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This should come as a shock to very few people, but Krispy Kreme doughnuts, which typically needs very little reason to give away its doughnuts, is giving away free doughnuts today. This time, the free doughnut giveaway is in honor of Fat Tuesday 2026. But there’s a catch. Here’s what you need to know. What is Fat Tuesday? Today (Tuesday, February 17) is Fat Tuesday, otherwise known as Mardi Gras. The holiday always falls on the final Tuesday before the Christian holy day of Ash Wednesday, which is the beginning of the Lent observance period. Traditionally, Christians refrain from eating certain foods during Lent, particularly rich and fatty ones. As a…

Shares of Krispy Kreme Inc. (NASDAQ: DNUT) plunged over 28% on Thursday after the donut-and-coffee chain said it will no longer pay out its quarterly dividend and that it was “reassessing” the deployment of its planned McDonald’s rollout, and fell short of earnings expectations, according to Bloomberg. Krispy Kreme’s earnings missed expectations for the first quarter of 2025, with the company posting an EPS (earnings per share) of negative $0.05, coming in below the EPS forecast of negative $0.04. It posted revenue of $375.2 million, within previous guidance but below a forecast of $385.11 million. Following the announcement, Krispy Kreme’s stock fell by 28.18% in…

After a two-year battle with regulators, a federal judge ruled in late December to block the merger of grocery behemoths Kroger and Albertsons. The deal fell apart after facing significant pushback—and a lawsuit—from the Federal Trade Commission under the Biden administration, in part over concerns that unionized grocery workers would have less leverage to negotiate wage increases and respond to layoffs following a merger. Those concerns were not unfounded: The overwhelming majority of grocery workers (92%) are frontline staff in nonsupervisory positions, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics—and as industry leaders, Kroger and Albertsons employ 28% o…

U.S. grocer Kroger said on Monday CEO Rodney McMullen has resigned after a board investigation found that his personal conduct was “inconsistent” with certain company policies. The conduct is not related to financial performance, operations or reporting, and it did not involve any Kroger associates, the company said. The surprise ouster of the 64-year-old executive comes after the company in December terminated a two-year effort to buy rival Albertsons in a $25 billion deal, an attempt McMullen had staunchly defended as a way to fight higher prices and better compete with Walmart and Costco. Meanwhile, Albertsons has sued Kroger for an alleged breach of contra…

Groceries are a little harder to come by in dozens of neighborhoods this year in the wake of an ongoing retreat from The Kroger Co. The Cincinnati-based supermarket company has been shuttering locations since June of last year, when it announced a footprint optimization plan that would result in the closure of about 60 stores. According to a Fast Company review of local media reports and online review platforms like Yelp, Kroger could be more than halfway through that process. Some 33 stores have already closed, with at least three more confirmed so far this year. Closures in the months since the announcement largely impact stores under the flagship Kroger ba…

Late last month, frozen food manufacturer Ajinomoto Foods North America announced a recall of roughly 3 million pounds of not-ready-to-eat products after customers reported finding glass in rice. In the U.S., many of the recalled products were sold at Trader Joe’s locations. Now that the recall has been dramatically expanded, with new products being pulled from the shelves. Here’s what you need to know. What’s happened? On March 3, the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) posted a recall notice announcing that Ajinomoto Foods North America was expanding its earlier recall to include an additional 33 million pounds of various ready-to-eat and not-re…

Kroger named former Walmart executive Greg Foran as its chief executive officer on Monday, 11 months after the abrupt resignation of its previous CEO. Foran has a reputation as a tech-savvy and detail-oriented leader. He led Walmart’s U.S. division from 2014 to 2019, where he focused on cleaning up stores, ensuring items were in stock, and improving the fresh produce selection. He also introduced online ordering and pickup, and accelerated Walmart’s digital capabilities. Walmart has reshaped itself into a tech-powered retail giant that has leaned heavily into automation and artificial intelligence, and it’s one of the biggest competitive threats to Kroger, the lar…

The list of retailers that have yanked pasta products from their shelves continues to grow in the wake of a deadly Listeria outbreak. On October 4, grocery retailer Kroger Co voluntarily recalled deli pasta salads sold at Kroger-owned locations including Ralphs, Smith’s, and Fred Meyer, in addition to Kroger stores. The products were recalled due to a risk of contamination with Listeria monocytogenes. The recall notice was published to the website of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Saturday. To date, no illnesses have been reported in connection with this recall. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the USDA’s Food Safety and …

Los Angeles County said Wednesday that it’s suing Southern California Edison, alleging the utility’s equipment sparked January’s Eaton Fire, which destroyed more than 9,400 structures and killed 17 people in the Altadena area. The lawsuit seeks to recover costs and damages sustained from the blaze that damaged “essential community infrastructure” and “massively impacted the County’s natural resources, harmed the environment and wildlife, and threatened public health,” LA County said in a statement. Additional costs have been incurred by county departments for ongoing support in assisting residents recovering from the fire’s destruction, according to the lawsuit. …

A consumer advocacy group filed a lawsuit this week to block insurers from charging California customers for $500 million in costs associated with the deadly Los Angeles fires. California’s insurance commission in February ordered insurers doing business in California to provide $1 billion to the FAIR Plan, the state’s insurer of last resort, to help it pay out claims related to the L.A. wildfires. The order allows insurers to recoup half the cost from its policyholders in the form of a onetime fee. The commissioner must approve the costs. The lawsuit, filed by Consumer Watchdog in Los Angeles, alleges Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara overstepped his authority …

As the Los Angeles area stares down the long recovery process from recent wildfires that burned thousands of homes, one architecture firm is trying to help by giving away one of its residential designs. New York-based Bonetti/Kozerski Architecture is donating all the architectural plans, sections, and 3D models of a fire-resistant home, potentially saving homeowners tens of thousands of dollars in design fees. “We were archiving unbuilt projects around the time of the Los Angeles fires, and we came across this idea that we had for a house on a coastal area,” says Enrico Bonetti, the firm’s cofounder. “We loved the floor plans and then we realized that the design, the …

Anthony Obi never imagined the night of Jan. 7 would be the last time he’d step inside his safe haven. The Houston rapper, known professionally as Fat Tony, has lived in the Altadena neighborhood for a year and says he and his neighbors were prepared for heavy winds and perhaps a few days of power outages. “I totally expected, you know, maybe my windows are going to get damaged, and I’ll come back in like a day or two and just clean it up,” said the rapper. But residents like Obi woke up the following morning to news that thousands of homes and entire neighborhoods had been burned to ash, destroyed by flames that wiped out large areas of Pacific Palisades and …

The one-bedroom cottage with a woodsy vibe reminded Heather McAlpine of the home she lost to the brutal Los Angeles-area wildfires. But only two hours after seeing the listing, the rental was snapped up. She is one of tens of thousands of people displaced by the fires who is now competing for housing in a region that is among the most expensive and competitive in the country, partly due to lack of supply. McAlpine, had lived in her Altadena house for four years and is now staying with her boyfriend. She isn’t surprised by spiking rents. “I know they’re expensive, and it sucks,” she said. Tenants who were just getting by before the fires now face a daunting housing sea…

The Labor Department said Wednesday that it will not be releasing a full jobs report for October because the 43-day federal government shutdown meant it couldn’t calculate the unemployment rate and some other key numbers. Instead, it will release some of the October jobs data — most importantly the number of jobs that employers created last month — along with the full November jobs report, now due a couple of weeks late on Dec. 16. The department’s “employment situation” report usually comes out the first Friday of the month. But the government shutdown disrupted data collection and delayed the release of the reports. For example, the September jobs report, now co…

In early 2023, a couple of months after ChatGPT launched and became the fastest-growing consumer application in history, I remember feeling both excited but also a bit overwhelmed by the rapid pace of AI. The barrage of news, product launches, and innovative use cases was relentless. We held an executive meeting at that time and decided to immediately reassign additional teams from other long-planned initiatives to double down on AI. We saw an opportunity to deliver even more value to our customers. My experience is not unique. Across the board, leaders have been aggressively implementing AI to improve productivity, lower costs, and improve communication—but the r…

The latest wave of tech layoffs doesn’t have to be a step backward—it can be a launchpad. If you’ve spent years shipping products, debugging systems, and partnering with go-to-market teams, you already have what many founders don’t: domain insight and a network. Pair that with AI “employees,” (role-specific software agents trained on your company’s data that can perform defined tasks like drafting on-brand content, qualifying leads, and updating CRMs) and your severance becomes seed capital for a lean, scalable company. What’s different now is that the traditional barriers to starting a business have collapsed. The math is transformative: What once required $500,000 …

In 2025, companies directly attributed 55,000 job cuts to artificial intelligence—more than 12 times the figure from just two years earlier. In 2026, the pace has only accelerated. Block eliminated 4,000 roles in a single announcement. Amazon cut 16,000 corporate positions. Meta, Atlassian, Pinterest . . . the list grows weekly. If you haven’t been affected yet, someone you know has. And whether driven by AI, a merger, a restructuring, or a strategic pivot, layoffs are no longer exceptional events. They’re a recurring feature of working life. Most layoff advice focuses on the mechanics: Update your résumé, optimize your LinkedIn profile, practice your exit story. …

The Lamborghini of baby strollers is literally a Lamborghini. Luxury carmaker Automobili Lamborghini is getting into baby gear by partnering with the British nursery brand Silver Cross for a limited-edition stroller called the Reef AL Arancio. Just 500 of the strollers will be made and each comes with a numbered edition plaque. Silver Cross calls it a “super stroller,” and it retails for about $5,000. [Image: Silver Cross] The stroller’s design borrows from the Lamborghini’s foundations, Silver Cross says, with an automotive-inspired brake pedal, hand-finished handlebar, and high-performance suede with Italian leather details. It comes with a high-gloss polycar…

A Los Angeles County jury on Wednesday found Meta and Google liable for harming a young woman who used their social media platforms. The landmark decision—which could have an impact on whether future cases can be brought against tech companies—marks a win for the case’s plaintiff, a 20-year-old woman identified only as KGM, who jurors said is entitled to $3 million in damages from Meta and Google. The woman filed the suit against Instagram’s parent company Meta and YouTube owner Google in 2023, alleging the platforms, and design of their apps, deliberately addict and harm children. The jury on Wednesday found those claims to have merit, and found that the compan…

The top prize in landscape architecture has just been awarded to Mexican designer Mario Schjetnan, a multifaceted landscape architect whose work has transformed parks across Mexico City and vastly expanded social housing projects across his home coountry. Schjetnan and his firm, Grupo de Diseño Urbano (GDU), were announced winners of the 2025 Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize, a biennial award from the Cultural Landscape Foundation recognizing the most influential and impactful practitioners in the field. Schjetnan and GDU have designed some of the most significant parks in Mexico, including Chapultepec Forest and Park, the se…

One more reminder about our upcoming online event: On Thursday, March 27, at 1 p.m. ET, my colleague Max Ufberg and I will host “The AI Tools We Love Right Now—and What’s Next,” exclusively for Fast Company Premium subscribers. We’ll discuss the AI-assisted productivity tools that are actually helping us get our jobs done, and where we’d like to see the whole category go. Fast Company Premium subscribers can RSVP here. And if you aren’t yet a subscriber, here’s where you can become one. Hope to see you there! It’s the World’s Most Innovative Companies week at Fast Company. Our annual ranking of organizations across 58 industries is live on our site, and bursting w…

Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers will resign from teaching at Harvard University amid a campus review of his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, the university announced Wednesday. Summers, who has been on leave since November and whose name appeared hundreds of times in newly released Epstein files, will leave at the end of the school year, according to a statement from Harvard spokesperson Jason Newton. “Professor Summers has announced that he will retire from his academic and faculty appointments at Harvard at the end of this academic year and will remain on leave until that time,” Newton said. In a statement, Summers said it was a difficult decision and e…