It's been 11 years since hedge fund magnate Edward Lampert merged Sears with another ailing company, Kmart Holding, which he bought out of bankruptcy in 2003, to form Sears Holdings. Sales have plunged by almost half, the result of defecting customers and the sundering of assets such as the Lands' End clothing brand in 2014.
Electric-bike sales are expected to total $15.7bn globally this year and reach $24.3bn in 2025, according to Navigant Research. "It's a category that is wide open," says Edward Benjamin, senior managing director of ECycleElectric Consultants in Fort Myers, Fla., and chairman of the Light Electric Vehicle Association. "Little guys are jumping into a business that no one's been paying attention to," he says.
Over the past year, prime warehouse rents are up 9.9 percent across the U.S. and up by double-digit amounts in some large urban areas, according to a recent report. E-commerce and Amazon are in no small way responsible for the development.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Coca-Cola Co. and 73 other companies that together buy more than $2tr of goods and services are unprepared for climate shocks because suppliers are ignoring requests for data on their exposure to rising temperatures and climate regulation.
Robert Gordon, an economist at Northwestern University, likes to play a game he calls Find the Robot. As he goes about his everyday life - shopping, traveling through airports - he looks for machines performing tasks that humans once handled. Most of what he sees doesn't impress him.
While most of the world has fixated on the plunging Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges and Beijing's missteps managing the currency, China's labor market has become increasingly fragile. As wage arrears and layoffs grow, unrest in factories and on construction sites is spreading.
Canada is prepared to impose retaliatory tariffs against U.S. beef imports after the World Trade Organization sided with Canada and Mexico in a trade battle over meat-labeling rules.
Tired of waiting for Congress, states racing to deepen seaports before the opening of the enlarged Panama Canal next year are picking up the cost of what has traditionally been a federal duty.
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. will open offices in three European countries and expand further in the U.S. as it seeks to revive growth and reassure jittery investors.
In time for the holiday season, UPS is rolling out to 100 cities a program that requires people in some neighborhoods to fetch packages at nearby locations -- such as a druggist or dry cleaner -- if they weren't home to meet a driver.