Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing - There is No (Convenient) Alternative

Episode Date: May 19, 2025

Downgrades sound scary, but the U.S. is still the best place for investors to put money to work. (00:21) Asit Sharma and Dylan Lewis discuss: - Moody’s downgrading U.S. debt, and why it’s ...somewhere between a symbolic and substantial update for investors. - Whether the downgrade and “Sell America” thinking means international investors are rethinking “there is no alternative” (TINA) to the U.S. - Coinbase joining the S&P 500, and crypto’s continued march towards legitimacy. (16:16) Restaurant industry expert and Principal at Technomic David Henkes joins Ricky Mulvey to talk through why more consumers are brown-bagging it for lunch, and what successful restaurants are getting right. Companies discussed: WMT, COIN Host: Dylan Lewis Guests: Asit Sharma, David Henkes, Ricky Mulvey Engineers: Dan Boyd Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 Dylan Lewis. Moody's joins the crowd on U.S. debt. Motley Fool Money starts now. I'm Dylan Lewis, and I'm joined over the airwaves by Motley Fool analyst Asit Sharma. Asit, thanks for joining me today. Asit Sharma. Hey, Dylan. Thanks for having me. As we catch up on the news this Monday morning, the macro picture stays very much in the headline. Market starting off the week down a little bit after ratings agency Moody's downgraded U.S. debt on Friday. Asit, S&P, Fitch had downgraded U.S. debt several years ago. Moody's finally joining them. Is this a symbolic change, or is this a substantial change? I think it's in between, Dylan. They changed the debt rating from capital A to lowercase a's,
Starting point is 00:00:56 or AAA to capital A, lowercase a1. That's a slight difference, but it is a notch down, and it does join its peers, which had already taken the U.S. out of their top-tier rating bucket. What does it mean? Moody's pointed to higher interest rates and, of course, the burden of our increasing debt as a country. These are long-term things. Interest rates have been elevated now for a few years, and the debt has been around. It feels like it's been around since I was born. Only gotten more out of control. This shouldn't be a surprise to investors. In fact, after some initial sell-off in the futures this morning, things stabilized as the market realized, well, everyone knows the situation the U.S. is in. It is still
Starting point is 00:01:45 by far the preeminent currency in the world, the reserve currency, and there are still a lot of advantages to the U.S. So it's not like it's a terminal problem, but one more sign that really from a policy basis, and this is going across multiple administrations from both parties, we've got to address our debt. And there are some other things you can read into it as well. A little bit of the volatility in the rollout of the tariffs that the Trump administration has passed through is playing into this as well. I like that you talked a little bit about the long arc there. Moody's in a statement said, hey, this is successive U.S. administrations and Congress failing to agree on measures to reverse the trend of larger annual fiscal deficits and
Starting point is 00:02:28 growing interest costs. This is a problem that has been building for quite some time. And it seems like both the rating agencies and the market are looking for some sign that deficit will get under control and that would kind of rebuild some of the confidence in U.S. debt and make it a little bit easier for the U.S. to operate. I think that's exactly what the market is looking for. When you go back to the last time the U.S. got its ratings cut from basically just flawless credit toward us today, which is still pretty good credit. It's just not thought of as being risk-free anymore. It was more about the inability of policymakers to even pass resolutions so that we can fund our own government. That was really what shook the markets last time
Starting point is 00:03:14 around. And now this is acknowledging that we can't run these deficits forever. And so as a country, we've got to find a way to bring our debt relative to our GDP, our output back in line. It's a little high just now, and it's not something that we can't solve. We could do this, but what it's going to take is some pain. And one thing that politicians don't like to pass downstream is sacrifice, pain, burden, because they feel like they might not make it back into office when they're up for reelection. This is the key problem in the U.S. economy. It's not really about the deficit. What it is, it's about politicians who are scared to come clean with the American public and say, hey, we've got to make some sacrifices somewhere because this isn't
Starting point is 00:04:01 sustainable. When creditworthiness comes into question, we typically see yields on debt go up. We are seeing that. The 30-year Treasury spiked above 5% in the wake of this news. We talk about the federal government being the foundation for borrowing and for debt in the United States. What does it mean when something like this happens for companies and for borrowing in the grand scheme of corporate finance? It's tough because corporations utilize debt in two ways. We're all familiar with companies issuing bonds to finance expansion or maybe just to reshape a balance sheet. And everyone understands that only the best companies can access the bond markets at will when interest rates get elevated. But corporations use a lot of
Starting point is 00:04:47 commercial paper, too. So, this short-term interest rates rising has made commercial paper more expensive. So, even the sort of everyday functionality that lots of corporations use as a form of liquidity becomes more expensive, which means then downstream, they've got to keep more of their own capital in their treasury accounts, which means CFO somewhere is saying, I don't know if we can spend all this on capital investment this year. I need more money in the bank because I'm not paying X percent more interest on our overnight paper. It has all these weird follow-on effects that we rarely think about as investors, but it's just a slow drip-drab of problems, just as in the real world for us, you see that 5% threshold being crossed
Starting point is 00:05:33 for the 30-year, and then you're trying to buy a house, and you're like, whoa, what happened to long-term mortgage rates? It looked like it was getting better. This is way too much. I'm going to hold back now, and maybe I'll keep renting for a while. So, we all feel it. Corporations feel it, and citizens feel it. It's the financial Rube Goldberg machine, right? It starts off in one spot and works its way through everything else. Totally. You can't understand how it works looking at it. After the tariff escalations in early April, there was this Sell America concept, the Sell America trade, that got a lot of noise in the market. This seems to have stoked that a little bit. For the longest time, for certainly
Starting point is 00:06:14 most of my investing life, the acronym has been TINA. There is no alternative to investing in the U.S., and that the U.S. market, in particular, is risk-free debt. Even with all these concerns, Asit, is there really an alternative? As people are seeing these headlines, is there somewhere else that investors are going to be looking to part their cash other than U.S. Treasuries, other than the U.S. stock market? Dylan, there is no convenient alternative. Let's put it this way, if governments want to take the trouble, if corporations want to take the trouble. The U.S. public, which is a big buyer of U.S. debt, wants to take the trouble.
Starting point is 00:06:54 We don't need to buy these bonds. You can go buy German bonds, which are perfectly safe and almost seem attractive because while the German government has its share of political problems, it doesn't seem near as chaotic as we have been over the past six months or so. So it's just something that, as technology increases, corporations find it easier to look elsewhere. The markets are pretty liquid in Europe, and even some investors are looking to Asia to place money. So I think in the future, what we're going to see is countries like China, which has
Starting point is 00:07:32 for a long time said they wouldn't mind breaking the dollar's dominance, cooperate with other BRICS nations. And there's a whole chain of countries that want to be in on BRICS, by the way. I think you'll see that, especially on the sovereign level, governments will take the trouble to utilize other currencies, A, for trade, and B, for what you're talking about, which is to park sovereign assets instead of in the United States, do a little work, and spread them out amongst a host of other countries that in the past just didn't seem viable.
Starting point is 00:08:05 But as global trade, which is not going backwards, albeit temporarily from U.S. tariffs, The long-term arc of that is, it's a very globalized society that we're going to live in from here on out. It is something that governments can consider. Now, to our advantage, you can't do this overnight. We've got time to fix the problem, but come on, people! Come on, policymakers! We need to solve this, and soon. It's been a busy week for Secretary of Treasury Scott Besant. He has been taking questions on the country's debt, but also talking to leadership over at Walmart after the company made it clear in their earnings release, tariffs mean higher prices for consumers coming soon.
Starting point is 00:08:48 Asit, we were talking before we got on air about how the tariff story and Walmart ties very directly into the deficit story and what we're seeing with U.S. debt. Walk me through that. Walmart is a company that does about $680 billion worth of business in a year. That's the top line number, the revenue number. And it also enjoys a really favorable tax rate, as all U.S. corporations do. So corporations got a tax break in the previous Trump administration, and that was set to roll back. And what's happening now is, of course, we have this year's legislation, and it looks
Starting point is 00:09:25 like those tax cuts will actually stay in place. So there are some theories out there that point to how tariffs are related to the deficit, in that the imposition of tariffs is one way to bring money back into the country. I would say that Secretary Besant would argue that it's not really about taxing the consumer, but it's having corporations pay their fair share once tariffs are imposed, which actually brings up something that many of us miss. When you read the headlines, it's all about China should eat the tariffs, or the U.S. citizens are going to eat the tariffs. Actually, that party there is the intermediary between this foreign country that exports the goods and us who
Starting point is 00:10:11 buy them. That's a place like Walmart. So by the Trump administration's eyes, Walmart should sort of absorb this. I think President Trump used the word eat, that they should eat the tariffs. And he points out that they have billions of dollars in profits. Now, before I get to those profits, we'll just take a step back here and say that this is one part of the puzzle to potentially reduce a deficit, which is to raise money by the imposition of tariffs. Now, it's not going to solve the problem because there are so many trillions involved, but it's one more way to bring in some revenue to the federal government. The two are related in that way. Getting back to Walmart, though, this is a disciplined company that didn't get to be the
Starting point is 00:10:54 biggest company by sales on the planet by being undisciplined or not being focused or bending to anyone. Just ask Walmart suppliers. They know how to play hardball. I'm thinking about this. I don't know what the future is going to bring, Dylan, but I will say that Walmart has a very good argument to hold the line here, maybe, and push back against the Trump administration. It's about just basic economics. Walmart may sell so much each year, but their operating margin is only 4.3%. So, what that means is, the Trump administration is very correct to say they're making billions of dollars, but they got this absolute scale where the revenue is so high, just a little bit of profit brings in billions of dollars to the bottom line. So,
Starting point is 00:11:43 what happens if you break that equation and suddenly Walmart has to absorb 30% increases from the biggest flow of where it gets its goods that we buy? They don't have a lot of wiggle room. And very quickly, you could see if they just yielded wholesale to this proposition, all of that would evaporate and they would be negative. So they'd be losing billions of dollars. So I think this sets up a very interesting dialogue. I don't know how much of it is going to be public. I think Walmart would prefer, as you and I were chatting before the show, for this not to be in the public eye. They would have these conversations behind the scenes with the U.S. government. But it does set up an interesting push and pull to see where that
Starting point is 00:12:24 line is where I think Walmart may concede a little bit and telegraph to the administration, okay, we'll try to absorb some of this. But they have to stop at some point, because ultimately, they understand who really calls the shots, and that's the shareholders. They're not going to like that share price going down. They're not going to like seeing profits evaporate. All right, closing us out today on the News Roundup, the S&P 500 is welcoming a new name today, crypto exchange Coinbase joining the index. This feels like a little bit of a milestone moment for crypto, another step in legitimacy. It's kind of fitting, in a way. Coinbase is joining the S&P 500 because Discover is leaving it. An old guard financial services company
Starting point is 00:13:09 being acquired by Capital One. I love the symbolism of that asset. Just in terms of narrative arc, it is as chef's kiss perfect as I could possibly structure it. Right. It's like the thing that was the technology back in the day is being urged out the door. Come on, Grandpa. It's time for you to go. You got the new thing here. Coinbase, you have to hand it to them. Whether you're a believer in crypto, this market over the long term, they have been very key in driving the industry forward. They talk a lot on their calls about just this, driving not just their top line, but utility across the whole ecosystem. And the fact that when they discuss their earnings now, they talk not just about a global
Starting point is 00:13:55 spot market for crypto, but also a derivatives market for crypto and the growth of stable coins. All of the language of their earnings calls, Dylan, is just showing how far that they have come as a business and how there's become a sort of financial asset in the crypto world. So we always thought that, and we being myself maybe, and a few other people that I talked to, because I'm not super knowledgeable about crypto, the folks that I have conferred with this on have always thought that utility was going to be the greatest driver in that all the crypto assets, derivative assets, digital assets that would make it would be very useful in some ways.
Starting point is 00:14:41 But I think that the fact that Coinbase has joined the S&P 500 is a testament to just having a financial asset, something that people can turn to instead of, say, gold, had its own existence out there, and not everyone saw that. And the trading volumes prove that out. Now, let me just argue against myself for one second. Even though you can say they've made it, let's congrats to them. They've joined the club. I still think so much of this is driven by the success of Bitcoin and the trading volumes associated with that one asset. And that's a risk with this business. It always has been. It may be that way for a long time. So if you see another crypto winter, could this be one of those companies that joined the S&P 500 very
Starting point is 00:15:26 quickly? It felt like it was plateauing or even sagging a bit. Yeah, that could happen too. Yeah. I think the reality is, if you are a crypto lover, if you are a crypto hater, if you own the index fund, you now own crypto exposure. It's as simple as that. Yeah, totally. Whether you like it or not, you're also a crypto investor, so there. You and I, fellow crypto investors. Asit Sharma, thanks so much for joining me today. Thanks a lot for having me, Dylan. coming up on the show times are tough for restaurants industry expert and principal at Technomic David Henkes joins my colleague Ricky Mulvey to talk through why more consumers
Starting point is 00:16:09 are brown bagging it and what successful restaurants are doing right David Henkes senior principal at Technomic and a global food and beverage industry trend watcher thanks for joining us again on Motley Fool Money. Sure. Thanks for having me, Ricky. I appreciate it. So it's it's a tough time for restaurants. And I wanted to get you as soon as I saw this story last month in The Wall Street Journal, especially I think it's continuing to play out in earnings for a lot of the large restaurant chains, which is that people aren't going out to lunch nationwide. The number of lunches bought from restaurants and other establishments fell three percent in 2024 from the year before to 19 and a half billion. But that is important in
Starting point is 00:16:50 context because that is fewer than were purchased even in 2020 in the middle of the pandemic. Now people are going back to work, but fewer are going out to eat. David, any reflections on what's happening here? Well, I think there's a couple of things that you have to take into consideration. And the context for this is that the restaurant industry is struggling right now. There's been a lot of traffic issues. And so when you talk about sort of the decline of lunch and the absolute number of meals consumed for lunch, you've got to look at it in the context of the broader industry, where last year, if you look at the numbers that we publish or I think most other industry trend watchers, last year finished very weak for restaurants in particular.
Starting point is 00:17:36 Big players like McDonald's had significant issues with traffic. Their sales numbers were much lower than they were in the last couple of years. And so, I think focusing on just lunch sort of muddies the broader context, which is that consumers have really pulled back from restaurants over probably the last 12 to 18 months. When you look at the inflationary environment and menu price increases, menu prices are probably about 30 to 35 percent higher than they were pre-pandemic. And what that's caused consumers to do, even before the current situation that we've been in with the tariffs and all of the economic uncertainty that we're sitting in here today, is that over the last 12 to 18 months, consumers have really noticed
Starting point is 00:18:24 higher prices and have pulled back. And so, when you talk about lunch, lunch is one of those, I guess, easy day parts where you can replace it with a meal brought in if you're brown bagging, if you're going into work. Certainly when you look at office occupancy, we're getting back to sort of pre-pandemic levels, but we're still not back there. And so there's a lot of bigger dynamics that are going on. And I think I've said a number of times that it's harder than ever to profitably run a restaurant in today's environment than in the 29 years that I've been doing this at Technomic. And so the lunch part is concerning, but I think the broader concern is just the consumer pullback that we've seen across the entirety of the
Starting point is 00:19:06 restaurant industry. I have a theory on the consumer pullback and it hit me when I was at a like a fast casual Mexican chain that is not Chipotle. And I went up to order and there was a screen that I was ordering at. So there was like one cashier on the other side, but I was ordering at a screen and then i do my order and it says do you want it to 18 20 or 22 percent and i'm this is being asked to me by the screen and now i'm doing the algorithm like an algorithm in my head algebra would be a better way of putting it where i'm ordering at a screen not with a human but i know there's people making my food and i know someone has to bring my food but i also have to bus my own table and i think the food away from home cost may not account for the wider spread
Starting point is 00:19:52 tipping culture, especially for fast, casual dining, which increases it, I think, even more. I don't know if tips are considered in the 30% from five years ago. No, actually, those are just menu prices. You're absolutely right. I think the U.S. has a tip fatigue problem among a lot of consumers right now. I think that happened during the pandemic, when every restaurant that was open, and we wanted to support restaurants and service workers, and so people were willing to tip extra. And so we sort of developed this tipping culture during COVID, which really has sort of stayed with us. And so when you talk about menu price increases, and listen, labor costs are one of the top two costs that restaurants have, and they've continued to rise, and minimum wage
Starting point is 00:20:39 pressures and all of that that are going up. And so there's no question that restaurants, if they can, they'd love to push a little bit more of that back onto the consumer. are. Historically, though, fast food or limited service restaurants haven't been a tipping establishment, tend to find it in full-service sit-down restaurants. And so I think where people three, four, five years ago were happy to tip, they've gotten very fatigued by that. And I think that's an additional pullback that we're seeing, where in addition to all of these higher prices that you're seeing just on the menu and maybe some additional fees or things that are now on the menu. You are also being asked to tip everywhere for a coffee, for a muffin.
Starting point is 00:21:19 Obviously, you're tipping the machine, basically, when you're ordering at the kiosk. And I think a lot of people certainly look at the economics of running a restaurant and say, why can't you pay a living wage to your workers so that it's not being pushed back to me? And it's challenging because the economics of running a restaurant are really hard. And to the extent that you can offer those tips and hopefully drive some of your employee satisfaction to a greater extent, then that's a win for the restaurants. But it really has turned off a lot of consumers, for sure. The winners and losers are not even here. Is this still a big problem for the major chains that you follow? Is the pain more acute for the smaller restaurants that don't have
Starting point is 00:22:04 that ability to negotiate with suppliers quite like a Chipotle can? Yeah, I think, listen, I think that the pain is being most acutely felt by the smaller mom and pop independent restaurants. Just because you're right, they don't have the financial wherewithal, the negotiating power. They don't have the ability to invest in technology and some of the things that help alleviate some of these cost concerns. But listen, we just released our chain data on 2024. We track over 1,500 chains. We publish the top 500 of them in what's called our top 500 reports. And chains had probably one of the worst years that we've seen in the last, I don't know, decade. I mean, chains were only up about 3% last year. It's a substantial slowdown
Starting point is 00:22:50 from what we've seen. And so I think this consumer pullback is real, and it's impacting certainly the independents. And I think from a margin in profitability, we're seeing that from independence. But it's certainly hitting the chains. And last year, you had over 30 restaurant company bankruptcies. And that's continued here into the first quarter of 2025. And so the big chains aren't immune from it. And it really then, I think, the exception kind of proves the rule. When you see great performers like a Texas Roadhouse or a Chili's who are just killing it, those are really the standouts. But the sort of rank and file of a lot of chains, up to and including McDonald's and some of the other ones are really struggling
Starting point is 00:23:31 in this environment, and the consumer pullback is real. I mean, even Chipotle was surprising to me. I want to get to Texas Red House and Chili's in a sec. I probably eat at Chipotle once a week, so I'm definitely biased there, but I can get a good bowl of food for $12. I know what I'm getting, and yet fewer people are going there because of the price increases. Now, I know they've increased prices, but that one, even where there's a really strong perceived value there, at least for me, and I think for a lot of people, is experiencing that decline. Are you seeing any traffic numbers or same-store sales data that is surprising to you as a trend watcher here? Well, I think we're increasingly
Starting point is 00:24:09 seeing winners and losers. And so, some of the things that have been most surprising to me, again, Chili's, the last two quarters, have posted basically right around 31% same-store sales. That is unheard of for high-flying chains, much less a legacy casual dining chain. And so Chili's is one that we just continue to look at as executing on all cylinders. They are doing phenomenally well. I think Taco Bell is one that they posted 9% same-store sales this most recent quarter, first quarter, after being up 5%, 4%. But they've been doing really well. McDonald's was down about 3.5% last quarter. Starbucks continues to struggle. They were down 2%. So a lot of what are the biggest chains in the industry are having value issues. They're having
Starting point is 00:25:00 traffic issues. Some of the smaller chains, and some of them don't publicly report, but we've been very high on a lot of these sort of beverage players, Dutch bros, some of these kind of non Starbucks coffee or beverage chains that are doing really well. And so, you know, last year we saw, you know, a bunch of these chains that just did really well. Seven Brew and Swig, which does the dirty sodas, things like that. So I think it's a it's a tough time for for legacy brands. And I think consumers are voting with their wallets and they're trying to say, you know, I have fewer dining occasions today than I did a year ago. And so I want to pick those establishments that are my favorites or that I know I'm going to get a great value. Value, by the way, is not necessarily
Starting point is 00:25:43 lowest price, but they want a great value. And so we're not in a situation where a rising tide is lifting everybody anymore. We're in a situation where the industry is flat to maybe slightly down and you really start to see those winners that are standing above and beyond everybody else because of what they offer to the consumer. And so I think same store sales are certainly part of it. And you can look down the list and see who's performing. But the ones, again, Chili's, Taco Bell are the ones, just as I'm looking at. So, you can look at maybe a handful of chains that are outperforming in this market. But for the most part, it's flat to down when you look at most of the big public company chain reports and what their same-store sales are.
Starting point is 00:26:29 Dutch Pros is the one that continues to surprise me. I went there one time, I think I got a chocolate-covered strawberry mocha. I saw on the menu they have a 9-1-1 drink, where you can get six shots of espresso in one drink, but people like it. I see, I see lines outside the door at like eight, eight o'clock. Anyway, Chili's Chili's is, is the incredible one to me, 31% from a year ago. And they, I think they were growing since then too. Three for me deal. Can't go wrong with that. I think you get like chips and salsa burger fries for 10 bucks. And I was pretty happy with it, but this is one where you look at Chili's versus Applebee's Applebee's is not enjoying a similar level of growth, even though on the surface you would think they're
Starting point is 00:27:10 having a pretty similar offering. What has Chili's been able to figure out in this environment that many other chains have not? We've done a fairly deep dive into Chili's. Actually, some of our sister publications have awarded the CEO with Restaurant Tour of the Year. Obviously, they're doing a really great job. They are relevant to, I think, the younger consumers. I've got a couple kids in their 20s who Chili's is now on their radar again, right? I mean, you know, 10 years ago, if you asked, you know, sort of a younger person to go to a chain, they would have been like, no way, there's no chance. They've become relevant again. A lot of that is through their social media marketing. Certainly, the value promotions, the margarita promotions they run
Starting point is 00:27:50 are really successful. But they do a great job of having a barbell strategy. And so, they do, you know, have a lot of sort of low-priced or value-oriented type things. But you can also have a premium experience if you want. And, you know, and I think there's a lot of chains doing that and I don't want to over commit to that's why they're doing well, but I think they've just remained relevant. And I think the big part of what they do, uh, is, uh, I I've talked a lot about the general manager and how important the general manager is in setting the tone for the service, the overall experience that patrons have when they come in, because a lot of, a lot of your experience is not just, you know, how much you paid or, or, you know, what the food was because
Starting point is 00:28:31 a lot of these casual dining chains are kind of in that ballpark. But it's also the experience you have through servers. And Chili's has done a great job of really giving their general managers sort of the ability to fix things within their own restaurant. And they've invested heavily in their GMs and the labor situation and training, I think, in different ways than some of their competitors have. Because you're right, Fridays, Applebee's, right? I mean, some of these other casual dining chains that you would say, they all play in the same sandbox, if nothing else. They are not doing nearly as well. Chili's last year was up 15%. If I look at Applebee's, they were down 6%. Friday's was even lower. Chili's has done a great job through relevance,
Starting point is 00:29:19 through marketing, social media, menu development, menu relevance, and service and ambiance to really set the set the tone for for what a casual dining restaurant should be in 2025 and then as we close out i saw an x your x account that key lime pie is in your top three desserts okay citrus with dairy a little controversial i was surprised to see that key lime pie happy to see it show up but it's not something you really crave so i guess you know you got a wild mind here david what's what's your top three desserts i love a good cheesecake and in my mind that key pie is sort of an elevated, I know they're not the same, but it's, it's sort of the same type of experience with a little bit of a sour. And, and, um, you know, I was down in Key West about
Starting point is 00:30:05 a year and a half ago, two years ago, and I had some of the, the fresh key lime, you know, the birthplace of key lime pie. And it was, it was just delicious. And so I think if I had to look at my top three, that's a great question. I don't, I don't, I'm not a big sweet guy. I'm more of a savory guy my wife really loves the sweets and i'm kind of more of a kind of salty savory type things you know brownies ice cream i like i'll eat it but i think i think key lime pie is just it's definitely up there for me what i mean what's uh obviously it's controversial you don't appreciate it what's what's your top dessert or i appreciate it i'm a sweets guy so i appreciate the key lime pie no disrespect to the key lime pie i'm going uh i think you know what i don't
Starting point is 00:30:48 think dolce de leche gets enough love i love i love dolce de leche great and uh i'm gonna take jenny's take five ice cream okay great ice cream very specific and then the classic s'more when you're building up to that outside time you got a campfire going s'mores are coming that's that's when the hype cycle's coming so i'll i'll go with those top three i'll tell you one other thing that i will throw in and i was just in europe on vacation a couple weeks ago the gelato in europe is phenomenal. It's got to be a very specific gelato, because the stuff you get here in the States is not as great. But if you're over, and I was in Portugal and Spain, and some of the gelato that I had there was just second to none. It was phenomenal. I really got to travel to get the
Starting point is 00:31:32 desserts you like. I got to go to Key West, and I got to go to Europe. You're making it tough on the listener. David Hankes, Senior Principal of Technomic. Thank you for your time and your insight. Appreciate you joining us on Motley Fool Money. Thanks for having me, Ricky. Listeners, a quick programming note as we wrap up today's show. This is my last Monday episode here in the host seat. I'll be wrapping up my time here at The Fool later this week, and I have one more radio show ahead of me with the team this Friday. I've been lucky enough to be here over a decade and been honored to be one of the many voices here at TMF that you turn to for a Foolish take on what's going on in the market, whether it was here on Motley Fool Money
Starting point is 00:32:05 or way back in the day on Industry Focus. I'm going to miss chatting with our analysts and hearing from you all in our mailbag and on our voicemail, but I'm excited to flip over from host to listener. We talk about it often here, time is the most valuable thing you have. The biggest tool in your investing life, and it's the most valuable resource in your personal life. Thank you for all the time you spent with me over the years. As always, people on the program may have interest in the stocks they talk about, and Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against, so don't buy or sell anything based on what you hear. All personal finance content follows Motley Fool editorial standards and is not approved by advertisers. Advertisements are
Starting point is 00:32:37 sponsored content provided for informational purposes only. To see our full advertising disclosure, please check out the show notes. For The Motley Fool Money Team, I'm Dylan Lewis. We'll be back tomorrow.

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