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This week we get into Walmart and Apple’s supply chain woes and inflation burning a hole in consumers’ pockets. Strap In!

On to the neeeeeewwwsss!!!!!

Week's Top Stories 🗞️

Walmart’s new Marketing Campaign, “Just Take It. We’re begging you!”
Do you trust a company riddled with fraud just because they have a new CEO? NOPE. 🙅🏻
#breakthebias👩🏻👷🏻

🥺 Walmart’s new Marketing Campaign, “Just Take It. We’re begging you!”

The supply chain challenges over the past few years have been difficult for everyone, consumers and business owners alike. Trying to guess exactly how much inventory to order and when to order it while simultaneously dealing with COVID and supply chain snarls is like trying to pin the tail on the donkey. On a moving boat. During a storm.

Not impossible, sure. Just not very probable, either.

Walmart is having it’s own share of troubles, as the megastore chain had to employ the same strategy they use on their customers; buying in bulk. Now Walmart is sitting with inventory 15% above what it should be and billions of dollars worth of future orders canceled.

💽State of Electronic Trade Document Transfer | Live Webinar

While a country like Egypt has shifted all of its trade document exchange to Web3 document transfers, many places in America rely heavily on paper documents, spreadsheets, faxes, and emails to get the job done.

Fortunately, this is beginning to change, but there are still some holdouts. So, where does the industry stand, exactly?

CargoX reveals all - the current state of Electronic Document Transfers, what’s new in the industry, and what new technologies will change the playing field for ocean carriers via a webinar on August 31 2022/1530 hrs CET.

🔥Burning a Hole in the American Pocket

It seems like money is burning through American pockets, despite concerns over inflation and a possible recession. Consumer spending remains high in 9 of 13 retail categories, likely due to falling gas prices as well as inflationary rises in day-to-day necessities such as food and household goods.

American spending habits, however, are directly at odds with the US Federal Reserve’s attempts at eliminating inflation altogether. The Fed is spiking interest rates in an effort to cool down the economy, but not so much as to cause an outright recession.

American spending is trending back to pre-pandemic patterns, focusing more on experiential rather than material, much to the chagrin of retailers desperately trying to right inventory levels, which were beefed up to offset supply chain congestion and delays.

Learn more about the current state of American spending habits here

🍎Apple is Diversifying its Supply Chain

In an effort to diversify its supply chain, Apple is moving the production of MacBooks and Apple Watches to Vietnam from China.

Foxconn, one of the largest manufacturers of Apple products, has halted production in Chengdu, in the Sichuan province of China, owing to a continued heatwave that has limited power consumption. The six-day forced power outage, in conjunction with continuous COVID-related delays, has left more companies than Apple looking to diversify supply chains.

As supply chains are notoriously slow to change, it is to be determined just how much these shutdowns and delays will affect Apple’s inventory levels, especially with the peak season lurking on the horizon.

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