If you think Paris is always a good idea and the French do everything better, especially leisurethen this one is for you.
Unlike Americans, who treat their weekends as a sprint to see who can do the most chores, Sundays are sacred in Francea time to slow down, reset for the week, and do as little as possible. Even protests in France happen every day except Sunday . . . thats how sacred [they] are,” Céline Kaplan, cofounder of upcycled products marketplace OOOF (Out of Office Forever) and a PR agent for French clients in New York, tells The Zoe Report.
Looking for more work-life balance? Try treating Sunday as a holiday instead of the first day of a new week, and you may find some surprising resultsa calm start to your workweek instead of an anxiety-producing day of “Sunday Scaries.”
So, what is a “French Sunday”?
I will admit, I’ve been doing my own version of a “French Sunday” for as long as I can remember. Sleeping in late? Check. Lounging around with coffee and a paper? Check. Brunch? Bien sr.
Like most fashionable trends, “French Sunday” comes from France, but was most recently popularized by Vogue. In short, the art of Sunday la française is an antidote to the burnout and anxiety many Americans feel come Monday.
For one thing, most shops are closed by noon on Sundays in France, eliminating the need to feel “productive” or cross things off a to-do list. Instead, Dimanche is for connecting with family and friendsnot isolating on digital devices, something Americans commonly do as a way to decompress, but that actually severely affects mental health, increases stress and anxiety, and creates even more loneliness.
According to the Vogue article, “French Sundays” are supposed to be “lazy, stress-free days, when the main activity is to do nothing”the exact opposite of productivity hacks that encourage people to use Sundays to prep for next weeks meals, do that load of laundry, clean your space, review your calendar, and lay out your work clothes (making Sundays practically a sixth day of work).
How to have your own French Sunday
First, French Sundays are a mindset, not just a day.
Try embracing your inner Frenchiewhich means starting the day by letting your body decide when you get up, sans alarm clock.
Other suggestions on how to make Sundays your own: Prioritize meeting up with friends and family, take a walk, and even allow yourself to indulge in life’s simple pleasures, which, for the French, is food.
One Sunday ritual in France is the family lunch, a big meal that goes on far too long, often involving a roast chicken and many, many people. (Social connection, it turns out, is good for your mental health.)
Here are a few more suggestions from Vogue:
Take an obscenely long nap.
Be a flâneur or flâneuse, and stroll aimlessly.
Snack.
Cook something that takes forever.
Find a pretty view to stare at.
Indulge in watching two movies back-to-back in an actual theater.
And of course, the most French thing of alland something you never see as a productivity hackmake love. Bon weekend!
Target will stop selling cereals containing synthetic colors by the end of May.
The Minneapolis-based discounter said Friday it had been phasing out synthetic colors in cereals for several years. Right now, 85% of its cereal sales already come from products made without synthetic dyes.
Target said it has worked with national brands and its private brands to reformulate products as needed. Some cereals including Trix and Lucky Charms, which are made by General Mills will have updated formulations, Target said. Target said it will no longer carry brands that don’t reformulate, but it didn’t name the brands.
General Mills announced last year that it planned to remove artificial dyes from all of its U.S. cereals by the summer of 2026. But WK Kellogg has said it plans to remove artificial dyes from its cereals by the end of 2027. Kellogg makes several cereals with artificial dyes that are now sold at Target, including Froot Loops, Apple Jacks and Squishmallows.
Messages seeking comment were left Friday with General Mills and WK Kellogg.
Target’s move acknowledges that American consumers and the U.S. government are paying closer attention to what goes into packaged foods. Last January, days before former President Joe Biden left office, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned Red 3, a petroleum-based dye.
A few months later, the FDA under President Donald Trump urged food makers to phase out petroleum-based artificial colors by the end of 2026. The agency is reviewing some other petroleum-based dyes, including Red No. 40, Yellow No. 5 and 6 and Blue No. 1.
Earlier this month, the FDA said it was relaxing rules that restrict when food companies can claim that their products have no artificial colors. The agency said food labels may claim to have no artificial colors when they are free of petroleum-based dyes even if they contain dyes derived from natural sources such as plants.
Target isn’t the first big retailer to nix artificial dyes. Whole Foods has never allowed products with artificial colors since its founding in 1980. Trader Joe’s also doesn’t use synthetic colors in its products.
Last year, Walmart said it planned to remove synthetic food dyes and 30 other ingredients, including some preservatives, artificial sweeteners and fat substitutes, from its store brands sold in the United States by January 2027.
Target noted that its private label Good & Gather brand, which it introduced in 2019, is made without artificial flavors and sweeteners, synthetic colors or high fructose corn syrup. The brand has more than 2,500 products across dairy, produce, ready made pastas meat as well as baby and toddler food.
We know consumers are increasingly prioritizing healthier lifestyles, and were moving quickly to evolve our offerings to meet their needs, said Cara Sylvester, Targets executive vice president and chief merchandising officer, in a statement.
In recent months, other major food companies like Kraft Heinz, Nestle and Conagra Brands have pledged to eliminate petroleum-based synthetic dyes in coming years.
Anne D’Innocenzio and Dee-Ann Durbin, AP business writer
One of generative AIs earliest applications remains among its most controversial: AI art. Its proponents celebrate the chance to create the images in their head, no time or traditional skills necessary. Its critics argue that AI images lack the soul of human-made art, steal the work of other artists without permission, and take opportunities away from working artists.
AI-generated art often draws ridicule across social media, whether its being used for advertising, like Guccis recent series of AI-generated posts, or in the fine art world, like the immersive AI-generated works of Refik Anadol, which caught flak on X last week after being featured on 60 Minutes. (This is not an artist. He makes screensavers, one user wrote.)
But there are internet forums where AI art enthusiasts can celebrate their passion free of ridiculeor at least know that there will be people in their corner to back them up. On the sister subreddits r/DefendingAIArt and r/AIWars, AI art lovers are encouraged to post freely about their controversial hobby (and talk trash right back at their critics).
Though the two subreddits espouse similar philosophies on AI art, r/AIWars encourages debate between the tech’s supporters (known as “pro’s”), and its critics (known as “anti’s”). Meanwhile, r/DefendingAIArt flat-out bans debate.
One of the latter subreddit’s pinned posts is a compendium of court cases where AI copyright claims were dismissed. Another is an infographic arguing that AI art isnt copying the work of other artists: Training an AI off the work of another artist, it says, is like looking at someones finished work and learning.
You look at other peoples work all day, and learn from them for free, the post continues. Theres nothing wrong with that.
you've probably seen this image before but try spreading it around as much as you can, it may not change anyone's mind but it'll at least have a chance of take down the most danming accusation in people's minds byu/GlitteringTone6425 inDefendingAIArt
r/DefendingAIArt isnt a space for AI artists to share their work, but a place to speak Pro-AI thoughts freely, per the subs rules. The most upvoted posts of all time include gotcha moments of tricking anti-AI folks into thinking human-made art is AI-generated; callouts of the other sides apparent hypocrisy; and, naturally, memes about not caring where a piece of art came from. Every comment section is entirely free of argument.
For that, Redditors are redirected to r/AIWars, where debate reigns supreme. On r/AIWars, posts are designed to be picked apart and argued into oblivion. There are examples of AI clearly plagiarizing copyrighted works, like generating an image of Sonic when asked for a blue hedgehog videogame character. And there are real-world legal and moral dilemmas, like the ethics of a vendor being banned from a convention for selling AI-generated artwork.
Some posts simply argue to let everyone make art however they please, without deriding it as AI slop or, as the subreddits users satirically call traditional art, pencilslop.
While comment sections on some social media platforms have been dominated by AIs critics, r/AIWars user base seems to be closer to a 50/50 split. That might make sense: Reddit has always been a place for niche fandoms and communities to connect, and in the age of AI, that includes the folks who love to fight about it.
On Friday, Modernas mCombriaxa combined vaccine for both the flu and COVIDwas recommended for authorization by European regulators, which opens the door for the vaccines approval in the European Union.
The European Medicines Agency, the regulator granting the recommendation (or adopting a positive opinion on recommending it for market authorization), said that the messenger RNA vaccine should help protect people aged 50 years and older against COVID-19 and seasonal influenza (flu), in a statement.
The shot works like any other vaccine, effectively prepping the human body to defend itself against foreign infection, with the messenger RNA contained within giving blueprints to the body to make proteins to help stave off various seasonal flu viruses, and SARS-CoV-2. As the first combined COVID-19/influenza vaccine, mCombriax provides people with the option of having a single shot to protect against both illnesses, reads a statement from the Agency.
Next, the European Commission would need to ratify the recommendation to open it up for widespread use.
The CHMP’s positive opinion represents an important milestone for respiratory virus vaccination and for Moderna, with the introduction of the world’s first flu plus COVID combination vaccine, said Stéphane Bancel, Modernas CEO, in a statement. Combination vaccines have the potential to simplify vaccination and support improved health outcomes. We appreciate the EMA’s rigorous scientific review.
The big question remaining: What about the United States?
The answer is complicated and unclear, but part of it has to do with the Food and Drug Administrations (FDA) higher standards and scrutiny. Moderna applied for clearance in the U.S. back in 2024, supplying data showing that the vaccine was effective against both the flu and COVID viruses. But the FDA had asked for more supplemental data, according to reporting from BioPharma Dive, prompting Moderna to withdraw the submission, gather more data, and then resubmit it.
Also, additional hurdles have entered the fray. The Trump administrationwhich includes several high-profile anti-vaccine advocates in various leadership positionsinitially opted not to review its application, though it changed its mind shortly thereafter after public and industry pressure. As it stands, thats where the bottleneck is: With the FDAs review process. Its unclear if or when the vaccine could win approval or be made available to the public in the United States.
Hopefully you never find yourself left behind by a partner while hiking a mountain or abandoned in the woods. If you do, you might be a victim of an alpine divorce.
The phrase has gained traction on social media in recent weeks following news of a climbers guilty verdict after he left his girlfriend behind on a hike, where she froze to death on Austrias highest mountain.
The phrase is said to have originated from the 1893 short story An Alpine Divorce by Robert Barr, in which an unhappy husband plots to kill his wife by pushing her off a mountain during a trip to the Swiss Alps.
Across platforms like TikTok and X, women have started sharing their own stories of times they were allegedly left behind to fend for themselves by partners during hikes.
@lillystuffle #fyp #xyzbca original sound – WavingCandle461
One TikTok creator posted a short clip of herself walking along a mountain trail earlier this month. In the clip, she is audibly upset.
POV: you go on a hike with him in the mountains but he leaves you alone by yourself and you realize he never liked you to begin with, she wrote in the videos text overlay. Her video has since gone viral, with over 19 million views.
@everafteriya #venting levitation – Aaron Hibell & Felsmann + Tiley
The comments section is filled with similar stories from other users. My boyfriend did this to me. I found another hiker to show me how to get back then I went home and blocked his number, one wrote.
“This happened to me in Joshua tree on a day when it was 100+ degrees outside,” another wrote. “My ex husband left me and took the backpack with water and snacks. I thought hed come back but nope. Finally found my way back to the car and he was chilling in the front seat with the AC on. Needless to say were divorced.”
While many of the stories are unverified personal accounts, the recent surge in attention has also served as a grim reminder of the real-life case that echoes the tropes dark origins. Thomas Plamberger, 37, was found guilty of gross negligent manslaughter over the death of his 33-year-old girlfriend, Kerstin Gurtner. He was given a suspended sentence of five months in prison and fined 9,600 euros (about $11,300).
In January 2025, the two hiked up Grossglockner, Austrias highest mountain. After Gurtner became exhausted, Plamberger abandoned her roughly 50 meters from the summit in freezing, high-wind conditions and without an emergency blanket. She later died of hypothermia.
During the course of the trial, an ex-girlfriend of Plambergers came forward and testified that he had also left her alone on a night hike on Grossglockner a few years earlier.
“Once we descended the Glockner at night, and suddenly he was gone,” she reportedly said. “I felt dizzy, I screamed, and I was completely alone. From then on, we didnt go on any more hikes together.”
On Thursday, Block CEO Jack Dorsey announced that his fintech company, which owns Square and Cash App, would be laying off a whopping 40% of its workforce, slashing over 4,000 jobs.
Despite a strong year in 2025, Dorseylike many of his tech executive peersbelieves AI will enable greater efficiency with far fewer workers. Intelligence tools have changed what it means to build and run a company, he wrote in a letter to shareholders. We’re already seeing it internally. A significantly smaller team, using the tools we’re building, can do more and do it better.
A number of business leaders have seemingly used AI as a smokescreen for layoffs, but Dorsey has explicitly attributed the job cuts at Block to intelligence, which he claims will be at the core of how the entire company works. Dorsey attempted to explain his decision in a memo to employees, which he shared publicly on X (also known as Twitter, the company Dorsey once cofounded).
I had two options: cut gradually over months or years as this shift plays out, or be honest about where we are and act on it now, he wrote. I chose the latter. Repeated rounds of cuts are destructive to morale, to focus, and to the trust that customers and shareholders place in our ability to lead. (Block has, in fact, been laying off employees in waves this month, according to multiple reports.)
Dorsey insisted the company would not just disappear people from slack and email and pretend they were never here, and that he would host a live video session to thank employees for their work. I know doing it this way might feel awkward, he wrote. I’d rather it feel awkward and human than efficient and cold.
Read Dorseys post in full below:
today we’re making one of the hardest decisions in the history of our company: we’re reducing our organization by nearly half, from over 10,000 people to just under 6,000. that means over 4,000 of you are being asked to leave or entering into consultation. i’ll be straight about what’s happening, why, and what it means for everyone.
first off, if you’re one of the people affected, you’ll receive your salary for 20 weeks + 1 week per year of tenure, equity vested through the end of may, 6 months of health care, your corporate devices, and $5,000 to put toward whatever you need to help you in this transition (if youre outside the U.S. youll receive similar support but exact details are going to vary based on local requirements). i want you to know that before anything else. everyone will be notified today, whether you’re being asked to leave, entering consultation, or asked to stay.
we’re not making this decision because we’re in trouble. our business is strong. gross profit continues to grow, we continue to serve more and more customers, and profitability is improving. but something has changed. we’re already seeing that the intelligence tools were creating and using, paired with smaller and flatter teams, are enabling a new way of working which fundamentally changes what it means to build and run a company. and that’s accelerating rapidly.
i had two options: cut gradually over months or years as this shift plays out, or be honest about where we are and act on it now. i chose the latter. repeated rounds of cuts are destructive to morale, to focus, and to the trust that customers and shareholders place in our ability to lead. i’d rather take a hard, clear action now and build from a position we believe in than manage a slow reduction of people toward the same outcome. a smaller company also gives us the space to grow our business the right way, on our own terms, instead of constantly reacting to market pressures.
a decision at this scale carries risk. but so does standing still. we’ve done a full review to determine the roles and people we require to reliably grow the business from here, and we’ve pressure-tested those decisions from multiple angles. i accept that we may have gotten some of them wrong, and we’ve built in flexibility to account for that, and do the right thing for our customers.
we’re not going to just disappear people from slack and email and pretend they were never here. communication channels will stay open through thursday evening (pacific) so everyone can say goodbye properly, and share whatever you wish. i’ll also be hosting a live video session to thank everyone at 3:35pm pacific. i know doing it this way might feel awkward. i’d rather it feel awkward and human than efficient and cold.
to those of you leavingim grateful for you, and im sorry to put you through this. you built what this company is today. that’s a fact that i’ll honor forever. this decision is not a reflection of what you contributed. you will be a great contributor to any organization going forward.
to those stayingi made this decision, and i’ll own it. what i’m asking of you is to build with me. we’re going to build this company with intelligence at the core of everything we do. how we work, how we create, how we serve our customers. our customers will feel this shift too, and we’re going to help them navigate it: towards a future where they can build their own features directly, composed of our capabilities and served through our interfaces. that’s what i’m focused on now. expect a note from me tomorrow.
jack
In recent months, fans of Burger King appear to have fallen out of love with the chains signature sandwich, the Whopper.
Social media has been full of complaints about the quality of ingredients and even completely deformed burgers.
In response, the burger chain said this week that it is rolling out a revamped Whopper. Heres whats changing, and where and when you can get yours.
Why is Burger King revamping the Whopper?
In short, customers became unhappy with the quality of the chains flagship burger in recent years. Criticisms range from the lackluster quality of ingredients in the burger to soggy buns to even smashed burgers (no, not in a good way).
That last complaintburgers that were physically deformed when they reached the customers handsis something even the companys U.S. and Canadian president, Tom Curtis, admitted to.
So the Whopper being smushed, literally, Ive heard it . . . and weve seen it, Curtis told CNN.
And while no one expects a fast food burger to be the gold standard for hamburgers around the world, lately, customers seem to have lost patience with the Whoppers problemsespecially as prices have risen in recent years and once affordable fast food has become increasingly out of reach for many Americans.
That growing unhappiness is something the burger chain has taken seriously. This week, it announced that, based on customer complaints and feedback, it was making the first changes to the Whopper in nearly a decade.
What are the Burger King Whopper changes?
On Thursday, Burger King announced it was revamping the Whopperbut it wasnt starting over from scratch.
The Whopper is an icon, so we didnt set out to reinvent it, Curtis said in a statement announcing the move. Instead, we elevated it based on direct Guest feedback.
That elevated Whopper consists of three new elements, according to the company:
a more premium, better-tasting bun
better-tasting mayo
served in a box to protect the burger from getting smashed
Other elements of the burger will remain the same, including its beef patty, and topping of onions, tomatoes, lettuce, and pickles.
When and where will the revamped Whopper be available?
Burger King says the new Whopper will be available this week, where it will roll out across the chains 7,000 locations, according to CNN.
Will the new Whopper cost more?
That depends on whos paying the bill.
Curtis told CNN that the revamped Whopper is estimated to increase costs for Burger King franchisees by about $4,000 per year per store.
But Burger King is recommending to franchisees that they do not pass these increased costs onto customers, who are already reducing their discretionary spending due to inflationary pressures.
The price of a Whopper can vary by location.
In New York City, a standard Whopper currently costs around $6.99. In the Midwest, Whoppers go for around $6.19, and in San Francisco they can go for as high as around $8.19, according to data from the companys online ordering system.
If franchisees abide by Burger Kings advice, customers should not see any price increase when ordering the revamped Whopper.
Productivity, and alleged lost productivity, has driven most of the conversation around traffic congestion and sprawl in the United States. While “time is money” is true in some contexts, it’s a terrible starting point for planning transportation systems.
Traffic congestion is a pervasive issue, whether it’s the destination (a downtown, a stadium, a new development) or the streets connecting to the destinations. In economic terms, congestion occurs when demand exceeds supply: not enough lanes for everyone trying to get somewhere at once. Your time is valuable and there are sometimes real consequences you experience when roads are clogged with cars. But it’s a serious mistake to overplay the economic claims.
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Doom and gloom
Researchers tend to analyze traffic with the assumption that the “time is money” framework is completely valid. News outlets love it too because it produces reliable doom and gloom for clicks and views:
Traffic congestion cost the US economy $74 billion in lost time last year.
Drivers lost 102 hours stuck in traffic last year.
The average American driver lost $771 in productivity sitting in traffic last year.
Of course, an industry that plans, engineers, and builds roads is eager to argue we need more roads. But the impulse to attach dollar values to time isn’t just self-serving industry spin. The World Economic Forum uses the same standard economic framework to justify transit lanes and bike lanes. Residents of cities and suburbs do benefit from multimodal infrastructure, but the economic framing around productivity is weak.
Productivity pressure
Economists treat humans as if we’re rational creatures who make decisions that can be predicted with basic math. An economist won’t calculate time with family, the choice to spend an extra hour at trivia night, homemade bread, journaling, or band practice. There isn’t a formula for why we make certain choices that lead to a higher quality of life. The productivity pressure that results creates fertile ground for anxiety, depression, and burnout. There’s a constant expectation to be “on,” connected, producing. Admitting you need a break reads as weakness. Too much productivity, paradoxically, undermines everything productivity promises. It’s not my musical genre, but I’m sure there’s a country song about a guy who tried so hard that he died too soon.
Corporate HR departments tend to understand that a “machine” running without maintenance breaks down. They track the turnover, the disengagement, and the burnout. The human body and mind require regular maintenance: socializing, resting, walking with no particular destination, writing music, taking pictures, shooting hoops, and so on.
Public agencies are perpetually strapped for cash, but they continue spending depleted budgets on congestion relief that doesn’t work. Be deeply skeptical of any report on the economic costs of congestion because those studies reliably reduce humans to soulless economic units.
The same principle that makes road expansions failinduced demandexplains why building for people works. Design for human flourishing and you’ll induce more of it. Build more lanes to make car travel easy, and you’ll get more car trips. Redesign a street network to make cycling easy, and you’ll get more bike trips.
Building a human-scale city means working towards outcomes that dont show up on a productivity dashboard.
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The other night, I heard cabinets opening in the kitchen and the shuffling of bags and containers. My husband was looking for snacks with our 9-year-old. After, he got him ready for bed, read him a book, and ordered us dinner. Then he sat down at his laptop and worked until 9 p.m. As I unloaded the dishwasher, I realized two things. First: My husband was killing it. Second: The second shift isnt womens work anymore. Its everyones burnout.
The second shift, rewritten
In 1989, sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild introduced the second shift to describe what happened when women got home from their paid job to an unpaid one: making dinner, folding laundry, shuttling kids to sports. Thirty-plus years ago, that division was clear. Today, its more like murky. Couples expect both parents to be career-driven and active parents These days, most dual-income households assume both partners will be ambitious at work and hands-on at home. In fact, fathers are spending more time on childcare than ever before. According to Pew Research, theyve doubled their involvement since the 1960s. Parenting is the most gender-equal its ever been. The problem is, most couples I talk to feel fried. Nobodys workload has gotten lighter. Its just doubled. Moms may still do the mental load, but dads are tired, too.
The mental load. Its where the second shift truly lives. And despite how equitable weve become at dividing up chores, most households still put that boss level parenting role on mom. Who needs to be reminded about soccer practice? Who picks out which days they have guitar lessons and tutoring? Who keeps track of when new sneakers are needed? Hint: Whoever has the mental load. While mothers are traditionally expected to drive carpools, recent research shows that men are experiencing more work-family conflict than previous generations. Theyre still expected to be hands-on dads who never miss a soccer game. But theyre also expected to be nothing but present at work, too. Society told dads they could be more involved. But workplace culture didnt give them the space to do it. Thats why dads everywhere are loading up on after-hours email. Remote work came with the illusion of flexibility, then drove us all insane.
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Remote work erased the finish line
When COVID sent millions of people into remote and hybrid work situations, we thought flexible schedules would solve all our problems. They kind of did. But they also left us with a handful of issues we hadnt realized we needed to solve. Without a commute, theres no transition from work to home life. Theres no off-ramp. Which means work eats into bedtimes, and work follows us home and sometimes to bed. When employees left the office for good, having it all became doing it all at once. And thats when burnout started rearing its head (again). Parents wanted equality at home. Too many people wanted equality at home without discussing what equality at work would look like. We wanted to share the childcare AND be successful professionals. What we ended up with was equally divided childcare we were both responsible for and work that still demands were on 24/7. Kids still need to eat, bathe, and be nurtured. Work still treats you like you have unlimited bandwidth. So, we both started doing two jobs. And then we crashed.
Gen Z is already drawing the line
The second shift stopped being a womens issue and became a systemic issue. Millennial parents are burnt out. Generation Z isnt following suit. Earlier this year, CNBC reported that Gen Z employees were the happiest in the workplace. But theyre happy for one key reason: They know exactly what they wont tolerate at work. Want flexibility? Sure. Mental health resources? Of course. Clear boundaries around your personal life? Absolutely. Theyre not buying into hustle culture as identity. Theyve grown up seeing their parents work on reports during family vacations and answer client emails during soccer games. They dont think thats the version of success they want. They see it as depleting and it has made them draw a hard line in the sand when it comes to work. Which is why Gen Z will say no to policies like flexible schedules that actually require your schedule to be flexible for their business. At 9 p.m. Companies like to brag about how they offer flexible schedules. Then they email their employees at 9 p.m. Expecting them to reply. And employees are calling BS. If you want to keep employees, especially parents youll have to offer actual flexibility. That means built-in boundaries. Actual hours you expect your employees to be offline. Actual limits on how many meetings they can attend in a day. And leaders that lead by example when it comes to quitting time. Because if they dont get that flexibility from you high-performing employees will re-impose boundaries on themselves. Or theyll leave. Actually, theyre already leaving.
Parents arent just burning out at work. Theyre quitting their jobs because of it. If we dont change how we approach the second shift at work, were going to have a retention crisis. Businesses are seeing masses of Millennials and Gen Xers leave because theyre burnt out juggling homework and Slack messages. But Generation Z employees arent willing to accept that trade-off. And if businesses dont start changing how they treat parents and caregivers who need to switch gears at the end of the day, theyre going to lose an entire generation of employees. Being a human who wants to recover from work is once again a must-have. And ambitious employees are about to show businesses just how valuable that flexibility is.
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Benson Lu’s life revolves around Pokémon.The 26-year-old has played the mobile game Pokémon Go every day for a decade, watches the animated show every week, goes to the local card shop in his Los Angeles suburb to play the brand’s trading card game every week, and has a whopping collection of cards worth more than $70,000.“I don’t remember when was the last day I did not think about Pokémon at all,” he said.In the 30 years since Pokémon debuted in Japan with the 1996 release of Pokémon Red and Pokémon Green for Nintendo Game Boy, the franchise has taken over the globe with its animated shows, mobile games and highly coveted trading cards. Its popularity continues with fans young and old.Pokémon offers a masterclass in character design, which has helped make it so enduring, said Heather Cole, teaching assistant professor of game design and interactive media at West Virginia University.“I think the longevity of it has to do with the characters and world-building it does with the characters,” she said.
A valuable commodity
It’s not just cuteness that has people clamoring for merchandise, particularly trading cards. Today, some are so coveted that social media star Logan Paul sold one for a record $16.5 million. In Southern California, the fervor around Pokémon cards has led to strings of break-ins in recent months at trading card stores that have amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars of losses and even some collectors robbed at gunpoint.Adam Corn, owner of card business Overdose Gaming Inc, said he was able to buy a house last year from his Pokémon cards.“Pokémon almost always appreciates in value over time,” Corn said. “So it’s just a really good place to put your money in my opinion, better than a a lot of other assets.”Companies like Beckett Grading Services and Professional Sports Authenticator authenticate and grade the quality of Pokémon cards on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being pristine mint condition and fetching the highest prices. Paul bought the PSA Grade 10 Pikachu Illustrator card a few months prior for $5.3 million and wore the card on a chain around his neck in videos. It features a Pikachu holding a pen and feather sweeper.Last Tuesday, thieves stole more than $80,000 of Pokémon cards from Do-We Collectibles in Anaheimthe second time the store has been targeted. Other stores around Los Angeles and in New York have been hit by Pokémon thieves too.Duy Pham, owner of the Anaheim store, said the financial incentive of trading cards for robbers and scalpers means “the hobby will never be the same.”“It’s rougher for collectors and players,” Pham said. “It’s hard for us to get anything.”Collectors can either pay retail price for a standard pack of randomized Pokémon cards, around $5 for 10 cards, or buy the specific card they want secondhand for higher prices. But much like gambling, opening packs doesn’t always pan out to profitAiden Zeng spent $1,000 on packs of cards that were only valued at $60 on the resale market, he said.Zeng, 17, said his fandom began in elementary school, when he obsessed over character guidebooks. He eventually began trying to collect every single type of card available for his favorite, Black Kyurem.“I memorized every single Pokémon’s specific move set, what region they come from, some of the lore behind it,” Zeng said.
Resurgence of popularity
Even beyond dedicated collectors, Zeng said he has seen a resurgence of popularity for Pokémon at his high school in Toronto, where some students decorate their phone cases with cards featuring special artwork or a holographic sheen.Pokémon creator Satoshi Tajiri has said he enjoyed catching insects and other small critters in the fields and forests outside the Tokyo suburb where he lived as a child. Those creatures inspired him to make the colorful, fantastical Pokémon of which there are thousands of species today.While his hobby is lucrative, Lu said the draw for him is still nostalgia for the characters he grew up with and the community he has formed around Pokémon. He prefers not to sell his single cards because he worries he will never be able to find them again.Lu recently spent an entire Saturday walking around the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, looking for Pokémon on his augmented reality phone game at an event attended by thousands.“I’ve liked Pokémon ever since I was a kid,” he said. “And I still like it the same amount.”
Jaimie Ding and Liam Mcewan, Associated Press
