1) The 4th season of Netflix’s “Stranger Things” has a per-episode cost of $30m. Hopefully they can make up for that with a lower-budget, high-performing show like “Is it Cake?,” where people guess if something is cake or not.
2) Six decades ago, fewer than 5% of Americans were cremated. Around 20 years ago, the number was 27%. In 2020, it hit 56%. By 2040, it’s projected to be ~80%. For cemeteries, that means business models and physical properties could look very different.
3) Japanese company Kirin said it developed a pair of high-tech chopsticks that employ electrical stimulation to make food taste 50% saltier. This reminds us of DouxMatok, an Israeli company that raised $30m to develop a sweeter sugar and saltier salt.
4) A new analysis of 22 major US firms found that, over the pandemic, their shareholder wealth grew by $1.5T — 57x the amount of additional worker compensation distributed among their 7m+ employees, which grew less than 2%.
5) By 2025, legal marijuana sales are pegged to hit $45.9B. Edibles are a big part of that growth, though some worry their packaging could confuse children, and candy companies are annoyed about copycats.