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Today, retail giant Target Corporation (NYSE: TGT) reported its third-quarter fiscal 2025 earnings. Unfortunately, for the company and its investors, the results were a continuation of what Target has been seeing for years now: declining sales. Here’s what you need to know about Target’s Q3 and the impact the earnings are having on the company’s stock price today. Target’s Q3 2025 at a glance Here’s what the big box retailer reported for its Q3 2025: Net sales: $25.3 billion (down 1.4% from the same period in 2024) Adjusted earnings per share (EPS): $1.78 (down from $1.85 in the same period in 2024) Operating income: $948 million (down 18.9%) Net…

The branding and packaging for Target’s beloved Up&Up brand is now more colorful than ever. Over the course of three years, design agency Collins reimagined the wide-ranging private-label brand, which has more than 2,000 products spanning aluminum foil and copy paper to pet grooming products and a wrist blood pressure monitor. The Up&Up brand does nearly $3 billion in annual sales for Target. The retailer wanted to relaunch it with reformulated products, reduced plastic usage, and hundreds of new items, which began rolling out in stores last year and will continue through early 2025. [Image: Target] New private-label packaging elevates bargain shopping This co…

When Pokémon launched in 1996, the brand offered just a pair of video games, a single region within its world for players to explore, and 151 creatures for them to capture and train. 30 years later, Pokémon mania is stronger than ever. The most recent mainline games in the series, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, sold 10 million copies in their first three days, while the accompanying Pokémon Trading Card Game printed 10.2 million new cards between 2024 and 2025. The franchise now features 1,025 Pokémon across its more than a hundred video game titles under the Pokémon umbrella, including the mobile gaming phenomenon Pokémon Go, which ranks among the highest-grossing mobil…

It’s the three-row SUV of big-box retail. Target’s bold red shopping cart has always anchored customers inside a Target store, promising a middle-class fancy experience. For the next few years, Target will be replacing its fleet of half a million shopping carts with an even beefier model that promises to hold more stuff while making it easier to maneuver around the store. It’s the first all-plastic design Target will launch nationwide, while paradoxically being more sustainable than Target carts of yore. And yes, it’ll even hold your big dumb cup. “The cart for us is the first touchpoint that the guest meets right when they walk in the store,” says Sarah Deut…

Americans are feeling financially stretched: 92% cut back on spending last year, including curbing essentials like healthcare and groceries. Is this really the time for Target to be focused on trendy throw pillows, luxury beauty products, and premium sodas? At Target’s investor day on Tuesday, CEO Michael Fiddelke tried to convince Wall Street that the retailer is about to undergo a massive turnaround, after years of declining comparable sales, most recently in this last quarter. His reinvention plan is anchored in stylish design, differentiation from other retailers, and delighting the customer in-store. But none of these strategies seemed built for the economic moment …

As summer nears and states like Texas are already facing extreme heat, tariffs are about to make cooling your home a lot more expensive—and experts don’t expect prices to come down any time soon. The U.S. heating and cooling industry is highly dependent on overseas manufacturers, both for fully assembled units like air conditioners, heat pumps, and HVACs, and for the component parts used to build them. According to the Observatory of Economic Complexity, the U.S. imported more than $15 billion in AC units last year, mainly from Mexico and China. But according to Aydin Mehr, general manager of the HVAC contractor UniColorado, overseas manufacturers essentially hal…

When I launched TaskRabbit in 2008, I thought entrepreneurship was about persistence. The narrative in Silicon Valley was simple. If you believe in an idea strongly enough and push hard enough, success eventually follows. Years later, after building TaskRabbit into one of the companies that helped define the early gig economy, I started hosting a podcast called “Breaking Precedent.” I wanted to talk with founders, investors, and innovators who had changed the rules in their industries. What I expected to hear were stories about grit and determination. What I actually heard were stories about something else entirely. Again and again, the most pivotal moments in the…

In 2008, we published the first listing on a bare-bones website called RunMyErrand.com: a single task, posted by someone who needed help, to be completed by an individual who had opted into making their time and abilities available. At the time, it was an untested idea, launched in the midst of the worst financial downturn in a generation, and there was no established language for what we were building. The term “gig economy” did not yet exist, and there was no widely accepted model for how a person in need might hire a stranger through a digital marketplace to complete a unit of work. This was before Uber, Instacart, and Postmates, and before on-demand labor became a fa…

Today, Wednesday, April 15, 2026, is Tax Day. During trying economic times, the tax deadline can feel like a punishment. It’s difficult to watch money being taken out of hard-earned paychecks when household budgets run on thin margins. To take the sting out of Tax Day, many businesses have special deals to soften the blow. Freebies and deals for Tax Day 2026 Many restaurants are ready to make your stomach happy should you need consoling on Tax Day. If you need the food to come to you, 7-Eleven has you covered. Use the 7NOW Delivery app to get $10.40 off of orders of $25 or more. Just remember to enter the promo code WRITEOFF on April 15. Another d…

Being advised to max out your 401(k) is Personal Finance 101. But is that universally solid guidance? Tax-sheltered retirement plans offer the convenience of automatic investments and tax breaks—pretax contributions and tax-deferred compounding for traditional 401(k)s and tax-free compounding and withdrawals for Roth contributions. But the availability and quality of the 401(k) are also important considerations. Some workers don’t have access to an employer-provided retirement plan, and 401(k) quality can be uneven. High administrative costs, meager employer matching contributions, and costly investment lineups can detract from 401(k)s’ tax-saving features. …

It’s the life of a saleswoman. Taylor Swift’s 12th studio album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” sold 2.7 million copies in traditional album sales — which include physical and digital formats — in its first day in the U.S. That’s according to Luminate, an industry data and analytics company. The album was released Friday. The sales are impressive for a number of reasons. Swift has broken her record for most first-week sales… in one day. Her last album, 2024’s “The Tortured Poets Department,” amassed 2.61 million equivalent album units in the U.S. in its first week. “The Life of a Showgirl” has also become the second-largest sales week for any album in the modern er…

Taylor Swift is an economic force all on her own. The superstar’s relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce brought not only eyeballs to his games but a monetary boost to the city overall. Thanks to her Eras tour, Swifties spent an estimated $5 billion across the country. And most recently, she spurred fans to give more than $2 million in donations to the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s sea otter program—just by wearing an old t-shirt. Earlier this month, Swift launched her “The Official Release Party of a Showgirl” movie, an 89-minute film tied to the release of her latest album. It was only shown in theaters for three days. Eagle-eyed fans notice…

With foot traffic down and Target’s stock still slumping, Taylor Swift’s new album release might be the shot in the arm the retailer needs. Target may be in the crosshairs of the culture wars, but the brand’s relationship with Taylor Swift still stands in 2025. The release of “The Life of a Showgirl” again brings a suite of special editions to Target as exclusives, luring Swifties to spread their cash around to pick up their favorite variants. But between the retailer’s faltering reputation and a smorgasbord of album options, will Swifties take their business elsewhere? Target’s very bad 2025 In January, Target announced that it would abandon longstanding initiatives t…

TD Bank is planning to close at least 37 branches across 10 states and Washington, D.C., as part of a broader effort to streamline operations and adapt to changing customer banking habits. The decision comes amid ongoing recovery efforts for the company, which is still grappling with the fallout from a $3 billion payout after pleading guilty to money laundering and failing to prevent illegal transactions. In October 2024, the Department of Justice (DOJ) revealed that over a six-year period, TD Bank had neglected to monitor more than $18 trillion in payments, enabling the laundering of over $600 million. As part of the settlement, the bank was required to pay hefty…

TD Bank is getting ready to implement a number of branch closures across more than a dozen states on the East Coast. Those closures come at a time when the bank is increasingly shifting its focus to online banking. Here’s what you need to know about TD Bank’s branch closures, including a list of closing locations. Why is TD Bank closing some of its branches? TD Bank is closing some of its branches as part of a broader plan to reduce or relocate 10% of its retail footprint. “At Investor Day last month, TD shared plans to deliver a stronger, more scalable U.S. retail presence through significant store enhancements, tech-forward digital banking capabilities, and …

Jake Knapp is a designer, investor, and general partner at Character Capital. He has spent the last 25 years helping companies create products that people genuinely love. He helped build Gmail, co-founded Google Meet, and has worked with hundreds of startups, including Blue Bottle Coffee, One Medical, and Slack. What’s the big idea? The foundation of success is shockingly simple, and yet most teams get bogged down for months trying to strategize a new idea. Making your next big project a hit relies on creating a powerful Founding Hypothesis from the get-go. When done right, this method ensures that everyone’s voice gets heard, there is enough clarity to accelerate …

The past week has been a brutal one for many working in the tech and financial industries. Thousands of jobs have been lost—or will be lost soon—from companies including Block, Morgan Stanley, Capital One, eBay, and, as reported today, software giant Oracle. Here’s what you need to know about the layoffs. Oracle to cut ‘thousands’ of jobs The most recent news of layoffs came yesterday, after Bloomberg reported that the database software giant Oracle Corporation (NYSE: ORCL) is planning to cut “thousands” of jobs as soon as this month. And yes, artificial intelligence is to blame—but not solely because AI is directly taking jobs. Instead, Oracle i…

Electric-truck maker Rivian is laying off another 600 people, or about 4% of its workforce as the global demand for electric vehicles decreases, the Wall Street Journal reported. This follows a previous round of layoffs in 2024. Rivian is one of a number of technology and media companies that have seen layoffs in October, including: Meta, Paycom, Charter, NBC News and the Wall Street Journal. Unfortunately, October 2025 is no outlier. From technology companies to media conglomerates, the layoffs are part of a trend in both the U.S. and Europe as companies start to slash staff and downsize. Some are blaming artificial intelligence (AI), though critics say it’s …