When The Hills star Spencer Pratt’s Pacific Palisades house was lost to the Los Angeles wildfires earlier this month, he turned to TikTok — and inadvertently turned tragedy into marketing triumph.

While Pratt and his wife Heidi Montag used their platform to raise funds for wildfire relief, he also seized the moment (with surprising vulnerability about their financial situation) to amplify the 15th-anniversary rerelease of Montag’s Superficial album. Her single “I’ll Do It” subsequently went viral, topping charts in over a dozen countries.

Pratt showed how emotional authenticity during a time of adversity leads to genuine engagement — and how community, when nurtured, becomes a powerful lifeline.

Dollar stores 2.0: They vanished IRL but went online

Sonic the Hedgehog: Fans rewarded the speedy revamp

Minky Couture: Blanket company’s NICU donations

(Source: Shutterstock)

Between 2018 and 2021, about half of all new U.S. retail spots were dollar stores. Last year, however, Dollar Tree and Family Dollar shuttered 600 locations, with plans to close another 400 as leases end. The chain 99 Cents Only closed entirely. Dollar General’s market cap has fallen more than 50 percent below its pre-pandemic level.

With low-income customers (and everybody else) feeling the squeeze from inflation, shouldn’t budget-friendly stores be well positioned?

Part of the problem is their “dollar” branding itself. Most shifted minimum prices to $1.25; Dollar Tree’s price cap went up to $7, forcing them to compete with behemoths like Target and Walmart.

The poorest households are devoting over 70 percent of their budgets to necessities like rent and car payments, so they’ve cut discretionary spending on electronics, office supplies and home goods, according to BCG. Nearly half of those consumers are willing to go deal-hunting online.

This helps explain how online Chinese retailer Temu captured 17 percent of U.S. market share in 2024 by offering gamified shopping for direct-to-consumer discount goods. Temu regularly sits at No. 1 on Apple’s App Store — above Target, Walmart and, notably, Amazon. (China-based fashion app Shein is also garnering billions of dollars from U.S. customers.)

It also explains why Amazon recently launched Amazon Haul. It’s a no-subscription-required online store with straight-from-China items — despite the looming tariff threats — priced at $1-$20. Amazon’s entry into the deep-discount space, likely Jeff Bezos attempting to claw back his turf from Temu, makes one thing clear: The dollar store 2.0 is digital.

(Source: Paramount Pictures)

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 just zoomed to $447 million at the box office on a $122 million budget, bringing the franchise’s total to over $1 billion. That’s a lot of rings … and would’ve surprised anyone in April 2019 who watched the original film’s trailer.

The internet’s collective response to the video-game speedster’s “lifelike” cinematic design — with all-too-human proportions — was captured in hundreds of thousands of dislikes and dunks. Gaming site Kotaku called it “a blight upon this weary earth.”

Upon the thunderously negative online reception, the filmmakers did something unprecedented. They promised to reanimate the entire movie to reflect Sonic’s traditional look. In fact, character animator Jeff Fowler already had a fix by the time director Tim Miller asked if it would be possible.

“He didn’t wait for the corporate machine to get around to putting out a message,” Miller recounted. “He just did it. It was the smartest thing he could’ve possibly done.”

In a world where criticism is often muddied by bad faith and social-media bots, Sonic’s team understood this case was different. Their gambit worked, thanks to a three-month delay granted by Paramount, and fans rushed to theaters.

(Source: Minky Couture)

When Sandi Hendry’s daughter was hospitalized in the late aughts, the Utah mother sewed a plush blanket that soon became the talk of the ward. “There was a need for … blankets that could bring warmth and joy to people during difficult times,” Hendry realized.

It sparked a passion to create blankets on a larger scale. In 2023, Hendry’s company Minky Couture — which has five storefronts across Utah, plus a thriving online store — celebrated 1 million blankets sold. (Even more impressively, Hendry had no previous experience in business!)

Minky Couture also spreads warmth by donating 30,000 blankets annually to babies in NICU hospital wards nationwide.

“After witnessing the difference that simple acts of comfort could make, I felt it was essential to give back in a meaningful way,” Hendry said. “Donating blankets to NICUs remains one of the causes closest to our hearts.”

Talk about being wrapped in good karma.

(Source: Instagram)

Written by Dan Ketchum, Haley Hanlon and Dawn Allcot.