Big Red Car here with the Labor Day holiday in the rear view mirror. Rained all day in the ATX, but we love our September rains. Bring. Them. On.
Got me thinking about the number of times I’d worked hard and ended up bone crushingly tired.
It was a special kind of tired.
I wish that every man and woman in the United States could experience that phenomenon. Good hard back breaking work followed by a paralyzing level of tired. It gives a person worth.
Big Red Car here on a bright, sunny Monday morning back from visiting My Perfect Granddaughter in Savannah. She is a perfect baby.
Sleeps through the night, naps well, eats like a champ and loves her Momma, Daddy, Mimi, and Gwantpa. She can even hold her toes when the thought grabs her.
OK, Gwantpa, can you do this? Haha, you’re silly.
Which, of course, got me thinking about Dollar General – wow, what a powerful transition, no?
Mattresses, Big Red Car? Really?
OK, so there are powerful forces at work here, but, first, we need a nap. A nice refreshing nap.
Mattresses are a symptom of several interesting things:
1. Mattresses are symptomatic of how the Internet is wrecking “bricks & mortar” retail.
2. Mattresses are symptomatic of how the Internet is spawning unbridled competition.
3. Mattresses are symptomatic of how the cycle of legacy businesses disrupted by the Internet and returning to the original legacy methodology is asserting itself.
4. Mattresses are symptomatic of how the commercial real estate business is being impacted by the move of commerce to the Internet.
Shall we?
Peleton, Big Red Car? You’re kidding, right?
Shut up and start peddling, y’all, I’m as serious as avoiding a heart attack.
So, the Big Red Car likes Peleton for the diversity of its income. It generates sales income – the one off sale of a Peleton bike or treadmill – and monthly recurring revenue with a monthly membership. It also finances the sale of the bike or treadmill at 0% interest while upselling you on shoes, weights, headphones, heart monitors, bike mat, water bottles.
Where’s the bike mat and why aren’t you dressed like Lance Armstrong?
So, the Big Red Car just finished reading Bad Blood, the John Carreyrou book about the rise and fall of Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes. It is a good read.
Theranos was the brain child of Elizabeth Holmes, Stanford drop out, who hated being stuck with needles when giving blood. She “invented” a new approach in which a simple pinprick of blood could be used to conduct a myriad of different blood tests.
Elizabeth Holmes, founder Theranos, had this weird Steve-Jobs-black-turtleneck meme going on which she coupled with an artificially deep voice to create the Silicon Valley Stanford dropout genius image. Along the way, she talked some very sophisticated investors out of $900,000,000 before the entire thing imploded. “Look into my eyes!”
At scale, she was going to put these machines – portable blood analyzers – in patients’ homes and at drug stores. It was to be the fast food of blood testing with almost immediate results. The key to it was a small sample size, miniaturization, and almost instant results.
It sounded too good to be true. It was.
Big Red Car here after an extensive journey to Savannah, Charlotte, Charleston, Folly Beach, Savannah, and points in between. There is nothing like a good summer road trip, y’all. Ahhhh, the South in the summer time. The beaches. The sun. The food. There are few food cities as spectacular as Charleston.
This got me thinking about how using a bit of tech can teach an old dog a new trick.
As I was thinking about that, I stumbled on an experiment which was conducted by a couple of Chick-Fil-A owners using a devise called a “Kallpod.”
This application is in Uvalde on Interstate 10 on the way to West Texas.
I find Chick-Fil-A to be an interesting company. Private. Closed on Sundays. Strong fundamentals – blocking and tackling. Extraordinary quality and staffing and, now, experimenting with Kallpod.
Bottom line – using this device increased sales 500% at the #2 CFA in the US. That’s what got my attention. <<< I don’t believe the 500% sales increase number. Doesn’t sound possible.
Reading, Big Red Car?
Big Red Car here on a coolish, slightly sunny morning in the ATX. The sun is late on station this morning.
I have been reading the Ron Chernow book on Grant.
This book is 1,000 pages and has small print. I am halfway through. It is a little dog eared from trips to Savannah, Miramar Beach, Phoenix, Charlotte. Until finished, it is my constant travel companion. I try to read 15-60 minutes every night. I WILL finish this book this month.
Let’s talk reputation, shall we?
Big Red Car here on a dark and lonely Thursday morning. Hope you are well.
So, today, we talk about Uber’s latest attempts to rebuild its pathetic reputation.
Unless you have been summering over at the South Pole, you know that Uber has replaced its founder/CEO Travis Kalanick with Dara Khosrowshahi.
Uber’s board of directors hopes that Dara K can repair the reputation destruction wrought by Travis K. [Next in the chain of succession is Coach K?]
Read this:
That is a hard task. How do you rebuild a reputation which is in tatters? Tatters flavored by lawsuits? Class action lawsuits.
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