January 11, 2022

For decades, Hollywood studios and movie exhibitors abided by the law of the “theatrical window,” the period of time where a film could only be seen in theaters. This window steadily shrank over the years as home video and streaming gained dominance until it was almost obliterated in 2020 as theaters shut down for the pandemic. The fascinating video below looks at the ways that coronavirus changed domestic movie distribution and how theaters could still have a profitable future ahead Continue reading

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December 7, 2021

This video takes an extensive look at Noble & Cooley, an American drum company founded in 1854 that has been going strong for more than 160 years. What began as a toy drum seller evolved over the years into an artisanal manufacturer of high-quality instruments that are sought after by professional musicians around the world. Business Insider examines this progression as well as Noble & Cooley’s commitment to quality that has set it apart from the competition for decades.  Continue reading

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November 9, 2021

Birchbox launched in 2010 with a business model that was quite novel at the time: for a recurring fee, the company shipped small samples of beauty products to customers every month. The idea was to recreate the experience of shopping at a department store’s makeup counter where customers try out a variety of items before deciding what to buy. Once the subscriptions started rolling in for Birchbox, so did venture capital investment, with the startup raising nearly $100 million in Continue reading

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October 15, 2021

With supply chains snarled across the globe, food prices are on the rise as businesses contend with interminable shipping delays. Unlike many other items at the supermarket, though, cheese prices have remained relatively stable thanks to a number of factors discussed in the video below. 

Questions:

  1. Why does cheese maintain a relatively stable price compared to other staple foods like ground beef and apples?
  2. What is “price smoothing” and how does it keep prices stable at supermarkets for consumers?
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October 7, 2021

When summer came to a close last year, restaurants across the country scrambled to keep diners eating outdoors even as the weather turned cold. This led to improvised setups with shelters and gas heaters that sometimes brought about more problems than they solved. For example, every night Ellen Yin’s restaurant in Philadelphia would burn through more than 10 propane tanks for their heat lamps, with staff often changing the tanks throughout the evening. “A couple of times I went to Continue reading

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September 24, 2021

Over the course of the pandemic, sports card trading has transformed from a niche hobby to a booming market as people started turning old collections into big money. This video looks at how appraisal companies and online trading platforms have changed collecting forever while attracting the interest of Wall Street investors in the process.

Questions:

  1. How did sports card collecting transform from a fading hobby into a lucrative and vibrant market? 
  2. Do you think the market for cards will Continue reading
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September 15, 2021

Over the last year, Apple has been engaged in a legal battle with Epic Games, the software developer behind the blockbuster video game Fortnite. The company sued Apple after the tech giant removed the mobile version of Fornite from its App Store, alleging that Epic encouraged customers to purchase the game on different platforms. Apple claimed that this prevented it from collecting the commission it earns on every sale through the App Store, which Epic then accused of being anti-competitive Continue reading

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September 10, 2021

Although demand for wine from California’s Napa Valley has never been higher, supply is low across the region after years of drought, wildfires, and then the pandemic disrupted production. This video looks at the inflationary pressures currently weighing on winemakers as they consider whether or not to raise prices on the latest vintages.

Questions:

  1. What inflationary factors are driving winemakers to raise prices on their products?
  2. What are the potential advantages and disadvantages for businesses when they raise prices?
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September 3, 2021

It’s a scenario that plenty of fast food fans have faced before: they pull up to the drive-thru speaker at McDonald’s and ask for their favorite frozen treat, only to hear the reply, “Sorry, but the machine is broken right now.” Responsible for about 60 percent of the chain’s desserts, the McFlurry machine is a vital asset for Golden Arches franchises across the country, even though their unreliability has become something of a running joke. Along with serving as the Continue reading

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August 17, 2021

The economic disruptions of the past year and a half caused small businesses to lose an average of 11 percent of their revenues. This was not the case for the globe’s big corporations, though. According to a McKinsey study of 5,500 “big, highly productive” U.S. and European companies, all surveyed firms reported that they experienced no declines in sales during the pandemic.

Although large companies had already been overtaking their smaller rivals before 2020, economists say that the pandemic widened Continue reading

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