Alina Selyukh
Alina Selyukh is a business correspondent at NPR, where she follows the path of the retail and tech industries, tracking how America's biggest companies are influencing the way we spend our time, money, and energy.
Before joining NPR in October 2015, Selyukh spent five years at Reuters, where she covered tech, telecom and cybersecurity policy, campaign finance during the 2012 election cycle, health care policy and the Food and Drug Administration, and a bit of financial markets and IPOs.
Selyukh began her career in journalism at age 13, freelancing for a local television station and several newspapers in her home town of Samara in Russia. She has since reported for CNN in Moscow, ABC News in Nebraska, and NationalJournal.com in Washington, D.C. At her alma mater, Selyukh also helped in the production of a documentary for NET Television, Nebraska's PBS station.
She received a bachelor's degree in broadcasting, news-editorial and political science from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
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The parent company Tailored Brands earlier said it would close up to 500 stores and cut 20% of corporate jobs. It's joined in pandemic bankruptcy by rival Brooks Brothers and a growing list of others.
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The retailer was acquired in 2019 by online clothing-rental startup called Le Tote. It joins a cascade of bankruptcies by major apparel stores, triggered by the doldrums of the coronavirus pandemic.
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The company's sales went through the roof between April and June, hitting close to $89 billion — a 40% increase from a year earlier. Amazon added 175,000 new hires to help keep up with the demand.
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Ascena Retail Group is the latest clothing seller to try a restructuring during the pandemic when demand has cratered. The firm, which also owns Lane Bryant and Justice, will close some stores.
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Stores, supermarkets and gas stations are grappling with low supplies of pocket change. The national shortage is due in part to people going out less to spend money during the pandemic.
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U.S. stores and restaurants got a boost in June as retail sales jumped 7.5%. Spending on clothes doubled. But this was before a new surge in the coronavirus prompted renewed shutdowns in some states.
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Walmart and Sam's Club, as well as Kroger, join a growing list of retailers making masks mandatory in stores. The National Retail Federation is urging all stores to adopt the same policy.
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Congress has yet to pass a measure that would ensure a pay boost for people who have been asked to keep going to work during the coronavirus pandemic shutdowns.
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The company is making permanent a $2 bonus it created during the pandemic, as many retailers have been phasing out "hazard pay." Target previously planned to raise its pay minimum by the end of 2020.
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Spending is still nowhere near last year's. But as more states and cities allowed restaurants and shopping centers to reopen, May saw a big swing from a historic collapse in March and April.