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Happy Saturday Besties,
It’s almost totality time 🌑 🌑 🌑. Brands are pulling out their darkest astronomical-event-marketing stunts…
Krispy Kreme’s has a donut eclipsed by an Oreo
Sonic’s Blackout Slush tastes like darkness
Warby is giving away glasses to protect your precious retinas
Jeni’s launched a “Punk Stargonaut” ice cream collection
🏆 But the winner is Moonpie who’s having a TOTAL SOLAR SNACKDOWN: The Sun vs. The Moon.
🚨 In TBOY News 🚨 We’re honored to be nominated as finalists for a Webby award in the Best Business Podcast category. We want to win this thing, but it’s up to the Besties and the Yetis to VOTE for us 🫵 . (As of this publishing, we have 41% of the vote!).
This week’s newsletter is 25% of the best of the pod and 75% things we had to share off the record.
Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Subscribe here to get our weekly edition.
Stocks making market moves
1 Stock-Bumping Queen and 1 Baggy Daddy
🔻 Ulta Beauty stock fell 14.5% this week and it’s a warning for all of Beauty. Bum, bum, bummm.
Slowing Beauty: E.L.F, Coty, and Estee Lauder stocks all fell this week following Ulta. The CEO cited “a slowdown… across all price points and segments” and facing “challenges in haircare.” No beauty in Beauty sales right now.
The Key Competitor: Sephora has gotten aggressive by adding new locations within 1-2 miles of Ulta (bold move). While Sephora has been glowing up in its partnership with Kohl’s (850+ locations, nbd), Ulta has struggled with its in-store partnership with Target.
🔺 LEVI’s stock jumped 12% Thursday for 2 reasons: Beyonce & Baggy Daddies.
Beyonce’s latest album which included the song, "LEVII's JEANS," so Wall Street analysts shouted out "Beyonce" 4x on the latest earnings call. Since the Beyhive loves to dress up, there’s no doubt denim will be the next silver soiree.
Baggy Daddies: Levi's growth comes from what the CEO cites as the "Baggy Daddy” trend. Sales are up 50% of the style and "Baggy" was mentioned 6x on the earnings call. There’s a 50/50 chance the Gen Z in front of you in the latte line is rockin’ a pair of these.
The price of Large Grade A Eggs per dozen — 🐣 🍳
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor
Frittata-flation may be coming back because of the bird flu. While egg prices are still well below their Jan ‘23 high, they have climbed 50% since this fall.
The driver: Cal Maine (the biggest fresh egg producer) just found bird flu in chickens at a factory in Texas.
Bird flu: or “avian flu” is a low risk to public health according to US Health officials, but economically this may impact both the egg and beef market. If you needed another reason to have an omelet this morning…
Earthquakes ✌️:
A magnitude-4.8 earthquake struck the Northeast U.S. at 10:23 a.m. EST Friday. The epicenter was just 50 miles east of NYC in Lebanon, NJ. (For context: a magnitude-4 earthquake causes moderate damage, while a magnitude-5 can cause “considerable damage.”) The Big Apple was back to normal in no time.
A magnitude 7.2 quake struck Taiwan on Wednesday, the nation’s strongest since 1999. The nation lies on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” (known for quakes and volcanoes) making it ripe for seismic events.
What’s wild: Taiwan is actually super-equipped for quakes because of the “wake-up call” mag-7.7 quake in 1999.
The March Jobs Report came in like a lion and went out… like a lion
👌 303K new jobs were added to the economy last month as the nation’s unemployment rate fell to 3.8%.
👌 That’s enough job creation to feel good about, but not so many that it adds to inflation.
👉 The healthcare industry, government, and travel industries led the jobs surge.
Get this: According to the Wall Street Journal, we’re working less on Fridays than we ever have. In 2021, American workers on average called it quits at 5:01 pm on Fridays. Today, workers are calling it quits at 4:03 pm. Typing this at 9:30 pm… 😜
What is your least productive day?
What is your least productive day? |
1 thing we read (and think you should too)
From Scott Galloway’s The Algebra of Wealth A Simple Formula for Financial Security. Here’s what he says…
Tip Well: More often, doing the right thing is easy. So easy that we overlook the opportunity.
Practice kindness with everyone you encounter at restaurants and hotels, at the doctor’s office, behind the wheel of an Uber, even in the most trying of service locations.
We live in a service economy and encounter service workers many times a day. Each one of these interactions is an opportunity to practice virtue and build your character.
Being kind reduces stress hormones and makes you happier; spending money on others can lower your blood pressure as much as a healthy diet.
1 fact ya gotta know
6 out of 10 jobs today are in occupations that didn’t exist in 1940 according to MIT research. Some new jobs sprung about because of innovations, but that isn’t always the case. New demands have created professions like…
“Tattooers” which was added as a U.S. census job category in 1950,
or “Hypnotherapists” which was codified in 1980,
and “Fingernail Technician” wasn’t added until 2000.
1 insight to share with your Bestie
Instagram DM from a Magician Bestie
People like watching magic tricks, not being on stage… in the trick.
One big miscalculation by tech? That users are excited by innovation just like tech founders are. In reality, people only like innovation if it leads to convenience.
That’s from our takeaway on Amazon ending its “Just Walk Out” store technology #nomore
Astronomy: Total Solar Eclipse (Monday)
Sports: NCAA Final Four
Mens’ semifinals are today, Championship Game is Monday.
Women’s Final is Sunday with Caitlin Clark’s Iowa taking on South Carolina.
Holiday: Last day of Ramadan expected to be Tuesday night, with Eid al-Fitr on Wednesday.
Jump in TBOY-style to our daily podcast (we’ve got video)
👂 Monday: The Best Facebook feature (it’s actually Marketplace)
👂 Tuesday: The Best lesson for sports betting (is from insider trading laws)
👂 Wednesday: Google Chrome’s Best kept secret until now (is incognito)
👂 Thursday: The Best open letter to artificial intelligence (was penned by Billy Eilish)
👂 Friday: The Best lesson on creativity from Larry David (is deployed everyday in our podcast)
👀 Next Monday’s pod: The best, most valuable content on TV is for toddlers
And one more thing. It’s World Health Day next week, reply HEALTH TIP for both of our #1 practices to keep us feeling fantastic and lookin’ not too shabby.
😎 😎
—Nick & Jack
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