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If youre a fan of Amazon Fresh, the e-commerce giant’s chain of cashier-less of grocery stores, 2025 is turning out to be a pretty rough year for youand the brand. After closing some Amazon Fresh locations in the United States earlier this year, Amazon announced that it expects to close all Amazon Fresh locations in the United Kingdom. Heres what you need to know about the Amazon Fresh closures. Amazon moves to close UK grocery stores Today, Amazon abruptly announced that it launched a consultation with employees for the proposed closure of all Amazon Fresh locations in the United Kingdom. (UK laws require consultation periods in cases of large layoffs.) The company currently has 19 UK Amazon Fresh stores. In a blog post, Amazon states that the proposed closures are the result of an evaluation of its business operations, as well as the very substantial growth opportunities in online delivery. However, the post doesn’t make clear if the move is definite. Rather, the company states: In case of closure [emphasis added], our goal is to offer redeployment opportunities to as many affected employees as possible. The company continues, As part of the Fresh Stores closure proposal, in addition to expanding online grocery services, were also proposing to convert five Amazon Fresh locations to Whole Foods Market. Fast Company has reached out to Amazon for clarification on whether the decision to close the stores has been made. Under the proposed closure, 14 Amazon Fresh stores in the UK would cease to operate entirely, and the remaining five Amazon Fresh stores would be rebranded and turned into Whole Foods stores, the U.S. grocery chain that Amazon bought back in 2017. It should be noted that whether or not all Amazon Fresh stores close in the UK, the company will still operate its Amazon Fresh grocery delivery service in the country. Proposed UK closures follow U.S. store shutterings The closure of Amazon Fresh stores in the UK wont be the first locations to close in 2025. The majority of Amazon Fresh stores operate inside the United States, and this year, Amazon has closed at least three U.S. locations. In March, GroceryDive reported that Amazon was in the process of shuttering two Fresh stores. The Amazon Fresh store in Manassas, Virginia, closed on March 16, and the Thousand Oaks, California, store closed on April 27. We remain committed to Amazon Fresh and our broader grocery strategy, and will continue to refine our portfolio of stores as we learn which locations and features resonate most with customers, an Amazon spokesperson told the publication at the time of the report. Then, in June, GeekWire reported that Amazon closed its Amazon Fresh location in Federal Way, Washington. Certain store locations work better than others, and after an assessment of our offering weve decided to close our Amazon Fresh store in Federal Way, an Amazon spokesperson said at the time. Amazon still has more than 60 U.S. locations Despite the earlier U.S. closures, the company still has more than 60 locations within the United States. Amazon Freshs store locator tool shows that the company currently operates 64 grocery stores across nine states, with California having the most stores by far: California (27) Illinois (10) Maryland (5) New Jersey (4) New York (3) Pennsylvania (6) Virginia (5) Washington (3) Tennessee (1) After announcing the proposed closure of all of its Amazon Fresh UK locations, Amazons stock (Nasdaq: AMZN) is currently down about 2.2% in morning trading. However, the extent to which the proposed closures are related to Amazons stock price drop is debatable. As of the time of this writing, many Big Tech stocks are currently flat or trading down slightly for the day. Besides Amazons 64 Fresh locations, the company currently operates more than 500 Whole Foods Markets locations around the world. Amazon’s move comes as brick-and-mortar retailers on both sides of the Atlantic are struggling with headwinds from rising operating costs, more price-conscious consumers, tariff uncertainty, and other factors. In January, the Guardian reported that the UK lost 13,500 shops in 2024, a 28% increase over the year before.
Category:
E-Commerce
President Donald Trump on Monday used the platform of the presidency to promote unproven and in some cases discredited ties between Tylenol, vaccines and autism as his administration announced a wide-ranging effort to study the causes of the complex brain disorder.“Don’t take Tylenol,” Trump instructed pregnant women around a dozen times during the unwieldy White House news conference, also urging mothers not to give their infants the drug, known by the generic name acetaminophen in the U.S. or paracetamol in most other countries. He also fueled long-debunked claims that ingredients in vaccines or timing shots close together could contribute to rising rates of autism in the U.S., without providing any medical evidence.The rambling announcement, which appeared to rely on existing studies rather than significant new research, comes as the Make America Healthy Again movement has been pushing for answers on the causes of autism. The diverse coalition of supporters of Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. includes several anti-vaccine activists who have long spread debunked claims that immunizations are responsible.The announcement also sheds light on Trump’s own long-held fascination with autism and his trepidation about the childhood vaccine schedule, even as the president has taken pride in his work to disseminate COVID-19 vaccines during his first term.Medical experts said Trump’s remarks were irresponsible. New York University bioethicist Art Caplan said it was “the saddest display of a lack of evidence, rumors, recycling old myths, lousy advice, outright lies, and dangerous advice I have ever witnessed by anyone in authority.”Trump announced during the event that the Food and Drug Administration would begin notifying doctors that the use of acetaminophen “can be associated” with an increased risk of autism, but did not immediately provide justification for the new recommendation.Evidence for potential link between Tylenol and autism is not conclusiveSome studies have raised the possibility that taking acetaminophen during pregnancy might increase the risk of autism but many others haven’t found that concern, said autism expert David Mandell of the University of Pennsylvania.One challenge is that it’s hard to disentangle the effects of Tylenol use from the effects of high fevers during pregnancy. Fevers, especially in the first trimester, can increase the risk for miscarriages, preterm birth and other problems, according to the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine.Trump also urged not giving Tylenol to young children, but scientists say that research indicates autism develops in the fetal brain.Responding to Trump’s warnings, the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine said they still recommend Tylenol as an appropriate option to treat fever and pain during pregnancy. The president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said Monday that suggestions that Tylenol use in pregnancy causes autism are “irresponsible when considering the harmful and confusing message they send to pregnant patients.”Trump press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement Monday evening that the administration “does not believe popping more pills is always the answer for better health” and that it “will not be deterred in these efforts as we know millions across America are grateful.”Tylenol maker Kenvue disputed any link between the drug and autism on Monday and said in a statement that if pregnant mothers don’t use Tylenol when in need, they could face a dangerous choice between suffering fevers or using riskier painkiller alternatives. Shares of Kenvue Inc. fell 7.5% in trading Monday, reducing the company’s market value by about $2.6 billion.Kennedy announced during the news conference that at Trump’s urging, he was launching a new all-agency effort to uncover all the factors that could be contributing to autism, a question scientists have been researching for decades. Trump administration explores the potential role of folate FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary also took the stage to announce it was taking the first steps to try to approve a folic acid metabolite called leucovorin as a treatment option for patients believed to have low levels of folate in the brain. That may include some people with autism.Leucovorin is used to counteract the side effects of various prescription drugs, including chemotherapy and other high-dose medications that can negatively impact the immune system. It works by boosting folate levels, a form of vitamin B that’s critical to the body’s production of healthy red blood cells.Women already are told to take folic acid before conception and during pregnancy because it reduces the chances of certain birth defects known as neural tube defects.In recent years a handful of studies have suggested positive results when high-dose folic acid is used to treat children with autism, with researchers in China and other countries reporting improvements in social skills and other metrics. Those small studies have been quickly embraced by some parts of the autism community online.The theory is that some, not all, children with autism may not properly metabolize folate, Mandell said. But the recent studies “are really tiny,” he said. To prove an effect, “we would need an independent, large, rigorously controlled randomized trial.” Decades of studies show no link between vaccines and autism During the press conference, Trump said he’s a believer in vaccines but claimed without evidence that giving vaccinations close together at the recommended ages has a link to autism. Spacing out shots as he suggests can lead to an increased risk that children become infected with a vaccine-preventable disease before returning for another visit.Though anti-vaccine activists, including Kennedy, have long suggested a link between vaccines and autism, widespread scientific consensus and decades of studies have firmly concluded there isn’t one.Autism is not a disease but a complex developmental condition that affects different people in different ways. It can include delays in language, learning or social and emotional skills. For some people, profound autism means being nonverbal and having intellectual disabilities, but the vast majority of people with autism experience far milder effects.The disorder affects 1 in 31 U.S. children today, a sharp rise from just a few years ago, according to the CDC. Experts say the increase is mainly due to a new definition for the disorder that now includes mild cases on a “spectrum” and better diagnoses. They say there is no single cause to the disorder and say the rhetoric appears to ignore and undermine decades of science into the genetic and environmental factors that can play a role.The announcement is the latest step the administration, driven by Kennedy and his supporters, has taken to reshape America’s public health landscape.Beyond cutbacks at federal health agencies, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been roiled by disagreements over Kennedy’s vaccine policies. An influential immunization panel stocked by Kennedy with figures who have been citical of vaccines last week changed shot guidance for COVID-19 and other diseases.Swenson reported from New York. Associated Press writers Matthew Perrone and Laura Ungar contributed to this report. Ali Swenson and Lauran Neergaard, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
The Trump administration’s hefty new visa fees for H-1B workers have prompted high-level talks inside companies in Silicon Valley and beyond on the possibility of moving more jobs overseas precisely the outcome the policy was meant to stop. U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday announced the change to the visa program that has long been a recruitment pathway for tech firms and encouraged international students to pursue postgraduate courses in the United States. While the $100,000 levy applies only to new applicants not current holders as first announced the confusion around its roll-out and steep cost are already leading companies to pause recruitment, budgeting and workforce plans, according to Reuters interviews of founders, venture capitalists and immigration lawyers who work with technology companies. “I have had several conversations with corporate clients where they have said this new fee is simply unworkable in the U.S., and it’s time for us to start looking for other countries where we can have highly skilled talent,” said Chris Thomas, an immigration attorney at Colorado-based law firm Holland & Hart. “And these are large companies, some of them household names, Fortune 100 type companies, that are saying, we just simply cannot continue.” About 141,000 new applications for H-1B were approved in 2024, according to Pew Research. Though Congress caps new visas at 65,000 a year, total approvals run higher because petitions from universities and some other categories are excluded from the cap. Computer-related jobs accounted for a majority of the new approvals, the Pew data showed. FIRMS WILL CUT H-1B WORKERS The Trump administration and critics of the H-1B program have said that it has been used to suppress wages and curbing it opens more jobs for U.S. tech workers. The H-1B visa program has also made it more challenging for college graduates trying to find IT jobs, Trump’s announcement on Friday said. The visa previously cost employers only a few thousand dollars. But the new $100,000 fee would flip the equation, making hiring talent in countries like India where wages are lower and Big Tech now builds innovation hubs instead of back offices more attractive, experts and executives told Reuters. “We probably have to reduce the number of H-1B visa workers we can hire,” said Sam Liang, co-founder and CEO of popular artificial intelligence transcription start-up Otter. “Some companies may have to outsource some of their workforce. Hire maybe in India or other countries just to walk around this H-1B problem.” BAD FOR STARTUPS While conservatives have long applauded Trump’s wide-ranging immigration crackdown, the H-1B move has drawn support from some liberal quarters as well. Netflix co-founder and well-known Democrat donor Reed Hastings who said he has followed H-1B politics for three decades argued on X that the new fees would remove the need for a lottery and instead reserve visas for “very high value jobs” with greater certainty. But Deedy Das, a partner at venture capital firm Menlo Ventures that has invested in startups such as AI firm Anthropic, said “blanket rulings like this are rarely good for immigration” and would disproportionately affect startups. Unlike large technology companies whose compensation packages are a combination of cash and stock, pay packages of startups typically lean towards equity as they need cash to build the business. “For larger companies, the cost is not material. For smaller companies, those with fewer than 25 employees, it’s much more significant,” said Das. “Big tech CEOs expected this and will pay. For them, fewer small competitors is even an advantage. Its the smaller startups that suffer most.” INNOVATION AT RISK The policy could also mean fewer of the talented immigrants who often go on to launch new firms, analysts said. More than half of U.S. startups valued at $1 billion or more had at least one immigrant founder, according to a 2022 report from the National Foundation for American Policy, a nonpartisan think tank based in Virginia. Several lawyers said startups they represent are pinning hopes on lawsuits that argue the administration overstepped by imposing a fee beyond what Congress envisioned, betting courts would dilute the rule before costs cripple hiring. If not, “we will see a pullback from the smartest people around the world,” said Bilal Zuberi, founder of Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Red Glass Ventures, who began his career in the U.S. on an H-1B visa. Additional reporting by Krystal Hu Aditya Soni and Echo Wang, Reuters
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E-Commerce
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