Costco limited purchase quantities of motor oil due to supply constraints while expanding its Uber Eats delivery service across 47 states. Corporate boardrooms saw significant shifts, with Alexandre Arnault joining Nike and Disney restructuring its streaming management. Meanwhile, Tesla faced a federal safety audit in Austin, and Shopify's leadership warned against unvetted employee AI usage.
01Company specific
Costco Rations Kirkland Motor Oil and Raises Price to $57.99
Rationing DIY mainstays signals that refiner yield shifts toward transport fuels are breaking the private-label price umbrella that warehouse clubs use to drive member retention.
Costco Wholesale Corp. raised the price of its Kirkland Signature full-synthetic motor oil to $57.99 per 10-quart case and capped purchases at two units per member every seven days. The product previously sold for roughly $30 to $35. Refiners are prioritizing gasoline and diesel production over the base oils used in synthetic lubricants as Middle Eastern supply disruptions drive above $109 per . The retailer also restricted purchases of Mobil 1 to five units per membership at $43.99 for a six-pack. U.S. diesel prices have climbed above $6 a gallon, while global oil inventories have dropped by more than 500 million barrels since the conflict with Iran began in February.
Kirkland Motor Oil Price ($)
The price of a 10-quart case of Kirkland motor oil has nearly doubled.
Nike Shares Rise as LVMH Scion Alexandre Arnault Joins Board
Adding a luxury executive signals Nike is treating its brand equity erosion as a premium positioning failure rather than a routine retail distribution slump.
Alexandre Arnault joined the board of Nike as the sportswear giant attempts to reverse a prolonged slump in sales and its stock price. Arnault serves as deputy CEO of LVMH's Moët Hennessy and previously worked to revitalize Tiffany and Rimowa. Nike shares rose nearly 1% overnight following the announcement. The company faces severe headwinds, with fiscal 2026 declining 2% to $46.4 billion and shares trading nearly 80% below their 2021 peak. CEO Elliott Hill is pursuing a turnaround strategy focused on product innovation and strengthening retail channels. Bill Ackman lauded the appointment on social media, despite having sold his entire position in the first quarter of 2025. Nike is also set to leave the 100 after 18 years.
Costco and Uber Eats Expand US Delivery Partnership to Nearly 600 Locations
Requiring membership validation for third-party marketplace access allows wholesale clubs to expand digital reach without compromising the high-margin subscription fee model that drives their net income.
Costco expanded its U.S. delivery partnership with Uber Eats to 47 states from 17, bringing nearly 600 warehouse locations onto the platform. Members can now order groceries, fresh produce, and household essentials through the app for scheduled or on-demand delivery by linking their membership accounts at checkout. The rollout pairs the warehouse retailer with Uber as the delivery app works to scale its grocery and retail offerings beyond restaurant orders. Eligible Costco members receive 50 percent off an annual Uber One subscription in the first year and 20 percent off in subsequent years, while new users who purchase a Costco membership through the app receive 30 percent off their first qualifying order. The expansion follows a period of digital growth for Costco, which has continued to expand its operations worldwide.
Relying on a camera-only autonomous system while removing manual controls forces Tesla to litigate its self-certification methodology against federal safety standards before reaching commercial scale.
Tesla deployed its steering-wheel-free Cybercab onto public roads in Austin, immediately triggering a federal safety audit over the vehicle's lack of manual controls. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued a special order demanding sworn testimony from Tesla by September 30 regarding how the two-seater complies with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards written for human-operated vehicles. Failing to answer fully and truthfully carries penalties of up to $139 million. The federal inquiry covers a small number of Cybercab vehicles following their deployment in Austin. Tesla shares fell following the rollout event, which omitted a public livestream and offered few details regarding production cadence and pricing.
Tesla Stock Move After Launch (%)
Tesla shares fell 6 percent after the Cybercab rollout event.
Mellody Hobson Steps Down From LA Olympics Board Ahead of Museum Opening
Board departures from mega-event host committees expose how corporate sponsors and high-profile directors manage personal reputational contagion when public infrastructure projects face activist-driven labor and housing pushback.
hollywoodreporter.com reports that Mellody Hobson has resigned from the board of the 2028 Olympic Games organizing committee in Los Angeles. Hobson departed LA28 ahead of the public opening of the Lucas Museum on Sept. 22, where she serves as co-founder. The organizing committee has faced financial, logistical, and political challenges alongside scrutiny over chairman Casey Wasserman. Hobson has privately cited her focus on the museum launch, though her exit followed pressure from an activist group called the Fair Games Coalition. The coalition has targeted Hobson over her role with LA28 while organizing protests demanding union jobs, immigrant protections, and housing funds. Wasserman previously restructured the board following the presidential election to include figures with ties to the incoming administration, such as Reince Priebus and Kevin McCarthy.
Shopify CEO Warns Against Low-Quality Employee AI Usage
Lütke’s pushback shows how enterprise productivity software models risk losing their ROI pitch if internal generative AI usage generates net-negative labor efficiencies for corporate clients.
Fortune.com reports that Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke is warning employees against tossing unexamined output he calls 'slop grenades' across the company. While Lütke previously told staff that using artificial intelligence is a baseline expectation, he now notes that generative tools are producing unexamined emails and code that create more work for colleagues. The phenomenon of workslop has driven researchers to track productivity losses, with a survey of 962 American full-time desk workers showing that recipients spend 3.4 hours per month revising subpar AI output. That cleanup time costs single employees $186 per month and up to $9 million annually for an organization with 10,000 workers.
Disney Names New Executive to Lead Direct-to-Consumer Division
Unifying streaming tech and content under one executive replaces fragmented operational overhead with a single P&L responsible for reversing Disney's direct-to-consumer margin drag.
hollywoodreporter.com reports that Disney Entertainment has named Adam Smith chairman of direct-to-consumer, placing product, engineering, advertising technology, programming, viewer experience, partnerships, and data and analytics for Disney+ and Hulu under a single executive. Smith, a former YouTube executive who joined Disney two years ago, replaces a previous structure where multiple executives oversaw different elements of the streaming business. Meanwhile, Joe Earley moves from his role as co-president of direct-to-consumer to become president of Disney Entertainment Television franchise and content strategy. The reorganization consolidates leadership as the company positions Disney+ as its digital centerpiece. Earlier this summer, Disney+ president Alisa Bowen departed to become CEO of Fubo.
Retailers and consumer brands are aggressively restructuring operations and executive boards to counter operational headwinds. Whether these leadership shifts and delivery expansions can offset broader supply pressures and technological integration costs is unresolved.
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