Retail Theft, ORC & Violence Making National Headlines

Criminals Didn't Take a Holiday Break
Organized Retail Thefts Continue Over Thanksgiving Weekend

A Best Buy in Minneapolis is latest to be hit, as retailers seek federal legislation to make the online sale of stolen goods more difficult

A string of organized retail thefts continued over Thanksgiving weekend, with a Best Buy in Minneapolis becoming the latest victim of a nationwide wave.

Over the past two weeks, stores have been targeted by groups of people who smash windows, take merchandise and often resell stolen goods online through fencing networks, according to officials.

“Retailers across the country are seeing spikes in crime,” said a Best Buy company spokesman, who wouldn’t confirm additional details about the weekend theft.

On Tuesday, San Francisco district attorney Chesa Boudin announced felony charges against nine people for allegedly participating in a retail-theft spree that totaled more than $1 million in merchandise. The group of up to 40 people burglarized a Louis Vuitton store, a cannabis dispensary and other Union Square retailers.

Days earlier, there were similar burglaries of retail stores throughout the Bay Area, including a jewelry store in Hayward and a Lululemon in San Jose. Law-enforcement agencies from several California counties are working together to combat organized retail theft and break up networks that make this type of crime profitable.

Retailers are advocating for federal legislation that would make the online reselling of stolen goods more difficult.

“[The law would] materially reduce the incentive to commit the crimes in the first place,” the Best Buy spokesman said. wsj.com

Nationwide ORC Surge
Pandemic fueling surge in organized thefts at stores across the U.S.
Major retailers across the U.S. are facing a rash of organized shoplifting, with an estimated 80 thieves this month ransacking a Nordstrom store in California and more than a dozen people swiping merchandise from a Louis Vuitton store in suburban Chicago.

Multiple retailers and at least two states report an increase in mass thefts, while experts point to the COVID-19 pandemic as fueling the incidents.

"Retailers have always had shoplifting, but the concern now is there seems to be a surge in organized, gang-related theft," said Neil Saunders, an analyst and managing director at GlobalData Retail. "Shoplifting was very covert — you don't see it — but this is very blatant."

Electronics retailer Best Buy is hiring additional security personnel at some of its more vulnerable locations and also locking up valuable in-store merchandise to combat the rise in theft.

A problem that "hurts and scares people"

"Across retail, we are definitely seeing more and more, particularly, organized retail crime and incidence of shrink in our locations," Best Buy CEO Cori Sue Barry said during an earnings call on Tuesday. "This is a real issue that hurts and scares people."

The problem is also hurting Best Buy's bottom line and could make it harder for the retailer to hire and retain workers in an already tight labor market, Barry told CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" this week. Some criminals are armed with guns and crowbars and can scare away customers and employees alike, she said.

In the call, Barry also said such crimes are "traumatizing" to the company's employees, calling the crime spree "unacceptable."

Cleaned out

Loss-prevention expert Tony Sheppard said the orchestrated raids hurt retailers, customers and even the local community. "Retailers do all sorts of things to protect product, but even when merchandise is locked up it hurts sales because they don't have the manpower to unlock things for customers," said Sheppard, who heads loss prevention at ThinkLP, a software company that helps retailers report and prevent organized theft.

According to Sheppard, crime groups often take a store's entire supply of a given product, like allergy medication Zyrtec or the cold treatment Mucinex, and swipe the same item from neighboring stores, leaving customers to do without. Consumers may have to wait a week or more for a new shipment to arrive, with delays exacerbated by the ongoing supply-chain slowdown retailers are grappling with.

Online shopping leads to in-store theft - Sharp increase in organized retail crime - Stores shut down: cbsnews.com

National Mob Theft Wave
Smash-and-grab thieves attack stores around the country, California security guard shot dead as crime rages

A former police officer was shot and killed while protecting a news crew reporting on a smash-and-grab incident

Smash-and-grab looters targeted stores across the country ahead of Thanksgiving and over Black Friday weekend, robbing stores of thousands of dollars in merchandise and even leaving one California security guard dead as he tried to protect a news crew that was reporting on the crimes.

"We tried to stop them," Home Depot employee Luis Romo told FOX 11 of a "flash mob" targeting the store in Lakewood, California, on Black Friday. "We closed the front entrance and they put their sledgehammers up and whoever got in the way, they were going to hurt them."

By late Friday evening, the Los Angeles Police Department was on a citywide tactical alert. The alert has since been lifted.

The crimes have also poured into other areas in the country, including in Chicago where police say thieves threw a cinderblock through a Canada Goose store between midnight and 6 a.m. on Thanksgiving and took merchandise. Three other smash-and-grabs unfolded in the city, where thieves targeted a Foot Locker, a North Face store and a cell phone store.

The most tragic incident unfolded in California, when an Oakland security guard was fatally shot during an armed robbery while protecting a news crew covering a previous smash-and-grab theft.

Smash-and-grab robberies have plagued California in the last week, with most of the incidents occurring in stores near San Francisco and Los Angeles. foxnews.com

Retailers Sound the Alarm Ahead of the Holidays
Robberies are becoming an increasing concern for retailers

Retailers are expressing more concerns about robberies this year.

Best Buy said this week that its business was facing new pressure from organized crimes and thefts, and it was implementing new security measures in certain areas. One tactic includes putting QR codes on products behind lock-and-key. That allows customers to scan the codes and then check out, so associates don’t need to unlock the items right away.

“We are finding ways where we can lock up product, but still make that a good customer experience,” Corie Barry, Best Buy’s chief executive, said on an earnings call on Tuesday. “In some instances, we’re hiring security. We’re working with our vendors on creative ways we can stage the product.”

Still, she said, the pressure was visible in the company’s financials — she named it as one reason Best Buy saw a decline in its profit margin rate — and “traumatizing for our associates.”

About 69 percent of retailers said they had seen an increase in organized retail crimes in the past year, pointing to factors including the pandemic, policing, changes to sentencing guidelines and the growth of online marketplaces, according to a recent retail security survey from the National Retail Federation, an industry trade group. Respondents said that the groups involved have become more aggressive and violent. nytimes.com

CNN: Videos show brazen smash and grab robberies
More "smash & grab" robberies have occurred around the US at a wide range of retail stores and authorities are now trying to increase security to prevent more from happening.

Spike in smash-and-grab attacks means bad news in store for shoppers


California's ORC Explosion Continues Over Holiday Weekend

California 'Overwhelmed' By Retail Criminals
California Leaders Vow to Crack Down After High-Profile Burglaries

“Their plan was to overwhelm us,” Chief Bill Scott of the San Francisco police said after about a dozen stores were stolen from in one night.

Over the course of several hours on Friday night, at least 30 people burglarized several of San Francisco’s most upscale stores, prosecutors said, in what law enforcement officials called one of the most brazen thefts in recent memory.

The following day, hours after officials vowed to prosecute the thieves and prevent another large burglary, dozens of people ran into a Nordstrom store in the suburb of Walnut Creek, Calif., 25 miles to the east. They grabbed clothes, jackets and handbags, and escaped into a caravan of waiting vehicles, the police said.

Across eight days this month, near Chicago, around the Bay Area and in Beverly Hills and Los Angeles, a series of fast, high-profile burglaries have alarmed businesses, bystanders and some state and local officials, who have promised to crack down on the crimes.

“We need to make an example out of these folks,” Gov. Gavin Newsom of California said at a news conference on Monday. “They’re not just stealing people’s products and impacting their livelihoods. They’re stealing a sense of place and confidence, and that’s why you got to get serious about it.”

Whether any of the burglaries were connected was unclear. Store surveillance footage and cellphone videos that were shared online, showing people grabbing and running with merchandise, indicated that they varied widely. One Northern California theft appeared to involve three people, while the Walnut Creek burglary involved as many as 80, according to the police.

To the extent there were patterns to the burglaries, law enforcement officials said, each involved groups of at least three people, usually with getaway vehicles waiting nearby and apparently with little fear of being seen by store cameras or bystanders. nytimes.com

Under Recall Pressure, Progressive DA Takes Action
San Francisco D.A. charges nine with felonies in $1-million theft wave of luxury stores
San Francisco Dist. Atty. Chesa Boudin said Tuesday that he has charged nine people with felonies in a series of shoplifting incidents that included a mass smash-and-grab at Union Square luxury stores.

At least 40 thieves allegedly broke into a Louis Vuitton store on Friday, grabbing whatever they could before loading it into a series of cars parked curbside out front. The shoplifting caravan cut a swath through San Francisco’s high-end boutiques, creating a scene of chaos while stealing more than $1 million in merchandise.

Boudin said two of the nine people were charged for possession of firearms during the Friday incident. He said the nine face charges of grand theft, commercial burglary and possession of stolen goods at the felony level.

“These are not petty thefts. These are not misdemeanor conduct. This is felony conduct,” Boudin said. “We are charging felonies today.”

The district attorney said he would seek in court to keep two of those charged behind bars because of the nature of their alleged crimes. The liberal prosecutor is facing a recall election in June because of what his critics say is a lenient approach toward criminals.

The district attorney’s office said five people were arrested in connection with the incident at the Louis Vuitton store, three others for burglarizing a cannabis dispensary and one for burglarizing a Walgreens. latimes.com

Law Enforcement & Retailers Grapple with Theft Raids
Police, retailers struggle to respond to smash-and-grab ‘flash mob’ robberies
A surge in smash-and-grab “flash mob” robberies at luxury stores has police and retailers struggling with how to crack down on the crimes.

Such thefts continued in Los Angeles as organized groups descended on stores and grabbed expensive merchandise in pre-Thanksgiving raids around the city.

LAPD Chief Michel Moore told the Los Angeles Police Commission that the department would be stepping up patrols and dedicating additional resources to some higher-end locations to deter the wave of mob thefts.

Moore recommended that businesses station employees to greet patrons as they enter stores and ask what they are seeking. The chief said high-value items are best kept away from the front of the store to limit access to them.

Moore said security cameras can also be vital in identifying suspects. In the Nordstrom robbery, he said, one of the three suspects was captured in the store after the break-in was caught on video.

Moore said high-end retailers are increasingly using GPS location devices to track merchandise and help police locate thieves. latimes.com

California's New DA Alliance Against ORC
Bay Area district attorneys form alliance against organized retail theft

Gov. Gavin Newsom calls for greater CHP presence following string of robberies

In response to recent organized theft schemes seen across the Bay Area this week, seven Bay Area district attorneys created an alliance to ensure suspects face proper accountability, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe announced Tuesday evening.

The district attorneys from Contra Costa, Alameda, San Francisco, Marin, San Joaquin and Santa Clara counties say they want to put their heads together and share crime data across district lines to ensure suspects are fully held accountable. The prosecutors also pledged to keep communications with retail stores and state agencies during the process.

"The recent premeditated retail theft mob action in multiple cities across Northern California is intolerable and will not be accepted by District Attorneys, law enforcement officials and our community members," Wagstaffe said in a statement. "Anyone caught engaging in such criminal conduct should expect to find themselves facing prosecution, conviction and incarceration. There is no leniency for such behavior."

This weekend, organized crime stints occurred in San Francisco, Walnut Creek, Hayward, Oakland and San Jose. almanacnews.com

Concerns about shopping safety after a rash of burglaries at high-end stores in Calif.

California Home to 3 of 10 Worst Cities for Retail Crime as Smash & Grabs Plague State

Group retail theft Q&A: What we know about the Bay Area’s latest crime problem

San Francisco tech store spends $30K on security a month

Long Beach police place cameras in business areas


Black Friday Violence Hits Malls & Stores from Coast to Coast

Mall Shootings From North Carolina to Washington
Gun violence sends Black Friday shoppers scurrying in North Carolina, Washington
Gun violence erupted at retail outlets crowded with post-Thanksgiving holiday shoppers in North Carolina and Washington state on Friday, sending bystanders at both locations scurrying for cover and injuring a total of seven people, police said.

At a shopping mall in Durham, North Carolina, a late-afternoon shootout between "two groups who knew each other" left three people struck by ricocheting gunfire and three others injured in the ensuing chaos, city Police Chief Patrice Andrews said.

A department store employee who was working at the time of shooting told WRAL-TV, based in nearby Raleigh, that he counted six gunshots that rang out through the mall, triggering a stampede of Black Friday shoppers running for the nearest exit.

A short time earlier across the country, security officer shot a man suspected of trying to steal merchandise from a Walmart store during an altercation in the eastern Washington town of Kennewick, police said.

The shooting occurred when the suspect, confronted as he was leaving the store, pointed a gun at the officer. The officer then drew his own weapon and opened fire at the suspect, who fled the scene but was arrested at a nearby home, according to police.

The suspect, taken to an area hospital for treatment of his wounds, was already wanted on nine outstanding warrants and now faces additional robbery and assault charges, police said in a statement. reuters.com

LAPD on Tactical Alert After Black Friday Flash Mob Robberies
Black Friday smash-and-grab robberies put LAPD on tactical alert
Los Angeles police late Friday were on citywide tactical alert after a wave of smash-and-grab “flash mob” robberies at high-end stores.

Friday’s tactical alert follows a series of incidents in which groups have swooped in on stores across Los Angeles — including a Nordstrom at the Grove shopping center and several stores at the Beverly Center in the Beverly Grove neighborhood — and have fled with thousands of dollars in merchandise.

The citywide tactical alert has been lifted through the majority of the city Saturday following a “smash-and-grab” robbery at a high-end store in the Melrose area, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

The LAPD defines a tactical alert as enabling all available officers to respond to a criminal incident if necessary. latimes.com losangeles.cbslocal.com

Group of 20-30 robbers swarm Best Buy in Minnesota on Black Friday


More coverage of holiday weekend violence in the ORC & Retail Crime sections below

US: 49M Cases - 799.4K Dead - 38.8M Recovered
Worldwide: 261.9M Cases - 5.2M Dead - 236.5M Recovered

Former Senior Loss Prevention Executive
Know of any fallen LP exec? Let's remember & recognize.

Private Industry Security Guard Deaths: 328  
Law Enforcement Officer Deaths: 538
*Red indicates change in total deaths

Tracking COVID Cases, Hospitalizations & Deaths

‘You’ve got to prepare for the worst’
World responds to new variant’s arrival
The first inkling of a new, potentially fearsome threat arrived a few days ago. The latest variant of the coronavirus was on the move, the Biden administration was told. And, before long, evidence emerged that the variant — which would be dubbed omicron — carried worrisome mutations.

By Thanksgiving Day, frantic discussions were unfolding in Washington and in capitals around the globe about how to contain the potential menace. Those discussions, which would lead to travel restrictions and other measures, exposed long-simmering tensions about the United States and other nations appearing to punish the developing world and about stark differences in vaccination levels.

On Saturday, covid-19 cases caused by the omicron variant were confirmed or suspected in a widening circle of nations, including Britain and Germany. The pharmaceutical companies whose vaccines had appeared to chart a path out of the pandemic expedited development of new formulations targeting the omicron variant.

“This is the highest level of alert we’ve ever been on, by far,” since devising the initial batch of vaccines last year, said Stephen Hoge, Moderna’s president. “What’s most scary about this virus is it’s managed to put all of its greatest hits into one [omicron] variant, and then has added maybe 10 mutations that we don’t even know what to think of yet.” washingtonpost.com

The Million Dollar Question Ahead of the Holidays
Will the Vaccines Stop Omicron? Scientists Are Racing to Find Out.

A “Frankenstein mix” of mutations raises concerns, but the variant may remain vulnerable to current vaccines. If not, revisions will be necessary.

As nations severed air links from southern Africa amid fears of another global surge of the coronavirus, scientists scrambled on Sunday to gather data on the new Omicron variant, its capabilities and — perhaps most important — how effectively the current vaccines will protect against it.

The early findings are a mixed picture. The variant may be more transmissible and better able to evade the body’s immune responses, both to vaccination and to natural infection, than prior versions of the virus, experts said in interviews.

The vaccines may well continue to ward off severe illness and death, although booster doses may be needed to protect most people. Still, the makers of the two most effective vaccines, Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, are preparing to reformulate their shots if necessary.

They won’t know the results for two weeks, at the earliest. But the mutations that Omicron carries suggest that the vaccines most likely will be less effective, to some unknown degree, than they were against any previous variant. nytimes.com

State of Emergency Declared in New York
New York Declares State of Emergency to Combat Omicron Variant

Precautionary measure allows hospitals to turn away patients seeking nonurgent care

New York’s governor declared a state of emergency to prepare for a possible Covid-19 surge from the new Omicron variant that is spreading around the globe.

The precautionary measure announced Friday is intended to help hospitals in the state prepare for a potential winter wave caused by the new variant, which the World Health Organization has said might be more transmissible and pose a greater risk of illness than existing strains of the coronavirus. New York is the first state to declare a state of emergency in response to the Omicron variant.

Detected first in southern Africa, Omicron hasn’t been found anywhere in the U.S.

“It’s coming,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said of the new strain, which has made its way to the U.K., Belgium and other countries. wsj.com

Businesses React to New Variant
D.C.-area businesses greet news of omicron variant with anxiety & resignation
Less than a week after D.C. became the latest jurisdiction to drop its indoor mask requirements, a new and potentially more contagious variant of the deadly coronavirus has prompted some businesses and officials to double down on masking rules — and to start preparing for the worst.

“I haven’t stopped worrying since the first time we shut down,” said Lesley Bryant, who owns the Lady Clipper Barber Shop on U Street in D.C. “It’s a way of life now.”

Businesses owners across the D.C. area greeted the news of the omicron variant with resignation. After 20 months of balancing turning a profit with keeping their staff and customers safe, small-business owners said they were not surprised to learn the pandemic may take yet another turn for the worse.

In the District, some businesses have eased mask requirements, including for fans attending games at Capital One Arena downtown. (Employees still have to wear them.) But many have continued to require that customers and employees wear face coverings.

In Northern Virginia, where officials have mostly recommended — but not required — face coverings since the summer, some business owners wondered whether the new omicron variant and the looming holiday season would spur county officials to reinstate some health precautions.

Francis Do, the owner of Pho, Banh Mi and Grill in Fairfax, says he believes the county government reinstating a mask order is one of the few ways to avoid another total shutdown. washingtonpost.com

UK's Retail Response to Omicron Variant
UK retailers: don’t expect us to police Covid mask rules

Big chains say enforcing fresh restrictions amid Omicron variant can be a ‘trigger for abuse’

Retailers have said they cannot be expected to police the reintroduction of mandatory mask wearing in shops in England from Tuesday as enforcing the rules can be a “trigger for abuse”.

Richard Walker, the boss of the Iceland grocery chain, said he was “supportive” of the change in mask policy introduced in response to the Omicron variant, but added: “My store colleagues can’t be expected to police those who refuse.”

The Association of Convenience Stores, which represents thousands of independent shopkeepers, said its members were concerned about potential abuse when asking customers to mask up.

“We know from previous lockdowns that reminding people about face coverings and social distancing is a big trigger for abuse and [store workers] are hesitant about challenging people.”

Helen Dickinson, the chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, which represents most big retailers, said: “It is vital that we do not place hardworking retail staff in harm’s way, and enforcement of face coverings must remain the duty of the authorities.” theguardian.com

Retail Takes on the Vaccine Mandate
Why Retailers Are Fighting a Vaccine Mandate Before the Holidays

The Biden administration has called on major companies to help fight the pandemic. Big chains want to get past the holiday staffing crunch first.

As other industries with workers in public-facing roles, like airlines and hospitals, have moved toward requiring vaccines, retailers have dug in their heels, citing concerns about a labor shortage. And a portion of one of the country’s largest work forces will remain unvaccinated, just as shoppers are expected to flock to stores.

At the heart of the retailers’ resistance is a worry about having enough people to work. In a tight labor market, retailers have been offering perks like higher wages and better hours to prospective employees in hopes of having enough people to staff their stores and distribution centers. The National Retail Federation, the industry’s largest trade group, has estimated that retailers will hire up to 665,000 seasonal workers this year.

The industry showed how strongly it feels about the issue this month when the Biden administration directed companies with 100 or more workers to mandate vaccines or weekly tests by Jan. 4. Five days after that announcement, the National Retail Federation sued to stop the effort.

“We all agree with the premise that vaccines are good and vaccines save lives,” Stephanie Martz, the chief administrative officer of the N.R.F., said in an interview Monday. “But by the same token, you can’t just say, ‘OK, make it so.’”

The order is now held up in litigation, challenged by a number of lawsuits from a broad coalition of opponents, and could make its way to the Supreme Court. Court filings by the administration warn that blocking the rule would “likely cost dozens or even hundreds of lives per day.” nytimes.com

The Pandemic Effect
Is the Four-Day Workweek Finally Within Our Grasp?

After embracing flexible work styles during the pandemic, some companies are now embracing a shorter week.

Primary is part of the latest wave to experiment with a work schedule that has been proposed for decades but has never quite caught on. Driven by the flexible work arrangements and bonus days off that were introduced during the pandemic, concern for burnout and empowerment of employees in a tight labor market, companies are embracing a shorter workweek.

Kickstarter, Shake Shack and Unilever’s New Zealand unit are among those that have experimented with the four-day workweek, or have announced plans to. And after an experiment in Iceland supported the idea that the system improves worker well-being without reducing overall output, a majority of the country’s workers have now moved to shorter workweeks, or will gain the right to. nytimes.com

Tracking Omicron and Other Coronavirus Variants
Here's where Omicron has been detected around the globe

U.S. retail stocks slide on Black Friday as new virus worries arise

Omicron Variant Found on Flights Reveals Gaps in Covid-19 Travel Rules

Countries Close Borders as More Omicron Cases Emerge

Black Friday 2021: 'It's Complicated'
Winners and losers of Black Friday 2021

Vaccinations have made in-store shopping possible and even fun, but this holiday season remains complicated.

Winners:

Thanksgiving - Malls run by Simon Property Group joined Walmart and several others in making a point of shuttering for the day; Target last week went so far as to say it will do so from now on.

Buy now, pay later - The payment alternative is shaping up to be a hallmark of this year. In November so far, compared to a similar period in 2019, BNPL-based spending was up 422% and order volume was up 438%, according to Adobe. Consumers have chosen the payment option on 8% of their Cyber Week orders so far, up 31% from last year, according to Salesforce.

Curbs, again - With the lockdowns of 2020 over and vaccinations readily available in early 2021, foot traffic to malls and brick-and-mortar retailers has picked up all year. But consumers continue to embrace curbside pickup, out of ongoing pandemic concerns as well as a desire for convenience, according to Adobe.

Big box retail — by a little - Large retailers, with more robust supply chains to begin with and some cases the ability to charter their own ships, have yet another advantage this year over their smaller rivals.

Losers:

Supply chain - The ongoing supply chain debacle — one of the most vivid indications that the pandemic is far from over — has not been solved in time for the holiday season.

Discounts - Holiday marketing centers around special deals, but this year retailers are hewing as close as possible to full price, according to several reports.

Footfall - With more retailers keeping their doors locked on Thanksgiving, it's no surprise that, as Sensormatic Solutions found, visits to brick-and-mortar stores fell 90.4% that day compared to two years ago. retaildive.com

Landmark Verdict Hits National Pharmacy Chains
CVS, Walgreens and Walmart Fueled Opioid Crisis, Jury Finds

This is the first jury verdict in an opioid case. The decision embraced a key legal argument that judges in other opioid cases had recently rejected.

A federal jury in Cleveland on Tuesday found that three of the nation’s largest pharmacy chains — CVS Health, Walmart and Walgreens — had substantially contributed to the crisis of opioid overdoses and deaths in two Ohio counties, the first time the retail segment of the drug industry has been held accountable in the decades-long epidemic.

After hearings in the spring, the trial judge will determine how much each company should pay the counties.

The verdict — the first from a jury in an opioid case — was encouraging to plaintiffs in thousands of lawsuits nationwide because they are all relying on the same legal strategy: that pharmaceutical companies contributed to a “public nuisance,” a claim that plaintiffs contend covers the public health crisis created by opioids.

The public nuisance argument was rejected twice this month, by judges in California and Oklahoma in state cases against opioid manufacturers. The judges found that according to the specifics of their own states’ public nuisance laws, the companies’ activities were too removed from the overdoses and deaths and that the laws had been applied too expansively.

In this case, brought by Lake and Trumbull Counties in northeastern Ohio, lawyers for the plaintiffs used the legal claim successfully. They argued that for years, the pharmacies had turned a blind eye to countless red flags about suspicious opioid orders, both at local counters where patients obtained the drugs and at corporate headquarters, where oversight requirements were, according to Mark Lanier, the counties’ lead trial lawyer, “too little, too late.”

“It’s the first opioid trial against these major household names,” said Adam Zimmerman, who teaches mass litigation at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. “They have been the least willing group of defendants to settle, so this verdict is at least a small sign to them that these cases won’t necessarily play out well in front of juries.” It could prod some pharmacy defendants to consider settling rather than going to trial, he said. nytimes.com

Retail & Grocery CEOs Meet With Biden
Biden to Meet With CEOs of Walmart, CVS on Holiday Supply-Chain Issues
President Joe Biden plans to meet Monday with the CEOs of Walmart Inc, CVS Health Corp and other retailers as part of his efforts to tackle supply chain bottlenecks and inflation ahead of Christmas.

The session, which coincides with this weekend’s start to the holiday shopping season, will include executives from the grocery, electronics, and pharmacy sectors, and address efforts to make sure shelves are stocked during the busy holiday shopping season, according to a White House official.

The CEOs of Best Buy, Food Lion, Samsung North America, Qurate Retail Group, Todos Supermarket, Etsy, Mattel and Kroger are scheduled to attend in person, while Walmart CEO Doug McMillon and CVS CEO Karen Lynch are among those planning to attend remotely, the official said.

Following the meeting, Biden is scheduled to deliver remarks on White House efforts to curb supply chain disruptions and lower the cost of goods, according to a White House statement.

The U.S. consumer price index, a broad survey of inflation, increased 6.2% last month from October 2020, the fastest annual pace since 1990. While many economists believe the abnormal inflation is due to unprecedented consumer demand following the pandemic shutdowns, Republicans have blamed Biden and his economic policies. bloomberg.com

Gap could take $650M sales hit from supply chain woes

Lidl targets 1100 stores by 2025 with 4000 new jobs

Weekly jobless claims plunge to 199,000, the lowest level in 50+ years


Last week's #1 article --

San Francisco, CA: California Nordstrom robbed by 80 looters in ski masks with crowbars and weapons
About 80 looters in ski masks ransacked a Nordstrom location outside of San Francisco, in a scene described by witnesses as "insane" and like something "out of a movie." "We probably saw 50 to 80 people in ski masks crowbars a bunch of weapons. They were looting the Nordstrom's right here. And I thought they were going to start beating cars. I had to start locking doors lock the front door lock the back door," local PF Chang's manager Brett Barrette told KGO. "There was a mob of people," Barrette added to CBS SF. "The police were flying in. It was like a scene out of a movie. It was insane."

The incident unfolded before 9 p.m. on Saturday evening in Walnut Creek, which is about 25 miles outside San Francisco. A local reporter tweeted footage of the scene and said about 25 cars pulled up outside of the Nordstrom before running in, grabbing merchandise and fleeing. Dozens of police cars responded, and Walnut Creek Lt. Ryan Hibbs told KPIX 5 there were reports that the looters smashed shelves during the incident. They quickly got back into their cars while carrying bags and boxes.

It's unclear how much merchandise was stolen, NBC News reported. Walnut Creek Police Department said that one employee was pepper sprayed and two others were kicked and punched. They were treated and released on the scene. foxnews.com