Digits: A $500k mistake, an island’s big payday, and more wild numbers

Anguilla makes bank, a new way to shop, and more numbers from around the web.

31%: Share of Amazon’s “View in Your Room” users who say it led them to purchase an item that they otherwise would have only bought in person, per Jungle Scout. The augmented reality feature lets shoppers use their phone to see what a piece of furniture, artwork, or other object would look like in their home.

$32m: How much Anguilla made off of “.ai” domain names in 2023. The Caribbean island’s top-level domain has long been “.ai,” but the boom in artificial intelligence has led to entrepreneurs snatching up domains. This was such a boon to the nation that it accounted for 10%+ of its GDP. (P.S. We previously covered how close Anguilla came to losing control of its “.ai” cash cow here.)

$500k: The price of one big oopsie — or, one three-bed, two-bath home in Puna, Hawaii. Annaleine Reynolds bought the empty lot it sits on in 2018 for $22.5k to build a women’s meditation retreat center. However, while she was stuck in California during the pandemic, a construction company mistakenly built a home on it. Now the matter is going to court as Reynolds grapples with no retreat, higher taxes, squatters, and a lawsuit from the home’s developers.

7%: How much grocery retailer profits rose over total costs in the first three quarters of 2023, per an FTC report that accuses some retailers of using “rising costs” as an excuse to hike prices. The FTC also alleges that larger grocers bullied suppliers to keep them stocked over smaller rivals during the pandemic. Some lawmakers now want the FTC to invoke a mid-century price discrimination law that requires suppliers offer the same discounts to all retailers.

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