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[ad_1] Kudos diapers founder Amrita Saigal with her daughter Courtesy: Kudos Throughout modern history, parents have only had one real option when it comes to disposable diapers: plastic. The single-use products are typically made with fossil fuels like petroleum and can take hundreds of years to break down, making them the third-largest consumer item in U.S. landfills, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.  Plus, they're not as breathable as other materials, which could make incidents like diaper rashes more common.  Still, plastic diapers from mega brands like Procter & Gamble -owned Pampers and Kimberly-Clark -owned Huggies continue to dominate the market. Amrita Saigal, founder and CEO of Kudos, is looking to change that.  The Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate, mechanical engineer and "Shark Tank" alum developed a sustainable diaper that uses some plastic, but is 100% lined with cotton and incorporates other degradable materials like...

[ad_1] The Shein logo can be seen on a smartphone, while the Chinese online retailer's website is open on a laptop.  Monika Skolimowska | Picture Alliance | Getty Images China-founded e-commerce company Shein's hopes of going public in the United States are growing slimmer by the day, according to experts, as rising tensions between Beijing and the U.S. roil business and trade. The company, last valued at $66 billion, confidentially filed to go public in the U.S. in November. Since then, it has faced resistance as it tries to join the American retail sphere, including through numerous rejected attempts to become a member of the National Retail Federation, the industry's largest trade association, CNBC previously reported. The e-commerce upstart filed to go public while becoming a household name in the U.S. by offering low prices and a facility to offer new styles quickly. The company is poised to take major market share from U.S. retailers, particularly Gap , TJX C...

[ad_1] A customer pushes a shopping cart full of groceries outside a Wal-Mart in Rogers, Arkansas, left, and a pedestrian passes a Target store in the Tenleytown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Getty Images Target and Walmart are both catering to thriftier shoppers, but the two big-box retailers have seen very different outcomes when it comes to winning their dollars. Target missed Wall Street's sales expectations for the fiscal second-quarter. Walmart beat Wall Street's revenue estimates for the three-month period. Target slashed its forecast for the year, while Walmart raised its outlook. The companies' diverging performances illustrate some of the retailers' fundamental differences. Walmart, the nation's largest grocer, makes more than half of its annual revenue from selling groceries — a category that shoppers buy even when times are tight. Target draws only about 20% of its yearly revenue from grocery, making it rely more on sales of items such as cl...

[ad_1] Shoppers may get an early present this holiday season: falling prices in many gift-giving categories. On Thursday, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said deflation could be coming as general merchandise and key grocery items, such as eggs, chicken and seafood get cheaper. He said the retailer expects some of the stickier higher prices, such as the ones for pantry staples, to "start to deflate in the coming weeks and months," too. "In the U.S., we may be managing through a period of deflation in the months to come," he said on the company's Thursday earnings call. "And while that would put more unit pressure on us, we welcome it, because it's better for our customers." For more than a year, consumers have coped with inflation that peaked around four-decade highs and drove up the cost of nearly everything, including groceries, rent and utilities. But McMillon's comments echoed what the government and other retailers said earlier this week, o...

[ad_1] A range of retailers are again blaming shrink as one of the reasons they saw another quarter of lackluster profits. But some of those companies have started to offer more detail than ever on how much shrink, or items lost to factors like external or employee theft , damage or vendor fraud, is cutting into their bottom lines. At the same time, certain retailers pulled back on their contention that organized theft is a primary cause of losses, as scrutiny grows over claims about how much crime contributes to their struggles. During second-quarter earnings reports in August and September, nearly two dozen retailers said shrink has continued to weigh on profits. But the details each company provided, and the explanations they gave for losses, varied widely. Many of them said that shrink is at an all-time high and said the industry is struggling to control it. Still, it's difficult to compare the losses to past years because most of the companies have never previously disclo...