Business

U.S. consumers are starting to crack as tariffs add to inflation, recession concerns. Consumer spending has been the only thing that kept the economy up and going in the past few quarters. Now, real pressure is observed by some of the largest retailers and brands. Tariffs are showing no signs of abating. We are in for one hell of a period.

Like Walmart, Best Buy is taking pages out of Amazon’s e-commerce playbook. Best Buy needs to leverage its store network and offer help services if it wants to compete with Walmart and Amazon. Best Buy is too late to the game of third-party marketplaces. And the only thing that consumers want when shopping for digital devices is some expert advice on what to buy and how to use it. If Best Buy can do it, it will have a chance.

Why is China spending billions to get people to open their wallets? It is a shame that while China is dealing with the vicious cycle of deflation, the US is shooting itself in the foot with all these tariffs and hostilities towards our allies. We could have done so much better.

Screaming customers, unpaid workers: Inside the chaotic demise of Indian online delivery pioneer Dunzo. “Dunzo was launched in 2014 as a WhatsApp-based, concierge-style pick-up and drop-off service. Its agents would, for instance, collect laundry, buy and deliver ingredients for a meal, or bring the wallet a user forgot at home to their office. Dunzo’s strategic misstep was shifting from its core strength — connecting buyers and sellers online — to aggressively scaling quick-commerce operations through a network of dark stores, Sandipan Chattopadhyay, Dunzo’s early-stage investor, told Rest of World.”

Inside Puma’s new brand positioning and largest global campaign to date

Other Stuff I Find Interesting

US appeals court rejects copyrights for AI-generated art lacking ‘human’ creator. I doubt that this is the end of this matter, but it’s great to get some judiciary opinions on such a nascent and important issue. I think the judges were right in that if there is no human input, there shouldn’t be any copyrights protection.

‘It’s night and day’: Why some NYC commuters say they’re coming around to congestion pricing. The people have spoken. “A poll released earlier this week by Siena College showed that many have come around to the idea; 42% of New York City voters said they support the program, compared to 35% who opposed it. It’s a big swing from December when 56% of city voters opposed the toll.“

The European towns that give away free chickens. An ingenious way to get fresh food and reduce food waste.

What’s Missing With AI-Generated Code? Refactoring. There is no free lunch. LLMs can help speed up code generation and code conversion. The downside is that there will be an adverse impact on code quality and worker skills.

How a Major Democratic Law Firm Ended Up Bowing to Trump. CEO of a major law firm abandoned his political stance to save his company. He may have dodged a bullet for now, but political winds can swing in the opposite direction in four years and his Democratic clients may not be happy. Besides, it’s extraordinary that the President of the United States targeted a private company for political revenge. That should be a big warning for all companies in the country.

A Win for Encryption: France Rejects Backdoor Mandate. As every lawmaker should. Encryption should be a right given unconditionally to citizens and must not be compromised. Proponents of a backdoor may say that in some cases they will need it to crack open a criminal case and catch bad people. Well, law enforcement’s success should not hinge on only encryption.

Stats

US paid music subscriptions reached 100 million

According to Census data, there are 8.48 million people living in New York as of July 2024

US consumers lost $2.09 billion in bank transfer losses in 2024

63% of US shoppers would consider Walmart for their next grocery shopping trip