Most of the world’s açaí comes from the Amazon rainforest. People risk their lives to harvest the fruit, climbing palm trees that can grow taller than 50 feet. And while açaí has become one of the trendiest superfoods in recent decades, small farmers aren’t seeing a lot of the profits. The açaí industry has also taken heat over reports of child labor. We went to Brazil to find out how the world’s açaí gets from the Amazon to smoothie shops around the world.
The açaí palm, Euterpe oleracea, is a species of palm tree cultivated for its fruit, hearts of palm, leaves, and trunk wood. Global demand for the fruit has expanded rapidly in the 21st century, and the tree is cultivated for that purpose primarily
A record number of online returns has created a booming $644 billion liquidation market. As supply chain backlogs cause shortages of new goods and Gen Z shoppers demand more sustainable retail options, pain points for one sector of retail are big business for another. The nation’s only major public liquidator, Liquidity Services, resells unclaimed mail, items left at TSA checkpoints, and outdated military vehicles. It also refurbishes highly sought after electronics, from noise-canceling headphones to the machines that make microchips.
CNBC takes you on an exclusive tour inside a Liquidity Services returns warehouse outside Dallas, Texas, where unwanted goods from Amazon and Target are stacked to the ceiling before being resold on Liquidation.com or a variety of other marketplaces. Inside Liquidity Services’ 130,000-square-foot warehouse in Garland, Texas, the aisles aren’t lined with typical merchandise. Instead, they’re stacked with returns from Amazon, Target, Sony, Home Depot, Wayfair and more, all in the process of being liquidated.
Amazon is on a spending spree to grow its fleet of planes, vans, semitrucks and drivers in its latest move to compete with FedEx and UPS. Now, it’s using the added capacity to move cargo for outside customers, betting big on the business of third-party shipping while also shipping 72% of its own packages. CNBC talks to former Amazon executives and current customers using the shipping services to find out all about the behemoth’s next big move.
Inside the company’s automated warehouse in China Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is challenging Amazon by promising fast deliveries from China to anywhere in the world. WSJ visits Alibaba’s largest automated warehouse to see how robots and a vast logistics network are helping it expand globally. Composite: Clément Bürge
A.M. Edition for April 29. WSJ White House reporter Sabrina Siddiqui on key moments from President Biden’s speech to Congress as he pushes a broad economic agenda.
A look at the markets as the president marks 100 days in office. Amazon workers are set for a pay raise. Marc Stewart hosts.
A.M. Edition for April 9. The final results in a closely watched union vote at Amazon are expected today. McDonald’s closes hundreds of restaurants at Walmart stores.
Five stories to know for March 30: The second day of Derek Chauvin trial, Egypt’s Suez Canal has moving traffic again, Myanmar protesters hold a ‘garbage strike,’ New York will expand its vaccine rollout to people who are 30 and older, and Amazon’s union vote enters the final stretch in a watershed moment for U.S. labor.
1. A professional mixed martial arts fighter who witnessed the deadly arrest of George Floyd is due to return to the stand on for the second day of testimony in the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin. Watch live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVzUN…
2. Shipping was on the move again in Egypt’s Suez Canal after tugs refloated a giant container ship which had been blocking the channel for almost a week, causing a huge build-up of vessels around the waterway.
3. Rubbish piled up on the streets of Myanmar’s main city after activists launched a “garbage strike” to oppose military rule as the toll of pro-democracy protesters killed by security forces since a Feb. 1 coup rose to more than 500.
4. New York will expand eligibility for the COVID-19 vaccine to people who are 30 and older, and will make it available to anyone from age 16 and above on April 6, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced.
5. The votes on whether to form a union at Amazon’s sprawling Alabama fulfillment center are set to be reviewed, with momentum for future labor organizing at America’s second-largest private employer hanging in the balance.
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