USPS Issues New Rule On Requester Newspapers (mediapost.com)

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is planning to raise virtually all rates a bit in January, apparently including a one-cent hike of the Forever Stamp, to 50 cents. And it’s also hoping it will soon get the power to implement larger rate hikes. The USPS will raise rates for both market-dominant mail (such as First Class and Marketing Mail) and competitive mail (such as Priority Mail) on Jan. 21, 2018, postal officials told mailing-industry representatives this week. A postal official indicated that rates would rise from 1% to 3% for most market-dominant products, according to attendees at a meeting of the Mailers Technical Advisory Committee. Click Read More below for more of the story.

Costco Wholesale Corporation reported net sales of $19.83 billion for the retail month of August, the four weeks ended September 1, 2024, an increase of 7.1 percent from $18.51 billion last year. For the 16-week fourth quarter, the Company reported net sales of $78.2 billion, an increase of 1.0 percent compared to net sales of $77.4 billion in the 17-week fourth quarter of fiscal year 2023. For the 52-week fiscal year ended September 1, 2024, the Company reported net sales of $249.6 billion, an increase of 5.0 percent from $237.7 billion reported in the 53-week fiscal year 2023.

U.S. retailers’ nonstore sales reached $55.829 billion in May on a seasonally adjusted basis, a 9.1% increase compared with $51.155 billion in the same month of 2017, new monthly data from the U.S. Commerce Department shows. That’s a slower increase than in April, when nonstore sales grew 10.5% on an adjusted basis year over year. Nonstore sales mainly take place online but also include other channels, such as mail and telephone orders, door-to-door sales and sales through vending machines. Click Read More below for additional information.