Hey Snackers,
The GIF vs. JIF debate is finally over: peanut butter legend Jif is releasing a GIF peanut butter with a hefty serving of "HARD g pronunciation." In case it wasn't clear enough, it's labeled as "animated looping images." Hats off to marketing.
Stock indexes continued their dip as the White House started discussing coronavirus defense measures at home.
Coming in hot off the rack... Discount retail giant TJX is the company behind TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and Homegoods (the "treat-yo-self-without-going-broke" trifecta). It reported expectations-shattering sales growth, sending its stock up 7% to a record high. We'll discount the details for you:
It's beating the retail-apocalypse... With brick-and-mortar retail stores closing all over, TJX stands apart from the rest. Part of its success is in creating the "treasure hunt shopping experience" — nothing beats finding a $40 Michael Kors purse in a heap of sweaters.
TJX is all about embracing the "affordable splurge"... The bargain-reputation is TJX's bread and butter — it's not trying to hide its love of price-slashing. TJX's CEO: "What once, maybe, wasn't as cool to give a T.J. Maxx or Marshalls bag has now become very cool." Okay, very cool might be an overstatement, but... you get it. As economic inequality rises, Americans are turning to TJX for brand names, at a discount.
If you want it, let's do it... Pony.ai is a self-driving car startup that claims to be based in both Silicon Valley and Guangzhou, China — and it just got a $400M investment from the world's largest car maker, Toyota. Now Pony's riding high at a $3B valuation. Pony has been testing the robotaxi life since 2018, and is now one of China's leading self-driving car companies (along with Baidu and WeRide). Pony and Toyota's AI love story:
Toyota has been kinda secretive... about its self-driving car projects — but its investment in Pony suggests things are getting serious. FYI, it's not an exclusive relationship: in 2018 and 2019, Toyota poured around $1B into a similar project with Uber. Toyota's status quo is Priuses, Corollas, and Camrys — so it needs other companies' AI tech to future-proof its vehicles. Because...
Getting ahead of the curve is key... Self-driving cars could be the future, and no company wants to miss out on the future — especially the world's most profitable car company. Instead of wasting time trying to develop its own robocar tech, Toyota (and several other carmakers) are investing big in existing startups:
Disclosure: Authors of this Snacks own shares of Lululemon and Beyond Meat
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