New Florence. New Renaissance.

Auto features on a subscription basis

Although consumers might have gotten used to subscribing to music, movies, and TV shows, and even clothing, a subscription model for automotive options would be a dramatic shift in how cars have been sold for more than a century. Traditionally, a vehicle’s factory-equipped options are permanent, regardless of whether a car is 10 years old or whether it has been sold to a second or third owner.

But under some of the subscription model scenarios suggested by automakers, certain features might disappear as soon as the monthly or yearly payment stops, in the same way your streaming or phone services stop when you cancel your subscription or fail to pay. On the upside, analysts say that subscriptions may encourage automakers to provide software updates that help features evolve after purchase—especially when it comes to vehicles with cutting-edge technology. Some consumers also might like the idea of paying only for the non-essential luxury features they want, such as voice recognition or parking assist, for example.

Consumer Reports

Both Tesla and GM’s Cadillac unit offer their self-driving features on a subscription basis

Shopify - the Everywhere Store

The dateline thing may be a bit pompous and a little too cute, but after an almost two-year run that’s turned the quiet enterprise-tech company into a global c-commerce power, Lütke has earned some creative license. Since he started Shopify 15 years ago, the company has sold software that allows about 2 million merchants worldwide to run websites—free from the complicated embrace of Shopify’s chief rival, Amazon.com Inc. For $30 to $2,000 a month. Shopify offers sellers more than a dozen services to run an online store, from the actual e-commerce website to inventory management to payment processing.

Its technology now undergirds the websites of giant retail chains such as Staples Inc. and Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc.; recently ordained public companies that grew up on the platform, including shoemaker Ailbirds Inc. and medical scrubs maker Figs; and the retail side-hustles of Kylie Jenner, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, and other celebrities. But the company’s biggest impact has been at the smaller end of the scale, in the vast constellation of mom and pops, venture-capital-backed startups, influencer minimoguls, twee entrepreneurs, merch heads, and more obscure outfits, like Offlimits - a two-person New York City startup trying to reinvent, of all things, breakfast cereal.

Businessweek

Here is Jim Cramer talking about how Shopify is a key component of “modern capitalism” – as more people leave the workforce and set up their own businesses

Caffeine as a Service

Hey coffee and tea addicts, Panera Bread is offering a monthly subscription for $8.99 a month. And redemption is facilitated through your mobile app

“For $8.99/month plus tax, you can enjoy any size drip hot coffee, hot tea and iced coffee every two (2) hours during regular bakery-café hours, including free refills of the same beverage at any participating U.S. Panera Bread bakery-cafes. You can choose any size coffee or hot tea when redeeming your subscription benefits. Cold Brew, espresso drinks, Iced Tea, and other beverages are not included in your subscription.”

I am a one cup of coffee in the morning, and then iced tea during day. For some reason, Panera excludes iced tea so the offer is less interesting for me, but even the coffee appears attractive, especially if a Panera is near you.

"The Apple of Wellness"

Also during the pandemic, People magazine began covering instructors such as Rigsby and Arzón like celebrities (which they sort of are — some of Arzón’s rides can attract 20,000-plus riders, or roughly the capacity of Madison Square Garden). And talent agencies signed up instructors, including Emma Lovewell (UTA), Tunde Oyeneyin (ICM), and Rigsby and Ben Alldis (A3).

Despite the voluntary recall of Peloton’s two treadmill models in May after the death of a child (a $165 million hit to future revenue, according to company predictions) and a recently revealed data breach (since patched), the company is moving ahead.

When Peloton opens its new 20,000-square-foot London exercise studios and broadcast center later this year — it opened a hugely upgraded $50 million New York facility in 2020 — one feature will make Peloton’s media aspirations clear: a huge street-level window allowing passersby a peek into the control room.

The Hollywood Reporter

A la carte pricing at hotels?

In exchange for lower room rates, one hotel brand is charging for other perks — like early check-in or pool access — that guests pay for only if they want it.

“By going to an a la carte menu, it allows people to customize their experience and get exactly the product that they want when they want,” MCR Hotels Chairman and CEO Tyler Morse recently shared with Yahoo Finance Live. “Consumers always have a choice in the matter.”

The model is being piloted in several independent, non-branded MCR Hotels, Morse said, and feedback has been positive, so far. The new pricing strategy isn’t dissimilar to how airlines began charging for luggage, he said, noting it took some time for flyers to accept the ancillary fees. 

Yahoo Finance

Herman-Miller B2C foray

Office furniture company Herman Miller Inc. is trying to expand further beyond selling large orders of expensive chairs to employers with a new bid for individual at-home workers.

Herman Miller this month will open its first stores designed for consumers in Century City in Los Angeles and New York City’s Hudson Yards, and plans to open two more next month in Austin, Texas, and Tokyo. It previously relied purely on large showrooms aimed at business-to-business customers, e-commerce and a presence in consumer outlets such Design Within Reach, a sibling under parent company Herman Miller Group.

WSJ (sub required)

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Brandless – fewer grocery options, more aligned with Millennials

It’s tough to wow Masayoshi Son with a bargain, but during a meeting this spring, Brandless left the SoftBank Group chief executive officer a bit flabbergasted. Yes, the startup’s founders assured the billionaire, every product he picked up from the table, from the extra-virgin olive oil to the carbon-steel eyelash curler, was just $3. The trick: It’s all store brand, and there’s no alternative. The site will sell only one kind of toothpaste, or coaster, or tree-free toilet paper. Hope you like it!

BusinessWeek

The Wawa transformation

After decades of pushing cheap gas and cigarettes and made-to-order sandwiches to suburban crowds, Wawa is starting to de-emphasize two of the three. The current CEO, Chris Gheysens, is swapping in Tesla charging stations, kale salads, and small-batch coffee, most of which customers can order on their phones (or Wawa's ubiquitous touchscreens). Gheysens calls this Wawa's "barbell" strategy: continue to offer the cheap staples that attracted longtime customers, while expanding into cities as the newest health-conscious, gourmet-inflected, casual-lunch option.

Inc

The Digital Grocer

It could be called the “ply” model — as in, “ply your wares with digital technology.” This model seeks to offset the scale advantages of Amazon and Walmart by leveraging the distinctive capabilities of a local grocery store: a supply chain fed by full-truckload shipments (which Amazon lacks); dynamic pricing and promotion (which Walmart disdains); and the ability to command intensive loyalty from shoppers, because of its local community knowledge, customer segmentation, and product customization. To compete in the coming decade against the twin disruptions of Amazon and Walmart (and their equivalents), today’s grocers and supermarkets need to return to the customer-centric mind-set of their 19th-century predecessors, while making the most of today’s digital tools.

Strategy+Business

The growing Amazon device business

Adam Lashinsky of Fortune interviewed David Limp, an Amazon senior vice president who oversees Alexa and all of its Amazon devices at the Brainstorm Tech conference. Some eye popping details about the size of the device business and its business model.

“We really believe and the team believes that we should align ourselves with both the business model and the product, so that if customers use it over a period of time, then we'll take a small amount of profit every time they have a transaction. It might be an Audible book; it might be a Kindle book; it might be shopping as they go through the lifecycle of that product.

Nothing makes me and the team happier to see a first generation Kindle in somebody's hands. We're still supporting it. You can still buy books from it and that's a great win-win for us and the customer.”