The Daily Valet. - 6/17/21, Thursday

✔️ Would You Shop Here?

June 17, 2021

Thursday, June 17th Edition

Cory Ohlendorf, Editor in Chief of Valet.

When was the last time you bought a box of Girl Scout cookies?

Cory Ohlendorf, Editor ⋯ @coryohlendorf

Today’s edition is presented by

Today’s Big Story

Google’s First Retail Store

It’s a space to sell, fix and show off its products

After years of flirting with pop-up experiments, Google is ready to commit to a physical retail space, opening a flagship shop today in the ground floor of its offices in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood.

Of course, Google is responsible for a lot of virtual/digital products, but the shop will showcase the brand’s hardware products, including Pixel phones, Nest smarthome gadgets, Fitbits and other devices. There will also be a selection of third party accessories and Google-branded merch.

CNBC says it’s sort of like an Apple Store, but for people who want to buy and get support for Google products. They note that it’s a unique decision for the company because, unlike Apple, Google doesn’t make most of its money from hardware products. More than 80% of its annual revenue comes from digital ads (generating $147 billion last year).

The Google Store is designed more like a show room (or a brand activation experience) than a retail space intended to move lots of product, reports The Verge. There are stools and chairs scattered throughout the main space as well as rooms that Google calls “sandboxes” with product-specific experiences.

The aesthetic seems to be minimalist, yet warm and homey with lots of wood tones and plenty of light. Google emphasized how it worked with a local artist to design the cork and wood furniture. It’s also proud of the fact that it earned a LEED platinum rating for its environmental design—one of fewer than 215 retail spaces in the world to have achieved this, according to the company.

If you’re not in New York or not quite ready to browse amongst strangers, you can check out this video to get a sense for the space.

↦ FYI: The store, located at 76 Ninth Avenue, opens its doors at 10 am ET today, June 17th.

The Biden-Putin Summit

Key takeaways from an ‘all business’ meeting in Geneva

U.S. President Joe Biden and Russia’s Vladimir Putin exchanged pleasantries and discussed modest steps on arms control and diplomacy but emerged from their high-stakes summit Wednesday largely where they started—with deep differences on human rights, cyberattacks and election interference.

Biden acknowledged that it will take time to know whether there will be any significant progress and that he wasn't exactly confident that anything will change Putin's behavior.

“I did what I came to do,” Biden told reporters after the sessions. Both the White House and Kremlin had set low expectations going into the summit. They issued a joint statement after the conclusion that said their meeting showed the “practical work our two countries can do to advance our mutual interests and also benefit the world.”

Biden warned that the U.S. has significant cyber capabilities and that if Putin violates basic norms with cyberattacks, we'll retaliate. The president also said he would continue to call out Russia for human rights violations, saying doing so was core to America's values. Putin called the talks productive and said he and Biden agreed to return their ambassadors to their respective posts in Washington and Moscow.

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Hey, nice shoes. Want comfortable summer kicks that also help make the world a better place? Check these out.

A Solar Burst

Ohio will soon be home to one of the largest solar factories in the world

Here's some good news for the U.S., for the economy and for the planet: One of the largest American solar energy companies announced it would double its production in the U.S. by building a $680-million factory in Ohio.⠀

First Solar's plan to open the factory by 2023 is one of the largest bets on domestic solar manufacturing since China began dominating the industry a decade ago, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Combined with its two plants, the company said the new factory will have the capability to generate 6 gigawatts of power annually by 2025—enough to power well over a million homes—while providing more than 500 future-proof jobs.

What's more, First Solar stressed that—unlike many other major solar manufacturers—it's not dependent on China. That's because the company's thin-film PV panels do not rely on the popular crystalline-silicon technology that is made mostly in China.

↦ Meanwhile: The U.S. is likely to claim the hottest place on Earth as heat waves continue this week.

There’s a Surplus of Girl Scout Cookies

Over 15 million boxes have gone unsold

It seems like every day we learn about some new victim of this pandemic. Today? It's the Girl Scouts. After years of selling out of their cookies, they're now left with over 15 million boxes.

According to the Associated Press, the coronavirus—not thinner demand for Thin Mints—is the main culprit. As the pandemic wore into the spring selling season, many troops nixed their traditional cookie booths for safety reasons.

Well, that and declining membership. The 109-year-old organization recorded around 1.7 million scouts in 2019—down almost 30% from a decade ago.

But back to the cookies. You're ready to buy some, right? (No? Just me?) Unfortunately, it's not that easy. The Girl Scouts still don't sell online. Instead, they're looking to possibly donate the cookies. They say that they can't sell their glut of Samoas to grocery stores because it could “diminish the importance of the annual cookie sales.” And so, we wait.

↦ Dig Deeper: This is the reason why the same cookies have different names, depending on where you live.

In Other News

↦ This Senate Bill Would Make It Easier to Cancel a Subscription Online After a Free Trial

↦ Ford Begins Shipping New Bronco SUVs for Consumers

↦ 7 New Animals Discovered in 2021 So Far

Other Things We’re Talking About Today

This vintage-style T-shirt

Remaking the margarita

The allure of movie merch

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Stylish, Sustainable Shoes

SeaVees’ SeaChange collection helps turn the tide on climate change

For a while, we had to make a choice: Do you want sustainable, Earth-friendly clothes and shoes, or do you want them to be stylish and cool? Thankfully, now it's no longer such a trade-off. Case in point: SeaVees' SeaChange collection. The California brand's latest lineup of footwear is almost entirely recycled.

Legend sneakerin recycled cotton,$85

Every shoe in the line features recycled and eco-friendly components from recycled cotton uppers to post-consumer recycled plastic laces to recycled rubber outsoles. The upside is that they're still incredibly stylish—in fact, I especially like the speckled look of the outsoles. And they still have all the details that make SeaVees both cool and comfortable, from the cushy foam footbed to a structured hidden heel counter which ensures a secure fit (with or without socks).

Taking their commitment to the environment a step further, SeaVees has also partnered with SeaTrees to fight the effects of coastal climate change. For every pair of shoes sold from the SeaChange collection, they'll be able to regenerate one foot of kelp forest in the Pacific Ocean.