Starbucks, Dating & Diamonds 💎
This Week in Review☕️: Coffee giant unveils new store design | Sales of Emerald & Ruby gemstones rise | Apple hit hard by EU fine | Online dating faces legal consequences | OpenAI valuation skyrockets
Quick Bites:
Food & Beverage☕️: But first.. Coffee
Starbucks unveils new design for stores, focused on "accessibility and inclusivity."
Changes include fresh light fixtures, open floor plans and easier-to-use brewing machines, CNBC reports.
Our daily morning ritual💡: Grab a Venti macchiato, surf the web. Grab an almond cookie, surf some more. Grab a refill, go home.
Starbucks, which has been facing labor issues for the past two years, reported slow earnings in the final quarter of 2023.
The new store design is meant to attract more customers, including people with disabilities, and position the company as an accessible place for all.
All future company-owned locations will follow a similar framework, CNBC.
Like it or not, Starbucks is urban living. The Seattle-based giant has ingrained itself in our daily lives one overpriced, extra-sugary, extra foamy frothy frappuccino at a time.
And believe it or not, there’s plenty of turf this new cafe has yet to claim. Vast swaths of communities are still untouched by the iconic Starbucks Green-Siren logo.
Our Thoughts💡: This time of year, we're equal parts Starbucks Iced Coffee and Hot soup.. Balance, baby. BALANCE 😎
PS. Our dopamine hits lately: Dominoes Barbeque & Onion Pizza, Starbucks Hazelnut Cookie Cold Brew, Friends reruns and riding the subway 🚇
Culture💎: Done with diamonds? Gemstone ring sales are on the rise.
A decade ago, around 5% of engagement rings were coloured gemstones like sapphires, emeralds and rubies. Now, it’s more than 15%, CNBC reports.
Umm let us get this straight ladies
You want big rocks.. but you don't wanna do NOTHING? 🤔
The shift is mainly due to the rise in lab-grown diamonds that has taken over the market.
Umm we're all for a colored man-made stone but maybe not for our big day.. 👋
NAH, an engagement ring, much like a proposal, needs to be discussed beforehand. It's noble that y'all don't want to support the diamond industry, but that they're charging tens of thousands of dollars for a lab-created stone is WILD 🤯
$30k is a massive chunk of change to spend with ZERO input whatsoever from the person who will be wearing the damn thing. Shop vintage or find an antique jeweller smh guys 👋
Another reason for the shift towards gemstones is also a reflection of the new age customer who wants a “more distinctive piece”.
Colored stones “cater well to a Gen Z audience, as we know they want something that is unique to them and reflective of their personal style.”
Big Tech 🍎: Apple hit hard with $500 EU fine.
The fine, also the first the European Union has issued against Apple, is actually much less than the original penalty of $40 billion, the Financial Times reports.
The money will be delivered via Apple Card by 6 pm on Friday. If the EU has Apple Wallet, maybe by noon.
The Cupertino-based giant has been accused of taking advantaging of Apple Music by not letting other music-streaming apps like Spotify notify users about ways to sign up for subscriptions that might be cheaper, FT reports.
The fine stems from an antitrust probe that started with a complaint by Spotify in 2019.
The battle between the EU and Apple goes back for almost a decade.
Background💡: In 2016, EU Regulators claimed Apple had gotten a "sweetheart" deal from Ireland and must pay back years worth of unpaid taxes to the tune of $15 billion.. A ruling Apple CEO Tim Cook publicly denounced as "total political crap"🖕🏻
However, Apple won the landmark case, which was not only a huge victory for the iPhone maker but also to other Big Tech firms (Google, Microsoft, Facebook) who have taken advantage of Ireland's Corporate tax structure for over a decade.
While Ireland is considered the largest tax haven (even larger than Luxembourg and the Caribbean islands) the judgement was clear- it is very much legal.
Unethical, unfair perhaps.. yet legal. Like Apple said in a statement:
Our Thoughts💡: Seems like the $500 million fine is the first victory of the European Union over the company.
But 500 milly for Tim Cook!? POCKET CHANGE✌🏻
Tech 📱: Do you think dating apps are addictive?
Apps like Tinder and Hinge sued over being "predatory" business models, which are deliberately designed to be addictive, NPR reports.
Umm.. Trying to find love online is like being hungry at your grandma's home and trying to find the least expired thing hoping for the best 💩
The class-action lawsuits claim these dating apps are designed to turn users into swiping "addicts" who do not find true love but instead keep buying pricey subscriptions to keep the company's revenue flowing, NPR.
Tech companies have increasingly come under scrutiny for encouraging harmful and compulsive behavior.
The lawsuits are also a warning of the legal consequences companies could face for not informing users of the psychological effects of their apps.
Tech companies need to keep their customers' mental health in mind than just profits.
Our Thoughts💡:
Our only requirement on dating apps off late👇🏻
Artificial Intelligence 🤖: OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, valued at a whopping $80 billion.
The AI start-up’s valuation has tripled in less than 10 months, per The New York Times.
Just a hunch guys but we STRONGLY suspect ChatGPT is actually a group of customer service agents from India that reply to your queries super duper fast
Within five days of OpenAI launching ChatGPT, its user count crossed 1 million. In comparison:
Time it took to reach 1 million users:
💡Netflix- 3.5 years
💡Facebook-10 months
💡Spotify- 5 months
💡Instagram- 2.5 months
💡ChatGPT- 5 days
Therapy is expensive but venting to ChatGPT is free. The choice is clear.
PS. Short $GOOGL?!
OpenAI's exponential growth has been a game-changer for the tech world.
The deal that values it at $80bn also "allows employees to cash out shares in the company, rather than a traditional funding round that would raise money for business operations."
This is latest example of the Silicon Valley tech machine pumping money into a select few companies that specialize in generative AI, The New York Times.
Quicker Bites:
Nearly all wealth gained by World’s billionaires in 2024 comes from AI.
Kylian Mbappe agrees to join Real Madrid in the summer.
Donald Trump ordered to pay $355mn in New York Civil Fraud ruling.
Greece legalizes same-sex marriage.
Harvard university hit with congressional subpeona over anti-semitism probe.
New York’s iconic ‘Carbone’ restaraunt is coming to London.
Japan loses its spot as world’s third-largest economy as it slips into recession.
Jeff Bezos sells another $2 billion of Amazon shares.
Biden holds ‘Putin and his thugs’ responsible for Alexei Navalny’s death.
William ‘Bill’ Post, inventor of Pop-Tarts, dies at 96.