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The co-founders of a company that makes lip products for darker skin tones no longer hope to get their line into Target. A brother and sister who make jigsaw puzzles celebrating Black subjects wonder if they need to offer neutral images like landscapes to keep growing. Pound Cake and Puzzles of Color are among the small businesses whose owners are rethinking their plans as major U.S. companies weaken their diversity, equity and inclusion programs. The initiatives mostly date from the end President Donald Trumps first term and entered a new era with the dawn of his second one. Some Black-owned brands suspect big retail chains will drop partnerships they pursued after the police killing of a Black man in 2020 reignited mass protests against racial injustice. In today’s anti-DEI climate, other entrepreneurs worry about personal repercussions or feel pressure to cancel contracts with retreating retailers. It becomes a question of, are the big box stores going to be there? Do we even make any attempt to talk to these people?” Ericka Chambers, one of the siblings behind Puzzles of Color, said. We are really having to evaluate our strategy in how we expand and how we want to get in front of new customers. A fighting chance for Black-owned brands Chambers and her brother, William Jones, started turning the work of artists of color into frameable puzzles the same year a video captured a white Minneapolis police officer kneeling on George Floyd’s neck. Amid the Black Lives Matter protests over Floyd’s death, a fashion designer challenged large retailers to devote 15% of their shelf space and purchasing power to Black businesses. The Fifteen Percent Pledge helped bring Puzzles of Color’s creations to Macys and Nordstroms websites in 2022. Last year, they made it into select Barnes & Noble stores. Chambers said she’s confident in the companies’ commitments but recalled a backlash after news outlets covered the brand, which is based in Texas. It does make us think about how we envision ourselves as far as the safety of not wanting to be attacked, because some people are very vocal about being anti-DEI, Chambers said. Vibrant depictions of Black women account for many of her and Jones’ puzzles. The pair figured they needed to provide more abstract designs for certain Barnes & Noble locations to give Puzzles of Color a little bit of a fighting chance. Discontent over corporate diversity The first prominent names in U.S. retail to end or retool their diversity programs surfaced last summer amid threats of legal challenges and negative publicity from DEI critics, who argue that setting hiring, promotion and supplier diversity goals for underrepresented groups constitutes reverse discrimination. After Trump won a second term in November, Walmart joined the corporate pullback. Target’s suspension of its comparable DEI targets in January stung Black and LGBTQ+ customers harder, largely because they regarded the Minneapolis-based company as more of a natural ally. The company said it would continue working with a diverse range of businesses. Philadelphia-based Pound Cake’s co-founders, Camille Bell and Johnny Velazquez, said they don’t think they would agree at this point if the retailer offered to stock their lipsticks and lip oils. Target would have been a great boost to our businesss growth, Velazquez said. Well just find it elsewhere. To boycott or not? Target’s stance has created a dilemma for brand founders with existing distribution deals. One is Play Pits, a natural deodorant for children that Maryland resident Chantel Powell launched in 2021. The product is found in about 360 Target stores. The retailer’s DEI program allowed us to employ amazing people, give back to our community, and exhibit Black excellence on and off the shelves, Powell wrote on LinkedIn as civil rights leaders talked about boycotting Target. She and some other product creators highlighted the impact boycotts might have on their businesses. They urged upset customers to intentionally limit their purchases to items from Black-owned enterprises. Some activists understood; others pushed the brands to join the protest by cutting ties with Target. The conversation around Black brands, that they should pull out of the retailers that theyre in, is unrealistic, Powell said this month as a 40-day, church-organized Target boycott was underway. We signed up to be in business. I understand why people are having that conversation of boycotts. As a Black founder, I also understand the side of how it can be detrimental. Navigating the post-DEI landscape The owner of a Black-owned sexual wellness business with its own line of condoms has a slightly different take. Target started carrying B Condoms in 2020, and founder Jason Panda said the company told him late last year that it didn’t intend to keep the prophylactics in the 304 stores that stocked them. Panda says he isn’t worried. The product is available through Amazon and in more than 7,000 CVS stores, he said. What’s more, contracts with non-profit organizations and local governments that distribute condoms for free are the cornerstone of the business he established in 2011, Panda said. My money has never really come from mainstream, he said. We’re going to be protected as long as I can maintain my relationship with my community. Brianna Arps, who founded the fragrance brand Moodeaux in 2021, notices fewer grants available to Black brand creators these days. She used to apply for 10 to 15 every week or two; the number is down to five to seven, Arps said. A lot of the organizations that had been really vocal about supporting (Black businesses) have either quietly or ouwardly pulled back, she said. Moodeaux was the first Black-owned perfume brand to get its perfumes into Urban Outfitters and Credo Beauty, which specializes in natural vegan products. In the current environment, Arps is looking to expand her brand’s presence independent shops and to support other Black fragrance lovers. The resiliency of brands like ours and founders like myself will still exist, she said. Accentuating the positive Aurora James, the founder of the Fifteen Percent Pledge, said nearly 30 major companies that joined the initiative remain committed to it, including Bloomingdale’s, beauty retailer Sephora, J. Crew and Gap. Ulta Beauty, another pledge signatory, and Credo Beauty carry Pound Cake products. Velazquez and Belle want to use social media to direct their followers to support retailers like Ulta and to bolster their online sales. Its going to be fostering the community that we have and growing that, Velazquez said. While making a strategic decision to appeal to a broader audience when selecting puzzles for Barnes & Noble, Chambers said she plans to introduce Black faces and experiences to the chain’s bookstores over time, in boxes of 500, 750 and 1,000 pieces. In the meantime, Puzzles of Color expanded its Pride collection as a response to the DEI backlash. The subjects include Harriet Tubman, a mother and daughter tending a garden, and a little girl in a beauty supply store gazing up at hair accessories. Do we lean in all the way?” Chambers asks herself. “Part of why we started this was because we didnt see enough Black people in puzzles. Anne D’Innocenzio, AP retail writer
Category:
E-Commerce
GameStop, the video game retailer famed for becoming a meme stock and causing chaos in the stock market during the COVID-19 pandemic, is back in the spotlight for a new pursuit: investing in Bitcoin. GameStops board has voted unanimously to add Bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset, investing the company’s corporate cash into the oldest and most popular digital currency. In a recent regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), GameStop explained that in addition to cash, equity issuances and future debt may be invested in Bitcoin, with no set ceiling for the amount of Bitcoin accumulated. The company’s stock rose 15% and dropped back down on Wednesday following the announcement of GameStops investment policy. GameStop also revealed on Tuesday its net income increased during its fourth quarter, rising to $131.3 million from the previous years $63.1 million. However, the retailer also projects more store closures in addition to the 590 locations it’s already closed, as brick-and-mortar retailers have continued to struggle. GameStop is not the first company betting on cryptocurrency. Software company Strategy, formerly known as MicroStrategy, has become the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin after large investments in recent years. GameStop’s decision comes as President Trump has embraced crypto, and after his administration announced the creation of a Crypto Strategic Reserve earlier this month. Still, despite the renewed interest in cryptocurrency, Bitcoin’s price fell 1.6% on Wednesday. The Bitcoin markets have historically experienced significant volatility, GameStop said in the regulatory filing. We are continually examining the risks and rewards of our strategy to acquire and hold Bitcoin.
Category:
E-Commerce
The Supreme Court�on Wednesday upheld a Biden administration regulation on the nearly impossible-to-trace weapons called�ghost guns, clearing the way for continued serial numbers, background checks and age verification requirements for buying the kits online. The 7-2 opinion found that existing gun laws allow regulation of the kits increasingly linked to crime. It comes after President Donald Trump ordered a review that could undermine or reverse the regulations championed by his predecessor. Sales of the homemade firearms grew exponentially as kits allowing for easy at-home building came into the market, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in the majority opinion. Some home hobbyists enjoy assembling them. But criminals also find them attractive, he said. The number of ghost guns found at crime scenes around the country has also soared, according to federal data. Fewer than 1,700 were recovered by law enforcement in 2017, but that number grew to 27,000 in 2023, according to Justice Department data. Since the federal rule was finalized, though, ghost gun numbers have flattened out or declined in several major cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Baltimore, according to court documents. Manufacturing of miscellaneous gun parts also dropped 36% overall, the Justice Department has said. Ghost guns are any privately made firearms without the serial numbers that allow police to trace weapons used in crime. The 2022 regulation was focused on kits sold online with everything needed to build a functioning firearm sometimes in less than 30 minutes, according to court documents. Ghost guns have been used in high-profile crimes, including a mass shooting carried out with an AR-15-style ghost gun in Philadelphia that left five people dead. Police believe a ghost gun used in the slaying of UnitedHealthcares CEO in Manhattan was made on a 3D printer rather than assembled from a kit of the kind at the center of the Supreme Court case. Finalized at the direction of then-President Joe Biden,�the frame and receiver rule�requires companies to treat the kits like other firearms by adding serial numbers, running background checks and verifying that buyers are 21 or older. Gun groups challenged the rule in court in the case known as Garland v. VanDerStok. Most crimes are committed with traditional firearms, not ghost guns, they argued. It’s legal for people to build their own firearms at home, the challengers said, arguing that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives overstepped its authority by trying to regulate the kits. The Supreme Court majority disagreed, pointing out that the law gives the ATF the power to regulate items that can be quickly made into working firearms. The Buy Build Shoot kit can be ‘readily converted’ into a firearm too, for it requires no more time, effort, expertise, or specialized tools to complete, Gorsuch wrote, referring to a specific product. Some kits may take more time to build into guns and therefore fall outside the ATFs power, he wrote, but many popular kits are subject to regulation. Gun safety groups celebrated the ruling, with Everytown Law executive director Eric Tirschwell saying the rule also had broad support from law enforcement. Fundamentally, today’s decision confirms the ghost gun industry is dead as a viable business model,” he said. A Michigan woman whose son lost an eye when he was accidently shot by a friend who bought a ghost gun before he was old enough to legally buy a typical weapon also applauded. We are deeply relieved by todays ruling, which will help ensure that a tragedy like ours never happens again, she said. The court previously expanded Second Amendment rights with a finding that modern gun regulations must fit within historical traditions. The justices also struck down a firearm regulation from President Donald Trumps first administration, a ban on gun accessories known as bump stocks that enable rapid fire. In a dissent, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the ghost gun rule should meet the same fate. The kits, he wrote, are only firearm parts and shouldn’t be subject to a regulation that could open the door to rules on other popular weapons. Congress could have authorized ATF to regulate any part of a firearm or any object readily convertible into one,” he wrote. But, it did not. Lindsay Whitehurst, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
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