ReportWire

Tag: Retail

  • Boston woman does last-minute shopping at T.J. Maxx. Too bad it’s the cashier’s ‘first day on Earth’: ‘He’s probably on his twelfth 10-hour shift’

    Life happens, and sometimes things like buying Christmas presents or last-minute holiday necessities get pushed right up to the wire, even to Christmas Eve.

    Luckily, plenty of stores stay open that day, including Target, Marshall’s, Home Depot, and more. T.J. Maxx is one of them. But when one Boston woman stopped in for some last-minute shopping, she says the checkout experience tested her patience.

    Commenters, however, didn’t fully side with her, with many stepping in to defend the possibly overworked employee.

    What Did The T.J. Maxx Employee Do Wrong?

    In the clip, which got over 10.9 million views, TikTok creator Abigail (@thenewpinkalicious) is standing at the T.J. Maxx checkout. 

    First, she films herself looking pretty impatient and frustrated, then flips the camera around to show the worker.

    The worker, wearing a holiday t-shirt, is holding a T.J. Maxx paper bag, opens it up a bit, then more forcefully opens it again, possibly ripping it, and sets it aside. 

    “Trying to be holly jolly but the TJ Maxx worker is experiencing his first day on earth,” she wrote in the video’s text overlay. 

    In the comments, plenty of viewers pushed back, arguing the frustration was misplaced and that retail workers deserve more grace, especially on Christmas Eve.

    “Yeah let’s humiliate the retail worker on Christmas Eve because we didn’t plan correctly,” one person wrote.

    Another echoed that sentiment, saying, “He’s overworked, underpaid, and dealing with ungrateful and impatient customers.”

    Someone who says they work at the store added, “I work at TJ Maxx. People are genuinely so rude it’s insane. They have no consideration for anything.”

    Others, however, said the situation sounded familiar, with some pointing specifically to their own experiences shopping—or working—at T.J. Maxx.

    “Legit went in a few days ago and the worker stopped to smell every candle I bought,” one person shared.

    Another former employee chimed in, writing, “Used to work at TJ Maxx. There’s something in the air in there that makes your brain absolutely refuse to function.”

    One commenter shared a similar checkout story, adding, “I too experienced a TJ Maxx worker’s first day on Earth. My total was $10.49 so I gave him $20.50 (you know to get a 10 back). He looked at the quarters VERY confused, rang up $20, gave me $9.51 plus my two quarters back.”

    Shoppers Are More Impatient Than Ever

    Research from recent years suggests shoppers value speed more than they ever have.

    According to a 2022 study by Jay Baer, two-thirds of American consumers say speed matters just as much as price. More than half say they’ve hired or chosen the first business to respond, even when it costs more. The study also found that many shoppers are less likely to spend money if a business feels slower than expected. The pandemic, Baer notes, marked a clear shift in consumer patience.

    @thenewpinkalicious

    like what???

    ♬ Sleigh Ride (Sped Up) – The Ronettes

    That trend shows up elsewhere, too. The State of Customer Service 2022 also found that impatience has grown noticeably since COVID-19, as reported by SkyBridgeAmericas. Based on a survey of more than 1,200 U.S. consumers, 39% said they now have less patience than they did before the pandemic.

    Retail and e-commerce data points in the same direction. One report found that 63% of shoppers will abandon an online cart after just two failed purchase attempts, suggesting tolerance for friction is increasingly thin.

    The Mary Sue has reached out to T.J. Maxx and Abigail via email for comments.

    Have a tip we should know? [email protected]

    Image of Ljeonida Mulabazi

    Ljeonida Mulabazi

    Ljeonida is a reporter and writer with a degree in journalism and communications from the University of Tirana in her native Albania. She has a particular interest in all things digital marketing; she considers herself a copywriter, content producer, SEO specialist, and passionate marketer. Ljeonida is based in Tbilisi, Georgia, and her work can also be found at the Daily Dot.

    Ljeonida Mulabazi

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  • ‘We won’t survive’: Small retailers missing out on Boxing Day sales

    Australian shoppers are splashing big cash in the post-Christmas sales, but some small businesses say they are not feeling the love.

    The week between Christmas and New Year is expected to generate $3.83 billion in spending nationally, up 4.4 per cent on last year, according to forecasts by the National Retailers Association.

    Demand is being driven by Boxing Day discounts and the redemption of Christmas gift cards.

    Diana Derek’s Canberra homewares store has been running at a loss since Christmas and she’s worried consumers have overlooked small businesses. (ABC News: Lily Nothling)

    But at Diana Derek’s Canberra homewares store and boutique Hive, sales have plummeted, and she has been running at a loss since Christmas.

    “There’s been a massive drop off … we didn’t plan for that,” Ms Derek said.

    “I assumed that it was just because everyone goes to the coast [after Christmas], but I went into the Canberra Centre and did see a lot of Canberrans shopping.

    “Unfortunately, it does look like they’ve chosen the malls over the little businesses.“

    Crowd of shoppers walking through a shopping centre.

    Canberra Outlet Centre was packed with shoppers searching for a bargain on Boxing Day.  (ABC News: Callum Flinn)

    Her small store is unable to compete with the sweeping discounts offered by large retailers.

    “People just get so overwhelmed with the word sale, [but] it doesn’t mean it’s quality — mainly what we see is quantity,” Ms Derek said.

    The Canberran took over the shop six months ago with the hope of keeping the almost 30-year-old independent business running.

    “You start wondering if you’ve done the right thing,” she said.

    “It would be great if people kept supporting it because we won’t survive and we will get pushed out by the big guys.“

    A woman shopping in a homewares store.

    Ms Derek says if shoppers always overlook small businesses, they will soon disappear. (ABC News: Lily Nothling)

    Sales a double-edged sword

    Canberra Business Chamber chief executive Greg Harford said big sales periods like Black Friday and Boxing Day could be a double-edged sword.

    “[They] can put real pressure on retailers,” Mr Harford said.

    “[There’s] an opportunity there of course, because customers are out looking for bargains, but every discount a retailer offers is money off the bottom line and at the small end of retail in particular, margins are really, really narrow.

    “The reality is for many small retailers, they’re never going to be able to compete with larger chains on sales — they’ll have to compete on service or range or offering.”

    A man wearing a suit and glasses.

    Greg Harford says small retailers can’t match the sales discounts of large outlet chains. (Supplied: Greg Harford)

    While Mr Harford expected this year’s local Boxing Day figures to be stronger than 2024, he said Canberra was grappling with a “two-speed economy”.

    “The best advice for retail customers is get out and support local businesses,” he said.

    “We really do need to support them, otherwise there’s a risk that they will disappear.“

    Making conscious choices

    A woman standing in a bookstore in front of shelves of books.

    Tayanah O’Donnell doesn’t offer Boxing Day or Black Friday sales at her Canberra bookshop. (ABC News: Lily Nothling)

    At Canberra’s oldest independent bookshop, owner Tayanah O’Donnell has resisted the temptation to provide discounts to compete with the major retailers.

    “We don’t offer Black Friday sales or Boxing Day sales or anything like that,”

    she said.

    “Occasionally you have those quiet moments late at night where you think, ‘perhaps we should this year succumb to offering a discount’, but it has been a deliberate choice.

    “We just operate on the basis that people coming into the store will get the best possible book at the best possible price and we really pride ourselves on the experience of people coming into the store taking as long as they need to browse.”

    Rows of bookshelves in a bookstore.

    Paperchain “will never replicate what the bigger stores are doing”, owner Tayanah O’Donnell says.  (ABC News: Lily Nothling)

    While the store is quieter now than during the pre-Christmas rush, the business is still thriving.

    In the face of rabid sales marketing, Ms O’Donnell encouraged shoppers to make conscious choices.

    She said choosing to buy one perfect book was preferable over madly purchasing 10 that may never be read.

    “There is something to be said for a slower, more thoughtful way in which we buy things, consume things, honour those things and pass them on to others,” she said.

    “We’ll never try to replicate what the bigger stores are doing.

    “We stick to our knitting, as my grandma would say.“

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  • ‘You better step away from me’: North Carolina woman walks into Walgreens. Then she catches a customer putting items into a pink Sephora bag

    Being a bystander to shoplifting puts people in a weird, sometimes dangerous, spot. You don’t know if you should say something, ignore it, or just get out of the way entirely.

    And when nothing happens at all, that confusion can quickly turn into frustration.

    That’s exactly what happened to TikToker Denise (@shapedwithstrength) after she stopped by a Walgreens in Cary, North Carolina. What she says she witnessed, and how the store responded, left her stunned.

    What Went Down At This North Carolina Walgreens?

    In her video, Denise explains that she’s doing last-minute shopping when she ends up in the makeup aisle. That’s when she notices another woman lingering close behind her.

    “I’m in the makeup aisle and I see this lady walk behind me,” she says. “And I hear her.”

    At first, Denise assumes there’s a normal explanation. Maybe the store has shopping bags in the beauty section. Maybe she missed something up front. But then she hears items sliding into a tote.

    “I hear her taking something and putting it into a bag,” she says. “I’m thinking, all right, maybe they have bags… but I didn’t really see any pink tote bags up front.”

    Once she turns around, the situation becomes much clearer.

    “She walked a little bit closer to me,” Denise says. “And I’m always aware. I always have my head on a swivel.”

    That’s when she notices what the woman is actually doing.

    “She’s totally just picking whatever she wants in the skincare section and throwing it into her pink tote bag,” Denise says. “Just casually.”

    According to Denise, the woman then walks straight out of the store.

    “She just marches out the door,” she says. “Nothing. Nobody. No one says a word.”

    Meanwhile, Denise is still standing in line, waiting to pay. “I’m standing there like a schmuck waiting to pay for all my crap,” she says.

    That’s when she decides to speak up. “I said, ‘The lady that just left here has a whole bag full of skincare. Do you care?’” she recalls.

    The response shocks her. “We can’t do anything,” she says the employee tells her.

    That answer doesn’t sit well. “Well then I’m just gonna walk out with my crap,” Denise says she responds. “Why don’t you just put everything on the sidewalk and give it away for free?”

    She also asks to speak to a manager. According to Denise, that doesn’t go anywhere either.

    “The manager didn’t even come out of his office,” she says. “They called him on the phone. They knew I was there because I was being loud.”

    By the end of the video, she’s visibly angry. “How do you run a business like that?” she asks. “It makes my blood boil.”

    Does Walgreens Have A No-Chase Policy?

    What Denise experienced lines up with policies that many major retailers follow.

    A “no-chase” policy means employees aren’t allowed to pursue or physically stop someone suspected of shoplifting. The idea is to reduce the risk of violence, since staff have no way of knowing whether someone is armed.

    Walgreens follows this approach as well. In 2024, a Walgreens employee told Business Insider they were reprimanded after chasing a shoplifter out of a store and warned they could lose their job for doing so.

    That policy may explain why no one intervened while Denise watched the woman walk out.

    In the comments, plenty of people say that what Denise saw feels familiar.

    “Same in Nevada, I joke with the manager and ask him ‘why do I continue to pay for my stuff,’” one person wrote.

    @shapedwithstrength BALLS!!! @Walgreens ♬ original sound – Denise ?

    “They pass the cost to honest people, it’s ridiculous,” another said.

    “That’s why everything is locked up,” someone else added.

    One commenter who says they work retail summed it up plainly: “Management tells us we can’t stop them. Happens all the time.”

    The Mary Sue has reached out to Walgreens via email and Denise via TikTok messages for comment.

    Have a tip we should know? [email protected]

    Image of Ljeonida Mulabazi

    Ljeonida Mulabazi

    Ljeonida is a reporter and writer with a degree in journalism and communications from the University of Tirana in her native Albania. She has a particular interest in all things digital marketing; she considers herself a copywriter, content producer, SEO specialist, and passionate marketer. Ljeonida is based in Tbilisi, Georgia, and her work can also be found at the Daily Dot.

    Ljeonida Mulabazi

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  • San Jose bakery seeks public help following attack

    SAN JOSE — Peters’ Bakery, the 90-year-old San Jose institution, is hoping the public can help them identify the person who caused chaos in the shop this December.

    Sierra Lopez

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  • Supercharge Your Retail and CPG AI Strategy in 2026

    As a C-suite advisor working closely with retail and consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands, I am seeing a consistent pattern across the industry. Leaders recognize that AI has the power to transform how they forecast demand, manage supply chains, engage consumers, and operate stores and plants. Yet despite high ambition and extensive experimentation, most organizations are not capturing enterprise level value. Many have multiple pilots running, but few have built the operating systems required to scale AI responsibly and profitably. At the same time, AI capabilities are advancing at a pace that outstrips traditional planning and deployment cycles. To win in 2026, retail and CPG companies must shift from fragmented activity to an integrated, disciplined approach that makes AI a core driver of growth, speed, and resilience.

    This shift starts with process intelligence. Real value emerges only when AI is anchored in an accurate understanding of how work happens across manufacturing, distribution, stores, digital platforms, and consumer interactions. Combined with targeted prioritization, workflow redesign, and continuous iteration, process intelligence becomes the backbone of an AI strategy that consistently delivers measurable outcomes. The following four box framework reflects the highest performing organizations’ practices and provides a clear roadmap for retail and CPG leaders ready to accelerate impact.

    Box one: Map operational truth with process intelligence

    Across retail and CPG operations, work rarely flows as designed. Stores follow multiple replenishment patterns depending on staffing. Plants exhibit microvariations in setup and changeover that suppress throughput. Digital channels contain subtle breaks that increase abandonment and returns. Supply chains absorb friction in ways that leaders cannot easily see. Process intelligence reveals these realities by reconstructing actual workflows, highlighting variation, bottlenecks, and inefficiencies.

    This visibility is essential because the companies capturing the greatest AI returns are those that redesign workflows during deployment. They cannot redesign without understanding the truth. Process intelligence shows precisely where AI should intervene and what must change for AI to succeed. Examples include identifying that most out-of-stocks originate from backroom accuracy issues rather than forecasting, discovering that promotional execution varies significantly by retail partner, or uncovering that production delays stem from a pattern of short stoppages overlooked in manual reporting.

    With this fact base, leaders can move beyond assumptions and direct AI investment toward the highest leverage points.

    Box two: Prioritize AI where margin, growth, and friction collide

    The most common mistake retail and CPG leaders make is spreading AI efforts too thin. High performers take the opposite approach. They identify where AI can most meaningfully shape margins, growth, and consumer experience, then channel resources into those opportunities. A structured intake and evaluation model ensures that the best ideas rise to the top based on economic potential and feasibility, rather than enthusiasm alone.

    For retailers, high value opportunities often include demand forecasting, allocation, replenishment, labor optimization, personalization, and service automation. For CPG companies, predictive maintenance, inventory planning, trade optimization, supply chain synchronization, and accelerated insights generation offer the strongest returns.

    A disciplined prioritization framework evaluates impact. It also evaluates feasibility and data readiness, in addition to reuse potential. This prevents wasted energy and ensures AI is deployed where it can reshape performance. Examples include targeting AI toward rework loops in retail contact centers, applying machine learning to optimize trade spend effectiveness, or using predictive models to reduce factory downtime. This focus ensures that AI investments meaningfully influence financial and competitive outcomes.

    Box three: Redesign workflows to embed AI, not sit alongside it

    AI only creates lasting value when it is woven into the flow of work. Retail and CPG companies must redesign processes so AI informs or automates key decisions and employees know how to collaborate with these systems. Workflow redesign transforms AI from a tool into a capability.

    In retail, this might include closed loop replenishment systems that link shelf scanning, automated ordering, and dynamic labor scheduling. In customer experience, AI might be embedded directly into omnichannel journeys to improve guidance. It could be used to reduce returns and accelerate resolution. In CPG operations, predictive quality and yield models may be integrated into line operations, while agent-based systems support procurement, logistics, and planning teams.

    Workflow redesign also requires data consistency, clear decision rights, and ongoing human oversight. Employees must understand how to supervise AI and refine its outputs. When workflows are redesigned, AI drives speed, accuracy, and consistency while unlocking new capacity for higher value work.

    Box four: Build continuous governance, measurement, and iteration

    Retail and CPG operate in highly dynamic environments shaped by promotions, seasonality, supply volatility, and shifting consumer sentiment. AI systems must be equally dynamic. Continuous evaluation and strong governance are needed, while rapidly iterating to ensure that AI remains accurate and effective.

    Leaders must establish governance structures that clarify decision rights, protect data, and accelerate approvals. They must define clear performance indicators such as grounding accuracy, reliability, response time, cost efficiency, and business impact. AI systems should be monitored continuously to detect drift and unexpected behavior. They also monitor performance degradation.

    Iteration closes the loop. Retailers may retrain demand models weekly to capture new patterns, refine pricing recommendations when overrides reveal model gaps, or adjust customer service workflows based on real world usage. CPG brands may refine predictive maintenance models based on emerging line performance or recalibrate trade algorithms based on retailer specific dynamics.

    2026 and beyond

    In my role, I see unmistakable momentum paired with equally significant risk. AI is poised to redefine the future of both sectors, yet only the organizations that establish the operating systems required for scale will capture its full value. Process intelligence provides the clarity needed to understand how work truly happens. Rigorous prioritization ensures that investment flows to the opportunities with the greatest strategic return. Workflow redesign creates the structural conditions for AI to operate effectively in that workflow. Continuous iteration enables systems and teams to adapt as markets and operations evolve. Together, these capabilities form a disciplined, enterprise ready AI strategy capable of delivering durable competitive advantage.

    Go inside one interesting founder-led company each day to find out how its strategy works, and what risk factors it faces. Sign up for 1 Smart Business Story from Inc. on Beehiiv.

    Charisma Glassman

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  • One Bay Area city tried an innovative program to deal with its abandoned shopping cart problem. Here’s what happened.

    Earlier this year, San Jose politicians announced they were targeting the thousands of abandoned shopping carts clogging creeks and blighting streets. Now the first data on a pilot program aimed at curbing the problem is in, and the city must decide whether the results justify the financial cost of expanding it.

    Devan Patel

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  • Nike CEO Elliot Hill’s Turnaround Plan Hits a Roadblock In China

    Elliot Hill took over as Nike’s CEO in October 2024. Photo by Tom Hauck/Getty Images

    Elliott Hill, a longtime Nike executive, came out of retirement last year to take the helm of the footwear giant. So far, his turnaround plan is showing progress—at least in most markets. Even as the company posts solid global results, its grip on China continues to weaken.

    Hill’s renewed focus on product innovation and a return to Nike’s sporting roots helped the company beat Wall Street expectations on both revenue and profit for the second quarter of fiscal 2026. Total sales reached $12.4 billion for the September-November period, up 1 percent year over year, though net income fell 32 percent to $800 million.

    Still, Nike’s stock sank more than 10 percent on Dec. 19 as investors zeroed in on persistent weakness in China. Sales in the region dropped 17 percent to $1.4 billion, marking the sixth consecutive quarter of declining revenue there.

    “We see China as a big opportunity,” said Hill during Nike’s earnings call yesterday (Dec. 18). “With that said, it’s clear that we need to reset our approach.”

    Nike’s once-dominant sneaker business has stumbled in recent years amid an overreliance on lifestyle franchises. The company needed new leadership to regain momentum in specialized sports categories such as running. Hill, who spent more than three decades at Nike before retiring in 2020, was tapped for the role last October.

    Nike’s ‘Win Now’ turnaround plan

    Under a reorganization Hill has dubbed “Win Now,” Nike has reshuffled leadership roles to streamline operations and reduce management layers. The strategy centers on reclaiming authority in sports performance by emphasizing products designed for running, basketball and football, while pulling back from oversaturated lifestyle staples such as the Air Force 1 and Dunk.

    The approach is already delivering gains, particularly in North America, where sales jumped 9 percent in the most recent quarter to $5.6 billion. “I’d say we’re in the middle innings of our comeback,” said Hill.

    China, however, remains a major obstacle. Efforts to roll out “Win Now” initiatives in key cities like Beijing and China—ranging from upgraded in-store presentations to stronger product storytelling—have struggled amid declining foot traffic and elevated levels of aging inventory. “What we’ve done is a start, but it’s not happening at the level or the pace we need to drive wider change,” said Hill.

    Looking ahead, Nike plans to tailor its strategy to China’s increasingly digital-first retail environment. As the company ramps up investment in the region, executives also stressed the need to improve store fleets within China’s “monobrand footprint,” where single-brand stores dominate over third-party retailers.

    At the same time, Nike is balancing market-specific challenges with the effects of tariffs. The company, which manufactures much of its footwear and apparel in Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia and China, has also been forced to absorb costs and raise prices due to levies on imports. Nike is facing a $1.5 billion tariff hit for the year in what Hill described as a “significant headwind.”

    Nike CEO Elliot Hill’s Turnaround Plan Hits a Roadblock In China

    Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly

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  • U.S. Retail Sales Unchanged In October As Auto Sales Tumble

    A report released by the Commerce Department on Tuesday showed retail sales in the U.S. were roughly flat in the month of October.

    The Commerce Department said retail sales were virtually unchanged in October after inching up by a downwardly revised 0.1 percent in September.

    Economists had expected retail sales to rise by 0.2 percent, matching the increase originally reported for the previous month.

    Retail sales came in flat in October as a steep drop in sales by motor vehicle and parts dealers offset strength in other areas.

    The Commerce Department said sales by motor vehicle and parts dealers tumbled by 1.6 percent in October after edging down by 0.1 percent in November.

    However, excluding sales by motor vehicle and parts dealers, retail sales climbed by 0.4 percent in October after inching up by 0.1 percent in September. Ex-auto sales were expected to rise by 0.3 percent.

    “Though headline retail sales were unchanged in October, that was entirely due to a drop in vehicle sales following the expiry of the EV tax credit,” said Michael Pearce, Chief U.S. Economist at Oxford Economics.

    He added, “Excluding autos, sales posted another strong gain and leave real consumption on track for growth of close to 2% annualized in Q4.”

    The report showed a 4.9 percent surge in sales by department stores as well as notable increases in sales by furniture and home furnishings stores, sporting goods, hobby, musical instrument and book stores, non-store retailers and miscellaneous store retailers.

    Core retail sales, which exclude automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services, grew by 0.8 percent in October after slipping by 0.1 percent in September. Economists had expected core retail sales to rise by 0.3 percent.

    For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

    Business News

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  • The Penny Shortage Could Eat Into Your Profit Margin. Meanwhile, Investors Are Spending Millions on Them

    Change is hard. Making change keeps getting harder.

    Owners of restaurants, cafés, and other retail businesses across the U.S. continue battling a worsening shortage of pennies after the Treasury Department stopped producing them on Nov. 12. But as entrepreneurs searched beneath sofa cushions and car mats for any extra one-cent coins they’d previously tossed aside, investors shelled out over $16.7 million for the final 696 pennies ever minted.

    That represents a veritable fortune paid for coins the government doesn’t think are worth producing anymore, since each one costs four times its face value to make. But that willingness by investors to fork out between $48,000 and $800,000 for the last pennies ever minted demonstrates the dramatically clashing fortunes of the nation’s one-cent piece.

    On the one hand, collectors continually increased their bids during a Dec. 11 Stacks & Bowers auction of the 232 lots up for grabs, each containing three of the final coppery portraits of Abe Lincoln ever produced. On the other, the National Restaurant Association (NRA) begged the U.S. Treasury to urgently distribute more of the now condemned pennies to its members and other small businesses, many of whom are now struggling to make change for customers.

    “When operators can’t provide exact change, it creates friction at checkout, frustrating customers,” said NRA president Michelle Korsmo in a letter to the Treasury and Federal Reserve. “In a highly competitive industry, like restaurants, any change to the hospitality our customers expect could mean a lost return sale for an operator.”

    It risks costing even more than that.

    Eager to avoid clashes with diners peeved by penniless business owners rounding up to the nearest nickel, the NRA says its members are instead routinely rounding down. That, Korsmo warned, will cost U.S. restaurants an estimated $13 million to $14 million per month unless they can get their hands on more one-cent coins soon.

    Meanwhile, with the profit margins of U.S. eateries averaging just 3 percent to 5 percent, the NRA said a penny here and a penny there will quickly reduce their monthly proceeds to nothing.

    To avoid that, the organization is calling on the Fed and Treasury to resume distribution of increasingly mothballed one-cent coins, which they stopped doing earlier this year. In addition, the NRA echoed an October appeal by the National Retail Federation (NRF,) which urged federal agencies or Congress to issue formal rules for business owners rounding off in making change without pennies.

    Regulations on how and when to round up or down would not only be valuable in navigating — or indeed preventing — disputes with customers angered at losing a few cents in the process. The NRF also said it would protect companies that do most of their sales in cash from “legal risks simply for implementing necessary practices in response to the nationwide penny shortage.”

    As Inc. previously reported, many small businesses are seeking solutions of their own. Some are appealing to customers to use their spare pennies for purchases, or in swaps for credit toward future buys. Other entrepreneurs are offering free drink refills or other giveaways to people handing over their reserves of one-cent coins.

    But all that is just nickel and diming compared to the money paid for the auctioned lots of the last pennies ever made.

    All 696 of those coins were struck with the Greek letter omega beside Lincoln’s portrait, signifying they were among the last minted in the penny’s 232-year history. And each set of those three, one-cent coins also contained a specially minted 24-carat gold version.

    That extravagance must seem well over the top to small business owners — especially those struggling to scrounge up the modest penny or two they need to send change-stickling customers happily on their way.

    Bruce Crumley

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  • ‘This happened to me last year with Nordstrom’: Ulta customer orders $200 perfume. Then she opens the box

    Opening a beauty package you order online should be a dopamine-filled little treat. When one Ulta customer picked hers up, however, she says the box felt wrong right away.

    What Went Wrong With The Ulta Package?

    TikTok user Jessie (@jessiexlizabeth) shared a video of herself opening an Ulta order in real time after something immediately felt off when she picked it up. The video has since gotten more than 238,100 views.

    “I just got my Ulta package,” she says at the start of the clip. “It’s fully empty. This is supposed to be my $200 perfume.”

    Right away, she explains that she hasn’t opened the box yet and starts recording as proof, saying she’s furious and already preparing for a chargeback if the product isn’t inside.

    As she works to open the shipment, she adds, “There is no way there’s a perfume in here. I am flabbergasted.”

    She uses a screw to pry into the packaging and admits she’s visibly shaking from the stress of it. “Oh, it’s in there,” she says when she first breaks open the box.

    That relief lasts only seconds. Once she sees what’s inside, she realizes what actually happened. “It’s fully opened and taken out of the box,” she says. “Are you kidding me?” she says. “I am losing it.”

    This wasn’t even Jessie’s first issue with the same order. She had previously shared that she originally purchased the perfume as part of a Black Friday deal, but everything else from that order arrived without the fragrance. The second shipment was supposed to correct that mistake.

    Fortunately, there was a resolution. In a follow-up, Jessie shared that Ulta refunded her fully for the missing perfume. She also said she planned to go to a physical store to buy it in person instead.

    Are Delivery Thefts Common?

    There’s no clear national statistic that tracks how often packages get stolen mid-delivery, but reported cases suggest it’s far from rare. In Arizona, one woman who tracked repeated missing shipments eventually learned that a USPS driver had been stealing packages and reselling the items on Depop.

    Across Reddit and Facebook, shoppers have shared similar complaints involving Amazon, eBay, and other retailers.

    The Mary Sue has reached out to Ulta Beauty via email for comment and contacted Jessie through TikTok direct messages.

    Commenters debated where the theft could have happened.

    One person blamed temporary staff, writing, “Seasonal workers, they can’t be trusted.”

    Another shared a precaution they now take, adding, “When I feel that the packages are empty, I go back to the store and open it in front of the associates.”

    Someone else believed it pointed to a larger internal issue, saying, “So this is definitely an internal issue. Ulta warehouse workers are clearly running something. Internal theft is always the biggest problem for loss prevention.”

    @jessiexlizabeth @Ulta Beauty ♬ original sound – Jessie

    Another focused on packaging itself, writing, “Ulta and Sephora need to stop putting their logo on the outside of the box.”

    One shopper took a broader view of the issue, adding, “The convenience of online shopping has just become convenience for theft. I so prefer brick & mortar.”

    And one person shared a similar experience, saying, “My Ulta package came in today & it was completely opened. You can see the brown tape ripped & they re taped it.”

    Have a tip we should know? [email protected]

    Image of Ljeonida Mulabazi

    Ljeonida Mulabazi

    Ljeonida is a reporter and writer with a degree in journalism and communications from the University of Tirana in her native Albania. She has a particular interest in all things digital marketing; she considers herself a copywriter, content producer, SEO specialist, and passionate marketer. Ljeonida is based in Tbilisi, Georgia, and her work can also be found at the Daily Dot.

    Ljeonida Mulabazi

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  • Black Friday Broke Records. The Real Story Is How AI Changed the Way We Shop

    If you only looked at the numbers, you’d think Black Friday was business as usual—just bigger. And, to be clear, it was definitely bigger. Adobe, which tracks more than a trillion retail site visits across 18 categories, says consumers spent a record $11.8 billion online yesterday, up 9.1 percent from last year and even above the company’s own forecast. Between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., Adobe says shoppers spent $12.5 million every minute.

    By any metric, that’s a massive number of people shopping for deals. It’s a record for Black Friday sales online, but if you look a little closer, you realize it’s also a massive number of people shopping in very different ways than they used to.

    Black Friday has already changed quite a bit in the past few years. What was once a single day defined by incredible deals and lines outside big-box stores has stretched into a weeks-long digital shopping season. And, let’s be honest, people aren’t camping outside a Target anymore; they’re sitting on their couch, scrolling their phones.

    The AI holiday

    The most interesting part of the story is how things have shifted even more this year. Adobe’s data shows that AI-generated traffic to retail sites jumped 805 percent year-over-year. Not only are people using AI tools to find deals and compare products, but shoppers who landed on a site from an AI assistant were 38 percent more likely to convert than everyone else.

    That’s surprising, and yet, it makes perfect sense.

    One of the things AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini are good at is instantly surfacing the best price across half a dozen retailers. This year, there were plenty of headline features: electronics, toys, apparel, TVs, and appliances were discounted between 24 and 30 percent. AI tools just made it easier to find them.

    And those deals didn’t just convince people to buy more. Adobe says that people spent more on higher-end items. The share of units sold from the most expensive tier of products spiked: 64 percent in electronics, 55 percent in sporting goods, 48 percent in appliances. With the right combination of discounts and AI-assisted shopping comparison, people weren’t just looking for deals—they were looking for the best value.

    Mobile continued to dominate

    Depending on the hour, around 55 percent of online Black Friday sales happened on a phone—$6.5 billion worth. That’s up 10 percent from last year and represents billions of dollars processed through screens smaller than a wallet.

    Mobile phones reward frictionless experiences. And it turns out, AI is very good at removing friction. When the easiest way to shop is to ask ChatGPT for a recommendation and the best deal, it changes the way retailers have to think about Black Friday.

    Not only that, but the timeline seems to have shifted. Adobe says one of the biggest spikes happened from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Shopping habits shifted toward the times when people are already using their phones. You don’t need to wait for a sale to “start” when an AI assistant can surface the best price the moment it exists.

    Adobe expects U.S. consumers to spend more than $250 billion online this holiday season, with Cyber Monday alone projected to hit $14.2 billion. But the part worth paying attention to isn’t the total—it’s how we got there.

    Shoppers are trusting AI to do the busywork and find them the best value. For a shopping event that used to be all about physical stores, that’s a significant shift that retailers have to pay attention to.

    The challenge is that they no longer control the narrative—the AI assistant does.

    The lesson here may not seem obvious, but the reality is that retailers need to redefine what loyalty means when more shoppers start their journey with an AI prompt instead of walking into a store or pulling up your website.

    When an assistant compares every retailer at once, being “top of mind” matters far less than being the lowest-friction, highest-confidence option in that moment. That means loyalty isn’t something you win with flashy ads or homepage banners—it’s something you earn through the operational details an AI actually cares about. 

    Black Friday broke spending records. But the more interesting record is the one you might overlook: how many of those purchases started with someone typing a question into an AI instead of typing a URL into a browser.

    The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

    The final deadline for the 2026 Inc. Regionals Awards is Friday, December 12, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.

    Jason Aten

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  • A Customer Just Wanted an Oil Change. Then an AI Bot Made Everything Weird

    This is a story about a man who wanted to get an oil change at his Subaru dealership. Really, though, it’s a story about what happens when companies think that AI is a better way to interact with customers than simply having real humans do things like send emails and text messages.

    We’ll call the man Nick, which is not his real name, but that part isn’t important. What is important is that he scheduled an appointment for an oil change with his local dealership.

    As the appointment approached, Nick received a perfectly normal reminder from someone named Cameron Rowe. The messages were friendly and helpful. They even included the dealership’s full name, a link to the address, their hours, and the details of the service.

    But then Nick got another message confirming his appointment, even though he’d already been to the dealership and had the oil change. The message seemed weird, so Nick asked a basic question: “Is Cameron Rowe a person on the team?” Then the responses got… well, keep reading.

    The “assistant” thanked him for asking. Then it assured him someone would “look into this and get back to him with the necessary details.” Then it suggested scheduling a call. And then it repeated itself. Word-for-word. Multiple times.

    Just to be sure we’re clear, the text message, which previously had been coming from Cameron Rowe, said that the dealership was looking into the question of whether Cameron Rowe was a real person. It’s like some weird AI software loop, but with robots that don’t know they’re robots.

    Eventually, after asking—more than once—Nick tried the obvious question:

    “Are you a chatbot?”

    The assistant replied:

    “I am the dealership’s virtual assistant…”

    That’s technically honest. But here’s where it gets ridiculous: the dealership didn’t just give its virtual assistant a first name. They gave it a last name. And a business title. And an email signature. And—if the messages are to be believed—a backstory compelling enough to text him more than a dozen times.

    Literally, the dealership created an AI bot to pretend it was a person.

    The thing is, AI chatbots may be many things, but they are not people. And they should not have two names.

    Nick eventually connected with a real person—a consultant named Antonio. He was, thankfully, an actual human being. He confirmed it when Nick asked. Twice.

    And then Antonio admitted what was already obvious to anyone who gave it more than a moment’s thought: Cameron Rowe was not real. He was an “artificial assistant designed to help set appointments and generate customer incentives.”

    To Antonio’s credit, he didn’t hide from it. But he also revealed the underlying problem in one short sentence:

    “Almost all major dealerships use some sort of AI to conduct business.”

    That might be true. But the problem isn’t that dealerships are using AI. It’s that they’re using it without telling people they’re using it—while also designing it to feel as human as possible.

    Maybe it’s just me, but it seems incredibly strange and dishonest that this AI chatbot was given a name, a personality, and a fake identity, without ever disclosing that none of it was real. I get that companies aren’t using AI because it delights customers. They are doing it because it allows them to handle more conversations, more cheaply, without hiring more people. There’s nothing inherently wrong with efficiency. But somewhere along the line, a lot of businesses seem to have learned the wrong lesson.

    It seems like companies think that if people don’t want to talk to robots, the solution is just to make people think they’re talking to a human. Give the robots last names and job titles, and make them very friendly.

    Except, no one wants that. They just want to know who—or what—they’re talking to. If you’re going to make me talk to a robot, it should be absolutely clear that I’m talking to a robot. Otherwise, you’re not being honest.

    And here’s the part companies seem to forget: the moment customers catch you not being honest, they’ll assume you’re not being honest somewhere else—somewhere that matters.

    That’s the part of this story that should make every business reconsider how they’re rolling out AI to customers. Trust, it turns out, is your most valuable asset.

    If the dealership’s first message had simply said:

    “This is our automated assistant. I can help schedule appointments or get basic information to our team,” none of this would have happened. Nick wouldn’t have been annoyed. He wouldn’t have felt misled. He wouldn’t have spent days trying to figure out whether Cameron with a last name was a human being.

    Instead, he would have gotten his oil change, the dealership would have saved time, and everyone would have moved on with their day. But because the AI attempted to pass as human, it created the exact opposite outcome: confusion and broken trust.

    Here’s the simple lesson: If your customer asks whether they’re talking to a human, your AI strategy has already failed. Just tell people the truth—that’s what they really want. What they don’t want is a chatbot with a last name.

    The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

    The final deadline for the 2026 Inc. Regionals Awards is Friday, December 12, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.

    Jason Aten

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  • Shoppers hit Black Friday sales with celebratory mood despite economic strain

    The economic picture hasn’t looked very rosy: Hiring has been sluggish. Consumers have been dealing with soaring meat prices. Layoffs are rippling through companies.

    But despite those concerns, shoppers hit the stores in full strength on Black Friday, with some even sipping champagne as they searched for discounts on the day that traditionally kicks off the holiday shopping season.

    Just outside New Orleans, shoppers flooded Lakeside Shopping Center to see what deals they could find. The mall offers champagne to Black Friday traditionalists while they shop, as long as they have a receipt of at least $50.

    “Sipping and shopping is the best, so I feel like that’s a New Orleans thing to do” said Lacie Lemoine, who was shopping with her grandmother, an annual tradition they’ve kept despite the fact that their budgets are shrinking.

    “The economy is bad, but you still have to celebrate,” said her grandmother, Sandra Lemoine. “Everybody has to do what they can do on their own budget. That’s it.”

    Both the massive Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, and Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus, New Jersey, reported strong customer traffic on Friday and said Black Friday would once again rank as their busiest day of the year.

    “We are off to a great start,” said Jill Renslow, Mall of America’s chief business development and marketing officer.

    The line to enter the shopping and entertainment center started forming at 3 p.m. on Thursday, Renslow said. About 14,000 visitors entered within an hour of the mall’s 7 a.m. opening, she said.

    “We are tracking one of our best Black Fridays ever,” she added.

    Many retail executives have reported customers becoming more discerning and increasingly focused on deals while at the same time remaining willing to splurge for important occasions, creating a potential halo effect that might keep financial worries from discouraging holiday shoppers.

    National Retail Federation CEO Matthew Shay said in early November that consumers tend to wall off holidays, whether religious, secular or bank, from outside concerns.

    “It’s a sort of a category of spending that has a moat around it,” Shay said. “Shoppers view them as opportunities for celebration. I think that really captures the way the (winter) holiday season goes. People save for it. They plan for it. They prioritize it.”

    While some are being cautious about this year’s Christmas expenses, others are not. Metairie, Louisiana resident Denise Thevenot says this year is no different. “I wish I could say that I had, but no, we’re just blowing it away just like we do every year. We’ll worry about that tomorrow, right? I got the receipts to show you.”

    Marshal Cohen, chief industry adviser at Circana, a market research firm, visited several malls on New York’s Long Island and New Jersey. He noted strong traffic and said the centers grew busier as Black Friday went on.

    Cohen said Target drew lines for complimentary gift bags for the early shoppers, but overall “gone is Black Friday as we know it,” he said. “There’s no sense of urgency.”

    According to Target, which aims to reverse a sales slump, 150 shoppers on average were in line at its stores for the bags filled with what it described as “goodies.” The discounter was giving away the bags for the first 100 customers who showed up for its 6 a.m. opening

    At Macy’s Herald Square flagship store in New York City, customers who streamed in soon after the store opened at 6 a.m. found deep discounts on clothes, shoes, linens and cosmetics. The footwear department discounted everything up to half off.

    Nicholas Menasche, 19, from Queens, New York, shopped with his mother for shoes and clothing, and planned to head next to Best Buy for video games. Menasche, an intern at a bank, said he expected to spend around $1,200 this year on his holiday shopping, roughly the same amount as last year.

    “It’s a great tradition,” he said. “The stores are open really early.”

    Black Friday is next week — which used to be the day for bargain hunters! But now, with deals and discounts offered even before Halloween, is it still worth waiting until after Thanksgiving to shop? NBC News 4 New York’s Lynda Baquero reports.

    Westfield Garden State Plaza let customers in an hour early instead of making customers wait outside in the frigid weather, but stores didn’t open their doors until 7 a.m. as planned, said marketing director William Lewis. Members of Generation Z mostly comprised the early crowd, but older customers came in later, he said.

    “People are definitely buying,” Lewis said. “Most people are walking around with a shopping bag.”

    Shoppers appeared to have done research ahead of time and “know exactly where they are going,” he said.

    Although Black Friday still reigns supreme as a magnet for in-store shopping, the ease of browsing and buying gifts online has eroded the event’s singular significance. Online purchases now account for more than 30% of total holiday sales compared to 15% in 2012, according to the National Retail Federation.

    The growth in online sales also has been robust so far. From Nov. 1 to Nov. 23, U.S. consumers spent $79.7 billion, or 7.5% more than a year earlier, according to web tracking and analysis platform Adobe Analytics. They spent another $6.4 billion online on Thanksgiving Day, a 5.3% increase over last year, while taking advantage of better than expected deals, the firm said.

    “Clearly, there’s uncertainty,” Mastercard Chief Economist Michelle Meyer said ahead of Black Friday. “Consumers feel on edge. But at the moment, it doesn’t seem like it’s changing how they are showing up for this season.”

    ___

    Smith contributed from Metairie, Louisiana.

    Anne D’Innocenzio, Cathy Bussewitz and Stephen Smith | The Associated Press

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  • Holiday Shopping Trends Brands Must Know This Season 

    Getting crafty about cutting corners, consumers are changing their approach to holiday shopping. Against a background of intimidating inflation and tariff costs, the traditional peak spending season is moving away from the short, sharp spending spree that it has always been associated with. Instead, shoppers are shunning impulse buys for a more measured, strategic, and information-led approach.  

    Recent holiday shopping reports help identify these trends. Here’s what they mean for your business’s holiday shopping season strategy.  

    Important holiday shopping trends for 2025 

    The distinctive consciousness of the 2025 shopper is defined by three changes: a combination or hybrid of online and in-person shopping, calculated trade-offs to mitigate inflation, and starting the holiday shopping earlier. 

    These holiday shopping trends introduce a new consumer character that brands must adapt to, and reminds us that dynamism and close attention to consumer sentiment are indispensable. 

    1. The relationship between hybrid shopping and holiday shopping 

    Rather than separate options, both online and in-person shopping are playing a part in the customer journey. 

    Seventy-seven percent of consumers are searching for items on their mobile devices even while in the store. Combining the convenience of online reviews and research with the advantages of in-person purchasing, consumers are blending both worlds to get the best customer experience.  

    2. Inflation is changing consumer behavior 

    While many plan to spend less in their holiday shopping this year, another take is that consumers will spend the same, while changing their shopping behavior.   

    For example, holiday shopping data suggests that 81 percent plan to focus on gift cards this holiday, as more are assessing purchases for their necessity, price, and long-term value.  

    3. Consumers are beginning holiday shopping earlier  

    It seems that shoppers are turning their backs on the traditional holiday splurge, that slim seasonal shopping window defined by Black Friday and other flash sales.  

    The PissedConsumer survey reveals that 46.7 percent of consumers planned to start their holiday shopping between August and October, whereas stores are also changing their calendars to meet this change in buying behavior.  

    Online reviews affect holiday shopping behaviors 

    Trust and customer loyalty are even more valuable to your business during times of economic uncertainty. Holiday shopping statistics indicate that consumers are becoming increasingly cautious about where their money goes, and are looking for assurance through social proof found via online reviews and social media. 

    Indeed, 89 percent of consumers note that negative reviews influence their purchase decisions. A well-executed online review management strategy could shape holiday shopping for your brand more than any other aspect of business. 

    Understand the new needs 

    Holiday shopping trends in 2025 are defined by a cautious consumer looking for value, flexibility, and brands that listen. A receptive approach is the answer. The customer experience during the holiday season shopping has to be prioritized, and your brand must satisfy the emerging need for hybrid, value-focused shopping that meets the consumer’s need to feel that their money is being spent prudently and wisely. 

    The final deadline for the 2026 Inc. Regionals Awards is Friday, December 12, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.

    Michael Podolsky

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  • Retail Sales Rose Slightly In September – KXL

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Sales at U.S. retailers and restaurants rose slightly in September as resilient consumers moderated their spending after splurging over the summer.

    Sales increased 0.2% last month from August, the Commerce Department said, in a report delayed more than a month because of the government shutdown.

    The retail sales figures suggest that Americans as a whole are still willing and able to boost their spending, a key driver of the economy, despite high prices for groceries, rent, and many imported goods hit by tariffs.

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    Grant McHill

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  • MediaWorld Accidentally Sold iPads for 15 Euros. Then It Asked for Them Back

    On November 8, an offer for loyalty card holders appeared on the website of MediaWorld, a European electronics retailer. The deal: an iPad Air for 15 euros (about $17) instead of the usual €879 (about $1,012). No catch, no strings attached. The proximity to Black Friday only made the offer more plausible. And so several consumers immediately purchased the product by choosing the “payment and pickup in store” opetion, on paper the safest to avoid unexpected problems.

    The process was seamless, even for those ordering online. According to the accounts of some users on Reddit, their order was accepted, and after about 40 minutes they received an email confirming the availability of the product.

    In the store, the €15 payment went through successfully and MediaWorld delivered the iPads as expected. The terms and conditions attached to the order make no mention of any clause regarding pricing errors or the possibility for the company to request subsequent additions.

    MediaWorld’s About-Face

    Eleven days later, however, MediaWorld sent a simple email—not a formal communication via certified mail—stating that the published price was “clearly incorrect.” The company then asked affected customers to choose between two solutions: Keep the iPad and pay the difference to match the price, but with a €150 discount, or return it and receive a refund of the €15 and a €20 discount voucher for their inconvenience.

    MediaWorld’s Response

    Following the incident, WIRED contacted MediaWorld for comment. “We confirm that, in a very short period of time, due to a clearly recognizable technical error caused by an extraordinary and unexpected glitch on our ecommerce platform, some products were mistakenly displayed at prices that, due to their clear and objective disconnect from the true market value and the correct promotional price, should never have been displayed. This was a manifest error, making it economically unsustainable and not representative of our commercial offering,” a MediaWorld spokesperson explains.

    Regarding the subsequent intervention to try to recover the products sold, the representative added: “By virtue of the provisions of the current regulations, we found it necessary to intervene, resorting to a legal principle aimed at preserving the contractual balance in the event of an error of this magnitude. Our approach was to prioritize the relationship with the customer and to offer solutions that went beyond the mere application of law. For this reason, we promptly contacted all affected buyers, proposing two alternatives.”

    The MediaWorld spokesperson also confirmed to WIRED the two solutions first highlighted by Reddit users. “We offer product retention: The customer has the option to keep the purchased item, paying the difference between the price paid and the correct promotional price. We have also offered a further discount on the amount to be paid. Or return the product: The customer can choose to return the item free of charge, receiving a full refund of the amount already paid. In this case too, we have offered a MediaWorld shopping voucher. We firmly believe that these proposals demonstrate our willingness to support customers and maintain transparency and fairness. We continue to work to improve our shopping experience and maximum protection for our consumers.”

    The Legal Issue: Is the Error Really Recognizable?

    On the web, many lawyers point out that Article 1428 of the Italian Civil Code allows a contract to be voided if the error is fundamental and recognizable. But the issue, according to consumer lawyer Massimiliano Dona, is more nuanced than it seems.

    “The premise is that the November 19 letter—in which MediaWorld demanded the return or purchase of the iPad at near-real price—is not a formal warning or formal notice, especially if sent by ordinary mail, as it is a proposal for a binary agreement. If the consumer ignores it, MediaWorld will evaluate whether to take formal action,” Dona says.

    “That’s why the key issue is whether, from a legal standpoint, MediaWorld’s claim is well founded or not. To void a contract, it is necessary to demonstrate the consumer’s awareness of abusing the seller’s error. But to have this proof, it is not enough to claim that the 98 percent discount makes the error obvious in the eyes of the customer.” Furthermore, Dona also points to the fact that “today prices are not as standard as they once were. Between limited-time offers, flash sales, promotions, and contests (offered mainly on social or in apps), everything is more variable, plus now we are in the midst of the Black Friday discount season. Given these elements, perhaps we can consider it reasonable that the consumer thought it was an advertising technique.”

    How Does MediaWorld Test Consumer Awareness?

    Dona also claims that there is no threshold beyond which the customer must necessarily notice the mistake: “There are other factors to consider. If the buyer is Mrs. Maria, who finds a deal and decides to take it, that’s one thing. If, on the other hand, it’s someone who buys five tablets and then immediately puts them back on sale, or even someone who resells electronics for a living, that’s another matter. In that case, the awareness of the mistake would be more obvious.”

    The decisive issue, he says, is the recognizability of the error: “From a legal point of view, everything revolves around the buyer’s ability to recognize that the price was incorrect. This is the real deciding factor, which must be contextualized both with respect to sales channel used by MediaWorld and the buyer’s professionalism.”

    For now, then, the picture remains an evolving one: a public offer completed without dispute, a U-turn that came days later via email, and a legal assessment that would revolve around whether the consumer was able to recognize the error.

    This story originally appeared on WIRED Italia and has been translated from Italian.

    Elena Betti

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  • New Survey Find a Huge Difference in Profitability for E-Commerce Companies That Embrace AI

    Despite juggling stubbornly high prices, ever-shifting tariff policies coming out of the Trump administration, and an increasingly dour mood among shoppers, digital-first consumer brands have actually been having a good year. 

    Over the past 12 months, returns have been climbing with 73 percent of e-commerce businesses reporting a significant or moderate increase in profitability. That’s according to a new survey commissioned by Mercury, a San Francisco-based financial technology company that provides banking services to more than 200,000 startups. The report, which was released on Thursday, polled 750 leaders from e-commerce businesses in the U.S. during the months of October and November.

    The survey found that larger and younger businesses tended to overperform. Among companies with more than 500 employees, the share reporting a significant or moderate increase in profitability rose to 87 percent. Some 78 percent of businesses that had been in operation for less than 10 years said that returns rose, compared with 61 percent of businesses 

    When it came to upping margins over the past year, another major differentiator was AI adoption. Businesses that reported using AI extensively were more than two times more likely to increase profitability, compared to the businesses that reported using little to no AI. Still the report stressed, “These figures show correlation rather than causation — but they do highlight a clear divide.”

    The e-commerce companies that had adopted AI were also much more likely to have an upbeat view about the year ahead. Among business leaders that used AI, 92 percent said they were optimistic about the growth of their companies in 2026, compared with 69 percent of business leaders that did not use AI. Those that reported extensive AI use were even more confident about the year ahead with 96 percent of respondents saying they were optimistic about future growth.

    Ali Donaldson

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  • Younger customers are venturing back to real-world stores, says AS Watson CEO Malina Ngai: ‘They want to be able to touch the product’ | Fortune

    AS Watson was established in 1841 in Hong Kong, the year the British took over the territory. Almost 185 years later, the brand is now a health and beauty retail giant, with close to 17,000 outlets across 31 markets, including mainland China, Malaysia, the UK, Turkey and even Ukraine.

    “We are a people company,” Malina Ngai, group CEO of AS Watson, said at the Fortune Innovation Forum in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Monday. Ngai acknowleged the company’s long history–including how the company endowed Sun Yat-sen, who later led the 1911 revolution agaisnt the Qing dynasty, with a medical scolarship–yet argued that AS Watson had to remain forward-thinking.

    “Heritage gives us credibility, so people trust us, but only if we stay relevant [will we] be able to stay alive,” Ngai said.

    The secret sauce to successfully operating in so many markets, Ngai argued, came from understanding their customers. In Southeast Asia—which Ngai described as one of AS Watson’s “growth engines”— consumers are young, digitally-savvy and conscious about health and beauty. They also love new campaigns and product launches. As such, Watsons, AS Watson’s main drugstore brand, has rolled out campaigns such as “Kaw Kaw Deals” in Malaysia, replete with a catchy jingle of the same name by local personalities Jinnyboy and Ayda Jebat.

    Through market surveys, Ngai also found that many young customers in the region enjoy shopping at brick-and-mortar stores, despite a variety of online shopping options. “For younger customers, they want to be in the store, they want to get consultancy, they want to be able to touch the product—and this is what we can offer,” she said. 

    Aside from popular J-beauty and K-beauty products, Watsons also offers an array of halal-certified skincare and beauty items for Muslim consumers in markets like Malaysia and Indonesia.

    C-beauty has also seen a spike in popularity among Southeast Asian consumers. Chinese beauty brands are “strong in technology and social media, and they get engagement and popularity within Southeast Asia very quickly,” Ngai explained.

    ‘People-first’

    Ngai emphasized the importance of empowering employees. “In the company, if everyone is a leader, it will be a very powerful company. This means they know exactly the [company’s] purpose, they know how to collaborate, and they care for each other,” Ngai said.

    Still, AS Watson is moving to adopt new technologies across its team, including launching a company-wide generative AI protocol in September. “AI used to be just with my data team, the programmers—but now Gen AI is for everyone,” Ngai said.

    As the company approaches its 185-year milestone in 2026, Ngai shared her hopes for AS Watson’s future. “I don’t normally dream about work over the years. I sleep quite well, but recently, I dream a lot about 185 years,” Ngai said. “[I want AS Watson to] be an organization that can stay fit for the future, the next 180 years.”

    Angelica Ang

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  • Apple is ramping up succession plans for CEO Tim Cook and may tap this hardware exec to take over, report says | Fortune

    Apple’s board of directors and senior executives have been accelerating succession plans for Tim Cook, sources told the Financial Times.

    After serving as CEO for 14 years, Cook may step down as early as next year, the report said.

    Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, 50-year-old John Ternus, is widely seen as the most likely successor, but no final decisions have been made yet, sources told the FT.

    The engineer joined Apple’s product design team in 2001 and has overseen hardware engineering for most major products the tech company has launched ever since, according to Ternus’ LinkedIn profile.

    He has also played a prominent role during Apple’s most recent keynotes, introducing products like the new iPhone Air. Ternus had been rumored to be Cook’s potential successor, according to previous reports. 

    The company is unlikely to name a new CEO before its next earnings report in late January, and an early-year announcement would allow a new leadership team time to settle in before its annual events, the FT said. 

    The succession preparations have been long-planned and are not related to the company’s current performance, which is expecting strong end-of-year sales, people close to Apple told the FT.

    Apple did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment and declined to provide a comment to the FT.

    The $4 trillion company is expecting year-on-year revenue growth of 10% to 12% for its holiday quarter ending in December, fueled by the release of the iPhone 17 model in September.

    Ternus would take the helm of the tech giant at an important time in its evolution. Although Apple has seen sales success with iPhones and new products like Airpods over the past couple of decades, it has struggled to break into AI and keep up with rivals.

    Instead, Apple has even spending significantly less in AI investments compared to Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, Amazon, Alphabet, and Microsoft. 

    Apple has been criticized by analysts this year for not having a clear AI strategy. And despite approving a multibillion-dollar budget to run its own models via the cloud in 2026, it was reported in June that Apple is even considering using models from OpenAI and Anthropic to power its updated version of Siri, rather than using technology the company has built in-house. 

    Its AI-enabled Siri, originally slated for 2025, will be delayed until 2026 or later due to a series of technical challenges, the company announced earlier this year.

    Apple has also lost a number of senior AI team members since January, many of whom have joined Meta’s AI and Superintelligence Labs during talent poaching wars this year. The exodus of Apple’s AI execs included Ruoming Pang, former head of Apple’s foundation models and core generative AI team, who joined Meta with a compensation package reportedly worth $200 million.

    The company is also dealing with increased competition from one of its most influential former employees.

    In May, Sam Altman’s OpenAI acquired startup io for about $6.5 billion, bringing in former Apple chief designer Jony Ive to build AI devices. The 58-year-old designer was instrumental in creating the iPhone, iPod, and iPad. 

    Cook, Apple’s former operations chief, turned 65 this month. He has grown the company’s market capitalization to $4 trillion from $350 billion in 2011, when he took over the CEO role from company co-founder Steve Jobs.

    Under Cook, Apple became the first publicly traded company to reach $1 trillion in market capitalization in 2018—then it became the first company to reach $3 trillion in market cap in 2022.

    But more recently, its stock price has been lagging behind Big Tech rivals Alphabet, Nvidia, and Microsoft, though Apple is trading close to an all-time high after strong earnings were reported in October.

    Apple has also dealt with tariff complications as U.S.-China trade tensions have disrupted its supply chain.

    Cook has previously said he’d prefer an internal candidate to replace him, adding that the company has “very detailed succession plans.”

    “I really want the person to come from within Apple,” Cook told singer Dua Lipa last year on her podcast At Your Service.

    Nino Paoli

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  • I’ve Been Writing About Black Friday for 12 Years. Here’s My Advice

    Black Friday used to actually just be one day long. Shoppers would camp outside of stores, paper circulars in hand, eagerly awaiting the chance to bust down some doors and save a ton of cash. Over time, the sales event has grown. Now, the entire month of November is a hydra where the heads are “slashed prices” and the sword-wielding hero is an overwhelmed customer.

    Nearly every deal is available online, meaning you don’t need to leave the couch to participate. But all the marketing and chaos can get confusing. How can you tell if a deal is worth your time and money? When do sales start and end? Do you really need that gadget? I’m a Black Friday veteran who’s been shopping the sales since early childhood and writing about them since 2013, and I’m here to help.

    When Is Black Friday?

    In 2025, Black Friday falls on November 28. It’s followed by Cyber Monday on December 1, 2025. Most of the official sales start on Wednesday or Thanksgiving, though some of the best deals start on Friday, sometime in the early hours.

    I have been Black Friday shopping for over 20 years. My advice, if you’re on the hunt for killer deals, is to stay up late the day before Thanksgiving to check for online sales starting around midnight Eastern time on Wednesday, November 26. WIRED will also cover major sales later in the day on Thanksgiving. Early Black Friday deals are available now, as they usually are during the weeks leading up to the event.

    Can You Get Black Friday Deals Online?

    You can—and should. We exclusively cover online deals at WIRED because the majority of Black Friday deals are available on the web. The best deals often sell out quickly, so it’s a good idea to pay attention to your favorite store’s sale pages (and our coverage).

    Make a list of what you want to buy ahead of time—this can help you keep a clear head when it’s time to start shopping. You shouldn’t buy things just to buy them. Everyone’s on a tighter budget these days; sales will happen again. Take a deep breath and don’t get sucked into the frenzy.

    Which Retailers Will Have Black Friday Deals?

    Nearly all of them. There are obvious stores, like Amazon, Target, Walmart, and Best Buy, but chances are every retailer and brand will have some sort of sale, spanning deals on clothing, shoes, books, electric scooters, tech, health and beauty items, or fitness specialty goods, to name just a few categories. There might even be promotions going on at your favorite coffee shop or restaurant. When in doubt, visit a retailer’s website. Usually, Black Friday sales are highlighted proudly on the homepage.

    Here are a few Black Friday sales pages from major retailers:

    Is Black Friday Worth It?

    In a word: Usually. Most of the time, Black Friday deals are the best we see all year, and they set the precedent for what dictates a good price in the months that follow.

    However, some Black Friday deals aren’t all that great or are repetitive from year to year. For instance, you’ll predictably see low prices on some smart-home tech, like the Amazon Echo Dot or Google Nest Mini. In previous years, those speakers have sold for around $20 or so, every single November. This year, they’ll probably dip to the same price. Even if a price is technically a historic low, consider whether you truly need another cheap little speaker before you place your order—especially considering that these deals tend to pop up repeatedly throughout the year.

    Discounts aren’t jaw-dropping if the products go on sale every few months, and unfortunately, we have seen more and more repeat sales as the shopping holidays start to blur into one big ball of madness. But the deals are still worth it if you are in the market for a specific item and want to save some cash. Just keep in mind that price research is important, and if you miss out on a deal, don’t fret; there’s a strong chance it will come around again at some point in the future.

    How Much Money Can I Save on Black Friday?

    That depends on what you’re shopping for. There are so many deals up for grabs in so many categories that it’s impossible to list them all here.

    For example, TVs are usually a great purchase to make around Black Friday, if you can find the right model. They are at their cheapest this time of year, especially if you don’t want to wait until Super Bowl season. In the same vein, you’ll be able to save on clothes, toys, and home goods, but those deals may not be as enticing when you look at specific dollar amounts. It’s safe to assume that everything is less expensive than usual, though.

    Louryn Strampe

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