Hand sanitizer is one of the products that saw a dramatic spike in consumer demand during the pandemic, with sales peaking at $52 million each week in July 2020. The increased demand should have led to big business for Andrea Lisbona, who moved to the U.S. in 2018 to launch her hand sanitizer brand called Touchland. But the pandemic also upended the global supply chain, which meant she could not get the packaging and materials she needed to ship her Continue reading
Meat sticks have come a long way since the invention of the Slim Jim in 1929. Sales of the savory snack topped $3 billion in 2024, a jump of 10 percent compared to the previous year. More than 40 million households buy them annually, making meat sticks the fastest-growing category in snacks. These days, meat sticks come in all sorts of styles: short or long, fat or slim, snappy or soft. They’re made with bold flavors like jalapeno, taco, teriyaki, Continue reading
Although online shopping has been the norm for decades, oftentimes consumers still want to visit a physical store. Whether it’s trying on different sizes, comparing colors and styles, or simply browsing, there are some shopping activities that people prefer to do in person. When the pandemic upended supply chains, retailers responded by cutting back on the amount of inventory that went out to individual stores. Instead, they centralized inventory at distribution centers to make it easier and cheaper to respond Continue reading
When Match.com first launched in 1995, many users were wary about meeting strangers off of the Internet. The popularity of online dating steadily grew over the years, though, with the concept becoming more mainstream after 2013 when Tinder launched its famous “swipe” mechanism. Now it’s very common to find a love interest online. Today, one in 10 people with partners say they met their current partner on a dating site or app. That number is significantly higher for the lesbian, Continue reading
When the pandemic required nearly everyone to stay at home in 2020, the business world seemed to embrace remote work as a potential savior of productivity. Tech companies were especially quick to implement tools like videoconferencing and cloud computing that let employees work from anywhere. But all that’s changing as more companies start to require staffers to either spend more time in the office or else find a new job. The return-to-office trend sets up a potential culture clash with Continue reading
When Walt Disney built his world-famous theme parks, he envisioned them as affordable places for families to spend full days together in the dreamlike world of animated movies. In fact, one executive in the 1980s who tried to raise the price of parking by one dollar met stiff resistance from people who claimed the idea ran counter to Disney’s vision for The Happiest Place on Earth. Over time, though, prices rose steadily with inflation, until the COVID-19 pandemic brought everything Continue reading
This year, AI firms flocked to buy Super Bowl commercials, hoping to make a huge splash about their new products in a cost-effective way. A 30-second spot during Super Bowl LIX cost about $8 million, which may seem like a lot to pay for a short ad. Given that the massively popular game drew in more than 200 million viewers, however, a commercial’s cost-per-viewer actually amounts to less than a nickel. It’s incentives like these that motivated Google to use Continue reading
The breakfast chain Waffle House is famous for serving customers a cheap and hearty breakfast at any time of day. In fact, the 24-hour eatery is so reliable and affordable that emergency officials use it as an informal gauge for judging severe weather: if the area Waffle House is closed, then the natural disaster must be extremely severe. But one thing the famously dependable chain couldn’t predict is soaring egg prices, which have driven it to add a 50-cent Continue reading