Which Retailers Are Out & Proud... And Which Are Not

Remember when big brands like Target were outspoken and uncompromising advocates for LGBTQ+ people? Remember the Pride displays in stores and Pride clothes for kids? Don't worry. You don't need to cast your mind back too far. It was…last year!

Now, though, following in-store backlash, Target has gone more low-key on its Pride displays. The retail giant is still selling adult Pride clothing and home décor at "select stores" depending on how well they've sold in the past. But the kids' Pride clothes are gone. The move follows heavy criticism last year after the firm removed some Pride Month merchandise from shelves citing security concerns for its staff.

We spoke with shopping expert Trae Bodge about the trend, and she was understanding, saying several other brands including Nike, Bud Lite and North Face are also trying to "find a balance" this year. These organizations still insist they're advocates for LGBTQ+ rights. They're just putting the money behind those values in other ways, Bodge says.

Meanwhile some brands are continuing to go further. Abercrombie & Fitch has a line of gender inclusive apparel and has donated $400k to The Trevor Project, which supports LGBTQ+ young people, many of whom will presumably be concerned they can no longer find Pride outfits at Target. Kidding. Those kids are probably shopping elsewhere, regardless. For clothes that slay. Here's to being out and proud! Except where it might be risky in which case, here's to hedging your bets?!

This public relations somersaulting is all too much. We're off to watch RuPaul's Drag Race.

Read this in your browser 1. Which Retailers Are Out & Proud... And Which Are Not Remember when big brands like Target were outspoken and uncompromising advocates for LGBTQ+ people? Remember the Pride displays in stores and Pride clothes for kids? Don't worry. You don't need to cast your mind back too far. It was…last year! Now, though, following in-store backlash, Target has gone more low-key on its Pride displays. The retail giant is still selling adult Pride clothing and home décor at "select stores" depending on how well they've sold in the past. But the kids' Pride clothes are gone. The move follows heavy criticism last year after the firm removed some Pride Month merchandise from shelves citing security concerns for its staff. We spoke with shopping expert Trae Bodge about the trend, and she was understanding, saying several other brands including Nike, Bud Lite and North Face are also trying to "find a balance" this year. These organizations still insist they're advocates for LGBTQ+ rights. They're just putting the money behind those values in other ways, Bodge says. Meanwhile some brands are continuing to go further. Abercrombie & Fitch has a line of gender inclusive apparel and has donated $400k to The Trevor Project, which supports LGBTQ+ young people, many of whom will presumably be concerned they can no longer find Pride outfits at Target. Kidding. Those kids are probably shopping elsewhere, regardless. For clothes that slay. Here's to being out and proud! Except where it might be risky in which case, here's to hedging your bets?! This public relations somersaulting is all too much. We're off to watch RuPaul's Drag Race. Watch Now Want to actually read a newsletter? We hear ya. Big Business This Week recaps the biggest business stories from the biggest businesses in the world's biggest economy every Friday. Sign Me Up! 2. Mother Jones Publisher Sues OpenAI and Microsoft For "Exploitation" The Center for Investigative Reporting has sued ChatGPT maker OpenAI and its closest business partner, Microsoft, marking a new front in the news industry's fight against unauthorized use of its content on A.I. platforms. The nonprofit, which produces Mother Jones and Reveal, said that OpenAI used its content without permission and without offering compensation, violating copyrights on the organization's journalism. The lawsuit is the latest against OpenAI and Microsoft to land at Manhattan's federal court, where the companies are already battling a series of other copyright lawsuits from The New York Times, other media outlets and bestselling authors such as John Grisham, Jodi Picoult and George R.R. Martin. The companies also face a separate case in San Francisco's federal court brought by authors including comedian Sarah Silverman. Some news organizations have chosen to collaborate rather than fight with OpenAI by signing deals to get compensated for sharing news content that can be used to train its A.I systems. The latest to do so is Time, which announced Thursday that OpenAI will get access to its "extensive archives from the last 101 years." Read More 3. Stop A.I. Companies From Stealing Creative Work, A.I. Company Boss Says More incisive comment on the "A.I. stole my copyrighted work" trend. You know when you write something incredibly witty and funny, and put it on the Internet? Happens to us every day, of course. But what about when somebody steals it without giving you credit? It's bad enough when your cousin Mike steals one of your jokes and passes it off as his own at Thanksgiving. Now imagine cousin Mike is a tech company able to reach billions of people, having stolen ideas from everybody on the planet? He would SLAY at any dinner table, and be impossible to keep up with. Sounds like cousin Mike needs to check himself, already. Still, that's effectively what A.I. companies are doing on a massive scale, according to Appian CEO Matt Calkins, whose firm exceeds half a billion dollars in revenue each year from A.I.-powered product sales. "We've been through a wild west era," he says. "And now we need the government to step in and force these companies to change their behavior." Calkins says A.I. firms are relying on music, art, writing and journalism created by all of us geniuses (please, we're blushing...), and is using them to teach their generative models, yet without compensation. Meanwhile, there's no sign cousin Mike will be paying you for that joke he stole, either. But it's the PRINCIPLE that matters. Also we look forward to our hefty check from OpenAI when they finally admit they trained their level-10 amusement bots on our 'sletter. Holding our breath here, guys... Watch Now So, what do you think of Cheddar? We want to hear from you! From shows to site to this very newsletter, we'd love some feedback. Take the Survey! 4. Good News: Your Bank Is Prepared for Economic Disaster. Bad News: Wait, "Economic Disaster"?!? Ever since the global financial crisis the Federal Reserve has conducted yearly stress tests for banks with more than $100 billion in assets. And they're in good shape. This year's test scenario imagined 10% unemployment, equity prices down 50%, home prices down 31% and commercial real estate prices down 40%. Gah! Stress indeed. Call us superstitious if you like, but we hope mentioning all these things isn't the banking equivalent of Anton Chekhov hanging a gun on the wall. For a refresher, the point is: Those guns go BANG eventually. Just like our economy?!! In need of reassurance, we turned to Sal Martinez, head of U.S. Financials Research at HSBC. He's positive about the outlook for banks "from a bigger picture standpoint", based on the results of the stress test. Although he does note that there were relative winners and laggards: Citigroup was the biggest winner and Goldman Sachs has less excess capital, by comparison. Meanwhile, are we past the bank failures? Sal says, effectively, nope. "There are 4,500 banks in America. We're seeing stresses in commercial real estate, and there are banks with big portfolios there, relative to the size of their balance sheet," he said. "We'll see higher losses, going forward. Could we see additional bank failures? Yes. Do we think they're going to be systemic? No." Of course, that's just Mr. Martinez's OPINION, and not investment advice. He does think that the 40% downturn in commercial real estate tested by the Fed is a "pretty punitive scenario" but then again, do you know anybody who isn't working remotely this summer, apart from guys in finance? Six five? Blue eyes? (That's a MEME, LMGTFY.) We're just glad the Fed is worrying about all this so that we don't have to. Although we'll continue to worry about it all, regardless. We're going to wake up tomorrow at 4 a.m. cutting our 401(k) balance in half in need of a Xanax, now. I can feel it. Watch Now 5. The U.S. Economy Grew Faster Than We Thought in Q1 (But Only a Tiny Little Bit) The American economy expanded at a 1.4% annual pace from January through March, the slowest quarterly growth since spring 2022, the government said Thursday in a slight upgrade from its previous estimate. Consumer spending grew at just a 1.5% rate, down from an initial estimate of 2%, in a sign that high interest rates may be taking a toll on the economy. The Commerce Department had previously estimated that the gross domestic product — the economy's total output of goods and services — advanced at a 1.3% rate last quarter. Still, despite the economy growing more as a whole than we had thought, one analyst calls the downshift in consumer spending "a cause for concern.'' Read More This email was sent to salenamartine360.news1@blogger.com unsubscribe     member center     contact us   Cheddar Cheddar • 1 State Street • 25th Floor • New York, NY 10004 • USA