics #politics #retail #taxlaw
Donnica and Ro Nita discussed Buc-ee's suing Beaver's Mini Mart, a local shop in Beavercreek that has operated for over two decades. Buc-ee's claims trademark infringement, but using legal money to target a neighborhood corner store is part of a broader corporate playbook. Whether it's Walmart or massive travel centers, big chains move into new markets and immediately go after long-standing local businesses to monopolize the area. Crushing small family shops isn't "healthy competition"—it's aggressive corporate legal bullying.
Is this legal strategy fair game for corporate expansion, or does it cross the line?
McDonald’s has named a new president, Skye Anderson, to lead its mammoth but sluggish U.S. business after its bet on cheaper items enticed fewer cash-strapped Americans than expected, even as consumers grapple with an affordability crisis.
The company said on Tuesday that sales at established U.S. restaurants rose only 0.8% in the second quarter, the slowest pace since early 2025 and below Wall Street expectations. McDonald’s has trotted out more offerings for its price-sensitive diners, such as a $4 breakfast, and more items for under $3 as high gas and grocery prices leave millions of Americans with less discretionary income. Yet its efforts to spotlight its comparatively inexpensive menu items fell short, with fewer people visiting McDonald’s U.S. restaurants.
McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski said company strategy was sound but that the chain had made unforced errors. Those included too many new product launches at once, overwhelming many U.S. restaurants, slowing service, and annoying customers. What’s more, he said, the marketing for so many simultaneous initiatives made it hard to “break through” to customers with a clear message about value.
“We don’t have a strategy problem. We simply didn’t execute at the level we needed to in the second quarter,” the CEO told analysts on a conference call.
To help remedy that, McDonald’s said it had appointed Anderson as the new head of its biggest market and touted the 26-year company veteran’s operational prowess and business acumen.
“She’s a proven change agent who can act with urgency to mobilize our system,” Kempczinski said, praising her for “being a hands-on leader who has demonstrated strong business judgment and operational discipline.”
Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]: https://fortune.com/2026/08/04/mcdonalds-ceo-skye-anderson-us-market-president/?utm_source=reddit/
Article fails to mention how Prime Day was moved to June and other retailers like Walmart and Target followed.
Ben Cohen, one half of the eponymous duo behind Ben & Jerry’s, has spent almost five decades arguing that businesses can make a profit and do good at the same time. Lately, he spends most of his time arguing that the brand carrying his own name has abandoned that idea entirely under its new ownership.
Cohen accuses the Magnum Ice Cream Co., the owner of Ben & Jerry’s, which was formed from a demerger with Unilever in 2025, of gutting the company’s independent board and starving its philanthropic arm. He’s launched a public campaign called “Free Ben & Jerry’s” that is pushing Magnum to sell the brand to more socially minded investors instead. It has so far gathered more than 200,000 signatures.
“We’re trying to keep Ben & Jerry’s soul alive,” Cohen tells Fortune. He claims Magnum is the wrong steward and risks damaging the brand’s long-term value. “They ain’t got no soul,” he adds. “The only mission these guys have is profit.”
It’s a characteristically bold gambit for the 75-year-old who has been arrested for civil disobedience multiple times—including at a recent Senate hearing—and speaks openly about his views on U.S. foreign policy and the use of economic and military leverage, positions he acknowledges most public companies steer clear of entirely.
Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]: https://fortune.com/2026/08/07/they-aint-got-no-soul-how-ben-jerrys-co-founder-became-his-own-companys-biggest-critic/?utm_source=reddit/
When James Daunt was named CEO of Barnes & Noble in 2019, he quickly began making the big-box store more like local indie bookstores.
Barnes & Noble had just been taken private by Elliott Advisors for $683 million after sales declines driven by formulaic stores that had lost their charm. The hedge fund installed Daunt, a Brit, as CEO, based on his track record reviving Elliott-owned Waterstones, a large British bookseller, and his experience as owner of the beloved 10-store Daunt Books in London.
His plan to turn around Barnes & Noble hinged on infusing the retailer’s more than 700 stores with some of the aura of his namesake chain, whose locations are treated as hallowed ground by many book lovers for their browsing‑friendly displays and oak‑paneled galleries.
“There are universal factors that make a great bookstore, and it doesn’t matter whether it’s a huge chain store or a small independent,” Daunt told Fortune on a new episode of the Behind the Business series.
Core to any great bookstore is a welcoming environment for readers with appealing displays, an interesting—even quirky—array of books, and enthusiastic, knowledgeable workers who are eager to talk titles with customers. Early on, Daunt flagged that Barnes & Noble—like Waterstones before it—suffered from uniformity that bored customers. In his view, stores needed far more independence to decide what inventory to carry and how to display it.
Read more [paywall removed for Redditors]: https://fortune.com/2026/08/03/barnes-noble-ceo-james-daunt-indie-bookstore-revive-big-box-chain/?utm_source=reddit/