Tentative deal reached in Canadian port strike (chainstoreage.com)

Given all of the attention that the Department of Justice’s successful trial to block Penguin Random House’s purchase of Simon & Schuster drew, it can be hard to remember what other trends, challenges, and issues confronted the publishing industry in 2022. In many ways, last year the industry was still dealing with the fallout caused by the pandemic. For one thing, return-to-office policies remained in flux throughout the year; just when a publisher would announce plans to bring back employees to the office for a few days a week, another surge would come along and scuttle those plans. In addition, executives at the big publishers were meeting stiff resistance from employees on any sort of mandate to return to the office. In PW’s most recent salary and jobs survey, respondents said that the creation of work-from-home policies was the most important benefit their company established during the height of the pandemic, and the overwhelming majority of respondents were concerned that their company would soon be requiring employees to be in the office for a certain number of days each week.

Fourth-quarter highlights • Total revenue was a record $152.1 billion, an increase of $10.4 billion, or 7.3%. Excluding currency2, total revenue would have increased 7.5% to reach $152.3 billion. • Walmart U.S. comp sales1 increased 8.6% with strength across most key categories. • Walmart U.S. eCommerce sales increased 69% with strong results across all channels. • Sam’s Club comp sales1 increased 10.8% and eCommerce sales grew 42%. Reduced tobacco sales negatively affected comp sales by approximately 410 basis points. Membership income increased 12.9%, the strongest growth in six years. • Walmart International net sales were $34.9 billion, an increase of 5.5%. Net sales in constant currency2 increased 6.3%, led by Flipkart, Mexico and Canada. Changes in currency rates negatively affected net sales by approximately $0.3 billion. • Consolidated gross profit rate increased 29 basis points with positive contributions from each operating segment, led by the U.S.

Third Quarter of Fiscal 2023 Compared to Third Quarter of Fiscal 2022 *Net sales increased 6.4% to $2.5 billion compared to $2.3 billion, primarily due to increased comparable sales, strong new store performance, and strong growth in other revenue. *Comparable sales (sales for stores open at least 14 months and e-commerce sales) increased 4.5% compared to an increase of 14.6%, driven by a 5.9% increase in transactions and a 1.4% decrease in average ticket. *Gross profit increased 3.0% to $992.1 million compared to $962.8 million. As a percentage of net sales, gross profit decreased to 39.9% compared to 41.2%, primarily due to lower merchandise margin, higher inventory shrink, and higher supply chain costs, partially offset by strong growth in other revenue. *Operating income was $327.2 million, or 13.1% of net sales, compared to $361.9 million, or 15.5% of net sales. *Net income was $249.5 million compared to $274.6 million.