The Connection Newsletter 30 - DoorDash

The Connection Newsletter 30 - No Godzilla tails here

October 22, 2018

Hello!

This is edition #30 of

The Connection

, the weekly email I send family, friends, and future friends (hello!) Glad you're here.

Got to catch up with a lot of old friends last week -- and meet new ones. Hope you're having a great start to your week. 

Next week I'll be in Boston for a few days.

Any restaurant recommendations (specifically in and around the Boston Commons area)

? 

(Want less email? No problem, you can unsub at the bottom. We'll still be friends.)

Make sure to hit "Display Images" above to see puppy pics. 

First, this week’s article:

.

Turns out they do this often, but h

ere’s the problem: when scraping our menu to host on their app, they scraped the wrong Shogun menu. Instead of Shogun’s (from Albany, NY) logo and menu, it’s a completely different logo and menu. Therefore, people perusing DoorDash discovered brand new items we’ve never heard of like:

  • The Shogun Sandwich

  • Godzilla Tails (white meat chicken tenders with a special "Shogun sauce")

  • The Las Vegas roll

Everytime an order came in for Godzilla Tails, it’s a whole operational mess to fix the order. 

.

Next, onto this week’s articles:

---

. I used to live down the road from the In-N-Out in Culver City, California. I still dream about those scrumptious Double-Doubles (protein-style, animal-style, grilled onions, with a well-done fry).

The most intriguing parts of this interview? Two things: How In N’ Out maintains their margins, even though their prices have not kept up with inflation, and how they treat their staff.

So how does In-N-Out maintain its margins?

  • The limited menu means reduced costs for raw ingredients

  • The company buys beef wholesale and grinds it in-house

  • They do their own sourcing and distribution

  • They own their properties

  • They build stores near highways (to lower delivery costs)

And how about how they treat their staff?

  • The average manager has been with the company for 17 years(!)

  • They earn an average of $163,000 and participate in profit-sharing

  • Restaurant associates make $13 an hour (vs $10 at most competitors)

...

The Dream dives into the world of pyramid schemes and MLMs (multi-level marketing). The whole series has been fascinating, but the most eye-opening episode (so far) was Episode 4: A Fertile Mind, where our host Jane Marie delves into the dark side of personal development and its relationship with MLMs

I’m a big believer in the power of personal development, but can see how taken to the extreme, certain principles (as simple as, “success is the direct result of hard work”) can be twisted and used to unfairly manipulate people (e.g. just because the above is true does not mean the inverse is: “if you’re not successful, it means you’re not working hard enough).”

The Dream is currently on Episode 5.

Related:

.

…

. A lesson Megan Ellison of Annapurna Pictures is learning.

When Ms. Ellison (daughter of Larry Ellison) landed on the Hollywood scene, she was a god-send. The company made a splash by funding auteur-drive, beautiful pictures… and seemed impervious to the fact that none of these films made any money. Everyone was relieved there was a buyer for arthouse films.

But if even that Ellison money is starting to dry up, and they’re not able to find ways to turn a profit on their films, we’re going to see arthouse films continue to go the OTT route to get funding and distribution, e.g. Amazon Prime.

…

Networks are giving their shows a longer leash to find their audiences. Despite lackluster viewership, shows are being allowed to continue (examples:

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Grey’s Anatomy, A.P. Bio

). Meanwhile, series killed by one network are being brought back to life by another (e.g.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

).

So why are these shows allowed to survive?

“They remain on the air, however, because networks are looking beyond advertisers to make their money. The market for licensing series after they air — particularly overseas but also on streamers and other platforms — is booming, so many networks keep a show afloat even if traditional ratings are weak.That is, assuming the show is produced by a network’s studio, allowing the parent corporation to collect the profit. Shows produced in-house increasingly hold advantages over shows produced by outside studios.”

…

. I’ve been thinking more about parenting lately,

.

How to handle bullying via social media is a nuanced discussion and I’m new to this. My first instinct is that limiting access to Instagram (or any social network in question) isn’t the answer. If their friends are on it, they’ll find a way. Instead, we need to give our children the tools to stand up to bullying, e.g. self-confidence, multiple stratas of social support, strong family support, the ability to stand up for oneself physically (martial arts).

In a previous Connection, I shared a similar article, except

. (Note: musical.ly is now called TikTok.)

...

. I love it whenever my friend Peter Nguyen puts out one of these lists, because I know I can just hit “buy” and I’m done shopping. Saves me hours of searching on my own.

Thanks for reading!

Last thing: Is there anything I can help you with?

 If there's any way I can help out, please let me know. Or if we just haven't chatted in a while, I'd love to hear from you. Just reply directly to this email. 

Reply

or to participate.