What's on Your Mind?

With Black Friday just about three weeks away, retailers and shoppers have one thing on their mind—Christmas, the busiest and most profitable time of the year. And now, with Halloween behind us, Spirit Halloween has pivoted to holiday-themed Spirit Christmas, featuring festive decor, gifts, holiday apparel, and interactive displays—including nutcrackers, inflatable lawn Santas, and ugly Christmas sweaters. The retail chain, owned by Spencer Gifts, launched nearly a dozen Spirit Christmas stores throughout the Northeast in 2024. This year, Spirit Christmas is opening 30 store locations in 12 states in the Northeast and Great Lakes area, including its flagship …

On November 6, Sweetgreen announced that it was selling Spyce, its division that developed and made its Infinite Kitchen technology to automate the assembly of its bowls and salads. The acquirer is Wonder, the “restaurant and mealtime superapp,” as Fast Company dubbed it earlier this year. With that, it’s time to eulogize Sweetgreen’s star-crossed life as a tech company. No more dreams of AI, blockchain, or robots. Sweetgreen receives $100 million in cash and $86.4 million in Wonder stock, a positive return given that it acquired Spyce in 2021 for a total cost of $70 million. Wonder, which is privately held, was valued north of $7 billion in May after it raised an…

Since 1818, loyal readers of the Farmers’ Almanac have turned to the publication for weather predictions, gardening tips, astronomy calendars, and more. But, on November 6, the Farmers’ Almanac announced that the 2026 edition of the magazine will be its last. The news came through a post to the Farmers’ Almanac website by editor Sandi Duncan and editor emeritus Peter Geiger. “It is with a great appreciation and heartfelt emotions that we write to share some sad news,” the note reads. “After more than 200 years of sharing a unique blend of weather, wit and wisdom, we’ve made the very difficult decision to write the final chapter of this historical publication.” P…

Wendy’s announced plans to close a “mid-single-digit percentage” of its underperforming U.S. store locations, during its quarterly earnings call on Friday, or 200 to 350 of some 6,000 locations, according to CNN. The news comes as the fast-food giant reports third-quarter profits of $44.3 million, with $549.5 million in revenue, beating analyst expectations by 2.71%; and adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of 24 cents, versus 20 cents. International business delivered strong system-wide sales growth, with international net unit growth expected to come in over 9% in 2025. Shares in Wendy’s Co. (NASDAQ: WEN) were up about 2% in midday trading on Friday, after Wendy’s…

As artificial intelligence enters its dating era, it has taken on an increasing number of roles: cupid, wingman, even romantic interest. Where once people’s biggest concern was being unfortunately catfished by old photos and flattering filters, now if a person seems too good to be true, well, they might not even be human at all. Hily’s Dating App T.R.U.T.H. report surveyed 1,559 U.S. daters and found 82% of Gen Z and 87% of Millennials are already turning to AI in their dating lives. Up to 95% also plan to use it in the future. Just as in traditional dating, there are some double standards at play. For Gen Z, 62% say they’d be turned off if they discovered…

Hello again, and thank you for reading Fast Company’s Plugged In. In 2013, David Min came to Disney CEO Bob Iger with a big idea. Min, a founding partner at Disney’s investment arm, Steamboat Ventures, was now head of innovation for the entire company. He had concluded that something fundamental needed to be done about Disney’s relationship with the tech industry. “We—meaning The Walt Disney Company—didn’t really have a very good reputation at the time for working with startups,” he remembers. Tech accelerators such as Y Combinator, 500 Startups, and Techstars were changing how high-potential concepts got their shot at becoming thriving businesses. Min thought Dis…

When fewer people belong to unions and unions have less power, the impact goes beyond wages and job security. Those changes can hurt public health and make people more unhappy. We’re economists who research labor and health issues. Those are two of the main findings of studies that we have conducted. More unionization, more happiness In the first study on this topic that we published in 2023, we found that increasing levels of union membership tends to make working-class people happier. We zeroed in on a question in the General Social Survey, which the University of Chicago makes available. It asks respondents to choose whether they are “very happy,” “somew…

Quantum computing insiders, investors, and skeptics have been waiting on an announcement from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) that has enormous implications for the future of the industry: the list of companies that have survived Stage A of the agency’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI) and are advancing to Stage B. The QBI was launched in July 2024 to “rigorously verify and validate whether any quantum computing approach can achieve utility-scale operation” by 2033, according to DARPA. In essence, the QBI seeks to determine if a quantum computer technology is worth pursuing—if its benefits will be greater than the effort and resources it ta…

Yesterday, Tesla, Inc. (Nasdaq: TSLA) shareholders overwhelmingly approved the controversial and historic pay package deal for the electric vehicle maker’s CEO, Elon Musk. That package is worth up to nearly $1 trillion in compensation for Musk—provided the company reaches certain milestones. But if those milestones are met, it would make Musk, already the world’s richest man, the world’s first trillionaire. Here’s what you need to know about the historic pay package and how investors and Tesla’s shares are reacting to the news. What’s in Musk’s historic Tesla pay deal? At Tesla’s investor meeting yesterday, over three-quarters of shareholders voted to approve M…

As the longest government shutdown in U.S. history continues, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has ordered flight reductions at 40 major airports, including Atlanta, New York, Boston, and Los Angeles. The move begins with affecting 4% of flights, with plans to ramp up to impact 1 in 10 flights at those airports, disrupting travel plans for thousands of Americans every day. But Patriotic Millionaires, a group of high-net-worth individuals who advocate for more progressive taxes in order to close the wealth gap, is suggesting an alternative that it says would spare commercial airline passengers and still offer relief for air traffic controllers: Just canc…

The headlines are clear: AI is disrupting entry-level jobs across industries, including consulting and professional services. There’s just one problem. Eliminating these roles overlooks a critical business need—your pipeline of next generation leaders. The rush from pyramid to diamond workforce models is short-sighted. In the pyramid model, you grow leaders from the ground up. In the diamond model, you cut the base and bet on later-stage talent to carry the weight. It may look efficient now, but it comes at the expense of long-term leadership development. If we don’t shift the trajectory, it’s likely to worsen the leadership gender gap. Despite women outpacing men…

Despite its status as an architectural celebrity, the Breuer building, commissioned by the Whitney Museum in the 1960s, has never had an easy relationship with New York City. With a hulking, top-heavy build, brooding dark-gray granite cladding, and nearly windowless facade, it’s as introverted as buildings come, standing confrontationally against its traditional Upper East Side neighbors. Either you love it or hate it. Critic Ada Louise Huxtable described the building as an acquired taste akin to “olives or warm beer” (how appetizing) yet celebrated the “maximum artistry and almost hypnotic skill” of its namesake architect, the Bauhaus-trained modernist Marcel Breuer…

When he takes office next year, Zohran Mamdani will be the first mayor of New York City in decades not to own a car. Mamdani—who bikes and rides public transit to work—wants to make city buses both faster to ride and free, building on a fare-free pilot he helped run in 2023. He also plans to expand the city’s network of bike lanes, add more car-free streets in front of schools, and wants to pedestrianize more areas in Manhattan as congestion pricing has reduced traffic. “In a city where the majority of households are car-free, we haven’t had a car-free mayor in a really long time,” says Alexa Sledge, communications director at the nonprofit Transportation Alternat…

The world’s richest man was just handed a chance to become history’s first trillionaire. Elon Musk won a shareholder vote on Thursday that would give the Tesla CEO stock worth $1 trillion if he hits certain performance targets over the next decade. The vote followed weeks of debate over his management record at the electric car maker and whether anyone deserved such unprecedented pay, drawing heated commentary from small investors to giant pension funds and even the pope. In the end, more than 75% of voters approved the plan as shareholders gathered in Austin, Texas, for their annual meeting. “Fantastic group of shareholders,” Musk said after the final vote was tallied…

In a new holiday ad for Starbucks, set to the tune of I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) by The Proclaimers, two adorable animated figures traipse across Starbucks’s red holiday cups to reunite. It’s a sweet video that highlights Starbucks’s transition into the winter holidays, one of the biggest sales moments of the year for the company. But while the iconic red cups are starring in Starbucks’s early holiday promotion, they’ve also become the center of an ongoing dispute with Starbucks Workers United—and a potential strike. On November 6, Starbucks released its holiday menu in stores, including seasonal beverages, treats, and cups. The rollout heralds the arrival of …

Ice cream maker Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream Company has issued a voluntary recall of select Häagen-Dazs Chocolate Dark Chocolate Mini Bars after discovering they might have wheat in them. An investigation is underway, but Dreyer’s believes that food with wheat was put in the wrong packaging at the start of a production run, according to its announcement, published by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). There are no related illnesses or injuries as of Dreyer’s announcement on Monday, November 3. As Dreyer’s states, “Those with an allergy or severe sensitivity to wheat run the risk of serious or life-threatening allergic reaction if they consume these product…

The debate around AI ROI has gotten loud—and, frankly, a little cyclical. One moment, we’re hearing that AI is the key to exponential growth; the next, that 95% of AI pilots fail. At Addi, we’ve been able to leverage AI to grow 4x faster while operating at ~2x the profitability of BNPL peers. This year alone, we’ve saved more than $500,000 from our AI initiatives. But how have we accomplished such strong AI ROI? The difference between performative AI and AI with returns isn’t in which model or tool you’re using; it’s how your team is using them. Here’s how we’ve driven genuine AI-native team adoption and built a workflow/data pipeline that actually makes sens…