“We’re betting that the future of America is going to be built in the middle of...
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this exodus bodes well for cities like Austin, which was already on its way to becoming the de facto, secondary outpost for tech talent
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Not even $3.6 billion worth of committed capital will keep top VCs in Silicon Valley anymore. Founding partner of 8VC, co-founder of Palantir, and lifelong Californian Joe Lonsdale wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal explaining his decision to move to Texas, “the new land of opportunity.” He joins a growing diaspora of disenchanted tech entrepreneurs fed up with San Francisco’s crumbling infrastructure and bureaucratic policies. As Adam Bluestein wrote in Markerback in July, this exodus bodes well for cities like Austin, which was already on its way to becoming the de facto, secondary outpost for tech talent before the pandemic hit in early March — and is likely to benefit from the remote work boom.
“As these workers flee the expensive coastal cities they’ve been golden-handcuffed to, Austin could find itself inheriting an entirely new class of workers who don’t actually work here,” writes Bluestein. “People won’t necessarily be flocking to Austin for jobs, but for all the other reasons they’ve been coming here at a rate of 150 people per day since 2010 — including no state income tax and a median home price of $405,000, compared to $1.3 million in San Francisco. Now, they’re just bringing their jobs along with them.”
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Back in August, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average got its latest makeover — dropping ExxonMobil, Raytheon, and Pfizer, and replacing them with Salesforce, Amgen, and Honeywell — I explained…
Number of the Day
By the end of the year, Pfizer will have enough of its Covid-19 vaccine to immunize 25 million people
25 million: That’s how many people the pharmaceutical company Pfizer says its Covid-19 vaccine can protect by the end of 2020, according to Reuters.
This month, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and, most recently, AstraZeneca-Oxford all published promising results from robust trials of Covid-19 vaccines. Given the indications that these vaccines are effective, the question now turns to when they can be rolled out to the public.
Last week, Pfizer asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve its vaccine for emergency use. The FDA will meet to make that call on December 10. Unlike Moderna, which received $2.5 billion to develop its mRNA vaccine from the U.S. government’s Operation Warp Speed, Pfizer did not use government money to develop its vaccine. But it did sign a $1.95 …
America’s favorite supermarket discovered its retail formula in booze
In 1957, Joe Coulombe knew nothing about the grocery industry. He was 27 years old and had never taken a course in retail. He had never operated a cash register, waited on a customer, or filled out a purchase order for a wholesaler. He had no particular interest in food and cultivated such a rarified wine palate that he preferred to sip on Paul Mason Cooking Sherry to relax.
He was however a recent Stanford Business grad who had been hired by the Rexall Drug Company to revive its failing Owl Drug chain. As part of this process, Joe discovered 7-Eleven, then a relatively new chain out of Texas. Rexall’s response was to ask Joe to start an imitation chain in California. This struck him as madness, but nevertheless Rexall corporate selected six Owl stores and declared they would form the basis of a new chain. …
Back in August, as retailers started trying to figure out how to lure back shoppers with the first round of Covid-19 shutdowns (mostly) lifted, off-price chains like T.J. Maxx, Ross, and Burlington stood out for one key reason: their reluctance to make a serious pivot to e-commerce. That’s partly because the name brand suppliers don’t want their super-discounted wares so easily found, and partly because off-price shoppers prefer the in-person “treasure hunt” experience. Among those discounters, T.J. Maxx had the most built-out digital store, but it was distinctly limited and accounted for only 2% of sales.
So it’s notable that parent company TJX is introducing an online sales platform for its houseware chain HomeGoods in 2021, according to The Wall Street Journal. Company CEO Ernie Herman chalks this up to consumers’ lingering reluctance to visit stores as often as they used to, and says the digital option aims to “satisfy our customer base and attract new shoppers.” Still, the company isn’t changing its long-term bet: “Not everybody wants to buy their apparel even online,” Herman says. “They don’t always want to buy a sofa, a chair, an accessory item. They want to feel the fabric.” …
NUMBER OF THE DAY
Social distancing requirements have sent Santas online and behind plexiglass
500%: That’s the increase over last year in virtual Santa Claus visits on HireSanta, a platform where retailers and event organizers can book Santa appearances, via Bloomberg Businessweek.
Santa Claus has been an in-person fixture at shopping malls every holiday season for decades. But as the third wave of coronavirus infections continues to rage across America, Santa — one of the malls’ biggest end-of-year draws — is largely missing this year, imperiling the already meager footfall for retail stores. Just 45% of Americans say they plan to visit a mall this holiday season, down from 64% last year.
Still, not all retailers have given up on making St. Nick available to the families who want to greet him. Some have him wearing a mask and keeping a safe distance from the families who come to visit, others are putting Santa behind plexiglass. Bloomberg reports that HireSanta also offers custom plexiglass “Santa shields” that allow children to sit beside Santa and talk to him without the risk of infection. …
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