Come Mr. Tally Man, Tally Me Bullets and Fiber Optic Cable Guys

More recession-winners, plus three new wrinkles to key RW themes, and finally some very good reads. My recommendations come highly recommended.

Harry Belafonte died this week, so hoist your skirts a little higher, and enjoy a pre-weekend Random Walk:

• Even more recession proof mattresses (plus some definite recession losers)

• Help Wanted in the $ervice & Trade$ (munitions and cable edition)

• Trouble at the top (for big spenders, at least)

• CRE has only one card to play

Very good reads on:

• excellence and serendipity

• companies threatened by ChatGPT

• BloombergGPT

• ROBOTS!

• Children (Missing, but Wanted)

Recession-proof mattresses (cont.)

A few more to add to the running list (of definitely not investment advice, just random thoughts on who thrives and survives when times get tough):

• Fast-food and QSR: McDonalds MCD 0.00%↑ and Chipotle CMD 0.00%↑ both crushed it in Q1. Although, to be fair, both companies outperformed their peers on a foot-traffic basis (and the category as a whole took a hit), still trade-downs on necessities like “eating” tend to do well in a downturn.¹

• Car parts and repair: O’Reilly Auto ORLY 0.00%↑ and AutoZone AZO 0.00%↑ have benefited from the steady increase in the demand for car parts, the shortage of new cars, and a high-rate environment that makes consumers more likely to fix their existing cars, than buy a new one (and by extending the life of the car, presumably increase the need for repairs).