Hey Snackers,
If you're not scrubbing your hands as thoroughly as this orangutan, you're doing it wrong.
US markets rallied big to start the day, but lost their gains by market close. NY deaths hit a high, but there's evidence that the outbreak is there plateauing. It's gotta get (really) bad before it gets good.
When you're here, you're family... Olive Garden should probably update its slogan, since all of its dining rooms are closed: When you're here, you shouldn't be — or When you're not here, you're home (aka, no unlimited breadsticks). Olive Garden parent Darden Restaurants has seen its same-store sales plunge 39% so far this quarter (and the quarter's not over). Why the long breadstick?
A light at the end of the basket... 99% of Olive Gardens are open for takeout — and its takeout sales have jumped 142%. LongHorn Steakhouse's have more than 3X'd. Couple that with news that Darden slashed executives' pay in half and that it has $1B in cash on hand — the stock jumped 12% Tuesday.
We're living in an omnichannel world... And Darden is an omnichannel girl. The ability to nimbly service customers both on and offline is critical in the corona-conomy and beyond. If diners can get a satisfactory Olive Garden experience at home, they'll keep shelling out the $$$ even if all the dining rooms are closed. Flexibility to seamlessly jump from in-person to takeout to online-delivery is key — and retailers like Target and J. Crew already do it.
If the economy is like a car stuck in the garage... Lear is the leather seat in that car — as in $20B/year in car seat sales (or as Lear likes to call them, "your personal docking station"). But car companies aren't making cars right now, so Lear's not making seats. Now it wants to start the engine before the economic car battery dies:
How to slowly (and safely) get people back to work... Lear thinks we needed to start planning this yesterday, and it wants to be the influencer leading this shift. Not only would it get to start making car seats again, but also it would be responsible for influencing operations in an economic recovery. That "first-mover" title might not be too hard to snag — most companies have refrained from speaking publicly about a need to return to work.
Planning for a return to normalcy is key... In private conversations, top CEOs reportedly pleaded with President Trump to start planning a phased return to work (as soon as May). They fear a catastrophic amount of large and small businesses will fail if we don't slowly re-open (aka, point of no recovery). But critical health concerns and a rise in cases make people reluctant to think that far ahead. Still, planning now is crucial as outbreaks begin to peak across the US and the world.
Like LinkedIn, but for gigs... The largest segment of Uber's business — rides — has grinded to a near-total halt. Riders and drivers fear catching germs (plus there's not many places to Uber to anyway). Drivers have lost as much as 80% of their income, and many have stopped working entirely. But Uber found a way to work what it's got:
Getting a job has never seemed harder... Uber's dream is to be the ultimate connector of the gig economy. In October it launched Uber Works, which connects people to shift jobs and helps companies fill staffing gaps. Now, with a massive unemployment rate and surging delivery demand, Uber's odds of success in this space have increased.
It's a win-win-win situation... Cash-strapped drivers get easy access to jobs, worker-needy companies get access to workers, and Uber gets a major adoption boost for its gig-connecting platform. Uber will not receive payment from companies for posting jobs — but it can monetize in the future after users get hooked. For now, it'll retain drivers while rides are down, and potentially attract new workers on a diversity of gigs. One day, WorkHub might even be Uber's profit puppy.
Disclosure: Authors of this Snacks own shares of Uber, Amazon, and Carnival
ID: 1143279