Instead of buying $50,000 watches you can rent them wrote Cam Wolf:

• Services like Eleven James allow people to rent out premium luxury watches for a membership fee ranging from $170  to $900 with a minimum six month commitment.
• Watches are good for this kind of business since they don’t depreciate, are durable, and have high margins.
• That said luxury watches are typically bought for their sentimental value – buyers think about passing them onto their grandchildren.
• Perhaps this is why the services let you pay to keep the watch if you like it – an option that’s used often as clients form emotional connections with their accessories after, for example, a successful first date.
• The rental companies position themselves as embodying a particular lifestyle. Subscribers to the service can make reservations at pricey bars, meet watchmakers, and network in private jet hangers.
• One subscriber was upgraded to first class on a plane after a flight attendant noticed the timepiece.

Read many more fascinating details at GQ.

Peter Coy covered research into the relationship between business and the Oval Office during the Obama years:

• Companies that had executives meet with the President and other senior figures went onto perform 0.9% better than the wider stock market.
• The boost comes in the 10 days leading up to the meeting, and lasts for more than a month.
• The analysis excludes meetings with more than 50 people as there would be little face time with the President.
• The companies that benefitted from meeting with the Obama administration underperformed when news of Trump winning the election broke.
• It’s unclear if the relationship continues to hold under President Trump: his administration does ;not make the visitor log public.

Read more on Bloomberg.

Ben Cosgrove examined an invention that, 70 years later, remains controversial:

• Up until the second world war you were either a child or an adult.
• Then in 1944 Life published an article titled “Teen-Age Girls: They Live in a Wonderful World of Their Own”.
• It spoke about a special time in an individual’s life preoccupied by fashion, parties, and boys – before they were sent off to war.
• The article noted that teens were a lucrative and unique market for businesses to target.
• It was a success. “Teen-agers” soon turned into teenagers and became firmly rooted in the general conscience as a distinct group of people.

Read more on Time.

Via: Cracked

People used to get in line for Apple’s products. Now Apple is getting in line for trees, wrote Melia Robinson:

• Apple’s new headquarters is set to open this year, and was meant to have 9,000 trees on site. They’re 3,000 short.
• They’re getting competition from a San Francisco bus terminal that’s also planning to prominently feature trees.
• Landscapers for the two are competing against one another, and have gone as far as Portland to reserve trees at nurseries before the other can get to them.
• Beth Hyatt thinks that the end of California’s recent drought is contributing to the problem as there is a sudden uptick in demand for trees by landscapers.
• Happily, Jesse Russell writes that Apple has done a better job of planning the apple trees that will, fittingly, feature prominently. They were planted and stored in nurseries back when construction began.

Read more on Business Insider.

In an article from 2012 Rajkumar Venkatesan and Paul Farris looked into the economics of coupons:

• In 2010, 3.3 billion coupons were redeemed, saving people $3.7 billion.
• These massive numbers only represent 1% of all coupons printed. 99% are never used.
• But that 99% is valuable. People who received coupons but didn’t use them still increased their purchases of the brand.
• Those who use coupons are only responsible for 40% of an increase in sales after a coupon campaign. 60% of the increase in sales come from the 99% who don’t use a coupon.
• Even if they’re not used, coupons help boost awareness of a brand, and serve as little marketing leaflets.
• Redemption rates still matter. A coupon which is used by few people might be a sign of a badly designed coupon.
• This is good news for companies like Groupon who have been criticized for not generating sustained business growth for companies.

Read more on the Harvard Business Review.

Rebecca Greenfield wrote about J&J’s latest product offering:

• About half of all senior business executives leave their new role within 18 months of getting promoted.
• For someone like a CEO, turnover can cost $1.8 billion in shareholder value.
• In that context J&J’s $100,000 a year program to help prevent burnout seems like a bargain.
• It involves an initial in-depth medical assessment followed by frequent check ins with three coaches. J&J likens it to the pool of medical experts that surround astronauts after splashdown.
• In the beginning J&J will take enrolled participants to the Mayo clinic for two and a half days for a examination that focuses on factors like metabolism and stamina.
• After that the three coaches – a dietician, a psychologist, and an executive coach – will conduct frequent in-person check ins. Sometimes at home to make sure enrolees have access to healthy food.
• They may also interview family and friends to identify potential future fracture points in the executive’s personal life.
• All in all executive coaching is a $1 billion industry in the United States.

Read more on Bloomberg.

Alison Millington wrote about the offer:

• Wellington, New Zealand, is a regional technology hub.
• Far from population centers, it has to be creative when it comes to attracting talent.
• To that end, the city is willing to pay for the flight and expenses of 100 job candidates who are willing to interview for 100 jobs.
• Those who want to be considered can register their interest here. The trip is from May 8 to 11.

Read more on Business Insider

Via: Marginal Revolution

Not J.K. Rowling. Or John Grisham. Or E.L. James. No, the most widely read author is arguably the person who writes all the fortunes for fortune cookies:

• Donald Lau wrote the fortunes for Wonton Food – which claims that it is the largest manufacturer of fortune cookies – for over 30 years.
• He used to write 100 a year but started suffering from writer’s block. This is a problem because fans of the cookie frequently complain about finding repeat fortunes.
• The fortunes that Lau wrote went through a committee vetting process to make sure they would appeal to the widest possible audience.
• The consequences of a fortune that isn’t fully thought through can be dire. One man set for a business trip got a fortune saying he’d find romance on his next trip. His wife divorced him and blamed the fortune cookie.

Read more on CBC. Read our previous coverage on fortune cookies here.

There has been heightened scrutiny at the costs generated by Presidents working outside of the White house. Jane Smith and Frances Robles provided a rundown of Trump’s trips to Florida:

• Around 250 private flights are grounded for each day that the President is in Florida due to airspace restrictions.
• Because of this, one local airport reported $200,000 in lost fuel sales over the course of a single trip.
• One restaurant had 75 no shows – presumably as people were ensnared by traffic blockades.
• Those blockades cost money. Local law enforcement had to be paid $60,000 a day in overtime.
• On the bright side there’s increased interest in the area, and the additional foot traffic is offsetting some of the costs.

Read more on the New York Times.

Cigarette companies were in retreat as society turned against smoking. But they’re back, writes The Economist, and look set to grow:

• While a lower proportion of people smoke, overall population growth means that the number of smokers in the world – 1.1 billion – hasn’t really changed.
• But prices are rising, driving a boom in revenues.
• Only big companies can deal with all the regulatory hurdles imposed on cigarette makers – meaning that industry giants don’t have to worry about upstart companies coming in and stealing market share with low prices.
• Regulations also place limits on the advertising of cigarettes – making it even more difficult for low-cost cigarette makers to gain recognition, and slashing the amount of money existing titans have to spend on marketing.
• And the companies are merging with one another – giving them even greater pricing power.
• The rise of e-cigarettes is another opportunity. They’re more expensive which will increase revenues.
• They’re arguably more healthy than regular cigarettes, which could drive an uptick in demand.

The article closes by noting that tobacco remains responsible for one in nine of all adult deaths. Read it on The Economist.