Understanding Generational Inequality

Why Best Buy Needs To Die

The Article: The Good News Is That They Saved Best Buy by Matthew Yglesias in Slate.

The Text: Best Buy is having a moment. Many observers wrote off the retail electronics chain as Circuit City and Borders liquidated and Barnes & Noble shrank. But in August of last year, French executive Hubert Joly resigned his post with travel management company Carlson to try to turn Best Buy around. By many measures, he seems to be succeeding. The price of Best Buy stock has more than tripled from its $11 low point in December. Costs are down, profits are up, and people are excited about their vending machines. But cutting costs alone isn’t a strategy for a company to thrive. Has Joly actually made the store any good? Is it a place you could recommend that people go to shop? Are the buys the best?

I rode the bus to the store’s Columbia Heights location in Washington, D.C., on Thursday morning to investigate. Intrepid Slate intern Dan Gartland visited the Noho location in New York for more data. My conclusion—Best Buy still basically sucks. It doesn’t have the best prices, it doesn’t have the best selection, and it doesn’t succeed on the level of customer service.

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Drunk Conservative Voicemails

If he’s this awful drunk, can you imagine how miserable he is in person? Poor Rebecca…it sucks when Rand Paul has your cell phone number.

Mark Takano, Your New Favorite Politician

So the GOP is definitely funny, but the thing is that they’re the punchline. Meet Mark Takano, teacher-turned-politician from California. He’s all over Tumblr and, apparently, making fun of Ted Cruz. We’re right there with him.

Panera CEO Tries To Live On Food Stamp Budget–And Can’t

The Article: ‘A Lot of Carbs’: Panera Bread CEO Learns to Live on $4.50 a Day by Julie Jargon in The Wall Street Journal.

The Text: Panera Bread Co. CEO Ron Shaich is trying to subsist on $4.50 a day for a week. It’s not going so well.

Mr. Shaich agreed to try to get by on the average amount allocated to individuals in the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) as part of a hunger awareness campaign in which a number of corporate executives and politicians are taking part – September is Hunger Action Month — and to bring attention to a Congressional proposal to cut funding for the program.

Spending just $31.50 per week on food has turned out to be a lot harder than Mr. Shaich thought.

“I’ve been eating a lot of carbs and drinking a lot of water,” says Mr. Shaich, who started his SNAP diet last Thursday. “I drive by these restaurants I go to all the time and I can’t go in. I can’t even go into a Panera.”

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