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Store returns are becoming a bigger hassle
Jennifer Howe is nonetheless holding onto gifts from Christmas she doesn’t want. Slippers that are as well huge, a designer fragrance she’ll never dress in, and candles. “They look wonderful, but I’ve by no means been a candle individual,” she mentioned. “I’m contemplating about donating some of the stuff I got, or possibly re-gifting, because returning is a pain.” She’s not completely wrong. Stores now are generating returns additional demanding, far more perplexing, and probably additional high priced. What a variance a couple of a long time make. During the pandemic, merchants bent around backwards to make returns very simple — and seamless — for homebound Us citizens. Following all,…
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The U.S. housing market stares down an even bigger economic shock—mortgage rates near 7{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502}
Unbeknownst to buyers lining the sidewalks outside of frenzied open homes this spring, the Pandemic Housing Growth was previously in its ultimate inning. In March, Fortune released a pair of articles titled “The housing industry enters uncharted waters“ and “An economic shock just hit the housing sector“ arguing just that: The purple-sizzling housing market would speedily change in the face of spiked home loan fees, which experienced jumped from 3.2{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} in January to about 4{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} by late March. Not only did bigger property finance loan prices aid to lead to the Pandemic Housing Increase fizzle out, but it was changed by what Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell now calls a…