June 2023

How much is too much for a bottle of hot sauce? A shortage of the chili peppers used to make Sriracha hot sauce has made the condiment hard to find in stores while the black market prices are skyrocketing. According to CNN, Huy Fong Foods, Srircha’s maker, has been dealing with a shortage of chili peppers for years now. This has resulted in some shortages and has...

This week, Snapchat announced how many paying customers the app brought in this year with its subscription service, Snapchat+. The total amounted to over 4 million. Snapchat+ offers users premium features including “custom app themes, unique app icons, and the ability to pin your #1 BFF,” the company said in a blog post. It is also advertised as a way to “dive deeper into the parts...

A group of American influencers have received major backlash after visiting a fast-fashion model factory in China. The trip was sponsored by Shein, a fast-fashion, internet shopping giant, and received raving reviews from the influencers. The group traveled to the city of Guangzhou to see the company’s “innovation” center complete with high-tech fabric cutters and robots that help transport materials.  Shein offers a huge selection of clothing...

In an effort to stop membership card sharing, Costco is now requiring shoppers to show identification in addition to their membership card during self checkout. According to CNN, Costco has noticed an increase in the amount of shoppers that are sneaking in and using someone else’s membership card during checkout. “We don’t feel it’s right that nonmembers receive the same benefits and pricing as our members,” the...

On Tuesday, Meta announced new features across its social media platforms that help parents monitor what their teens are up to online. The features include parental controls on Messenger, suggestions for teens to step away from Facebook after 20 minutes and urges young, late-night Instagrammers to stop scrolling, according to CNN. Considering 13 is the minimum age for most social media sites, safeguards and monitoring tools are...

Pepsi is doing something they have never done before this Fourth of July, a condiment. This new concept, called “Pepsi Colachup” is a sauce that is actually infused with Pepsi and was developed with the Culinary Institute of America. The senior director at Pepsi, Jenny Danzi, said the sauce was created to “craft a revolutionary new type of condiment enhanced with the rich caramel notes and...

Customers in New York City will now be able to get a pizza delivered underground as part of a limited-time promotion for the new “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. Pizza Hut teamed up with Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon Movies and Point Grey Productions in honor of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” hitting theaters nationwide on August 2. “We wanted to pay homage to the Turtles’ origins and...

After deadly fires erupted throughout New York City this year, officials are taking a stand and asking the public for help. E-Bike shops have reportedly been improperly handling and storing lithium ion batteries, which have led to deadly fires in the city, according to FOX Business.   Last Tuesday, in particular, was an especially bad day in Manhattan as a fire broke out at an e-bike repair shop...

Life has returned to a reasonable level of normalcy after the pandemic. Masks mandates have been lifted and people have returned to the office. But, is Covid-19 still a threat? Last week, Moderna submitted an application seeking approval of its updated Covid vaccine for fall by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The shot targets omicron subvariant XBB.1.5 which is the dominant strain of the...

Workers across the nation at about 150 Starbucks locations went on strike last friday protesting the store’s policy for Pride decorations. Starbucks Workers United has claimed that the company has restricted or banned Pride decorations in stores. “This seems to be the first year the publicly "pro-LGBTQ+" company has taken this kind of stance,” the union wrote in a statement on Twitter. Starbucks, however, is denying these...