Give the Gift of a Printed Book This Graduation Season

Keep US Posted, an alliance consisting of consumer interests, industry groups, newspapers, nonprofits and businesses, applauds the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations for directing the Postal Regulatory Commission, which governs the U.S. Postal Service, to study the impact of planned postage increases. The Committee’s action, included in the 2023 spending package, is a direct response to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s announcement that stamp prices will increase July 31 and every six months thereafter, despite this year’s bipartisan postal reform law designed to fiscally stabilize the Postal Service and prevent unnecessary postage hikes. “It is destructive for Postal Service leadership to squeeze every last drop of revenue from the mail at the expense of the American people,” said Keep US Posted Executive Director and former Congressman Kevin Yoder (R-Kans.). “In just a decade, Americans could be paying well over $1 to mail a single letter. Using the mail will become unaffordable for American families, as well as newspapers, nonprofits, and businesses that depend on the Postal Service. These excessive postage increases will decrease volume and revenue so much that it will ultimately hurt the Postal Service’s 650,000 workers and their ability to keep delivering for our country. Projected mail decline will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Urban Outfitters, Inc. which operates a portfolio of global consumer brands comprised of the Anthropologie, BHLDN, Free People, FP Movement, Terrain, Urban Outfitters, Nuuly and Menus & Venues brands, announced net income of $127 million and earnings per diluted share of $1.28 for the three months ended July 31, 2021. For the six months ended July 31, 2021, net income was $181 million and earnings per diluted share were $1.82. Total Company net sales for the three months ended July 31, 2021, were a record $1.16 billion. Net sales increased 20.3% compared to the three months ended July 31, 2019. Comparable Retail segment net sales increased 22%, driven by strong double-digit growth in digital channel sales, partially offset by low single-digit negative retail store sales due to reduced store traffic. By brand, comparable Retail segment net sales increased 53% at the Free People Group, 20% at Urban Outfitters and 14% at the Anthropologie Group. Total Retail segment net sales increased 24%. Wholesale segment net sales decreased 30% primarily from reducing the Free People Group’s sales to promotional wholesale customers.

*Third quarter comparable sales grew 12.7 percent, on top of 20.7 percent growth last year. -Comparable sales growth was driven entirely by traffic. -Store comparable sales increased 9.7 percent, on top of 9.9 percent growth last year. -Digital comparable sales grew 29 percent, following growth of 155 percent last year. -Same-day services (Order Pickup, Drive Up and Shipt) grew nearly 60 percent this year, on top of 200 percent last year. -More than 95 percent of Target's third quarter sales were fulfilled by its stores. *All five core merchandise categories delivered double-digit comparable sales growth, on top of strong sales performance last year.