Retail News

Volkswagen is reportedly considering cutting up to 100,000 jobs, or 15% of its global workforce, as a slated closure of four factories in Germany alongside a general 15% slashing of investment over the next five years come into play. A company spokesperson remained fairly silent on the reports when speaking to media (more).

Kroger is expanding its loyalty program beyond Fuel Points (now simply known as points) to include the option to redeem points for groceries as well as gas. “Whether they’re saving up to $35 on their next fill-up or taking dollars off their grocery bill, customers can now choose the savings that matter most to them.” said Megan Shaffer, group vice president of customer growth and strategy at Kroger (more).

Amazon Prime Day 2026 is producing some interesting numbers, with Numerator data suggesting average order size by day three had reached $45.94, down 16% from $54.78 at the same time last year, and average household spend came in at $121.26 versus $139.71 (down 13%). On the other hand, Adobe data from the first day of the sale pegged sales up 5.3% against 2025’s numbers at $8.3 billion (more).

Convenience store customers polled by Vontier suggested that familiarity with a brand, reliability of payments systems, and convenient location were central to their consideration of a particular company. Safety of the fueling area and overall cleanliness also rated very highly as motivators (more).

Slate, an EV startup backed by Jeff Bezos, will be selling its electric pickup truck at a starting price of $24,950 — making the truck, according to the company, the most affordable truck in the U.S. One caveat: The pricing doesn’t include taxes, destination charges, or state/local incentives (more).

Wendy’s saw a 12% increase in share price during premarket trading June 25, coming on the heels of an even larger gain during Wednesday trading, as a result of retail trader piling in. Analysts described this movement as similar to the meme stock frenzy surrounding GameStop and AMC earlier, with Reddit users on r/wallstreetbets calling for colleagues to “save Wendy’s” (more).

Casey’s plans to expand its footprint by opening 400 new convenience stores over the course of the next three years. “As we enter our next three-year plan, we are focused on expanding our food business, growing our store base, and leveraging technology to improve efficiency and execution,” said president and CEO Darren Rebelez (more).

Core inflation reached 3.4% annually in May, up 0.3% for the month — the highest reading since October 2023. CNBC’s Jeff Cox, however, described the state of the economy as “in a relatively strong position,” when considering all indicators (more).

Starbucks is slated to hire thousands of “coffeehouse coaches” to serve as leaders within it stores over the course of the year. The eventual goal is to have coaches in the majority of the coffee chain’s ~10,000 company-operated U.S. locations (more).

Walmart has entered into an agreement to purchase Nuclear power from Constellation Energy, more particularly from the latter’s Dresden Clean Energy Center in Illinois. The first-of-its-kind agreement sees Walmart purchasing “energy, environmental attributes and capacity through two 15-year terms,” per CSA’s Marianne Wilson (more).