Amazon drops thousands of sellers for unfair pricing | C&S Wholesale Grocers partners on workforce issues | BlueLinx CEO drops monthly salary to $1 during pandemic
Amazon has shut down accounts of more than 3,900 US sellers for price gouging on high-demand products during the coronavirus pandemic. "We are also proactively sharing information with state attorneys general and federal regulators about sellers we suspect have engaged in egregious price gouging of products related to the COVID-19 crisis," the company says.
The coronavirus outbreak has changed the landscape for grocers and suppliers, and the industry has responded with innovative new partnerships to help address shifting demand in supply and hiring, the latest being between C&S Wholesale Grocers and US Foods. "We are taking the steps necessary to on-board and train members of US Foods' workforce to ensure our warehouses are staffed and deliveries are on the road, enabling families access to food across the country," said Mike Duffy, CEO of C&S Wholesale Grocers.
BlueLinx President and CEO Mitchell Lewis has announced he will reduce his salary to $1 per month to help the business and the building industry during the coronavirus pandemic. The pay cut will take effect in April and is currently scheduled to last six months.
Boosting business by meeting customer needs and expectations in wholesale Wholesale customers want the same kind of convenience and immediate gratification that you want as a consumer. What do businesses need to do to deliver on that? Hear from experts at NetSuite, Logistics Bureau and SmartBrief in this webinar.
The Trump administration held a call last week with distribution and retail industry leaders to discuss the US response to the coronavirus pandemic and the importance of keeping supply chains functioning. Among those invited to attend were NAW President and CEO Dirk Van Dongen and executives from Grainger, Border States Electric, Winsupply and Sonepar.
Health care professionals at Billings Clinic in Montana are stepping up to address the face mask shortage by using a 3D printer to create plastic masks that use small pieces of surgical masks as filters. The plastic masks can be cleaned and reused, and the design is available online for anyone with 3D-printing capabilities to use.
State of the Wholesale Supply Chain Industry in 2020 For the third straight year, Blue Ridge asked wholesale supply industry leaders about their challenges, how they're thinking about solving them and how they're dealing with the pace of technological change. One key finding for the 2020 survey is the adoption of new machine learning, such as A.I., which is on the rise as a strategy to combat supply chain disruption. Get the report to read more.
Tom Cunniff and Mike Cucka explain how business-to-business CMOs can work with their sales peers to overcome the reluctance buyers will have to make purchasing decisions during the coronavirus pandemic. Their recommendations include giving sales teams marketing materials around issues such as health and safety and logistics, finding ways to keep current customers loyal, and revising case studies to reflect the new pressures customers are facing.
Give employees easy access to the technology they need and allow them to make decisions in an agile work environment, says Bessie Chong, director of group training and talent development at Esquel Group. "Enabling skills/abilities such as critical thinking, agile thinking, analytical skills, communication and relationship skills, and global mindset are getting more important," she says.
According to NAW Institute for Distribution Excellence Fellow Mark Marks, "Many distributors have been doing things the same way for years. In some cases, what worked then still works now. Yet, part of preparing for the future is preparing for the unexpected -- whether that is economic volatility or other industry disruption, such as the Coronavirus." Read the rest of his post.
NAW has asked governors across the nation to adopt the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency's (CISA) Guidance on the Essential Critical Infrastructure Workforce: Ensuring Community and National Resilience in COVID-19 Response. Click here to read NAW's full letter.
