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Good morning readers. If you’re employer approached you one day and asked you to take voluntary unpaid leave from work, would you do it? That’s the reality pilots from United Airlines are facing these days as the company has asked some of them to take time off work with no pay due to delays in Boeing deliveries, according to a memo sent by the union representing the pilots. “Our forecasted hours for 2024 have been reduced and we’re offering our pilots voluntary programs for the month of May,” the airline said in a statement on Monday. They also mentioned the programs could extend into the summer months and fall. The silver lining for pilots, should they accept? They get some benefits paid out while on leave.

Let’s jump into today’s storylines.

In today’s digest:

• Amazon is trying to get rid of it’s brown box

• Headline Hustle: Google will delete browsing data on its users to settle a multi-billion dollar lawsuit, Microsoft will no longer offer Teams with its Microsoft suite, execs from Warner Bros. step down voluntarily after antitrust probe

• IKEA is going smaller

• Pulse Points: What’s Trending

ENVIRONMENT

Amazon is trying to get rid of its classic brown box

In an era where the phrase "think outside the box" gets tossed around more than a salad at a health fanatic's luncheon, Amazon is literally asking us to consider what's inside the box—or rather, the lack thereof.

It turns out, the U.S. has an appetite for cardboard that could pave a superhighway of boxes from NYC to LA and back again, not once, not twice, but thrice. And who's at the center of it all? None other than the behemoth of boxes, Amazon.

Ditching the brown box

In 2022, 11% of Amazon’s global orders didn’t need the extra cardboard hug, shipping in their original manufacturer's packaging instead. This nifty trick, known as the ‘Ships in Product Packaging’ program, could mean saying adios to Amazon’s ubiquitous brown box. But the e-commerce giant isn’t just throwing stuff in the mail and hoping for the best; they’re putting potential box-ditchers through the wringer – literally.

• Each product undergoes rigorous testing to ensure it arrives at your doorstep in one piece.

• From drop tests to vibration assessments, nothing is too extreme in the quest for packaging perfection. And if a product's performance in these gladiatorial trials isn’t up to snuff, back to the drawing board it goes.

But not everything can or will ship in its birthday suit. Personal items and products requiring a bit of discretion will still get the full box-and-mailer treatment, safeguarding your privacy. And for the rest, Amazon’s quest to reduce waste includes swapping out plastic for more eco-friendly materials, like turning to paper mailers and optimizing packaging size to fit the product snugly, thus minimizing excess.

The challenge, as always, is us – the consumers. Changing habits, like returning reusable packaging, proves to be an uphill battle. But with companies like Amazon and innovators like Returnity Innovations pushing the envelope (or the box, in this case), there’s hope on the horizon for a future where our shipping practices are as streamlined as our online shopping carts.

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IN THE KNOW

Headline Hustle

💻️ Google will delete browsing data on its users to settle billion dollar lawsuit. Google has agreed to settle a lawsuit alleging the secretive tracking of private internet browsing activity on its users, aiming to destroy billions of data records in the process. Lawyers of the plaintiffs valued the accord anywhere from $5 - 7.8 billion. While users won't receive damages upfront, they retain the option for individual claims. Originating in 2020, the class action covers millions of users, asserting Google's tracking violated browsing privacy settings. The settlement mandates enhanced disclosures and allows Incognito users to block third-party cookies for five years, signaling a shift in data collection practices.

🎙️ Microsoft is no longer offering Teams in its Office suite. Microsoft will globally offer its chat and video app Teams separately from its Office suite, a move made to avoid potential EU antitrust penalties. The European Commission has probed Microsoft's bundling of Office and Teams following a 2020 complaint from Slack. Despite Teams' popularity during the pandemic, rivals argue bundling gives Microsoft an unfair edge. The company initiated the separation in Europe last year and now extends it worldwide. Microsoft's new commercial suites exclude Teams outside the EEA and Switzerland, offering standalone Teams for enterprise clients.

🎥 Two execs from Warner Bros stepped down voluntarily after antitrust probe. Warner Bros. Discovery directors Steven Miron and Steven Newhouse are stepping down amid a DOJ probe into potential antitrust violations. The investigation focuses on whether their roles on the board violated antitrust laws prohibiting directors from serving on competitors' boards simultaneously. Miron, CEO of Advance/Newhouse Partnership, and Newhouse, co-president of Advance, resigned voluntarily. Their terms were slated to end in 2025.

RETAIL

The Swedish retailer we know and love has decided to go mini

Size matters, right? Ask a company like Ikea and you might get a different answer these days.

Bucking the trend of 'go big or go home,' the furniture giant is now whispering sweet nothings about convenience and locality into the ears of shoppers worldwide. The move? Planting pint-sized stores in neighborhoods near you.

Why the downsizing?

Ikea's playing the long game, betting big on the appeal of easy access for both the digital and physical shopper. It's about blending the online and in-person shopping experiences together, making it as seamless as your latest flat-pack assembly (minus the leftover screws).

Axios got a sneak peek at Ikea's latest venture into the world of small. Nestled 40 minutes outside D.C., the "Plan and Order Point" in Gaithersburg, Maryland, is cozy by Ikea standards, coming in at a snug 8,800 square feet. In these stores. the company is offering a curated selection of 500 must-have items—down from the 10,000 you'd wander past in their warehouse counterparts.

The gist? This mini-Ikea isn't looking to replace the mega stores but to complement them. It's for the shopper who knows what they want and the couple seeking inspiration without getting overwhelmed. And yes, for those wondering, meatballs are on the wishlist, pending the appropriate licenses.

Big picture: Cities like Charlotte, Alpharetta, and Austin are on the mini-store roadmap, proving that sometimes, smaller really is better. Whether you're there to finalize your online picks or just in need of a quick home decor fix, Ikea's latest strategy might just be the perfect fit.

SNIPPETS

Pulse Points

• California fast-food chains are now paying workers a $20 hourly minimum wage, prompting other businesses to consider wage increases, following a new state law affecting over half a million employees in the industry.

• The judge in Donald Trump's hush money trial extended a gag order to cover court and Manhattan DA family members after Trump criticized the judge's daughter, responding to a request from the DA's office.

• South Korean scientists have set a new world record by sustaining temperatures seven times hotter than the sun's core for a record duration in a nuclear fusion experiment, marking significant progress in this future energy technology.

• A person in Texas has tested positive for the bird flu following exposure to dairy cattle presumed infected with H5N1 bird flu, according to the CDC.

• The U.S. Postal Service has selected UPS as its main partner for moving cargo by air, replacing FedEx, which had served in this capacity for over twenty years.

• Sam Altman has transferred control of OpenAI's corporate venture fund to Ian Hathaway (a partner at OpenAI), marking a significant shift in the fund that invests in early-stage AI companies and has grown to $325 million in asset value.

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