Source: ChatGPT
Photo: ChatGPT

Every February, Americans enjoy a long weekend known as Presidents’ Day. For many, it’s a time for retail sales, winter getaways, and a break from work or school. But the origins of the holiday are rooted in the life and legacy of one man: George Washington.

Let’s take a closer look at how Presidents’ Day began, how it evolved, and what it represents today.

The Origins: Honoring George Washington

The story begins with George Washington, born on February 22, 1732. As the first President of the United States and the commanding general of the Continental Army during the American Revolution, Washington became a symbol of national unity and leadership.

Even during his lifetime, Americans celebrated his birthday. After his death in 1799, February 22 became a day of remembrance. In 1879, Congress made Washington’s Birthday a federal holiday for government offices in Washington, D.C. By 1885, it was expanded to include the entire country—making it one of the first federal holidays to honor an individual American.

Abraham Lincoln and February Celebrations

Another towering presidential figure also had a February birthday: Abraham Lincoln, born on February 12, 1809. Lincoln, who led the nation through the Civil War and issued the Emancipation Proclamation, became one of the most admired presidents in U.S. history.

Although Lincoln’s birthday was never established as a federal holiday, many states observed it separately. Over time, celebrations of Washington and Lincoln began to blend, especially since their birthdays were so close together.

The Uniform Monday Holiday Act

The modern version of Presidents’ Day took shape in 1971 with the passage of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. This law aimed to provide more three-day weekends for the nation’s workers by moving certain federal holidays to Mondays.

As a result, Washington’s Birthday was shifted from February 22 to the third Monday in February. Interestingly, this means the holiday can never actually fall on February 22.

There was discussion at the time about officially renaming the holiday “Presidents’ Day” to honor both Washington and Lincoln. While Congress never formally changed the name at the federal level—it is still legally called “Washington’s Birthday”—the term “Presidents’ Day” became widely used in popular culture and by many states.

Presidents’ Day Today

Today, Presidents’ Day is generally understood as a time to honor all U.S. presidents—past and present. Schools often use the holiday to teach students about presidential history, leadership, and civic responsibility.
In cities like Alexandria—Washington’s adopted hometown—celebrations can include parades, historical reenactments, and educational programs. Meanwhile, across the country, businesses have turned the long weekend into one of the biggest retail sales events of the year.

Why It Matters

Presidents’ Day reflects more than just a date on the calendar. It represents the evolving story of the American presidency and the individuals who have shaped the nation’s course.

From Washington’s precedent-setting leadership to Lincoln’s preservation of the Union—and beyond—the holiday offers a moment to reflect on the responsibilities and challenges of the office.

Whether you spend the day shopping, relaxing, or diving into history, Presidents’ Day remains a uniquely American tradition rooted in respect for leadership, democracy, and the enduring legacy of the presidency.

Source: Fast Company, Hunter Schwarz
Photo: Spangler Candy Company

Thank the Sweethearts index.

Valentine’s Day may seem romantic, but to candy companies, it’s serious business. Our annual ode to St. Valentine is one of the most important and competitive days on candy company calendars, and every year, confectioners roll out special-edition heart-shaped chocolate bars and other product innovations to capture consumers’ dollars (nevermind hearts).

When it comes to speaking to modern courtship, though, one candy brand has a unique leg up on the competition—and it’s built into the candy itself. Sweethearts were designed to be updated.

The pastel-colored conversation hearts stay relevant year over year because their embossed messages can be easily and quickly updated, transforming a generic shape into a crunchy candy canvas that’s adaptable to the moment. That makes the face of these tiny hearts some of the most valuable real estate in the Valentine’s Day candy landscape, because the right quip could convert a passerby into a sale. And this year, their newest messages are all about the struggles of dating in today’s economy.

Sweethearts’s latest sayings have been dubbed “Love in This Economy” after an online survey that the brand’s owner, the family-owned, Ohio-based Spangler Candy Company, conducted last December of 2,000 Gen Z and millennials who are single, casually dating, or in a serious relationship, making an edible sort of consumer sentiment index.

The candy company’s survey found 80% of respondents said the economy was impacting their Valentine’s Day plans. Their new two-line messages, then—”Split Rent,” “Share Logn,” “Car Poll,” “Buy N Bulk,” and “Cook For 2″—reflect the realities of dating and courtship during a time of high prices, persistent inflation, and low consumer confidence.

But just because the company has introduced new messages doesn’t mean it’s abandoned more evergreen ones. “We’re careful about evolving the sayings because Sweethearts must be both nostalgic and new,” Spangler Candy Company vice president of marketing Evan Brock tells Fast Company.

Classic messages like “Marry Me,” “Cutie Pie,” and “Ooo La La” are included every year, while new sayings reflect how people express affection and connection today, she says. “Our role is to strike a balance between enduring tradition and modern expression.”

Some of the original messages stamped into the first Sweethearts from 1902 were “Be Mine,” “Be True,” and “Kiss Me,” according to Smithsonian Magazine. But over the years, the candy has been updated with the times. “Fax Me” turned into “Text Me,” and in 2024, the candies were purposefully misprinted to symbolize the confusion and mixed messages of situationships.

Unlike M&Ms or Skittles, which use the surface of their candy shells to display their visual brands, Sweethearts has more flexibility to adapt to culture. But even so, it’s thoughtful about adding new sayings. Embossing the hearts is a highly coordinated process that involves engraving new phrases onto custom-made printing plates that will stamp the words onto each individual candy.

There’s no understating how important Valentine’s Day is for candy sales. Along with Easter, Halloween, and the winter holiday season, the four holidays generate a whopping 62% of annual sales for the $54 billion confectionery industry, according to the National Confectioners Association.

For Sweethearts, it’s practically the whole ballgame, since no one’s buying conversation hearts for Christmas. By tapping into current events and changing trends in courtship, the more-than-a-century-old brand is resonating with Valentine’s Day now.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hunter Schwarz is a Fast Company contributor who covers the intersection of design and advertising, branding, business, civics, fashion, fonts, packaging, politics, sports, and technology.. Hunter is the author of Yello, a newsletter about political persuasion.

https://www.fastcompany.com/91489503/sweethearts-has-the-most-valuable-real-estate-in-all-valentines-day-candy

Source: ModernRetail, Mitchell Parton
Photo: Courtesy of Michaels

The closure of Party City in late 2024 left a huge gap in the parties and events space. Executives at Michaels saw an opportunity.

“There was nobody else in North America that did exactly what Party City did, and we felt like we had the opportunity and the position to really meet that need,” Nicholas Bertram, president and COO at Michaels, told Modern Retail in a new interview.

Last year, Michaels added “The Party Shop” to its stores with a dedicated “Balloon Bar” that blows up latex and foil balloons in stores. The company added 700 new products, such as balloon arch kits, tableware and themed paper products to its selection. Previously, the company had packaged balloons, but the inflation service was new to many stores.

This is on top of the company’s simultaneous effort to also replace Joann’s space in the fabrics market. The company’s new CEO David Boone told Modern Retail last year that the focus of Michaels since he joined has been to seize on opportunities in the market such as party, celebrations, knit-and-sew and balloons.

“Of all the things that I’ve done in my career, moving at this pace is not something that I can say I’ve experienced before,” Bertram said. “Once we really wanted to establish ourselves as the destination for celebrating, that required going all in on balloon and balloon inflation.”

Bertram added that, with around 1,300 locations, Michaels has more stores than Party City’s 700. “Our footprint allowed us to be in even more communities,” he said. “We just needed both the product and also the expertise in order to bring it to life.”

The balloon business is more complicated than it may seem, Bertram said. He added that the company had to create an entire helium network that didn’t exist in the past, negotiating and diversifying its helium supply with various wells, providers and brokers to avoid helium shortages. The company also had to train, teach, purchase equipment and change layouts to make way for the new party shop.

Michaels also added dedicated hours to staff the balloon bar, with the amount depending on volume. Bertram said it even had overnight shifts for New Year’s Eve and plans to do the same for graduation in some markets.

The company just launched time-based balloon reservations, adding to the balloon pickup and delivery services it rolled out last year. “We’re actually very intentionally and methodically making sure that the experience is a good one for customers, however they want to engage with us,” Bertram said.

The ability to schedule pickup times for inflated balloons, Bertram said, has unlocked new commercial business for the company, including with other retailers and restaurants. Some of the orders will be for hundreds, if not thousands, of balloons.

Bertram said the company already sees the need for more space in the stores to service the balloon business, or a larger balloon bar.

Walter Holbrook, a retail consultant and former Kmart executive, imagines Target, Walmart and Dollar Tree to be its main competitors for party supplies. Target added pre-filled balloons late last year.

Still, he said the retailer could better use its space to expand the party selection. At Holbrook’s local Michaelsstore in Florida, he added, a large portion of the store remains dedicated to discounted Christmas merchandise.

“If I were them, I would have moved The Party Shop up front to take advantage of all of the Christmas and New Year’s parties that would be taking place in the last part of December. I thought they missed an opportunity there; they had a lot of empty counters,” Holbrook said.

“Michaels has the opportunity here, if they play it right, to be the dominant focus for this party merchandise and use their floor space to drive that marketing and promotional piece,” he added.

https://www.modernretail.co/operations/how-michaels-moved-quickly-after-the-closure-of-party-city-to-become-a-balloon-and-party-giant

Source: Fast Company, Grace Snelling
Photo: Alex Kormann/The Minnesota Star Tribune/Getty Images

Icetracking.org is a new database that offers a macro look at the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

As the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration continues, keeping up with Immigrations and Custom Enforcement can feel like navigating a maze. From stories of agents raiding worksites and taking children in broad daylight to reported plans for new detention centers, the daily onslaught of alarming news makes it difficult to see the full picture of ICE’s actions at any given moment.

Data journalist Michael Sparks is working on a solution. Sparks is a cartographer and coding editor at the Outlaw Ocean Project, a nonprofit journalism organization producing investigative stories about human rights, labor, and environmental concerns at sea. He’s applied skills from that role to create a new investigative database, “The Machinery of Mass Detention: A Record of What Has Been Lost,” designed as a centralized place to get updates on ICE’s movements.

The database, which is housed at icetracking.org, includes continuously updating sections that track statistics like the total number of people currently detained by the U.S., the percentage of people held in ICE facilities with no criminal record, and the number of people who have died in ICE custody in the past month and year. The information is presented in succinct sections with citations from major news outlets that are easily fact-checked.

Icetracking.org is a devastating but necessary resource to keep the public informed on the state of the administration’s immigration crackdown from a macro perspective, rather than simply in constant bursts of new information.

How one data journalist is keeping track of ICE

In his day job at the Outlaw Ocean Project, Sparks uses tens of thousands of government documents, news articles, and social media posts to build databases of environmental and human rights abuses at sea. Before that, he served as a product developer at The New York Times for four years, where he honed his data storytelling skills. Sparks says he felt compelled to use his skillset to hold power to account after Minneapolis residents Renee Good and Alex Pretti were killed by ICE officers in January.

“I knew there was another vast amount of cruelty happening all over the country, and wanted people to realize that,” he says.

Sparks took a little less than three weeks from starting the site to debuting it this week. It’s essentially a database composed of aggregated reports and stories from national outlets like The New York Times, The Washington Post, and CBS News, as well as local sources like Tulsa World, Houston Chronicle, and The Minnesota Star Tribune.

The tracker’s code is programmed to send Sparks a list of relevant articles from these trusted sites every 48 hours, which he then manually approves or rejects, writes up a summary, and uses to update the site.

In a memo at the bottom of the site, Sparks emphasizes the human toll behind the database: “What the numbers cannot capture is the texture of individual lives disrupted—the five-year-old taken from his walk home from school, the nurse shot dead while filming a protest, the grandmother detained at a routine government appointment. These cases, documented in the sections that follow, are not abstractions. They are the human particulars of a policy that has reshaped the landscape of American civil liberties.”

“I want people to feel emotion and be motivated to act”

Icetracking.org’s true impact rests in the way it displays information. Sparks says he pulled inspiration from The New Yorker’s UX for his design, opting for a simple color palette of white and black with pops of red for the most important information, and organizing the whole page into clear sections.

When people first open icetracking.org, they see a succinct layout of seven key statistics, including the total number of people currently detained by ICE (around 73,000); the percentage of those being held with no criminal convictions (73.6%); and the number of people who died in ICE custody in 2025 (32, with 2026 expected to be even worse). Sparks says he updates these statistics any time one of his trusted sources publishes a new estimate.

Users can then navigate to a header bar, organized by sections, for more information on each of the categories. Each subcategory similarly opens with a layout of the most significant statistics, followed by links to top articles. For one section, titled “Corporate Network: Who Profits From ICE,” Sparks created a color-coded chart to track the kinds of companies that have provided funding or support to ICE, as well as the scale of their contributions. These include the detention facility contractor GEO Group, the AI technologies company Palantir, and the tactical communications service CACI International.

“The corporate network felt super important,” Sparks says. “These are detention ‘networks.’ Donald Trump and Stephen Miller are not doing this themselves. This section deserves a lot more reporting that, in an ideal world, I could do.”

So far, Sparks says, the reaction to the tool has been a mix of gratitude and horror at seeing this information presented in one place. “To be honest, that’s the kind of response I’m looking for,” he says. “I want people to feel emotion and be motivated to act.”

The preferred-rate deadline for Fast Company’s Best Workplaces for Innovators Awards is Friday, February 20, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply today.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Grace Snelling is an editorial assistant for Fast Company with a focus on product design, branding, art, and all things Gen Z. Her stories have included an exploration into the wacky world of Duolingo’s famous mascot, an interview with the New Yorker’s art editor about the scramble to prepare a cover image of Donald Trump post-2024 election, and an analysis of how the pineapple became the ultimate sex symbol.

https://www.fastcompany.com/91488032/this-simple-site-makes-it-easy-to-track-ices-impact

Source: Fast Company, Megan Carnegie
Photo: Freepik

Recent graduates are clearly not okay—but neither are the companies that decided they could do without them.

Isaac, 33, has been a mid-level software development engineer at a Big Tech firm for four years, and noticed entry-level job postings dropping at his workplace at the start of 2025. The work, however, didn’t vanish with them. Tasks once handled by junior engineers—like writing and testing code, fixing bugs, and contributing to development projects—were absorbed by senior staff, often with the assumption that AI would make up the difference.

And while AI has sped up the velocity of shipping code and features, there are fewer people to do tasks like designing, testing, and working with stakeholders, which AI has zero grasp on. The cracks have been hard to ignore. “Seniors are burning out, and when they leave, there’s no rush to replace them, because ‘the AI will do it’!” Isaac says. Worried that he’ll become the next strung-out senior, he’s looking for his exit, ideally at a smaller tech firm. (Isaac spoke to Fast Company under a pseudonym to avoid possible retaliation.)

The shift is striking, given how recently corporate America was courting Gen Z with fanatic fervor. Organizations raced to prove they understood younger employees. They flooded LinkedIn with thought leadership on the multigenerational workplace of the future, and retooled benefits programs to include wellness stipends and mental health days. Reverse mentorship programs, through which younger employees share knowledge and perspectives with more senior colleagues—touted by companies like Target, Accenture, and PwC—promised to give junior employees a voice in shaping culture and strategy. Some firms even brought Gen Z voices into the boardroom.

Yet now, in the case of firms like Isaac’s, entry-level workers, once heralded as essential to innovation and growth, are struggling to get a toe—let alone a foot—in the door. Internships, starter jobs, and junior roles, the indispensable on-ramps to white-collar careers, have been evaporating for several years due to cost pressures and post-pandemic belt-tightening. Since 2023, entry-level job postings in the U.S. have sunk 35%, according to labor research firm Revelio Labs.

The advent of AI is accelerating the entry-level apocalypse. Two-fifths of global leaders revealed that entry-level roles have already been reduced or cut due to efficiencies made by AI conducting research, admin, and briefing tasks, and 43% expect this to happen in the next year.

“While there’s steady hiring or even growth in the skilled trades, we’re seeing entry-level vacancies fall significantly in tech and customer service and sales roles,” says Mona Mourshed, founder of the workplace development nonprofit Generation. “Being in the business of training and placing people into entry-level roles, we find it deeply concerning.” Graduates are clearly not okay—but neither are the companies that decided they could do without them.

AI at work: the supercar with no driver

The logic was seductive in its simplicity. Cut costs, move faster, shrink training budgets, let AI and a leaner workforce handle the rest. In reality, it’s producing something else entirely: flattened teams with little agency, endless cycles of rework, and exhausted senior employees juggling all task levels at once.

One redditor who posted about how their company has stopped hiring entry-level engineers, received hundreds of other responses as others chiming in with similar stories. One commenter noted: “Not sure what the plan will be after the knowledge transfer is over.”

Isaac has watched this dynamic unfold firsthand. Leaders at his company see AI as a force multiplier, and are fixated on shipping features quickly. Isaac can see their point: “[AI] can straight up write better, faster, more legible code than most developers,” he admits. However, he points out, “any seasoned engineer knows the hard part isn’t writing the code, it’s the design and testing.” Yet, there’s far fewer people to delegate this work to, so senior developers are left to do this on their own.

Compounding the problem is the fact that AI doesn’t understand the problem it’s meant to solve. Left unchecked, it can go rogue. Isaac recalls multiple instances of chatbots deleting production stacks—unprompted—because they couldn’t figure out how to solve an issue. “Without an expert who knows how to prompt and guide it, AI is just a supercar with no driver,” he says. The team has seen their workload steadily increase in line with automation, so the time savings it creates have had little impact. Many seniors have checked out, with several burned out engineers signed off for medical leave.

Research from the project management platform Asana underscores this growing “efficiency illusion.” While 77% of workers are already using AI agents and expect to hand more off to them in the next year, nearly two-thirds say the tools are unreliable, and more than half say agents confidently produce incorrect or misleading information. The result is time down the drain: a U.S. study found that employees are spending an extra 4.5 hours a week fixing AI workslop.

“AI can make work look faster on the surface, but it can also create a lot of cleanup work—double-checking outputs, correcting errors, and redoing steps that were based on faulty information,” Mark Hoffman, Asana’s Work Innovation Lead, tells Fast Company. When something goes wrong, accountability is murky, he adds, and the responsibility often falls back on the employee to catch errors, explain outcomes, and manage the risk. It’s driving up already record-high levels of burnout; 77% of knowledge workers say their workloads are unmanageable, and 84% are digitally exhausted.

When errors slip through, the consequences are costly and embarrassing. Three-quarters of Americans report at least one negative consequence from poor AI outputs, including work rejected by stakeholders (28%), security incidents (27%), and customer complaints (25%). In October, Deloitte was forced to refund the Australian Department of Employment and Workplace Relations after a report was found to contain AI hallucinations and workslop. In the past, newbie consultants would have handled tasks such as this. However, notably, Deloitte cut its graduate cohort by 18% and slashed hundreds of early-career roles earlier that summer.

The demographic time bomb

Not only are workloads increasing, by hollowing out their junior ranks, businesses are putting themselves squarely in the path of a slow-burning demographic time bomb as seniors begin to retire in record numbers.

From 2024 to 2032, 18.4 million experienced workers age 55 to 64 with postsecondary education are expected to retire, but only 13.8 million younger workers (currently age 16 to 24) are entering with equivalent qualifications. Even in an AI-powered economy, where certain jobs will be automated, companies still need humans with judgment-, context-, institutional-, and sector-specific insight.

Yet plenty are making moves—at least for today—to wipe out the training ground that turns beginners into experts.

“There won’t be an endless supply of experienced hires to fall back on, so everyone will be fighting for the limited, increasingly expensive talent with domain expertise,” says Cali Williams Yost, futurist and founder of flexible-work consulting firm Flex+Strategy Group. “Companies have maybe five years to train younger workers to take over and gain the niche knowledge, so AI has something to augment.”

Moe Hutt, an entry-level recruitment marketing expert and director of consulting at recruitment marketing agency HireClix, has watched clients scale back or abandon entry-level hiring, citing AI-aided workflows and economic uncertainty. Hutt points to the less visible fallout within organizations beyond damaging the talent pipeline. “It’s human nature to want to help,” she says. “When there’s no release valve of training juniors, it creates friction everywhere.”

For middle and senior management, delegating, teaching, and watching someone grow is a reward for the experience. Research consistently shows that sharing knowledge and mentoring improves motivation, boosts psychological well-being, and reduces burnout among experienced employees. With no one to train or teach, disengagement spreads, eroding a workforce where most people have already checked out.

Being AI-savvy and being prepared for the demographic cliff aren’t mutually exclusive. Organizations can build pro-worker environments where employees are augmented with AI, without hollowing out their future talent pipelines. PwC—admittedly, another firm which has been open about its cuts to entry-level recruiting, at least in the U.K.—is experimenting with what that balance could look like by training junior accountants to become managers of AI. Entry-level employees gain early exposure to leadership and accountability, while the firm builds a cache of managers that are fluent in both human judgment and machine output. It’s proof that efficiency and succession planning can coexist.

This matters because disappearing entry-level jobs aren’t just a problem for the corporate workforce—it will be a societal crisis, too. A functioning society depends on younger generations steadily taking over from older ones.

AI might be able to write the code, but without people trained to guide it, question it, and eventually replace their elders, there will be no one left to keep the lights on.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Megan Carnegie is a London-based freelance journalist who specialises in writing features about the world of technology, work, and business for publications like WIRED, Business Insider, Digital Frontier and BBC. Her work is underpinned by a desire to investigate what’s not working in the working world, and how more equitable conditions can be secured for workers—whatever their industry.

https://www.fastcompany.com/91483431/companies-replaced-entry-level-workers-with-ai

Source: ModernRetail, Julia Waldow
Photo: Courtesy of Goodwill

After achieving record revenue in 2025, Goodwill Industries International Inc. expects 2026 to be its most lucrative year yet.

Goodwill made approximately $7 billion in revenue in 2025, making it “the best year” in the company’s nearly 125-year history, David Eagles, Goodwill’s COO, told Modern Retail. As part of that, Goodwill processed 300 million shopping transactions, thanks to a rising number of consumers looking for low-cost, unique items. Goodwill’s online marketplace, ShopGoodwill.com, also logged its best year in 2025, achieving $450 million in gross merchandise value.

Now, Goodwill is charging ahead on growth plans for 2026, especially as it courts new donors, new customers and even new corporate partners. “We expect 2026 to be our biggest year yet,” Eagles said. To help with this goal, Goodwill is planning some 100 new locations for 2026, especially larger-format ones. Goodwill will use these stores to take in, sort and sell merchandise like clothes and furniture. It will move seasonal items to locations across its network, so as not to get bogged down by inventory.

A charitable organization founded in 1902, Goodwill is a federation of more than 150 independent Goodwill organizations across the U.S. and Canada. It sells donated items in more than 3,000 outlets and retail stores, as well as through e-commerce. Goodwill uses that revenue to create job-training programs and provide resources to those looking to build their careers. The company is also working to position itself as a bigger player in recycling and remanufacturing, especially as it competes with branded resale.

Eagles shared more about the company’s plans for the year ahead with Modern Retail. The below excerpts have been edited for length and clarity.

How do you view the state of the Goodwill consumer?

“What we’ve observed in some of our data is that, at the top end, people are being really selective. Everywhere else, in most of our segments, value matters more than ever. And because of that, secondhand is one of the fastest-growing places that consumers are going. We’ve seen a lot of momentum, both from where we are in the economy, but also, there’s been a multi-year trend where secondhand has moved from being a niche choice to a mainstream choice, especially for younger consumers, which is really exciting.

Younger consumers now don’t think secondhand is second best. For them, it’s smart, it’s sustainable, it’s personal, it’s local. … Over two-thirds of Gen Z and millennials bought some secondhand apparel last year. We saw, even during the holidays, some uptick, where a lot of gift budgets were in resale. … We’re also pleased that there’s a lot more diversity on the income side as people are looking for treasure hunts and value.”

How was last year, performance-wise, at Goodwill?

“2025 was the best year in our history, and we’re [almost] 125 years old. We have seen record revenues, record donations, record store transactions and — for us, what’s most exciting — record margin dollars. Now, we don’t mean margin in the for-profit sense. Our margin goes to our mission, and that’s supporting 2 million people per year and helping 130,000 or so [people] get placed into sustainable careers.

We’ve seen this [past] year accelerate for us, even quarter by quarter. … We expect our retail revenue to be over $7 billion in 2025. We’re looking at close to 120 million donation counts. That means 120 million different points where people have donated their items. We expect nearly 300 million shopping transactions in our stores [for 2025].”

Do you plan to build more stores this year?

“We’re at about 3,400 stores right now in the U.S. and Canada. We expect to probably open over 100 stores this year. Of course, we’ll close some, too, so that number will be different [in its final form]. … We’re always trying to optimize that footprint. And retail, overall, is changing. … That’s part of that normal churn that you’d see [with stores].”

Are you looking to have bigger square footage, for future stores?

“If you look across our network, we will see some larger-store formats. Getting fresh and great products out quickly is really important for the shopper. [You want a] diversity of products and experience to really get that treasure hunt. So, the larger format does tend to work. You obviously have to have a very established donor base. You’ve got to have that volume that comes in. There’s a whole process there.”

Speaking of, I imagine you have donors dropping things off in boatloads, all the time. How do you make sure you don’t have too much stuff, at a level that’s sustainable?

“We’ve got a whole ecosystem to support that. We’d rather people drop [things] off, instead of putting something that might be valuable or could be recycled or repurposed [in the trash]. Let us make that decision, with people who want that job experience and skills to move them forward.

For us, there’s all sorts of seasonality to donations. Winter months are a little bit lighter than the spring, when we’re cleaning out our closets. And [donations] don’t always match with the shopping experience. Maybe you’re in back-to-school mode in September, but that doesn’t line up with a high donor season. We do a lot to adjust and maximize that.

There’s value in moving our goods to different places. Winter coats are needed in certain areas. We’re getting increasingly better with our connected network on those things. … And we have stores, but also outlets. We have partners in recycling and repurposing. So, there are a lot of potential outlets for donations.

We also get really interesting shopper spikes. For example, Halloween is actually our highest season for holidays, because people go [to Goodwill] for unique finds to dress up. I would also add that we see high donations in good times and low donations when there’s some economic softness out there.”

What’s your outlook for 2026?

“We expect 2026 to be our biggest year yet. There are a couple of reasons for that. One is that we continue to see demand for secondhand grow. We see shoppers continue to trade down. We see younger consumers making thrift the default choice. And we see a real tailwind for us, where value and sustainability are converging and not competing.

We also see new potential sources of volume. Our donor is the lifeblood [of our organization]. … We want to be very convenient, and we’re within 10 miles of roughly 85% of the U.S. population. We’re very locally embedded. And we want those donors to know we’re the best stewards of donated goods, whether it’s finding a second life [for something] or even recycling or converting products into other things.

The other area [where we see growth] is from corporations and partners. These are brands. These are producers. These are folks who are looking at issues with return volumes. Returns are nearly $1 trillion [a year in the U.S.], which is 3% of our GDP. It’s a real problem for organizations, and [there’s] new legislation, particularly in California, that is increasingly holding them more responsible for what happens toward the end of life of those products. … We are in really meaningful conversations with a lot of larger retailers and brands on some of these issues. We’re co-developing some go-to-market strategies, and we’re in an early pilot mode to figure that out.”

https://www.modernretail.co/operations/goodwill-plans-100-new-stores-for-2026-after-hitting-record-revenue-in-2025

Source: TheEpoch Times, Louise Chambers
Photo: Courtesy of Anja Nordvålen via Eveline Lunde

Disclaimer: This article was published in 2023. Some information may no longer be current.

A former design student from Norway gave up city life for a remote Arctic island after a boat trip rocked her outlook, and she’s never looked back, despite the huge adjustment.

Originally a city-dweller from Asker, Norway, 31-year-old Eveline Lunde has lived in an apartment in the small town of Longyearbyen, the northernmost town on Earth, on Spitsbergen Island in Norway’s Svalbard Archipelago for the past four years.

Just 800 miles (1,287 kilometers) from the North Pole, Lunde has grown used to permafrost, the northern lights, snowmobiles, the midnight sun, and a thriving polar bear population—a far cry from life at design school in Oslo.

“While studying … I discovered a newfound passion for outdoor life,” Lunde told The Epoch Times. “I moved to northern Norway after completing my bachelor’s degree to pursue a one-year study program on outdoor activities. During my time there, I got to know a group of guys who lived on a sailing boat, with their sights set on reaching Svalbard during the summer.”

When one sailor dropped out of the trip at the last minute, Lunde took his place. She had never seen Svalbard before but after spending six weeks exploring its many Arctic wonders, Eveline was smitten. Returning to Oslo, she grieved the loss.

“I soon realized that I had undergone a transformation,” she said. “The fast-paced city life no longer held the same appeal for me. Svalbard had left an indelible mark on me, prompting me to make the life-changing decision to relocate there.”

The Svalbard archipelago consists of several islands in the Arctic Ocean. The official discovery of Svalbard dates back to 1596, according to World History Encyclopedia, and became Norwegian territory through the Svalbard Treaty (originally the Spitsbergen Treaty) of 1920.

Most of its human residents live on Spitsbergen, and the main island has some unusual features, said Lunde, who works in tourism.

“Due to the permafrost, trees do not grow here,” she said. “Additionally, the harsh climate limits the diversity of animal life. However, the animals that do inhabit this region have adapted remarkably well to the conditions. It’s quite normal to see reindeer and polar foxes roaming around in Longyearbyen. During the summer, we are also visited by numerous geese.”

A town of around 2,300 people, Longyearbyen is also home to a “significant” polar bear population numbering several hundred. The bears are monitored and protected. Nonetheless, residents are required to carry a flare gun as a deterrent, and a rifle as a last resort, when venturing out on hikes or longer journeys.

Lunde said: “It is strictly prohibited to kill a polar bear, except in cases of self-defense. In the event of a polar bear being killed, a thorough investigation would be conducted, treating it with the same seriousness as if it were a human fatality.”

Innumerable natural wonders make life on the Arctic archipelago a magical, if challenging, experience.

“Experiencing the extremes of the polar night and the midnight sun evokes a mix of emotions within me,” Lunde said. “It’s both challenging and awe-inspiring. I appreciate the unique and distinct seasons that Svalbard offers. However, maintaining a sense of routine and staying positive are essential to cope with these conditions.”

During the phenomenon of the “midnight sun,” lasting from April to August, it can be a struggle to sleep with sunlight streaming in through the windows. But during the “polar night,” from October to February, the island experiences total darkness 24 hours a day.

To avoid depression, Lunde prioritizes routine, staying active, and maintaining a social life with the island’s close-knit community at local pubs, cafes, and high-end restaurants. She even hikes through the winter, with a headlamp and spikes on her shoes for the snow-covered icecaps.

Sunlight aside, the weather in Svalbard goes through rapid changes and frequent harsh conditions.

“During the winter, we often face intense storms,” said Lunde, reflecting, “[W]hat I find amusing is that we’ve become accustomed to such weather and continue with our daily routines unaffected, whereas, on the mainland, similar weather would lead to widespread shutdowns and be considered a serious threat. In Svalbard, it’s just another typical day, where wearing goggles for the walk to work is part of our regular routine.”

The Longyearbyen road network covers only about 27 miles (43 kilometers), and cars don’t cut it in winter. Instead, residents drive snowmobiles or dog sleds. In summer they use boats to access cabins and other settlements on the island.

There is one small emergency hospital in Spitsbergen for minor ailments only. Pregnant women are not permitted to give birth on the island and must relocate to the mainland around one month before their due date. Anyone who requires ongoing care or is unable to take care of themselves is not allowed to live on the archipelago at all.

Yet, the challenges of Arctic life amplify the “stunning beauty of Svalbard on those perfect days” by contrast, Lunde said. Locals enjoy hiking, skiing, dog sledding, and snowmobiling year-round, and even the occasional concert, art exhibit, and theater show. Not to mention, they have the world’s greatest light show, the Aurora Borealis, in permanent residence overhead.

The population of Svalbard comprises a diverse mix of people, not only Norwegians. The archipelago at large used to be a hotspot for whaling and trapping but has since moved through coal mining into tourism and Arctic exploration, research, and education.

Lunde cannot speak highly enough of her chosen home.

“As a local, I wholeheartedly recommend visiting this extraordinary place,” she said. “The opportunity to witness the pristine Arctic landscapes, encounter majestic wildlife, and immerse oneself in the unique culture and warmth of the community is truly unmatched.”

Louise Chambers is a writer, born and raised in London, England. She covers inspiring news and human interest stories.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/bright/the-northernmost-town-on-earth-woman-tells-of-her-unusual-life-on-an-island-800-miles-from-the-north-pole

Source: Yahoo News, Chris Marquette, Mia McCarthy, Meredith Lee Hill, Ry Rivard and Jordain Carney
Photo: Donald Trump with administration officials

Trump administration officials made it known to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer that the president would release federal funds for a massive rail tunnel project connecting New York and New Jersey on the condition that two major travel hubs be renamed in his honor, according to three people with knowledge of the request.

The three people, granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive negotiation, said President Donald Trump would agree to release the funding for the Gateway project, which has been held up since October — but that his ask was that both Washington Dulles International Airport outside Washington and Pennsylvania Station in New York City be renamed for the president.

Schumer (D-N.Y.) declined the offer, according to two people with knowledge of the request. “There was nothing to trade,” said a person close to Schumer. “The president stopped the funding and he can restart the funding with a snap of his fingers.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

The Trump administration has withheld billions in federal funding for the $16 billion project, arguing it is conducting a review into whether diversity, equity and inclusion practices had played a factor in awarding contracts for the job. Since that decision, Transportation Secretary Duffy and Trump have given conflicting public statements on the status of Gateway.

When completed, the project would expand the number of rail tunnels between New York City and New Jersey under the Hudson River.

The end of the Gateway tunnel project could put roughly 1,000 workers out of a job. A judge is expected to hear an emergency order to restart the federal funding Friday.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), in a statement Thursday evening, called Trump’s ask “ridiculous.”

“These naming rights aren’t tradable as part of any negotiations, and neither is the dignity of New Yorkers,” she said. “At a time when New Yorkers are already being crushed by high costs under the Trump tariffs, the president continues to put his own narcissism over the good-paying union jobs this project provides and the extraordinary economic impact the Gateway tunnel will bring.”

Punchbowl News first reported the news.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/trump-wanted-dulles-airport-penn

Source: CREW, Robert Maguire
Photo: Miru Osuga/CREW

This article was originally published on April 14, 2025. We also asked ChatGPT (not the author) if the Trump Organization used undocumented workers at its construction sites and properties. ChatGPT’s response appears at the end of this article. It appears Trump’s hypocrisy is alive and well.

While President Donald Trump and his administration reiterate the need to “hire American” and crack down on both documented and undocumented immigrants alike, his company is again seeking seasonal foreign workers for one of the luxury resorts he still profits from as president. The request from Trump’s business comes days after his administration released a raft of new seasonal work visas, fulfilling a request from a group that held a fundraiser at another Trump resort less than two weeks earlier.

The timeline demonstrates how Trump’s company benefits from special interest spending aimed at influencing his administration, while it also takes advantage of his administration’s policies.

The New York Times recently reported that industry lobbyists anxious about the Trump administration’s delayed release of a new batch of H-2B visas, which allow foreign workers to do seasonal work in the United States, held a fundraiser last month at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. Less than two weeks later, the Trump administration announced that the visas would continue to be issued.

On the same day the fundraiser was reported by the Times—just five days after the administration released the new visa spots—President Trump’s Bedminster, N.J. country club filed a request with the Department of Labor’s Office of Foreign Labor Certification, seeking seven cooks and a bartender. Two days after that, it posted positions for nine servers.

The job openings mark the first time in Trump’s second term that his business has sought to hire new foreign workers—though there are listings for open positions at Trump’s Virginia winery that were posted last December.

The announcement for the event, held by the Seasonal Employment Alliance’s PAC, highlighted the intentional choice of Mar-a-Lago as a venue and framed Trump’s businesses as an avenue for influence with the new administration. “Given Trump’s victory,” the release states, “the Mar-a-Lago event calendar is full, and we were very fortunate to have secured a spot on their calendar, especially a night where there is a decent chance President Trump will be there.” It notes that the “exclusive opportunity for SEA members” was “due to the generosity of SEA board member and Mar-a-Lago member Peter Petrina.” (In addition to being a paying customer at Trump’s club, Petrina has contracted with the Trump Organization in the past to recruit foreign workers for its properties.)

The invitation for the fundraiser notes opportunities for members to stay at Mar-a-Lago and play golf at Trump’s nearby course—both of which sold out. And if that didn’t offer members enough opportunities to spend money at Trump’s businesses, the invitation notes that they can head to another Trump property an hour away, Trump Doral in Miami, and take advantage of special rates for two more nights.

And this interplay between special interests and Trump’s own business interests was all too predictable. Not only does the Trump Organization have a history of hiring undocumented immigrant and passing over American applicants for foreign workers, it also has a history of using legal pathways for foreign seasonal workers like this, which he now oversees as president. In 2020, CREW detailed how Trump’s businesses benefitted from the actions taken by his administration, including the H-2B visas that provide his business the opportunity to hire the foreign workers he has built a political career on vilifying.

Pouring money into the president’s businesses with the hope of getting face time with the president—all while his businesses take advantage of his administration’s policies—is one of the clearest demonstrations of the corruption that has been at the core of Trump’s public service career.

Last year, Trump’s businesses reportedly sought to hire more foreign workers than any prior year on record, and the new data shows that his businesses will continue to seek foreign workers while he is president, one of the very groups of people that he has publicly disparaged for years.

Here is what ChatGPT had to say about the Trump Organization’s hiring practices:

Yes — there is a documented record that the Trump Organization did employ undocumented workers at various times and places, despite public statements by Donald Trump and company representatives denying or minimizing it. The details are based on multiple news investigations and legal records:

Investigated Instances of Undocumented Workers

1. Golf Clubs and Resorts (2010s)
Investigations by The Washington Post and others found that undocumented immigrants worked for years in jobs like housekeeping, groundskeeping, and food service at multiple Trump Organization properties, including golf clubs in New York, New Jersey, Florida, and other locations. Some workers said they started years earlier and believed managers knew they lacked legal work authorization. After these reports, the company fired dozens of such workers and later expanded its use of the E-Verify system to check new hires.

2. Westchester and New Jersey Clubs
At Trump National Golf Club in Westchester County, NY, and in Bedminster, NJ, workers alleged they were hired despite being undocumented; in some cases, supervisors reportedly helped workers obtain fake Social Security cards and green cards.

3. 1980 Trump Tower Site
During the demolition of the Bonwit Teller building (pre-Trump Tower), hundreds of undocumented Polish laborers worked on the site. Trump later denied knowing about this, but testimony and legal filings indicated his team was aware. A lawsuit over this labor dispute was settled in 1998 for approximately $1.4 million.

Company Response vs. Allegations
Official Denials: Trump and his spokespeople have denied knowingly hiring undocumented workers and noted the use of E-Verify at many properties.

Investigative Findings: Journalistic investigations documented multiple cases where undocumented workers were employed for long periods, often before broader use of verification systems.

Legal and Public Reaction

Settlements & Lawsuits: The Bonwit Teller/Polish workers case resulted in a long-settled suit; there haven’t been major criminal penalties tied directly to these employment practices.

Political Scrutiny: Members of Congress and advocacy groups have called for investigations into these alleged hiring practices.

Summary

Yes, according to multiple credible investigations and legal records, the Trump Organization employed undocumented workers at various properties over the years — including in housekeeping, groundskeeping, and other roles — even while company leaders publicly denied or disputed these practices.

https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-investigations/as-trump-pursues-mass-deportation-his-businesses-again-seek-foreign-workers

Source: Time, Angela Haupt
Photo: Vertigo3d—Getty Images

Haupt is a health and wellness editor at TIME.

AI might not have taken your job yet—but it’s already writing your breakup text.

What began as a productivity tool has quietly become a social one, and people increasingly consult it for their most personal moments: drafting apologies, translating passive-aggressive texts, and, yes, deciding how to end relationships.

“I wholeheartedly believe that AI is shifting the relational bedrock of society,” says Rachel Wood, a cyberpsychology expert and founder of the AI Mental Health Collective. “People really are using it to run their social life: Instead of the conversations we used to have—with neighbors or at clubs or in our hobbies or our faith communities—those conversations are being rerouted into chatbots.”

As an entire generation grows up outsourcing social decisions to large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, Wood worries about the implications of turning the emotional work of connection over to a machine. What that means—for how people communicate, argue, date, and make sense of one another—is only beginning to come into focus.

When AI becomes your social copilot

It often starts as a second opinion. A quick paste of a text message into an AI chatbot. A question typed casually: “What do you think they meant by this?”

“People will use it to break down a blow-by-blow account of an argument they had with someone,” Wood says, or to decode ambiguous messages. “Maybe they’re just starting to date, and they put it in there and say, ‘My boyfriend just texted me this. What does it really mean?’” They might also ask: Does the LLM think the person they’re corresponding with is a narcissist? Does he seem checked out? Does she have a pattern of guilt-tripping or shifting blame?

Some users are turning to AI as a social rehearsal space, says Dr. Nina Vasan, a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at Stanford University and the founder and director of Brainstorm: The Stanford Lab for Mental Health Innovation. People gravitate to these tools because they’re “trying to get the words right before they risk the relationship,” she says. That might mean asking their LLM of choice to draft texts to friends, edit emails to their boss, help them figure out what questions to ask on a first date, or navigate tricky group-chat dynamics.

Vasan has also seen people use AI tools to craft dating-app profiles, respond to passive-aggressive family members, and set boundaries they’ve never before been able to articulate. “Some use it to rehearse difficult conversations before having them,” she says. “Others process social interactions afterward, essentially asking AI, ‘Did I handle that OK?’” ChatGPT and other LLMs, she says, have become a third party in many of our most intimate conversations.

Meet the new relationship referee

Consulting AI isn’t always a welcome development. Some young people, in particular, now use LLMs to generate “receipts,” deploying AI-backed answers as proof that they’re right.

“They use AI to try to create these airtight arguments where they can analyze a friend’s statements or a boyfriend’s statements, or they especially like to use it with their parents,” says Jimmie Manning, a professor of communication studies at the University of Nevada, where he’s also the director of the Relational Communication Research Laboratory. (None of his students have presented him with an AI-generated receipt yet, but it’s probably only a matter of time, he muses.) A teen might copy and paste a text from her mom into ChatGPT, for example, and ask if her parents are being unreasonably strict—and then present them with the evidence that yes, in fact, they are.

“They’re trying to get affirmation from AI, and you can guess how AI responds to them, because it’s here for you,” Manning says.

Using LLMs in this way turns relationships into adversarial negotiations, he adds. When people turn to AI for validation, they’re usually not considering their friend or romantic partner or parent’s perspective. Plus, shoving “receipts” in someone’s face can feel like an ambush. Those on the receiving end typically don’t respond well. “People are still wary of the algorithm entering their intimate lives,” Manning says. “There’s this authenticity question that we’re going to face as a culture.” When he asks his students how their friends or partners responded, they usually say: “Oh, he came up with excuses,” or “She just rolled her eyes.”

“It’s not really helping,” he says. “It’s just going to escalate the situation without any kind of resolution.”

What’s at stake

Outsourcing social tasks to AI is “deeply understandable,” Vasan says, “and deeply consequential.” It can support healthier communication, but it can also short-circuit emotional growth. On the more helpful side of things, she’s seen people with social anxiety finally ask someone on a date because Gemini helped them draft the message. Other times, people use it in the middle of an argument—not to prove they’re right, but to consider how the other person might be feeling, and to figure out how to say something in a way that will actually land.

“Instead of escalating into a fight or shutting down entirely, they’re using AI to step back and ask: ‘What’s really going on here? What does my partner need to hear? How can I express this without being hurtful?’” she says. In those cases, “It’s helping people break out of destructive communication patterns and build healthier dynamics with the people they love most.”

Yet that doesn’t account for the many potentially harmful ways people are using LLMs. “I see people who’ve become so dependent on AI-generated responses that they describe feeling like strangers in their own relationships,” Vasan says. “AI in our social lives is an amplifier: It can deepen connection, or it can hollow it out.” The same tool that helps someone communicate more thoughtfully, she says, can also help them avoid being emotionally present.

Plus, when you regularly rely on a chatbot as an arbiter or conversational crutch, it’s possible you’ll erode important skills like patience, listening, and compromise. People who use AI intensely or in a prolonged manner may find that the tool skews their social expectations, because they begin expecting immediate replies and 24/7 availability. “You have something that’s always going to answer you,” Wood says. “The chatbot is never going to cancel on you for going out to dinner. It’s never going to really push back on you, so that friction is gone.” Of course, friction is inevitable in even the healthiest relationships, so when people become used to the alternative, they can lose patience over the slightest inconvenience.

Then there’s the back-and-forth engagement that makes relationships work. If you grab lunch with a friend, you’ll probably take turns sharing stories and talking about your own lives. “However, the chatbot is never going to be, like, ‘Hey, hang on, Rachel, can I talk about me for a while?’” Wood says. “You don’t have to practice listening skills—that reciprocity is missing.” That imbalance can subtly recalibrate what people expect from real conversations.

Plus, every relationship requires compromise. When you spend too much time with a bot, that skill begins to atrophy, Wood says, because the interaction is entirely on the user’s terms. “The chatbot is never going to ask you to compromise, because it’s never going to say no to you,” she adds. “And life is full of no’s.”

The illusion of a second opinion

Researchers don’t yet have hard data that provides a sense of how outsourcing social tasks to AI affects relationship quality or overall well-being. “We as a field don’t have the science for it, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing going on. It just means we haven’t measured it yet,” says Dr. Karthik V. Sarma, a health AI scientist and physician at the University of California, San Francisco, where he founded the AI in Mental Health Research Group. “In the absence of that, the old advice remains good for almost any use of almost anything: moderation and patterns are key.”

Greater AI literacy is essential, too, Sarma says. Many people use LLMs without understanding exactly how and why they respond in certain ways. Say, for example, you’re planning to propose to your partner, but you want to check-in with people close to you first to confirm it’s the right move. Your best friend’s opinion will be valuable, Sarma says. But if you ask the bot? Don’t put too much weight on its words. “The chatbot doesn’t have its own positionality at all,” Sarma says. “Because of the way technology works, it’s actually much more likely to become more of a reflection of your own positionality. Once you’ve molded it enough, of course it’s going to agree with you, because it’s kind of like another version of you. It’s more of a mirror.”

Looking ahead

When Pat Pataranutaporn thinks about the effects of long-term AI usage, his main question is this: Is it limiting our ability to express ourselves? Or does it help people express themselves better? As founding director of the cyborg psychology research group and co-director of MIT Media Lab’s Advancing Humans with AI research program, Pataranutaporn is interested in ways that people can use AI to promote human flourishing, pro-social interaction, and human-to-human interaction.

The goal is to use this technology to “help people be better, gain more agency, and feel that they’re in control of their lives,” he says, “rather than having technology constrain them like social media or previous technologies.”

In part, that means using AI to gain the skills or confidence to talk to people face-to-face, rather than allowing the tool to replace human relationships. You can also use LLMs to help finesse your ideas and take them to the next level, as opposed to substitutes for original thought. “The idea or intent needs to be very clear and strong at the beginning,” Pataranutaporn says. “And then maybe AI could help augment or enhance it.” Before asking ChatGPT to compose a Valentine’s Day love letter, he suggests asking yourself: What is your unique perspective that AI can help bring to fruition?

Of course, individual users are at the mercy of a bigger force: the companies that develop these tools. Exactly how people use AI tools, and whether they bolster or weaken relationships, hinges on tech companies making their platforms healthier, Vasan says. That means intentionally designing tools to strengthen human capacity, rather than quietly replacing it.

“We shouldn’t design AI to perform relationships for us—we should design it to strengthen our ability to have them,” she says. “The key question isn’t whether AI is involved. It’s whether it’s helping you show up more human or letting you hide. We’re running a massive uncontrolled experiment on human intimacy, and my concern isn’t that AI will make our messages better. It’s that we’ll forget what our own voice sounds like.”

https://time.com/7357217/ai-social-life-texting-chat-gpt-clause-gemini