☕ Espresso issues

…and Olympic sponsors hop off the balance beam   A latte problems… (Gabriel Bouys/Getty Images)   Sponsored by Last Week’s Market Moves   Dow Jones 38,686 (-0.98%) S&P 500 5,278 (-0.51%) Nasdaq 16,735 (-1.10%) Bitcoin $67,636 (-0.37%) Dow Jones 38,686 (-0.98%) S&P 500 5,278 (-0.51%) Nasdaq 16,735 (-1.10%) Bitcoin $67,636 (-0.37%) Hey Snackers, TikTok’s latest hit may make your heart skip a beat. As the app pushes its [marketplace]( on scrollers, #AztecDeathWhistle has trended its way near the top of the charts. Blow, if you dare. The major US indexes seesawed, popping Friday and notching [monthly gains]( despite slipping for much of the week. New data showed the Fed’s fave inflation gauge, the personal consumption expenditures price index, ticked up last month. Depresso Starbucks wait times foam over as baristas battle mobile-order mayhem and bossy algos Gettin’ roasted… Some Starbucks customers have complained that they’ve waited 40 minutes for fraps served up by stressed-out staff. The java icon has admitted to longer wait times, and recent data showed that last quarter nearly 10% of folks waited 15 to 30 minutes for an order — up from virtually no waiting prepandemic. Those waits could be hurting Starbs’ bottom line: US same-store sales dropped 3% last quarter and overall traffic fell 7%. Behind the counter, employees say understaffing has made it tougher to churn out a flood of mobile-app orders and specialty drinks (imagine: iced extra dirty oat chai with hazelnut drizzle). - Half caf: Starbucks cut 29K jobs in the last fiscal year, but opened 380 stores in that same period. It’s now in contract talks with union partners who rank “staffing and scheduling” as their No. 1 priority. Extra shot of tech… Nearly a third of US Starbucks transactions are made on the chain’s mobile app, and the biz said that during the morning rush it’s more like two-thirds. In its last quarter, around 15% of customers started a mobile order but abandoned it after seeing high wait times and out-of-stock items. Some baristas [told Bloomberg]( that Starbs’ staffing algo has left teams short-handed in the face of mobile-order mayhem. And workers say the algorithm doesn’t account for the added time it takes to whip up those custom brews. - Free role: Starbucks announced a plan to pump out oily Oleatos faster, and it includes a jittery “play caller” who would help where they’re needed, instead of staying at a fixed station. - New song: Starbs also said it’d roll out a “Siren System” to 1K stores that would outline new protocols (like making espresso shots first) and upgrade store equipment (faster blenders). THE TAKEAWAY Customers want more than transactions... they want interactions. Starbucks’ obsession with mobile-app-order efficiency is killing some of its cozy-coffee-shop charm, and that may be reflected in its sagging sales #s. Baristas struggling to sling out venti-priced drinks understandably don’t have the time or inclination to chat with folks, let alone write “Have a nice day :)” on their cups. That, plus increased waits, could send customers in search of friendlier pours. Sponsored by EnergyX The Lithium Boom Did you know it takes 10,000 iPhone batteries worth of Lithium to make just 1 EV? With 350M+ EVs projected to be sold globally by 2030, demand for Li is projected to soar and current extraction methods won’t be able to meet the demand. So when [EnergyX revealed that their technology could extract 300% more lithium]( than traditional methods, investors everywhere took note. They’ve inked deals with top lithium producers including POSCO who is building a 100k ton/year plant, secured a $50M strategic investment from GM, and won a $5M DOE grant. Most recently, they acquired a 90,000-acre mining asset with up to 5.5M tons of lithium. Now, [EnergyX]( is accepting investors for a limited time. This is a unique opportunity to invest on the ground floor as the company is set to unlock a massive lithium supply. [Learn more about becoming an EnergyX shareholder here]( Events Coming up this week Feelin’ outta practice… Lululemon appears to be stuck in corpse pose. After riding the pandemic soft-clothes wave, the biz saw its chief product officer resign last month and its stock fall 40% this year. Analysts say the yoga-pants icon, known for its athleisure, is facing a mix of price-pressured customers and an inventory mismatch (think: not enough two-tone canvas totes). Meantime, competitors like Vuori and Levi Strauss’ Beyond Yoga are expanding. We’ll see if Lulu can stretch out of its slump when it reports earnings Wednesday. Charged up… Chinese EV maker Nio drops earnings on Thursday. The up-and-comer’s shares jumped 20% last month after it more than 2x’d its April-delivery #s. FYI: Nio makes up only 2% of China’s EV market, which is dominated by Tesla and local rival BYD. But last month Nio said it would roll out one new model/year under its cheaper Onvo brand to lure buyers. One speed bump: the EU could impose ~$1B in additional tariffs on Chinese EV makers, following a similar tariff hike by the US. Still, Wall Street’s betting Nio will hit another delivery record in May. Zoom out Stories we’re watching Olympics on the balance beam… Toyota, which has spent ~$835M sponsoring the Olympic Games since 2018, is reportedly bailing on the Games after Paris in July/August. Salesforce ended its planned financing of the 2028 Los Angeles Games last month, and McDonald’s (a 41-year sponsor) axed its contract early in 2017. Human-rights scandals and tanking US viewership are behind some sponsors’ pause (leaving taxpayers to foot more of the bill). The 2018 PyeongChang Games averaged 20M US viewers (then the lowest ever), and each contest since has scored even lower. The price ain’t right… but it might get a little less wrong. America’s largest retailers are slashing prices to win back shoppers. Last month Target started cutting prices on 5K items after another quarter of shrinking sales. And last week Walgreens announced it had lowered prices on 1.5K+ products, from chips to Squishmallows. As grocery budgets shrink, Walmart said it lowered prices on nearly 7K food products. Amazon Fresh is also discounting thousands of groceries. The cuts could help ease sticky inflation, which cooled in April. Sponsored by Rocket Mortgage Home run Americans firmly believe that real estate is the best long-term investment. There are[several strategic steps buyers can take]( to gain a competitive edge in the market.[Read more about everything prospective buyers should know]( with insights from Rocket Mortgage. What else we're Snackin' - [$mile]( A 14-year-old study said that $75K (about $110K today) was the salary at which happiness peaks. But more recent studies say there isn’t an upper limit, even if more wealth comes with diminishing returns. - [Muskverse]( Elon Musk oversees 130K+ employees across Tesla, X, SpaceX, xAI, Boring Co., and Neuralink. His senior staffers tend to wear many hats for multiple Musk companies, trying to hold them together. - [Lonely]( Tech cos including Bumble, Airbnb, and Adam Neumann’s Flow have set their sights on solving the “loneliness epidemic.” But experts say humans, not algos, are key to solving the problem. Snack Fact Of the Day So far this year, Nvidia’s stock has traded nearly 4x the dollar volume of Apple’s [Read more]( This Week - Monday: LGBTQ+ Pride Month. World Bicycle Day. Paris Cyber Summit begins. Earnings expected from GitLab and Science Applications International - Tuesday: US job openings and labor turnover data for April. National Cheese Day in US. Earnings expected from Bath & Body Works, CrowdStrike, Ferguson, PVH, and Stitch Fix - Wednesday: ADP private payrolls data. World Environment Day. Global Running Day. Earnings expected from Dollar Tree, United Natural Foods, Campbell’s, Lands’ End, Lululemon, and Victoria’s Secret - Thursday: Weekly jobless claims. D-Day. Earnings expected from Nio Inc., Big Lots, Toro, JM Smucker, ABM Industries, DocuSign, Rent the Runway, and Vail Resorts - Friday: US jobs report. National Donut Day in US. F1 Canadian Grand Prix weekend starts Authors of this Snacks own shares of: Amazon, Apple, and Walmart Advertiser’s disclosures: *Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Start-up investments are speculative and involve a high degree of risk. Those investors who cannot afford to lose their entire investment should not invest in start-ups. Companies seeking startup investment tend to be in earlier stages of development and their business model, products and services may not yet be fully developed, operational or tested in the public marketplace. There is no guarantee that the stated valuation and other terms are accurate or in agreement with the market or industry valuations. Further, investors may receive illiquid and/or restricted stock that may be subject to holding period requirements and/or liquidity concerns. This is a paid advertisement for EnergyX’s Regulation A+ Offering. Please read the[offering circular]( and[related risks]( at[invest.energyx.com]( Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate... 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