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Marijuana is legal for recreational use in many states, but possession is still illegal under federal law.
Travelers looking to bring small amounts of marijuana face confusing state and federal laws.
Some airports in states where weed is legal have placed amnesty boxes so travelers can throw out their pot before boarding.

Illustration by Gene Kim

As weed becomes legal in more states, how and if travelers can bring their stash on board remains up in the air.
Twenty-one states and Washington, D.C., have legalized recreational use for adults 21 years and older, and 37 states and Washington, D.C., have medical marijuana programs. But marijuana is still illegal under federal law.

That leaves travelers hoping to fly with pot on domestic U.S. flights to face an ever-changing patchwork of conflicting state and federal laws.
Traveling between states where marijuana is legal in both the origin and destination may sound straight-forward, but with overlapping jurisdictions and hard-to-enforce guidelines, it gets complicated.

Can I fly with marijuana?

Technically, no. Under federal law, the possession and sale of marijuana is illegal.
Despite President Joe Biden’s recent pardons for anyone convicted of a federal crime for simple possession and his directive to review how marijuana is scheduled under federal law, marijuana is still classified as a Schedule I substance.
According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, Schedule I substances have no accepted medical use and have a high potential for abuse. That also includes drugs like heroin and LSD.

And even though airports are locally owned and operated, air travel still falls under federal law.
“Most people are under the impression that it is acceptable to travel with cannabis since it is legal in California, however, they are not aware of the travel restrictions,” said Karla Rodriguez, police captain at Los Angeles World Airports, which operates Los Angeles International Airport. “Additionally, passengers need to be aware of the legality of cannabis in other states or countries.”
She said most arrests involve “passengers who take an amount which is more than what is considered personal use.”

What about medical marijuana?

Well, that changes things.
The Transportation Security Administration said that medical marijuana products that “contain no more than 0.3 percent THC on a dry weight basis or that are approved by FDA,” are permitted in both carry-on bags and checked bags.
TSA agents wouldn’t likely ask to see a medical marijuana card unless the traveler was carrying a larger amount or was traveling through a jurisdiction where weed was entirely illegal, an agency spokesperson said.

OK sure, but will TSA search me?

TSA said it is not actively searching for marijuana but rather focuses screening procedures on “potential threats to aviation and passengers” like weapons and explosives.
“The TSA is looking for anything illegal, but they are not law enforcement,” said William Kroger, a defense attorney who’s represented clients arrested for marijuana at airports.
Kroger says if agents find marijuana in a passenger’s luggage, the TSA doesn’t have the power to arrest travelers. It can, however, call local police. Some local police officials told CNBC they would follow local laws in that situation.
The DEA could be alerted by local law enforcement if the quantity of marijuana exceeds personal use or officers have reason to be suspicious that the traveler intends to sell marijuana.

What if the TSA finds marijuana on me?

While the TSA isn’t actively searching for marijuana or other federally illicit drugs, if it does find an amount that exceeds local limits, which vary widely for both weed and THC-infused edibles, it will alert local officials.
Some airports offer amnesty boxes for travelers to discard their pot before traveling. There are 12 at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and one at Midway International Airport, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation.
Cannabis products are legal for personal use in Illinois as of Jan. 1, 2020, and residents can possess up to 30 grams, or about an ounce, of cannabis flower.

A Cannabis amnesty box at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago
Leslie Josephs | CNBC Photo

“When the amnesty boxes are cleared and there are items in the box, officers will create a report, inventory the cannabis or cannabis products and then they will be disposed of similar to how narcotics are disposed of,” a spokesperson for the Chicago Police Department said in a statement.
In New York and New Jersey, airport police enforce those states’ laws, said a spokesperson for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which oversees the area’s largest airports. New York and New Jersey each legalized marijuana for recreational use in 2021.
Travelers at Denver International Airport can return their marijuana to their vehicle or pass it to someone not traveling if it’s no more than 2 ounces, according to the Denver Police Department. Colorado legalized recreational pot back in 2014.
They can also surrender it to police officers where it will be “sent to get destroyed and not returned to them,” said Jay Casillas at the Denver Police Department. “Any amounts greater than 2 ounces will warrant an investigation where they may be subject to arrest and may face charges.”
However, the severity of the penalty is largely up to the jurisdiction, said Kroger, the defense attorney. In states with harsher marijuana laws, “you could be facing serious time in jail or prison,” he said.

Can I fly high?

Airlines’ contracts of carriage, the document that lists policies for everything from overbooked flights to lost baggage, state that intoxicated travelers can’t fly.
In a practice that’s similar to how a passenger trying to board barefoot will be denied boarding, airlines can refuse to allow a customer to get on the plane if, according to Delta’s rules, for example, “the passenger’s conduct is disorderly, abusive or violent, or the passenger appears to be intoxicated or under the influence of drugs.”

What about traveling internationally?

Again, no. Marijuana rules vary across the world, but it is still banned outright in many countries, and while many of the high-profile prison sentences for carrying weed through foreign countries are for large quantities, even smaller amounts could carry hefty fines or more severe punishments.

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A notable decline in used vehicle prices toward the end of last year has been roughly cut in half in 2023, as inventories remain low following vehicle-production disruptions.
The pause in new vehicle production during the pandemic has upended the used vehicle market and there’s no easy solution in sight anytime soon.
Cox Automotive doesn’t expect the total number of used sales to return to pre-pandemic levels until at least 2026.

Customers browse in a used car lot on February 15, 2023 in Glendale, California.
Mario Tama | Getty Images

All new vehicles become used cars and trucks once they’re sold.
It’s an obvious statement, but one that needs to be laid out to explain the root cause for ongoing inventory and pricing issues in the U.S. used vehicle market, which has been a barometer for the country’s inflation levels.

During the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020, automakers shuttered factories for weeks to stop the spread of Covid-19. It was an unprecedented action that eventually led to additional supply chain problems, such as an ongoing semiconductor chip shortage, causing factories to cease production again for weeks, if not months, at a time in recent years.
The lack of production meant fewer new vehicles would become used models for consumers to purchase, leading to inventory constraints in both the new and used vehicle markets, as well as record prices due to resilient demand.
It’s been three years since those initial plant closures, but American consumers — as well as the Biden administration — hoping for the used vehicle market to return to “normal” pre-pandemic levels shouldn’t hold their breath.
A notable decline in used vehicle prices toward the end of last year has been roughly cut in half in 2023, as inventories remain significantly down following vehicle-production disruptions. There’s also been an uncharacteristically large number of consumers buying out leases to avoid sky-high car prices and increasing interest rates.
“It looks like it will persist for some time,” said Chris Frey, senior industry insights manager at Cox Automotive. “It’s really a function of this hole in new production, creating a dynamic where wholesale or general used values are higher because there are millions of fewer new vehicles that would eventually turn into used.”

Cox Automotive reports wholesale used vehicle prices are up by 8.8% this year through mid-March, according to the Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index, which tracks vehicles sold to dealers at auction. The prices are trending higher, and the index is heading back toward a record of 257.7 basis points set at the start of 2022. It was 238.6 as of mid-March.
Used vehicle inventory is down 21% from a year ago and off a whopping 26% from pre-pandemic levels of 2.8 million available vehicles in 2019. Cox Automotive doesn’t expect the total number of used sales to return to pre-pandemic levels of about 38.2 million units until at least 2026, Frey said.
Adding to the production hole is a change in leasing. Cox reports a 20% increase in consumers who leased their vehicles buying them out instead of trading them in from 2019 to 2022. The increase occurred as residual values of the vehicles in some cases were far above expectations, making it significantly cheaper to buy the vehicle than lease another amid inflated prices and rising interest rates.
“It’s still under a lot of pressure, just like it was last year,” said Benjamin Preston, an autos reporter for Consumer Reports. “Prices came down a little bit … but the bottom line is they’re just way higher than they were before the pandemic.”
Cox Automotive previously forecast wholesale prices on the Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index to end 2023 down 4.3% from December 2022. The company has not revised that forecast but may need to do so amid the increasing wholesale prices.
Cox reports the average listed price of a used vehicle was $26,068 in February, the most recent data available, down from records last year of more than $28,000 but significantly higher than the roughly $22,000 average it reported two years ago. Retail prices for consumers traditionally follow changes in wholesale prices.
So, what’s the solution? There’s no other course but an increase in new vehicles being produced in order to boost the number of future used models. Automakers are expected to lift production this year, but they’ve also pledged to not overbuild like they have in the past.
“We’re unlikely to go back to pre-pandemic levels. Vehicles cost way more now,” Frey said regarding used car pricing. “The landscape has changed. [Automakers] are not manufacturing as many as they have because they got the taste of gold — huge profits from not having so many vehicles in manufacturing.”

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Women made up almost 14% of professional drivers in 2022, according to Women In Trucking, up from just 7.9% in 2018.
Women have been joining the trucking industry at higher rates not just for driving roles, as women in dispatcher and safety roles both top 40%.
Associations like Women In Trucking work to increase the rate of women drivers, technicians and executives, particularly younger women or those switching careers.

Vanita Johnson
Courtesy: Vanita Johnson

After 13 years in teaching and education administration, Vanita Johnson switched to a position she always wanted — behind the wheel of a big rig.
Johnson took a three-week course in trucking, got her commercial driver’s license and became an independent owner-operator. She eventually joined a larger company and has been hauling shipments for over two years.

She’s one of many in the trucking industry leading efforts to bring more women into the fold. Associations like Women In Trucking work to increase the rate of women drivers, technicians and executives, particularly younger women or those switching careers, like Johnson.
“Trucking comes with its ups and downs, but you can overcome each challenge because we have women pioneers that were out there before us that have paved the way,” Johnson said. “You have that support route there to help you navigate through this male-populated industry, and it offers freedom and travel.”
Johnson said during her time in trucking she’s found her male counterparts to go above and beyond to help her navigate the industry. The wages have also been a plus compared with her teaching salary, she said.
Efforts to introduce more women to trucking became even more pressing when the Covid pandemic took hold in the U.S., sending the service and education industries into upheaval. Comparatively, trucking never slowed down. Many teachers and service workers made the switch to trucking, along with nurses and other women from the medical field who faced burnout.
Now, with the industry facing a daunting driver shortage, initiatives to bring in women drivers from other industries have escalated. Unions including the International Brotherhood of Teamsters have worked to end violence and harassment of women on the job and remove barriers to women entering the industry, including safety risks, wage inequities and lack of training and support.

The share of women truckers has increased significantly in recent years: Women now make up almost 8% of truck drivers and sales delivery drivers, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That number is even higher — 14% — for Class A license road drivers (which includes any driver who can operate vehicles weighing over 26,000 pounds), almost double what it was just five years ago, according to the 2022 Women In Trucking Index.
Women also account for a third of C-Suite executives in transportation, compared with nearly 24% in executive positions four years earlier, according to the index.
Ellen Voie, CEO of WIT, said women often make for quality candidates as truckers because they’re less likely than men to take risks on the road, and they possess strong multi-tasking, communication and organizational skills. According to the American Transportation Research Institute, male commercial drivers are 20% more likely to be involved in a crash in areas such as traversing intersections.
“More and more women are going into safety roles, like director safety or safety manager, and that’s a great place for women because women are more risk averse, whether it’s in the boardroom or whether it’s as a driver,” Voie said.

Navigating shortages

Though many women joined the industry during the pandemic, Covid-19 lockdowns stalled training and testing for truck drivers. Supply chain disruptions during the pandemic, along with surging demand, exacerbated a years-long trucker shortage.
The American Trucking Associations reported a shortage of 80,000 drivers in 2021 and has cautioned the shortfall could reach 160,000 by 2030.
To address demand, the industry would have to recruit a million new drivers over the next decade, according to the ATA — although as of 2021, there were just under 2.1 million people employed as heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
A BLS report found annual turnover rates at large truckload carriers averaged 94% between 1995 and 2017.
Demand for product and driver numbers appear to be improving this year, said Mike Kucharski, vice president of Illinois-based J.K.C. Trucking. Volume volatility remains a major problem — leaving the industry in flux with regard to hiring.
“The American people are changing their diet, they can’t afford things as they used to, so with those things happening, the typical budget and volumes are coming down,” said Kucharski. “We’re kind of all fighting for the same product, and we’re not as busy as we used to be due to inflation.”
Many truckers are paid only for driving time and are not compensated for overtime or time spent waiting for loading and unloading goods, adding to uncertainty for workers. Many also pay their own fuel costs and lack health care benefits.

Angelique Temple
Courtesy: Angelique Temple

Angelique Temple, who has been in the trucking industry for 23 years, spent two decades pulling hazmat as a company driver, during which time she raised six kids. She switched gears in 2021 to become the owner-operator of her own company Tornado Transport, although she almost lost her business, as she was paying $5,000 a week just for fuel.
Temple said she now drives routes of under 200 miles and works with local brokers to help ease “rollercoaster” price fluctuations. She runs medical supplies, dry food and other essential products while setting her own prices.
It’s not so much a driver shortage, she said, as it is a shortage of qualified professionals.
“You don’t have a lot of people out there that have the dedication and loyalty that it takes to do what needs to be done,” Temple said. “They don’t want to sacrifice. They just want to run and come back and make their money.”

Women rev up for the industry

Women have been joining the trucking industry at higher rates for more than behind-the-wheel positions. According to the 2022 WIT Index, women in both dispatcher and safety roles topped 40%, while women in human resources and talent management averaged nearly 75%.
Women in technician roles, however, represent just 3.7%, according to WIT. The ATA found the industry will need about 200,000 technicians over the next decade to keep up with maintenance demands. The organization’s Women In Motion initiative hopes to accelerate progress to bring women into those roles.

Trucks were designed for men. Uniforms were made for men. We didn’t even have showers at the truck stops for women because they were locker room showers, so really it wasn’t a level playing field.

Ellen Voie
CEO of Women In Trucking

According to a February survey by insurance agency JW Surety Bonds, 83% of female truckers believed more young people should get into trucking. The survey of 386 truck drivers — 60% of whom were female — found female truckers were 18% less likely than male truckers to feel lonely on the job and 28% less likely to regret becoming a truck driver.
“There are TikTok videos [where] a lot of women were excited to work independently, their schedules tended to be more flexible, and they’re seeing great pay,” said Maddie Weirman, reactive data lead at marketing agency Fractl, who led the research. “Women are starting to see that there are opportunities for them.”
About 56% of female truckers made between $50,000 and $100,000 a year, while 41% made under $50,000, according to JW Surety Bonds.
Driver software company Tenstreet found earlier this year that women were more likely than men to say they were paid fairly for their work at 58.5%, compared to 55.3% for men.

Women were also more likely to be newer to professional driving and have driven for fewer carriers, yet women were more likely to report a good relationship with their dispatcher, according to the Tenstreet data.
Brad Fulton, director of research and analytics at Tenstreet, said many women have been entering the industry “on the ground floor” with hopes of shaping it to be more equal and accommodating.
“As women are getting more experience, they’re starting to realize some of the stresses,” Fulton said, adding that he expects the industry to start focusing more on work-life balance so workers are not “driving themselves into the ground.”

There are safety concerns, too. A smaller proportion of women truckers, 68%, reported feeling safe when working on the whole, according to JW Surety Bonds, compared with 78% of male truckers. A majority of women surveyed reported carrying pepper spray and a knife to defend themselves in the event of harassment or assault.

Empowering women truckers

Sixteen years ago, when Voie launched WIT, the industry was just 3% women. Now, the women-focused organization has over 8,000 members in 10 countries.
“Trucks were designed for men. Uniforms were made for men. We didn’t even have showers at the truck stops for women because they were locker room showers, so really it wasn’t a level playing field,” Voie said.
WIT runs a Driver Ambassador Program for hands-on learning, as well as recognition programs like member of the month. WIT also provides mentorship for those entering the industry, as well as self-defense trainings and anti-harassment initiatives.
Voie said social media has been instrumental in bringing attention to the industry. Clarissa Rankin, a professional truck driver for five years, runs a trucking account on TikTok that has pulled in nearly 40 million likes.
“One of our top hits on TikTok was just a driver doing a pre-trip inspection, and we know it’s not truck drivers who are watching because they do a pre-trip inspection every day,” Voie said. “It’s people who are curious about the industry and also curious about women being able to do this job.”

Regan Morton
Courtesy: Regan Morton

Regan Morton, a transgender woman in Indiana who helps lead WIT’s LGBTQ Task Force, said the industry has made her feel welcome. But she believes companies should better target potential drivers from the LGBTQ community.
“The trucking industry, as far as the LGBTQ community, allows you to be able to be yourself throughout the day and not have to constantly deal with other people,” said Morton, who is a Teamsters member.
Morton, whose father was a truck driver, said health care coverage is often a hurdle, especially for LGBTQ drivers. She said increasingly strict health regulations have made it difficult for drivers with conditions like diabetes to even enter the industry, adding that the long days make it hard to get home for doctor appointments. Some common insurance plans for drivers do not cover all health care needs throughout the gender transition process, she said.
Despite these challenges, Voie said she sees more women-owned trucking businesses, as well as more women taking over their families’ trucking companies. WIT partnered with Expediter Services to help establish 150 women-owned businesses in transportation, including financing women drivers’ first trucks.
Cari Baylor, president of her family’s eight-decade business, Baylor Trucking, called her family’s story a “Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks kind of American dream story,” growing from one truck to over 200.
Baylor Trucking once “saved Thanksgiving in Canada,” she said, after delivering Ocean Spray cranberry sauce shipments. The company also works with expedited shippers to delivery IVF kits, chemotherapy treatments and even Taylor Swift and NCAA merch.
She said the industry has made strides in being more inclusive through improvements like automatic transmissions for all body types, more flexible work weeks and advanced technology equipped with everything from video capabilities to radar.
The industry still has a ways to go with regard to installing better amenities at rest areas and adding safer truck parking, Baylor said, though she noted the benefits of introducing more women into trucking are wide-reading.
“The trucking industry learned a lesson during the pandemic that we have to be more adaptive to healthier lifestyles for professional drivers regardless of sex,” Baylor said. “I want young women and those graduating from college to realize that they have so many opportunities beyond the professional driving role in the transportation industry.”

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Spire and Momentus received delisting warnings on Friday, according to securities filings, as both ventures’ stock prices stood below $1 a share.
The companies have 180 days, or about six months, to get their stock prices back above $1 a share.
Both companies noted the possibility of conducting a reverse stock split to regain compliance with exchange standards.

Spire Global at the New York Stock Exchange, August 17, 2021.
Source: NYSE

A pair of space companies received delisting warnings on Friday, according to securities filings, as both ventures’ stock prices stood below $1 a share.
Small satellite builder and data specialist Spire Global received a notice from the New York Stock Exchange, while spacecraft delivery company Momentus received a notice from the Nasdaq.

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Under the respective exchanges’ compliance rules, the companies have 180 days, or about six months, to get their stock prices back above $1 a share.
Spire’s stock closed at 69 cents a share on Friday, having first slipped below $1 a share on Mar. 7.
Momentus’ stock closed at 63 cents a share, slipping below $1 a share on Feb. 7.

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Both companies noted the possibility of conducting a reverse stock split to regain compliance.
Spire debuted on the public markets in August 2021, after completing a SPAC merger. The company hit $100 million in annual subscription revenue, it announced during its Q4 results, and has continued to shave its losses as it aims to be free cash flow positive in about a year.

Momentus also debuted in August 2021, following its own SPAC merger. After a turbulent leadership changeover, the company has struggled to ramp up its spacecraft platform business. In Q4, it saw minimal revenue, but hopes to fly multiple missions this year.
The warnings come as fellow space company Astra seeks an extension from the Nasdaq to regain compliance after it received a delisting warning last year.

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Rocket Lab is targeting a $50 million launch price for its coming reusable launch vehicle called Neutron, to challenge Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
“We are positioning Neutron to compete directly with the Falcon 9,” Rocket Lab Chief Financial Officer Adam Spice said.
In the meantime, Spice said Rocket Lab looks to maintain its position as “a dominant player” in the market sub-sector of launching small satellites with its Electron vehicles.

Rocket Lab

Rocket Lab is building a bigger, reusable launch vehicle called Neutron, and it’s targeting a price point near $50 million per launch to challenge Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
“We are positioning Neutron to compete directly with the Falcon 9,” Rocket Lab Chief Financial Officer Adam Spice said earlier this week, speaking at a Bank of America event in London on Tuesday.

The company announced Neutron when it went public in 2021, with Spice saying the rocket remains on track to debut in 2024. During its fourth-quarter report last month, Rocket Lab said it had begun producing the first tank structures of Neutron, as well as construction of the launch pad for the rocket. The company plans to conduct the first “hot fire test” of an Archimedes engine, which will power Neutron, “by the end of the year,” Spice said.

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SpaceX advertises a Falcon 9 launch with a $67 million price tag, and Spice says Rocket Lab is aiming to match that on a cost-per-kilogram basis for satellite customers. That means Neutron is targeting a “$50 million to $55 million launch service cost,” Spice said.

Rocket Lab

Spice also noted that Rocket Lab expects to fly the reusable Neutron boosters “10 to 20 times” each, in range with the current reuse performance of a Falcon 9 booster.
“We ultimately expect the margins to be in around the 50% range” for Neutron launches, Spice added. He estimated the cost of goods for each Neutron to be at $20 million to $25 million, with “close to half of that” coming from the upper, non-reusable second stage of the rocket.
Additionally, with SpaceX pushing hard to develop its massive Starship rocket, Spice alluded to the potential for the company to pivot away from flying Falcon 9 missions.

“We don’t have any hard data on that but certainly, if that was to happen, that’d be an incredibly bullish thing for Neutron,” Spice said.
In the meantime, Spice said Rocket Lab looks to maintain its position as “a dominant player” in the market sub-sector of launching small satellites with its Electron vehicles. The company expects to launch three Electron missions in the second quarter, with two already completed, and is “on track” to launch 15 missions this year, Spice said.

More than rockets

Spice also emphasized to the Bank of America audience that Rocket Lab is “much more than” just a rocket company. Indeed, the company’s acquisitions and expansion into building satellite components and spacecraft has become the bulk of its quarterly revenue.
“All of this leads towards the biggest opportunity in space, which is really on the application side,” Spice said.
As CEO Peter Beck has previously noted, Rocket Lab aims to create an “end-to-end platform for customers” who need space-based services. Spice said the company wants to be operating satellites and “delivering data to our customers and developing a recurring revenue stream from that,” essentially eliminating the need for other companies to build and operate their own satellites.
“A lot of the companies that we’re [launching to orbit on Electron] now are very unnatural owners of space assets,” Spice said, adding that “the best owner of a space asset is somebody who can launch.”

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The consumer culture on indie reselling platforms has shifted as more sellers compete to capture demand and more inflation-weary customers hunt for deals.
Negotiations, bidding wars and upselling items have become more common on digital marketplaces like Depop and Poshmark.
Big retailers like Target and H&M have been trying to get in on the hand-me-down action by launching partnerships with online thrift store ThredUp.

The Depop application on a smartphone arranged on Wednesday, June 2, 2021.
Gabby Jones | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Six months after launching his secondhand clothing shop on digital marketplace Depop in 2020, Blake Robertson, a 15-year-old high schooler at the time, received a death threat from a customer.
It came via Instagram, from someone who had not received her purchase in time for Christmas.  

“Nothing happened, but I don’t know, it just opened my eyes to the fact that some people, they just really want their items,” said Robertson.
Demand for secondhand resale has been booming since the early days of the pandemic, generating a culture shift within the indie marketplaces where it all began. Customers, many of whom have been feeling the squeeze of inflation, are fiending for lower prices, leading to more heated negotiations and occasionally ruthless bidding wars.
Meanwhile, independent resellers are turning their one-time hobby into a job, sometimes even upselling items to take advantage of demand spikes. Users on platforms like Depop and Poshmark set up online shops to list vintage, secondhand or unique items for sale and generate notable followings of loyal shoppers.
Robertson is now 17 and says the growth of resale has allowed him to turn his Depop shop, which now has over 19,000 followers, into a part-time gig. He told CNBC he juggles the hustle of reselling with his high school studies.

Blake Robertson, 17, poses with his closet, some of which is up for resale on his Depop shop.
Courtesy: Blake Robertson

He’s become accustomed to the occasional hate message or days-long negotiations over a single item. More than anything, he has been pleasantly surprised by the growing reach of his shop, which used to just serve his friends as patrons.

“I get these messages from total and complete strangers, which just makes me think how much this app genuinely has grown,” Robertson said.

The back and forth

To be sure, death threats against resellers are not the norm. Beaux Abington, 49, says that overall, she’s had “really fantastic, phenomenal customers.”
But she’s also noticed more buyers hunting deals, and has felt insulted by recent offers for her products that are sometimes less than half her asking price.
“There’s definitely a price-consciousness that wasn’t always there,” said Abington.
About 53% of people polled in an October 2022 Depop survey of over 2,000 U.K. consumers said that they have been turning to secondhand shopping more in order to save money as living costs rise. The result, sellers say, is more frequent negotiations and intensified bidding wars.
“There’s a lot more negotiation happening. Even in the last year, I’d say it’s kind of skyrocketed for me,” said Josefina Munroe, 27, a Depop seller with over 30,000 followers. She started her shop five years ago and decided to make it a full-time job after she graduated college in 2020 and demand for online resale expanded.
Then there are the de facto bidding wars. Munroe recalls purchasing an item on Depop, only to have the seller cancel her order after realizing that another customer was willing to pay more. Other Depop shoppers say that is not an uncommon experience.
“It’s completely separate from real-world shopping because that would never happen in a store,” said Munroe. “I think people have gotten very comfortable with the whole back and forth.”

Arrows pointing outwards

Beaux Abington, 49, models some of her own Depop items.
Courtesy: Beaux Abington

Platforms like Depop and Poshmark are leaning into the competitive consumer zeitgeist.
Last January, Depop launched a new “Make Offer” option – a feature that has streamlined the negotiation process, which used to take place informally via direct messages. Resellers say that the new button has made customers more comfortable haggling.
“The offer feature on Depop has definitely created a new dynamic in terms of being hounded with low-ballers and also being expected to sell things cheaply,” said Pascale Davies, 28, who runs a Depop shop with 59,000 followers.
But Depop has yet to institute a formal function for bidding battles — like the original reseller, eBay, offers. Depop also shut down comment sections on product pages where customers used to ask questions and sometimes get in arguments, according to users.
“We found that comments on an item did not directly help buyers with their decision-making,” a Depop spokesperson told CNBC when asked about the change.

Going bigger

In September, Poshmark launched “Posh Shows,” which allows sellers to hold livestreamed auctions to sell and promote their inventory.
Stephanie Dionne, 44, who has been selling on Poshmark for about two years, said that the live shows are “all kinds of crazy and chaotic,” generating a fast-paced, ruthless selling environment.
“When it comes to the live shows, people will kind of steal it out from under you at the last second,” she said.
Since launching her secondhand market with her two sisters, Dionne’s business keeps getting bigger and bigger – so much so that one of her sisters reduced her full-time day job to part-time in order to focus on the Poshmark shop.
Last year, the Dionnes made between $4,000 and $5,000 in profit. Just a couple months into this year, they have already surpassed that.
But now, sellers like the Dionnes are not only competing with Poshmark and Depop peers, but also major retailers like Target and H&M trying to cash in on the resale boom.
Last week, H&M announced its most recent collaboration with the online thrift store ThredUp, which will now cross-list about 30,000 pieces of secondhand clothing on H&M’s website. Target has launched several ThredUp partnerships of its own, and Etsy bought Depop back in 2021. This January, Poshmark was acquired by South Korean web giant Naver.
But some independent resellers doubt that the unique, curated experience of indie resale can be scaled.
“Although bigger companies are trying to occupy this space, I think they miss the mark when it comes to the personal element of vintage,” Finn Thomas, a London-based Depop seller, told CNBC.
“Part of the charm of buying vintage is the one-on-one interaction between the buyer and seller, the unique story behind each piece and the general curation behind a store, something I can’t see the larger companies like H&M achieving,” Thomas added.

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Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin released findings from an investigation into the failed flight of a cargo mission last year.
It said the failure was due to an issue in the rocket’s engine nozzle.
The FAA told CNBC that its “mishap” investigation into the NS-23 mission failure “remains open.”

The moment of the anomaly during the New Shepard cargo mission NS-23, in which the booster’s engine failed.
Blue Origin

Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin released findings from an investigation into the failed flight of a cargo mission last year, which it says was due to an issue in the rocket’s engine nozzle.
The company’s New Shepard rocket, flying the NS-23 mission carrying science and research payloads, suffered a failure in September 2022. No people were onboard, and Blue Origin says its capsule’s emergency escape system functioned properly, but the rocket’s reusable booster was destroyed.

Bezos’ company had previously said little about its investigation over the past six months, which was conducted with Federal Aviation Administration oversight. For its part, the FAA told CNBC that the regulator’s “mishap” investigation “remains open.”
“The agency is currently reviewing the company’s submission of its mishap report. FAA approval is required to close the investigation and for the New Shepard System to return to flight,” an FAA spokesperson said in a statement.
In a blog post on Friday, Blue Origin said it identified “a thermo-structural failure of the engine nozzle” as the direct cause of the issue, and is now modifying the engine, including design changes to account for higher-than-expected temperatures during the flight.
“Blue Origin expects to return to flight soon, with a re-flight of the NS-23 payloads,” the company said.

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The New Shepard rocket launches from Blue Origin’s private facility in West Texas, carrying people and payloads above 100 kilometers — or more than 340,000 feet — for a couple minutes of weightlessness. The capsule is flown autonomously, with no human pilot, and floats down with the assistance of a set of parachutes to land in the Texas desert. The New Shepard rocket booster is reusable, returning to land on a concrete pad near the launch site.

Blue Origin said its investigation found that NS-23 flight’s engine failure was due to “operational temperatures that exceeded the expected and analyzed values of the nozzle material.” The company recovered fragments of the BE-3PM engine’s nozzle, finding “clear evidence of thermal damage and hot streaks resulting from increased operating temperatures.”
The company noted that its design changes are intended to improve the engine’s performance at high temperature, as well as strengthen the engine’s nozzle.

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Over a quarter of millennials will increase their online spending in 2023, according to a new survey.
Millennials have consistently shown a marked preference for online shopping, compared with other generational cohorts.
While the early part of the pandemic saw an unprecedented online shopping boom, in-person shopping has been ready for a resurgence, as consumers return to brick-and-mortar stores. 

People walk by empty retail space in lower Manhattan on April 17, 2017 in New York City. 
Spencer Platt | Getty Images

Millennials have big plans for the year ahead, at least when it comes to their online shopping habits. 
Over 27% of millennials plan to spend “significantly more” online and less in-store this year, according to a survey from ESW, a global direct-to-consumer leader that helps retailers expand DTC channels.

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It’s a noteworthy update for analysts searching for a winner in the pandemic-era tug of war between brick-and-mortar stores and online shopping. While the early part of the pandemic saw an unprecedented online shopping boom, in-person shopping has been ready for a resurgence, as eager shoppers return to newly reopened brick-and-mortar stores. 
But millennials, defined as those currently between the ages of 25 and 40, appear ready to stick with e-commerce: 73% of millennial survey participants said they plan to spend “the same or more” online this year. 
In all, only 15% of millennials said they planned to spend less online in 2023.
Notably, millennials diverge from other generational cohorts in some key spending categories, per the survey, which polled 16,000 people across 16 countries. 

People walk by empty retail space in lower Manhattan on April 17, 2017 in New York City. 
Spencer Platt | Getty Images

When it comes to health and beauty products, almost 50% more millennials planned to increase their online spending compared with the younger Gen Z, a generation that’s pointedly shaping the beauty industry. 

Millennials also plan to purchase more luxury goods online this year than Gen Z, Gen X and baby boomers, according to the survey. 
The enthusiasm for online spending is particularly notable in combination with the relative youth of millennials, a group that still isn’t “in their prime earning years,” said Patrick Bousquet-Chavanne, CEO for ESW North Americas, in a statement. 
“They are spending more online than in-store across several categories, and these results indicate that brands must continue to evolve, improve, and optimize their ecommerce to attract and retain this increasingly powerful demographic,” Bousquet-Chavanne said.

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