Good morning. It's Thursday, Aug. 14, and we're covering Amazon's push in same-day grocery deliveries, record flooding in Alaska's Mendenhall River, and much more. First time reading? Join over 4.5 million intellectually curious readers. Sign up here.
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Amazon announced yesterday that it has expanded same-day grocery delivery to more than 1,000 US cities, with plans to reach more than 2,300 by the end of the year. Prime members get free delivery for orders $25 and up (with a $2.99 fee for smaller orders).
Amazon’s gross sales last year topped $100B from more than 150 million US customers. However, the company lags behind Walmart in grocery sales, with Walmart able to make same-day deliveries to more than 90% of the country. With stagnant growth in its cloud computing business, Amazon has redoubled efforts to capture more of the US grocery delivery market, which it values at $800B, experimenting with storing fresh food at delivery hubs. Amazon has also expanded offerings in recent years to include prescriptions, telehealth visits, and used cars.
Shares of Instacart, DoorDash, and Walmart dropped on yesterday’s news. |
Residents in parts of Alaska’s capital, Juneau, evacuated yesterday amid the threat of record flooding. The Mendenhall River along western Juneau rose 7 feet within 24 hours, cresting at a record height of 16.7 feet.
The flooding is tied to the retreat of a small glacier near Suicide Basin (see history, including its 2011 discovery). The bedrock valley accumulates annually with meltwater, with nearby Mendenhall Glacier serving as an ice dam. When enough water accumulates, the water breaches the glacier, releasing outburst floods into the Mendenhall River. Roughly 15 billion gallons of water (enough for more than 22,000 Olympic pools) were released in last year's flood.
Last month, officials finished erecting 2.5 miles of emergency flood barriers along the most populated areas of the Mendenhall riverbank. The barriers consist of rock-filled steel cages and sandbags, designed to raise the riverbank and protect homes from up to 18 feet of flooding. A longer-term solution is expected to take years. |
Shifting Alcohol Attitudes |
Only 54% of US adults say they drink alcohol, the lowest rate Gallup has recorded since tracking began in 1939. The 2025 poll, released yesterday, also found a record high 53% of Americans view drinking as harmful to health.
The drinking rate hovered in the low to mid 60s from 1997 to 2023, before falling to 58% in 2024. Analysts attribute the ongoing decline largely to adults aged 18 to 34, whose drinking rate has dropped 9% in two years. Two-thirds of this group say even moderate drinking—one or two drinks a day—is harmful, up from 34% in 2018. Concerns among older adults have also increased, though less sharply.
The trend follows growing research about alcohol’s health impacts. In January, the US surgeon general called for warning labels on alcoholic beverages over cancer risks. Federal guidelines currently recommend that men limit their daily intake to two drinks and women to one.
Learn how some alcohol companies are adjusting to meet changing consumer attitudes here. |
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