Within roughly the past six months alone, Swiftly expanded its alcohol rebate programs from about 11,000 stores to more than 33,000 stores in 44 states. Swiftly had built an alcohol cashback product in 2023 but scaled it through the acquisition of alcohol promotions platform BYBE in 2024.
Going to the grocery store can be a wonderful time, but it can also be overwhelming and financially draining. This is also how I feel about technology; I sometimes love it, and sometimes I feel like it came into this world specifically to cause frustration. However, sometimes your grocery shopping experience and your electronic devices can work together in harmony. How are those two things related, you ask? Thanks to a program at Costco, you can easily turn your unwanted electronic devices into money
Estate sales typically last for three days over a weekend: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Since sellers are eager to move product, they will often discount items as the days progress. Friday is full price, Saturday is 25% off, and Sunday is 50% off. This can vary, depending on the estate sale, but since the ultimate goal is to clear a space and sell as much as possible, you can usually count on steeper discounts the longer the sale continues.
Saks OFF 5th is closing its Assembly Row store in Somerville and its outlet in Wrentham as its parent company, Saks Global, files for bankruptcy. On Thursday, the company announced it will shutter most of its Saks OFF 5th locations and all remaining Last Call stores, shifting its focus to luxury retail and full-price operations. The company began closing sales at certain Saks OFF 5th stores starting Saturday.
We live in a world where spending freely is often seen as a sign of success. Flash your credit card without checking the price tag, and you're "living your best life." But here's what I've learned after running my own businesses and studying consumer behavior: The shopping habits that look "cheap" are actually the ones that separate the financially intelligent from those drowning in debt. The truth? Those "cheap" behaviors are about discipline, long-term thinking, and understanding the real value of money.
When a transaction involves a cost, we instinctively weigh the downside. But when something is entirely free, we experience a positive emotion and perceive the offer as more valuable than it is mathematically. Retailers no doubt realise that offering free delivery is one of the most effective ways to stop a consumer from abandoning a digital shopping cart.
You're scrolling through an online retailer, like Amazon, Shein or eBay, and spot a shirt on sale for $40. You add it to your cart, but at checkout, a $10 shipping fee suddenly appears. Frustrated, you close the tab. But what if that same shirt was priced at $50 with free shipping? The likelihood that you would have bought it without a second thought is much higher.
If you're feeling anxious about the economy, you're not alone. Consumer confidence is at its lowest in more than a decade. Americans are worried about inflation, a possible recession, and job security-and that anxiety is reshaping how they spend. Even high earners are pulling back. Households are cutting big-ticket indulgences like vacations, fine dining, and designer fashion and redirecting spending toward essentials like groceries and personal care.
Markup is how much you add to your cost to get your selling price. If something costs $10 and you sell it for $15 , you added $5. That's a 50 percent markup on your cost. Where people get confused is that markup isn't the same as margin, even though the terms get used interchangeably all the time. Margin measures profit as a percentage of the selling price, and markup measures it based on your costs. Same dollar, different percentages.
Specifically, the technology that helped retail brands sell unsold or excess products (off-channel inventory) wasn't as sophisticated as it could have been. Brands sell their excess inventory at discount retailers like Nordstrom Rack, but often lose money because managing unsold inventory is difficult. Products are spread across warehouses, and teams are left guessing the value of an item and when the best time to sell it is.