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    <description>Businesses, money, incentives and the systems underneath everyday life.</description>
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    <lastBuildDate>Sat, 19 Sep 2026 23:30:39 GMT</lastBuildDate>
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      <title>How is everyone affording Europe?</title>
      <link>https://readafk.com/articles/travel-normal.html</link>
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      <pubDate>Sat, 19 Sep 2026 23:30:39 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>Someone is in Italy again. You would quite like to know what they do for a living.</description>
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    <item>
      <title>What PlayStation gains when the disc disappears</title>
      <link>https://readafk.com/articles/playstation.html</link>
      <guid>https://readafk.com/articles/playstation.html</guid>
      <pubDate>Sun, 13 Sep 2026 03:11:41 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>Digital games are convenient. They are also considerably harder to sell when you have finished with them.</description>
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      <title>Why land tax exists even after you already bought the property</title>
      <link>https://readafk.com/articles/land-tax.html</link>
      <guid>https://readafk.com/articles/land-tax.html</guid>
      <pubDate>Fri, 11 Sep 2026 07:58:13 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>Buying the property settles with the seller. It does not finish your relationship with the tax office.</description>
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    <item>
      <title>How Peter Cullen became part of Optimus Prime’s value</title>
      <link>https://readafk.com/articles/peter-cullen.html</link>
      <guid>https://readafk.com/articles/peter-cullen.html</guid>
      <pubDate>Wed, 09 Sep 2026 08:14:26 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>An actor can become so closely associated with a character that their involvement becomes part of what people are buying.</description>
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    <item>
      <title>How is Red Rooster still in business?</title>
      <link>https://readafk.com/articles/red-rooster.html</link>
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      <pubDate>Sat, 05 Sep 2026 23:29:12 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>Some stores look like the renovation is still being discussed. Yet the chicken keeps selling. What are we missing?</description>
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    <item>
      <title>Why free shipping makes you spend more</title>
      <link>https://readafk.com/articles/free-shipping.html</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 2026 09:25:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>The little free-shipping threshold in your cart is there to move the size of the order, not make delivery disappear.</description>
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      <title>Why companies love store credit instead of refunds</title>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 02 Sep 2026 08:11:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>A cash refund ends the transaction. Store credit keeps the money, and usually the customer, inside the business.</description>
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      <title>Why Sephora wants you to try everything before you buy it</title>
      <link>https://readafk.com/articles/sephora.html</link>
      <guid>https://readafk.com/articles/sephora.html</guid>
      <pubDate>Sun, 30 Aug 2026 01:16:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>Why Sephora lets customers touch, test and compare products before they buy, and how that turns a beauty store into a discovery engine.</description>
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    <item>
      <title>Why gift cards are better for retailers than cash</title>
      <link>https://readafk.com/articles/gift-cards.html</link>
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      <pubDate>Sun, 23 Aug 2026 01:51:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>Why gift cards get cash into a retailer before the product goes out, bring customers back, can increase basket size and sometimes are never fully redeemed.</description>
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    <item>
      <title>Why gyms need members who don’t go</title>
      <link>https://readafk.com/articles/gyms.html</link>
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      <pubDate>Sun, 23 Aug 2026 01:44:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>Why gyms can sell access to thousands of people without needing room for all of them at once, and how that shapes the economics of low-cost memberships.</description>
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    <item>
      <title>Costco barely needs to make money on the groceries</title>
      <link>https://readafk.com/articles/costco.html</link>
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      <pubDate>Sun, 23 Aug 2026 01:35:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>Why Costco keeps merchandise margins thin, how membership fees change the economics of the warehouse, and why the renewal matters more than maximising every basket.</description>
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    <item>
      <title>Why airlines would rather give you points than cash</title>
      <link>https://readafk.com/articles/airline-points.html</link>
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      <pubDate>Mon, 17 Aug 2026 08:35:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>Why airline loyalty programs sell points to banks and partners, why points are commercially different from cash, and how the system keeps customers inside the airline ecosystem.</description>
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    <item>
      <title>Why does Australia tax you for moving house?</title>
      <link>https://readafk.com/articles/stamp-duty.html</link>
      <guid>https://readafk.com/articles/stamp-duty.html</guid>
      <pubDate>Mon, 17 Aug 2026 07:40:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>Why Australian states tax property transactions, what stamp duty does to the decision to move, and why replacing it with land tax is harder than it sounds.</description>
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    <item>
      <title>Why WHOOP stopped selling the device</title>
      <link>https://readafk.com/articles/whoop.html</link>
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      <pubDate>Mon, 17 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <description>In 2018 WHOOP moved the hardware inside a membership. The change affected the upfront price, retention and how much one customer could be worth over time.</description>
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