• International World Cup fans have fallen in love with some very American brands, including Walmart.
• The big box store has been hosting tours to cash in on the attention.
• I went to the final tour the day before the World Cup final.

A Walmart Supercenter is a fluorescent palace of American consumption.

To US shoppers, it’s a utilitarian one-stop shop where groceries, televisions, tires, and just about everything else sit beneath one enormous roof.

To some international World Cup fans, though, it is a viral tourist sensation. Many fans made a point to visit Walmart during their stay in the United States. Even Spanish soccer star Lamine Yamal shopped there between matches.

Walmart said it organized the tours to seize on all the attention. Over the past month or so, the retailer has worked with the professional Spanish soccer league, LaLiga, to offer guided store tours paired with appearances by some of soccer’s biggest names.

I attended the final tour at Walmart’s East Brunswick, New Jersey, store on Saturday, about 29 hours before Spain and Argentina were scheduled to kick off the 2026 World Cup final.

On the tour, guests received VIP lanyards, giveaway bags, and small “passports” to be stamped as they moved through a carefully curated version of the Walmart experience.

The featured main attractions: peanut butter, ground beef, soccer jerseys, and — of course — ranch dressing.

America’s surprising superstore star

As soccer-loving (er, football-loving?) travelers crisscrossed the country for this year’s World Cup games, some of the most ubiquitous fixtures of American consumer culture inspired genuine awe: a cheap Waffle House breakfast, the sprawling excess of a Buc-ee’s gas station, and the giant aquariums inside Bass Pro Shops.

Videos went viral after a crowd of Australian national team fans turned a Dallas Walmart’s produce section into an impromptu party. Wearing yellow-and-green jerseys, they traded the familiar “Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!” chant for a new refrain: “We’re going to Walmart!”

The tours were Walmart’s effort to turn that organic wonderment into an official welcome — and to highlight its unique position as both a cornerstone of American consumerism and a place to get ranch dressing.

There was just one surprise at the tour I attended: The passport holders I spoke to were Americans.

Passports, ranch dressing, and rain

Walmart said it had expected international visitors at the East Brunswick event.

The store sits about 30 miles from MetLife Stadium, where Argentina star and overall legend Lionel Messi was set to chase a second World Cup title the following day. The outdoor LaLiga event — which included games, free food, and live music — also promised appearances from retired Spanish star Carles Puyol and Colombian striker Radamel Falcao.

About four hours before the player meet-and-greet, Walmart representatives handed tour guests giveaway bags containing about $35 in merchandise and small paper “passports.”

The first stop was the condiments aisle, where guides presented ranch dressing and peanut butter as American staples. Guests received a stamp in their passports before moving on.

Next came the meat department, where ground beef earned a steak-shaped stamp. We stopped near the apparel, where Walmart showed off soccer-themed jerseys and added one last mark to each passport.

Finally, we ended back in the produce section, where Walmart highlighted its best-selling product across the US: the banana. Walmart says they sell 4.46 billion bananas each year.

While Walmart said they expected international travelers in New Jersey, that wasn’t who showed up on Saturday. Everyone I spoke to said they all lived in the United States.

Karl Marttz, who lives 40 minutes away in North New Jersey, brought his children along for the tour while rain fell outside.

“As a person who lives near another Walmart, it was … eh,” he told Business Insider after the tour concluded. He was mostly there for the meet-and-greet.

A Walmart spokesperson told Business Insider it built the tours to “be relevant for first-time or longtime fans,” and that they were “happy from all of the positive feedback.”

Quickly after the tour, the weather soon worsened. A thunderstorm swept through, prompting organizers to move the meet-and-greet from the parking lot into the store.

That put the soccer stars under the same enormous roof as the now-Walmart-product-passport-holding Americans.

Nearly everyone I spoke with said they planned to watch the final on television the next day. One woman told the group she was going to MetLife Stadium to see Messi in person.

“I am so excited,” she said.

• I thought I was balancing work and parenting well.
• My adult children helped me see how often I was mentally elsewhere.
• I regret the everyday moments I lost to my phone more than my career.

My son was 11 when he volunteered to be the boy soloist at the school Christmas concert. Nobody else would do it. That alone made me proud. He stood up there looking like a young Aled Jones, and he was magnificent.

The school hall was packed. Other parents leaned forward in their plastic chairs. So smart in his pressed uniform and surprisingly melodic. It was one of those moments that announces itself — pay attention, this is the real thing.

I took out my phone to film him.

I thought about how my own mom would have been in tears watching this. She’d died five years previously. So who on earth was I filming it for?

Online life happened at the same time as I had kids

Online life for me didn’t arrive despite the children; it arrived with them, pretty much on the same day. I was the first of my friends to be married, the first to have a baby. While they were still in the real world, I was home with a newborn and a brand new computer, and a discussion forum was the only room where everyone else was also awake at 2 a.m. — or the only room I was in, anyway.

And we all know what the early days led to. Facebook happened, and the phones got smarter. But it wasn’t just the scrolling through social media — work was digital too.

As the editor of a family page, my kids were becoming content, whether I liked it or not. I would run to my computer to write same-day scripts for the radio as soon as my second baby went down for his nap. Sitting beside the bathtub, Googling symptoms. Not even cooking without a digital recipe open on the screen. There was no switch off.

I was physically present, but not really there

Back then, if you’d asked me, I’d have told you I was completely present. Physically, I was. My kids would tell you something different.

My youngest is 19 now. Recently, he said that he had to ask me three times for anything. “I didn’t know if you were working or scrolling. I was getting the same lack of reaction either way,” he added. To a child, the face looking at a screen is still the same face.

All three of my kids are now adults. And I still see what I did when they were little everywhere — the phone and the stroller, the row of parents on their screens while the children play nearby. I know that parent. I was that parent. I probably still am that parent.

But the regret isn’t really about the big moments. It’s about the minutes. The small, unremarkable minutes that slipped by while I was half somewhere else. Minutes that don’t feel like much individually but that add up, and keep adding up, until one day you do the maths and 25 years have gone by.

I regret scrolling all the time

I don’t regret working. I don’t regret the career, the deadlines, the ambition. But the rest — the mindless checking, the reflexive scrolling, the being physically present and mentally elsewhere — What was it all for? What did I actually gain?

Reading my son’s words again, I keep coming to the same answer. Time you’ll never get back.

We’re talking about banning phones in schools, restricting social media for under-16s. None of it means anything if the adults collecting them at the gate cannot put their own down.

• Henry Gonzalez is the founder of a San Francisco-based clothing brand.
• He lost about 350 pounds without surgery or medicine.
• He’s managed to keep the weight off for seven years.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Henry Gonzalez. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I’ve lost nearly 350 pounds and kept the weight off. As a kid, I was never small. I was a bigger kid through my teenage years.

When I was 21, I weighed 470 pounds. I was able to lose 50 pounds, but then gained weight again. In my 20s, I got in trouble and went to jail, and ended up gaining more weight because I thought nothing mattered and I should just do what I wanted to. I didn’t care about anything. At 27 years old, I weighed 565 pounds.

I was working the graveyard shift then, and I’d wake up, eat a bunch of eggs with bacon or sausage, and go right back to sleep after a huge breakfast. Then, I’d wake up again and go to Taco Bell or Jack-in-the-Box. Then, I’d snack at work all night on stuff from the vending machine. I was constantly eating. I was also drinking a lot of alcohol. I have no idea how many calories I was eating a day, but it was a lot.

I found a trainer in a private gym

I was worried about getting my life on track. But I was self-conscious, so I avoided working out at bigger gyms. But I felt comfortable at a private gym I found through a friend. In the beginning, it was body weight exercises. Being that big, just moving your body is a workout. So I’d do things like wall push-ups or assisted squats. Then, I was using 15 to 20 pounds and going slowly.

The trainer was great, so I just shut my brain off and listened to him. I would show up and shut up. He set me up with a meal plan for about 2,500 calories per day, and he bugged me every week to keep the calorie deficit and stay motivated. He kept me accountable.

From November 2019 to January 2020, I lost 50 pounds. Within the first six months, I lost 150 pounds.

I was tired of being ignorant and thought I should learn. I never finished school, and I hated learning. Now, I love it. I started paying closer attention and asking more questions, and the more I understood what was going on, the easier it felt. It was easier for me to eat fewer calories because I understood the goal. I became fascinated with how our bodies work. And seeing results kept me motivated.

I’m now 34, and I’ve kept my weight loss off for almost 7 years

I just did my first skin removal for my neck, and I’m doing another one later this year. I want to lose another 20 to 30 pounds of fat, and then I’ll be happy. I’m currently 225 pounds, but I want to remove the excess skin and get down to 200 on the scale.

I now eat the same foods almost every day: two eggs plus one cup egg whites with a couple of slices of turkey bacon and half an avocado. Lunch and dinner are 8oz of the protein of my choice with rice and veggies. I drink a gallon of water a day, and I have cheat meals every once in a while. I am training three to four days a week and walk about four to six miles every day.

I almost had gastric bypass surgery. At the orientation, they told me things I didn’t like hearing, like what all the restrictions are after surgery. I’m glad they scared me. Some people need surgery, but I told myself I’d try it naturally first. My advice to anyone who wants to lose weight naturally is to take the first step and just try. I didn’t care about losing weight, but something told me to try it naturally.

I’ve invested so much time and money into myself. I’m stubborn. I don’t want to lose what I’ve done.

• The Pentagon said two US service members were killed in Jordan on Friday during an Iranian attack.
• A third US service member is missing, and others were injured in a missile and drone attack.
• The US war on Iran has intensified after a fragile ceasefire agreement fell apart.

Two US service members were killed in Jordan on Friday after American and partner forces came under Iranian missile and drone fire, the Pentagon said on Saturday.

Another US service member is missing, and several others were injured in the Iranian attacks. It marks the first publicly acknowledged American military fatalities in the Middle East conflict since March.

Fourteen US service members were killed during the first few weeks of Operation Epic Fury. More than 425 others have been injured over the course of the conflict, which began when the US and Israel launched surprise attacks on Iran on February 28.

US Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, said in a statement that the two service members were killed as American and partner forces “defended against Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks.”

Centcom said four US service members were medically evacuated to local hospitals but have since been discharged, and several others received minor injuries. They returned to duty.

“Out of respect for the families,” the military said, it will “withhold additional information, including the identities of the fallen warriors, until 24 hours after the next of kin have been notified.”

The US resumed combat operations against Iran earlier this month after a fragile ceasefire collapsed following unsuccessful attempts by the two sides to reach a peace deal.

Iran has carried out attacks on vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz and launched missiles and drones at countries across the Middle East, including those that host US bases.

The US has carried out near-daily strikes against Iran in response, targeting surveillance sites, weaponry, maritime capabilities, and other military facilities.

The US casualties are likely to trigger a strong response from the Trump administration.

• I’ve lived in Newport, Rhode Island, for over 20 years. I love it, but it comes with drawbacks.
• The city gets so crowded with tourists in the summer and fall, which makes day-to-day life tougher.
• Still, navigating traffic and long lines is worth it to live in such a lovely part of New England.

In 2002, I moved from Alexandria, Virginia, to Newport, Rhode Island, where my now-husband has family roots.

I immediately fell for its stunning natural beauty, vibrant community, and cozy New England vibe. It’s so breathtaking that we chose to marry there, despite having spent much longer stretches of our lives in other amazing cities.

Newport is still a magical coastal enclave with fabulous restaurants, year-round events, and extraordinary hospitality, but over the past two decades, the area has seen an influx of second homeowners, new hotels and inns, and a surge in short-term rental properties.

It’s especially busy in the summer, though autumn in New England also lures visitors — including tens of thousands via cruise ships — to the city to take in the brilliant fall foliage.

With a palpable increase in travel demand, some may argue Newport hardly has an “off season” anymore.

The city, located on the southern tip of Aquidneck Island, now welcomes more than 3.5 million visitors annually, and that has come with some challenges.

Major thoroughfares quickly become congested during the summer, especially on weekends

Living in a popular tourist destination can definitely feel overwhelming at times.

We locals love to bask in all the things that make Newport so special, too, but we also need to do everyday errands in between the “staycations.”

Area roads get very congested in the summer, many with traffic that comes to a crawl at the busiest times of day. This means I have to plan for most tasks to take longer than they would in less-busy seasons.

And, in the summer, I switch up my schedule to go grocery shopping, stop by the post office, and do other mundane chores early in the morning in an attempt to avoid some of the traffic.

It’s especially challenging to visit beloved cafés and restaurants during busy season

In summer, some restaurants and cafés are so popular that stanchions are needed to manage the lines that form outside.

One breakfast spot my friends and I frequent in the offseason isn’t even worth trying to dine at on summer mornings unless we want to wait an hour or so.

Newport also has a serious coffee culture with more than a dozen dynamic local cafés. One of my favorite spots, The Nitro Bar, has gone viral, and both locations in the city draw crowds that literally wrap around the block most summer and fall mornings.

It’s wonderful to see small business owners succeed and grow, and to have people from across the country want to experience something delicious in my own backyard. However, if I want my dirty chai latte on a summer weekend, I have to get to the shop when it opens at 7 a.m. to beat the crowds.

I’ve encountered similar challenges when dining in Newport.

The city has so many great restaurants ranging from upscale to super casual, plus rooftop decks perfect for sunset cocktails and harborside eateries that lean into Newport’s nautical heritage.

It’s not unusual to quickly find a spot for lunch or a light bite during off-peak hours, run into friends, and spontaneously have a fun group outing.

However, tables and meal reservations can be hard to secure during busy seasons — especially if you have a larger party of six or more and it’s summer.

Knowing local staff helps, but it’s not unusual for a place to simply be at full capacity during dinner hours. Planning well in advance or just waiting for the flexibility and availability in quieter seasons, like winter or spring, helps.

We love when family and friends visit us in Newport in the summer, but lodging rates can be exorbitant

Newport is known for its jaw-dropping Gilded Age mansions, but unfortunately, we don’t own one. So when family and friends come to visit, they’re often shocked by hotel and short-term rental rates.

Peak-season hotel rooms can easily exceed $500 a night, especially on weekends, and many require a two-night minimum.

What’s more, there can be times in the summer and fall when it’s hard to find availability at all.

World-class events, including the Newport Folk Festival, Newport Jazz Festival, and the Hall of Fame Open, bring tens of thousands of visitors to the City by the Sea. Many visitors end up having to seek accommodations off the island and further outside the city.

Still, Newport is vibrant and lively all year round — and I’m grateful to live here

Unlike some other popular New England destinations, nearly all of Newport’s businesses are open year-round, though some restaurants, shops, and inns may take a few short weeks off for updates and renovations — or some well-earned rest and relaxation.

The challenges that summer brings aren’t unique to Newport, but its popularity comes with some legitimate trade-offs.

However, with its salty breeze, iconic harbor, rich history, inspiring architecture, impressive dining scene, electric events, and community spirit, Newport has a way of casting its spell and making you fall in love with it, whether here for a day or for more than 20 years.

If you ask me, there’s nowhere in the world I’d rather call home. And I’m willing to bet most Newport locals would agree.

• Taylor Farms, a lettuce supplier for Taco Bell, has been linked to a cyclosporiasis outbreak.
• Taylor Farms is one of North America’s largest fresh-produce companies.
• Bruce Taylor and several partners founded the company in 1995.

Taylor Farms, a Taco Bell lettuce supplier, has been linked to a cyclosporiasis outbreak in five states.

Taylor Farms, founded by Bruce Taylor and several partners in 1995, is a California-based fresh produce company that has grown into a multi-billion-dollar enterprise with more than 24,000 employees and 22 production locations across North America.

The privately held company supplies packaged salads, fresh-cut vegetables, meal kits, and other prepared foods to grocery stores, restaurants, and food-service customers. Its products have also been connected to previous foodborne illness investigations, including outbreaks involving salad mix and onions served on McDonald’s Quarter Pounder burgers.

Federal officials have linked shredded iceberg lettuce served at some Taco Bell restaurants to a cyclosporiasis outbreak that has sickened more than 1,600 people across five states.

Taylor Farms did not immediately respond directly to a request for comment from Business Insider.

The company issued a public statement on Friday saying that it was “deeply concerned” for those who became ill and that Taylor Farms de Mexico was voluntarily removing all iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico from the US market. The company said the lettuce had been distributed in at least 27 states.

The company added that no Taylor Farms-branded salads or salad kits were associated with the outbreak and that its branded salad kits do not contain iceberg lettuce.

Here’s what to know about Taylor Farms, its founder, its rise in the produce industry, and other major moments in its history.

Taylor Farms traces its origins to Salinas, California, in 1995.

The company was founded in 1995 in the Salinas Valley of California — often nicknamed the Salad Bowl of America for its fertile farmland — by Bruce Taylor, whose father and grandfather had also worked in the fresh produce industry.

More than 30 years later, Taylor remains the chairman and CEO of the company.

Before founding Taylor Farms with a group of partners, Taylor also served as CEO of Fresh Express, a fresh produce brand later acquired by Chiquita Brands International.

Taylor still serves as the chairman and CEO of Taylor Farms.

Taylor Farms is a multibillion-dollar company with more than 24,000 employees.

Taylor Farms is a $7 billion enterprise, according to UC Berkeley, that employs more than 24,000 people and operates 22 production locations across North America.

Its retail, prepared foods, and food service divisions produce bagged salads, meal kits, fresh-cut vegetables, and other ready-to-eat foods.

The company and its network of growers provide an estimated 265 million servings of fresh produce across North America each week, the company said.

The company helped popularize chopped salad kits and expanded by buying other major produce brands.

Taylor Farms introduced the first branded prepackaged chopped salads in 2012, per UC Berkeley.

The company later continued to expand through acquisitions, including the organic produce brand Earthbound Farm in 2019 and the packaged salad brand Eat Smart in 2021.

A massive fire damaged Taylor Farms’ flagship Salinas facility in 2022.

In April 2022, a fire broke out at Taylor Farms’ flagship facility in Salinas, California, destroying its 60,000-square-foot leafy-greens processing area

The facility was rebuilt shortly after the fire and reopened a year later, with a new design designed to process over 15 million pounds of produce weekly.

Taylor Farms has previously been linked to major foodborne illness investigations.

In 2013, restaurant-associated Cyclospora illnesses in Iowa and Nebraska were linked to salad mix produced by Taylor Farms’ Mexico division. During the multistate outbreak, 631 illnesses were reported across 25 states, although the CDC determined that the number of cases likely represented multiple outbreaks linked to different food sources.

Taylor Farms was also linked to an E. coli outbreak in 2024 involving slivered onions served on McDonald’s Quarter Pounders. The company voluntarily recalled yellow onions supplied to McDonald’s and other food-service customers after 104 people were sickened across 14 states, 34 were hospitalized, and one died.

The FDA identified the recalled onions as the likely source of the illnesses.

Federal officials have linked lettuce served at Taco Bell to an outbreak that has sickened more than 1,600 people.

The CDC and FDA said shredded iceberg lettuce served at some Taco Bell restaurants in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and West Virginia was contaminated with Cyclospora.

As of July 16, the five-state outbreak included at least 1,644 confirmed illnesses, 94 hospitalizations, and no deaths. Not every Taco Bell restaurant in the affected states received the implicated lettuce.

The FDA’s traceback investigation identified a single supplier that provided the restaurants with iceberg lettuce grown in Mexico. Federal officials did not publicly name the supplier, but Taylor Farms said FDA traceback pointed to a specific independent farm affiliated with the company.

Taco Bell said it removed potentially affected lettuce from restaurants in select states and was indefinitely removing the supplier’s lettuce from its nationwide supply chain.

On Friday, Taco Bell said in a public statement that it had completed the removal of all affected Taylor Farms lettuce from its restaurants.

Federal investigations into the cyclosporiasis outbreak continue.

The FDA is investigating whether potentially contaminated lettuce from the supplier remains on the market and whether it was distributed to other restaurants, retailers, brands, or businesses. Additional states could be added to the federal advisory as investigators learn more.

Taylor Farms de Mexico said it was voluntarily removing all iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico from the US market. The company said its Taylor Farms-branded salad kits do not contain iceberg lettuce.

The CDC is also investigating other clusters and thousands of additional reported Cyclospora illnesses that may not be connected to the lettuce served at Taco Bell. Health officials have warned that the nationwide increase in cases likely involves more than one source.