"Yo, is your IG down too?"
Amazon Buys a Billboard and Macy's is PISSED
Sup, welcome to my weekly newsletter. I was in NYC this past weekend and I wrote some of this newsletter on the flight back to Houston (airline wifi is magic). This newsletter is 730 words and should take you 3 minutes to read. Hopefully, it doesn’t suck.
Vibe Check
😰 Facebook Goes Down
🏬 Amazon Trolls Macy’s
🤨 $1.50 Tree?
🤑 Rich Guy Of the Week: The Walton Family
Facebook Goes Down: Probably Best for Our Mental Health
What Happened: This might have been the most productive Monday of the year. The entire Zuck empire was down for HOURS. Facebook, IG, WhatsApp! Facebook is having a rough couple weeks. A whistleblower came out recently and leaked a bunch of internal documents that claimed Facebook knew Instagram was having negative effects on users (especially teenager girls).
My Take: Facebook has been taking a lot of shit lately. The leak documents aren’t a good look and kinda shady. Facebook is delaying the release of “Instagram for kids” (why did someone think this was a good idea in the first place?). And now they have to deal with this outage, which will likely cost them billions. While all this is kinda funny (especially the memes), many small business owners and creators rely on Facebook to run their business. While Zuck lost billions in paper money, these small businesses probably got hit the hardest.
Thankfully, TikTok was still working.
Learn More: Why Facebook Went Down - Explained, WSJ: The Facebook Files
Macy’s is Salty AF about this Billboard
What Happened: Amazon is about to rent a billboard near Macy’s flagship store in NYC. Macy’s has advertised on this billboard (located at Herald Square in NYC) for over 60 years! Now the owner of that billboard is about to rent it out to Amazon. Macy's got butthurt and called the lawyers, claiming the billboard can’t be rented out to a competitor
My Take: I was actually in NYC this weekend and saw this billboard (see above pic). It still has Macy’s advertisement on it (for now). I can see why Macy’s is upset, Amazon is about to plant their nuts on Macy’s most famous store. The funniest line came from a Macy’s executive Benjamin Brotzman “If Amazon or another competitor were to advertise on the Billboard, the negative impact on Macy’s would be immeasurable”
Yo Ben, that statement is dramatic AF. Amazon taking over this billboard is not what’s killing your business. Amazon has already done immeasurable harm to Macy’s. Taking over this billboard is not the hill to die on. Maybe start figuring out how to offer 1 day shipping.
Learn More: More Info on Macy’s lawsuit
End of an Era: The Dollar Store
What Happened: The cost to produce things have gotten so expensive, that even the Dollar Tree can’t help but increases prices. Dollar Tree announced they will start selling some items for $1.25 and $1.50.
My Take: Supply chains are so fucked up nowadays that EVERYTHING is getting pricey. I doubt raising prices will negatively affect Dollar Tree’s sales numbers. If anything it should improve their businesses now that they don’t HAVE TO keep everything a dollar or less. Dollar Tree stock price jumped 10%+ since this announcement. No wonder Dollar Tree shareholders have been pushing Dollar Tree to raise prices for years.
Learn More: The Daily Upside
Rich Guy of the Week: Sam Walton’s Kids
The dude who founded Walmart (Sam Walton) would be rich AF if was alive today. Instead his kids and grandkids are rich AF. The Walton Family is the richest family in the world, with a net worth of more than $230B+
They have an investment team managing some of their money. The Walton Investment Team (I guess they didn’t want to get creative with the name), recently revealed all their investments. Apparently they own a shit ton of ETFs, their most popular one being the Vanguard Emerging Market ETF (VWO).
Not a bad strategy. Doesn’t matter if your worth $200B+ or just $200, investing in ETFs can be a solid move (not investment advice).
Shameless plug: If you guys want to buy this ETF (or any other stock/ETF), you can using my favorite investing app, Public. Here is the link to get up to $70 in free stock if you sign up. You can even see the stocks I own in my portfolio (been an up and down month for me). Check it out if you want, or don't, no worries at all.
Read this a week late but thoroughly enjoyed it. Looking forward to next week's newsletter.