With brief, occasional, italicized and sometimes gratuitous commentary…
• From Axios:
"Weight loss drugs are suddenly a booming industry, amid huge changes in the way we think about obesity.
"Why it matters: We're living through a cultural shift in which obesity is increasingly viewed as a disease — rather than the result of lifestyle choices."
Which means that "the market for weight loss drugs will reach $54 billion by 2030, Morgan Stanley projects. That's a 400% increase from today.
"It's not just today's hot sellers — Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro. Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk together have at least 12 more obesity medications in development."
The impact may not just be seen in the size of people's waistlines. I would imagine that there will also be some sort of impact on all the diet foods and drinks sold by retailers; many of these items could become redundant or obsolete.
• Albertsons yesterday announced what it called "a unique collaboration with Apple to bring activity data from Apple Watch and iPhone to the Sincerely Health digital health and wellness platform. Customers who wear Apple Watch Series 3 or later can now choose to share their activity data with their Sincerely Health account and earn up to 75 points daily for closing all three Activity rings: Move, Exercise and Stand. Customers who do not have an Apple Watch can connect their iPhone with iOS 16 through the Fitness app and earn up to 25 points each day for closing their Move ring … Additionally, all Sincerely Health users can improve their overall health score and earn points toward grocery coupons and discounts by setting up one or multiple goals related to physical activity, nutrition, lifestyle and sleep. Users can manage their personal data by choosing what information to share."
• From the Boston Globe:
"REI employees in Boston filed for a union election Wednesday morning, joining the growing ranks of retail workers organizing at major brands around the country. The Boston store is the sixth in the outdoor equipment chain to push for union recognition in the past year: Workers in New York; Berkeley, Calif.; and Cleveland have held successful votes, and employees in Chicago and Eugene, Ore., recently filed for elections.
"As the pandemic recedes and labor shortages continue, emboldened employees are banding together across the country to push for better working conditions, higher pay, and a greater voice in how their workplaces operate.
"Along with union drives at colleges, museums, and newsrooms, campaigns at well-known companies such as Starbucks, Amazon, Trader Joe’s, Apple, and Chipotle are generating renewed attention to a labor movement some had left for dead. At Starbucks, nearly 300 of the coffee giant’s stores, including about a dozen in Massachusetts, have unionized since late 2021.
"The number of petitions for union representation increased 53 percent in fiscal year 2022 from the year before, according to the National Labor Relations Board, and election petitions in the first six months of the current fiscal year have outpaced those filed in the same period last year. Public support for unions, meanwhile, is at the highest level its been since 1965."
