💼 Trying RTO (again)

Third time’s the charm… when you’re not kiddin’ around (for real this time). Meta and Goldman Sachs are wagging their fingers, telling disobedient employees that playtime’s over and it’s time to get back to the IRL office. Last week, Meta rolled out its new “in-person time policy,” which features ID-badge monitoring and warnings of firing. (The few “metamates” with remote exceptions are having their unfettered office access revoked.) And Goldman just kicked off a renewed push to get workers back in the office five days/week. They’re not alone:

• Et tu, Zoom’te? Remote-work enabler Zoom told employees within 50 miles of an office to RTO at least two days/week.

• Ama-zon’t think so: In its RTO zeal, Amazon reportedly told some employees to relocate to keep their jobs. In response, some quit.

Pushin’ that RTO rock up the hill… with no peak in sight. While some megacorps are all in on #officelife, buildings aren’t exactly bustling. Recently, office attendance was <50% of prepandemic levels in 10 major US biz districts. One report found that a third of office desks worldwide sit empty all week, with another third used less than three hours/day. In June, ZipRecruiter’s chief economist called WFH a “permanent shift.”

Spicy chicken in Shanghai… Popeyes is cookin’ up a big comeback in China after mysteriously closing all nine of its locations there in April. The fried-chicken franchise plans to open 1.7K stores in China in the next decade, with 10 openings in the next quarter. FYI: Popeyes is owned by Restaurant Brands International (owner of Burger King and Tim Hortons) in the US, but operates under Tims China in China. 

• Sweet heat: While Popeyes plans to offer its iconic spicy chicken and popcorn shrimp, it’ll also serve more localized dishes like sweet chili chicken and pomelo milkshakes. 

• Long lines: Throngs queued up for Popeyes’ Shanghai flagship opening last week, giving the company an opening-day record for orders. 

Slow times, fast food… China is struggling to bounce back from its strict pandemic policies, but consumers haven’t stopped splurging on fast food. Thanks to viral menu favorites and Gen Z’s love of all things fried, China’s fast-food market has surged 70% since 2017. Now US chains are doubling down. Subway plans to open 3K+ new shops in China to expand its footlong footprint by 7X over the next 20 years. McDonald’s is opening 900 locations in China this year, while Starbucks aims to have 9K shops in its second-largest market by 2025.

After nearly four months of the writers’ strike… Hollywood studios and streamers released details of their revised contract proposal for the 11.5K-member union yesterday, but the WGA was unimpressed. Some deets:

• Writers would receive a 13% pay bump over three years, access to streaming viewership data, and some protections re AI-generated material.

• Union leadership said the offer was filled with loopholes and had omissions, and it urged writers to keep picketing. The guild said a follow-up face-to-face with execs like Disney’s Bob Iger, Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav, and Netflix’s Ted Sarandos was less a meeting than a lecture intended to get the union to cave. 

Reality setting in… As the content crunch from striking writers and actors begins to hit studio earnings, a new group is looking to join the movement: reality-TV casts and crews. Unscripted content has historically been a load-bearer for studios during strikes as it's largely nonunion. 

• SAG-AFTRA (the performers’ union) said this month that it’s working toward protections for reality entertainers to end “exploitative practices” in the industry.

• A former cast member sued Netflix’s “Love Is Blind,” alleging brutal set conditions and pay amounting to about $7/hour.

• “Real Housewives” star Bethenny Frankel recently said, “I got paid $7,250 for my first season of reality TV, and people are still watching those episodes.” 

• If reality stars revolt, studios will be facing an even bigger content nightmare.

• Chipper: Nvidia lifted its guidance after reporting that its quarterly sales doubled from a year earlier on red-hot demand for its AI chips. It forecast a better-than-expected $16B in revenue for this quarter.

• Aberzombie: Abercrombie & Fitch has risen from its Y2K grave. Its Q2 revenue soared past expectations, and it’s predicting sales will pop 10% this year, even as Foot Locker and Target say discresh-spend is down. 

• Fence: Mortgage demand is at a 28-year low as rates hit a two-decade high, climbing toward 8%. While existing-home sales fell last month on scarce inventory, new-home sales picked up. 

• Catastrophe: The fires in Hawaii could cost the local economy up to $6B in property damage and business interruptions. At least 115 people died in the disaster and 800 are missing. President Biden has pledged federal aid. 

• Brakes: Peloton shares fell 20% after the spin icon announced a bigger-than-expected quarterly loss. The pandemic favorite pointed to a summer slowdown in hardware sales (it’s vacay time, not gym time) and a 2M-bike recall.

• Ukraine Independence Day

• Earnings expected from Burlington, Dollar Tree, TD Bank, Petco, Weibo, Build-A-Bear, Ulta, Intuit, Gap, and Nordstrom 

Authors of this Snacks own shares of: Amazon, Disney, Nvidia, Starbucks, and Ulta