I’m starting this week’s issue off with potentially an unpopular take but I think it needs to be said: outlet malls SUCK. I was recently in a couple and well…they sucked.

Firstly, is it me or does it feel like you’re in this weird timewarp when you walk around an outlet mall. The stores are all brands you recognize but they feel forgotten about, like they were left in 2009 and just fed today’s styles to stay alive.

Secondly, they don’t feel very welcoming. They’re usually off the side of a highway in the middle of nowhere. You ever walk around in one of these places and it’s dead? Which I suppose is a good thing as you can get in and get out as efficiently as you like. But knowing that these places are selling a lot of things no one actually wanted or the quality is much lower than what you’d find in a regular store (which I’ll get to in my final point), coupling all of that with the lack of people walking around, it’s just weird.

And lastly, “made for outlet”. I think it’s safe to say we all know that outlet stores tend to be places where they try to sell inventory they couldn’t sell in regular stores. But the one thing that I learned about recently was this idea of “made for outlet” where brands manufacture essentially “knockoff quality” items for outlet stores so that they can be sold for cheaper.

So would you rather go to an outlet mall to get lower quality or buy a perfect replica from Asia at the same price?.

They suck either way.

This week's issue is a 3 minute read:

⚽️ Surprise, surprise, a World Cup bribe

☕️ Coffee+hypebeasts

🛫 Secrets of booking flights

Another World Cup, another bribe scandal

If you’re a soccer fan you already know how corrupt FIFA can be. And you also already know the amount of money that flows between countries and FIFA officials when it comes time to choose the next host country for the World Cup. But whether you’re a soccer fan or not, here’s a brief summary on how Qatar bribed 14 of the committee members who have responsibility on choosing World Cup host countries.

Firstly, Qatar is the richest country in the world per capita. This just means it’s a small country but basically the entire population is rich. It’s also a VERY hot country with temperatures peaking between 45-50 degrees celcius between May to September, the primetime for when the World Cup usually takes place given the major soccer leagues around the world tend to start some time in August towards the end of the summer. And lastly Qatar hasn’t had the best track record when it comes to human rights violations.

So if you raised an eyebrow when Qatar won the bid for the World Cup, that was really your gut telling you bribes were involved

At the end of August startling (😂) revelations surfaced around money being sent to FIFA executive committee members to the tune of $330 million dollars and a total of $553 million to 22 people overall dating back to 2009. Qatar denies all of this, claiming it’s all a smear campaign against Qatar. Richest country in the world pitching to probably the most corrupt voting committee in the history of voting committees - gee, what could go wrong?

Legend for the FIFA voting committee below:

Red circle = corruption

Regardless of what Qatar wants to say about this bribery, Qatar National Bank statements showed a lot of money flowed directly to many FIFA committee members between February 2009 and December 2010, the exact time frame for bidding on, voting for, and awarding the 2022 World Cup to Qatar. As the great Jay-Z says, men lie, women lie, numbers don’t.

Tim Hortons capsule drops

Firstly, why is Tim Hortons making cool clothing? I feel like they’re competing with Costco and their Kirkland branded sweats and hats. But you can now officially arm your wardrobe with what was probably inspired by the people we all wonder about. You know, the ones that maybe have a job but maybe not because you see them sitting at Tim Hortons all day or shopping at Costco at 1:30 in the afternoon.

Would you wear any of this?

To Tim Hortons’ credit, a lot of this stuff is sold out. You can check it all out here: https://timshop.timhortons.ca/collections/tims-merch

I think a Roots x Tim Hortons sweatshirt/sweatpants collab would actually work really well. CEO of Roots, I know you read this, make it happen!

Flight booking hacky hacks

You ever look at flight prices and then IN THE SAME DAY they’ve somehow gone up by a few hundred dollars, sometimes within minutes of checking? Well, as smart as you think you are on the internet, flight booking websites are SMARTER THAN YOU.

Here are some tips that may help you the next time you’re looking to jet set:

Be smart - use flight comparison websites so you get prices in one view across the board. Flighthub.com and Kayak.com tend to be decent starting spots.

The best day to book according to travel studies is on Tuesdays. Airlines tend to release their discounted fares on Monday. Whereas you’ll tend to find fares at a higher price when you search on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. They know you probably aren’t working then so they know you’ll search a lot more and so they jack the prices up. Who is they? They is the airlines.

There’s this thing called the “Prime Booking Window” where 3-5 months or 3-6 weeks before your departure date airlines will try to get flights filled and therefore that is when you’ll see the deals. We learned the hard way in December that a “last minute deal” is at the very least WEEKS before your flight, not days. Days before your flight requires you to break the bank to pay for the ticket.

Apparently airlines release new fares during off peak hours of the day. What does this mean? It means they’re trying to catch you sleeping…literally! Between 11PM and 1AM you should be searching as you’re more likely to get luck finding a fare that works for you as airlines tend to release their fares during this time of the day.

Lastly, sign up for alerts. I use Google flight alerts so I keep getting flooded with new price adjusts to fares to Tokyo. It’s a nice bittersweet reminder that we currently can’t go and that sometimes there are great deals we can’t take advantage of either. However, this also gives you perspective on trends with the fares and so if you see them daily in your inbox, you can get a sense of whether to expect prices to go bonkers or not over time.

Flying is fun. Going places is funner. Saving money on flights is the funnest.