Getting a good nose on this one...

I’m picking up notes of bullsh*t? [The Hustle]( Fri, Sep 1 The economics of Two Buck Chuck Earlier this week, Target announced it will be launching the “California Roots” collection -- a line of [$5 wines](. It’s a smart move: adult beverages are the chain’s [fastest-growing sector]( and wine consumption is seeing a spike in the US, driven primarily by millennials who are looking for quality vino on the cheap. But how the hell can Target manage to sell a $5 wine and still turn a profit? To answer this, one must look no further than America’s favorite budget wine: Trader Joe’s $2.49 [Two Buck Chuck](. Or, the more distinguished sounding “Charles Shaw” Back in the ‘70s, a dude named [Charles Shaw]( bought 20 acres of prime Napa acreage and opened a wine label under his name. His wines were top-notch, expensive, and award-winning -- but then in the ‘90s he went broke and had to auction off his assets. And who was there to swoop them up? None other than Fred Franzia (famed creator of [boxed wines]( who bought the “Charles Shaw” trademark for $27k and began producing wines at his own vineyard, Bronco Wine, under the Shaw name. Charles Shaw wines (later nicknamed “Two Buck Chuck”) made their debut at Trader Joe’s stores in 2002, and since then, they’ve sold [800m bottles](. How’s it so cheap? For one, Bronco Wine produces Two Buck Chuck in California’s arid Central Valley, where land is extremely cheap ($8k/acre, compared to $100k+/acre in Napa). It’s considered “bad” land for grapes due to the heat but still produces a high yield. The company also churns out wines in massive volumes ([90m gallons per year]( and unlike smaller wineries, everything is automated and mass-produced, from harvest to bottling. Grapes are sourced from their own vineyard and the the excess harvests of other vineyards -- all mixed together into one soulless mass. They also [cut corners]( wherever possible, fermenting their wines with oak chips instead of oak barrels, importing fake cork wholesale, and manufacturing thinner glass bottles to cut down on shipping weight. It’s likely Target’s cheap wine will follow the same general principles. But at the end of the day, [experts]( still won’t be able to tell it apart from a $500 bottle. Wine is for snobs Lyft’s dubious expansion Yesterday, Lyft made a bold announcement: they increased the number of states where “full ride coverage” is offered (AKA, you’re supposedly able to get a ride anywhere in the entire state) from [8 to 40](. In comparison, Uber -- which controls 70% of the rideshare market, compared to Lyft’s 25% -- only offers full coverage in 13 states. Until now, 79% of the US population has access to Lyft’s service; now, it’ll be 94%. Lyft claims to have spent months preparing for the move by aggressively hiring new drivers in rural towns across the country. It’s a bold move and shows that they’re looking to go after the lesser-populated, rural swaths of America that Uber has largely ignored -- and a nice little PR stunt to take away from Uber’s recent [CEO announcement]( to boot. It also seems entirely unlikely that Lyft can follow through with this promise: will you really be able to hail a ride in the remote reaches of Alaska after a long day of ice fishing and dog-sledding? [Your ride will be here in 177 minutes]( You didn’t “pivot.” You failed. It’s OK The “pivot” has transitioned from a couch-moving technique to a patented [safety raft for founders]( who refuse to accept failure as an option. Eric Ries first [coined the term]( in his founder bible, The Lean Startup, where he defined it as ‘‘a change in strategy without a change in vision.’’ Since then, every tech company and their mothers cite a “pivot” as a badge of honor in their origin story. Just one thing: it’s one of the most liberally misused buzzwords in tech. First, some real-live, bonafide pivots YouTube started as a [video dating site]( with the slogan, “Tune In, Hook Up.” When that didn’t take off, they noticed users uploading their own funny, non-romantic videos, and YouTube was reborn. Then there’s Starbucks, which started out selling coffee beans to cafes until Schultz decided to open his own European-style coffee shop and sell his beans in house. And now, for something completely different… Frequently cited on “all-time best pivots” lists, [Groupon started]( as “The Point,” a “social good” site, where a cause would only get funding if it met its entire goal. Then their founder created a side-gig (Groupon) where, if enough people signed up for an activity, everyone got a discount. Fashion site, Fab.com, listed on Forbes’ “[14 Famous Business Pivots]( which started as a social network for gay men, until their founders realized they had a knack for picking out high-quality products. Point is, taking an “L” is ok Sure, if you count “creating a successful business” as a “vision,” these could be considered a pivot. But, it’s kind of like calling a participation trophy a “win.” Refusing to “call a fail a fail” minimizes the impact utter failure has on a founder’s journey -- and the success of their next (completely different) company. [Don’t. Claim. To. Know. Pivots.]( “Na na na na you will never block this” Yesterday, privacy scholar [Jillian York noticed]( that only 2 people on Facebook were immune to the block button: Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan. When she attempted to silence them, she received an [error message]( reading: “This profile can’t be blocked for now.” Which, if you follow them on Facebook, is pretty egregious (Watch one of Mark’s stiff “[year in reviews]( videos with Sheryl Sandberg, and you’ll see what we mean…) This block-block has a lot of people wondering: if you can do it with your ex or your crazy uncle, is there really no way to be 100% sure you never see a Chan or Zuckerberg post again in your life? Hell, even Sheryl’s profile is blockable. But, according to Facebook, the system was just overloaded In other words, if an account gets blocked too many times in a short span, some people may get an error message. Meaning that, so many people are blocking the Facebook figureheads, that they’ve bogged down the system. Again, we get it. Good news is, as of late yesterday, outlets report that [Zuck-block functionality]( is now up-and-running again. Happy feed-purging. [What if Mark Zuckerberg was your ex??]( friday shower thoughts - The first person to discover that a butterfly used to be a caterpillar must have looked very suspiciously at every animal they came across. - Scientists who study meteors must really hate meteorologists for stealing their ology. - If you're a famous smuggler you're doing something wrong. - If pigs could fly I bet their wings would taste delicious. - Gray is a color and grey is a colour. - via [Reddit]( This edition of The Hustle was brought to you by What’d the fish say when it hit a wall? “Dam.” Hoover Dam was a massive undertaking. The 760’ giant involved 21,000 workers and had a price tag equivalent to $700m today. But, what most people don’t realize about Hoover Dam is that it gave rise to [modern project management](. Thanks to the use of project timelines and long-term planning, it finished under budget and 2 years ahead of schedule -- quite a feat in the construction world. Imagine if they had [Dapulse]( Dapulse is a visual-focused project management tool that lets you see where all of your team projects stand, who’s on what task, and who has bandwidth to take on more. Not all of us are out here trying to build the 8th Wonder of the World, but we should still [give a dam about project management]( -- after all, good planning saves time, money, and a lot of curse words. If you’re looking to maximize your team’s productivity and minimize miscommunications, check out [Dapulse](. Setting up a [free account]( takes minutes, and will do wonders to help you and your team pinpoint potential project roadblocks before you hit the wall. 0 [SHARE THE HUSTLE]( REFERRALS Lindsey Quinn WRITER Kamran Rosen WRITER Zack Crockett WRITER John "Not ready for fall" Havel BACKSEAT EDITOR C. Watta Ripaugh BARGAIN FIND ANALYST [SUBSCRIBE]( [JOBS]( [ADVERTISE]( [EVENTS]( You opted in by signing up, attending an event, or through divine intervention. 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