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In another devastating blow to customers and employees of Joann Inc., the popular fabric and crafts retailer is moving to close a significant chunk of its brick-and-mortar locations as part of ongoing bankruptcy proceedings, according to a court filing on Wednesday. The company, which filed for Chapter 11 protection a second time last month, had initially said it would continue operating its approximately 800 stores as it restructured and sought a buyer. However, it told a court this week that it has now identified a number of underperforming locations during the bidding process that it wants to close as a way of cutting costs. “As the sale process progressed, and prospective bidders continued to conduct diligence and refine their potential bids, the Debtors and their advisors were able to identify a subset of underperforming stores that are unlikely to be considered or included in any going concern bid,” lawyers for the retailer said in the court filing. The filing lists hundreds of locations across more than 40 states, with big states like California, Florida, Illinois, and Michigan being hit the hardest. Joann says in the filing that it would like to begin store closing sales immediately. It warns that additional locations are likely to close as well. Reached for comment by Fast Company, Joann spokesperson Amanda Hayes confirmed the closings in a statement. “As part of the ongoing Chapter 11 process and our efforts to maximize the value of the business, JOANN has filed a motion seeking court authority to begin closing approximately 500 stores across the nation,” the statement read. “This was a very difficult decision to make, given the major impact we know it will have on our Team Members, our customers and all of the communities we serve. A careful analysis of store performance and future strategic fit for the Company determined which stores should remain operating as usual at this time. Right-sizing our store footprint is a critical part of our efforts to ensure the best path forward for JOANN.” A difficult needle to thread Founded in 1943, Joann has faced significant challenges in recent years, with factors such as the pandemic, inflation, and the broader shift to online retail hindering its operations. It was taken private last year when it filed for bankruptcy a first time, but it said at the time that it expected to continue operations once it emerged. A second bankruptcy came at the beginning of this year. Although Joann told customers that stores would remain open during the process, it warned that it could go out of business if it is unable to find a suitable buyer. Gordon Brothers, the restructuring firm that recently took control of embattled retailer Big Lots, has emerged as a “stalking horse” bidder for Joann. If it is successful, the firm is likely to liquidate and close all stores. This story is developing….
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Im not sure who first compared ChatGPT to Cliff Clavin, the garrulous mailman/barfly from TVs Cheers. Its so an apt comparison that many people probably came up with it independently. Cliff did know a lot of stuffafter all, he was a Jeopardy almost-winner. Yet he was also a blowhard who didnt seem to realize when he was speaking outside the bounds of his expertise. If you were paying attention, you knew that his seeming level of confidence was unrelated to the value of what he had to say. Even as AI companies have managed to reduce their chatbots’ tendency to hallucinate, a certain degree of Clavin-ism has remained endemic to the category. But Ive been playing with a new ChatGPT feature called deep research, which OpenAI announced last week. Instead of just being glib and eager to please, it weaves together facts and analysis into results with real substance. Its not perfect, but it ranks with Googles NotebookLM among the most impressive AI research tools Ive tried. I dont believe Ive encountered a single hallucination in the tens of thousands of words its generated in response to my queries thus far. At the moment, taking advantage of deep research requires deep pockets: The feature is debuting as part of ChatGPT Pro, which costs $200 a month. (I treated myself to a one-off upgrade for February to try it outfingers crossed that Fast Company reimburses me.) If further testing goes as expected, OpenAI says, it will come to the $20/month ChatGPT Plus in a month or so. Once it does, I expect to use it frequently. OpenAIs blog post about deep research offers background on how it works, accompanied by charts showing its performance in various AI benchmarks. In use, what it feels like is a new kind of chatbot that actually does its homework. Far less dependent on a hermetically sealed LLM than most, it comes up with answers to questions in something closer to the way a human research assistant would, by consulting sources around the web in real time and synthesizing them into a cohesive whole. Its a much more fleshed out, immediately useful example of agentic AI than Operator, another recently introduced ChatGPT feature thats able to trawl the web on its users behalf. By human standards, deep research does its work swiftly, but its hardly instantaneous: OpenAI says to expect the process to take 5 to 30 minutes per query. As it chugs away, it usually displays a running list of notes. For example, following a request I made involving fast-food history, it noted Searched for McDonald’s number of locations in the 1960s. Once in a while, these snippets are mystifying non sequiturs: At one point, it told me If necessary, I will escalate to HR for guidance. Overall however, they make the feat of generating AI text feel less like a magic trick and more like a computational process we mere mortals might comprehenda welcome change from AIs often opaque nature. I threw a bunch of projects at deep research, such as writing a competitive analysis of the market for image editing software, explaining how mechanical watches work, comparing instant-photography technologies from Polaroid and Kodak, and chronicling attempts to suppress free speech in the U.S. from 1900 to 1950. In every instance, it came back with detailed responses full of well-chosen facts and crisp analysis, on a different plane of readability and quality than standard AI bot fare. It also provided Wikipedia-like citations for its work, a boon for full disclosure and an aid to further reading on a subject. Impressive though deep research is, certain types of requests revealed its weak spots. As with most generative AI bots, it has a relentlessly positive attitude that gets in the way of anything requiring critical appraisal: I tried to get it to be more blunt by asking about the most forgettable pop culture pap imaginable, and it always insisted everything was a cult favorite. And while OpenAI touts the feature as being able to provide hyper-personalized recommendations on purchases that typically require careful research, the more I knew about a product area, the less impressed I was by its advice. Its suggestions of cameras for street photography, for example, were muddled by some prices that were way, way off. And when I asked it about tablets capable of replacing a laptop, it waxed enthusiastic about the 2022 iPad Prosapparently unaware that Apple replaced them last year. ChatGPTs deep research feature really does go deeper than the average chatbotand it cites its sources clearly. Thanks to the features running notes and citations, some of its other current limitations are obvious. For instance, it often tried to read sources that might have been valuablesuch as Consumer Reportsand gave up because they were paywalled. It also doesnt seem to perform what I would consider truly dazzling feats of online derring-do, such as fishing material out of obscure PDFs salted away in the Internet Archives many nooks and crannies. OpenAIs blog-post announcement mentions expansion plans that encompass specialized data sources and subscription-based . . . resources, implying that deep research could get meaningfully better without reqiring foundational advances in its AI. Oh, and one other thing: It kept asking me if Id like its answers to include charts and diagrams. I always said yes, but it never provided any. It would be nice if it eventually got this option it mistakenly believes it already has. In 1984, the famously demanding technologist and visionary Alan Kay deemed the original Macintosh to be the first personal computer good enough to be worth criticizing. Even with its current rough edges, deep research might be the first general-purpose AI-enhanced research tool to clear that barboth a breakthrough right now and, with any luck, a preview of even better things to come. Youve been reading Plugged In, Fast Companys weekly tech newsletter from me, global technology editor Harry McCracken. If a friend or colleague forwarded this edition to youor if youre reading it on FastCompany.comyou can check out previous issues and sign up to get it yourself every Wednesday morning. I love hearing from you: Ping me at hmccracken@fastcompany.com with your feedback and ideas for future newsletters. Im also on Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads. More top tech stories from Fast Company OpenAI shouldnt accept Elon Musks $97 billion bid to buy itThe eye-popping bid is too cheap to be taken seriously. But with Musk near the Trump White House, what happens next is anyones guess. Read More What exactly is the point of the AI Action Summit?As representatives convene in Paris this week to discuss the future of AI, tech companies are moving beyond discussion and taking decisive action. Read More How Apple could work with DeepSeek to pull ahead in the AI raceDeepSeek made American tech giants seem vulnerable, but it could be a boon to Apple. Heres why. Read More This website combines Wikipedia and TikTok to fight doomscrollingWikiTok users can swipe through an endless stream of Wikipedia article stubs, discovering random facts and interesting information along the way. Read More Roblox joins $27 million industry nonprofit to support online safetyThe gaming platform says its part of its ongoing work to promote safety for kids and others users. Read More Metas AI randomly tried to throw a weird party for methat I never asked forAfter I made a quip on Facebook about a Super Bowl ad, Metas AI curiously created a party invitation for meand Puppy Monkey Baby. Read More
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Welcome to Pressing Questions, Fast Companys work-life advice column. Every week, deputy editor Kathleen Davis, host of The New Way We Work podcast, will answer the biggest and most pressing workplace questions. Q: How can I get over decision paralysis?A: I feel this one. I think we all do. By most estimates, the average person makes around 35,000 decisions per day. Most of those are small choices like what to wear, what to have for lunch, what to post on social media. Hopefully you’re not paralyzed by those choices. But you also shouldnt discount them completely. If you spend too much time mulling over the less consequential parts of life, you can end up with decision fatigue. Decision fatigue leaves your brain too tired to make the choices that really matter. Its why some of the most successful people either automate or outsource those thousands of little choices (and why former President Obama always wore the same types of suits). After you cut down on the mental load of those thousands of small choices, you will hopefully have a bit more space to think about lifes big decisions: Should you leave your job? Should you get divorced? Should you have a child? Where should you go on vacation? Narrow your options That last example might not seem as high stakes, but it serves as a good example of one of the things that makes people feel stuck in decision-making: too many choices.When your options are unlimited, its easy to feel overwhelmed and want to give up. Here it might help to narrow it down by thinking about what time of year you are traveling, what type of trip you want, your budget, who is traveling with you, if you want to fly or drive, etc. Hone down those smaller choices and youll be left with far fewer options. Ask for impartial advice In the vacation example, you probably want to get the input of the other people you are travelling with. With other decisions that impact others in your life, like job change or moving, factoring in the needs and opinions of those impacted is certainly important. But, after you have that information, if the final choice is yours, you can still feel stuck. Thats when it might be good to ask someone who doesnt have a stake in the outcome.Trying to decide on the best all inclusive resort for a spring break trip? Post the question in your local parenting group. Trying to decide which couch would look best in your living room? Post the pictures side by side and let people vote. Trying to decide if you should change careers? Talk to a friend who knows you well. Ask yourself the right questions I love a good pro/con list, and its a staple of decision-making. The problem is it weighs everything equally. When deciding to move, for example, the pro of having a bigger yard isnt really comparable to the con of adding an hour to your commute or leaving your kids beloved school. That’s why asking yourself questions that probe a little deeper can help you arrive at a better decision. Try questions like: Does this take you closer to your goals? How do you think youll feel about this decision in five years? Is this something that you think you should do vs. something that you actually want to do? Check your gut (and your whole body) Another good piece of advice when it comes to decision-making? Pretend that youve made your choice and sit with it for a few hours or overnight (the classic sleep on it approach). If you imagine youve already told your boss that you quit and you feel lighter, its a pretty good indication of what you should do. When a decision is important, you can feel it physically. Leadership consultant Diana Chapman says the best decisions are accompanied by a whole-body ‘yes‘”: When youve made the best decision you feel it in your whole bodyhead, heart, and gut.Still cant decide? Heres some more advice: 3 simple ways to become less anxious and more decisive Try these neuroscience-backed tactics to train your brain to make better decisions Your ultimate decision-making guide to help you make better choices faster 5 ways to prevent decision fatigue from ruining your productivity
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