...and Harley Davidson's profit transformation
| Trying to get something delivered pre-Postmates | |
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Hey Snackers, Juicy news: the European Parliament has declared that veggie burgers can, in fact, be called "burgers." Farmer lobbyists are Beyond salty about the decision. Markets dipped as more than 20 US states reported COVID-19 cases at or near records. But the tech-heavy Nasdaq inched up ahead of earnings from Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook tomorrow. They must've coordinated in the Big Tech group chat. | |
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Postmates reaches peak "Delivery Everything" with LA retail shopping | Need that Santal 26 White Concrete Candle... stat. Food delivery app Postmates is launching a new retail delivery platform, starting in LA. It includes boutique stores like Estee Lauder's Le Labo, Zadig & Voltaire, and Anastasia Beverly Hills (soooo LA). From a "Shop" tab in the Postmates app, users can get clothes, makeup, and home goods dropped off same-day. - Postmates can capitalize on demand for contactless holiday shopping.
- Businesses can do the same without building their own delivery tools.
Ran out of patchouli essential oil... Postmates wants to deliver your energy-shifting incense as fast as it drops off truffle pizza. If enough merchants join, Postmates Shop could be an appealing alternative to Amazon Prime — especially since Postmates plans to expand it to other cities in 2021. - Faster: Instead of waiting a few days for your silk pajama set, you can get it as quickly as pad thai (#instantgratification).
- Local: The charming boutiques you used to visit pre-corona probably aren't on Amazon — but they could be on Postmates.
| THE TAKEAWAY | "Delivery Everything" is here... The delivery system is the hardest part. If you have one, you can deliver almost anything — and there's no better time to start doing that than during a pandemic. That's why food delivery apps have expanded beyond noms. The first step was convenience stores: Postmates x Walgreens, DoorDash x CVS, Instacart x 7-Eleven. The next step is retail: DoorDash x Macy's, Instacart x Sephora, and Postmates Shop (the boldest delivery pivot of them all). | |
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Harley-Davidson ditches the pursuit of Millennials to rev up Boomer classics | Heard it from a mile away... Harley-Davidson stock surged 22% yesterday after the motorcycle legend reported expectation-beating earnings. Harley's quarterly sales fell 8% compared to a year ago, but profit spiked 39%. That's because Harley's new CEO Jochen Zeitz has been majorly streamlining: - Slash costs: Harley laid off ~10% of its employees. It's also closing underperforming dealerships and some international operations to zero in on core markets.
- Optimize sales: Zeitz is cutting ~30% of Harley's least profitable models (hardcore). And he wants customers to pay full price for recently discounted two-wheelers.
Bring back the bicep tats... and the head bandannas. Before Zeitz took over in February, Harley was chasing a new customer base: Millennials. It tried to win young love with cheaper, smaller rides like electric motorcycles and bikes. The old CEO wanted to launch up to 100 of these models. The new CEO doesn't care if a 25-year-old from Williamsburg likes it: - Harley's going back to its OG strategy of making big, expensive motorcycles for diehard fans.
- 10 popular models made up more than two-thirds of Harley's sales. Harley's now honing in on those Baby Boomer favorites instead of its other 27.
| THE TAKEAWAY | Harley's choosing short-term gain over long-term growth... Harley's cost-slashing, Boomer-focused plan means higher profits now. But its US bike sales have fallen for five years straight through 2019. Meanwhile: cuter, youth-friendly motorcycles have lifted sales for rivals like Polaris and Eicher. Harley needs to take Millennials along for the ride to notch long-term growth. | |
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What else we're Snackin' | - ShopTok: Shopify is partnering with TikTok to help its 1M+ merchants sell products through shoppable video ads.
- Softie: Microsoft earnings beat expectations across the board as its Azure cloud business grew 48% from last year.
- Zap: London is using UV lights to sanitize its subway network (aka: the tube) — escalator handrails are getting zapped.
- Bling: LVMH and Tiffany are discussing new terms for their merger after LVMH tried to ditch the $16B acquisition.
- Jolly: Amazon is hiring 100K seasonal workers in the US and Canada to meet holiday demand (so many rice cookers).
- Gassy: Oil giant BP posts its fifth-straight quarterly loss — Shell, Chevron, and Exxon also report this week.
- Cheeto: Microchip giant AMD is buying rival Xilinx for $35B, accelerating consolidation in the semiconductor industry (exciting).
🍪 Thanks for Snacking with us! Want to share the Snacks? Invite your friends to sign up here. |
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The Snacks Daily Podcast | 3M, the company behind Post-its and Scotch Tape, has already sold 1.4B N95 masks in 2020. Besides office staples and masks, 3M also sells around 55K other products (casual). But the stock is down this year because 3M is an "economy clinger." Tune into our digestible 15-minute pod to find out why 3M is so #clingy. | | | |
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Wednesday | Disclosure: Authors of this Snacks own shares of Uber, Microsoft, Shopify, and CVS ID: 1387882 |
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