Saving money? ‘Mission impossible’

Unfortunately, Mango, which is a sound company, is not acquiring a stake in the business: on the other hand, given the current situation – with losses of 35 million for the year 2025 and three further closures – it was foreseeable that there would be no ‘white knights’ available to save Coin, whose brand seems to be slowly but surely fading away

Quick Take — Action closes the half-year at 8.3 billion and steps up the pace of new store openings

Action closed the first half of 2026 with net revenue of €8.3 billion, up 14 per cent on the same period last year. On a like-for-like basis, growth stood at 3.6 per cent, driven primarily by increased footfall and pricing measures..

Growth was also driven by territorial expansion. With 121 new openings, the network has reached 3,423 stores across 15 countries. The group thus remains on track to open 400 stores throughout 2026.

In Italy, Action made its debut in Sicily with three new openings, bringing the national network to 241 outlets… The high temperatures recorded across Europe also boosted demand for seasonal products, ranging from fans and inflatable swimming pools to beach towels and barbecues. Added to this was the expansion of online shops in the Netherlands and Belgium, which were used to broaden the range of products available beyond what is offered in physical stores alone…

Read more on this topic here

Quick Take — In Russia, e-commerce warehouses have become the new targets for Ukrainian drones

In less than a week, four logistics and storage centres belonging to Wildberries, the Russian equivalent of Amazon, have been targeted. These attacks, which have caused at least nine deaths, are disrupting supply chains and undermining the Kremlin’s narrative of victory..

After oil refineries, now commercial warehouses: Ukrainian drone strikes are diversifying their targets and bringing the war ever closer to the daily lives of Russians. For the second time in less than a week, they have caused massive fires at the warehouses of Wildberries, the hugely popular Russian e-commerce giant…. Wildberries, the Russian equivalent of Amazon, which in 2025 handled goods worth almost 3 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product, is not equipped to protect itself from drones…

The company, which had a turnover of $27.5 billion in 2023, merged in 2024 with Russ Group, a leading billboard advertising company founded in the 2000s by Rupert Murdoch, which was much smaller (with a turnover of one-tenth). The merger, however, had taken place on an equal footing and had been personally approved by Vladimir Putin, as the Kremlin had announced at the time.

Read also: Why the Russian economy is in serious trouble… Below: one of the four e-commerce warehouses destroyed, as reported in *The Wall Street Journal* on 24 July 2026. Drafted on 23 July, updated on 25 July 2026

Quick Take — In Milan, an entire neighbourhood has been left without a supermarket: to do the shopping, you have to walk a kilometre

The closure of the only supermarket in the Sant’Ambrogio I neighbourhood, in Barona, leaves thousands of residents without a local shop. It is the elderly and families who are suffering the most, whilst the local council searches for a new operator…

The Sigma supermarket is located – or rather, was located – within the municipal covered market on Via San Paolino, alongside a chemist’s, a laundrette, a hairdresser’s and a café. This closure further depopulates an already struggling neighbourhood and makes life particularly difficult for the elderly and mothers with young children, who, even on sweltering days, have to travel long distances for their daily shopping. The nearest supermarket is now almost a kilometre away. For many elderly people, going shopping has become a real challenge…

We had already addressed this issue in this article: In Italy, small towns are being depopulated, including their shops: will Amazon Now provide the service in the future?: it seems this is not just an issue for villages but also for cities, such as Milan, where large-scale retail – with or without e-commerce – should play not only a commercial but also a social role…

Read also: In recent weeks, Carrefour Spain has launched a mobile supermarket to combat the decline of local shops

Written on 15 July, updated on 22 July 2026

Quick Take — Walmart, in its biggest deal of the last two years, has acquired an advertising technology company

The retail giant is paying $1.4 billion for Vibe.co, a company that enables advertising via smart TVs…

The acquisition of Vibe.co is Walmart’s largest deal since itbought Vizio for $2.3 billion in 2024. Since then, Walmart has rebranded Vizio as its own brand and integrated Vizio’s operating system into its own-brand televisions already on the market. This week’s deal is a further sign that Walmart’s executives intend to invest heavily to boost the retailer’s advertising business. Some of the executives will be required to stay on for four years to manage the business.

Below is a comparison of Walmart – Amazon comparison on advertising (read ‘How Walmart became an advertising powerhouse, whilst remaining focused on the food, non-food and e-commerce businesses’) which highlights the Bentonville (Arkansas) giant’s lag behind Jeff Bezos’s company, which, moreover, has the advantage of also controlling AWS.

In Italy, it is worth highlighting Selex’s initiative.

Drafted on 24 June, updated on 28 June 2026