COVID-19-related timing provision adjustments are extended through Sept. 8, the Copyright Office said Friday. Originally to have expired May 12, 2020, adjustments have been extended multiple times (see 2103090021).
Labs processing New York state-collected nasal swab samples for COVID-19 testing must have a New York state clinical laboratory permit, a spokesperson for the state Department of Health emailed Wednesday, responding to our question on the inability of New Yorkers to order Amazon’s test kit (see Notebook, July 7 issue of this publication). A notification, in red lettering, next to the test kit at Amazon.com says “cannot be shipped to your selected delivery location” for customers identified as living in New York. The department spokesperson said that “the lab associated with this kit does not currently have a permit issued by the Department of Health. Other at-home collection kits are permitted and available.” Amazon is working to make its consumer COVID-19 at-home test collection kit available for purchase in New York as soon as possible, we’re told. It announced general availability Tuesday. Customers get results within 24 hours of the sample’s arrival at a lab in Hebron, Kentucky. Amazon didn’t respond to a question asking about other states.
Nearly 90% of movie theater locations are open globally for the first time since COVID-19, said Comscore Wednesday: Openings coincide with the release of blockbusters including Universal's F9, which has generated over $500 million. Paramount's A Quiet Place Part II, Disney's Cruella, Warner Bros.' The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, Sony's Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway and Lionsgate's The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard collectively generated over $1.3 billion at the box office, it said.
Amazon received emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for a COVID-19 test collection kit customers can use at home, it said Tuesday. The $39 kits, which include Prime delivery at no extra cost, are processed by Amazon’s in-house laboratory using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, which Amazon said is considered the “gold standard” diagnostic approach by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The kit grew out of Amazon’s in-house COVID-19 testing program for front-line employees in the U.S. and U.K., and the labs used for that program processed “millions” of tests from 750,000 employees, said the company. No prescription is required for the kit, authorized for use by individuals 18 years and older, with or without COVID-19 symptoms. Amazon described the kit as “easy to use,” requiring a “quick sample collection using a gentle, lower nasal swab” and taking less than 20 minutes to complete. It’s eligible for flexible spending and health savings accounts and comes with a prepaid, next-day return delivery to Amazon’s diagnostics lab in Hebron, Kentucky. Customers will receive test results within 24 hours of the sample’s arrival at the lab; results are available through Amazon’s secure website AmazonDx.com. Though the kit was shown as “in stock” Tuesday at Amazon.com, red lettering next to its listing told us the item “cannot be shipped to your selected delivery location [New York]. Please choose a different delivery location.” A Washington, D.C., ZIP code showed it available for shipping. The product has not been FDA cleared or approved, Amazon noted. Amazon didn’t respond to questions.
Future of work spending will be nearly $656 billion this year, up 17% over 2020, as technologies including cloud and mobile computing transition the work model toward human-machine collaboration, said IDC Wednesday. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated a shift toward a work environment “un-bounded by time or physical space,” it said. Organizations need to invest in technologies and services that support automation, human-machine collaboration, new organizational structures and leadership styles, dynamic learning opportunities and a reimagined, digital workplace, said analyst Holly Muscolino. The largest area of investment in 2021 will be $228 billion in hardware, for endpoint devices, enterprise hardware, infrastructure as a service, robotics and drones, said the researcher. More than $13 billion will be spent on services, including business, information technology and connectivity, it said. Software, including analytics and AI, will have the fastest spending growth, with a compound annual growth rate of 21% over the 2020-2024 forecast period.
E-commerce “utilization rates” remain high in the U.S., even as COVID-19 mask mandates ease, stores reopen and nearly 60% of American adults are fully vaccinated, a Pitney Bowes survey found. It canvassed 2,000 U.S. adults, finding consumers “have mixed reactions to the easing of mask mandates,” it said. Slightly more than a fifth, 22%, plan to shop in-store more often than before mask mandates were lifted, while 17% will shop online more often, it said. Fewer than half of U.S. consumers, 47%, shop online more often today than they did before the pandemic, it said. Though e-commerce experienced record growth after the pandemic began, preferences for online shopping were down 7 points from January, it said. It’s also the “longest sustained” drop below 50% since Pitney Bowes started tracking the metric last August.
North American box office is trending 41.1% lower year to date, to $1.01 billion, Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter wrote investors Tuesday. Q2 domestic box office is “significantly higher” than last year when theaters were closed in April and May during COVID-19 lockdowns; June’s $368 box office receipts, to date, were above last year’s $4 million but 68% below June 2019 receipts, said the analyst. Wedbush estimates 2021 domestic box office will end up 129% over 2020 and down 58% from 2019. It’s predicting a 126% year-on-year increase in 2022, 4% down from 2019, though “studios are hedging through the end of the year by releasing several titles day-and-date with their streaming platforms so that they can both drive box office while boosting monthly subscribers.” Pachter expects studios to revise strategies for 2022 as attendance trends become clearer through the summer and into the holidays, then to employ “near-normalized exclusive theatrical windows for blockbusters in 2022.” Smaller budget films will likely have shorter exclusive windows, benefiting from combined theatrical-streaming marketing, he said.
Global supply chain pros are unprepared for future disruption due to “disconnected” teams, systems and processes, a Quickbase survey found. The analytics company canvassed 200 supply chain professionals in February, finding only 10% who felt “extremely prepared” for future disruptions, it said. Fewer than four in 10 said they feel “completely prepared” for their next supply chain disruption. A majority, 54%, cited increased visibility as their best safeguard against disruptions post-COVID-19, compared with 34% before the pandemic.
Fiscal 2021 was “one of the most challenging periods” in the 50-year history of Paychex, said CEO Martin Mucci on an earnings call Friday for Q4 and the year ended May 31. Revenue growth was flat for the full year compared with fiscal 2020, but up 14% year over year for the quarter, “as we began to see positive macroeconomic impacts from the economic stimulus and an increase in vaccinations that have allowed businesses to reopen and begin adding employees,” he said. There will be “continued challenges for employers as Americans continue to get vaccinated, state restrictions relax and businesses fully reopen,” said Mucci. “The war for talent has intensified.”
Steelcase customer activity is taking “a few different forms,” now that companies are beginning to return to the physical office as COVID-19 wanes, said CEO Jim Keane on an earnings call Wednesday for fiscal Q1 ended May 28. Most of the activity is on “projects that were inflight before or were on the drawing boards and were delayed because of COVID,” he said. “Those projects are getting restarted and the designs are often unchanged from what the customer would have done before COVID. We also see some activity specifically related to the post-COVID workplace, including the emergence of the hybrid work experience.” The world’s largest office furniture manufacturer is seeing “a new wave of interest” among some customers to provide “specific office furniture applications for their employees to use at home,” often starting with a “task chair and height-adjustable table,” said Keane. Office closures and telework mandates at the peak of the pandemic sent Steelcase sales plunging nearly 30% in its fiscal first half ended late August (see 2009230056). Fiscal Q1 orders recovered, rising 11% year on year and 25% sequentially from Q4, “reflecting momentum as companies plan to return to the office,” said the company.