Retro retail

Good morning. A startup has put an AI agent named Mona in charge of its own cafe in Sweden. Mona has been responsible for everything from setting up business permits to hiring staff. Patrons can even use a phone in the cafe to ask Mona questions directly (or complain about a stale croissant). 

There have been some growing pains. Mona randomly ordered 3,000 rubber gloves for the store, bought 50 pounds of canned tomatoes (despite there being no dish with tomatoes on the menu), and regularly messages the baristas on Slack outside of working hours.

It’s good to know that, whether man or machine, your manager is still going to message you on your day off.

Today’s reading time is 5½ minutes.

Earnings to watch: It’s earnings season for Canadian banks this week, with Scotiabank, BMO, TD, CIBC, RBC, National, and Laurentian all reporting. Analysts are forecasting earnings growth from last year, which could add to the stellar share performance of the big banks (the main index tracking them is up more than 50% in the past year).

Brands have discovered a new way to spark sales: Sell the same thing they offered 30 years ago. 

Driving the news: One of Pizza Hut’s largest franchisees, Daland Corporation, is remodelling dozens of its locations to look like the chain’s old restaurants from the ‘90s, including its famous stained-glass lamps, retro red booths, and pan pizza buffets. 

Why it’s happening: Whether it's pizza, a flip phone, or a pair of low-waisted jeans, brands are leaning into nostalgia to open wallets. Taco Bell has rolled out its own Y2K menu, Kodak has been thrown a financial lifeline from the resurgence in film cameras, while popular ‘90s fashion brands like Ed Hardy, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Juicy Couture are seeing a social media-fuelled renaissance.

Why it matters: The demand for all things ‘90s and Y2K says more about how people are feeling right now than it does about the actual desire for a retro Pizza Hut. Research has shown that nostalgic purchases often serve as an emotional safety blanket when people are feeling bad about their economic situation or the state of the world. In other words, people chase relics of their past when they don’t feel super optimistic about the present.—LA

Premier Danielle Smith says she won’t hold another separation referendum if it fails in October. In an interview on Sunday, the Alberta premier committed to not having a second separation referendum if Albertans vote to remain in Canada in the October 19 vote. Smith has been adamant that she is not in favour of independence, but has faced criticism for making it easier for separatists to trigger the referendum. (CTV News)

Trump pours cold water on his own claim that an Iran deal is being finalized. Less than a day after saying a deal was almost over the finish line, the U.S. president said he is not in a rush to reach an agreement with Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end the war. U.S. officials said an eventual deal would see Iran reopen the Strait and give up its stockpile of enriched uranium. (Wall Street Journal)

Uber is trying to buy rival Delivery Hero. Uber has reportedly offered to take over the German food delivery service in a deal that would value the company at €11.5 billion but has so far been rebuffed. Uber already owns 20% of Delivery Hero, and while the company’s largest shareholder declined its first offer, some analysts believe Uber could offer as much as €15 billion. (Bloomberg News)

📡 What else is on our radar: 

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🇮🇳 India-Canada trade talks. India’s trade minister will be in Canada this week for talks with Prime Minister Mark Carney, other federal officials, and business leaders. He’ll bring with him India’s largest-ever trade delegation to Canada, including more than 150 business reps. India and Canada signed a deal on critical minerals earlier this year and restarted negotiations on a broader free trade agreement as part of a diplomatic thaw between the two countries.

📊 New Canadian GDP numbers. Economists expect Friday’s GDP data to show the economy grew in the first quarter, bouncing back from a contraction in the previous quarter. Domestic demand — consumers, governments, and businesses spending more — has been the main driver of growth. Consumer spending and business investment have been strong this year even as the population has stopped growing, which is showing up as sustained growth in per capita GDP.

🏷️ Inflation watch. We’ll get a slew of inflation data from around the world this week, including from the U.S., EU, Japan, and Australia. The global inflation picture has been upended by the war in Iran and surging energy prices. In the U.S., April’s inflation print came in at 3.8%, the highest level in nearly three years. That’s hurt the bond market, with investors betting that the odds are rising that central banks will have to hike rates to keep prices in check.

CanCon rules probably aren’t the thing that really gets your blood flowing (or maybe they are, we aren’t judging), but they’re taking centre stage in the Canada-U.S. trade fight.

What happened: The Motion Picture Association (MPA), the industry group representing large streaming platforms like Netflix and Disney, took a hard line against newly announced CRTC rules that would force them to spend 15% of their Canadian revenues on Canadian content.

Catch up: Last week, the CRTC announced that, as part of the Online Streaming Act, large streaming companies would have to spend 15% of their Canadian revenue on Canadian programming. 

Why it matters: The Online Streaming Act was already a sore point with the U.S. heading into CUSMA negotiations, and this decision just moved the issue further up their list of grievances. 

What’s next: The streamers will almost certainly challenge the decision in court and have hinted they could raise prices for Canadian customers. The federal government, for its part, did not mount a vigorous defence of the ruling, with Culture Minister Marc Miller saying only that it was “reviewing the CRTC decision.”—TS

🚀 US$28.5 trillion. Size of SpaceX’s total addressable market — the maximum revenue a business can generate if it captures 100% of available customers — according to the company’s IPO prospectus. That total is only slightly less than U.S.’s entire GDP. In other words, SpaceX believes its total market is roughly the value of everything that the world’s biggest economy produces.

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