RETAIL

Let's Go to the Mall, Safely

If you’re like us, lockdown has you hankering for a stroll from Nordstrom to Hot Topic while housing Dippin’ Dots. That opportunity may come to you soon. 

To answer all your questions...

What: On Tuesday, Simon Property Group detailed plans to reopen 49 of its properties in a memo first obtained by CNBC.

Who: Simon might’ve hosted your last Brookstone massage before lockdowns began—it’s the largest mall operator in the country. 

When: The reopenings will take place starting today and continue through the weekend.

Where: The malls are in 10 states that are lifting restrictions, including Texas, Indiana, Georgia, and Missouri. 

How: Simon’s malls and shopping centers won’t operate like you’re used to. Those terrifying hordes of 14-year-olds will have to be much more careful with their Heelys. 

• Occupancy will be capped at one person per 50 sq. ft. with the help of “traffic measurement technologies."
• Any visitors can request to be provided with masks, hand sanitizing products, and a free temperature check. They’ll be strongly encouraged to wear face coverings and keep their distance from one another.
• Simon staff will regularly sanitize areas like food court tables, escalators, doorknobs, and electronic directories. Hours will be limited to allow for overnight cleaning. And, of course, to feed the werewolves that live in J. Jill stores.

Why: Retail desperately needs a lifeline. According to GlobalData Retail, coronavirus lockdowns forced about 263,000 stores to close temporarily. Over 100,000 could permanently close by the end of 2025, per UBS.  

Will it work? Depends on 1) if retailers are ready to reopen and 2) if we consumers are ready to shop IRL again. 

Some mall mainstays like J.C. Penney, Neiman Marcus, and J. Crew may be getting close to bankruptcy, though Macy’s said yesterday it plans to  fully reopen all of its stores in six to eight weeks. And as for consumers...45% say they plan to avoid shopping centers and malls even after restrictions are lifted, according to one survey.

+ Want more retail news? Sign up for Retail Brew to get the latest industry news in your inbox. 

EARNINGS

Amazon and Apple Round out Big Tech Earnings

You may have noticed we’ve been #innovating our presentation of quarterly earnings stories. For today’s edition, we donned our black turtlenecks to surprise and delight you with some very large numbers.  

Number number 1: $58.3 billion, Apple’s fiscal Q2 revenue, which beat expectations and was up 1% annually. 

• Some more: $13.3 billion and $6.3 billion—Apple’s services and wearables revenue, respectively. Both increased significantly over last year and continue to be growth drivers for the company. 

The question on everyone’s phone: Whether Apple will be able to release a 5G iPhone in the fall, as reportedly planned. 

Now to Puget Sound for Amazon

At $75.5 billion, revenue beat expectations, but earnings per share came in at $5.01, under consensus estimates. 

• $4 billion = Amazon’s estimated Q2 operating profit, all of which it plans to spend on coronavirus-related expenses like testing. 

Bottom line: Beating expectations isn’t quite as much of a triumph in the age of coronavirus, because analysts don’t quite know how to price in a pandemic.

+ If you want to better understand earnings reports, we've got the guide for you. 

INTERNATIONAL

Bolsonaro Struggles to Contain "Little Flu"

"I'm sorry. What do you want me to do?" Comforting words to hear from your SO after they accidentally break your favorite Brew mug, not so much from a president confronted with the second-largest COVID-19 outbreak in the Western Hemisphere.

Brazil has reported 70,000+ cases and 5,000+ deaths, though experts believe the actual caseload is higher. As deaths spike, President Jair Bolsonaro is facing mounting criticism for failing to help.  

He sacked the health minister, called on businesses to reopen, and wrote off COVID-19 as a "little flu." As state governors issued stay-at-home orders, he held a protest rally. And now, states are dialing back restrictions while deaths keep increasing. 

Brazil’s neighbors are worried. In Paraguay, which has <250 confirmed cases, authorities dug a literal trench to stop Brazilians from entering the town of Pedro Juan Caballero. 

• And the Trump administration is considering restricting travel or testing incoming passengers.

Zoom out: Economists project that the coronavirus will cause Brazil's worst annual economic contraction...ever. Bolsonaro is also facing a potential impeachment over allegations he interfered with a police investigation that targeted his family.

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They’re the first IT solution for businesses of all sizes that’s fully secure, real-time, and dependable. And they give away free wi-fi routers! What’s not to love?!

Schedule your meeting with Electric .

TRANSIT

NYC's Subway Goes 20/7/365

NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo and NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio mix like mayo and grapefruit, but the pair appeared in a rare joint press conference yesterday to announce that the MTA subway system will begin closing down from 1am to 5am for nightly cleanings. 

Subway cars are currently scrubbed every 72 hours (how long the coronavirus can live on surfaces), but officials are moving to a nightly regimen to protect essential workers who depend on the system. It's the first time in history NYC's subways won't run 24 hours as part of their regular schedule.

A system in crisis

Ridership has fallen more than 90% annually since the city went into lockdown mode. While the MTA recently received $4 billion in federal aid, revenue losses are projected as high as $6 billion, so it’s asking for more.

• Daily operations have come at a tremendous toll for MTA employees: almost 100 have died from COVID-19.

Closures will also affect the city’s homeless population, which has turned to the subway for shelter in greater numbers. As MTA ramps up enforcement, de Blasio has unveiled a plan to move thousands more individuals into hotels.

SPACE

Rate These Lunar Landers

NASA selected U.S. firms SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Dynetics to develop the landing systems that will carry astronauts to the Moon's surface in upcoming Artemis missions. Which one would you use to impress a cute alien? 

SpaceX

SpaceX

Blue Origin

Blue Origin

Dynetics

Dynetics

QUIZ

Texas Quiz 'Em

Consider this your reminder that you don’t need to live in Belgium to eat fries twice a week and it’s encouraged to put pineapples on pizza, no matter what our fellow writers may think. It’s the Brew’s Weekly News Quiz.

1. No excuses—we told you this was coming: What is the name of Lithuania's capital? 

2. Fill in the blank: Theater chain AMC said it would stop playing any of Universal's films after a report that __________ raked in about $95 million in fees from almost 5 million digital rentals.

3. On Tuesday, we mentioned that the world's largest auto plant has resumed operations. This is a two-part question...1) what's the company and 2) where is the plant? Five points for one correct answer, 1,000 points for both correct, and -5,000 points if you go 0/2. 

4. Which CEO said this on an earnings call: “To say that they cannot leave their house and they will be arrested if they do, this is fascist."

5. Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund recently acquired a 5.7% stake in a company whose main business has temporarily moved to Fortnite. Can you name the company?

Or, you can keep scrolling for the answers. 

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• American Airlines posted its first quarterly loss since emerging from bankruptcy in 2013. The damage: $2.2 billion.
• Verizon CEO to Axios: Our network traffic has increased 1,200% during the pandemic.
• Americans are putting away savings at the fastest rate since 1981.
• A graphical guide to the race for a vaccine.
• Reopening tracker: When all 50 states plan (or don't plan) on easing lockdown restrictions. 

BREW'S BETS

Stop paying to use your own cash. With Betterment Checking, you won’t pay ATM fees again–or overdraft fees, or monthly fees, or foreign transaction fees. You get the idea. Get hassle-free, no-fee‡ checking .*

Mark your calendar for June 15. The application deadline for the Fall 2020 Online MBA cohort at Michigan Ross is fast approaching, so make a move (but don’t leave the house). Learn from one of the world’s best business schools—wherever you may be. Apply today.*  

Pearls of wisdom: Here are 68 bits of advice from a 68-year-old. Unsolicited, but quite good. 

Back to school: We're pretty list-heavy today, but this is another good one—many colleges' plans for the fall semester. 

^{*This is sponsored advertising content}

FROM THE CREW

This Is Your LAST Chance to Play Poker for Charity

We're just one day away from Chipping in for COVID, the Brew's charity poker tournament. So far, we've raised more than $100,000 for the nonprofit Frontline Foods—but there's still more time to participate. 

• Donate $100 for a seat at the table on Saturday. If you make it through the qualifying round, you'll play with celebs and poker stars on Sunday.
• If you're not into poker, you can still make a contribution of any amount. But do it now...you have just hours left. 

Poker tips

To help you learn more about poker, Brew writer Toby "Moneymaker" Howell has put together a poker hub that includes a history of tournament poker, the largest pots of all time, and training materials. Here's a little taste.

• For total beginners: Learn the rules of the most common poker variant, Texas Hold ’Em. And use this guide to understand which hands to play and which hands to fold.
• For the people who played twice in college: How to play tight and aggressive (TAG) poker. And how to play loose and aggressive (LAG) poker. 

Read more at the Brew's poker hub. And then sign up to play. Registration ends at midnight tonight. 

FRIDAY PUZZLE

You may not enter "weekend mode" without completing this puzzle. We'll give you five words as clues. Each set of answers will have the same letters in order but will be off by one vowel. It's easier just to show you an example.

• The five clues: wager, except, flying mammal, automaton, smidgen
• The answers: bet, but, bat, bot, bit

Ready? Here we go...

1. Garden plot, auction, evil, figure, unopened flower

2. Sphere, male bovine, tab, cotton bud, signal it's time to eat

3. Writing instruments, plays on words, cooking utensils, part of the brain, sewing implements

4. Herb found in soup, puppet, non-reflective, white wild sheep, valley

5. Musical group, flex, tie, unite, political association

ANSWERS

Friday puzzle
1. Bed, bid, bad, bod, bud
2. Ball, bull, bill, boll, bell
3. Pens, puns, pans, pons, pins
4. Dill, doll, dull, Dall, dell
5. Band, bend, bind, bond, bund

(Source)

News Quiz
1. Vilnius 2. Trolls World Tour 3. Volkswagen and Wolfsburg, Germany 4. Elon Musk 5. Live Nation

** A Note From Betterment

‡Checking accounts and the Betterment Visa Debit Card provided and issued by nbkc bank, Member FDIC. Checking made available through Betterment Financial LLC. Neither Betterment Financial LLC, nor any of their affiliates, is a bank. Betterment Financial LLC reimburses ATM fees and the Visa® 1% foreign transaction fee worldwide, everywhere Visa is accepted.