Brief - The Hustle

Digits: A crazy heist, Instacart’s growth, and more wild numbers

Written by Jacob Cohen | Oct 24, 2022 7:30:42 AM

1) An inmate inside a maximum security prison in Georgia reportedly stole $11m by convincing Charles Schwab customer service reps that he was California billionaire Sidney Kimmel.

2) Instacart is reportedly shelving plans for an IPO this year amid turbulent market conditions. The company slashed its internal valuation from $40B in March to $13B, though it also saw Q3 revenue grow 40%+ this year.

3) Vinyl had a comeback. Are cassette tapes next? The audio format may be ripe for a nostalgia-driven boom, and Missouri-based National Audio Company supposedly still produces ~30m cassettes annually.

4) This year, ~1.8k US companies are hoping to bring some or all of their operations back stateside and, through August, 106 earnings calls mentioned reshoring, up from six in 2019.

5) Once led by hundreds of communities of US nuns, the communion wafer business is now commanded by a for-profit firm. The company produced ~50m wafers per year in the 1950s and eventually grew production to ~1B wafers in the 1990s.