US District Judge John Chun has rejected Amazon's effort to dismiss a lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission that accuses the marketplace of enrolling people into its Prime service without their permission and making it difficult to cancel. The case, separate from the FTC's antitrust allegations, is scheduled for trial in February.

Gig workers can help distributors and manufacturers manage labor shortages, draw in diverse workers with flexible work arrangements and reduce costs by accurately managing and forecasting labor needs, writes MDM editor Mike Hockett. However, some limitations to using gig workers include lack of qualifications for specialized work, commitment restrictions, ethical issues and HR challenges.

Industrial Distribution's 77th annual Survey of Distributor Operations, conducted over the last two months, revealed most distributors are dealing with the same issues as in recent years, including economic concerns, rising costs and labor challenges. Distributors reported sales and profit growth have slowed, with just 49% reporting increases, but indicated growth opportunities exist and optimism for the future remains.

Top retailers including Target and Walmart have begun trimming prices in response to "inflation-weary" consumers. "Retailers recognize that unless they pull out some stops on pricing, they are going to have difficulty holding on to the customers they got," says Neil Saunders, managing director of consulting and data analysis firm GlobalData.

Port managers must have plans in place for hurricanes, but also have to look at risk factors before each storm, since no storm is the same, says Ryan Mariacher, chief port operations officer at the Port of Houston. Predictions for 2024 indicate the likelihood of an active hurricane season, leading Texas ports to prepare rideout teams, refresh their readiness plans and apply lessons learned from previous storms such as Hurricane Harvey.

As much as 5% of cargo bound for East and Gulf Coast ports has been shifted to the West Coast out of concern that port authorities and the International Longshoremen's Association and the United States Maritime Alliance may fail to agree on contracts by Sept. 30. The ports already have been affected by drought restrictions at the Panama Canal and turmoil in the Red Sea, and shippers are making contingency plans to prevent supply chain disruptions.

Generative AI can't write thought leadership content, but business-to-business marketers can use the technology to find thought-provoking topics, advises Orbit Media's Andy Crestodina. Crestodina advises starting by training generative AI on desired buyer personas before outlining various prompts that B2B marketers can use to find thought leadership topics to provoke engagement and amplify reach.

Sales leaders can help teams succeed by playing to strengths, building trust, boosting resilience, maintaining optimism, fostering relationships and providing motivation, advises sales coach and author Anna Glynn. "It's not just about short-term hitting targets but cultivating a culture of engagement, wellbeing and resilience," Glynn writes.

Help keep top performers from leaving by offering them bonuses, career development opportunities, a new job title, more paid time off and flexible work arrangements, HR leaders and other executives say. "You expect them to play at a high level at all times, so you can't really forget about them," says Kareem Bakr, managing director at Phaidon International, a recruitment company.

The Federal Reserve has not ruled out more interest-rate increases, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari says. "I don't think anybody has totally taken rate increases off the table," Kashkari says. "I think the odds of us raising rates are quite low, but I don't want to take anything off the table."

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