Why is everyone buying groceries in bulk? BI’s Steve Russolillo unpacks Costco’s chokehold on America.

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Welcome back to our Sunday edition, where we round up some of our top stories and take you inside our newsroom. This week, Amazon settled with the FTC for $2.5 billion following an exclusive Business Insider investigation into the e-commerce company’s misleading Prime sign-up and cancellation tactics.

Also, BI’s new markets newsletter is coming to inboxes soon. Sign up for First Trade here!

On the agenda today:

• The perils and promises of having a work nemesis.
• Startup founders are on edge as they brace for more H-1B visa fee chaos.
• Starbucks is getting the Chipotle treatment.
• Inside the rise of LinkedIn job-recruitment scams.

But first: Where do you store all of those groceries?

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This week’s dispatch

The Costco craze

I’ve got a confession: I don’t get what all the fuss is about Costco.

Gigantic bags of potato chips, enough ketchup to last until the end of the decade, endless rolls of toilet paper (well, maybe post-COVID I get that one).

But seriously, why does anyone need a 20-pound tub of margarine?

A colleague (who may or may not be the lead weekday writer of this newsletter) wants to buy a second refrigerator for his garage just so he can store even more stuff from Costco.

“The biggest pain point in my marriage is probably Costco,” BI’s Dan DeFrancesco told me. “Before every trip, my wife warns me not to get carried away. And then I proceed to get carried away and buy 18 pounds of chicken breasts.”

Look, I get it. Buying in bulk is very much en vogue these days. Just look at Costco’s earnings report the other day.

Sales and profit are up. Total paid memberships are rising. More people are finding the experience so compelling that they’re upgrading their memberships.

Costco CEO Ron Vachris said opening early for executive members boosted weekly sales by 1%. Foot traffic data from Placer.ai indicates the adjusted hours are helping the company accomplish several key goals, namely getting shoppers to visit more quickly and more often.

Costco is also set to open new locations faster than usual, particularly in areas with popular stores. The goal is to relieve some of the traffic pressure in those locations, creating a better shopping experience.

People talk about Costco the way some talk about religion. It’s an experience, a pilgrimage if you will, for hot deals and free samples. You can get everything from ever-pricey gold bars to the ultimate inflation-proof offering: the vaunted $1.50 hot dog and soda combo.

Maybe I’m just a city snob who doesn’t get all the finer things in life that Costco has to offer.

I’ll stick with Trader Joe’s and my corner bodega.

What are your thoughts on Costco and the early hours for executive members? We’d love to hear from you. Please email me at [email protected].

Know thine enemy

Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal. Taylor Swift and Kanye West. Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk. Having a workplace enemy isn’t always the most pleasant experience, but battling them can actually push you to grow and further your career.

That’s because a work nemesis is often a competitor for a boss’ praise or promotion. Competition can be a driver of peak performance — as long as it stays healthy.

Who’s your office opp?

H-1B whiplash

Startup founders and their employees were thrown into a frenzy after President Donald Trump announced his new $100,000 H-1B visa fee. Some young companies have frozen hiring as they wait for more clarity.

While the Big Tech companies are by far the largest beneficiaries of the H-1B visa program, the proposed changes will have an outsized impact on smaller startups, according to 10 founders and investors BI spoke with.

“Is there another shoe about to drop?“

Also read:

• Silicon Valley’s case for Trump’s new $100,000 H-1B visa fee
• Trump’s $100,000 visa fee threatens Wall Street’s pipeline of junior bankers and tech talent

The Chipotle playbook

The company recently announced another round of corporate layoffs and an array of store closures across North America. It’s part of CEO Brian Niccol’s “Back to Starbucks” initiative, and takes a page out of his Chipotle turnaround strategy.

At Chipotle, Niccol revitalized the chain’s brand after a 2015 E. coli scandal. The coffee giant is a much bigger beast, though — and his efforts haven’t paid off yet.

A huge undertaking.

Also read:

• Starbucks is closing its iconic Capitol Hill Roastery, just minutes from its Seattle headquarters

Hell for job seekers, heaven for scammers

While an exceptionally tight job market has made job seekers increasingly desperate, the rise of cheap generative AI tools has allowed scammers to get more sophisticated.

Scammers are deceiving even well-educated job seekers of any age by using LinkedIn as a launchpad for their crimes. Two people who lost thousands of dollars to these scams shared their stories with BI.

An #OpenToWork nightmare.

This week’s quote:

“My friends say my homes look like serial killer homes. I like it to look like nobody lives there ever. I need you to walk into my house and be like, ‘Is this a staged home?’“

— Nectir cofounder Kavitta Ghai on how she likes her apartment to be set up.

The Netherlands is the second-biggest agricultural exporter

The country is only the size of Maryland, but its research hub, Wageningen University and Research, has created a global model for farming. Here’s how the Dutch are adjusting to a swath of crises plaguing the industry.

More of this week’s top reads:

• Leaked Meta guidelines show how it trains AI chatbots to respond to child sexual exploitation prompts.
• Why that $14 billion TikTok deal may not be what it seems.
• Exclusive: Amazon’s AI coding assistant Q lags rivals in revenue, internal data shows.
• Jimmy Kimmel showed the one line Corporate America can’t cross.
• Why one retail investing platform is betting on physical storefronts for traders.
• J&J survived the “Tylenol murders” and pioneered crisis communications. Trump’s autism claims are round two.
• Nvidia is investing up to $100 billion in OpenAI as part of an AI data center deal.
• “Hybrid creep” is spreading as more companies tighten RTO rules.
• Exclusive: Klarna chairman sent a stark post-IPO message to CEO: “We’re 10 years behind Revolut.”

• I went from MTV star to managing fortunes at Bank of America. It took hustle and a lowly internship to get here.

  The BI Today team: Steve Russolillo, chief news editor, in New York. Lisa Ryan, executive editor, in New York. Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Akin Oyedele, deputy editor, in New York. Grace Lett, editor, in New York. Amanda Yen, associate editor, in New York.

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