😤 Amazon's Ultimate Stress Test

This is not a drill... Amazon is going through an ultimate, real-life stress test right now. The delivery giant is coming in especially clutch during these stuck-at-home months (feels like an era). And it's feeling the stress from from both sides:

• Overwhelming demand from customers is straining its supply chain and getting Prime subscribers riled up on delayed orders + unavailable products (try ordering Lysol wipes). Amazon's site traffic was up 32% from last year with almost 640M weekly visits. From Feb 20-Mar 23, Home/Kitchen sales alone surged 1,861%.
• Worker unrest is exacerbating the stress, as workers demand better pay and health protections for dangerous conditions. As many as 1/2 of workers haven't shown up to jobs at some warehouses because of lacking masks/sanitizers. On Monday, warehouse workers on Staten Island staged a walk out (and Amazon fired the lead organizer). Yesterday, some of Amazon's Whole Foods employees staged a "sick out," demanding hazard pay.

Safety vs. demand... The more demand there is from customers, the more Amazon really needs its workers to be ready, able and willing to work.

• But this overwhelming demand comes with stressful situations for workers, like reports of working overtime in close contact without adequate health protections.
• "Essential" workplaces are all struggling with some form of this, as they juggle supplying essentials to the stuck-at-home masses with ensuring worker safety.

With great power, comes great responsibility... Video conferencing service Zoom has skyrocketed in popularity, riding the wave of the virus-induced mass WFH situation. But even the most popular video conferencing app in the school has issues (and more than a few bullies) — we'll get to those later:

• Zoom added more users in the first 2 months of this year than in all of 2019, racking up 2.2M new monthly users by the end of February.
• Now it's taken the Homecoming crown for the world's most popular iPhone and Android app.
• Zoom stock is also making friends — its share price has more than doubled since late January while the rest of the market has dropped over 20%.

But Zoom has some (not so hidden) vulnerabilities... And Zoom's privacy fails are getting more heat now that it's really relevant:

• Last year: Zoom had a security flaw that let hackers hijack your webcam.
• Last week: Vice reported that Zoom was sending users' data to Facebook, without really telling them about it, even if they didn't have a Facebook account (sketch).
• Now: "Zoombombing" incidents — professional Zoom meetings get crashed by, say, a naked person shouting profanities. They're surging.
• So: NY's Attorney General just sent Zoom a letter saying her office was "concerned" about this seemingly lax security.

• Wanted: Video-chat app Houseparty offers a $1M bounty to whoever finds the individual(s) who started a "smear campaign" that alleges the app was hacked.
• Augment: Facebook strikes a deal with UK display-maker Plessey to co-produce new Augmented Reality tech (like AR glasses).
• Build: President Trump says he wants to leverage low interest rates to pass a long-awaited infrastructure bill, suggesting up to $2T for the building of roads, bridges, etc.
• Protect: Under Armour says it will manufacture and donate 500K facemasks for medical workers at the front lines of the COVID-19 outbreak.
• Closed: Simon Property, the largest US mall owner, furloughs 30% of its employees — they'll have to take an unpaid leave of absence.
• Drop: Xerox drops its bid for a hostile takeover of HP, according to #PFWTM (people familiar with the matter).

• Earnings expected from Lamb Weston and Dave & Buster's

Disclosure: Authors of this Snacks own shares of Amazon

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