The Best One Yet - 🍦 “$18 for a Frosty?” – Wendy’s surge pricing. The grocery store election. Apple’s canceled iCar.

Episode Date: February 28, 2024

Inspired by Uber, Wendy’s is adding digital billboards to all locations by 2025 so it can bring Surge Pricing to fast food — How much does a burger cost? Depends on the time of day.Kroger and Albertsons were about to merge in the biggest deal in grocery history, but the government just sued to block it — Because this year’s election will be decided in the grocery aisle.And after 10 years of developing a secret iCar, Apple is quitting — But we think Apple already owns your car (we’ll explain).Intro: Gen Z is making landlines cool again. Because landline phones are liberating.$WEN $AAPL $KR $ACISubscribe to our newsletter: tboypod.com/newsletterWant merch, a shoutout, or got TheBestFactYet? Go to: www.tboypod.comFollow The Best One Yet on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypodAnd now watch us on Youtube Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Wednesday, Saviche Wednesday, February 28th. And today's pod is the best one yet. We're bringing up the top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Jack, while you're in San Francisco, we got a surprise for you. What do you got for me? Okay, I'll give you a hint.

You ready for the hint? Yeah. It's got your name on it. Did you get me an L-L-L-Bin toad? It's got your name on it. Did you get me a Yeti Tumblr? It's got your name on it. What is it?

First story. for today's show. What are you got? Oh, you're not telling me the reveal? You're getting after dinner. Okay. We'll update you on the pod tomorrow with what Nick's surprising with tonight. It's got his name on it. For our first story, Wendy's CEO just announced they're bringing Surge pricing to fast food. How much is a Baconator burger over Wendy's? It depends on the time of day. For our second story, the FTC just moved to block the biggest grocery store merger ever. Because this presidential election will be won or lost in the grocery. aisle. And our third and final story. After 10 years working on it, Apple just quit their electric

car project. There will be no Icar. But Jack and I think that Apple already won the car and will explain why. But Yeties, before we had that wonderful mix of stories. Fantastic mix of stories today, Jack. The cool thing the kids are talking about these days is not Ugboots, eyeliner, or TikTok. No, Yeti's the cool new thing these days is the landline. That's right. The phone connected to your house. Landline. It's like a landlocked phone. You know the phones with the curly cords, the big buttons, even maybe those twirly things you need to spin around the wheel. Mom, get off. Give me some privacy. Hang up. Get this yet. He's Gen Z is apparently loving landlines these days. So Gen Z is bringing back the phone on a string.

Yeah, Jack, could you sprinkle on a little context for us, please, over that? Only 25% of American households have a landline in the home today. But for people under 18, that is novel. That is Y2K core. That It's like a new technology. So Gen Z is bringing back the obsolete technology like they did with vinyl records and Polaroid cameras. For people under 18, the landline is a gold mine. We're talking about the phone you called your boyfriend with 8 o'clock on a school night. Hey, Mr. Parker, is Alex there?

Oh, I'll wait for five minutes and make some small talk. So Jack and I wanted to know why are we getting all the landline love these days? Because in the screen-filled world that we live in, the landline is like a lifeline. You're feeling notification fatigue. You don't mind that your phone has an umbilical cord. The landline can be liberating. Because you can only take a landline call from the bedroom in which you have the landline. And you can't see who's calling before you pick up.

And there's nothing quite like the twirl of that curly plastic cord. So your nana, she doesn't have an iPhone. She has a landline. And that makes your nana the coolest thing since Mary Cade and Ashley Olson. But Nick, the only problem with a landline telephone. Oh, what is it, Jack? You can't listen to a podcast on landline telephone. One sec, sorry, is this Jack?

This is Jack? Is Nick there? Oh, this is Nick? Hey, Jack. Is this a long distance phone call? Hold for a sec. Let's hit our three stories. Hold on.

Let me start 69. You just hung out by me. One second, I got a call in line too. Fifteen years before this song. Two boys from the Northeast met in the don't know because we're ready to go. We can't wait no more. So just start the show. Our first story, Wendy's is doing something unprecedented in the fast food industry, surge pricing.

Wendy's is testing Uber's dynamic pricing. pricing model on the Baconator. There is no precedent, baby. Yetis, if you look at McDonald's, Shake, Shaq, and Yum Brands, those are fast food stocks that are all near their all-time highs. All-time highs. They got some Big Mac mojo right now, Jack. But Wendy's does not. Wendy's is not doing well. Yeah, the home of the square hamburger is struggling right now. The stock is down 25% from the pre-pendemic highs, despite the boom times for the rest of the fast food industry. So, this is what Jack and I noticed. In the latest earnings, call from Wendy's. The CEO just announced a solution to Wendy's challenges. Dynamic pricing.

Wendy's is going to spend 20 million bucks to add digital menus to all their locations by 2025. Why digital menus? Why, Jack? Because you can change the prices instantly. Yeties. Wendy's is adopting surge pricing, which would be the biggest change to fast food since the self-served sluppy machine. I stick a landing on that, Jack? Almost. Okay, I'll take it. Round up. This means that, Fron, The frosty prices at Wendy's will fluctuate throughout the day, depending on the time, the demand, even the weather. Okay, for example, like the time of day. Wendy's could charge a dollar more during rush hour and a dollar less during the slow periods. Which would be fixing supply and demand.

If Wendy's is short on burgers but has too many chicken patties, they could charge a dollar more for the burger and a dollar less for the chicken. And the weather, Jack... If it's sunny and 100 degrees, crank up the frosty prices by 100%. Oh, Jack, let's say you got a big local event. That could affect how much you spend at Wendy's. Big high school football game just ended on Friday night. Hey, watch out. Wendy's is surging right now. Oh, that frosty.

It's going to costy. I'll take it. So, yeah, these, here's the thing. Society has accepted surge pricing in certain industries, like hotels, airfare, and ride hail apps. Those all have surge pricing and always have. Service industries are tend to be where we see search pricing happening. But will we accept surge pricing for fast? food. Will we like that Wendy's menu is starting to look like an eBay auction? Changing prices in

real time? I don't think we'll like that at all. Welcome to Wendy's, Mr. Kramer. Are you hungry today? Very hungry. Well, we just increase the prices accordingly. Enjoy your $15 bacon. Oh, shoot. I shouldn't have said very hungry. It'll be $17. I just got, I just searched price myself. It's now $18. Clearly, the stakes of Wendy's move is high. Why is that exactly? If Wendy's pulls this off, then the whole food industry might go surge pricing. Jack, I think the extra guac just got more extra in the time we were doing this story. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Wendy's? Sometimes economics clashes with humanomics.

Yeties, two lessons Jack and I have learned studying the surge pricing model. Surge pricing is actually an economist dream because it efficiently adjust prices in order to balance a mismatch between supply and demand. But recently, the economic benefit. of search pricing isn't worth the PR cost. Exhibit A, Lyft. They helped pioneer surge pricing with the ride-haling app, but Lyft announced last year they're trying to get rid of surge pricing. According to the CEO of Lyft, consumers quote, hate search pricing with a fiery passion.

AMC theaters, they tried to apply surge pricing to movie theater tickets last year, but they had to cancel that experiment after consumer outrage. It is tempting for new businesses to adopt surge pricing just like the hospitality, and ride hail industries. Because the economics of surge pricing are just so good. But the economic benefit doesn't seem to be worth the consumer backlash and PR cost. Sometimes the rules of economics clash with the reality of humanomics. For our second story, the government just sued to block Kroger from merging with Albertsons.

They're trying to block the biggest grocery deal in U.S. history because groceries are the word of this election. How would you describe a Kroger grocery store customer? Kroger's is the grocery store of the Midwest. Yeah, yeah, can you go a little deeper for us? I saw it everywhere in Michigan when I studied there. Kroger's where Packers fans buy their cheese and were Bears fans buy their sausage. There's nearly 3,000 Kroger's, and it dominates the Midwest based out of Cincinnati, Ohio. Well, Kroger grocery stores has been trying to buy Albertson's grocery store chain of the West.

This combined entity wouldn't just be Kroger's and Albertsons, though. They would also control Shaw's and Vons and Safeway and like a half dozen other grocery chains. Get this, Yeties. This combined $25 billion grocery merger would create a grocery giant with 5,000 locations. That is more locations than Walmart. Now, this deal was announced in 2022, but it hasn't closed yet. And here's the news, Jack. The FTC in nine states just sued Kroger this week, telling them to put all those groceries back on the shelf. They asked a judge to block the merger, arguing that it's bad for competition and prices your groceries would only go up.

Groger and Albertsons, they say the opposite will happen if they merge. They said if they combine, they'll have the size to negotiate lower prices from the food companies. And of course, they'd pass on those lower prices to us instead of take them as profits. But Jack, we paused the pod for a second because Jack and I were having a lovely dinner yesterday evening. And what have we realized as we were munching down on some boon hot sauce? Grocery prices is all anyone can talk about in this country. It's like the number one issue, groceries. And for good reason, let's talk about the data man.

The average American family is spending 11% of their income just on food. Could you sprinkle on some more context for us? That is the highest percentage we're spending on food as a percent of our paycheck in 31 years. Eddie's, well, you're buying cereal for the kids or you're buying $18 almond butter after Barry's boot camp. It's the highest percentage of your paycheck it's ever been. And here's the key. White House analysis says that nothing is hurting American consumer sentiment more than the high grocery prices they see at the grocery store. And I should point out yet is the president and the United States cannot like unilaterally lower the price of that $18 Justin's almond butter.

Our president is not a dictator. No, no. That's up to the grocery stores and the market. But our president can use his bully pulpit and shame grocery stores. Ah, the power of shame. You could shame grocery stores and food companies for what the president calls greedflation. And he's doing that. And he's also now trying to block this big grocery merger to symbolically show that he cares about this issue. So, Jack, paper or plastic, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are everyone buying groceries? This presidential election will be decided in the grocery aisle.

It's the grocery election. Yet as we enter this horrid election season, immigration is a flashpoint. Besides immigration, though, the key theme is always the economy. In America, pocketbook issues have always been the huge driver of political results. Jobs, the stock market, wages, those are all traditional pocketbook issues. But here's the interesting thing. For the first time in Jackson in my lives, everyone is ignoring those three key pocketbook issues. Instead, all we can think about is groceries.

We are a country obsessed with grocery and food prices. Now, look, many Americans are solidly Democrat or Republican, and they're going to vote for their party no matter what. But for undecided Americans, the number one. issue this election season is the grocery receipt. It's not foreign policy, it's food prices. For our third and final story, in a rare eye defeat, Apple has reportedly killed off their big car project. But even though the Apple car is dead, we think Apple already won your car. Ten years. Jack, it has been ten years of this dream and vision. Apple started working on an Apple car in 2014. It was a secret project called Project Titan, and we covered it back in 2014 with our first

company. It's actually the most reported on secret ever. This would have been a self-driving Apple Icar of the future. It would have been a rolling iPhone that's indispensable to your life. No pedals, no steering wheel, the most innovative transportation since the foot. Jack, did you hear about the chassis on this thing? It was going to look like a dongle. It was going to be amazing. Well, last month, we covered news that Apple was downgrading, that huge car ambition. Last month, yet is we told you that Apple's self-driving our car was simply going to be an electric eye car that was not self-driving. It was a big downgrade of ambition. Our take back then, why are they even calling it an eye car? It should be called the Y car. It's like, why are you

even making a car apple? Well, we have an update to that update now. The car project that Apple is dead, according to Mark German, the reporter at Bloomberg. Apple Icar, RIP. Looks like Apple executives agree with our Y car analysis. assigning 2,000 employees and billions of dollars of resources from cars to artificial intelligence. Investors loved the news. That was the shocker. Apple quit their car and the stock jumped. And why is that, Jack? Because Apple is moving from a low-profit industry to a high-profit industry. AI. But Nick and I need to point something out. Yet he's the way Jack and I see it, Apple's car is lost. But Apple already won the car industry.

single time. I drive a car. Yeah, Jack. The first thing I do is plug in my iPhone. You're a car play guy. You're a car play guy. CarPlay guy. CarPlay is Apple's car software and it's ubiquitous among car driving iPhone owners. Yet this, besties, 80% of new cars have Apple CarPlay. So the odds are Apple's already in that Accura. No, and here's the key part about all this. According to Apple, 79% of American car buyers will only even consider a car if it supports Apple CarPlay first. He's four out of five of you, won't even take a test drive unless that thing has got car play. So yes, Apple is quitting the car. But Apple's already in 80% of the cars.

Apple lost the car, but Apple already won the car. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies over at Apple? Apple CarPlay is ironically the Android of Cars. Yet is, when Apple invented the iPhone, it added trillions of dollars of future value to the company. That same year in 2007, Google invented Android. Now, Google didn't make a phone hardware. Instead, Google made just a phone software. And today, just about every phone not made by Apple runs on that Google Android software.

And as a result, Google is making huge money in ad sales because it controls the operating system of all non- iPhones. Well, now, it looks like Apple can do something similar. They can make money on cars even though they're not Apple cars because Apple does the software. Besties long term, Apple's car play could have a similarly huge issue. impact as Google's Android. While Apple's car was failing, Apple's car play was thriving. And car play is the Android of cars. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us for Saviche Wednesday? Wendy's CEO is bringing digital menus to all restaurants by 2025 to test surge pricing. Surge pricing. Great

economics, but it clashes with the reality of humanomics. I think people are going to be pissed. Frosty's $40, Jack. For our second story, the federal. The federal government in nine states just sued to block the Kroger and Albertson's grocery merger. This presidential election will be decided in Isle 6. It's the grocery election. And our third and final story is Apple. It reportedly quit their goal of building a car. But they already won the car.

Yeah, because CarPlay lives on. Ironically, CarPlay is the Android of Cars. But Yeties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, President Biden says he hopes for a Gaza ceasefire. coming as soon as next Monday. Negotiations are for a six-week pause and fighting in exchange for a hostage release, and it would all coincide with the Muslim holiday Ramadan.

And second, Toyota was the winner of the Consumer Report's best cars at 2024. Toyota had four of the top ten cars in America last year. Which ones were they, Jack? Four of them, they were all hybrid. And finally, Modelo Especial continues to be the number one beer in America. 9% of all the beer sold around the Super Bowl was Modelo Especial. Budlight was number two. Now, time for the best fact yet, this one whipped up by Jack and me because we read it over the weekend and we just couldn't wait to share it with you.

More languages are spoken in the Queens County of New York than in any other place on earth. More languages are spoken per a square mile in the borough of Queens than any other place in the world. There are 700 languages spoken in New York City. 150 of which are endangered languages. Yeah, if you've been on the seven train, you've heard like 546 languages, I think, Jack. All this data is according to the Endangered Language Alliance and the New York Times. For example, Tadi is a Latin American language that's only spoken by 10,000 people on earth. But it is also one of the languages spoken in Queens.

Queens, it's basically the entire world in one place. Did you know Queens completely envelopes Brooklyn? It's hugging Brooklyn, Jack. It is. It's fucking Brooklyn. Yeties, you looked fantastic for Saviche Wednesday. And if you haven't yet, if you want to help grow the pod, the best way you can do it, turn to your buddy in line and say H-Y-H-T-B-O-I.

Have you had the best one yet? And remember, on Wednesdays, we wear slamming salmon. I thought today was Thursday because I'm still jet lagged from the East Coast. So I'm not wearing pink today. We're going to round up on that red jack. Happy Cevice Wednesday. If you're wearing pink today or wearing T-boy merch, tag us on Instagram so we can see you. Now, T-Boy Pot, slamming salmon.

Nick and I, we'll see you tomorrow. Can't wait. And before we go, a happy birthday to Rodrigo and Anna Cisneros, a father and daughter in Washington, born on the same day, 30 years apart. And a big happy birthday to Adam Young, who's turning two years old today in Dublin, California, on the way to daycare right now. And Hanthorneberg is on the saddle at a Texas Roadhouse celebrating a birthday down in Kansas. And happy seventh birthday to Margo Zern.

in Atlanta, Georgia. And Mika May is turning 27 years old with doggy Mr. Bigglesworth. Congratulations to Larry Chan. His company just landed a space capsule in Utah. And it didn't tip over. And Cordelia Shelton's turned 11 years old and has done two straight years of daily burpees down in Texas. And Jenny and John Dye are running what they call the Forest Gump Street. And what's that, Jack?

They've been running one mile per day for three years, two months, and 14 days. Jenny would approve. I just kept on running. This is Jack. Nick and I both on stock of Apple and Nick own stock of ShakeShack. By the way, Jack, we got to order some suvla. What would you like, man? I'm getting the pita.

Okay. What's it called like dirty style with french fries? Oh, you gotta go French style. You're going French style. No, you got to go Greek style. It's called Greek style. Yeah, they had the French fries out. And I want the hot sauce on that.

You can't go wrong with that hot sauce. I haven't had a suvla chicken pizza wrap thing for a couple years. I'm like ordering it right now. You can't be. It's like comfort food for any San Francisco. Well, any millennial yuppie San Francisco.