The fix, he told me, was temporary - he didn't have the right part and couldn't get it. This experience revealed a broader shift in how modern products are designed, sold, and owned - one that increasingly treats repair as optional and replacement as inevitable.
Fatih Birol, president of the International Energy Agency, warned that the war in Iran is the greatest threat to energy security in history, with analysts describing the situation as an Armageddon.
In the nineteenth century, entire railway networks became obsolete almost overnight, not due to physical deterioration, but because of changes in the technical standards that supported them. The expansion of railroads across Europe and North America adopted different track gauges, and as a dominant standard gradually emerged, these infrastructures became incompatible with one another.
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.
Crude oil is a complex mixture of hydrocarbons - molecules made mainly of carbon and hydrogen. Refineries and chemical plants separate and transform these molecules into smaller chemical building blocks known as petrochemicals. Some of the most important petrochemical building blocks include chemicals such as ethylene, propylene and benzene.
If your client pauses your services, it could mean that they're facing financial difficulty and by offering further collaboration, could potentially help the business - in the end, we're all going through this together. In terms of maintaining your relationship your team could offer consultancy at no extra cost.
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.
Honda said it expects to write off up to 2.5 trillion yen - roughly $15.7 billion - as it reshapes its North American EV strategy. Honda expects the charge will push profits into the red in 2026, marking its first annual loss in nearly 7 decades.
Hyundai is planning to discontinue its Ioniq 6 electric sedan from its U.S. lineup. The svelte sedan was a hit among electric vehicle enthusiasts and design aficionados, but it never sold as well as its crossover sibling, the Ioniq 5. Model year 2025 Ioniq 6 will continue to be available, but Hyundai will no longer ship the MY2026 versions to the U.S.
Most businesses, which includes modern ones, invest heavily in technology, but they rarely plan for its eventual and inevitable exit strategy. Generally speaking, companies spend millions on the latest hardware while overlooking the critical phase when those assets reach their end. This lack of planning creates a massive gap in the operational lifecycle of many otherwise successful global organizations. Decisions made at the end of a device's life carry real business risks that can impact the bottom line financially and environmentally speaking.
Affordability is the primary driver in the secondhand segment, the analyst says, with around 40 percent of sales driven by budget-conscious users shopping in the €200 to €300 price band for laptops. The €300 to €400 tier is also expanding - representing 23 percent of the refurbished market, up from 15 percent a year earlier - indicating some buyers are prepared to spend a bit more for improved specifications.
My grandmother's refrigerator ran for forty years. The washing machine she bought in the 1970s? Still spinning when she passed away. Meanwhile, I'm on my third coffee maker in five years, and don't get me started on the laptop that mysteriously died two weeks after the warranty expired. This isn't just bad luck or nostalgia talking. There's something fundamentally different about how products are made today versus decades ago.
For a world economy driven by consumerism, it's become markedly unkind to consumers. This goes double - literally - for digital tech, where memory prices have increased by between 100 and 250 percent in six months. If you think GPUs are pricey now, you'll only have to wait six weeks, during which both AMD and Nvidia are expected to demonstrate supply-side economics much as the Road Runner demonstrated gravity to Wile E Coyote.
Generative AI exponentially brings down the cost of building solutions. It lets people build exactly what they need to solve an exact problem in an exact moment. It lets people own their own solutions. This is great for a lot of specific problems that need specific solutions that wouldn't normally get solved easily. This has been the evergreen promise of computers and programming and hacking. But there's a difference between solving your specific problem, and owning a problem domain.
The age of smartphones that were traded in reached a record high during the 2025 upgrade cycle, according to a new report from Circana and B-Stock. Most of the devices traded in were at least three generations old, yet even older phones are in high demand on a global basis. As of October 2025, nearly 11% of U.S. consumers own a pre-owned smartphone, with almost one-third (30%) of those being certified pre-owned (CPO) models.
Although De Noire is based in Europe, she believes that economic upheaval in the United States "triggers huge uncertainty" across the pond because of America's global influence. De Noire first noticed a decline in business right after Donald Trump was elected in November 2024, as Americans and the rest of the world anticipated upheaval. "I didn't even bother working South by Southwest because the first Friday night I attempted to work, I walked into a completely empty club and didn't make any money at all,"
To achieve ambitious targets during continued economic uncertainty, marketing strategies must evolve and adapt. This begs the question: how do we need to adjust our plans to better serve our consumer's needs? Let's first hone in on the biggest challenges we're currently facing as an industry. Understanding your customer and their needs Consumer shopping behavior is vastly different now than in 2019 and, while looking back on past data is still essential, we can't use it as robustly to predict trends.
Smartphone shipments have been falling for the last nine months in the U.S. The concerning trend has affected the majority of smartphone manufacturers. But despite the downturn, phone makers are optimistic for a few valid reasons. The US smartphone market shrunk by 24 percent year-over-year in Q2 this year. Let's look at how the leading smartphone manufacturers have fared, and how they are trying to wade through the uncertain times.
Statistics from the 2025 holiday shopping season clearly show that AI is playing a huge role in how people shop. But new research from retail payment platform Adyen found that many consumers are ready for AI to become their personal shopper. Just over half-51%-said they're open to letting AI take over the entire shopping process, including making final purchases. Millennials are the most willing to let agents do their shopping, with nearly three in five saying they are ready for such a shift.
Sensible businesses will be scrutinizing outgoings now more than ever. With clients looking to claw back profits eroded by spiralling inflation, marketing investment (not to mention your fees) will be up for debate, whether you like it or not. Frustratingly, validating the success of marketing investments is becoming more difficult. We're facing an attribution crisis, and many marketers are struggling to prove the value of each channel or campaign due to the numerous challenges brought about by increased privacy constraints,
The report, issued by the Commerce Department on Tuesday, surprised economists who were looking for growth despite mounting concerns about slowing job growth, uncertainty about President Donald Trump's tariffs and other economic headwinds. And it raised questions about shoppers' ability to spend after they have remained resilient for months despite souring consumer confidence, economists said.
Discounting has been part of retail's toolkit for decades, and it can be effective, especially during high-stakes shopping seasons. But as promotions become more frequent across the industry, companies are taking a closer look at the downside: Short-term sales gains don't always come with long-term loyalty or durable margins, and customers remember how a brand made them feel far more than what they saved at checkout.
For the better part of the last century, America's largest consumer packaged goods companies ran an undefeated business playbook. All of the iconic consumer brands of our lifetimes- Coca-Cola, Lay's, Cheerios, Oreos, and more--were built on a simple, three-part formula. First, generate massive demand by placing huge national ad buys. Next, create ubiquity by stocking the brand across every conceivable grocery store shelf. Third, harvest as much profit as possible through the economies of scale created by giant production runs.
