HOLIDAY

We’ll Probably Still Fight About Politics

The 2020 Thanksgiving Week is upon us, and it’s going to be an unusual one. Aside from the challenge of coping with Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Emmy, here’s why this will be a holiday unlike any we’ve seen before.

Travel will be much lighter

But far from eliminated. On Friday and Saturday, TSA screened about 42% of the passenger volume for comparable days last year. But they were still two of the busiest days at U.S. airports since the pandemic began. 

• That happened right after the CDC warned against traveling for Thanksgiving, and Johns Hopkins reported record confirmed Covid cases. 

Across all transportation modes, AAA is projecting a roughly 10% decline from last year’s Thanksgiving. 

Important note: The CDC isn’t worried about the disease spreading on airplanes as much as people traveling in order to gather in large groups. 

The retail calendar gets a makeover

Big-box retailers like Target and Walmart have spaced out their traditional Black Friday deals in order to prevent overcrowding in stores. And, for the first time in years, many retailers will close their brick-and-mortar locations on Thanksgiving to protect the health of employees. 

• Expect e-commerce sales to go parabolic. 

Across the Atlantic, they’re breaking even more norms. The French government decided to postpone the shopapalooza in an effort to support small businesses. The rationale: 

• When the country’s second lockdown began on Oct. 30, smaller stores had to close, sending shoppers to online retailers (mainly Amazon) in droves. 
• In response to outcry from those small businesses, large retailers agreed to delay their Black Vendredi deals until Dec. 4, provided the government allowed those smaller shops to reopen then. 

Finally, it’s runty turkeys’ time to shine 

Because people are planning smaller gatherings, smaller turkeys are taking flight off of shelves they likely never could as birds. "We probably have about 10 people that have asked like, 'I want the smallest turkey you have,' NC turkey farmer Rachel Shenk told NPR. 

SOCIAL MEDIA

How to Get Extremely Famous in 18 Months

On Sunday, social media star Charli D'Amelio hit 100 million followers on TikTok, a milestone for Charli, TikTok, and the power of a smartphone camera.

• Charli, who is 16 years old, is to TikTok what Rafael Nadal is to the French Open. She's so dominant, there are only two other creators on the app with more than 50 million followers. 

The backstory: When she first downloaded TikTok in May 2019, Charli was just a kid filming dancing vids in her suburban Connecticut bedroom. But thanks to a combination of charisma and business savvy (plus great timing with the app itself skyrocketing in popularity), she gained around 94 million followers in a single year. 

• Even more impressively, she did it without drinking cranberry juice. 

The nowstory: Charli, and her increasingly famous family, are thinking way beyond TikTok. 

• In the social media realm, Charli has 8.5 million subscribers on YouTube and 33.7 million followers on Instagram. 
• She also launched a podcast with her sister, signed a book deal, and had a Dunkin’ drink named after her. 

Homework: Spend this Thanksgiving plotting with your family how you can be the next D’Amelios. 

COMMODITIES

Ready for a Wild Story About Chocolate?

Okay. Cocoa futures posted their biggest weekly gain in 19 years last week thanks to a strange mix of geopolitics, Covid, and a bit of creative financial maneuvering by none other than Hershey's. 

Hershey’s reportedly sent prices surging when it bought a large amount of cocoa through the ICE Futures U.S. exchange rather than the physical market.  

• The futures markets are typically the domain of traders and speculators, the Financial Times explains. You almost never see a chocolate maker like Hershey, which typically relies on middlemen to source their cocoa, wading in. 

Why is the cocoa so hot? It’s all about the Ivory Coast and Ghana. Those two West African countries, which account for almost 70% of total global cocoa production, recently instituted a fee to boost cocoa farmers’ incomes. With Covid lockdowns sapping demand for chocolate, buyers are looking for cheaper options—like tapping the futures market to skirt the fees. 

Looking ahead...the cocoa market could be a mess for a long time as other companies look to replicate Hershey’s strategy.

SPONSORED BY AUGUSTINUS BADER

“Oh, That’s Rich”

—Us, when we use Augustinus Bader’s scientific marvels of skincare: The Cream and The Rich Cream.

Clinically proven to reduce fine lines, wrinkles, and premature skin aging due to sun exposure in just four weeks, these bottles of bliss are just what you need before the cold winter air dries us all out like yams. 

But how? One word: super-smart-science-from-a-super-smart-scientist. Professor Augustinus Bader is a world-leading stem cell scientist with 30 years of experience in research and innovation.

And he fit all that know-how into these beautiful blue bottles. Plus, his proprietary TFC8 technology is designed to optimize the skin’s natural processes of cellular renewal.

Maybe that’s why 94% of users said dull skin appears brighter and 92% agree their skin appears healthier. 

Brew readers can also get a free Augustinus Bader Hand Treatment (val. $50) with any purchase using code MB-HT.

Get the richest skin ever right here.

FOOD

A Case Study in Brand Loyalty

They must be really bored out in Colorado, because when the first two In-N-Out Burger locations opened in the state Friday, lines stretched more than 12 hours. Some diners said they waited 14.  

• As Brew writer Jamie Wilde pointed out, the people in the back of the line might’ve gotten their Double-Double faster if they drove the 700+ miles to the In-N-Out location in Prescott, Arizona. 

The next day, the Aurora, CO, police dept. said traffic at the In-N-Out was "much improved." It was a breezy eight-hour wait at the drive-thru and an hour at the walk-up line. 

Zoom out: Family-run In-N-Out, which is widely considered California’s greatest export, also has locations in Texas, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and Oregon.

CALENDAR

The Thanksgiving Week Ahead

This Thanksgiving week will certainly be weird, but look on the bright side: That awkward conversation with a high school classmate you happened to run into at the local bar has also been canceled. 

Thanksgiving: The markets are closed Thursday, and they’ll close at 1pm on Friday. Some things are more important than P/E ratios (but are they?). 

Biden’s plans: The first of the president-elect’s Cabinet picks will come on Tuesday, according to his incoming chief of staff. 

Earnings: Retailers Gap, Nordstrom, Best Buy, and Dick’s all report Q3 earnings on Tuesday. 

Economic data: Wednesday is where the action is. That’s when we’ll check in on the red-hot housing sector with October new home sales, and on the national economy with the second reading of Q3 GDP.  

Everything else: 

• On Tuesday, author Ernest Cline will follow up his sci-fi hit Ready Player One with—wait for it—Ready Player Two.
• Rock star Miley Cyrus’s new album, Plastic Hearts, drops on Friday.
• And apparently the college basketball season is starting? Go Terps. 

SIDEKICK

Tabs on Tabs on Tabs

Back in April, we started a quarantine newsletter called The Essentials to give you ideas of things to do when your calendar had been wiped out. 

Now it’s November. The pandemic hasn’t gone away, but The Essentials is—well, it’s transforming into something bigger and better: Sidekick, a revamped recommendations newsletter that arrives Monday and Thursday evenings. 

What you’ll find in Sidekick:

• Trusted recs from all over the internet, including recipes, DIY projects, and fresh discoveries. 
• Ideas for both leveling up your professional life or winding down with a new book.
• An author, Rachel Cantor, who’s been dubbed the “tab queen.” Prepare your browser to be overrun with links you’ll want to save for later. 

Bottom line: Sidekick is your trusted friend who will make you the trusted friend. The first edition arrives in just a few hours.

Subscribe here.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• The FDA granted emergency use authorization to Regeneron’s Covid-19 antibody therapy, which was administered to President Trump.
• Guitar Center filed for bankruptcy.
• The proposed “travel bubble” set up between Singapore and Hong Kong has been delayed for at least two weeks after a few dozen new Covid-19 cases were detected. 
• England will end its lockdown as planned on Dec. 2 and move to a regional system of restrictions.
• The epic story of how Moderna and Pfizer developed their vaccines. 

BREW'S BETS

This deal’s a perfect fit. For the first time ever, Revtown is offering Brew readers early access to their Black Friday sale. Get their Denim Duo Crate, featuring two pairs of their durable and comfortable jeans, for just $125. Denim deal here.*

You’ll thank us. SimpliSafe gives your home 24/7 protection from break-ins, emergencies, and more. Plus you can get up to 50% off a new system along with a free HD security camera. Get secure, then thank us.*

Suspension or cantilever? It’s been too long since we’ve shared some engineering content, so here’s a video all about bridges. 

Dive back into the week: 

• Shallow dive: Save a life and stay classy about it
• Medium dive: The big lessons from history
• Deep dive: Some excellent recent articles on Covid-19

^{*This is sponsored advertising content}

GAMES

Multiple Choice

What does In-N-Out print in small lettering on most of its packaging?

1. Anti-Trump slogans
2. Bible verses
3. Brain teasers  
4. Interesting factoids, like Snapple did

ANSWER

Bible verses. You can read why here.