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Remember when former Try Guy Ned Fulmer was caught in a public cheating scandal that broke the internet? Hes back, this time with a new podcast called Rock Bottom with Ned Fulmer. Or as one commenter called it: One of the most painful watches in YouTube history. The podcast is meant to explore, people’s lowest, most embarrassing, and challenging moments. Fulmer’s first guest: his wife, Ariel. The first question many have asked is why would they do this? Was this a humiliation ritual for him? one TikTok user asked. According to Ariel, it was mostly for their children, aged 7 and 5, who they are currently coparenting, and as a way to move on and put the past in the past by bringing it all up again. In case you were living under a rock in 2022 and have no idea what a Try Guy is or what happened, let us catch you up to speed. The Try Guys were four former BuzzFeed employees, Keith Habersberger, Ned Fulmer, Zach Kornfeld, and Eugene Lee Yang, who made content based around the simple premise of trying various things. In late 2022, their YouTube channel had close to 8 million subscribers, with their empire extending to TV shows, books, and podcasts. In 2022, it all came crashing down after internet sleuths uncovered Fulmers extramarital affair with a Try Guys producer. The scandal broke the internet and Fulmer was fired from the group after an internal investigation. Fast forward three years and on the debut episode of his new podcast (because there arent enough men with podcasts), Ned and Ariel reconstructed the timeline of the scandal and shared that they are no longer together romantically, much to the internets delight and relief. Ariel also revealed, for the first time, that she found out about her husbands affair from a fans message. When asked if she’s forgiven Ned, Ariel responded, Absolutely not. How can you forgive somebody for lying to you, for cheating on you? No.” Neither has the internet, it seems. Him calling it the scandal and her calling it your affair is all we needed to know, one person commented beneath the YouTube video, which currently has more than 100,000 dislikes compared to just over 7,000 likes. I can’t believe he’s really interviewing her about him traumatizing her, another wrote. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Ariel revealed the podcast episode was, in fact, her idea. Some have speculated Ariel predicted exactly how badly Ned would come across and that was part of her motivation to do the episode in the first place. I love that she lets silence hang in the air after he says something horrible or stupid and just fully lets him feel uncomfortable, one commented. Another added: Oh to be a fly on the wall in the Try Guys office today.
Category:
E-Commerce
Starbucks will end the year with fewer stores and fewer employees. But the brand maintains that its all part of a greater turnaround still in the mix. Today, the company announced that its North American store locations will be reduced by 1% for fiscal 2025landing the coffee chain at 18,300 stores total. And it will be eliminating 900 jobs outside of its coffee houses (in other words, corporate and other functions). The company claims it will attempt to place affected baristas into new stores, but Starbucks says, “For those we cant immediately place, were focused on partner care including comprehensive severance packages. We also hope to welcome many of these partners back to Starbucks in the future as new coffeehouses open and the number of partners in each location grows. CEO Brian Niccol has been at the helm for a year now, where hes been unable to break a six-quarter streak of same-store sales declines. Hes promised a Back to Starbucks turnaround centered on better store design, operations, and customer experience. But as he faces the scrutiny of an impatient Wall Street, the former Chipotle chief appears to be reallocating spending to drive the companys growth while offsetting overhead. Closures today; growth tomorrow A closer examination of the details around this restructuring spot a somewhat finer narrative than sheer cost-cuttingand Starbucks insists that Niccols aggressive growth plan, in which hell add to store count in 2026 and imagines reaching 100,000 stores globally one day, is still intact. Speaking just last week at the Fast Company Innovation Festival, he promised to add hundreds of thousands of seats back to Starbucks stores. The company will have actually closed hundreds of stores over the course of 2025, but its been opening enough new stores to offset the figure significantly for this final announced tally. In a public letter published to the Starbucks website on Thursday, Niccol argues that its the sort of fine tuning required to improve the brand. Our goal is for every coffeehouse to deliver a warm and welcoming space with a great atmosphere and a seat for every occasion, he wrote. During the review, we identified coffeehouses where were unable to create the physical environment our customers and partners expect, or where we dont see a path to financial performance, and these locations will be closed. When asked if store closures were disproportionately focused on union locations, Starbucks told Fast Company that union represented status was not a factor in the decision. In any case, the larger restructuring does support Niccols greater thesisthat in offering higher touchpoint service, it will continue to raise the bar of expectations from its stores and employees. As Niccol mentioned during Q3 earnings, We plan to complete an evaluation of our North American portfolio by the end of this fiscal year to ensure we have the right coffeehouses in the right locations to drive profitability and deliver the Starbucks experience. So now that this is done . . . can we finally get back to Starbucks?
Category:
E-Commerce
The H&M group is entering the fall season with style. On Wednesday, September 24, the retailer released its third-quarter earnings and reported an operating profit of 4.9 billion Swedish krona ($521 million). The H&M group owns brands including H&M, COS, Monki, and Arket. Its operating profit marked a 40% increase year-over-year (YOY) and beat analysts predicted 3.7 billion Swedish krona ($393 million), according to consensus estimates cited by CNBC. The figures also marked consecutive quarterly successes for the H&M group, which also beat estimated operating profits in quarter-two. However, the H&M group now predicts that 2025s quarter-four will yield less positive results due to the increased impact of tariffs. Stock price rises despite tariff warning Despite the concerning forecast, investors responded positively to H&M groups current earnings. Trading on the Stockholm Stock Exchange, the companys share price (STO:HM-B) jumped 10% through after-hours and into premarket trading Thursday morning. Other factors could have contributed to the boost in share prices. The H&M group reported that sales in local currencies had increased by 2% during the quarter. However, the company notably reduced its store count over the previous nine months. As of August 31, the H&M group had 4,118 stores, compared to 4,298 at the same point last year. The company closed 135, or 4%, of its store locations over the first nine months of the fiscal year, 48 in quarter-three alone. A majority of the closures were H&M and Monki stores in Europe, Asia, Oceania, and Africa. Only five stores shut down throughout North and South America. These closures dont necessarily point to a planned consolidation. The company pointed to a newly opened store, its first in Brazil, as being well received.
Category:
E-Commerce
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