Breaking the bank: The rate of inflation may be decreasing in some areas, but prices themselves are still rising in many cases, as is consumer skepticism and fatigue. Altogether, according to new research, shoppers don’t feel they’re getting the value they once did — a point that’s left many feeling angry and frustrated. The Wall Street Journal has a graphic here that breaks down prices on several key products — both from 2020 and the comparable prices today. It’s not a fun graph. The average cost of paper towels in 2020 was $5.76, now it’s $8.22. Deodorant used to cost…
Judge rules in favor of Safeway workers who confronted shoplifters. A longtime Safeway employee in San Mateo, Calif., who was fired last year after intervening to prevent a shoplifting attempt, did not act inappropriately and is therefore eligible to collect unemployment benefits, a judge in the state’s Employment and Development Department has ruled. Antoinette Baez and another employee confronted a shoplifter who was attempting to leave the store with $500 worth of groceries after failing to pay at a self-checkout terminal, according to local reports. Baez, who had worked at the store for 22 years, was fired after the company…
Dollar Tree on Wednesday said it plans to close 1,000 stores, including 600 Family Dollar locations that are slated to close in the first half of fiscal 2024.
The planned closures resulted in fourth-quarter charges totaling more than $2 billion, the company said in reporting results for fiscal 2023.
Related: Dollar Tree expands duties of chief operating officer
The company, which was formed through the merger of Dollar Tree and Family Dollar in 2015, had previously announced plans to undertake a review of its store portfolio. In addition to the 600 Family Dollar stores slated to close in the coming…
Sobeys is focusing sharply on product pricing, but Canadian consumers have remained stubbornly cautious, the company’s parent company said in its third-quarter earnings call with analysts on Thursday.
“It will take some time for consumer spending to normalize,” said Matt Reindel, chief financial officer, Empire Co., who cited ongoing inflationary price pressures on other consumer expenses, such as household items.
Related: Walmart, Sobeys, and Metro initiate reusable container pilot in Ottawa
The Stellarton, Nova Scotia-based company also said that although many of its suppliers have slowly shifted back toward a normal cadence of occasional, minimal price increases, some suppliers of…