Hi, I'm Matt Turner, the editor in chief of business at Insider. Welcome back to Insider Weekly, a roundup of some of our top stories.
On the agenda today:
- Employees are defying orders to return to the office — and getting away with it.
- After throwing away $181 million worth of bitcoin, one man is on a mission to get it back.
- Paul Weiss' Brad Karp, lawyer to the rich and powerful, is wrestling with his future.
- Drug companies found a cure for "bubble boy" disease. So why are kids still dying from it?
Before we get started: Ben Tobin, our resident Walmart reporter, published a story last week on the retailer's "chaotic, overcrowded back rooms and outdoor storage units stuffed with unsold goods." Today, Ben's here to break down the latest.
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Inside Walmart's major inventory problem
Walmart's excess-inventory issues are spilling out into its stores — literally, Insider's Ben Tobin writes.
The company reported that it had finished the first quarter with a 32% increase in inventory because of inflation and supply-chain issues, and it has been dealing with the consequences.
Store employees told Insider about issues including myriad pallets rendering floors unwalkable, boxes blocking access to places like private breastfeeding rooms and bathrooms, and outdoor trailers being stuffed with overstock.
So what's next?
Walmart on Monday reduced its profit guidance for the second quarter and the year — and overstock has been a major culprit the company is desperately trying to tackle.
In one internal memo sent before the change in profit guidance, Walmart told store managers their stores could pause automatic inventory-ordering systems.
And in another internal memo sent as Walmart made its announcement, the company instructed store managers to "immediately" slash prices on summer items. But analysts and store managers alike think it may be too little, too late.
Now, on to the rest of our stories.
Return-to-office rule breakers
Two years into the pandemic, much of corporate America has given employees two choices: drag yourself back to your cubicle, or quit. Plenty have chosen the former. And in the Great Resignation, many others have opted for the latter.
But some have carved out a third way: refuse to comply with back-to-work orders and hope to get away with it.
The quest to find 8,000 bitcoins
In 2013, James Howells threw out a hard drive about the size of an iPhone 6 that he said contained 8,000 bitcoins — currently worth about $181 million, even after the recent crypto crash.
Now the 36-year-old is hoping to stage an $11 million treasure hunt — complete with robot dogs, human sorters, and an artificial-intelligence-powered machine — to get the hard drive back.
How to find a hard drive in a dump.
Paul Weiss' chair considers his future
A trusted advisor to billionaires, a political power broker, and a media schmoozer, Brad Karp leads a whirlwind life at the top of one of the most powerful American law firms. He's won dozens of clients, including Citibank, the NFL, and Apollo — and taken heat for representing Leon Black.
The prospect of a Paul Weiss without Karp is like the Chicago Bulls without Michael Jordan. But in an interview, he told us the job's taking a toll on his psyche.
Our profile of the lawyer to the rich and powerful.
Big Pharma is keeping a miracle cure away from kids
Jakob Kamil Guziak lives in a bubble created by his parents. He was born with an illness that's been dubbed "bubble boy" disease — and for Jakob and his family, it's like living in the kind of isolated, fearful lockdown that defined the early days of COVID-19.
A cure for Jakob's disease exists. But his family can't access it — not because they can't afford it, but because drug companies that controlled the cure didn't think they could profit from it.
How Big Pharma can save kids like Jakob — but won't.
This week's quote:
"When you look at how millennials use the internet, they post perfect, aesthetically pleasing profiles. For Gen Z, that's pretty cringe."
— Alex Ma, creator of the popular photo-sharing app Poparazzi
More of this week's top reads:
- These 37 tech companies are most likely to be acquired by private-equity firms.
- It's official: Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner are smarter than Mark Zuckerberg.
- Banks are leaving women behind — and it's costing them $700 billion a year.
- Google is pushing back its deadline for killing off tracking cookies.
- There are way too many Airbnbs, and that's jacking up rents.
- VCs shared which biotech startups they think will take off in the next year.
- Stop working so hard. It'll make you happier — and more productive.
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Curated by Matt Turner. Edited by Jordan Parker Erb and Lisa Ryan. Sign up for more Insider newsletters here.
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