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Issue #8 11.08.2026
The weekly standup
Everything you need to know before you have to microwave your coffee for the first time.
🛒
AI chatbots are quietly deciding what your customers buy
✈️
WestJet’s strike ended with a radical idea: paying for the whole job
📦
Canada has two weeks to talk down a 50% tariff
The office chatter ☕
What everyone’s pretending not to read during meetings.
✈️
Turns out the meter should run on the ground too
WestJet and its cabin crew reached a tentative deal Monday, ending a strike that grounded hundreds of flights and stranded 250,000 travellers. At the heart of it: crew were mostly paid only while the plane was moving. Boarding, safety checks, delays? Unpaid. The new deal recognizes more of the actual work. A radical concept: paying people for their whole job (CBC).
📦
Two weeks to talk down tariffs
Canada’s trade team is back in Washington trying to head off a threatened 50% tariff on a broad range of Canadian goods before it kicks in August 19. Carney says talks are “constructive,” which is diplomat for “we’re still in the room.” For businesses that sell south of the border, the next two weeks are the whole ballgame (CBC).
Like what you’re reading?
The breakroom bulletin 📌
What’s hot, what’s not and what’s all for show.
Getting promoted 📈
🧑💼
The hottest new org chart is one box
Solo businesses earning over $1 million a year more than doubled since 2023, with AI handling the bulk of the work. The first hire used to be step one. Now it’s optional (The Peak).
📈
The recession has been cancelled
Canada’s economy grew 0.3% in May, putting Q2 on track for a 3.4% annualized rebound. Economists say growth cools once new tariffs bite, but for now: not a recession. We’ll take it (Statistics Canada).
On a PIP 📉
🔒
The lock on the cologne is costing you sales
38% of shoppers have abandoned a purchase because of security friction. Protecting the product or selling it. Apparently, retailers now choose one (Retail Insider).
🥡
The meal kit hit its best-before date
Goodfood filed for creditor protection this week. The pandemic built a lot of business models on the assumption we’d never leave the house again. Turns out we did (Beta Kit).
Corporate Theatre 🎭
💉
The interview process now involves needles
An AI startup offered job interviews to anyone willing to get a tattoo of its logo. The interviewees weren’t guaranteed jobs. The tattoos, presumably, are still guaranteed tattoos (Futurism).
🎭
The office is now performance art
A new survey found 72% of workers under return-to-office mandates suspect the real strategy is getting people to quit. The response: badge in, grab a coffee, badge out (TechRadar).
Ideas worth stealing 💡
🤖
Everyone assumes the robot wrote your ad
87% of consumers believe brand content is at least partly AI-generated. The takeaway for SMBs: polish doesn’t prove anything. Real customer stories and product quality do (Retail Insider).
🥤
The Big Mac is now a side hustle
McDonald’s says its bet on crafted sodas, refreshers and cloud iced coffees is paying off early. You don’t need new customers if you can give existing ones a new reason to show up (Retail Insider).
The Thing I Can’t Stop Thinking About 🧠
Your next customer might be a chatbot
📖
The story
Shopify shares soared as much as 25% after a monster quarter: revenue up 34% year over year, with AI chatbots steering shoppers directly to its merchants’ stores. Orders from AI-powered searches grew nearly 13-fold in a year, and more than one in three Canadians now use AI to make purchasing decisions.
📶
The signal
The storefront keeps moving. First it was Main Street, then Google, now it’s a chatbot deciding which products get mentioned at all. AI companies are quietly becoming the gatekeepers between businesses and their customers, and most SMBs haven’t clocked that the door has moved again.
🛫
The takeaway
SEO became a US$100 billion industry by teaching businesses to please an algorithm. The sequel is already forming: getting AI agents to recommend you organically. The real question isn’t whether customers will shop through AI. It’s whether your business will be visible when they do (The Peak).
Smart people saying smart things 💬
One post, tweet or take that’s making people in the world of work stop scrolling.
This week, Wharton psychologist Adam Grant names what’s actually driving the return-to-office push — and it isn’t productivity.
My music at work 🎵
One song helping us survive another week of impromptu Slack huddles.
The last thing before we jump 🦘
There’s a theme hiding in this week’s stories. WestJet crews were paid for the plane moving, not the job. Offices are measuring badge swipes, not work. Brands are polishing content nobody believes.
Everywhere you look, there’s a gap between what gets measured and what’s actually real — and the businesses that win are the ones closing it, not performing it.
See you next week.
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