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Costco Wholesale Corporation

October

Striking Philadelphia longshoreman picket outside a port terminal on Tuesday.

US dockworkers strike, halting half the nation’s ocean shipping

The strike blocks everything from food to automobile shipments across dozens of ports from Maine to Texas, in a disruption likely to cost the economy billions a day.

  • Doyinsola Oladipo and David Shepardson

September

The down down promotion at a Melbourne Coles supermarket in March 2024.

Supermarket pile-on is going to cause real harm

If the supermarkets are guilty, then throw the book at them. But it’s populist politics that is really at work here.

  • Graeme Samuel
The ACCC accused the two big retailers of targeting families with stretched budgets and seeking discounts.

Woolworths and Coles could be ‘innocent’: Samuel

Graeme Samuel says the higher prices charged by the two major supermarkets could have been caused by suppliers, as the ACCC found the retailers have increased their earnings and operating margins over the past five years.

  • Carrie LaFrenz and Tom McIlroy

June

The new code views penalties as essential to working effectively.

Why this is a practical, workable supermarket code of conduct

The new code offers the best of both a mandatory and voluntary system of compliance for the supermarket giants.

  • Craig Emerson
Walmart manager Greg Harden at work in Grand Prairie, Texas.

To keep great store managers, Walmart is offering up to $800,000

The American retailer has begun offering bonuses twice managers’ base salaries to supervise huge stores and hundreds of staff.

  • Jaewon Kang
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April

Twelve massive super growers, some backed by foreign capital, account for half of the $9.1 billion in fruit and vegetables sold each year.

Super growers take on Woolies, Coles with private equity cash

Giant pension funds from Canada, Singapore and US private equity are behind super producers who account for half the $9.1 billion fruit and vegetable market. Bigger is better, and Australia is mirroring a global trend.

  • Simon Evans and Carrie LaFrenz

January

Issues between suppliers and supermarkets generally get settled.

The cost-of-living crisis is real – so is supermarket competition

The Emerson review must not make findings for the political sake of having been seen to have done something.

  • Jeff Kennett
Australia is a concentrated market compared to other countries.

In the shopping trolley war, the supermarkets have to give

Suppliers can get paid more, and shoppers pay less. But only if supermarket giants are forced to compete more.

  • Craig Emerson

August 2023

Arriving in Australia more than two decades ago, Anna McGrath is now running the discount chain locally and is one of the global company’s most senior women.

Meet the woman tasked with steering Aldi to new heights

Arriving in Australia more than two decades ago, Anna McGrath is now running the discount chain locally and is one of the global company’s most senior women.

  • Carrie LaFrenz

August 2022

Brambles has a pool of 340 million  pallets, crates and containers which are used in 60 countries.

Brambles shows how to conquer inflation

Chief executive Graham Chipchase says the group isn’t on customers’ Christmas card lists as it clawed back $670 million in higher timber costs for pallets.

  • Updated
  • Simon Evans

July 2022

Investors have grown increasingly concerned that retailers will have to discount unsold products as rising prices and a shift in spending from goods to services coincide with stores’ efforts to bring in holiday merchandise early.

Walmart issues profit warning as soaring inflation hits customers

The iconic retailer warned its operating income would fall by 13-14 per cent in the quarter and by 11-13 per cent over the full year as it discounts merchandise to clear excess inventory.

  • Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson

June 2022

Brambles won’t be shifting to a plastic pallets pool for one of its biggest US customers, Costco. CEO Graham Chipchase said the cost was simply too high to justify the shift.

Brambles pulls pin on $1b Costco plastic pallets shift

CEO Graham Chipchase says part of the reason for not proceeding is the cost of plastic pallets has jumped by 50pc since September.

  • Simon Evans

May 2022

Lost and missing pallets have been an issue for Brambles for decades. The group held takeover talks with private equity group CVC but they ended two weeks ago.

Costco clout adds to Brambles plastic pallets dilemma

A shift to plastic pallets by a big customer in the US would help Brambles cut the number of pallets which go missing, but the cost is higher.

  • Simon Evans
Graham Chipchase might have a taste for turbulence: as a teenager he wanted to fly fighter jets.

Why this CEO reckons boring is good

Graham Chipchase wanted to fly fighter jets but settled for the logistics trade. In this time of turbulence, though, running Brambles is anything but dull.

  • Hans van Leeuwen

March 2022

A key risk Aoris is focusing on is companies that have been over-earning during the pandemic,  Alfred  Tadros says.

Just own it: why Nike looks significantly undervalued

Alfred Tadros on why Aoris would ‘love’ to own IDEXX Labs, his bullish view on Costco, and which opportunity the group added in the latest bout of volatility.

  • Alex Gluyas
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September 2021

Costco is shifting to plastic pallets. Brambles is weighing up whether it should go hand-in-hand on this journey in a business where wooden CHEP pallets are the mainstay.

Brambles’ $960m Costco dilemma

Brambles is deep into a trial using expensive plastic pallets with one of the biggest retailers in the US, but D-Day is looming.

  • Simon Evans

August 2021

Credit Suisse Group AG, staggered by a $US5.5b blow, says it was likely deceived by Hwang’s family office.

Where is Bill Hwang, the man who lost $US20b in two days

About 24 kilometres from midtown Manhattan, the head of Archegos is groping for answers in the wake of one of the biggest debacles in Wall Street history.

November 2020

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Multinationals seek to weaken US bill banning goods made by forced labour

The bill, which would prohibit broad categories of certain goods made by persecuted Muslim minorities, has gained bipartisan support.

  • Ana Swanson

July 2020

Jeff Bezos: "At Amazon, customer obsession has made us what we are, and allowed us to do ever greater things."

Bezos touts Amazon's customer focus in testimony

The Amazon chief executive is set to tell a US House hearing the global retail market is 'strikingly large and extraordinarily competitive'.

  • Jay Greene and Elizabeth Dwoskin

June 2020

Amazon stands out as one of the companies to have benefited from the policy response to contain COVID-19, with the closure of non-essential stores pushing more consumers to shop online.

Amazon secures record low borrowing costs

The company raised almost $15 billion in an offering that included three-year notes carrying an interest rate of just 0.4 per cent.

  • Updated
  • Joe Rennison, Eric Platt and Dave Lee

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/company/costco-5w2