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Glovo and Delivery Hero fined for forming a commercial cartel


The European Commission for the first time sanctions a cartel of delivery platforms for not competing on hiring talent. Glovo and its parent company Delivery Hero, two leading names in home delivery services, have been fined a total of €359 million (€223.2 million for Delivery Hero and €105.7 million for Glovo) for participating in a cartel active for four years within the European Economic Area, a trade agreement to restrict competition.

Delivery
 

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Rome: discounters at 24.6%


The supermarket model, in Lazio, is the pivot on which the entire distribution machine revolves: with 6.52 billion euro turnover (6.9%), it now covers 55.1% of the market, marking an increase of 2.12 percentage points in share compared to the previous year. A confirmation of the centrality of this format in a city that rewards proximity and frequency of purchase. discounters continue their run, recording a 6.1% increase in turnover to EUR 2.91 billion, with a market share of almost 24.6%. This confirms that, even in a metropolitan context, price remains one of the main purchasing drivers, especially in times of inflation... Conad and Selex leaders. Eurospin follows. Hypermarkets are doing badly.

ConadDiscountInflation
 

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Alarmed by Trump’s cuts, scientists are talking weather and climate science. For 100 hours


Meteorologists and climate researchers aim to run a livestream for 100 hours to protest the Trump administration's cuts to weather and climate research... Also : the Trump administration's proposed 2026 budget cuts about 90 per cent of funding for one of the country's biological and ecological research programmes. Known as the Ecosystems Mission Area, the programme is part of the United States. Geological Survey and studies almost every aspect of the ecology and biology of natural and human-altered landscapes and waters across the country. The proposed 2026 budget allocates $29 million to the project, a cut from its current funding level of $293 million. The budget proposal also reduces funding for other programmes in the United States. Geological Survey, as well as other federal science agencies. The budget still has to be approved by Congress, and scientists are seizing the opportunity to save the E.M.A. In early May, more than 70 scientific societies and universities signed a letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, urging him not to eliminate the programme... Source Below: a recent article on climate change

Climate changeWater
 

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USA: department store market share from over 14% in 1990 to less than 3% in 2024 (-78%)


a collapse that clearly photographs the structural change taking place. But the decline of department stores is not a thunderbolt. For years, these department stores have struggled to compete with the rise of e-commerce, aggressive discount platforms such as Temu and Shein, but also direct-to-consumer brands. The new generations, moreover, prefer more curated, personalised and digital shopping experiences, far removed from the dispersed logic of the large generalist stores, and so the metamorphosis underway is not just a commercial fact, but a social and cultural signal, showing that the future of retail passes through innovation, selection and competitive pricing, and does not care about the size of its spaces...

DiscountE-CommerceNon-food
 

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Amazon: 100 billion (gross) groceries


Amazon CEO Andy Jassy opened up in a recent question-and-answer session with shareholders on the company's strategy and performance in the food sector, emphasising his focus on the many aspects of the physical and online food retail business. "I'm very bullish on groceries. I think some people don't realise how big a grocery business Amazon has today. If you look at our core aisle stuff - so it's things like consumables, canned goods, pharmaceutical items, beauty products, really, everyday essentials - if I exclude just Whole Foods Market and Amazon Fresh, we did over $100 billion in gross sales in our grocery business on those items last year alone..." The figure would then cover Amazon Go, Amazon Grocery and the ubiquitous Amazon.com website.

AmazonE-CommerceWhole Foods
 

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US: inflation-fatigued consumers stock up on discount stores (the ‘box stores’ where you enter with a subscription and membership card)


The Financial Times headline I took my cue from was: 'US consumers, tired of inflation, queue up for toilet paper and cheap Bordeaux wine': "... inflation... has left consumer prices in the US 26% higher than in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic. Consumer surveys show continued concern about inflation as the US imposes tariffs on trading partners. "In good times we do well, and in bad times we do even better," said Chris Nicholas, CEO of Sam's Club US... who reported that like-for-like sales rose 6.7 per cent in the first quarter, excluding fuel, outpacing the growth of his parent company's US namesake shops ..." . It is a division of the Walmart Group, which had sales of USD 92.6 billion in 2025 . "Sam's' is named after its founder, Sam Walton, and only buys large packages ('bulk') there. Read the long version here. Compiled on 30 May , updated on 3 June 2025

Covid-19DiscountE-CommerceInflationWalmart