For Walmart, rising tariffs and worries about a possible recession are major concerns. Those economic pressures could make it harder for the company to keep prices low, which is a big part of why shoppers choose Walmart in the first place. One thing that’s helping the company is its membership program, Walmart+. Members made up nearly half of all online spending on Walmart’s website and app last year. These customers shop more often and spend more money than those without Continue reading
Once considered to be products exclusively made for children, plush toy brands like Jellycat, Build-A-Bear, and Squishmallows are now seeing significant sales from millennial and Gen Z buyers. In 2024, more than 20 percent of all plush toy sales were made by adults purchasing for themselves. Post-pandemic stress, economic uncertainty, and the rise of self-care culture have all contributed to this shift. Plush toys are no longer framed as childish; instead, many see them as tools for comfort, emotional regulation, Continue reading
In the early 2000’s, finance companies got in trouble for targeting young people with gifts like pizza and free t-shirts in order to get them to apply for credit cards with high interest rates and big fees. These fee-heavy accounts made it easy to turn a small debt into a very large debt, leaving some college students bankrupt before they could start their careers. In 2010, the U.S. made it illegal to give free gifts for credit card applications. Since Continue reading
Baseball is known as “America’s Pastime,” but Japan has its own thriving baseball culture steeped in more than a century of tradition. Over the past 30 years, more Japanese players have come to the U.S. and Canada to join Major League Baseball, increasing the size of the league’s Japanese fanbase. Now that cultural exchange is paying off for the league with a whole new market for merchandise, ticket sales, and broadcast revenue. In 2024, MLB sponsorship revenue from Japan increased Continue reading
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