Working Parent’s Great Renegotiation

Employees continue to migrate towards better opportunities, parents are highlighting a key point for retention, childcare benefits. According to a new report from KinderCare, 40% of parents are open to or actively seeking new jobs, and over half of them would stay in their current position if any childcare benefits were offered to them. When asked how they enjoy hybrid work, 69% of working parents feel they are “able to be more involved in my child’s life because my modern work schedule is more flexible” and 69% believe that “hybrid work has or will change my childcare needs”. For parents’ greatest childcare wants co-working, play centers, multiple locations for childcare and on-demand care options top the list. While many employers believe they are offering good benefits, only 30% of working parents believe their company offers childcare benefits that fit their needs. (View source)

AI Personal Companion Tools for Improved Mental Health

A new study, released from Kai.ai, the market leader in AI-based tech for mental health, showcases how their tool has improved the well-being of adolescents. According to the CDC, in the past decade, the amount of high school students who feel “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness” nearly doubled from 26% to 44%. Nearly 50% of 11-year-olds and 85% of 14-year-olds have a mobile phone in the US, and 13 to 18-year-olds engage with their device for more than three hours every day. Kai utilizes an AI-powered acceptance commitment therapy tool (ACT) via mobile phone and the study revealed that individuals aged 14 to 18-years-old who engaged with Kai over four months saw their well-being increase, according to the WHO’s Well-Being Index (WHO-5). Additionally, they illustrated how AI-driven interventions delivered through popular messaging apps can be a good way to integrate therapeutic strategies into daily life. (View source)

Wilson Sporting Goods New Store

Wilson is expanding their New York presence by introducing a copy of their flagship store with one cool addition. The 6,000 sq. ft. two story space will have the popular testing areas of the first store with a new “Equipment Room”, where shoppers can rent select products for $5 – $10 per day. If the customer chooses to purchase the item after renting, the fee is subtracted from the final price. In June, Wilson is planning to open their third New York store, and will be debuting their annual pop-up later this year at the US Open. (View source)

Curating Customer Reviews

Instacart has updated their customer ratings system in order to better accommodate their shoppers. The update will remove ratings to a shopper that derive from a customer that consistently rates shoppers below five stars (the highest rating). Additionally, they will only need to maintain a 4.7 average rating or higher to have batch prioritization and will be able to see this info and more within a new shopper page, “Your Stats”. As many employees leave for better positions in this plentiful job market, Instacart is hoping to retain more and fix an issue the LA Times found in December 2020 that showcased shoppers below a 4.95 rating were not given batch prioritization. (View source)

2026 Retail Predictions

Edge by Ascential, an ecommerce solutions company, has released their annual retail landscape report that includes a prediction for the top 5 retailers of 2026. Unsurprisingly, Amazon is set to become number one passing Walmart and Costco, rounding out the top five is The Home Depot and The Kroger Company. E-commerce is predicted to be the greatest driver of US retail growth, topping $1 trillion by the end of 2022 and 30.5% of total retails sales by 2026. (View source)

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