BJ’s Wholesale Club generated 22.4% net sales growth to $5.01 billion in fiscal Q2 ended July 30 -- “strong results in a marketplace influenced by inflation, waning government stimulus and high gas prices,” said CEO Bob Eddy on a Thursday earnings call. Comparable sales in the quarter were up 7.6%, excluding gas, “driven by significant gains in traffic and market share,” he said. The stock closed 7.2% higher Thursday at $74.09.

Target management defended its decision to push out inventory in Q2 at the expense of profit on the company’s Q2 earnings call Wednesday. The strategy cleared a path for it to lock in high-demand items for the second half, executives said. Target’s Q2 operating income plunged 87% year on year to $321 million for the quarter ended July 30, the company said. Cost of sales rose 16.6% to $20.4 million. Comparable sales were up 2.6%, and store traffic grew 2.7%; total sales increased 3.3% to $25.7 billion.

ASPEN, Colo. -- Governments’ prioritization of data localization turns out to be a bad idea in times of crisis, with vital government data one of the early Russian targets in its invasion of Ukraine, tech security experts said Tuesday at the Technology Policy Institute’s Aspen Forum. A panel on Ukrainian connectivity focused repeatedly on the need for rebuilding the country's communications networks to use providers not controlled by authoritarian regimes. Ruth Berry, acting deputy assistant secretary, State Department's Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy, said there's wide agreement there's not enough diversity and resilience in the telecom network supply chain, which is why Open RAN is such an imperative.

The “macro backdrop” of negative business conditions in the tech industry is “dynamic, and it’s clear that we’re at an inflection point,” said Analog Devices CEO Vincent Roche on an earnings call Wednesday for fiscal Q3 ended July 30. “Economic conditions are beginning to impact demand, with orders slowing later in the quarter, and cancellations increasing slightly,” he said.

After resetting Q2 financial guidance three weeks ago (see 2207260009) due to price cuts it had to take on bloated electronics and apparel inventory, Walmart finished the fiscal Q3 quarter ended July 31 “stronger than we had anticipated,” said CEO Doug McMillon on the company’s Tuesday earnings call. Walmart sales in the quarter were “well ahead of plan,” with higher prices lifting the average transaction size. Supply chain costs, too, were better than expected, McMillon said.

Consumers and advertisers are increasingly gravitating toward free ad-supported streaming television (FAST), from linear and on demand viewing, said panelists Tuesday at the Stream TV virtual advertising summit. FAST channels such as Amazon’s Freevee and Paramount’s Pluto are free, easy to access because many don’t require logins, and are increasingly offering a wider variety of high-quality content, said panelists from Tivo, Roku and Crackle. Combined with ad-supported video on demand, FAST offerings are starting to supplant MVPD video subscriptions, said Scott Maddux, TiVo vice president-global content strategy & business.

WiSA’s Q2 revenue fell 40% to $946,000, from $1.6 million in the year-ago quarter, said Chief Financial Officer George Oliva on a Monday earnings call. Its net loss was $4.1 million vs. $3.4 million in Q2 2021, said an SEC filing. Gross margin shrank to 20% from 29%, due to lower sales volumes, said the corrected quarterly earnings release.

U.S. importers sourced 9.07 million TVs from all countries in all screen sizes in the second quarter, 7.2% fewer sets than in Q1 and 16.2% fewer than in the 2021 quarter, according to Census data accessed through the International Trade Commission’s DataWeb tool.

The Joe Biden administration could be poised to take an action the Donald Trump White House tried but wasn’t able to complete and release a national spectrum strategy, industry officials familiar with the administration’s work on the issue told us. That follows what could be key meeting in May at the Aspen Institute. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson participated in the two-day session, which focused specifically on a national strategy.

Snap One continues to see “sustained demand” in the integrator channel, but management is taking a conservative view over the rest of 2022 due to economic uncertainty, said CEO John Heyman on the company’s Q2 earnings call Thursday. It expects adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) to be between $116 million and $121 million, up 5%-9% year on year.