Hi! What do Disney+, Spotify, and your local car wash have in common? Americans are now lining up to buy monthly subscriptions to keep their vehicles clean, with Mister Car Wash, one of the country’s biggest operators, reporting over 2.2 million members in Q2. Today we’re exploring:

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Here we go again

US investors were reminded on Monday that stocks can go down as well as up, after President Trump threatened an additional 100% tariff on Chinese goods amidst a series of microaggressions from Beijing last week. Between a customs crackdown on Nvidia chips, an investigation into Qualcomm, and new port fees on American ships, the piece of policy that most irked Trump appeared to be the expanded restrictions on rare earth exports — an industry China dominates — announced Thursday.

Trump’s move saw the re-emergence of tariffs-as-a-threat to the economy, which roiled traders who have largely been treating trade hiccups as a solved problem, sending the S&P 500 Index down 2.7%. That was the worst day for the index since April, when the impact of the Liberation Day tariff announcements first punctured the global economic order.

Some of the damage was undone on Sunday night when Trump softened his stance on Truth Social — sending stock market futures up, regaining a little over half of the ground they had lost last week. Analysts at Goldman Sachs noted that the events of the last few days were most likely just posturing to get leverage ahead of a planned meeting and trade negotiation at the APEC summit at the end of the month.

Notably, however, many of the rare earth stocks which have made gains on the back of government support, such as MP Materials, Critical Metals, USA Rare Earth, and Lithium Americas, were all trading strongly on Monday after JPMorgan announced a new $10 billion investment plan to back industries of national importance. It seems that many expect rare minerals to continue being a US-China sticking point, even if wider tariff threats never materialize.

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Lay’s bets on “real potatoes” as Americans turn away from fresh ones

Lay’s wants to remind America that its chips come from actual potatoes. 

At the end of last week, the brand’s owner, PepsiCo, announced what it called “the largest brand redesign in Lay’s nearly 100-year history,” swapping the familiar glossy bag for a matte look stamped with “MADE WITH REAL POTATOES.” The company also said it will remove artificial flavors and colors from its core US lineup by year-end, and will begin using olive or avocado oils in some versions.

The brand’s makeover comes as the embattled giant struggles to revive its snack business. In the third quarter, PepsiCo’s North American convenient foods unit — home to Lay’s, Doritos, and Cheetos, as well as nearly a third of total revenue — saw sales volume drop 4% from a year earlier, as higher prices and GLP-1 drugs weighed on customer appetites.

In a bid to win back snackers, PepsiCo’s latest move is to reintroduce its top-selling junk food as a “real, farm-grown” product. Indeed, the company’s internal research showed that 42% of consumers didn’t know Lay’s chips are made with real potatoes.

Fresh from frozen

Betting on America’s love of potatoes is probably a decent idea — though the country has steadily turned away from “fresh” spuds over the decades.

According to data from the USDA, the per-capita availability of fresh potatoes has more than halved since 1970, while frozen forms — mostly french fries — have more than doubled. Add in chips, dehydrated, and canned products, and processed potatoes now account for over three-quarters of the nation’s potato supply.

Interestingly, that shift seems unique to potatoes. Across the rest of the produce aisle, Americans have been going fresher: over 60% of total vegetables, excluding potatoes, are now consumed fresh, compared with just 25% for potatoes, per the USDA.

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All Smithsonian institutions close as the government shutdown nears its third week

“Due to the government shutdown, Smithsonian museums, research centers, and the National Zoo are temporarily closed. Please check back for reopening updates.”

The Institution, which gets about 62% of its funding from Congress and federal grants and contracts, had managed to keep attractions like the National Zoo, the National Museum of Natural History, and the National Air and Space Museum open since the shutdown began, using money left over from previous years.

Besides the shutdown, the world’s biggest museum, education, and research complex had already been having a bit of a rough year, having found itself in the sights of the government that funds it, with President Donald Trump criticizing curation at Smithsonian museums, its leadership, and general operations in recent months.

Depending on how long the funding gap stretches on, attendance figures for 2025 are likely to end up taking a considerable hit. However, footfall at some of the biggest Smithsonian properties has already been gently trending down for years — a pattern accelerated by the pandemic, with visitor numbers for some of America’s most iconic museums considerably lower in the last three years than they were in the mid-2000s.

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Off the charts: Which once-dominant company is banking on the blind-box craze with a retro toy camera that sold out in days? [Answer below]. 

Answer here.

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