1) In 2021, American “retail shrink” — losses incurred through things like product theft and damages — grew to $94.5B, up from $90.8B in 2020. In November, Target said thefts would reduce its gross margin by $600m+ in 2022.
2) While US auto sales fell 8% in 2022, EV sales grew to 5.8% of all vehicles sold, up from 3.2% in 2021. Tesla accounted for 65% of EV sales.
3) The US Census Bureau apparently updated the definition of an “urban” area to include a population minimum of 5k people, up from 2.5k. As a result, 4.2m people previously considered to be living in urban areas are now living in rural areas.
4) Macao, a special administrative region of China and major gambling destination hit hard by covid lockdowns, saw casino revenues in 2022 plummet 51% to 42.2B patacas, or $5.24B. That’s 14% of 2019’s earnings.
5) Until 2022, IBM had filed more patents annually than any company in the last 29 years. Last year, Samsung took the crown with 8,513 patents, compared to IBM’s 4,743 — a 44% annual decline.