social contact as possible. Amazon’s grocery- delivery service, Amazon Fresh, seemed like the solution to our problem. Apparently, everyone else thought so too. Right away, we discovered they only allowed ordering food within a three-day window. If there was nothing available, then no-go. We’ve run into that problem multiple times. Demand is off the charts. My wife also began to get notifications about new movies being released directly to Amazon Prime Video. Movie theaters were forced to shut their doors because of the virus outbreak. Studios had spent years producing new films, and they need to recoup their investments. So, they’ve gone to the next best route – on demand. We’ve already used Amazon Prime Video multiple times. It’s great and easy. And buying a movie through Prime is much cheaper than taking your family to the movie theater. The purchase costs us about $21 versus a trip to a matinee movie for a family of four, which runs around $51. And that’s before we even purchase the popcorn, candy, and drinks. Based on the math, Amazon may have found an incremental revenue stream.
So investors should be looking for something that makes businesses more efficient that can profit in a low-interest-rate, low-growth environment. There’s one obvious answer – technology. Technology companies are already dominating this environment. It’s hard to do anything that doesn’t have the word “virtual” stuck in front of it... Video chats, conference calls, school, happy hour, talk shows, and trivia night – they’re all being done online. Society has no choice. It’s an avenue for humans to maintain the social interaction they crave without coming into direct contact with one another. But what are the companies that should benefit?
THE NO. 1 ONLINE CRISIS DOMINATOR
There is one name that stands out above everything else – Amazon (AMZN). Given that I’ve now spent three weeks confined to my home, it’s amazing how much the company touches my family’s day-to-day activities.
It has also become part of our school routine. I have a 7-year-old son and a 5-year-old daughter. They’re both involved in virtual school. Despite the fact that they’re learning from home, they still need school supplies like journals, pencils, arts and crafts, and so on. The teachers have recommended
Prior to the pandemic’s rise in this country, we had never used their food-delivery service. That was before the rush to stockpile canned goods, vegetables, and toilet paper... not to mention the hours-long lines at some of the local stores. In addition, we wanted to avoid as much
Scott recently gave a video interview about tech companies to watch in a down market – click here to watch it on YouTube.
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April 2020
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