ENTERTAINMENT
Another Puttshack to open in Natick
Puttshack, the mini golf venue that opened in the Seaport last month, is bringing another “upscale, tech-infused” location to Natick by the end of 2023. The 22,000-square-foot space will occupy two floors in the Natick Mall, with three, nine-hole courses. There, the company’s “Trackball” technology will keep score and display players’ progress on a digital scoreboard. It will also boast a full-service bar, outdoor patio, and semi-private room for events and corporate outings. “With its close proximity to Boston, in the heart of MetroWest suburbs, Natick serves as the ideal destination to extend our presence in Massachusetts,” Dave Diamond, president of Puttshack, wrote in a statement. Puttshack already operates almost a dozen cities nationwide and plans to open in Dallas, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and more next year. — DITI KOHLI
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RETAIL
Amazon reports its biggest Thanksgiving weekend ever
Amazon said Wednesday it had its biggest-ever Thanksgiving holiday shopping weekend, aided by a record number of consumers looking for deals online amid high inflation. The e-commerce company does not typically share how much it earns during its sales events and did not disclose its overall revenue from the weekend. It said in a news release independent businesses that sell on its site generated more than $1 billion in sales. A record 196.7 million people shopped in stores and online during the five-day shopping period that stretched from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, 17 million more compared with last year, according to the National Retail Federation, a trade group. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
MEDIA
People names its People of the Year
Matthew McConaughey, Mila Kunis, Jennifer Hudson, and “Abbott Elementary” creator and star Quinta Brunson have been named People magazine’s 2022 “People of the Year.” The magazine unveiled its annual list Wednesday, with editor in chief Wendy Naugle explaining this year’s honorees were selected because of their efforts to help others. McConaughey was chosen for his advocacy efforts after the Uvalde school shooting rocked his hometown. Kunis was lauded for her fund-raising — which People said has topped $37 million — for Ukraine, where she was born. Hudson and Brunson were honored for their onscreen work. Hudson, who launched a daytime talk show this year, was cited for her efforts to create an inclusive show where everyone felt welcome. Brunson’s “Abbott Elementary,” a critical hit that turned her into an Emmy winner, was praised as a show that brought many joy and showed that different generations can work well together. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
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BANKING
HSBC to shut more than 100 branches in the UK
HSBC has announced plans to shutter more than 100 of its UK branches next year as the bank pushes more of its customers to use its online services. The London-headquartered lender said it would begin the closure of 114 sites beginning in April, cutting its branch network by about a quarter, according to a statement Wednesday. The bank will have 327 branches at the end of the process to serve its 14.9 million UK customers. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
MEDIA
Guatemalan investigative newspaper shuttered after government arrests its president
The prominent Guatemalan investigative newspaper “El Periodico” announced Wednesday that it is stopping its print edition after the government arrested the paper’s president. José Rubén Zamora was arrested in July and charged with money laundering and extortion. Zamora has overseen dozens of investigations into corruption during his leadership at El Periodico since the paper was founded in 1996. All of the paper’s reporters have been let go, and it is not clear how it can continue with digital editions only. The government has withdrawn advertising and has allegedly pressured businesses to do the same. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
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DELIVERIES
DoorDash to cut more than 1,200 jobs
DoorDash is eliminating about 1,250 corporate jobs, or about 6 percent of its workforce, saying it hired too many people when delivery demand surged during the COVID-19 pandemic. Chief executive Tony Xu said in a message to employees Wednesday that DoorDash was undersized before the pandemic and sped up hiring to catch up with its growth. DoorDash and other start-up delivery services posted record revenue during the pandemic with millions sheltering at home. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
ENVIRONMENT
EU goes after plastic
The European Union is targeting coffee pods, hotel toiletries, and throwaway water bottles with a set of proposals meaning to save space at landfills and reduce carbon-dioxide emissions. The measures released Wednesday by the European Commission seek to reduce packaging waste 5 percent from 2018 levels by the end of this decade, according to a draft seen by Bloomberg News. All packaging items would have to be recyclable, and items such as teabags and apple stickers would have to be compostable. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
INTERNET
Google sued in UK over advertising dominance
Google and its parent Alphabet Inc. were sued in a UK court over alleged antitrust abuses in a group claim by 130,000 businesses that argues the tech giant’s approach to advertising may have cost companies billions of pounds in lost revenue. The claim, filed at London’s UK Competition Appeal Tribunal on Wednesday, accuses Google and its parent of abusing their dominant position in online advertising and “earning super-profits for itself at the expense of the tens of thousands of publishers of websites and mobile apps in the UK.” — BLOOMBERG NEWS
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INTERNATIONAL
Brexit partly to blame for high inflation
Brexit is partly to blame for historically high inflation in the UK by causing job shortages, strengthening pricing pressure among firms, and weakening the economy, Bank of England chief economist Huw Pill said. The central bank has estimated that leaving the European Union will cost the UK 3 percent in permanently lost national output within 15 years and has seen no reason to change the assumption, he added. Speaking at a conference on Wednesday, Pill stressed that the bank’s focus remained on returning inflation — which hit 11.1 percent in October — to its 2 percent target, adding that he expects to see headline inflation tailing off “quite rapidly” in the second half of next year. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
RETAIL
H&M to cut about 1,500 jobs
Low-cost fashion brand H&M said Wednesday that it will be reducing its global workforce by around 1,500 positions as part of a plan to reduce costs and further improve efficiency. The staff reduction is estimated to provide annual savings of about 2 billion kronor ($190 million). H&M was founded in Sweden in 1947. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
LABOR
South Korean subway workers go on strike
Workers at South Korea’s major subway operator went on strike for the first time since 2016, further straining a nation roiled by disruptions from a walkout by truckers. Unionized staff at state-run Seoul Metro, which operates subways in the South Korean capital, stopped work on Wednesday morning, according to the Seoul Transit Corporation Labor Union. They’re demanding the government withdraw plans to shrink the workforce and instead hire more staff to improve safety. The walkout comes as South Korea faces supply chain turmoil caused by strikes by truck drivers. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
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