Walmart is printable

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It’s Tuesday, TFP fam. Yesterday, world-renowned actor James Earl Jones passed away at an extraordinary 93-years-old. Best known for his roles in Field of Dreams, The Lion King, and of course, for iconically voicing Darth Vader in the Star Wars franchise, Jones was awarded three Tonys, two Emmys, a Grammy, and the Academy Honorary Award for his large body of work. May the Force be with him.

DAILY TOP TRENDS

Walmart 3D Prints Itself

Walmart completed the first commercial real estate project using 3D-printed technology at one of its Supercenters — a groundbreaking undertaking that wasn’t without its problems.

The Big Picture: 3D-printing is likely the future of construction, as it theoretically will make projects quicker to complete and cheaper to produce. But right now, there are plenty of growing pains that will keep the industry from a quick transformation.

Between the Lines: Walmart’s 8,000-square-foot expansion at its store in Athens, Tennessee was essentially a pilot program.

• The space, which is dedicated to holding items for ecommerce customers, was built using 3D-printing tech from Alquist 3D.

• Due to a heat wave, the material didn’t originally react as intended, making the project fall weeks behind schedule and cost as much as using traditional construction methods.

• But Walmart apparently understood the roadblocks and is pleased enough to keep testing the technology.

The Future: Walmart has 200 similar projects to the Athens one in the pipeline, so there are plenty of opportunities to keep testing the tech… and plenty of opportunities for Alquist (one of the leaders in the space) to keep developing the technology. Alquist has had a spotty track record with past projects, but if they can get things consistently right with Walmart, they’ll be built for success. Don’t be surprised if Walmart even becomes a hub for Alquist to sell home packages.

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Roblox Exits the Metaverse with Shopify

Roblox is expanding its digital-to-physical commerce capabilities in a major way, thanks to a new partnership with Shopify, which will give customers the ability to browse for and purchase products — all inside the game.

Why It Hits: Brands are on an endless hunt to meet young people (and their parents’ wallets) wherever they are, so literally gamifying the shopping experience could be the bullseye for a major jump in revenue.

Between the Lines: Roblox and Shopify may be the most consequential ecommerce collab of the year.

• The partnership, which is set to roll out soon and expand in early 2025, allows users to select a “Buy Now” prompt within Roblox. That pulls up a product page where users can see the IRL product, choose their specifications, and then complete their purchase.

• Customers, who have to be over the age of 13, will be able to use any payment accepted by the seller.

• But this is just the start: Roblox says that developers will one day be able to sell physical products, add a rewards program to digital stores, and more in-game tools to handle other retail needs.

The Future: Over the past few years, Roblox has become a major platform both for young people to hang out and for retail brands to create buzzy marketing experiences. Roblox has been testing ecommerce capabilities this year with Walmart and e.l.f. Beauty, so things must be going well. If sales through Shopify look good, expect every brand to break ground in the game… and maybe even hire high-schoolers to act as digital salespeople.

Go Deeper: The Verge chats with Roblox CEO David Baszucki about the future of the platform.

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DEEP DIVES

• Read: NYT gets real deep on the War of the Bobs that led to Disney’s sacking of brief-CEO Bob Chapek to bring back Mouse House-favorite Bob Iger for a C-suite reboot.

• Listen: Decoder chats with Anthropic chief product officer and Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger about what consumer-facing AI products could get people excited.

• Watch: Bloomberg explores how legalized gambling is transforming the sports world by putting a lot more money on the table.

86.6% of you voted No in yesterday’s poll: Does Taylor Swift have an impact on your football season?

“She’s one of many reasons I no longer pay attention to the league.”

“She’s just a famous personality attending the game. Great for the Chiefs and Travis Kelce, though. Good for her.”

“We’ve always been both college and professional football fans, who look forward to football season every year…”

Let’s keep the conversation going. Join our Poll Of The Day newsletter so your opinions can shine. Discover how your views line up with your peers’, check out cool insights, and have some fun. It’s data with personality.

QUICK HITS

→ Entertainment/Media

🎶 Songwriting duo Benj Pask and Justin Paul are the newest members of the EGOT club, thanks to their Emmy win for Only Murders in the Building.

🏈 Dallas Cowboys QB Dak Prescott scored the biggest deal in NFL history with a $240 million, four-year contract extension.

🎙️ Adam Sandler brought his Waterboy character Bobby Boucher to last night’s episode of the Manningcast as the comedy sequel starts filming.

→ Technology

📱 Apple debuts the iPhone 16 — the first of its smartphones built with Apple Intelligence.

🚗 Elon Musk’s xAI may receive revenue from Elon Musk’s Tesla in exchange for the carmaker being able to access the AI firm’s tech.

🚅 Siemens is building the first factory in the US to manufacture bullet trains in Horsehead, NY.

→ Creator Economy

💳 JPMorgan is about to bring down the hammer on TikTokers who jumped on the viral check-fraud trend.

📹 Twitch is giving creators the ability to control how many ads fans see on their broadcasts.

💻 The Try Guys project their new streaming venture, 2nd Try, will hit profitability very soon since it already accounts for 20% of the brand’s revenue.