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Guess what? The first day of Q4 is only 33 days away.

Quote of the Week

There's no shortage of uncomfortable situations being an entrepreneur, and specifically a seller dealing with constant changes from Amazon.

I saved this quote from one of my new favorite authors, Oliver Burkeman, to remind me that discomfort is part of the journey. Dealing with it and soldiering on strengthens our resilience and adaptability.

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Let's see what we might have missed on the back pages of Amazon news:

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What's the Matter?

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📰 Prime Day Vs Walmart+ Week

Prime Day proved to be a big sales event again this year. Walmart+ Week participation was less of a success, but took the win in average shopper spend.

In 1992, The USA Men's Olympic Basketball Team, also known as the Dream Team, played its first game against Angola. The US beat them 116-48.

Imagine an article summarizing the contest and trying to say something nice about an overmatched Angola team. In the article below, Walmart is Angola:

Does it matter? Bypassing the spin, the interesting part is the data we can pull from the article.

Amazon Prime subscribers have eclipsed the 2 out of every 3 consumers mark. 67.3% of consumers subscribe to Amazon Prime to be exact.

The biggest positive for Walmart is growth. 30.2% of consumers subscribe to Walmart+. That's up significantly from last year's mark of 23.4%.

We covered this article in this week's live show. You can watch the replay here.

We do a live show every Wednesday at 5 pm est covering news and answering your questions. You can catch it on Chris' YouTube channel or either of our Twitter accounts.

You should come hang out and talk shop with us.

📰 Quarterly Whoppers

In what I assume is a direct response to Amazon securing broadcast rights to live NBA games on Prime Video, Walmart announced it will be giving you a free hamburger every few months with Walmart+ membership.

Walmart is teaming up with Burger King to offer Walmart+ members a 25% discount on Burger King orders and a free Whopper every quarter.

Does it matter? Uh, I doubt it.

Don't get me wrong, it's a good sandwich. I'm a fan.

I'm a Walmart+ subscriber already. A free Whopper and 25% off an order of Have-sies (it's real - you can order half french fries and half onion rings now) for a cheap cheat meal is awfully tempting.

As a supplemental item on the added benefits list, it's decent. But, I'm not sure how much this perk will move the needle.

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📰 eBay and Meta Collaboration

eBay and Meta, Facebook's parent company, are teaming up for a digital marketing partnership.

Meta executives will be speaking at next month's eBay Open about sellers utilizing Instagram.

Why it matters: eBay is working on getting seller listings to show up in more places outside of its own platform.

More eyes on listings is a positive and would increase sales.

It's a curious partnership, though. eBay and Meta should be considered competitors in certain areas.

Facebook Marketplace is used as an alternative outlet by sellers, among others like Mercari & Whatnot. Both Facebook & Instagram have made efforts to grow their live shopping features.

Is it a straight ad revenue play from Meta? Meta is no stranger to placing importance on shareholders over users.

Choosing Facebook Marketplace to sell an item and seeing an eBay ad next to your listing doesn't feel like a positive.

Questions on the eBay side of it include the tangible benefit of these ads for sellers and how much of the cost we will be burdened with?

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📰 Maybe Temu Isn't Ready for (Amazon) Prime Time After All

PDD Holdings, the parent company of Temu, lost over $50 billion in market value after posting disappointing revenue results.

Why it matters: The company dubbed by some as the "Amazon killer" has seen its stock price drop 40% over the last 3 months.

Not only did they miss revenue forecasts, but their financial chief also sounded the alarm about future revenue growth as well, citing competition and "external challenges" (i.e. government scrutiny).

It will be interesting to see what Amazon does with their plans to launch their low-price competitor if Temu continues to fade.

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What's the Latest on the Clear The Shelf with Chris & Chris Podcast?

We have a new episode that was released yesterday on mental models.

We expose some good and bad principles that we have to navigate in order to make better decisions in our businesses.

These are my favorite types of episodes!

​ Listen to Clear the Shelf with Chris & Chris on your favorite podcast player: ​YouTube​ ​Apple​ ​Spotify​

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Alpha Weekend Lead List

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Sometimes I Think I'm Funny

Start setting your Q4 boundaries now. (I have a feeling my Mom is going to call me when she sees this...)

Have a great week! Talk to you soon.

Chris