Thursday’s a new day, fam, and it’s a new era for Japan. The country’s administrative services just recently phased out floppy disks for a number of its governmental functions. Yes, we’re talking about a dinosaur of technology in a country renowned for its cutting-edge tech. Hey, it just goes to show how durable of a tool floppies turned out to be.

In other news… grocery stores are a tourist hotspot, Rob McElhenney crafts global collaboration, and Inside Out 2 is Pixar’s most successful movie yet.

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• YouTube – Time Bandits

• X (Twitter) – Katy Perry

• Google – We Live in Time

• Reddit – Hocus Pocus

• TikTok – “Please Don’t Go” - Wyatt Flores

• Spotify – “Italian Horror” - Kasabian

.FOOD & DRINK.

Grocery stores are now tourist hotspots

The Future. Sightseeing trips to local grocery stores have become a hot new trend on social media, with visitors expressing how the retail spaces act as the perfect microcosm of a city’s culture. Considering Costco’s ambitious plan to build housing units on top of one of its new stores, don’t be surprised if high-end grocery stores introduce their own hospitality offerings that keep the fridges stocked with some of their best-selling products.

Exotic produce
Visitors to Los Angeles will likely visit the Griffith Observatory, the Santa Monica Pier, and, now, Erewhon.

• Grocery stores give visitors a window into cultural flavors, show off emerging food trends, and even offer unique merch.

• That includes (very expensive) celebrity smoothies at Erewhon, champagne tasting at Zurheide in Germany, and picking up unique spices in stores in Malaysia.

• Some real grocery-store diehards have even admitted to flying internationally with the sole purpose of visiting unique establishments.

With Highsnobiety calling Erewhon the Supreme of supermarkets — a place where culture, fashion, and food intersect — the tourism seems well-founded. There are even “Get Ready With Me” videos about dressing for a trip to the upscale market.

Are we about to see the rise of grocery influencers?

61.6% of you voted No in yesterday’s poll: Would you ever want a digital twin?

“There is only one me! Or two of me would be too much! Lol.”

“Nope, I have an identical, and she is all I would want and could never be replaced.”

“Very intriguing possibilities!”

.A WORD FROM OUR FRIENDS AT UPWORK.

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Partnering with Upwork is a genius way to optimize your resources and grow your business. It gives you an extensive network of incredible freelancers who can help you adapt to the ever-changing market landscape. And boy, is it changing.

With each hire, you’ll read real reviews, see past work, and get straightforward pricing. What else could you wish for?

All right, enough of our spiel — hit up Upwork and hire smarter.

Media, Music, & Entertainment

• Inside Out 2 has passed Incredibles 2 as the highest-grossing Pixar movie, racking up a worldwide gross of $1.25 billion… and counting. [Read More]

• Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment — the parent company of brands like Redbox and Crackle — has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and plans to liquidate its assets. [Read More]

• Hipgnosis has sold its buzzy song fund, which includes the catalogs of artists like Neil Young and Red Hot Chili Peppers, to PE firm Blackstone for $1.6 billion. [Read More]

Fashion & E-Commerce

• LA-based brands like Willy Chavarria, Ghetto Rodeo, and Kaló Soil have gotten a huge boost in sales and social media impressions after being featured in Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” music video. [Read More]

• Temu is now allowing Chinese sellers to ship from their warehouses in the US — a move that may save it from an import ban and directly challenges Amazon. [Read More]

• Nike announced it will no longer update its Adapt app, which controls the brand’s self-tying Adapt BB shoes… meaning eventually, you’ll no longer be able to tie your shoes. [Read More]

Tech, Web3, & AI

• TikTok is rolling out an AI chatbot, Tonik, on its dedicated music app that lets users generate playlists based on mood, weather, and other prompts. [Read More]

• xAI says it will build its own supercomputer with Nvidia chips after a deal with Oracle fell apart. [Read More]

• A new device called GameScent uses AI to craft and emit scents based on what’s happening in video games — Smell-O-Vision for gaming. [Read More]

Creator Economy

• Comedian Hasan Minhaj is launching a new interview series on YouTube titled Hasan Minhaj Doesn’t Know and has set Senator Elizabeth Warren as his first guest. [Read More]

• Creator startups have raised as much money this year as they did in all of 2023, led by major investments in Flip and Create Music Group. [Read More]

• YouTube is prompting Shorts creators to collaborate with a new sticker called “Add Yours.” [Read More]

.ENTERTAINMENT.

Rob McElhenney officially launches creative-collaboration platform Adim

The Future. Rob McElhenney, the co-creator of Mythic Quest and Welcome to Wrexham, is minting himself as a tech entrepreneur with the official launch of creator-focused social platform Adim. If it takes off, Adim could help connect artists around the world and lead to a new wave of low-budget, cross-cultural creativity that gives everyone a financial stake in its success.

Artist round-up
Rob McElhenney wants to give creatives the tools to find partners like he had when getting It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia off the ground with Glenn Howerton, Charlie Day, and Kaitlin Olson.

• Although quietly launched in 2022, McElhenney is officially opening the doors on Adim — a platform for sharing creative projects, finding collaborators, and hearing pitches from artisans.

• McElhenney has also debuted an animated short film, Cammy and Mike, made under the Adim model. The short was crowdsourced by 100 creators on the platform from the prompt, “What is your favorite character and why?”

Cammy and Mike, which follows two alien robot filmmakers shooting a documentary about the animals of Earth, is only the first installment of the story. Users can now submit pitches for future stories. Selected creatives will “be granted creative rights to the characters and encouraged to create content, products, and media surrounding the IP,” per Variety.

Sounds a lot like the NFT-backed universes of Runner and The Fringe… without the need of buying in to participate.

• Listen: The Journal chats with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong about the future of crypto and the industry’s ongoing battle with the SEC.

• Watch: Forbes Talks gets into the nitty gritty of brand partnerships with creator Tyler “Ninja” Blevins and the future of his new beverage brand called Nutcase.

• Read: Bloomberg interviews software engineer Patrick McKenzie, author of the Bits About Money newsletter, about the ins and outs of digital money.

Hilariously dystopian.

LATEST PODCAST EPISODE

Today, on an extra special bonus episode of Future Forecast, our hosts Boye and Chris sit down with Larry Fitzgibbon, the co-founder and CEO of Tastemade. Tastemade is an independent media company that creates award-winning video content and original programming in the food, travel, and home & design space.