The Best One Yet - “A $30B check for racial justice” — JPMorgan’s unprecedented pledge. Kroger’s ghost kitchen. Dollar General’s fancy idea.

Episode Date: October 9, 2020

Remember when Netflix put $100M into black-owned banks? JPMorgan is spending 300 times that toward racial justice in a move we’ve never seen before. Kroger is disrupting itself with a ghost kitchen in aisle 4. And Dollar General is already living its best life… so it’s doing the opposite: A fancier chain for wealthier customers. The “five dollar” store. $KR $JPM $DGGot 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, October 9th. Nick, I'd love to banter with you, but there's too much snacks? Not enough time. We're just going to make this the best one yet instead. Let's just go with that.

For our first story, J.P. Morgan Chase, America's biggest bank, just added a second business line. Yeah, you know, a casual financing racial justice for $30 billion. For our second story, Kroger's is looking at that situation and they're like, I think I'm going to Airbnb out our kitchen every day. We're merging ghost kitchens with the sharing economy in unused aisle four. Check out aisle four. For our third and final story, dollar general. Feels like they're limited by the dollar in their corporate name.

Yes. So they're launching the old $5 foot long dollar store. It's a chain. It's called Pop Shelf New Thing. A $5 store, just what we all needed. But Snackers, before we jump into that wonderful mix of stories, you're not going to see anywhere else. We're just in time for earning season. We got big news.

Family Update. pleased to announce the snackers. Alex and I have a baby coming. It's corporate. Well, River the Prophet puppy is actually very protective in this situation. She won't even let me close. She's become like the Amazon protection puppy brought to you by Ring Home Security. Yeah, so we jumped and snacks out of this pregnancy announcement. Notice how Jack is one of four boys, Alex is only child. Well, for a gender reveal idea, Nick, we're thinking like ticker symbol based, XX, X, X, Y. Only two options. NYSC, NASDAQ, we got opportunities there. Let's go with it. But, Jack, the big question here, will you be issuing a forecast? Well, we're expecting a second quarter baby. I'm thinking

8 pounds, 14 ounces, same weight as I was when I was born. Jack, I'm looking back on the historical figures here. It looks like the analysts are typically wrong when it comes to this situation. How naive of you, Nick. We're expecting at least a 50% popping a share price on day one of trading. Oh, Jack, I'm scrolling down in this S-1 IPO paperwork. Looks like there is a a strong risk that this baby bankrupts the parent company. Well, to protect our fiscal situation, this baby won't just have any birthday parties. No, no, no. It's all dependent on the annual performance review.

That's a classic move, Jack. Now, no birthday presents. Are we thinking annual retention bonus instead? Glock is always extra. Congrats, Jack. Congrats, Alex. This is a beautiful thing. Alex has been heroic.

River has been protective snackers. We're happy to share this news. TBBY, if you know, you know. now. It's my honor to announce that on the pod with you, man. Let's hit our three stories. You're tuned in to snacks daily. We spoke to the lawyers and we got to get something legal out the way. It snacks about to hear

food. It's air candy. They don't reflect the views of the Robberhood family. It's all informational just so you know. 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 Fembourg. For our first story, J.P. Morgan Chase just pledged $30 billion to fight the racial wealth gap. It's the biggest social responsibility move we've ever seen by any company ever. Jack, I'm counting it up. Remember when the Grinch's heart grew, what was it, one size, it was three sizes, three sizes too big? Get a doctor over to 270 Park Avenue. Check out J.P. Morgan's cardiac situation. Clear! Clear! As we discussed in June Snackers, when Black Lives Matter movement was capturing the country's attention.

There were some wild and impactful statistics that Jack and I were excited to share back then. For example, white families in America today have nearly 10 times the wealth, on average, of black families. That's nearly a thousand percent more wealth. And the reason is pretty straightforward. This is from the legacy of slavery and systemic racism that continues to have an impact on the economy. Intergenerational wealth has a huge impact on your family's wealth today. So here comes America's biggest bank, J.P. Morgan Chase, and they're making a pretty aggressive move to change that with $30 billion. Nick, that is three lifts worth of money. We're talking loans,

equity investments, and straight up donations over five years. Jack, we've never done this, but I'm going to go as far as to say, that is half an Uber. It's half an Uber. It's half an Uber. So here's how it's breaking down, Snackers. This is impactful money. You got $14 billion going to new home to black and Latino borrowers. $8 billion for affordable housing and to increase homeownership in other underserved communities. You got $6 billion for mortgage refinancing

and small business lending. And then a $2 billion grab bag for donations. Let's just review here. We're not talking millions with an M. We're talking billions with a B. These are staggering numbers. $6 billion a year, that's 16% of last year's profit

for J.P. Morgan Chase. For the next five years. Insane. generosity. Imagine if you donated 16% of your paycheck to charity. I bet you're not. No, and you're definitely not doing it over the next five years, although that would be a great thing to do. You should consider it. Now, we covered on Snacks Daily in July when Netflix moved $100 billion of their corporate cash to black-owned community banks. Now, we love sprinkling some context here. So that was a, that was a nice, that was a generous, that was an exciting move by Netflix at the time. That was a big story. We found it worthy of coverage in this pod.

but this, this is 300 times more money than that. Plus, J.P. Morgan's actually putting that money to work, not just parking it in a bank. We have never seen such corporate generosity ever. But here's the thing, Snaggers. J.P. Morgan, it's not unisone. So why is America's biggest bank doing this? Nick, it's the right thing to do. That doesn't hold water in corporate America if it has any conflict with profit.

That's what's happening in the press release, but not in the boardroom. This could very likely hurt. profits for JPMorgan shareholders. So as citizens, Jack and I are looking at this, we love this move. We literally applauded when we saw the headline. Standing ovation to our buddies over J.P. Morgan Chase. But we're thinking that J.P. Morgan shareholders, there may be a few who are thinking, that's a lot of billions. Wonder what we could have done with some of those other billions to generate more money for the company that also could have been donated. Because J.P. Morgan Chase isn't unisal. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at JPM? The purpose of a corporation has

changed, but this is also good business. Snackers, Jamie Diamond, legendary CEO of J.P. Morgan, also the head of the business roundtable, which was a group that redefined the purpose of a corporation just last year. It's not just profits and shareholders. They have to also consider the environment, employees, customers, and other stakeholders. Well, impressive to see Jamie Diamond putting his money where his mouth is from the description of what he redefined as a corporation. This is literally that. But, Nick, this also changes J.P. Morgan's image. from big, bad corporation to big good corporation, actually. Yeah, it's also a highly strategic move potentially ahead of the election.

The polls suggest a blue wave is coming to Congress and possibly the White House on November 3rd, and guess who's a top candidate for Treasury Secretary? Could be Elizabeth Warren, who's had some words for J.P. Morgan before. This $30 billion investment could fend off regulation, fines, penalties, and more from a Democratic majority in Washington. No matter what, though, we're still applauding it. And the stock actually ended up 2% yesterday, too. For our second story, Kroger is about to pull off the most innovative thing it's done since emoji. Kroger emoji.

A.k.A. Krogy. Those were great. Instead, Kroger's going from milk cartons and carrots to ghost kitchens. Now, ghost kitchens should have been your food hero during the shutdown economic pandemic. Jack, these were like the first draft pick situation, but they end up in the miners two years later. Picture seeing this delightful, delicious-looking door-dash item. Jack, I got the app up right now. Slammin' Sam's Sam and Sandos. Sounds incredible. I trust Slam and Sam to make a good Sam and Sando.

But you can't go there, Nick. No, Snackers, that location of that Slam and Sam's kitchen? Not disclosed. It does delivery only. There's no storefront, no busboys, no tables, no nothing. It's just a kitchen. A.k.a. a ghost kitchen. And in a world where food delivery apps have surged recently,

you'd think that like delivery-only restaurants should be surged in. too. And yet, no major ghost kitchen has emerged from this pandemic as the big nationwide winner. That led us to a fascinating headline we jumped into snack style. Cincinnati-based grocery store chain, Kroger is jumping in with some Silicon Valley disruption of its own Ohio style. Turns out Kroger just partnered out with a local ghost kitchen with the name, get this, love it, cluster truck. Cluster truck does the delivery app, it sets up the menu on the delivery apps. It preps the food, it boxes them and it ships them off for delivery to your house. Honestly, Cluster truck's kind of doing everything here, it seems like. That's what's going on. Kroger, though,

is providing the real estate. They got a thousand square feet of their grocery store, like 1% of the whole place, that they section off and let cluster truck use. But here's the thing. That's all that cluster truck even needs to get you a hoagie to your mouth in 27 minutes. And over in that corner, if cluster truck runs out of butter, they can dash over to the dairy aisle like 100 feet away. Boom, they're there, butter, they're probably buying it at a wholesale price. Nick, you know what this looks like? Jack, I know what you're thinking over there. We got an Airbnb meets Ghost Kitchen situation.

Jack, I'm seeing price check. Sharing Economy aisle 6. Snackers, the space that Kroger is offering up Cluster Truck, that's probably the space they use in the mornings to like prepare pasta salad which you can buy per pound in the deli such. Honestly, that Pesto making factory, it's like unused eight hours a day. That's why they offer it up to Cluster Truck. It's the sharing economy.

But Snackers, one reason why Ghost Kitchen startups are so small right now is the economics, the unit economics of the business. business doesn't work. It's tough to turn a profit without the markup of alcohol beverages and with the high cost of delivery. But Jack, what if you get a grocery store to offer up its kitchen facility to you? Maybe the economics can work. The costs come down. So what's the takeaway, Jack, for our buddies over at Kroger's. The future of grocery stores is food cilities. Snackers, key pandemic highlight, everyone wants and hordes food, but you can't fully digitize food. That sales trip to Dallas, that can be digitized through Zoom, but fresh corn must be corn fresh.

There's got to be fresh. Just ask slamming Sam and Sam over there. In the meantime, your digital life has forced grocery stores to blur their own definition of themselves in just six months. You thought Whole Foods was just a grocery store? They just opened up a store in Brooklyn that only shelves itself for delivery owners. How about In Farm, which just raised a few million bucks to put vertical farms growing kale inside the grocery stores? Panera's not just there for your bacon. egg and cheese sand up. Nope. Their restaurants are grocery stores too that also sell bulk ingredients. And the reason this can happen is because grocery stores have three unique features. They're big.

Yep, they're close to you. They're checking to keep things fresh. Not too bad, but they are now learning to become fulfillment centers and farms and ghost kitchens too. The future of grocery is food cilities. For our third and final story, dollar general is going from single dollar to five dollars. That's right. The OG dollar store chain is launching a fancier, higher-e $5 store chain. Snackers, we've got to travel down south to the latest product from Goodlettsville, Tennessee-based Dollar General, Jack. What is it?

Popshel. It's Pop Shelf. It's not a product. It's actually an entire chain store concept. They're launching a new chain store. The first of the pop shelves has already opened in a Nashville suburb, and they plan to have 30 pop shelves by the end of this year. Pandemic?

Flandemic. What's going on of it? This feels like the whole store is made in China, Jack. Nick, Pop Shelf. is not targeting wealthy shoppers with this $5 store. No, no, no. They're targeting wealthier shoppers than the dollar stores. Exactly.

Key distinction here. Dollar general stores focus on people with incomes up to $40,000. Pop shelf is targeting consumers with incomes up to $125,000. And Jack and I are seeing this on the store shelves because the average price at a dollar general is a dollar, and at Popshelf, it's $5. That's why we think it should be called the $5 store, but they're calling it Popshelf. Honestly, pop shelf sounds more like something we should be eating. Pop shelf, Popshelf, Popshelf.

Mattress, mattress, mattress. Now, here's the thing Snackers that Jack and I found fascinating. To target these middle and upper income women, Popshelf is using what they call the treasure hunt strategy. Rapidly changing inventories, so you're always excited to come back and see what sprung up on Isle 3. Yeah, we're looking over in aisle 3 right now, and it's not the need to have things.

It's the nice to have things. Pop shelf's not going to have toilet paper and cereal like a dollar, No. But they will have nice candles and a party hat. The three areas of focus, you're going to see beauty products and home decor and party supplies. Because we all need that exfoliating facial cleanser. Yes, we do. The fall harvestry.

Why not? And the six-piece copper mugs at. Jack, it adds to the feng shui. But here's the thing, Snackers. It's kind of a surprise that Dollar General is even doing this because Dollar General is living its best life right now. When we're looking at Dollar General, it's kind of a keep doing what you're doing, Dollar General situation. I just pulled up the stock chart here. Stock's at an all-time high.

It has tripled in the last three years. And recently with the pandemic, even better. 19% sales jump last quarter from the year before. We're talking about a chain snackers that has, get this, $16,700 dollar general locations. More dollar generals in America than there are Starbucks. Yes. And then there are McDonald.

So Dollar General is a dollar store, but it's making bank. And then they go and announce pop shelf. What is going on? Jack, what's the takeaway? for our buddies over at the dollar store. This goes against every trend we can think of right now. Honestly, Jack, how about, let's see, I got a list here, e-commerce. Word wasn't mentioned in the press release for Pop Shop.

All right, another kind of trend we're seeing right now. Middle class, it's getting squeezed in America. Oh, funny, that's exactly who they're targeting, the class that's getting squeezed in America. And what about sustainability? Everyone's focused on sustainability. Tough to be sustainable when every month you got new seasonal things shipping in that you're probably going to throw in the dumpster if it doesn't sell.

Jack and I are thinking the Dollar General may want to do less right now. Stick to the dollar, not the $5. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us over there, mattress match. JP Morgan Chase is committing $30 billion to fight the racial inequality of black and Latinx communities in America. The most generous corporate act we've ever seen could also be good for business. Second story, Dollar General isn't satisfied by the dollar. These new $5 stores are all going against big econ business trends. For our third and file story, Kroger, is leasing out a thousand square feet of their grocery stores to ghost kitchens.

Because grocery stores are becoming food cillities. Now, time for our snack fact of the day. This one tweeted in by someone who wouldn't give us their first name just goes by MedTiger, kind of like Oprah. But MedTiger did use the hashtag snack fact. That's key. Which helps us all find snack facts on Twitter. Please do that, Snackers. Now, here's the thing about Kentucky.

It's the home to apparently more barrels of murder. maturing bourbon than human beings. That's right. 8.5 million barrels of bourbon are maturing. That doesn't even tell us how many immature barrels there are. Meanwhile, Jack and I went door to door, found only four and a half million people in the state of Kentucky. Every state should have a stat like this and put it on their welcome to blank state sign on the interstate. We should point out all four and half million were mature people. Snackers, before we go and you have a fantastic weekend, remember, we all want to grow snacks, so let's share snacks. The best ways when you share snacks with your friends and give them the I love snacks because

treatment. Then drop the old HY HYS day. Have you had your snacks deal? Have a fantastic weekend. If you know, you know. Now before we go, Snackers, Terry in Los Angeles, we have a message for you. Gardner wants to know you'll make it official and become his girlfriend. We'll have a moment of pause.

We're going to assume that's a yes. In the meantime, Matt and Caitlin Brown, happy wedding down in Virginia, 10-10, 2020, good date. And congrats to Akbar and Areba in Houston, Texas, also getting hitched. And Chantelle and Bobby down in Jersey City, New Jersey. And Dylan and Courtney are buying a house up in St. John'sbury, Vermont. Nick, do you know what county that's in? I don't know, but it's better than Johnsbury. It's the Northeast Kingdom.

Oh, baby, I love that kingdom, Jack. Matt and Meredith Roberts, congrats on the four-year in Athens, Ohio. Ryan and Savannah, happy three-year anniversary in Gatorville, Jacksonville, Florida. Row and Alec, Roderiga is three-year down in Perlin, Texas. and Christian and Heather Kim, happy 12 years in Atlanta, Georgia. But happy birthday to Sanjana Reddy in Hyderabad, India. And Serena Padra's in San Diego, California. And Tom Morgan at Olat, Kansas.

And Alyssa Razor in West Hills, California. And Peezy Tan in Los Angeles, California. And Katie Sun, New Haven, Connecticut. Great Pizza. And Travis McElroy in Austin, Texas. Happy 27th to Melissa Floril in Los Angeles, California. And Andrew Beanie from the same hometown as Joe Girardi, Peoria, Illinois. This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon. 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, 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.

The Robinhood Financial LLC, member FINRA, SIPC.