 |
|
|
|||||
The day after Thanksgiving is a holiday in itself for retailers. Historically, Black Friday has been a time when shoppers wake up early and head to stores for the best deals of the year. More recently, though, more and more consumers have been opting out of the mad rush in stores and turning to online deals, many of which started a week ago and now extend all weekend long till Cyber Monday, December 1. For those who like to be there when doors open, this is for you. Here’s everything you need to know. What time do Target, Best Buy, Kohl’s, and Walmart open? Many major big-box retailers open their doors nice and early for Black Friday, starting with Kohl’s and JCPenney, which open at 5 a.m.; followed by Target, Best Buy, Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Walmart at 6 a.m.; and T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods, Petco, and PetSmart at 7 a.m. Costco opens at 9 a.m., according to USA Today. Are there any stores closed on Black Friday? REI stores are closed not only on Thanksgiving but also on Black Friday. Are banks closed on Black Friday? Most banks are open on Black Friday, as it is not a federal holiday. However, check your local branch, as hours may vary. What about the U.S. stock market? The NYSE and Nasdaq Stock Market are open on Black Friday, but only for a half day of trading, ending at 1 p.m. ET. Isn’t there a Black Friday boycott? Yes, there are two boycotts: Mass Blackout and We Aint Buying It. The first boycott protests billionaires and the Trump administrations policies, and urges you not to participate in this years extended Black Friday sales, already underway, that run through Tuesday, December 2. The “We Aint Buying It boycott urges consumers not to buy anything from three companies: Target (for its rollback on DEI), Home Depot (for working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has been arresting, detaining, and deporting immigrants), and Amazon (for allegedly funding the Trump administration to secure corporate tax cuts).
Category:
E-Commerce
AI is rapidly changing the world around us, from the way we engage online to how we work. But while the technology is able to complete an astonishing number of tasks, humans are far from obsolete. A new report from McKinsey is shining light on why humans are still essential. According to the report, roughly 57% of work hours can be automated. Meanwhile, 70% of the skills employers look for can be used for both automated work and nonautomated work. This means over the next five years, humans will have to adjust their work habits to make room for automation. McKinsey designed an index to assess how automation will impact each skill used in the workplace today. According to the index, skills like digital and information processing, accounting, and coding are the most likely to be impacted by AI. Jobs requiring physical activity will see less of an impact, accounting for 35% of U.S. work hours. While robots have made huge strides in their ability to complete physical tasks, they cannot rival the “fine motor skills, dexterity, and situational awareness” of humans, the report says. Skills that rely on emotional awareness and personal connectionsuch as coaching, assisting, caring, or negotiatingwill see the least amount of impact. The report explains that “even under a full adoption” of AI, emotional skills will remain relevant in many roles. Currently about 75% of the demand for AI skills falls into one of three categories: computer or mathematical jobs (44%), management roles (19%), and business and financial operations (7%). However, the report goes on to highlight “nearly all occupations have at least one highly disrupted skilldefined as being in the top quartile of change by 2030, and that a third of occupations will see more than 10% of their skills highly changed.” While many jobs will change, new jobs will also be created where working alongside AI will become essential. In fact, the report says, demand for workers who understand AI is growing faster than any other skill set. “Workers will spend less time preparing documents and doing basic research, for example, and more time framing questions and interpreting results,” the report says. “Employers may increasingly prize skills that add value to AI.” Making space for AI in the workplace is key. The tech could unlock around $2.9 trillion in economic value in the U.S. if companies can utilize employees to work together with automation, the report projects. Either way, while humans are still necessary for most jobs, AI will inevitably continue to change how humans workno matter their role.
Category:
E-Commerce
Just a handful of years ago, the idea of one person creating a company worth over a billion dollars seemed like a pipe dream. Thanks to rapid advancements in AI, the possibility of a solopreneur unicorn is less a matter of “if and more a matter of when. Earlier this year, OpenAI founder Sam Altman told Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian that his group chat of tech CEO friends have a betting pool for when the world will see a one-person billion-dollar company. Ten months later, some experts suggest that the company could be founded in 2026, if it hasn’t been already, due to rapid advancements in agentic AI. The ability of a person to scale themselves, to automate their lives, has just become amazing, says Kyle Jensen, the director of entrepreneurship programs, associate dean and professor in the practice of entrepreneurship at Yale School of Management. If you’re very skilled with those tools, you can have the productivity of 10 people. Jensen adds that solopreneurship has historically been more akin to mom-and-pop-style small business ownership, with practitioners selling goods and services through the internet. While many solopreneurs still fit that mold, he sees another kind of solopreneur emerging; one that better resembles a high-growth startup, using new tools in lieu of hiring. There have been a handful of companies that had private market valuations in excess of a billion dollars with very small teamsWhatsApp is a very famous example, he says. What is the probability that you’ll see a solo-entrepreneur who’s like, some engineer from Google, who decided she doesn’t want to do that anymoreand she’s going to do her AI startup from home, and become the first unicorn? I think its a pretty decent probability. Unicorns are shrinking The first one-person company to surpass a billion dollars may not be all that far off. In recent years some one-person businesses have achieved smaller, yet still eye-popping valuations. At the same time the record for smallest unicorn company keeps getting broken. Earlier this year, for example, solopreneur Maor Sholomo sold his AI app-building platform Base44 to website builder Wix for $80 million, just six months after launch. Instagram had only 13 employees when it was sold to Facebook for a billion dollars in 2012. One of those cofounders, Mike Krieger, went on to found Anthropic in 2021, which was recently valued at $350 billion. Speaking with Fast Company earlier this year, Krieger suggested the one-person unicorn is closer than you think. It feels like every month were getting closer and closer, says Anthropics Head of Startup Sales, Jamie Neuwirth. Companies that we’re working with, for example, at Y Combinator who are very smallusually two or three peoplethey’re getting to market faster, and that opportunity for them to become a unicorn is very real. A virtual cofounder In the recent past, solopreneurs were able to automate certain operations, but it often required a high degree of technical know-how and many hours of building custom tools. Now, Neuwirth says AI tools like Anthropics AI assistant Claude can serve as a collaborator, taking on more advanced and critical tasks, without requiring founders to have a deep technical background. I think of AIand Claude in particularas everything from this virtual collaborator to a kind of the chief of staff, but the way I think about it when it comes to solopreneurs is more of your virtual cofounder, he says. You can have a less technical background, and there’s still a lot that can be achieved with these tools. Where to look for solo unicorns In recent months, AI companies like Base 44, Anthropic, and Swedish vibe coding app Loveablewhich lets users build apps and websites by describing it in plain languagehave dominated the headlines with eye-popping valuations, but Neuwirth says the first one-person unicorn wont necessarily emerge from the AI field. Thats because those very solutions are allowing small teams and individuals to build, test, prototype, and ultimately sell technical solutions without deep technical skills. As the model capabilities get a lot better, I think we’re going to see it come from different industries, he says. To me, it goes back to, where is the need immediate, and the market really big? One sector Neuwirth believes is ripe for a first solo-unicorn is healthcare, where he says there are lots of legacy practices and processes, and a massive, global market eager for innovation. Tim Cortinovis, speaker and author of The Single-Handed Unicorn, meanwhile, believes the first one-person billion-dollar company will offer an easy interface to a complicated process, or a simple solution to a universal problem. If you are able to put in a very easy interface between agents and the tasks at hand in, let’s say, a heavy machinery industry or the energy sector, I think this will solve a massive problem, he says. My advice is, dont try to create the first single-handed unicorn, but try to solve a huge problem. You wont win the game by thinking about winning. The first solo unicorn may have already been born Though it may take that solopreneur founder several years to reach a 10-figure valuation, Cortinovis says 2025 will go down as the year that the necessary tools to accomplish such a feat became available. In other words, it is possible that the first individual who will accomplish that feat has already begun building their business. In 2025 we reached the capacities of AI agents to accomplish these complicated tasks and orchestration, Cortinovis says, explaining that this year AI broke out of the chatbot box and is now able to work with other tools and apps to complete more complicated tasks, like build apps and websites, manage a marketing campaign, or handle more complicated customer service inquiries. Maybe we will see the first results at the end of ’26 or at the beginning of ’27 and then maybe two years later well get the first real single-handed unicorn on the market with that valuation. Whenever that one-person company does emerge, Cortinovis says the implications would extend well beyond the individual founder. I think it opens up the path for more people [to pursue entrepreneurship] because it proves you don#8217;t need an extensive team, you don’t need to start hiring massively to start an enterprise, he says. It symbolizes a new wave of founders. Even if youre not going after a massive valuation, it will make them more willing to found an enterprise, because it shows how much easier it is with the technology.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||