News that the 20,000-member International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) plan to meet again in early November should be welcomed by West Coast shippers who can recall cargo slowdowns that occurred over a nine-month period before being settled in the contract agreement of February 2015.
Category Archives: CONSUMER GOODS
For shippers, carriers, brokerages and really all other industry stakeholders that have not given much thought to the possibility of Uber becoming a truckload carrier, it appears it may be time to change that mindset.
With Korean ocean carrier Hanjin Shipping, the seventh largest ocean liner in the world that handles roughly 7% of U.S.-Asia cargo, filing for bankruptcy earlier this week, what happens next in regards to what happens to the cargo that was moving on Hanjin vessels at that time, as well as its subsequent short-term impact on the global supply chain remains far from clear.
Signs the long-awaited reduction of U.S. inventories is underway are surfacing in the earnings reports of some major retailers, including Wal-Mart, the largest U.S. retailer. But retailers also show signs of struggling to strike a balance between on-line and in-store goods.
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Nestle voiced its support Wednesday for legislation proposed in the House and Senate that aims to reduce food waste by standardizing date labels on food and beverage products. General Mills also announced its support for a national date labeling standard.
Consumers boosted spending in April to the highest levels in more than a year, accelerating their turn toward online shopping and widening the divide between in-store retailers and Internet outlets pitching lower prices and convenience.
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Online shopping is reaching such a critical mass with American households that many of the icons of the traditional mall – from Macy’s to The Gap and J.C. Penney – face an increasingly uncertain future.
Amazon’s done it to books. And electronics. And clothing. Now it wants to rule the grocery aisles. But Amazon still has a ways to go — the online retailing behemoth has taken a slow, yet calculated approach to attacking the grocery store.
Manufacturing expanded in March for the first time in seven months, fueled by a surge in orders that signals American factories are emerging from their worst slump since the last recession.
A seismic change in the way Americans are shopping is affecting everything from how, when and where they make purchases to whether they pay with credit cards or mobile clicks. The transformation is rocking retail and shipping and rippling through real estate, banking and tech.
(This article requires a subscription to the Wall Street Journal. To access, please click on the above link.)