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Supply
Chain by the Numbers |
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- Feb. 29, 2024
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Macy's Shuttering Still more Stores; Nat Gas Prices have Collapsed; Walmart Reaches CO2 Goal Way Early; IKEA Convoy Freight Bill Mess |
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150 |
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| That’s how many stores Macy’s said it is going to close over the next couple of years. Macy's has yet to specify which stores will close, saying only that 50 will be shuttered this year and the rest by the end of 2026. CEO Tony Spring said these locations accounted for a quarter of the company's square footage but less than a tenth of its sales. But more broadly, the planned closures can be seen as a do-or-die strategy, coming on top of other store closures by the chain prior to this news. Macy’s of course is being threatened by the growth of on-line shopping, but also hit by a consumer market bifurcating into upscale demand and more lower price shoppers, leaving middle market chains like Macy’s in a lurch. |
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| That’s how many years early Walmart has reached its seemingly ambitious goal of eliminating 1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions in its supply chain, originally set to be completed by 2030. That according to the retail giant in a blog post last week. The program – named Project Gigaton - involved collaboration with suppliers to define concrete targets for reducing their emissions across energy consumption or agricultural practices. Vendors are now being asked to also report their complete operational emissions footprint to Walmart. |
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$1.59 |
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| That is the low price reached last week for natural gas, an inflation-adjusted 30-year low in the cost per thousand cubic feet. That’s of course great for some consumers and businesses in the utilities, chemicals and fertilizer sectors, which either use natural gas directly or as feedstocks for end products, but bad new for gas drillers, which are shutting in wells, canceling projects or selling themselves to rivals to avoid big losses. US gas firms last year cut drilling 22% to stem the gusher. But the gas keeps coming: Reuters says that the U.S. producers will pump 105 billion cubic feet per day of gas this year, up 2.5 billion cubic feet per day in the last year. |
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That’s about how many freight carriers have notified retailer IKEA of their intention to send freight bills directly to the company, trying to untangle a big mess after the company they sub-contracted to, freight broker Convoy, closed its doors recently. In fact, IKEA has just filed a lawsuit against Convoy, backer Hercules Capital and more 40 road transportation providers in a bid to stop them invoicing the giant home furnishings retailer, because it doesn’t know whom to pay. IKEA acknowledges it owes some half-million dollars for US trucking services, but because the supplier of those services, Convoy, has shut its doors, the retailer doesn’t know what it owes to whom. That according to a recent report on theLoadStar.com web site. Carriers, meanwhile, were prohibited contractually from sending Convoy’s customers, like IKEA, direct invoices. But those 42 carriers, many smaller or independents, are going to bill IKEA now anyway. There’s more to this story, but suffice it to say it’s a strange situation.
