ET on retailing in India: “Retailers across categories are opening bigger bricks-and-mortar stores along with expanding their existing stores as consumers are increasingly looking for a better experience in physical retail. According to data from real estate services firm Anarock, the share of stores smaller than 2,000 square feet declined to 52% in the first half of 2023-24, as against 61% a year ago. The share of stores sized 2,000-5,000 sq ft increased during this period, to 21% from 19%, as did that of those sized 5,000-10,000 sq ft (11% from 9%) and 10,000-15,000 sq ft (13% from 9%). Anarock said last year that retailers across categories are adopting a two-pronged approach by expanding and entering newer markets and also increasing their store sizes to capitalize on the growing share of the organised retail market. “Store is now more about experience than merchandising. Brands have realised that, and by expanding the store they are expanding the offering,” Pankaj Renjhen, COO and joint MD, Anarock Retail, had said.”
WSJ: “Of course, our planet is resource-rich. The theoretical magnitude of Earth’s mineral abundance could supply any imaginable demand for centuries to come. That isn’t the challenge. Instead, it’s timing. The last time global mining production expanded at this scale it took place across eight decades—from 1940 to the present—not the one or two decades the transitionists imagine. The other challenge involves people. Mining has always been as much about people as it has about geology, technology and money. In “The War Below: Lithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives,” Ernest Scheyder highlights the myriad difficulties faced by the people who build mines, as well as those hurt by or opposed to them. As Mr. Scheyder notes, mining is “dirty work.” That’s no invective; it’s just reality.
NYTimes on how to salvage the day after a bad night’s sleep: “To mitigate these effects, the number one thing experts recommended is taking a nap. Not only can it help you feel less sleepy, but it can actually improve your performance on many of the cognitive processes that are impaired by lack of sleep.To avoid the “sleep inertia” some people feel after napping, try to limit yourself to 30 minutes…Caffeine can also enhance alertness and cognition…Regular exercise has been shown to counteract the health consequences of sleep loss in the long-term, and there is some evidence that it improves performance immediately after a bad night of sleep, too…Exposing yourself to bright, natural light is another way to increase alertness, said Soomi Lee, an associate professor of human development and family studies at Penn State University. To get the benefits of both light and exercise, she suggested taking a midday walk.”
Donald Boudreaux: “As the economist David Friedman points out, trade is a technique of production. We can produce, say, more steel here at home directly, or we can produce additional steel by growing more corn, put that corn into machines called “cargo ships,” and allow the cargo ships to transform that corn into steel that’s unloaded on our docks. Protectionists’ proposals to obstruct trade are proposals to obstruct the use of what are often the lowest-cost techniques of production. How such obstruction enriches the nation is anyone’s guess.”
FT: “With Temu, PDD wants nothing less than to change the way the world shops, a faster, leaner and cheaper version of Amazon that has spread from China to 49 countries after less than two years in operation. The plan, as best can be inferred, is to use blanket advertising to lure western consumers to Temu’s app, where algorithms and AI anticipates their whims and desires. Products are shipped for free direct from China’s factory gates, cutting out the middleman and ensuring low prices. Temu’s sister app Pinduoduo already dominates China. When it still published such numbers, PDD reported more than 870mn active users in the country supplied by over 13mn merchants who, it claimed, together generated a third of all parcel traffic in the country, tens of billions of packages a year.”
