The Almighty Dollar … Sto re | Night Trains Are Back

Middle-income consumers represent the fastest-growing segment of shoppers for dollar stores.

Nataly Blumberg is a self-proclaimed dollar store aficionado. The native of suburban Great Neck, New York, frequents her local Dollar Tree a few times a month. Spending about $40 on each trip, she’ll stock up on her favorite brands of laundry detergent and cleaning supplies, or hunt for hidden gems like big-brand makeup in colors that have been discontinued.

Blumberg, who works as a marketing manager and identifies as middle income, sees neighbors toting Chanel bags alongside her in the aisles. Although dollar stores historically have been associated with low-income communities, research shows that these stores — like Dollar General and Dollar Tree, which purchased Family Dollar in 2015 — have in fact been quickly gaining ground with shoppers like her. There are more dollar stores in middle-income ZIP codes than in low- and high-income ZIP codes combined.

Europe’s network of night trains collapsed in the face of low-cost airlines. Now it’s making a comeback.

Arnaud Wieclawski wanted to visit his girlfriend in Italy last year. But the Belgian faced a problem: There was no real alternative to a plane ride, which the ecologically minded Wieclawski wanted to avoid because of the carbon footprint of flying. So he turned his dilemma — a choice between love and the climate — into activism. He co-founded Back on Track Belgium, a collective arguing for the reintroduction of a transportation solution that Europe has turned its back on: night trains.

Until a few decades ago, Europe had a sprawling network of sleeper trains that could get you from one part of the continent to the other under the cover of night. Yet this network collapsed in the face of low-cost airlines and cuts from train companies. By 2016, Germany’s Deutsche Bahn, the French SNCF and Spanish Renfe had wound down almost all of their night trains. But a growing backlash against the impact of airlines on climate change is now sparking a revival of these trains as an alternative for short, overnight journeys.

Tim Murray-Wyles and his Conscious Therapeutic Kink classes are a new way to process trauma.

Tim Murray-Wyles ties up his clients slowly and deliberately — loop by loop, limb by limb. Once he’s tied as many knots as a client is comfortable with, he pulls everything taut, suspending them “so they’re fully immobilized and floating.” From the outside, this sounds, and looks, erotic. But Murray-Wyles claims this form of rope bondage is a therapeutic service that can help clients process the trauma of having been nonconsensually constrained in the past, confront claustrophobia or simply relax.