The Best One Yet - "1 app to rule them all" — Google zucks Venmo. TJ Maxx's final treasure hunt. GM's in-car-surance.

Episode Date: November 20, 2020

Google’s new finance app is straight up Venmo, with all privacy perks you expect from Google. TJ Maxx is 100% focused on the treasure hunt experience of physical shopping, but then yesterday happened. And General Motors realized it knows more about your driving skills than your insurance company does, which led to an idea...$TJX $GOOG $GMGot a SnackFact? Tweet it @RobinhoodSnacks @TBOYJack @NickOfNewYorkWant a shoutout on the pod? Fill out this form:https://forms.gle/KhUAo31xmkSdeynD9Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. And this is Snacks Daily. It is Friday, November 20th. LPOW last part of the week. We can pull acronyms out of anywhere. This happens to be also T-B-O-Y, the best one yet. Jack, what do we got the first story for?

Google is zucking Venmo and just about every other finance product out there. Jack, it's banking now with less privacy. Great tagline, Nick. For our second story, T.J. Max was 100% focused on the treasure hunt experience of in-person physical shopping. Yeah, that was until, looking at the count, yesterday. This was until yesterday. And for our third and final story, funny thing, General Motors just noticed about their drivers. Yeah, they realize they know more about your driving skills than your insurance company does. So, let's launch a product and have a coveted snacks. Idea. We got a good idea here.

But Snackers, before we jump into that wonderful mix of stories, Jack and I noticed that the NFL is going to have a football game a little bit work from home style. Players are basically going to be zooming into this one, Nick. We're talking the Pro Bowl, Jack, supposed to be in Las Vegas this year for the league's All-Stars to compete in real life, three key words. The Pro Bowl is basically the all-star game in the NFL, and it's still happening the week before the Super Bowl. It just won't happen.

I like your emphasis over there. Instead of get this, actually, Snackers, instead of physically destroying each other in real life, the NFL's All-Stars are going to be competing digitally. Unnecessary roughness. That's right. the 2021 Pro Bowl will take place on Madden 21, a video game. We're talking Patrick Mahomas versus Kyler Murray in their pixelated glory competing via joystick. Sacking Tom Brady 12 times in a video game is as satisfying as one sack in real life.

We did the calculations. Jack, I heard that on Madden. It's actually easier for Bill Belichick to cheat. It's a real thing. You can do that now. By the way, Snackers, the player selected to the Pro Bowl, they're still going to get that cash bonus that comes with all-star status like every season. As we've said it before and we'll say it again, even if you're the NFL Incorporated,

guac is always extra. Unnecessary virtual roughness. Let's hit our three stories. You're tuned in the snacks daily. We spoke to the lawyers and we got to get some legal out the way. It snacks about to hear ain't food. It's ear candy. They don't reflect the views of the robberhood family.

It's all informational just so. We're not recommending any securities. It's not a research report or investment advice. Not an offer or sale of a security. Snacks is digestible, business news for you, Robberhood Financial, LLC, member FINRA slash SIPC. For our first story, Google is going full Venmo. Because the whole fintech industry is obsessed with Lord of the Rings,

aka a loader. Snackers, this is kind of wild, but exactly one year ago this week, Google told us it was going to jump into finance. I'm sorry, finance. Yes. Now partner with existing banks to offer checking accounts. That was Google's plan because it didn't want to be a bank, yada, yada, yada, yada. We've heard the story before.

Yes, we have. But then it turns out Google spent 12 months training in Siberia like Bruce Wayne and Liam Neeson, great pair. Batman Begins is arguably the best of the Batman trilogy. But now, Google's jacked. And it's finally relaunched Google Pay app with a total three-tab makeover. Total makeover situation. They must have had 40 p.m. on this thing. Now, the first tab is called Insights.

This isn't the sexiest one. It's going to connect all your bank accounts. tell you about how you're spending, it's basically mint. It's mint, but on like techie steroids because it's going to crawl through your emails and your Gmail and check out the photos you've taken of receipts. Auto-scan them and use machine learning to like tell you exactly more insights on what you've been spending. Yeah, so Jack, like you know how you got that prescription for a titastrosol for that thing on your thigh? Google is now going to know you've got a thing on your thigh.

Nick, you just violated like three HIPAA rules. I'm pretty sure. I know. I think that's not in our disclosures, though. The second tab in this new Google Pay app is simply called pay because it's for spending. And this one is going to connect with all your contacts so you can pay Donna back for drinks directly so it's peer-to-peer, so it's basically Venmo. There's one feature, though, in this pay app from Google that kind of goes above and beyond

what Venmo offers. It's going to be a group pay option that's going to let you text with a text chain of friends sharing money, not text, like when our buddy Timmy spent $273 a trader Joe's and then told us afterwards. This is going to be great for roommates who like, solidate bills together. And then we had to pay Tim back for $243 of Trader Joe sausages. The third and final tab on this app is called Explore. Yeah, and Explore is where things get really freaky, because this is going to be deals, but not just any deals. It's Groupon plus CIA level

stocking. Yes, they are going to track your spending for the last three months and then customize the deals just for you based on your spending habits. Let's see, you bought some sparries, you bought a lacrosse. You're located at a Neskack school. Boom. Here's 30% off your next bin, then your vines purchase. Perfectly said, Nick. I think Google's got a job for you. So Jack and I have been looking at this Google situation, and we're like, all right, the winner here,

it's pretty clear. It's convenience. It does sound like a convenient product, but the loser here, potentially privacy. Because Jack and I know Google's already knowing everything. You're searching for on Google, plus Google Maps, plus your Gmail. And with this, Google will also see everything you're buying,

not just in your Google Pay account, but in all the other accounts you've linked to the Google Pay app. Now, Google is saying that they're not sharing this information with any third parties or its very own Google ad business. But still. But still. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Google? The entire fintech industry has a Lord of the Rings goal. Yes, it does.

One app to rule them all. One app. Snackers, think of all the financial technology fintech apps in your phone. First of all, they're probably blue. Yes, and each started with one financial service to build a huge user base. But then each of those fintech apps, launched a complementary fintech service, and then another financial service. Snackers, we've found so much evidence. It is overwhelming, so you might want to sit down to listen to this list of examples.

This is going to take some time. Venmo started with peer-to-peer payments. Now it has a debit card. Squares Cash App also started with peer-to-peer payments. Now they do brokerage. Robin Hood, aka us, we started with a brokerage. Now we have cash management. Betterment started with a Robo Advisor tool, and they just launched cash management too. So-Fi started with student loans and now they've got crypto. All these fintech companies hope the convenience of all finance products in one app, that'll keep you as a long-time loyal customer. And that's why the goal of all fintech apps seems to be one finance app to rule them all.

For our second story, T.J. Max was 100% anti-ecommerce forever, ever, ever. But that all changed yesterday with a striking change of tone. Snackers, it's not just T.J. Max. These guys have the X for Extreme. We're talking TJX companies based in lovely Framingham, Massachusetts. Darlene, this guy wants a large regular. Give him two pumps. But Darlene's cousin just announced third quarter earnings. Now, it's called T.J.X. That's the publicly traded company. But they own three brands you've heard of, T.J. Max, home goods, and marshals. Legendary companies. But the interesting thing that Jack and I noticed is that T.J. Max's companies have gone through an evolution in just the last six months.

Let's go back to May 21st of this year. That's when T.J. Max suffered an 887 million dollar quarterly loss. Snackers, remember that number. It's going to become critical later on in the story. They lost that much money because this company is 100% dependent on their physical brick and mortar stores, which were all closed at the beginning of the pandemic. And that's because tjmax.com exists, but it's not friendly. They're charging $9 for shipping and get this jack, $100 for the free shipping. Right. They're basically yelling at you to close your computer and come into our physical stores. are right down the block. An aggressive peer pressure situation.

Oh, at Homegoods.com, their other websites, they just tell you the closest store. They're not even trying. They're not even bothering with this whole worldwide web thing. Okay, one month later, you know, the economy had started to reopen. T.J. Max had 85% of their stores open, and the Max Anistas,

they flocked back to the stores hard. Oh, my, it was June 22nd. I remember it like yesterday, Jack. You and I were talking about how this was a new thing, revenge shopping. Yes. Pent-up shopping rage. after three months of being stuck at home,

scrolling through Instagram and clicking on ads. Get this, there were so many customers hitting T.J. Max over the summer, T.J. Max actually got complaints that their stores were picked over in aisle 6. Now, what's really driving these Maxinistas, of which I am occasionally, by the way, full disclosure here. Great disclosure. Treasure Hunt Shop. Yep, that's what T.J. Max is known for. Treasure Hunt Shop.

And that epic search for the $16 crop pull over top, you can't do that online with the same satisfaction. action. It feels so good when you get a polo for 20 bucks that retails for 78. In store, you also get those colorful number cards. You know those Jack for the dressing room? Those are great. Oh yeah, you got seven items over your shoulder. They're going to give you a cute yellow number seven card so everyone knows how many things are trying on. So fellow Max Enista, CEO Ernie Herman, was feeling pretty confident and issued these bold words. Nothing will change at TJ Max. Nothing will change with our business. So we're going to fast forward to, you know, yesterday, November 19th, 2020, remember that $887 million loss we mentioned from earlier in the year?

T.J. Max pulled an impressive switcheroo and turned it into basically the same-sized profit. $867 million. They've been shockingly resilient through this pandemic. Sales only like inch down 5%. But Ernie, the CEO, announced a major strategy change. They are launching an online platform, something he said he wouldn't do just a few months ago. Home goods is going online. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddy's treasure shop and over at T.J. Max. If you're early, you're on time. If you're on time, you're late. Yeah, that's a quote from legendary football CEO, Bob Ritter, football coach and lacrosse coach over at Middlebury College, Jack, confirmed. This is a D3 Neskak legend Bob Ritter is, and he happened to coach both Nick and me and gave us those sage words of advice. Now, over at T.J. Max, they need those words because the holiday season is upon us, and they're in major trouble because this is their critical

shopping quarter. COVID-19 is spiking across the country. Public health is scary, but the company has gone all in on these physical stores that the CDC is telling us not to go visit. So that's why they just announced this HomeGoods online platform this week, but here's the problem. It won't be ready until the second half of 2021. It's going to take nine months for HomeGoods.com to really be a launched online platform. So technically, Jack and I are looking at it, and this announcement, it isn't early. It's really like on time for the holiday season. But that means it's late. Way too late. For our third and final story, General Motors tweaked their cars to reward you for driving safely and to penalize you if you speed. Which Snackers means we got to kick things off with a decent trivia question here. How many car

accidents do you think there are in the United States every year? We hit up our buddies over at Wikipedia on my laptop and they said there are six million car accidents that happen every year in the United States. All right. So that one's like a decent trivia question. Better trivia question. Jack loves to drop this one. Who are the only two states that don't require car insurance in the United States? New Hampshire and Virginia are the only states that don't require you to because, you know, live free or roll over hard. No helmets, no problem. Now, Snackers, the car insurance industry is gigantic. Americans pay $247 billion a year for car insurance, which is over $1,000 a year for each licensed American driver. And most of them,

insurance is priced with a calculator and the least technical algorithm ever. You basically just go to Affleck.com, enter your gender, your car, check, your accident and ticket history, and your geography. That's it. And then boom, you're paying $121 a month through Geico for that forerunner based in San Diego. Oh, wait, you're male? Boom. 14% higher rates than women because you're probably, according to our data, more reckless than females. Jack, you want to make a little disclosure here? Even if your wife is from Long Island and swears like every eighth mile, and you always yield. You always yield. When Jack's in the front seat,

Alex has always given him the NASA County nudge, right, Jack? Her hand is like always trigger-ready, ready to hit the horn. Or it could be the Suffolk County shake. We all know what that looks like. The Suffolk County shout, actually. Now, this all sounds like shockingly unsophisticated and a one-size-fits-all pricing model. Yes, it does.

But data lets you do something more powerful. Customize pricing. This isn't just some, like, discount that that duck or gecko is going to send you if you don't get into an accident for 12 months. Right, because maybe you just got lucky for not getting into an accident, even though you're actually a bad driver. This is what Jack and I find fascinating. General Motors is going to give you a discount for actually driving safely because General Motors is the car. And they can do that through OnStar, GM's connected car technology, which is now offering car insurance. So if you agree to

like let GM watch you drive all day, it'll drop your premium if you're a safe driver. Nick, did you to a complete stop at that red light? Yes, Jack, I did. That's three bucks off a month. Did you anticipate the turn and slow down before you got there and then turn gradually? Jack, I did. That's $10 off a month my car insurance. Nick, did you peel out, accelerate, and slam the brakes every time you stop? Yeah, I probably did. That's $13 a month back on my car insurance bill. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at General Motors? Apple sells services for iPhones. Car companies want to sell services for their cars. Snackers, if Apple just sold iPhones, it maybe be worth like a trillion dollars. It'd be a trillion dollar company. That's a lot, Nick. But it also sells every iPhoneer like 10 bucks a month in recurring revenue services. That's why it's worth $2 trillion. And Jack and I are starting to see car companies move toward that same business model as Apple. Ford's new electric worker van has a $25 a month tech subscription that we talked about last week. Yes, we did. And General Motors now has connected cars that can offer monthly car insurance that talking about right now. And these subscription services, they have much lower costs associated with

them than physical products do, so they can be more profitable for the companies. So Snackers, as more hardware companies get internet connected, look for them to up their service game most of all. And look for the turn so you anticipate it and break before you get to the turn. Especially in New Hampshire. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us before the weekend? Google Pay now does what Venmo does, and it wants to do everything else. too. Fintech apps, they're pulling a token. They want to become the one app to rule them all. For our second story, T.J. Max was confident this summer that they didn't need to change despite COVID. But just on time for the holiday season, they changed their mind, which means they're

too late. For our third of file story, GM has the technology that can tell you if you're a safe driver or a reckless driver. Like Apple, they're turning that tech into a service, and we're going to see more tech turn it into a service. Now, Jack, time for our snack fact of the day. This one tweeted in by Sean David and lovely Greenpoint Brooklyn, fantastic restaurant scene. McCarran Park. Great park. Great park. Turns out planning is underway for the world's largest solar farm ever. It's going to be located in the Australian Outback, the original Outback, where it will be the size of 20,000 football fields invisible all the way from outer space. Here's the thing, though. It won't power Australia where it is. Key distinction here,

it's going to power Singapore a mere 3,000 miles away, which means it'll all. also used the world's largest submarine power cable. One Guinness book of world record wasn't enough. They wanted a second world record. By the way, Jack, what was your college football nickname again? Well, I threw like Tebow, but it was D3, so naturally, D3 Bell. Jack, I think this is officially the most publicity the Nescat conference has received in about a decade or two. Snackers, have a fantastic weekend. If you bump into anybody not snacking yet, ask him H-Y-H-Y-S-D. Ask him, have you had your snacks daily? By the way, Everyone looked fantastic this week.

We'll see a Monday. If you know, you know. And before we go, Snackers, big congrats to Kate Oss and Tino, a snacker who's graduating out in Kansas. And to Daniel Schaever and Kayla Hart, congrats on getting engaged in Barrow Beach, Florida. Catherine and Ryan, two Snackers celebrating anniversary in Maryland.

Dude, Alex Knight just got promoted in Cleveland. And happy birthday to Samarth Chavla over in Singapore, who's going to enjoy some nice solar energy. And Pridipa Pula in Warringall, India. And Jana Ramprez in Katie, Texas. and Adina Kerfut in Jackson, Tennessee, and Alex Fernandez in Lake Mary, Florida. And La Ravin Tammony in Gainesville, Florida, go Gators.

And Lindsey Kean over in Atlanta. And happy birthday to Robin Bass in Chicago. Owensomarth, we heard you do a good impression of Jack and me. Can you please send that on Instagram? This is Jack, nickel and stock of Apple. The Robin Hood Snacks podcast you just heard reflects the opinions of only the hosts who are associated persons of Robin Hood Financial LLC

and does not reflect the views of Robin Hood markets Inc. or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates. The podcast is for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as a recommendation to buy or sell any security and is not an offer or sale of a security. The podcast is also not a research report and is not intended to serve as the basis of any investment decision. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member FINRA, SIPC.