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  • Sent Items #183: Monday, March 31, 2025

Sent Items #183: Monday, March 31, 2025

Author

Matthew Hertz
March 31, 2025

Many eyes focused on what happens on Wednesday, what Trump has dubbed “Liberation Day”. The day he will put in place reciprocal tariffs that seek to equalize U.S. tariffs with the duties charged by trading partners, as well as tariffs on sectors like automobiles, pharmaceuticals and semiconductors.

Despite my social feeds being peppered with an equal dose of left and right leaning pundits, I’m struggling to find a practical argument for why these tariffs are a good thing. If you think things are unnerving today, just wait until these 25%+ tariffs actually get implemented in the price of goods. You haven’t seen nothing yet.

As costs of purchases rise, I suspect that returns fraud will skyrocket. It’ll be used as an indirect stimulus as sorts to help folks offset the purchase of new goods (e.g. purchase a new pair of sneakers, while claiming your 12 month worn sneakers as a return). If you don’t believe people will do this, check out the social feed of Two Boxes’ co-founder Evan Stalter:

#twoboxes #returns #ecommerce #logistics | Evan Stalter

🥾 Sh*t People Return: Episode 16 🥾 The Trail Ends Here. Some returns are gently used. Others… look like they just hiked the Appalachian Trail and wrestled…

www.linkedin.com/posts/evanstalter_twoboxes-returns-ecommerce-activity-7310726334194806787-ijiG?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAACM06sB88rbqMJwkyd6R3W7XiA84j2u1L0

In brighter news, in addition to “Liberation Day”, April 2nd is also my 2nd anniversary (seeing if Katie actually reads these 😜 ❤️)

A few quick hits:

  • The Yankees are off to an incredible start. Yes, they have the torpedo bats. Yes, other teams are using them too. Yes, they are 100% legal. Yes, whining about the Yankees being more effective with a new tool, is like being a company not embracing newest tech and whining why you are falling behind.

  • Check out this episode of Unboxing Ecommerce that released last week (link). This has been one of my favorite ecomm/ops podcasts over the last year, and while I’m sad it’s coming to an end, I was glad to be the final guest.

Rhoback with Matt Hertz - Unboxing Ecommerce: Operations Behind Online Brands

James and Jennifer are joined by their final guest, Matt Hertz, Founder and CEO of Third Person, a digital marketplace helping ecommerce brands discover and connect with the right fulfillment partners. With 15 years of experience leading ecommerce...

www.unboxing-e.com/2365151/episodes/16843246-rhoback-with-matt-hertz

  • A reminder: you now get paid to send brand leads to Third Person. Whether you’re an individual, a brand, a 3PL, a tech startup - you can become a referral partner by signing up here (link)

Two new unboxing videos last week, featuring my favorite brand at the moment, Rhoback, and Summersalt. Follow Third Person on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube to stay up to date.

Daring train thieves target BNSF Railway, stealing $2M worth of Nike and other goods (NPR)

Criminals are increasingly targeting cargo trains from BNSF in California and Arizona as they head east along I-40. Cargo thefts have spiked. There were 65,000+ thefts in 2024, 40% more than the previous year. Those thefts cost the industry $100+ million, according to the Association of American Railroads.

Authorities believe that thieves identify high-value shipments either from warehouse worker tips or by looking for visible locks on containers. Then they either cut air hoses to trigger emergency stops, or wait for routine stops in less populated areas, and offload merch into vehicles nearby or stash it in brush near the tracks for pickup.

Nike sneakers are thieves’ biggest target, but other recent loot includes gaming headsets and smart vacuums. In the last year, 9 out of 10 heists targeting BNSF trains in the Mojave Desert involved Nike. While high value goods, like pharmaceuticals, tobacco and electronics, were once popular targets for cargo thieves, the incentives have switched in recent years. The bad guys got smarter, and they started stealing things that stay off the federal government’s radar.

Turns out it’s pretty easy to rob a train. Conductors often don’t even know they are being robbed, as containers can be as far as three miles back. It’s also almost impossible to protect the more than 140,000 miles of tracks across the country used by rail companies.

Survey shows just how insanely strong Amazon’s brand is with Americans (Sherwood)

96% of American adults have heard of the brand (I don’t believe it’s not 100%?!), ranking it alongside McDonald’s, Pepsi, and Google. 80% would consider buying from Amazon when they’re in the market for something it sells, according to a new report.

62% of Americans said Amazon was their top choice of brands they’d consider purchasing in the “online” category. The list below shows the top choices among any category. You’ll notice that Amazon Prime also features high on these charts, reflecting the company’s broad popularity, even among subsets of its business.

Have a great week!

- Matt

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