Latest news with #employeeOwned
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
John Lewis slashes points its credit card holders earn on purchases elsewhere
John Lewis promises its shoppers are 'never knowingly undersold' but those with its Partnership credit card may feel short-changed after it slashes perks for general spending. Points earned on purchases convert into gift vouchers to spend in John Lewis and its sister chain Waitrose, with each point equating to 1p. From the beginning of August customers will earn fewer points on purchases made with other retailers. Instead of a point for every £4 spent, it will be for every £10. These less generous terms will mean a longer wait or much greater spending for the vouchers to arrive in the post. The rewards for spending in the employee-owned group's own stores will remain unchanged at five points for every £4 spent. This means someone using their card to spend £100 in John Lewis or Waitrose collects £1.25 worth of points. While customers collect fewer points when shopping elsewhere, the company announced bigger rewards for its most loyal customers. For the next three years they will get triple points in its department stores and double points at during the month August. A spokesperson said its rewards were being updated to maintain a 'market-leading' return on spending at John Lewis and Waitrose. 'These changes enable us to invest in the rewards that are most valued by our customers - alongside a new bonus to help customers earn additional points throughout August,' they added. The retailer said there were 'many other advantages' to its card and it was 'adding more for you all the time'. These included double-points promotions, competitions and special offers from its partners. The new terms and conditions come into effect on 1 August and the company said if an individual was unhappy they had the right to close their account. However, the lower 'earn rate' for external spending is in line with popular cards offered by the likes of Sainsbury's and Tesco. It is not the first time John Lewis has watered down the card's perks. In 2020, the number of points for shopping elsewhere was halved from one point for £2 spent to £4. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion Branded credit cards are a tactic used by retailers to glean information about customers and reward their most loyal shoppers. However, when John Lewis switched lender from HSBC to NewDay in 2022 it had the opposite effect as high-spending shoppers complained their application was rejected or that their spending limit had been slashed.
The Verge
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Verge
Giant Bomb goes independent
At the beginning of the month, things weren't looking good for gaming site Giant Bomb after its content was put on hold amid reports of editorial interference from its parent company, Fandom. Today, some feel-good news: Giant Bomb announced it is now an independent, employee-owned entity. 'Giant Bomb lives! Fandom has sold the site to us,' the outlet wrote on Bluesky yesterday evening. In a post on its website about the new development, the Giant Bomb says it's 'not serving an algorithm or executives,' and that it aims 'to lean into what's always made Giant Bomb special, and that's the people you see and hear on our content, and our extremely passionate community.' The site also announced a new subscription model, which it says 'will go directly towards maintaining and growing Giant Bomb and paying the fine folks that you see on our programming week after week.' Games media has changed dramatically since Giant Bomb launched in 2008, and our new model aims to evolve with the times. We want people to be able to see our content whether they're able to support us monetarily or not, so the large majority of what we put out will be available for free. That's how Fortnite works, right? The kids love Fortnite. Dan Ryckert skin coming soon! Giant Bomb sums up its new monthly ($9.99 per month) and annual ($99.99 per year) subscriptions: If you sign up today, you'll get ad-free RSS feeds for all of our podcasts and access to premium-only Discord channels (like behind-the-scenes, Town Hall Q&As, and more). We are going to launch very simple and we will grow and adjust from there. This all finally came together literally hours ago, and we couldn't even update the language on the sign up page yet. The perks are a little different from what's listed there, so If you have any questions, reach out on social and we'll get back to you as soon as we can. For example, our Discord verification process might be slow, so bear with us for now!
