enRICHed: Volume 10

Written By Rich BFF

GobbleGobble

While roast chicken is a good substitute according to our Editor in Chief, some people truly believe that there is no Thanksgiving without a turkey. With the prices of groceries rising all over the US, this could be a great year to donate a turkey (or sides) to your local food bank if you can afford it. Feeding America can help you find volunteer opportunities that you can still take part in over the course of this week. Before all of the consumption that Black Friday brings, and you know we support shopping during sales, it could feel good to do something for those in need in your community! That’s really what the holiday is all about.

A few administrative reminders below:

  • HYCU, pronounced ‘haiku’: how the news impacts you and your wallet, aka How You Can Use

  • Spilling the Prosperitea 🫖 : our hot tips for you on all things money. Think discount codes, hacks, non-boring finance articles, sales, etc. 

Now that you’re up to speed, let’s get you enRICHed.

TicketDISASTER

  • You don’t have to be a Swiftie to have seen the chaos that erupted this week in regards to how Ticketmaster handled the pre-sale of Taylor Swift’s first tour in 4 years.

  • Since her last tour, Taylor Swift has released 5 albums, making this upcoming tour one of the most highly anticipated acts since the pandemic. Ticketmaster thought they had things under control, but when they had 3.5 billion hits to their site on Tuesday, everything crashed. As a result, the general public sale was cancelled and fans are crushed.

  • HYCU; while you may not think this affects you, members of the US government are using Tay’s presale to highlight the monopoly that Ticketmaster and Live Nation have on the market. It could be a case of hard and fast news, but members of the anti trust committee plan to discuss the partnership and fees associated with it, which could bring changes down the line.

Organized Crime at Target

  • Target reported earnings and said that it lost $400 million to “slippage” aka stealing. Target executives said that “theft is costing them millions every year, driven by the ease of buying and selling things online.”

  • Retailers across the country have taken initiative to prevent theft, such as locking up hot items and programming stolen items to not work beyond store walls. They are hoping for new legislature to pass requiring verification for third party sellers, but haven’t seen too much promising movement.

  • HYCU; this type of theft could lead to 2 things. 1: products get more expensive to make up for profit losses. 2: companies move entirely online and you pay delivery fees. This happened with a Cotopaxi store in San Francisco that was targeted by so much crime, they had to close up shop to protect employees. While we here at enRICHed don’t support theft, we do understand that some of it is likely happening out of necessity, which makes us more sad than angry.

#RIPTwitter

  • Each week it seems we can’t avoid Twitter news, especially since the belief is that the company could potentially not make it through the weekend.

  • After massive layoffs, Musk announced he would be cancelling Twitter’s work-from-anywhere policy and would also be requiring 80-hour work weeks. After the treatment of the company and his employees over the past few weeks, 1,200 people resigned.

  • Twitter, the world’s biggest communications platform, could be beyond repair - and as we head into the World Cup, people think Twitter’s infrastructure will not be able to handle potential outages.

  • HYCU; in the US, employment is generally at will meaning your employer can fire you at any time, but you can also leave - both of which have been happening at Twitter. It is a good reminder of what employees prioritize in the new world of work and the consequences of taking those things away.

A Sober World Cup

  • While we originally thought Budweiser had struck a deal with FIFA to sell beer at the World Cup stadiums this year, Qatar has reversed its decision at the last minute.

  • Budweiser pays $75 million for its sponsorship agreement with FIFA - though the advertising that money goes to this year might not matter if they aren’t pulling in beer profits as well.

  • HYCU; FIFA has claimed to have sold 2.45 million tickets for this year’s World Cup. Budweiser will still be able to sell Bud-Zero at the stadiums, but will lose massive revenue not being able to sell the higher priced real thing to fans. The real story here is that you can still get alcohol in the suites, so while money can’t buy happiness - a lot of it can apparently buy you beer.

Taxi Pricing the Next to Soar

  • Another item has been added to the list of things getting more expensive: taxi cabs.

  • After a vote on Tuesday in New York City, the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission decided to increase cab fares by 23% by the end of this year. This is the first cab fare increase in 10 years. Direct impacts can be seen in airport pricing - with cabs from JFK increasing from $52 to $70.

  • HYCU; if you’re in NYC, obviously this effects your wallet. People have recently been opting for cabs over Ubers because of pricing, we wonder if this decision will reverse those habits. But will this encourage cab drivers across the country to push for similar fare increases? We don’t see why not.

Rich BFF
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enRICHed: Volume 9