Dodgy sounding company turns out to be dodgy
Rolexes, toys and the fate of British retailers.
Hello!
The way we pay for stuff has evolved so quickly that it’s funny to think ‘chip and pin’ (or EMV) was a bit new-fangled only a couple of decades ago. There was a kerfuffle about people of a certain age forgetting their pin cards and being stranded in Woolworths. Now you can just pop an Apple Watch on grandma and send her down the farmers market to crack on.
There’s obviously challenges as we become an increasingly cashless society (cash is now used in just 12% of transactions in the UK). It’s much easier to spend for one, tapping a card just feels less expensive than handing over a couple of chunky £2 coins. There’s also a digital footprint of everything you purchase which is absolutely fine until you need to go on the run. Finally, no one’s ever got any change which if you require some change for gas à la Smash Mouth, well that could be a problem.
You’re an allstar,
Hugo
Chief Card Tapper
The Business Of Stuff
The Stuff
All the Submariners ever made are worth $50 billion ⌚ - Rolex have released production data for the first time which has revealed that four million Submariners were made between 1953 and 2020. It’s no coincidence that Rolex have released this data as it’s recently started selling used models through a pre-certified program.
More people are publishing their own books 📚 - there was a 7.2% increase in the numbers of books being self-published between 2022 and 2023. This is being driven by an increasing number of services like Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publish which is making it easier for people to get their books out there. The Business of Life: Being Hugo will be out soon.
Kawasaki is selling part of its motorbike business 🏍️ - they’re selling a 20% stake to Itochu, which “sells various products” to allow it to focus on the US market. Itochu are one of those companies that could literally be called Incorporated Inc. as they really do just sell stuff but have far better access to the American market.
The Onion buys conspiracy theory network - InfoWars was put up for sale after Alex Jones was ordered to pay £1.5billion to the parents of Sandy Hook victims which he claimed didn’t really happen. The Onion is a satirical website so it’s basically a big joke. The CEO bought it for $3.5million dollars because “it would be very funny”. It is pretty funny.
Amazon takes on Shein and Temu with Haul 🛍️ - the world’s biggest retailer has felt for some time like its been missing out on selling lots of mass-produced tat so has decided it also needs to flog stuff at “crazy low prices”. Queue lots of new "entrepreneurs" pedalling courses to resell stuff from Haul. Some people have asked if we really need this.
Homebase enters administration 🏡 - they’ve already found a buyer in the form of The Range who own Wilko which all being well means 3000 jobs will be saved. The pandemic was a massive boost for DIY retailers as everyone decided to finally sort out their gardens but Homebase has not coped well with the supply chain issues that many retailers have faced. Remember trying to get a garden heater in 2021?
London Capital & Finance turns out to be a Ponzi scheme 🏃 - anyone who’s watched Peep Show would know that a company with a name like that is up to no good. LCF promised high rates on “mini-bonds” but were inevitably just using money from the investors to pay other investors and then going and donating loads of it to the Conservative Party.
WHSmith aims to expand in America 🗞️ - having ten in every airport in the UK is clearly not enough for them, they feel like the US could also benefit from heinously overpriced water. They want to have 500 stores there by 2028, they’ve already opened 40 so it’s clearly going pretty well. Unclear whether they’ll stock Worcestershire Sauce flavoured crisps.
Traditional media is having an existential crisis 🤷 - Elon Musk has taken the media baron aesthetic fully 21st century with the recent general election, using X to help drive the win for the Republicans. This has left traditional media wondering exactly what it should do about it. The Guardian has left X for starters, describing it as ‘toxic’.
The toy industry is doing really well 🧸 - sales are up 37% on 2019 in the US which has been largely driven by LEGO. Trading cards and Hello Kitty are also doing well but less outdoor toys are being sold. I guess anything that means children are playing with physical stuff instead of scrolling TikTok and trading cryptocurrency is a good thing.
Quote of the week
“Always laugh when you can, it is a cheap medicine” - Lord Byron