Lyft's profit ETA: TBD

Carb problems... Beer feels 'em. We've been chatting with you for weeks about declining sales (beer is now under 50% of all alcohol consumed in the US). And Boston Beer Co. is obsessed with ales — it owns Sam Adams, just bought IPA fan Dogfish Head, and often touts its beard-approved craft status. But research firm IRI recently reported this stat: Only 25% of Boston Beer's biz is beer.

That means 75% is non-beer stuff... In fact, its new profit puppy is super clear: Truly Hard Seltzer. The citrus-infused, gluten-free option has been Boston's summer tailgate champ, driving the company's 21% increase in shipments last quarter. Here's the rest of Boston Beer's non-beer, beach-beverage roster:

• Truly: Sorry, had to mention this one again — its sales surged 163% last quarter from the year before (prepping for peak summer).
• Twisted Tea: The hard iced tea sat back and enjoyed 22% sales growth.
• Angry Orchard Cider: Just came out with a "rosé" option, because, rosé.
• Other non-beer bets: A hard kombucha called Tura and a "craft" hard tea that goes by Wild Leaf.

Three drug dealers are getting sued by 35 states... The stocks of McKesson Corp, Cardinal Health, and AmerisourceBergen fell on a report from Bloomberg that they offered $10B to settle opioid lawsuits. Those 35 states had a completely different number in mind.

There's plenty to blame for America's opioid epidemic... Purdue Pharma invented (and aggressively marketed) the addictive Oxycontin, while doctors over-prescribed it. Then there are these 3 prescription drug distributors — they hook up pharmacies with the pills (aka the drug dealer's drug dealer). Here's why that $10B they offered to end the whole thing is a problem:

• The allegation: 35 states believe the drug distributors turned their heads to what was obviously a dangerous problem.
• The painful example: Some US counties had over 100 pills distributed per person, per year — to make more profits. 100 opioids per person.
• The counter: Instead of accepting a $10B settlement, the 35 states proposed drug distributors pay up $45B. Big difference.

"Use code EARNINGS to get 15% off your 1st ride"... Lyft jumped on word that revenues surged 72% to a new record high. But because those discount codes it dishes out to drive growth are getting expensive, we noticed its growing loss.

• Last year’s 2nd quarter = Lyft lost $179M
• This year’s 2nd quarter = Lyft lost $644M
• The good news: That loss was huge, but Lyft thinks 2019 is its "peak loss" year — losses will shrink from here on out (and hopefully/eventually become profits).

But then we noticed 2 other stories... and both looked less good on Lyft. Together, they highlight a couple major issues that de-woke Lyft's previous wokeness.

1. It's not handling harassment well: If a driver bothers you, Uber's got a panic button that takes just 1 click to report – The Washington Post notes that it takes a bunch of clicks to reach Lyft's safety team (and their responses haven't been satisfactory).
2. Congestion — it's a problem: Uber and Lyft commissioned their own report on traffic. Turns out a whopping 14% of vehicle miles traveled in San Francisco are ride-hails — and ~40% of driver time overall is spent cruising around without riders.

• Headline: The New York Times falls as its subscriber growth slows — but it's closing in on 5M total subscribers (it wants 10M by 2025)
• Done: FedEx is ending its ground-delivery contract with Amazon
• Future-ish: Nike acquired an AI company to predict what consumers actually want
• Discounts: Groupon launches a membership program to keep its daily deals relevant (and snag recurring revenue from ya)
• Down: Heavy-duty truck orders just hit their lowest level in 9 years — and that could be an early economic indicator
• Uplifted: Weight Watchers jumps 43% on hopes Oprah is fueling the comeback

• Earnings from Cronos, Uber, Activision Blizzard, and IAC

Disclosure: An author of this Snacks owns shares of Amazon.

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