(NEW YORK) — Shoppers spent a record $5.29B this Thanksgiving, according to Adobe Analytics — a figure up 2.9% year-over-year.
Adobe Analytics’s report on record spending may be surprising to some, as the economy is at an inflation level not seen in the last 40 years, and ongoing fears of a recession.
Big discounts on toys and electronics enticed shoppers, according to Adobe Analytics. Mobile shopping — purchases made through smartphones — accounted for 55% of online sales, an all-time record for Thanksgiving Day since 2012.
Black Friday, which occurs the day after Thanksgiving and is considered the kickoff to the holiday shopping season, is expected to bring in $9M online Friday.
Deep discounts on toys, computers and electronics are expected. Notable discounts are expected for clothing, appliances and TVs, but Adobe predicts the best deals for these categories will be over the weekend.
Top-selling items in the 2022 holiday season
The top-selling toys so far include Squishmallows, Roblox, Paw Patrol, Hot Wheels, Cocomelon and L.O.L. Surprise Dolls.
The top gaming consoles sold so far include the Nintendo Switch, the Xbox Series X, and PlayStation 5.
And the most popular video games include God of War Ragnarök, FIFA 23, Madden 23, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II.
Other hot sellers are mostly technology: Apple Airpods, Instapots, smart televisions, digital cameras and gift cards.
Holiday spending despite economic uncertainty
Days before the 2022 midterm elections, roughly half of Americans said either the economy or inflation was the most important issue in their vote for Congress, making bread-and-butter financial issues by far the most dominant, according to an ABC News/Ipsos survey.
Although there has been a slew of recent layoffs at tech companies, the labor market remains fairly robust. While the jobs added each month have fallen over the second half of this year, they remain strong, keeping the unemployment rate below 4%.
(NEW YORK) — As the holidays approach, experts estimate that roughly 60% of consumers plan on purchasing gift cards this December, making it one of the most popular gift-giving options. As a $173 billion business, gift cards have come a long way since they were first introduced in 1994.
More than 3.4 billion gift cards were sold in the United States in 2021 and 47% of U.S. adults said they have one or more unused gift cards in their possession, according to Research and Markets. But as environmentally conscious consumers demand more sustainable products, plastic gift cards have often flown under the radar, despite frequently ending up as plastic waste.
“As someone who works everyday trying to reduce plastic pollution, even I did not appreciate how many plastic gift cards are sold in the United States,” Judith Enck, founder of the advocacy group Beyond Plastics, which is working to eliminate single-use plastics and plastic pollution around the globe, told ABC News.
Most of those billions of gift cards are made from plastic, but some retailers, like Starbucks, Apple, and Amazon, have begun to sell paper or cardboard cards, which come from a renewable source and are easier to recycle. The best sustainable option is an electronic gift card, which has zero waste, but the majority are still produced in plastic.
“Seventy percent of them are made from polyvinyl chloride plastic,” Enck said. “The reason we’re so concerned about polyvinyl chloride plastic, or PVC, is because it’s poisonous to produce.”
The Environmental Protection Agency classified vinyl chloride, a key component in the production of PVC, as a hazardous pollutant and human carcinogen. The production and disposal of PVC plastic puts a variety of people at risk of exposure to toxic chemicals.
“I don’t think there’s a risk from handling the PVC cards, but there definitely is a risk from manufacturing them,” Enck told ABC News. “If these cards are being burned, or even going to a permitted municipal waste incinerator in the United States, they pose a problem.”
The EPA is currently weighing whether to classify PVC plastic as hazardous waste, which would force entities to properly discard PVC in a responsible way.
Because it’s so difficult to dispose of, the bulk of PVC waste, including gift cards and bales of cut-out PVC from the production of gift cards, often end up overseas and illegally dumped in countries like Turkey, Malaysia, and Indonesia, experts said.
“The reality is it’s not recyclable and it ends up here, in an agricultural field,” Sedat Gündoğdu, a biologist and professor at Cukurova University in Turkey, who focuses on plastic pollution, told ABC News.
Gündoğdu has collected heaps of discarded gift cards from U.S. and U.K. retailers that have been illegally dumped and buried in agricultural areas across Turkey.
“Users in the United States are throwing out these cards, thinking they’re being recycled, but they’re really being sold to places like Turkey where they get shipped over and they’re just getting dumped,” Gündoğdu said.
Some of the discarded cards Gündoğdu finds are new and unused. Chanda Wicker, a senior vice president at InComm Payments, a payments technology company, told ABC News that the gift card industry is working towards forecasting consumer demand to “prevent over-production of cards and reduce industry waste.”
Wicker said paper cards are typically less expensive than PVC cards to manufacture and that 70% of the cards InComm Payments have purchased from contracted printers are made from paper.
Although plastic continues to remain popular, the Retail Gift Card Association Sustainability Task Force told ABC News it is “working on publishing a Sustainability Best Practice guide” to help retailers “make decisions that drive us towards a more sustainable future.”
If you do want to purchase gift cards this year, both Gündoğdu and Enck recommend e-cards or paper alternatives, and they urge popular gift card retailers and grocery stores to tell companies to stop producing PVC cards.
“PVC cards should be banned because we have paper alternatives, which are less toxic than plastic,” Gündoğdu said.
If you do have old plastic gift cards and want to dispose of them safely, Enck recommends throwing them away in the trash.
“Definitely don’t put it in your recycling bin, and contact companies and tell them to stop making PVC gift cards as soon as possible.”
(New York) — Donald Trump reported nearly $1 billion in operating losses over a two-year period about a decade ago, an accountant testified at the criminal trial of the Trump Organization, spilling into public tax information that the former president has tried repeatedly to keep private.
The accountant, Donald Bender, a partner at Mazars USA, the firm that prepared tax returns for Trump and his company, testified Tuesday that Trump reported losses each year for 10 years from 2009 to 2018.
“There are losses for all these years,” Bender said.
The disclosure at the Manhattan trial of Trump’s family business came the same day the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the IRS is required to turn over six years’ worth of Trump’s tax information to the House Ways and Means Committee.
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger questioned Bender about Trump’s taxes during cross-examination as the trial nears an end. The Manhattan district attorney fought for nearly three years to obtain the records, including two appearances before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Hoffinger asked Bender about Trump’s losses in 2009 and 2010, when the company lost nearly $1 billion.
“Do you recall in 2010 Donald Trump had losses of almost $200 million on his personal tax returns?” Hoffinger asked.
“I believe so,” Bender said after examining the records.
“Do you recall in 2009, Donald Trump had, his personal tax returns had losses around $700 million?” Hoffinger followed.
“Sounds about right,” Bender replied.
The staggering losses belie the reputation Trump has carefully tried to cultivate as a shrewd and successful businessman. That image helped carry him to the White House once, with Trump hoping it will again as he now embarks on a new run for president.
The numbers largely mirrored a report in The New York Times in September 2020 when they acquired select portions of Trump’s tax returns.
Trump is not a defendant in the case and the line of questioning had no obvious connection to the tax scheme the Trump Organization is charged with carrying out over a 12-year period when former chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg and other executives were allegedly paid off the books with perks like rent, car leases and private school tuition.
Weisselberg, who has pleaded guilty and testified pursuant to a plea agreement with prosecutors, has aided the defense by saying he hatched the scheme out of his own greed and Trump was unaware. He also testified that the scheme helped the Trump Organization reduce its payroll taxes, assisting the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office prove there was a benefit to the company.
Bender was the first witness called by the defense, which has suggested it was his responsibility to alert the Trump Organization to any fraud but didn’t in order to keep a lucrative client happy.
“Fair to say the Trump account represented roughly two-thirds of the revenue you brought into Mazars?” asked defense attorney Bob Brennan.
“Closer to 60 [percent],” Bender replied.
“But it was your largest account?” Brennan asked. “Yes sir,” Bender said.
Prosecutors showed the jury a letter from Mazars that said the firm’s work for the Trump Organization “does not include any procedures designed to detect errors, irregularities, or illegal acts, including fraud or defalcations, should any exist.”
Bender appeared to help the prosecution when he testified that Weisselberg never told him the company was paying his rent and other personal expenses tax-free.
“At any time before the year 2021, did you actually know that The Trump Corporation and Donald Trump were paying these personal expenses as part of Allen Weisselberg’s compensation and not reporting them to the tax authorities?” Hoffinger asked.
“No, ma’am,” Bender answered.
“If you had known all of that at that time, what would you and Mazars have done?” Hoffinger asked.
“We would have had a serious conversation about continuing with the client,” Bender responded.
(New York) — Former Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll will file a new lawsuit against former President Donald Trump on Thanksgiving, the first day of New York’s new Adult Survivors Act that allows adult victims of sexual assault to file civil lawsuits that would otherwise be barred due to the passage of too much time, her attorneys said during a court hearing Tuesday.
Carroll is already suing Trump for defamation in federal court after he denied her claim that he raped her in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s, saying she was “not my type.” The new lawsuit, also being filed in federal court, will include a new allegation of defamation and an allegation of battery.
Attorneys for Carroll asked the federal judge presiding over the original case to delay a trial date to account for the new lawsuit, but the judge declined.
“The second action is technically not before me today,” Judge Lewis Kaplan said.
An attorney for Trump, Alina Habba, told the judge she didn’t know if she would be representing Trump in the new suit.
“The complaint has not been filed. I have not been retained,” Habba told the judge. “I don’t know whether I’ll be retained on that matter.”
“Your client has known this is coming for months and he would be well advised to know who is representing him in it,” Judge Kaplan replied.
Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, said she asked Trump about the second alleged incident of defamation during a recent deposition.
Whether Carroll’s initial lawsuit can even proceed hinges on the outcome of a legal question before a different court.
Trump has argued the Justice Department should be substituted as the defendant in the case because as president, he was an employee of the federal government, which cannot be sued for defamation.
In September the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Trump was indeed a government employee under the terms of the Westfall Act, which shields federal employees from personal liability — but it left to the D.C. Court of Appeals to determine whether Trump’s denials fell within the scope of his employment.
The Court of Appeals, which retains jurisdiction over the conduct of federal government employees, has scheduled oral arguments for January to decide whether Trump was acting in his official capacity as president when he denied Carroll’s rape claim and allegedly defamed her.
If the court decides in Trump’s favor, any defamation suit would be void.
(NEW YORK) — Elon Musk, who admitted to overpaying for Twitter, cut workers at the social media platform almost immediately. In response, some of the axed employees want their day in court.
Within days of the acquisition, Musk fired top executives and cut the company’s 7,500-person workforce in half. Soon after, he posed an ultimatum to employees asking that they commit to being, in Musk’s words, “extremely hardcore” and “work long hours of high intensity” or resign. The move sent more workers out the door.
These personnel changes provoked several lawsuits from former workers alleging that the moves violated workers’ rights because the company allegedly did not provide ample notice for laid-off workers or accommodations for disabled employees.
Musk, who also runs Tesla and SpaceX, may have exposed Twitter to serious legal liability that could wreak financial damage on the company, two labor experts told ABC News. The experts were reluctant to comment on the specifics of the cases, but said the former workers carry legitimate grievances that the courts will have to assess.
The combined lawsuits could cost Twitter “many millions of dollars,” Michael LeRoy, a professor of labor and employment relations at University Of Illinois, told ABC News.
However, the legal proceedings could take more than five years to resolve, affording the company leverage if it were to pursue settlements with former employees, LeRoy added.
Sharon Block, executive director of the labor and worklife program at Harvard University Law School and a former member of the Obama administration, said the personnel moves demonstrate “reckless disregard for workers’ wellbeing.”
Twitter has not responded to a request for comment.
In one class-action lawsuit, departed workers allege that the company failed to provide the 60-day notice of layoffs required by federal law under the WARN Act, which mandates large businesses give notice when undertaking a mass layoff, Shannon Liss-Riordan, the attorney for the workers, told ABC News.
Twitter plans to keep many, but not all, of the laid-off workers on the payroll for two months as a means of complying with the law, Liss-Riordan said. However, the company does not intend to pay full severance beyond those months as previously promised, she added.
In a separate class-action lawsuit — also overseen by Liss-Riordan — a disabled former employee is suing the company over allegations the ultimatum that workers be “extremely hardcore” forced disabled workers to resign because they could not meet the elevated standard for work performance.
Federal labor law affords companies wide latitude to terminate workers without explanation under a measure called at-will employment. But businesses face some limits on the type or execution of layoffs, including prohibitions against discrimination and requirements that employees at some firms be alerted in advance of large layoffs.
“We completely understand that business leaders and owners of companies get to make decisions about how they think the company will best operate going forward,” Liss-Riordan told ABC News. “But we do have laws in place to protect workers and laws to protect workers subject to layoffs.”
“If Elon Musk thinks it’s best for Twitter and its shareholders to slash workers, he’s within his rights to do that,” she added. “But if he tries to violate workers’ rights, he’s got to expect pushback.”
LeRoy, of the University of Illinois, said the breakneck speed of Musk’s personnel decisions has placed his company on precarious legal ground.
“Haste makes waste,” LeRoy said. “Hasty terminations often have legal consequences.”
Still, the company could make arguments focused on exemptions in relevant law, LeRoy said. For example, the federal statute that mandates large companies provide notice ahead of mass layoffs excludes companies suffering financial hardship, he added.
“That adds some degree of ambiguity to the situation,” he said.
In addition, the legal proceedings could take many years, giving the upper hand to Twitter as it fights the lawsuits or pursues a favorable settlement, LeRoy said.
Liss-Riordan acknowledged the challenge posed by a potentially lengthy legal proceeding, but said the cases against Twitter could be resolved with relative ease.
“Cases can take a long time,” she said. “In this case, I’m hopeful perhaps we might be able to get this resolved sooner.”
“Paying laid-off workers what they’re owed should be the easiest of Musk’s current problems to address,” she added.
Since he acquired Twitter late last month, Musk has imposed major changes at the social media platform.
He revamped the company’s subscription product Twitter Blue, by allowing users to access verification through a monthly $8 fee, but halted the rollout after a rise of impersonations on the platform, including impersonations of Musk himself.
More recently, he reinstated the account of former President Donald Trump, reversing a previous announcement that said major account reinstatement decisions would await the formation of a content moderation council. Trump had been permanently suspended “due to the risk of further incitement of violence” in the wake of Jan. 6.
Musk, who acquired Twitter at the purchasing price of $44 billion, faces pressure to boost the company’s profits. Earlier this month, he said the company was losing $4 million each day.
(NEW YORK) — Luxury brand Balenciaga has issued an apology for its recent advertisements featuring children with sexualized teddy bears.
“We sincerely apologize for any offense our holiday campaign may have caused. Our plush bear bags should not have been featured with children in this campaign. We have immediately removed the campaign from all platforms,” the company wrote in a statement posted to its Instagram story on Tuesday.
The advertisements, which were originally posted earlier this week, were for the brand’s new holiday gifting campaign. The photos featured children posing with the company’s plush bear bags, which wear BDSM-inspired harnesses.
One photo featured a child standing on a bed with one of the plush bear bags, surrounded by other purses and accessories that include what appears to be a chain leash as well as a Balenciaga branded dog collar choker.
Social media users immediately called out the brand’s latest campaign on Twitter, with some also denouncing a promotional photo for a purse that included what appears to be an excerpt from the U.S. Supreme Court opinion on United States vs. Williams (2008), which upheld part of a federal child pornography law.
“We apologize for displaying unsettling documents in our campaign. We take this matter very seriously and are taking legal action against the parties responsible for creating the set and including unapproved items for our Spring 23 campaign photoshoot. We strongly condemn abuse of children in any form. We stand for children’s safety and well-being,” the company said in its statement on Tuesday.
Balenciaga’s ad campaign featured its Spring/Summer 2023 collection, which debuted this fall at Paris Fashion Week.
The Spanish luxury label made headlines last month for cutting ties with Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, after he made antisemitic comments on social media and in several interviews. Ye had walked in Balenciaga’s Paris Fashion Week show just weeks earlier.
The brand left Twitter on Nov. 15, shortly after billionaire Elon Musk bought the company for $44 billion in October, but remains on Instagram.
(NEW YORK) — Americans may be feeling the pinch at grocery store checkouts, but the largest chain in the country has shared some positive news ahead of the holiday season.
“Our turkey costs are up about 20%, but we decided early on to not pass that cost increase through to try to help somebody stretch their budget,” Kroger Chairman and CEO Rodney McMullen told Good Morning America.
The announcement comes at a crucial time for last-minute Thanksgiving shoppers. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said in its latest National Retail Report on turkey that there is currently “a wide variant in prices throughout most regions” but that “fresh and frozen weighted average whole turkey prices increase when compared to the previous ad cycle.”
“However, many lucrative values abound for both fresh and frozen turkeys helping to lure the customer through [grocery store] doors,” the agency noted.
With inflation impacting grocery bills for many people, some have turned to other Thanksgiving main dishes, including roasted chicken, to save a few dollars. But while McMullen said the price of “chicken and some of those items” was “starting to come down,” the latest USDA Agricultural Marketing Service report shows that, overall, whole chicken prices “are trending at least steady for all sizes.”
The best deal for a non-turkey poultry option, according to the USDA National Retail Report on chicken, are bulk packs of thighs and drums.
McMullen noted that other meats like beef and pork were still affected by high price tags. “Beef is still inflationary, pork is still a little bit inflationary,” he said.
He added, however, that “some of the produce items are starting to come down just a little bit.”
With inflation currently at 7.7%, prices on goods have continually crept upward in the food category, which rose 10.9% overall in the last year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index report. Food at home costs, meanwhile, have risen 12.4% since last year.
“The biggest thing we’re seeing is people continue to eat and cook at home. One of the things during COVID, people learned to cook at home and they found they enjoy it, they love eating as a family,” McMullen said. “It also helps stretch the budget because it’s significantly cheaper for somebody to cook a meal at home versus going out to a restaurant.”
When looking for savings opportunities at Kroger, McMullen encouraged people to shop the grocery chain’s “private label” products which are generic store-brand offshoots of mainstream consumer packaged goods.
As for the end-of-year outlook, McMullen added, “Our hope and expectation, as we get early into next year, is that we’ll see [inflation] continue to decrease a little bit.”
(NEW YORK) — As Americans get ready for the holiday season, millions will turn to food donations and assistance from organizations to help get meals on the table.
Over 33 million Americans lived in food-insecure households last year, with 8.6 million adults living in very low food security households, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition data. According to the agency, food-insecure households are defined as households that are “uncertain of having or unable to acquire enough food to meet the needs of all their members because they had insufficient money or other resources for food.”
How to help fight food insecurity this Thanksgiving
Nonprofits like Feeding America, which works with a network of food banks and food programs nationwide, offer lots of free resources for people who want to help tackle food insecurity, especially during the holidays.
Start by locating a nearby food bank to donate Thanksgiving essentials, such as canned goods or other non-perishable foods, for a great way to help neighbors in need.
Foods to donate for Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is one of the busiest times of the year for food banks looking to add healthy, non-perishable items to their already in-demand essentials.
Feeding America suggests adding the following items to your donation lists and grocery carts: boxed stuffing, instant mashed potatoes, canned vegetables, dry macaroni, cranberry sauce and canned pumpkin.
Although it’s the main dish of a Thanksgiving table, Feeding America reminded interested donors to hold off on including turkey. The Feeding America network collaborates with restaurants, caterers and manufacturers to donate leftover foods like turkey, which are guaranteed to be fresh and safe for families in need.
Similarly, skip sending in any fresh fruits or vegetables since those are highly perishable items. Many food banks work with farmers and corporate partners to help bring fresh produce to families before it goes bad, the organization said.
How to volunteer for food banks this Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is a perfect opportunity to volunteer at a local soup kitchen, food pantry or food bank.
Between assembling Thanksgiving meal boxes or serving food at a Thanksgiving dinner, there are a lot of ways to help families in need make the holiday special.
Click here to locate volunteer opportunities through one of the many partners with Feeding America.
(NEW YORK) — The nation’s largest rail union on Monday voted down a tentative contract brokered by the White House, raising the possibility of a nationwide strike next month that could cripple the U.S. economy.
The SMART Transportation Division, or SMART-TD, which represents about 28,000 conductors, rejected the contract in a vote that garnered record turnout, the union said Monday. The contract was nixed by a slim margin, as just 50.8% of workers voted against it.
The second-largest rail union, made up of engineers, voted in favor of the contract on Monday, splitting the top rail unions, which represent roughly half of the industry’s workers.
The results arrive roughly a month after the nation’s third-largest rail union rejected the White House-brokered contract.
A nationwide strike is expected next month unless the contract is ratified by each of the 11 rail unions, since all of the unions have vowed not to cross the picket line in the event of a work stoppage. So far, four unions have ratified the agreement.
“SMART-TD members with their votes have spoken, it’s now back to the bargaining table for our operating craft members,” SMART-TD President Jeremy Ferguson said in a statement.
“This can all be settled through negotiations and without a strike. A settlement would be in the best interests of the workers, the railroads, shippers and the American people,” he added.
In a statement, SMART-TD did not provide the reason behind the members’ disapproval. Previously, unions have rejected the tentative contract due to frustration with compensation and working conditions, particularly a lack of paid sick days.
The National Carriers’ Conference Committee, or NCCC, the group representing the freight railroad companies, said in a statement that the risk of a nationwide strike next month will require the companies to start taking steps to prepare for the disruption.
“A national rail strike would severely impact the economy and the public,” the NCCC said. “Now, the continued, near-term threat of one will require that freight railroads and passenger carriers soon begin to take responsible steps to safely secure the network in advance of any deadline.”
The tentative contract included a 24% compounded wage increase and $5,000 in lump-sum payments, the NCCC said last month.
American railway companies and unions reached a tentative labor agreement in September amid the threat of strikes. That agreement came after 20 consecutive hours of negotiations led by U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh at his office in Washington, D.C., Walsh said.
The agreement improved the time-off policies at the rail companies, which made up a key sticking point in the negotiations, BLET and SMART-TD said in a statement in September.
A potential strike could lead to $2 billion a day in lost economic output, according to the Association of American Railroads, which lobbies on behalf of railway companies.
Rail is critical to the entire goods side of the economy, including agriculture, manufacturing, retail and warehousing. Freight railroads are responsible for transporting 40% of the nation’s long-haul freight and a work stoppage could endanger those shipments.
(NEW YORK) — The cryptocurrency exchange FTX owes creditors $3.1 billion, according to court documents filed late Saturday night.
The Bahamas-based platform filed for bankruptcy earlier this month after the company, run by 30-year-old Sam Bankman-Fried, collapsed. The company saw its value soar to a peak of $32 billion in January.
Creditors’ names were not listed on the court filing, but the largest is owed $226,280,579.
As part of its bankruptcy proceedings, FTX was required to list to the court its 50 largest creditors — either individuals or corporations — who are owed money. The second largest entity is owed $203,292,504, the court filing shows.
Bankman-Fried drew the scrutiny of investigators from state and federal agencies, as well as the Justice Department, for how his company collapsed and the money under his control that went missing.
Congress has also asked him to testify in December.
The new FTX CEO brought in to shepherd the company through bankruptcy proceedings said earlier this week that he has never seen such a “complete failure” of corporate controls in his career, including during the Enron scandal.
“Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here,” John Ray, who also oversaw the Enron bankruptcy proceedings, said in a court filing Thursday. “From compromised systems integrity and faulty regulatory oversight abroad, to the concentration of control in the hands of a very small group of inexperienced, unsophisticated and potentially compromised individuals, this situation is unprecedented.”
In 2001, Houston-based energy corporation Enron filed the most prominent bankruptcy claim in U.S. history, and many of its executives were sent to prison for securities fraud.
Ray said FTX corporate funds were used to purchase executives’ and advisers’ houses in the Bahamas.
