By Melissa Breyer April 4, 2019

Sometimes when I am in a large supermarket I do a little thought experiment that goes like this: I imagine all the food and products in the entire store removed from their packaging – what would we be left with? I then picture the two mountains; a smaller mountain of food and products that will mostly be consumed, and a much, much larger mountain of packaging trash, much of which will end up in the landfill and oceans. It's a good exercise for me because the vision always sends me straight to the bulk bins. (READ MORE)

By Jason Wingard (Contributor), Leadership Strategy Jul 26, 2019, 08:31am

Knowing that automation and other technologies will soon transform its work and workforce, Amazon recently announced it will invest $700 million to provide “upskilling training” for 100,000 of its employees between now and 2025.  The program, aimed at reaching a third of its U.S. workforce, will focus on high-growth areas such as healthcare, machine learning, manufacturing, robotics, computer science, and cloud computing. (READ MORE)

Updated Jul 29, 1:56 PM; Posted Jul 29, 12:11 PM Destiny, owned by Syracuse-based Pyramid Management Group, ranked sixth on the list from Chain Store Age, an industry publication. It came in just behind the Mall of America. (READ MORE)

By Karl W. Smith Bloomberg July 29, 2019 (Bloomberg Opinion) -- Last week U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin argued that Amazon has “destroyed the retail industry across the United States” and so the Department of Justice is “absolutely right” to investigate it. Both of those premises are dubious: The U.S. retail industry is changing but is very much alive, thank you — and rewriting the rules of antitrust law would hurt the American economy. (READ MORE)

Chance Miller - Jul. 27th 2019 11:19 am PT @ChanceHMiller

Back to school season is moving full steam ahead, with many universities and schools just a  month away from heading back to class. This day and age, its crucial to start the year off on the right foot tech-wise. Read on as we round-up some of the best back to school tech and accessories for the 2019-2020 school year. (READ MORE)

Abdo Riani Contributor Entrepreneurs

Studies show that the average age of entrepreneurs at the time they launched their ventures is 42 while the average age of those with the highest performing startups is 45. Experience and wisdom combined with personal savings are just a few of the reasons behind the success of entrepreneurs in this age group. (READ MORE)

By Daniel Kuhn Jul 27, 2019 at 01:00 UTC

Updated Jul 27, 2019 at 12:45 UTC

Online shopping app Lolli is on a growth tear, expanding off the web and into 900 retail locations.

Company CEO Alex Adelman announced the partnership with Albertson’s subsidiary Safeway in an interview with Yahoo! Finance on Thursday. The expansion enables users to order groceries, beauty products, or pharmacy items online at Safeway.com for pick-up.

“We saw a demand from users to earn bitcoin for every day expenses like food and pharmacy,” said Adelman, in an interview with CoinDesk. (READ MORE)

BENEDICT EVANS BUSINESS 7.26.19 @ 9AM

I SOMETIMES THINK that if you could look in the safe behind Jeff Bezos’ desk, instead of the sports almanac from Back to the Future you’d find an Encyclopedia of Retail, written in maybe 1985. There would be Post-It notes on every page, and every one of those notes would have been turned into a team and maybe a product. (READ MORE)

Post By: MATTHEW  JULY 23, 2019

Consider that global travel revenue, which includes duty-free sales at airports, has more than tripledsince 2000, rising to $69 billion in 2017.

Why?

• The rise of budget and low-cost airlines
• Two billion travelers flew in 2002; four billion flew in 2017
• Travelers average 56 minutes of “free time” before their flights 
• On average, 25 minutes of that time is spent shopping in duty-free stores [I find this hard to believe…how about you?]
• In the Asia-Pacific region, retails sales have averaged a 14% annual growth since 2002

Those statistics are frankly startling and are prompting big names to invest in their airport presence. (READ MORE)

POSTED 6:09 AM, JULY 22, 2019, BY MEGHAN MCMONIGLE AND RICH DEMURO

The gadget is called Activ5 and not only does it helps you work out, but it has sensors so you know if you’re actually getting stronger. The palm-sized gadget is powered by a single AAA battery and links up with your phone to lead you through 5-minute isometric workouts. (READ MORE)