Whether you’re hoping to do something more meaningful with your kids than just hitting the mall, or if you’re just looking for some gifts that give back, here are some ideas that could bring more joy this holiday season.
Gathering friends or family together to assemble a gift box for a needy recipient could be a new, purposeful holiday tradition that you start this year.
Kynd Kits are an activity for the whole family. You choose a cause or group of people important to you, and then request the corresponding kit.
Each kit will contain items specifically requested by people in those groups. You assemble the pieces together, write a card, then send it off. Among the recipients you can choose from this year: the homeless, victims of domestic violence, senior citizens, LGBTQ people and foster children.
If your family would like to help a foster child this holiday season, Together We Rise is helping kids without permanent homes by providing colorful bags to tote their items around in. (Many foster kids lug their worldly possessions around in trash bags.) They send you a panel to decorate, that you then send back. They attach each artwork panel to a duffel bag, which is stuffed with a teddy bear, a blanket, a hygiene kit and a coloring book.
A family art project can brighten up the walls of a long-term care facility. The Foundation for Hospital Art will send you a kit, complete with pre-drawn canvases and art supplies. You color it in, create one panel of your own design and send it back with the pre-addressed UPS label.
If you can knit or crochet, consider helping Knots of Love. You could knit a beanie to support a patient going through chemotherapy or a blanket to warm a baby in the NICU.
The Salvation Army’s “Angel Tree” program is online again this year, making it easy to shop for a child in need. Just enter your zip code, add the requested items from their registry to your cart, and the Salvation Army does the rest.
And if you want to spend your money at a local bookstore but don’t want to leave the house, consider buying from bookshop.org. They partner with independent book sellers across the country to send your dollars to stores that really need it.
If you want to support Black-owned businesses this Christmas (or any time of year) the website and app https://www.supportblackowned.com/ helps you find shops and services all over the US.
The EatOkra app helps you find Black-owned restaurants and food services (buying a gift card helps keep small eateries in business).
You can also search Instagram by using the hashtag #SupportBlackBusiness.
Finally, many larger retailers are giving back this season. If you just want a name-brand gift sure to wow a picky tween or teen, many stores and brands partner with charities to give back over the holiday season.
Some companies even make it a yearlong mission to do good.
If you are looking for a present for someone worried about the environment, Patagonia gives a portion of all profits to environmental causes.
Sock company Bombas donates a pair of socks to a needy person, for every pair sold.
And what Christmas stocking couldn’t use a fuzzy pencil case and some unicorn-themed erasers? Yoobi sells colorful pens, pencils and stationery, and for every item purchased, they donate a school supply to a child in need.
There are countless things about our homeland that Australians miss after moving abroad: the magnificent landscape, the laid-back lifestyle and that endless blue sky, to name a few.
But something as simple as a trip to the supermarket can leave us expats – according to some reports there are an estimated one million of us – feeling desperately homesick.
While some foods are the result of cultural influencessuch as the Chiko Roll,others are uniquely Aussie, like Golden Gaytime ice cream.
And who could forget the most famous of them all, Vegemite, which turns 100 on October 25.
According to the National Museum of Australia, it was invented by chemist CP Callister in Melbourne in 1923 when Australian food manufacturer Fred Walker asked him to create a product similar to British Marmite.
“During the Second World War, Vegemite captured the Australian market. Marmite was unobtainable and the Australian Army supplied Vegemite to its troops,” says the museum in a post highlighting defining symbols of Australia.
“In the 1950s and 60s, despite acquisition by the American company Kraft, Vegemite became a distinctively ‘Australian’ food. It featured in songs, on souvenirs and other popular culture ephemera. Vegemite returned to Australian ownership in 2017 when purchased by dairy company Bega.”
More on this famed brown spread below as we round up the A-Z of Aussie favorites:
Introduced in 1927, this simple dessert is an Australian classic.
Every Australian child grew up singing the famous 1930s jingle: “I like Aeroplane Jelly, Aeroplane Jelly for me!”
The brand’s “Bertie the Aeroplane” mascot was named after inventor Bert Appleroth – a Sydney tram driver who is said to have made the first batch in his bathtub.
Although now owned by an American company, Aeroplane Jelly has hardly changed since grandma was a girl.
Sure, there are plenty of brands of jelly available worldwide, but when it comes time to make a trifle or treat for the kids, Aussie parents can’t resist this familiar favorite.
An Australian variety of mango that isn’t grown anywhere else in the world, the Bowen is considered the best of the best.
It was first discovered in the northern Queensland town of Bowen, hence the name, but is also known as Kensington Pride.
Bigger and juicer than other varieties, Bowen mangoes account for 80% of mangoes produced in Australia. Some are exported but arguably not enough for the huge number of mango-loving expats.
To Aussies, mangoes are the taste of summer. No matter where we are in the world, the craving for a Bowen mango usually kicks in around Christmas.
This strange little deep-fried snack has been an Australian icon since 1950 when it was first sold by an enterprising boilermaker at football games.
Inspired by Chinese spring rolls, the exact recipe is a little unclear but the combination of meat, veg and some unknown spices hits the spot.
Best consumed with a couple of potato scallops and a soft drink, the Chiko Roll is the go-to for tradieson their lunch break or those 3 a.m. munchies on your way home from the pub.
And the only place to get them is a typical Aussie takeaway joint.
Dukkah – a humble blend of crushed Middle Eastern spices, herbs and nuts from Egypt – has been embraced by Australian foodies.
Its versatility is one of the reasons this condiment is so popular. Dukkah can be used as a garnish, a coating on a piece of meat or mixed with olive oil as a dip for bread.
A number of producers have given the basic dukkah recipe an Australian twist by adding native ingredients, such as lemon myrtle, macadamia nuts, wattleseed, saltbush and pepperleaf.
Expats can find many variations in Australian supermarkets and, fortunately, they’re often sold in packets small enough to sneak into a suitcase.
Australia is one of the few countries where it is considered perfectly acceptable to eat the coat of arms.
Exceptionally lean and gamey, emu and kangaroo tend to be popular among adventurous chefs in Australia.
But when living abroad, neither is easy to get your hands on.
A number of restaurants and specialty butchers offer native meats, but the expense involved in raising emus, in particular, means it’s harder to come by.
Thanks to the influx of Greek and Italian immigrants who brought “proper coffee” to Australia post WWII, we have become a nation of coffee snobs.
The flat white is almost Aussie enough to be called the national drink.
All over the world, café goers and baristas have been confounded as Aussie expats seek out their favorite brew abroad.
With less milk than a latte and without the froth of a cappuccino, the flat white requires special attention (it’s all in the pouring).
One of the first questions asked on expat forums: “Where can I get a decent flat white in this town?”
And it’s usually the first thing ordered at the airport café when back on home soil.
Ice creams feature highly on the most-wanted lists of expats, so it’s only natural we highlight them here.
Milky Paddle Pops and fruity Splice have been popular summer treats since the 1960s.
Likewise, Weis Bars have also been around for more than 60 years, and the mango and cream concoctions invoke memories of lazy summer afternoons.
But the number one, the crème de la crème, is the Golden Gaytime – a vanilla and toffee ice cream coated in chocolate and dipped in crunchy biscuit pieces that has inspired many a replica over the years.
While the burger itself is not an Australian invention, we have added some unconventional ingredients that make the Aussie version truly memorable.
Take the essentials – a beef patty, cheese, tomato, lettuce, grilled onions, tomato sauce (ketchup) – and add beetroot, pineapple, a fried egg and bacon, and you have yourself a massive mouthful.
A quick online search reveals variations that include pickled beetroot and spicy mayo, among others, but the classic Aussie burger celebrates simplicity.
It’s easy enough to replicate at home, but nothing beats the experience of ducking into the local milk-bar (café), or fish and chip shop, to enjoy a burger and a milkshake after a day at the beach.
The Iced VoVo – a biscuit covered in pink fondant, raspberry jam and shredded coconut – is a national treasure.
Produced by Arnott’s since the early 1900s, the iconic treat was mentioned by former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in his victory speech after the 2007 election, leading to a spike in sales.
“Friends, tomorrow, the work begins. You can have a strong cup of tea if you want, even an Iced VoVo on the way through. But the celebration stops there,” Rudd said.
Not often found for sale overseas, this sweet treat is one to enjoy with a cup of tea when you’re home visiting mum.
Ask any Australian expat what they miss most about ‘home’ and their list is sure to include at least one type of junk food – the absence of which is felt most keenly at kids’ birthday parties.
Allen’s Lollies (candy) have been around for decades and Minties, Fantales, Jaffas, Snakes and the Classic Party Mix remain as popular as ever.
The Aussie public doesn’t seem to mind that they are all owned by Nestlé, which is headquartered in Switzerland.
Fairy Bread – essentially white bread covered in butter and sprinkles – is another party staple that manages to be devoid of nutrition but highly nostalgic.
On return trips to Australia, expats are known to bulk-buy chocolate bars like Cadbury Cherry Ripes, Caramello Koalas and ever-popular Violet Crumbles.
When it comes to savory junk foods, Smith’s Chips, cheesy Twisties and Nobby’s nuts are synonymous with snacking – and nothing produced overseas comes close.
We tend to lump all Middle Eastern meat-and-pita combos under the heading of “kebab” and be done with it.
Of course, there are subtle differences between doner kebabs, shawarma, souvlaki, and gyros – in both ingredients and quality – depending on the source.
Connoisseurs agree that pork gyros (Greek flatbread filled with rotisserie-roasted meat) found in more legitimate venues around Australia are the best.
Consider the sauce dripping down the front of your shirt an essential part of the experience.
Proving that Aussies love anything with jam and coconut, the lamington is the country’s favorite cake.
Named after Lord Lamington, Queensland’s eighth governor, these delightful squares of sponge cake – dipped in chocolate and coated with coconut – have become nothing short of a culinary icon.
There are entire websites (and an Australian Lamington Appreciation Society) devoted to the origins of the lamington and how to make them. Achieving the right ratio of chocolate, jam and coconut is essential.
There are pies, and then there are Aussie meat pies.
Synonymous with afternoons at the football pitch, brands like Four ‘N Twenty and Vili’s have cornered the market for mass-produced pies.
Small local outfits (like the Bemboka Pie Shop and Harry’s Café de Wheels) are institutions in their own right.
Everyone has a favorite type, whether it’s shepherd’s pie, a floater with peas, cheese and bacon or straight-up meat.
The only requirement? The pie is served piping hot with tomato sauce … and eaten one-handed.
With Four ‘N Twenty now exporting to the United States and parts of Asia, some expats can get their pie fix without venturing too far.
Australia’s love affair with Asian food is no secret, and our northern neighbors strongly influence what we put on our plates.
Even Aussies living in Asia admit to craving “Aussie Chinese” or “Aussie Thai” – dishes that give a nod to the original but are not as authentic as the real thing. In fact, some would say they’re potentially even better.
We’d argue the fresh, high-quality produce and quality meats available in Australia bring out the best in Asian dishes.
It’s fair to say that oysters are an acquired taste, but for those with a penchant for the salty mollusks, Australia produces some of the best in the world.
You’ll find two main species in Aussie waters: rock oysters and Pacific.
As bivalves, oysters filter the water around them and their location dictates their flavor.
The pristine waters along Australia’s coastline provide the perfect conditions for oysters, and they rarely need any accompaniment.
There’s nothing quite like eating these slippery snacks straight off the rocks – export just doesn’t do them justice.
The origins of this meringue-based dessert are hotly contested.
Recent research suggests that the Pav didn’t come from the antipodes at all, but nevertheless it remains a firm favorite.
Meringue, cream and plenty of fruit are the key ingredients, though there are no hard and fast rules about what has to be included.
Expats living in tropical climes often bemoan how challenging it is to get a decent meringue, given humid weather can turn it soft and sticky, so Pavlova is a rare treat.
Q: Quandong and quince
Both the native quandong and the foreign quince lend themselves to some of our favorite condiments and desserts.
Similar to a wild peach, the quandong is incredibly versatile and nutritious and can be made into juice, jam, filling for pies or eaten raw.
The quince is a relative of the apple and pear, and while several varieties are grown commercially in Australia the fruit is best known as the star in Maggie Beer’s quince paste – the only way to eat soft cheese.
Bundaberg Rum, to be more specific. Or just Bundy, as it’s known to locals.
This Australian beverage was created way back in 1888 to deal with an oversupply of molasses in Queensland’s sugarcane region.
Producers believe that it’s the sugar, grown in volcanic soil, that gives Bundy its distinct, rich flavor.
The distillery produces 60,000 bottles a day and the factory was the subject of a National Geographic documentary in 2013.
To say this drop has cult status would be an understatement.
There are so many foods starting with S – smashed avocado, SAO biscuits, sausages – that could represent the land down under.
But Australia’s best produce comes from the sea and expats fondly reminisce about mornings spent at the fish markets picking up the catch of the day before special occasions.
While we’re known to “throw a shrimp on the barbie” there are some creatures that are far more popular.
Barramundi, Balmain or Moreton Bay bugs, abalone, and of course, prawns are just some of the native seafood worth queuing for.
Technically a junk food, Tim Tam biscuits are so famous, so overwhelmingly popular, that they deserve their own spot on this list.
The original Tim Tams are the best: A chocolate-coated sandwich of two malted chocolate biscuits with chocolate cream filling.
Arnott’s, the manufacturers, now export to more than 40 countries around the world, so you can get your fix whether you’re skiing the slopes of Niseko, in Japan, or catching rays on a Tahitian beach.
Uncle Tobys began producing oats way back in 1893. But it wasn’t until the 1970s, when convenience foods started hitting the shelves, that they developed their now famous muesli bars.
The ultimate lunchbox treat or after-school snack, kids had the luxury of choosing not only the flavor, but also the texture.
Many a playground war has been fought over which was best – crunchy or chewy. For the record, we’re firmly in the crunchy camp.
These days the range has grown to include yoghurt and choc-chip toppings. There’s even a lamington flavor.
No round-up of Aussie foods would be complete without this ubiquitous salty brown spread, which turns 100 on October 25.
Twenty million jars of Vegemite are sold each year – that’s one for every Australian citizen.
Now owned by Bega Cheese, there was great joy when the icon returned to Australian ownership several years ago.
No one else quite understands the appeal of our favorite toast topping.
For those living in countries where it’s not yet exported, Vegemite comes in massive 560 gram jars and travel-sized tubes.
While there are similar cereals available around the world, there’s nothing quite like “Australia’s favorite breakfast.”
These small biscuits made from wholegrain wheat are occasionally available in supermarkets overseas, but they generally sell out pretty quickly.
Aussie mums have been known to stock up on them on trips to the motherland.
Best eaten with a little bit of sugar, some chopped banana and a lot of milk, Weet-Bix is promoted as family-friendly health food. But we’d love them even if they weren’t good for us.
Another product of sunny Queensland, XXXX (pronounced four-ex) originated in Victoria in 1878 before moving north, where it is still produced today.
XXXX has endeared itself to Aussies as a great brew and a big supporter of sports and small communities.
It’s not widely available outside of Australia, but if you’re an expat in China or Dubai, you may be able to find it in a bar near you.
Small freshwater crustaceans, yabbies are similar to lobsters – both prized as delicacies.
They’re hardy little creatures, and if you grew up on a farm chances are you spent your summers fishing for yabbies in the local creek.
Yabbies have a lot of meat on them, mostly in the tail and claws, and it tastes sweet and succulent when cooked right.
Expats might find these clawed crustaceans in restaurants, but you’re unlikely to find them in your local supermarket.
The zucchini fritter is yet another delicious byproduct of immigration.
Depending on who you ask, they’re either Turkish and served with yogurt, or Greek, in which case they come with tzatziki.
Either way, olive oil should ooze out when you take a bite.
In some parts of Australia, you can find zucchini fritters at a local takeaway,next to the potato scallops and Chiko Rolls.
These fried pancakes may have more health benefits than your average fried snack, but they are no less delicious.
I was on vacation and hanging out quietly in the hotel room with my friend when, out of nowhere, she screamed “Zoo Pals are back!”
We immediately tried to buy some. But to our misfortune, they were sold out. For days we refreshed the page to see if they were back in stock. Sure enough, I got my Zoo Pals a few weeks later.
I’m almost embarrassed to share that Zoo Pals are paper plates that feature the bright, adorable faces of animals like pigs, turtles, ducks and whales. Each plate has one main section and two subsections for the animal’s ears or feet. In 2014, Hefty, the maker of Zoo Pals, discontinued them.
As a child, Zoo Pals were a game-changer. That meant broccoli didn’t have to, God forbid, touch my chicken nuggets, and theyalso provided a special area for dipping the nuggets in ketchup. And I had an incentive to finish my plate so I could see my Zoo Pal’s face again.
As an adult, I no longer have such needs.But $6.99 was a small price to pay for a walk down memory lane.
Adults are increasingly shelling out for relics of their youth and for items, ranging from flip phones to film cameras to Tamagotchis, that evoke a late 20th-century or turn-of-the century nostalgia. That demand has created a treasure-trove of sales in particular for toys and products, like my Zoo Pals, originally geared to children.
Toy recipients ages 18 and up — also known as “kidults” — represented about 17% of total toy sales in the United States for the 12 months ending in June 2023, according to data consumer research group Circana shared with CNN. That’s up four percentage points from 2021 and up a whopping eight percentage points from 2019.
In total, toy sales for adults increased by $1.7 billion to $6.4 billion from June 2021 to June 2023, according to Circana data.
The trend of adults buying toys for themselves is relatively new, but longing for the glory days of childhood is not. So how come adults lately have been willing to spend so much money on toys to relive the past?
The pandemic drove more people to revisit their youth
Adults started purchasing more toys for themselves after the pandemic began. Covid ushered in heightened levels of anxiety and it caused people to think about dying more, explains Krystine Batcho, a licensed psychologist who teaches at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York.
Both factors are associated with “greater nostalgia,” said Batcho, whose research focuses on the psychology of nostalgia. Batcho created the Nostalgia Inventory, a survey that’s been widely used to assess what makes someone more inclined to feel nostalgic.
For instance, her research and other research she’s studied point to millenials and members of Gen Z being in life stages that are prime for feeling nostalgic. “The transition away from childhood and adolescence to adulthood entails a bittersweet conflict between the desire to grow into independence and the desire for the carefree innocence and security of childhood,” she said.
And, in general, people become more nostalgic during difficult times and in threatening circumstances, Batcho added.
During the pandemic, as people were looking for ways to entertain themselves at home or in small groups they turned to social media for ideas, Juli Lennett, Circana’s toy industry advisor, told CNN. That helped fuel an increase in purchases for games, puzzles, collectibles, trading cards, building sets and more, she said.
“Consumers found like-minded toy consumers and tribes formed around certain toy categories and brands. It continues to this day,” Lennett said.
In 2021, Lego launched an entire product line designed for adults that can be found under the “Adults Welcome” section of its site. “In a world of distractions, LEGO Sets for Adults offer a focused, hands-on, mindful activity. A creative recharge. A zone of zen. A place to find your flow,” a post on Lego’s site states.
Mattel Inc.’s American Girl doll line has also seen an influx of purchases made by kidults over the past few years, “and it continues to grow in popularity,” Jamie Cygielman, the president of American Girl, told CNN.
That started to take off in 2021 when American Girl re-released six of the original dolls the company had produced to celebrate its 35th anniversary. The dolls, priced at $150, began to sell out the first day they were listed online, said Cygielman. More than half of those purchases “were women purchasing for themselves, not for a child,” she said based on a subsequent survey American Girl conducted.
“So we started really leaning into it a bit more,” she said. That meant re-releasing more dolls and doll outfits adults grew up with as well as adding more alcoholic beverages and food items that appeal to adults to its in-store café menus.
“Any given day as you walk into our café, you’ll see tables of young adults with not a child in sight,” said Cygielman. Many of them come there to celebrate birthdays and bachelorette parties, often with their dolls sitting in clip-on chairs beside them.
Most recently, American Girl re-released two doll outfits that were originally sold in 1999.
TikTokers and Instagramers had a field day seeing those and rushed to post about it.
Since American Girl creates individual stories featuring historical eras like the Colonial period or World War II to complement the dolls they sell, users on social media started posting things like, “We need an American Girl doll who went to college in 2016.”
The TikTok account that posted that request, @inbloombyemily, received nearly 200,000 likes on her video where she described the doll’s story and curated outfits and accessories which included a Svedka bottle of strawberry lemonade vodka.
American Girl hasn’t seized the opportunity to actually make most of the dolls the memes capture, said Cygielman.
“It’s a sincere form of flattery, but we don’t necessarily want to author it ourselves,” she said. “We’re still laser-focused on our core customer, which is that young girl and her caregiver gift giver.”
As for the kidult trend, there are some signs that it could slow, Lennett said.
“As consumers have less money in their wallets due to macroeconomic conditions, they are spending less on discretionary categories like toys,” she said. “If the conditions continue, we can expect a pullback in toy spending for adults.”
But Batcho, the psychologist, notes that nostalgia can be healthy in hard times.
“Nostalgic memories remind people of better times and can encourage them to seek solutions and move toward a more optimistic future,” she said. “Nostalgia has also been found to increase a sense of meaning and purpose in life. By strengthening social connectedness and feelings of belonging, nostalgia counteracts loneliness.”
Even though the darkest days of the pandemic are, for the most part, in the rearview mirror there’s still “a nostalgic longing for the security and stability of pre-pandemic life,” Batcho said.
Rite Aid, which had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, is now preparing to shed almost 100stores nationwide as part of its restructuring efforts.
The first tranche of stores to be sold — both leased and owned — is located in nine states, according to A&G Real Estate Partners, which is advising the drug store chain on its real estate portfolio. The states include California (17 stores), Maryland (4), Michigan (16), New Jersey (8), New York (17), Ohio (4), Oregon (2), Pennsylvania (17), New Hamphire (2) and Washington (10), Alabama (1), Idaho (1).
The writing has been on the wall for some time for Rite Aid, the third-biggest standalone pharmacy chain in the US, as the entire drug store retail sector struggles to compete with Amazon and big-box chains like Walmart, Target and Costco moving deeper into the space and offering more customer-friendly alternatives to the nationwide pharmacy chains.
Compounding its problems were legal troubles stemming from accusations of filing unlawful opioid prescriptions for customers.
Rite Aid is in much worse financial shape than its competitors. Over the past six years, Rite Aid has tallied nearly $3 billion in losses.
While it has secured $3.5 billion in financing and debt reduction agreements from lenders to keep the company afloat through its bankruptcy, Rite Aid said it would accelerate store closures and sell off some of its businesses, including prescription benefit provider Elixir Solutions. Bankruptcy could also help resolve the company’s legal disputes at a vastly reduced cost.
As it reevaluates its portfolio of stores, these are the Rite Aid locations that are currently up for sale:
SEC Alabama Ave. & Pike St. in Monroeville, Alabama
920 East Valley Blvd in Alhambra, California
571 Bellevue Road in Atwater, California
3029 Harbor Blvd. in Costa Mesa, California
139 North Grand Ave. in Covina, California
20572 Homestead Road in Cupertino, California
24829 Del Pradoin Dana Point, California
7859 Firestone Blvd. in Downey, California
8509 Irvine Center Drive in Irvine, California
15800 Imperial Hwy. in La Mirada, California
30222 Crown Valley Pkwy. in Laguna Niguel, California
4046 South Centinela Ave. in Los Angeles, California
499 Alvarado St. in Monterey, California
1670 Main St. in Ramona, California
1309 Fulton Ave. in Sacramento, California
901 Soquel Ave. in Santa Cruz, California
19701 Yorba Linda Blvd. in Yorba Linda, California
25906 Newport Road in Menifee, California
1600 North Main St. in Meridian, Idaho
5808 Ritchie Hwy. in Baltimore, Maryland
5 Bel Air South Pkwy. in Bel Air, Maryland
728 East Pulaski Hwy. in Elkton, Maryland
7501 Ritchie Hwy. In Glen Burnie, Maryland
35250 South Gratiot Ave. in Clinton Township, Michigan
36485 Garfield Road. in Clinton Township, Michigan
1900 East 8 Mile Road. in Detroit, Michigan
25922 Middlebelt Road. in Farmington Hills, Michigan
924 West Main St. in Fremont, Michigan
715 South Clinton St. in Grand Ledge, Michigan
3100 East Michigan Ave. in Jackson, Michigan
15250 24 Mile Road in Macomb, Michigan
1243 U.S. 31 South in Manistee, Michigan
15181 Telegraph Road in Redford, Michigan
320 N Main St. in Redford, Michigan
51037 Van Dyke Ave. in Shelby Township, Michigan
109 North Whittemore St. in St. Johns, Michigan
102 North Centerville Road in Sturgis, Michigan
9155 Telegraph Road in Taylor, Michigan
47300 Pontiac Trail in Wixom, Michigan
205-209 Main St. in Berlin, New Hampshire
Grove St. and Route 101 in Peterborough, New Hampshire
37 Juliustown Road in Browns Mills, New Jersey
1426 Mount Ephraim Ave. in Camden, New Jersey
1636 Route 38, Suite 49 in Lumberton, New Jersey
210 Bridgeton Pike in Mantua, New Jersey
108 Swedesboro Road in Mullica Hill, New Jersey
Route 33 and Robbinsville- Edinburg Road in Robbinsville, New Jersey
773 Hamilton St. in Somerset, New Jersey
1434 South Black Horse Pike in Williamstown, New Jersey
836 Sunrise Hwy. in Bay Shore, New York
452 Main St. in Buffalo, New York
15 Arnold St. in Buffalo, New York
901 Merrick Road in Copiague, New York
577 Larkfield Road in East Northport, New York
2 Whitney Ave. in Floral Park, New York
115-10 Merrick Blvd. in Jamaica, New York
2453 Elmwood Ave. in Kenmore, New York
3131 Hempstead Turnpike in Levittown, New York
700-43 Patchogue-Yaphank in Medford, New York
4188 Broadway in New York, New York
195 8th Ave. in New York, New York
1033 St. Nicholas Ave. in New York, New York
593 Old Town Road in Port Jefferson, New York
101 Main St. in Sayville, New York
65 Route 111 in Smithtown, New York
397 Sunrise Hwy. in West Patchogue, New York
120 South Main St. in New Carlisle, Ohio
Euclid & Strathmore in East Cleveland, Ohio
1204 Gettysburg Ave. in Dayton, Ohio
2323 Broadview Road in Cleveland, Ohio
981 Medford Center in Medford, Oregon
4346 N.E. Cully Blvd. in Portland, Oregon
2722 West 9th St. in Chester, Pennsylvania
5990 University Blvd. in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania
1709 Liberty Ave. in Erie, Pennsylvania
6090 Route 30 in Greensburg, Pennsylvania
301 Eisenhower Drive in Hanover, Pennsylvania
1730 Wilmington Road in New Castle, Pennsylvania
700 Stevenson Blvd. in New Kensington, Pennsylvania
350 Main St. in Pennsburg, Pennsylvania
5612 North 5th St. in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
2401 East Venango St. in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Rite Aid filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Sunday, a casualty of a miserable environment for drug stores, exacerbated by its runner-up status to bigger chains and expensive legal battles for allegedly filling unlawful opioid prescriptions.
The bankruptcy was not a surprise. Its bigger rivals, CVS and Walgreens, are also facing many of the same problems. They, too, are closing stores as Amazon and big-box chains like Walmart, Target and Costco serve as more customer-friendly alternatives to nationwide pharmacy chains.
But Rite Aid is in much worse financial shape than its competitors and unable to weather the storm that has been beating down on the industry.On Thursday, it filed a notice to the US Securities and Exchange Commission saying it would be unable to file its latest quarterly financial report because it was looking at “strategic alternatives,” which is Wall Street speak for “considering bankruptcy.”
In that filing, the company said it expected its losses would increase significantly in the past quarter, which is saying something, considering it lost about three quarters of a billion dollars between March 2022 and March 2023 — and another $307 billion between March and May this year. Over the past six years, Rite Aid has tallied nearly $3 billion in losses.
At the beginning of June, the last time the company filed a financial report, Rite Aid had just $135.5 million of cash on hand -— and $3.3 billion in long-term debt, which exceeded the value of the company’s assets by nearly $1 billion. With rising interest rates, that debt wasn’t cheap to finance.
“It was always a matter of when, not if, Rite Aid would file for bankruptcy,” said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, in a note to investors. “The company has been deep in the red for the past six years.”
The company said in a statement it had secured $3.5 billion in financing and debt reduction agreements from lenders to keep the company afloat through its bankruptcy.
It said it would accelerate its pace of store closures and sell off some of its businesses, including prescription benefit provider Elixir Solutions. Bankruptcy could also help resolve the company’s legal disputes at a vastly reduced cost.
As part of the bankruptcy plan, Rite Aid appointed a new CEO, Jeff Stein, who will also serve as the head of restructuring and a board member. Stein, in the statement, said the company plans to remain in business.
“With the support of our lenders, we look forward to strengthening our financial foundation, advancing our transformation initiatives and accelerating the execution of our turnaround strategy,” he said. “In doing so, we will be even better able to deliver the healthcare products and services our customers and their families rely on -— now and into the future.”
Rite Aidhas had an interim CEO since January 2023.
Rite Aid’s losing battle against mounting debt was exacerbated by its legal troubles stemming from accusations of filing unlawful opioid prescriptions for customers.
The Department of Justice filed suit against the company in March, claiming that it knowingly processed “unlawful prescriptions for controlled substances.” That stands in violation of the False Claims Act and Controlled Substances Act. The government accused Rite Aid of missing “obvious red flags” when it filled the prescriptions for addictive pain killers.
When the US Justice Department filed its lawsuit, Attorney General Merrick Garland said the department would use “every tool at our disposal” to hold Rite Aid accountable for contributing to the opioid epidemic.”
Walgreens, CVS and others settled similar lawsuits over the past few years, but they remain in better financial shape and were largely able to weather the tens of billions of dollars owed to various government agencies in settlements.
More than half a million people have died from drug overdoses in the United States between 1999 and 2020, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Rite Aid is a distant third-largest nationwide standalone pharmacy chain in the United States — and the seventh largest pharmacy overall, when taking into account big box chains. It has more than 2,200 stores in 17 states.
It was offered a $17 billion lifeline in 2015 when Walgreens offered to buy the chain. But the deal was met with stiff scrutiny from US regulators who feared the combination would violate federal antitrust laws and reduce competition in the drug store market.
Ultimately, in 2017, the companies agreed to a smaller, $4.4 billion deal, in which Walgreens bought just under 2,000 Rite Aid locations, leaving Rite Aid diminished in stature and unable to compete at the scale of its bigger rivals.
— CNN’s Nathaniel Meyersohn and Juliana Liu contributed to this report
Your dream of buying 400 private jets or some Lamborghini Veneno Roadsters for you and 143 of your closest friends could become reality after Wednesday night’s Powerball drawing.
The winning numbers are 9, 35, 54, 63, 64 and Powerball 1.
The grand prize is worth an estimated $1.2 billion (before taxes, of course). If you hit the jackpot but can’t wait 29 years to collect all your dough, the cash value option is a more modest $551.7 million.
An antitrust lawsuit from 17 states and the Federal Trade Commission this week against Amazon represents the US government’s biggest regulatory challenge yet against the e-commerce juggernaut.
The landmark case targets Amazon’s retail platform, alleging that it’s harmed shoppers and sellers alike on a massive scale.
Through an alleged “self-reinforcing cycle of dominance and harm,” the plaintiffs claim, Amazon has run an illegal monopoly in ways that are “paying off for Amazon, but at great cost to tens of millions of American households and hundreds of thousands of sellers.”
In response, Amazon has argued the case is “wrong on the facts and the law” and warned that a victory for the FTC would lead to slower shipping times or higher prices, including perhaps for Amazon’s Prime subscription service.
The plaintiffs’ central claim is that Amazon has used a variety of tactics to lure shoppers and sellers onto its platform and then to trap them there, preventing other online retailers like Walmart, Target or eBay from attracting those same consumers and vendors to their own sites.
Walmart, Target and eBay are not parties to the suit.
Not only has that lock-in effect hurt competition between the likes of Amazon and Walmart, the lawsuit claims, but it has also given Amazon confidence it can exploit its sellers and shoppers with impunity — allowing the company to extract ever more value from them without fear those people will leave for a rival platform.
The complaint portrays Amazon as offering a kind of Faustian bargain — first enticing sellers with the ability to access tens of millions of potential customers and drawing in shoppers with low prices and numerous Prime benefits, such as Amazon Music and Prime Video, that other e-commerce platforms can’t hope to match.
Then, in the plaintiffs’ narrative, Amazon takes advantage of sellers’ and shoppers’ dependence by increasing platform fees; bloating its search results with advertising that sellers are forced to buy if they want any hope of reaching shoppers; requiring sellers to use Amazon’s in-house fulfillment services if they want the best seller benefits, including the coveted “Prime” badge; and punishing sellers who try to sell their goods elsewhere online at a lower price than on Amazon.
The overall result, the plaintiffs claim, is a worse experience for Amazon users and artificially high prices for everyone, including on non-Amazon platforms.
“There are internet-wide effects here,” FTC Chair Lina Khan told reporters on a conference call Tuesday.
Amazon has responded that the lawsuit “reveals the Commission’s fundamental misunderstanding of retail.” Amazon’s general counsel, David Zapolsky, wrote in a blog post that the company’s pricing programs for sellers are meant to “help them offer competitive prices,” that consumers “love Prime because it’s such a great experience,” and that the claim “that we somehow force sellers to use our optional services is simply not true.”
A big, swirling question is whether Amazon could be broken up as a result of this suit.
Officially, the FTC is saying that talk of a breakup is premature.
“At this stage, the complaint is really focused on the issue of liability,” Khan said at an event hosted by Bloomberg News on Tuesday, hours after the lawsuit was filed.
If the courts find that Amazon did violate the law, then there could be a separate remedies phase to consider potential penalties.
A breakup is not off the table. The plaintiffs’ complaint, filed in Seattle federal court, suggests that any court order to address the issue could include “structural relief,” a legal term referring to a potential breakup of Amazon.
Khan also left open the possibility that Amazon executives could be held personally liable and added to the case if there is sufficient evidence of their responsibility for Amazon’s alleged misconduct.
“We want to make sure that we are bringing cases against the right defendants,” Khan said in response to a question from CNN about whether the FTC considered naming specific executives in Tuesday’s case. “If we think that there is a basis for doing so, we won’t hesitate to do that.”
Those remarks echo what Khan has said elsewhere about her willingness to name individuals in FTC enforcement actions. Just this month, the FTC added three Amazon officials to a separate consumer protection case dealing with Amazon Prime.
An entire section of the complaint is devoted to a mysterious algorithm Amazon has developed named Project Nessie. Virtually every detail surrounding Project Nessie is heavily redacted from the complaint, but what little is revealed about the program suggests it is an “algorithmic tool” and “pricing system” that has allegedly helped Amazon “extract” an undisclosed amount of “excess profit” from Amazon shoppers.
Amazon did not respond to CNN’s questions about Project Nessie. And Project Nessie isn’t the only matter subject to redactions in the lawsuit; black bars obscuring key business numbers, executive testimony and other evidence are strewn throughout the complaint.
In response to public questioning about the redactions, FTC spokesperson Douglas Farrar said in a statement: “We share the frustration that much of the data and quotes by Amazon executives … is redacted,” and that “we do not believe that there are compelling reasons to keep much of this information secret from the public.”
Farrar added that Amazon has a limited procedural window in which to file arguments for why many of the redacted details should remain sealed.
Whether the FTC can prove in court that Amazon’s actions are illegal will hinge, to a large degree, on showing that Amazon has monopolized certain specific markets.
The exercise is not as simple as pointing to Amazon’s sales figures or the percentage of online shopping that happens on Amazon’s platform. Instead, the plaintiffs have to show that Amazon is part of a well-defined geographic and economic market that it dominates.
The complaint tries to define two such markets in the United States: a market the plaintiffs label as “online superstores” — essentially describing large retail websites that offer many different types of goods, with convenient search, checkout and shipping features for consumers — and a seller-focused “online marketplace services” market that grants third-party vendors access to customers, provides them with sales tools like data analytics and listing services, and a review or product ratings system, among other things.
Expect Amazon to try to challenge how the plaintiffs draw their market boundaries. Zapolsky’s blog post argues that the plaintiffs have attempted to “gerrymander” their proposed markets to make it look like Amazon is more dominant than it is.
Whether that argument succeeds will be up to the court, but it is clear the plaintiffs have carefully crafted their market definitions. For example, they claim that in this case, Amazon can’t be said to compete with online grocery delivery services such as FreshDirect or Instacart because of the unique and often hyper-local constraints of shipping perishable goods. The FTC also wants to exclude medium-sized or interest-specific retail sites that don’t offer a wide variety of products. Presumably this might exclude websites belonging to companies like the pet care retailer Chewy, or the electronics seller Best Buy.
FreshDirect, Instacart, Chewy and Best Buy are not parties to the suit.
Excluding those types of companies allows the plaintiffs to make claims such as that “Amazon’s share of the overall value of goods sold by online superstores is well above 60% — and rising.”
Even as the lawsuit takes on some of the most important parts of Amazon’s retail business, there is much that the suit doesn’t cover.
In recent years, critics of Amazon have lobbed a kitchen sink of antitrust allegations at the company, including that it snoops on seller data to figure out what products it should sell under its own brand; that the fact Amazon sells its own products alongside third-party sellers creates an anticompetitive conflict of interest; that Amazon has used predatory pricing to weaken rivals and to ultimately acquire them; and that Amazon wields enormous power in labor markets. Many of these observations were included as part of a 450-page congressional report that Khan helped author while working as a House Judiciary Committee staffer prior to being appointed to the FTC.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has acknowledged in congressional testimony the possibility that employees may have inappropriately accessed seller data in violation of company policy, but Amazon has broadly disputed most of the other allegations.
Virtually none of those claims, however, are reflected in this week’s lawsuit. The complaint does allege that Amazon biases its search results to rank its own products higher than those sold by third parties, but largely as a byproduct of Amazon’s main moves to protect its dominance.
The complaint doesn’t articulate how regulators came to select some allegations and not others.
When a reporter asked Khan to reflect on her past criticism of how narrowly courts have focused on the issue of consumer prices, in contrast to Tuesday’s Amazon suit that mentions the word “price” some 223 times, not including any redacted parts, Khan said her job was to present the case that stood the best chance of winning.
“As enforcers, we want to both follow the facts where they take us and also look at how the law applies to the facts,” Khan said. “You want to bring the strongest case that you can.”
Lottery players have another chance to win big on Monday after the Powerball jackpot grew to a record-breaking $785 million.
The prize became the fourth largest in history after Saturday’s drawing produced no winners matching all six drawn numbers.
White balls 1, 12, 20, 33 and 66 and red Powerball 21 were drawn on Saturday.
The large prize is now surpassed only by previous jackpots over $1 billion, according to the Multi-State Lottery Association.
The largest jackpots were $2.04 billion in November 2022, $1.586 billion in January 2016 and $1.08 billion in July 2023, lottery officials said in a news release.
At least one person from California scored a jackpot-winning ticket in each of those three drawings, according to the release.
While there were no jackpot winners Saturday, the drawing produced more than 1.5 million winning tickets across the United States, including three tickets matching all five white balls to win $1 million, lottery officials said.
There have been 28 consecutive drawings without a grand prize winner since the winning numbers for the $1.08 billion jackpot were drawn on July 19.
The next drawing will take place Monday night. The winner will have the option to take $785 million in payments or cash out for $367 million, both before taxes.
The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million, according to lottery officials.
Dollar General slashed its sales and profit outlook for the year on Thursday, blaming headwinds including weaker consumer spending on non-essential purchases and increasing theft.
Dollar General shares tumbled nearly 17% in pre-market trading Thursday.
The discount store’s challenges are yet another sign of American consumers pulling back on shopping as inflation remains well above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.
“One of the key reasons for this is because Dollar General’s core customers are feeling the acute pressure of the cost-of-living-crisis,” Neil Saunders, retail analyst and managing director at GlobalData, said in a report Thursday.
“This has been exacerbated by cuts in SNAP payments as temporary pandemic benefits came to an end. As a result, lower-income shoppers are cutting back on non-consumable and indulgent purchases from the chain in a bid to save money,” he said. “Unfortunately, this dynamic will not change any time soon as, if anything, finances will tighten over the second half of the year.”
The discount retailer now expects sales for the full year to rise between 1.3% to 3.3%, down from its previous forecast of a 3.5% to 5% increase. It expects full-year earnings to decline 22% to 34% from its previous estimate of a flat-to-8% decrease.
The retailer said its same-store sales (or sales at stores open at least a year) are expected to range from a decline of about 1% to an increase of 1% for the year, compared to its previous expectation of a 1% to 2%. increase.
For its second quarter, Dollar General logged a 1% drop in its same-store sales. It said weaker customer traffic to its stores hurt sales in the period, combined with budget-conscious shoppers pulling back on higher-priced discretionary purchases such as home items and clothing in favor of lower-priced everyday necessities.
In addition, food stamp recipients started to receive about $90 a month less in benefits, on average, starting in March, as a pandemic hunger relief program comes to an end nationwide three years after Congress approved it.
Meanwhile, close on the heels of Dick’s Sporting Goods sounding the alarm on store theft eating into its profit this year, Dollar General also flagged an increase in product theft, among other factors, hurting its profit.
The company said “an increase in expected inventory shrink for the second half of 2023” factored into its lower guidance. Shrink is an industry term encompassing inventory losses caused by external theft, including organized retail crime, employee theft, human errors, vendor fraud, damaged or mismarked items and other losses.
Retailers large and small say they are struggling to contain an escalation in store crimes — from petty shoplifting to organized sprees of large-scale theft that clear entire shelves of products. Target warned earlier this year that it was bracing to lose half a billion dollars because of rising theft. It reported a large number of incidents of shoplifting and organized retail crime in its stores nationwide.
At the same time, it’s not clear that store crime is growing significantly more serious. Within the industry, at least one major player has argued that the problem is being overhyped.
The actor, who stars as Ken in the movie, had Gerwig in the throes of laughter on set while filming the “I’m Just Ken” musical sequence, as seen in new behind-the-scenes footage that was released on Monday.
The video showcases the pair cracking up while watching a playback of Gosling singing about living a life of “blond fragility,” and later bending over in laughter after the cast of Kens dance around the set during the infamous “Beach off.”
In another clip, Gerwig hilariously throws her hands to her mouth after watching Gosling furiously rip off his coat, and even Simu Liu, who also plays Ken, is seen losing it alongside Gosling during the 1950’s dance sequence.
And as if Gosling’s commitment to nailing this role wasn’t clear enough, the triple-threat’s talent is reinforced when he’s seen fully nailing his dance moves in bonus footage of him performing parts of the musical number during various rehearsals.
Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash is also seen recording his guitar part for the song, and producers Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt are showcased working their magic in the studio as the cast of Kens sing with passion while recording their backup vocals.
“Barbie” premiered in theaters last month and has seen massive box office success. The movie has grossed over $1 billion globally, making Gerwig the first solo female director with a billion-dollar movie.
The “I’m Just Ken” sequence in the film illustrates Ken’s frustration with the dynamic between himself and Margot Robbie’s Barbie. The pair are best friends, but Ken’s feelings for Barbie go beyond that.
“I’m just Ken. Where I see love she sees a friend,” he sings. “What will it take for her to see the man behind the tan, and fight for me?”
It’s clear though that Gosling is so much more than just Ken, and he’s Kenough.
TikTok is officially kicking off its US e-commerce efforts with the launch of TikTok Shop.
The short-form video platform launched an in-app shopping experience in the United States on Tuesday, according to a company blog post, after months of testing. TikTok Shop allows users to find and directly purchase products used in live videos, tagged in content shown on their algorithm-driven For You page, pinned on brand profiles or marketed in a new “Shop” tab.
For creators, the feature could bring new streams of income by connecting them with brands for commission-based marketing partnerships. TikTok is also offering “Fulfilled by TikTok,” a program that handles all of the logistics for sellers, including storing, packing and shipping.
“With community-driven trends like #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt inspiring people to discover and share the products they love, TikTok is creating a new shopping culture,” the company wrote. “With TikTok Shop, we’re giving people a place to experience the joy of discovering and purchasing new products without leaving the app.”
TikTok is looking to quadruple its merchandise sales by the end of the year to hit $20 billion, according to Bloomberg.
The app’s push into live e-commerce comes as other platforms have struggled with online shopping initiatives.
Meta-owned Instagram killed livestream product tagging and shopping in March andgot rid of the shopping tab on the app’s navigation bar. Facebook also axed live shopping in October. Meanwhile,YouTube partnered with Shopify in 2022 to help creators sell products.
Amazon has been offering Amazon Live since 2019, a streaming hub that sells items through live videos. Amazon Storefront, launched in 2018, also allows creators to build pages that bring together content and product recommendations to sell to followers, for a commission.
TikTok Shop is already available throughout parts of Asia and the United Kingdom. Southeast Asia, a region with a collective population of 630 million – half of them under 30 – is one of TikTok’s biggest markets in terms of user numbers, generating more than 325 million visitors to the app every month, according to Reuters.
But the platform has yet to translate its large user base into a major e-commerce revenue source in the region as it faces fierce competition from bigger rivals of Sea’s Shopee, Alibaba’s Lazada and GoTo’s Tokopedia.
E-commerce transactions across the region reached nearly $100 billion last year, with Indonesia alone accounting for $52 billion, according to data from consultancy Momentum Works.
TikTok facilitated $4.4 billion of transactions across Southeast Asia last year, up from $600 million in 2021, but it still trailed far behind Shopee’s $48 billion of regional merchandise sales in 2022, Momentum Works told Reuters in June.
Cracking the United States has proven even harder. TikTok Shop, as launched Tuesday, has been in testing since November.
The platform has previously backed down from efforts to push e-commerce. TikTok piloted a shopping experience in partnership with Shopify in 2021 that did not stick, and reports circulated in 2022 that TikTok was giving up altogether on live shopping in the United States and Europe after struggling to connect with consumers.
The move to once again revitalize e-retail efforts in the United States comes as the app faces increasing scrutiny from lawmakers. Some critics and a growing number of US lawmakers on both sides of the aisle view TikTok as a national security threat, since it is owned by China-based company ByteDance. Some US officials have expressed fears that the Chinese government could spy on US data via TikTok, though there is so far no evidence that the Chinese government has ever accessed personal information of US-based TikTok users.
The US government and 17 states are suing Amazon in a landmark monopoly case reflecting years of allegations that the e-commerce giant abused its economic dominance and harmed fair competition.
The groundbreaking lawsuit by the Federal Trade Commission and 17 attorneys general marks the US government’s sharpest attack yet against Amazon, a company that started off selling books on the internet but has since become known as “the everything store,” expanding into selling a vast range of consumer products, creating a globe-spanning logistics network and becoming a powerhouse in other technologies such as cloud computing.
The complaint alleges Amazon unfairly promotes its own platform and services at the expense of third-party sellers who rely on the company’s e-commerce marketplace for distribution.
For example, according to the FTC, Amazon has harmed competition by requiring sellers on its platform to purchase Amazon’s in-house logistics services in order to secure the best seller benefits, referred to as “Prime” eligibility. It also claims the company anticompetitively forces sellers to list their products on Amazon at the lowest prices anywhere on the web, instead of allowing sellers to offer their products at competing marketplaces for a lower price.
That practice is already the subject of a separate lawsuit targeting Amazon filed by California’s attorney general last year.
Because of Amazon’s dominance in e-commerce, sellers have little option but to accept Amazon’s terms, the FTC alleges, resulting in higher prices for consumers and a worse consumer experience. Amazon also ranks its own products in marketplace search results higher than those sold by third parties, the FTC said.
Amazon is “squarely focused on preventing anyone else from gaining that same critical mass of customers,” FTC Chair Lina Khan told reporters Tuesday. “This complaint reflects the cutting edge and best thinking on how competition occurs in digital markets and, similarly, the tactics that Amazon has used to suffocate rivals, deprive them of oxygen, and really leave a stunted landscape in its wake.”
The states involved in the case are Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin.
The complaint was filed in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington, and seeks a court order blocking Amazon from engaging in the allegedly anticompetitive behavior. Khan declined to say Tuesday whether the agency will be seeking a breakup of the company, saying the case is currently focused on proving Amazon’s liability under federal antitrust law.
The suit makes Amazon the third tech giant after Google and Meta to be hit with sweeping US government allegations that the company spent years violating federal antitrust laws, reflecting policymakers’ growing worldwide hostility toward Big Tech that intensified after 2016. The litigation could take years to play out. But just as Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his spectacular wealth have inspired critics to draw comparisons to America’s Gilded Age, so may the FTC lawsuit come to symbolize a modern repeat of the antitrust crackdown of the early 20th century.
In a release, Khan accused Amazon of using “punitive and coercive tactics” to preserve an illegal monopoly.
“Amazon is now exploiting its monopoly power to enrich itself while raising prices and degrading service for the tens of millions of American families who shop on its platform and the hundreds of thousands of businesses that rely on Amazon to reach them,” Khan said. “Today’s lawsuit seeks to hold Amazon to account for these monopolistic practices and restore the lost promise of free and fair competition.”
“Today’s suit makes clear the FTC’s focus has radically departed from its mission of protecting consumers and competition. The practices the FTC is challenging have helped to spur competition and innovation across the retail industry, and have produced greater selection, lower prices, and faster delivery speeds for Amazon customers and greater opportunity for the many businesses that sell in Amazon’s store,”said David Zapolsky, Amazon’s Senior Vice President of Global Public policy and General Counsel. “If the FTC gets its way, the result would be fewer products to choose from, higher prices, slower deliveries for consumers, and reduced options for small businesses—the opposite of what antitrust law is designed to do. The lawsuit filed by the FTC today is wrong on the facts and the law, and we look forward to making that case in court.”
For years, Amazon’s critics including US lawmakers, European regulators, third-party sellers, consumer advocacy groups and more have accused the company of everything from mistreating its workers to forcing its third-party sellers to accept anticompetitive terms. Amazon has unfairly used sellers’ own commercial data against them, opponents have said, so it can figure out what products Amazon should sell itself. And the fact that Amazon competes with sellers on the very same marketplace it controls represents a conflict of interest that should be considered illegal, many of Amazon’s critics have said.
The lawsuit represents a watershed moment in Khan’s career. She is widely credited with kickstarting antitrust scrutiny of Amazon in the United States with a seminal law paper in 2017. She later helped lead a congressional investigation into the tech industry’s alleged competition abuses, detailing in a 450-page report how Amazon — as well as Apple, Google and Meta — enjoy “monopoly power” and that there is “significant evidence” to show that the companies’ anticompetitive conduct has hindered innovation, reduced consumer choice and weakened democracy.
The investigation led to a raft of legislative proposals aimed at reining in the companies, but the most significant ones have stalled under a barrage of industry lobbying and decisions by congressional leaders not to bring the bills up for a final vote.
Lawmakers’ inaction has left it to antitrust enforcers to police the tech industry’s alleged harms to competition. In 2021, President Joe Biden stunned many in Washington when he tapped Khan not only to serve on the FTC but to lead the agency, sending a signal that he supported tough antitrust oversight.
Since then Khan has taken an aggressive enforcement posture, particularly toward the tech industry. Under her watch, the FTC has sued to block numerous tech acquisitions, most notably Microsoft’s $69 billion deal to acquire video game publisher Activision Blizzard. It has moved to restrict how companies may collect and use consumers’ personal information, and warned them of the risks of generative artificial intelligence.
Throughout, the FTC has scrutinized Amazon — suing the company in June for allegedly tricking millions of consumers into signing up for Amazon Prime and reaching multimillion-dollar settlements in May with the company over alleged privacy violations linked to Amazon’s smart home devices.
But the latest suit against Amazon may rank as the most significant of all, because it drives at the heart of Amazon’s e-commerce business and focuses on some of the most persistent criticisms of the company. In a sign of how threatening Amazon perceived Khan’s ascent to be, the company in 2021 called for her recusal from all cases involving the tech giant.
Khan has resisted those calls. On Tuesday, the FTC said it held a unanimous 3-0 vote authorizing the lawsuit; Khan was among those voting to proceed.
Indonesia has banned e-commerce transactions on social media platforms, the trade minister said on Wednesday, in a blow to short video app TikTok, which is doubling down on Southeast Asia’s biggest economy to boost its e-commerce business.
The government said the move, which takes effect immediately, is aimed at protecting offline merchants and marketplaces, adding that predatory pricing on social media platforms is threatening small and medium-sized enterprises.
The move comes just three months after TikTok pledged to invest billion of dollars in Southeast Asia, mainly in Indonesia, over the next few years in a major push to build its e-commerce platform TikTok Shop.
TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, has 125 million active monthly users in Indonesia and has been looking to translate the large user base into a major e-commerce revenue source.
A TikTok Indonesia spokesperson said it would pursue a constructive path forward and was “deeply concerned” with the announcement, “particularly how it would impact the livelihoods of the 6 million” local sellers active on TikTok Shop.
Indonesia Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan on Wednesday told reporters that the regulation is intended to ensure “fair and just” business competition, adding that it was also intended to ensure data protection of users.
He warned of letting social media become an e-commerce platform, shop and bank all at the same time.
The new regulation also requires e-commerce platforms in Indonesia to set a minimum price of $100 for certain items that are directly purchased from abroad, according to the regulation document reviewed by Reuters, and that all products offered should meet local standards.
Zulkifli said TikTok had one week to comply with the regulation or face the threat of closure. Indonesia Deputy Trade Minister Jerry Sambuaga earlier this month named TikTok’s live streaming features as an example of people selling goods on social media.
Research firm BMI said TikTok would be the only business affected by the transaction ban and the move was unlikely to harm the digital marketplace industry’s growth.
Indonesia’s e-commerce market is dominated by the likes of homegrown tech firm GoTo’s Tokopedia, Sea’s Shopee and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba’s Lazada.
E-commerce transactions in Indonesia amounted to nearly $52 billion last year and of that, 5% took place on TikTok, according to data from consultancy Momentum Works.
Indonesia is among the few markets where TikTok has launched TikTok Shop, as it seeks to leverage its large user base in the country.
Its 125 million active monthly users in Indonesia is almost on par with its user figures for Europe and behind US users of more than 150 million. TikTok launched an online shopping service in the United States earlier this month.
Reactions from retailers were mixed.
Fahmi Ridho, a vendor selling clothes on TikTok, said the platform was a way for stores to recover from the blow dealt by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Sales don’t have to be necessarily through [brick and mortar] shops, you can do it online or wherever,” he said “Everything will still have a portion.”
But Edri, who goes by one name only and sells clothes at a major wholesale market in Jakarta, agreed with the regulation and stressed that there should be limits on items sold online.
The Mega Millions jackpot stands at $940 million for Friday night’s drawing, which would be the fifth-largest jackpot in the game’s history if one person matches all six numbers.
The prize would be $472.5 million if the winner chooses the lump-sum payout option.
No tickets matched all six numbers in the last drawing on Tuesday, according to the Mega Millions website.
Friday’s drawing, scheduled for 11 p.m. ET, will be the 29th since the jackpot was last won in New York on April 18.
If there’s a grand prize winner Friday, it would be the fifth largest jackpot in Mega Millions history, behind a ticket sold in Michigan that won $1.05 billion in 2021, according to Mega Millions.
The top Mega Millions jackpot to date was a record $1.537 billion prize won in South Carolina in 2018. It’s followed by a $1.348 billion ticket that was sold in Maine in January, and a $1.337 billion prize a year ago this month.
The Mega Millions drawing for the massive prize comes about a week after a Powerball ticket sold at a convenience store in Los Angeles matched all numbers to win a $1.08 billion prize – the third-largest Powerball jackpot.
Days after a Powerball ticket won just north of a billion dollars, the Mega Millions lottery closes in on a similar grand prize after no tickets won the jackpot in Friday’s drawing.
The numbers drawn were 29-40-47-50-57 and the Mega Ball was 25.
Eight tickets matched the first five numbers, each claiming a $1 million prize, according to Mega Millions. The tickets were sold in California, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina and New Jersey.
The next drawing on Tuesday will feature an estimated $820 million jackpot, the lottery said, with a lump-sum cash option available of $422 million for a winning ticket.
This marks the fifth-largest Mega Millions lottery run in its history, with the jackpot exceeding $1 billion on four previous occasions – most recently, a $1.348 billion ticket was sold in Maine in January. A record $1.537 billion Mega Millions jackpot was won in South Carolina in 2018.
The odds of claiming the big prize are certainly long – around 1 in 302.5 million. But residents in 45 states, the District of Columbia and the US Virgin Islands can give it another chance before Tuesday’s drawing at 11 p.m. ET.
A ticket sold in California has won the $1.08 billion Powerball jackpot in Wednesday night’s drawing – among the largest in the game’s history, according to Powerball’s website.
The winning numbers were 7, 13, 10, 24, 11 and the Powerball was 24.
The lucky ticket holder will have the choice between an annuitized prize of $1.08 billion or a lump sum payment of $558.1 million, both before taxes, according to Powerball.
The ticket was sold at Las Palmitas Mini Market in downtown Los Angeles, according to the California Lottery.
Wednesday’s prize ranks as the seventh largest US lottery jackpot and third largest Powerball jackpot, behind the world record $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot won last year in California, and the $1.586 billion Powerball jackpot won in 2016, according to the lottery.
Though a single ticket won the jackpot, players are being advised to check their tickets on the chance they won one of the other prizes.
In addition to Wednesday’s big winner, 36 tickets sold across 16 states matched all five white balls to win what in most states will be $1 million prizes, according to a Powerball news release.Seven of those tickets were sold in California,where the prizes will be $448,750, according to California’s lottery site.Non-jackpot prizes in California vary depending on number of winners and ticket sales, and so will differ from fixed prizes shown on Powerball’s site.
The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million, Powerball says on its website.
Before Wednesday’s win, there had been 38 consecutive drawings without a jackpot winner since Powerball’s April 19 drawing, when a ticket in Ohio matched all six numbers to win a grand prize worth $252.6 million.
“Congratulations to our newest Powerball jackpot winner and the California Lottery!” said Drew Svitko, Powerball Product Group Chair and Pennsylvania Lottery Executive Director. “For more than 30 years, Powerball has brought people together to dream big and win big, and in doing so, has raised billions of dollars for good causes supported by lotteries.”
Last year, a lone winning ticket – also in California – won the record $2.04 billion Powerball lottery jackpot. As a result, the owner of the gas station that sold the winning ticket became a millionaire himself.
For those who didn’t become instant millionaires on Wednesday, there may still be hope: the Mega Millions drawing. Friday’s Mega Millions jackpot is worth an estimated $720 million, with a cash value of $369.6 million.
The Powerball jackpot soared to $1 billion for the third time in the game’s history after no ticket matched all six numbers in Monday night’s drawing.
The mammoth grand prize ranks as the seventh largest US lottery jackpot and third largest Powerball jackpot, behind the world record $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot won last year in California, and the $1.586 billion Powerball jackpot won in 2016, according to the lottery.
If a lucky winner nabs the jackpot in the next drawing Wednesday night, they will have the choice between an annuitized prize worth an estimated $1 billion or a lump sum payment estimated at $516.8 million, both before taxes, according to Powerball.
The Powerball jackpot rolled Monday night after no ticket matched all numbers drawn for the estimated $900 million grand prize – white balls 5, 8, 9, 17, 41 and red Powerball 21.
There have been 38 consecutive drawings without a jackpot winner since its April 19 drawing, when a ticket in Ohio matched all six numbers to win a grand prize worth $252.6 million.
While no one scored the grand prize Monday night, five tickets sold in Connecticut, Florida, Kentucky, New York and Pennsylvania matched all five white balls to win $1 million prizes.
Another three tickets, in Arkansas, Georgia and Texas, won $2 million by including the Power Play option for an additional $1 per play, according to Powerball.
The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million, Powerball says on its website.
The Powerball isn’t the only massive lottery prize this week. The Mega Millions jackpot winnings grew to an estimated $640 million after there were no winners Friday, according to its website.
The next Mega Millions drawing will be Tuesday at 11 pm ET.
The name “Barbara Millicent Roberts” may not ring a bell, but say her nickname — Barbie — and people of all ages know her. Created by Mattel in 1959, Barbie doesn’t look a day over 19.
And now she is getting new life in “Barbie” the movie, distributed by CNN’s parent company Warner Bros. Discovery. The movie, out next Friday starring Margot Robbie, allows Barbie to question her own reality. Something consumers have been doing for decades.
“Back in 2014 and 2015, we hit a low and it was a moment to reflect in the context of, ‘Why did Barbie lose relevance?’” said Ricard Dickson, president and chief operating officer of Mattel. “She didn’t reflect the physicality, the look, if you will, of the world around us. And so we then set a course to truly transform the brand with a playbook around reigniting our purpose.”
Mattel was slow to diversify Barbie and friends. As a result, sales at Mattel started to slump in 2014. But during the pandemic Barbie saw a resurgence as parents looked for ways to keep kids busy at home. In the first quarter of this year, Mattel’s sales fell 22% from last year’s first quarter, primarily due to declines in Barbie and Enchantimals dolls and merchandise.
“There’s been a lot of decline in that differentiation and that relevance that keep a brand fresh and top of mind from a purchase perspective. And when that happens, brands go into a place of fatigue,” said Katie Mancini, general manager of Landor & Fitch — a branding, strategy and design agency.
Now Barbie and friends have many different skin tones and shapes. Mattel produces Barbies in wheelchairs and Ken dolls with the skin condition vitiligo.
Mattel hopes the new movie, which was 4 ½ years in the making, will give the brand and Barbie the boost they’re looking for.
That may already be happening. AMC Theatres reports they’ve sold more than 20,000 pre-sale tickets to Barbie and the new movie Oppenheimer. And at HomBom Toys in New York City, ‘movie Barbie’ is sold out.
“I think I had 24,” said Ilene Gayer, owner of HomBom Toys. “They were gone within 48 hours.”
But even a new movie may not be enough to draw up enough nostalgia for Barbie.
“I wouldn’t want my granddaughters to grow up and be like Barbie,” said Patty Steffen from Fort Wayne, Indiana, who played with Barbies as a child. “I don’t know how much she has evolved – does she have a college degree now?”
Carol Spencer is too old to have played with Barbie as a child, but she’s arguably spent more time with Barbie than anyone.
Spencer became a clothing designer for Barbie in 1963. She spent 53 years transforming Barbie’s looks throughout the years.
“I grew to think of her as my muse. I thought of every child who played with a Barbie doll as my child. So let me tell you, I have a big family. And I love it!,” said 90-year-old Spencer, surrounded by Barbies in her Los Angeles home.
Spencer says Barbie was more successful in some years than others and it was often hard to keep up with the times. But she says Barbie has always been a steady brand.
“Barbie really carried Mattel for great many years,” she said.
Spencer was so influential at Mattel the company made a Barbie in her honor. And she still has “Barbie #1” in her dining room. She says plans to see the new movie with her Barbie Club — wearing pink, of course. She’s thrilled to see Barbie break out of Barbie Land and out of her heels, a sign Barbie may be keeping up with the times.
“The new audience is Barbiecore pink. And that introduced a lot of fun and introduced I think people into the world of Barbie that hadn’t been there before,” she said.
A Maryland woman who’d played the same lottery numbers for a year won big after getting some inspiration from a previous winner, she told lottery officials.
The unidentified woman from Forestville, which is about 10 miles east of Washington, DC, won $50,000 in a Pick 5 game, according to the Maryland Lottery.
She’s calling herself “Grateful Winner,” which is what appears on her winning lottery check from the June 23 midday drawing.
The woman said she’d read a Maryland Lottery story about a player “who decided to play one of his Pick 5 number combinations after seeing variations of his numbers drawn,” a news release stated.
Using the technique to her own benefit, the federal government worker said she began seeking out patterns in the Pick 5 winning numbers.
Between June 5 to June 21, the woman saw that the number six was the first Pick 5 digit that was drawn in four games, so she tried an experiment, the Maryland Lottery said in the news release.
Normally, she’d play the numbers 56389, but this time, she switched the first two numbers in the sequence and placed a $1 straight bet at a 7-Eleven in Prince George’s County.
It paid off.
“I just started playing that number last week and I couldn’t believe it,” the winner said in the news release.
She said she found out she’d won while checking her phone during a manicure appointment.
“My eyes started to water, I was shaking and I couldn’t see,” the woman recalled.
The winner said she planned to use the funds to pay off bills.
After nearly 10 years of playing the same lottery number combination, a $50,000 payday has finally arrived for a man in Maryland, lottery officials said.
The winner from Prince George’s County, who remained anonymous, won the big prize on May 28 after playing the Maryland Lottery’s Bonus Match 5 game, according to a news release.
“I play the same numbers all the time, I’ve been doing so for years,” the man told officials from the Maryland Lottery’s headquarters in Baltimore.
He visited a liquor store in Temple Hills and bought a $4 ticket containing six lines – one of which included his usual combination of the numbers 5, 6, 8, 23 and 30, he said.
The winner, who is a retired printing press operator, says he chose four of the lines himself while the computer system randomly generated the remaining two lines.
He learned in disbelief the following day that he’d won the top prize using his special set of five digits, the Maryland Lottery reported.
As a bonus, the anonymous winner also won an additional $15 off of three numbers from another line that he’d selected himself.
He called his wife of 22 years immediately to share the good news, the news release said.
“Many lottery players tell us that they have certain combinations of numbers that they use on a regular basis,” Seth Elkin, a spokesman for Maryland Lottery and Gaming, told CNN in an email.
“Sometimes it’s birthdates or house numbers or uniform numbers of their favorite athletes, and sometimes they’ve just decided certain numbers feel ‘lucky’ to them,” Elkin said.
The winner says he plans to use the prize to pay bills and put the rest into savings.
