Latest news with #FOMO
The Guardian
13 hours ago
- Business
- The Guardian
A good deal or a good deal of waste? How to be more conscious about your consumption during sales periods
Whether the discount is offered on social media, via email or in a banner on your favourite website, if a business you've ever been a patron of is having a sale you can be sure they'll find a way to tell you. 'Temporary sales events are aimed at leveraging FOMO,' says Jason Pallant, a senior lecturer in marketing at RMIT University. 'The idea is to make consumers feel like they will miss out on a great bargain if they don't buy something right away.' While it can feel good to click 'buy now' in the moment, ending up with piles of barely used impulse purchases leads to a particular kind of shame, regret (and clutter). With the end-of-financial-year sales period upon us, here are some strategies to ensure you are being conscious about your on-sale consumption. Believe it or not, our brains are wired to encourage us to buy things at a reduced price, especially when there is a sense of urgency – ie during sales and promotions. Cathrine Jansson-Boyd, a professor of consumer psychology at Anglia Ruskin University, says this is because of three things. 'When we see a price tag that we perceive as a good deal, the part of our brains that deals with pleasure is activated,' she says. Then, when we make a purchase, we get a dopamine hit that makes us feel good and, finally, when there is a time limit on the availability of the discounted price, it triggers heightened adrenaline. This combination means sales shopping can make people 'feel giddy with excitement'. Being aware of this dynamic and recognising it when temptation arises is the first step to exercising self-control and resisting the urge to make an impulse purchase. The second step is to take 'a calm pause between looking at an item and purchasing', says Dr Kate Luckins, the author of Live More With Less. This should help to 'counter the frenzy of the sale'. If you're shopping in store, one way to do this is by holding on to the item while you continue browsing and delay heading to the checkout. Or, if you're shopping online, stand up and walk away from your computer or put down your phone and do something else to see if the shine of the product wears off. Alternatively, sleep on it. 'In that pause, you will either obsess over the item you're considering, or you will move on and forget about it,' Luckins says. So as not to miss out on the savings promotional periods offer, Stephanie Atto from Australian Consumer and Retail Studies recommends keeping a list of products you are looking to buy and sticking to the list during sales periods. 'To resist sales pressures, consumers should focus on being informed and assertive,' she says. 'Be prepared by understanding your needs, doing your research and setting a budget.' The popularity of this strategy is borne out by data. Pallant says the increased frequency of sales periods has trained consumers to wait to make purchases. 'A recent shopper survey from Mailchimp suggests 76% of consumers use these events to buy products they were planning to buy anyway.' Although it might feel like being increasingly online gives retailers an advantage, Pallant suggests inverting this dynamic by keeping track of what you want to buy, what a good price is and gathering your own data. 'Do your research about how often these brands or products go on sale and what a good discount really is,' he says. 'There are so many sales events now that if you miss out on one, you might only have to wait a couple of weeks for another.' Given the frequency of email and social media marketing, you can do yourself a favour ahead of time by 'setting tech limits', Atto says. This can be as simple as running through your inbox and unsubscribing from brands and retailers that always seem to be communicating promotions, or unfollowing social media accounts that do the same. As the designer and poet William Morris said: 'Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.' Regardless of how much your dopamine-hungry brain is calculating you will save with the purchase of an item, once you've bought it, it's yours – so it's worth assessing whether it is a good investment. Try exercising some reverse Marie Kondo (the decluttering expert) and ask before the purchase: Does this item truly bring me joy? In six months, when I am cleaning out my cupboards, is its quality so good that I will still be proud to own it? The flip side of this is that shopping on sale can be an opportunity to buy something of beautiful quality or craftsmanship that might normally be out of your budget. 'Buying one piece or product we love rather than a bunch we kind of like at a discount is much more satisfying in the long term,' Luckins says. If you're having trouble using the form, click here. Read terms of service here.
Forbes
18 hours ago
- Forbes
Panera Bread Is Saying Ciao With Three New Italian-Inspired Menu Items
Overhead view of a salad bowl filled with fresh rocket or arugula, tomatoes, pine nuts, and a ball ... More of burrata cheese. Okay, you may not be able to hop on a flight and live your coastal grandma vibes on the Italian coast, but thanks to Panera Bread's new menu expansion, you can get some tasty Italian flavors all summer long. Earlier this year, the chain surveyed its customers and found that 76% of Americans believe Italy to be a must-visit destination. And, what's the best part of any trip? The food! The survey also revealed that 58% of Americans experienced major FOMO (fear of missing out) when Italian vacation pictures appeared on their timelines. This inspired the team at Panera to bring us three new Italian-inspired menu items just in time for summer. The brand says their Italian-inspired menu items are each crafted to capture the essence of old-world flavors with a bold twist. What Are The New Italian-Inspired Menu Items? Steak sandwich and Italian market salad Italian-inspired menu items Panera's Italian-inspired menu items will only be available for a limited time, so be sure to stop by your local store to try all of them before they're gone. The popular restaurant is also bringing a lot of other delicious flavors to the menu this summer.
Bloomberg
2 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
S&P 500 Flirts With Record as 'FOMO' Sweeps Market
Good morning. Stock bulls ignore risks and drive the S&P 500 to the brink of a record. A top Tesla executive (and Elon Musk confidant) exits. And Iran's Supreme Leader says US intervention in the war achieved nothing. Listen to the day's top stories. Risk is back in vogue on Wall Street. The S&P 500 briefly topped its all-time high as investors cast aside geopolitical fears. Investors are ignoring dangers—from tariff-talk roadblocks to downbeat US data —and piling into speculative edges of the market. The bullish momentum signal a period of FOMO —the fear of missing out—that one strategist says happens in the 'late stages of every structural bull market.'
Time of India
3 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Heard about ‘Fun Investing'? Know how it works, and investors who are best fit to do this
Academy Empower your mind, elevate your skills Investing Beyond the Finish Line The Indian Lens: Post-Retirement, Pre-Legacy From FOMO to JOFO But Is It Safe? The Advisor's Role in a Goal-less World Core: For peace of mind Satellite: For peace of thrill The Bigger Picture Once upon a time, investing was a serious affair. People discussed retirement plans, children's education, buying dream homes, and preparing for emergencies. Every rupee had a purpose, a deadline, and a defined risk what happens when all the goals are achieved?When the children are well-settled, the retirement kitty is overflowing, and the wealth is compounding faster than it can be consumed?Welcome to the fascinating world of Goal-less Fun Investing , where investing transforms from a necessity to a recreational about this: A 68-year-old retired textile magnate from Mumbai, who has already taken care of his children's future and business legacy, now finds excitement in tracking Dogecoin. Not for returns, but for the thrill—like a flashback to the adrenaline of closing crores-worth India, a new class of investors in their 60s and 70s—financially sorted and free from liabilities—is emerging. They've done their SIPs, bought the gold, secured insurance, and set up their estates. Now, investing is about curiosity, learning, and backing startups to dabbling in meme-coins and NFTs, these investors aren't chasing goals. They're chasing relevance, stimulation, and the satisfaction of making their money dance, even if just a one retired Air Force officer told me recently, 'I don't need the money. But if a startup I believe in succeeds, the joy is something else. It's not about returns—it's about staying relevant.'Indian investors have traditionally focused on wealth preservation and legacy. But today's affluent retirees are rethinking that. With financially independent children and minimal transmission issues foreseen, personal interests are taking centre doctors are up at 1 am tracking US tech stocks. Ex-army officers run WhatsApp trading groups for newly launched altcoins and candle patterns on charts. The smartphone and brokerage app have replaced Sudoku and golf for them, investing is not just a financial activity—it's a cerebral younger investors who battle FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), these seniors are discovering JOFO —the Joy of Figuring Out. They're not panicking over missed trends. They're immersed in understanding narratives, cycles, and treat investing like chess: thoughtful, slow, and satisfying, not a frantic gamble on a roulette wheel.'Wealth is the ability to fully experience life,' wrote Henry David Thoreau. Goal-less investing is just that—an expression of freedom, where the journey matters more than the goal-less investing is often more cautious than goal-driven investing. These investors ring-fence their serious money—into debt funds, annuities, or index strategies—and reserve a small sandbox for not about recklessness. It's about controlled know that here, the metric is not alpha or CAGR (Compounded Annual Growth Rate) —it's satisfaction. They apply strict limits, never risking more than they can afford to lose, and preserve their core financial advisors like us must adapt. From being custodians of goals, we become companions in curiosity. We provide the rails, but let clients drive the investors benefit from a Core & Satellite strategy:The most successful among them invest like art collectors—curious, selective, unconcerned with resale value, but deeply satisfied with who continue to pitch textbook financial plans to these individuals are at risk of sounding isn't just a quirk of wealth—it's a sign of India's maturing investor base. A generation that navigated economic transformation is now deploying capital with purpose and when seasoned investors channel money into emerging sectors, it's not just good for them—it's great for market experience here: Some people invest to live, and others live to invest. But the luckiest ones? They invest to stay alive—mentally, emotionally, and fun investing is not the opposite of discipline—it is what emerges after discipline has done its job. It's a privilege earned through decades of prudence and everyone will reach this stage. But those who do must find the fine line between entertainment and risk. Their capital now serves not just financial goals, but intellectual and emotional ones George Bernard Shaw wisely put it, 'We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.'And sometimes, a well-placed small-cap stock or a contrarian crypto bet is just the play one needs to feel alive again.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
BlackSky Wins NGA Luno A Facility Operational Monitoring Delivery Order Valued at Over $24 Million
Four-year award leverages BlackSky's real-time, AI-driven monitoring services for automated object and pattern-of-life change detection at military and economic facilities worldwide HERNDON, Va., June 24, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BlackSky Technology Inc. (NYSE: BKSY) won a more than $24 million, four-year, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) Luno A Facility Operational Monitoring (FOMO) delivery order for global monitoring of military and economic facilities. As part of the order, BlackSky has received an initial base and surge option award of $2 million. "Securing this Luno A task order continues BlackSky's long record of success delivering our industry leading commercial real-time, AI-enabled dynamic monitoring capabilities at machine speed and scale in service to U.S. national security," said Brian O'Toole, BlackSky CEO. Under the delivery order, BlackSky will perform AI-enabled object and pattern-of-life change detection to monitor trends and anomalies in vehicle, aircraft, vessel, railcar and ground equipment activity at military and economic facilities worldwide, including ports, airfields, military installations and railways. "With unmatched speed and economics, BlackSky continues to improve upon our first-of-its-kind space-based intelligence system with the coming addition of our very high-resolution Gen-3 satellites to our high frequency, low latency constellation that will provide even more rapid, detailed and precise insights to support the critical needs of our customers," said O'Toole. BlackSky monitors over more than 30 million square kilometers of the Earth's surface for the NGA. In October, NGA selected BlackSky for the five-year, up to $290 million Luno A multi-award indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract to monitor global economic and environmental activity and military capability using high-cadence, rapid revisit satellite imagery and AI-driven change-detection analytics. The Luno A contract also contributes to the creation of new products, data and services that employ innovative uses for artificial intelligence to manage high volumes of data, produce deeper insights and boost predictive analytical capabilities. BlackSky's scalable and cost-effective AI tools allow for more frequent data-intensive broad area search and discovery queries than traditional solutions. About BlackSky BlackSky is a real-time, space-based intelligence company that delivers on-demand, high frequency imagery, analytics, and high-frequency monitoring of the most critical and strategic locations, economic assets, and events in the world. BlackSky owns and operates one of the industry's most advanced, purpose-built commercial, real-time intelligence systems that combines the power of the BlackSky Spectra® tasking and analytics software platform and our proprietary low earth orbit satellite constellation. With BlackSky, customers can see, understand and anticipate changes for a decisive strategic advantage at the tactical edge, and act not just fast, but first. BlackSky is trusted by some of the most demanding U.S. and international government agencies, commercial businesses, and organizations around the world. BlackSky is headquartered in Herndon, VA, and is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange as BKSY. To learn more, visit and follow us on X. Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements in this press release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws with respect to BlackSky. These forward-looking statements generally are identified by the words "believe," "project," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "intend," "strategy," "future," "opportunity," "plan," "may," "should," "will," "would," "will be," "will continue," "will likely result," and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are predictions, projections, and other statements about future events that are based on current expectations and assumptions and, as a result, are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause actual future events to differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this document. If any of these risks materialize or underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results could differ materially from the results implied by these forward-looking statements. In addition, forward-looking statements reflect our expectations, plans, or forecasts of future events and views as of the date of this communication. We anticipate that subsequent events and developments will cause their assessments to change. Accordingly, forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any subsequent date, and we do not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date they were made, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws. Additional risks and uncertainties are identified and discussed in BlackSky's disclosure materials filed from time to time with the SEC which are available at the SEC's website at or on BlackSky's Investor Relations website at View source version on Contacts Investor Contact Aly BonillaVP, Investor Relationsabonilla@ Media Contact Pauly Cabellon Sr. Director, External Communicationsbksypr@
