The Best One Yet - 🍯 “A Dude made the 1st move?” — Bumble’s big pivot. Walmart’s Kirkland-killer. Detroit’s Boom Loop.

Episode Date: May 1, 2024

Bumble is ending its biggest differentiator now that guys can make the 1st move — But Bumble followed the scientific method of launching.Walmart just launched its own version of Costco’s Kirkland brand — “Bettergoods” is Walmart’s 1st new brand in 20 years and it’s all about the DINK.And Detroit was stuck in a brutal 70 year Doom Loop, but it’s reversed into a Boom Loop – We tell the story of Detroit’s bankruptcy bounceback.Plus, Walgreens invented a peelable gummy candy that’s so viral, they’re limiting 1 per customer — Because viral products don’t drive sales, they drive conversations.$BMBL $WMT $COST $F $WBAGot a shoutout? Submit it here: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts/form/shoutoutsGot the Best Fact Yet? Submit it here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScLjeOSdjpj5E3XSEs4MFn7W9FZ9BNTSfAhm3z_gW6_cB4o3w/viewformSubscribe to the best newsletter yet: 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 drag. It's Wednesday, Saviche Wednesday, May the first. And today's pot. Today's pod is the best one yet. It's a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. April, you just ended on not the hottest note, Jack.

What's going on? The S&P 500 fell 4% in the month of April, which is his worst month since September. April showers bring May flowers. At least we hope so. We would like for that to happen. Happy first day. of May. What do you say? Three fantastic stories for you today. Jack, what's on today's pod? For our first story, it's Bumble. Bumble just dropped their biggest differentiator. Bumble is now

letting guys make the first move. Yeah, it is. If you're on Bumble right now, you may be getting a message from some rando dude named Keith. For our second story, it's Walmart. Walmart just launched its own version of Costco's Kirkland brand. It's called Better Goods. Better Goods. It's Walmart's first new brand in 20 years, and it is all about the dink. third and final story is the Motor City. Detroit is the busiest city in America again after winning back Wall Street love and hosting the NFL draft. So Jack and I found how Detroit turned a 70-year doom loop into a boom loop. But yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. What a fantastic mix. Love the mix for Civeche Wednesday, Jack. We're going to talk about the most viral thing in

America right now. Jack, the most viral thing in America. What is it, my friend? A fruit gummy. Okay, more specifically, what is it, Jack? The first ever, Peelable fruit gummy with a peel you can eat. Walgreens, the drugstore, just invented a whole new category of candy. Peelable gummies. Healable gummies. It's like a gummy bear, but has an edible peel. You peel that mango gummy like a mango and eat the peel.

Peel that orange gummy like an orange. And eat the peel. I got skin gray. Can you peel me? This Walgreens peelable gummy is so intoxicating. It's gone viral online. Get this. It is so popular that this gummy is being limited to one per a person at Walgreens.

This peel of a gummy just broke Taylor Swift's hold on the Billboard charts. Yeah, I heard it's getting so much attention that M&Ms are getting jealous. Yeah, it is according to the Walgreen CEO, a key reason for this product success, it is an experience. It's like the banana. It was the original experiential food, wasn't it, Jack? The peel the banana before you eat it. It's an experience. But this thing, this new innovation, this ups the ante because you peel before you eat this gummy and then you eat the peel.

Check out our YouTube if you want to see what this thing looks like, by the way. But yeties, Jack and I jumped in T-Boice. And here's what we realized about this innovation. The top in-demand candy is always an experiential candy. Remember Dunkeroo's? You got to dunk that cookie into the frosting before you can eat it. Yeah, I can remember fruit by the foot? You got to roll it up like a yo-yo before you eat that thing.

How about over in Germany? The Kinder eggs, you got to pop open a chocolate egg in order to discover the toy that's waiting for you. I'm pretty sure that was a choking hazard, but it was a heck of a lot of fun, Jack. And you don't just eat a Kit Kat. You break me off a piece of that KitKat bar. That is an experience. Yetis, if there is an experiential food that we missed on this pod,

drop it in the comment section today. Drop a comment on Spotify, Instagram, or YouTube. And Jack, what about your favorite experiential food? Fondue. I just had it for the first time of my life. Cheese fondue is an incredible group experience. Jack, you take us some more, you deconstruct it, eat the chocolate, you toast that marshmallow, boom.

That's an experiential food, baby. Smoors, they're fire. Literally. Yeties, hit us up with your experiential food. And Jack, let's hit our three stars. This song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea that caused a cultural 50%. That's a fat tip.

Tea Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, because we're ready to go. We can't wait no more. So just start the show. Start the show. First, a quick word from our sponsor. For our first story, Bumble, the dating app where women make the first move is no longer requiring women to make the first move.

But Bumble's not acting like a relationship expert. Humble is acting like a scientist. Oh, Jack, I don't want to go full of Mr. Darcy on you over here. But throughout history, you know, Tradition's always expected the guy to make the first move. Is that a pride and prejudice reference? Well, if it isn't, then I'll be darn, Jack. That's right, Nick. Throughout history, Tradition expected the guy to make the first move. And to spare women the cheesy pickup lines at the bars and reverse that norm,

Whitney will have heard created Bumble. Bumble, a dating app that put women in. charge. It let women start the conversation. Now, here's what Jack and I always found interesting about Bumble. That single feature, it became the entire product. It became the entire brand. It became the entire company. That single feature was Bumble's differentiator, its competitive advantage. And yeah, it defined the entire brand, a women first company. But Jack, let's check the stock charts over there, whip out the whiteboard. How is Bumble's stock doing right now? It's completely run out of honey. It's down 86% from its IPO and the stock just hit an all-time low.

Jack actually owns the stock and it's a complicated relationship right now, isn't it, man? So Bumble just announced what Nick and I are calling the unbumbling. Yeties, here's the news. Bumble is no longer requiring women to make the first move. This is like if McDonald's got rid of fries or match got rid of the swipe. Jack, I don't want to go full circle here, but it's like if Dunkeroo's got rid of the frosting. Here's the story, Yaddies. The new Bumble is going to let women define the guy.

guys opening moves. Here's how this will go down. Women on Bumble can now post a question that the guy can take a stab at answering, making the first move. So if a woman wants to let a man make the first move, she could post a question like this on her Bumble profile. She could say, if you could listen to only one album the rest of your life, what would it be? Or she could ask this question and post it to her account.

Pickle ball or tennis. By the way, some dating advice here. If you say Taylor Swift on the album question, that's going to sound really obvious and a little thirsty. Don't say that. And on the pickleball versus tennis, here's what you should say. You should say, Pidel. Well, that's what you would say, Nick.

It's going to throw them for the loop and you're going to get a second date. So now, when connections are made on Bumble, the woman can make the first message or the man can reply to the woman's icebreaker question. Yes, and Bumble says that they're making this fundamental change to their business to honor feminism. Bumble said in their press release, equality is about personal choice and autonomy to decide what's right for you. But, Jack, why do both of us and you as a show? careholder right now. Why do we think that they did this? We think Bumble did this because of science. It's not R-O-I. It's R-O-S. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Bumble? Bumble is following the scientific method of launching. Now, yet he's full disclosure here.

Jack and I worked at a tech company for three years and we noticed that nothing, absolutely nothing, was launched by that tech company until the scientific method was completed. And the first step of the scientific method, we learned it in third grade. You come up with a hypothesis. For Bumble, that hypothesis was that women didn't always want the pressure of making the first move. The second stage of the scientific method is to conduct some research. Bumble commissioned a survey that asked the opinions of 6,138 women, and those women agreed with that hypothesis. The third step is to test that hypothesis in real life. Bumble rolled out this new feature to a small test of users, and that led to more chats, higher reply rates, and more time in conversation.

on Bumble. Now we're at the final stage of the scientific method. Take off your goggles next. And what is that, Jack? Launch the thing. Yeah, launch the thing. Issue of press release, launch the thing, and get the PR people working, baby. Form a hypothesis, conduct some research, test the hypothesis, then launch.

Besties Bumble just unbumbles itself by using the scientific method of launching. For our second story, Walmart is taken on Trader Joe's and just launched their very own Kirkland Killer. Walmart may have found the recipe for Dink's grocery carts. All right, Jack, let's whip out the leaderboard over there. Can you tell us a stock that's at an all-time high? Who you got? Spin the wheel, baby. Who we got? Bentonville, Arkansas-based Walmart. Walmart's stock is at a record high, but yet is Walmart is not resting on their $2.20 laurels. Walmart is launching their biggest new internal brand in 20 years. And Jack, What is the name of Walmart's brand new, premium, fancy, cool-looking, like millennial-branded brand?

It's called Better Goods. And according to the Wall Street Journal, that was the finalist after thousands of other names were considered. It sounds like they just took two adjectives and turned them into a proper noun. Actually, hold on. Better and Good. Those have the same root word. Honestly, there's not even a space in between. But anyway, as Jack was saying yet, he's Walmart already had its own private label. It's called Great Value.

But Great Value was lacking millennial level. Yeah, they didn't get millennials love and great value. So instead, Walmart has launched Better Goods, a Walmart-owned food brand designed for... Dinks. Double income, no kids, and scared of high fructose corn syrup. Yeah, that's who this is targeting. Because the food that they're making under the Better Goods brand is like chicken curry empanadas, gluten-free muffin mix, oat milk ice cream.

A surprising amount of vegan and gluten-free products, yeah. And Jack, did you see what they discovered about flavored waters in their Walmart research? They discovered that if there's more than two flavors described on the packaging, that it will scare us consumers away. Yeah, like lemon lime flavored water, that's great. Lemon line, great fruit. Oh, hard pass. I mean, that is too many flavors. I agree.

Yeah, it is. Remember, 60% of Walmart sales come from groceries. So Walmart really wants you buying its groceries, especially the dings. Now, the first thought that Nick and I had when we read this story is that Walmart is Zuckin Trader Joe's. It's Zuck in Whole Foods and it's Zuck in Costco all at once. Walmart is trying to whip up a Kirkland killer. That's what we're thinking here. These three grocery chains I just mentioned, they thrive by offering their own private label brands alongside the third party name brands. And keep in mind, from a financial perspective,

private label is like the holy grail of grocery. Instead of giving a cut of their sales to Kraft Heinz for their ketchup, Walmart wants you buying Walmart ketchup while you're at Walmart. They keep all the profits for themselves. And Walmart's going to make more money on that because private labels are a profit puppy. And that's why Walmart is about to go nuts promoting this new better goods brand. They're going to advertise it. They're going to put it at the end of the aisle and they're going to put it right at the eyeline level on those shelves. Whether you're an aisle six or aisle one, you're going to be seeing Walmart better goods pretty much everywhere. Because yet is, we don't have to remind you how successful Costco's Kirkland brand has been.

But Jack, can we take a second and remind everyone how successful Costco's Kirkland brand has been? Costco launched the Kirkland brand in 1995. And now it's selling a lot. sells $60 billion a product every year. A $60 billion brand, that is a quarter of all Costco sales. Jack, could you sprinkle on just a little bit more context over there? That's more sales just for the Kirkland brand than Delta Airlines, American Express, or Nvidia. Kirkland is bigger than Airlines, a financial company, and the biggest ship company on Earth when it comes to revenues. Wow.

Walmart wants that too. And they think better goods can become their Kirkland brand. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies over at Wall. The first step to trying is trusting. Yet his interesting trend, Jack and I have noticed, private label brands have been gaining traction over national brands lately. We Americans have been buying more generic Kirkland Cola than the name brand Coca-Cola. And the key reason that we've been doing this, Jack, it's trust. The more we've relied on retail chains since the pandemic, the more we trust those retail chains. And that's key, because before you try out a new product,

you first must determine if you trust the brand. Well, if people, People are already in your store like a Walmart, it means they already trust you. And if you already trust Walmart by being there and shopping there, you're more likely to try out Walmart's brands like better goods. So besties, Walmart isn't just launching a dink-inspired Kirkland killer with this brand new brand. Walmart is cashing in on all the trust they have amassed with their customers. Because the way Jack and I see it, the first step to trying is trusting. Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, 10 years after going bankrupt, the city of Detroit is officially back, baby.

We're going to tell you how Detroit went from a doom loop to a boom loop. But Jack, in order for us to tell this tale, let's go back to the 1950s, let's talk about populations, baby. Detroit was the fourth largest city in America in 1950, but it was the number one busiest city in America back then. Post-World War II, every American was buying a car. that was made in Detroit or a washing machine that was made in Michigan. Plus, they had Motown. Detroit was a music city with the Supremes, the Temptations, Diana Ross. Detroit was the cultural capital of America in the middle of the 20th century.

But that's when a 70-year decline began for the city of Detroit, starting when the city's wealthy fled out to the suburbs. Get this. Between 1950 and 2020, Detroit's population shrank by two-thirds, from 1.8 million people, down to just 600,000 people. We got to repeat that. 1.8 million people used to live in Detroit. Today, 600,000 people live in Detroit.

Oh, and then fast forward to three decades of urban decay and the city of Detroit declared bankruptcy in 2013. It was the biggest municipal bankruptcy in the history of the United States. Detroit's reputation was transformed from riches to ruins literally, and it all happened in our lifetimes. But this past few months has been really exciting because Detroit's decline has symbolically ended with two major events. Two major events and what are they, Jack.

Finance and football. Finance and football, the biceps of a growing economy, man. First, Wall Street gave Detroit its blessing by granting Detroit investment-grade credit ratings. Detroit, congratulations. You got yourself an investment-grade credit rating. Show off that thing. Triple B-minus, baby. And that's a shocker because 10 years ago, Detroit couldn't pay its debts, so it had to declare bankruptcy.

But today, Detroit is investment-grade, and what does that mean exactly, Jack? It means Detroit can borrow money at low interest rates because investors believe they will get paid back. Because Detroit is bustling with new construction, new startups, rising home prices. Jack, are you wearing your Shinola watch, man? Not today. Not today, dude. Not today. Okay, so Jack and I actually got each other these watches to celebrate the wins a few years ago. And it's a made-in-detroit Shinole watch. And then we visited the factory when I was living in Detroit back in 2017 and you visited me.

But yet it's not just finance that's saving Detroit right now. It's also football. Detroit just hosted the NFL draft, and it was the most attended NFL draft in history. Over the three-day draft event, 700,000 people came out to Detroit's downtown cheer on their teams. Detroit's downtown! What a transformation! Because generations have connected the city of Detroit to the image of the movie Beverly Hills Cop. Crime and economic despair, that's been the image of the brand Detroit.

But now, Detroit has an investment-grade credit rating. It hosted the NFL draft, and they're building a 600-dust. foot skyscraper across from a Gucci store. A Gucci store. One second. I got to hit Chanel and then we're getting stakes at the prime and proper, Jack. Eminem just spat out his Vernor's ginger ale. Eight mile more than eight-carat miles.

So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in Detroit? Detroit turned a doom loop into a boom loop. Yeties, for 70 years, one negative outcome for Detroit triggered another negative outcome for Detroit. First, white flight reduced the city's tax base, which led to city cuts in the budget, which led to homelessness and crime, which led to more exodus from the city. That is a doom loop. But in 2010, that doom loop finally hit a bottom. In fact, that doom loop was reversed. And the key catalyst was Dan Gilbert, a Detroit native who decided to relocate his company, Rocket Mortgages, from the suburbs

to downtown Detroit. It was a huge bet on downtown Detroit that if he invested enough money into Detroit, the Doom Loop would become a Boom Loop. A Boom Loop. Rocket Mortgage. employees would fill the streets, the restaurants, and the bars, which would boost the city's tax base, which in turn would attract other companies to come back to Detroit. And it wasn't just Dan Gilbert doing this. General Motors stayed in Detroit. Ford expanded in Detroit. And the sports teams, they built new stadiums right in downtown Detroit. They didn't go to the suburbs. And of course, the 600,000 OG Detroiters who preserve the culture that still makes Detroit cool today. Exactly. But one way to turn a city around, it looks like it's this. Offer tax breaks and appeal to

emotion to attract a catalytic huge investment. Besties, Detroit. It is a case study on reversing a doom loop into a boom loop. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us for Saviche Wednesday? Bumble is modifying their women first rule. Men can now answer the women's icebreaker question. Bumble, it's not acting like a relationship expert. It's acting like an expert scientist.

Bumble's not Cupid. Bumble's Madame Curie. A classic scientific method right there, Jack. second story, Walmart wants their own Kirkland brand profit puppy, so they're launching better goods. When it comes to launching a product, the first step to trying is trusting. And our third and final story, Detroit just hosted a banger NFL draft and got a credit rating upgrade showing that Detroit is back, baby. Finance and football, baby, Yeties, Detroit has turned a doom loop into a boom loop. But Yeties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, we got a

Huge week of earnings. The biggest earnings yesterday was from Amazon. Revenue jumped 13% and the stock was up 2% after hours. The highlight for Amazon was delivery speeds. They have a record high percentage of their packages that are arriving the next day. Yeah, apparently Amazon built a bunch of new same-day fulfillment centers and 60% of Amazon Prime now arrives in 24 hours. It's almost too fast. Thank that easy, guys. And second, the crypto billionaire and CEO of Binance was just sentenced to four months in. prison. CZ, as he's known, pleaded guilty to enabling lots of money laundering to happen on his crypto exchange. Apparently, Binance didn't have procedures in place to stop bad guys from moving bad money to do bad things through crypto. And finally, the Biden administration is expected to move

marijuana down a notch from Schedule 1 to a Schedule 2. Narcotic or Drug? What do you want to go? Drug, which will make it easier to sell and buy marijuana in states that have legalized it. Cannabis. It's still federally illegal. but it's a little less federally illegal. But in like 25 states it's legal. Now time for the best fact yet. This one's sent in by Paul Pullman, the former CEO of Unilever. Humanity's dependence on plastic is at an all-time high.

Get this. There is so much plastic in the world right now that the mass of plastics on Earth is over double the mass of all living animals. Humans included in that living animals part. Jack, can you just repeat that for the sake of the sit-downs and stand up and oh my god again yeah there's twice as much plastic in the world as flesh and bones of animals and humans like for every elephant there are two elephants of plastic is what we're saying oh by the way that's why i'm packing a thermos okay buddy that's why jack's using an undisposable thermosive over there reduce reuse recycle yetties you're looking fantastic today and if you've got the best fact yet

or if you want to shout out on the show or wait if you've got the best fact yet about synco to Mayo coming up, hit us up. Or if you have a fact about the Kentucky Derby, we want to hear it so we can put it on the pod. Go to t-boypod.com slash shoutouts and submit it on the form there. We've also got a link in this episode description. In the meantime, Jack and I got to dunk some dunkeroo's and roll up some fake fruit. Break us off a piece of that Kit Kat and we'll see you tomorrow. And before we go, a happy birthday to the legendary five-year-old Yeti Easton Cruise celebrating in Marietta, California, just having a fantastic. Day, Jack. And happy birthday to the spreadsheet shredder. Drew Dolphins in Hickory, North Carolina.

He's got pivot tables everywhere. And congratulations to Brendan Burns, who's celebrating a legendary birthday in Livingston, Montana. And congratulations to Candy Coast in Seattle, who launched a new plant-based resortware brand. That sounds awesome. And Chanel Ezernak in Houston, in Houston, Texas, is celebrating a baby moon down in Cancun, the best place to Baby Moon, baby. And happy birthday to Brian O'Connor from Essex, Vermont. He's got a new album, by the way, Jack. Almost legendary, just dropped its first song. This is great.

I can't wait to listen. I feel like I'm under pressure to make a Vermont reference right now. Well, they do say Brian is the T-Swift with the Green Mountain State, Jack. And to anyone else, celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon, Bumble, and Ford, and Nick and I both own ETFs of the S&P 500.