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MINNEAPOLIS — Target Corporation (NYSE: TGT) is delivering more value than ever for back-to-school and back-to-college shoppers. The retailer is kicking off the shopping season with more ways to save for teachers, parents and students preparing for the school year. From 20 must-have school supplies that add up to less than $20 and the lowest priced backpack in over 10 years, for just $5, to new ways for members of the retailer’s free-to-join Target Circle program to save big, Target has consumers’ backs when it comes to shopping for back-to-school.

Unbeatable value on must-have items

This season, Target is introducing new savings on top items for back-to-school and back-to-college, offering consumers both the style and value they’re looking for. Consumers can shop Target-exclusive brands like Cat & Jack, Art Class, Mondo Llama, Room Essentials and Brightroom, alongside national brand favorites like Crayola, Jansport and more. New, must-have savings include:

20-for-$20 supplies list: For the first time, Target is introducing a list of 20 must-have school supplies that add up to less than $20 in total. The list offers 20 popular supplies – like Mondo Llama 12-pack colored pencils, up&up liquid glue, notebooks and more.
Summit Ridge Kids’ $5 backpack: Target offers high-quality backpacks for just $5, ensuring all students can express themselves with a bag they love. Available in a range of colors and patterns, from solid blues and blacks to multi-colored floral designs, these backpacks provide an affordable option for students to showcase their personal style.
Thousands of back-to-college essentials under $20: From bedding and bath, to storage, kitchen and more, Target has everything college students need to prep their dorm or apartment for stylish, affordable living, like twin XL sheet sets and towel 4-packs for less than $10.
As part of the retailer’s previously announced price reductions, consumers also will experience lower prices on thousands of food and beverage items as they shop for school lunches, afterschool snacks and weeknight meals, including bread, peanut butter, produce, lunchbox snacks, crackers, fruit snacks, cookies, kids’ beverages and more.

“Getting ready for a new school year is a busy time for teachers, students and parents, so Target’s focused on making it affordable and easy for everyone,” said Rick Gomez, executive vice president and chief commercial officer, Target. “With our new monthly subscription options for Target Circle 360, unbeatable deals like 20 must-have school supplies for under $20 total, a $5 backpack, and an app feature that makes shopping for school supplies easier than ever, Target’s taking the stress out of the season so families can focus on the excitement of a new school year.”

Unlock more back-to-school savings than ever with Target Circle

Earlier this year, Target reintroduced its new Target Circle program, including the free-to-join Target Circle and the paid Target Circle 360 subscription. This back-to-school and back-to-college season, Target Circle is the key to unlocking even more savings, including:

Target Circle 360, a subscription offering unlimited same-day delivery on orders over $35, access to Shipt’s marketplace and more, starting at $4.99 per month for verified students and $10.99 per month for all consumers, beginning July 14.

A limited-time exclusive offer for teachers: sign up for the annual subscription of Target Circle 360 between July 14 and Aug. 24 and get same-day delivery for just $49 for the first year.
Beginning July 14, a one-time 20% teacher and college student appreciation discount for verified students and teachers who are Target Circle members. Teachers can enjoy the discount through Aug. 24. For college students, this discount is extended through Sept. 28, offering an extra month of savings compared to last year.
Target Circle Week deals, available now through July 13 — featuring top savings like 30% off select school supplies, 20% off nutrition bars and fruit snacks, buy one, get one free on chilled juices and coffee and more.

Shop with ease
At Target, shopping for back-to-school and back-to-college supplies has never been easier. For teachers, Target Circle 360 same-day delivery is an easy and convenient solution for last-minute items, including must-have classroom supplies. And for parents with kids heading off to college, Target Circle 360 unlocks the opportunity to have something delivered straight to the student’s dorm room – whether it’s a forgotten dorm room must-have or a care package of all their favorite snacks from home. New this year is the enhanced School List Assist feature, now available within the Target app. School List Assist is Target’s popular guest-favorite tool that helps families find their child’s class supply list, add to cart and choose their delivery method in three easy steps.

About Target
Minneapolis-based Target Corporation (NYSE: TGT) serves consumers at nearly 2,000 stores and at Target.com, with the purpose of helping all families discover the joy of everyday life. Since 1946, Target has given 5% of its profit to communities, which today equals millions of dollars a week. Additional company information can be found by visiting the corporate website and press center.

Restrictions apply. Subject to application approval and identity verification. See the back-to-school and back-to-college hubs for program rules and details.
Pricing, promotions and availability may vary by location and at Target.com. This program excludes Alaska and Hawaii. Products mentioned may not be available at Target.com or in all stores.

Last week, our hallways and buildings saw hundreds of new smiling faces as we welcomed our 2024 intern class. I had a chance to spend some time with our corporate interns and am inspired by their ambition and appetite to learn and impact the future of retail.

We have nearly 600 interns representing 46 states and more than 250 universities nationwide across our corporate headquarters, stores, and e-fulfillment and distribution centers. Students get unique business exposure in a number of disciplines including merchandising, inventory, art, design, production, sourcing, technology, real estate, finance, HR, marketing, legal, risk management, store operations, leadership management, and more – truly showcasing the breadth of opportunity a career in retail can provide.

Kohl’s internship program has been around for more than 20 years and offers hands-on business experience. Each intern has a coach and a mentor for the summer, they have opportunities to hear from our executive team in a leadership speaker series, and they participate in development sessions, think tanks, and volunteer projects – all encouraging these students to embrace their internship and prepare them for a future career. In some departments, interns are rotated throughout their summer to expose them to several unique job duties and roles, and in the last few weeks of their internship, interns showcase what they’ve learned by leading store walks, presenting final projects, or even providing oversight to a department within a distribution or e-fulfillment center.
To top it off, interns are paid, get to use our associate discount, and have opportunities for future growth.

From Interns To Associates – Investing in Fulfilling Careers
We see our internship program as an important talent pipeline, and I am proud of the fact that more than 1,000 of our current associates started as interns. Edward Bonilla and Janell Wise recently shared their internship experiences, giving insight into what they learned and what they would tell today’s interns.

Edward was a student at the University of California—Riverside when he accepted a Kohl’s internship in the summer of 2012 and was exposed to hands-on experience that inspired his career journey. After graduation, Edward was hired as an assistant store manager, and today he’s the store manager at Kohl’s in Riverside, Calif. “As a sports-minded individual, I think of it as becoming a head coach and you get to see how your team performs. You can track your successes daily and adjust as necessary as you would when you play a game,” said Edward. “In my internship, I was part of the executive team and learned how to manage the store business and day-to-day operations. I was able to help impact service and sales by working in a department making merchandising decisions.”

Janell was a store intern in the summer of 2005. Through her internship, she gained exposure to retail’s numerous career possibilities. She has worked in stores, technology, HR, and now serves as vice president of supply chain.

“I would tell future interns to make the most of your internship. It’s not just about the work we get done, but the relationships we build along the way,” Janell added. “Kohl’s really invests in the internship experience, ensuring that everyone has exposure to key leaders in the company, meaningful projects and such great opportunities to build your network. The store internship really connected me to the roots of what we are here to do – serve our customers, community and associates.”

Janell and Edward are just two individuals who have utilized an open door and created an opportunity to develop. #BestSummerEver Kohl’s interns have a front-row view of the retail world, but they’re also asked to contribute—conducting research, building out projects and pitching ideas that often come to fruition. With summer underway and a full agenda for our interns, I am excited to see the impact these young minds will have on our business. The future of retail is bright, and interns are already full speed ahead as they learn and grow while contributing to our company’s performance, culture, diversity, and values. I’m looking forward to the #BestSummerEver alongside these inspiring students.

Mari Steinmetz

BOISE, Idaho– The Albertsons Companies Foundation today announced the launch of a new collective effort focused on addressing childhood hunger this summer. By bringing together a coalition of leading nonprofit organizations, the first-of-its-kind initiative aims to drive awareness and boost participation in the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) new Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer for Children Program (Summer EBT), also known as SUN Bucks.

“Childhood hunger is a complex problem that requires partners from across the food system to come together and collaborate,” said Christy Duncan Anderson, President and Executive Director of Albertsons Companies Foundation. “Through the collective knowledge, expertise and extensive network of prominent nonprofits and the Albertsons Companies Foundation, we aim to connect with a greater number of families than we could individually.”

For the millions of kids who rely on free or reduced-priced meals at school, summer can mean a lack of access to nutritious food. To help combat this, the USDA has launched Summer EBT, a new program available in 37 states, all five U.S. territories, and two Tribes. The program will provide grocery benefits to low-income families with school-aged children during the summer months when school is out. Eligible families in participating states will receive $120 per eligible school-aged child to purchase groceries.

“We have advocated for the creation of a summer EBT program like SUN Bucks for more than a decade and we are thrilled that this program will be available to families facing food insecurity this summer,” said Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, CEO of Feeding America. “Working alongside people facing hunger and partners like Albertsons Companies Foundation, we will make a real impact on summer hunger and lay the groundwork for more states to participate next year.”

The Albertsons Companies Foundation’s Nourishing Neighbors program together with an Advisory Group of leading players across the food system will work together to ensure as many families as possible benefit from the program in this critical first year. The Advisory Group is comprised of representatives from Feeding America®, Food Research & Action Center, Gift Card Bank, Hunger Free America, mRelief, No Kid Hungry, Partnership for a Healthier America, and WhyHunger. This group reaches more than 200 foodbanks, 500 school districts and community organizations, and over 1500 partner organizations across the country.

“Summer is the hungriest time of the year for the millions of children who rely on school meals, and the rising costs of groceries means families are feeling the pinch even more,” added Anne Filipic, CEO of Share Our Strength, the organization behind the No Kid Hungry campaign. “We believe that by joining Albertsons Companies Foundation and their partners, together we can get one step closer to ensuring every single child in America has the food they need to grow up healthy and strong.”

Through a surround-sound approach designed to reach parents and caregivers online and, in their communities, the initiative aims to ensure families have access to the information they need to learn how they can benefit from this new program.

In addition, the coalition launched a new website, SummerEBT.org, which gives families a simple, fast way to check if they are eligible and connect to their state sign-up site. For families that live in states that are not participating, the site directs them to other food resources, such as the USDA Summer Meals program, and enables them write to their elected representatives encouraging their state’s participation next summer.

About Nourishing Neighbors
Nourishing Neighbors is the signature cause platform of the Albertsons Companies Foundation operating under 17 banners including Safeway, Albertsons, ACME, Jewel-Osco, Shaw’s and Vons. The program is dedicated to ensuring that at-risk children, adults, seniors and families have access to nutritious food needed to thrive. In 2023, along with the Albertsons Companies Foundation, the Company contributed more than $350 million in food and financial support, including more than $35 million through our Nourishing Neighbors Program to ensure those living in our communities and those impacted by disasters have enough to eat. The Foundation is committed to enabling the donation of one billion meals by 2030 and actively championing innovative programs and partnerships to help break the cycle of hunger in the neighborhoods we serve.

About Albertsons Companies
Albertsons Companies is a leading food and drug retailer in the United States. As of February 24, 2024, the Company operated 2,269 retail stores with 1,725 pharmacies, 402 associated fuel centers, 22 dedicated distribution centers and 19 manufacturing facilities. The Company operates stores across 34 states and the District of Columbia under more than 20 well known banners including Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, Shaw’s, Acme, Tom Thumb, Randalls, United Supermarkets, Pavilions, Star Market, Haggen, Carrs, Kings Food Markets and Balducci’s Food Lovers Market.

SEATTLE—June 14, 2024—Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced that the Amazon Books Editors have revealed the Best Books of the Year So Far, naming Percival Everett’s novel, James, as the top choice. The Amazon Books Editors call it “a wildly entertaining and thought-provoking read that cements Percival Everett as one of the best modern-day writers.” Other titles that rounded out the top five include The Women by Kristin Hannah, All the Worst Humans: How I Made News for Dictators, Tycoons, and Politicians by Phil Elwood, The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley, and Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar.

The Amazon Books Editors are on a mission to make it easy for customers to discover great reads from among the wide selection on Amazon through curated recommendations. They collectively read thousands of books per year to determine the Best Books of the Month, the Best Books of the Year So Far, and the Best Books of the Year, while writing regularly about books and interviewing authors on the Amazon Book Review. Comprised of books published between January and June, the Best Books of the Year So Far list features their top 20 book picks, as well as recommendations in popular categories, including literary fiction, mystery and thrillers, romance, history, biographies and memoirs, cookbooks, and children’s books.

Percival Everett’s James joins previous Best of the Year So Far No. 1 picks like Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano, Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt, The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré, and Educated by Tara Westover.

After being told James was the No. 1 pick, Everett said, “I’m always thrilled to hear that someone somewhere in this country is reading any book. I’m especially moved when I imagine that book might be mine. I love books. I sort of like writers. But none of this happens without readers. So, thank you.”

“Like our year-end list, the Best Books of the Year So Far is a culmination of months of passionate debate and careful consideration by our team, and features our top picks across genres,” said Sarah Gelman, editorial director, Amazon Books. “One pick that our entire team was in full agreement on was our top selection, James, which builds on the trend of re-imagining American classics. This re-telling of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a must-read for any type of reader.”

Below are the top 10 picks of 2024 so far. To explore the full Best Books of the Year So Far list, visit www.amazon.com/bestbookssofar. Readers can also tune into an Amazon Live interview with Percival Everett, author of the No. 1 pick James, on June 18 at 11:30 am PDT/2:30 pm EDT.

James by Percival Everett
“With the same fiery wit, snap, and energy of his previous work, Percival Everett brings to life a retelling of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and in so doing delivers an entirely new classic, one that is rip-roaringly American, wry, and hard-hitting. A knock-out.” — Al Woodworth, Amazon editor

The Women by Kristin Hannah
“Packing as much emotional punch as The Nightingale, The Women sings the praises of the unsung heroes of the Vietnam War—the combat nurses. It’s a story that serves as another stitch in a still open wound, one that can only help the healing process.” — Erin Kodicek, Amazon editor

All the Worst Humans: How I Made News for Dictators, Tycoons, and Politicians by Phil Elwood
“This wild, oh-my-God memoir will make your jaw drop. A public relations hit man dishes on all of his dirty deeds, and it’s not only impossible to put down, it’s impossible not to talk about—in other words, perfect summer nonfiction reading.” — Al Woodworth, Amazon editor

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
“This genre-bending novel explores humanity in all its frailty and potential, and how love can alter the course of history. It’s a fantastical novel that’s funny, riveting, heartbreaking, and unputdownable.” — Abby Abell, Amazon editor

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
“Poet Kaveh Akbar makes his dazzling fiction debut with an unforgettable main character whose voice feels shot from a cannon, and reminded us of the charismatic and undeniably addictive hero of Demon Copperhead. Martyr! is both laugh-out-loud funny and deadly serious—a coming-of-age story and a portrait of a young Iranian-American wrestling with what it means to have a life of value.” — Al Woodworth, Amazon editor

Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen
“This horrifying narrative—a minute-by-minute breakdown of what happens after a nuclear missile is launched at the U.S.—is visceral and cinematic, like the big budget blockbuster of Hollywood’s dreams. Even more terrifying: it’s nonfiction, pieced together through interviews and classified documents dug up by Pulitzer Prize-nominated author Annie Jacobsen.” — Lindsay Powers, Amazon editor

All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker
“This extraordinary novel with a dark mystery running through it begins with a beekeeper and a pirate, and a kidnapping that changes their lives. Chris Whitaker’s vivid storytelling makes the pages fly by in a tale of family, survival, devotion, and love so powerful it hurts.” — Seira Wilson, Amazon editor

Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan
“Kevin Kwan (Crazy Rich Asians) once again delights and entertains us with a couture-studded, globe-trotting tale of family, legacy, and finding our own happiness. A surprising confession overheard at an over-the-top island wedding is just the first of many secrets spilled, hearts broken, and plans foiled, in this hilarious rom-com of wealth, prestige, shocking twists, and silver linings.” — Seira Wilson, Amazon editor

Lost Man’s Lane by Scott Carson
“Lost Man’s Lane is a horror-tinged coming-of-age tale: sublime and sharp, poignant, nostalgic, and unsettling, even funny when it needs to be. Carson’s portrait of a teenage boy is spookily spot-on, as is the way he takes the novel terrifyingly sideways.” — Vannessa Cronin, Amazon editor

This Could Be Us by Kennedy Ryan
“This book is so multi-dimensional, just as life is—Kennedy Ryan covers divorce, self-discovery, autism, raising kids, the power of friendships, and other huge life changes, but it is done in a way that is so real and relatable.” — Kami Tei, Amazon editor

About Amazon Books Editors
The Amazon Books Editors are a group of literary experts with extensive experience spanning publishing, journalism, and communications. They read thousands of books every year across genres to help customers discover their next favorite read, and put together Best Books of the Month, Best Books of the Year So Far, and Best Books of the Year lists on Amazon. To read Editor reviews, discover recommendations of new books in popular categories, and explore author interviews, visit the Amazon Book Review. You can also follow the Amazon Books Editors’ recommendations and conversations @amazonbooks on Facebook and Instagram.

About Amazon
Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Amazon strives to be Earth’s Most Customer-Centric Company, Earth’s Best Employer, and Earth’s Safest Place to Work. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Career Choice, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, Alexa, Just Walk Out technology, Amazon Studios, and The Climate Pledge are some of the things pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit amazon.com/about and follow @AmazonNews.

SEATTLE & CHICAGO — Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Grubhub (LSE: JET, AMS: TKWY) today announced they are partnering to make restaurant delivery to customers’ doors more convenient and affordable. Starting today, Amazon customers in the U.S. can order from hundreds of thousands of restaurants in all 50 states with Grubhub directly on Amazon.com and in the Amazon Shopping app. Additionally, as long as a customer remains a Prime member, they can enjoy a free ongoing Grubhub+ membership worth $120 a year, without automatically renewing into a paid Grubhub+ membership. Grubhub+ includes $0 delivery fees on eligible orders over $12, lower service fees, 5% credit back on pick-up orders, and exclusive offers.

“Whether it’s saving money on your favorite takeout with Grubhub+, exclusive deals on Prime Day, prescription savings with RxPass, entertainment with Prime Video, or free shipping on more than 300 million items including tens of millions of products available with Same-Day or One-Day Delivery, Prime keeps getting better for members,” said Jamil Ghani, vice president of Amazon Prime. “We know Prime members value savings on food delivery, so we are extending the $0 delivery fees and exclusive savings with Grubhub+ for Prime members, and now customers can enjoy easy access to Grubhub from the Amazon store and app.”

“We’re thrilled to build on our successful collaboration with Amazon and bring more convenience to Amazon customers by offering Grubhub’s network of hundreds of thousands of restaurants directly on Amazon.com and in the Amazon Shopping app,” said Howard Migdal, chief executive officer of Grubhub. “More consumers can now experience the exceptional value and service offered by Grubhub+, with Prime members enjoying $0 delivery fees on an ongoing basis.”

Get Your Grub (and Convenience) On

Amazon customers can now access Grubhub conveniently on Amazon.com and in the Amazon Shopping app, enabling Grubhub orders without having to download or switch to the Grubhub app. Visit amazon.com/grubhub to complete a food delivery order with Grubhub. The ordering experience is identical to the experience on Grubhub.com or Grubhub’s app. Customers will see the same restaurant prices that they do on Grubhub, and delivery partners will be paid the same way they would be for orders directly from Grubhub.

Get Your Grub (and Savings) On

Prime members can now enjoy all the savings perks of Grubhub+ on an ongoing basis without automatically renewing into a paid Grubhub+ membership—$0 delivery fees on eligible orders, lower service fees, 5% credit back on pick-up orders, and exclusive offers. To view details and activate the Grubhub+ ongoing offer, Prime members can visit amazon.com/grubhub. Previously offered as a one-year trial that converted to a paid Grubhub+ membership, Prime members only need to activate the ongoing Grubhub+ offer once—all one needs to enjoy Grubhub+ is a Prime membership.

Since the start of the Grubhub+ offer in 2022, Prime members have saved hundreds of millions of dollars from waived subscription fees and discounts. Those who place at least one order a month save an average of $300 per year in delivery fees and promotions with Grubhub+. Beyond the $0 delivery fees on eligible orders, lower service fees, 5% credit back on pick-up orders, and exclusive offers that come with Grubhub+, Prime members automatically save $120 per year on a Grubhub+ membership—and every year thereafter as long as they remain with Prime.

Additionally, Prime members can whet their appetites with an exclusive promotional offer, saving Prime members $5 on a Grubhub delivery order over $25 from now through June 2 with the code “PRIME5”. The code can be entered by Prime members during checkout when shopping Grubhub on Amazon.com or in the Amazon Shopping app, or the code can be automatically applied by clicking on a banner at checkout. Those Prime members who choose to use the Grubhub app can input the code manually. Terms and conditions apply.

Additional Amazon & Grubhub Experiences and Offers

Grubhub and Amazon aren’t only rewarding Prime members through cost savings and convenience, but also through exclusive experiences. With Prime Video and Grubhub’s ongoing “Tune In & Takeout” series, the age-old dilemma of “what to watch and what to eat” is solved with unique food pairings and offers that connect to members’ favorite shows and movies on Prime Video, like Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Road House, and Ricky Stanicky. Grubhub recently delivered a limited edition Nuka-Blast Burger meal for fans to celebrate the premiere of Fallout on Prime Video. The kit came with the infamously spicy Nuka-Blast Burger, along with other iconic staples from the show’s post-apocalyptic universe, delivered in a one-of-a-kind collector’s box.

Explore the Benefits of Prime

Prime is savings, convenience, and entertainment all in a single membership. In the U.S., Prime members enjoy a wide range of shopping, savings, and entertainment benefits, including:

More than 300 million items available with free Prime shipping and tens of millions of the most popular items available with free Same-Day or One-Day Delivery.
Exclusive deals and shopping events like Prime Day and Prime Big Deal Days.
Access to a vast collection of premium programming on Prime Video in a one-stop entertainment destination in one application available across thousands of devices, including Amazon MGM Studios-produced series and movies Saltburn, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Reacher, The Boys, Fallout, and Road House; licensed fan favorites Dawson’s Creek and M3GAN; and Prime member exclusive live sports including Thursday Night Football.
The ability to use Prime shopping benefits—like fast, free delivery, a trusted checkout experience, 24/7 live chat support, and hassle-free returns—directly on brands’ online stores with the convenient and trusted experience they expect from Amazon with Buy with Prime.
Ad-free listening of 100 million songs and millions of podcast episodes with Amazon Music.
Prescription medications as low as $1 per month and fast, free shipping from Amazon Pharmacy.
Access to unlimited eligible generic prescription medications for only $5 per month (including free shipping) with RxPass from Amazon Pharmacy.
High-quality health care from One Medical for only $9 per month (or $99 annually), with the option to add up to five additional memberships for the family for only $6 per month (or $66 annually) each.
Free two-hour Amazon Fresh grocery delivery windows on orders over $100 (and delivery charges between $6.95 to $9.95 for orders less than $100), and in-store and online savings on select groceries at Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market stores across the U.S.
Access to unlimited grocery delivery on orders over $35 from Whole Foods Market, Amazon Fresh, and other local grocery and specialty retailers with a grocery delivery subscription for $9.99 per month.
Unlimited photo storage with Amazon Photos.
Instant access to free games, a free Twitch channel subscription, and more gaming benefits with Prime Gaming.
More than 3,000 books and magazines with Prime Reading.
A free Grubhub+ membership valued at $120 per year, offering unlimited $0 delivery fees on eligible orders over $12.

Anyone can join Prime for $14.99 per month or $139 per year or start a free 30-day trial if eligible at amazon.com/prime. Young adults ages 18-24 and college students can try Prime Student with a six-month trial at amazon.com/joinstudent, then pay $7.49 per month, or $69 per year. Qualifying government assistance recipients can try Prime Access for 30-days and then pay $6.99 per month at amazon.com/getprimeaccess.

About Amazon
Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Amazon strives to be Earth’s Most Customer-Centric Company, Earth’s Best Employer, and Earth’s Safest Place to Work. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Career Choice, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, Alexa, Just Walk Out technology, Amazon Studios, and The Climate Pledge are some of the things pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit amazon.com/about and follow @AmazonNews.

About Grubhub
Grubhub is part of Just Eat Takeaway.com (LSE: JET, AMS: TKWY), and is a leading U.S. food ordering and delivery marketplace. Dedicated to connecting diners with the food they love from their favorite local restaurants, Grubhub elevates food ordering through innovative restaurant technology, easy-to-use platforms, and an improved delivery experience. Grubhub features 375,000 merchants in over 4,000 U.S. cities.

The retail landscape is experiencing a significant transformation, driven by evolving consumer behaviors in this increasingly omnichannel world. At Walmart, we understand the value of real-time, consistent and flexible data in deriving smarter insights and more personalized offerings for our customers. This is why we embarked on a data analytics journey in 2021 and established Walmart Data Ventures, a division dedicated to bringing to life new business applications of Walmart’s powerful first-party data. Our ambition is to enhance the customer experience across the entire value chain through Walmart Luminate, our comprehensive data analytics product suite.

Today, we are announcing a significant milestone: the international expansion of our Walmart Luminate platform beginning with Walmex in Mexico followed by Walmart Canada later this year. Mirroring the strategy used in the U.S., this will be a phased launch, starting with Shopper Behavior followed by Channel Performance and Customer Perception. We couldn’t be more excited to extend our innovative retail solutions to these new markets and empower our merchants and suppliers with a shared view of the customer and our products – from the physical to the digital shelf.

At Walmart Data Ventures, our mission is to become a global leader in insights and analytics, and this expansion marks a pivotal moment on that journey. This also presents an incredible opportunity for our multi-market suppliers who will now be able to leverage our platform outside the U.S. and make an even greater impact in these markets.

Since we launched Walmart Luminate, we’ve successfully aided in optimizing retail strategies – from product assortment to product development – leveling the playing field for suppliers of all sizes. Today, 90% of Walmart’s largest suppliers have signed up for a Walmart Luminate Charter subscription, and some of our smaller suppliers account for approximately 50% of our total subscriptions.

Through our acquisition of Volt Systems in 2022, we’ve been able to extend our value proposition to store operators and primary service providers by providing on-demand visibility to merchandising resources that help ensure our customers can find the right product, in the right place, at the right time.

“At Kimberly-Clark, Walmart Luminate has played an integral role in our strategy,” said Amanda Coussoule, vice president of sales for Walmart Inc. at Kimberly-Clark. “Walmart Luminate empowers us to tailor our offerings precisely to consumer needs, ensuring unparalleled shopping experiences. Extending this capability to Walmex and Walmart Canada will further enhance our ability to make data-driven decisions.”

What began as a small but dedicated team has evolved into a thriving commercial business with international scale and even more opportunities ahead to create lasting value for our customers. We look forward to sharing more updates on the growth of Walmart Data Ventures, the evolution of Walmart Luminate, and how we’re bringing our brand promise to life in ways that are transforming retail.

BENTONVILLE, Ark., — Sam’s Club, one of the world’s leading retailers and digital innovation pioneer, today announced significant progress in its rollout of technology that resolves a key member concern – waiting in line for receipt verification to exit the club. The retailer’s first-of-its-kind application of artificial intelligence and computer vision technology has been successfully deployed in more than 120 clubs since first unveiling it at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January.

Sam’s Club’s rapid deployment of its exit technology represents the largest-scale implementation of member-facing AI-powered technology in the retail industry. The retailer’s announcement of reaching the milestone of deploying at 20% of its clubs in the first quarter comes as other retailers have struggled to deploy similar technology at scale, with some abandoning efforts, just starting initial pilots or having no plans to enhance customer experiences through checkout and store exit technologies.

This new technology has improved the experience for Sam’s Club members almost immediately upon deployment. In clubs where the technology has been deployed, more than half of members are getting the friction-free exit experience. This translates to all members leaving the club 23% faster. Sam’s Club is uniquely positioned as the first retailer to not only extensively deploy this technology at scale, but also to successfully build, design and roll it out in-house, addressing member pain points in the purchase-to-exit process. Sam’s Club plans to deploy the exit technology to all of its clubs by the end of 2024.

The move to use technology innovation to drive a better member experience builds on Sam’s Club’s existing innovative digital solutions, such as Scan & Go™️ which the company believes is the most used mobile application in a retailer and/or restaurant in the United States, to provide members with a more convenient shopping experience and differentiate itself as the retail industry’s innovation leader.

“I’m incredibly proud of the innovation and dedication of our team to deploy this member experience technology at scale,” said Todd Garner, chief product officer, Sam’s Club. “Both exit technology and Scan & Go are driving new levels of convenience and raising member satisfaction among members. What distinguishes Sam’s Club from our competitors is our ability to seamlessly deploy this technology at scale across our nearly 600 clubs nationwide. Whether it’s a single item or a cartful, we’re revolutionizing the checkout experience.”

Deploying Exit Technology at Scale
Sam’s Club’s exit technology is used to seamlessly confirm members have paid for all items in their shopping carts – without requiring an associate to check members’ purchases before leaving the club. Before this technology, members were slowed by queuing at the club’s exit area to have member specialists review receipts and examine items in a member’s cart. Members said they want a faster and more convenient shopping experience and consistently rated the potentially lengthy wait times at exit – especially during busy periods – as a primary pain point in their shopping experience.

Now after a member completes payment at a register or via Scan & Go, a combination of computer vision and digital technology deployed in the exit area of the club captures images of carts and verifies payment for all items within a member’s basket. With AI working in the background to continually speed the process, this digital innovation not only streamlines the member’s exit, but also allows member specialists to refocus their time and expertise to assisting members and ensuring they have an enjoyable shopping experience. With AI constantly learning and improving across thousands of exit transactions at multiple locations, Sam’s Club said it will continue iterating and enhancing the technology as the deployment rollout continues.

Sam’s Club’s technology at exit is a natural extension of its use of digital techniques to enhance the shopping experience through Scan & Go, which allows members to use their mobile Sam’s Club app to capture purchases on-the-go and bypass the traditional checkout line in the club – and also use that same mobile technology at the fuel station and Café.

About Sam’s Club
Sam’s Club®, a division of Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT), one of the world’s leading retailers, is a membership retail club offering superior products, savings and services to millions of members in nearly 600 clubs in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Now in its 41st year, Sam’s Club continues to redefine club membership shopping with its highly curated assortment of high-quality fresh food and Member’s Mark® items, in addition to market leading technologies and services like Scan & Go™️, Curbside Pickup and home delivery service in select markets. To learn more about Sam’s Club, visit the Sam’s Club Newsroom, shop at SamsClub.com and interact with Sam’s Club on LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Pinterest.

This Earth Month and every month, we celebrate the ways that sustainability makes our business and communities stronger — and helps us deliver a more joyful, meaningful experience to guests. From the design of our owned brands to the energy that powers our nearly 2,000 stores, we’re making thoughtful choices through our Target Forward sustainability strategy to benefit people, the planet and our long-term growth.

All year long, Target takes a holistic approach to sustainability — finding ways to infuse sustainable practices throughout our operations while inviting our guests to engage in ways that are most meaningful to them. Whether it’s delivering programs like our car seat trade-in events, offering electric vehicle charging stations at 200-plus stores, or evolving our owned brands to include more sustainable solutions, together, our collective actions are driving down emissions and sustaining our business for years to come.

Owned brands go full circle
We’re springing toward our goal of designing all our owned brand products for a circular future by 2040 with Universal Thread and Everspring. Both are slated to hit the milestone in 2025. We’re already making progress with the launch of two Universal Thread products made with yarn blended with fibers collected from used garments and manufacturing scraps. Learnings from the shrunken crewneck T-shirt (shown here) and cami, developed in partnership with the nonprofit Accelerating Circularity, are helping us scale up our efforts.

Car seats get a new life
Our guest-favorite car seat trade-in event — happening this April 14-27 — provides the opportunity to trade in old car seats for a 20% off coupon toward a new car seat or select baby gear. It’s also a way for guests to make a sustainable choice: So far, we’ve recycled over 2.6 million car seats, or 39.7 million pounds worth. Even better: We’re using some of the materials collected from the trade-in to create new products and materials, including select Brightroom crates — providing another boost to our circularity efforts.

Charged up for EVs
We’re continuing to expand our electric vehicle charging network, which includes more than 1,800 spaces across more than 220 stores — and counting. It’s one of the many ways we’re working toward our goal to be the market leader for creating and curating inclusive, sustainable brands and experiences for our guests by 2030.

Plugged into renewable energy
As part of our journey to hit net zero emissions across our enterprise by 2040, we’re investing in numerous projects across the country. This includes building the largest rooftop solar array in the state of New York on our distribution center in Wilton. Going live this year, the 7.5-megawatt system will provide enough watts of electricity to power over 1,200 homes annually and will eliminate Target’s electric bill at the site.

Our store in Vista, California, is our first store designed to be net-zero energy — incorporating both rooftop and parking lot canopy solar panels. With its over 3,400 solar panels now fully operational, it is successfully producing over 100% of the site’s energy needs. As of last year, more than 580 of our sites across the country have rooftop solar — with even more to come.

We’re also investing in other forms of renewable energy through our purchasing agreements. In Texas, we’ve partnered with Swift Current Energy to buy power from its Castle Gap Wind project, supporting our goal to source 100% of our electricity from renewable sources for our operations by 2030.

A more sustainable supply chain
Across our supply chain, we’re exploring ways to operate more efficiently and sustainably, including reducing emissions. For example, last year, we cut more than 35 million miles by sending fewer but fuller trailers of product to our distribution centers and our stores. And our facilities that take online orders packaged at our stores and sort them for delivery are combining multiple deliveries in local neighborhoods, which further cuts down on the miles our packages travel to reach guests.

We’re also making a positive impact at Target’s first owned and operated returns center in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. The returns center takes overstock, clearance, guest returns and damaged merchandise from our stores and distribution centers and sorts them for recycling, returning to our vendors and resale. What’s especially great? It reduces how much damaged product ends up in landfills and could teach us more ways to reuse materials in new products designed for circularity.

Partnering up
To achieve our bold goals, we are embracing the power of partnership:

In support of our net zero commitment, we’ve partnered with Schneider Electric, which is educating and supporting our suppliers to tap into renewable energy through our Forward Renew program.
As we work to reduce our plastics footprint, we continue to serve as a Founding Partner of the Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag, a retail industry collaboration managed by the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners to eliminate single-use plastic bag waste.
Reflecting our belief in the power of energy efficiency and affordability, Target has received ENERGY STAR’s Partner of the Year award for sustained excellence in energy management, which recognizes businesses that improve the energy performance of their operations and help reduce energy use through product assortment — for the ninth year in a row. You’ll find ENERGY STAR-rated products at your local Target, too.

This is just a sampling of the amazing work taking place in support of our Target Forward sustainability strategy, led by teams across Target. Check out these other ways we’ve been moving toward a more sustainable future.

The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) and Albertsons Companies Inc. (NYSE: ACI) announced today that they have amended their definitive agreement with C&S Wholesale Grocers, LLC (C&S) for the sale of assets in connection with their proposed merger previously announced on October 14, 2022. This amended package modifies and builds on the initial divestiture package that was announced on September 8, 2023.

The amended divestiture package responds to concerns raised by federal and state antitrust regulators regarding the original agreement. The enhanced divestiture package includes a modified and expanded store set and additional non-store assets to further enable C&S to operate competitively following the completion of the proposed merger. The companies believe the amended divestiture package will bolster their position in regulatory challenges to the proposed merger, including pending court proceedings.

“We have reached an agreement with C&S for an updated divestiture package that maintains Kroger’s commitments to customers, associates and communities, addresses concerns raised by regulators, and will further ensure that C&S can successfully operate the divested stores as they are operated today,” said Rodney McMullen, Kroger’s Chairman and CEO. “Importantly, the updated divestiture plan continues to ensure no stores will close as a result of the merger and that all frontline associates will remain employed, all existing collective bargaining agreements will continue, and associates will continue to receive industry-leading health care and pension benefits alongside bargained-for wages. Our proposed merger with Albertsons will bring lower prices and more choices to more customers and secure the long-term future of unionized grocery jobs.”

The proposed merger will create meaningful and measurable benefits for America’s consumers, Kroger and Albertsons Cos. associates, and communities that both Kroger and Albertsons Cos. serve by expanding access to fresh, affordable food and establishing a more compelling alternative to large, non-union retailers. This updated divestiture plan marks another next step toward the completion of the merger by adding a well-capitalized competitor into new geographies.

“We are confident this expanded divestiture package will provide the stores, supporting assets and expert operators needed to ensure these stores continue to successfully serve their communities for many generations to come,” said Eric Winn, CEO of C&S. “C&S is a leader in the grocery industry, and we are excited for this expansion of our current retail business, which is a key part of our long-term growth strategy. We look forward to welcoming storied banners, quality private label brands, and a team of experienced retail associates into the C&S family. This amended agreement enables C&S’s heritage of selection, value and customer service to continue our legacy of braggingly happy customers.”

Transaction Details
The updated divestiture package increases the total store count by 166 to include 579 stores that will be sold to, and continue operating as they do today by the new owner, C&S.

It maintains the sale to C&S of the QFC, Mariano’s and Carrs banner names. Under the amended agreement, Kroger will also sell the Haggen banner to C&S. Stores currently under these banners that are retained by Kroger will be re-bannered into one of the retained Kroger or Albertsons Cos. banners following the close of the transaction with C&S.

Under the amended agreement, C&S will license the Albertsons banner in California and Wyoming and the Safeway banner in Arizona and Colorado. In these states, Kroger will re-banner the retained Albertsons and Safeway bannered stores following the closing of the merger. Kroger will maintain the Albertsons and Safeway banners in the remaining states.

The number of stores contained in the divestiture plan by geography is as follows:

• WA: 124 Albertsons Cos. and Kroger stores
• CA: 63 Albertsons Cos. stores
• CO: 91 Albertsons Cos. stores
• OR: 62 Albertsons Cos. and Kroger stores
• TX/LA: 30 Albertsons Cos. stores
• AZ: 101 Albertsons Cos. stores
• NV: 16 Albertsons Cos. stores
• IL: 35 Albertsons Cos. and Kroger stores
• AK: 18 Albertsons Cos. stores
• ID: 10 Albertsons Cos. stores
• NM: 9 Albertsons Cos. stores
• MT/UT/WY: 11 Albertsons Cos. stores
• DC/MD/VA/DE: 9 Harris Teeter stores

The above stores (regardless of banner) will be sold by Kroger to C&S following the closing of the merger with Albertsons Cos.

In connection with the additional stores being conveyed to C&S, the updated divestiture package includes increased distribution capacity through a combination of different and larger facilities as well as expanded transition services agreements to support C&S and the addition of one dairy facility.

The amended divestiture package also expands the corporate and office infrastructure provided to C&S given the increased store set to ensure C&S can continue to operate the divested stores competitively and cohesively. All fuel centers and pharmacies associated with the divested stores will remain with the stores and continue to operate.

The amended agreement maintains the divestiture of private label brands Debi Lilly Design, Primo Taglio, Open Nature, ReadyMeals and Waterfront Bistro to C&S. The revised agreement also provides C&S with access to the Signature and O Organics private label brands.

The updated plan will:

• Extend a competitor to new geographies through the sale of stores to a well-capitalized buyer that is led by seasoned operators with a strong balance sheet and a sound business plan;
• Ensure that no stores will close as a result of the merger;
• Maintain all current collective bargaining agreements, which include industry-leading healthcare and pension benefits, bargained-for wages, and ensuring frontline associates remain employed; and
• Commit to invest in associates and stores for the long term.

Subject to fulfillment of customary closing conditions, including Federal Trade Commission and/or other governmental clearance, and the completion of the Kroger-Albertsons merger, C&S will pay Kroger an all-cash consideration of approximately $2.9 billion, including customary adjustments.

Merger creates meaningful benefits for customers, associates and communities
The proposed merger with Albertsons Cos. will produce meaningful and measurable benefits for customers, associates and communities across the country. The combined company committed that no stores, distribution centers or manufacturing facilities will close as a result of the merger.

Customers will benefit from lower prices and more choices following the merger close. Kroger committed to investing $500 million to begin lowering prices day one post-close, and an additional $1.3 billion to improve Albertsons Cos.’ stores.

This commitment builds on Kroger’s long track record of reducing prices every year, with $5 billion invested to lower prices since 2003. Customers will also have access to more favorite items from their own communities, as Kroger committed to increasing the number of local products in its stores by 10 percent post-close. This merger creates more opportunities for families to access the fresh, affordable foods they love.

As a combined company, Kroger committed to investing $1 billion to raise wages and comprehensive benefits. This builds on the incremental $2.4 billion Kroger invested to improve wages and comprehensive benefits since 2018. To provide the best holistic support for each associate, the company will also extend continuing education and financial literacy benefits to all associates following the merger close. As union membership continues to decline nationwide, especially in the grocery industry, this merger is the best way to secure union jobs. Kroger has added more than 100,000 good-paying union jobs since 2012.

The proposed merger will allow the combined company to invest more deeply to end hunger in communities across America. In 2023, Kroger committed to donating 10 billion meals to families across the U.S. by 2030. Bringing these companies together provides one more step toward achieving communities that are free from hunger and food waste.

Kroger and Albertsons Cos. remain committed to defending the merger in court and unlocking the many benefits it offers.

Read more about the combined company’s commitment to customers, associates and communities at www.krogeralbertsons.com

About Kroger
At The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR), we are dedicated to our Purpose: To Feed the Human Spirit™. We are, across our family of companies nearly half a million associates who serve over 11 million customers daily through a seamless digital shopping experience and retail food stores under a variety of banner names, serving America through food inspiration and uplift, and creating #ZeroHungerZeroWaste communities by 2025. To learn more about us, visit our newsroom and investor relations site.

Six years. Nearly half a billion dollars in tuition savings for associates. Walmart’s Live Better U (LBU) education benefit has given over 126,000 associates the opportunity to learn from top academic institutions, like the University of Arkansas, Purdue Global and Spelman College, so they can build brighter futures.

We launched LBU in 2018 as a $1 a day education benefit for associates and dropped the fee in 2021 to make learning more accessible. But we know we can do even more to help associates accelerate their careers.

That’s why we’re reimagining LBU to focus on skills that make associates more hirable for key roles within the company. Our goal is to help fast-track Walmart and Sam’s Club associates into approximately 100,000 in-demand jobs we expect to fill over the next three years.

This number represents jobs we’ve identified as critical to how we serve customers both today and in the future. This includes salaried management and hourly supervisor roles in our stores, clubs and supply chain facilities. We’re also focused on helping associates develop the skills to move into roles in technology, Health & Wellness, our private fleet of truck drivers and other growing parts of our company.

This approach will help us emphasize skills-based hiring as we remove college degree requirements for the majority of our roles.

For starters, we’ve more than doubled the number of short-form certificates and courses we offer to over 50 options. Associates are telling us they want shorter options, and for good reason. Our associates complete short-form certificates in just four months, on average. The quicker they learn new skills, the faster they can move up.

Some of the certificates we offer include frontline manager leadership, people and business leadership, data science, software development and project management. We’re even producing our own certificates, including a supply chain operations course created in tandem with the University of Arkansas.

Let’s be clear: college degrees are still valuable, and associates will still be able to earn them from prestigious institutions. We also continue to offer college start classes so associates can earn an initial semester of credit in a low-pressure environment. That said, we are adjusting the degrees we offer so they are targeted to specific skills and jobs where we believe a degree is the best education option. For example, we offer business-related degrees from the University of Arkansas, Purdue Global, Bellevue University and Southern New Hampshire, as well as degrees in supply chain, transportation and logistics management – just to name a few.

We want associates to have ultimate flexibility and control over their career, so we’re making it easy for them to earn college credit simply by attending training. Associates can earn up to six hours of credit, for example, just by attending four days of leadership training at one of the more than 200 Walmart Academy training facilities in the U.S. Our five-day Manager Academy classes in Bentonville, Arkansas, are worth up to nine hours. This gives them the ability to quickly earn both credit and certificates.

We’ve learned a lot since launching LBU by listening to associates, seeking their feedback and studying data. This new approach will allow us to fill in-demand jobs with talented Walmart and Sam’s Club associates at an even higher rate.

We hope over the next five years that more employers take these big steps. It’s good for business, life-changing for associates and true to Walmart’s longstanding culture of growing our own, promoting from within and preparing them for the future of work.

SEATTLE — Amazon Web Services (AWS), an Amazon.com, Inc. company (NASDAQ: AMZN), today announced the launch of its second AWS infrastructure Region in Canada—the AWS Canada West (Calgary) Region. Starting today, developers, startups, entrepreneurs, and enterprises, as well as government, education, and nonprofit organizations, will have greater choice for running their applications and serving end users from AWS data centers located in Canada. Customers will also have access to advanced AWS technologies, including data analytics, security, machine learning (ML), and artificial intelligence (AI), to drive innovation. AWS also released a new economic impact study highlighting that the company is planning to invest an estimated $17.9 billion (approximately CA $24.8 billion) in Canada through 2037 via the new AWS Canada West (Calgary) Region and the existing AWS Canada (Central) Region in Quebec. For more information about AWS Global Infrastructure, visit aws.amazon.com/about-aws/global-infrastructure.

“With the launch of the AWS Canada West (Calgary) Region, customers and partners across Canada now have additional infrastructure to deploy applications with greater resilience, availability, and lower latency, while enabling more customers to innovate with advanced technologies like artificial intelligence to help fuel economic development across the country,” said Prasad Kalyanaraman, vice president of Infrastructure Services at AWS. “AWS is committed to helping organizations of all sizes and across all industries increase agility and drive innovation. We are proud to deepen our investment by driving local job creation, building cloud skills, and creating opportunities for growth and collaboration with our local customers and AWS Partners.”

“Our government is committed to positioning our domestic industries for long-term growth and sustainability. The powerful digital infrastructure being established by Amazon Web Services near Calgary, Alberta will support Canadian developers, startups, large enterprises and academic institutions in their work by enabling access to AWS’s powerful advanced cloud technologies,” said The Hon. François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, Government of Canada. “This means faster and more reliable access to cloud services to support computing, storage, networking, analytics, artificial intelligence, mobile, hybrid, media, and security, which helps to secure well-paying jobs across many new industries.”

“Alberta has one of the fastest growing tech markets in North America and is an internationally recognized hub of tech innovation,” said the Hon. Nate Glubish, Minister of Technology and Innovation for the Government of Alberta. “The establishment of an Amazon Web Services infrastructure Region near Calgary further strengthens our information technology sector and supports businesses and public sector organizations while helping to attract the best-in-class talent.”

With the launch of the AWS Canada West (Calgary) Region, AWS has 105 Availability Zones across 33 geographic regions, with announced plans to launch 12 more Availability Zones and four more AWS Regions in Malaysia, New Zealand, Thailand, and the AWS European Sovereign Cloud. The AWS Canada West (Calgary) Region consists of three Availability Zones and joins the existing AWS Canada (Central) Region, which opened in December 2016. AWS Regions are composed of Availability Zones that place infrastructure in separate and distinct geographic locations. Availability Zones are located far enough from each other to support customers’ business continuity, but near enough to provide low latency for high availability applications that use multiple Availability Zones. Each Availability Zone has independent power, cooling, and physical security and is connected through redundant, ultra-low-latency networks. AWS customers focused on high availability can design their applications to run in multiple Availability Zones to achieve even greater fault tolerance.

With the launch of the new AWS Canada West (Calgary) Region, AWS becomes the first major cloud services provider to have an infrastructure region in Western Canada. The launch of the AWS Canada West (Calgary) Region provides customers with more options to run workloads with even greater resilience and availability, and to securely store data in Canada, while providing even lower latency across the country to drive greater productivity, more efficient business operations, and enhanced real-time application performance. Customers can now use the AWS Canada West (Calgary) Region, in addition to the AWS Canada (Central) Region, for use cases such as disaster recovery and can run their mission-critical applications across multiple AWS Regions in Canada with even higher levels of resilience and availability. Customers also have access to advanced AWS technologies to accelerate innovation, including compute, storage, networking, business applications, developer tools, data analytics, security, ML, and AI. As part of its infrastructure across the country, AWS has launched eight total Amazon CloudFront locations in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. Amazon CloudFront is a highly secure and programmable content delivery network (CDN) that accelerates the delivery of data, videos, applications, and APIs to users worldwide, with low latency and high transfer speeds. In addition, AWS has announced AWS Local Zones in Toronto and Vancouver. AWS Local Zones are a type of AWS infrastructure deployment that places compute, storage, database, and other select services closer to customers for applications that require single-digit millisecond latency to end users.

AWS also released an economic impact study estimating the company’s projected spending on the construction and operation of its two AWS infrastructure Regions in Canada will support an average of more than 9,300 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs at external businesses annually, with a planned investment of more than $17.9 billion (approx. CA $24.8 billion) through 2037. The new AWS Canada West (Calgary) Region, specifically, is estimated to support an average of more than 1,300 FTE jobs annually, and AWS plans to invest more than $2.9 billion (approx. CA $4 billion) in Alberta through 2037. These jobs, including construction, facility maintenance, engineering, telecommunications, and others within the country’s broader economy, will be part of the AWS supply chain in Canada. In addition, the construction and operation of the two AWS infrastructure Regions is estimated to generate more than $31 billion (approx. CA $43.02 billion) in gross domestic product (GDP), and the new AWS Canada West (Calgary) Region is estimated to add about $4.1 billion (CA $5.62 billion) to Canada’s GDP through 2037.

Customers and AWS Partners welcome the AWS Canada West (Calgary) Region

Tens of thousands of Canadian organizations are among the millions of active customers using AWS around the world. Large and small enterprises in Canada choose AWS to innovate, drive cost efficiencies, and accelerate time to market. Customers in Canada using AWS to build their businesses and rapidly scale nationally and around the world include Bell Canada, BlackBerry, BrainBox AI, Calgary Sports and Entertainment, CI Financial, Good Chemistry, Keyera, Kidoodle.tv, KOHO Financial, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE), the National Hockey League (NHL), Neo Financial, Nutrien, RBC, SECURE, STEMCELL Technologies, Strathcona Resources, Sun Life, and TELUS. Public sector organizations that use AWS to transform the services delivered to Canadians include AlayaCare, the College of Physicians and Surgeons Alberta (CPSA), Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), the University of Alberta, the University of Calgary, WELL Health, and several groups within the Department of National Defence and Canadian Armed Forces.

Bell Canada, a leading Canadian technology services and digital media company, is leveraging AWS capabilities to develop and scale innovative apps and to revolutionize how subscribers engage with its services and content. “Bell’s purpose is to advance how Canadians connect with each other and the world,” said Petri Lyytikainen, VP of Enterprise Architecture, Cloud and Data Platforms at Bell Canada. “This collaboration reinforces our commitment to business resilience and fosters next-generation service innovations for both consumer and business customers across Canada.”

CI Financial is a diversified global asset and wealth management corporation operating primarily in Canada, Australia, and the United States. The company manages and advises on approximately $420.7 billion in client assets. “We moved to AWS to improve our customer service, optimize business performance, and promote company-wide growth through the acquisition of new clients,” said Ravi Kishore, director, Cloud Platform Engineering & Operations, CI Financial. “With our strategic business applications now running on AWS, we’re developing new products faster than before, and leveraging our data to drive business decisions – continuously adapting to our customers’ evolving needs and enhancing their experience. The new AWS Region near Calgary will help us further advance our operations with real-time analytics, while keeping all data in-country.”

KOHO Financial (KOHO) is a Vancouver-based fintech company that is democratizing access to personal finance solutions by offering Canadians accessible, affordable spending and savings products. KOHO’s core business applications were born on AWS, and the company uses AWS’s AI and machine learning services in several areas of its operations. “The new AWS Region near Calgary will deliver several benefits for our business, including having a failover region in-country so we can provide improved resiliency and reduced latency to our users,” said Jonathan Klein, chief technology officer, KOHO.

The National Hockey League is the premiere hockey league in the world and has been using AWS as its official cloud infrastructure provider to help analyze the details of the game for hockey fans, teams, and media partners. The NHL uses AWS artificial intelligence, machine learning, and more for its advanced analytic derivatives, NHL EdgeIQ powered by AWS. “AWS is an industry leader in its portfolio of cloud services, helping to enable us to bring our fans closer to the game on the ice, while giving every team, official, and media partner advanced analysis of the game faster than ever before,” said Dave Lehanski, NHL executive vice president, Business Development and Innovation. “With the launch of a second AWS Region in Canada, this provides us more flexibility, reliability, and security to unlock more opportunities to engage our fans across Canada and the world to better understand and enjoy the game.”

SECURE is a leading environmental waste management and energy infrastructure company with an extensive network of waste processing facilities, landfills, metal recycling facilities, fluid management facilities, gathering pipelines, and terminals in Western Canada and the United States. “We’ve been working with AWS since 2021 to evaluate how SECURE uses analytics to provide a best-in-class customer experience, while solving challenges our industry faces every day,” said Marvin Wong, vice president, Business Intelligence, Technology and Security at SECURE. “Leveraging AWS artificial intelligence and machine learning services like Amazon SageMaker and Amazon Forecast allows us to reduce time required to turn imagining into reality. In turn, SECURE and our customers can approach complex problems with agility to improve efficiency, sustainability, and provide solutions to optimize waste management. The data residency and lower latency provided by the AWS Canada West (Calgary) Region will allow SECURE to further our use of real-time data, helping us and our customers continue to challenge what is possible to create a more connected and efficient industry.”

STEMCELL Technologies is Canada’s largest biotech company, which manufactures and distributes more than 2,500 scientific products to labs globally. STEMCELL relies on AWS to scale its operations, optimize costs, and increase the speed of innovation to better serve its life science customers. “Technology is at the core of our company’s ongoing digital transformation and long-term growth,” said John Lilleyman, chief information officer at STEMCELL. “We moved to AWS in 2010 to help us focus our efforts on supporting science at a hyperscale level. As a result, teams spent less time on infrastructure and maintenance, and more time on innovating. The addition of this second AWS Region in Canada will help us to further improve the resilience of our critical workloads and help ensure we provide our employees, the majority of whom are based in Greater Vancouver, a low latency user experience.”

Sun Life is a leading international financial services organization providing asset management, wealth, insurance and health solutions to individual and institutional clients. “We’ve been on a journey to be a digital leader so we can help our clients achieve lifetime financial security and live healthier lives,” said Laura Money, EVP and chief information and technology innovation officer at Sun Life. “The launch of a second AWS Region in Canada is a critical step that will help us ensure greater resilience, stability and scalability so we can better support our clients across Canada.”

TELUS, a leading communications technology company, is collaborating with AWS to simplify and transform the smart living experience. The TELUS smart living solution leverages AWS’s portfolio of cloud, Internet of Things (IoT), AI and ML services, and support multiple IoT protocols, to help create automation experiences across consumers’ connected devices. “In partnership with AWS, TELUS is transforming the connected home experience with the world’s first device-agnostic connected home solution that simplifies the installation, setup, and management of all of your connected devices,” said Garry Gross, vice president of Platform and Systems Development at TELUS. “The addition of the AWS Canada West (Calgary) Region, combined with the AWS Canada (Central) Region ensures our customers enjoy a higher level of resilience and availability necessary to support this hyper-personalized smart home experience.”

The AWS Partner Network (APN) includes tens of thousands of independent software vendors (ISVs) and systems integrators (SIs) around the world. AWS Partners build innovative solutions and services on AWS, and the APN helps by providing business, technical, marketing, and go-to-market support to customers. AWS ISVs, technology partners, SIs, and consulting partners help enterprise and public sector customers migrate to AWS, deploy mission-critical applications, and provide a full range of monitoring, automation, and management services for customers’ cloud environments. AWS Partners in Canada include Accenture, Adastra, Autoverse, CGI, Cofomo, Cohere, CrowdStrike, Datadog, Databricks, Deloitte, ESTI, Forrest Green, Insight, IT2Go, Kidoodle.TV, Kyndryl (ISM), IBM, Levio, OnX, OpsGuru, Rackspace, SentinelOne, Slalom, SmartSimple, Splunk, Softchoice, TELUS, Trend Micro, Qalius, Quantiphi, Veeam, Visier, Zscaler, and many others. For the full list of AWS Partners, visit aws.amazon.com/partners.

CGI, an AWS Advanced Tier Services Partner and leading managed services provider, is among the largest IT and business consulting services firms in the world. “CGI welcomes this significant investment by AWS in adding a second Region to the Canadian market,” says Dean Bosch, senior vice president for Western Canada at CGI. “The new AWS Region near Calgary will empower clients with data residency preferences to securely store data in Canada, while providing even lower latency across the country and more flexibility to run applications across multiple Regions. Our partnership with AWS enables CGI and our clients to provide greater experiences and outcomes for Canadians.”

Enabling Canada’s workforce

AWS continues to invest in upskilling developers, students, and the next generation of IT leaders in Canada with sought-after cloud skills through programs like AWS Academy and AWS Educate, which provide free resources to accelerate cloud-related learning and prepare students for the jobs of the future. Numerous Canadian universities and business schools, including Athabasca University, Bow Valley College, Concordia University of Edmonton, Humber College, McMaster University, Queen’s University, Red River College Polytechnic, and Université de Sherbrooke, participate in these programs. AWS also offers a free full-time, classroom-based skills development and training program, AWS re/Start, to prepare individuals for careers in the cloud and connect them to potential employers. In 2022, AWS teamed up with Calgary’s Mount Royal University to launch AWS re/Start for displaced oil and gas workers, and with Momentum, a Calgary-based not-for-profit, to bring more women into the tech workforce. AWS also launched the AWS Fiber Optic Fusion Splicing Certificate Course, a two-day training course on fiber optic installation and repair, offered at no cost to participants, to create a pipeline of qualified talent for local and national fiber optic installation and repair companies. Since 2017, AWS has trained more than 200,000 Canadians on cloud computing skills as part of Amazon’s commitment to train 29 million people around the world for free on cloud and technical skills by 2025.

The University of Calgary is a top research university and Canada’s leading start-up creator. Across five campuses, UCalgary fosters an innovative learning environment for its 35,000 students, made rich by research, hands-on experiences and entrepreneurial thinking. “At the University of Calgary, we are committed to equipping our researchers, students, and staff with the tools they need to create new knowledge and research that will change the world,” says Dr. Robert Thompson, Ph.D., associate vice president (Research) and director of Research Services at the University of Calgary. “By working with AWS, we can offer our faculty, postdocs, staff, and students access to cutting-edge virtual learning environments, artificial intelligence, machine learning, data and analytics, and high-performance computing technology that helps accelerate discovery. Already, AWS has helped expand our research capacity in areas ranging from biomedical engineering, to geomatics, to quantum computing. Having this new Region in close proximity will allow us to further harness the tremendous potential of the AWS cloud and advance our research and innovation ecosystem.”

Commitment to sustainability

Amazon is committed to becoming a more sustainable business and reaching net-zero carbon across its operations by 2040, 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement, as part of The Climate Pledge. Amazon co-founded The Climate Pledge and became its first signatory in 2019. As part of its Climate Pledge commitment, Amazon is on a path to power its operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025, five years ahead of the original 2030 target. See Amazon’s public methodology for more on its approach. In 2022, Amazon set a new corporate record for the most renewable energy announced by a single company in one year and remains the largest corporate buyer of renewable energy—a position it’s held since 2020, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Amazon now has 479 renewable energy projects in 26 countries. Additionally, AWS will be water positive by 2030, returning more water to communities than it uses in its direct operations.

With a total of four renewable energy projects in Canada, Amazon is currently the largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy in the country, according to Bloomberg NEF. Once operational, the projects will generate more than 2.3 million megawatt hours (MWH) of clean energy – enough to power 1.69 million Canadian homes. Amazon recently announced its first wind farm in Vulcan County, Alberta, and has previously invested in two solar farms, as well as a rooftop solar energy project at an Amazon delivery station in Nisku, Alberta. Amazon’s solar and wind projects are also helping benefit the local economy in Canada. New economic data from Amazon shows the company’s investments in utility-scale renewable energy projects generated an estimated CA $478 million in local economic investment, and contributed CA $206 million in total gross domestic product (GDP) from 2014 through 2022. These projects will contribute to powering Amazon’s global infrastructure. More information on AWS sustainability efforts can be found at aws.amazon.com/about-aws/sustainability.

About Amazon Web Services
Since 2006, Amazon Web Services has been the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud. AWS has been continually expanding its services to support virtually any workload, and it now has more than 240 fully featured services for compute, storage, databases, networking, analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), mobile, security, hybrid, media, and application development, deployment, and management from 105 Availability Zones within 33 geographic regions, with announced plans for 12 more Availability Zones and four more AWS Regions in Malaysia, New Zealand, Thailand, and the AWS European Sovereign Cloud. Millions of customers—including the fastest-growing startups, largest enterprises, and leading government agencies—trust AWS to power their infrastructure, become more agile, and lower costs. To learn more about AWS, visit aws.amazon.com.

About Amazon
Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Amazon strives to be Earth’s Most Customer-Centric Company, Earth’s Best Employer, and Earth’s Safest Place to Work. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Career Choice, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, Alexa, Just Walk Out technology, Amazon Studios, and The Climate Pledge are some of the things pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit amazon.com/about and follow @AmazonNews.

Amazon.com, Inc.
Media Hotline
Amazon-pr@amazon.com
www.amazon.com/pr
Source: Amazon.com, Inc.

CHESAPEAKE, Va.– Dollar Tree, Inc. (NASDAQ: DLTR) will host its 2023 Investor Conference in Norfolk, Va., today to discuss the Company’s strategy and financial outlook.

The event will feature presentations by Chairman & Chief Executive Officer Rick Dreiling, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Davis, and members of the Company’s executive management team. The presentations will provide an in-depth overview of the Company and its business segments, including growth strategies, financial objectives, multi-year outlook, and expectations of future cash available for capital allocation.

The executive team will share the Company’s strategy and execution plans for:

Improving sales productivity and enhancing margins at Family Dollar
Extending the multi-price journey at Dollar Tree
Operating with excellence and store development throughout the enterprise
Developing capabilities across supply chain, technology, and people
Achieving $10+ Earnings per Share (EPS) in FY 2026
“Dollar Tree is on an exciting path of accelerating sales and profit. We have compelling plans in place to deliver expanded value assortment across multiple price points, enhance store standards for our customers, and add new technology and capabilities to accelerate progress with our supply chain and people development,” said Dreiling. “As we pursue these initiatives, we are confident in our ability to achieve mid-single-digit comparable-store sales growth, gain market share, and expand our footprint. Achieving these results should drive substantial operating profit improvement across both banners, deliver EPS of $10 or more in fiscal year 2026, and produce significant available cash for shareholders. As we embark on this path forward, I truly believe that we have the strongest and most experienced executive team in the industry leading this transformation.”

In addition to outlining its strategy and financial outlook at today’s Investor Conference, the Company is reaffirming its outlook for second quarter and fiscal 2023:

Second Quarter 2023:

Consolidated net sales of $7.0 billion to $7.2 billion
Mid-single-digit increases in same-store sales for the enterprise and for the Dollar Tree and Family Dollar segments.
Diluted EPS of $0.79 to $0.89
Fiscal 2023:

Consolidated net Sales of $30.0 billion to $30.5 billion
Low- to mid-single digit same-store sales increase for the enterprise, comprised of a low- to mid-single-digit increase in the Dollar Tree segment and a mid-single-digit increase in the Family Dollar segment.
Selling square footage growth of 3.0 to 3.5 percent, with new store growth back-end weighted
Diluted EPS of $5.73 to $6.13(1)
(1) Includes an expected benefit of $0.29 from the contribution of a 53rd week and the $0.12 legal reserve charge taken in the first quarter.
A live webcast of the entire event, including an executive question-and-answer session, will begin at 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time and will be accessible via the IR Calendar in the “News and Events” section of the Company’s investor relations website at https://corporate.dollartree.com/investors. The corresponding presentation slides and webcast replay will be posted in the same section of the company’s investor relations website.

About Dollar Tree, Inc.

Dollar Tree, a Fortune 200 Company, operated 16,419 stores across 48 states and five Canadian provinces as of April 29, 2023. Stores operate under the brands of Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, and Dollar Tree Canada. To learn more about the Company, visit www.DollarTree.com.

A WARNING ABOUT FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS: Our press release contains “forward-looking statements,” as that term is used in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, concerning our business and outlook. These forward-looking statements can be identified by the fact that they address future events, plans, expectations, developments, or results and do not relate strictly to historical facts. Any statements contained in this press release that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements preceded by, followed by, or including words such as: “believe”, “anticipate”, “expect”, “intend”, “plan”, “view”, “target” or “estimate”, “may”, “will”, “should”, “predict”, “possible”, “potential”, “continue”, “strategy” and similar expressions. For example, our forward-looking statements include statements relating to our business and financial outlook for fiscal 2023, including without limitation our expectations regarding net sales, comparable store sales and diluted earnings per share for the second fiscal quarter and full fiscal year 2023, and various factors that are expected to impact our outlook; our selling square footage for fiscal 2023; our earnings per share for fiscal year 2026; other plans and expectations regarding our business, including various initiatives and investments in multi-price assortments at Dollar Tree, product assortment generally, store standards and operations, supply chain, technology and workforce; the impact of these initiatives and investments on and expectations regarding the company’s performance, sales, margins, productivity, profitability, cashflow and prospects for long-term growth; and our other plans, objectives, expectations (financial and otherwise) and intentions. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and our actual results may differ materially from those indicated in these statements. For a discussion of the risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could affect our future events, developments or results, you should carefully review the “Risk Factors,” “Business” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” sections in our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed March 10, 2023, our Form 10-Q for the most recently ended fiscal quarter and other filings we make from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We are not obligated to release publicly any revisions to any forward-looking statements contained in this press release to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this press release and you should not expect us to do so.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230621559931/en/

Investors:
Robert A. LaFleur
Senior Vice President, Investor Relations
757-991-5645

Media:
Kristin Tetreault
Senior Vice President and Chief Communications Officer
757-910-6840

DLTR-G

Source: Dollar Tree, Inc.

MINNEAPOLIS —

Target sales grew 0.5 percent, reflecting flat comparable sales combined with the benefit of sales from new locations.
Traffic grew 0.9 percent, on top of 3.9 percent in Q1 2022.
Comparable stores sales grew 0.7 percent, offset by a decline in comparable digital sales.
Among the components of comparable digital sales, same-day services saw mid-single digit growth, led by high-single digit growth in Drive-Up.
Strength in frequency businesses (Beauty, Food & Beverage and Household Essentials) offset continued softness in discretionary categories.
Inventory at the end of Q1 was 16 percent lower than last year, reflecting more than a 25 percent reduction in discretionary categories, partially offset by inventory investments to support rapidly-growing frequency categories, and strategic investments to support long-term market-share opportunities.
First quarter GAAP and Adjusted EPS of $2.05, and operating margin rate of 5.2 percent, were ahead of expectations, reflecting a higher gross margin rate compared with last year.
For additional media materials, please visit:
https://corporate.target.com/article/2023/05/q1-2023-earnings

Target Corporation (NYSE: TGT) today announced its first quarter 2023 financial results, which reflected continued traffic and sales growth in an increasingly challenging environment.

The Company reported first quarter GAAP earnings per share (EPS) of $2.05, down 4.8 percent from $2.16 in 2022. First quarter Adjusted EPS1 of $2.05 decreased 6.2 percent compared with $2.19 in 2022. The attached tables provide a reconciliation of non-GAAP to GAAP measures. All earnings per share figures refer to diluted EPS.

1Adjusted EPS, a non-GAAP financial measure, excludes the impact of certain discretely managed items. See the tables of this release for additional information about the items that have been excluded from Adjusted EPS.

Brian Cornell, chair and CEO of Target Corporation, said, “We came into the year clear-eyed about the challenges consumers are facing, and we were determined to build on the trust we’ve established with our guests. It’s required agility and the ability to flex across our multi-category portfolio as we lean into value and the product categories our guests need most right now. Thanks to the team’s dedication, we saw an increase in guest traffic in Q1, with total sales increasing and profitability ahead of expectations.

As we look ahead, we now expect shrink will reduce this year’s profitability by more than $500 million compared with last year. While there are many potential sources of inventory shrink, theft and organized retail crime are increasingly important drivers of the issue. We are making significant investments in strategies to prevent this from happening in our stores and protect our guests and our team. We’re also focused on managing the financial impact on our business so we can continue to keep our stores open, knowing they create local jobs and offer convenient access to essentials.

For the full year, we are maintaining our full-year financial guidance, based on the expected benefit from efficiency and cost-savings efforts and our team’s continued focus on agility, flexibility and retail fundamentals in the face of continued challenges including inventory shrink. At the same time, we will continue making long-term investments in our stores, supply chain and our team, positioning Target for profitable growth and market-share gains in the years ahead.”

Guidance

Based on softening sales trends in the first quarter, the Company is planning for a wide range of sales outcomes in the second quarter, centered around a low-single digit decline in comparable sales. GAAP EPS and Adjusted EPS are both expected to range from $1.30 to $1.70.

For the full year, the Company is maintaining its prior guidance, which includes expected comparable sales in a wide range from a low-single digit decline to a low-single digit increase, operating income growth of more than $1 billion, and both GAAP EPS and Adjusted EPS of $7.75 to $8.75.

Operating Results

Comparable sales were flat to last year in the first quarter, reflecting comparable store sales growth of 0.7 percent and comparable digital sales down (3.4) percent. Total revenue of $25.3 billion grew 0.6 percent compared with last year, reflecting total sales growth of 0.5 percent and a 10.2 percent increase in other revenue. Operating income of $1.3 billion in first quarter 2023, was down 1.4 percent from last year, driven by an increase in the Company’s SG&A expense rate.

First quarter operating income margin rate was 5.2 percent in 2023, compared with 5.3 percent in 2022. First quarter gross margin rate was 26.3 percent, compared with 25.7 percent in 2022. This year’s gross margin rate reflected the benefit of lower freight costs, retail price increases, lower clearance markdown rates, and lower digital fulfillment costs driven by lower digital volume and a favorable mix of lower-cost same-day services. These benefits were partially offset by higher inventory shrink. First quarter SG&A expense rate was 19.8 percent in 2023, compared with 18.9 percent in 2022, reflecting the impact of cost inflation across multiple parts of the business, including investments in team member pay and benefits.

Interest Expense and Taxes

The Company’s first quarter 2023 net interest expense was $147 million, compared with $112 million last year, reflecting higher average long-term debt balances combined with the impact of higher floating interest rates.

First quarter 2023 effective income tax rate was 21.1 percent, compared with the prior year rate of 19.2 percent, reflecting the rate impact of higher discrete tax benefits in the prior year.

Capital Deployment and Return on Invested Capital

The Company paid dividends of $497 million in the first quarter, compared with $424 million last year, reflecting a 20.0 percent increase in the dividend per share, partially offset by a decline in average share count.

The Company did not repurchase any stock in the first quarter. As of the end of the quarter, the Company had approximately $9.7 billion of remaining capacity under the repurchase program approved by Target’s Board of Directors in August 2021.

For the trailing twelve months through first quarter 2023, after-tax return on invested capital (ROIC) was 11.4 percent, compared with 25.3 percent for the trailing twelve months through first quarter 2022. The decrease in ROIC was driven primarily by lower profitability coupled with an increase in invested capital. The tables in this release provide additional information about the Company’s ROIC calculation.

Webcast Details

Target will webcast its first quarter earnings conference call at 7:00 a.m. CT today. Investors and the media are invited to listen to the meeting at Corporate.Target.com/Investors (click on “Q1 2023 Target Corporation Earnings Conference Call” under “Events & Presentations”). A replay of the webcast will be provided when available. The replay number is 1-800-513-1169.

Miscellaneous
Statements in this release regarding the Company’s future financial performance, including its fiscal 2023 second quarter and full-year guidance, and the potential benefits from the Company’s efficiency and cost-saving efforts are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause the Company’s results to differ materially. These risks and uncertainties include difficulties and delays in identifying and achieving the potential benefits associated with the Company’s efficiency and cost-saving efforts and the other risks and uncertainties described in Item 1A of the Company’s Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 28, 2023. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement.

About Target
Minneapolis-based Target Corporation (NYSE: TGT) serves guests at nearly 2,000 stores and at Target.com, with the purpose of helping all families discover the joy of everyday life. Since 1946, Target has given 5% of its profit to communities, which today equals millions of dollars a week. For the latest store count or more information, visit corporate.target.com/press. For a behind-the-scenes look at Target, visit corporate.target.com or follow @TargetNews on Twitter.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.– Applications opened today for LadderUp, an innovative new accelerator program from retail technology company Shipt that will equip local retailers with tools needed to thrive in an ever-evolving marketplace. The program builds upon a set of commitments announced at the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health to expand access to food in underserved communities, particularly for those with mobility or transportation barriers.

LadderUp will support local economies by helping local small businesses, especially ones owned by LGBTQ+ people and people of color, grow and compete by providing capital, e-commerce-focused technical assistance, and education from industry leaders to businesses around the country. In line with their commitment to level the economic playing field for Black and other underrepresented populations, Shipt aims to have at least 50% of the businesses in LadderUp to be LGBTQ+ and BIPOC-owned.

“As a growing tech company that is putting food insecurity and equity at the forefront of its work, Shipt is proud to announce the launch of LadderUp,” said Kamau Witherspoon, CEO of Shipt. “Working with small businesses to build up their capabilities is a key part of our commitment to help create healthier, more resilient and equitable communities. We recognize the unique role that we can play in both combating hunger in under-resourced communities and boosting small, local retailers that are so vital to communities across our country.”

LadderUp applications are open today, February 6, through March 6, 2023, and small businesses in five cities can apply to be part of the program: Atlanta; Birmingham, AL; Detroit; Houston; and Washington, D.C. This opportunity is open to grocery/beverage, health, beauty, and floral/gifts retailers. If selected, small business owners will go through an extensive 8 week course learning from retail industry leaders on driving sustainable growth, building financial foundation, building efficiency, marketing, e-commerce 101, using Shipt, and the basic legal knowledge needed to run a business.

Upon completion of the program, retailers will have in-depth industry knowledge to help them navigate and understand trends in the evolving e-commerce landscape. Additionally, Shipt will provide each participating retailer who completes the LadderUp program $5,000 to help invest in their e-commerce. Shopify, a leading e-commerce company, is partnering with Shipt to teach a course in the program and provide no-cost access to their platform to help retailers build an online storefront, streamline operations, and optimize inventory tracking.

“At Shopify, our mission is to make commerce better for everyone,” said Crystal Hunt, Shopify Sr. Program Manager of Partnerships Diversity & Belonging. “To achieve this mission we must bring more voices to entrepreneurship. Together with Shipt, we are reducing the unique barriers facing underrepresented business owners. Through this partnership we will create community and opportunity for the change makers, disruptors and creators of tomorrow, because we know the success of a single entrepreneur can create a legacy, power communities and inspire the world.”

The LadderUp program builds on Shipt’s existing work designed to support the communities in which it operates and serves. In 2022, Shipt awarded nearly $250,000 in microgrants to organizations who focused on food insecurity, economic disparities and youth workforce development. Shipt works with national partners such as Feeding America, American Red Cross and United Way to help funding go even further in the communities that need it the most.

More information is also available at Shipt.com/LadderUp.

ABOUT SHIPT
Through easy-to-use technology and a network of reliable workers, Shipt connects personal shopping and delivery to 80% of households in more than 5,000 U.S. cities. Shipt’s app and website offer consumers access to a variety of stores and product categories including fresh foods, household essentials, wellness products, office and pet supplies. Shipt also helps power deliveries for retailers on orders placed on their own websites by leveraging Shipt Driven, a delivery-only last-mile offering. Shoppers and drivers on the Shipt platform are known for reliability and going above and beyond, including communicating in real time about preferences and substitutions. Shipt is an independently operated, wholly owned subsidiary of Target Corp. Founded and headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, Shipt also maintains an office in San Francisco. For more information, visit Shipt’s Newsroom.

SOURCE Shipt

CONTACT: MEDIA CONTACT: press@shipt.com

PITTSBURGH, — DICK’S Sporting Goods today announced it’s partnering with C2FO, the world’s largest platform for working capital, to support the long-term success of diverse-owned and operated businesses by providing easy, transparent, affordable access to capital through early payments on approved invoices.

“One of the challenges that diverse-owned and operated businesses face is access to working capital,” said Ramon Catania, Director, Supplier Initiatives at DICK’S Sporting Goods. “With C2FO, suppliers who work with us will have access to cash sooner to fund their day-to-day operations or expand their businesses. This can help unlock resources suppliers need to get products and services to our customers faster.”

The C2FO platform allows suppliers to accelerate payment on invoices of their choosing in exchange for a minimal discount. DICK’S will self-fund these early payments.

The partnership between DICK’S and C2FO is founded on each organization’s mutual commitment to serving diverse-owned businesses. A diverse-owned business is a business that is majority (at least 51%) owned, operated, managed, and/or controlled by a diverse person or persons. ‘Diverse’ is defined as women, LGBTQ+, veterans, persons with disabilities and/or Black, Indigenous and People of Color.

DICK’S has committed to spending $300 million annually by 2025 with diverse-owned and operated businesses. To learn more about DICK’S Supplier Diversity Program, visit https://www.dickssportinggoods.com/s/supplier-diversity.

C2FO’s mission is to ensure every business has the capital needed to thrive. In 2021, diverse- owned businesses utilized the C2FO platform to secure funding 3.2 times more than other businesses. So far in 2022, C2FO has accelerated more than $2 billion in early payments to diverse-owned businesses worldwide.

About DICK’S Sporting Goods, Inc.

DICK’S Sporting Goods (NYSE: DKS) creates confidence and excitement by personally equipping all athletes to achieve their dreams. Founded in 1948 and headquartered in Pittsburgh, the leading omnichannel retailer serves athletes and outdoor enthusiasts in more than 850 DICK’S Sporting Goods, Golf Galaxy, Field & Stream, Public Lands, Going Going Gone! and Warehouse Sale stores, online, and through the DICK’S mobile app. DICK’S also owns and operates DICK’S House of Sport and Golf Galaxy Performance Center, as well as GameChanger, a youth sports mobile app for scheduling, communications, live scorekeeping and video streaming.

Driven by its belief that sports make people better, DICK’S has been a longtime champion for youth sports and, together with its Foundation, has donated millions of dollars to support under-resourced teams and athletes through the Sports Matter program and other community-based initiatives. Additional information about DICK’S business, corporate giving, sustainability efforts and employment opportunities can be found on dicks.com, investors.dicks.com, sportsmatter.org, dickssportinggoods.jobs and on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

About C2FO
C2FO is the world’s largest platform for working capital. We serve over 1 million businesses representing $10.5 trillion in annual sales across more than 160 countries. Our online platform connects more than $110 billion of daily accounts payable and accounts receivable. Whether you need working capital or have excess working capital, Name Your Rate®, and the C2FO platform will match your request in seconds. You can accelerate AP or AR on demand, providing you, your customers and your suppliers greater control over cash flow. You can also utilize AR financing and other data-driven funding options.

C2FO is working capital, working for everyone. Our mission is to deliver a future where every company in the world has the capital needed to thrive. To learn more, visit C2FO.com.

Media Contact:
press@dcsg.com

SOURCE DICK’S Sporting Goods, Inc.

MOORESVILLE, N.C., — Lowe’s today announced “Into the Blue: Lowe’s Product Pitch Event,” the home improvement retailer’s largest and most impactful product sourcing forum to date. Entrepreneurs and businesses of all sizes can apply for a chance to participate in this first-ever live event, during which Lowe’s plans to invest a target of $5 million in purchase orders* to new suppliers with opportunities for products to be carried within the company’s more than 1,700 retail stores and online at Lowes.com.

Today through Aug. 14, interested businesses with ready-for-market products can apply at Lowes.com/Suppliers. Select businesses chosen for Into the Blue will have the opportunity to pitch directly to Lowe’s representatives and leadership executives on Nov. 2-3, 2022 at the new Lowe’s Tech Hub in Charlotte, N.C. Opening this fall, the state-of-the-art facility serves as the leading center of excellence in Lowe’s retail technology and primary office for up to approximately 2,000 Lowe’s technology professionals.

“Into the Blue: Lowe’s Product Pitch Event gives entrepreneurs the chance to take their business to the next level,” said Bill Boltz, executive vice president, merchandising. “We are inviting businesses of any size to apply for Into the Blue because the more innovative products we uncover, the more solutions we can provide to our customers to make their homes and lives better.”

In addition to product pitches, Into the Blue will include extensive networking, a supplier fair and mainstage and breakout sessions. The sessions will offer a variety of business tips and topics to help educate participating business owners as they work to scale their operations.

“Lowe’s began as a small business more than 100 years ago, so we understand what it means to help a business succeed and the benefits it brings to their communities,” said Sarah Dodd, senior vice president, global merchandising. “We look forward to helping these businesses, especially often over-looked entrepreneurs, on their journey to be featured at a big box retailer.”

Prospective suppliers selected to attend will be notified by early September. Visit Lowes.com/Suppliers for complete entry terms and to apply to participate in the program.

*contingent on meeting Lowe’s supplier requirements, including completion of due diligence and agreement

About Lowe’s
Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (NYSE: LOW) is a FORTUNE® 50 home improvement company serving approximately 19 million customer transactions a week in the United States and Canada. With fiscal year 2021 sales of over $96 billion, Lowe’s and its related businesses operate or service nearly 2,200 home improvement and hardware stores and employ over 300,000 associates. Based in Mooresville, N.C., Lowe’s supports the communities it serves through programs focused on creating safe, affordable housing and helping to develop the next generation of skilled trade experts. For more information, visit Lowes.com.

Contact: Olin Ericksen
Lowe’s Companies Inc.
Olin.Ericksen@lowes.com

SOURCE Lowe’s Companies, Inc.

HERZOGENAURACH, Germany and NEW YORK, May 5, 2022 Adidas AG (XETRA: ADS.DE) (“adidas”), a global leader in the sporting goods industry, and Foot Locker, Inc. (NYSE: FL) (“Foot Locker”), the New York-based specialty athletic retailer, today announced a new and enhanced partnership built around product innovation, elevated experiences, and deeper consumer connectivity. This enhanced relationship will establish Foot Locker as the lead partner for adidas in the basketball category, accelerate energy and hype launches, as well as include the development and expansion of key franchises across women’s, kids, and apparel. Including all Foot Locker banners in North America, EMEA, and Asia-Pacific, the new strategic partnership will target over $2 billion in retail sales by 2025, nearly tripling levels from 2021. In 2022, adidas expects to generate incremental revenues of up to €100 million as a result of the new partnership.

“We are delighted to be deepening our partnership with Foot Locker as we continue to execute our ‘Own the Game’ strategy,” said adidas CEO Kasper Rorsted. “Consumers will be at the heart of this exciting collaboration and will be able to experience the adidas brand and its key product franchises, as well as new product innovations, at Foot Locker, stronger than ever before.”

“We are excited to build on our partnership with adidas as we continue our strategy to broaden our selection of footwear and apparel for the sport and sneaker communities,” said Richard A. Johnson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Foot Locker, Inc. “This close partnership will enable us to bring consumers even more unique, pinnacle products from iconic brands, as well as accelerate our push into apparel, adding new dimension to our assortment and bringing more customers into our ecosystem.”

Foot Locker will lead adidas’ basketball offering, led by Fear of God founder and designer Jerry Lorenzo, spanning the lifestyle and performance categories, and develop exclusive positions in both areas. In addition, the collaboration will focus on key Originals franchises including NMD, Superstar and Stan Smith, and on the adidas influencer partnership portfolio. It will also include a prominent role for Foot Locker in the launch of adidas’ new Sportswear product division targeting the lifestyle consumer.

To execute the new plan, adidas will provide Foot Locker with a dedicated team to deliver an elevated consumer experience both in stores and online to help create demand and elevate the marketplace. This will involve partnership on product development, exclusive Foot Locker positioning, increased product allocations, shared marketing spend, and an elevated premium presence across Foot Locker’s entire portfolio of banners with a special focus on key cities and communities that the companies jointly serve. Lastly, to provide consumers with a seamless consumer journey, on and offline, both partners will increase their digital focus and accelerate the rollout of the adidas partner program at Foot Locker.

Disclosure Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws.  Other than statements of historical facts, all statements which address activities, events, or developments that adidas and/or Foot Locker anticipate will or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements.  These forward-looking statements are based on adidas and Foot Locker’s current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effects on both companies and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are unforeseeable and beyond adidas and Foot Locker’s control. Any changes in such assumptions or factors could produce significantly different results. adidas and Foot Locker undertake no obligation to update forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

About adidas
adidas is a global leader in the sporting goods industry. Headquartered in Herzogenaurach/Germany, the Company employs more than 61,000 people across the globe and generated sales of €21.2 billion in 2021. For more information, please visit www.adidas-Group.com.

About Foot Locker, Inc.
Foot Locker, Inc. leads the celebration of sneaker and youth culture around the globe through a portfolio of brands including Foot Locker, Kids Foot Locker, Champs Sports, Eastbay, atmos, WSS, and Sidestep. With approximately 2,900 retail stores in 28 countries across North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as websites and mobile apps, the Company’s purpose is to inspire and empower youth culture around the world, by fueling a shared passion for self-expression and creating unrivaled experiences at the heart of the global sneaker community. Foot Locker, Inc. has its corporate headquarters in New York. For additional information please visit www.footlocker-inc.com.

adidas Contacts

Media Relations
corporate.press@adidas.com
+49 (0) 9132 84-2352

Investor Relations
investor.relations@adidas.com
+49 (0) 9132 84-2920

Foot Locker Contacts

Investors
Robert Higginbotham
Vice President, Investor Relations
robert.higginbotham@footlocker.com
(212) 720-4600

Media
Cara Tocci
Vice President, Corporate Communications
cara.tocci@footlocker.com
(914) 582-0304

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Today, Uber Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: UBER) announced a partnership with Bed Bath & Beyond® (Nasdaq: BBBY) and buybuy BABY® to help launch the brand new baby and kids vertical in the Uber Eats app. This new hub makes it easier than ever for parents to get all of their baby, kids and family essentials on-demand and delivered right to their door.

Starting today, a massive catalog of essential baby and home products from nearly 120 buybuy BABY and more than 750 Bed Bath & Beyond locations nationwide are available for on-demand delivery through the Uber and Uber Eats apps. Parents and caregivers can now get everything from dinner for the entire family to diapers and wipes, first aid kits and bath toys, as well as a wide variety of Bed Bath & Beyond’s offering for the home, all at the tap of a button.

Uber’s new baby and kids hub will help parents get what they need delivered on-demand.

“We’re thrilled to be able to offer parents and caregivers an easy and convenient way to find everything they need for their families, and have it delivered to their doorsteps,” said Raj Beri, Uber’s VP & Global Head of Grocery and New Verticals. “Every parent knows the stress of urgently needing diapers, pacifiers, thermometers and more—and we know that our new baby and kids hub will help to alleviate some of the stress.”

Rafeh Masood, Bed Bath & Beyond Chief Digital and interim Chief Brand Officer, said, “We are rebuilding our authority in the home and baby retail categories to appeal to new consumers, while strengthening relationships with our valued, long-standing customers. This partnership with Uber is a terrific way we are reaching new customers and the fact that buybuy BABY was chosen to help launch Uber’s baby and kids delivery vertical reflects the brand’s leadership in welcoming customers to parenthood. We are excited to begin this journey with Uber and look forward to having their innovative services market and deliver products from Bed Bath & Beyond and buybuy BABY right to customers’ doorsteps.”

The new baby and kids hub on Uber Eats also includes beloved brands such as Honest, Yumi, Lalo, Little Spoon, Nyssa and more, providing a quick and stress-free way to get all needs on-demand. To search, open the Uber app and tap “Baby” under categories or even search with the baby emoji.

From November 1-11, Uber customers will get $20 off an order of $60+ from Bed Bath & Beyond, buybuy BABY, Honest, Yumi or Little Spoon.* As always, Uber Pass and Eats Pass members will also enjoy 5% off and unlimited $0 Delivery Fee on eligible orders of $15+.**

To celebrate the new baby and kids hub, Uber is proud to support Baby2Baby, a nonprofit organization that provides essential items to children in need across the country. In the last 10 years, Baby2Baby has distributed more than 200 million items to children in homeless shelters, domestic violence programs, foster care, hospitals, underserved schools, and more. Uber is donating $200,000 to help Baby2Baby continue their incredible work, and is encouraging Uber customers who want to support by donating here.

Uber is the one platform that helps customers to go anywhere and get anything. With our eyes set on powering on-demand commerce, Uber Eats provides instant access to local merchants that extends beyond prepared food delivery, across the globe. With groceries, convenience, alcohol and other must-haves like wellness products, pet essentials, and now kids and baby must-haves, Uber is focused on helping consumers get more — more convenience, more variety, and more connections to commerce they love.

*Expires at 11:59 PST on 11/11. Taxes and fees still apply. Limit one use per customer. To qualify, order subtotal must equal $60 or more before taxes and fees. Offer cannot be combined. Valid only in US where Bed Bath & Beyond, buybuy BABY, Honest, Yumi and Little Spoon on Uber Eats is available. Offer will automatically apply on customer’s first qualifying order from participating brands. Exclusions may apply. See app for availability.

**Taxes and fees do not apply to order minimums. Other fees apply. See terms and conditions for more details.

About Uber
Uber’s mission is to create opportunity through movement. We started in 2010 to solve a simple problem: how do you get access to a ride at the touch of a button? More than 15 billion trips later, we’re building products to get people closer to where they want to be. By changing how people, food, and things move through cities, Uber is a platform that opens up the world to new possibilities.

About Bed Bath & Beyond
Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. and subsidiaries (the “Company”) is an omnichannel retailer that makes it easy for our customers to feel at home. The Company sells a wide assortment of merchandise in the Home, Baby, Beauty and Wellness markets. Additionally, the Company is a partner in a joint venture which operates retail stores in Mexico under the name Bed Bath & Beyond.
Bed Bath & Beyond operates websites at bedbathandbeyond.com, bedbathandbeyond.ca, buybuybaby.com, buybuybaby.ca, facevalues.com and decorist.com.

About buybuy BABY
buybuy BABY is the leading specialty baby products retailer in North America, with a 25-year history of providing families with trusted information and products they need to confidently navigate the journey of parenthood—across every milestone, big and small. The company sells a wide assortment of baby and toddler essentials, as well as nursery furniture. buybuy BABY is a subsidiary of Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBY). For more information, visit https://www.buybuybaby.com/ or https://www.bedbathandbeyond.ca/.

Uber contacts:
press@uber.com

Bed Bath & Beyond contacts:
Media: Media@bedbath.com
Investor Relations: IR@bedbath.com

SOURCE Uber

Related Links
www.uber.com

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Oct. 13, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Poshmark, Inc. (Nasdaq: POSH), a leading social marketplace for new and secondhand style for women, men, kids, pets, home and more, today announced that it has acquired Suede One, a platform that combines machine learning, computer vision and expert human review to virtually authenticate sneakers. The Suede One team will join the Poshmark team, effective today.

This deal marks Poshmark’s first acquisition and reflects the company’s focus on strategic investments that drive continued platform innovation, accelerate growth in high-growth resale categories and enhance the user experience to attract and retain both buyers and sellers.

“We are laser focused on making strategic investments that fuel the continued growth of our business, give the best overall experience for buyers and make our marketplace the number one, most trusted destination for sellers,” said Manish Chandra, founder and CEO of Poshmark. “Suede One has built impressive capabilities in virtual authentication that will allow us to deliver tangible benefits to our community, scale our authentication services in a meaningful way, and accelerate our momentum in sneakers as well as luxury goods, two of the fastest-growing categories in the resale space. We are thrilled to welcome the Suede One team to Poshmark and look forward to what we can build together.”

Founded in 2020, Suede One’s technology enables an inventoryless approach to authentication. The technology analyzes product images, running algorithms on consistencies to identify whether an item is real or counterfeit. For popular sneakers such as Jordan 1s and Yeezy 350s, Suede One can automatically authenticate the majority of submissions with greater than 99% accuracy, based on internal testing. For other sneaker types, human experts review the submission with help from the company’s proprietary authenticator tool. Suede One has built a reputation for credible and quick authentication with the broader resale community as well as esteemed resellers, authenticating a pair of Nike Air Yeezy 1 Prototypes that sold for $1.8 million at auction.

“We built this company to solve a key challenge for the reseller community—creating technology that protects them from fraud and ensures fast, accurate authentication that they can rely on,” said Matt Forloine, CEO of Suede One. “Poshmark and Suede One share the same values of trust and focus on community, and by joining forces we’ll be able to advance our technology and scale these services to more products and categories and benefit as many people as possible.”

Suede One’s virtual authentication capabilities will complement Posh Protect, which guarantees a full refund for any item not matching its listing description, and Posh Authenticate, which will continue to offer free authentication by Poshmark’s team of luxury experts for orders of $500 or more. With this acquisition, Poshmark will be able to augment and scale these services to support both buyers and sellers on more transactions and begin offering virtual authentication for sneakers at multiple price points, with the potential to expand to additional categories.

About Poshmark
Poshmark is a leading social marketplace for new and secondhand style for women, men, kids, pets, home and more. By combining the human connection of physical shopping with the scale, ease, and selection benefits of e-commerce, Poshmark makes buying and selling simple, social, and sustainable. Its community of more than 80 million registered users across the U.S., Canada, Australia and India, is driving the future of commerce while promoting more sustainable consumption. For more information, please visit www.poshmark.com, and for company news and announcements, please visit investors.poshmark.com. You can also find Poshmark on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube, and Snapchat.

Media Contact
pr@poshmark.com

Investor Contact
ir@poshmark.com

SOURCE Poshmark

Related Links
http://poshmark.com/