This is how Walmart plans to beat Amazon’s 1-day free shipping

Fake meat boom; Ikea's new logo; The new middle class Hi! WhatsApp just disclosed a security vulnerab [Compass] Fake meat boom; Ikea’s new logo; The new middle class Hi! WhatsApp just disclosed a [security vulnerability]( so you should update the app stat. Once that’s done, you can read the rest of today’s headlines below. Enjoy! The Amazon/Walmart fight heats up At its most recent earnings call, Amazon made the big announcement that it would [build out a free one-day shipping program]( for Prime subscribers over the next year. It would cost the company a fair amount of money (at least $800 million!). Never to be left in the dust is Walmart, which now has a plan of its own … The big-box store today [announced its ambitious plan]( to build—you guessed it—free one-day shipping! The program currently works so that if you spend more than $35, there are 220,000 items you can get delivered in the next 24 hours. You also have to live in either Las Vegas or Phoenix. Walmart says the [program will expand]( to 75% of the U.S. by the end of the year. We’ll see what new perk Amazon employs to compete with this. [While we're on the subject of Amazon:]( [While we're on the subject of Amazon:]( Beyond its delivery program, Amazon also relies on digital labor via a program called Mechanical Turk. It tasks people online to perform actions like surveys or editing. The world of MTurk workers is mysterious and under-analyzed—but we got an inside look into the people behind this crowdsourced labor marketplace. Read more: [What it’s really like to be one of the ghost workers on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk]( [www.fastcompany.com]( • [Share]( Today's number: [$20 billion]( [$20 billion]( That’s how big the meat alternative industry (which includes heavy hitters like Impossible Burger and Beyond Meat) is poised to become. What was once a niche for vegetarians is becoming more mainstream. Sales of plant-based meat grew 23% in the last year alone, and [more growth is likely on the horizon](. Read more: [Can plant-based meat grow from a $1 billion industry to a $20 billion industry?]( [www.fastcompany.com]( • [Share]( Today's existential question: [What does it mean to be "middle class"?]( [What does it mean to be "middle class"?]( You may think you know what “middle class” means, but can you easily and objectively define it? Income has something to do with it, yes, but there are other cultural markers, too—like education. Perhaps what has changed most about being middle class in the 21st century is that it feels less and less possible to go beyond its parameters than ever before. In essence: The middle class is an old, [culturally ubiquitous yet amorphous term](. Read more: [How our definition of middle class has–and hasn’t–changed in 100 years]( [www.fastcompany.com]( • [Share]( Today's ascetic quest: [Being podcast-free for two weeks]( [Being podcast-free for two weeks]( Fast Company writer Joe Berkowitz loves podcasts. When he has any downtime, digital audio programming is likely his background drone. Recently, he performed a personal experiment and quit podcasts cold turkey. It certainly wasn’t easy: Joe experienced profound existential angst, along with becoming hyper-aware of every sound in his periphery. At the same time, he found [a new connection to the outside world](. So maybe there’s a lesson for all of us in this. Read more: [I’m a podcast addict. Here’s what happened when I went cold turkey for two weeks]( [www.fastcompany.com]( • [Share]( More from us: - [This isn’t the job I signed up for: What now?]( (Work Life) - [The epic, ever-evolving timeline of how Woodstock 50’s peace and love fest devolved into a financial and legal saga]( (Creativity) - [Forget the Anthropocene: We’ve entered the synthetic age]( - [How cryptocurrency investors get swindled out of billions]( (Tech) What else we're reading: - [Inside the pampered and personalized world of D.C.’s VIP diners]( (Washingtonian) - [Gen-X is a mess]( (New York Times) Today's moment of reprieve: [Ikea has a new "logo scheme" to keep it hip to the digital age. (Click the image to learn more!)]( Ikea has a new "logo scheme" to keep it hip to the digital age. (Click the image to learn more!) That’s all for today. Talk to you tomorrow! Do you have suggestions or tips? [Email me]( Or [tweet me]( —Cale This newsletter was written by [Cale Guthrie Weissman](. Feedback We’d love to hear your thoughts about Compass. [Click here]( to give us feedback. And here’s [more information]( about Fast Company’s Compass newsletter. Did you enjoy this issue? [Fast Company] You can [update your details here](. If you don’t want to receive Compass anymore, [unsubscribe here]( If you were forwarded Compass and like it, [subscribe here]( [View this newsletter online]( Powered by [Revue]( 7 World Trade Center, 29th Floor, New York, NY 10007-2195