• From the Associated Press this morning:
"America’s employers kept hiring briskly in October, adding a substantial 261,000 positions, a sign that as Election Day nears, the economy remains a picture of solid job growth and painful inflation.
"Friday’s government report showed that last month’s hiring remained near the robust pace it has maintained in the two-plus years since the pandemic recession ended. The unemployment rate rose to 3.7 percent from a five-decade low of 3.5 percent.
"A strong job market is deepening the challenges the Federal Reserve faces as it raises interest rates at the fastest pace since the 1980s to try to bring inflation down from near a 40-hear high. Steady hiring, solid pay growth and a low unemployment rate have been good for workers. But they have also contributed to rising prices."
• The Indiana Business Journal reports that Meijer plans to bring its new small format supermarket, Meijer Grocery, to Indiana next year with a 90,000 square foot store near Noblesville.
It will be the third small store in the fleet, the Business Journal says. "The first two Meijer Grocery stores will open in 2023 in Lake Orion, Michigan, and Macomb Township, Michigan … Meijer describes its new line of grocery stores, which will offer food, baby and health products, pet supplies and a pharmacy, as being 'built for speed'."
• Block Club Chicago reports that "Dom’s Kitchen & Market, a small-footprint grocery store from Bob Mariano, opened its second location Tuesday in Old Town.
"Shoppers flooded the store at 1233 N. Wells St. when it opened at 9 a.m., exploring its offerings of meats, produce and other groceries, plus its extensive selection of wines and alcohol and prepared meals for takeout.
"At 27,000 square feet, the new Dom’s store is 50 percent larger than the first Dom’s location, which opened in June 2021 at 2730 N. Halsted St. in Lincoln Park. It has 12,000 items, many of which are globally inspired, seasonally driven and locally sourced from Chicago and the larger Midwest, according to Dom’s leaders."
The company projects that it will have 15 stores open by 2025.
• Starbucks said that traffic in its US stores has rebounded to levels close to those achieved in 2019, as revenue for the most recent quarter reached $8.41 billion; North American revenue alone was $6.1 billion, up 15% from the same period a year ago.
CNBC writes that "net sales for the period rose 3.3% to $8.41 billion. Global same-store sales increased 7%, fueled by increased spending in its home market. In the United States, Starbucks reported same-store sales growth of 11% … he result of people spending more on average and a slight uptick in traffic. Prices were also up 6% from a year ago, but executives said they don’t plan to raise prices anymore for the time being."
CNBC also notes that "cold beverages accounted for more than three-quarters of beverage sales at U.S. company-owned cafes … the company’s loyalty program saw its active membership climb 16% to 28.7 million people in the quarter."
