Spotlight on Business Headlines
CALLAWAY IS MOVING AWAY FROM THE FAIRWAY
NATIONAL CHAIN RESTAURANTS HIKES PAY AND PRICES A cross the restaurant industry, chains such as Chipotle, Starbucks and McDonald’s have been increasing hourly pay for employees of compa- ny-owned locations in a bid to attract new workers and retain their current ones. Consumer demand has come roaring back for restau- rant meals, but the workforce has been slower to return, pushing eateries to sweeten the deal. In May, the leisure and hospitality industries added 292,000 jobs, but employment in those fields is still down by 2.5 million compared with pre-pandemic levels, according to the Department of Labor. It is expected that increased wages and rising ingre- dient costs across the restaurant industry as suppliers grapple with the return of demand will be passed along to consumers in the form of menu price increases. GAMESTOP NAMES ITS NEW CEO AND CFO G ameStop recently announced that it has appointed former Amazon executive Matt Furlong as its new CEO. It has also picked another former Amazon executive, Mike Recupero, as chief financial officer. Furlong will start his new role on June 21. He has worked for Amazon for nearly nine years, most recently leading the growth of its Australia business. Prior to that, he served as a technical advisor to the head of Amazon’s North America consumer business and worked for Procter & Gamble. Recupero began his career at Amazon 17 years ago. Most recently, he was the chief financial officer of its North American consumer business. He previous- ly held similar roles within Amazon’s prime video, European consumer and advertising units.
L ast year, almost 37 million players teed off at a golf course or participated in an off-course activity like a driving range. Nearly a third of the U.S. popula- tion watched, read about or played golf in 2020. So, with a record number of new golfers teeing off in 2020, Callaway, the maker of golf balls, clubs, bags and apparel, has been thriving. Callaway announced in May that its first-quarter net revenues were $652 million, a 47% increase from a year earlier. Callaway has made moves off the fairway as well. In March, the company completed its merger with golf entertainment business Topgolf, which combines vir- tual driving ranges with food and cocktails. AMAZON WILL OVERTAKE WALMART AS THE LARGEST U.S. RETAILER A mazon is on track to overtake Walmart as the largest U.S. retailer in 2022, according to JPMorgan research. Amazon’s U.S. retail business is the “fastest growing at scale,” according to the company’s analysts. Between 2014 and 2020, Amazon’s U.S. gross merchandise volume, or GMV — a closely watched industry metric used to measure the total value of goods sold over a certain time period — has grown “significantly faster” than both U.S. adjusted retail sales and U.S. e-com- merce, the analysts said. Neither Amazon nor Walmart break out GMV in their quarterly earnings results, but JPMorgan estimates Amazon’s GMV is growing faster than its largest retail competitor. JPMorgan analysts said Amazon’s GMV in 2020 climbed 41% year over year to $316 billion, while Walmart’s GMV is estimated to have grown 10% year over year to $439 billion in 2020. Amazon’s pandemic-fueled sales surge has helped it grow its slice of the e-commerce market. JPMorgan estimates Amazon expanded its share of the U.S. e-commerce market to 39% in 2020, up from 24% in 2014.
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JUNE 2021 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • JUNE 2021
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