Numlock News: October 20, 2026 • Svalbard, Gourmand, Vaquita

Oct 20, 2026

By Walt Hickey

Cookies

Cookie sales are flat, which is a problem for Mondelēz, given that it owns two of the largest cookie businesses in the United States: Oreo (with $2.1 billion in annual sales) and Chips Ahoy! (with close to $1 billion). The category that it’s seen some growth in is what’s internally grouped as “Americana,” which is basically all the other lesser cookies it’s got in the portfolio, including Nutter Butter, Barnum’s Animal Crackers, Teddy Grahams, Mallomars, Nilla Wafers and Honey Maid Graham Crackers. Individually, these cookies are crumbs compared to the Oreo machine, but they nevertheless add up to over $1 billion in sales, growing and snapping a two-year decline.

Christopher Doering, Food Dive

Quarters

Thanks to social media influencers shilling the business as a get-rich-quick situation, laundromats have become a trendy investment. The process of actually running a coin-operated laundry is slightly more hands-on than a TikTok might illustrate, but the content does great on social, so, much like vending machines a few years ago, the entrepreneurial side of the internet has convinced itself that fortunes are made one quarter at a time. There are roughly 30,000 laundromats in the United States and the business has stayed relatively flat for some time; a small location might change hands for $300,000, a large one for $3 million, and most are still mom-and-pops that average a 24 percent profit margin, according to the industry group.

John Keilman, The Wall Street Journal

Northern Sea Route

Russia’s Northern Sea Route connects the Pacific to European ports by going north around Russia, and while it’s only passable in Summer, it’s becoming more popular as the Arctic warms. The Center for High North Logistics has logged 104 confirmed transit voyages through the end of September, which is already more than the 103 logged in all of 2025 and 97 in 2024. Total cargo shipped is up 15 percent to 3.7 million metric tons, and the Center estimates that by the end of the season, 150 transits moving 4.5 million tons of cargo might make the journey, given the 45 potential voyages already underway or within the zone.

Malte Humpert, gCaptain

Secondhand

Thanks to large interest among younger consumers in general and young women in particular, a new survey found that 64 percent of Americans are somewhat or very interested in buying clothing secondhand. That figure is 78 percent among Gen Z respondents and 73 percent among women. Secondhand is also appealing to parents, with 72 percent of parents with children under the age of 18 interested in shopping secondhand.

Rishad Dsouza, YouGov

Aroma

Fragrance companies have seen a surge in demand for so-called gourmand fragrances, which are scents that specifically evoke rich, sweet smells like cherry, Tabasco, sesame, candy and toffee. These scents are growing in popularity among younger consumers, as well as — for some reason — buyers who are on GLP-1 drugs, the latter seeing a potential chemosensory link that is being actively researched by titans of the flavor and aroma industry, Givaudan and IFF. The shift has been pronounced: Two years ago gourmand scents had a nine percent market share, but today, that’s up to 24 percent, good for the second-largest fragrance group after florals.

Alexander Marrow and Denis Balibouse, Reuters

Svalbard

The municipality of Longyearbyen lokalstyre is home to 2,600 residents on Svalbard, the Norwegian archipelago. Longyearbyen’s 2,600 residents get their water from a dammed lake called Isdammen, but higher temperatures are leaching metals into the pond, and now authorities have alerted residents that manganese levels are 25 times higher than the allowed 50 micrograms per liter recommended by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. The reason is that thawing permafrost is exposing pyrite in the shale bedrock to the water, oxidizing it and generating acidity that leaches heavy metals from the rocks into the water.

Karen McVeigh, The Guardian

Vanquished

Mexico is drastically reducing the area that bars the fishing industry from using long walls of nylon mesh gillnets by 86 percent to just 1,562 square kilometers. The previous arrangement protected an area roughly the size of Connecticut from the fishing practice. The gillnets have been deadly for the vaquita, the small porpoise that has been driven nearly to extinction. Last year, scientists estimated that there were only seven to 10 vaquitas left, down from 600 in 1997.

Ana Isabel Martinez and Sarah Morland, Reuters

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Numlock News is written each day by Walt Hickey. Email me with numbers, tips or feedback at walt@numlock.news. Every post is entirely by a human; send corrections or typos to the copy desk at copy@numlock.news. If you enjoy Numlock, tell a friend, word of mouth is the only way that independent publications like this one grow.

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