Amazon’s Prime Day last week was its most successful ever, but at what cost?

The two-day event brought in a record $12.7 billion in sales, a 6.1% jump, according to Adobe Analytics. Every year, it seems, Prime Day gets bigger, but moving more product also comes with potential consequences, particularly for the environment. Amazon’s carbon footprint is concerning to climate activists, but also some of its own employees, who walked out over concerns about the company’s climate policy in May.

• Analysis from Greenly, a Paris-based carbon accounting firm, found that Prime Day 2022, which resulted in $11.9 billion, accounted for 1.2 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
• Greenly says that is equivalent to 271,191 gasoline-powered cars driven for one year; the individual annual emissions of 104,160 people in the UK; or 691,641 round-trip flights between Paris and New York.

“Most of the emissions of Amazon are not at Amazon, per se. They’re with the goods that are purchased and sold,” Greenly CEO Alexis Normand told Retail Brew. “They’re electrifying their fleet, they’re reducing packaging…et cetera, but they’re not accounting for their actual impact, which is the fact that they’re moving so many goods.”

Keep reading here.—KM

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UPS and the Teamsters union are getting closer to the July 31 deadline to agree to a new contract before 340,000 workers go on strike, and retailers are getting worried about a new round of supply-chain chaos just as the scars of pandemic-driven disruptions have largely healed. Union drivers represent half of UPS’s workforce.

The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA), whose members include Target, Home Depot, and CVS, released a statement on Wednesday noting they are “growing increasingly concerned” over the looming strike, and that “uncertainty is like kryptonite for supply chains.”

There’s only so much prep retailers can do if UPS workers strike on August 1, according to RILA’s statement, especially ahead of the back-to-school and holiday shopping seasons. After years of supply-chain upheaval, retailers are reluctant to “stress-test contingency plans again,” they said.

A 10-day strike would cost the economy more than $7 billion, making it the costliest strike in 100 years, per a report by Anderson Economic Group.

Keep reading here.—EC

“We’re all for the unpredictable here at CFO Brew, and for that reason (and that reason alone), we rounded up some unexpected items that companies are saying are single-handedly boosting bottom lines—or otherwise lifting sales and defining brands,” writes CFO Brew’s Natasha Piñon:

Demand for Uncrustables—yes, the gooey folded sandwich in seemingly every lunchbox in America—is boosting the bottom line for the J.M. Smucker Co.

Not every bottom-line booster sells like hot cakes, or PB&J sandwiches. Sometimes a single product can bring people in the door. That’s been the case for some mainstay items at Costco and BJ’s Wholesale Club in recent years.

Read the whole story here on CFO Brew.

Today’s top retail reads.

Eye for AI: From Amazon to Coca-Cola, the “head of AI” is increasingly becoming one of the most coveted positions top tech leaders are vying for. (Vox)

Well defined: Textile Exchange is shaking up the relationship between fashion and regenerative agriculture—which has otherwise lacked industry standards—by laying out a set of frameworks. (Vogue Business)

Bid of the century: Anchor Brewing Company, the oldest craft brewery in the US, has a new group of interested buyers: its unionized workers who want to turn it into a co-op. (the New York Times)

Mind the wage gap: Underrepresented employees make less than their white counterparts—and the gap is widening. Find out how DE&I cutbacks and RTO mandates affect the outcomes.

Three of the stories below are real...and one is most definitely not. Can you spot the fake?

1. A soup and smoothie company is giving out VIP Taylor Swift tour tickets if contestants can film themselves “strutting, walking, or dancing down” in a supermarket’s freezer aisle.
2. Mattel is working on releasing a life-sized robot Barbie that can make conversation and even help users style outfits.
3. Krispy Kreme is now selling a donut that looks like a big M&M and comes stuffed with M&M minis.
4. Chipotle has hired an avocado-peeling robot named Autocado that will chop, slice, and peel avocados ready to be served.

Keep reading for the answer.