🍟 McDonald’s app-y holidays
Hey Snackers,
Imagine you’re winding down for a relaxing Friday evening when Apple sends you a notification: state-sponsored spies are snooping on your iPhone. Sounds like a Liam Neeson thriller, actually a new iMessage alert for users who face “extraordinary digital threats.”
US stocks snapped a five-day losing streak yesterday (the S&P 500’s longest since October). Investors have eyes on next week’s Fed rate meeting and November inflation numbers.
McDonald's serves up beefy holiday promos to drive app traffic (and ease drive-thru guilt)
50-cent Big Macs… for life. As inflation bites into budgets, fast-food giants are unwrapping deals to lure customers. This week McDonald’s kicked off its holiday promos, offering three weeks of perks for its app loyalty members. Last season, McD’s teamed up with Christmas queen Mariah Carey to promo 12 days of freebies for app users. This year the McFlurry icon is offering deals like $0.50 Big Macs and a chance to win free food for life. It’s a tasty strategy:
- McDonald’s loyalty program has 25M+ US members, despite launching just last year. For reference: Chipotle has 30M loyalty members and Starbucks has 28M.
- Nearly two-thirds of McD’s US members had used the app in the three months leading up to September. Last quarter, digital transactions made up half of McDonald’s sales.
The (loyal) consumer combo… From IHOP to Taco Bell to Panera, fast-casual brands are turning to loyalty programs to drive app downloads and court new customers. Digital orders make up a third of total US restaurant sales, up from less than a quarter prepandemic. 57% of restaurants offer some sort of loyalty club, and 41% of consumers say those programs encourage them to spend. A sweet bonus for brands: they can use customer app data to personalize offers.
Rewards are guilt soothers… Nabbing a free drink at Starbucks makes it easier to swallow the $30 you spent on lattes that month, and hitting the McDonald’s drive-thru rather than eating in is easier when you feel like you’re getting a deal. Like many businesses, McDonald’s has hiked prices to offset rising costs. Now it’s leveraging loyalty to keep customers hungry.
Americans start souring on crypto while institutional investors like Goldman go shopping
Taking a temp check… when the situation's already heated. A new survey suggests that Americans are increasingly skeptical of crypto. Only 8% of respondents had a positive view (down from 19% in March), while 43% had a negative view (up from 25%). The timing of the survey, conducted late last month, may have something to do with those #s. Earlier in November FTX collapsed spectacularly, and the ensuing contagion likely made some investors crypto-phobic. But the cold symptoms started earlier:
- Market slap: A late-spring selloff, ignited by the collapse of the terraUSD algo stablecoin, ended with crypto's market cap down $2T from its high last year.
- Blockpain: A study published last month estimated that, between 2015 and 2022, 80% of retail investors lost money on bitcoin. (FYI: the study used crypto app downloads, most of which happened when BTC was over $20K.)
When the going gets tough… big money goes shopping. While some institutional investors (like Canada’s biggest pension fund) are said to be stepping back from crypto, others are whipping out their checkbooks. This week Goldman Sachs said it plans to spend tens of millions investing in, or outright buying, crypto companies. And at least one crypto exchange, Bitstamp, said it saw a 57% increase in November in institutional registrations over the previous month.
It's easy to be "crypto curious" when times are good… Last year, more than 60% of US adults said they were planning on buying crypto or wanted to learn more. Crypto's no longer at its high, and the economy’s not doing so hot either. The performance of public crypto-first cos like Coinbase — which recently said it expected annual revenue to be down 50% from last year — could provide insight into whether America’s dim view of crypto is sticking.
The Crypto Catch-Up…
- 📸 Flashy… Crypto's faithful descended on Miami for Art Basel, and even FTX's collapse couldn’t sour the mood (too much). Attendees collected discarded FTX swag as souvenirs (picture: T-shirts in trash bags) and partied to a Grimes DJ set.
- 🤖 Techy… The September merge promised to cut ethereum energy usage by more than 99%. A new study suggests it succeeded — reducing the blockchain's energy consumption by an Ireland-sized amount (thanks, proof of stake).
- 🪙 Coins… A judge ordered bankrupt crypto lender Celsius to return $44M to its customers. For now, only crypto held in custody accounts (read: not yield-bearing) falls under the order. Celsius still owes its customers billions.
What else we’re Snackin’
- Game: Call of regulatory duty? The FTC sued Microsoft to block its $75B plan to buy “Call of Duty” maker Activision and prevent it from “gaining control over a leading independent game studio and using it to harm competition.”
- iAsk: Foxconn, the world’s largest iPhone assembler, helped persuade Chinese leaders to loosen strict Covid policies, a WSJ report said. Foxconn’s revenue sagged last quarter after lockdowns on its factory.
- Tight: The legging-palooza may be winding down: Lululemon shares fell yesterday after the athleisure star gave an underwhelming forecast for this quarter, despite reporting better-than-expected growth.
- Share: All’s well that ends shared? The Pentagon awarded its JEDI cloud contract (which could total $9B) to Google, Amazon, Oracle, and Microsoft. Microsoft originally won, but rivals challenged the decision.
- Media: BuzzFeed plans to cut 180 staffers to help it “weather an economic downturn” as other news companies like CNN and Gannett lay off hundreds. Meanwhile, NYT journalists staged a historic strike yesterday.
Friday
- Earnings expected from Johnson Outdoors
Authors of this Snacks own: bitcoin and ethereum and shares of Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Starbucks
ID: 2632067