Hi, Quartz members!
We spent our week eyeing a few things in the news: IBM’s layoffs, Eli Lilly’s weight loss drug Zepbound hitting the virtual shelves on Amazon, and how Ukraine’s drone strikes on Russian oil refineries are hitting Russia’s oil industry at just the wrong time. And here’s an interesting fact we learned: America exports so much natural gas that Americans are paying more for it.
Of course, there was always airline news to keep us busy. So much airline news. Here’s a roundup.Â
Here are our other favorite reads from Quartz from the past week and a sneak peek for next. Happy reading!
5 things we especially liked on Quartz
🛍️ Corporate America has a toxic relationship with self-checkout kiosks. One day they’re hot, the next day they’re not. Strategy may be mixed, but it’s hard to see the kiosks going anywhere, as a good chunk of Americans actually like them.
💰 Honey, I moneyed the kids. Getting older is unavoidable, but growing up, well, that’s a different story. It helps to have parents that still financially support you, which is the case for nearly half of adult children in the U.S.
🥛 People are mad at Starbucks for charging them more to avoid stomach aches. A class-action lawsuit says that charging extra for non-dairy milk is discriminatory against people with lactose intolerance, accusations that the coffee chain’s rival Dunkin’ has also faced.
🫧 What do you call a bubble within a bubble? AI, per one analyst. GMO’s chief investment strategist Jeremy Grantham thinks that OpenAI’s launch of ChatGPT in 2022 spurred an investment frenzy that temporarily delayed the bursting of the 2021 covid stimulus bubble.
🪙 Altcoins are howling at the Bitcoin moon. What are altcoins, you may ask? Have you already forgotten about Dogecoin and Shiba Inu? Well, you’re in luck, because the cryptocurrencies are out of the dog house.
1 sneak peek
It was a long pandemic for the retail industry, with supply chain snarls, inflation woes, layoff terror, and recession warnings at every turn.
Consumers have started to spend again, but it’s how they’re spending that’s changed, even as the above problems have largely stabilized. On Monday, Francisco Velasquez looks into how several big brands are dealing with a tangled mess in the pandemic aftermath.
🪢 Too much inventory
🪢 Overperformance by lower-priced brands
🪢 A consumer base that’s still very much stuck on the treasure hunt thrill of seeking the cheapest option
And it’s not just high-end retailers that are having to pivot. Even the discount brands are struggling to adjust. One tried and true method: membership programs, like Target’s forthcoming Circle 360.
🗓️ What to watch for this week
Here’s what our newsroom will be keeping an eye on:
- Sunday: Brackets are announced for the women’s and men’s NCAA basketball tournaments, and with that, March Madness officially begins.
- Monday: Nvidia has a new AI chip to show the world at its first in-person developer conference since the pandemic, and so many people are expected to go (16,000) that it’s being held at a Silicon Valley hockey arena.
- Tuesday: Chinese tech giant Xiaomi, which says its new EV is faster than a Tesla, is reporting earnings. Spring also officially begins in the U.S.
- Wednesday: General Mills will give investors its latest financial results to snack on before the market opens.
- Thursday: The Reddit IPO is expected! Plus Nike, Lululemon, and financial bellwether FedEx are scheduled to report earnings after the bell.
Thanks for reading! Here’s to the week ahead, and don’t hesitate to reach out with comments, questions, feedback, self-checkout votes, and Caitlin Clark highlights. Sunday Reads was brought to you by Morgan Haefner and Susan Howson.