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The swift arrival of a new coronavirus variant has rekindled economic anxieties in Washington, D.C., as congressional lawmakers, business leaders and consumer advocates begin to worry whether there is enough federal aid to shield Americans from another round of financial despair, the Washington Post reported. Over the course of the nearly two-year pandemic, Congress has committed nearly $6 trillion toward combating the contagion and bringing a battered economy back from the brink. But some of the most significant programs to keep businesses afloat and help households pay bills have expired or run out of funds, raising new risks for the future of the country’s recovery, particularly as the omicron variant wave begins to take hold. There’s no federal money left to keep restaurants open. The aid for concert halls and other customer-starved performance spaces has nearly gone dry. Federal officials ended their primary effort that pumped money into small businesses with sagging balance sheets, and they stopped paying out extra sums to workers who are out of a job. Federal student loan protections are expiring imminently, meaning students’ bills are set to come due early next year. A stimulus initiative under President Biden that provided monthly payments to more than 35 million families with children may have issued its last round of deposits this past Wednesday. And attempts to extend those tax benefits — or address a wider array of longer-term financial issues facing parents — have stalled again on Capitol Hill. “I’m concerned that you’re going to have many, many vulnerable Americans, Americans with young children for example, falling between the cracks,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), adding: “January looks like a tough month with respect to omicron.”

Supply-chain disruptions are threatening to rob some companies of holiday sales, leaving them short on packaging and transportation at a critical time of year, the Wall Street Journal reported. Some makers of toys, games and other consumer goods are racing to figure out how to get products to market, and having to decide which customers will receive orders as stocks run low. In some cases, companies are figuring out how to remake products to have something to sell during a season that can generate a big portion of annual sales. The holiday period is a key season for the U.S. economy, as consumers buy gifts, spend holiday bonuses and stock larders for holiday meals. For some companies, sales across the Thanksgiving-to-New Year’s Day period can make up a large portion of revenue for the year. In 2020, nearly 30% of sales at hobby, toy and game stores occurred in November and December, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and December was the highest sales month for appliance stores. Companies dealing with wide-ranging supply-chain disruptions –– including backlogged ports, scarce materials and components, and too few workers to staff production lines and drive trucks –– said that some of their 2021 holiday sales are likely lost for good. The problems could also weigh on future sales: Some executives said their companies risk reputational harm if they aren’t able to deliver products on time, or at all. In response, businesses are adding shifts, finding new suppliers and taking other steps to ensure their products get to customers and under Christmas trees in the final days of the 2021 season.

Retail sales rose slower than economists had expected in November following three straight months of sharp increases, according to data released yesterday by the Census Bureau, The Hill reported. U.S. retailers and restaurants made $639.8 billion in sales last month, up just 0.3 percent from October and well below the 0.8 percent increase projected by analysts. October’s retail sales gain was revised up to 1.8 percent, a 0.1 percentage point increase from the initially reported figure. Retail sales have risen steadily throughout the second half of the year despite deep supply chain disruptions and the highest annual inflation rate in more than 30 years. While growth continued through November, the pace of consumer spending slowed considerably in key sectors. Sales at department stores sank 5.4 percent last month and purchases at electronics stores fell by 4.6 percent, the Census Bureau reported. Sales by online retailers were flat, though sporting goods, hobby, music and book stores saw sales rise by 1.3 percent.

Imagine 16 deserted Mall of Americas. That’s how much space battered mall owners need to fill heading into 2022, more than 90 million square feet, Bloomberg News reported. It’s no easy task, with dozens of retail chains already cutting back or shutting down, and it won’t get any better if the newest pandemic wave scares off shoppers. So landlords are wooing businesses that have little or nothing to do with shopping. Casinos, amusement parks, medical facilities, storage units, hotels, schools, offices and residences are fair game, as even healthy shopping centers are forced to rethink their game plans for next year and beyond. “In 2030, you’re going to see most malls are going to be not considered a mall anymore,” said Greg Maloney, chief executive for Americas retail at real estate services firm JLL. “They’re going to be considered a mixed-use asset.” They might wind up looking like Mall of America, the biggest one in the U.S. whose layout includes Nickelodeon Universe and an aquarium, or like Chattanooga, Tenn.-based CBL Properties. Last August, this owner of about 100 less-prestigious malls and shopping centers added the 80,000-square-foot Hollywood Casino on an old Sears site at its York Galleria in Pennsylvania. It brought in industry giant Penn National Gaming Inc. with 500 high-tech slots, two dozen table games and a Barstool Sportsbook.

Music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs is seeking to buy the Sean John lifestyle brand he founded more than two decades ago out of bankruptcy for $3.3 million, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Combs made the offer to reacquire a 90% stake in Sean John from the North American division of Global Brands Group Holding Ltd., according to papers filed Wednesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. GBG USA Inc. filed for bankruptcy over the summer to withstand financial problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Combs had sold his equity in Sean John but retains a 10% stake in the brand as part of a joint venture with GBG USA, court papers say. GBG USA put the joint venture into bankruptcy Wednesday. Combs’s offer is subject to higher bids, should any materialize in the coming weeks, and must be approved by a bankruptcy judge.

Toys “R” Us, a resuscitated version of the mega-toy seller that went bankrupt and out of business, is returning to its New Jersey home turf with a store in the state’s newest megamall, Bloomberg News reported. The new owner of the brand plans to open a flagship location in mid-December at American Dream, the heavily indebted mall a few miles outside of Manhattan that’s working through its own decades-long string of troubles. The two-level store will occupy 20,000 square feet, according to a statement, with the outlet steps away from the mall’s kid-friendly Nickelodeon Universe Theme Park and DreamWorks Water Park. Toys “R” Us, which was based in nearby Wayne, filed for bankruptcy four years ago, unable to cope with online rivals and retail giants like Walmart Inc. that used deep discounts on toys to attract shoppers. The chain closed the last of its 800 stores the following year, leaving a trail of empty big-box stores and unhappy workers who said they were overlooked as the company wound down. Like many well-known brands in bankruptcy, Toys “R” Us gained a second life when Tru Kids Inc., an entity made up of creditors, bought its intellectual property. Tru Kids had its own store strategy but closed its two U.S. locations early this year. Oaktree Capital-backed WHP Global then bought a controlling interest and said it plans to open more than 400 shops within Macy’s Inc. stores next year.

U.S. shoppers spent more time and money at bricks-and-mortar stores over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend than the same period last year, though foot traffic remained below pre-pandemic levels, the Wall Street Journal reported. The rebound marks a reversal from 2020 when the pandemic accelerated a yearslong shift of holiday spending occurring online at the expense of in-store shopping. It also shows retailers were able to secure spending on the key Black Friday selling day, analysts say, even though discounts weren’t as prevalent this year and they spent weeks nudging customers to shop earlier in the season. RetailNext, a firm that tracks shopper counts in thousands of stores with cameras and sensors, said store traffic rose 61% this Black Friday compared with last year but was down 27% from 2019. Sensormatic Solutions, another firm that tracks store traffic, said Black Friday traffic rose 48% from last year, but was 28% lower than in 2019. The Thanksgiving holiday weekend was also the first time in years that online retail sales didn’t increase from the prior year, according to some industry estimates. Online Black Friday sales fell to $8.9 billion from $9 billion last year, according to Adobe Inc., while Thanksgiving Day online sales were roughly flat at $5.1 billion, the first time sales didn’t increase since Adobe started tracking the figures in 2012.

Retailers are expressing more concerns about robberies this year, the New York Times reported. Best Buy said this week that its business was facing new pressure from organized crimes and thefts, and it was implementing new security measures in certain areas. One tactic includes putting QR codes on products behind lock-and-key. That allows customers to scan the codes and then check out, so associates don’t need to unlock the items right away. “We are finding ways where we can lock up product, but still make that a good customer experience,” Corie Barry, Best Buy’s chief executive, said on an earnings call on Tuesday. “In some instances, we’re hiring security. We’re working with our vendors on creative ways we can stage the product.” Still, she said, the pressure was visible in the company’s financials — she named it as one reason Best Buy saw a decline in its profit margin rate — and “traumatizing for our associates.” About 69 percent of retailers said they had seen an increase in organized retail crimes in the past year, pointing to factors including the pandemic, policing, changes to sentencing guidelines and the growth of online marketplaces, according to a recent retail security survey from the National Retail Federation, an industry trade group. Respondents said that the groups involved have become more aggressive and violent.

CVS, Walgreens and Walmart pharmacies recklessly distributed massive amounts of pain pills in two Ohio counties, a federal jury said yesterday in a verdict that could set the tone for U.S. city and county governments that want to hold pharmacies accountable for their roles in the opioid crisis, the Associated Press reported. Lake and Trumbull counties blamed the three chain pharmacies for not stopping the flood of pills that caused hundreds of overdose deaths and cost each of the two counties about $1 billion, their attorney said. How much the pharmacies must pay in damages will be decided in the spring by a federal judge. It was the first time pharmacy companies had completed a trial to defend themselves in a drug crisis that has killed a half-million Americans over the past two decades. The counties were able to convince the jury that the pharmacies played an outsized role in creating a public nuisance in the way they dispensed pain medication into their communities. “The law requires pharmacies to be diligent in dealing drugs. This case should be a wake-up call that failure will not be accepted,” said Mark Lanier, an attorney for the counties.