Business
The small town that saved its only grocery store — by buying it. A fascinating look into grocery stores in rural areas and the monumental challenges that these stores have to face.
Why Toyota – the world’s largest automaker – isn’t all-in on electric vehicles. In my opinion, given the lack of infrastructure and adoption of electric vehicles at the moment, prudence by Toyota totally makes sense. Their conservative stance doesn’t necessarily mean that they won’t invest when the right time comes. Of course, Toyota’s bet could put them on the back foot, but who is to say that aggressive investments by Toyota’s competitors are without risks and totally justified? Some other manufacturers vowed to have all EVs in 10 years, but these vows aren’t binding in any sense. As a result, what matters to shareholders is what is best for the business, not meaningless promises. If being prudent benefits shareholders, Toyota’s management should stick to their guns.
Siting bank branches. An interesting post on bank branches. To be honest, as someone who works in the banking industry, I learned something new.
($) Professor Behind $12 Billion Empire Fuels China’s Tech Rise. “Li was among the first Chinese to study in the US before returning to teach in Hong Kong’s pre-eminent technology university. From there, he’s groomed a generation of entrepreneurs and set up an incubation academy, funding or nurturing promising players in robotics and artificial intelligence valued at almost $12 billion.“
Made on YouTube: supporting the next wave of creative entrepreneurs. YouTube attracts digital creators with new initiatives, including a revenue-share scheme and more access to a music catalog to create long-form videos.
dunnhumby Retailer Preference Index: Special Inflation Edition 2022. This RPI score measures how well retailers meet consumer needs and strengthen the emotional bond with shoppers. My favorite place to shop, Aldi, is the 2nd best retailer (I wrote about Aldi before), while Trader’s Joe and Lidl follow closely behind. If I were among the executives at Walmart, I would not be pleased when reading this report. Walmart prides itself at a low price retailer, but it came in at 16th and 17th place in this ranking. It’s worth noting that the bond forged during a difficult time like right now should last for a long time.
($) The Sneaky Genius of Apple’s AirPods Empire. “Apple doesn’t disclose sales of its headphones—its quarterly filings lump AirPods in with its watches, home speakers, and other accessories—but outside analysts say it sold 120 million or so pairs in 2021. IDC and Bloomberg Intelligence estimates suggest that AirPods account for roughly half of sales of what Apple calls “Wearables, Home and Accessories,” its fastest- growing line of business. From 2016 to 2021, sales in this category rose by 245%, to $38 billion. Piper Sandler Cos., the investment bank, estimates that 3 in 4 US teens own AirPods. Apple has set the standard for wireless headphones and turned a free pack-in accessory into a $200 must-buy. Of course, AirPods aren’t really a standalone product. They’re an extension of Cook’s larger project: a mutually dependent ecosystem of hardware, software, and services that keeps customers spending more all the time“.
Other stuff I found interesting
Guide to F1. A cool website that will ease beginners into the world of F1 with an overview of the sport’s history, cheat sheet and explanations on key terminologies.
We Spoke With the Last Person Standing in the Floppy Disk Business. The world is such a fascination because of people like him.
I enjoy John Gruber’s writing, especially when it comes to Apple. His latest review on iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro is masterful.
How Europe Stumbled Into an Energy Catastrophe. “They’re burning coal like they never have in Germany. So — climate what? I mean, does Germany actually care about climate change? If it cared about climate change, I guess Germans would all shiver instead of burning coal. Climate change is going to happen over multiple decades in a century. The war is here. The war is before us. There’s no such thing as the unicorn buffet where we have no trade-offs and every decision is a good one. It’s unthinkable that Germany would still be debating whether they should keep the nuclear power plants on. It’s unthinkable that Germany would be debating whether or not to go turn back on the ones they just turned off. And we keep saying, How much pain do you need to suffer before you reacquaint yourself with reality?“
Stats
U.S. retail sales expected to grow 7.1%* this holiday season
Transactions on Zelle exceeded the 5-billion mark
Visa Tap-to-Pay Hits 1 Billion Transit Transactions
Amazon Prime averaged 13 million viewers for its debut live stream of “Thursday Night Football,”
Minh Quang Duong 