Deirdre O’Brien, Apple’s senior vice president of retail and people, says the technology giant is committed to opening new retail stores and expects its locations to bounce back strong now that pandemic-related restrictions are being lifted in many markets around the globe.

Americans added some 13 million new pets to their collective households last year and so-called “pandemic puppies” help boost dollar sales for brands and retailers catering to the market. Petco CEO, which was among the businesses reaping a windfall from the trend, calls it a “furry annuity” that could help drive greater sales and profits for the next decade.

J. Crew Group CEO Libby Wadle’s plan to turn the company around begins with quality products and inventory aligned with demand. Getting those right will enable J. Crew to “start talking about quality and storytelling and stop talking about discounts,” she said.

Seritage Growth Properties, a real estate investment trust spun off by Sears Holdings five years ago, is looking to sell between 40 and 50 of the locations that once operated under the department store’s banner.

Jay Timmons, CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers, said the combination of demand exceeding supply and a shortage of workers is creating “bottlenecks in a lot of the supply chain for manufacturers who make the finished goods.” There are about 851,000 unfilled manufacturing jobs in the U.S. today, according to Mr. Timmons.

The Competition and Markets Authority in the UK believes that Amazon.com and Google are not doing enough to keep away fake product reviews. The antitrust regulator is not sure, however, whether either company has done anything illegal by not being more aggressive in their efforts to only publish legitimate reviews. Amazon claims to have put an end to about 200 million reviews last year that were suspected of being fake.

Spanx is looking to sell with any deal allowing the shapewear brand’s founder, Sara Blakely, to keep some of her ownership stake when all is said and done. A number of private equity firms including Beautycounter, Carlyle, OGX and Supreme, and TPG are all said to have expressed an interest.

Amazon.com said that sales of goods from third-party sellers on the site outpaced its direct sales during this week’s 48-hour Prime Day event. Adobe Analytics estimated that total sales on the Amazon platform were up 6.1 percent during this year’s event, compared to 2020.

Rite Aid faced many challenges during the novel coronavirus pandemic and, in response, accelerated its digital initiatives and stepped up its game in the face of unprecedented demand for COVID-19 vaccines that led the chain’s stores to be “inundated with people” looking to get their shots, according to CEO Heyward Donigan. “It was just all-hands-on-deck with the labs and anybody else that you could get to help you because at this point, you’re not trying to save the company, you’re trying to save the world,” she said.

FedEx has suspended about 1,400 customers of its Freight shipping service as it seeks to deal with unprecedented demand. A company spokesperson said FedEx took the action to “minimize network disruptions and balance our capacity and demand to avoid backlogs across the country — particularly in the most capacity-constrained Freight service centers.” Customers with suspended accounts are complaining that the action was taken without any warning or confirmation.