Anonymous ID: 065efc Feb. 1, 2024, 2:40 p.m. No.20342498   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>2518 >>2537 >>2564 >>2722 >>2929 >>3046

Walmart stores to be remodeled in almost every state; 150 new locations coming in next 5 years

Feb 1, 2024

 

Days after announcing pay raises for employees and stock options for store managers, Walmart has announced plans to remodel hundreds of existing stores and open more than 100 stores over the next five years.

 

In a blog post Wednesday, John Furner, president and CEO of Walmart U.S., said the company is planning to planning to build or convert more than 150 stores in the next five years, starting with opening two new stores this spring. Both will be the smaller-format Neighborhood Markets, and will open in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida and Atlanta, Georgia.

 

Walmart is also finalizing construction plans on 12 new projects to start this year, Furner wrote, including converting a smaller location to a Walmart Supercenter.

 

In addition, Furner said Walmart will remodel 650 existing stores across 47 states and in Puerto Rico over the next 12 months.

 

What does Walmart's Store of the Future look like?

 

First announced in 2023, the Store of the Future concept is for brick-and-mortar Walmart stores. Through upgrades and renovations, it aims to "deliver a more modern shopping experience," according to the company.

 

"Our new and remodeled stores will reflect Walmart's Store of the Future concept, featuring improved layouts, expanded product selections and innovative technology to help our associates better support our customers and make shopping more convenient and enjoyable," Furner wrote.

 

Inside, the stores will have new paint, new signs and more shopping carts, as well as a new checkout design at the front of the stores. The stores will also be laid out to give more space to both shoppers and employees.

 

Walmart's pharmacies will be expanded, moving to the front of the store with private screening rooms. The vision centers will also be updated, and will offering an expanded assortment of designer eyeglasses and sunglasses, plus prescription options.

 

Stores will add corner displays where customers can interact with items, and other departments are pulling big merchandise from boxes and placing them straight onto shelves. Walmart said it is adding "digital touchpoints" throughout stores to provide more information on products and services.

 

Walmart promises pay raises to new and existing employees, stock options for store managers

Starting Feb. 1, the base pay for Walmart store managers will increase from $117,000 to $128,000 a year, and depending on a store's profit, annual bonuses could reach up to 200% of a store manager's salary. Walmart said it will invest in its non-salary workers by increasing the hourly wage to over $18.

 

Furner also announced in January that store managers will receive an annual grant of Walmart stock starting in April. The amount is based on store format, and superstore managers, the largest stores that Walmart operates, will receive $20,000 in stock every year.

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2024/02/01/walmart-new-stores-locations/72433769007/

Anonymous ID: 065efc Feb. 1, 2024, 2:48 p.m. No.20342547   🗄️.is 🔗kun

Centrist News Outlet ‘The Messenger’ To Shut Down Less Than A Year After Launching Site

12:19 PM – Thursday, February 1, 2024

 

Centrist digital news startup The Messenger has announced that they are officially shutting down after less than a year of operation.

 

The startup company deleted all content and articles on their website on Wednesday evening, which was hours after the company told the New York Post “The site will go dark.”

 

The Messenger CEO and founder Jimmy Finklestein was reportedly “close” to raising the necessary funds to keep the business afloat for several more months, however, the deal ultimately fell through.

 

“The Messenger was founded to champion balanced journalism in an era of bias, subjectivity and misinformation, with a mandate to deliver the news — not shape it — and a clear vision of earning our readers’ trust and rekindling their passion for media,” according to its About page. It was founded in 2023 by co-founder Jimmy Finklestein,” according to allsides.com, a media bias rating site.

 

The company was reportedly losing millions each month, while bringing in only around $3 million last year, according to financial documents.

 

Meanwhile, the company claimed that their projections showed how they would “bring in $100 million in revenue for 2024,” a figure that experts doubted from the start.

 

The CEO had paid top dollar to lure away writing and marketing talent from other top publications, such as the conservative outlet New York Post and liberal outlet NBC News.

 

Additionally, the company was paying the site’s editor, Dan Wakeford, a whopping $900,000 annually, according to multiple sources.

 

“What ultimately killed The Messenger was lack of message — and arrogance,” an industry source said. “Hundreds of people left great jobs with the promise of creating something better — which turned out to be a big lie.”

 

Finklestein claimed that he did not send out a mass email to let employees know earlier since he was too busy trying to raise funds to keep the company in business.

 

In January, a financier who backed Tucker Carlson’s new content had reportedly offered $30 million for a 51% stake in the news site, evaluating it at $60 million.

 

“We exhausted every option available,” Finkelstein wrote, saying he was “personally devastated.”

 

Finkelstein noted in his email that “economic headwinds have left many media companies fighting for survival.”

 

The Messenger now joins the ranks of other high profile outlets that have gone under, including the Los Angeles Times, Business Insider and Sports Illustrated.

 

https://www.oann.com/newsroom/centrist-news-outlet-the-messenger-to-shut-down-less-than-a-year-after-launching-site/

Anonymous ID: 065efc Feb. 1, 2024, 3:38 p.m. No.20342835   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>2842 >>2929 >>3046

Idaho: 3 Dead, 9 Injured After Hangar Collapses At Boise Airport

11:46 AM – Thursday, February 1, 2024

 

A hangar under construction at an airport in Boise, Idaho, has collapsed, killing three people and injuring nine others.

 

On Wednesday, the city released a statement saying that three people passed away from the structure collapse and nine others were injured, including “five in critical condition,” after the catastrophic incident.

 

Boise Fire Department Operations Chief Aaron Hummel stated that authorities responded to calls regarding the collapse at around 5 p.m. local time.

 

“It was a very chaotic scene,” Hummel said, describing the incident as a “large-scale collapse” of the framework of the building. “I don’t know what caused it, but I can tell you it was a pretty global collapse,” he said.

 

Officials also reassured locals that Boise Airport operations were not impacted.

 

According to Hummel, certain victims were on an elevated platform when the structure collapsed, necessitating specific rescue operations. He also said that the incident resulted in the collapse of a crane.

 

First responders quickly arrived to the scene with trauma specialists, and the victims were taken to Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise, according to Leticia Ramirez, a spokeswoman for the facility.

 

The cause of the collapse is now being investigated by the authorities. It took place close to Jackson Jet Center, which provides maintenance and private aircraft charter services.

 

According to city of Boise permitting records, Big D Builders, a contractor, was granted permission to construct a 39,000-square-foot (3,623-square-meter) jet hangar for Jackson Jet Center.

 

The $6.2 million project called for the building of a metal structure and a concrete foundation. Emails and phone calls requesting Big D Builders to comment were not promptly answered.

 

Jessica Flynn, CEO of the public relations firm Red Sky, issued the statement on behalf of Jackson Jet Center.

 

“We do not know exactly what caused the hangar collapse,” the statement said. “Our focus now is on supporting our team and partners during this difficult time.”

 

https://www.oann.com/newsroom/idaho-3-dead-9-injured-after-hangar-collapses-at-boise-airport/

Anonymous ID: 065efc Feb. 1, 2024, 4:10 p.m. No.20343032   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>3044 >>3046

Georgia House votes to require watermarks on election ballots

8:52 AM PST, January 31, 2024

 

Georgia voters could see a watermark on their ballot beginning in November, a move Republican supporters said would assure citizens that their ballots are authentic.

 

The House on Wednesday voted 167-1 for House Bill 976, sending it to the Senate for more debate.

 

“It will bring more confidence from our people who vote, and it’s something we need to restore.” said Rep. Steve Tarvin, a Chickamauga Republican.

 

Georgia ballots are already printed on special security paper, under a law passed in 2021 after Georgia’s disputed 2020 presidential election. But a laser wand is required to detect the paper. And some Trump supporters continue to pursue claims that ballots in 2020 were forged, especially in Fulton County, despite investigators repeatedly failing to find any.

 

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger supports the measure, with his chief operating officer, Gabe Sterling, telling a House committee earlier this month that a machine to stamp watermarks on the ballot would cost the state about $100,000, and not increase the current cost to counties of 13 cents per ballot.

 

“This is a low-cost, high-value measure,” said House Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman John LaHood, a Valdosta Republican.

 

Sterling said the secretary of state’s office believes the measure is more important for absentee ballots sent through the mail, saying ballots produced in polling places never leave the supervision of poll workers.

 

The bill would take effect July 1. Counties could use up un-watermarked ballot paper now on hand in March and May elections, Sterling said.

 

Lawmakers are also considering other election measures. One would require that bar codes be removed from ballots produced by Georgia’s electronic voting system. Opponents say voters can’t be sure the computer codes match the choices printed on their ballots. Raffensperger has said he supports a move to scan “human readable text,” the names printed on ballots, to count votes. But he has said it’s impossible to make such a change before the November presidential election.

 

Another measure would require two after-election audits of ballots to make sure results matched what machines counted. A third measure would make permanent a program requiring scans of ballots be released for public inspection.

 

https://apnews.com/article/georgia-ballots-watermark-elections-voting-1c8a8ec9272e06c4a23d1778c04e3fd5