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If you glanced at the headlines this week, you might think everything is fine. Markets are not in full panic mode, unemployment is not spiking, and earnings season is still producing plenty of upbeat charts for investor decks. Underneath that, though, there is a very different story taking shape about what it takes to keep growth going when people are tired of paying more for less. Across the economy, companies are being forced to get creative. Some are reworking how they price core products, others are quietly shrinking their physical footprint, and a few are openly trying to trade short term stock market love for longer term loyalty. Even the hottest corners of tech are starting to see what happens when the narrative shifts from limitless upside to awkward questions like “how much is too much.” At the same time, politics and policy are bleeding into everyday life, showing up in places like flight schedules and housing costs. Put it all together and you get a picture of an economy that is not crashing, but is being quietly renegotiated in real time. Here is a look at the stories that captured that tension this week. Housing affordability is so tight that builders are buying down mortgage rates D.R. Horton is leaning hard on mortgage rate buydowns to keep homes moving in a market where affordability is stretched past its limits. In its latest quarter, nearly three quarters of buyers took a discounted mortgage rate, often starting around 3.99 percent, in order to make monthly payments work. That generosity is not free. Incentives helped push the companys gross margin on home sales down to 20 percent, well below its 2021 peaks, even as net new orders rose 5 percent year over year. The builder is also slowing new starts and managing inventory more tightly, especially in softer markets like parts of Florida and California. TD Bank trims branches as customers shift to their phones TD Bank is closing 51 branches and one drive through location across 13 states and Washington, D.C., as it redraws its physical footprint for a more digital world. The cuts are part of a plan to reduce or relocate about 10 percent of its stores while pouring more money into tech forward, advice based services. Executives say they still plan to open new locations in some affected communities, but with a sharper focus on where customers actually show up in person. For now, TD is relying on more than 1,000 remaining U.S. branches plus its apps and online tools to handle the shift. Outback Steakhouse quietly closes doors in eight states It is not your imagination if the nearest Bloomin Onion suddenly disappeared. Outback Steakhouses parent company, Bloomin Brands, has closed 10 U.S. locations across eight states as part of a broader turnaround plan. The casual dining chain is facing higher costs and more cautious diners at the same time its stock has dropped more than 40 percent this year. The company says it chose which restaurants to shutter based on sales, traffic, and investment needs, and is trying to move affected workers to nearby locations. It is another sign that full service chains are feeling the squeeze as consumers trade down or stay home. The Big Short investor is betting against the AI darlings Some of the shine came off the AI trade this week after Nvidia and Palantir shares fell on news that Michael Burry is shorting both names. The investor, who became famous for calling the housing crash ahead of 2008, disclosed that his fund bought put options on the two high profile AI plays. His move hit a nerve in a market already debating whether AI stocks are in bubble territory, even as surveys show many investors think they are. Still, the pullback comes after a monster run. Nvidia is up more than 50 percent this year and Palantir has gained well over 100 percent over the same period. McDonalds is losing its lowest income customers McDonalds latest earnings call confirmed what a lot of families already feel. Fast food is not cheap enough to be a default option anymore for the lowest income diners. The company said quick service traffic from lower income customers fell by nearly double digits in the third quarter, a trend that has dragged on for almost two years, while higher income traffic keeps rising. Same store sales were up modestly in the U.S. and globally, but still missed some Wall Street expectations. In response, McDonalds is leaning back into value with limited time deals like a 5 dollar breakfast combo and 8 dollar nugget meal, plus digital promotions tied to its Monopoly game. YouTube TV hides a 60 dollar credit where only power users will find it After YouTube TV dropped more than 20 Disney owned channels when carriage talks broke down, subscribers expected a meaningful bill break. What many are discovering instead is a somewhat buried offer of 10 dollars off per month for six months, for those who can find and redeem it in their account settings. The credit is not automatic and appears to be available only to some users, which has frustrated customers who already feel shortchanged by the loss of ESPN, ABC, and other major networks. The move follows an earlier suggestion from YouTube that a larger 20 dollar monthly credit might be on the table if the blackout dragged on. Electric aircraft maker Beta Technologies takes off on the NYSE Beta Technologies, a Vermont based electric aviation startup, made its public market debut under the ticker BETA. The company priced its IPO at 34 dollars a share, above the marketed range, raising just over 1 billion dollars and implying a valuation around 7.4 billion dollars. Beta builds electric aircraft and charging systems, including a conventional takeoff plane and a vertical takeoff and landing model called Alia, which it has already flown tens of thousands of nautical miles. With contracts that include the U.S. Department of Defense, Beta joins a growing club of electric aviation companies betting that cleaner, quieter aircraft can carve out a real slice of future air travel. Duolingos earnings are strong, but its stock still fell off a cliff On paper, Duolingos third quarter looked great. Daily active users jumped 36 percent, revenue climbed 41 percent, and paid subscribers rose by more than a third. Yet the stock dropped around 25 percent after the company told investors to expect much slower growth in total bookings next quarter, a key metric that bakes in future subscription and test revenue. CEO Luis von Ahn said Duolingo is deliberately prioritizing product quality and user growth over near term monetization, particularly as it leans into AI powered teaching tools. The markets reaction shows how little patience some investors have for long term thinking in a choppy tech tape. Airlines offer rare refunds as the shutdown snarls air travel United, American, and Delta all said they will offer refunds during the government shutdown to customers who decide not to fly, even if their flights are not technically canceled. The move comes after the FAA ordered a 10 percent cut in flights at 40 major airports because thousands of unpaid air traffic controllers are unavailable. Long haul international routes are expected to mostly hold, but domestic schedules will be trimmed, affecting as many as 4,000 flights a day. The big three are framing the refunds as a customer friendly gesture in a tough situation, while also urging Washington to move quickly to end the shutdown that is disrupting the system they rely on.
Category:
E-Commerce
Over the past 50 years in the shoe trade, I have had my fair share of failure. The biggest lesson I learned, at the start of my career, is not to devote time and energy to a business or project that has little chance of success. This might sound obvious, however sometimes you are so involved in the detail of the day to day running of the business that you dont stand back and question the future viability of what you are doing. I was a womens shoe manufacturer in London in the 1980s. If I had looked at the big picture I would have seen that the future of manufacturing in the U.K. for low technology, high labor content businesses like footwear manufacturing, was unsustainable. Most of the production was moving to Asia where costs were much lower and the quality was excellent. It took a visit to Taiwan to see the same shoes being made at half the price that it was costing us in our London factory to persuade me to leave manufacturing and become an importer. My lesson is to respond quickly and try and anticipate change. Pressure on middlemen Another example is from the 2000s. I was a successful importer from Asia, a business I set up in 1986 called Browning Enterprises. It had a turnover of 60m. As communications improved and markets opened, more Chinese manufacturers and trading companies came directly to the major U.K. retailers, putting pressure on the margins of the middlemen, like me. Our costs were too high. We couldnt compete. The import company struggled on till 2009. It was the decline in the importing business and the desire to start my own brand that led to me to launch Dune in 1992. Temper your optimism Another failure was opening unprofitable stores. This is an expensive mistake as the 400k investment is written off when the store is closed. The failure is usually due to overestimating the level of sales. The costs of a new store are easily calculated. The big variable, that is largely a matter of judgement, is the sales number. Of course you do your due diligence by looking at footfall figures, studying demographics, and talking to adjacent stores to try and judge their performance. Finally, you come to a sales number. The lesson is to be cautious about the level of sales. Look carefully at the possible downsides. As an entrepreneur your natural tendency is to be optimistic. You must temper this optimism. Resist the temptation to open the shop because you want to grow. It has got to make commercial sense. As an entrepreneur it is easy to get distracted and sidetracked into ventures that are not related to your area of expertise. This loss of focus can be damaging, as not only is there a high probability that the new venture is unprofitable and you will lose money, but it also takes your attention away from your main activity. Not special My career has been in fashion footwear. Thats what I know. However, during the pandemic, I launched a sustainable trainer brand. I felt that was where the growth was in footwear, so thats where I needed to be. It was a failure. Why? Two reasons. Firstly, it wasnt special enough. It was a good, well-made sustainable product but in a crowded market it didnt have an important point of difference that would make it stand out. Secondly, we didnt go out and aggressively sell the product. I thought I would generate the online sales through the website. This was a mistake. We needed to sell wholesale as well, not only to generate sales but to get the brand out there in the market. There are two important lessons for entrepreneurs here. One: Dont underestimate the marketing cost of selling a new brand online. Two: You may have a great product, but it is essential that you get out there and sell. It is no coincidence that over the years the sales team has been the highest earners in the business. Avoid distraction We launched a range of childrens shoes. This was related to our main activity, but as we found to our cost, the market is very different from adults shoes. As we didnt have the space in our stores to offer the range we focussed on online and wholesale. Selling a new brand of childrens shoes online was more difficult than we anticipated. Mothers like to buy their kids shoes in a physical store. In addition, the market was polarized between the established heritage brands, Clarks and Startrite, and the large stores like Next, Marks & Spencer, and Zara, who were offering similar shoes at lower prices. The lesson is clear. Resist the temptation to get distracted unless you are very confident that the new venture is financially compelling. The right team Finally, having the right team in place is essential. As an entrepreneur there is a danger that you are reluctant to give up control. It is essential to recognize the limitations of your abilities and hire a team that can do things better than you. The importance of building the right team came into sharp focus in 2009 when we acquired a company called Shoe Studio and trebled our size. A year after the acquisition we started to struggle. Our profits fell. We didnt have the management expertise to run a larger business. My skills and time were being stretched to the limit. We employed a first-class FD and a team of senior experienced retailers which transformed the business. It is a well-known expression that you learn more from your failures than your successes. That is certainly my experience. And if the project is failing, then fail fast.
Category:
E-Commerce
I love FM radio. Its okay: You can call me a Luddite. My alarm clock is the local public radio station. I love toggling between a few music stations while driving, or even while reading at home. And during a road trip, theres nothing quite like discovering a community station with random locals curating their own playlistsit gives you a sense of where you are that no Spotify playlist can match. The problem: Its hard to know what stations exist locally, even in your own town but particularly while on a road trip. You can explore the dial, which has a certain serendipity, but what if you just want to . . . know? And be able to tune in with or without an actual traditional radio in front of you? This tip originally appeared in the free Cool Tools newsletter from The Intelligence. Get the next issue in your inbox and get ready to discover all sorts of awesome tech treasures! Old-school listening with a modern twist This exact problem is why I like Radio Locator. Its a free website that lets you enter any city or zip code and find all the terrestrial stations that are available for that area. Itll show you a list of every FM and AM station in any U.S. city or zip code. You can also browse international radio stations by country. And it all takes just a few seconds to do. The Radio Locator site is free and as simple as can be. This is a rare service that isnt cluttered with ads or upselling. Just open the site, type a place, and youll see a list. Stations are sorted by frequency, but youll also see the call sign, the distance to the tower, and what format of radio station is offered. (Im personally always looking for public radio or alternative stations, but you can figure out what you want for yourself.) You can find info about all sorts of stations, in any geographical area. Of course, all of this only applies if youve got an actual-factual FM radio on your hands. What if youre more of a computer-and-phone kind of person? Easy: Just click through on any of the stations on Radio Locator, and theyll generally take you to a website where you can stream the station. Or, if you prefer a dedicated tool for the job, theres Streema. Its a free site that makes it easy to search for and stream just about any radio station imaginable, anywhere in the world. A few stations redirect to websitesbest I can tell for legal reasonsbut the overwhelming majority of the time, you can just search for a website and start listening. Streema makes most on-demand radio listening a swift click or tap away. Either way, you can find and listen to old-fashioned radio stations anytime. Again: I recommend finding public and community stations, as those tend not to have ads, but take the time to explore. Its nice to get away from the algorithm sometimes. You can open Radio Locator and Streema directly in your web browser on any device. Streema also offers an app called Simple Radio for both Android and iOS, if youd rather go that route. Radio Locator and Streema are both free in the browser. Simple Radio is free with on-screen ads or you can get an ad-free version for $6 a month. Neither site requires a login or any real personal data, but you can opt to share your locationif you want. Treat yourself to all sorts of brain-boosting goodies like this with the free Cool Tools newsletterstarting with an instant introduction to an incredible audio app thatll tune up your days in truly delightful ways.
Category:
E-Commerce
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