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If youve been online the past day, you may have seen that Lowes stores closing has been trending on various platforms. But fans of the home improvement chain, which has over 1,700 stores in America, shouldnt fret. Lowes is not falling victim to store closures like many other chains have recently. Instead, the company will be closing all of its stores for just one day. Heres what you need to know. Are Lowe’s stores really closing? Yes and no. Lowe’s home improvement stores will all be closingbut only for one day. Thats according to a statement the companys CEO Marvin Ellison released, reports Washington D.C. news affiliate FOX 5. Ellison confirmed that all 1,700+ Lowe’s stores in America will be closed for one daySunday, April 20, 2025. That day is Easter Sunday. Lowe’s confirmed Easter Sunday’s closures of its stores to Fast Company. As most Lowe’s stores have opening hours from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. local time each day, that means that when Lowe’s stores close at 10 p.m. on Saturday, April 19, they will not reopen again until 6 a.m. on Monday, April 21. Why are Lowe’s stores closing on April 20, 2025? Lowes is closing its stores on April 20 because that is the date of Easter Sunday in 2025. However, Easter Sunday is not a federal holiday, nor is it a day that most retailers are closed. The day is an important day for members of Christian religions, as it is the day Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. “I’m extremely proud of the commitment of our 300,000 associates who support our communities while providing excellent customer service not only in spring but all year-round,” he said. “In recognition of our teams’ continued hard work, we are pleased to provide a well-deserved day off so they can spend Easter with their loved ones. It should be noted that this is the same statement Ellison and Lowes have used in past years when announcing their stores would be closed on Easter Sunday. Can I still shop at Lowes.com on Easter Sunday? Yes. Lowes physical retail stores will be closed on Easter Sunday, but their online store will be operating as normal. Store closures in 2025 could top 15,000 Its no wonder customers grew concerned when they saw Lowes stores closing trending. 2024 and 2025 have been rough years for retail store chains. A January 2025 report from Coresight Research estimated that retail store closures could reach 15,000 this year aloneand that report was made before Trump unleashed his tariffs on the world, which has since thrown the stock market into economic turmoil. By January, the chains with the highest number of store closures announced for 2025 included Party City (738 closures), Big Lots (601 closures), Walgreens Boots Alliance (333 closures), 7-Eleven (148 closures), and Macys (51 closures). That was on top of all the chains that closed stores in 2024. However, Lowe’s customers can rest assured that its closures are not a permanent part of any store closures list. The company will be closing all its stores for one day only, in recognition of Easter Sunday 2025.
Category:
E-Commerce
Giving money away has never been so easythanks to AI. Daffy, a platform that facilitates charitable giving, is rolling out a suite of new AI-powered tools thats making it easier than ever to donate to charity. So easy, in fact, that a Daffy user can feel like a billionaire making a quick donation to their chosen charity without having to fill out forms, mail checks, or any of the other tedium that can slow the giving process downsimply hit a button, or make a verbal command, and make a donation. Specifically, Daffys new tools include a Quick Donate feature, which converts free text or voice commands into an immediate donation. Daffy will need some direction (users choose a charity, donation amount, etc.), but from there, you can simply say to the application make a donation to the ACLU, or something similar, to facilitate the donation. The idea was to leverage AI to improve the giving experience, says Daffy CEO Adam Nash. We looked at the real world to see what benefits the wealthy getthey get concierge service. They dont need to fill out a bunch of forms or track down an EIN from a database. They tell an assistant they want to make a donation, and it gets done, he says. The goal, then, was to get as close to that experience as possible while leveraging AI to make it happen. Over time, too, the feature will learn the specifics of a users desired causes or charities, so a user could tell it to make a donation to their childs school, for example, and Daffy can handle the rest. And by allowing Daffy to handle the rest, Nash believes that people will give more. Because friction is the enemy of generosity, he says. In other words, the easier it is to make a donation, the more donations people will make. If the process is tedious and time-consuming, fewer people are going to do it. We feel like weve proven the hypothesis that technology can help people be more generous, Nash says. And we think AI has a role to play. Users can also use the AI features to set up recurring donationslike a donation to a local food bank every year on Thanksgiving, for example. In all, Nash thinks that the AI features could open the floodgates to potentially millions of dollars more in donations every year. A lot of people are using AI right now and are just playing with it, Nash says. Were trying to use it for something important.
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E-Commerce
From AI resources to upskilling growth programs, LinkedIns annual Top Companies list reveals top employers are investing in making the workplace a place to grow and succeed. “These are companies that make a commitment to their employees and their employees know that they’re not alone in their career,” said Andrew Seaman, editor at large for Jobs & Career Development at LinkedIn News. “I think you can use the methodology in your own job search too.” Published on Tuesday, the list uses LinkedIn data on upskilling, attrition and retention, gender diversity, ability to advance, and more to rank the top 50 U.S. companies for career growth. The list not only honors the companies, but serves as a tool for members looking for jobs. Each honoree will receive a badge on its company page. And according to LinkedIn, all of those top companies are hiring right now, with more than 129,000 job openings across the companies. Landing at the top of the list, Googles parent company Alphabet takes the number one spot, followed by Amazon and Wells Fargo, which ranked last year as well. AI companies also took the spotlight, with NVIDIA and ServiceNow landing on the list for the first time. Among the 50 honorees, which span across various industries, employers are using AI-powered resources for employees, like Bank of America’s (no. 11) AI virtual assistant Erica; Moderna’s (no. 43) AI academy which customizes learning for employees’ needs; and AT&T’s (no. 7) conversational productivity assistant “Ask AT&T.” AI upskilling initiatives further advances this year’s top skill on the rise, equipping employees with AI literacy. Beyond AI, many top companies shared growth programs for employees like cross-practice rotations. Some of the companies include Walmart (no. 10), which invested $1 billion in week-long training and certificate degrees, creating a pathway for in-demand jobs; and Kearny (no. 46), which offers rotational programs and six-month individualized coaching programs. LinkedIn’s methodology is based on eight pillars: ability to advance, skills growth, company stability, external opportunity, company affinity, gender diversity, educational background, and employee presence in the country. It can feel really lonely navigating your career, and it’s nice to see companies that invest in their employees and have a vested interest in seeing them succeed, Seaman said. Here are the top ten companies for 2025 in order: Alphabet Amazon Wells Fargo Northrop Grumman PwC Capital One AT&T JPMorgan Chase EY Walmart
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E-Commerce
Its only 9 a.m. and Michelle, a middle manager in a government organization, just received her eighth panicked email from a team member asking about the impending layoffs that were announced yesterday afternoon. People are clearly worried, and Michelle is beginning to feel overwhelmed. Shes in an unfortunate, yet common, position. She wants to keep people calm and focused, but information comes in drips from leaders above her. The culture she worked so hard to build is becoming flooded with uncertainty. People are scared. What can Michelle do to minimize feelings of threat and help the team keep running smoothly? Layoffs arent the only context in which uncertainty reigns. It shows up wherever theres rapid change, which research suggests has become the norm within organizations. One study shows that organizational change accelerated by 183% between 2020 and 2024, and by 33% in 2024 alone. In other words, change isnt just increasingit’s increasing faster every year. All this flux makes working life feel much riskier and less stable, as people fear for their livelihoods amid ever-evolving governmental reductions and corporate restructurings. With so much uncertainty in the air, is it any wonder employee engagement hit an 11-year low in 2024? People cant predict whats coming next, so theyre checking out entirely. To help team members perform their essential tasks, leaders must learn to reduce uncertainty, minimize threat, and, ideally, create productive feelings of comfort and safety in an increasingly volatile world. Provide clarity if you cant provide certainty A feeling of certainty isnt just a nice-to-have. In life and in work, humans crave a sense of predictability about their environmentand we can think of this craving as a genuine psychological need. Thousands of years ago, a need for certainty kept us physically safe, whether from predators or suspicious-looking berries. Our sense of certainty was rewarded with survival. Today, a need for certainty shows up less in matters of survival and more in being able to predict whats coming next in our professional, social, and personal lives. Thats why C stands for certainty in the NeuroLeadership Institutes SCARF Model of social threat and reward: When we can predict certain outcomes in our environment, we feel a sense of reward, which motivates us to take action. When we feel uncertain, however, we tend to feel threatened, which makes us freeze or retreat from the situation. At work, uncertainty leads to impaired judgment and reduced productivity. If a team faces a large amount of uncertainty, the task for leaders is to manage peoples sense of threat. There are several ways to go about this. In the best-case scenario, a leader in Michelles position could immediately send certainty rewards by sharing whos safe from layoffs and whos not. This would address the uncertainty head-on, and it would have the side benefit of minimizing the spread of office rumors, which only amplifies the uncertainty. Even delivering bad news to the people who are getting laid off will send a small reward signal, as research shows uncertainty tends to feel worse than the bad news itself. One study, for example, showed people experienced more dread about the possibility of a small electric shock than people who knew for certain a shock was coming. Uncertainty is that uncomfortable. And yet, providing certainty isnt always feasible. A leader wont necessarily have all the answers right when employees need them most. Sometimes, a leader can only share some of what they know, or they might not know anything at all. Here, neuroscience suggests the best practice is to share what you do know and what you dont, both in terms of information as well as the ongoing process. Michelle, for example, might be able to share that while other departments have received the news of whos being laid off, shes still waiting on her supervisor to tell her. She might also share that the list of names is supposed to be shared with her in the next couple weeks, giving team members a window into the process. While not as rewarding as certainty, this sense of clarity sets peoples expectations, which creates a calming sense of predictability in the brain. Clarity is best offered in a three-pronged approach: making timelines explicit, taking unlikely outcomes off the table, and reminding employees about the organizations key values, as a way to recommit to a higher purpose and shared vision. In practice, clarity acts as a helpful substitute for certainty. For instance, even if people dont know if theyll have a job next month, having the clarity theyll find out in two weeks is easier to deal with than waking up each day wondering if todays the day. Thats the wisdom of offering clarity when certainty is in short supply: When people know what to expect, they feel more oriented and secure in the situation, putting their minds at ease. Offset the threat by reassuring in other areas Providing clarity about information and processes isnt the only tool available to leaders dealing with uncertainty. They can also work to boost peoples sense of reward in the other four SCARF domains: status, a feeling of prestige within the group; autonomy, a sense of control over our environment; relatedness, a feeling of belonging and connection to the group; and fairness, a sense of just and equal treatment within the group. Sending these reward signals creates whats known as an offsetting effect. If one domain is threatened, we can compensateor offset itby amplifying feelings of reward in the other domains. That said, offsetting effects wont make everything better, especially against very strong threats. But they can soften the blow. For example, heres how Michelle could offset a certainty threat through the other four SCARF domains in an all-hands meeting about the layoffs: Status: Michelle emphasizes that the layoffs have nothing to do with peoples individual performancethey are purely a cost-cutting measure. Autonomy: Prior to the meeting, Michelle asks people to submit questions via an anonymous form. She sorts the questions and answers a handful during the meeting. Relatedness: Michelle announces a partnership shes leading with HR to help outgoing employees with résumé coaching and finding their next job. Fairness: Michelle explains how the process of creating severance packages was based on a standard rubric across all employees, based on their tenure with the company.&nbp; Again, none of these efforts will make the pain of losing their job any easier for employees to bear. The goal with offsetting is to reduce the pain brought on by the uncertainty of the situation. A leader might not be able to save an employee from getting laid off, but they can at least make the process of waiting feel more dignified, less isolating, and, hopefully, less threatening. Finding a balance In a rapidly changing work environment, including public-sector downsizing, uncertainty becomes a default state of mind. It becomes the air people breathe. But the constant vigilance needed to cope with uncertainty is exhausting. So unless leaders can replace uncertainty with certainty, their responsibility falls to offering clarity whenever possible, as well as boosting other SCARF signals to offset peoples negative feelings. Otherwise, one thing that is certain is employees will struggle to be effective at their jobs. Theyll spend enormous amounts of cognitive energy resolving the feelings of threat, leaving them feeling drained and slow to respond to works many challenges, rather than being energized and proactive. This is also a drain on the organization as it struggles to maintain a high level of performance. However, when employees feel those rewarding signals being sent, despite how painful a situation may be, theyre much more likely to navigate uncertainty with a calm and focused mind. For creatures highly sensitive to social threat, that serenity counts for a lot.
Category:
E-Commerce
Amazon is betting big on movie theaterseven if it isnt counting on mega profits. The Silicon Valley giant told The New York Times last week that it is planning to release about 14 movies annually in theaters across the United States, an untraditional move for a company that has for years focused on streaming. Instead of simply dropping films directly onto Prime Video, its streaming service, Amazon wants audiences to see its movies on the big screen firsttypically for 45 daysbefore theyre available for streaming. Three years after Amazon bought MGM for $8.5 billion, the tech giant is signaling that it is ready to compete more directly with Hollywoods biggest studios. According to eMarketer analyst Jeremy Goldman, the theatrical push has more to do with earning customer loyalty than it does raking in game-changing revenues. By investing in wide releases with A-list talent and 45-day exclusive theatrical windows, Amazon is signaling that it wants its films to matternot just be content that quietly drops on a Thursday night, Goldman says. In the past 10 years, Amazon has acted as distributor for a number of critically acclaimed films, including Nickel Boys, American Fiction, Sound of Metal, and Manchester by the Sea, all of which were nominated for Best Picture Oscars and received at least limited theatrical releases. In recent years, Amazon has released five to eight films in theaters annually, often with varying time frames before they became available on Prime Video. The newly announced 14-film, 45-day-window strategy is in league with what the five major studiosUniversal, Paramount, Warner Bros., Walt Disney, and Sonydo each year. The shift could be a boon for the movie theater business, which has struggled to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Box office receipts are down 20% to 25% from pre-pandemic levels in 2019, according to a research note Bloomberg Intelligence shared with Fast Company. Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Geetha Ranganathan and Kevin Near noted that this investment could fill a competition gap left when Disney bought 21st Century Fox in 2019. In addition to award-winning releases, Amazon has blockbuster films at the ready. The company reportedly paid an additional $1 billion earlier this year to take full control of the James Bond franchise, and is expected to name a new Bond to replace Daniel Craig soon. Amazon is honing its theatrical strategy as other streaming giants continue to tinker with theirs in an effort to fuel both streaming user and theatergoer demands. Apple and Netflix have limited theatrical releases, while Disney is stuck between fueling its Disney+ streaming services and giving moviegoing audiences the theater experience they crave for blockbusters. Mike Proulx, vice president and research director at Forrester, sees a parallel to Amazons model in Disney: The company’s theatrical release strategy is akin to what Disney has been doing for years with Disney+ as the eventual beneficiary of the content. Proulx adds that while Amazon is trying to find the right balance between its streaming and theater strategies, an uptick in quality films is ultimately a net positive for the company. Better content makes Prime Video more valuable, he says, even if some people opt to wait for it to end up there.
Category:
E-Commerce
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