#retail
Retail
Retail operations, delivery fees, and store-level compliance
Lowe's Q2 FY2026 Earnings: $26 Billion of Sales, but Acquisitions Did 90% of the Growth
Lowe's posted $25.96B in Q2 FY2026 revenue, up 8.3%, but net earnings were flat at $2.40B and operating margin fell 81 basis points. Acquired businesses supplied about 90% of the sales increase while Retail Home Improvement grew just 0.8% and comparable sales rose 0.2% — the full income statement and balance sheet reconciled in a public Beancount ledger.
Home Depot Q2 FY2026 Earnings: 75% of the Sales Growth Came From the SRS Distribution Bet
Home Depot's Q2 FY2026 sales rose 5.7% to $47.86B, but the Other/SRS distribution segment supplied about 75% of the $2.58B increase at a 4.9% operating margin versus 15.4% for retail. Roughly $685M of IEEPA tariff refunds cut cost of goods sold; backing it out puts inferred gross margin near 32.2% and operating margin near 12.9%, while comparable transactions fell 1.0%.
Target Q2 FY2026 Earnings: $1.65 of the $4.11 EPS Came From a Tariff Refund
Target's Q2 FY2026 net sales rose 5.3% to $26.54B and diluted EPS doubled to $4.11, but $994M of tariff refunds cut cost of sales and supplied $1.65 of that EPS plus 3.7 points of operating margin. Excluding the refund, operating income still grew about 19% and gross margin was near 29.9%, on comparable sales of +3.8% led by 3.6% traffic growth and 8.7% digital growth.
Walmart Q2 FY2027 Earnings: The $2.9 Billion Refund Inside a Record Quarter
Walmart posted $187.94B of revenue (+5.9%) and $9.38B of operating income (+28.8%) in Q2 FY2027, but roughly $2.9B of tariff refunds ran through cost of sales. Backing the refund out puts gross margin near 24.6% and operating margin near 3.4%, below the prior year — while net income fell 8.7% on a $3.91B swing in non-operating items.
Gift Card Breakage and Unclaimed Property: A Retailer's Practical Guide
An unredeemed gift card stays a customer liability until the facts support otherwise. This guide shows retailers how to book gift cards as deferred revenue, reconcile balances monthly, recognize breakage as a defensible estimate, and preserve the card-level data that state unclaimed-property (escheatment) filings require.
Nike FY2026 Q4 Earnings: The 890-Basis-Point Margin Jump That Wasn't a Turnaround
Nike's FY2026 Q4 gross margin rose 890 basis points, but $0.52 of the $0.72 diluted EPS came from a one-off IEEPA tariff refund — ex-tariff EPS was $0.20 against $0.68 a year earlier. Traced line by line in a public Beancount ledger covering FY2021 through Q4 FY2026.
Customer Refunds and Returns: Why They Belong Against Revenue — Not Buried in Expenses
Learn how small businesses should book customer refunds as contra-revenue, not expenses — covering Schedule C line 2, sales-tax payable reversals, inventory COGS adjustments, payment processor reconciliation, and ASC 606 refund liabilities with a monthly workflow to keep net sales accurate.
Illinois' Swipe Fee Ban on Sales Tax and Tips: What the Interchange Fee Prohibition Act Means for Your Business Before July 2026
Illinois' Interchange Fee Prohibition Act bans swipe fees on the sales tax and gratuity portions of card transactions starting July 1, 2026 — the first US law of its kind. Learn how to prove tax and tips per transaction, choose between the real-time exemption and the 180-day rebate, and structure a chart of accounts that captures every dollar either way.
Monument and Headstone Bookkeeping: Why a 50% Deposit Isn't Revenue (and How Cemetery Contracts Need Separate Books)
Monument shops collect deposits months before delivery and carry $25,000 to $90,000 in granite — so deposits must sit as deferred revenue until installation, granite must be costed by specific identification including freight, and retail walk-ins need a completely separate profit center from cemetery wholesale.
USDA's New SNAP Stocking Rule: The 84-Unit Inventory Test That Decides Your EBT Authorization on November 4
Starting November 4, 2026, SNAP-authorized small stores must stock 7 varieties in each of 4 staple food categories — 84 units total, up from 36 — with perishables in 3 categories, or risk losing EBT authorization. How to map varieties, track depth, flag perishables, and file invoices in your books before an FNS inspection.
Back-to-School Sales Tax Holidays in 17 States: Dates, Price Caps, and Why Your Online Store Isn't Exempt
Seventeen states run back-to-school sales tax holidays in summer 2026, from Florida's 32-day window to Iowa's Friday-Saturday weekend, each with its own price caps — $75 clothing in Ohio, $300 in Connecticut, $40 on Maryland backpacks. Participation is mandatory for most registered retailers, and destination sourcing means online sellers with nexus must honor the holiday of the delivery state.
When 5% of Your Customers Drive 40% of Your Returns: Serial Returners, Returns Reserves, and Refund Liability
ASC 606 treats a right of return as variable consideration, so an $80,000 sales month with a 9% historical return rate is $72,800 of net revenue, a $7,200 refund liability, and a recoverable-inventory asset — not $80,000 booked as final. This guide shows how to build a category-weighted reserve from 12 months of your own data, flag the 5 to 10% of buyers who generate 30 to 40% of returns, and apply graduated account limits that stay documented and defensible.