Costco Is Now Selling $625 Packs of Silver Coins and $2,000 Gold Bars — and Shoppers Are Snapping Them Up

^{This article originally appeared on Business Insider.}

It’s not just $2,000 gold bars you can buy from Costco — customers can now snap up $625 packs of silver coins, too, as the retailer expands its precious metals business.

The discount retailer recently started selling the coins for the first time, CFO Richard Galanti told CNN.

On Costco’s website, you can snap up a 25-count pack of 2024 Canada Maple Leaf silver coins. Each coin weighs one troy ounce and is made of 99.99% pure silver, Costco says.

The coins, from the Royal Canadian Mint, have an image of King Charles III on one side and a maple leaf on the other. They have a face value of 5 Canadian dollars each.

^{The coins have an image of King Charles III on one side and a maple leaf on the other. Costco via Business Insider}

Galanti told analysts on Thursday that Costco’s e-commerce sales growth in the quarter was “led by sales of gold and very recently silver.” Comparable e-commerce sales in the quarter to February 18 were up 18.4% compared to the same period the prior year.

Galanti had previously said at Costco’s earnings call in September that the 24-karat gold bars, priced at about $2,000 each, had been selling out in just a “few hours.” He later revealed that customers had spent $100 million on the bars in the quarter to November 26.

Gold prices hit an all-time high this week.

Some shoppers say their coins from Costco were scratched when they arrived

The Royal Canadian Mint says that the silver coins feature “enhanced” security features, including anti-counterfeiting technology, and protection to reduce the likelihood of them developing white discoloration spots.

The coins can’t be returned or refunded and are limited to five cases per membership, all of which must be bought in one order. The price includes insured, signed-for air shipping via UPS. Customers can’t get them delivered to Puerto Rico, Alaska, or Hawaii.

But compared to the gold bars, which have 4.8-star ratings on Costco’s website, the packs of silver coins have a rating of just 3.4 stars, based on 42 reviews. Many of the reviewers referred to the packaging and shipping of the coins, saying that the cases were unsealed when they arrived and the coins had spilled out. Multiple reviewers said that the coins were scratched as a result.

Business Insider has contacted Costco for comment on the reviews.

Costco sells an eclectic range of merchandise. Alongside massive multipacks, the retailer sells various unexpected items to create a treasure hunt experience. It stocks some higher-end items, too, like expensive jewelry and luxury seafood.

And if you want to convince your friends that you really do love Costco as much as you say you do, you can get your hands on a range of Costco-branded apparel and even a Monopoly set.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/costco-selling-silver-coins-gold-bars-led-to-e-comm-growth/470888

Reddit Offered 75,000 Users the Chance to Preregister for Shares Before It Goes Public. The Reactions Were Pure Reddit.

Last month, Reddit gave 75,000 power users first dibs on stock before the company goes public later this year.

Though Reddit may have pitched the move as a “special program,” popular opinions within the Reddit community show that reception has been mixed.

“I got requested to join the IPO, and I ain’t taking that risk,” one Reddit user posted. “The user base is not worth investing in.” Another presented a contrasting opinion, pointing out that the Reddit community relies on Reddit results for quality answers while also disputing the quality of that content.

Still, others have deemed Reddit a “meme stock” which is a term that ironically originated on the platform.

The 15 million members on the subreddit r/WallStreetBets have impacted the stock market before by manipulating low-performing stock or “meme stocks,” with GameStop being an example that cost institutions billions of dollars in losses.

Reddit just sent my reddit account a DM asking me to buy stock in their IPO

The meme-est of the meme stocks has arrived pic.twitter.com/lXdM6Xl210

— Jeremiah Johnson ? (@JeremiahDJohns) February 22, 2024

Some investors consider Reddit a good bet, though.

“I want to invest in a search engine anyways because I think it’s a good investment to have,” Gillian Tahajian, a 24-year-old marketing analyst, told TechCrunch. “Google is overpriced, and Pinterest is failing me.”

The deadline to preregister for Reddit stock arrives this week for the 75,000 users that Reddit chose to invite. According to Reddit’s S-1 filing with the SEC, which the company filed to prepare for its initial public offering, Redditors who contributed substantially to the community received preference for preregistration. Reddit considered a user’s “karma points,” which measure how much their actions contribute to the Reddit community, and moderator actions to make its picks.

Reddit, which calls itself “the front page of the Internet,” was founded by Alexis Ohanian, Aaron Swartz, and Steve Huffman in 2005. The platform gives posting and community moderation power over to users, who are instrumental enough to the platform’s success that they were able to make the website nonfunctional last year in response to administrative changes.

Reddit could be seeking a $6.5 billion valuation, according to a CNBC source.

Data from Semrush”s Traffic Analytics Tool reveals that Reddit was the third most visited website in the U.S. in December 2023, beating out Facebook by roughly 535 million views. Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok took 10th, 13th, and 17th place respectively. Globally, Reddit takes 9th place according to Semrush, which brings its traffic numbers above TikTok and WhatsApp, but below Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Reddit’s SEC filing discloses that the company had 267.5 million active users per week, more than 100,000 active communities, and a total post count of 1 billion. The company was unprofitable last year, with a net loss of $90.8 million, but plans to become profitable through “advertising, monetizing commerce on the platform, and licensing data,” according to the filing.

The filing further shows that Reddit currently generates 98% of its revenue through advertising.

Reddit struck a $60 million deal with Google in February that allows the company to train its AI models on Reddit posts.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/reddit-users-debate-preregister-to-buy-shares-deadline-near/470829

‘Largest Fraud Recovery to Date’: New Jersey Man Accused of Illegally Trafficking Over 670 SpaceX Starlink Terminals

SpaceX is making headlines, and this time, the drama isn’t about CEO Elon Musk — or Mars.

Kelvin Rodriguez-Moya, 35, was arrested for allegedly illegally trafficking 675 SpaceX Starlink terminals he had purchased with stolen credit card information and hacking existing customers.

Starlink terminals are mostly used to bring internet access to remote areas around the world through SpaceX’s satellites.

The devices, which are worth an estimated $400,000, were reportedly shipped to a home in New Jersey before he attempted to transport them via pickup truck to Newark.

“Typically, what happens is, the suspect would use these devices to resell and gain some type of monetary benefit,” Lawrence Township police Chief Chris Longo said. “We received information from a resident that there was a large number of deliveries going to a residence within our town.”

Rodriguez-Moya was reportedly pulled over with roughly 220 devices in his truck while he was en route to Newark.

Rodriguez-Moya does not live at the address where the satellites were delivered, and the actual residents were unaware of what was going on.

SpaceX’s Director of Payment Risk and Fraud, Bennet Woo, dubbed the recovery of the terminals the “largest fraud recovery to date by an order of magnitude.”

Rodriguez-Moya was officially charged with receiving stolen property and trafficking stolen property (both in the second degree) and has a detention hearing set for March 8.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/new-jersey-man-accused-of-trafficking-675-starlink-terminals/470834

‘Highway Robbery’: Burger Chain Slammed for ‘Out of Control’ Prices Amid Inflation

Several burger restaurants have been getting heat on social media for recent price hikes, and the latest to come under fire is the popular chain, Five Guys.

An image of a customer’s receipt is going viral on X and has received over 25.2 million views so far, according to the platform.

Five Guys prices are out of control.

$24 for one person

Source: Reddit pic.twitter.com/wcXgbjGnI4

— Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) March 1, 2024

“Five Guys prices are out of control,” the user @WallStreetSilv wrote on top of a photo of a $24.10 receipt for one person that featured a $12.49 bacon cheeseburger and a $5.19 order of small fries with a drink and sales tax.

“I guess I was expecting about $12 to $15 per person for Five Guys,” the user wrote. “What is the right amount these days?”

Viewers were shocked at the total, complaining that prices of fast food chains have reached an “unattainable” high.

“5 dollars for a small fry is highway robbery,” one user said. “It’s literally just a potato and some salt. Cost them a quarter to make.”

“This is why I no longer go to Five Guys, not because I can’t afford it but because you need to draw the line at some point,” another said.

According to MoneyGeek, the average price of a Five Guys meal in 2022 was $19.95.

In a recent interview, the Director of Operations-APAC at Five Guys International, Iain Ross-Mackenzie, explained that higher prices were due to the company using fresh ingredients.

“We want to put control back in the consumer’s pocket,’ Iain said. “Nothing is frozen. We only ever use fresh ingredients.”

Earlier this year, McDonald’s was criticized for raising prices, and rival chain Wendy’s revealed that it would be experimenting with a “dynamic” pricing model.

Five Guys did not immediately respond to Entrepreneur’s request for comment.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/five-guys-slammed-for-high-prices-receipt-goes-viral/470773

Hedge Fund Billionaire and Disney Investor Nelson Peltz Published 133 Pages on How Disney Should Change. Here’s the Short Version.

Activist investor Nelson Peltz, the 81-year-old founder of multi-billion dollar hedge fund Trian Partners, published a 133-page presentation on Tuesday laying out what he’d push for if he wins a seat on Disney’s board at its April 3 annual meeting. Peltz owns $3 billion in Disney stock.

A suggested change on the corporate governance side from Peltz is having Disney provide shareholders with numbers on how business unit leaders are compensated. Peltz also wants to revamp Disney’s organizational structure, but acknowledged that it was “impossible to fully understand how to best improve the current structure from the outside.”

When it comes to streaming, Peltz asks for clarity around how Disney plans to keep subscribers on streaming services while also making that part of the business profitable. Disney raised prices for Disney+ and Hulu in October and introduced a Hulu tile within Disney+ in December to drive bundle subscriptions.

In the presentation, Peltz advocates for fully integrating Disney+ and Hulu into one product and evaluating if Hulu Live is a good product to offer.

^{Nelson Peltz, founder and chief executive officer of Trian Fund Management. Photographer: Marco Bello/Bloomberg via Getty Images}

Peltz also takes issue with Disney’s box office performance: “Disney’s recent animated films have generated less demand at the box office and have cost significantly more to produce,” the presentation reads.

Disney reported stellar earnings in February, with earnings of $1.91 billion, up 49% from the same period a year earlier. Disney also pointed to a 1.2 million increase in Hulu subscribers from the previous quarter.

Disney CEO Bob Iger, who Peltz personally called out in the report over his close personal relationships with Disney’s board, said in March that he’s “working very hard not to let this distract me.”

Peltz sought board seats last year but called off the attempt after Iger announced a multi-billion dollar plan to cut costs in tech, market, content, and its workforce. Disney implemented layoffs in March that affected 7,000 people.

Members of the Disney family have been critical of Peltz, with film producer and activist Abigail Disney telling the New York Times that though she has had disagreements with Bob Iger, “I know for a fact that the worst thing that could happen to the company is Nelson Peltz.”

The grandchildren of Roy O. Disney and Walt E. Disney, including Abigail, signed open letters last week that clearly stated support for Iger and his leadership.

“What concerns us most about these hedge-fund-backed opportunists is that they have little to no knowledge of what Disney truly means to people like you,” one letter read. “They haven’t made arguments for why they should be entrusted with the keys to the kingdom our family built.”

Meanwhile, Peltz’s daughter, Nicola Peltz Beckham, is an actress who made her directorial debut in February.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/nelson-peltz-wants-to-change-disney-heres-how-hed-do-it/470761

‘I Actually Started Crying’: He Was in Debt His Entire Life Before Scratch Off Lottery Win

People who have found themselves in debt usually fantasize about a day when it will all be wiped away.

And for one lucky man in Kentucky, that dream became a reality after he won a scratch-off lottery ticket in Louisville.

Charles Stallard purchased a $5 scratch-off ticket in February at Price Less Foods in Louisville, which advertised $150,000 as the winning prize for the ticket.

Stallard first scratched off a 50x multiplier and then to his shock, a $3,000 monetary amount.

“I actually started crying. I couldn’t believe it,” he told the Kentucky Lottery. “For the first time in my life, I’m not in debt. I get to pay my house off.”

Stallard collected his prize and took home $108,000, which he said he also plans to use to fix his boat that’s been broken down for over a year.

“Once I get everything paid, I’m fishing the rest of the year,” he said.

The Price Less Foods where he purchased the ticket won a $1,500 payout for selling the ticket.

Stallard’s winnings follow another big win in Kentucky in December when a group of 14 employees won $50,000 on scratch-off tickets that their boss had gifted them at an office holiday party.

“I’m going to use it for my mom’s medicine,” one employee named Winnie Beckman said at the time, explaining that her mother had recently been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. “This will help a lot. And I will never forget this.”

The Kentucky Lottery has raised an estimated $6.8 billion for causes in the state since 1989 and $4.8 billion of those proceeds have gone towards education and scholarship programs, per the lottery website.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/man-in-debt-his-entire-life-wins-lottery-pays-off-mortgage/470768

MrBeast Has Grown Up. He Thinks His YouTube Videos Should Too.

^{This article originally appeared on Business Insider.}

MrBeast appears to be ushering in a new, more mature era of YouTube.

In his latest post on X, the YouTube megastar said wants to leave frantic, energetic personas in his videos behind.

“This past year I’ve slowed down our videos, focused on storytelling, let scenes breathe, yelled less, more personality, longer videos, etc. And our views have skyrocketed!” YouTube’s biggest star said in a post on X on March 3.

He urged his fellow YouTubers to “get rid of the ultra fast-paced” and over-stimulating era of content. “It doesn’t even work,” he said.

It’s a wise move, according to experts, and one that could help him rapidly grow his roughly $700 million-a-year empire.

The formula for YouTube success

MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, has 242 million subscribers on YouTube, and his numbers are still growing rapidly.

In 2024 alone, he’s earned 17 million subscribers — significantly more than most creators will ever achieve in their careers.

In his videos, Donaldson shreds Lamborghinis, gives away massive amounts of cash, and performs ambitious, over-the-top stunts like recreating the Netflix phenomenon “Squid Game.” He’s also become famous for his charity work, planting millions of trees, building wells, and paying for people to have cataract surgery.

But while Donaldson built much of his brand riding the wave of colorful videos full of lively, dynamic characters that served YouTubers so well in the early days, he’s experimented with being a bit more composed in recent videos.

This past year i’ve slowed down our videos, focused on story telling, let scenes breathe, yelled less, more personality, longer videos, etc. And our views have skyrocketed!

My fellow YouTubers lets get rid of the ultra fast paced/overstim era of content. It doesn’t even work ? pic.twitter.com/J7IBwHF6Jj

— MrBeast (@MrBeast) March 3, 2024

In September 2023, for example, he tried adjusting his thumbnails where he had an exhilarated, open-mouthed expression to a grin, and he said “the watch time went up on every video.”

Whatever Donaldson is doing is clearly working, having amassed 13 billion views on his channel since then. However, some viewers have criticized him for backpedaling on what made him popular.

One critic said Donaldson has realized he’s the “Oppenheimer of YouTube and is trying to undo the damage he caused.”

Others, however, said they have enjoyed Donaldson’s newer content. “I’m all in for this kind of content,” one viewer said. “It’s quality over quantity era again.”

MrBeast has grown up, and so has his content

In his latest stunt, “I Survived 7 Days In An Abandoned City,” Donaldson and his crew flew to Kupari in the southeast of Dubrovnik, Croatia. After being heavily shelled during the Balkan War in the 1990s, buildings in the area have been abandoned for decades.

In 17 minutes, the group explored derelict buildings, set up camp, and documented some fun and eerie moments, such as discovering stray cats, building fires, and hearing glass breaking while they tried to sleep at night.

The video is still packed full of multiple angles and jump cuts but, apart from the introduction, it doesn’t have any of the over-the-top shouting many associate with early YouTube.

Katya Varbanova, a viral marketing expert, told Business Insider this pivot makes sense because Donaldson is no longer the 13-year-old he was when he started out on YouTube.

“Now he’s about to turn 26 and he’s a whole grown businessman,” she said. “So of course he has evolved as a person, and of course, his content will evolve too.”

She said she thinks it is Donaldson that is craving this change toward more storytelling and a slower pace, rather than it necessarily being what the majority of his audience wants.

“I think we have to ask ourselves if younger Jimmy who was blowing up with fast-paced content was reading that tweet, would he agree with it and pivot his strategy at this moment in time? I am not sure,” Varbanova said.

“In fact, I am willing to bet he would say ‘Who cares about the rules — I am carving my own path.'”

Donaldson’s decision to slow down his videos seems to be a choice for him and his viewers rather than trying to game YouTube’s indeterminable and unpredictable algorithm.

In October 2020, Donaldson said he doesn’t stress about the length of his videos just to try to appease a metric he can’t see. He showed thumbnails of videos of differing lengths, demonstrating that they were all doing well, and urged creators to upload the “best video” they possibly could. “Whatever length that is, upload it,” he said.

“If a video is a banger, the algorithm will find an audience for it,” he said, adding that YouTube wouldn’t suddenly push out a video because it was “a minute shorter than what you usually post.”

The right content at the right time

Ben Steele, a social media marketer at The Big Phone Store who runs the company’s TikTok account, told BI that when Donaldson was first starting out, this “toned-down content would have worked against him.”

But now, Donaldson has the benefit of having a strong parasocial relationship with his followers, and a track record of bringing in clicks and engagement. This means whatever he chooses to do, his followers will probably respond positively.

Donaldson’s new content makes him appear more authentic, which will help him increase his influence even further, Steele said. He’s already dominated the younger demographic, and his more mature content will likely be more interesting to millennials and older generations.

“In order to grow further, he needs to appeal to a broader audience, which includes older viewers who would be put off by the loud, obnoxious kind of video that readily goes viral,” Steele said.

Varbanova said the best way to thrive as a creator is to be a good storyteller, educator, or entertainer, and find what works, rather than trying to emulate what made someone else successful. This is a “recipe for failure,” she said.

“The easiest way to struggle as a creator is to try what everyone else is doing without questioning whether it’s right for you or not,” she said. “I would caution any content creator to not blindly listen to advice from someone who’s 1,000 steps ahead of them.”

The best creators think long-term, Varbanova said, and make content that’s “sustainable, not trendy.”

“Or be the one that sets the trends,” she said. “Then you can do whatever you want.”

BI has reached out to Donaldson’s representatives for comment.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/mrbeast-is-changing-his-youtube-content-getting-more-views/470693

Max, HBO Will Start Cracking Down on Password Sharing Soon

The days of password-sharing on streaming platforms are over.

Netflix and Disney+, among others, have begun cracking down on users sharing accounts with people outside of their households. Now, Warner Bros. Discovery is joining its competitors and implementing password-sharing guidelines for its app, Max.

Though little information has been released about the details, CEO and President of Global Streaming and Games at Warner Bros. Discovery, JB Parrette, confirmed that the company would be rolling out new restrictions in late 2024 while speaking at Morgan Stanley’s Technology, Media & Telecom Conference on Monday.

The restrictions are set to roll out completely by 2025.

Max is the hybrid platform that combined HBO Max and Discovery+, creating a streaming platform that offers original programming, award-winning HBO programs and movies, and a massive collection of reality television content, such as “90 Day Fiance” and its plethora of spinoffs.

Warner Bros. Discovery posted a net loss of $400 million in Q4 2023, with a 14% decrease in linear television advertising revenue and a 17% decrease in studio revenue.

“This business is not without its challenges,” said CEO David Zaslav in an earnings call at the time. “Among them, we continue to face the impacts of ongoing disruption in the pay-TV ecosystem and a dislocated, linear advertising ecosystem. We are challenging our leaders to find innovative solutions.”

The password-sharing restrictions are part of a larger plan to make streaming a profitable investment for Zaslav, Bloomberg reported, which includes expanding Max into new international markets, including France and Latin America, in the next year and a half.

Max would join the ranks of Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+, which have all cracked down on password sharing for streamers, much to the dismay of the paying customer.

“Members of your household can sign in to your account and stream Max on different devices,” Max’s current policy reads. “Your account email and password should not be shared with anyone outside your household.”

Warner Bros. Discovery did not immediately respond to Entrepreneur‘s request for comment.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/max-will-start-cracking-down-on-password-sharing-report/470683

JPMorgan Says Its AI Cash Flow Software Cut Human Work By Almost 90%

JPMorgan launched a free Cash Flow Intelligence AI tool last year for its corporate customers, and now the bank says the tool has helped some of them cut human-oriented manual work by close to 90%, according to a Bloomberg report.

About 2,500 unnamed clients use the AI tool, which makes it successful enough that JPMorgan may start charging for it one day, according to that same report.

“Cashflow forecasting is very complex and you need a lot of judgment,” Tony Wimmer, the head of data and analytics at JPMorgan’s wholesale payments unit, told Bloomberg.

Wimmer, who leads a team of about 300 data scientists, data engineers, and other employees, is still a “firm believer” that “machines enhanced by humans will not go away for a long time.”

JPMorgan’s analytics and insights solutions page mentions the tool as “an intuitive AI interface” that analyzes, sorts, and categorizes company cash flows. It can also help clients create forecasts.

Other big banks have AI tools too. Bank of America has an AI CashPro forecasting tool that keeps track of cash flows for free, and RBC offers a similar tool called NOMI.

^{Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase. Credit: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images}

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon predicted in October that the next generation will probably be working 3.5 days per week thanks to AI. The company set a goal to generate $1.5 billion in business value with AI in 2023.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/jpmorgan-says-its-ai-cashflow-tool-cut-human-work-almost-90/470682

Sergey Brin Says Google ‘Definitely Messed Up’ After Its Gemini Chatbot Caused a Firestorm. He Has a Lot Riding on Its Success — or Failure.

^{This article originally appeared on Business Insider.}

The Google co-founder Sergey Brin has weighed in on the company’s Gemini drama.

Speaking at San Francisco’s AGI House over the weekend, Brin said the company had “definitely messed up on the image generation.” He added that the historically inaccurate images generated by Gemini were likely due to a lack of thorough testing.

Google paused Gemini’s image-generating feature last month after users complained it was creating strange images of people of color, including pictures depicting Black Nazis. Google’s AI model also faced criticism of some of its written responses.

Brin, who stepped back from Google in 2019, was listed in a December white paper outlining Gemini’s capabilities as a “core contributor.”

Reports have described Brin and his fellow cofounder Larry Page as being more active at the company since the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in 2022.

In January 2023, The New York Times first reported that Google’s parent company, Alphabet, asked the cofounders for help after issuing a “code red” in response to OpenAI’s viral chatbot.

Since then, Brin has been spotted at Google’s Silicon Valley headquarters and been directly involved with developing the company’s AI strategy.

Brin told the audience at AGI House that he “kind of came out of retirement just because the trajectory of AI is so exciting.”

Google’s been feeling the heat in the wake of the Gemini controversy.

Some critics have portrayed the drama as evidence that left-leaning bias among Big Tech employees has affected major AI models’ output.

Elon Musk has been especially vocal, frequently pointing to an example where the bot appeared unable to say whether he or Adolf Hitler was worse. When Business Insider tested the same prompt, Gemini said it was “inaccurate and grossly inappropriate” to compare Musk with Hitler.

Brin appeared to push back on some of the criticism around the text-based model. He told the audience that any text model available, including ChatGPT or Musk’s Grok, would be likely to say some “pretty weird things” that “definitely feel far-left, for example,” if put under pressure.

Brin added that Google hasn’t fully understood why Gemini leans left in some cases and said that wasn’t the company’s intention.

Representatives for Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider made outside normal working hours.

On February 28, Axel Springer, Business Insider’s parent company, joined 31 other media groups and filed a $2.3 billion suit against Google in Dutch court, alleging losses suffered due to the company’s advertising practices.

Axel Springer, Business Insider’s parent company, has a global deal to allow OpenAI to train its models on its media brands’ reporting.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/sergey-brin-google-messed-up-geminis-ai-image-generation/470668