this is "nightly business report." wiue herera and bill grfeth. good evening and welcome to this special edition of "nightly business report." i'm sue herera. >> and i'm bill griffeth on this thanksgiving day. of course the stock market is closed, wall street is quiet. so we thought it was the perfect time for us to take another look at some of t stories that caught our attention over the past few months. indeed. we begin with tvel which is something most americans are dealing with on this holiday. reducing travel time, particularly f rail and users, is projected to be a big business. but what's the best way to do that? one waye is to g riders the information they nd to get whee they're going m efficiently, and that is why two entrepreneurs are making your

mobility t in 2008 and '09, matt kaywood spent many grad school nights in a san franc rco labearching a.i. and neuroscience. but getting home meant guesswork. which of several buses might show upfirst? that type of information was nol yety available. >> when they first producedre time live information, i my problem, i'd nave to solve wait out in the fog again. but the problem was there wasn't a singlet place to get all. >> reporter: in his free time, kaywood began developing a platform to get it all. buses, rails, car services like scooters too., bikes and in 2013, he was working inc. washington, hen he took a prototype to a mentoring group for entrepreneurs. and that's where he m ryan croft, a tour company owner whoseen travels had t him to 50 countries and 100 cities.

>> they all had poor traffic. information is king. at the time they need it, they n make an informed decision. >> reporter: they started bootssrapping a busi transit screen. along the way a former u.s. resident took notice at a startup incubator. in 2015, transit screen went live, sharing information at first from san francisco and the d.c. area. >> we're driving them customers, wee givinghem a better experience. in return, they don't charge us, we don't charge rthem. orter: now transit screen digests more than 2,000 feeds from 60 cities around the world. >> how often are trains coming? are there ubers and bike shares in the proximity of that buil? >> if it's coming in four minutes maybe i walk there. if it's longer, maybe i stop and grabcoffee. >> reporter: who pays for their service? >> everybody seems tose em. >> reporter: real estate developers and leasing agents

like tristan. about location, location, l location. transit screen won't say what they char only that it's usually a few hundred dollars per month per screen, and they're in roughly 1,500os buildings a the country. >> definitely a major selling point as i'm taking people to look atdi the bu. they're always like, oh, wow, that's super, super useful. >> reporter: there's also an app r that called city motion. this year a new revenue stream. many big companies provide huemployee sle services. some are paying to help their employeete choose a r that's right for them. >> it's an amenity for employees, but it's also kcessity for companies. >> we justt hearing the story over and over again about the pain of turnover. we're right onop of a metro station ourselves here. why? because we wanto t be clo our employees. >> reporter: lots of those b companies are multinationals. so transit screen already on track to bring in between $4 million and $8 million in sales in 2019 is planningo expand

into 14 european cities beginning later this year. for kaywood and croft, time really is money. >> it's a very scaleable business. 's an endless ocean of companies out there. we're just now sort of in the first inning or two of this long game. >> reporter: atransportation becomes more data driven, the company is working to get transit systems on tame page when it comes to data formats. that way the informaon can get to the rest of us more smoothly. now t something most americans can say they identify with. that would be home renovations. can be a painful process sometimes. but two entrepreneurs hope to make it a little less so by giving both homeowners and builders a one-stop shop f d materials,esign, and construction.te >> rep the thought of home renovation makes most of us wince. the order of the day, cautious pessism. >> theoke is that neither of us would renovate even if we could afford to.

>> we thought of rovation as an insane in a poor way, experience for folks. >>eporter: trying toimplify the renovation process might sound even more in. but luke sherwin and coda wong are trying. their digit platform, block, aims to improve confidence for both owners and builders when it convenience.lity, cost, and >> these are before and afters. >> reporter: focusg on bathrooms since launching in december of 2018, block has completed almost 100 jobs in apartments and single-family homes in new yorcity and new jersey. they sayblock's i average cost slightly below remodeling magazines' mid-range average, about $28,000 in the new york area for an existing 5 by 7 room.io the nl average, about $20,000. >> we find a lot of people are sort of paralyzed by how many thousand combinations are out

there. >> reporter: by limiting its range of products, block knows what it needs and it can negotiate prices for tubs and faucets, vanities and the like. >> we create a 3d model. >> reporter: it also streamlines the design process. would probably t five, six gn versus doing it using the products in the catalog, takes about an hour. >> itasically is an efficiency on every single step of the renovation process. >> reporter: sherwing and w say efficiencies are gained in the construction phase too. block vets and hires its own builders. >> their guys are showing up and everything is ready for them to install. because block acquire the customer, you're eliminang this dance that renovators have to do. >> reporter: instead of the dance, the dreaded building accept lowerees by making rs to their jobs easier. >> they don't like to do marketing on instagra

they don't like to do all the little billing and adminithrative work. don't like to be sending out 20 proposals and hoping to win >> reporter: they do like to build, though. werwin andg believe dangling a carrot, a pipeline of future projects, eliminates a builder's greatest fear, finding the next. >> you don't have to go to the customer, you don have to call them and say, what about this, what about that, sizes, specs, . finish it's streamlined. so i could potentially set up a crew ando multiple jobs at once. >> reporter:hisoup to nuts bathroomat renovn in new york city took less than a month, one-third of the national average, and cost about $30,000, just above thege new york ave for a mid-range project, including some custom pmbing anddetailing. sherwin and wong are already testing the block model on kitchen projects, and they're working to expand beyond the new york area. >> if this works, and it works at scale, then both the

homeowner and the contractor should befit. >> reporter: even though sherwin and wong haven't actually a renovatething themselves, both had a hand in previous sherwin at the mattress company casp, and wong in fashion at rent the runway. when speaking of fashion we often think ore women's ap but it's the men's fashion industry that is growing quickly. not necessarily for business suits but rather for streetwear. that's why a eam of entrepreneurs created an online marketplace focused on men. arum gupta found a taste for fashion in college at yale. there was one problem -- >> i could afford any of it, it's crazy expensive. >> reporter: dupe that found that guys,yep, guys were talking fashion online, occasionally making deals on used, hard to find items. holy grails to some. hey'reree years ago, nows came imssible to find anywhere, so that's my grail,asically.

>> reporter: by 2013, sites were selling cars, furniture, even women's fashion. gan's fashion was fashionably la to the . >> i was like, look this secondary market tng is going to be huge, i wan to get in on this situation. >> reporter:up built a site and began convincing folks in chat rooms to use it. by 2014, julian conner, a softre specialist, along with jake metzger, who's since moved on, teamed with gupta to cofound grailed. it boasts almost 4 million users per month. conner used early versions of the site and still s today.re >> i really like avant-garde fashion. theacket and shirt are both from an american-born designe that now lives in paris, rick aun. >> repter: grail collects a 6% fe on each transaction, an

unit. price o about $150 per high-end items can get the rare arten trea selling for tens of thousands. >> prada dress shoes $123. >> reporter: sometimes vintage goods provide a surprise. >>olling stones shirt from the '94-'95 steal, 50 bucks, awesom >> reporte meticulous curation dictated intoart by cusr demand has built a mystique. >> super iconic designer, the red sleeve, the whole thing. if you saw the latest first "star wars"mo vie, c3po has a red arm whi may or may not be influenc by thijacket. >> reporter: some g sold, others getiv ared. >> you remember steve jobs' black turtlenecks? this is the guy who designed all his turtlenecks. >> reporter: celebrities will sometimes borrow items to shoot magazine covers. musicians have worn their pieces

on stage. >> this is rap simmons. it's based off the new order album art r,"power corruption lies." details are hand painted. >> it's interesting to see how fashion iuc just as mh a hobby for guys as snyrts orthing se. >> reporter: "gq" writer cam wolf. >> youave to be well versed in archive pieces and grailed has helped educate that s andve that consumer. >> reporter: an increasingl stylish consumer lking for a deal on high-end, secondhand stuff. >>al the proposition we prove is so salient to many, where i don't think we've had this sameof sor growth challenge that other businesses have had. >> it all starts with alking to thnsumer, understanding what it is exactly that they want. >> grailed is constantly expanding its reach. what started with about 100 items now has almost 2 million piecesal listed for from around the world.

two years ago it launched a sister site which focuses on women's clothi. still ahead, an investigation into a b tzen crimhat's hurting retailers' profits. now to an to-depth on stealing. it's not a new crime, of course. but it i becoming more and more expensive for retailers. in fact, retail crime losses are at an all-time high right now, federation.o the national retail just last week home depot said that its profits were hurt by shrink. that is the industry code word for theft, among other things. so the companyave us exclusive access to see how it fight a

never-ending battle against ealing. urtney reagan has our investigation. "grab and go." >> reporter: you watching brazenai r theft. the suspects are so sure they won't get caught tha some even get aggressive when stopped, as this surveillance video from home depot shows most likely these people aren't shoplifters or people who steem for their own use. instead, it's a bigger problem known as organized retail crime. crimins working together to steal for home depot's jamie bornein stigates the theft. it starts with boosters. >> a booster is somebody that is basically a professional shoplier doing it for profit, not just for personal use. >> reporter: are they gust sing what items are in demand? do they know it fmhistory? i know i canl a lot ofil ? >> there are many locations out

there that are giving lists to the boosters. >> reporter: giving lists? they're part of the crime too, >> solutely. >> reporter: one of those locations this pawn shop. the manager was charged withg sellin stolen property. the case is ongoing. our next stop, this raid. >> police, search orrran >> repr: borne and his team help wmen law enfor served a search warrant on this utah home. >> when we do search warrants with law enforcement, we can t providem the value of the merchandise. >> reporter: the suspect allegedly sold stolen power drills and other tools on he was arrested. law enforcement szed a palet ed full of items fromhe home. they were brought to this warehouse. it may look like home depot but this is an evidence room. side is over $1 million worth of stolen products seized from a raid of seven pawn shops. >> we'll see on the inside of a pawn shop they'll say, lowe's

and home depot price $129.99. our price ep$79.99. >>ter: chris walden is a special agent with the utah attorney geral's fice. >> how is it secondhand merchants a selling for less than what a big box retailer h likee depot or lowe's can buy that product for? >> reporter: they found the answer in st. >> sell them, pn them? >> sell them. >> reporter: this is undercover video of law enforcement selling items that seem stolen to those pawn shops. the case led to a new that makes it harder for pawn shops to buy unopened product. >> since we passed the new law, it seems like it's getting a little better. we've seen a shift to e-commerce. >> reporter: just like the power tools we s confiscateduring the raid. here they were for sale on facebook. is it a game of whack a mole? fix it here, they pop up somewhere necessarily. >> certainly. we o relythe retailers. if the retailers say, we've done this preliminary investigation t

and we this is a good case, it's something we'rein willto look at. >> reporter: organized retail crime isrowing and costs he industry nearly $800,000 per $1 billion in sales. home depot said i profit took a hit in the last three quarters because of higher shrinks or ss of goods which includes organized retail crime. >> whi we don't comment on our particular numbers, we are seeing shrinkage ratesro rise the country. >> reporter: scott glen is in charge of asset protection for home depot. >> organiz retail crime drives other crimes, drugs, guns, human trafficking. the opioid and drug epidemic is a piece of it. when we're dealing with people who may have n regard for injuring people, people dealing with no regard for their own safety we don't engage with those folks. >> reporter: is thathy you think the criminal activity may be continuing at home depot in get riminals know, ian away with this? >> i think criminal activity is happening in every retaileer day across the country,

it's not exclusive to us. >> reporter: why should consumers care this is happening? isn't home depot big enough to absorb this issue? >> we have been very good about not raising prices as a result of our shrink equation, but if it gets to a pointan wet continue to do business this way, ultimately we'll have to pass it alr:g. >> reporor "nightly business report," courtney reagan in salt lake city, utah. undergoes a renaissance.th we report a lotbout real estate trends. after all, our homes are onef r most valuable assets. but a curious thing is taking shape in the maet. affordability has long been an issue for those looking to buy o

. now the same is true for those who want to rent single-famy homes because demand is hotter than ever. diana olick explains. >> reporter: anyone out shopping for an entry-lel home knows the prices are high and t pickings are slim. now the same is holding true for rentals. as more americans find itff harr tod a home, rental demand is soaring, especially for single-family homes. kimberly cestari is both a real estate agent and a landlord and she's seen the d.c. renel market toff. >> i think it's more a millennial thing. for the higher prices on the single-family detached homes. they may have tried a condo, now they want outdoor space and they have the disposable income to use it. >> reporter: the supply of rental homes is sa ringing nationally. third quarts of t year, single-family vacancies were 6.8%, down from 7.1% one year ago. supply is much lower on the low

end. so rent prices there are increasing most, up 4% annually in september. higher-end rents were up less. in the hottest market, like phoenix, las vegas, and seattle, rents are soaring. >> rents a not gdown. i have seen consistent growth year after year. and single-family markets in particular. people wt that experience of having a yard, having enough bedrooms and baths. i've seen increases consistent every year. >> reporter: the number of single-family homesrvailable less than $1250 per month has dropped 40% since 2013 according to capital economics. all this despite the fact that the single-family rental market ballooned during the foreclosure markets. investors bought thousands of distressed homes, growing the ntal supply b 38% between 2012 and 2016. most thought as the housing market recovered investors would sell their properties for a nice profit and call it a day, but the rental income now i just

too lucrative. so even more investors are buying more properties. for "nightly business report," i'm diana olick inwashington. from housing to cars and the rush to go electric. ford is going all-out. the automaker is attaching its iconic mustang brand to its will it the horsepower and the appeal to be a game changer for the phautomaker? il lebeau is in los angeles toni >> reporte this is no pony car but it is the all new, all v, electric the mustang mach e, a name ford's chaman resisted when his team first approached him about calling it aan mu >> they weren't very happy with my response. but the product kept evolving. both the performance of it and to the point where, you know, there was a point where i finally realized, whoa, this is an amazing vehicle, and yes, it's worthy of the mustang teny.

>> repor with a range up to 300 miles fully charged, and 47 miles after 10-minute quick ch ge, ford believes the mach e has the power to energize its dismal electric car progm. in the u.s., tesla dominates ev sales. gm,nissan, and vw share much of ford hasn't sold a single pure electric car this year. the truth is electric models like the chevy bolt and nissan leaf t lackhe style and appeal of tesla's. while other recently introduced electric models have also faid connect with buyers. which is why many are wondering if the mach e, with a more gressive look and plenty of power, will finally be the ev that challenges tesla. >> i think the evegment has needed a shakeup. i think tesla's proved that people want utility, they want an environmentally friendly car, but they also want something with a lot ofdesign. fot has proved tha you can do this at a pretty affordable

price por:t. >> reporill mustang fans care that this electric suv bears little resemblance to the pony car? mae. but ford needs all the horses in its stable to remind americans it does more than sell pickup trucks. >> the heart of the company is on trial here. because we have to get this right. because our mtang share performance just keeps getting better and better. we're now the number o srts car in the world with mustang. andmp this wastant not to disrupt the state of that. >> reporter: the mach e rolls out late next year with a base price starting at about $44,000. competitiveith tesla's new model y, a crossover utility evehicle which isected to start selling in the mid $40,000 range. the ev race is starting to heat up. phil lebeau, "nightly business l report," los a and from los angeles now to

huntsville, alabama, which is seeing a renssance thanks the aerospace and defense industry.an morg brennan took a trip therege to see the rese for herself. city, usa.r: it's called home to one of the highest concentrations of engineers per capi capita, an educational system teachi s.t.e.m. in elementary, and ties to defense. >> we have ties inlegacy. aerospace, we work hard to maintain that. 40 aerospace companies in our market, so very rich concentration of tnd a lot of expansion. >> reporter: the emergence of commercial space is hping to propel it. jeff bezos is building a $200 million rocket engine factory in huntsville andas taken over a historic test stand, nasa's marshall spaceflig center once used for saturn flight rockets

that launched apollo rockets to the moon. >> a receptaclef talent there decades in building. we want to go to where the talent is. >> reporter: a boom in defse work as well. hypersonics, missiles traveling at mach 5 or faster, are being developed here. that's helped arrow jet and rocket dine to move headquarters and lockheed martin hasgr broke nd just outside the city. >> trying to become an innovationeub of south with artificial intelligence and othertechnologies, quantum computing, all those technologies brought together with a.i. reporter: that combination and the area's deep roots in s.t.e.m. have attracted other industries blair spent90 $1 million to open a factory her three years ago, asseling slingshot and ranger vehicles. ceo scott wine a says it wa easy decision to make. >> i think the longstanding commitment to engineerien that's

n htsville for so many years, since world war ii, rely, and then with the red stone arsenal there, they a stratcom as well, thergood infrastructur of personnel. >> reporter: blair isn't alone. , toyota, mazda, even facebook, have been making investments. even the fbi is busy expanding what it calls an hq2 on the army's red stone arsenal. huntsville metro area grew population, jobs, and wages at roughly two times the national rate. at a time of low unemployment acrossu. the , here it's a stunningly low 2.1%. hudson alpha, a nonprofit biotech collective focused o genomic sequencing, is based at cummings research park. it includes companies like serena therapeutics which has developed a polymer technology that could change treatments for parkinson's disease, epilepsy,

even opioid addiction. but it all comes bac to space. >> i love the fact that ial hav ocket scientists working in my lab now, because they've come from that industry to work here as well. >> reporter: for "nightly business report," i'm morgan brennan in huntsville, alabama. >> thank you for watching this special edition of "nightly business report." i'm sue herera. >> i'm bil have a great evening. happy thanksgiving, everybody. we'll see .

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