Walmart is closing four stores in Chicago, cutting its footprint in half in the third-largest U.S. city after years of mounting losses. The closings mark a retreat for the nation's largest retailer, which faces tough competition in Chicago from the likes of Target, Albertsons, and Aldi. Walmart said it had tried and failed to improve its performance by building smaller stores, localizing its merchandise offerings, and investing $70 million in recent years on store upgrades.
Two years after its launch, Disney's streaming service is celebrating Disney+ Day by offering new and eligible returning customers a reduced subscription price of $2 for one month. The regular $7.99 monthly fee will kick in at the end of the promotion.
Christine Short, VP of research at corporate event data firm Wall Street Horizon, joined Cheddar to discuss AMC's upcoming Q3 earnings report. Short said that she expects the movie theater chain to see another quarter of growth with a 500 percent increase in revenue as people continue to return to theaters. She also noted AMC is expected to show a strong Q4 with a return to the $1 billion mark for the first time since before the pandemic and discussed its plans for diversifying revenue streams with retail popcorn sales and accepting bitcoin payments.
Dr. Nasia Safdar, Doctor at UW Madison, joined Wake Up With Cheddar to discuss the implications of Merck sharing its antiviral pill, which has been shown in early trials to cut hospitalizations and deaths by half, with poorer nations around the globe.
Nationwide job openings are about 50 percent higher than they were prior to the pandemic, yet the country is still seeing a skills gap disconnect between workers looking for jobs and employers looking for workers. Julia Pollack, Chief Economist at ZipRecruiter, explained the disconnect, and which workers are returning to the workforce after taking a step back during the pandemic.
Jason Fudin, CEO of WhyHotel, joined Cheddar's On the Job: The October Jobs Report to break down what the next few months could look like for the travel and hospitality sectors, which were hit hard by the pandemic.
The Federal Reserve finally announced its taper plan on Wednesday saying that it planned to scale back on bond purchases as growth slows, and would not rush to raise interest rates. Ross Mayfield, Investment Strategy Analyst at Baird spoke on whether or not a decrease in inflation could be in the country’s future amidst comments made by Fed chairman Jerome Powell. Baird also broke down ADP jobs numbers ahead of the Labor Department's October jobs report.
