Savers Value Village is launching a new platform leveraging artificial intelligence to help optimize product pricing, the company told CNBC exclusively, as the tricky-to-price thrift segment gains traction around the world.

The new platform, called ThriftIQ, uses AI to reduce the work needed to price items across the men’s and women’s apparel assortment and bring more consistency.

“We’re getting clear sell-throughs, larger baskets, it’s helping our new stores ramp more favorably, and obviously there is the profitability improvements,” CEO Mark Walsh told CNBC.

The tool has already been deployed in 58 pilot stores, according to the company, pricing more than 25 million items. That number is expected to double by the end of the year, Walsh added.

Savers, which had 375 stores at the end of the second quarter, said it processes more than 1 billion pounds of reusable goods every year. ThriftIQ was developed in partnership with data science and technology consulting firm Kaizen Analytix using Savers’ proprietary data sets, which the company has been developing for nearly two years.

“It’s not dynamic pricing, and once those garments are priced and tagged, that tag doesn’t change,” Walsh said.

The company’s goal with the new AI tool is to bring more predictable pricing for customers while also keeping average prices the same or lower, remaining between roughly 40% and 70% below traditional retail prices.

Savers said ThriftIQ marks the latest step in the company’s broader strategy to modernize and enhance its business operations. It will deploy the platform across more of its U.S. and Canadian locations through early 2028.

Walsh said the tool is not meant to get rid of manual labor in stores, but rather make workers more productive.

“Savers is transforming thrift through innovation, and I couldn’t be more excited about the trajectory of the business,” he said.

The tool comes at a time when secondhand retail and thrift are seeing a surge, especially with the macroeconomic backdrop of higher inflation, lower consumer confidence and more price-conscious buyers.

“We are benefiting from some very powerful secular momentum in this space. Thrift has gone, and is continuing to go, mainstream in retail, and so we see that in the younger customers, in the more affluent customers, for example, that are adopting thrift,” Chief Financial Officer Michael Maher told CNBC. “But I think in addition to that, we are bringing investment, technology, innovation and execution to that.”

Savers also reported its second-quarter earnings on Thursday, seeing a 7.4% increase in total net sales, which came in at $448.2 million. Comparable store sales increased 4.4%.

Savers reported net income of $21.6 million, or 14 cents per share, for the quarter, versus $18.9 million, or 12 cents per share, in the prior-year period.

Maher also said the company saw its third consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

The company incorporated the impact of ThriftIQ into its updated 2026 guidance, saying that it expects to return to a “high-teens adjusted EBITDA margin within the next three years.”

“This is just the latest chapter of transformative innovation,” Maher told CNBC. “It is a core plank of our long-term strategic plan, and yes, we’re constantly looking at innovation.”

Versant Media Group raised its full-year guidance on Thursday, boosted by momentum in its digital brands like Fandango and GolfNow, as well as what executives referred to as “strength” in its overall business model.

The company now expects total revenue for 2026 of $6.2 billion to $6.45 billion and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $1.9 billion to $2.05 billion.

This marks Versant’s third earnings report since it was spun out from Comcast’s NBCUniversal at the start of the year. The company, which includes a portfolio of pay TV networks including CNBC, MS NOW and The Golf Channel began trading as a public company in January.

Versant’s earnings once again showcased that live sports and news grab the most viewers and advertising dollars for traditional TV, despite ongoing pressure on the bundle as it loses customers to streaming alternatives.

The company beat Wall Street expectations on the top and bottom lines. Versant shares were up more than 6% at the close of trading on Thursday.

Here’s how Versant performed for its second quarter, ended June 30, compared with Wall Street’s estimates, according to LSEG:

• Earnings per share: $1.49 vs. $1.35 expected
• Revenue: $1.64 billion vs. $1.62 billion expected

Revenue for linear TV, which also includes channels USA Network, Syfy, Oxygen and E!, was down 6.3% during the quarter to $954 million, due to subscriber declines.

CEO Mark Lazarus said in a release on Thursday the company completed carriage agreements “with two large distribution partners, one in the U.S. and one in Canada.” Many of Versant’s distribution deals were locked up when it was still under NBCUniversal’s ownership.

Versant executives have said they aim to diversify the company’s revenue base — with an eye toward achieving a revenue mix of 50% from its digital, platform, subscription, ad supported and transactional businesses. The aim is to be less reliant on the linear TV model. Currently more than 80% of Versant’s revenue stems from the pay TV business.

Versant leadership has also said it would explore acquisitions of nontraditional media businesses to broaden its revenue streams and add growth.

This week the company closed its acquisition of golf simulation company Full Swing. Versant already owns digital media platform GolfPass and tee-time reservation company GolfNow. Earlier this year Versant bought StockStory, an artificial intelligence-powered tech platform that provides financial analysis, market insights and stock recommendations for CNBC.

Advertising revenue for the quarter was down 0.6% to $423 million, an improvement compared with the rate of decline during the same period last year due to higher ratings for its networks, which are heavily centered on news and sports.

Revenue for the platforms segment — which includes Fandango and GolfNow — was up 0.8% to $225 million for the quarter. Excluding the company’s divestiture of SportsEngine, platforms revenue was up 9.3%.

The company attributed that increase in part to higher revenue at Fandango from movie ticket purchases and video-on-demand transactions as well as stronger bookings, payments and subscription revenue for GolfNow.

Versant has launched a free, ad-supported Fandango streaming service in a bid to increase its advertising and users for the platform. Versant’s USA Sports also recently announced a media rights deal with German soccer league Bundesliga, which brings live matches to USA Network and Fandango beginning in August.

Overall, Versant revenue declined 3.8% year over year to $1.64 billion.

Net income attributable to Versant declined 30% to $211 million, or $1.49 per share, from $302 million, or $2.09 per share a year earlier. The company attributed that drop to lower revenue, public company costs, interest expense related to the Comcast separation, and an increased tax expense largely due to the divestiture of SportsEngine.

Adjusted EBITDA decreased 8.9% to $624 million. However, when compared with stand-alone adjusted EBITDA, a metric to more directly compare performance of the pre-spin portfolio companies to current results, adjusted EBITDA was up 3% year over year. Versant said the increase reflected lower programming expenses and reduced costs that offset revenue declines.

The company also declared a quarterly cash dividend for the third quarter in a row, again at 37.5 cents a share. The latest dividend is payable on Oct. 22 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on Oct. 1.

Versant said it completed a previously announced $100 million accelerated share repurchase agreement. The company repurchased nearly 2.4 million shares of Class A common stock with a remaining authorization of roughly $800 million as of June 30.

The company said it plans to enter into a similar stock repurchase agreement on Aug. 7 to repurchase $100 million of Class A stock, which it anticipates will close during the third quarter.

Disclosure: Versant Media Group is the parent company of CNBC.

The Dow and S&P 500 indexes closed lower on Thursday, pausing after a strong start to the week, as investors digested the latest round of corporate earnings and looked for signs of progress toward a peace deal between the U.S. and Iran.

A robust earnings season, which has tempered some concerns about the massive spending by AI-related companies, and growing optimism over ‌the potential end ⁠of hostilities ⁠in the Iran war helped propel both the Dow Industrials and S&P 500 to record highs earlier this week. Oil prices rose, with U.S. crude settling up 2.75% at $77.29 ​a barrel and Brent settling at $82.49 per barrel, up 3.83%. Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported that an Iranian parliamentary committee is reviewing a ​preliminary bill that would bar U.S., Israeli and other “hostile” vessels from transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

“You’re seeing perhaps more muted response to macro news than you would otherwise see, probably due to the fact of the summer and a little bit of fatigue, there’s a ​little bit of headline fatigue, specifically around Iran,” said Robert Bernstone, head of trading at ⁠SummitTX Capital in ‌New York.

“Iran is having less of an impact right now, to be clear, I’m not saying it ​has no impact … ​tweets are something, headlines are something, but we really want to see the devil is in the ⁠details.”

According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 lost 13.56 points, or 0.18%, to end ​at 7,709.99 points, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 10.99 points, or 0.04%, to 26,352.45. The Dow ​Jones Industrial Average fell 453.64 points, or 0.83%, to 53,895.48.

The recent indications of movement toward a peace deal helped push crude prices lower earlier in the week and, in turn, eased inflation worries and expectations for a rate hike from the Federal Reserve, which also served to push U.S. Treasury yields lower.
WESTERN DIGITAL, SANDISK DROP Data storage company Western Digital tumbled and memory chip maker Sandisk dropped in the wake of quarterly results. Both companies have surged this year, however, with Sandisk up more than 400% and Western Digital up about ‌160%. AppLovin plunged after the marketing platform missed Wall Street estimates for quarterly revenue, while Datadog plummeted after the cloud security firm said it expects revenue growth to slow in the third quarter. Both stocks were among the biggest ​drags on the ​benchmark S&P index.

Of the 382 companies ⁠in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings through Wednesday morning, 84.8% have topped analyst expectations, according to LSEG data, well above the 68% average beat rate since 1994.

SPACEX LOCKUP PERIOD ENDS

SpaceX shares erased losses from earlier in the session and closed higher, defying expectations that they would be pressured by insider selling, as the lockup period for early investors holding the stock expired. On the data front, the number of Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits increased slightly last week. The report came ahead of closely watched nonfarm payrolls figures for July due on Friday, which will shape expectations for the Fed’s path of interest rates at a time when Chairman Kevin Warsh has scaled back on forward guidance from the central bank.

It’s so interesting to me how these socialists who are taking over the Democratic party, are hiding behind the veil of affordability. They don’t want to tell you that their agenda is all about unaffordability, or in short wrecking the whole economy. 

Think of this, they will tax all manner of wealth and income. Indeed, take candidate Abdul El-Sayed and Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who basically want to liquidate any of your gains from successful wealth and work. And they say it all the time. In fact, Mr. Mamdani just yesterday talked about how in New York City apartments, it’s the people who live there who own it, not the owners who own it — that by the way is communism.

And then there’s the Medicare for All idea which is nothing but a euphemism, not simply for the takeover of the healthcare system, but basically for an economy-wide takeover. They want the government to run the economy. Period. Full stop.

Of course they want to defund the police and ICE, and they want open borders, and rampant illegal immigration, and then the even nuttier stuff of abolishing the senate, changing presidential elections. The insanity grows the more you listen.

Back to affordability, though. The socialists had a leg up on their program during the Biden years. Don’t forget the Green New Deal, and the phony Inflation Reduction Act, and Covid spending long after Covid was gone. Their giant spending bills and their attempted regulation of the economy, led to a 9 percent inflation peek, the highest in four years. And overall, the consumer price index cumulatively rose by 21.4 percent. Okay.

So Messrs. El-Sayed and Mamdani and Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, they had their chance. They got about half the socialism during the Biden years that they would ever do if they won a national election, and look what they did. Is that affordability? Remember, 21 percent inflation. Real wages fell during their period, actually fell. That’s not affordability. So there’s a lesson to be learned here. 

Their affordability mantra is a coverup for a state-run economy and soaring inflation, which is by the way according to polls, working folks including average minority working folks are not voting for them. They went for Trump in 2024.

So that’s a lesson for the GOP. Hone in on the differences between free enterprise capitalism, which rewards success, and puts more money in your pocket, letting you keep more of what you earn, and that is real affordability. 

By contrast, this new Democratic Party socialism will take money out of your pocket, will lead to rapid inflation from the government’s takeover of the economy, will rob you of your success, and devalue the human dignity of work, enterprise, and initiative.

Think of it this way, socialism is a discouragement to the individual, the economy, and the nation. And antisemitism is perhaps the driving force behind the entire socialist movement. Free market capitalism is an encouragement to the individual, the economy, and the nation. Those are the differences in affordability. Democratic party socialism is unaffordable. And free market capitalism is surely worth fighting for.

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