The #OPocalypsehas happened! 15yrs ago communication papers and ink were dominating the top 10 selling products. Today? Gone!. The shift towards tech, hygiene, foodservice and packaging supplies has been relentless. Often wrongly described by bigbox relics as 'adjacencies', these categories are mainstream with e.g. Clorox, tissues and pizza boxes topping the business demand charts. Updated
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is suing Amazon, stating that its online store, marketplace and services to merchants illegally stifled competition. “Today’s lawsuit seeks to hold it to account for these monopolistic practices and restore the lost promise of free and fair competition,” said Lina Khan, the chair of the F.T.C.
During Covid the big international supermarket chains inc. Walmart, Tesco, Carrefourcame under critical consumer group pressure for over-inflating prices. Many diverted attention to the source of the problem: the brand makers who boosted profits by over hiking price increases and/or reducing pack sizes stealthily aka 'greedflation'. Carrefour has decided to expose the cheaters....
Vulture capitalists e.g. Hilco, Aurelius, Cerebus, Better Capital and Sycamore Partners have been responsible for asset stripping leading resellers in the business supply market over the past 10 years. Recent failures in the UK involving Wilko, backed by Hilco and advised by PwC, have drawn attention to the dodgy collaborations. The Times' Oliver Shah analyses and comments...