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In some cities, as Amazon delivery vans make the rounds with your latest order, theyre also delivering something differentfree food to people who rely on food banks. In a program that quietly started during the pandemic, the company has used its logistics infrastructure to deliver enough groceries for 60 million meals to families facing food insecurity. Today, Amazon announced that its extending the program with its food bank partners through 2028. The Community Delivery program began early in the pandemic as the companys disaster relief team saw long lines at food banks and looked for ways to help people stuck at home. We started talking to our operational teams here at Amazon and said, were doing this for our customerswere delivering food to their doorstep, says Bettina Stix, director of Amazon Community Impact. What if we did that same delivery, but instead of coming from our Amazon grocery fulfillment, it would come from the food bank? [Photo: Amazon] As pandemic restrictions ended, they realized that there was still a clear need for delivery. In a study with Feeding America last year, they found that 46% of visitors to food pantries had skipped visits because of transportation challenges. (Unsurprisingly, that number jumps to 60% for people without a car.) Others might work multiple jobs and simply not have enough time. Some recipients who use the delivery program said that theyd never been able to access free food from a pantry in the past. There are many people who, because of disability or transportation or schedule constraints, can’t get to a pantry, or stand in line at a pantry, or transport a 25-pound bag of groceries home, says Seth Harris, associate director of home-delivered groceries at the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank, one of more than 40 food banks that now works with Amazon. Picking up groceries from a food pantry might involve two hours of travel and trying to navigate a bus with a heavy package. Some food banks already offered limited home delivery, but it’s resource-intensive and typically relies on volunteers, making it difficult to scale. “At some point, you end up in a world where you have more deliveries than can be done by a single route,” says Josh Hirschland, principal product manager for food security at Amazon Community Impact. “So then you start to think about, okay, how do we divide up the packages across multiple routes? How do you set the order of the different stops to be the most efficient, and how do you divide that up? How do you manage all of these orders? How do you figure out which ones have been picked up? Have you made sure that they’re being delivered?” Hirschland adds. The San Francisco-Marin Food Bank had a delivery program before working with Amazon, but was able to significantly expand it. The nonprofit now makes around 1,000 home deliveries a day, primarily to seniors and adults with disabilities. [Photo: Amazon] In many cases, Amazon works with its network of Flex drivers, gig workers who use their own cars, to make the deliveries. Instead of picking up a shift for Amazon Fresh, a driver can choose to pick up a carful of prepacked boxes from a food bank and deliver them over the next hour or two. Amazon foots the bill. The program, like the rest of its Community Impact work, isn’t a separate philanthropic arm of the company, but part of a business strategy to find ways to benefit communities by using its existing infrastructure and technology. The company adapted software that it had initially used for Amazon Restaurants, a food delivery service that the company shut down in 2019. Engineers created a portal that food banks can use to add and track orders. In some cities, like Los Angeles and Austin, food banks pack shelf-stable food that doesn’t need to be delivered immediately, and the boxes can be incorporated into regular Amazon delivery routes. Larger trucks pick up pallets of boxes at food banks and take them to Amazon sort centers. “At the sort center, those boxes start to be comingled with iPhone cables and jigsaw puzzles, and then get sent down to a truck where they are driven to the delivery station,” Hirschland says. At the company’s last-mile delivery stations, boxes are loaded onto racks and then head out on vans. Using vans helps make it easier to reach rural areas, he says, where it’s often even harder for families to access food pantries. [Photo: Amazon] The company now has a team of engineers dedicated to continuing to improve the technology behind the philanthropic initiative. One recent feature, for example, tracks how long each package is with the driver, from pickup to delivery. Since the program started, Amazon has been renewing it with its food bank partners each year. But now, with a longer three-year extension, the nonprofits will be better able to plan. “If you are running a home delivery program as a food bank, even if the transportation is free, there are still any number of costs that you’re looking at,” Hirschland says. Food banks also don’t want to offer the service and then have to unexpectedly cancel it. The longer commitment “is something that we’ve been trying to d for a long time,” he says. The need keeps growing: The cost of food is now nearly 30% higher than it was in 2020. Tariffs are pushing up the cost of imported foods like bananas and coffee. The Department of Labor warned last week that current immigration policies are causing a shortage of workers on farms, and that’s also threatening the food supply chain and food prices. The budget bill that President Trump signed in July made steep cuts to SNAP, the federal food assistance program, that will soon begin rolling out. Earlier in the year, the Department of Agriculture cut $1 billion in funding for food banks and school nutrition programs to buy food from local farms. With rents and energy prices also rising, buying food has become even more of a strain. The delivery program can’t solve the larger issues that make hunger a logistics problem. But in a strained system, it’s become a critical tool for food banks.
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E-Commerce
Iceland has long been known as the only habitable place in the world free from mosquitoes. (Antarctica is also mosquito-free, but is not habitable to humans). The Nordic country has been spared from the insects in part because of its intense winters and oceanic climateuntil now. Mosquitoes have been found in Iceland for the first time this month, a sign of how our warming world is enabling the pesky and downright deadly insects to expand their range. An insect enthusiast in Kjós named Björn Hjaltason posted about his discovery in a Facebook group that translates to Insects in Iceland, multiple Icelandic news outlets have reported. Ladies and gentlemenmay I introduce . . . for the first time in Iceland . . . MOSQUITO!” the post read, according to the Icelandic newspaper Vísir. After finding three mosquitoes, Hjaltason sent the insects to the Natural Science Institute of Iceland, which researches the countrys natural environment. Matthías Alfresson, an entomologist there, confirmed the bugs were, in fact, mosquitoesspecifically, ones from the Culiseta annulata species, which is native to northern Europe. Mosquitoes have previously been found on planes coming into Iceland, Alfresson told RÚV, the national public broadcaster, but this recent finding marked the first time that the insect has been found on Icelandic soil. He said the discovery was significant. A warming world Climate change is causing the entire planet to experience record-high temperatures, and Iceland is particularly affected. Iceland has been warming about three times faster than the global average warming rate, according to the Icelandic Meteorological Office. Rising temperatures are also lighting a fuse under volcanoes, causing more eruptionsa process already observed in Iceland. Almost all of Icelands glaciers are receding, and some have vanished completely. As our planet warms, it becomes more hospitable to insects, which spread beyond their native regions. Scientists have long warned that mosquitoes are on the move, and as they are the worlds deadliest animalcarrying diseases from malaria to Zika virus to dengue feverthat puts millions more people at risk. Culiseta annulata is not considered a primary vector for disease, but other mosquitoes that have been expanding into colder areas of the world are. Asian tiger mosquitoes, originally from Southeast Asia, which transmit dengue, have recently been found in the United Kingdom, for example. In Iceland to stay Iceland was always somewhat of an anomaly when it came to its lack of the buzzing, biting bugs. Its Nordic neighbors, including Denmark, Norway, and Greenland, have had thriving mosquito populations. Iceland is also full of lakes and ponds, where mosquitoes often breed. (The country is home to other flying, biting bugs, though.) Scientists have theorized, The New York Times previously reported, that Icelands oceanic climate, including its multiple major freezes and thaws each year, has kept the bugs from breeding and surviving. But the mosquitoes recently found in Iceland are likely there to stay, entomologists say. The species is particularly cold-resistant and may survive the Icelandic winters by hiding out in basements or barns. Experts will need to monitor the situation come spring to see if the species really becomes established in Iceland, one entomologist told Fast Company. Their potential infiltration of the Nordic island ultimately isnt much of a surprise to scientists, who have expected this outcome as evidence of global warming has mounted. Icelands average air temperature has increased about 2 degrees Fahrenheit in the past 20 years, per the Times, allowing some 200 new insect species to make Iceland their home, when they couldnt previously survive its conditions. If the warming continues, we may find mosquitoes in Iceland in the near future, Gisli Mar Gislason, a biologist at the University of Iceland, predicted in an interview with the Times in 2016.
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E-Commerce
Netflix missed Wall Street’s third-quarter earnings targets because of an unexpected expense from a dispute with Brazilian tax authorities, while it offered a forecast a touch ahead of Wall Street projections for the rest of the year. The report failed to impress investors accustomed to fast-paced growth from the streaming video pioneer. Shares of Netflix, which had risen 39% this year ahead of the earnings report, fell 6.3%, to $1,163.80, in after-hours trading on Tuesday. Netflix posted net income of $2.5 billion and diluted earnings per share of $5.87 for July through September, a period when the animated K-Pop Demon Hunters became the most-watched movie in Netflix history. Analysts had expected $3 billion and $6.97, respectively, according to the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG). Revenue was even with forecasts, at $11.5 billion. Netflix is seeking growth from new areas such as advertising and video games after attracting more than 300 million customers around the world. It faces competition from YouTube, Amazon’s Prime Video, Disney+, and others. The media business is facing major changes, including the potential sale of industry titan Warner Bros. Discovery and the rise of generative artificial intelligence with the ability to produce short-form video. Netflix reported an operating margin of 28% for the third quarter. Without the Brazilian tax expense of roughly $619 million, the margin would have exceeded the company’s guidance of 31.5%, it said, adding that it did not expect the matter to have a material impact on future results. PP Foresight analyst Paolo Pescatore said he believed the tax issue weighed on Netflix shares. “All things considered, this was another robust quarter, despite a blip due to an unforeseen expense,” Pescatore said. For the fourth quarter, Netflix forecast revenue of $11.96 billion, compared with Wall Street’s projection of $11.90 billion. It projected diluted earnings per share a penny ahead of analysts’ targets, at $5.45. For the third quarter, Netflix said it recorded its best ad sales quarter in history but did not disclose a number. “This gives the impression that the sustained revenue growth achieved this quarter, and forecasted for next quarter, will predominantly continue to come from subscription fees,” eMarketer analyst Ross Benes said. Netflix will release the final season of one of its biggest hits, Stranger Things, in November and December, and stream two live National Football League games on Christmas. “We’re finishing the year with good momentum and have an exciting Q4 slate,” Netflix said in its quarterly letter to shareholders. Earlier this year, Netflix stopped reporting subscriber numbers and urged investors to focus on revenue and profit. It has expanded into video games and advertising, two areas that have contributed little to revenue so far, according to analysts and investors. By Lisa Richwine, Reuters
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E-Commerce
Seeking a flatter management structure is a leadership trend you could compare to fashions craze for skinny jeanstrendy yesterday, forgotten tomorrow, then back in fashion again before you know it. Recently, big tech firms like Meta, Microsoft, and Google made headlines for cutting management positions to lower costs and increase productivityturning some of their workloads over to AI tools. But a new survey from San Francisco-based workplace communications outfit Firstup shows that eliminating too many management jobs can have some unexpected effects on the way your teams work, sometimes damaging employee engagement, which undermines productivity. This is definitely something to bear in mind if youre considering restructuring your own companys management ranks. The surveys top results show that employees think middle management layers are crucial to the company success. More than half the people surveyed said their direct manager was their most trusted source for up-to-date workplace newscompared to just 10% who think that senior leadership is their best source for this information. Interestingly, the Firstup survey, which quizzed 1,000 U.S.-based, full-time non-managerial employees at companies that carried out layoffs in the last year, shows that junior staff think that their middle management layers are critical to their well-being at work. Fully 75% of respondents said they rely on managers for recognition and appreciation, 63% said they relied on them for helping tackle workplace challenges, while 50% said they seek coaching and development advice from managers. Meanwhile, 86% of people said they relied on managers to translate company updates into meaningful advice about what changes mean for individual workers. This paints a picture of junior staff relying on their layers of middle management as a trust and information barrier between themselves and senior leadershipperhaps hinting at an ivory tower syndrome surrounding senior management. Other survey details offer a deeper view of what happens when layoffs hit the management structure of a company. Fully 38% of survey respondents said that since their company experienced layoffs, their manager had become less accessible. This has had consequences: 30% of people said theyd felt less support when things were disrupted or changed, 34% expected theyll lose a sense of connection and 30% expected decreased or zero access for mentorship and career development options. Employees also dont trust senior leaders, with nearly 40% saying they cant get mentorship or guidance from upper management, 37% saying they feel unheard by the top leaders, and only 47% agreeing that their company leadership is somewhat transparent. This paints an interesting picture of how the average U.S. worker views their management, relying on their direct supervisors while apparently distrusting upper layers of company leadership. The report quotes Firstup CEO Bill Schuh, who explained that the data show workers see middle managers as critical for translating organizational priorities into action, clarity, and connection for their direct report. As companies shed middle managers, they risk losing this vital link, which can leave frontline workers feeling lost and unsupported. That discontent will likely diminish their engagement with their work, and could reduce their productivity. Meanwhile Schuh also noted that stripping managers out adds strain on their remaining colleagues. That means companies are asking fewer managers to do more, and that simply is not sustainable, he said. While AI is useful for handling some mundane managerial tasks, it wont replace the human connection and leadership that great managers provide. What does this mean for your company? In smaller organizations, there may be more of a direct line of communication between senior leaders and frontline workers: but these data are still important. If youre considering trimming your intermediate management structure, you should consider how this will impact employee trust and expectations for career advancement. Open and frank conversations may improve levels of trust among your employees and help support their engagement and productivity during times of upheaval. Kit Eaton This article originally appeared on Fast Companys sister publication, Inc. Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy.
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E-Commerce
After a record-setting rally over the past week, commodities traders went all in on a massive gold sell-off on Tuesday. The price of the precious metal fell down to $4,118 an ounce, after a high of $4,381.52 an ounce just one day before. Meanwhile, silver is trading at $48.76 an ounce in midday trading at the time of this writing, down from $54.35 last week. At the time of this writing, the live gold spot price for an ounce of gold in U.S. dollars (USD) is $4,133.13, a gram of gold is $132.88 and one kilogram of gold is $132,883.22, according to JM Bullion.(Gold spot price can fluctuate by the second.) For some context, that means gold prices have decreased the most they have in four years, and silver is seeing its biggest drop since early 2021, per Bloomberg. This is a stunning reversal from last week, which saw gold and silver prices spiking as investors sought out a “safe haven” from more volatility in the stock market due to overall economic uncertainty. The two main ways to invest in gold and silver are by buying the physical metals, or through futures contracts. What’s causing the abrupt change? Analysts say it’s not just one thing causing the slump. They point to the current economic and political climate, including a prolonged government shutdown; upcoming U.S. and China trade talks amid Trump’s escalating tariff wars with Beijing; and softer than expected numbers from the US Consumer Price Index (CPI), which are expected to be released by end of week. The shutdown is delaying some economic and jobs data from coming out as government workers are currently furloughed, while at the same time, there have been mass firings. Meanwhile, a standoff with Beijing over rare earth minerals resulted in President Donald Trump threatening a massive increase of tariffs on Chinese products,” seemingly triggering a market sell-off. However, a retreat from gold and silver could mean the market is feeling more secureand therefore, a good sign investors aren’t running for cover.
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E-Commerce
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