Barnes & Noble is laying off workers following a dismal holiday season but it has hired a new chief merchandising officer and appears intent on focusing on streamlining and revamping for the future.

Purdue Pharma, the maker of opioid-based OxyContin, said over the weekend that it will no longer promote the drug to physicians and announced that it was laying off more than half of its sales representatives as a result, leaving about 200 salespeople to sell non-opioid products.

Amazon is offering free - but don't neglect to tip the driver - two-hour delivery of a swath of Whole Foods products in Austin, Cincinnati, Dallas and Virginia Beach to Amazon Prime members as of yesterday and it plans to expand the program "across the U.S." sometime this year. Orders must be above $35; delivery within one hour will cost $7.99.

Hasbro's sales were disappointing for the last three months of 2017 but its profits were better than expected and it sold more product over the year than chief rival Mattel for the first time since 1993.

Amazon's Alexa may not have really lost her voice, but the din in the smart-speaker listening room is getting louder with the imminent release of Apple's HomePod this week. The early reviews are decidedly mixed. The sound is great, most agree, but mitigating factors such as price and utility would lead one to believe that the Amazon Echo and Google Home are not going the way of those jumbo Bose 501s in your den anytime soon.

Helena Foulkes, leader of CVS Health's 9,700 retail stores, 20 distribution centers and e-commerce efforts - and a driving force behind the chain's decision to stop selling tobacco products - has been named CEO of Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor-owner Hudson's Bay Co. following Gerald Storch's abrupt departure in October.

The Federal Reserve Board excoriated San Francisco-based Wells Fargo on Friday for its "widespread consumer abuses and compliance breakdowns" while releasing a consent order that, among other actions, puts a curb on the bank's growth until it gets its behavior under control, and requires that four of its board members be replaced.

Unilever's sales were better than expected in the fourth quarter and - perhaps more surprising - profits also rose even as packaged goods firms are increasingly squeezed by retailers, online and off.

Centers for Disease Control director Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald resigned yesterday, citing an inability to readily divest two holdings in her husband's retirement account that "have imposed a broad recusal limiting her duties," as a spokesman for the Dept. of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC, put it. But they are not the only potential conflicts in Fitzgerald's baggage, highlighting the thin line that exists between public service and the perception of influence peddling.