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Champagne sales have lost their pop as people around the world aren’t in the mood to say “cheers.” The total number of Champagne shipments from France sank nearly 10% last year to 271 million bottles, marking the second consecutive year of declines as inflation-weary consumers cut back and a generally glum mood permeates across the globe. That’s according to new report from Comité Champagne, a trade association representing more than 16,000 winegrowers and 320 Champagne houses, which painted a dour picture of the industry that aligns with sales of other alcoholic beverages. Maxime Toubart, co-president of the organization, said bluntly...

The trend line of 2024 as the fifth highest for gun sales and National Instant Background Check System (NICS) checks is holding for the year. November 2024 had the sixth-highest gun sales for that month. It was close. November of 2022 had .28% higher numbers. The NICS background checks were the fifth most for the month. November 2020 holds the record for gun sales in the month, with about 3.6 million sold in November 2020.With about 1.48 million gun sales, as recorded by NICS and our estimation process, November of 2024 continues the trend of 63 consecutive months of more...

A few years ago, automakers were celebrating record profits as the pandemic created shortages of new cars, allowing them to raise prices. Now the hangover is setting in. Nissan, the Japanese automaker, is laying off 9,000 employees. Volkswagen is considering closing factories in Germany for the first time. The chief executive of the U.S. and European automaker Stellantis, which owns Jeep, Peugeot, Fiat and other brands, quit after sales tumbled. Even luxury brands like BMW and Mercedes-Benz are struggling. Each carmaker has its own problems, but there are some common threads. They include a tricky and expensive technological transition, political...

<p>FORT MYERS, Fla. — Target has failed to persuade a judge in Florida to dismiss a lawsuit that accused the retailer of deceiving shareholders after its sales of LGBTQ-themed merchandise for Pride Month sparked a backlash and a customer boycott.</p>

Despite the never-ending drumbeat that the number of religious "nones" is on the rise and churches are emptying out, there is a curious trend involving Bibles that many religious and social pundits and prognosticators probably didn't see coming: Bible sales are spiking. The Bible has always been a bestseller, but according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Bible sales in the United States saw an increase of 22 percent at the end of October. The WSJ piece attributes the increase to worries about current events, including the recent election that had the entire country, left and right, chain-smoking...

Your long-held suspicions are confirmed, according to a report: Your phone really is listening to you. A marketing firm whose clients include Facebook and Google has privately admitted that it listens to users’ smartphone microphones and then places ads based on the information that is picked up, according to 404 Media. Cox Media Group, the television and radio news conglomerate, admitted in a pitch deck to investors that its “Active Listening” software uses artificial intelligence to “capture real-time intent data by listening to our conversations,” according to the report. “Advertisers can pair this voice-data with behavioral data to target in-market...

The National Instant Background Check System (NICS) numbers are in for September of 2024. They are slightly higher than those for September of 2023. There have been about two percent more gun sales than in September of 2023 and about three percent more background checks. Those increases are sufficient to place 2024 as the fifth highest September in the 25 years of NICS records, starting in 1999. In 2024, September numbers are about 6 percent lower than they were in August. Handguns are down about 8%, long guns are up about 2 percent. Multiple gun sales are down 2.4% and...

Interest in electric cars has slumped to its lowest level for four years as an increasing number of drivers say they will stick with petrol-powered vehicles. Figures from the Department for Transport show that just 13pc of all drivers plan to buy a fully electric car as their next vehicle. By contrast, interest in combustion-engine cars has risen, with 37pc of motorists saying they will buy a petrol-powered vehicle, up from 31pc a year earlier. The figures represent a new setback to Labour’s plans to ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars by the end of the decade. The...

NAGOYA -- Toyota Motor plans to significantly slow its production of electric vehicles, cutting its global output forecast for 2026 to 1 million cars, some 30% lower than the previously announced sales forecast for the same year, Nikkei has learned. The Japanese automaker's decision to cut EV production was prompted by the slowdown in the global EV market. Toyota has notified its parts suppliers of the decision.

The National Instant Background Check System (NICS), run by the FBI, shows July of 2024 is the fifth-highest July for both firearm sales and NICS background checks. According to the adjusted figures put out by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), July of 2024 is the 60th month in a row where over a million firearms were sold in the month. NICS has recorded five straight years where over a million firearms were sold through the NICS system in the United States each month. The number of firearms over the five years has been much more than the 60 million...

The State Department announced on Saturday that it would lift a three-year ban on selling certain weapons to Saudi Arabia, allowing some $750 million worth of bombs to be sold to the Saudi kingdom within the next few months. “The deliveries will include 3,000 Small Diameter Bombs and 7,500 Paveway IV bombs, which have been on hold since President Biden halted the shipments in 2021 over Saudi Arabia’s punishing war in Yemen,” the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

Moderna’s stock price plunged more than 20% in Thursday morning trading after the company lowered its 2024 revenue guidance due to weak demand for its coronavirus vaccine in the second quarter. The vaccine producer netted $241 million in revenue in Q2, which aligned with analyst expectations. However, it was a significant drop from the $344 million generated during the prior year period. Moderna said the decline was due to decreased demand for its COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine generated sales of $184 million in Q2, a 37% decrease from the same period last year, but was higher than Jefferies’ estimate of...

National Instant Background Check System (NICS) numbers show firearm sales for June of 2024 were down five percent from 2023. They are still over 1 million for the month. According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, this is the 59th month of over one million sales a month. If July sales are over a million, it will be five complete years of over a million firearm sales a month. May, June, and July are traditionally the lowest months for firearms sales during the year, although the pattern is not absolute. Specific events can increase firearms sales. The assassination attempt, which...

Gov. Chris Sununu (R) signed legislation on July 12 blocking credit card companies from tracking firearm and firearm-related sales in New Hampshire. By signing the legislation, HB 1186, Sununu secured New Hampshire as the 17th state in which credit cards cannot track such sales. The NRA-ILA reported: firearms, ammunition, or firearm accessories, and provides a civil penalty for violations. This critical legislation protects gun-owners privacy and ensures that bad actors cannot use credit and debit card transactions to create a gun-registry or block cardholders from making gun-related purchase.

The National Instant Background Check System (NICS) numbers are in for May 2024. NICS shows May of 2024 to be the sixth highest number of NICS checks for May in the 25 years recorded. Gun sales are no longer reliably tied to the NICS checks because the checks are used for many other purposes than gun sales. The FBI system shows checks done for various categories of gun sales individually. This allows an estimate of gun sales to be calculated separately from the overall NICS checks.The number of gun sales is an estimate because one NICS check can be used...

NEW YORK (AP) — Consumers barely increased spending in May from April as still high inflation and high interest rates curbed spending. Retail sales rose 0.1% in May, below the pace that economists projected, according to the Commerce Department. And April sales were revised downward — a 0.2% decline, from unchanged. Sales rose 0.6% in March and 0.9% in February. That comes after sales fell 1.1% in January, dragged down in part by inclement weather. Excluding gas prices and auto sales, retail sales rose the same amount. Excluding sales from gasoline, whose prices have been falling, sales were up 0.3%....

The regulation would criminalize law-abiding Americans for private firearms transactions.Texas has successfully blocked new restrictions on private gun sales imposed by the Biden administration’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on Tuesday that halts enforcement of the regulations in Texas while litigation proceeds. Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit on May 1 challenging a new ATF rule that would redefine who is “engaged in the business” as a firearms dealer. The 126-page Final Rule would have the effect of criminalizing law-abiding Americans for private gun purchases and sales. Texas secured a...

The only time we go on LinkedIn is to unsubscribe from getting emails about LinkedIn but if it’s full of this sort of content then we might be missing a trick. It’s a guy who proposed to his girlfriend – ahhh – who then shared what his proposal taught him about B2B sales. Aarrrgh! Now there’s always the distinct possibility that this is deep cover – surely it is! – but it’s a very funny read either way (with wildly varying amounts of facepalm). Here’s how it first went viral... And here are just a few of the many responses...

Macy’s announced Tuesday it will be closing 150 “underproductive locations” over the next three years as sales dip and the company looks to expand its higher-end luxury brands. The department store chain saw nearly a 2 percent drop in sales during the fourth quarter of last year when compared to its fourth quarter of 2022. In 2023 as a whole, its net sales dropped 5.5 percent and its digital sales dropped 7 percent Macy’s new CEO, Tony Spring, who stepped into the role this month, expressed optimism in a statement accompanying the sales report, which was released Tuesday alongside the...

KEY POINTS Advance retail sales declined 0.8% for January, down from a 0.4% gain in December and worse than the estimate for a 0.3% drop. Sales at building materials and garden stores were especially weak, sliding 4.1%. Miscellaneous store sales fell 3% and motor vehicle parts and retailers saw a 1.7% decrease. Also, initial claims for unemployment insurance totaled 212,000 for the week ended Feb. 10, a decline of 8,000 from the previous week’s upwardly revised total and below the estimate for 220,000.