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Amazon Fresh shops will close


The company will convert its physical shops to Whole Foods Markets. The move is not surprising, since the company reduced its Amazon Fresh offering last year. Amazon closed several shops in California and all 19 Amazon Fresh shops in the UK. What can we say? Since 2017, the date when Amazon bought Whole Foods, the company had its sights set on a possible conversion in the shops that were born in Austin (Texas), but chose to experiment with technology and, in my opinion, uninteresting. Customers are interested in a few things: prices, quality and service, as well as a pleasant environment and friendly staff. Here - in the various Amazon experiments - there was a cold atmosphere, where the quality of private-label food counted for little or nothing. Obviously this will have an impact on employment: 16,000 people will be laid off. Edited 27 January, updated 29 January 2026

AmazonPrivate LabelWhole Foods
 

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European rice at risk: 60% of consumption from imports also because the European safeguard clause has expired


These days in Brussels a decision on the preferential duty system on arrivals from South East Asia. Rice industries: the already processed product costs the same as the raw product in the EU Facilitated (and cheap) imports, global surpluses, together with the devaluation of the dollar, reduced freight rates and the impact of the climate crisis on producers are putting a strain on the resilience of the Italian rice supply chain. The latest alarm for a concomitance of factors 'that are not manageable by the supply chain' comes from Airi, the Association of Rice Industries, which for some years now, with the expiry of the European safeguard clause that Italy had painstakingly managed to activate in Brussels, has been facing the resumption of duty-free imports from large producers, which have come to cover over 60% of total European purchases. Rice that is largely ready-packed and packaged, sold at prices that are unsustainable for continental producers: today, via Rotterdam, milled white rice arrives at 400 euro per tonne; competing European varieties cost at least twice as much, 800-1,000 euro. In Italy, 400 euros buys a tonne of paddy rice, an agricultural raw material that then has to be transported, stored, processed and packaged... Il Sole 24 ore On the safeguard clauses read here.

AgricultureClimate change
 

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Amazon lays off 16,000 employees


The latest round of job cuts brings the total number of redundancies to 30,000 in 3 months The retailer laid off around 14,000 employees last October, bringing the total amount of redundancies to 30,000 in three months. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy warned of workforce reductions in June 2025 due to the company's investment in AI. Also on Tuesday, Amazon said it was closing its Fresh and Go grocery shops, after deciding to focus its efforts on expanding Whole Foods Market shops and same-day deliveries of fresh food from warehouses (with Amazon Now). As a result, the company is laying off employees who helped run Fresh and Go's operations, according to an internal memo seen by the Wall Street Journal. Read also this article.

AmazonDeliveryE-CommerceWhole Foods
 

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E-commerce: the Italian 2 euro tax on small parcels does not work


parcels are diverted to other EU countries to avoid the tax... "The measure has had a boomerang effect," said Valentina Menin, director general of industry group Assaeroporti, which represents companies that manage 32 Italian airports, including Milan Malpensa, one of the country's biggest cargo hubs. "The entire Italian logistics sector is losing business. When it decided to impose the tax as part of the 2026 budget, Rome expected to be able to raise €122 million this year and €245 million the following year. However, according to the Italian Customs Agency, the number of low-value parcels arriving directly in Italy from non-EU countries between 1 and 20 January was 36% lower than in the same period last year. According to current EU rules, once goods enter the single market and pass through customs on arrival, they can circulate freely without further checks or duties, allowing companies to easily avoid Italian handling fees...'Goods continue to enter Italy by truck, without paying the prescribed tariff, resulting in increased pollution and shifting traffic to other countries,' he said. "The situation can only get worse if a solution is not found..." Financial Times Read more here

E-Commerce
 

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To improve rider safety, the Indian government has asked ‘quick commerce’ platforms to drop their promise to satisfy customers in ten minutes


This has not slowed down the economic boom of these services for impatient customers, observes Isabelle Chaperon, columnist for the economics section of 'Le Monde': "In India, 'fast trade' is moving too fast." Fast commerce is one of the fastest growing sectors of the Indian gig economy. In November 2024, Datum Intelligence estimated that this market, negligible in 2020, would reach USD 6 billion (EUR 5.1 billion) in 2024 and USD 40 billion by 2030. Although local shops, called kitana, still account for 92% of food purchases, they are suffering from this competition. Meanwhile, the major online platforms, engaged in fierce competition, remain unprofitable, but their value is growing strongly. The share price of Eternal, owner of market leader Blinkit, has increased fivefold since 2023. Quick commerce appeals for various reasons: poorly organised distribution and chaotic traffic. It is also favoured by the abundance of young workers, paid a few rupees. According to projections by the government think tank NITI Aayog for 2022, the approximately 7.7 million people doing 'casual jobs' for internet platforms in India, from taxi drivers to deliverymen, are expected to reach 30 million by 2030 Read more on the subject here.

DeliveryE-Commerce
 

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Amazon also launches in the UK Amazon Now, the new ultra-rapid delivery service that promises to deliver thousands of groceries and household goods in around 30 minutes or less


The project kicks off in a test phase in some postcodes in Southwark, London, with an extension to other areas planned in the coming months. Amazon Now is available seven days a week via app and website and offers an assortment that covers around 35 categories, including fresh food, beverages, protein snacks, low and no-alcohol products, vitamins and supplements, as well as major personal, household and pet care items. From a strategic point of view, the initiative strengthens Amazon's positioning in the quick commerce segment, where speed of delivery is a key differentiating factor, particularly in high-density urban settings.

AmazonDeliveryE-Commerce
 

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US closes to foreign grapes. New law for 100% US-made wines


The rules for wines that want to be labelled as American are changing. Supported by the winegrowers' associations and Family winemakers California, the proposal could come into force in 2027 TheAmerica first principle touted by President Donald Trump could also change the national wine industry. Because a bill proposed by two members of the American Assembly, Damon Connolly (San Rafael) and Rhodesia Ransom (Tracy), requires that wines labelled 'American' be produced exclusively from grapes grown in the USA. Today, federal regulations allow these wines to have 25% of raw material from abroad. In fact, the new law, advocated by the California association of winegrape growers and the Family winemakers of California, would bring the rest of the country into line with what is already happening on the West coast (from where more than 85% of all wine produced in the United States comes) for the term 'California'. Transparency and clarity for consumers are the objectives of the bill (Ab 1585). As Connolly himself explained in a press note, when a bottle labelled 'American' contains wines of low value from abroad, the quality of American wine is affected. This is an issue that Italy is well acquainted with, with its efforts at European level to promote, not only in wine, the compulsory indication of the origin of raw materials on labels. "California," recalled Natalie Collins, president of Cawg, "already applies the 100 per cent cap for wines labelled 'California', so extending this transparency operation to the 'American' designation is a logical step."....

 

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The EU-Mercosur agreement is likely to enter into force provisionally from March, says an EU diplomat


The EU's free trade agreement with South American countries is likely to be provisionally implemented as early as March, an EU diplomat told Reuters on Thursday, despite an imminent challenge to the EU Supreme Court. On Wednesday, EU lawmakers dealt a blow to the controversial trade deal with Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay by referring it to the European Court of Justice, threatening to delay its entry into force by two years. "The EU-Mercosur agreement will be provisionally applied once the first Mercosur country has ratified it," an EU diplomat told Reuters. "It will probably be Paraguay in March," the diplomat added.

Agriculture
 

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TikTok enters into an agreement for a new US entity, ending a long legal saga


The Chinese parent company of the popular video app claimed that a group of non-Chinese investors had created an American version of TikTok to avoid the federal ban. TikTok said on Thursday that its Chinese owner, ByteDance, had struck a deal with a group of non-Chinese investors to create a new US TikTok, ending a six-year legal saga that has seen the app banned by Congress and embroiled in political clashes between two global superpowers. The investors include software giant Oracle, MGX, an Emirati investment company, and Silver Lake, another investment company, which will hold more than 80 per cent of the new venture. The list also includes the personal investment entity of Michael Dell, the technology billionaire behind Dell Technologies, and other companies, TikTok said. Adam Presser, former chief operating officer of TikTok, will be the chief executive officer of TikTok in the US. The deal aims to loosen TikTok's ties with China and address national security concerns that Beijing could use the app to surveil or manipulate its more than 200 million users in the US... The New York Times

E-CommerceStreaming