A real sucker

Good morning Staker! Here’s what’s cookin’ today. Starbucks is leaning into ChatGPT to get folks back to their stores; New pancreatic cancer drug doubles life expectancy; and why, exactly, do we call it a flea market?

Let’s get into it!

Starbucks’ in-store traffic has been declining for the better part of two years, revealing it’s not just alcohol Gen Z consumers are staying away from, but also big coffee chains.

In an effort to get more young people into the store, Starbucks launched a beta version of an app in ChatGPT that will allow users to discover new menu items and place orders.

Users will have to activate the Starbucks portion of the app in the Settings menu for ChatGPT in order to use it, and they’ll still have to complete their transaction in the actual Starbucks app.

“Over the past year, one thing has become clear: customers aren’t always starting with a menu,” Paul Riedel, Starbucks senior vice president of digital and loyalty, said in a statement. “They’re starting with a feeling...We wanted to meet customers right in that moment of inspiration and make it easier than ever to find a drink that fits.” 

It’s the latest move by the Seattle coffee giant to breathe new life into its stores. The “third place” strategy underpinned Starbucks’ meteoric rise in the 1990s, and it worked for decades thereafter.

In recent years, it’s become more of a grab-and-go destination, which the chain has been trying to reverse by connecting its apps with in-store experiences for both consumers and baristas.

Revolution Medicines revealed its drug for pancreatic cancer had tremendous success during Phase 3 clinical trials, extending life expectancy from 6.7 months to 13.5 months, even for patients whose disease had already progressed during other treatments.

Called daraxonrasib, the drug targets RAS mutations in a tumor, which are found in 90% of pancreatic cancers. The daily pill was found to reduce the risk of death by 60% compared to those who obtained chemotherapy.

“These are dramatic, practice-changing outcomes, and our focus now is moving quickly to bring this potential new treatment option to patients who urgently need new treatment,” RevMed CEO Mark Goldsmith said in an interview.

Pancreatic cancer is notoriously lethal, and according to Goldsmith, the RevMed drug is the first of any kind of pancreatic cancer treatment to extend life expectancy by at least a year.

“Honestly, it’s reason for optimism for the whole field, that targeting RAS in this patient population…is going to have real benefit for patients and be something that we can continue to expand and use in combination,” said Dr. Andrew Aguirre, associate director of the Hale Family Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research.

The company plans to seek the Commissioner’s National Priority Voucher from the Food and Drug Administration, which would grant the drug an expedited review process.

It’s quite something that consumers can so gleefully flock to streetside marketplaces named after bloodsucking pests, but flea markets are as popular today as they’ve ever been.

Did they actually get their name from the insects we try our best to keep off our pets and clothes? Honestly, most evidence points to yes.

One theory posits the flea market got its name from a famous bargain hunter in Paris in the 1880s, who saw all the second-hand items hung on racks and squeezed together at Saint-Ouen market—the largest of its kind at the time. He deemed the vicinity a likely breeding ground for fleas, and dubbed it “le marché aux puces.”

Another piece of evidence supporting this theory involves an 1887 clipping from the New York Herald, which used the term “flea market” to describe an outdoor shop for second-hand clothing at a market in Copenhagen.

Some say the concept was originally referred to as a “flee” market, referring to the shop-owners whose operations were forced onto the side streets of Paris in the mid-19th century when the boulevards were widened, and they were literally required to flee the area.

According to Merriam-Webster, the former is much more likely than the latter, but we can see why one would be inclined to wish for an origin story that doesn’t involve microscopic pests.

Whether you’re a Staker who’s been in and out of work as retirement approaches, or the child of a Staker looking for work in a labour market that appears to be increasingly shrinking, one thing is clear: there’s no linear path to success.

Not many people know that better than Zillow CEO Jeremy Wacksman.

“It’s not really a straight line or ladder,” Wacksman told CNBC Make It. “It’s often taking on new assignments that stretch you in new and different ways that lead to the most growth.”

His career path at Zillow alone—let alone before arriving there—began in the role of VP marketing, but quickly shifted to standing up the company’s mobile presence after Apple launched the iPhone.

“Zillow had no mobile anything,” says Wacksman. “We were a desktop-only search engine.” He had no experience in the field but had to “go figure it out. That was not the job I was hired to do, but it was a huge opportunity to learn and to take a little bit of what I’d done in my career, apply it in a new space and figure it out with smart people.”

He advocated treating one’s path as a “career jungle gym” rather than a single corporate ladder in one company or field. Most career coaches these days agree.

“Just because a career path is deemed ‘safe’ today doesn’t mean it will stay that way forever,” said Gorick Ng, a career advisor at Harvard University. “Given how quickly the world is changing, the career you’ll love might not even exist yet; the more you keep your head down, the more opportunities you might miss.”

Guess the lyric 🎵

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