By Walt Hickey

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H-E-B

Lots of large grocery conglomerates are trying to make the argument that it’s impossible to succeed in the business unless a supermarket chain can grow to be nationally colossal, spanning from sea to sea and accumulating enough horizontally integrated monopoly so as to justify their sprawl with so-called value. Several highly successful regional chains beg to differ, including the stridently independent Hy-Vee of the Midwest, Publix of the Southeast, and H-E-B of Texas. The latter is especially illustrative: It’s the fifth-largest private company in the United States, it’s got an estimated annual revenue of $43.6 billion, and it’s got more loyalty among Texans than the Alamo. It thrives on an aggressively locally minded business; a line of in-store guacamole, originally intended to cut back on avocado waste, nets $60 million a year.

J. Edward Moreno, Sherwood News

Debris

A robot has begun an initial trip into the Unit 2 reactor in Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant, a two-week journey to recover 3 grams of debris from a mound of melted fuel. That sample will be brought out of the closed plant and studied by scientists to ascertain the current state of the melted-down reactor. Nuclear fuel melted after a magnitude-9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami in 2011, and Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings estimates that 880 tons of molten fuel debris remains in the three reactors. The results of this robot’s mission will potentially inform decades of remediation efforts and strategy at the plant.

Mari Yamaguchi, The Associated Press

Kratom

In 2020, an estimated 1.7 million Americans had used kratom, an herbal supplement which is a stimulant in a low dose, a sedative in a high dose, and quite the adventure in between. It’s in a regulatory gray zone, with the feds mostly warning against its use but powerless to actually stop it. Given that we’re in a boom time for supplements of questionable provenance, it’s been thriving. That said, deaths connected to it and an ambiguous business world around it have put the substance, often found in gas stations and other pharmacies of middling repute, in a controversial position.

David Rovella, Bloomberg

ADHD

The DEA will increase the allowed production of the ADHD drug Vyvanse (lisdexamfetamine) by 23.5 percent, upping the 26,500-kilogram production quota by 6,236 kilograms for a total production quota of 32,736 kilograms. Instead of depending on people like doctors or pharmacists, the rate of prescriptions in the U.S. for ADHD drugs is based on a hunch from the DEA, and a shortage of the drugs for the past several years has caused serious issues for those affected. An increase in demand from foreign markets — 4,678 kilograms of the 6,236-kilogram increase is allocated for foreign demand of the drug — is fueling the greenlight for higher production.

Beth Mole, Ars Technica

Osaka

Japan is poised to open up the first casino in the entire country by 2030. Originally projected to open in 2029, the casino’s opening was pushed back a year, and rising construction costs — increasing from JPY 1.08 trillion ($7.5 billion) to JPY 1.27 trillion ($8.9 billion) — were thought to potentially imperil the project, slated to be built on an artificial island in Osaka Bay. The project is projected to bring in JPY 520 billion ($3.6 billion) in annual revenue.

Peden Doma Bhutia, Skift

Wildlife

Wildlife crossings, structures built to offer animals safe passage over or under highways, roads and other hazards, have been successful. Green bridges can help migratory mammals avoid dangerous highways, fish ladders help migrating salmon pass dams, and in 2022 one single wildlife crossing in Washington state was used over 5,000 times. The successful strategy has prompted inquiries as to whether it could be used for marine animals. For instance, in 2017, engineers observed that a 500-meter offshore jetty prevented endangered green sawfish from passing around the barrier despite using the mouth of the Ashburton River as a nursery. That has some considering pass-thorughs in such artificial structures moving forward.

Jack McGovan, Hakai Magazine

Dates

A new study out of Stanford University estimated that an additional 13.3 million Americans were single as of 2022 as a result of the pandemic, due to nascent relationships falling apart, informal relationships never developing, and the disruption to the dating market having wide-ranging implications. Even still, the number of hours the average American spends socializing at 4.1 hours per week has not recovered to pre-pandemic levels, still well below the 4.5 hours per week logged in 2019.

Ben Steverman, Bloomberg

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