• Nordstrom's founding family is taking the retail chain private with help from a Mexican retailer.
• Bruce Nordstrom, whose grandfather started the department store in 1901, died in May.
• Here's how Nordstrom grew from a single location in Seattle into a fashion empire.

The descendants of John W. Nordstrom are taking the eponymous department store chain private.

Nordstrom's great-grandsons Pete and Erik, who are now the company's President and CEO, respectively, are working with cousin Jamie Nordstrom, the company's chief merchandising officer, and Mexican retailer El Puerto de Liverpool to purchase the company at $24.25 per share, the group said on Monday. The deal gives Nordstrom an enterprise value of $6.25 billion and should be completed in the first half of 2025, the group said.

Earlier this year, Pete and Erik's father, Bruce, died at the age of 90 after a long career with the company.

The grandson of founder John W. Nordstrom, Bruce was instrumental in bringing the retailer to international prominence in a career that spanned four decades.

Here's how the Nordstroms built their empire from a single shoe store in Seattle to one of the biggest names in fashion retail.

Nordstrom was founded as a shoe store by John W. Nordstrom and Carl F. Wallin in Seattle in 1901.

Two decades later, the partners opened a second store in Seattle's University District.

John Nordstrom retired in 1928 and sold his share to his sons Everett and Elmer.

Wallin retired soon after and sold his share of the company to the Nordstrom sons too. John's third son, Lloyd, later joined the team.

John Nordstrom's sons focused on expanding into women's clothing.

Nordstrom purchased the Seattle-based clothing store Best's Apparel in 1963. Three years later, the company purchased a Portland, Oregon-based clothing store and began offering both shoes and apparel under the name Nordstrom Best. The company added men's and children's apparel in 1966.

In 1968, the three Nordstrom brothers handed the company over to the next generation.

Everett's son Bruce, Elmer's sons James and John, Lloyd's son-in-law Jack, and family friend Bob Bender became the new heads of the company. The third generation of Nordstrom chairmen took the company public in 1971, formally renaming it Nordstrom Inc.

The first Nordstrom Rack opened in the basement of the downtown Seattle store in 1973.

That same year, the company became the largest-volume fashion specialty store on the West Coast, with sales surpassing $100 million. The chain continued to expand throughout the next several decades.

In 1995, Nordstrom's third generation handed the reins over to the fourth.

The elder Nordstroms retired as co-chairmen, but remained on the Board of Directors, and Bruce's sons, Blake, Pete, and Erik, took over the company in 1995.

Bruce's oldest son Blake became co-president in 1995.

Blake began working in the family business when he was about 11 years old. His first role with the company was in the stockroom, and he went on to hold many positions with the company, including merchandise buyer, regional manager, and then vice president in charge of stores in Washington and Alaska.

Erik Nordstrom worked for his older brother in various positions at the company as the two rose through the ranks together.

"It was always the best working for my brother because he had more confidence in me and gave me more autonomy than anybody I had ever worked for," Erik Nordstrom said in his father's 2007 book, "Leave It Better Than You Found It."

Bruce returned as chairman in 2000, retiring for a second time in 2006.

Bruce and his sons were credited with turning the company around after several years of underperformance by non-family leadership.

Throughout the 2000s, Nordstrom partnered with fashion brands like Façonnable, Topshop, HauteLook, and Jeffery.

In 2014, the company started expanding internationally. It opened stores in Canada and the US territory of Puerto Rico.

Nordstrom opened its first menswear-only store in 2018 and a flagship womenswear store in 2019.

The concept combined in-store services, such as tailoring, shoe shining, and food, with high-tech digital ordering and returns systems.

Blake died in 2019 at the age of 58, passing control of the company to his brothers.

"Blake was the best big brother, friend and mentor anyone could ever ask for," Pete and Erik Nordstrom said in a note to employees. "One of the things that brings us some comfort is that Blake's values, character and passion can still be reflected in what this company does — how we treat each other, our customers and our communities. Building on that is the best way we can think of to honor his legacy."

In April, Pete and Erik revealed that the company was exploring options to go private.

In regulatory filings, the brother said they had not yet received any financing commitments to complete such a deal.

In May, Bruce died at his home at the age of 90.

Nordstrom died on May 18.

"Our dad leaves a powerful legacy as a legendary business leader, a generous community citizen and a loyal friend," Pete and Erik said in a statement.

In December, Erik, Pete, and other Nordstrom family members reached a deal to take the company private.

The deal with Mexican retailer El Puerto de Liverpool was developed over several months. Once completed, the Nordstrom descendants will own 50.1% of he department store chain, with the other 49.9% in the hands of Liverpool, Nordstrom said on Monday.

Jessica Tyler contributed to an earlier version of this story.

• The Walmart heirs' combined estimated net worth is nearly $380 billion.
• All three of Sam Walton's surviving children have now made it into the $100 billion club.
• In public, the Waltons live relatively modest lifestyles despite their wealth.

All three of Walmart founder Sam Walton's surviving children have made it into the $100 billion club as the retail giant's share price continues to soar.

The combined wealth of the Walmart heirs — which include founder Sam Walton's children, Rob, Jim, and Alice, as well as his grandson Lukas — is nearly $380 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Together, they're significantly ahead of the top individual names on the list, such as Jeff Bezos, Bernard Arnault, or Mark Zuckerberg, though Elon Musk has recently seen his fortune outstrip their collective net worth.

While some have worked in the family business — whether that's serving on the company board or working to manage the family's wealth — others chose to pursue areas of personal passion.

Sam Walton, the original man behind the company that now encompasses both Walmart and Sam's Club, set his family up for financial success when he divided the ownership before he died.

Most recently, the Walton children have expanded voting control to their own, giving eight of Sam's grandchildren a say in the family holdings.

Sam wasn't a man of flashy luxury, but you can see how his children are living a slightly more lavish life now. Here's a look at how the Walton family empire spends its money: 

Sam Walton opened the first Walmart store in Rogers, Arkansas, in 1962.

As he grew his retail empire, Walton, an experienced pilot, would often fly in unannounced to check in on a particular store location.

He married Helen Robson on Valentine's Day in 1942.

Together, they had four children: Rob, John, Jim, and Alice.

By the time Sam died in 1992, he had set up the company ownership in a way that minimized the estate taxes anyone on the receiving end would have to pay.

Source: Fortune

He set up his ownership of Walmart's stock in a family partnership — each of his children held 20% of Walton Enterprises, while he and Helen each held 10%. Helen inherited Sam's 10% tax-free when he died.

Source: Fortune

Samuel Robson "Rob" Walton is the oldest Walton child. He is 80 years old.

He served as chairman of Walmart from 1992 until 2015 and remained on the board until this year.

He retired from Walmart's board at the end of his term in 2024.

Rob made a splash in 2022 by leading an ownership group to buy the Denver Broncos.

The group purchased the NFL team for a $4.65 billion in summer 2022 in a record-breaking sale at the time.

Rob has purchased a house in Paradise Valley, Arizona, near the base of Camelback Mountain.

In the past, protesters have rallied outside of his Arizona home to advocate for better wages and benefits for Walmart workers.

Besides real estate, Rob has a large collection of vintage cars.

In 2013, he ran his Daytona Coupe, which was worth $15 million at the time, off the tracks and wrecked it. The car was one of only five ever made.

Sam Walton's second-oldest child, John Walton, died in a plane crash in 2005.

He was 58 years old.

He was married to Christy Walton and had one son, Lukas.

John left about 17% of his wealth to his wife, and he gave the rest to charity and to his son.

Source: Business Insider

John served in Vietnam as a Green Beret. When he returned from the war he held a series of jobs — like the Walmart company pilot, a crop duster, and the owner a few yachting companies — before becoming a Walmart board member.

Source: Fortune

In 2013, Christy decided to sell their Jackson Hole mansion. She also sold the family's ranch for an undisclosed price in 2016 after listing it for $100 million in 2011.

Source: Curbed and Ranch Marketing Associates

The 8,606-square-foot home was put on the market for $12.5 million.

Source: Curbed

James "Jim" Walton is the youngest son of Walmart founder Sam Walton. He is 76 years old.

He is chairman of the board of the family's Arvest Bank Group. One of the state's largest banks today, Arvest Bank has assets totaling more than $26 billion.

Source: Bloomberg

He also served on the Walmart board, starting in 2005 to fill the vacancy after his brother John died. Jim Walton's son, Steuart, took over his father's seat on the board in 2016.

Now, he presides over Walton Enterprises — the private company that deals with the investments and finances of the Walton family only — from modest offices in Bentonville, Arkansas.

Source: Fortune

The youngest of founder Sam Walton's children, Alice Walton is worth $112 billion, according to Bloomberg. She has been divorced twice and has no children. She is 75 years old.

Alice has never taken an active role in running the family business.

Instead, she became a patron of the arts, which she fell in love with at a young age.

When she was 10, she bought her first work of art: a reproduction of Picasso's "Blue Nude" for about $2, she told The New Yorker.

Source: The New Yorker

She has an immense private art collection, with original works from Andy Warhol and Georgia O'Keeffe. Alice opened a museum in Bentonville called Crystal Bridges in 2011 to house her $500 million private art collection.

The collection includes a Georgia O'Keeffe painting that Alice spent $44.4 million on in 2014 — the biggest sale for a woman's piece of art in history.

Source: The Observer

Alice also breeds horses.

Her Millsap, Texas, property, Rocking W Ranch, sold to the Three Amigos Investment Group of Kermit, Texas, in September 2017 for an undisclosed amount.

Source: Star-Telegram

It had an initial asking price of $19.75 million, which was reduced to $16.5 million. The working ranch had over 250 acres of pasture and outbuildings for cattle and horses.

Source: WilliamsTrew

Her other, 4,416-acre Texas ranch was previously listed at a reduced price of $22 million.

The modest, three-bedroom, two-bathroom home overlooks the Brazos River.

Alice also bought a two-floor condo on New York's Park Ave. for $25 million in 2014.

Source: Business Insider

It has more than 52 large windows overlooking Central Park plus a media room, a winding staircase, and more than 6,000 total square feet of space.

Source: Business Insider

In January 2016, Alice donated 3.7 million of her Walmart shares — worth about $225 million at the time — to the family's nonprofit, the Walton Family Foundation.

Sam and Helen started the foundation as a way to teach their children how to give back and how to work together.

The charity awards millions of dollars in grants to causes that align with the foundation's values.

The foundation has three main areas of focus:

The foundation's focus on education was led by John. His brother Jim said John was really interested in being able to give parents choices when it came to their child's schooling.

Source: Walton Family Foundation

Rob spearheaded the foundation's venture into environmental protection. One of the first grants they gave helped develop a sustainable fisheries label.

Source: Walton Family Foundation

A commitment to the family's home of Arkansas is another large part of the foundation. The website says this area of focus is about "advancing our home region of Northwest Arkansas and the Arkansas-Mississippi Delta."

Source: Walton Family Foundation

Walmart Inc., which owns Walmart and Sam's Club, is the largest retailer in the US in terms of revenue.

Even though the Walton family is raking in billions as a result of the company's success, they remain relatively under-the-radar in terms of flashing their wealth — much like their patriarch, Sam, did in the early years.

In December, Walmart disclosed that Sam's children had granted voting rights to eight of their own children, bringing the total number of voices in the family fortune from three to eight, and keeping with Sam's vision for his legacy.

Source: SEC filings

• Party City's CEO told employees the specialty retailer is "winding down" operations, CNN reports.
• The company was impacted severely by the COVID-19 pandemic and never fully recovered.
• The company spent much of the past two years in bankruptcy proceedings and has closed 80 locations.

Party City's balloon is out of air.

CEO Barry Litwin, who took the job in August, told Party City's corporate employees on Friday that operations were "winding down" immediately, CNN reported.

The news follows reports last week that the company was contemplating a second bankruptcy in two years as debt continued to weigh on profitability.

A spokesperson for Party City did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Litwin told employees the company had done what it could to avoid shutting down but that, "unfortunately, it's necessary to commence a wind-down process immediately," CNN reported.

Party City navigated a pre-pandemic shortage of helium for balloons, securing a new supply source.

It was impacted severely by the COVID-19 pandemic, when lockdowns and social distancing ended many celebratory gatherings, and other mass retailers like Amazon, Walmart, and Target stepped up their party supply offerings.

The company spent much of 2023 in bankruptcy proceedings and reportedly closed 80 locations, or roughly a tenth of its store fleet.

It exited bankruptcy in September 2023, after a judge canceled $1 billion of its debt. Litwin was appointed CEO a year later.

• Big Lots said Thursday it does not expect to close the deal to sell itself to a private equity firm.
• The company will hold going-out-of-business sales at remaining stores as it looks for a new buyer.
• Hundreds of Big Lots stores are slated to close across the US.

The fate of Big Lots is getting down to the wire.

The discount retailer said Thursday that it will hold going-out-of-business sales at its remaining stores as it does not expect to close its sale to private equity firm Nexus Capital Management.

However, it is not officially going out of business.

"While we remain hopeful that we can close an alternative going concern transaction, in order to protect the value of the Big Lots estate, we have made the difficult decision to begin the GOB process," CEO Bruce Thorn said in a statement.

The company did not specify why the deal — which was worth roughly $750 million and had received court approval in November — fell through.

Big Lots said it does not expect the going-out-of-business sales will preclude it from negotiating a new deal, which it hopes to achieve by early January.

In addition to its announcement, Big Lots added hundreds of new locations to its list of more than 200 closing stores, which has been growing since it filed for bankruptcy protection in September. The fleet previously counted nearly 1,400 stores across the US.

Business Insider visited one location before it was included on this latest list and found empty shelves, an unusual assortment of merchandise, and few actual bargain prices.

Big Lots positions itself as a store to find great deals, which it offers by sourcing products at low costs from suppliers and other retailers.

But declining sales, a growing mountain of debt, financial losses, and a high percentage of underperforming stores have put the company's future in doubt.

If you are a Big Lots worker who wants to share your perspective, please contact Dominick via email or text/call/Signal at 646.768.4750. Responses will be kept confidential, and Business Insider strongly recommends using a personal email and a non-work device when reaching out

• AT&T's CTO told his US team there wouldn't be "one-for-one" seating upon the full office return.
• He added that AT&T would stagger its five-day-a-week mandate as more office space was constructed.
• Some teams may see their full office return delayed if construction doesn't finish in time, he said.

AT&T Technology Services employees in the US won't have "one-for-one" seating when they begin returning to the office five days a week in the new year, the company's chief technology officer wrote in a new memo.

The telecom giant's CTO, Jeremy Legg, detailed how the new in-office policy would be implemented across his US team in a Wednesday memo obtained by Business Insider.

The new in-office requirement for US AT&T Technology Services employees will begin a phased rollout on January 6 and is expected to be fully implemented for most teams by March 3, the memo said.

"Our purpose at AT&T is connecting people to greater possibility," Legg wrote. "We firmly believe that working together, in person and in proximity to our peers, is the best way for ATS employees to fulfill that purpose."

Legg oversees AT&T's technology organizations for business, consumer, IT and cloud, data and analytics, security, network architecture and AT&T Labs, and new product development. The AT&T Technology Services team has roughly 10,000 workers in the US.

AT&T told BI that organizations within the company have the flexibility to determine the right approach for their teams based on business needs and that many were staggering the return of employees.

The memo came after BI first reported that AT&T was tightening its return-to-office mandate from three days a week to five full workdays.

Legg said in the email that the company understood that not every employee could be on-site every single day because of "travel, vacations, or other reasons" and that "leaders will work with employees to provide the needed occasional flexibility."

While several expansion projects are underway in Atlanta and Dallas, Legg said AT&T "will not offer one-for-one seating per employee" and the company "will observe capacity vs. demand and make adjustments" as needed.

Legg's memo said that teams assigned to AT&T's Atlanta-area locations would be notified if their full-return-to-office date was delayed as construction on additional space progressed.

Several employees have told BI that workspace capacity has been a challenge, even with the prior hybrid arrangement.

Employees told BI it's common for workers to end up sitting in the hallways or working in the cafeteria to avoid running afoul of the company's attendance-tracking system.

One employee said their office had more than 1,200 people assigned to it but only about 150 desks available.

"I know returning to the office 5 days a week is a significant change for some," Legg said in his memo. "By coming together in person, we can strengthen our connections, foster a vibrant culture, and achieve our shared goals."

Read the full memo

Dear ATS U.S.-Based Management Employees,

Our purpose at AT&T is connecting people to greater possibility. We firmly believe that working together, in person and in proximity to our peers, is the best way for ATS employees to fulfill that purpose. By fostering in-person interactions, we can form stronger relationships, build trust and enhance our collaboration, innovation, and overall effectiveness as a team.

Full-Time Office Presence in 2025

That's why l'm asking all employees with Full Time Office designations (NFTO, MFTO CFTO) to return to the office full time, with staggered starts based on management level and office space availability. FTO employees in ATS will work in the office full-time, 5 days a week according to this schedule:

• January 6, 2025: All U.S.-based supervising level 4s and above
• February 3, 2025: All U.S.-based supervising level 3s and above in all locations except Atlanta and Alpharetta¹
• March 3, 2025²: All other U.S.-based management employees in all locations except Atlanta and Alpharetta¹

¹Construction of additional space is underway at Lenox, with an expected readiness date between April and June. As construction progresses, employees in Atlanta and Alpharetta will be notified when it's time to work in the office 5 days a week.

²Construction of additional space for ATS teams is underway at Dallas Headquarters and at 2900 West Plano Pkwy. Employees in these locations will return to the office March 3 if the space is ready. If completion is delayed, we will communicate further instructions to affected teams.

As we stagger the return to 5 days per week per the timeline above, FTO employees should continue to be present in the office 3 to 5 days per week. There is no change in expectations for Future Office Workers or virtual workers. We periodically review the needs of the business and may occasionally change an employee's office designation based on those needs.

Fostering Collaboration

Between now and early first quarter 2025, we will be working with Global Workplace Services to align teams to neighborhoods on each of our campuses.

Even with employees working full time in the office, we know that not all employees will be in every day due to travel, vacations, or other reasons. We will not offer one-for-one seating per employee. We will observe capacity vs. demand and make adjustments working with Workplace Services as needed.

Flexibility and Accountability

We know employees occasionally need to work remotely for various reasons. Leaders will work with employees to provide the needed occasional flexibility. This balance between flexibility and accountability is essential to maintaining our high standards of performance and collaboration. Senior leadership will review overall presence trends via How and Where We Work presence dashboards. With this data, we will work toward improving things like seating, availability of amenities, and parking options.

Next Steps

The How and Where ATS Works SharePoint site is your definitive source of information on returning to the office full-time, including campus and neighborhood information as it becomes available. It is currently being updated to reflect the changing expectations for our organization. Supervisors can also answer questions. We are committed to making this transition as smooth as possible for everyone involved.

Additional Thoughts

I know returning to the office 5 days a week is a significant change for some. As we outlined during Analyst and Investor Day, we have tremendous momentum in growing this company the right way. That momentum will accelerate when we reap the benefits of faster collaboration and innovation. By coming together in person, we can strengthen our connections, foster a vibrant culture, and achieve our shared goals.

Your dedication and commitment to excellence are the driving forces behind our success.

Thank you for your continued hard work and support. I look forward to seeing you all in the office and working together to create an even brighter future for ATS.

Jeremy

If you are an AT&T worker who wants to share your perspective, please contact Dominick via email or text/call/Signal at 646-768-4750. Responses will be kept confidential, and Business Insider strongly recommends using a personal email and a nonwork device when reaching out.

• Staff at major companies have asked their leaders if there are plans to follow Amazon's full return to office.
• Firms like Meta, Google, and Microsoft have a hybrid setup — however, execs say they're eyeing productivity.
• Research findings on the subject are varied, and the debate will likely continue in 2025.

Executives at major companies are referencing a specific term to hedge when asked by employees if they plan to follow in Amazon's footsteps and implement a return to 5 days a week in the office.

That word? Productivity.

While Amazon has been the most high-profile example this year of a full return to office policy, set to go into effect in January, telecom giant AT&T has also elected to double down on in-person work with a similar 5-day policy, Business Insider first reported.

In the wake of Amazon's announcement, executives at both Google and Microsoft, which require employees to be in the office at least 3 days a week, have fielded questions from staff wondering if the days of hybrid work are numbered.

Microsoft's executive vice president of cloud and AI, Scott Guthrie, said the company wouldn't change the hybrid work policy unless it noticed a drop in productivity, BI reported in September.

In October, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the company had no plans to order employees back to the office, so long as employees remain productive during their at-home work days, BI previously reported.

Over at Meta, Mark Zuckerberg said last year that "early analysis of performance data," indicated productivity increases for early-career engineers in the office at least 3 days a week. A few months later, the company announced it was requiring employees to return to the office 3 days a week.

Executives at Dell called the company's sales team back to the office 5 days a week starting at the end of September, writing in a memo, "Our data shows that sales teams are more productive when onsite."

Though Amazon did not explicitly name productivity as a reason for its full return to the office, CEO Andy Jassy emphasized a similar term: effectiveness.

Being back in person 5 days a week makes it "easier for our teammates to learn, model, practice, and strengthen our culture; collaborating, brainstorming, and inventing are simpler and more effective; teaching and learning from one another are more seamless; and, teams tend to be better connected to one another," he wrote at the time.

For those committing to a full return to office, preparing campuses for the influx of employees in the new year is its own challenge. Amazon has since delayed the announced January 2 effective date of the new mandate for some employees because it doesn't have enough office space in some locations, BI reported earlier this month.

As CEOs and company leaders keep an eye on how employees in remote or hybrid setups perform, various studies since the onset of the pandemic have attempted to measure and compare the productivity of employees who work at home and in-office. Research studies have produced conflicting results, further complicated by the matter of how best to define or measure productivity.

Goldman Sachs, which has a 5-day-in-office policy, reviewed several analyses that used different ways of evaluating changes in work-from-home productivity, from call-center workers who were randomly chosen to work from home to comparing the productivity of randomly assigned remote workers with their in-office peers.

In short, it's hard to say for sure, and executives are deciding what their long-term setup will be after a year in which some of the world's biggest companies put a renewed focus on being "lean" and "efficient."

Meanwhile, some employees have returned to commuting in (sometimes "coffee-badging" in and returning home), others have relocated to comply with a policy change, and some have resigned to pursue a hybrid or fully remote opportunity. As companies tighten their belts and conduct layoffs, other workers have taken to workplace forums to wonder if some of the RTO mandates have been a possible "quiet layoffs" tactic.

As more major global companies revisit their policies and make changes, CEOs are likely to face more questions on the topic going into the new year.

For some, the answer is simple: Stay productive and we'll stay flexible.

• Many major companies are requiring employees to return to the office full or part-time.
• Business Insider compiled a running list of the companies calling employees back.
• The list includes companies like Starbucks, Amazon, and BlackRock.

In September, Amazon mandated corporate workers return to the office five days a week beginning January 2.

In December, Business Insider first reported that AT&T is following suit and expecting employees to be in the office 40 hours a week starting in the new year.

The two business giants are just one of the many companies calling their employees back to the office following the pandemic as COVID-19 restrictions have eased.

The Washington Post, which is owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, told employees this week they would be required to return to the office five days a week, according to a memo obtained by Business Insider.

Other major employers, including JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, have also abandoned the hybrid attendance policy they adopted during the pandemic and instead implemented full return-to-office mandates.

Several executives and leaders have said they believe productivity increases when workers are in the office together, while others hope to increase in-person collaboration. Even some CEOs who previously praised the flexibility of remote work have started backpedaling, pressuring workers to comply with RTO mandates with threats to track attendance or even fire employees who don't comply.

Here's a list, in alphabetical order, of major companies requiring employees to return to offices. Business Insider will update this list regularly.

Amazon

CEO Andy Jassy wrote in a September 16 memo that Amazon would be pulling the plug on remote work starting next year.

"We've decided that we're going to return to being in the office the way we were before the onset of COVID," Jassy said. "When we look back over the last five years, we continue to believe that the advantages of being together in the office are significant."

The CEO cited easier employee collaboration and connection and said in-person work would strengthen the company's culture, echoing his February 2023 memo, which mandated employees spend at least three days a week in the office.

Not everyone agrees. Some Amazon employees have taken to an internal Slack channel to criticize the new RTO policy, Business Insider's Ashley Stewart first reported, with one staffer writing that it is "significantly more strict and out of its mind" than pre-Covid operations.

"This is not 'going back' to how it was before," they wrote. "It's just going backwards."

The critical reaction is reminiscent of employees' response to last year's surprise return-to-office rule. Thousands of Amazon workers joined a Slack channel to share their thoughts, with some even organizing to file a petition against the change.

Apple

In August 2022, Apple's senior leaders told workers they had to return to the office at least three days a week after previously requiring two days a week. CEO Tim Cook said the decision was meant to restore "in-person collaboration." Some employees fought back and issued a petition shortly after the announcement, arguing that staffers can do "exceptional work" from home.

Despite the pushback, Apple's hybrid work program launched the following month and is still in place.

AT&T

AT&T confirmed to Business Insider that it's requiring all office employees to work on-site five days a week starting in January.

The change follows about a year of AT&T accommodating a hybrid schedule in its widely publicized office push.

"The majority of our employees and leaders never stopped working on location for the full work week — including during the pandemic," a spokesperson for the telecom giant told BI.

AT&T told BI it's updating its facilities amid the policy change.

"As we continue to evolve our model, we are enhancing our facilities and workspaces, adapting our benefits programs, and incorporating best practices to ensure our employees are best equipped to serve our customers," the spokesperson added.

BlackRock

Last year, BlackRock mandated employees return to the office four days a week. The investment firm, which is headquartered in New York City, intended to bring employees into its then newly leased office space — which spans 1 million square feet across 15 floors, according to Hudson Yards.

In a May 2023 memo sent by the company's COO, Rob Goldstein, and the head of human resources, Caroline Heller, the execs wrote: "Career development happens in teaching moments between team members, and it is accelerated during market-moving moments, when we step up and get into the mix. All of this requires us to be together in the office."

Additionally, the memo notified staffers that the firm is giving them the opportunity to work remotely for two weeks during a time period that is relevant in their country, in an effort to offer "seasonal flexibility."

Chipotle

The fast-food chain announced last summer that corporate workers work in the office four days a week, Bloomberg reported. Chipotle had previously required workers to show up three days a week, according to the report.

Citigroup

Citigroup asked its 600 US workers, who were previously eligible to work remotely, to return to the office full-time, Bloomberg reported. In a memo released by the investment firm in May, the majority of staff are reportedly still able to work a hybrid schedule, with up to two days a week outside the office.

HSBC Holding Plc and Barclays Plc also followed suit, mandating workers to come into the office five days a week, according to the report.

Vaccinated Citigroup employees across the US were asked to return to the office for at least two days a week in March 2022, an internal memo obtained by Reuters said.

Dell

Dell told its sales staff to return to the office five days a week starting on September 30. Previously, the company let US employees pick between working remotely or following a hybrid schedule with about three days a week in the office.

September's sales-team mandate came with just a few days' notice, sending employees with kids into a hurry to find childcare, Business Insider reported.

Disney

In a January 2023 memo obtained by Business Insider, CEO Bob Iger told workers that starting that March, any Disney staff member working "in a hybrid fashion" would need to return to Disney's offices four days a week.

In response, over 2,300 employees signed a petition asking Iger to reconsider the mandate.

"This policy will slow, or even reverse, our post-COVID recovery and growth by creating critical resource shortages and causing irreplaceable institutional knowledge loss," signees wrote, according to The Washington Post.

Goldman Sachs

In March 2022, CEO David Solomon told Fortune that the company was asking employees to return to the office five days a week. Seven months later, he told CNBC that about 65% of staffers were working in the office.

However, some staff have failed to follow the policy a year into its implementation, causing senior managers to become frustrated and Goldman Sachs to further crack down on employees to return to the office full-time.

Google

In March 2022, Google employees in the San Francisco Bay Area and "several other US locations" were told to return to the office for at least three days a week starting the following month.

Last year, however, the company tightened RTO expectations, telling staff in an email that office attendance would factor into their performance reviews.

Google's Chief People Officer Fiona Cicconi told workers in the memo that requests to work remotely full time will now be considered "by exception only."

Some employees expressed feeling "frustrated" with the new policy. One staffer previously told Business Insider, "We don't like being micromanaged like school kids."

IBM

IBM has made its feelings on in-person work strictly clear — telling managers to either come into offices or get out.

The company asked all its US managers to report to an office or client location at least three days a week, according to a January memo viewed by Bloomberg.

A source told the outlet that staff would have to live within 50 miles of an IBM office or client location. The memo reportedly told employees they had until August to complete their relocation arrangements, and those who were unable to comply with the new policy must "separate from IBM."

CEO Arvind Krishna previously told the news outlet that employees' careers could suffer if they work from home. He said that although he wasn't forcing his own staffers back to the office, he thought remote workers may struggle to get promotions.

JPMorgan

In April 2023, JPMorgan announced to employees in a memo that all managing directors must work in the office five days a week. The memo also reminded other workers of the current policy of working in-person a minimum of three days a week.

Despite some pushback from employees, CEO Jamie Dimon doubled down on the policy, saying disgruntled workers can choose to go elsewhere.

"I completely understand why someone doesn't want to commute an hour and a half every day, totally got it," he told The Economist. "Doesn't mean they have to have a job here either."

The company has also been collecting data on staff activity, including tracking attendance.

Meta

Meta updated its remote work policies in September 2023, requiring employees to head into the office three days a week.

It had also stopped offering remote work in new job listings. People familiar with the company previously told BI that hiring managers could no longer post new jobs that list the work location as "remote" or outside of an existing office.

The company doubled down on its RTO efforts in June of this year, telling workers that their attendance would be tracked daily and failure to comply could lead to termination.

However, some employees returning to the office said they were met with a lack of space and privacy, with one worker calling the mandate "a mess."

Redfin

In April last year, real estate company Redfin announced an updated return-to-office policy via a memo from CEO Glenn Kelman.

The memo noted that starting July 2023, Redfin would require "headquarters employees" who live within 20 miles of the company's Seattle, San Francisco, and Frisco offices to work from the office for a full day on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Those who live beyond the 20-mile radius are required to visit the office in-person once a quarter for a day or more of meetings, the company said.

In order to hold employees accountable, the memo included a "no-exceptions" section, reading that "to determine your distance from an office, we'll use Google Maps, with the distance from your home address measured in miles driven over roads by car."

Salesforce

Salesforce told employees in an internal memo seen by The San Francisco Standard that the majority of workers have to be in an office four to five days a week as of October 1.

The new policy is mandated for select staff in sales, workplace services, data center engineering, and on-site support technicians, according to the memo.

Early last year, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff revised the company's annual strategic plan, including return-to-office mandates, according to a draft shared in an internal Slack message viewed by Business Insider.

The updated draft return-to-office policy required nonremote employees to work three days a week in the office and employees in "non-remote" and "customer-facing" roles to work four days a week. Engineers must work from the office 10 days per quarter, down from 20 in the initial draft, which was updated based on employee feedback.

Snap

Snap implemented a new mandate in September 2023, requiring employees to work in an office at least four days a week. The change represented a shift from the company's former "remote first" policy, which allowed employees to work from home or elsewhere.

Employees previously told BI that some managers told them the company is able to track workers' WiFi connections to see who is complying.

Starbucks

In a January 2023 memo to corporate staffers, then-CEO Howard Schultz said employees within commuting distance would be required to return to the office at least three days a week.

Schultz said some staff had failed to "meet their minimum promise of one day a week" and also pointed out that Starbucks baristas didn't have the "privilege" of working from home. The executive had previously said he "pleaded" with workers to come back to the office.

Starbucks employees responded by signing an open letter protesting the company's return-to-office mandate.

In September, former Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol took over as CEO of the coffee chain.

In October, the company threatened to fire staff if they did not comply with the RTO policy, Bloomberg first reported, citing an internal memo.

Beginning in January, the company plans to initiate a "standardized process" to hold workers accountable to the hybrid schedule at the team level, where consequences will cover "up to, and including, separation," according to the email obtained by Bloomberg.

Employees, however, may request exemptions due to physical or mental medical reasons.

Tesla

In June 2022, Tesla employees were notified of a mandatory return-to-office policy.

The email from Elon Musk included wording such as "If you don't show up, we will assume you have resigned," and noted that everyone at Tesla must work from the office at least 40 hours a week.

Musk, who has called remote work "morally wrong," nodded to his frequent presence at Tesla factories as the reason for the business' success. "If I had not done that, Tesla would long ago have gone bankrupt," he wrote in the email.

Ubisoft

In September, Ubisoft, the France-based maker of the popular "Assassin's Creed" and "Far Cry" video game series, ordered its staff worldwide to return to the office three days a week.

French workers at the video game maker went on strike on October 15 over the RTO mandate.

X

After buying X, formerly Twitter, in 2022, Musk told employees that not showing up to an office when they're able to was the same as a resignation.

Musk also told staffers in an email that remote work was no longer allowed and that employees were expected to be in the office for at least 40 hours a week unless given explicit approval to work elsewhere.

In 2023, X, then Twitter, National Labor Relations Board filed a formal complaint saying that X had illegally fired an employee who complained about Musk's RTO policy.

The complaint said that Yao Yue, a principal software engineer, criticized the mandate, tweeting, "don't resign, let him fire you." She also posted, "don't be fired. Seriously" in a company Slack channel.

Yue was then fired five days later and told it was due to violating an unspecified company policy.

Uber

In a memo obtained by Business Insider, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told employees that beginning in April 2022, Uber staffers in 35 of the company's locations were required to return to the office at least half the time. He added that on other days, staffers were allowed to work remotely and that some could be entirely remote if they got clearance from their managers.

CEO Dara Khosrowshahi recently said remote work took away some of Uber's "most frequent customers," adding that "there is an audience who kind of stopped using us as frequently as they used to."

Walmart

Along with slashing hundreds of jobs, Walmart also asked previously remote employees in the US to move to offices.

Staffers located in smaller offices in Dallas, Atlanta, and Toronto are additionally being directed to the company's central hubs, including its headquarters in Arkansas or New Jersey, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The retail giant will still permit hybrid schedules as long as workers come in-person most of the time, according to the outlet.

The Washington Post

William Lewis, CEO and publisher of The Washington Post, told staffers in early November that they would be required to return to the office five days a week, according to a memo obtained by BI.

"I want that great office energy for us every day," Lewis wrote, referring to the energy in the office during election week. "I am reliably informed that is how it used to be here before Covid, and it's important we get this back."

All employees were expected to return to the office by June 2, 2025, while managers were expected to return by February 3, 2025.

After starting remote work in 2020, the Post previously required employees to return to the office three days a week in early 2022.

The announcement at the Post came shortly after Amazon's return-to-office mandate. The Post is owned by Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and executive chairman.

Zoom

Zoom, the darling of remote work, said in 2022 that less than 2% of staffers work in person full time. However, last year, the video-calling company asked employees to return to the office.

Workers living within 50 miles of one of its offices were mandated to work there at least two days a week.

"We believe that a structured hybrid approach – meaning employees that live near an office need to be onsite two days a week to interact with their teams – is most effective for Zoom," a spokesperson previously said in a statement. "As a company, we are in a better position to use our own technologies, continue to innovate, and support our global customers."

• AT&T is requiring many office employees to work on-site a full five days a week starting in January.
• The telecom giant previously accommodated a hybrid schedule in its return-to-office push.
• The news comes as Amazon has delayed some RTO plans due to capacity issues.

AT&T's return-to-office mandate is set to get more strict in the new year.

The Dallas-based telecom giant confirmed to Business Insider that it is requiring all office employees to work on-site five days a week starting in January. The change follows about a year of AT&T accommodating a hybrid schedule in its widely publicized office push.

In the summer of 2023, CEO John Stankey said workers would be required to report at least three days a week to one of nine corporate hubs: Dallas; Atlanta; Los Angeles; San Ramon, CA; Seattle; St. Louis; Washington; Middletown, NJ; and Bedminster, NJ. The company previously supported more than 300 offices across the US.

Thousands of affected employees faced the choice of relocating or finding a new job, with some 18,000 management employees opting to return to one of the hubs, according to AT&T's proxy statement this year.

Now, some workers who may have gotten used to hybrid schedules will soon be required to log eight hours a day, five days a week at the office.

"The majority of our employees and leaders never stopped working on location for the full work week — including during the pandemic," a company spokesperson told Business Insider.

In multiple social media posts, Reddit users on the AT&T subreddit voiced concerns about whether the offices have enough capacity for employees.

AT&T told BI it is updating its facilities amid the policy change.

"As we continue to evolve our model, we are enhancing our facilities and workspaces, adapting our benefits programs, and incorporating best practices to ensure our employees are best equipped to serve our customers," the spokesperson said.

This week, BI reported that Amazon was delaying its 5-days-in-office mandate for some employees due to workspace shortages at some locations. While most locations are on track to be ready on January 2, internal documents indicated some employees will be delayed until as late as May.

"We continue to believe that the advantages of being together in the office are significant," Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told employees in a September memo announcing that employees were expected to be in the office every day of the week.

AT&T is also expanding its footprint in Atlanta, where the company signed a lease earlier this year on two office buildings it had previously vacated, CoStar reported.

Shares of AT&T are up roughly 40% in 2024 so far, outperforming the S&P 500's 27% return in the period. The telecom giant reported mixed third-quarter results in October, adding more new wireless subscribers than Wall Street expected but coming up slightly short for overall revenue as the land-line business declines.

The RTO push comes as some big-company CEOs say they're frustrated with hybrid work setups. Many job seekers have also found that it's getting harder to find a remote job or one that's hybrid.

At the same time, some employers appear to have settled into a tentative truce over how often workers are required to show up at the office.

In an October survey of nearly 7,500 organizations globally, the recruiting company Korn Ferry found that the share of employers requiring workers to report to the office five days a week had dropped to 43% from 89% before the pandemic ushered in a global experiment in remote work.

If you are an AT&T worker who wants to share your perspective, please contact Dominick via email or text/call/Signal at 646.768.4750. Responses will be kept confidential, and Business Insider strongly recommends using a personal email and a non-work device when reaching out

• Walmart is testing out body-cams for store employees in one market in Texas.
• A spokesperson said the goal of the pilot is to improve worker safety and evaluate the results.
• Earlier this year, Axon introduced a line of cameras designed for retail and healthcare workers.

Walmart shoppers in Texas may want to think twice before losing their cool with a store employee — the interaction could be captured from an up-close-and-personal camera angle.

The retail giant is testing body-cams for store employees in the Dallas area. A Walmart spokesperson told Business Insider the goal of the pilot is to improve worker safety and evaluate the results before making long-term decisions about a wider rollout.

"While we don't talk about the specifics of our security measures, we are always looking at new and innovative technology used across the retail industry," the spokesperson said.

One shopper told CNBC they saw a receipt-checker in Denton, Texas, wearing a yellow-and-black camera earlier this month, and an image of a rack of 16 similarly colored cameras was posted last month to the r/Walmart forum on Reddit.

A Walmart-branded poster in the image instructs users in ways to wear the camera, how to stop and start recording an event, and a reminder to remove the camera when visiting break rooms or restrooms.

The charging station for the cameras is marked with the Axon brand, which is most widely known for supplying body cameras for law enforcement officers. Axon declined to comment.

Earlier this year, Axom introduced a line of cameras designed for retail and healthcare workers, which look similar to the ones in the Reddit image.

In a survey, Axon found nearly half of retail workers said they had seen or been a victim of physical or verbal violence while on the job. Of those, most surveyed said they had experienced multiple incidents.

The company said one retailer who used the cameras in an early trial saw the number of incidents cut in half, and another found the cameras to be highly effective at de-escalating confrontations.

Over the summer, TJ Maxx equipped store associates with body cameras as a method to deter crime.

"We hope that these body cameras will help us de-escalate incidents, deter crime, and demonstrate to our Associates and customers that we take safety in our stores seriously," a spokesperson said at the time.

If you are a Walmart worker who wants to share your perspective, please contact Dominick via email or text/call/Signal at 646.768.4750. Responses will be kept confidential, and Business Insider strongly recommends using a personal email and a non-work device when reaching out

• Temu tops 2024 Apple App Store downloads, surpassing TikTok and ChatGPT in popularity.
• The Chinese e-commerce app offers big discounts on a wide range of products.
• Americans appear to be exploring budget-friendly options through in-app deals.

The App Store favorites of 2024 include social media platforms and one popular AI assistant, but the most downloaded app of the year was Temu.

The Chinese-owned e-commerce app was downloaded more times this year than TikTok, Threads, or ChatGPT, according to Apple. It's become known for big discounts on various products, from tech gadgets to apparel.

Temu, owned by PDD Holdings, is particularly popular among Gen Z consumers in the US. Gen Zers between 18 and 24 downloaded it 42 million times during the first 10 months of 2024, according to the app analytics firm Appfigures, which pulled data from iOS and Android users.

The e-commerce giant launched in the US in 2022 and has had a meteoric rise since then. PDD Holdings' third-quarter sales grew 44% to $14.2 billion from the same period in 2023, according to exchange rates on September 30.

It has invested millions to market to American shoppers. Three Temu ads aired during the Super Bowl, where one 30-second clip during the highly-viewed game can cost $7 million.

With Donald Trump threatening high tariffs on Chinese goods, Temu's popularity could be at risk if it resorts to raising prices to offset a possible 60% levy on its products.

Apps from retailers Amazon, Shein, and McDonald's also made the Apple App Store's top 20 most-downloaded list this year — indicating that consumers were on the hunt for a deal across categories.

McDonald's has found success in using targeted in-app promotions to build loyalty among its customers.

The chain's head of US restaurants said earlier this year that loyalty customers visit 15% more often and spend nearly twice as much as non-loyalty customers, with loyalty platform sales expected to hit $45 billion by 2027.

Amazon, for its part, has sought to capitalize on Temu and Shein's low-price appeal with a new Haul section, which is also an app-only shopping experience.

As former Starbucks CEO Laxman Narasimhan was fond of saying, "The best offers are in the app."

• Sen. Bernie Sanders says Amazon's focus on speed leads to "uniquely dangerous" workplaces.
• In a new report, which Amazon disputes, Sanders says its injury rates are worse than it lets on.
• Amazon is such a large employer it tilts the calculation of national statistics, the report finds.

Jeff Bezos once said Amazon would become "Earth's Safest Place to Work," but Sen. Bernie Sanders says the e-commerce juggernaut isn't even the safest place to work in its own industry.

A sweeping new report from the Sanders-led Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) says that Amazon's focus on speed leads to "uniquely dangerous" warehouses.

In the report, which Amazon, in a response updated on December 16, disputes as "fundamentally flawed," Sanders said the company's workplace injury rates are worse than it lets on, with nearly twice as many recordable injuries per 100 workers occurring at Amazon than at non-Amazon warehouses in each of the past seven years.

All US employers, including Amazon, must report to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration any injuries that cause "death, days away from work, restricted work or transfer to another job, medical treatment beyond first aid, or loss of consciousness."

The report also said that Amazon, in public documents and reports to the committee, "repeatedly compared the injury rate for its warehouses of all sizes to the industry average for large warehouses," which have 1,000 or more employees. Only 40% of Amazon's warehouses have that number of workers, it said.

The comparison is likely more favorable as "the injury rate for the subcategory of large warehouses is consistently higher than the overall injury rate for the entire warehousing industry," according to the report.

"We benchmark ourselves against similar employers because it's the most effective way to know where we stand," Amazon said in response to the report. "Putting ourselves in a different category would be misleading."

It also estimated that about two-thirds of large warehouses are Amazon's, and it employed nearly 80% of all of the workers at facilities of that size.

In other words, although Amazon compares its rate against national averages compiled by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics for a subset of the warehouse industry, the report finds that Amazon is such a large employer it tilts the calculation of national statistics.

While Amazon has promoted its success in bringing its reportable injury rate down since 2019, the HELP committee's analysis showed that year had an unusually high rate of 9.01, while its long-term trend has remained relatively flat since 2017 between 6.54 and 7.74. The overall industry range in that period was 4.8 to 5.7, and the non-Amazon range was 3.17 to 4.18, according to the committee's analysis.

The report attributed much of the elevated injury rates to Amazon's "obsession with productivity and speed," which it said drives workers beyond safe limits.

"There is not a safe way to make rate without being injured," one worker identified as RN told the committee, referring to the target number of items processed per shift. "There is not a single person I worked with while I was at Amazon that didn't have an injury."

"Our safety progress is well documented, and we're proud of it," the company said. "We'll continue to invest in safety and continuous improvement for years to come as we work toward being the very best in the industries in which we operate."

If you are an Amazon worker who wants to share your perspective, please contact Dominick via email or text/call/Signal at 646.768.4750. Responses will be kept confidential, and Business Insider strongly recommends using a personal email and a non-work device when reaching out.

• Buy-now-pay-later provider Affirm says it's committed to being a remote-first company.
• However, one challenge of remote work is finding ways to get company culture to thrive.
• COO Michael Linford told BI about one approach he's using to get teams to work more effectively.

Back during the COVID-19 pandemic, buy-now-pay-later provider Affirm decided to commit fully to being a remote-first company.

"We debate it all the time," chief operating officer Michael Linford told Business Insider. The company had "not looked back," he said, and it "would be very difficult for us to go back on that."

"We think it benefits us and our employees," he said. "We recruit from deeper pools of talent. We get more productivity from our team."

However, Linford said one persistent challenge is finding ways to get company culture to not only survive but thrive.

In particular, the COO pointed to the importance of building what Affirm founder and CEO Max Levchin dubbed a "high-performance culture," which in true fintech fashion has been rendered into a key metric that is tracked each quarter.

In a recent blog post, Levchin defined the term as "a culture of individuals doing productive work for the company in the most efficient way possible and helping others do the same, while generally having a good time."

The puzzle, Levchin said, is how do companies actually accomplish this — and what should they avoid doing.

A high-performance culture is never final, Linford told BI. "That is a function of sustained focus," he said.

Right now, one approach Linford said he's focused on is less about maximizing day-to-day work experiences and more about creating additional opportunities to connect in person, especially in cities like Austin, Texas, where he and about 40 other employees live.

"We just take a couple of days a quarter and get a WeWork, and folks can come together," he said. "The point isn't that these folks are working together. They're not. They literally have no work overlap."

"The point wasn't that. It was to be Affirmers together in a room," he added. "That's where culture gets reinforced."

Bringing together people from across the company — like an Android engineer, a recruiter, an HR team member, and the COO — underscores a value expressed by Levchin that Affirm is made up of individuals working together.

At the same time, such cross-functional coworking likely helps the company avoid the pitfall of an "us vs them" dynamic that Levchin says is prohibited at Affirm.

"Max felt compelled, I think, to write that because we do want to not let culture just get created," Linford said. "We want to make sure we're influencing what it is the team is feeling, thinking, et cetera, and leave our mark on it."

Like Affirm, Spotify is another major company that has committed to not calling staff back to the office. While Amazon, Meta, Apple, and Google have all ordered staff back to the office for either a hybrid or fully in-person setup, Spotify has said it will continue to have physical offices and a "core week" where teams are encouraged to meet up in person.

The music-streaming platform said the flexible policy led to a decrease in attrition rates, increased workplace diversity, and hiring times that were six days faster.

However, Spotify's chief human resources officer, Katarina Berg, said in an October interview that it is "harder" to collaborate virtually.

"But does that mean that we will start forcing people to come into the office as soon as there is a trend for it? No," Berg said.

• Costco membership also gives shoppers access to the club's travel deals.
• The company revealed its largest booking in the last year was a 150-day cruise around the world.
• CFO Gary Millerchip said the package cost $293,000 for two travelers and included $38,000 in credit.

A Costco member shelled out nearly $300,000 on an around-the-world cruise package purchased through the warehouse club.

Costco memberships are widely known for giving access to deals on items ranging from bulk toilet paper to gold bullion, but one occasionally overlooked perk is the club's travel deals.

The company offers all sorts of travel services, including vacation packages, car rentals, cruises, hotels, and flights. In fact, CFO Gary Millerchip said members made enough car rentals last year to fill every US Costco parking spot more than eight times over.

Millerchip also called out the largest cruise booking for the year: "a 150-day around-the-world cruise, starting from Fort Lauderdale and making stops in places like the Galápagos and Easter Islands."

The CFO said the journey cost $293,000 for two travelers in the ship's owner's suite and included $13,000 in shipboard credits, as well as a $25,000 Costco Shop card.

Many offerings include a Shop card "as extra value for booking with Costco," he said.

The company did not specify which cruise line, although several that it sells — such as Azamara, Cunard, Holland America, and Regent Seven Seas — offer annual world cruise itineraries.

Cunard and Holland America have departures from Fort Lauderdale, according to Costco's travel site, and packages start at around $1,000 for a weeklong itinerary.

Many of these extended around-the-world voyages have been selling exceptionally well over the last few years — especially Regent Seven Seas.

The luxury cruise line's 132-night 2024 global voyage sold out in less than three hours when bookings opened in 2021, a record for the company. A year later, the 150-night 2025 iteration (its longest yet) was again fully booked out before reservations could open to the public.

• Costco beat expectations for its fiscal first-quarter earnings, with net sales growth of 7.5%.
• Comparable sales growth was largely driven by increased traffic.
• The company ended the quarter with nearly 139 million membership cardholders, up 7.2% over last year.

People just can't get enough of Costco — even as membership fees went up.

The wholesale club beat Wall Street's expectations Thursday, posting fiscal first-quarter net sales of $60.99 billion, up 7.5% from the same period last year.

Comparable sales growth of 5.2% was largely driven by increased traffic, as gas price deflation made for nearly flat receipt growth. The company also noted price reductions in some categories, like facial tissue and chicken stock.

"We're pleased with the momentum that we're seeing there, and I think it reflects the fact that our members are willing to spend as inflation comes down," CFO Gary Millerchip told investors on the earnings call.

Traffic growth was also aided by the addition of nearly 10 million new member cardholders since last year, bringing the count to 138.8 million at the end of the period.

Millerchip said revenue from the recent membership fee increase — the first price hike in 7 years — "doesn't have much impact yet" and that US and Canadian members are renewing at a rate of 92.8%.

With respect to potential tariffs, Millerchip said that "tariffs raise costs — that's not something that we see as a positive in general."

Still, he quoted his predecessor Richard Galanti in saying, "When it rains, it rains on everybody."

Millerchip said imported products represent a small percentage of what Costco sells. The company has several options to mitigate the impact of new import fees, he said, including pulling shipments earlier, negotiating with suppliers, or simply reconsidering whether an item is worth including in its assortment.

Shares of Costco were trading roughly flat in after-hours trading following the results.

If you are a Costco worker who wants to share your perspective, please contact Dominick via email or text/call/Signal at 646.768.4750. Responses will be kept confidential, and Business Insider strongly recommends using a personal email and a non-work device when reaching out

• Costco's new CEO received a total compensation package worth $12.2 million this year.
• Vachris started his career as a forklift driver over 40 years ago, and became CEO in January.
• Costco has 328,000 worldwide employees, and the median worker earned $47,092.

Costco's CEO appears to have had his best financial year yet.

Since becoming CEO of the wholesale club in January, Ron Vachris received a compensation package worth more than $12.2 million in the 2024 fiscal year, according to the company's latest proxy statement filed Wednesday with the SEC.

The package includes a base salary of nearly $1.1 million, plus stock awards of just over $10.5 million and other perks and compensation (such as a complimentary $120 Executive Membership to Costco).

Meanwhile, of Costco's 328,000 worldwide employees, the median worker earned $47,092, giving Vachris a CEO pay ratio of 262.

His compensation and pay ratio are well below those of his predecessor, Craig Jelinek, who made $16.8 million in his final year as CEO, or 336 times that of the median worker.

Median compensation packages for S&P 500 CEOs rose to $15.5 million in 2023, up 12.4% from the prior year, according to data and analytics firm ISS-Corporate. Among those firms, the CEO pay ratio was 312 times the median employee in 2023.

Among retailers, the ratio tends to be larger, as the industry's workforce includes a relatively larger share of part-time and seasonal workers who are required by SEC rules to be included in the calculation.

For example, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon received $26.9 million in total compensation in the last fiscal year or 976 times the $27,642 compensation that the median Walmart employee earned in the period. Target CEO Brian Cornell's most recent pay disclosure showed he received $19.2 million in 2023, or 719 times the median employee's $26,696 annual earnings.

Vachris started his career as a forklift driver over 40 years ago with Costco's predecessor Price Club, rising through the ranks to become CEO earlier this year.

He is the third CEO in the company's history.

If you are a Costco worker who wants to share your perspective, please contact Dominick via email or text/call/Signal at 646.768.4750. Responses will be kept confidential, and Business Insider strongly recommends using a personal email and a non-work device when reaching out

• Stanley is offering free replacement lids in a recall affecting 2.6 million insulated travel mugs.
• The US Consumer Product Safety Commission said Stanley has received reports of 38 burn injuries worldwide.
• The recall covers Switchback and Trigger Action models, not the popular Quencher series of mugs.

Insulated cup maker Stanley has issued a recall affecting approximately 2.6 million Switchback and Trigger Action models worldwide.

"We ask that all customers in possession of either product immediately stop use and reach out to Stanley 1913 for a free replacement lid," the company said.

Stanley said the lid threads of the cups have been found to shrink after being exposed to heat and torque, which can lead the lid to detach during use. If the mug contains hot liquid, the defect can pose a burn hazard.

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission said Stanley has received 91 reports of defected products worldwide, which have resulted in 38 burn injuries. Two of those injuries occurred in the US.

The recall does not cover the popular Quencher series of mugs.

Customers can check their product's identification number, found on the bottom of the mug, in an online portal where they can register for a free replacement lid.

The CPSC says the products were sold by Amazon, Walmart, Dick's Sporting Goods, Target and other stores between June 2016 and December of this year and cost between $20 and $50.

• Albertsons is terminating an attempted takeover by Kroger a day after a federal judge blocked the deal.
• In addition, Albertsons is suing its rival for failing to exercise "best efforts" to get approval.
• The suit marks a decisive end to the largest proposed supermarket merger in US history.

The grocery industry's biggest potential alliance is toast.

Albertsons said Wednesday that it is terminating Kroger's attempted $24.6 billion acquisition, a day after a federal judge blocked the deal due to antitrust concerns.

In addition, Albertsons filed a lawsuit in the Delaware Court of Chancery against its rival, saying it failed to exercise "best efforts" to get approval for the deal.

"Rather than fulfill its contractual obligations to ensure that the merger succeeded, Kroger acted in its own financial self-interest, repeatedly providing insufficient divestiture proposals that ignored regulators' concerns," Albertsons' General Counsel and Chief Policy Officer Tom Moriarty said in a statement.

Albertsons is seeking "billions of dollars" in damages and a $600 million termination fee, which it says it is entitled to under its negotiating terms with Kroger.

A Kroger spokesperson called the claims "baseless and without merit."

"Kroger refutes these allegations in the strongest possible terms, especially in light of Albertsons' repeated intentional material breaches and interference throughout the merger process," the spokesperson said. "This is clearly an attempt to deflect responsibility following Kroger's written notification of Albertsons' multiple breaches of the agreement, and to seek payment of the merger's break fee, to which they are not entitled."

Albertsons' Moriarty called Kroger's approach to getting regulatory approval "willfully deficient" and said the suit is intended to "protect the interests of our shareholders, associates, and consumers."

The suit marks a decisive end of the largest proposed supermarket merger in US history, which faced challenges from the Federal Trade Commission and two US court cases.

Following Tuesday's injunction, both companies told BI they were disappointed by the ruling and would explore their options for next steps.

Lawyers for each side previously said the deal would be called off if it were blocked in Washington.

• Some high-profile CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk have multimillion-dollar security details.
• Health insurance companies, by contrast, don't appear to spend as much on executive protection.
• The amount public companies allocate toward executive security and private travel varies widely.

The death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last week has brought a new level of attention to the question of executive protection.

Thompson's shooting outside a hotel in New York also highlights that executives who aren't as high-profile as someone like Elon Musk may not always have bodyguards with them.

That level of monitoring can be expensive, and the amount companies pay for executive security varies widely.

On the high end, Musk and other CEOs including Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Alphabet's Sundar Pichai, and Salesforce's Marc Benioff are known for having multimillion-dollar security packages.

Others, including JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon, Amazon's Andy Jassy, and Apple's Tim Cook, have more modest protection services worth hundreds of thousands of dollars — amounts that can further increase when factoring in costs associated with the use of private planes, a common CEO perk tied to security considerations.

Health insurance companies, including UnitedHealth Group, don't appear to spend as much on executive protection as some of the Big Tech giants.

However, the health insurance industry isn't an outlier. Companies in other fields, like retail, also have relatively modest security-specific compensation.

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon and McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski, for example, appear to have individual security expenses of less than $25,000 for 2023, according to company filings. When including the use of private aircraft, Walmart paid $192,848 for McMillon's personal use of the company jet, while McDonald's paid $319,301 for Kempczinski's usage in 2023.

Company-paid security costs are typically disclosed in annual corporate filings known as proxy statements. The documents include a breakdown of the salary, benefits, bonuses, and other perks to provide a dollar value of top executives' total compensation package, which must be approved by the board and shareholders.

Security services paid for by the company for the benefit of an individual executive are typically included in a category called "Other Compensation" along with perks like personal corporate jet usage, 401(k) matching, or tax preparation services. It's possible that some security costs may not be reported in proxy statements, particularly if they were paid for by the executives themselves and not reimbursed.

UnitedHealth Group's filings don't specify any personal security costs for Thompson last year

It's not clear if Thompson had a security detail with him on the day of his death. Video footage obtained by the New York City Police Department appears to show him walking alone on his way into an "investor day" event in Manhattan.

Although he was CEO of UnitedHealthcare, Thompson was also an executive vice president of UnitedHealth Group, for which he received $21,187 in other compensation in 2023. That amount represented $14,850 in 401(k) matching and $6,337 in health insurance premiums, with no amount indicated for personal security.

The company has yet to release its annual proxy statement outlining 2024 expenses.

Looking further up the corporate ladder, Thompson's boss, UHG CEO Andrew Witty, also did not receive payment for personal security as part of his 2023 compensation package. However, the company did make corporate aircraft available for his use.

"Witty is required for personal security reasons to use corporate aircraft for all business travel and is encouraged to use corporate aircraft for all personal travel," the proxy statement says, adding that Witty did not make personal use of the company plane in 2023.

A UHG spokesperson told BI the company is "partnering with local law enforcement to ensure a safe work environment and reinforce security guidelines and building access policies."

CVS, which owns Aetna, does not disclose the compensation of Aetna's president. However, CVS did provide its former CEO Karen Lynch with $44,148 for "personal protection" in 2023, as well as $243,281 for personal use of the company jet and $106,086 for personal use of a company car. A CVS spokesperson declined to comment.

Cigna CEO David Cordani received $310,437 in "other compensation" in 2023, largely constituted of $178,704 in personal travel on the company aircraft. Roughly $95,000 in other costs were provided for residential security system monitoring and maintenance, as well as expanded personal liability coverage.

Proxy statements for Humana and Elevance (owner of Anthem) did not specify personal security costs, while Kaiser Permanente is a nonprofit and not subject to the same reporting requirements.

Musk-level security can cost millions

Former Secret Service agent Joseph LaSorsa, who now runs the private security firm LaSorsa & Associates, previously told BI that an around-the-clock detail can cost $100,000 a month and isn't always enough to stop a motivated attacker.

At those rates, the annual cost of protection could balloon to $1.2 million — comparable to the base salaries of UnitedHealth's executive officers.

In other words, company-provided personal security can be an expensive proposition, and typically reserved only for a small number of top leaders. Different executives may also have their own personal preference for the level of security they travel with.

"Protection is very much driven on what a executive really wants," said John Orloff, a former US Secret Service agent who now leads security risk consulting at Jensen Hughes.

Orloff told Business Insider that his firm typically works with corporate security departments to develop their executive protection strategies in response to relevant threats.

Musk, the world's wealthiest person, has spoken out about personal security concerns in recent years. He told Tesla shareholders at the annual shareholder meeting that "two homicidal maniacs" had threatened to kill him and things were "getting a little crazy these days."

Filings show Tesla paid a Musk-owned personal security company $2.4 million to protect him in 2023. However, the agreement is not structured as compensation for his services as CEO and is unusual among public companies (Tesla is fighting to reinstate Musk's 2018 compensation package after a Delaware judge ruled against it for the second time).

Musk travels with multiple bodyguards — sometimes as many as 20, according to a recent report. Employees at X, formerly Twitter, reported seeing his security follow him into the bathrooms at the company's headquarters.

While executives at health insurance companies may not be as recognizable as someone like Musk or Zuckerberg, Thompson's death could lead board members and CEOs to review executive protection costs in a different light. The matter could feature more prominently as compensation committees draft proposals for their companies' future annual meetings.

• More than 58 million Americans have had packages stolen in the past year, per a recent survey.
• Now, one startup is launching a service to insure against porch pirates.
• PorchPals founder James Moore explains the surprisingly tricky math needed to solve the problem.

Following the largest day of online shopping ever on Cyber Monday, hundreds of millions of packages have by now reached doorsteps across the US.

But an untold number of those deliveries have also likely found themselves snatched up by someone other than the person to whom they belong.

Now, one startup is launching a service to insure shoppers against these so-called porch pirates.

"We want our service to be used by the consumer when they need us," PorchPals CEO James Moore told Business Insider, "You know, when those Christmas gifts get stolen, that or that Xbox, or that PlayStation, or that pair of Nikes that cost you $300."

The service, which officially goes live on Monday, covers up to three stolen packages a year or a maximum claim of $2,000 for an annual fee of $120. Customers link their payment card to the service and all future e-commerce purchases made with that card are covered, the company says.

As with any insurance product, there is some surprisingly tricky math that goes into putting a tidy number on such a messy problem like parcel theft.

Moore told BI that PorchPals used three separate actuarial teams working independently on the problem to reach a comparable risk profile. The teams represented some industry heavy-hitters, including Lockton Re, Pinnacle Actuarial Resources, and PorchPal's underwriters at Lloyds of London's Newline Syndicate.

Over the past year, more than 58 million Americans are estimated to have had one or more packages stolen, according to a recent survey from tech reviews website Security.org.

Of course, some households experience multiple thefts, and PorchPals estimates the number of stolen packages at around 119 million last year.

In an earlier trial in California, Moore said PorchPals users typically used the service for packages worth between $250 and $280. That figure represents an unfortunate sweet spot in the world of missing parcels: Shipments worth $2,000 or more tend to require a signature at delivery, and refunds for less than $50 can often be processed without too much hassle by retailers who want to keep their customers happy.

Once the value gets above a hundred bucks, police reports and other documentation can start complicating the picture.

The Security.org survey found the median package value that customers reported to law enforcement was $195, while the median value of unreported packages was $50.

Those higher-value losses can lead to a loop of calls to retailers, delivery companies, local police, and back again.

"At some point you've called everybody," Moore said.

Moore said shoppers may not realize how impractical other forms of protection really are in the case of package theft. For instance, homeowner and renters insurance policies typically have higher deductibles than make sense for a $250 claim. Credit card policies can have requirements that packages be reasonably protected against theft, he said.

From a risk perspective, Moore said the nature of package theft makes it different from other property crimes, such as how ZIP code crime rates can affect auto insurance premiums.

"It's not the ZIP codes that you'd think," he said. "In porch theft it's different. The thief is looking for high-dollar items."

Porch pirates may steal from all income levels, but Moore says some of the more expensive packages are snagged from wealthier doorsteps that might otherwise have "this aura of safety," such as gated communities or luxury condos with a concierge desk.

"The number of packages just sitting out there, just left to the open… I mean, it's vast," he said.

• Execs at Walmart, Target, and more retailers have given similar descriptions of US consumer health.
• BI combed through earnings-call transcripts to round up the words they used to talk about shoppers.
• Despite the challenges, Americans continue to spend — even if it's at the last minute.

Pressured. Cautious. Stretched.

If those words describe how you're feeling amid holiday spending, you're far from alone.

Money is tight for many Americans these days, and executives at Walmart, Target, Dollar General, Dollar Tree, and more have used similar language to describe the state of US consumer health this holiday season.

"I want to be sensitive to those that have lower income levels and acknowledge that this inflationary cycle has been really detrimental and created a lot of pressure for them and their families," Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said Tuesday at the Morgan Stanley Global Consumer & Retail Conference.

"People at the other end of the continuum," he added, "they may be cherry-picking categories depending on what they're looking for."

In Target's quarterly earnings call in November, CEO Brian Cornell described the toll high prices were taking on American households.

"Consumers tell us their budgets remain stretched and they're shopping carefully as they work to overcome the cumulative impact of multiple years of price inflation," he said.

"They're becoming increasingly resourceful in their shopping behaviors, waiting to buy until the last moment of need, focusing on deals and then stocking up when they find them," Cornell added.

Dollar Tree's interim CEO, Michael Creedon, said low-, middle-, and high-income shoppers were showing signs of budget pressure.

"They started eating more at home and cutting going out. Now they're reducing some parties," he said during the company's quarterly earnings call on Wednesday.

On Thursday, Dollar General's CEO painted a similar picture as the discount store gained share among middle- and higher-income households.

"The consumer is seeking value, trying to make ends meet," he said.

Of course, retailers have been using words like "pressured," "stretched," and "cautious" to talk about their customers for several years now.

Data from AlphaSense indicates the terms are mentioned near the word "consumer" dozens of times in transcripts from major retailers this year.

Despite persistent challenges, shoppers continue to spend strong.

"We see a consumer who is seeking value in sales events and one who is also willing to spend on high-price-point products when they need to or when there is new compelling technology," Best Buy CEO Corie Barry said during a third-quarter earnings call.

Nowhere is that more apparent than this year's holiday sales season, which is off to a roaring start that could help compensate for the five fewer selling days between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

While retailers may have to compete a little harder to win sales this year than before, and investors may have to accept somewhat narrower profits, US shoppers are playing through the pain — even if that means more deal-hunting, last-minute shopping trips or buy-now, pay-later plans.