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America’s largest brick-and-mortar retailer is partnering with the country’s most prominent AI firm in the clearest signal yet that companies are hoping to boost their sales with artificial intelligence-assisted shopping tools. Today, Walmart and OpenAI announced a new partnership that will allow ChatGPT users to buy Walmart products directly from within the chatbot itself. Here’s what you need to know about the news, and how Walmart’s stock price is reacting. The Walmart-OpenAI deal explained Today, retail giant Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT) announced a major new deal with ChatGPT maker OpenAI. The deal will see the artificial intelligence firm’s chatbot gain t…

No, it’s not April Fools’ Day, but despite some erroneous reports that Walmart will be closing at least 11 stores across multiple states in 2025, Walmart says it will not be closing any of its stores this year. “There are no current plans to close any stores in 2025,” a spokesperson for Walmart told Fast Company. “The erroneous claim originated from a late March US Mirror story, and that article was updated following our call to the editors for a correction. Unfortunately, other outlets have incorrectly reported the store closures without checking with our team, leading us to seek corrections from them as well.” Some of those news outlets included MSN and The Huds…

It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s the next phase of expansion planned by Walmart and drone company Wing. The companies plan to roll out additional locations for drone delivery in metropolitan hubs like Los Angeles, St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Miami this year in what they call “the next chapter of the world’s largest drone delivery expansion.” This expansion adds to the 100 stores already planned in metro areas like Orlando and Houston. The drones are expected to start flying in the latter city this week. The expansion will increase Walmart and Wing’s network to more than 270 locations across the country in 2027. “Whether it’s a last-minute ingredient for dinner o…

If you’ve ever flipped over a Walmart snack or frozen pizza to check the ingredients list, the company’s about to make that label a whole lot cleaner. The retail giant just announced it’s giving its U.S. private food brands a major makeover, cutting out synthetic dyes and dozens of other additives you probably can’t pronounce. Altogether, the retailer is removing synthetic dyes and 30 ingredients from store brands including Bettergoods, Freshness Guaranteed, Great Value, and Marketside. Artificial sweeteners, certain preservatives, and fat substitutes are among the ingredients being phased out. The full list of every synthetic dye and ingredient being removed is …

It’s a historic day for both Walmart and the Nasdaq. Today, America’s largest brick-and-mortar retailer begins trading on the Nasdaq after its shares spent over half a century on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Here’s what you need to know about Walmart’s move to the Nasdaq. What’s happened? A week before Thanksgiving, Walmart announced that it would transfer its common stock listing from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to the Nasdaq Global Select Market. The move is historic for a few reasons. The first is that Walmart (Nasdaq: WMT) shares have traded on the NYSE since 1972—the last 53 years. Walmart went public in 1970, but traded on over-the-cou…

Major changes are afoot behind-the-scenes at Walmart. The retailer is cutting hundreds of jobs and shuttering its North Carolina office. Employees from certain locations are also being asked to move to its newly opened headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, and other central hubs. News of the shake up was first reported by Fox Business after Walmart Chief People Officer Donna Morris sent a memo detailing the cuts and other changes to employees. “We are making these changes to put key capabilities together, encouraging speed and shared understanding,” the memo, viewed by Fox read. “Through this review process, we have eliminated some roles as we streamline how we work…

If it seems like Black Friday deals, and holiday shopping in general, is starting earlier and earlier, you’re right. Just in time for, um, Halloween, both Walmart and Best Buy have announced plans for their 2025 Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. Black Friday, always the day after Thanksgiving, falls on Friday, November 28 this year. Deals generally continue through that weekend into Cyber Monday, which falls on December 1. However, in recent years, many retailers have jump-started the sales some two, or even three weeks leading up to Thanksgiving. And this year is no different. Here’s what to know. When do Walmart’s Black Friday deals start? The …

You might think of Walmart as America’s quintessential big box store—the place you can get everything from Hanes T-shirts to large screen TVs to cleats for your kid’s soccer uniform. But Walmart isn’t defying shaky consumer confidence because of the breadth of its offerings, which impressively stretches to 120,000 products at most stores. Customers aren’t flocking into stores to buy made-in-America T-shirts, as I wrote about in May, thanks to a novel partnership with American Giant. Or because it is adding more high-end products (at lower prices than you’d find anywhere else), as I covered in October in this profile of its chief merchant Latriece Watkins. Nor is …

Want a reason to be optimistic? The global food system is showing some green shoots that suggest more sustainable farming practices are on the way. But consumers play an integral role in making that a reality, and the choices they make every time they shop at the grocery store matter more than we may realize. That’s because farmers, companies, and consumers must all work together to create a more sustainable food system, according to Paul Rice, founder of Fair Trade USA, which certifies products to meet standards around fair pricing, safe working conditions, and sustainable farming practices. “We have the ability to vote with our dollars . . . to choose produ…

Lawrence Cappello is an award-winning professor of U.S. legal & constitutional history at the University of Alabama and a graduate of New York City Public Schools. He is the author of None of Your Damn Business: Privacy in the United States from the Gilded Age to the Digital Age (University of Chicago Press) and a certified information privacy professional (CIPP/US & CIPM). His work on the right to privacy has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The Economist, The Hill, and other media outlets. What’s the big idea? In an age of constant connectivity, privacy can feel like a thing of the past—but award-winning professor Lawrence Cappello makes…

AI is often sold as the ultimate productivity hack. Just imagine: the report you dreaded writing, drafted in seconds. The spreadsheet you didn’t want to touch, analyzed instantly. The code that once took you days, generated before lunch. For professionals who already struggle with overwhelm and the daily battle to manage their time, AI feels like salvation. At Lifehack Method, where we help clients master time management and build systems for living fulfilling, balanced lives, we see this every day. People are desperate for tools that promise to take the weight off their shoulders. AI seems like the next logical step in that search. There’s no denying the dopamine hit…

Tell me: Do things like this ever happen to you? You have clarity of purpose. You know what you need. You walk into another room to get it. Then, distraction hits, and you forget entirely what prompted you. Or else, you search the house for your car keys or your glasses, or your wallet. A good 10 minutes later, you realize they’ve been with you the whole time. You sit down to write an article about an intriguing study having to do with memory—if only you could remember what it was. Yes, these are highly personal anecdotes. But like all the best stories, I hope they’re simply the unique expression of universal truths. Perhaps second only to the fear of d…

If a City is going to operate a multimodal transportation system, then it helps to understand the motivations of people who continue to choose personal cars for their short trips. Bicycle advocates often talk about this in terms of “bike trips not taken” because of a lack of quality infrastructure. Survey after survey shows that many people opt out of cycling because of gaps in the bike lane network, busy intersections to cross, or other real or perceived pain points. And case study after case study shows that when cities create comfortable and convenient bike infrastructure, more people choose to ride bikes. There’s a similar issue with public transportation tha…

Here’s a common pattern in my house. See if it seems familiar to you. After my husband showers, he often forgets to put his dirty clothes in the hamper. This drives me batty, so I remind him to please pick them up. Again and again and again. We’ve been married for 15 years now and the result of all my nagging appears to be exactly zilch. Half the time I go in the bathroom there is a ball of socks and underwear on the floor. My husband is an otherwise thoughtful and considerate guy. So what’s going on? According to psychology research, the problem likely isn’t him. It’s my belief that nagging is an effective strategy to get another person to change their behavior…

Instacart’s artificial intelligence-enabled pricing may be increasing the cost of your groceries by as much as $1,200 a year, according to a new study published on Monday. Instacart is an online grocery delivery and pickup service that allows customers to order groceries from local stores by using its technology platform, via app or its website, and then fulfills those orders through a personal shopper. The investigation from Consumer Reports and Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive policy group, found that some identical products were priced differently from one customer to the next—sometimes by as much as 23%. One company executive reportedly called the tacti…

Our cognition and mental well-being are crucial factors for our quality of life and put us in a good position to contribute to society. Ultimately, it can be near impossible to achieve physical goals and demanding life challenges if our brain health is not optimal. Yet most of us appear to be more concerned with physical health than brain health. According to the YouGov website, the most popular New Year’s resolutions in the U.K. in 2024 were doing more exercise, saving money, losing weight and dieting—with about 20% reporting they were failing some resolutions just six days into the year. A large study of approximately 1,000 participants showed that mental health fea…

Two decades of coaching leaders and developing myself as a leader have taught me a key lesson: Leadership isn’t a destination. Just when you think you’ve reached the top of the mountain, look up—you’ll see another peak waiting. The truth is, there’s no secret sauce for leading yourself or others. Leadership is an ever-evolving process of learning and growing. The best leaders never stop evolving. Here are four lessons every great leader eventually learns. 1. Humility is a strength Humility is often mistaken for weakness. In one survey, more than half of fifth and sixth graders described humility as “embarrassed, sad, or shy.” Adults often confuse it with hu…

Leaders of today’s workplace recognize coaching as a core leadership skill. More and more companies are expecting managers to actively develop their employees and support their growth through regular development conversations. For leaders who embrace this responsibility, coaching can be incredibly rewarding. But it’s not always clear how to do it well. Most managers feel comfortable helping employees build technical skills or prepare them for their next role. But when it comes to coaching social and emotional skills, leadership qualities, or behavioral changes, many leaders get stuck. Because the path to success is less clear-cut, more complex, and requires sustained …