Who Spread the Virus? 🤒
Michael Jordan's shoes, Swiggy's cost cutting, and the death of social dining.
Hi 👋, Tanvi here.
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Let’s go ahead and get started:
Stock market summary: 😍
US - S&P 500 up 3.15% 🔼
India - Sensex down 3.44% 🔽
A pair of mismatched shoes sold for ₹4.2 Crores 👟
Yes, about $560,000 when converted to dollars. That’s how much Michael Jordan’s Air Jordan 1 sneakers sold for on Monday, May 18 in an auction held by Sotheby’s Auction House in New York, making it the most expensive pair of sneakers ever sold.
Can you imagine!
Basketball legend Michael Jordan wore those sneakers in a game back in the 1980s and then autographed them, which makes them invaluable for hard core fans. 🤩
The selling price beat the previous record of a pair of 1972 Nike Waffle Racing “Flat Moon Shoes” that sold for $437,500 in an auction in 2019.
Nike, back then a very small brand, had given Jordan a dedicated line of clothes and merchandise recognizing his talent early on. As Jordan’s popularity grew, the line grew in fame as well, making him as well as Nike billions of dollars over the last 30 years. The shoe line Air Jordan helped the legend be one of the richest sportsmen (billionaire) alive today.
The auction coincided with the latest documentary out on Michael Jordan right now called the The Last Dance. Funnily, the left shoe is a size 13 while the right shoe is a size 13.5 as Jordan wore mismatched sneakers for majority of his playing career. Read more about the historic sale here…
BTW, MJ is a living legend and we thought of plugging in a quote from the man himself to inspire you today -
Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.
Is this the Death Of Social Dining? 🍜
Life after the pandemic will most likely never be the same again. The way we eat, work, or even live our regular lives is set to change forever. Most old practices around social gathering will be disposed, while newer trends that sit well with the pandemic reality will flourish. One such behavioral shift is about eating out. 🌮
The culture of eating out at restaurants had just begun to evolve in India. With the growth of the middle class and rise in disposable income, the average Indian citizen was finding it much more attractive and affordable to consider a meal out on the town every once in a while. The demand was promptly followed by rapid rise in high quality and experiential restaurants all over the country, that made the best of global cuisines available locally. 🦪
However, the new reality has presented a gut punch to the evolving industry. As lock downs force shutters to remain closed, restaurants are losing valuable revenue. Per the National Restaurant Association of India, the food services sector that brings in an estimated Rs. 4.23 Lakh Crore each year in India while employing more than 73 Lakh people, is now looking at almost 30-40% drop in revenues for the year if conditions persist.
Moreover, since people have been working from home and are finding ample time on their hands, a lot of them have reverted to cooking at home. Interest in home cooked food is now renewing itself as a hobby.
While startups such as Swiggy and Zomato are presenting some relief with delivery solutions, restaurants are not sure if this will be beneficial in the long run. With delivery only, restaurants are forced to compete on the basis of price alone and not experience or ambience, because of which it gets hard to differentiate in the market.
To survive in a world after the Coronavirus, restaurants will have to up their sanitation game as well. Also, they may have to opt for much sustainably grown produce over substandard ones which will eventually increase the price of restaurant food - again pushing the costs over to consumers. Despite these forced changes, no one is in a position to guarantee that consumers will embrace eating out with the same vigor as before.
These are interesting and challenging times for the entire industry and owners are hoping that government comes up with relief initiatives in follow on stimulus deals.
Meanwhile, what about you - would you be comfortable with eating out? Let us know by replying to this email.
Recession in Japan Worsens 📉
Japan - the third largest economy in the world, is struggling to reopen business in the country despite its success in fighting the pandemic. Even as shops are open, wary consumers are leaving the streets empty as they stay put inside their homes most of the time. 😷
This aggravates the already economically grim situation the country was battling, after it first officially fell into recession in 2015. Also, the Japanese government in October 2019 had increased the tax on consumption from 8% to 10% and consumer spending dropped as a result of it. This had worsened the already weak economy. The virus is now dragging it through more dirt and the government is clueless on how to respond.
What’s worse, the outbreak forced the country to postpone the Olympics and crushed its exports. Japan was heavily investing in the Tokyo Olympics, hoping the global spectacle will help it garner sufficient attention, attract global tourists and force its own citizens to loosen purse string in fervor. 🏊♀️
However, with the new reality, each of these decisions is now having a profound negative economic impact on the country. One thing is for certain, the economic recovery will be a long and difficult one and likely have ripple effects for many global countries that Japan does trade with, including India. Read more about it here…
People Are Saying Adios To New York 🗽
The melting pot of global cultures, New York City, had a population of about 8 Million before it became one of the most affected regions by the coronavirus, with almost 3.5 Lakh cases and 16 Thousand deaths.
Turns out, since the pandemic struck the empire city, citizens have started fleeing town and are moving someplace remote to escape the virus. Given how crammed the city can get on busy days, social distancing is practically impossible here. Manhattan has one of the highest population densities in the entire USA, and with people densely packed into their apartments, its hard to stay locked down at one place for months.
As you may have imagined, most of the areas that were abandoned were the wealthy neighborhoods in the Upper West Side, West Village, some parts of Brooklyn etc. aka abandoned by people with comfortable second homes across the country.
The city compiles data based on postage and on garbage collection. In March, the US post office received almost double mail forwarding requests, while key regions mentioned above had almost 50% drop in trash collected by weight, suggesting empty homes. Nearby Long Island, New Jersey and lush green Upstate New York are some popular alternate locations people may have fled to. Read more about it here…
Who Spread the Virus? 🤒
The World Health Assembly met virtually on Monday to discuss a main agenda i.e. a resolution that will likely ask China to open up for a probe on the origin of the virus. 😏
It has been highly speculated that the coronavirus emerged from the wet markets of China with suspicions putting the Pangolin and the Bats as the intermediate source of jump from animals to humans. The Pangolin is an exotic species whose meat is consumed across the world and its scales are used in traditional medicine. 🍗
In light of all these speculations, US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo said that the virus may have escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIH) as the WIH is located close to the wet markets in Wuhan. We take these accusations with a grain of salt as the Trump administration looks to berate China at every opportunity for some political mileage.
The resolution however did not mention China’s name explicitly but said that there was a need to work closely with the organisations to identify the source of the virus and the route of introduction to the human population.
The resolution sought an on site probe, to which China in its defense is highlighting the 9 day field visit that was conducted by China-WHO in mid February in which a team of 25 experts from China, Germany, Japan, Republic of Korea, Nigeria, Russia, Singapore, US and WHO inspected the area. China thinks fresh search will be futile.
Interestingly, India was a part of the forum and this is the first time ever that India has taken part in an international forum on the origin of the virus.. India is among the 62 countries that have moved a proposal at the World Health Assembly. Read more about it here…
What Else Are We Snackin’ 🍫
😭 Swiggy to furlough 1,100 employees after Zomato announced similarly devastating layoffs a couple weeks ago. Come on guys!
☔ Cyclone AMPHAN to intensify, over a million people likely to be evacuated
🚌 Priyanka Gandhi to provide 1,000 buses to ferry migrants, UP CM accepts offer in a unique show of bipartisanship 🤗
Tweet of the day -
It is a simple yet powerful line that doesn’t really need much explaining.
The easy path rarely gives you enough change or personal growth to be proud of. Things that appear insurmountable on the other hand are what’s worth having in life. As you look to make the most of this economic reset, we urge you to take on big challenges, even if they seem unmanageable in the first go.
We have written in our previous issues as well about how you could take a new course this lockdown, learn a skill, start a side project, or think about starting a business.
Side-note, Sahil Lavingia is the founder on a creator marketplace called Gumroad, where anyone can list pretty much any product they create like a course, or an e-book they wrote, to sell online. Gumroad is heaven for artists, writers, teachers, and other knowledge and skill workers looking to monetize their abilities. If you’re looking to monetize your work, have a look at them.
Also, Sahil is a thought provoking writer. Do check out his Twitter profile which is filled with similar gems.
Hope you took a thing or two away from today’s edition. 😀
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