USPS Mail Delivery Time Consistent at 2.8 Days

In what is perhaps the biggest surprise in publishing since the Covid-19 pandemic sent the U.S. economy into turmoil this spring, print unit sales saw a 2.8% increase in the first half of 2020, over the comparable period in 2019, at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. The number of copies sold was 322.1 million in the six-month period, up from 313.5 million in the first half of 2019. The increase was led by a combination of children’s nonfiction books aimed at helping parents educate and entertain their children following the closing of most schools in March, as well as a spike in sales of books on race relations and social justice following the killing of George Floyd by members of the Minneapolis police department in late May.

The Home Depot®reported sales of $24.9 billion for the first quarter of fiscal 2018, a 4.4 percent increase from the first quarter of fiscal 2017. Comparable sales for the first quarter of fiscal 2018 were positive 4.2 percent, and comp sales in the U.S. were positive 3.9 percent. Net earnings for the first quarter of fiscal 2018 were $2.4 billion, or $2.08 per diluted share, compared with net earnings of $2.0 billion, or $1.67 per diluted share, in the same period of fiscal 2017. For the first quarter of fiscal 2018, diluted earnings per share increased 24.6 percent from the same period in the prior year. Click Read More below for additional information.

FedEx Express announces proposals to resize its European workforce as it nears the completion of the network integration of TNT. These proposals are part of a wider, multi-year growth strategy that enables the European Express business to confidently build on the momentum created in recent years. FedEx acquired TNT in 2016 as part of its European expansion plans, connecting the world’s largest air express network with an unparalleled European road network and global suite of services. Since the acquisition, successful integration has taken place across IT systems and key parts of the air, road and ground networks, and investments have been made in technology and infrastructure. Plans to address the duplication resulting from operating two large European networks connecting similar geographies were presented to European employee representatives and team members today. These proposals will regrettably have a workforce impact of between 5500 - 6300 people across operational teams and back-office functions. In the course of these consultations, the full range of support measures for affected team members will be discussed with works council representatives from across the region. These measures differ by country and may include voluntary redundancy, reassignment to other roles and priority access to open positions. The consultation process will take place over an eighteen-month period in line with local country processes and regulations.