With Lawsuit Fading, DoorDash Unveils NYC Pay Changes
Lion Electric cuts heads, 7-Eleven's logos and Australian ambitions, Cyber Week final stats
We’re kicking off the week with a bang — as DoorDash is rolling out new pay in NYC, given that the city’s new compensation law looks all but certain to take effect. Lion Electric is cutting staff, as it struggles for traction with its EV trucks and batteries. And while 7-Eleven is in the news for buying its Australian licensor, we’ve got something more interesting… the selection of beautiful logos it *didn’t* use.
Today:
DoorDash Reveals New NYC Dasher Pay Structure
Lion Electric Scratches 10% of Staffers
Chart Time | Cyber Week Revisited
7-Eleven’s Logo & International Growth Histories
POLICY | DoorDash Updates NYC Pay In Light of New Law
With NYC’s new pay law for delivery workers on the cusp of taking effect, DoorDash has unveiled its new local compensation structure. Dashers will earn at least $29.93 per hour of active time, excluding tips. Pay will be reviewed weekly, with any workers that fall below for the period adjusted upward. With base pay going up, tips will likely go down — as DD will be moving the tip screen to the post-checkout flow. The company is also pausing Dasher Priority Access — the program that rewarded more highly rated Dashers with higher paying order assignments.
The Big Picture: These changes are in response to Friday’s news that the state’s Supreme Court Appellate Division ruled the new pay law could proceed, increasing industry-specific minimum wage to $17.96/hr, bumping up by a dollar per hour on April first of 2024 and 2025. While moving the tips from pre-checkout to post may sound heartless, its actually part of the recommendations by the NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. Grubhub, Uber Eats and Relay, which together with DD cover about 99% of the local market and had also been involved in lawsuits to stop the new law, have not yet released new pricing. As seen by the city’s own data, consumers will pay more to cover the improved wages.
VEHICLES | EV Truck Maker Lion Electric Cuts 10% of Staff
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times… at least for the spastic EV trucking industry. Electric truck, bus and battery startup Lion Electric cut 150 jobs, representing about 10% of its workforce, with layoffs affecting production overhead, manufacturing, product dev and admin roles. The company has an HQ in Montreal, a recently opened plant in Joliet / Channahon, IL and an office in Sacramento; both its U.S. and Canadian teams look to be impacted.
The Big Picture: Lion Electric just raised $142M in July, in a mix of debt and equity, as it plowed ahead with the opening of its Illinois manufacturing plant. The company makes Class 5-8 EV trucks, as well as electric school busses, and has also started manufacturing battery packs (gotta grab those sweet IRA dollars!) The publicly traded company (via a SPAC, of course) counts customers like Société des alcools du Québec (the province’s booze seller,) Cox Automotive and LAUSD. It’s been a topsy turvy few months for heavy duty EVs and their battery suppliers, with Proterra going bankrupt, and players like LG Energy and Xos Trucks doing large layoffs.
CHART TIME | Cyber Week Sales Stats
With Cyber Week officially come and gone, we’ve got the official numbers, with spending hitting $12.4 billion on last Monday alone, up 9.6% YoY. Smartphone usage rose, as did peak discounts on things like electronics and appliances (but not toys.) Interestingly, the percent of customers opting for curbside pickup fell.
BRANDING | Do These Say “7-Eleven” To You? How About in Australian?
Long before its iconic stores were open 24-hours per day, and before it reinvented quick commerce with its 7-NOW delivery option, 7-Eleven was just a small grocer in Dallas open from 7 AM to 11 PM (get it?) As the company started expanding to California and Michigan in the ‘60s, it needed to get its branding in order, so it turned to Gianninoto Associates, the firm responsible for other iconic logos like Marlboro, Dole and Howard Johnson. Looking at the options presented in 1968 — do you think the company would have taken over the world with the other designs?
The Big Picture: The company may have had worldwide ambitions, but the world also has its own plans for the brand. The company took on too much debt in the ‘80s, leading to it being taken over by its Japanese affiliates in 1991. (Anyone that’s been to East Asia can tell you it’s hard to go more than a block without seeing a 7-Eleven, with no parking lots in sight.) It looks like that worldwide conglomerate is getting even bigger, as that same Japanese parent company just agreed to buy out all 751 7-Eleven Australia stores, in a deal valued at $1.1B US.
A Few Good Links
European LMD Stuart bought from Geopost by PE firm Mutares. Travis Kalanick’s secret robot startup revealed. SF scores $600K federal grant for moving deliveries to ebike (SF Env. Dept. Director Tyrone Jue discussed the initiative in our July webinar.) New IRA guidance limits Chinese EV components. Wish launches parcel delivery. Alipay selling Zomato stake for ~$400M. Meituan doesn’t want to buy Foodpanda. Neiman Marcus doesn’t want to be bought by Saks. Ebike for couriers renter Whizz shares growth metrics. NZ autonomous shuttle maker Ohmio heads to Riverside (not the usual part of CA you’d expect…) Will congestion pricing change NYC’s car culture? Amsterdam lowers speed limits. Yellow terminal auction nears end. Cracker Barrel traffic falls. DD named to Fortune Future 50. Should brands favor high spenders? Starry (the Sierra Mist replacement) and NBA 2k24 launch Pizza Hut promo. TX-based deliverer Favor giving away $50k for the holidays. After paving for pizza, Domino’s giving away $500k in snow plows. Nimbus announces NYC commercial kitchen expansion (former Kitchen United locales.)
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