Alina Selyuk
Appearances
NPR News Now
NPR News: 02-07-2025 8PM EST
And that saved them millions of dollars, and their popularity has exploded. President Biden and bipartisan lawmakers in Congress have pushed to close the loophole, and Trump did. But this created chaos for U.S. customs and shipping companies, and Trump has now delayed the plan. Unclear for how long. Alina Seluk, NPR News, Washington.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 02-07-2025 8PM EST
For almost a century, U.S. law has carved out an exemption for small packages to not have to pay import duties. That's allowed packages worth under $800 to arrive in the U.S. duty-free. While most retailers ship in bulk, ultra-cheap retailers like Shein and Temu ship individual packages directly from China to shoppers in the U.S. and use the exemption to avoid paying tariffs.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 01-31-2025 3PM EST
About 8 percent of Costco store workers are represented by the Teamsters union. That's about 18,000 people in six states. The union demands better pay and benefits, pointing to Costco's record financial gains. And now the chain has announced a pay increase for non-union workers, according to an internal memo the CEO sent to staff seen by NPR.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 01-31-2025 3PM EST
Starting in March, most store workers would get a raise of $1 per hour for a minimum above $30 an hour. Entry-level pay will go up 50 cents for a minimum of $20 an hour. The raise is similar to one Costco gave last year. Costco teamsters argue it's only happening thanks to union pressure and that the company is still shorting its workers. Alina Seluch, NPR News.
Up First from NPR
Syria's New Reality, Shooting Suspect's Ideology, Judges Block Grocery Merger
Yeah, so the $25 billion grocery merger is over. Yesterday, the deal got a double whammy of legal losses. A federal judge in Oregon and a state judge in Washington, in two separate cases, blocked the merger from going through in rulings that were about an hour within each other. And this was after two years of the companies trying to get this merger approved.
Up First from NPR
Syria's New Reality, Shooting Suspect's Ideology, Judges Block Grocery Merger
And they did have an option to appeal and keep fighting, but Albertsons has now walked away. Albertsons has sued Kroger, claiming willful breach of contract, failure to put in best efforts to secure regulatory approval of the merger. Now, Kroger has quickly rebutted, saying it is Albertsons that's deflecting its own responsibilities. So they're now in a trading blame stage.
Up First from NPR
Syria's New Reality, Shooting Suspect's Ideology, Judges Block Grocery Merger
Yeah, yeah. It was in late 2022 when Kroger first said it would buy Albertsons. It bid nearly $25 billion, and this would have combined the two biggest supermarket chains in the U.S. And you might know these chains under different names. Kroger runs Ralph's, Harris Teeter, Fred Meyer, King Soopers, and others. Albertsons owns Safeway and Vons.
Up First from NPR
Syria's New Reality, Shooting Suspect's Ideology, Judges Block Grocery Merger
They have thousands of stores, and they knew this merger would be a tough sell for regulators. And indeed, the Federal Trade Commission sued them, so did several states, asking courts to block the merger. Overall, the process has been very expensive and a pretty unpopular deal. It's been criticized by Democrats and Republicans.
Up First from NPR
Syria's New Reality, Shooting Suspect's Ideology, Judges Block Grocery Merger
And, you know, shoppers use it to air grievances about expensive groceries.
Up First from NPR
Syria's New Reality, Shooting Suspect's Ideology, Judges Block Grocery Merger
So government lawyers argued Kroger and Albertsons often compete head to head, that they keep tabs on each other's prices, store hours, quality of products. And so putting two rivals under one roof would leave shoppers worse off, fewer choices, higher prices.
Up First from NPR
Syria's New Reality, Shooting Suspect's Ideology, Judges Block Grocery Merger
Kroger and Albertsons made the case that the merger was a matter of survival, that their biggest rivals are not conventional supermarkets like themselves, but giants like Walmart, Costco, Amazon. They said only together could they compete with these companies long term. And they even argued that together they would have had more power to lower prices for shoppers.
Up First from NPR
Syria's New Reality, Shooting Suspect's Ideology, Judges Block Grocery Merger
No, they did not. The U.S. district judge wrote essentially that she understood that competition with Walmart was real. It was tough, but it could not justify an otherwise illegal merger. And the judges also did not buy the company's plan to create essentially a new rival for themselves. They had planned to sell stores in markets where they overlap, and the judges did not approve of that.
Up First from NPR
Syria's New Reality, Shooting Suspect's Ideology, Judges Block Grocery Merger
Well, you know, given how much of a knockout, drag out legal fight it has been so far, I feel like we could be in for a pretty bitter litigation now between the two of them. There is money at stake, which is the merger breakup fee. And Albertsons was the company getting acquired. So there is a chance that Albertsons puts itself back on the block again.
Up First from NPR
Syria's New Reality, Shooting Suspect's Ideology, Judges Block Grocery Merger
They might try to find someone else to buy it. Now, as far as shoppers are concerned, for now, they can keep going back to their familiar grocery stores.
Up First from NPR
Syria's New Reality, Shooting Suspect's Ideology, Judges Block Grocery Merger
Thank you.
Up First from NPR
Tariffs Hit At Midnight, Small Business Reactions, National Security Firings
You know, they feel like collateral damage. The evening when the tariffs were announced, I was actually at a big reception organized by the National Retail Federation. They had scheduled a fly-in for small business owners. And when the magnitude of tariffs became clear, it was like shell shock because it's these companies that are on the hook to pay many of these fees.
Up First from NPR
Tariffs Hit At Midnight, Small Business Reactions, National Security Firings
For example, Sarah Wells from Virginia shared her story. She sells purses and clothes for new moms. They're like for breast pumps and breastfeeding. They're made in China. And late last year, she made a huge shipment order. It was loading at the port when the White House raised tariffs on China by 10 percent in February.
Up First from NPR
Tariffs Hit At Midnight, Small Business Reactions, National Security Firings
By the time it docked stateside, that tariff was raised again another 10 percent.
Up First from NPR
Tariffs Hit At Midnight, Small Business Reactions, National Security Firings
And now that the total tariff on Chinese imports is up to 54%, you know, Wells is reeling.
Up First from NPR
Tariffs Hit At Midnight, Small Business Reactions, National Security Firings
You know, one common answer is retrenching and scaling back. Maybe your store shrinks the selection so there's less stuff to ship. Maybe you stop hiring, stop advertising or developing new products, essentially stop growing and go into survival mode. One retailer talked about saving a lot of money in his bank account.
Up First from NPR
Tariffs Hit At Midnight, Small Business Reactions, National Security Firings
It's money that he could be spending on all kinds of things to expand, hire, market. But now he wants that money to just kind of sit on the sidelines because he expects to pay big tariffs. And then the other answer is what Scott talked about. It's raising prices. Giant companies like Walmart are pressuring suppliers overseas to bear some of those tariff costs.
Up First from NPR
Tariffs Hit At Midnight, Small Business Reactions, National Security Firings
Well, small retailers, they don't have that kind of muscle. And if they pass the cost to consumers with higher prices, you know, how high can they really go before they start losing sales? Sarah Wells had a grim take.
Up First from NPR
Tariffs Hit At Midnight, Small Business Reactions, National Security Firings
And that's the worst case scenario that she thinks a lot of business owners will have to confront and will have to see.
Up First from NPR
Tariffs Hit At Midnight, Small Business Reactions, National Security Firings
There was a lot of discussion about this at the event that I attended. There was actually this moment when a moderator asked a panel of small business owners, including Wells, to raise their hands if they tried to find domestic manufacturers first. And all the hands went up. But the reality is for so many things, you know, clothes, shoes, toys, electronics, the U.S.
Up First from NPR
Tariffs Hit At Midnight, Small Business Reactions, National Security Firings
has not manufactured them at scale in ages or ever. And so, you know, one shopkeeper says she sells work boots. She has American-made boots. They are $400. Not everyone can afford that. So she also has imported ones that are half the price. Or I also talked to Danny Reynolds. He runs Stevenson's Clothing Boutique in Indiana. It sells also wedding gowns.
Up First from NPR
Tariffs Hit At Midnight, Small Business Reactions, National Security Firings
And he says he supports the president's mission to level the trade playing field. He would love to have more U.S.-made gowns. They are great quality, but they're three times as expensive. And all the big bridal gown makers, they're overseas.
Up First from NPR
Tariffs Hit At Midnight, Small Business Reactions, National Security Firings
He says business people love to negotiate their deals, make their own decisions, and, you know, live and die by them. And the sweeping tariffs take that ability out of their control.