Hey Snackers,
When you're feeling uninspired about at-home crunches, think of this British man who ran a full marathon by sprinting back and forth in his 20-foot long backyard (7K times...)
US markets ticked down on a spike in global coronavirus cases (now over 1.2M) and a jaw-dropping unemployment record (over 10M unemployed in 2 weeks). The US is bracing for its most challenging 2 weeks: in the hardest-hit cities, like NYC and Detroit, the virus' peak is expected within the next few days.
Big Bad Data rebranding to Big Good Data
Fan of the Maurader's Map (aka the Snape-Spotter)... Alphabet has one for the world. The Google parent just released a treasure trove of public health data: Google's COVID-19 Mobility Report tells us how we're all responding to social distancing orders. Here's (semi-creepily) how:
- Smartphone, laptop, tablet, smartwatch: If you've got bars or a Wifi signal, Google knows where you are. Its apps (Gmail, Maps, YouTube, etc), Search, and Android operating system are all geo-tagging machines.
- Anonymized, aggregated data: If you've turned "Location History" on, then you're in this aggregated dataset. But your name and personal deets are not.
We're staying home more - but not all of us... We told our Snackers on Friday in our 1st live video Zoom conference that the pandemic has blown a giant hole in the US economy (slides here). The data shows why:
- We're leaving the house less, especially for non-essential activities — shopping and entertainment visits are down 47% in America. Essential spots like grocery stores/pharmacies are seeing 22% fewer visits while the outdoors (a socially-distant safe space) is also down 19%.
- Work from home is a luxury. Work commuting fell by 38%, meaning 62% of us are still making the trek as of March 29th. Work-from-home's not possible for many low-income jobs, and many are still taking public transit (germ hotspot) to get to essential gigs.
Big Data can be good data... Personal data is usually monetized by tech companies to target you with ads for a product or politician (and it sometimes gets hacked/stolen). Hence... Big Data gives Big Tech its controversial reputation. But this Mobility Report is Google using its data-collection powers to show officials how to improve their COVID-19 response. Big Data ➡️ insights ➡️ better policies ➡️ better lives. Using private data for the public good. This crisis could help tech rebrand.
Who's up...
Quarantinis on (and in) the house... Booze is booming as Americans stock up for their corona-induced worries. Alcohol sales popped 55% for the week ending March 21. Tequila, gin, and pre-made cocktails were most popular, with sales up 75%. Beer, which has lost shelf-space in fridges for years, jumped 42% — sales of hoardable 24 and 30-packs were up 90%. And virtual booze-choosing is thriving: online sales surged 243%. Still, keg kings like Bud-maker ABInbev are losing out on massive lost sales from closed restaurants and bars.
Trust me, I'm a (tele) doctor... The virtual healthcare trend is accelerating as socially-distanced patients avoid potentially germ-infested offices — adoption of telemedicine has sped up dramatically: March telehealth visits soared 50%, with virtual health-care interactions expected to top 1B by the end of the year. Teladoc reported a 50% jump in daily visits, with 15K video requests per day. TBD whether the telehealth trend will hold once the crisis is over.
...and who's down
Pour one out... for Luckin Coffee — the "Starbucks of China" announced one very un-Starbucks-like difference: its 2019 sales numbers were totally made up. Luckin had reported its sales for the first 9 months of 2019 to be $413M — but an internal investigation revealed that $310M of those never happened (aka, #fakebrews). Luckin stock plunged nearly 80% the day the news broke. Luckin apologized "sincerely" for the scandal, and said its caffeinated biz will continue as usual during the fraud investigation.
WeWork (from home)... After a failed IPO and a scandalous CEO-exit, WeWork has new troubles in its beer-on-tap-less offices: its largest investor, SoftBank, just backed out of an offer to buy $3B in additional shares. We's co-founder, Adam Neumann, would've snatched almost $1B from the deal — but other employees would also have benefitted (they can take some solace that Neumann's not walking away a billionaire anymore). Now WeWork won't get $1.1B in extra debt financing that's needed right now. After all, its whole biz is renting office space, but so many of its clients are WFH...
What else we’re Snackin’
- Track: COVID-19 peak date projections for each state — for the US as a whole, the peak is projected to happen on April 15.
- Stimulate: 5 science-backed reasons your anxiety could actually be a positive force in your life.
- Lead: What great leaders can teach us about getting through turbulent times — address people's fear, without feeding it.
- Speak: 6 sites where you can learn a foreign language for free (so you'll be ready when you can finally travel again).
- Think: How to worry about money in an actually helpful way — focus on what you can control.
- Scroll: How the one thing keeping us sane during this crisis (our phone), is also the thing driving us crazy.
This Week
- Monday: A 23-country oil summit. Earnings expected from Simply Good Foods
- Tuesday: Earnings expected from Levi Strauss
- Wednesday: 'Minutes' from the Fed's last meeting. Earnings expected from Delta
- Thursday: Weekly jobless claims. Earnings expected from Rite Aid and Shaw Communications
- Friday: The Consumer Price Index helps us measure inflation
Disclosure: Authors of this Snacks own shares of Alphabet, Luckin Coffee, and Delta
ID: 1141655