From the Weekly Newsroom

Welcome to the VSpot, your home for the e-com early news. So no matter where you are in the world today, seems like you're going to be waking up with a conference hangover. And not the good kind. Yep, Q4 is shaping up to be a tough one. But while you're out enjoying life on the road, a lot has happened. And let's not forget, it's Friday. So expect another Trump tariff. Whose category is it going to be today? Or will he be too busy watching the Ryder Cup? Let's do the news. Build-A-Bear Workshop continues to record revenue and growth records despite macroeconomic headwinds. Onlookers attribute much of the brand's resilience to nostalgia and extensive diversification strategies. But we here at VSpot know the real answer, and it's that there's a strong workers union in the bear community that no one wants to fuck with. Pattern Group, a notable reseller on Amazon's platform, debuted on the Nasdaq at $13.50 per share, having raised $300 million for the company and investors via its IPO this week. Expect this to be trading at less than $1 in 12 months' time. More when it happens. Instagram now has over 3 billion monthly active users. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Wednesday that it has taken less than 3 years to add another billion users. Even with these impressive numbers and highly paid AI engineers, Zuck still has not cracked how to make sunglasses look cool. WARC told us this week that global ad spend is going to hit $1.17 trillion in full year guidance. In an AMA session, it was established that AMA stood for Amazon, Meta, and Alphabet, who will take over half this number. When pressed on retail media being a land grab, the AMA session was declared to be over. Jung Chang left a comfortable career as a tech consultant at Disney to bring his dream business to life, Bei Sha Foods, Taiwanese noodle brand, which he has now brought to the US. Follow this story over on Business Insider to see, was it worth it, or do we find Jung and his noodles in hot water? Finally, Amazon this week reached a settlement of $2.5 billion over allegations that it misled Prime users. $2.5 billion or 33 hours of trading of hard revenue, to put it another way. No admission was passed over in this case and details are fuzzy, but it is generally understood that Prime was misleading users into thinking its original content programming from Amazon Studios was worth the investment. That was the week happening around you while the conference stands were being taken down. Just when you thought this week started 2 Tylenol would be enough to solve all of your conference woes. What a difference a week makes. Big thanks to Omnisend, the email and SMS platform, for sponsoring this Business Week call show. They were in Toronto last week on tour to meet their new partners. That's right, they went door to door of their new partners offering a turn-down-bed service or breakfast in bed, led by Tadas and the team. What a showman, what a service. No job too small. That is Omnisend. Don't forget, you can get 30% off your first 3 months in the trial. Use the link in the comments and use the code Vinny30. Next Friday, I will be at the Dingle Food Festival with Blossom Hair and talking TikTok shop with Sharon Noonan and Sam O Brien. Thanks for watching the V Spot. That is the 4 and a half minutes. You're not