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Samsung is one of many companies that have been pushing for employees to return to the office fulltime. However, now the brand is taking RTO efforts in the U.S. one step further with a tool that tracks attendance for a group in its semiconductor business. In an internal email, seen by Business Insider, Samsung informed employees about the new compliance tracking tool. “This tool will provide each Manager with visibility to the number of days & time in building metrics for each team member,” the email said. It continued, “This will ensure that team members are fulfilling their expectation regarding in office work – however that is defined with their business leader – as well as guarding against instances of lunch/coffee badging.” In 2023 the brand embraced a global hybrid work model, rolling out 500 new jobs. While the specifics varied, the majority of the postings (58.3%) included the ability to work from home at least part of the work week. The brand also gave employees in the company’s corporate offices in South Korea one Friday off a month.However, last April, after posting lower than expected sales, the brand asked its corporate executives to begin working six days a week in order to “inject a sense of crisis” into its workforce. Considering that performance of our major units, including Samsung Electronics Co., fell short of expectations in 2023, we are introducing the six-day work week for executives to inject a sense of crisis and make all-out efforts to overcome this crisis, a Samsung Group executive told the Korea Economic Daily. This May, Samsung asked employees to begin returning to the office full time. The following month, it updated employees on the RTO initiative. “We are already experiencing increased foot traffic daily, with more cars in the parking lot and hungry mouths in our cafeterias on Fridays, to name just a few signs,” Samsung said in an email viewed by BI. At the time, Samsung also noted that it was developing a tool to track attendance. Employee tracking might sound offbeat, but workplace surveillance is on the rise. According to a recent ExpressVPN survey, 74% of U.S. employers now use online tracking tools to monitor work activities. That includes real-time screen tracking (59%) and web browsing logs (62%). Likewise, 61% use AI-powered analytics to measure productivity and around 67% collect biometric data to monitor things like behavior and attendance. Still, that doesn’t mean it’s popular among employees or feels all that ethical. While most companies (three out of four) use biometric surveillance, only 22% of employees know theyre being monitored, according to the same report. Likewise, 17% of employees said theyd be very likely to resign over workplace surveillance. Another 32% said they’d strongly consider it. It’s unclear how Samsung’s new tracking tool will work, how closely employees will be monitored, and how many employees will be impacted. Fast Company reached out to the brand but did not hear back by the time of publication. Samsung told employees they will find out more about the tracking system soon. “Additional information regarding the new tool will be made available to Managers this month,” the email to employees said.
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E-Commerce
Denver has a sidewalk problem. About 40% of its sidewalks are missing or dont meet the standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Remarkably, the citys own plan recommended a fix over 20 years ago: Move responsibility for sidewalk repair from property owners to the city and implement an annual fee to pay for the program. The fix might seem simple, but it took over 20 years and grassroots advocacy to make it happen. In 2022 we just got tired of waiting and decided to do a citizen-initiated ordinance, says Jill Locantore, executive director of the Denver Streets Partnership, a group of community organizations pushing for multimodal streets in the city. Which is basically implementing exactly what the citys own plans had been saying we should do. A broken sidewalk in Denver, ca. 2016. [Photo: Jeffrey Beall/Flickr] Sidewalk advocates fought and won. The ballot measure, dubbed Denver Deserves Sidewalks, swayed 56% of voters. There was no organized opposition to the measure. Dont underestimate how sexy sidewalks are, says Locantore. Sidewalk repairs started July 2025. Could Denvers program serve as a model? Denver isnt alone with its sidewalk woes. Cities across the U.S. are grappling with how to fix broken, narrow sidewalks or build missing ones. Los Angeles, dubbed the city of broken sidewalks in an article by late parking guru Donald Shoup, has roughly 9,300 miles of sidewalk and no clear plan for fixing them. With the car-free 2028 Summer Olympics looming, the pressure is on to find a solution. If people break their hips or knees or wrists falling on a broken sidewalk what terrible advertising this is for L.A., Shoup told Next City last year. Paris is a city of light, and L.A. will be the city of deferred maintenance. In 2010, Angelenos with disabilities sued the city of L.A., alleging that broken and inaccessible sidewalks were a violation of the American with Disabilities Act. In 2016, as part of the Willits settlement, the city agreed to spend about $1.4 billion over 30 years to fix sidewalks, with priority given to requests submitted by residents with mobility disabilities. Despite the big dollar commitment, most of L.A.s broken sidewalks remain broken, and experts say that the Willits case has largely failed to improve the pedestrian experience. People with mobility disabilities still wait up to a decade for sidewalk repairs. Less than 1% [of sidewalks] have been fixed, says Jessica Meaney, executive director of Investing in Place, a local nonprofit transportation advocacy group. So the lawsuit that people thought was going to solve a lot of problems well, its solving some important ones, but at an incredibly slow pace. Broken sidewalks dont just impede mobility for pedestrians; they also come with a huge price tag. L.A. spends millions every year on liability lawsuits caused by broken public infrastructure. Who should be responsible for sidewalks? It turns out that pre-2022 Denver is not an outlier: Most major cities expect property owners to foot the bill for fixing sidewalks. Laura Messier, a researcher in public health and public spaces at the University of Southern California, compared sidewalk policies in the 30 most populated cities in the U.S. To her surprise, she found 77% require the adjacent property owner to fix the sidewalk. This presents a problem. Cities are not enforcing that responsibility because they dont want resident blowback, says Messier. And so it seems like theres sort of this collective wishful thinking that somehow this critical infrastructure will take care of itself. Taking on responsibility for sidewalks means Denver is treating sidewalks as part of its overall transportation system. To fund repairs, most property owners are charged an annual fee of $150. Income-qualified residents can apply for a rebate. As part of Willits, L.A. has taken on responsibility for sidewalk repairs with the goal of releasing responsibility back to property owners, fix and release. However, the pace of repairs is so slow that its unclear how the city will achieve this goal. With over 9,000 miles of sidewalk, L.A. is fixing roughly 15 mils and adding 50 curb ramps per year. Fear of liability, in my mind, is driving every decision cities are making about sidewalks, Messier says. Its a Sisyphean system: On the hook for millions per year in liability lawsuits, L.A. is also legally required to spend millions per year on a sidewalk program that has yet to make a dent in a backlog of repairs that might prevent future liability lawsuits. As Meaney has stressed, Los Angeles doesnt have a sidewalk program it has the Willits settlement. And Willits doesnt address street infrastructure as a whole, says Messier. Instead, it mandates that the city spend a certain amount per year on sidewalks. The consequences can prove counterintuitive. I think that the citys finding that some of the places that theyve fixed are already getting damaged again from tree roots, Messier says, noting that sidewalks and street trees are managed separately. Were spending all this money, but it doesnt really feel like were going to end up with long-term improvement. The root of the issue is that cities have prioritized infrastructure for cars over all other possible uses of public space. If cities treated streets more holistically, they might be able to prioritize trees and sidewalks. Where we might have excess lane capacity for cars, we might be able to widen parkways, widen sidewalks and really solve the tree root-sidewalk conflict so that it doesnt become a problem in the future, says Messier. Are sidewalks having a moment? There are signs that L.A. residents want better streets for people outside of cars. Last March, voters passed Measure HLA, mandating the city follow its own mobility plan when it repaves streets. Since the measure passed, progress on more bike, pedestrian and bus infrastructure has been slow. In October, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass signed Executive Directive No. 9 to streamline public infrastructure improvements and create a multi-year plan for projects. Would L.A. property owners be willing to pay a sidewalk fee? Maybe. Lets look at Denvers revenue generating [program], lets look at a bond, lets look at a sales tax, says Meaney. Both inside and outside City Hall, people are like, Wait, this is so broken, lets fix it. This story was produced through our Equitable Cities Fellowship for Social Impact Design, which is made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. This story was originally published by Next City, a nonprofit news outlet covering solutions for equitable cities. Sign up for Next City’s newsletter for their latest articles and events.
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E-Commerce
McDonalds golden arches are gleaming again. The ubiquitous fast-food chain reported perkier sales in its most recent quarter, buoyed by deals and other promotions designed to bring wayward customers back into the fold. In its second quarter ending on June 30, McDonalds global same-store sales were up 3.8%. At U.S. stores, sales rose 2.5% as the average customer bought more per order, according to the company. The sales numbers beat estimates and reversed four quarters of dropping same-store sales for the fast-food giant, which has been scrambling to again make its brand synonymous with a low-cost meal. With inflation still looming and Trumps unpredictable barrage of tariffs sowing economic uncertainty, McDonalds is navigating some choppy waters. While everyone eats at McDonalds to some extent, the companys business is particularly driven by low-income customers who visit the chain much more often. When menu prices go up, those customers vanish or visit less frequentlyand a meaningful chunk of the companys sales go with them. In the first quarter of 2025, McDonalds saw its worst sales drop since the lockdown phase of the pandemic kept its customers at home. Reengaging the low-income consumer is critical, as they typically visit our restaurants more frequently than middle- and high-income consumers, McDonalds CEO Chris Kempczinski said on the companys earnings call, noting that this situation is pronounced in the U.S. With the low-income consumer, despite improvements in wage gains, real incomes are down . . . that absolutely is going to put pressure on visits into the [quick-service restaurant] industry. Kempczinski mentioned that rising anxiety and unease among low-income consumers, coupled with real financial shortcomings, pressures Americans to spend less. He touted McDonalds progress on low-cost options for the companys Q2, but said the split nature of its customer base meant it isnt out of the woods yet. McDonalds menu meets the moment McDonalds has quite a few levers to pull to bring once-loyal customers back under the golden arches. A $5 meal deal introduced last year courted cash-strapped customers with a McDouble or McChicken sandwich, a small soft drink, small fries, and a four-piece order of nuggets. At the beginning of the year, the chain launched a Buy One, Add One for $1 option to tack an extra menu item onto an order on the cheap, though that option has proven less enticing than the $5 deal. McDonalds also saw strong momentum from its Minecraft-themed meals tied to the film’s release, which included collectible toys and in-game digital perksanother example of the brands growing interest in digital crossovers designed to energize Gen Z diners. In June, McDonalds announced the return of the Snack Wrap, an affordable, self-contained snack of legend that customers had been clamoring for ever since it left the menu back in 2016. That $2.99 double shot of affordability and nostalgia whipped Snack Wrap fans into a frenzy, briefly leaving the chain short on lettuce when it hit stores in July. If the Snack Wraps appeal is all about simplicity, McDonalds is turning to maximalism for another menu experiment. Apparently not deterred by the grisly Grimace shake TikTok trend of 2023, the company will roll out a limited edition candy-colored blue-and-pink shake in mid-August. The shakes flavor is a mystery, and its appearance is apparently inspired by the topography of McDonaldland, the fantastical home of Ronald McDonald, the Hamburglar, and Grimace (may he rest in peace). The new McDonaldland Meal will come with a Quarter Pounder or 10-piece McNuggets, fries, and a collectible souvenir tin that McDonalds marketing department guarantees is sure to unlock core memories. Between the unnatural colors and a mystery flavor designed to inspire reaction videos, McDonalds latest exercise in synthetic nostalgia is squarely aimed at the younger TikTok crowda vital market segment the company needs to court to remain the undisputed king of fast food.
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E-Commerce
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