Friday, April 18, 2025, is Good Friday. But when it comes to what places are open and closed on Good Friday, things can be a bit tricky. Thats because Good Friday is not a federal holiday but a religious one. It’s the Friday before Easter, which is always celebrated on a Sunday.
Yet Good Friday is also a state holiday in select states. This means that public institutions may be closed in one state but open in another on Good Friday.
Heres what you need to know about whats open and closed on Good Friday 2025.
Is Good Friday a federal holiday?
No. Good Friday is not one of the officially recognized federal holidays. Of the 12 federal holidays in 2025, the last one was Washingtons Birthday on February 17, and the next one will be Memorial Day on May 26.
Is Good Friday a state holiday?
Yesin some states, anyway. According to the Federal Times, Good Friday is a recognized state holiday in 12 states:
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Hawaii
Indiana
Kentucky
Louisiana
New Jersey
North Carolina
North Dakota
Texas
Tennessee
In most of these states, public offices will likely be closed on Good Friday.
Are banks open on Good Friday?
Yes, most major banks should be operating as normal on Good Friday. This includes banks like Chase, Citibank, PNC, and more. Online banking services will be available via the banks website and smartphone apps, in addition to physical bank branches being open.
Are ATMs open on Good Friday?
Yes. ATMs will be open on Good Friday. However, as it is the start of a holiday weekend for many people, ATMs may get picked over sooner than usual.
Is the post office open on Good Friday?
Yes, as the United States Postal Service (USPS) is a federal organization, it will be open and operating as normal on Good Friday. This includes both at USPS branches and at home mail delivery.
Is mail delivered on Good Friday?
Yes. The USPS will deliver mail as normal on Good Friday.
Are FedEx and UPS operating on Good Friday?
According to FedExs holiday schedule, some FedEx delivery services will have a modified schedule on Good Friday, including its FedEx and FedEx Freight services. FedEx Office, FedEx Custom Critical, and FedEx Logistics will be open as normal.
UPS says it will be operating pickup or delivery services on Good Friday. It also notes that UPS Store locations will be open.
Is the stock market open on Good Friday?
No. Major U.S. stock markets will be closed on Good Friday. This includes the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Nasdaq.
Are schools open on Good Friday?
Many schools should be closed on Good Friday, but its best to check with your school. Despite not being a federal holiday, many public schools choose to be closed on Good Friday. Most private, religious schools will also be closed.
Are restaurants open on Good Friday?
Most restaurants should be open on Good Friday. This includes well-known chains like McDonalds, Subway, Burger King, Arby’s, and Chipotle, which should be open. However, note that some franchise locations could be closed, as Chick-fil-A points out.
Likewise, many sit-down restaurants should remain open, but you should call ahead first to make sure.
Are retail stores open on Good Friday?
A majority of big-box retail stores will be open on Good Friday. This includes major chains like Target, Costco, Best Buy, and Walmart.
Are pharmacies open on Good Friday?
You can expect most pharmacies to be open on Good Friday, including those found in Walgreens. However, pharmacies may have adjusted hours on Good Friday. Its best to check with your preferred pharmacy to confirm their hours on Good Friday.
Are grocery stores open on Good Friday?
Many regional grocery store chains should be open on Good Friday. However, they may have reduced hours. Its best to check with your grocery store directly to see what their operating hours are on Good Friday.
Hello! Next Thursday, April 24, Ill be moderating two fireside chatswith Runway cofounder Alejandro Matamala Ortiz and F-35 pilot Justin Hasard Leeat Artist and the Machines AI & Creativity Summit in Brooklyn. The event promises to be an invigorating exploration of the intersection of technology and art from multiple perspectives, and I hope to see some of you there.
Sam Altman wants to build a social network. Given the OpenAI CEOs unbridled ambitionand the potential to turn 400 million ChatGPT users into some semblance of a communityit would be weird if he didnt. And the timing makes sense: On Tuesday, The Verges Kylie Robison and Alex Heath reported that OpenAI is looking to capitalize on the new ChatGPT image-generating features that have already been going viral on other networks since arriving late last month. Whether the company plans to fold social aspects into ChatGPT itself or create a new app remains to be seen.
The news of Altmans interest in bootstrapping an OpenAI social network around ChatGPT came less than three weeks after Elon Musk announced that his AI company, xAI, had acquired his social network, Twitter X for $45 billion. Its still unclear whether this move amounts to more than the worlds richest man shuffling assets around the way you or I might rearrange our shelf of Funko figures; after all, xAIs Grok chatbot already occupied prime real estate inside the X app. But xAI, whose wellspring of AI technology and talent is, by all accounts, formidable, now owns a decent-size (if reputationally challenged) online community. That gives it access to hundreds of millions of potential customers, plus a vast, endlessly replenished stream of content it can use to train its algorithms. The potential to do interesting things is there, if Musk can divert his attention from dismantling civic institutions for a moment or two.
Even if its obvious why OpenAI and xAI might want to meld their respective generative AI engines with social platforms, it wont be easy. Consider whats going on at Meta, which has more social-network users than any other company and owns a top-tier LLM, Llama. So far, AIs impact on Facebook has been to junk up feeds with spam posts about imaginary people and pointless interjections from the Meta AI bot. If theres a way for the technology to make itself welcome in a communal setting, it probably doesnt look anything like this.
For all the ways generative AI is astoundingit recently coded my dream app for mesocial networking may be one of the tougher assignments for it to crack productively. The technology excels at churning out lowest-common-denominator content, but online gathering places need less of that, not more. Nor does its uncanny glibness mean its ready to join conversations the way humans do. Using machine vision, for example, the Meta AI bot can suss out the gist of a posted image, but that has little to do with whether it can say anything interesting about it. In my encounters, the conversation starters its generated have been stultifyingly synthetic.
Still, when I heard about OpenAIs social aspirations, my instinct was to be intrigued rather than repelled. For one thing, many of us have spent the last few years obsessing over the companys tools and sharing our creations: I started tweeting DALL-E 2 oddities in August 2022, months before there was a ChatGPT. The company should be able to facilitate that discussion by building some community infrastructure of its own, such as ways to post items for public consumption and comment. Ive been disappointed by its failure to do much with the store for custom GPT applets it launched in January 2024, which could have been a springboard for features that let ChatGPT users talk to each other. The vitality of its newest image-generation technology is an even better such opportunity.
More socially aware AI products might also help counteract the AIs tendency to suck users down rabbit holes of solitude. Recent research conducted by OpenAI itself suggests that heavy ChatGPT users tend to be lonely, though its unclear whether thats because the chatbot fosters loneliness or simply a sign that lonely people are drawn to it. Either way, I find my own jags with AI chatbots to be both addictive and isolating in a way that doesnt feel entirely healthyat least when I discover Im still at it an hour or two after I meant to go to bed. Anything that nudged AI devotees back toward engaging with society couldnt hurt.
Part of my measured willingness to believe OpenAI could construct a worthwhile social networkmaybe, in theory, if were luckystems from the fact that the company has shown it can create software thats pleasant to use. Any community it built would be a fresh start, which is not true of xAI/X and Meta, both of which are cobbling together AI experiences atop social platforms that are well into middle age, and showing it. That guarantees nothing: Google+ was also quite pleasant but couldnt overcome Facebooks deeply entrenched place in peoples lives, particularly at that time. But an OpenAI social network wouldnt have to displace Facebook to have value. In fact, the less Facebook-like it was, the better the argument for it existing at all.
If OpenAIs project turns out to be a soon-abandoned lark rather than a top priority, somebody else might give AI a measure of social grace. For instance, Microsoft consumer AI chief Mustafa Suleyman recently told me that the company is working on priming its Copilot companion to participate in conversations with multiple humans at once, with a sensitivity to their varying interests and attitudes. Or maybe a company that doesnt even exist yet will do the jobwhich would make sense, since every social network that has ever mattered has been the brainchild of a tiny startup.
The one scenario that seems implausible is that tomorrows social experiences wont have a far heavier element of generative AI than anything that exists today. We already know what can go wrong when they get smooshed together. Fingers crossed well get to see what can go right.
You’ve been reading Plugged In, Fas Company‘s weekly tech newsletter from me, global technology editor Harry McCracken. If a friend or colleague forwarded this edition to youor if you’re reading it on FastCompany.comyou can check out previous issues and sign up to get it yourself every Friday morning. I love hearing from you: Ping me at hmccracken@fastcompany.com with your feedback and ideas for future newsletters. I’m also on Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads, and you can follow Plugged In on Flipboard.
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Curiosity isnt just a good personality trait or an indulgenceits a leadership superpower. In a business environment where innovation dictates success, curiosity serves as the catalyst for breakthroughs and industry reinvention. Yet, despite its transformative potential, it remains one of the most undervalued tools in leadership today.
According to a Harvard Business Review study, curiosity fosters openness and collaboration while reducing decision-making errors. Yet only 24% of organizations actively encourage it, leaving a wealth of untapped potential on the table. The best leaders dont just seek answers; they reframe problems. Instead of asking, How do we fix this? they ask, What if we reimagine this entirely? Leaders who embrace this mindset uncover opportunities for reinvention that others overlook because they only focus on immediate challenges.
Curiosity begins with observation
In the world of art and design, curiosity begins with observation. Georgia OKeeffe once remarked, Nobody sees a flower, reallyit is so small we havent time, and to see takes time. Her words offer a lesson for leaders: True insight comes from taking the time to observe and understand what others overlook. The design thinking process mirrors this ethos, emphasizing empathy, iteration, and a willingness to embrace failure. Leaders who adopt these principles uncover unmet needs and rethink stagnant paradigms.
For instance, I once worked with a biotech executive who revitalized their R&D team with a single question: What are we missing in the data that could change the trajectory of our discovery? This curiosity-fueled inquiry led to a cross-disciplinary exploration, resulting in a groundbreaking treatment that shifted the companys competitive position.
Curiosity in action
One of my clients is a CTO in the high-tech sector whose team was stuck in a cycle of diminishing returns during a critical product launch. Instead of defaulting to conventional troubleshooting, they asked a provocative question: What would this look like if we started from scratch? Initially, the team hesitated, but once framed as a thought experiment, the question sparked a creative dialogue that dismantled assumptions. The result? A novel approach that solved the immediate challenge and laid a foundation for long-term innovation.
Another client is a CEO at a multinational organization who embarked on a listening tour to understand their global workforce. They asked a simple yet profound question: What inspires you to do your best work? This inquiry revealed a blend of universal motivators and culturally specific insights, enabling the CEO to craft a new, inclusive company mission. The initiative boosted engagement, fostered a sense of belonging, and unified the workforce across continents.
A framework for leaders to cultivate curiosity
To harness curiosity as a leadership tool, leaders must commit to intentional practices that foster curiosity-driven innovation:
Ask Bigger Questions. Shift from tactical fixes to expansive, open-ended questions. Replace How can we cut costs? with How can we create more value with fewer resources? These questions inspire fresh perspectives and out-of-the-box thinking.
Practice Empathetic Observation. Adopt an artists lenstaking the time to truly see your team, customers, and market dynamics. Listen deeply and observe without preconceived notions. Empathy is the foundation for uncovering unmet needs and fostering trust.
Prototype Curiosity. Treat curiosity like a skill to be honed. Run curiosity workshops where no idea is too wild. Encourage iterative brainstorming and test small ideas before scaling them, creating a low-risk environment for experimentation.
Embrace Failure as Discovery. Curiosity-driven leadership requires psychological safety. When teams see failure as a learning opportunity rather than a liability, they are more willing to take risks and innovate. Leaders must model this openness.
Stay Open to Being Wrong. Curiosity isnt about confirming what you already knowits about exploring the unknown. The best leaders I have worked with are those willing to challenge their own assumptions and learn from unexpected perspectives.
Curiosity doesnt just spark innovationit strengthens connections. By demonstrating a genuine interest in your team, their challenges, and their aspirations, you build a culture of trust and collaboration. Leaders who lead with curiosity create workplaces where people feel valued, heard, and inspired to contribute their best.
Curiosity allows leaders to navigate complexity with agility and vision in a fast-paced environment. It enables them to ask the questions others avoid, see patterns others miss, and find solutions others never imagine. In doing so, they transform their organizations and the lives of those they lead. One thing is clear: The leaders who thrive will be those who lead with curiosity. The future belongs to those who dare to be curious.
In Melinda French Gates’s new book, The Next Day, she illuminates the importance of knowing the story that you are writing for yourself. After turning 60, leaving The Gates Foundation, and beginning a new chapter in her philanthropy, I was curious about the story that she is authoring. What are French Gatess new dreams?
My new dreams are to lift women up generationally, she says. So, the world is different when my granddaughters enter the workforce. There are barriers that we need to break down, things about womens health that we should be exploring, and opportunities that are more limited for women. I would love for many of those things to be easier for my granddaughters than they were for me or even my daughters.
A central premise of her book is that: During transitions, the real work starts the next day. Its one that French Gates has fully embodied since departing The Gates Foundation in 2024, which she cofounded and cochaired for over two decades.
When she announced her departure in May, she committed an additional $1 billion to advance womens power and influence (totaling her commitment to $2 billion through her organization Pivotal). In October, they launched a $250 million global open call to fund organizations improving womens health. Two months later, came a $150 million commitment to remove barriers for women in the workplace. French Gates is just getting started.
The Next Day is an intimate portrayal of the transitions that she has faced personally and professionally and a road map to navigate your own. Here, she discusses knowing which dreams to let go of, pausing in the liminal space, and releasing perfectionism.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
In your Stanford commencement speech, you said: Resist the idea that anything youve done here has already locked you into any one pathor any one kind of life or career . . . And be willing to let what you learn shift your thinking about what youre on this earth to do. What have you learned about the evolution of ones purpose?
I’ve learned so much. I came out of college thinking I am going to be in tech. I was in tech for nine years. I loved my career. I had no idea that I would go into global health, global development, learning about the U.S. education system, and issues for women.
What I’ve learned through that process is that you need to keep an ear open and listen to others along the way. What do they have to teach you? What are they bringing to you? Is there a theme to it?
At the same time, you need to listen to your inner voice: What is it calling you to do, even if what it’s calling you to do is hard? I remember when I helped lead a family planning summit in London on behalf of women. I had dinner with a group of women afterwards, most of whom I didn’t know, and they said: There’s so much more to do. It wasn’t at all what I wanted to hear at the time. But, I still listened to what they were telling me. Then, to my own inner voice about: Well, how could I do it? How quickly or slowly should I go?
During transitions, you encourage pausing in the liminal space to see what it has to reveal to you. How do you treat the unfamiliar as a teacher, instead of an enemy?
Being willing to sit there when it’s uncertain or you’re anxious, those are the times that you’re growing. You have to remind yourself: Im going to learn something here. Our instinct is to rush to the next thing. I’ve seen so many people make that mistake when they’re leaving a career to start something new. They’ll rush to the next thing and pick the wrong thing. Then, they’ll have to change course two years later; Versus stay with it and figure out what you want to do, even when it’s uncomfortable.
You write: Sometimes the best thing you can do for yourself and the people around you is to have the wisdom to know which dreams to let go of, in order to make room for something new. What helps you navigate the difficulty of letting go?
Naming it out loud: This is hard for me. I think I should let this go. Sometimes, the first thing I do when something bubbles up and Im like, Hmm, I’m not sure, is write it down. Then, I can’t run away from it. Ill maybe run away from it for a week or two. Then, youll come back and remember. Once I’ve written it down, that seed is there. Then, I let it grow and see where it goes.
Do you go back and read what you wrote?
Definitely and, in the book, I talk about my Monday walking group. We’ve been walking together for so long now. They’ll say: Remember when you said this? We plant pieces of ourselves in those we trust. It’s up to them and us (for people who plant those things in us) to remind ourselves of those things.
Returning to the idea of letting go, has there been a time, like leaving The Gates Foundation, when your identity was tied up in what you were leaving? How did you reconcile who you were without it?
I’ve wrestled with it many times, leaving the Foundation for sure. But, the biggest time was: I absolutely knew that I was going to leave my career at Microsoft to raise my children; That was my decision. I knew I would go back to work, but it wasnt until I actually left my job [that I felt it]. I had to leave three weeks early and was on bed rest unexpectedly. Then, I have this baby and I’m totally in love with her. But, all of a sudden it was like: Whoa, who am I without work? I’m a mother, which I always wanted to be and I love this. But, I’m not working. Am I a productive member of society? I used to view work as productive and being home as not productive, which is silly now when I think about it. But, in those times, at least for me, they would become almost a crisis. It was something that I needed to spend time with, work through, and recognize: This is a big shift. You’ll get through it.
In writing about perfectionism, you express that you always wanted to do things the right way, which was almost always the hard way. How did you rewire that belief and how do you operate differently as a result?
It took me a long time to realize: There is no perfect. But, what I do know is: If you’re true to yourself, it doesn’t have to be perfect. I had a speech on a big stage in Geneva. I tripped when I was walking out to the podium. I didn’t fall down all the way. But, I tripped pretty substantially, to the point where I heard people gasp. You look around and realize: There’s a hall of 1,500 people here. But, Im human. I think my wods will still be received. The more I could be vulnerable with and love myself, and the more I could then be vulnerable with other people, it allowed for more space for them and for meand the perfectionism drops.
The last line of that chapter is to allow yourself to feel the ease of letting go. What is one step youd encourage taking to do so?
When I’m trying to let go of something, I’ll remember the mistakes I’ve made and try to laugh about them. If I can laugh about some of the mistakes I’ve made over time, then I can let go of the thing that I am trying to hold onto so dearly.
I also remember that if you let go of something, it makes space for something else. Sometimes, it’s moving people out of your life. You’re not serving them well or they’re not serving you well. SayingWell, maybe I don’t see them quite as muchmakes space for a new friend or to have time for yourself.
You write about a shift in perspective where you no longer prepared for or entered meetings wondering whether you belonged there. How can you overcome imposter syndrome when youre the youngest person in the room?
Reminding yourself: You deserve to be there. You don’t always know how you got there. But, don’t question that. You deserve to be there and you must have something to contribute; Maybe you have a different perspective because youre younger, your lived experience, or where you grew up. Remind yourself that there are other people at the table who are also feeling that. You feel it inside and think that no one else does. It turns out that most of them, who are honest, feel that way themselves.
What was it like when you stopped feeling that way?
Its a relief. It creates more space in your mind to focus on other things or in your life to let go and go: This is who I am. I’ve also learned that I can ask people for help. If you don’t expect yourself to be perfect, you can ask people for what you need or be willing to ask what looks like a dumb question; Sometimes, the question that you’re afraid to ask ends up opening a whole new conversation. I’ve had that happen to me so many times. Its like: Wow, that worked. So, Ill try to remember: The previous time you did that, it was an opening.
Transitions are an opportunity to evolve yourself. How are you thinking about that as you enter this next chapter?
I hope that I’m evolving all the time. I try to think about: At the end of 10 years, what will I be most proud of and glad that I did? If I can take that 10-year horizon, then it’s easier for me to parse how I spend my time.
One of the things I’m often saying to myself now is: You are in a new phase of your career. Make sure you’re bringing in new people and hearing from new voices. It’s not always easy to meet new people or listen to people who have a different point of view. But, I remember when my mom got to this phase of life, she said to me (and she’s still this way): I want to learn from young people’s perspectives. Otherwise, if I only have friends who are my age, then I don’t know what’s coming up in society. So, I’ve been challenging myself in that regard, too: How do I make sure that I am in a setting with younger people? What questions come up? I try to ask a question and let them generate the conversation or topics.
During destabilizing times, your voice is a source of stability. What helps you cultivate your sense of inner resource and embody that steadiness?
My spiritual group and my quiet time in the morning. Those things help ground me, so that when I am ready to go out and do the work that I try to do in the world or use my voice, I’m hopefully in a centered place. But, you have to be very purposeful about it, because the world can tug on you. Then, you don’t show up at the spiritual group meeting or spend time in quiet in the morning. I encourage people to figure out what’s stilling for them, put away their phone, and get that quiet time.
Branded is a weekly column devoted to the intersection of marketing, business, design, and culture.
Elon Musks biggest headache is no secret: Its Elon Musk. Long a controversial figure, Musk lately seems to have made polarization his central project, from his close alignment with Donald Trump and government wrecking-ball efforts to his wild posts on X and personal life. Hes increasingly unpopular. And it’s all done undeniable damage to his flagship consumer-facing enterprise, Tesla. With sales suffering and its cars and dealerships becoming protest targets, its now an open question as to whether the pioneering EV makers once-enviable brand can be restored.
The extent of the damage will be quantified when Tesla reports its first-quarter results next week, but the outlines are clear enough. Sales of Teslas flagship vehicles have flagged in Europe and China, and the brand is facing stiffer competition from U.S. rivals; it has already disclosed a 13% plunge in global vehicle deliveries for the quarter. In EV-friendly California, Tesla registrations are down 15%even as EVs overall rose 7.3%. Tesla trade-ins have soared to a reported 250%, with car-shopper interest in buying a new Tesla at its lowest point in years. The much-hyped Cybertruck has missed sales targets, been subject to a string of recalls, and become a magnet for anti-Musk vandalism. (You know its bad when your brand gets attacked at Mardi Gras.) Tesla showrooms have become sites of nationwide Tesla Takedown protests that yoke the brand to Musks political activities. Its share price has plunged from a high of nearly $490 in December to less than $250 this week.
Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives recently summarized the upshot as a brand crisis: The more Musk is attached to the Trump administration and DOGE, the brand damage goes from containable to permanent, Ives recently told the Los Angeles Times. Tesla has become a political symbol around the world and thats not a good thing. In a March Yahoo News/YouGov poll, 67% of respondents ruled out owning or leasing a Tesla, with 37% specifically citing Musk as a reason.
Its difficult to find a pure parallel to a past mass-market brand crisis that boils down to widespread contempt for a CEO. But given how singularly the Musk personal brand is intertwined with Teslas, the most obvious solution would be to get some daylight between the two. Allen Adamson, cofounder of marketing consultancy Metaforce, recently told NPR that it would probably be the best thing for the brand if Musk cashed out of Tesla and walked away. That’s the only easy fix, which is [Musk saying], ‘I’m selling it; I’m going to focus on other things I’m interested in.’ And the new ownership team is going to keep their eye on the ball.
Thats highly unlikely. David J. Reibstein, a marketing professor at the Wharton School, suggested a similarly extreme strategy to Business Insider: Tesla could change its name and logo and essentially rebuild the brand to appeal to its original customer base, heavily made up of progressives concerned about climate change. As precedent, he pointed to ValuJet Airlines. After one of its planes crashed in Florida in 1996, killing 110 people, it acquired AirTran Airways and dropped the ValuJet name and brand.
This also sounds implausible. But its worth noting that Musk-founded SpaceX has been notching accomplishments and avoiding pop culture punching-bag status. It is widely seen as the Musk property with the strongest non-Musk manager: president and chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell, who oversees daily operations. It does seem plausible that if Musk could find a similar figure for Tesla it would at least begin to put some distance between his caustic political views and Teslas original innovative and progressive brand. This might also begin to address investor concerns, which include not only the tarnished Tesla brand, but the sense that Musk simply isnt paying enough attention to it: If the self-proclaimed nano-manager has other priorities, it would be reassuring to have someone more focused in the drivers seat.
Or, of course, Musk could simply knock off the political theatrics (he will supposedly leave DOGE in the next month or so) and put in the work to rebuild a connection between Teslas brand and the sizable chunk of his potential customer base that hes alienated. This would take time, and theres no guarantee it would work. Among other things, it would require really recognizing that the brand is at risk (which he might)and being transparent about efforts to set it back on course. Thats an almost universal step in the playbook for bouncing back from a brand crisis, as varied as Volkswagens 2015 dieselgate scandal, which involved manipulating emissions-test results, to H&M releasing a racially offensive ad in 2018. Admit the problem(s), demonstrate how youre solving them, focus on core values, and recognize that the process will take time.
Of course those arent pure analogues, as the Musk/Tesla brand challenges are so distinct. Moreover, Musk has historically been skeptical of traditional brand communication, from advertising to press relations, relying on buzz and word of mouth from a zealous customer base. And that strategy has mostly served him well. (Even in their depleted state, Tesla shares are still priced for extreme growth, trading at more than 100 times forward earnings; a chunk of investor fans are no doubt bullish on the companys robotics and self-driving technology, which are less dependent on consumer brand reputation.)
In ther words, any strategy that involves acknowledging the crisis, and Musks culpability for it, still seems like a long shot for now. To date, Musk has done only what the current political zeitgeist seems to default to lately when faced with undeniable problems: Deny them.
When outdoor accessories brand Yeti completed its first major acquisition last year, there were skeptics. After its January 2024 purchase of Bozeman, Montana-based cult bag brand Mystery Ranch, many of that brands acolytes feared it would disappear, swallowed by its larger new owner. And second, isnt this a coffee cup and cooler brand?
Not exactly. Its been almost a decade since Yeti first dropped its first Panga duffel in 2017, and since then its branched out to include backpacks, luggage, and more. But the company sees the new Ranchero backpackthe first Yeti product to integrate Mystery Ranch designthat launched in March as a turning point for it to truly become a bags brand instead of just a cooler brand that makes bags.
CEO Matt Reintjes says that if you look back at the last decade of Yeti images and films, chances are they include a lot of non-Yeti bags. Because of the brands presence across the outdoors, whether hunting, fishing, surfing or skiing, or in camping and BBQ, bags were just a natural presence. So its perfectly natural for the company to be expanding its portfolio of bags. This isn’t just about grabbing something, slapping our brand on it, draining the opportunity, and moving on, says Reintjes. We think there’s an incredible opportunity to take what Mystery Ranch has created in its brand, and what Yeti has created, with our brand and our capabilities, and have the best of both worlds.
Yeti has long believed in a low-and-slow approach to expansion, that takes the company into areas that make sense and, more importantly, it has permission to be. It took the same approach to bags, gradually rolling them out over the past eight years. Now, with the Ranchero, the brand is ready to add some swagger.
No more dabbling
The original Yeti bags were a natural extension of their founding product, the indestructible cooler for outdoor adventure. The Panga duffel and backpack were fully submersible, waterproof packs.
Yetis head of marketing Bill Neff says that even though the brand has a pretty big portfolio of bags, it’s always been seen as dabbling in the category. For the people that know we make these bags, they’ve been really successful for us, says Neff. We just have never taken it overly seriously. Now, with the Ranchero, we’re going to talk about bags like we do coolers and drinkware. This is the flag were planting in the ground.
Its a flag in the ground, but the brand is still doing it the Yeti way. Dont expect a Super Bowl ad. Instead, its about showing up in places that add credibility along with exposure. In 2023, the brand signed a licensing deal with F1s Oracle Red Bull Racing, and now outfit the entire teams luggage and bags.
Neff says theyre also taking bags to ambassador deals. We have ambassadors that personify who we are as a brand, but theyd be using North Face or Patagonia bags on-camera from other deals, says Neff. But a lot of them would use Pangas off camera. So we’re at a point now where our contracts include the bags category.
Mystery Ranch Lives
Often when a smaller brand is acquired by a larger one, its value is in the expertise and IP, but the brand name is eventually phased out. Even at Yeti, this has happened with its 2024 acquisition of cast-iron pan brand Butter Pat. Reintjes says that this is not the companys goal or intention with Mystery Ranch. While the new Ranchero backpack is the first Yeti product to utilize Mystery Ranch design IP, the Mystery Ranch brand is still alive and well.
A Mystery Ranch Catalyst bag (left) and Yeti Ranchero (right). [Photos: Mystery Ranch, Yeti]
Reintjes says that one of the things that attracted him to Mystery Ranch was its origin story. Founded by Dana Gleason and Renée Sippel-Baker in 2000, it quickly became known for its focus on pushing the edges of design and development for gear in extreme environments.
The brand will still live on in creating specialty gear for military and firefighting. Mystery Ranch has really established itself in that world, and that’s that place we’re excited about where it can grow, says Reintjes. And on the broader, outdoor, everyday adventure travel side, the Yeti brand really fits in. So we think they’re really complimentary.
Deposits and withdrawals
Yeti has managed to maintain an incredibly strong brand connection to its roots, despite becoming a public company in 2018. But quarterly demands haven’t altered the brands commitment to growing at a natural pace and in areas it has already an established presence.
We feel very fortunate that we have built a brand umbrella that’s much wider than the product portfolio that we have today, says Reintjes. So the privilege and permission to expand the product portfolio underneath the Yeti brand, that we work hard to earn from our consumers, puts us in a position where we have a lot of ideas on where we can go.
An example of this approach is surfing. Yeti didnt just jump in and sponsor the World Surf League or pro surfers like John John Florence. Its connection began as surfers were using its products while fishing and cooking outdoors. It became a natural place to expand.
The acquisition of Butter Pat, and subsequent launch of Yeti cast-iron pan, came from its BBQ and cooking ambassadors.
From an acquisition perspective, we tend to think about it as, Are we making deposits on the brand or are we pulling out from it? says Reintjes. Sometimes you’re drawingon the brand to help establish it somewhere, but we’re almost always looking to add to it. I think what happens when you start cashing out a brand, it just gets more and more generic. It gets less and less loved. So were always asking, are we making it more rich, are we making it more deep and more connected?
Im a journalist, and the first 30 minutes of my day used to be spent mainlining newsfeeds. Now, more often than not, its dedicated to LinkedIn.
Such is the natural course of technology; I seek an engaged audience for pieces built on considered thought. And I discovered the pseudo social network that Id once found cringe is actually full of smart peoplewho crop up if Im willing to spend a bit of extra time sharing my writing with them.
We are now in the era of the AI-born LinkedIn expert. Their mastery is dropping a story into ChatGPT and asking for a perky LinkedIn post summarizing it. (LinkedIn even has its own AI writing assistant that encourages people to Rewrite with AI to serve up this slop.) They snatch the thoughts and research of others, reconstitute it, and present it as their own. Even when they source a link, the new work is still oddly pre-chewed. A steak transformed into mechanically processed meat.
But honestly, its not the plagiarism lite that gets to me most. And LinkedIn is hardly the only spot youll find people publishing AI-drafted copy. Beyond the Great Truncation at the heart of Zoom meeting summaries, I can tell the pitch emails I receive are increasingly written with the help of AI, while companies like Microsoft promote Copilot to help write corporate memos (and LinkedIn posts!). It seems every designer I know is using AI to write about their projects, and Canva just unveiled tools to batch write ads for you in about every language on earth.
This is all *fine* [the room around me beginning to smoke but not in full flames yet]. Not every pitch deck needs to be a Shakespearean sonnet. Even language specialists will tell you that a lot of writing is formulaic, which is a reason why predictive autocomplete technologies have been so accurate for so long.
I used to fear that AI would trap each of us into our own universe. Now Im imagining a future that’s far more mundane. It’s one where I use AI to write you a thing. Then you have your AI summarize it. Then you have your AI write back. And then my AI summarizes it. Why wasnt it all just summarized in the first place? Does anyone need to have a full thought ever again?
Dont take me as some Luddite denying the current impact or supreme possibilities lurking inside generative AI. We consolidated all our knowledge into the internet, which we used to train humanitys synthesizer. Life is gonna be messy for a while. But Im not just a curmudgeonly old writer who is threatened by a machine that can pump out copy even faster than I can. (And ask my editors; Im lightning.)
What is so insulting to me about those AI-written messages is that they take less time and consideration to produce than they do to consume. You are, by the nature of sharing these automated words, signaling to me that you care less about my time and attention than you do your own. Of course youre free to believe that as much as you likein your own head. Just dont drop it into my inbox or feed. Because thats rude.
In a way, an AI-generated image or advertisement is less offensive to me, because we look at most digital ads for a second or less (with a mere 4% commanding our attention for a full two). To everyone in marketing and graphic design, please do not cancel your weekend plans to get 10 additional microseconds of my engagement! Who cares? (Apologies, I really do enjoy a great ad.)
Reading simply takes longer than visual processing. It inherently asks more of an audience. Presenting a friend or colleague with a note an AI wrote is like inviting them over for dinner and microwaving a Stouffers. An AI post on LinkedIn is bringing that same microwaved dinner to a potluck. You should be embarrassed in either case! Not by your lack of skill or practice in putting together words, but your lack of respect for not even trying.
Now, in full fairness, I will acknowledge that this faux pas is not all your fault. The omnipresent do-anything button of AI is certainly tempting. And companies including OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft are encouraging such behavior while hoping to prove out their investment in AI tools. They will addict us to automation even when it’s uncouth because there’s no business plan in the world built on moderation.
The truth, however, is if something isnt worth you writing it, theres about no way in hell its worth me reading it.
If youve ever been to a Nashville honky-tonk, youve witnessed the chorus of cowboy boots, the thrumming acoustic guitars, the roadhouse neon, the Stetsons, the buoyant bourbon-and-barbecue-fueled energy.
You probably wouldnt describe this scene as simply a bar. And yet, if you’re blind or have low vision and happen to use a screen reader to read the alt text of a photo of a honky-tonk, thats likely the description you would get: This is an image of a bar.
The current [state of alt text] is pretty abysmal, just to be quite candid. It’s almost a bit out of sight, out of mind, literally and figuratively, says Josh Loebner, creative marketing agency VML’s global head of inclusive design, who also happens to be blind. Images create another layer of depth to what narrative is on a website, regardless of what it isbut particularly for travel and tourism.
This led VML and the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development to launch Sound Sitesan initiative to replace the alt text on the states official tourism website with lyrical verse from one of Tennessees best natural resources: songwriters.
Now, no longer is a photo of Kings Palace Cafe in Memphis an image of a person playing guitar in a bar. Rather, as songwriters David Tolliver and Billy Montana put it:
Theres blues singing offthe strings of Lucille,
Ringing down the black topand sidewalks of Beale,
The soul of BB King ispresent and real,
The songs seem to find youand know how you feel.
Kix Brooks of Brooks & Dunn [Photo: courtesy Tennessee Department of Tourist Development]
Tuning up
Often, Loebner says, accessible design is regarded as a matter of checking the box. It’s treated as an afterthought that doesnt involve any semblance of creativity. But alt text is competing with vivid sensorial power. When someone sees a photo, in an instant, they not only distill the information, but in travel and tourism, it starts to put them in that place . . . them stepping into those mountains, walking a trail where they can have a beautiful scenic vista, or sitting in front of a stage hearing an artist play their favorite song, he says.
It takes creativity to bring an image to life in the truncated space of descriptive text, which best practices place at around 125 characters. If theres a group of people who excel at working in those tight borders, its songwriters. Loebner acknowledges that VML could have hired copywriters, but the states heritage of songwriters was too perfect an opportunity to pass up.
Our tagline for the state is Sounds Perfect. And if you think about it, if an image doesn’t have an alt text associated with it, it really doesn’t sound perfect to people who are blind or partially sighted, Loebner says. A songwriter, at their core, is about putting words together in very evocative, sublime ways that really nobody else can do.
[Photo: courtesy Tennessee Department of Tourist Development]
Loebner says when VML brought the idea to Tennessee officials roughly six weeks ago, they loved it. So far theyve worked with a dozen songwriters, including Kix Brooks of the musical duo Brooks & Dunn; the aforementioned David Tolliver (who has written for the likes of Tim McGraw, Wynonna Judd, and others) and Billy Montana (Garth Brooks, Sara Evans); and Hilary Williams (granddaughter of country music legend Hank Williams Sr.). VML paired them with people from the blind communities to collaborate, converse, and help get a sense of the challenges and barriers of generating image descriptions for alt text.
[Photo: courtesy Tennessee Department of Tourist Development]
Pun intended, it opened up the songwriters eyes to seeing how their verse could be used in quite a unique way that hadn’t been considered before, Loebner says.
Noodling around on their instruments, the songwriters have added lyrical alt text to several hundred images, with the hope of reaching a thousand as a benchmark. And while this all makes for a great PR/marketing story for VML and the state, its one that reaches far beyond the initial buzz. Loebner says the goal is to expand the scope of the project, continuing to recruit songwriters to create alt text for a variety of uses, from social campaigns to video ads and more.
Tennessee native Jana Jackson, a music artist and travel agent, appears in promotional materials for the Sound Sites initiative. [Photo: courtesy Tennessee Department of Tourist Development]
AN ACCESSIBLE SOLUTION
The project has been dubbed a first of its kind for the tourism industry. And that tracks: Loebner says accessible design is often regarded as an insurmountable mountain, where everything must be done in one fell swoop across the board. But he believes that any element of progress is progress. He adds that its also thought to be time-consuming and expensive, but as this project shows, it can be done quickly. I can guarantee it will not break any bank of any travel or tourism department, he says.
Of course, weak image descriptions are an issue in most industries, and song lyrics obviously arent a universal panacea. Image descriptions at large just need to be more evocative about telling stories in a succinct way for the benefit of alland Sound Sites serves as a powerful reminder that innovative solutions are needed for a potent problem.
Loebner says 93% of all websites have at least one page that doesnt include any descriptive text, and many others lack quality image descriptions, if they have them at all. Which can be utterly detrimental to not just planning a vacationbut major life decisions at large.
Think about a young person who is considering college, and they’re blind and they want to know what college to go to. If that college doesn’t have accessible websites or immersive alt text, then that college may be passed over. Or think about different careers, he says. We all want to dream. And when there’s inaccessibility as a barrier, that could diminish dreams. We want to be able to open the aperture, to hopefully allow everybody, whether they’re blind or not, to be able to dream bigger.
Six hours after OpenAIs launch of GPT-4.1, Sam Altman was already apologizing.
This time, it wasnt about hallucinations or bias or Scarlett Johansson. No, it was about the model name. GPT-4.1 seemed nonsensical to many, difficult to parse from their already launched models like GPT-4o and GPT-4.5. How about we fix our model naming by this summer and everyone gets a few more months to make fun of us (which we very much deserve) until then? Altman wrote.
Streamers take the brunt of the internet’s name-mocking: Are you a Hulu, Tubi, or Fubo subscriber? But AI companies are just as bad, if not worse. Their model names are often incoherent and unmemorable. From Sonnet to Llama, AI companies have a branding problem of their own creation.
The history of bad AI model names
OpenAI chose a numeric naming system for their models. This streamlined their products, moving from GPT-1 to GPT-2, GPT-3, and eventually GPT-4. Now, instead of continuing their linear progression, OpenAI is launching models within the GPT-4 umbrella. First, there was GPT-4o (as in omni), then GPT-4.5. Now, theyve reversed back to GPT-4.1. Users are left not knowing which models do what, or which is the most recent.
Anthropic was founded by OpenAI alumsand they have the same problem with model naming. Theyve now moved to decimals, tracking from Claude 1 to 2 to 3, before pivoting to 3.5 and 3.7. Worse, their individual models are named after literary works: Opus, Sonnet, and Haiku. Naming your models after a creative class you threaten to displace is an act of cruelty.
Google named its model Gemini because of the dual-natured personality of the zodiac sign. The choice is sweetly symbolicuntil you realize Google is calling its chatbot two-faced. Iterations of Gemini also come in decimals, but at least they’re consistent in moving in halves, from 1.0 to 1.5 to 2.0 to 2.5. But they also have addendums like Flash, Flash-Lite, Pro, Ultra, and Nanoterms that are minimally descriptive.
But Meta is the worst among them. They chose to name their family Llamaor originally LLaMA, short for Large Language Model Meta AI, though the capitalization has been mostly given up on. Its an overly smiley, somewhat cloying choice. No, Metas family of LLMs is not a petting zoo. Moreover, their individual models are named things like Scout and Maverick, because Meta seems to think their AI needs to sound like Top Gun movies.
What should an AI company look like?
A model name should have some basic tenets. It should show the companys progress, and allude to the models use cases. (For how confusing GPT-4o was, the omni did demonstrate its value, which was that it was multimodal.) But the model names are also a prime opportunity for branding.
The AI companies knew as much when they were first launching. The initial race was between DeepMind and OpenAI, both of whoms names reflected their positions. DeepMind was deep, placing their tech at a high value as they raced towards AGI. OpenAI was open, centering transparency for the then-nonprofit. When Anthropic came around, promising to produce more ethical AI, they centered the human in their name.
Model names can do the same. They dont need to be zodiac signs and poems, farm animals and number splatters. These models can present their companies futures; they just need to pivot.
Beth Kaplan is a belonging researcher and advocate. She has spent her career studying how people construct their sense of belonging. With more than two decades of experience as an executive and having conducted research into workplace trauma, she is a sought-after consultant for Fortune 500 companies, nonprofits, government, and educational institutions that seek to improve their retention and culture.
Whats the big idea?
Braving the workplace means showing up as yourselfevery single dayin a world that constantly tells you to be someone different. Too many of us feel unseen, undervalued, and unhappy at work. Its time to stop shrinking and molding to keep your seat at the table. Managers need to create environments where employees thrive because they feel that they are enough, exactly as they are.
Below, Kaplan shares five key insights from her new book, Braving the Workplace: Belonging at the Breaking Point. Listen to the audio versionread by Kaplan herselfin the Next Big Idea App.
1. The opposite of belonging is fitting in.
Belonging is the innate desire to be part of something larger than ourselves without sacrificing who we are. Its not just about being included; its about knowing you can show up as yourself without fear of rejection or exclusion. Belonging is something individuals determine for themselves. It cant be imposed from the outside. It must be felt, experienced, and owned internally. Only you can decide if you belong.
For years, weve been conditioned to believe that fitting in is the same as belonging. But fitting in is the opposite of belonging because if all youre doing is adapting, molding, and minimizing yourself to be accepted, you are sacrificing your core self.
True belonging requires no self-sacrifice. It doesnt demand that you compromise who you are to stay employed, be liked, or get ahead. Instead, it means showing up as yourself, fully and authentically, and knowing that you are valuednot in spite of who you are, but because of it.
The problem? Most workplaces reward fitting in more than they foster belonging. They encourage employees to blend in, conform, and play the game rather than create environments where people feel safe enough to be real. But if you must change yourself to belong, you dont belong.
When organizations use harmful phrases like, Were a family, even when well-intended, they create unrealistic expectations for emotional loyalty and sacrifice. Families are built on unconditional love, but workplaces operate on performance, roles, and shifting priorities. Fitting into a family is naturalyoure born or welcomed into it. But fitting in at work? That often means conforming, suppressing parts of yourself, or overextending just to feel secure. Work is not familyits a professional environment where people collaborate to achieve shared goals. Blurring these lines erodes boundaries, makes it harder for employees to advocate for themselves, and pressures them to prove their worth through overwork and self-sacrifice.
Real belonging isnt earned through self-sacrifice; its built through trust, respect, and the freedom to show up fully. When workplaces prioritize fitting in over true belonging, they create environments where people feel like they have to perform instead of participate and conform instead of contribute. Real belonging doesnt ask you to shrink.
2. The most common workplace trauma is belonging uncertainty.
Lets talk about something happening in every office, Slack channel, and Zoom call: belonging uncertainty. Belonging uncertainty is that nagging voice in your head asking, Do I really belong here? Do they see me? Do they even want me here? Its when your ideas get dismissed in meetings, when youre passed over for projects without explanation, when your workplace says they care about diversity, but no one in leadership looks like you.
This low-grade, everyday questioning of your worth is workplace trauma. And it has real consequences. Employees who feel uncertain about their belonging dont just wonder about itthey feel it in their bodies. It leads to self-silencing, disengagement, burnout, anxiety, depression, and even an increased risk of heart disease.
When we experience belonging uncertainty, our bodies react as if we are under threat. Cortisol levels spike, heart rates increase, and our nervous system shifts into fight, flight, or freeze mode. This isnt just an emotional responseits a physiological one. Our brains perceive exclusion the same way they perceive physical pain, activating the same neural pathways. Over time, this stress response can lead to long-term health consequences. When belonging feels fragile, our bodies stay on high alert, making it harder to focus, collaborate, and bring our best selves to work. Belonging is a biological need.
People dont innovate in rooms where they feel invisible and uncertain. They dont take risks when failure feels like proof they dont belong. They shrink. They check out. And eventually, they walk away. If companies want to retain their best people, they need to stop assuming everyone feels like they belong and start earning that trust every day, clearing up and mitigating the risks of belonging uncertainty before it has a chance to take over.
3. More than anything, employees want managers to care.
Employees dont leave companies. They leave managers who dont care. In fact, a manager is the number one influence on an employees sense of belonging. Research shows that a persons manager has more impact on their mental health than their therapist, doctor, or even their spouse.
When a manager creates psychological safety, recognizes contributions, and treats employees with dignity, people feel seen and valued. But when a manager ignores them, criticizes without support, or withholds opportunities, it erodes belonging at the deepest level.
Care is kindness, but its also candor. Care is support, but its also accountability. Care is saying an employees name in a room full of decision-makers when theyre not there to advocate for themselves. Care isnt just about being nice. Great leaders know that care isnt just about checking inits about showing up in ways that actually make a difference.
4. How can leaders create environments of care in the workplace?
Expand the notion of Care as Kindness: Create a safe space where people feel seen, valued, and respected. Its taking the time to ask, How are you really doing? and actually listening to the answer. Check in beyond the deadlines and deliverables.
Another way to expand care is to look at Care as Candortelling people the truthbecause you want them to succeed. Dodging tough conversations isnt kindness; its avoidance. If youre not coaching your people with honest, constructive feedback, youre not leading them. Giving honest feedback helps people grow.
Finally, managers can execute Care as Advocacy. This is where the rubber meets the road. Care is mentorship, sponsorship, and ensuring your people get the visibility they deserve. If your employees are only being noticed when they fight for themselves, youre not leadingyoure making them do all the work.
Ifyoure a leader, ask yourself: When was the last time you made someone on your team feel seen? Supported? Invested in? If you dont know the answer, its time to rethink how you lead.
5. Belonging is personal.
When companies try to force belonging, it makes employees feel like theyre the problem if they are not feeling it. Instead of creating real connection, it pressures employees to fake it.
Belonging is deeply personal. Its not a policy, slogan, or mandatory team bonding exercise. Its something that happens when employees feel cared for, seen, heard, and valued. Its built through trust, psychological safety, and real relationshipsnot performative culture-building.
A company says, You belong here! Its in onboarding speeches, town halls, and posters on the walls. The message is clear: belonging is non-negotiable here. But belonging cant be imposed. Its not something a company can announce into existence or demand employees accept. Its something we feelnot something were told.
If companies want to stop imposing belonging and start earning it, they need to:
Create psychological safety. Make it okay to say, Im not feeling a sense of belonging right now.
Ditch the blanket statements. Instead of saying, You all belong here, ask, What does belonging look like for you?
Train managers to be belonging leaders. They have the greatest impactthey must learn to recognize when employees feel unseen or disengaged.
Understand the belonging spectrum. Not everyone seeks deep personal meaning at work. Allow for different levels of connection without penalizing employees who need less.
Its time to build workplaces where belonging isnt conditional or imposedits real, earned, and deeply felt. When employees are forced to perform belonging rather than experience it, they smile, nod, and show up to team events, but inside, theyre thinking, I dont belong, but I cant say that out loud. This creates workplace Duck Syndrome: On the surface, employees appear calm, engaged, and aligned, but underneath, theyre frantically paddling just to keep up the illusion. Faking belonging is exhausting. It leads to burnout, disengagement, and resentment.
When belonging is real, people thrive. When its imposed, people check out. Its time we do better.
This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
