💉 Biden’s big vax mandate

A game of chicken… The pandemic was tough for Tyson. Last year, meat giants pushed to keep facilities open as Covid spread, which resulted in shutdowns and 150+ worker deaths. But after masks and testing failed to control the surge, Tyson required its 120K workers to get vaxxed in August, becoming one of the first large employers to mandate vaccines. The move was unpopular, but it worked:

• 96% of Tyson workers are now vaxxed, after 61K workers got jabbed post-mandate.
• Tyson’s profit jumped 40%+ last quarter from 2020, despite $55M in Covid expenses.

The great vax rush… is just starting. Yesterday, Biden said private employers with 100 workers or more have until January 4 to ensure their employees are fully vaccinated — or make sure they get weekly testing. The plan covers a whopping 84M workers, and it’s been polarizing: 50K Americans have died from Covid since October, but four in 10 say they’ll quit if they’re required to get vaxxed. This isn’t Biden’s first mandate. In September, he announced similar requirements for 4M+ federal workers.

• Early adopters: Google, IBM, and United Airlines already imposed their own mandates, and few workers quit.
• Late vaxxers: Walmart, Amazon, JPMorgan, and others still don’t require employee vaccination. Last month, only 13% of businesses had vax mandates.
• Objectors: Trade groups representing UPS, Disney, and Fidelity say Biden’s rule is too expensive. Twenty-four states threatened to sue to block it.

Publix is sweating... Kroger, aka America's largest grocery chain, owns supermarket staples like Food 4 Less, Ralphs, and... Kroger. The 138-year-old Cincinnati-based grocer has 2.8K stores in 35 states. Now Kroger is getting techy to expand beyond its OG stores. Last year, Kroger debuted two "ghost kitchens," or delivery-only restaurants. Kroger is going all out on ghost grocery.

• Giant robo-warehouse: Kroger is breaking into Florida with a brand-new robot-powered warehouse that's nearly the size of eight football fields.
• Call them Grobots: Grocery robots retrieve items like bananas, steak, and oat milk from the warehouse, passing them on to delivery drivers.
• DIY delivery: Kroger is using its own grocery-delivery fleet, unlike Publix (which uses Instacart) and Albertsons (which uses DoorDash).

The e-cart is hot... It’s a massive investment for Kroger, and a risky bet on its ecomm strategy. Kroger has already opened two automated warehouses, with plans for at least nine more over the next two years, including in the Northeast. It spent $55M just to build its FL warehouse and hired 900 employees to service it. Last year, Walmart unveiled plans to build a similar warehouse with robots that can pick 800+ grocery products/hour. Here's why:

• Online grocery makes up 12% of all grocery sales — down from 20% mid-pandemic, but way up from 2% pre-pandemic.
• Half of US households ordered e-groceries in September. Kroger thinks that number will keep growing.

• AUX: Uber posted its first adjusted profit last quarter thanks to the ride-hail rebound, but actually lost $2.4B due to its stake in Chinese rival Didi.
• Yurt: Airbnb had its best quarterly earnings ever, with profits nearly quadrupling from last year as the “travel revolution” continues.
• Future: Google invested $1B in futures exchange CME and signed a deal to move some of CME’s trading platforms to its cloud.
• Pill: The UK became the first country to approve Merck’s Covid antiviral pill, while the US will vote this month.
• Chilly: Activision Blizzard stock had its worst day in 12 years after the gaming giant delayed releases of Overwatch 2 and Diablo IV.
• Drill: Oil powerhouse OPEC said it was sticking to plans to ramp up global production by 400K barrels a day starting next month, despite US calls for more.

• Earnings expected from Enbridge, Dominion Energy, TC Energy, Honda, DraftKings, and AMC

Authors of this Snacks own shares of: Google, Uber, Walmart, and Disney

ID: 1908862