#chain-retail-ban

#chain-retail-ban

China's exports have decelerated as the Iran war starts to affect global demand and supply chains, according to Gary Ng, a senior economist for Asia Pacific at French bank Natixis.

[I'm] lucky to get three cars a day. And most people don't even buy a thing.

Costco's inventory is limited to 3,500 to 4,000 items, significantly fewer than the 30,000 found in typical supermarkets, necessitating strict selection criteria for each SKU.

"Everything in today's e-commerce environment is being driven by increased intensity of the research phase and true generational divides during the current macroeconomic environment," said Jaysen Gillespie, VP of product marketing and analytics at RTB House.

He says he paid roughly $5 to his distributor to get the pack of Honey Bunches of Oats onto the shelf. But his much larger rivals, the big US supermarket chains, can sell that same box for around $5 - essentially, the price he has to pay wholesale. That dynamic makes it "impossible for us to compete."

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth took the unprecedented step of designating a U.S. firm-Anthropic-as a supply chain risk. Anthropic's crime? It refused to violate industry-wide protocols against using AI for mass surveillance or autonomous weapons. Hegseth's designation, which has until now been reserved for foreign firms, bars U.S. military contractors from doing business with the company.

With members sticking around for the excellent value proposition as well as the $1.50 hot dog combo, it's clear that Costco has pretty much perfected the in-store experience at this point. The 90% renewal rate might just be the floor as the firm opens new stores across the globe while doubling down on e-commerce, perhaps there's room to bump up that renewal rate further.

Companies enter new markets with momentum. Press coverage looks promising. Campaigns launch on schedule. Local teams are hired. Early dashboards suggest traction. Then progress slows. Customer interest plateaus. Partnerships take longer than expected. Internally, the conversation almost always turns to execution. Messaging must not be clear enough. The market probably needs more education. What I have learned is that this conclusion is usually wrong. What looks like market resistance is more often a signal that the brand is communicating from the wrong position.

Costco sells its products with very little markup, choosing instead to make most of its money from membership sales. This business model makes sense: The better deals it has, the more likely people are to want a membership. Memberships at Costco are booming. In the fiscal first quarter of 2026, overall memberships were up 5% year over year to 146 million. And its higher-priced executive memberships were up a stronger 9%.

The outlook for 2026 I'm watching 2026 with equal parts optimism and urgency. Optimism because consumer demand is still there. Retail sales have remained resilient in recent data. Urgency because the operating environment is only getting tighter. Coming out of FY2025, large retailers demonstrated resilience amid inflation pressure, shifting consumer behavior, and global supply-chain complexity. Walmart raised its outlook and leaned further into a model that blends physical stores, e-commerce scale, and execution discipline.

After spending a large part of 2025 with its back to the wall, Target is intent on turning things around. The retail giant is heading into 2026 led by a new CEO who has ambitious plans, driven by a sharp focus on three areas: style and design, elevated customer experience, and better use of technology to improve speed and efficiency through the business.