Thanksgiving may not arrive until November, but you wouldnt know it from perusing Donald Trumps social media feeds. Hes been giving thanks quite a lot lately. Thank you for your attention to this matter! is how the president has been closing some of his recent online dispatches.
Its a weirdly stiff expression. It carries the bureaucratic heft of an HR email about which snacks are now forbidden in the break room, or that of a lawyer signing off an email about a pressing document that wont e-sign itself. Given the source, though, it feels more like the boss reading all of America the riot act.
At least 10 of Trumps Truth Social posts in the past two months have ended this way, alternately confounding and delighting those who come upon them. Hes deployed the idiom so much, in fact, and in such unusual contexts, its now found a second life as a viral meme and multipurpose catchphrase.
me: *posts the longest, least-disciplined paragraph of rambling bullshit you have ever seen in your life*
also me: "thank you for your attention to this matter"— e.w. niedermeyer (@niedermeyer.online) April 17, 2025 at 12:53 PM
Based on the lack of respect you people have shown me, I am hereby raising the Tariff charge on my free mix videos to 125%, effective immediately.Thank you for your attention to this matter! pic.twitter.com/UHNoyDPZKW— DJ Mek (@DeeJayMek) April 10, 2025
Although Trumps fondness for the expression, abbreviated from here on out as TYFYATTM, goes back at least as far as a 2019 Twitter rant about China, hes only recently cemented it as a Trumpism. Theres no obvious rhyme or reason for which posts he chooses to grace with a TYFYATTM. Its popped up when Trump makes an announcement (like the extension of TikToks grace period to find a new buyer), when he makes an ultimatum (like the demand for an apology from Maine Governor Janet Mills, which went unrequited), and when he makes his scathing opinion known about a person, place, or thing (like he did most recently in an April 16 screed about Harvard).
The purpose of “Thank you for your attention to this matter!” is open to interpretation, but there are hints in Trumps posts about what he might mean by it.
Please let this notification serve to represent that the Department of Homeland Security, Border Patrol, and all other Law Enforcement Agencies within our Country have been so notified, he wrote in a Truth Social post in March about Venezuela, before adding a TYFYATTM. Perhaps the same disclaimer is implied for all other posts that end this way, a reminder that if Trump felt compelled to do so, he could cancel a companys contract via tweet, as he once did with Boeing.
The cold formality of TYFYATTM seems meant to distinguish one of Trumps many daily dispatches as Official Business, something to be considered with utmost seriousness. It doesnt always get the job done. In one instance, Trump dropped a TYFYATTM after merely mentioning that hed had a conversation with Canadian PM Mark Carney, perhaps out of habit. (Although its certainly possible that Trumps team uses the strange phrase when posting on his behalf, now that its become a signature line.)
TYFYATTM fuses together formality with urgency, conveying that something must be done! Whether he intends to or not, by addressing readers directly, Trump involves them. TYFYATTM brings them into breaking news, like when late-night talk show hosts precede a monologue joke with, Did you hear about this? Some readers might even feel deputized by the phraseeven if all they have to do is hate Harvard a little more than before. On the other hand, Trump may just understand that people like being thankedeven when they havent done anything.
In any case, whether through marketing prowess or sheer force of will and repetition, Trump has quickly lodged his new catchphrase within the cultural vernacular.
People on X and Bluesky have been using it as a goofy mock-signoff for decidedly unofficial proclamations.
QUITE ENJOYED THIS BUILDINGS PROPORTIONS. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER! pic.twitter.com/BPDxcTC69j— Harry Wilkin$ (@hs_wilkins) April 10, 2025
Hard pass. Thank you for your attention to this matter.— Jen Jennings (@jenjennings.bsky.social) 2025-04-21T15:27:20.318Z
My prices will continue to be whatever I feel like charging whenever I feel like charging it.Thank you for your attention in this matter.All hail The Queen of Rats.— Tengushee (@Tengushee) April 15, 2025
And of course, plenty of others have been using it just to mock the president outright.
My understanding is that while we were not clear on OpSec over the weekend, we are now. Thank you for your attention to this matter.— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) 2025-04-21T14:43:33.665Z
[ the dumbest shit you've ever read in your life ] Thank you for your attention to this matter!— Ian Boudreau (@ianboudreau.com) 2025-04-16T17:29:16.132Z
Thank you for your attention to this matter!— Mark Harris (@markharris.bsky.social) 2025-04-21T20:47:30.278Z
During Trumps first term, he minted a Duolingo lessons worth of catchphrases on Twitter that were similarly mocked and imitated into ubiquity. Considering it is somehow still less than 100 days into round two, there are likely many such cases still to come.
Unfortunately for Trump, he doesnt get any originality points for “Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Snarky expressions of gratitude invoking the president are kind of old hat by now. (Thanks, Obama!)
Struggling pharmacy chain Rite Aid may be preparing to file for a second bankruptcy and sell itself in pieces, according to a new report. The plans would come just a year after Rite Aid emerged from its prior bankruptcy proceedings. Heres what you need to know.
Whats happened?
A report from Bloomberg yesterday said that the pharmacy chain Rite Aid was preparing to file for a second bankruptcy. Rite Aid previously filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2023, from which it emerged last year in 2024.
But now Bloombergs report suggests that Rite Aid’s reorganization in that bankruptcy wasnt enough to help the retailer put its struggles behind it.
Rite Aid is reportedly “running low on cash” reserves, according to Bloomberg, and heading towards another bankruptcy. This time, the pharmacy chain will reportedly sell itself in pieces as part of the bankruptcy proceedings.
Bloomberg said Rite Aid is strapped for liquidity and will pursue a debtor-in-possession (DIP) loan to keep itself funded during the bankruptcy process. The publication cited people with knowledge of the situation as the source of the bankruptcy news.
Fast Company has reached out to Rite Aid for comment on the report. We also asked whether more store closures are planned and whether the pharmacy has any guidance for customers who get their medication at Rite Aid. We will update this story if we hear back.
As part of its second bankruptcy, Rite Aid will reportedly sell certain locations to bidders, while others will be closed permanently.
Rite Aid store closures in 2025
As part of its first bankruptcy two years ago, Rite Aid closed hundreds of stores in order to help restructure its business and get its finances in order. That bankruptcy was fueled by numerous financial woes, including declining revenue, more competition, and the costs associated with fighting opioid lawsuits.
But emerging from the previous Chapter 11 now appears not to have done enough to help the companys financial footing. Bloomberg says that like many retailers, including Joann and Party City, Rite Aid has still struggled with customers who are cutting back on their spending as well as higher interest rates.
As of now, Rite Aid has not publicly confirmed its second bankruptcy plans or announced any swath of store closures.
However, over the past several weeks, a number of local media outlets have reported on individual Rite Aid store closings in their area.
For example, the Asbury Park Press on Tuesday reported that the Rite Aid at South Main Street in Neptune Township, New Jersey, would be closing effective today, April 23. A Rite Aid representative confirmed the closure to the outlet, stating, While we have had to make difficult business decisions over the past several months to improve our business and optimize our retail footprint, we are committed to becoming financially and operationally healthy.
Similarly, the Santa Monica Daily Press reported on April 17 that the Rite Aid at 14th and Wilshire in Santa Monica, California, would be closing in May. A sign posted to the door of that Rite Aid store said, Thank you for trusting us with your health. On May 29th we will be moving your prescription to CVS on 1411 Lincoln Blvd.
A day earlier, on April 16, the Central Oregon Daily News reported that Rite Aid would be closing its south-side store in Bend, Oregon. The outlet said Rite Aid employees confirmed the store would be closed and its inventory merged with Bends only other Rite Aid on the north side of the city. The closure was reported to be part of a company-wide consolidation effort.
How many Rite Aid stores are left in 2025?
According to Rite Aids store location listings, the pharmacy chain has 1,247 Rite Aids left in the United States.
Those stores span 15 states: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.
However, as of this writing, the three stores reported to be closing above are still listed, and there is no indication in online listings that the stores have been marked for closure.
What that means is that Rite Aid will soon have less than its currently listed 1,247 in the United States. Just how many Rite Aids will remain if the reports of its second bankruptcy plans are accurate remains to be seen.
Welcome to Pressing Questions, Fast Companys mini-advice column. Every week, deputy editor Kathleen Davis, host of The New Way We Work podcast, will answer the biggest and most pressing workplace questions.
Q: What should I do about a coworker who dresses inappropriately at work? A: My first instinct is to advise you to keep it to yourself. Commenting on someones appearance is fraught and how someone dresses or styles their hair, etc. very often falls into the category of none of your business.But, there are nuances and circumstances where something is actually inappropriate. Before you say anything, run though these checks:
Does your workplace have an official dress code policy?
Not all workplaces do, and many are unhelpfully vague. (After all, who actually knows what business casual means?) If there is a policy and it states a guideline that your coworker is very clearly violating, you can bring the issue to the persons manager or HR to handle.
Consider what is truly ‘inappropriate’
Just because you think sweatpants are unprofessional doesnt mean you need to police others clothing choices. Issues with appearance usually only rise to the level of intervention in a few scenarios.
For example, if someone is in a client- or customer-facing role and there is an expectation to dress formally when meeting a client, or to dress in a way that respects the culture in the place you are doing business. Or if there is a need to dress safely for workplace hazards (like closed-toe shoes on a construction site, for example).
Among internal colleagues, the only reason to intervene is if their appearance is causing a legitimate issue in a workplace. Clothing with political messages or graphic images likely falls in the same bucket as displaying similar content at your deskif its not allowed there, its not allowed on your body.As for inappropriate in the context of “too revealing,” tread very lightly and ask yourself if its more of a you problem than a them problem. Theres a long sexist history of rules around womens appearance at workfrom requiring things like high heels and skirts to punishing women for dressing in a way that distracts men. If you truly think that someones appearance is holding them back from getting a promotion or being taken seriously, you can have a conversation with them where you dont blame or shame them.Want some more advice on dress codes at work? Here you go:
This is why we need to end dress codes for work
How to dress for every stage of your career
Managers, this is how to encourage new employees to adopt a more formal dress code
Do dress codes at the office work?
This months legal dustup between NFL quarterback Lamar Jackson and NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr. over trademark rights to the number 8 may have amounted to little more than a tempest in a teapot, but it has drawn attention to a rarely considered topic in branding and marketing: the use of numbers in brand names and logos. Why might a seemingly arbitrary number like 8or 27 or 63, for that matterbe worth fighting over? And are some numbers worth more than others?
Obviously, numbers are at an important disadvantage compared to letters when it comes to their use as trademarks. While an initial letter can stand for any word that it begins with, numbers are much more constrained in their ability to represent a range of meanings. This helps explain why an examination of U.S. Patent and Trademark Office records shows that, over time, there have been a total of 7,183 trademark applications for logos consisting solely of a stylized letter Awhether traditional or crossbar-lesswhile the most popular number (1, naturally) has garnered just 466 such logo applications.
So its rare for numbers to stand alone as trademarks. They often serve as supporting elements in brand names, (Heinz 57, Phillips 66), or worse (Nikes would-be moniker, Dimension 6). USPTO data reveals, surprisingly, that in trademarks that are simply names, with no graphic elements, the most commonly used number between 0 and 100 is 2, which edges ahead of 1 perhaps in part due to its ability to represent the word to in a name. Next come 4, 3, 5, 7, 10, and 100, with poor number 8so hotly contested by Jackson and Earnhardtrelegated to 11th place. The bottom of the list is populated by the apparently uninspiring 87, 67, 82, 89, and, last of all, 83.
Some numbers are able to function as trademarks by playing off meanings that have already been baked into them. Both the NBAs Philadelphia 76ers and 76 gas stations (shortened from the more descriptive Union 76) strike patriotic chords by referring to the U.S.s 1776 founding (although the latter also nods to the fuels original 76 octane rating). When no such meaning is obvious, numbers used as trademarks are like empty vessels that can be laden with significance only through some combination of time and heavy brand lifting. Take 84 Lumber: Its name is essentially arbitrary, stemming from the companys location in the village of Eighty Four, Pennsylvania, which itself is named after . . . well, no one is quite sure. But after 69 years in business, 84 Lumber more or less owns the number 84.
Part of the appeal of such seemingly random numbers is their mystery, and the accompanying tease that they might hold some secret meaning. This explains the popularity of the use of area codes as trademarks, and hints at why Rolling Rock continues to emblazon a 33 on each of its beer bottles.
But for brands more interested in distinctiveness than riddles, perhaps the best way to employ a number as a trademark is to express it in the form of a unique logo design, making it not a mere number, but a stylized numeral. The result can be a powerful symbol, particularly for types of businesses where identifying numbers have an outsize importance, like television stations (see WABC New Yorks 63-year-old Circle 7 mark), banks (Cincinnatis Fifth Third Bank has a delightful improper fraction for a logo), and, yes, racing concerns like NASCAR (where Dale Jr. emerged from his recent kerfuffle with the rights to the iconic Budweiser 8). Adopting an unusual design motif can help a brand lay claim to even the most common of numerals, as Builders FirstSource has done with its oddly tilted 1.
As noted above, 1 is the most prevalent stylized logo number in the USPTOs files. After that, though, come 7 and the coveted 8, suggesting a particular visual appeal in the form of these numerals. Following along are 3, 5, 2, 4, 9, and 6, before the first double-digit number, the aforementioned 76. Repeating digits seem popular in logos; 33 comes in at 14th, and 99 at 19th, for instance. Meanwhile, the most unpopular numbers are 71, 87, and 94, with only one logo trademark application apiece. But perhaps in these unloved numbers there are opportunities for brands to acquire an ownable set of digits that they wont have to tussle over.
There is no bad seat at Cercle Odyssey. In fact, there are no seats. Within the rectangular structure, screens project an art film inspired by Homers Odyssey, made especially for the concert. In the center of the space, world-famous electronic musiciansfrom Moby to Black Coffeeperform for a crowd of 5,000 fans. As the worlds first 360-degree immersive concert installation, its a FOMO-inducing Instagram story waiting to happen. Thing is, phones arent allowed inside (theyre secured in pouches at check-in). Instead, theres no choice other than to be present.
Cercle Odyssey is the latest project from Cercle, a French company known for producing livestream DJ sets from exotic locales. The pop-up concert series begins April 23 and runs through June 1 starting in Mexico City, then moving to Los Angeles and Parisplaces where Cercle founder Derek Barbolla says the brands strongest online fan communities are based. Each city will host 10 events across five days (two shows per day, at 5 and 9:30 p.m.). Tickets start at $180 in the U.S.
I was equal parts blown away and baffled by what theyre [Cercle] doing with immersive spaces, says Moby, who will perform at Cercle Odyssey in Los Angeles. Ill be performing but Ill also probably spend half of my time on stage just looking at the visuals.
[Rendering: Courtesy of Cercle]
The project is a natural evolution for Cercle, whose YouTube videos attract millions of viewers to watch artists perform from ancient pyramids, historic monumentseven a hot-air balloon. While top-tier talent is part of the appeal for dance music fans, ticket prices are notably higher than what you’d pay to see the same artists at a similar-size venue. What sets this experience apart is the visual component, a concept Barbolla says Cercle invested 3 million euros (nearly $3.5 million) to develop and produce.
The five screens throughout the structurewhich measures 164 feet long and 33 feet highstream in 8K resolution; 72 speakers by French audio company L-Acoustics line the venue. While the structure will be built to the same specs in each city, equipment is rented locally to support regional vendors and reduce excess cargo.
[Rendering: Courtesy of Cercle]
The (dialogue-free) film that will screen during the live performances was inspired by The Odyssey and shot over six months on four continents. I consider this a feature film, says director Neels Castillon, who came up with the concept after revisiting the epic poem and seeing images he imagined pairing to music. He began writing a script that focuses on two men and two women, each portraying a version of the protagonist Ulysses. The film spans icebergs, sand dunes, ocean, and forest across Iceland, Namibia, Tahiti, and Bolivia.
Filmed entirely with human actors and no AI or digital art, the visuals at Cercle Odyssey stand in stark contrast to the futuristic, animated aesthetics of shows like Anyma at Sphere or Eric Prydzs HOLO. Despite those shows popularity, Cercle deliberately chose a more organic, story-driven approach. When you see visuals from the Sphere in Las Vegas, to me, its impressive for the first 10 minutes, then you lose interest because it’s not a film and there are no narratives, there is no storytelling, says Castillon.
[Rendering: Courtesy of Cercle]
At each show, the arrangement of scenes will vary, modularly adapted based on feedback from each artist. Castillon originally wrote 20 scenes for Odyssey, but ended up filming more than 80, resulting in 47 hours of footage and a near infinite combination for artists to select from. Whether the storyline will be discernible by audience members remains to be seen, but Cercle and Castillon believe that either way the human element of the film will touch concertgoers in a unique way.
So much emphasis on an immersive, multisensory experience feels at odds with the concerts no-phones policy. Allowing attendees to share their experience could boost ticket sales and drive desire for another run of shows, but Barbolla is willing to take the risk for Cercles greater mission. In this increasingly over-connected world, we end up spending more time sharing our experiences online than truly enjoying them. We are so focused on recording our lives that we forget to actually live them, Barbolla says.
And if, after a few hours of phoneless bliss, youre still yearning to post about the experience, once the show finishes, a folder of professional videos are sent via email. You get to be fully present and still post clips that are better than anything you could capture on an iPhone mid-dance.
When Elon Musks foundation sponsored the $100 million XPrize for Carbon Removala four-year-long competition to find credible ways to eventually remove a billion tons of CO2Musk might have expected that a shiny new gadget would win. But the winner of the $50 million grand prize is low tech: spreading rock dust on small, low-income farms in India, Zambia, and Tanzania.
The winning startup, called Mati Carbon, is one of a small group of companies using enhanced rock weathering to capture CO2 from the air. Were trying to speed up something that happens naturally, says Jake Jordan, the startup’s chief science officer. When it rains, rocks slowly break down in a process that captures CO2 from the atmosphere and turns it into bicarbonate that can be stored for thousands of years. By crushing rocks and spreading them out on a field, that can happen much faster.
For farmers, theres a second benefit: The crushed rocks also release nutrients like calcium and magnesium that can make the soil healthier and increase crop yields.
Mati Carbons Vishal Sharnaga (second from left), Jake Jordan, and Shubham Bhomle (fifth and sixth from left) with farmers Sarita, Deeneshwari, and Surendra Bisen [Photo: Mati Carbon]
In India, for example, where the company works on rice paddies, smallholder farmers have seen 20%-plus yield increases from using the crushed rocks. The startup handles everything, sourcing rocks from local quarries and working with local crews to apply the product to fields. Farmers dont have to pay anything. We dont want them to spend effort or money on this, says founder Shantanu Agarwal.
For a farming family that might have made $1,500 in a year, making an extra $300 from increased crop yields is a significant change. This has created these massively powerful economic adoption drivers where we work, says Jordan, who studied rock weathering after a postdoc at Yale. He previously worked with a similar startup called Lithos aimed at American farmers. He argues that farms in the U.S., where yields have already been optimized with fertilizer, have less incentive to use rock weathering. The world’s poorest farmers are more motivated, especially after they’ve seen evidence of how the approach can help.
[Photo: Mati]
The company is taking soil samples so it can track the CO2 capture in different regions. Then it will sell carbon credits. It’s a cheaper way to tackle the problem than direct air capture, which relies on energy-guzzling machines. And it can easily scale up. Mati, which is based in Houston, plans to franchise the model in different parts of the world.
“We believe there are 100 million smallholder farmer families who can directly benefit in the short term from enhanced rock weathering’s increased income, and at the same time provide a no-land-use-change solution for gigaton carbon removal,” says Agarwal.
Initially, Agarwal says, many people were skeptical that the model of working with smallholder farmers was viable. But the XPrize, which went through rounds of evaluation from a panel of expert judgesincluding a year of operations to prove the technology’s real-life performancehelped validate the startup’s approach, he says. Now, it will use the XPrize funds to scale up.
You might have a go-to hot sauce already. But for the past year or so, Sichuan condiments brand Fly by Jing has been repositioning to capture mainstream heat seekers, and its subtle packaging update, rolling out now, is the DTC darlings latest move to optimize for its new distribution channel of choice: mass retail.
To call the visual changes a rebrand would be a stretch, but the subtle updates point to how the company is pivoting its messaging for analog sales. Its packaging uses pared-down graphics and copy, with more negative space and a strict focus on must-have details that allow first-time buyers to quickly make a purchase decision just by looking at the product in hand. What is it? Whats it taste like? And what do I put it on?
There’s three seconds that [consumers are] going to see you on-shelf before they make a decision, says Fly by Jing founder and CEO Jing Gao. In this context, Fly by Jing cares less about brand story. Instead, it designs packaging for the three-second rule.
Pivot to retail
The refresh comes at a time when retail partnerships are commonplace for brands that originated as direct-to-consumer startups. CPG olive oil brand Graza is in a slew of grocery stores, including Whole Foods. Brands like Rare Beauty, Dieux Skin, and Glossier have diversified e-comm sales with wholesale partnerships at big-box beauty retailer Sephora. IRL shopping experiences continue to be a vital avenue for product discovery and testing, even if many thought the pandemic might kill brick-and-mortar shopping for good.
Gao views the broad adoption of retail among DTC companies as a result of the 2021 iOS 14 update, which prompted users to give apps tracking permission. More than 80% opted not to be tracked. This made it difficult for companies to analyze how well targeted ads worked, and therefore more costly to advertise on third-party sites like Facebook and Instagram. Gao sees that moment as the sunsetting of the golden era of DTC, when digital-first brands had to diversify to reach consumers. Fly by Jing was no exception.
Fly by Jing has already been making retail inroads. Gao initially marketed the chili crisp as a premium product with a $15 price point. That included premium packaging that highlighted its specialized ingredient sourcing and rich history, in part as an effort to educate consumers and counter prevailing stereotypes around Chinese food as inherently cheap.
Fly by Jing has since cut its price point by 30% to make the product more accessible and reach a broader consumer base as it seeks to expand. Gao says the company achieved this by economizing its packaging design with changes like shifting from a pricey embossed decal on glass to a paper label, and finding efficiencies in logistics and supply chain.
Its products are now available in 11,000 stores nationwide, including at major national retailers like Target, Sprouts, Wegmans, Albertsons, Safeway, and Walmart. As of 2025, its in 4,000 Walmart stores. It has also expanded its product categories to include prepared noodles, which launched last year and are relaunching in stores next month with new packaging. The Asian foods category is itself becoming more crowded, with brands like Momofuku and ML (formerly Xiao Chi Jie) offering chili crisp and prepared noodles as well. Theres lots of opportunity to go around: The ethnic foods market, which includes Asian cuisine, is expected to reach $200 billion by 2032.
Fly by Jing now makes the majority of its sales in retail and is profitable. Although Gao said the company’s tariffs had doubled at the time we spoke in early April, and this has tightened the company’s margins, there are no plans to change its sourcing. She says the company should be fine due to cost-savings measures previously put in place and increased velocity in stores. She describes this refresh as a key part of that.
[Photo: Fly by Jing]
Less-is-more labeling
The brands previous packaging, launched in 2020, took a Dr. Bronners more-is-more approach that packed the label with copy and graphics related to the brand story. A Venn diagram in the center of the label included details such as its ingredients sourcing. That graphic has been replaced with a transparent window that allows shoppers to see the product inside.
Previous copy described Gaos founder story, including the reclamation of her birth name, Jing, rather than the Americanized Jenny shed typically used. Now copy focuses on the products taste description and use case. The label still boasts the original line You will find yourself putting this on everythingthats the mainstream playmade more prominent by reducing other copy. One of just a few front-of-label callouts reads: Makes anything taste better. The brand also unified product names as variations of its fastet-selling store SKU, its Sichuan chili crisp, to increase in-store velocity and create a sense of familiarity across the product range.
[Photo: Fly by Jing]
Online, you could tell this rich brand story. We created a brand universe you can really dive deep into, says Gao. But as time went on and as retail became the dominant channel for us, now all of a sudden people are seeing us on shelves for the first time versus on their phone where they can learn more, dig in more. Thats where the aforementioned three-second rule came in.
[Photo: Fly by Jing]
Making mainstream moves
The brand’s retail expansion also meant it was entering markets it hadnt engaged before, and consumers who were not a part of its initial customer base of well-traveled, international people [who are] plugged in, says Gao. It’s constantly thinking about how do we meet people where they are in terms of their understanding, in terms of their experience?
Gao recalls a product demo at Costco. The key was to make the pitch fast to catch people as they walked by. So she simplified it by asking passerby if they wanted to try hot sauce. Then she explained the flavors. We were able to communicate very quickly what the differences were, Gao recalls. People were like, Oh, I want the sweet one, or I want the crunchy one. That was the insight of, okay, maybe we should just pare it back for people instead of calling it Chengdu Crunchthis is a cool name, but now it makes someone think it’s different from chili crisp, when really you use it the same way. It’s just a variation.
[Photo: Fly by Jing]
Gao describes one of her early goals as divorcing chili crisp from the idea that its a Chinese condiment that can be used only on Chinese cuisine. Product imagery includes chili crisp on pizza, eggs, avocado toast, and ice cream. That’s what really helped us to bridge the condiment into the mainstream, says Gao. But if you look at this old jar, that’s not immediately apparent because there’s such a rich story here. There’s so many layers that if someone were just to interact with it on a very basic [level], from an I just care what it tastes like standpoint, they’re not going to be able to uncover that. So we wanted to . . . present the top three things that you should know about it, and then open up the window and allow someone in. Then you’ll see [it] a bit differently now, right?
The packaging design changes are indicative of the brands mainstream play, and an ambition to become a household product synonymous with a product category, like Cholula hot sauce or Huy Fong Sriracha. Can Fly by Jing become the Heinz of chili crisp? No matter the food, the brand wants new consumers to have the same inclination to reach for its jar and think Eggs, avocado toast, or dumplingsit has to be Fly by Jing.
Curt Covert would love for people to play his latest board gamebut with sky-high tariffs, hes not sure anyone ever will.
At 54%, I had a plan, Covert tells Fast Company, referring to a tariff rate on imports from China imposed by the Trump administration in early April. That rate has nearly tripled since. His reponse: 145% brings business to a standstill. It is absolutely crushing to my business.
Covert is the owner of Smirk & Dagger Games, a small Connecticut-based company that has been making quirky board games for more than 20 years. Its latest title, A Place for All My Booksa game designed for introverts with a love of literaturewas backed by 16,000-plus Kickstarter supporters, raising more than $1.1 million in pledged orders. This was our biggest campaign ever, Covert says.
Around 13,000 of those backers are in the United States. Now Covert is trying to figure out how to fulfill their orders amid a trade war, since the game is manufactured in China. The tariffs make it impossible to import anything, he says.
Even more pressure on creators
Covert isnt alone. In recent weeks, numerous Kickstarter creators have used the platform to warn backers about shipping delays, rising costs, and other uncertainties. We have to revisit the numbers again, and again, and perhaps again, one creator wrote in an update. We’re in one helluva predicament right now, admitted another.
Kickstarter has addressed the issue in multiple blog posts and is exploring new ways to support creators. While the platform hasnt seen a spike in canceled campaigns, a spokesperson acknowledged the pressure in a statement: Tariffs and rising production costs are putting even more pressure on independent creators, many of whom already operate with limited resources and tight margins. If these changes remain in place long term, theyll continue to pose real challenges around pricing, fulfillment, and backer communication.
Kickstarter gained prominence for ambitious consumer electronics projects like the Pebble smartwatch, but it has long been a favorite of smaller creators, particularly in the board game community. To date, the platform has hosted nearly 1 million game campaigns, which have raised more than $2.5 billion.
Much of that funding supported games manufactured in China, according to George Lam, former head of Kickstarter outreach in Asia and now a crowdfunding consultant. There just arent manufacturing sites outside of China that can do this, he says. Those creators now face steep import taxes. The board game space is very fragile, Lam adds. A majority of them are really small companies or mom-and-pop-type operations.
A stopgap measure to buy time
Covert recently got a taste of the tariffs impact when a delayed shipment of games was hit with a 20% tariff for leaving port two days after a grace period endedresulting in a $60,000 import tax bill. Now hes preparing to ship $500,000 worth of games to the U.S. and is scrambling to avoid paying what could amount to more than $700,000 in tariffs.
Hes spent the past few weeks working on contingency plans, and believes hes found a temporary work-around. Logistics companies have long used so-called bonded warehouses in the U.S., where imported goods can be stored tariff-free and are taxed only when they leave the warehouse. Covert hopes to use one of these facilities to buy time, ideally until a new trade agreement is reached. If the trade war persists, he may need to ask Kickstarter backers to pay significantly more to receive their games on time. You can ask for a little patience, says Covert. But at some point, the backers will lose confidence.
One of the Trump administrations justifications for the tariffs is to bring manufacturing back to the United States. Covert is skeptical. Most of his games cant be produced domestically, and the few that could would be far more expensive. A simple party game with cards that normally would retail for $20 . . . If I produced it here in the U.S., it would be a $50 dollar card gameand no one in the U.S. would pay [that].
Could new U.S. factories fill the gap? That takes three to five years, not three to five months, Covert says.
Chinese manufacturers might actually benefit
Ironically, Chinese creators might be the ones to benefit most from the current situation. Many are large manufacturers that have pivoted from producing goods for Western brands to launching their own products on platforms like Kickstarter. They’re in a much better position to cut costs, or find a different tariff code, or find a better logistics partner, says Lam. It’s what they do all day.
Still, Lam believes there may be a silver lining for Western creators. If global trade slows down, so might shipping and marketing costs. The manufacturing cost of your product is often not the biggest cost on a per-unit basis, he says. If you sell something on Kickstarter, you might pay $15 to the factory to make it. But you might pay $40 [for ads on] Facebook to acquire one customer for it.
Ad prices on platforms like Facebook have surged in recent years, driven by heavy spending from Chinese e-commerce giants like Temu and Shein. Now that these companies can no longer ship to the U.S. tariff-free, theyve started dialing back their ad budgets.
Covert, however, remains unconvinced that any of this will help him get his new gameor any future titlesinto the U.S. without prohibitive costs. [Losing] the ability to print new games, and bring them in affordably would be the end of my company, he says. It wont [even] take a year.
In early April, around 20 miles off the coast of Long Island, construction crews started working on Empire Wind 1, an offshore wind farm designed to power as many as half a million homes in New York. But on April 16, the Trump administration told the project to stop work.
Doug Burgum, the Interior secretary, claimed that the approval process had been rusheddespite the fact that the federal review of using the area for a wind farm began in 2011.
After an initial environmental analysis of the area, the government auctioned off a lease in late 2016. A Norwegian company called Equinor (previously known as Statoil) was officially awarded the lease in 2017during Trumps first term. At that point, despite Trump’s antipathy for wind projects, he wasn’t actively opposing them. The company began planning Empire Wind. From 2021 to 2023, the government undertook a detailed environmental review of everything from the projects potential impacts on wildlife and ships to its visual impact from shore. By the end of 2023, the project had permits for construction.
The idea that the review was rushed is just preposterous, says Douglas Nowacek, a professor at Duke Universitys Marine Science and Conservation Marine Lab who had planned to begin a study of whales in the construction area this month. (Spoiler: Nowacek says theres no evidence that wind farms kill whales, despite the arguments from anti-wind activists.)
From the actual start in 2011, there was just an enormous amount of work and data that was collected over that time to get to the point of actually issuing a record of decision and then approving a construction and operation plan, says Elizabeth Klein, who served as the director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the agency that leads regulatory approval for offshore wind projects, under President Biden.
The process involves determining whether a project complies with multiple different environmental laws, from the Clean Water Act to the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and evaluating other impacts, including potential economic harm to the fishing industry. Multiple agencies are involved.
The analysis looked in detail at potential impacts on wildlife, including whales. Whales have been experiencing an “unusual mortality event,” or a spike in the deaths of certain species, for nearly a decade on the East Coast. But scientists say that the primary causes are strikes from ships and entanglement in fishing gear. Part of the increase in deaths is likely linked to climate change: As ocean temperatures heat up, whales are moving to different areas that coincide with more ship traffic.
New development of wind farms is unlikely to be playing a role. “The bottom line is, there’s no evidence whatsoever connecting any [whale] deaths and offshore wind development in any of its stages,” says Nowacek. One recent study looked in detail at where whales were dying and where wind development was occurring, and “there was no overlap in time or space,” he says.
That isn’t to say building giant wind turbines has no impact on wildlife at all. But the effects can be mitigated; when piles are driven into the ocean floor to support a turbine, for example, it’s possible to use “curtains” of bubbles to help reduce the noise that’s created. The process lasts for several hours, but then it’s over. In contrast, surveying for oil and gas drilling in the ocean is thousands of times louder. The Trump administration is pushing hard to expand offshore oil and gas development.
Groups that oppose offshore wind development often argue that their concern is for whaleswhile failing to lobby for changes that are proven to help the animals, such as speed limits for boats and ships. And many of the “grassroots” groups that have been fighting offshore wind have actually been funded by a right-wing think tanks with ties to the oil industry.
In late March, a Republican representative from New Jersey, Chris Smith, wrote to Burgum urging him to block construction of Empire Wind. He talked about “potential inadequacies in environmental reviews,” and raised other supposed risks that have been dismissed after years of research. (Studies and simulations have found that ship collisions with offshore wind turbines, for example, aren’t a significant risk when navigation is properly managed.)
It’s not clear what will happen next. Equinor has a strong case to sue the government to be able to continue its work. “It’s completely unclear to me, and other observers, what legal authority [the Trump administration] is using to strip Empire of its rights at this point,” says Klein. “It has been given the approval to move forward.” (Equinor did not respond to a request for comment.) If the wind farm had been built on schedule, it would have been completed by 2027.
If the project can’t move forward, it would be an economic loss for the region. An onshore terminal for the project in Brooklyn, which would connect the power from the wind turbines to the local grid, was already under construction and creating hundreds of union jobs. Equinor was committed to using local materials, including stone ferried down the Hudson River from upstate New York. The company was investing millions of dollars in workforce development and training.
“The ancillary benefits of that project are huge, and it really does amount to billions of dollars of investment in the U.S.,” says Klein. “This administration professes that it wants to create an environment welcoming business and economic development in the U.S., and here you’re taking an industry that was building itself up here in the U.S., and really creating investment here at home, and trying to destroy it for no good reason.”
If the project doesn’t happen, it also would be a loss for the climate. “Offshore wind for certain communities, particularly on the East Coast, is really the only viable way to meet climate goals and to transition to the levels of clean energy needed,” she says. The region doesn’t have enough space for large-scale solar farms. (Without growth in offshore wind, it will also be harder to keep up with the rapidly increasing demand for energy on the grid.)
If emissions don’t shrink as quickly, that’s also obviously bad for whales. “The greatest threat to marine mammals, including whales, is actually climate change,” says Klein. “And these projects are meant to address that issue.”
The elephant enclosure at your local zoo is an interesting place to be. But until 20 years ago, it was somewhere youd encounter in personwith reverence and intimacy. A video uploaded by YouTube cofounder Jawed Karim 20 years ago today changed that. Karim wanted to test out the capabilities of a new website he and his colleagues had developedwhat they called YouTubeand needed content to share with the world. It was designed to be filler: That much is evident in the halting presentation of the 19-second video.
But beyond its role as a historical footnotethe video that gave birth to YouTube, the cultural phenomenon that has reshaped our consumption habits and redefined celebrity over the past two decadesMe at the zoo” changed our lives in another, subtler way. It normalized the idea of a share-all society.
Today, if you visited the elephant enclosure at the San Diego Zoo, as Karim did 20 years ago, youd likely find people viewing the animals through their cellphone screens as much as with their own eyes. And thats because of that video, and the behaviors it introduced to us.
More kids today want to be YouTubers than astronauts. Creators who built their names on YouTube now top the list of celebrities most recognized by younger generations. But its not just that YouTube became a job, or that YouTubers became public figures. Me at the zoo” and all that followed helped instill the idea that we are all content creators by default, and that our lives are meant to be shared.
This shift wasnt driven by YouTube alone, admittedly. But YouTube has been the most visible force guiding this cultural direction. Its thanks to YouTubes influence that we now take photos of our meals before eating, snap selfies in moments of crisis, and shape our lives to fit tidy, pithy narratives on platforms like X and Bluesky.
YouTubes early motto, Broadcast Yourself, was a democratizing force, a clarion call to shift our behaviors. Its why we now see videos of subway fights, supermarket arguments, and other spontaneous snippets of lifefragments that form an intoxicating, always-on feed to follow and engage with.
Two decades on from “Me at the zoo,” much will be written about how YouTube has reshaped entertainment. Ive contributed to that discussion myself, having written a book on the platform and its rise. But I believe YouTubes deeper, more enduring impact lies at the foundation of society itself. At the high end, through creators like MrBeast, YouTube videos now resemble big-budget TV series or Netflix productions more than off-the-cuff vlogs. Yet it all began with a simple, unscripted moment at the zoo.
“Me at the zoo” normalized sharing the mundane with strangersand turning it into a performance. It ushered in a performative culture and a share-all society that were still trying to understand. In doing so, it also quietly redefined what counts as meaningful or noteworthy, elevating the everyday into something worthy of an audience. And in the long run, that may be the legacy YouTube is best remembered for.
