Mark Court might have the most niche job in the world.
Of the 2,000+ people that work at Rolls Royce, he is the only person allowed to paint pinstripes on the cars.
He uses a squirrel-fir brush and it takes 3 hours for one vehicle.
It’s a high pressure job because Court — who makes six-figures — is the final step of the manufacturing process.
A mistake requires a new paint job and delays delivery of the car (which start at $300k but easily tops $1m with upgrades).
Formerly a sign painter, Court rarely takes time off because he says he doesn’t want to “lose focus”.
He also doesn’t want to know the car’s owner.
“If you start worrying about who owns them or where it’s going, it’ll play with your mind,“ he once told AutoJosh. “Then you’ll never do it. You just got to be able to learn to shut off and do what you need to do.”
Does Court actually have the most niche job in the world? Maybe.
Is he an artist? Obviously, yes
The video is from Business Insider:
And here is the AutoJosh profile of Mark Court, who has been at the Rolls Royce plant in Goodwood, England since 2003 (also, I need to know who got this 1,000,000 like pinstripe…Zuck?): autojosh.com/only-one-man-m…
I’m obsessed with niche specialists.
Like “The Tuna King”:
— Japan’s top fishmonger
— sleeps only 3 hours a night
— Can tell where fish is from based on one bite
I wrote about him (and need reccos for other niche specialists to write about).
never forget that episode of “Nathan For You” when he launched a fire detector product and tried to avoid import tariffs by turning it into a music device
One company that has been very good at navigating international food tariffs/regulations is Trader Joe’s. Built its dairy and wine businesses by finding workarounds.
If you are the person that did the un-aligned letters for the previous eBay logo, please contact the research app team. We are huge fans of how un-aligned the “e” is with the “y”.Bearly.AI
This article offers up reasons for popularity of simple font logos (mostly Sans Serif):
— Easier to standardize ads across mediums
— Improves readability (especially on mobile)
— The “brand” matters more than the logo velvetshark.com/why-do-brands-…
Berkshire Hathaway board member Chris Davis once asked Charlie Munger why Costco didn’t drop the membership card.
Let anyone shop and raise prices by 2% (still great value), thus making up for lost membership fees (and more).
Munger said the card is important filter:
▫️“Think about who you’re keeping out [with a membership card]. Think about the cohort that won’t give you their license and their ID and get their picture taken.
Or they aren’t organized enough to do it, or they can’t do the math to realize [the value]…that cohort will have a 100% of your shoplifters and a 100% of your thieves. Now, it’ll also have most of your small tickets.
And that cohort relative to the US population will probably be shrinking as a % of GDP relative to the people that can do the math [on Costco’s value].”▫️
I have a membership but have been guffing on the math for a few years tbh. They keep telling me to upgrade from Gold to Business but I’m too lazy (even if the 2-3% Cash Back on Business pays back after a few trips).
This is a long way of saying Costco’s membership price hike effective today — its first in 7 years — is annoying but when I decide to do the math in a few months, it’ll be worth it.
Anyway, here is something I wrote about Costco’s $9B+ clothing business my affinity for Kirkland-branded socks and Puma gym shirts. readtrung.com/p/costcos-9b-c…
Two notes:
▫️Meant “Executive” (not “Business”) membership
▫️Chris Davis was doing a pure thought experiment. Costco membership obvi high margin (on~$5B a year) and accounts for majority of Costco profits. Retail margin is tiny on ~$230B of annual sales (Costco would need like another $150B+ from letting anyone shop to make up membership profits)