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Paid child care is expensive and eats up much of the income from lower-paid employment, which is all many mothers can get. What I propose is a system where two mothers can join up and provide mutual child care. Mom2 would work the days Mom1 doesn't. They might live in the same dwelling or just be neighbors. They would generally want to find a line of work that is seven days a week so they can each get close to 40 hours of work in each week. Grocery store work, retail store shelving work and restaurant work are some suitable...

Many retail employees are having a hard time making ends meet. Leftists have proposed raising wages to $15/hour, and sometimes have done so, but such wages are unrealistically expensive for most retail employers. If retail stores had restricted occupancy apartments above their selling floor, retail employees could live in these and not need to pay for a car and liability insurance. Residential restricted occupancy is sometimes found in English agricultural regions to keep housing affordable for people working in agriculture. Retail store residency would have additional benefits of reducing road congestion and CO2 emissions, increasing employee reliability, the amount of...

“I woke up this morning thinking it was going to be another great day. I've been celebrating with friends, family and the community since I turned 90. I've told you about the gracious gift of $117 million that was collected and given in my honor to four charities that mean a lot to me. All that happiness blew up because I said in a newspaper interview that I have supported and will continue to support Donald Trump. Boom! Negative stories... vicious threats, without cause, to boycott the company that has enabled my foundation to give billions to support autism, medical...

It happened last Friday at a Walmart location in Cypress, northwest of Houston, according to KTRK-TV. The greeter, Mohinder Randhawa, told the station he just wanted to check that a customer had paid for a case of Gatorade being carried out of the store. That’s when the suspect, identified as Craig Valentine, 42, of Hockley, got angry, started yelling, and then cold-cocked him, Randhawa said. "He punched on my face with a closed right hand," Randhawa told KTRK. "I fell down on the ground." "My left upper lip was broken from here, blood started out, and inside also there was...

This week the New York Assembly passed a bill which would ban what they call the “pink tax,” which in fact is not a tax at all, but a price difference for goods marketed towards women. According to New York’s Department of Consumer Affairs, for similar products including clothing and personal care, the women’s versions are more expensive 42 percent of the time and the men’s versions are more expensive 18 percent of the time. Senate Bill 2679 bans price differences on the basis of gender for similar (note: similar, not identical) products. It could be extra confusing for New...

Walmart and Target are the problem. EVERYTHING sold in Walmart (except most groceries) is from China. Don't know about Target, but I presume they are exactly the same. I know, not (everything). But close enough.

The Home Depot in Oakland is having problems with homelessness and crime, and it’s gotten so bad that the hardware chain may shut the store unless the city can curb the thefts and clean up the tent and RV camps that dot the area, City Councilman Noel Gallo said. Gallo said the hardware company has been raising concerns about crime and camps in the area for months. “It’s out of control — the tents, the garbage, and the thefts in the store and in the parking lot,” Gallo said. “People are getting their cars broken into in the parking lot.”...

I find this totally fascinating, though not completely unexpected. When a random sample of American adults were asked the question “Just a rough guess, what percent profit on each dollar of sales do you think the average company makes after taxes?” for the Reason-Rupe poll in May 2013, the average response was 36%! That response was very close to historical results from the polling organization ORC’s polls for a slightly different, but related question: What percent profit on each dollar of sales do you think the average manufacturer makes after taxes? Responses to that question in 9 different polls between...

Mall-based retailers reported dismal earnings last week, reminding investors of the sector’s fundamental problems Retailers’ earnings season has gone from bad to worse. The bleeding intensified last week, with shares of Abercrombie & Fitch plummeting 26% on Wednesday, the biggest percentage decline since the company went public. PVH Corp., owner of brands including Van Heusen, Tommy Hilfilger, and Calvin Klein, dropped 10% that day, too. On Thursday, women’s wear chain J.Jill was down a jaw-dropping 53% and on Friday, Gap Inc. slid 9%. It is hard to miss what all of these retailers have in common: They are mall-based. While...

*** Maxsa, which manufactures many of its products in China, had to start paying 25 percent more to import some goods after the United States introduced tariffs on Chinese-made products last summer. Faced with higher costs, Maxsa says it managed to persuade several small U.S. retailers to pay roughly 20 percent more for the company’s wares. But its biggest customer, Amazon, drove a much harder bargain. Amazon, which buys products from Maxsa and then sells them to consumers, initially rejected Maxsa’s attempt to charge more for a laser-guided parking aid called Park Right, forcing Maxsa to cut off sales to...

In a move that has the supermarket industry scratching its head, the United Food and Commercial Workers, or UFCW, is singing its own praises for negotiating a wage increase that is already common practice among some of the largest non-union businesses.Last month, Kroger stores in Kentucky and southern Indiana agreed to increase wages for part-time workers and new hires to $10 an hour, keeping one of the nation’s largest supermarket chains in line with its competitors on employee pay.It’s the same song, different day for union leaders who think they deserve reward and recognition for implementing changes that business executives and...

Key Points The Supreme Court on Monday ruled 5-4 against Apple in a case involving its signature electronic marketplace, the App Store, allowing iPhone users to move forward with their suit against the company. The iPhone users argued that Apple’s 30% commission on sales through the App Store was passed along to consumers, an unfair use of monopoly power. Apple argued that only app developers, and not users, should be able to bring such a lawsuit. “Apple’s line-drawing does not make a lot of sense, other than as a way to gerrymander Apple out of this and similar lawsuits,” Justice...

Drug store chain CVS is closing 46 locations, including three stores in Alabama. The closures represent less than 1 percent of the chain’s 9,000 locations nationwide. Each of the closures were at stores the massive retail chained deemed “underperforming.” The Alabama locations are in Huntsville, Mobile and Montgomery. Some of the closures have already taken place while others are underway. Overall business remains strong, CVS said, reporting 35 percent year-over-year increase in first quarter revenues to $61.6 billion. Here is the list via USA Today: Alabama Huntsville: 3115 Bob Wallace Ave SW Mobile: 664 Schillinger Rd S Montgomery: 2815 Lower...

Whole Foods will slash prices on hundreds of items starting Wednesday, extending its focus beyond enticing Prime shoppers. The specialty grocer's last major price cut for all customers was in Nov. 2017. In the interim, it has been rolling out more perks catered to members of Amazon Prime, like offering them an extra 10 percent off discounted products. Amazon, which acquired Whole Foods in July 2017, had hoped to convert more Prime members into Whole Foods shoppers. The better Whole Foods is able to sync in-store shopping with Amazon Prime, the better it will be able to target its ads...

Dick’s Sporting Goods took a loss of an estimated $150 million in sales last year after the company heavily restricted firearm purchases and began advocating for gun control. The company made various policy changes after a school shooting in Parkland, Florida, left 17 dead. It announced it would no longer sell modern sporting rifles or high-capacity magazines and increased the purchase age for all firearms to 21. Dick’s also hired anti-gun lobbyists to promote gun restriction legislation, despite saying it still supports the Second Amendment. “The system does not work,” said Edward Stack, Dick’s CEO. “It’s important that when you...

Catherine Toney began February in prison and ended the month with a job at Walmart after White House adviser Jared Kushner called the Arkansas-based retailer on her behalf. Toney, 55, is believed to be the first woman freed by the First Step Act, which President Trump signed in December. She was released Feb. 1 after serving 16 years, benefiting from the law's retroactive crack cocaine sentence reductions. Toney will join Trump on Monday for an event celebrating the criminal justice reform law, his first major bipartisan policy achievement. Other recently released inmates were invited to attend.

LifeWay store closures lamented as 'a great loss' by David Roach The closure of all 170 LifeWay Christian Stores will be “a great loss,” said LifeWay customer Sarah Beth Van Dyke of Gallatin, Tenn. NASHVILLE (BP) -- Sarah Beth Van Dyke shopped at LifeWay Christian Stores during her childhood when they were called Baptist Bookstores. She worked in a LifeWay store in graduate school, and now she takes her two children to LifeWay to spend their allowance money. Generally, she shops at a LifeWay store multiple times every month. With all 170 LifeWay stores set to close this year, Van...

JukeboxfunPublished on Oct 10, 2017 "Sears Wishbook catalog from the 1960's. Toys for girls and boys! Merry Christmas. This video was made using information and photos freely found on the internet." (video is 3:31 mins) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqCk1xB0jS0

Sears Holdings reached a roughly $5 billion deal with its chairman, Eddie Lampert, early Wednesday to keep the company, and about 400 stores, in operations, according to people familiar with the situation. The deal came after days of negotiations at the law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges. Lampert has been trying to buy Sears out of bankruptcy through an affiliate of his hedge fund ESL Investments. The owner of Kmart and Sears had filed for bankruptcy in October, and Lampert's bid was the only one that would have kept it alive. The offer had strong bargaining tools: It could save...

A clerk at Xhale City vape shop in Tucker, Atlanta went absolutely ballistic after a customer wearing a Trump t-shirt walked into the establishment. The pro-Trump customer was denied service and asked to leave the store while the vape shop employee accused him of being a “racist motherf*cker.” A black man was also standing in front of the counter watching it all go down and it was all caught on video. “If you do not stop recording in my store, I’m going to call the police and ask you to leave,” the triggered employee said. The customer refused to be...