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Airport lounges used to be a perk. In 2026, they are a battleground. American Express is refreshing Centurion Lounges and adding faster Sidecar formats. Chase is experimenting with champagne parlors and hyperlocal chef partnerships in its Sapphire Lounges. Citi is back in the ultra-premium card game. And Capital One, the relative newcomer, is making a different bet. Instead of building another lounge at LaGuardia Airport, it built a restaurant. The new Capital One Landing at Terminal B is a 12,500-square-foot, chef-driven dining space created with José Andrés. It has a 2,250-square-foot working kitchen, the largest in the terminal, and a menu built around Spanish tapas cooked from scratch. It looks more like a stand-alone dining destination than a cardholder waiting room. That is the point. [Photo: Capital One] From lounges to ‘landings’ Capital One’s airport strategy started with lounges at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, Washington Dulles International Airport, Denver International Airport, and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. Those spaces became known for local partnerships, individually plated food made on site, and drinks from neighborhood breweries and distilleries. The idea was that even if you never left the airport, you would still get a sense of the city. The Landing concept is an evolution of that thinking. Instead of adapting lounge food to feel more local, Capital One asked what would happen if the airport space felt like a real restaurant first and a lounge second. When we went to the lounge space, we similarly felt that lounges were becoming totally cookie-cutter . . . They were all kind of buffets. The drinks were the same, lounge to lounge, Matt Knise, SVP of premium products and travel at Capital One, tells Fast Company. The Landing is Capital Ones answer to that sameness. [Photo: Capital One] We felt that there was room for a restaurant type experience, so you could still sit somewhere a little bit more comfortable and put your stuff down and get a really quality restaurant, quality bite of food and still make it to your gate on time, he says. Why a chef matters in a card war To make that work, Capital One sought out someone who could actually run a restaurant inside an airport. We needed a partner on the other side of the equation, the hospitality and food side of the equation, who had the same passion about solving what we saw, and we found that with José and team, Knise says. For Andrés, the project feels personal. For me, in a way, it’s kind of a dream, he says. Capital One helped me build my own kitchen away from home. That kitchen is not decorative. It is central to the pitch. [Photo: Capital One] What makes this differentthis Landing and this placeis that were making the food from scratch,” he says. “It’s not sitting there three, four hours in a place waiting for you to arrive.” In fact, Capital One built Andrés a kitchen with top-of-the-line equipment akin to what you would find in a high-end restaurant outside the terminal. Tapas for travelers on a clock The menu leans into Spanish tapas for a reason. I believe in smaller portions and I believe in in the rainbow of possibilities, says Andrés. I don’t know a lot of concepts that are quicker than tapas. Guests can grab plates from the tapas bar, order via QR code, or take items to go. Dishes like croquetas, the bikini sandwich, cheeses, and flauta bread are designed to be eaten quickly or slowly. Knise says the design balances both. We felt deeply that a great dining experience and a relatively quick dining experience, those two things did not have to be mutually exclusive, he says. Its a bit of a choose your own adventure. Capital One is also leaning into what it calls Daily Rituals. At LGA, that includes tableside martinis, vermouth carts with garnishes and pintxos, oysters during select windows, and dessert carts. [Photo: Capital One] The airport as the new loyalty showroom In the fight for affluent travelers, the airport has become the most visible showroom for what a premium card actually promises. For Capital One. the space itself is part of the strategy. Skylights, a terrace filled with greenery, floor to ceiling windows overlooking the Manhattan skyline, and a 30 foot mural by Queens artist Amrita Marino all reinforce that this is meant to feel like a place, not a waiting area. The thinking is straightforward. If the first memorable part of your trip happens before you even board the plane, and it happens inside a space tied directly to your credit card, the card stops feeling like a payment tool and starts feeling like part of the journey. For years, perks lived on paper. Points multipliers, statement credits, travel portals, concierge access. Useful, but abstract. You only felt the value when you booked a flight or scanned a benefits page. Lounges changed that. They turned benefits into something physical you could walk into, sit inside, and experience before your trip even began. [Photo: Capital One] Now that every major card issuer is investing in lounges, the competition has moved past who has a lounge and into what that lounge feels like. Is it a place to grab a snack, or is it somewhere you plan to arrive early for? Does it feel interchangeable with every other airport space, or does it feel like a destination tied to the city you are in? Knise puts it this way: We want a manifestation of what we stand for as a brand . . . we want them to leave and go, Oh, wow. Capital One is a company that totally has my back and is innovating to make my life easier. For Andrés, the payoff shows up in a different way. Not in brand metrics or cardholder retention, but in what travelers say as they walk out. Ive had people say I cannot wait to travel again so I can come back to eat the croqueta. [That] something like this happens in an airport. It’s very special.
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E-Commerce
Want to use Discord from next month? Youll have to hand over a photo of your ID or a scan of your face to verify youre of age. Its part of a new process introduced by the chat app aimed at ensuring no one underage is using the platform. All new and existing users, the company says, will be given a teen-appropriate experience by default, including content filtering and limited access to spaces that host adult content. To regain the experience they previously had, users will need to prove their age through one of several options, including video selfies or sharing a photo of an identity document. (Discord did not immediately respond to Fast Companys request for comment.) Users have reacted pretty unfavorably toward the proposal, with many saying theyre unhappy about sharing personal data with Discord, which faced a massive data breach reported just months ago. In that instance, ID photos of 70,000 users were potentially leaked after a cyberattack. (Discord said the incident involved a third-party customer support provider, not its own systems.) What worries privacy groups most is not just Discords plan, but the precedent it sets for other platforms. Its a reflection of growing concerns over the erosion of privacy online, and the slippery slope of mandating identity and age verification across the internet, making these systems a prime tool for surveillance and tracking, says Rin Alajaji, associate director of state affairs at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). Mandating age verification on a platform like Discord directly undermines the platform and the internet’s long-standing culture of anonymity. There are also broader concerns about the growing requirements for users to prove who they are and how old they are to do things they previously did without scrutiny. U.K. polling suggests that while people may support age checks in principle, they are far more reluctant to hand over ID or facial footage in practice. Willingness to comply drops significantly when specifics are involved, and the public is split on the use of face video and photographic ID. Only 23% of Brits say theyd hand over ID to access discussion forums like Discord. That same tension appears in the U.S.: people want children protected online, but are less comfortable when those protections infringe on their own rights. Elinor Carmi, a senior lecturer in data politics and data justice at City St Georges, University of London, argues the backlash isnt just about biometrics or ID checks in the abstract, but about whether people believe this kind of gatekeeping will actually work. People just don’t think that age verification actually works, she says, adding that users see policymakers and platforms reaching for a patch rather than a fix. The social media platforms and the regulators are basically saying, We have an issue, but let’s not deal with it. And let’s try to solve it in the most technical and easy solution, which is obviously also not working, because you can obviously fake it. Theres also fatigue with the concept, with users feeling the burden is being shifted onto them, including teenagers as well as adults, rather than platforms. And beyond that, there are worries about the consequences of a papers, please era of the web. For many usersespecially vulnerable groups like LGBTQ+ youthhaving a space to connect without revealing their real identities is essential for safety and free expression, says EFF’s Alajaji. Age verification puts that at risk, forcing users to choose between privacy and participation. She calls the decision to ask people to hand over more personal data after some users already lost theirs in last years Discord-linked data breach reckless. People are wary because theyve been burned before and know theyre being asked to trade their likeness and other sensitive information simply to participate online. Many users are understandably alarmed about their data being exposed or misused, Alajaji says.
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E-Commerce
Valentine’s Day may seem romantic, but to candy companies, it’s serious business. Our annual ode to St. Valentine is one of the most important and competitive days on candy company calendars, and every year, confectioners roll out special-edition heart-shaped chocolate bars and other product innovations to capture consumers’ dollars (nevermind hearts). When it comes to speaking to modern courtship, though, one candy brand has a unique leg up on the competitionand it’s built into the candy itself. Sweethearts were designed to be updated. The pastel-colored conversation hearts stay relevant year over year because their embossed messages can be easily and quickly updated, transforming a generic shape into a crunchy candy canvas that’s adaptable to the moment. That makes the face of these tiny hearts some of the most valuable real estate in the Valentine’s Day candy landscape, because the right quip could convert a passerby into a sale. And this year, their newest messages are all about the struggles of dating in today’s economy. [Photo: Spangler Candy Company] Sweethearts’s latest sayings have been dubbed “Love in This Economy” after an online survey that the brand’s owner, the family-owned, Ohio-based Spangler Candy Company, conducted last December of 2,000 Gen Z and millennials who are single, casually dating, or in a serious relationship, making an edible sort of consumer sentiment index. The candy company’s survey found 80% of respondents said the economy was impacting their Valentine’s Day plans. Their new two-line messages, then”Split Rent,” “Share Logn,” “Car Poll,” “Buy N Bulk,” and “Cook For 2″reflect the realities of dating and courtship during a time of high prices, persistent inflation, and low consumer confidence. But just because the company has introduced new messages doesn’t mean it’s abandoned more evergreen ones. “We’re careful about evolving the sayings because Sweethearts must be both nostalgic and new,” Spangler Candy Company vice president of marketing Evan Brock tells Fast Company. Classic messages like “Marry Me,” “Cutie Pie,” and “Ooo La La” are included every year, while new sayings reflect how people express affection and connection today, she says. “Our role is to strike a balance between enduring tradition and modern expression.” [Photo: Evan-Amos/Wiki Commons Some of the original messages stamped into the first Sweethearts from 1902 were Be Mine, Be True, and Kiss Me,” according to Smithsonian Magazine. But over the years, the candy has been updated with the times. “Fax Me” turned into “Text Me,” and in 2024, the candies were purposefully misprinted to symbolize the confusion and mixed messages of situationships. [Photo: Spangler Candy Company] Unlike M&Ms or Skittles, which use the surface of their candy shells to display their visual brands, Sweethearts has more flexibility to adapt to culture. But even so, it’s thoughtful about adding new sayings. Embossing the hearts is a highly coordinated process that involves engraving new phrases onto custom-made printing plates that will stamp the words onto each individual candy. There’s no understating how important Valentine’s Day is for candy sales. Along with Easter, Halloween, and the winter holiday season, the four holidays generate a whopping 62% of annual sales for the $54 billion confectionery industry, according to the National Confectioners Association. For Sweethearts, it’s practically the whole ballgame, since no one’s buying conversation hearts for Christmas. By tapping into current events and changing trends in courtship, the more-than-a-century-old brand is resonating with Valentine’s Day now.
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E-Commerce
This morning, shares of two of the largest computer memory companies that trade on U.S. markets are up yet again. The stock prices of Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: MU) and Sandisk Corporation (Nasdaq: SNDK) rose after a Japanese memory firm issued a surprising outlook. Heres what you need to know. Stock prices jump as demand continues Shares in several memory chip makers traded on U.S. markets are currently up in premarket trading this morning. The companies include Micron and Sandisk, as well as Western Digital Corporation (Nasdaq: WDC) and Seagate Technology Holdings (Nasdaq: STX). As of this writing, Micron shares are currently up 2.9%, Sandisk shares are up 6.2%, Western Digital shares are up 3%, and Seagate shares are up 2.5%. While all four companies make memory chips, Western Digital and Seagate primarily focus on computer storage, leaving Micron and Sandisk as the two primary memory chip makers traded on U.S. exchanges. And those two companies are getting a lot of attention, not just today, but as of late, due to the memory chip shortage that global supply chains are currently dealing with. As Fast Company previously reported, there is a global memory chip shortage in 2026. Computer memory, also known as RAM, is the component inside a computer that saves and processes short-term memory (as opposed to long-term memory, which is what hard drives and SSDs store). Demand from artificial intelligence (AI) companies is fueling the shortage as they race to get as much RAM as they can get their hands on. These AI companies are currently building many AI data centers, which need powerful servers to run the AI, and those servers require memory to handle instructions. As a result, demand for memory chips is off the charts. And while that is bad for consumers, who are likely to see higher costs for smartphones and laptops this year due to rising memory prices, its very good for the companies that make memory, like Micron and SanDisk. Why are memory chip companies seeing their prices rise today? Todays rise in memory company stock prices isnt something totally out of the blue. The stock prices of memory companies have been rising for months as news of a memory chip shortage in 2026 spread. However, the stock price jumps in MU and SNDK today seem to be primarily due to a Japanese company called Kioxia. Kioxia is a Japanese flash memory supplier, and today, it reported fiscal third-quarter results. Those results, as noted by Investing.com, slightly exceeded expectations. Q4 guidance, on the other hand, blew past expectations. Most analysts had expected Kioxia to issue Q4 revenue guidance of 648.2 billion (about $4.2 billion). Instead, the company said its Q4 guidance is 890 billion at the midpoint (about $5.8 billion). That is a massive difference and one that many investors see as evidence that demand for memory chips isnt going to slow anytime soon. And when demand is high, prices rise, and memory chip companies make more money. And investors seem to believe that if Kioxia is guiding much higher on revenue than analysts expected, that signals good news for memory chip companies on this side of the Pacific, too. Memory chip stocks have had a great 2026 so far Even before todays Kioxia boost, U.S. memory chip stocks have had a pretty stellar run since the year began. As of yesterdays market close, Micron was up more than 43% year to date, Sandisk was up 152%, Western Digital was up 58%, and Seagate was up 47%. To put those figures into greater context, the stock market they all trade on, the Nasdaq, has actually declined during the same period. As of yesterdays close, the Nasdaq Composite was down about 0.7% for the year so far, according to data from Yahoo Finance. Looking back even furtherover the past 12 monthsthe returns on these same four memory chip companies have been even more eye-popping. In the last year, Seagate has risen 316%, Micron has jumped 336%, Western Digital is up 425%, and Sandisk has risen a staggering 1,609%. During the same period, the NASDAQ Composite has risen 17.4%
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E-Commerce
An Idaho-based beef processing facility is recalling about 22,912 pounds of raw ground beef over concerns that the products might be contaminated with E. coli O145. The company, CS Beef Packers in Kuna, issued the recall following testing by the U.S. Department of Agricultures (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), according to a recall notice published late Wednesday. An FSIS test at a downstream customer showed E. coli O415. This strand of the bacteria is a variation of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC). The USDA has labeled the recalled products as high risk, with the potential to cause adverse health consequences or even death. Heres what you need to know about the recalled CS Beef Packers items. What products are affected? The recalled products come in cardboard cases and were produced on January 14, 2026. Each case has a time stamp between 7:03 and 8:32 printed on them and a use-by or freeze-by by date of February 4, 2026. Plus, they bear the establishment number Est. 630 inside the USDAs inspection mark (available on the outside of the case and the clear packaging of each chub). As that expiration date has passed, the FSIS is worried that some products may be in food service freezers. Think you might have some in a freezer? The below cardboard cases of products are included in the recall: Eight 10-pound chubs of Beef, Coarse Ground, 73 L, case code 18601 Four 10-pound chubs of Fire River Farms Classic Beef Fine Ground 73 L, case code 19583 Four 10-pound chubs of Fire River Farms Classic Beef Fine Ground 81 L, case code 19563 You can view images of the product labels here. Where and when was the product sold? According to the FSIS, CS Beef Packers shipped the impacted products to distributors in California, Idaho, and Oregon. However, they were likely then sent to food service locations for further distribution. The recall notice does not include a list of potentially impacted restaurants or food-service establishments. Fast Company has reached out to CS Beef Packers for information on where else the recalled products might have gone. We will update this post if we hear back. What should I do if I have this product? The FSIS states that Foodservice locations are urged not to serve these products. These products should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase. What E. coli symptoms should I look out for? As of Wednesday, there have been no reported illnesses from consuming the beef. However, people can become sick between two and eight days after exposure to E. coli O145. According to the USDA, symptoms include diarrhea (typically bloody) and vomiting. Diagnosis occurs through a stool sample. In most cases, people feel better within a week through treatments like vigorous rehydration, the USDA states. In rare cases, a person might develop a kidney infection known as hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). This condition is most likely to occur in children under five-years-old, individuals with weakened immune systems, and older adults. Symptoms of HUS include easy bruising, pallor, and reduced urine output. Get medical help immediately if you experience any of these symptoms.
Category:
E-Commerce
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