Fortune
The World Cup is just now discovering Middle America’s big heart. These Irish bingo kingpins built a $24 million business knowing it all along
Bingo Loco started as a scrappy Dublin basement experiment in 2017, but its parent company Locomotive now moves a million tickets annually across 300 cities. Founders Craig Reynolds and Will Meara built a $24 million business by betting on mid-sized American markets long before the World Cup spotlight found them. Their success is a case study in the untapped spending power of Middle America.
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Fortune
Even as Elon Musk calls philanthropy ‘very hard,’ every day Americans gave a record $617 billion—despite feeling the squeeze over the cost of living
American generosity reached new heights in 2024, with total charitable giving hitting a record $617 billion even as inflation strained household budgets. Individual donations accounted for $394 billion of that figure, while a 17% surge in bequests signals that the Great Wealth Transfer is beginning to reshape how philanthropy flows. The trend suggests that everyday Americans, not just billionaires, remain the backbone of charitable giving — even as the ultra-wealthy debate its merits.
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Fortune
Costco CEO promises the $1.50 hot dog isn’t going away: ‘The price will not change as long as I’m around’
Costco CEO Ron Vachris has reaffirmed the retailer's legendary commitment to its $1.50 hot dog and soda combo, a price point that has held firm since 1985. The pledge is more than nostalgia — it's a deliberate signal of brand loyalty in an era of relentless inflation and shrinkflation. For a company built on the promise of value, the hot dog has become something of a sacred covenant with its members.
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Fortune
‘Devin-kun’: Japan embraces agents as legacy code and a shrinking workforce create a perfect market for an AI software engineer
Japan has become a prime market for AI coding agents like Cognition AI's Devin, with the country's notoriously outdated legacy systems and shrinking technical workforce creating urgent demand for automated software development. Cognition opened its first Asian office in Tokyo, betting that structural labor pressures will accelerate enterprise adoption faster there than almost anywhere else. For AI software engineers, Japan isn't just an opportunity — it's a stress test for how well these tools can handle decades of accumulated technical debt.
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