Yale University has created two running lists – one with nearly 400 businesses that have changed their dealings with Russia due to its attack on the Ukraine, and a shorter one showing  businesses that are “digging in and defying demands for exit.” Those include Reebok, Subway and LG Electronics. “Despite the cost of abandoning major investments and the loss of business, there is a strong reputational incentive to withdraw,” according to Yale University professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld. “Companies that fail to withdraw face a wave of U.S. public resentment far greater than what they face on climate change, voting rights, gun safety, immigration …

Canadian underwear brand Saxx is launching a March Madness campaign tied to the fact that vasectomies surge 30% ahead of March Madness, timed as such by men who want to watch basketball while they recover. A video created by the brand to promote its “vasectomy registry” features retired NBA All-Star Carlos Boozer.

Sycamore Partners and Canada’s Hudson’s Bay plan to submit takeover bids for Kohl’s Corp. “The private-equity firm and the department-store chain plan to bid in the high $60s a share for Kohl’s, which asked suitors to submit offers by Wednesday,” people familiar with the situation told The Wall Street Journal. 

Trader Joe’s and  H-E-B earned the highest satisfaction scores scores across retail segments in 2021, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index. Rounding out the top 10 grocery retailers were Aldi, Costco Wholesale, Wegmans Food Markets, Publix Super Markets, Sam’s Club, BJ’s Wholesale Club, Hy-Vee and Kroger. Meanwhile, Costco, Nordstrom, Kohl’s, Sam’s Club and Target finished tops for department and discount stores.

Consumer products like toilet paper, bagged cookies and conditioner are shrinking in size or quantity -- or both -- because of rising costs. Record levels of inflation mean households are paying more for everyday items. “Companies can raise prices, and many are,” per CNN. “Others are charging customers the same price while offering less.”

Ulta Beauty posted better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings and revenue. On the company’s earnings call, CEO Dave Kimbell said Ulta will test a smaller-store format in select smaller markets this year. It also will continue to expand its shop-in-shop concept with Target to at least 250 more locations by the end of 2022.

Walmart is adding to its pet products aisle with brands including Jinx dog food, PrettyLitter health-monitoring cat litter and Barkfest in Bed toy collection. Walmart also will be introducing Best Friends daycare and grooming services at 10 locations. The service will include private rental space for dog birthday parties. The expansion comes at a time when Americans are more pet-focused than ever, per Supermarket News. 

Kohl’s is overhauling its brand image to distance itself from the department store sector that has been in decline for years. “Traditional chains such as Sears, JCPenney and others have been forced into bankruptcy, prompting Kohl's to search for new ways to connect with shoppers,” per CNN Business. The company is adding Sephora mini-shops to roughly 75% of its 1,100 U.S. stores and is opening 100 new locations that are half the size of its traditional outlets. Kohl's also unveiled new strategies to grow online, including self-service for pickup orders and returns.

While McDonald’s is hardly the only U.S. company to cut ties with Russia after the Ukraine invasion, the effects of its withdrawal may be more wide-reaching. Since opening its first location there in 1990, the company has grown to 62,000 employees at more than 850 restaurants. “It was McDonald's that opened the door for so many others, and that served as a symbol for something much bigger than fast food back, 32 years ago,” per Inc. “More than 30,000 ordinary Soviet citizens waited six hours or more. When they first tried a hamburger and French fries--their first taste of America, …

"A Two-Year, 50-Million-Person Experiment in Changing How We Work" is The New York Times' deep dive into how the pandemic has changed workplace norms -- possibly forever. The article cites a study of 10,000 office workers suggesting "that women and people of color were more likely to see working remote as beneficial than their white male colleagues." That's backed up by personal anecdotes from several Black women, one of whom just got a new job where she can be fully remote: "The fixtures of her nearly two-decade career now seem like relics of a past she can’t imagine reinhabiting: high …