Costco Wholesale Corporation Reports January Sales Results

Comparisons refer to the 13-week period ended October 28, 2023 versus the 13-week period ended October 29, 2022 * Net sales decreased 5.2% year-over-year, to $3.8 billion, with comparable sales down 5.5%. *Gross margin as a percentage of net sales was 38.9%, an increase of 158 basis points. *Operating income was $157 million *Net income was $59 million *Inventory was $4.2 billion, a decrease of 13% year-over-year. *Operating cash flow was $151 million.

In Texas, libraries are a political battleground. On the same day that the Texas Library Association convened its annual convention in person for the first time since 2019, attendees learned that residents of Llano, a rural county outside Austin, were fighting back against efforts by Republican politicians to censor local libraries. It was, perhaps, a sweeter irony that the TLA’s conference, which ran April 25–28, was held in Fort Worth, in the district of state representative Matt Kraus. Kraus started a campaign to ban books in Texas last October, when he sent a letter to the Texas Education Agency asking school districts to investigate the presence of more than 850 diverse and inclusive books in school libraries. Remarking on the news from Llano, Darryl Tocker, executive director of the Tocker Foundation, the state’s most prominent charity involved in supporting rural public libraries, told PW, “It’s wrong what is happening in public libraries. There’s no other word for it.”

J. C. Penney Company, Inc. announced that the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas has approved the previously announced asset purchase agreement with Brookfield Asset Management, Inc., Simon Property Group and the Company’s DIP and First Lien Lenders, which is supported by the Unsecured Creditors Committee. Pursuant to the APA, Brookfield and Simon will acquire substantially all of JCPenney’s retail and operating assets through a combination of cash and new term loan debt.