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The delivery app DoorDash and the Alphabet-owned drone company Wing are bringing mall food court favorites to select doorsteps as they expand their drone delivery program. The companies recently announced that they were partnering with GoTo Foods, the parent company behind shopping mall brands like Auntie Anne’s, Jamba, and Schlotzsky’s, to deliver orders by drone to select areas in Frisco, Fort Worth, and Plano, Texas. It’s DoorDash’s latest push into delivery by air after announcing in March it would launch a drone delivery pilot program with Wing for select Wendy’s items in Christiansburg, Virginia, and also a sign that the company sees more room for growth. DoorDash said it began offering drone delivery for Papa Johns and The Brass Tap during limited hours of operation in parts of Little Elm and Frisco, Texas, in June, and now its partnership with GoTo Foods takes that pilot program further. “As we continue scaling our drone operations, we remain focused on building a world-class logistics platform that enables partners like Wing to integrate seamlessly into our ecosystem; provides a smooth, reliable delivery experience for merchants; and offers consumers fast and affordable access to brands they love,” DoorDash’s drone program head Harrison Shih said in a statement. For now, drone delivery is limited to just a 4-mile radius of participating locations, but for those who live in the radius, DoorDash promises delivery within minutes of ordering. The company has leaned into robotic delivery outside of drones with Coco, a delivery robot it began testing earlier this year in Los Angeles and Chicago. And in May, it bought the British delivery app Deliveroo for $3.9 billion. DoorDash reported more than $3 billion in quarterly revenue in the most recent quarter, up nearly 25% from the same time last year, according to PitchBook data. For GoTo Foods, the partnership with DoorDash is a chance to take its brand out of the shopping mall and to reinvent it for a new generation at a time when malls are changing. Thanks to drones, food court pretzels could be more easily accessible to “high-growth suburban areas” that are “well beyond traditional mall locations,” the two companies said in a press release. You used to go to the mall. The mall now comes to you.
Category:
E-Commerce
Sarah thought she’d nailed it. Three rounds of interviews for her dream marketing role, glowing feedback from the hiring manager, and a reassuring “we’ll be in touch soon.” So when the rejection email landed in her inbox two weeks latera generic “we’ve decided to move forward with another candidate”it felt like a gut punch. If youve had a similar experience taking job rejection more personally than youd like, youre not alone. Youre also very human. In fact, research has found that 78% of professionals say job rejection negatively impacts their confidence for weeks or even months afterward. But as normal as it is to feel knocked down, were also capable of using rejection to clarify our direction, refine our value, and accelerate the outcomes (and ideal roles) we wantnot to let it define us. This isnt about building thicker skin. Its about building smarter systems and more empowered thinking. Here are six straightforward strategies to do that. 1. Use the 24-hour rule. Youre human, not a robot. Its okay not to feel great when a rejection email lands in your inbox. Emotions may not always be rational, but theyre still real. So cut yourself some slack and give yourself permission to feel disappointed without immediately trying to “fix” it or bounce back. Set a timer for 24 hours, acknowledge the sting, then deliberately shift into learning mode. This prevents both endless rumination and what psychologists call “emotional bypassing”jumping straight to positivity without processing the real emotions. 2. Separate the ‘no’ from your self-worth. This rejection isn’t a referendum on your value as a person or professional: it’s simply a mismatch, not a verdict. Research has shown that people with a growth mindsetwho ask What can this teach me? instead of Whats wrong with me?are more likely to bounce back from setbacks, stay motivated, and take constructive action. When Marcus, a software engineer, didnt get the senior developer role he wanted, he initially spiraled into self-doubt. But when he shifted from “I’m not good enough,” to “What skills do I need to develop?” he used the feedback to land an even better position six months later. You do yourself a disservice when you let the subjective evaluation others place on you depreciate the value you place on yourself. That Tom Brady was the 199th pick in the 2000 NFL draft is proof that sometimes those tasked with assessing others’ future potential have absolutely no idea. 3. Ask for feedbackeven if you don’t get it. The simple act of requesting constructive feedback signals a growth mindset and helps you reflect more objectively on the experience. Even when companies dont respond (and many wont), the process of asking forces you to think strategically about your performance and what you might do differently next time. 4. Reframe it as redirection, not rejection. Jenny, a finance executive, felt incredibly disappointed when she didnt get a controller position at a startup. Six months later, when that company folded, she realized the rejection had actually protected her from a career disaster. Sometimes a “no” is actually steering you away from a situation that wouldnt have served you well. Research from Glassdoor shows that 65% of people who stay in roles that werent their first choice report lower job satisfaction within two years. 5. Dont personalize systemic issues. Sometimes hiring decisions come down to budget, internal politics, timing, or internal candidates being preferredfactors that have nothing to do with your qualifications. Other times, personal preferences, unconscious judgments, or stereotypes bias hiring decisions. According to research from SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management), 48% of HR managers admitted that biases affect the candidates they hire. Many hiring decisions are influenced by factors completely outside a candidates control. Avoid interpreting rejection as anything more than a decision someone madea decision shaped by a whole array of factors and biasesthat simply wasnt the one you wanted them to make. You cant control those variables, but you can control your response. 6. Track your progress, not just your wins Top performers dont avoid rejectionthey risk it regularly and treat it as no more than a hidden curriculum, mining any insights for their next opportunity. Create a system that tracks not only your wins, but also your courage: interviews taken, skills built, connections made, insights gained. Maybe you realized you need to clarify your value proposition. Maybe you discovered a role or industry isnt for you. These are all progress markers. These are all victories worth celebrating. Its not rejection itself that holds future potential hostage, but the emotions of unworthiness it triggers. The irony is that by avoiding rejection, we often reject ourselveslong before anyone else has the chance. So whether youre starting out or starting over, the biggest setback isnt being told no. Its letting it stop you from showing up again. Just imagine the possibilities if you moved forward knowing that rejection is simply part of your individualized growth plan. Let rejection refine your clarity, not shrink your courage. Keep putting yourself forward. Keep learning. Your next opportunity may just need the version of you that rejection helped shape.
Category:
E-Commerce
The federal spending law passed in early July 2025, often called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, significantly reduces federal funding for efforts to create renewable or sustainable types of fuel that can power aircraft over long distances while decreasing the damage aviation does to the global climate. Aviation contributed about 2.5% of global carbon emissions in 2023. Its particularly hard to reduce emissions from planes because there are few alternatives for large, portable quantities of energy-dense fuel. Electric batteries with enough energy to power an international flight, for instance, would be much larger and heavier than airplane fuel tanks. One potential solution, which I work on as an aerospace engineer, is a category of fuel called sustainable aviation fuel. Unlike conventional jet fuel, which is refined from petroleum, sustainable aviation fuels are produced from renewable and waste resources such as used cooking oil, agricultural leftovers, algae, sewage, and trash. But they are similar enough to conventional jet fuels that they work in existing aircraft tanks and engines without any major modifications. Prior to Donald Trumps second term as president, the U.S. government had set some bold targets: by 2030, producing 3 billion gallons of this type of fuel every year, and by 2050, producing enough to fuel every U.S. commercial jet flight. But theres a long journey ahead. A range of source materials The earliest efforts to create sustainable aviation fuels relied on food cropsturning corn into ethanol or soybean oil into biodiesel. The raw materials were readily available, but growing them competed with food production. The next generation of biofuels are using nonfood sources such as algae, or agricultural waste such as manure or stalks from harvested corn. These dont compete with food supplies. If processed efficiently, they also have the potential to emit less carbon: Algae absorb carbon dioxide during their growth, and using agricultural waste avoids its decomposition, which would release greenhouse gases. But these biofuels are harder to produce and more expensive, in part because the technologies are new, and in part because there are not yet logistics systems in place to collect, transport, and process large quantities of source material. Some researchers are working to create biofuels with the help of genetically modified bacteria that convert specific raw materials into biofuel. In one method, algae are grown to produce sugars or oils, which are then fed to engineered bacteria that turn them into usable fuels, such as ethanol, butanol,, or alkanes. In another effort, photosynthetic microbes such as cyanobacteria are modified to directly convert sunlight and carbon dioxide into fuel. All of these approachesand others being explored as wellaim to create sustainable, carbon-neutral alternatives to fossil fuels. Exciting as it sounds, most of this technology is still locked away in labs, not available in airports. Blends are being tested At present, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration allows airlines to fuel their aircraft with blends of up to 50% sustainable aviation fuel mixed with conventional jet fuel. The exact percentage depends on how the fuel was made, which relates to how chemically and physically similar it is to petroleum-based jet fuel, and therefore how well it will work in existing aircraft tanks, pipes, and engines. There are two major hurdles to wider adoption: cost and supply. Sustainable fuels are much more expensive than traditional jet fuel, with cost differences varying by process and raw material. For instance, the raw price of Jet-A, the most common petroleum-based aviation fuel, had a wholesale price averaging $2.34 per gallon in 2024, but one type of sustainable fuel wholesaled at about $5.20 per gallon that year. The federal budget enacted in July 2025 reduces government subsidies, effectively raising the cost of making these fuels. In part because of cost, sustainable fuel is produced only in small quantities: In 2025, global production is expected to be about 2 million metric tons of the fuel, which is less than 1% of the worldwide demand for aviation fuel. There is international pressure to increase demand: Starting in January 2025, all jet fuel supplied at airports in the European Union must include at least 2% sustainable fuel, with minimum percentages increasing over time. Planes can use these fuels Companies such as General Electric and Rolls-Royce have shown that the jet engines they manufacture can run perfectly on sustainable fuels. However, sustainable aviation fuels can have slightly different density and energy content from standard jetfuel. That means the aircrafts weight distribution and flight range could change. And other parts of the aircraft also have to be compatible, such as those that store, pump, and maintain the balance of the fuel. That includes valves, pipes, and rubber seals. As a visiting professor at Boeing in the summer of 2024, I learned that it and other aircraft manufacturers are working closely with their suppliers to ensure sustainable aviation fuels can be safely and reliably integrated into every part of the aircraft. Those finer details are why headlines you may have seen about flights that burn 100% sustainable aviation fuel are not quite the full story. Usually, the fuel on those flights contains a small amount of conventional jet fuel or special additives. Thats because sustainable fuels lack some of the aromatic chemical compounds found in fossil-based fuels that are required to maintain proper seals throughout the aircrafts fuel system. Good promise, with work ahead While many details remain, sustainable aviation fuels offer a promising way to reduce the carbon footprint of air travel without reinventing or redesigning entire airplanes. These fuels can significantly cut carbon dioxide emissions from aircraft in use today, helping reduce the severity of climate change. The work will take research and investment from governments, manufacturers, and airlines around the world, whether or not the U.S. is involved. But one day, the fuel powering your flight could be much greener than it is now. Li Qiao is a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Purdue University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Category:
E-Commerce
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