Postal Service Delivery Holds Steady at 2.5 Days

Amazon announced 14 new renewable energy projects in the U.S., Canada, Finland, and Spain to advance its ambitious goal to power 100% of company activities with renewable energy by 2025—five years ahead of the original target of 2030. The new projects bring Amazon’s total renewable energy investments to date to 10 gigawatts (GW) of electricity production capacity—enough to power 2.5 million U.S. homes. Amazon is now the largest corporate buyer of renewable energy in the U.S. and the world. The latest utility-scale solar and wind projects will supply renewable energy for Amazon’s corporate offices, fulfillment centers, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers that support millions of customers globally. These projects will also help Amazon meet its commitment to produce enough renewable energy to cover the electricity used by all Echo devices in use. These new projects support hundreds of jobs while providing hundreds of millions of dollars of investment in local communities.

• Net sales increased 17.4% to $1,543.7 million compared to $1,314.9 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2017; • Comparable sales (sales for stores open at least 14 months and e-commerce sales) increased 8.1% compared to an increase of 14.3% in the first quarter of fiscal 2017. The 8.1% comparable sales increase was driven by 5.1% transaction growth and 3.0% growth in average ticket; • Retail comparable sales increased 4.7%, including salon comparable sales growth of 3.2%; • Net income increased 28.2% to $164.4 million compared to $128.2 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2017. Click Read More below for additional information.

Nearly 700 dockworkers at the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have contracted COVID-19 and hundreds more are taking virus-related leaves, raising fears of a severe slowdown in the region’s multibillion-dollar logistics economy. A growing longshore worker infection rate, which parallels the surge of the virus across California, is exacerbating a massive snarl at the ports due to a pandemic-induced surge in imports. Port executives, union leaders and elected officials are mounting an urgent campaign to initiate dockworker vaccinations, fearing that a labor shortage could force terminal shutdowns. “We’ve got more cargo than we do skilled labor,” said Eugene Seroka, executive director of the Los Angeles port. “We are told 1,800 workers are not going on the job due to COVID right now. That can [include] those who are isolating through contact tracing or awaiting test results. Or maybe [those who] fear ... going on the job when a lot of people are sick.” more at source: https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-01-20/covid-surge-hits-la-ports-increasing-need-for-vaccines