Emily Allgair, Staff Writer

Via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Taylor_Swift_The_Eras_Tour_Reputation_Era_Set_(53109434716).jpg) 

From Beyonce to Taylor Swift to the Barbie movie, the economy has felt a generous boost in revenue over the summer. Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, which began in March of 2023 and ends domestically in November 2024, is currently on track to become the biggest concert tour in history, beating out Elton John’s farewell tour which began in September 2018 and ended in July 2023. Projected to generate $1 billion, people who went to the concerts likely bought extravagant outfits, friendship bracelet supplies, hotel rooms and plane tickets in addition to the tickets (which crashed Ticketmaster and were extremely expensive during resale). Jumping on the swiftie-bandwagon, many small businesses made products catered to the pop star’s fans. From dessert shops making Taylor-themed donuts to small museums opening exhibits based on her 17-year career. 

Starting in May 2023, Beyonce started her ninth concert tour, the Renaissance Tour. Similar to the Eras Tour, Beyonce’s is another world-famous musician hosting concerts without the (major) fear of spreading COVID-19. In Philadelphia the week of Beyonce’s performance on July 12th, restaurants, hotels, shopping (including arts and craft and fabric stores) and beauty services spiked, while nail technicians saw an increase of 193%. Similar trends are being seen in the cities across the nation that Beyonce is visiting. Some are even going as far as to predict that the Renaissance tour will surpass the Eras tour by the time it wraps in October. 

On July 21 Greta Gerwig released “Barbie” (read the review here). Gaining lots of hype before its release, “Barbie” became the highest-grossing movie at the 2023 domestic box office, even despite being released on the same day as “Oppenheimer.” Over its opening weekend, “Barbie” brought in $162 million, almost double what “Oppenheimer” brought in. Post-pandemic, this is one of the first movies that has brought a large crowd back into physical theaters, a trend that we hope will continue in the future.

The New York Times stated that some economists believe that these are examples of post-COVID “revenge spending” where people are focusing on buying experiences rather than tangible things – what people mostly bought during the pandemic. For both “Barbie” and the concerts, dressing up for events has come in strong since COVID-19, as, again, people are focused on the experience rather than the cost of the goods it takes to make that experience.

Jorden McVeagh, Editor 

https://fashionista.com/2016/06/adidas-kanye-west-expansion

Another week, another news update on Kayne West. This time, however, it is his former business partners Adidas who are creating headlines. As it is known, Kanye has been dropped by many of his former sponsors and business partners in the past months based on some comments and statements West has made publicly. These comments were what made Adidas decide to terminate their partnership with Kayne and his Yeezy brand together. While the public image is important, Adidas has recently said that if they can not offload inventory from the Yeezy line they could stand to lose at least $1.07 billion. The initial estimate believed this move would cost the company a mere $533 million in operating profit. Why is this move such a big deal for Adidas? Kanye and Yeezy generated nearly $2 billion worth of business for Adidas. The line made up 10% of the company’s total revenue. Meaning that by dropping Kanye they are losing money and market share to competitors. As mentioned above, his remarks have cost him other deals as well. Since October companies such as Gap, Balenciaga, Footlocker and TJ Maxx have all terminated deals with the superstar. While these moves are significant, none of them hurt more than Adidas. There have been talks of Adidas repurposing the line and just not using the name Yeezy, but this could be met with some backlash from consumers. Regardless of what your ideas of the man are, most people are going to want to buy something from his line to wear instead of wearing a knockoff version of the same shoe. In addition to the $1.07 billion they lost; they could stand to lose another $213 million in one-off costs. Adidas CEO Bjorn Gulden made a recent statement to NBC News about their 2022 performance when he said, “The numbers speak for themselves. We are currently not performing the way we should… 2023 will be a year of transition to set the base to again be a growing and profitable company.” As sort of the icing on the cake, Adidas stock dropped 11% on the German Stock Exchange on Friday alone. While I won’t get into the politics behind the issues let’s look at what Adidas stands to lose. They will lose large amounts of revenue, future market share, and more costs by continuing in a different direction. The company has its values and I respect that. I am interested to see if they will decide to partner with another big-name artist in order to get back some of that lost revenue in 2023. They need to make a decision quickly because other organizations in their sector are growing at an alarming rate and will be urgent to jump on that new market share. Lululemon for example is a company looking to capitalize on this. For the first time in its 20-year history, outselling Under Armour last year. This is a trend they will look to continue this year and make a dent in the positions of companies like Adidas and Nike who hold a larger portion of the market. I will be following what Adidas does with the one-off line in the coming months. As for Kanye, losing these deals will hurt his pockets. I will too be following what he does in the fashion industry in the coming months. Plus let’s not forget a big thing here. He made “Graduation.”

Jorden McVeagh, Editor 

https://www.zettapic.com/2021/03/18-manchester-city-logo-wallpaper-png.html

One of the top soccer leagues announced today that one of their clubs had a major violation of their league’s financial rules. I am speaking of the Premier League and one of their most well-known teams, Manchester City. The league opened Monday with the announcement the club had misrepresented the club’s current financial situation, and that it doesn’t provide a “true and fair view of the club’s financial position.” All of this relates back to their revenues from the 2009-10 up to the 2017-18 seasons. This was not the only lagging factor in their reports. It was also stated that Man City had failed in their duty to provide both manager and player pay for the 2009-2012 seasons and 2010-2016 seasons respectively. As if this wasn’t enough, they also failed to help or assist the legal investigations in this matter over the past four years which breaches the Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play Regulations between 2013 to 2018 under the Union of European Football Associations. As a result of the allegations there will be a private commission appointed by the chair of the Premier League. According to a statement the club gave the BBC, they are surprised over the current issues that the allegations are accusing them of breaking given what the club has turned over to the rules committee thus far. However, this is not indicative of the ruling of the case. Throughout history we have seen multiple people and companies in the same position who have said things like Man City. They also said that they are welcoming the idea of a private commission reviewing the materials they provided for review. Once again, something countless people and companies have said before. Now that all the legislative stuff is out of the way, what could this mean for the team and the Premier League? Man City has worn the crown in the Premier League in four of the past five seasons making them one of the most popular clubs in the world, not that they weren’t already. They are also carrying some of the most popular players in the world in Erling Haaland and Jack Grealish. The pairing of these two would mean a tremendous amount of revenue being generated by the club in both ticket sales, championship merchandise and regular team merchandise. It will be interesting to see what happens to these numbers as the findings of the committee come out in due time. If I were to throw my two senses in I don’t think either will be negatively impacted. Man City is a historic organization with a diehard group of fans. I would have a hard time believing they would lose fans through these allegations or findings, but you never know. What sets one person over the edge and what sets someone else over the edge are two different tipping points, so it is hard to tell what will happen regarding sales of tickets and jerseys

Jorden McVeagh, Editor 

https://www.motorbiscuit.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/2022-ford-mustang-mach-e-ice-white-edition.jpeg

The electric vehicle industry has been on the rise as consumers look to shift to a more sustainable and environmentally friendly mode of transportation. Tesla was the industry leader in terms of their design, pricing and distribution as we all saw its cars popping up all over the place in the last year or two. Companies have been following their lead and creating their lines of electric vehicles. Whether this is due to the creation of vehicle lines or an extension of already existing models, they are becoming a far more popular option than they were in the past. The problem with the industry is that it is still new, so product design, safety and pricing are still metrics that are being played around with from the manufacturer. Ford is one of the companies doing this today. They released a product called the Mach-E which was created to be one of the top competitors for Tesla’s Model Y. Last week, Ford announced that it would be cutting the price of their car after Tesla announced a price reduction for the Model Y in early January. For Ford, the price reduction fluctuates between $600 up to $5,900. This is not as much as Tesla’s $13,000 price cut, but at the same time, the price of Ford’s model is not as expensive as Tesla’s. Most of the time, when we hear about the price reduction of a product, it is usually associated with a negative impact. This may not hold true in this case. Wall Street investors are applauding these cuts as they can be used to drive up demand and sales of the product. As we inch closer and closer to a recession, consumers are tightening their wallets and a high-priced electric car may not be what people want to be spending money on right now. Tesla is acting as a regulator in the current market. If the industry leader cuts their prices, other companies will follow. Not many people would pay for another brand when Tesla is the lowest in terms of cost. When you pair this with the brand image Tesla has generated up to this point, other companies need to cut prices to stay competitive. The expected increase in sales will reflect Ford’s vehicle output. The quantity produced of the Ford Mach-E is expected to jump from 78,000 to 130,000 units annually produced. The Mach-E is the second-best selling EV in the US behind Tesla. Ford’s model comes in between the prices of $46,000 and goes all the way up to $64,000 while Tesla averages between $53,500 to $57,000. Tesla however outsold Ford with more than 522,000 units sold just in the US alone in 2022. To increase production, Ford has moved outside the US for the mass construction of their vehicles. They have a plant in Mexico that is currently under construction for upgrades but will be operational in the coming months. It will be interesting to see how these price cuts benefit those in the industry. Will they see an increase in revenue? Drop in sales still? Time will tell, but as more consumers shift to EV, this will surely increase their appetite to buy in the current trending economic conditions.

Jason Ryan, Staff

https://www.axios.com/2023/01/30/bed-bath-beyond-closing-stores-2023

Bed Bath & Beyond said Thursday it does not have enough cash to pay down its debts and it has defaulted on its credit line with JPMorgan, warning once again of a potential bankruptcy. Shares of Bed Bath plunged Thursday afternoon, prompting brief trading halts. The stock closed 22% down with a market cap of about $295 million, although it traded slightly higher Friday morning.  

In a securities filing, Bed Bath & Beyond said it “does not have sufficient resources to repay the amounts under the Credit Facilities and this will lead the Company to consider all strategic alternatives, including restructuring its debt under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.” Bed Bath is attempting to cut costs by lowering capital expenditures, closing stores, and negotiating lease deals with its landlords but personally warned “these measures may not be successful”.

Bed Bath’s debt load also includes $1.2 billion in unsecured notes, which have maturity dates spread across 2024, 2034 and 2044, and have been trading at extremely distressed levels. The company said previously it was not able to refinance portions of that debt less than a month after it told investors it planned to take out more credit to pay down its obligations. The company has been burning through cash in recent quarters. It used $890 million in cash during the nine months ended Nov. 26, the company reported Thursday. As of that date, Bed Bath said it had $225.7 million remaining in cash.

As of late November, the company had 949 stores, including 762 Bed Bath & Beyond stores, 137 buybuy Baby stores and 50 stores under the names Harmon, Harmon Face Values or Face Values. In September, the company announced only 56 Bed Bath & Beyond stores would be closing; however, earlier this month, the company posted a list with 62 Bed Bath closures, six buybuy Baby and two Harmon stores. The original closings announced in September were also on the list.

This news comes only a few months after the CFO of Bed Bath & Beyond leapt to his death from a Manhattan skyscraper where he had faced pump and dump allegations less that two weeks earlier. 

All and all, Bed Bath & Beyond has been distressed for years, having failed to reinvent itself in the digital age despite efforts to declutter its stores and remake its coupon strategy. The company will likely end in liquidation if it does not find a buyer soon.

ryanj21@lasalle.edu

Jorden McVeagh, Editor 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2022/08/12/heres-how-much-more-you-have-to-pay-for-streaming-services-compared-to-last-year/?sh=223777796dfe

Streaming services have grown immensely since the start of the pandemic and even in the years leading up to COVID-19. As a result of this, it has left companies such as Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, and many more fighting over viewers and precious market share in order to get their share of the pie. As we are slowly coming out of the other side of the pandemic and seem to be entering an economic recession in the coming months, this war may turn into a partnership to keep their companies afloat. Last year marked the first time ever that Netflix’s number of subscribers dropped, with their share price falling by over 60%. They were not the only ones either. As the world turns more to streaming services companies did what they do and adapted to this new method of entertainment. Most companies that did so saw a decrease in their stock price over the past year. With this happening, we may see something that is uncommon in the modern business world. We may see competitors team up to slow and reverse the current trend. According to their most recent quarterly reports, Netflix added 7.7 million new subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2022 with the stock price rising 6%. In the past, news like this would be deadly for competing companies, however, not this time. Netflix competitors also saw a slight increase in their share price after the reports were published. It will be interesting to see what happens in the coming months as Netflix will soon implement a fee for password sharing. According to Netflix, they expect first quarter numbers to be lower than the fourth of 2022 as a result. On the other hand they expect numbers to increase again going into the second quarter as more customers sign up for the service. As we recently flipped the page into 2023, it will all be about banding together in order to fight subscriber fatigue. As the world goes more and more digital by the day companies will be in a constant fight to keep up with the times, and streaming services will be at the forefront of that fight. The number of services has increased drastically over the past couple of years and has saturated the market giving the consumer the option to choose who they want. I myself am interested to see what the services working together will look like. If they can work together in order to keep the market in good standing, then it will be of great benefit to the consumer over time. They can’t get into a pricing war because at the end of the day the consumer will go with what may be cheaper, especially with a recession looming.