NEW YORK — The nation’s largest retailers have announced plans to increase payrolls as they gear up for the holiday season. Walmart intends to add 20,000 employees to support its e-commerce business and to help with the holiday rush. Dollar General has announced plans to hire 50,000 employees in the coming weeks, with many of
How important, as a gauge of success in retailing, is volume? Not sales, in the traditional sense, but volume, as in annual volume or quarterly volume or weekly volume. To those who follow retail performance, it can be extremely important as a barometer of success. Certainly a retailer whose annual volume is counted in the
SEATTLE — Amazon said Thursday that it will fund full college tuition for its front-line employees as part of a $1.2 billion investment in expanded education and skills training benefits for its U.S. employees. Along with college tuition, the company’s Career Choice program will fund high school diplomas, GEDs, and English as a Second Language
SEATTLE — Amazon said Wednesday that it is hiring to fill more than 40,000 corporate and tech roles across the country, as well as tens of thousands of hourly positions in its operations network. As part of that effort, the company said it will hold “its biggest-ever training and recruiting event,” Amazon Career Day, on
SEATTLE — Amazon on Thursday reported net sales of $113.1 billion for the second quarter, an increase of 27% compared with the same period last year. That result fell short of analysts’ expectations, and the company’s stock fell in after-hours trading. Like many retailers, Amazon is facing tough comparisons with 2020, when the pandemic drove
In the wake of Amazon’s entry into the prescription drug business, competition in the sector is, predictably, beginning to escalate. The company, which aspires to be one of the nation’s leading pharmacy providers, and Walmart, which is already a top-tier provider, earlier this month rolled out initiatives designed to bolster their appeal to patients. With
SEATTLE — Amazon said its annual Prime Day event will be held on June 21 and June 22 this year, allowing Prime members to start their summer with special deals on products and such services as Prime Video, Amazon Music and Prime Gaming. The online retailer is also inviting consumers who aren’t Prime Members to
SEATTLE — Amazon has agreed to acquire the entertainment company MGM in an $8.45 billion deal. Amazon said that the storied film and television studio, with nearly a century of filmmaking history, will complement its own Amazon Studios unit, which is focused on producing TV show programming. Amazon said it will help preserve MGM’s heritage
Walmart has been America’s largest retailer since 1990, when it surpassed Sears to take the top spot. Retail historians have described Sears as the Amazon of its day, since it pioneered shopping from home long before there was an internet, distributing its “Big Book” catalog by mail to millions of rural Americans with limited access
SEATTLE — Amazon on Thursday introduced a new mental health benefit for U.S. employees and their families that includes access to free counseling sessions. “Easy and affordable access to mental health care has become increasingly important as we all continue to navigate different everyday challenges,” said Beth Galetti, Amazon senior vice president of People eXperience
SEATTLE — Amazon, a leading beneficiary of the surge in online shopping during the pandemic, on Thursday reported double-digit sales and earnings gains for the first quarter. Net sales increased 44% to $108.5 billion in the three months ended March 31, compared with $75.5 billion in the comparable period in 2020. The increase was 41%
SEATTLE — Amazon said Tuesday that it is expanding a service that delivers groceries into customers’ garages to every market where its regular grocery delivery service is available. Originally launched in five cities last November, the Key by Amazon In-Garage Grocery Delivery service will now be available in more than 5,000 U.S. cities and towns.