THE BULLETIN • SATURDAY, AUGUST 13, 2022 A5
A5
B USINESS
THE BULLETIN • SATURDAY, AUGUST 13, 2022
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DOW
33,761.05 +424.38
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BRIEFING
Peloton cutting
800 jobs, retooling
Peloton Interactive will
embark on a sweeping
overhaul that includes
cutting nearly 800 jobs,
raising prices for its Bike+
and Tread machines, and
outsourcing functions
such as equipment de-
liveries and customer
service to outside com-
panies.
The changes, which
the company disclosed
Friday in a memo to em-
ployees, also includes
gradually closing many
of its retail showrooms
— a process that will get
underway next year. It’s
the most wide-ranging
shake-up yet under Chief
Executive Officer Barry
McCarthy, a tech veteran
who took the helm in
February.
Peloton is hoping to
turn around a business
that had thrived during
the early days of the pan-
demic but suffered a pun-
ishing slowdown in the
past year. Sales are declin-
ing, losses are mounting,
and the company’s stock
price is down nearly 90%
over the past 12 months.
The latest moves are an
attempt to reinvigorate
sales, boost efficiency and
restore some of Peloton’s
former cachet.
“We have to make our
revenues stop shrink-
ing and start growing
again,” McCarthy said in
the memo provided to
Bloomberg, adding that
the changes are essential
to making Peloton cash-
flow positive again. “Cash
is oxygen. Oxygen is life.”
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Act may have little impact on prices
BY CHRISTOPHER RUGABER
AND JOSH BOAK
Associated Press Writers
WASHINGTON — With
inflation raging near its high-
est level in four decades, Con-
gress has approved President
Joe Biden’s signature Inflation
Reduction Act. Its title raises
a tantalizing question: Will
the measure actually tame
the price spikes that have in-
flicted hardships on American
households?
Economic analyses of the
proposal suggest that the an-
swer is likely no — not any-
time soon, anyway.
The legislation, which the
House approved Friday and
now only needs the president’s
signature, won’t directly ad-
David Zalubowski/AP photo
Prices at the wholesale level fell from June to July, the first month-to-
month drop in more than two years and a sign that some of the U.S.
economy’s inflationary pressures cooled last month.
dress some of the main drivers
of surging prices — from gas
and food to rents and restau-
rant meals.
Still, the bill could save
money for some Americans
by lessening the cost of pre-
scription drugs for the elderly,
extending health insurance
subsidies and reducing energy
prices. It would also modestly
cut the government’s budget
deficit, which might slightly
lower inflation by the end of
this decade.
The nonpartisan Congres-
sional Budget Office con-
cluded last week that the
changes would have a “negli-
gible” impact on inflation this
year and next. And the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania’s Penn
Wharton Budget Model con-
cluded that, over the next de-
cade, “the impact on inflation
is statistically indistinguish-
able from zero.”
Such forecasts also under-
cut the arguments that some
Republicans, such as House
DREAM JOB
Mattress company is paying people to sleep
Chris Walker/Chicago Tribune, file
A sleep specialist at a Casper mattress store in Chicago straightens a king-size Wave mattress in this 2018 photo.
BY JONATHAN EDWARDS • The Washington Post
J
ackie Trost awoke Monday to a job prospect, one so compelling that within minutes, she’d cobbled
together her application: a 15-word sentence and a 29-second video.
Wearing an eye mask that read “Warning: Do Not Disturb, Disturbed Enough Already,” Trost bragged
in the video clip about how she had once fallen asleep while standing up and leaning against her shower wall.
“I think I’d be a perfect fit,” she said, cracking a smile.
With that, she pulled down the eye
mask and submitted her application
for a dream job, indeed — profes-
sional sleeper.
Casper, which launched eight years
ago as an online-only mattress com-
pany, is hiring people with “excep-
tional sleeping ability” and “a desire
to sleep as much as possible” to exer-
cise those natural talents for money.
Those tapped to be “Casper Sleep-
ers” will snooze in the company’s
stores and “in unexpected settings
out in the world,” serving as real-life
“Before we started this company,
the idea of sleeping on your
mattress before you bought it just
didn’t exist.”
— Philip Krim one of the five
co-founders of Casper
mannequins and in-house influenc-
ers whose catnaps and siestas will be
spun into “TikTok-style content.”
“This is not a dream, and this is
not a drill,” a Casper spokeswoman
said in a TikTok video announcing
the job posting.
For nearly a decade, the “bed-in-a-
box” retailer has sold mattresses online
with free returns after 100 nights, a
new concept when it launched in 2014.
“Before we started this company,
the idea of sleeping on your mattress
before you bought it just didn’t exist,”
one of the five co-founders, Philip
Krim, told The Washington Post in
2018.
See Sleep / A6
FEDERAL LANDS
Judge revives Obama-era ban on coal sales
BILLINGS, Mont. — A
federal judge has reinstated a
moratorium on coal leasing
from federal lands that was
imposed under former Presi-
dent Barack Obama and then
scuttled under former Presi-
Did you know?
The act could save money
for some Americans by:
• Lessening the cost of pre-
scription drugs for the el-
derly;
• Extending health insur-
ance subsidies;
• Reducing energy prices;
• It would modestly cut
the government’s budget
deficit.
Minority Leader Kevin McCa-
rthy have made, that the bill
would “cause inflation,” as Mc-
Carthy said in a speech on the
House floor last month.
See Inflation / A6
VIRAL DOORBELL
VIDEOS
Amazon’s
Ring,
MGM
to launch
TV show
Associated Press
— Bulletin wire reports
BY MATTHEW BROWN
Associated Press
EURO
$1.0267 -.0055
INFLATION REDUCTION
Best Buy cuts jobs
after it cuts sales
and profit outlook
Best Buy, the nation’s
largest consumer elec-
tronics chain, is trimming
jobs in an effort to adjust
to new changes in con-
sumer behavior as the vi-
rus wanes.
Best Buy declined to
say how many jobs it
was cutting, but The Wall
Street Journal, which was
first to report the news,
estimated it involved
hundreds of jobs at the
store level.
“We’re always evalu-
ating and evolving our
teams to make sure we’re
serving our customers,”
Best Buy said in a state-
ment emailed to The
Associated Press. ‘With
an ever-changing macro-
economic environment,
including customers
shopping more digitally
than ever, we have made
adjustments to our teams
that include eliminating a
small number of roles.”
The job cuts come af-
ter Best Buy reduced its
annual sales and profit
forecast late last month,
citing surging inflation
that has dampened
consumer spending on
gadgets. The Minne-
apolis-based company
echoed Walmart, which
a few days before cut its
profit outlook. The na-
tion’s largest retailer said
that higher prices on ba-
sic necessities are forcing
shoppers to cut back on
discretionary items .
q
dent Donald Trump.
Friday’s ruling from U.S.
District Judge Brian Morris re-
quires government officials to
complete a new environmental
review before they can resume
coal sales from federal lands.
Few leases have been sold
in recent years as coal de-
mand shrank drastically. But
the industry’s opponents had
urged Morris to revive the
Obama-era moratorium to
ensure it can’t make a come-
back as wildfires, drought, ris-
ing sea levels and other effects
of climate change worsen.
The coal program brought
in $387 million for federal
and state coffers through roy-
alties and other payments in
2020, according to govern-
ment data. It supports thou-
sands of jobs and has been
fiercely defended by industry
representatives, Republicans
in Congress and officials in
coal-producing states.
Among President Joe
Biden’s first actions in his first
week in office was to suspend
oil and gas lease sales and he
faced pressure from environ-
mental groups to take similar
action against coal.
See Coal / A6
NEW YORK — Two Am-
azon-owned companies —
Ring and Hollywood studio
MGM — are teaming to cre-
ate a TV show in the mold of
“America’s Funniest Home
Videos” using viral footage
from Ring’s doorbell and
smart-home cameras.
The half-hour show, called
“Ring Nation,” will be hosted
by actor and comedian Wanda
Sykes and premier in syndica-
tion on Sept. 26, MGM said.
The studio noted audiences
should expect to see the usual
things that go viral — mar-
riage proposals, neighbors
saving neighbors and silly an-
imals.
The series showcases Am-
azon’s fusion of its various
business arms, this time to
highlight what MGM called
“interesting moments from
communities across the coun-
try.”
But it also presents a brand-
ing and marketing oppor-
tunity for the Seattle-based
e-commerce and retail giant,
which bought Ring in 2018 for
$1 billion and has dealt with
rounds of privacy concerns
around Ring and its relation-
ship with police departments
across the country.
Last month, Amazon re-
vealed it had provided Ring
doorbell footage to law en-
forcement 11 times this year
without the user’s permission
— all in response to emer-
gency requests, according to
the company.
MGM, which Amazon pur-
chased for $8.5 billion, said
in a statement Thursday that
“Ring Nation” will offer audi-
ences “daily dose of life’s un-
predictable, heartwarming
and hilarious viral videos”
shared by people from their
cameras.
“Many of these have been
previously shared online,”
Amazon spokesperson Nick
Schweers said. “Others were
sent directly to the team.” Ring
Nation secures permissions
for each video from the owner
and anyone identifiable in the
video, or from companies that
hold the rights to the clips, he
said.
Amazon’s deal to purchase
MGM was closed earlier this
year, though the Federal Trade
Commission has said it still re-
tains discretion to challenge it.