RESTAURANTS

So You Think You Can Fold a Burrito

Chipotle is more desperate to get your attention now than when it partnered with Shawn Mendes. The burrito chain announced yesterday that it's bumping up employee wages to an average of $15/hr by the end of June and wants to hire 20,000 workers total. It also introduced a path for employees to hit a $100,000/year salary as a manager in just 3.5 years.

Big picture: Restaurants are really hurting for workers. And while there are plenty of hot takes trying to explain why the food service industry is so understaffed, one thing is certain: Patio season is in danger. The industry lost a total of 2.5 million jobs in 2020, and only gained about 442,000 jobs back in Q1.

What's going on? 

The April jobs report released last Friday badly missed targets, showing that there's widespread disconnect between the number of jobs open and the available labor force. It appears that the restaurant industry in particular just isn't all that attractive for people looking for work.

Some restaurant owners are pointing to beefed up unemployment benefits during the pandemic to explain why employees don't want to get back on payroll. But would-be employees are pointing to other factors. 

• Restaurants have elevated sanitation requirements, plenty of food supply chain issues, and an average annual salary of only $21,470 to serve brunch crowds that have been locked inside for a year.
• Some fast-food joints were forced to shutter after employees, who were protesting working conditions, walked out. And New York City is suing Chipotle for $450 million over nearly 600,000 separate violations of workers' rights.

Looking ahead...demand for eating out will only increase over the summer, so restaurant chains are raising pay and finding other creative methods to recruit workers. Taco Bell held outdoor "hiring parties" in April, and this week, Chipotle is holding a virtual career fair on Discord.

ENERGY

DarkSide, Yesterday

DarkSide, the cyber-criminal group whose hacking activities took the US' largest gasoline pipeline offline for four days, said it felt kinda bad about disrupting the flow of fuel to critical hubs on the East Coast. In a statement posted to its website yesterday, DarkSide said it was "apolitical" and emphasized it was the anti-Joker: "Our goal is to make money, and not creating problems for society." 

• The problem with that logic is, DarkSide's business is selling ransomware that gets used to hack companies.
• In the future, DarkSide says it'll pay closer attention to clients' intended targets. It already has a stance against hacking hospitals, schools, mortuary services, nonprofits, and governments. 

Can't fix a pipeline problem overnight

Yesterday, the pipeline's operator, Colonial, said it's hoping to bring the full system back online by the end of the week. In the interim, the government relaxed rules so more oil can be driven up the East Coast in tankers. 

Crude prices rose about 1% yesterday, so price impacts are still minimal...so far. But if the shutdown takes longer than expected to resolve, GasBuddy analysts predict gas prices could rise more than a few cents.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Hey Facebook: Maybe Don't Do It for the Children

Yesterday, a group of 44 attorneys general asked Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to ditch plans to develop an Instagram platform for children younger than 13, the current age cutoff for FB services.

The reasoning: If they've still got training wheels, they're too young to navigate treacherous digital sidewalks filled with cyberbullies and online predators. The AGs cited studies showing that social media negatively impacts youngsters' physical and emotional health, and expressed concerns about Facebook's previous shortcomings in protecting society's youngest members. 

• Exhibit A: the 20 million images of child sexual abuse reported on FB platforms last year. 

Facebook's response? The company said InstaKids would have more parental controls, no advertising, and be crafted with input from privacy and child safety experts.

Bottom line: Just because you can make a product for kids doesn't mean you should. "It appears that Facebook is not responding to a need, but instead creating one, as this platform appeals primarily to children who otherwise do not or would not have an Instagram account," the attorneys general wrote.

SPONSORED BY PIESTRO

*Pizza-Based Orchestra Music Swells*

Dawn breaks over the ocean. You think your eyes are deceiving you. You say to yourself, No, it cannot be.

But it’s true. There atop the golden sands sits Piestro, the autonomous pizzeria that makes pies at a fraction of the cost of traditional pizzerias.

Suddenly Piestro says, “Good morning. I would like to offer you the opportunity to invest in me.” The breeze carries Piestro’s robot words to your ears. “The US pizza market is set to grow to $54 billion by 2023, and I will disrupt it with my delicious efficiency.”

It doesn’t make sense that you’re having a conversation with a robot pizza maker; then again, the robot pizza maker is making a lot of sense. So you reply, “OK Piestro, take my money. Take my money and go be the future of the booming pizza industry.”

“Thank you,” says Piestro, “And goodbye. Time to get that dough.”

GRAB BAG

Key Performance Indicators

Stat: Nearly 60% of people in Japan want the upcoming Olympic Games canceled, according to a new poll. Host city Tokyo is under a state of emergency through the end of the month due to a Covid-19 outbreak, and Japan has the lowest vaccination rate among wealthy nations.

Quote: "It was like a cancel culture kind of a thing so they're reviewing it." 

Trainer Bob Baffert told Fox News he would still run Medina Spirit in the Preakness Stakes on Saturday, despite the horse having failed its drug test after winning the Kentucky Derby. 

Read: A juicy profile of Robinhood and its promise to democratize investing. (New Yorker)

ENTERTAINMENT

The Golden Globes Will Have to Find Its Own Ride Home

NBC said yesterday that it won't air the Golden Globes until the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) cleans up its act, which means the 2022 show is currently without a broadcast home.

The context: The HFPA, an 87-member organization that votes on TV and movie awards, was the focus of a February report in the LA Times that found the group had zero Black members and was doing sketchy things, like flying to lavish parties for Emily in Paris—a series that received two Golden Globe nominations despite low critical approval. The report also found that its own members collected ~$2 million in payments from the organization.

• Other companies like Netflix and Amazon have already spoken out against the HFPA's recent (and, to them, unsatisfactory) plan to address its lack of diversity and ethical gray areas, but NBC's decision may force the HFPA to get a real move on.

Zoom out: Despite this year's low viewer count and technical difficulties, the Golden Globes still supplies a significant chunk of change for HFPA. In 2018, the association signed a $60 million licensing deal with NBC to air the ceremony, which still ranks among the most popular non-sports shows on TV.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• The Treasury has started paying out $350 billion in state and local aid from Biden's $1.9 trillion stimulus bill.
• Gay and transgender people willl be protected against sex discrimination in the US healthcare sector, after the Biden administration reversed a Trump-era policy. 
• Teen Vogue hired Versha Sharma, a managing editor at NowThis, as its new editor-in-chief. Just a few months ago, the initial pick for the job, Alexi McCammond, resigned following backlash over her appointment.
• Ford is calling its all-electric F-150 "Lightning." It'll be unveiled at an event next Wednesday and go on sale in 2022.
• "Hugs to be allowed in England as part of lockdown easing."

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Tech Tip Tuesday: Here's how an internal combustion engine works.

Practical marketing tips: In our brand-new Workshop series, Marketing Brew is bringing in experts to help you effectively market on different platforms. First up? Pinterest. Sign up here for next week's event.

Visualizing data: This poster, which you can download, is a helpful guide for determining which type of chart you should use for various types of data.

GAMES

Name the TV Show

I was just renewed for an 18th season yesterday.

I am TV’s No. 1 entertainment show in the 18–49 demographic.

Along with a spinoff of mine, which was also renewed for a fifth season, we are ABC’s most-watched scripted shows.

ANSWER

Grey's Anatomy