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Denmark’s largest grocery store operator is introducing a new symbol to its electronic price tags to make it easier to shop local and avoid purchasing American goods. Starting this month, black stars will appear on price tags for European-produced groceries in stores across Denmark, Germany, and Poland run by the Salling Group. “We are making it easier to buy European brands,” Salling Group CEO Anders Hagh wrote in a LinkedIn post last week, citing consumer demand. Danish holding company the Salling Group operates multiple grocery stores chains and more than 1,700 stores. [Image: Salling Group/LinkedIn] Attitudes towards the U.S. have soured in Denmark as President Donald Trump has called for taking control of Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, and for putting tariffs on European goods. A YouGov poll released in January found Danes consider the U.S. a bigger threat than North Korea. “We have recently received a number of inquiries from customers who want to buy groceries from European brands,” Hagh said. “Our stores will continue to have brands on the shelves from all over the world, and it will always be up to the customers to choose. The new label is only an extra service for those customers who want to buy goods with European brands.” Trump’s trade war has elevated the importance of national origin “made in” labels as consumers look to purchase products made in their own countries, turning retail and grocery stores into the front lines of the trade war. For its part, Hagh said products in his company’s grocery stores can get the star “when the ultimate owner of the trademark is European.” “We hope that customers will welcome the new information and will once again let everyone choose freely from our large selection of goods from all over the world,” he said. The black star on the company’s electronic price tags might be a small in size, but the symbol could have an outsized effect. If the trend catches on more broadly with consumers across Europe, U.S.-based brands could suffer.
Category:
E-Commerce
Automakers have increasingly moved controls for functions like air conditioning and volume onto touchscreens, and Volkswagen has been no exception. But now, the German car company is reversing course. VW is going analog, and will bring back physical buttons and knobs for essential cabin functions in future models. Volkswagen design chief Andreas Mindt told the British car magazine Autocar that beginning with its electric ID 2all due out in 2026, the volume, heating, fans, and hazard lights will all have physical buttons again. [Image: Volkswagen] We will never, ever make this mistake any more, Mindt said. Honestly, it’s a car. It’s not a phone: it’s a car. Although digital controls on sleek infotainment screens can signal to car buyers that a vehicle’s technology is cutting edge, what works for smartphones doesn’t necessarily translate to cars. It turns out many drivers prefer physical controls and they’re also easier to use. A 2024 J.D. Power study found car owners say passenger display screens are not necessary, and drivers who review them negatively blame usability issues. The Tesla effect Tesla introduced a touchscreen infotainment center in its Model X in 2012, and other automakers followed. Everything’s computer, President Donald Trump proclaimed Tuesday while touring the inside of a Tesla on the White House grounds as a show of support for Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s car company as its stock slides. [Image: Volkswagen] Packing controls into an iPad-style screen is cheaper for car companies who don’t have to manufacture extra controls and knobs, but according to one study, it’s worse for drivers. The Swedish car magazine Vi Bilägare found test pilots were able to more quickly perform tasks like starting the defroster, turning on the radio, and setting it to a particular station while driving a 17-year old Volvo V70 with physical controls than in new, pricier cars with touchscreens. It makes sense; with touchscreens, drivers have to take their eyes off the road to see what they’re doing, while with physical controls, they can feel their way around and keep their eyes focused on driving. [Image: Volkswagen] Volkswagen will still keep touchscreens in its cars, but in promotional materials for the ID 2all, the company emphasizes controls that are intuitive and easy to see and use, like its illuminated air-conditioning buttons and a practical thumbwheel for volume. Whether Volkswagen’s re-buttoning is the start of a wider trend back to more analog controls remains to be seen, but according to Mindt, there’s consumer demand for it. There’s feedback, it’s real, and people love this, he said.
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E-Commerce
One of the wonderful things about watching AppleTVs Severance is seeing the variety of “employee appreciation events” they throw. Each one worse than the last, but they provide wonderful satire of the flat attempts many companies make to demonstrate to their employees that they are valued. The truth is that employee appreciation is not shown by any event. It turns out that if you want the people who work in an organization to feel appreciated, you need to show that they are respected and valued every day. Managers should not wait for special occasions to say nice things about their employees performance. Instead, leaders need to be looking for chances to compliment excellence, effort, and improvement all the time. It is particularly important that significant recognition, praise, and rewards be given to people whose actions and ethos are aligned with the mission of the organization. When visible awards and praise go to people who are widely known to be favorites of management rather than to great team players, that undermines peoples belief that leaders care about the values they talk about. Intrinsic versus extrinsic rewards Psychologists have long distinguished between intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. Intrinsic rewards reflect the joy of engaging in a particular activity. For example, you might read often because you genuinely love engaging with a good book. Extrinsic rewards are rewards given that are independent of the activity itself. If someone paid me $5 for every book I read, that would be an extrinsic reward. The danger with extrinsic rewards is that people pursue the activity for that reward, and will often stop doing it when the reward is taken away. In fact, extrinsic rewards can sometimes interfere with peoples ability to learn that an activity is intrinsically rewarding. There is a parallel with employee appreciation. Authentic employee appreciation is embedded in the daily workflow in a way that feels connected (or intrinsic) to the work itself. Supervisors should regularly catch people doing good things and give them positive feedback. Highlighting great work during team meetings and in email updates is also valuable. What authentic appreciation looks like When compliments are freely given to acknowledge significant contributions, then other employee rewards often feel more authentic. Still, it’s useful for organizations to think about ways to provide perks that are consistent with their brand and mission. For example, I have seen leaders at my university use tickets to sporting events and other events on campus to reward service that goes beyond the call of duty. Rewards ring hollow when they feel separated from the work itself. When leaders routinely lead by creating fear, and fail to acknowledge great work, then any rewardeven ones that are on-brandwill still feel forced and inauthentic. On top of that, the rewards given to employees should feel like actual rewards. Holding a party after hours to honor people who have done great work may create a burden for those who have long commutes home or family obligations to attend to. Sending out gift baskets of food that get dietary restrictions of employees wrong is also a problem, because it signals you dont really know the people youre trying to honor. We spend a lot of our waking life at work. It’s nice to be recognized for the contributions we have made to the mission of our team. But an inauthentic reward can be worse than none. It leaves people feeling cynical because it suggests that their true contribution hasnt really been noticed.
Category:
E-Commerce
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