The CQ: The Fading Excellence of Amazon and Google, and the US's Declining Life Expectancy

The Forerunner Team's Must-Reads of the Week

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Source: The Atlantic

By Forerunner

@ForerunnerVC

What We’re Talking About on Slack:

1. Amazon “no longer excels at the thing it’s supposed to be good at: shopping.” A customer’s search spits out a first page of sponsored results full of brands you’ve never heard of, hawking questionable products with skewed reviews and at prices that aren’t necessarily cheaper than anywhere else. The Atlantic takes a closer look at how the retail giant has lost sight of what consumers want in pursuit of scale. According to claims filed in the FTC antitrust lawsuit, sellers are also increasingly feeling a downgrade. Amazon takes 15% cuts from every transaction and charges high fees for optimal placement and qualifying for Prime — and revenues generated from these fees has tripled since 2017, totaling $117.7 billion last year. “When sellers are nickel-and-dimed, not a lot of savings are left to pass on to you.” WSJ reveals more details on how Amazon used a secret algorithm to raise prices.

2. Millennials are, allegedly, on a better track for retirement than boomers and Gen X. It’s mostly due to a law Congress passed in 2006 that encouraged employers to auto-enroll new hires in 401(k) plans, after which enrollment increased from 10% to 60%. When most older millennials retire, they’ll be in a position to replace nearly 60% of their preretirement income with Social Security and savings including from their 401(k), meanwhile Gen X and young boomers will likely be able to replace only about half their paychecks. 

3. The U.S. Latino economy recently jumped to $3.2 trillion, up from $2.8 trillion the year prior. Their level of growth is so substantial that if Latinos were an independent country, their GDP would rank fifth in the world. “We have a massive economy that’s under-invested right now, under-engaged.”

4. After seeing their parents and Millennials struggle to get by through the 2008 recession and then experiencing the economic turmoil caused by the pandemic for themselves, about 40% of Gen Z’ers have a full-time job and a side hustle, partly because they’re wary of getting burned by their employers. Over 50% say they’re worried about not having enough money, and 15% say they moonlight to save for retirement. Gen Z “decided they were distinctly disinterested in tying their identity to their careers, making them more open to the idea of trying their hand at a side hustle. To them, personal sacrifice does not equal professional value.”

5. Buy now, pay later users may historically have been younger and more well-off, but they now seem to nearing a financial cliff. A new survey found that more than 2 out of 5 users carry buy-now-pay-later debt, one-quarter of them missed a payment last month, and another one-quarter paid late fees. Those who opt for BNPL also tend to have more types of debt in general, with 27% seeing their credit score take a dip and 22% who’ve been contacted by a debt collector. A third has even used credit cards to pay off BNPL loans.

6. According to Gen Z, hard—not soft—skills are what they need. Many managers have been lamenting the lack of social and communication skills of the younger generation (a few Big Four consulting firms have even offered classes in workplace etiquette), but a new Adobe survey found that 48% of Gen Z’ers say they want more training on hard skills. A different survey from Dell showed that over a third thought their schooling didn’t teach them the digital skills they needed to succeed at work, and 56% saying they had only basic or no digital skills education.

7. A typical day in the life of a 11-17 year olds and their smartphone: 237 notifications, 51 phone pickups, and 4.5 hours of use. Those are the median numbers, according to a new study released by Commonsense Media. TikTok was the go-to app for half the group, with some participants spending upwards of seven hours a day on it. More than half used their phones on school nights between midnight and 5 a.m. (during that time, YouTube was the app of choice for 47%). Based on these figures, it’s not surprising that over two-thirds said they "sometimes" or "often" find it hard to step away from technology, use technology to escape from sorrow or get relief from negative feelings, and miss sleep due to being on their phone or the internet late at night.

8. Americans are still spending like there’s no tomorrow. Despite a cooling job market and high interest rates, people are splurging on vacations, concerts, fancy meals, and other high-end purchases, spending 5.8% more in August than the year prior. Whether the reason is about only being young once, traveling to a destination before it’s impacted by climate change, or being unsure of what the future holds, “it’s not a regret-filled, spur-of-the-moment decision. It’s the opposite of that, where I would regret not having done it.” 

9. The tragedy of Google Search, by Charlie Warzel at The Atlantic: “Using Google once felt like magic, and now it’s more like rifling through junk mail, dodging scams, and generic mailers.” Our modern-day internet has become so bloated with junk that finding organic results that are actually accurate and authoritative—not sponsored content, keyword-stuffed posts, or Google’s own widgets—has become increasingly difficult. As partner Brian O’Malley said a few months ago in a post about the crumbling infrastructure of the web: “The pages on the web have been over-optimized for maximum revenue at the expense of the user experience, and the ecosystem players have squeezed every last drop of juice out of the system.”

10. The epidemic of chronic illnesses is killing us too soon, says a report from The Washington Post. Life expectancy for Americans hit a peak of 78.9 years in 2014, then started to fall even before COVID. Chronic conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes, obesity, hypertension, cancer, and liver disease, are the leading causes of death for people 35 to 64 — more than overdoses, homicides, suicides, and car accidents combined. Mostly in the South and Midwest, working-age people are dying at a higher rate than they were 40 years ago, with the gap between the rich and the poor widening significantly over the years. In the early 1980s, people in the poorest areas were 9% more likely to die each year than those living in the wealthiest areas; by 2020 the poorest are 61% more likely to die. “Poor life expectancy is the predictable result of the society we have created and tolerated: one riddled with lethal elements, such as inadequate insurance, minimal preventive care, bad diets and a weak economic safety net.” In the global context: the U.S. has much of the world’s most cutting-edge medical research and higher health expenditures per person than any other nation and yet its citizens die sooner than those of many poorer countries, a paradox the confounds many.

Source: The Washington Post

Portfolio Highlights:

• Faire CFO Lauren Cooks Levitan appeared on Good Morning America to talk about Gen Z holiday shopping trends.

• TechCrunch, The Verge, and Reuters report that Humane’s AI pin made its Paris Fashion Week debut, worn on the lapel of Naomi Campbell and other models.

• Cotopaxi and Zola make Fast Company’s list of 165 brands that matter in 2023.

• Curology CEO Heather Wallace appears on Bloomberg Markets: The Close to discuss the skincare market and what differentiates Curology.

• Fast Company interviews Gabrielle Union and Dwayne Wade about their inclusive baby hair and skincare line Proudly, part of A-Frame Brands, at the Fast Company Innovation Festival.

• Cotopaxi ranks #48 on Fortune’s list of companies that are changing the world. 

• Duos is highlighted in TechCrunch’s article on elder tech.

• Judy Tudor, a travel adviser with Fora who uses a wheelchair, is quoted in a Yahoo!Life article on travelers with disabilities.

• The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and RetailDive announce that Wonder Group has acquired meal-kit company Blue Apron.

• Lindsay Dahl, chief impact officer at Ritual, speaks about the most common sustainability myths in CPG with Beauty Independent.

• Wired names Oura the best ring fitness tracker, saying, “in a sea of identical square and round watches, there really isn't any other tracker like the Oura.”

Work at a Portfolio Company:

Vice President of Engineering | Topline Pro: Topline Pro is on a mission to ensure more home service business owners succeed by providing all the tools and resources they need, so pros can focus more on their craft versus the operational overhead of running a small business.

Director, Supply Chain & Operations | Dutch: Dutch is a fast-growing telehealth company for pets that is revolutionizing veterinary care. This role will help distinguish the operations department as a key competitive advantage for the business across supply chain management, operations, customer service  and logistics.

Head of Workplace | Faire: Faire is an online wholesale marketplace built on the belief that the future is local — independent retailers around the globe are doing more revenue than Walmart and Amazon combined. This role will create a welcoming and inclusive office culture that supports the overall employee experience at Faire.

There are ~505 other openings on our jobs site. Check ‘em out.