Blue Apron reported a smaller drop in revenue than expected for the fourth quarter on Tuesday. Tonya Garcia, Retail Reporter at MarketWatch and Jason Moser, Analyst at The Motley Fool, join The Long and The Short to discuss where the meal kit delivery company goes from here.
The main focus on Blue Apron has been its customer growth. This quarter it reported a loss of 15% year-over-year in customers, reflecting a cut in marketing spend. Moser says the company's biggest issue is building up that loyal customer base with the little amount of money it has for marketing. It won't make investors feel at ease until they see some solid growth in the user category.
Plus, what sets Blue Apron apart from the others? Garcia says in this type of competitive industry each company needs to have that one thing others don't. Right now, she's not seeing anything unique about Blue Apron. She's hoping if it ramps up market spending it can figure out that key piece to the puzzle.
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
