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"The worst is still yet to come": Grim warning for chocolate lovers

Chocolate lovers could be facing a potential nightmare ahead of the festive season as cocoa supplies hit an all time low, driving confectionary prices to a record high. Most of the world's cocoa beans are grown in West Africa, where ongoing inclement weather and crippling crop diseases, coupled with economy-wide pressures like rising labour, packaging and energy costs, have put unprecedented pressure on the chocolate industry in recent months. However, market analyst Rabobank’s Paul Joules told <a title="www.smh.com.au" href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/why-a-global-cocoa-crunch-will-sour-chocolate-for-years-to-come-20240927-p5ke0w.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Sydney Morning Herald, </a> “the worst is still yet to come for consumers”, as the stockpiles of cocoa that manufacturers have been relying on for the past 18 months have run out. “While hedging has protected many manufacturers from the worst effects of the price rises until now, eventually all these forward contracts will get used up, and prices will have to increase to reflect the current cocoa price,” Rabobank’s Soaring chocolate prices report, released last week, read. Rabobank wanted that the increased costs of manufacturing will be passed down to consumers, with dark chocolate lovers being the most affected due to the high concentration of cocoa. Analysis by Mr Joules found that, worldwide, a 100 gram block of chocolate with 70 per cent cocoa content could rise from $4.90 to $6.50, with a “similar increase could be expected in Australia”. “It can take anywhere from six to 12 months for … price hikes to be reflected in the retail pricing of products,” Saxo Head of Commodity Strategy, Ole Sloth Hansen said. “The trend of shrinkflation is likely to become more pronounced. Consequently, while there might not be a stark rise in the price tags of chocolate items, the quantity offered for the same price will see a reduction.” Image credits: Shutterstock

Money & Banking

How ‘ugly’ fruit and vegetables could tackle food waste and solve supermarket supply shortages

The world is facing a significant food waste problem, with <a href="https://www.fao.org/3/i4068e/i4068e.pdf">up to half of all fruit and vegetables</a> lost somewhere along the agricultural food chain. Globally, around <a href="https://www.fao.org/3/ca6030en/ca6030en.pdf">14% of food produced</a> is lost after harvesting but before it reaches shops and supermarkets. Alongside food prices (66%), food waste is a concern for 60% of people that participated in a <a href="https://www.food.gov.uk/research/food-and-you-2/food-and-you-2-wave-5">recent survey</a> published by the UK Food Standards Agency. <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmenvfru/429/429.pdf">Other research</a> suggests that as much as 25% of apples, 20% of onions and 13% of potatoes grown in the UK are destroyed because they don’t look right. This means that producers’ efforts to meet stringent specifications from buyers can lead to <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmenvfru/429/429.pdf">perfectly edible produce being discarded</a> before it even leaves the farm – simply because of how it looks. Aside from the ongoing environmental implications of this food waste, UK shoppers currently face <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/04/food-tsar-blames-shortages-on-uks-weird-supermarket-culture">produce rationing in some supermarkets</a> due to <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/28/british-supermarkets-are-rationing-fruit-and-vegetables-amid-shortages.html">shortages of items like tomatoes, cucumbers and raspberries</a>. Any solutions that increase locally grown produce on shop shelves could improve the availability of fresh food, particularly in urban areas. When imperfect fruit and vegetables don’t make it to supermarket shelves, it can be due to <a href="https://cases.open.ubc.ca/insistence-on-cosmetically-perfect-fruits-vegetables/">cosmetic standards</a>. Supermarkets and consumers often prefer produce of a fairly standard size that’s free of blemishes, scars and other imperfections. This means fruit and vegetables that are misshapen, discoloured, or even too small or too large, are rejected before they make it to supermarket shelves. In recent years there has been a growing trend of selling such “ugly” fruit and vegetables, both by <a href="https://my.morrisons.com/wonky-fruit-veg/">major</a> <a href="https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/content/sustainability/food-waste">supermarket</a> <a href="https://www.tescoplc.com/news/2021/wonky-veg-5th-anniversary/">chains</a>, as well as <a href="https://wonkyvegboxes.co.uk/">speciality</a> <a href="https://www.misfitsmarket.com/?exp=plans_rollback">retailers</a> that sell <a href="https://www.oddbox.co.uk/">boxes</a> of <a href="https://etepetete-bio.de/">wonky produce</a>. And research has shown that 87% of people say they would <a href="https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/fruit-and-veg/nearly-90-of-consumers-would-eat-wonky-fruit-and-veg-according-to-new-survey/670155.article">eat wonky fruit and vegetables if they were available</a>. But other research indicates consumers can still be picky and difficult to predict. One study <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0950329316302002?via%3Dihub">showed</a> consumers are likely to throw away an apple with a spot, but would eat a bent cucumber. <h2>Getting ugly produce into baskets</h2> So how can producers and retailers boost the amount of non-standard fruit and veg that not only reaches our shelves, but also our plates? <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0377221723000668">Our recent research</a> suggests a separate channel for selling ugly produce would increase profits for growers, lower prices for consumers and boost overall demand for produce. For growers, a dedicated channel – either independent or set up by a supermarket – to supply wonky fruit and veg creates a new line of business. For retailers, this provides an opportunity for further revenue over and above current sales of standard produce to shops. When selling both types of product to a single retailer, the ugly items might be undervalued compared with the standard-looking products. Our research also shows that selling the ugly produce through a dedicated channel is likely to increase total demand for fruit and vegetables, while also decreasing on-farm loss. Having two parallel channels for selling produce (the main one and the dedicated “ugly” channel) would increase competition. This benefits shoppers by lowering prices for regular and ugly produce, versus selling both types of products alongside each other in one shop. On the other hand, the growing market for ugly fruit and vegetables could be an economic threat to traditional retailers. It encourages new entrants into the market and could also limit the availability of “regular” produce because growers could become less stringent about ensuring produce meets traditional cosmetic standards. But there is a way for traditional retailers to add ugly produce into their product offerings alongside other produce without affecting their profits. By building on existing consumer awareness of the environmental benefits of ugly food, they could also compete in this growing segment. This would benefit their bottom lines and help consumer acceptance of misshapen fruit and vegetables, possibly leading to less food waste and shortages like those UK shoppers are experiencing right now. Boosting demand for imperfect fruit and vegetables across the supply chain will require all participants to get involved – from grower to seller. Here are some steps the various parties could take: <h2>1. Educating consumers</h2> Education about the environmental and economic impact of food waste could happen through marketing campaigns, in-store displays and even social media. <h2>2. Reducing cosmetic standards</h2> Supermarkets and other major food retailers could revise their cosmetic standards to accept a wider range of produce, including imperfect fruit and vegetables. This would help reduce food waste by making sure more produce is able to be sold. <h2>3. Direct sales</h2> Farmers and growers could sell non-standard produce directly to consumers through farmers’ markets or subscription services. This allows consumers to purchase fresh, locally grown produce that might not meet cosmetic standards for supermarkets but that is just as nutritionally beneficial. <h2>4. Food donations</h2> Supermarkets and growers could donate produce rejected for how it looks to food banks, shelters and other organisations that serve those in need. This would help reduce food waste while also providing healthy food to those who might not otherwise have access to it. <h2>5. Value-added products</h2> Produce that doesn’t meet cosmetic standards could also be used to create other products such as soups, sauces and juices. In addition to reducing food waste, this would create new revenue streams for growers and retailers. <h2>6. Food composting</h2> Anything that cannot be sold or otherwise used should be composted. This would help reduce food waste while also creating nutrient-rich soil for future crops. By implementing these solutions, the supply chain can reduce the amount of ugly or imperfect fruit and vegetables that are wasted, while also providing consumers with healthy, affordable produce, even in times of supply chain shortages. This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-ugly-fruit-and-vegetables-could-tackle-food-waste-and-solve-supermarket-supply-shortages-201216" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>. Images: Getty

Food & Wine

Mapping the labour and slavery risks in fashion supply chains

<div class="copy"> How did your clothes get to you, and who was properly paid for them in the process? The garment industry is notorious for worker exploitation and complicated, unclear supply chains. Both within and without the fashion industry, forced labour, and modern slavery, is on the rise. According to the new <a href="https://publications.iom.int/books/global-estimates-modern-slavery-forced-labour-and-forced-marriage" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Global Estimates of Modern Slavery</a> report, there were 50 million people around the world living in modern slavery: 28 million in forced labour, and 22 million in forced marriages. This is an increase of 10 million from when the report was done in 2016 – among other things, the number has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and armed conflicts. What does the garment supply chain look like? Cosmos investigates. <h2>The shape of the garment industry: four tiers (sort of)</h2> “In a broad sense, when retailers talk about their supply chains, they tend to talk with tiers zero to four,” explains Dr Alice Payne, an associate professor in fashion at Queensland University of Technology. Tier 0 is the company’s direct operations: retail, offices, and distribution centres, for instance. Each additional tier is a layer removed from them. “Tier 1 is the people and the organizations constructing the garments for them – so assembling and manufacturing,” says Payne. Tier 2 is fabric production, while Tier 3 is the production of the yarn that makes the fabric. “Tier 4 is raw materials,” says Payne. “Natural fibres like cotton and wool, that’s all the way back to the farm, or the forests that the trees come from that are then processed into viscose material. And the petrochemical industry, which is the feedstock for polyester, nylons, acrylics and so on.” In reality, there aren’t clear lines between these tiers – particularly further up the supply chain. Even something as ubiquitous as cotton has a very complicated history. “You’ve got the seed inputs to grow the cotton on the farm, the cotton has to be ginned – the seed and the lint separated – and then from the ginning, it’s shipped to a spinner to make it into a yarn. “Then the yarn producer will ship it often to other countries to be manufactured into a cloth. At any point along the chain, it might be dyed,” says Payne. “They can span the world over in terms of geographic location and can be really complex,” says Abigail Munroe, a modern slavery research and policy analyst at human rights group Walk Free, which compiled the Global Estimates of Modern Slavery report with the United Nation’s International Labour Organization and the International Organisation for Migration. <h2>The labour distribution along the supply chain</h2> Workers aren’t distributed evenly across these tiers. Spindles and looms are both highly mechanised processes, making the middle tiers less labour-intensive. The raw materials in Tier 4 can be equally mechanised, or labour-intensive to make, depending on the fibre. Assembling garments in Tier 1, however, demands a huge workforce. “It’s part of the nature of cloth – it’s fluid and malleable,” says Payne. “In the robotics space, they talk about how it might take months to teach a machine to fold a t -shirt because it’s just such a such a very difficult thing to manoeuvre and manipulate cloth.” Each seam on your clothes needs to be guided manually through a sewing machine – which is something of a boon for poorer countries wanting to bring in more industry. “The textile industry is often the first rung on the ladder for a country that’s industrialising,” says Payne. “What’s an industry to bring into a country when you’ve got a large labour force? Well, often garment assembly, because it’s fairly light machinery.” But this also comes with risks. <h2>Who gets paid</h2> According to the <a href="https://cleanclothes.org/poverty-wages" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Clean Clothes Campaign</a>, a T-shirt which sells for €29 (A$43) sends €0.18 (A$0.27) back to the Bangladeshi garment worker who sewed it. Walk Free’s <a href="https://www.walkfree.org/reports/beyond-compliance-in-the-garment-industry/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Beyond Compliance in the Garment Industry</a> report has found similar levels of low payment across the supply chain. “In our assessment, workers would need to be earning almost 40% more to have their basic needs met,” says Munroe. Exploitation may be worse in the more distant tiers. “In general, across any kind of industry, workers further down the supply chains tend to face increased modern slavery risks,” says Munroe. “That can be for a number of reasons – some of these being that they’re more likely to work in the informal economy, and they’re more likely to be invisible to policies designed to protect them.” <iframe title="Huh? Science Explained" src="https://omny.fm/shows/huh-science-explained/playlists/podcast/embed?selectedClip=c7003c2f-954f-4ebf-b826-af090009d3ac&style=cover&autoplay=0&list=0" width="100%" height="180" frameborder="0"></iframe> <h2>Tracing slavery</h2> Governments have taken steps to make companies monitor these supply chains, but there are still gaps in the legislation. In Australia, for instance, the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2018A00153" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2018 Modern Slavery Act</a> requires companies with an annual revenue over A$100 million to produce annual reports on their supply chains and modern slavery risks within those chains. The UK has <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/30/contents/enacted" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">similar legislation</a>. Walk Free’s annual Beyond Compliance reports, track these disclosures and so far, they’ve looked at the hospitality, finance, and garment industries. While most of the garment companies in this year’s analysis had statements addressing modern slavery (an improvement on the hospitality and finance industries), 33% still didn’t meet minimum requirements set out by the acts. Over a quarter of companies didn’t produce any supply chain disclosure at all, while among those that did disclose, only 35% went beyond Tier 1. “There’s actually no penalties for companies that are within the threshold of the act, but don’t actually produce a statement,” says Munroe. And, even if those requirements are met, there’s little motivation to improve on reports. “We certainly see statements that are clearly being used as a box ticking activity,” says Munroe. “For both of those acts, even the Australian act which has more involved requirements, it’s completely disclosure-based. So simply reporting that the company needs to do more in relation to supply chain mapping or risk assessment – that’s enough.” Stricter legislation, such as the regulations <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/european-union-releases-draft-mandatory-human-rights-and-environmental-due-diligence" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">currently being proposed by the EU</a>, might include financial penalties for failing to comply, alongside obligations to prevent and mitigate human rights abuses right through the supply chain. The Australian government is <a href="https://consultations.ag.gov.au/crime/modern-slavery-act-review/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">currently reviewing</a> its modern slavery act, with a consultation period closing in just over a month. Future changes to the act might increase compliance – but for now, most of the places you buy clothes from aren’t making it clear where the garments have come from – or who’s being properly paid to make them. Image credits: Getty Images  <img id="cosmos-post-tracker" style="opacity: 0; height: 1px!important; width: 1px!important; border: 0!important; position: absolute!important; z-index: -1!important;" src="https://syndication.cosmosmagazine.com/?id=213724&title=Mapping+the+labour+and+slavery+risks+in+fashion+supply+chains" width="1" height="1" /> </div> <div id="contributors"> This article was originally published on <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/people/garment-supply-chain-slavery/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cosmosmagazine.com</a> and was written by Ellen Phiddian. </div>

Beauty & Style

Rich countries donating half their COVID vaccine supply would be a “win-win”

The message emerging from expert dialogue on the trajectory of COVID is increasingly clear: this show won’t be over until the whole world is vaccinated. The appearance of <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/health/covid/omicron-update-170122/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Omicron</a> on the scene, with <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/son-of-omicron-victoria-detects-a-handful-of-covid-19-sub-variant-cases/095ee479-723b-40a9-a2ca-77e90968d6e7" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">son-of-Omicron</a> (the BA.2 sub-variant) hot on its heels, has been a stark reminder that making it through one wave doesn’t mean we’ve weathered the storm – as long as there are under-vaccinated populations, this virus will continue to develop new variants that will sweep across the globe, making vaccine equity crucial to COVID defense.Just how much should we prioritise vaccine sharing over increasing immunity within our own borders? A new <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-022-01289-8" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">modelling study</a> published in Nature Human Behaviour has put firm figures to this tricky question, finding that if high-income countries were to donate up to 46% of their total vaccine supply to low- and middle-income countries, the benefits could include substantial decreases in global mortality and protection against further pandemic waves.Using a mathematical model, the researchers projected the consequences of vaccine inequity over five years, against the backdrop of evolving strains of SARS-CoV-2 and global mobility.The results showed that if we want to get on top of COVID, we’re going to have look beyond short-term immunity gains within our own borders and start playing a globally focused long-game.The model indicated that increasing national vaccination rates through booster programs, such as the controversial <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/health/covid/fourth-covid-shot-wont-prevent-omicron-infection/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">four-dose regime</a> being rolled out across Israel, does lead to faster declines in mortality in high-income countries in the first year. But these gains are swallowed up by an increasing vulnerability to infection in subsequent years as the global threat of newly emerging strains grows.Conversely, modelling equitable vaccine allocation strategies showed a substantial curbing of the spread of new strains, providing greater benefits to both high-income and low- and middle-income countries.Regardless of where individual countries stand on the ethics of tending to your own flock ahead of assisting disadvantaged global populations, this model makes it clear that allocating nearly half of high-income countries’ vaccine supplies is, over the longer-term, in their own interest.Addressing vaccine equity is a practical but highly effective variant-suppression measure that could be achieved by immediate and more-generous vaccine donations to low- and middle-income countries, but convincing governments to reframe their national COVID strategies in this global light remains a challenge.As of 31 December 2021, more than nine billion COVID-19 vaccination doses had been administered worldwide – but the distribution of these doses remains highly imbalanced. Over 70% of people in high-income countries are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19; in low-income countries, that number is 4%.Organisations such as COVAX, which is co-led by <a href="https://www.gavi.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" data-type="URL" data-id="https://www.gavi.org/">Gavi</a>, <a href="https://www.who.int/initiatives/act-accelerator/covax" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" data-type="URL" data-id="https://www.who.int/initiatives/act-accelerator/covax">the WHO</a>, and <a href="https://cepi.net/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" data-type="URL" data-id="https://cepi.net/">CEPI</a>, are attempting to tackle the vaccine inequity problem, and announced in January that they had delivered their <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/health/covid/billionth-covax-dose/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">billionth vaccine dose</a> – an admirable achievement, but well short of their 2 billion dose goal. The organisation cited hoarding and stockpiling by wealthy countries as a key roadblock to their progress. Many high-income countries have access to enough vaccines to vaccinate their populations several times over, leaving some low- and middle-income countries struggling to obtain sufficient supplies to vaccinate their populations even once.But, as the current study makes clear, pandemics pay no heed to borders. Until there is international commitment to global vaccine equity, the waves will continue to crash in.<div id="contributors"><a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/health/covid/combatting-vaccine-inequity-win-win/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">This article</a> was originally published on <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cosmos Magazine</a> and was written by <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/contributor/jamie-priest" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jamie Priest</a>. Jamie Priest is a science journalist at Cosmos. She has a Bachelor of Science in Marine Biology from the University of Adelaide.Image: Getty Images</div>

Body

Why your brain evolved to hoard supplies and shame others for doing the same

The media is replete with COVID-19 stories about people clearing supermarket shelves – and the backlash against them. Have people gone mad? How can one individual be overfilling his own cart, while shaming others who are doing the same? <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=TFX9eJ0AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">As a behavioral neuroscientist</a> who has studied hoarding behavior for 25 years, I can tell you that this is all normal and expected. People are acting the way evolution has wired them. Stockpiling provisions The word “hoarding” might bring to mind relatives or neighbors whose houses are overfilled with junk. A small percentage of people do suffer from what psychologists call “<a href="https://hoarding.iocdf.org">hoarding disorder</a>,” keeping excessive goods to the point of distress and impairment. But hoarding is actually a <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/interdisciplinary-science-consumption">totally normal and adaptive behavior</a> that kicks in any time there is an uneven supply of resources. Everyone hoards, even during the best of times, without even thinking about it. People like to have beans in the pantry, money in savings and chocolates hidden from the children. These are all hoards. Most Americans have had so much, for so long. People forget that, not so long ago, survival often depended on working tirelessly all year to <a href="https://dustyoldthing.com/forgotten-root-cellars/">fill root cellars</a> so a family could last through a long, cold winter – and still many died. Similarly, <a href="https://emammal.wordpress.com/2013/09/24/gray-squirrels-and-scatter-hoarding/">squirrels work all fall to hide nuts</a> to eat for the rest of the year. Kangaroo rats in the desert <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0003-3472(05)81018-8">hide seeds the few times it rains</a> and then remember where they put them to dig them back up later. A Clark’s nutcracker <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/phenomena/2015/12/03/how-a-5-ounce-bird-stores-10000-maps-in-its-head/">can hoard over 10,000 pine seeds</a> per fall – and even remember where it put them. Similarities between human behavior and these animals’ are not just analogies. They reflect a deeply ingrained capacity for brains to motivate us to acquire and save resources that may not always be there. Suffering from hoarding disorder, stockpiling in a pandemic or hiding nuts in the fall – all of these behaviors are motivated less by logic and more by a <a href="https://www.livescience.com/32773-what-causes-hoarding.html">deeply felt drive to feel safer</a>. My colleagues and I have found that stress seems to signal the brain to switch into “get hoarding” mode. For example, a kangaroo rat will act very lazy if fed regularly. But <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2009.0225">if its weight starts to drop</a>, its brain signals to release stress hormones that incite the fastidious hiding of seeds all over the cage. Kangaroo rats will also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0735-7036.119.2.187">increase their hoarding if a neighboring animal steals</a> from them. Once, I returned to the lab to find the victim of theft with all his remaining food stuffed into his cheek pouches — the only safe place. People do the same. If in our lab studies my colleagues and I make them feel anxious, our study subjects <a href="https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/under-pressure-stress-and-decision-making/comment-page-1">want to take more stuff home</a> with them afterward. Demonstrating this shared inheritance, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2012.01.033">the same brain areas are active</a> when people decide to take home toilet paper, bottled water or granola bars, as when rats store lab chow under their bedding – the orbitofrontal cortex and nucleus accumbens, regions that generally help organize goals and motivations to satisfy needs and desires. <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-handbook-of-hoarding-and-acquiring-9780199937783">Damage to this system can even induce abnormal hoarding</a>. One man who suffered frontal lobe damage had a sudden urge to hoard bullets. Another could not stop “borrowing” others’ cars. Brains across species use these ancient neural systems to ensure access to needed items – or ones that feel necessary. So, when the news induces a panic that stores are running out of food, or that residents will be trapped in place for weeks, the brain is programmed to stock up. It makes you <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/hope-relationships/201409/the-psychology-behind-hoarding">feel safer, less stressed</a>, and actually protects you in an emergency. More than a fair share At the same time they’re organizing their own stockpiles, people get upset about those who are taking too much. That is a legitimate concern; it’s a version of the “<a href="https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/TragedyoftheCommons.html">tragedy of the commons</a>,” wherein a public resource might be sustainable, but people’s tendency to take a little extra for themselves degrades the resource to the point where it can no longer help anyone. By shaming others on social media, for instance, people exert what little influence they have to ensure cooperation with the group. As a social species, human beings thrive when they work together, and have <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100501013529.htm">employed shaming – even punishment – for millennia</a> to ensure that everyone acts in the best interest of the group. And it works. Twitter users went after a guy reported to have hoarded 17,700 bottles of hand sanitizer in the hopes of turning a profit; he ended up donating all of it and is under <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/15/technology/matt-colvin-hand-sanitizer-donation.html">investigation for price gouging</a>. Who wouldn’t pause before grabbing those last few rolls of TP when the mob is watching? People will continue to hoard to the extent that they are worried. They will also continue to shame others who take more than what they consider a fair share. Both are normal and adaptive behaviors that evolved to balance one another out, in the long run. But that’s cold comfort for someone on the losing end of a temporary imbalance – like a health care worker who did not have protective gear when they encountered a sick patient. The survival of the group hardly matters to the person who dies, or to their parent, child or friend. One thing to remember is that the news selectively depicts stockpiling stories, presenting audiences with the most shocking cases. Most people are not <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/03/03/coronavirus-hand-sanitizer-face-masks-price-gouging-amazon-walmart-ebay/4933920002/">charging $400 for a mask</a>. Most are just trying to protect themselves and their families, the best way they know how, while also <a href="https://www.mother.ly/news/uplifting-stories-of-people-helping-each-other-during-coronavirus">offering aid wherever they can</a>. That’s <a href="https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/how-does-social-behavior-evolve-13260245/">how the human species evolved</a>, to get through challenges like this together. <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/stephanie-preston-1006858">Stephanie Preston</a>, Professor of Psychology, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-michigan-1290">University of Michigan</a> This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/your-brain-evolved-to-hoard-supplies-and-shame-others-for-doing-the-same-134634">original article</a>.

Mind

“World’s largest Officeworks” officially opens in Australia

Officeworks has launched its biggest store yet in Australia and it has been dubbed the “megaworks” of all the office supply chain stores. At nearly 6,500 square metres, the new store in the south-eastern Melbourne suburb of Mentone in Victoria, is at least four times the size of an average Officeworks store. With over 35,000 different products, including a 3D print and copy centre and items that were only available online – the newest Officeworks has become a hub that supports shopping online as well as in store. Officeworks’ Corporate Affairs and Brand Manager, Alex Staley, told <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/a-current-affair-officeworks-super-store-open-melbourne-latest-news-australia/d380c7c7-e10b-4d5c-a809-5ab7ab73ce00" target="_blank">A Current Affair</a> the new store will complement the business’ online presence, which makes up about 20 per cent of all sales. “When you're shopping online you need to know what you want, but we still know a lot of our customers want to come in and actually see the product, touch the product and interact with the product,” Ms Staley explained. The newest store in Melbourne will act as a distribution centre for the city’s south-east suburbs, ensuring some online purchases are delivered within the same day. The superstore, which is similar to a “warehouse,” says Australian Retailers Association Executive Director Russell Zimmerman, could be a buffer against online retailers. “There are opportunities for retailers to use space, if they can get it at the right price and then use it as a warehouse-type setting so they can actually carry more product and then use the online capability to deliver it,” Mr Zimmerman said. However, Officeworks' decision to create a megastore comes at a time where big retailers are opening smaller stores in order to keep up with costs and make convenience a priority for shoppers. “Australia has one of the dearest rents in the world for retail floor space so they will look to reduce their size for that reason,” he said. “But equally so we are seeing an incredible growth in online and the need to have as many shops and as big shops is probably becoming more important in reduction.” Will you be visiting the new massive Officeworks store in Melbourne? Let us know in the comments below.

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