The Best One Yet - Apple’s Goldman Sachs card goes live for all, Target’s ‘Gramamble new food brand, and Tesla’s “Jerry Maguire” moment

Episode Date: August 21, 2019

Apple’s card with Goldman Sachs was just released for all Americans, so we jump in Snacks style. Target announces its biggest ever food brand, focused on organic food. And Tesla’s solar panel unit announces a rental version — just as it gets sued by Walmart.Learn 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 Wednesday, August 21st. We are back, baby. Yes, we are. Where are we? First pod in the studio.

We're back. We're back. Feels great, looking sharp. In like a week and a half. You got to tell me what Wood Nymph made the flower crown on your wonderful bride this past weekend, by the way, Jack. Did I mention this is the best one yet? This is the best one yet. Best Snacks Daily we've done since yesterday.

Snackers, Markets Dipped a Tadio. It's true. It's very true. But our three stories are not dipping. This is a wonderful mix. What do we got first? First story is the Apple card. This is the credit.

card available now today through your iPhone for every American who owns an iPhone. But no one really understands what it does. We are going to go consumer reports on this one and try it out for you. We actually literally did that. Second story, Target is launching a flagship food brand to put in all of its stories. It says it will be worth a billion by next year. Spoiler alert, this thing is hormone and artificial free. This is also an Amazon proof part of Target. Got a question what the use of the word flagship here is, but we'll get that later. Third and final story. What do we got? Tesla solar panels. Very nice. It's launching a rent- feature. For 50 bucks a month, you can stick them on your roof and get free electricity from the sun.

It also just got sued by Walmart for these solar panels. Yes, we're going to look at Elon Musk's other side hustle. He's got a few. Solar panels. Now, before we jump into all that, we've got to talk about something that technically happened last week, but we were away and we thought we should follow up. We actually stuck this story in the intro of our newsletter. Snuck it right in there. Snackers, you all know this, because I know you read the newsletter while I was away. The Olive Garden last Thursday at 2 p.m. Eastern Standard Time was busy selling. its lifetime pasta passes. Here's the deal.

For $100, you get unlimited food, unlimited breast sticks, unlimited salad for nine weeks. Not too shabby. But a select few were fortunate enough to be entered in a special competition. Yes, if you added your name

to a wait list, you don't get those nine weeks. You could get a pasta pass for life. We're talking lifetime. All I got to do is pay $400 more and you get pasta forever. So naturally, millions and millions of Americans

signed up for this list. The odds were 480 to 1. So 50 were, selected and for $500 total, they get pasta for life. This Carbo Fest, we decided to look into it. We were curious who these humans were that pursued it. Apparently, there were three in Central Florida who ended up getting the lifetime Olive Garden pasta pass.

All of the winners were from Central Florida? Actually, no, it was just three out of everyone. Three out of 50. Technically, there are 50 states. That's a little disproportionate, but kind of awesome. Now, full disclosure. You got to tell people this. I am a former Olive Garden waiter and three-time wine salesman of the month.

If you're trying to offload a Kianti Classico, Jack is your guy. And I know from experience that the break-even of that $500, $45 bowls of pasta, then you're break-even, and then you're going to have a million more for free. Not a mathometer, Jack, but that sounds fantastic. And the waiter's going to hate you because you're not paying it to. Now let's hit our two stories. You're tuned in the snacks daily.

We spoke to the lawyers and we got to get something legal out the way. The snacks are about to hear ain't food. It's air candy. They don't reflect the views of the rob of her family. It's all informational just so. You know, we're not recommending any securities. Nope. It's not a research report or investment advice.

Not an offer or sale of a security. Right. Snacks is digestible. Business news for you. Robberhood Financial, LLC. Member Fenra slash SIPC. For our first story, the Apple card is now available as of yesterday to anyone in the U.S. Caviott.

Slight as. If you have an iPhone 6 or greater. Yeah, that's true. Or we still know if this works on an iPhone SE. I don't even know what that looks like. Yes, you do. I used to have. an iPhone as he I told you that a million times.

Jack used to have one. We used to call it Jack's iPad 12. Now, it's been a good month for Apple. First of all, we learned this week it's spending $6 billion on original content for its Netflix competitor Apple TV Plus, which apparently will be $9.99 per month. And it got President Trump to delay tariffs that would have made iPhones more expensive for Christmas. But that's the other stuff going on.

You're here to listen to the Apple card. The credit card with Goldman Sachs that it just came out with and is now available to anyone in America. Jack, you want to share a little. a little bit about your personal experience jumping in snacks. Snackers, I am dedicated to you. I applied for this card today for you so that I could talk about it on the pod, probably sacrificed my credit score for you. This is one of those things like you get a new card. Everyone says it helps your credit credit card. You get it. You don't get a card. It doesn't hurt your credit card score. No one has any

It's a black box. But you know what's not a black box? How to do it? Talk to us. You update your iOS. You need like 12.4.1. Oh my God. When I have to update my iOS, I cancel my plans for the evening. Took forever. It's true. Then you go to your Apple Wals. and you apply by pressing the plus button. I applied at 2.15 PM Pacific time yesterday. I was done at 2.17 Pacific time yesterday. Jack's highly specific, but that's how you can actually get this thing done. You want to know about the cool features.

These are the key ones you want to know about. Ultra privacy. This thing doesn't even have a credit card number. It's like the man with no face. It changes. Every transaction on the back end, the card uses a new number. So you never actually see its own number. And you get like encryption on encryption.

I love that you jumped in Snacks. check. What else we got here? Support. If you have an issue or if you're like traveling to Puerto Rico and you want to make sure they know Puerto Rico is part of the United States and to keep your credit card on. Must be nice. You can tell them through I message. You just text them. I'm going to be in Puerto Rico. The other cool thing, we just thought this was interesting. The card on your phone, because it's mainly a digital card, it changes colors based on what you're purchased. Yes. When I open up my Apple wallet, I see a white credit card with no number and it's white because it's a blank slate. I haven't bought anything yet. He hasn't purchased anything yet. But if Jack were to

shop. Let's say he was going out to buy some tickets for the latest Le Mez concert. Let's go with that. Le Miz show. Let's go with that. It would actually turn pink because entertainment purchases turn pink. Now, when I go to Le Miz, I'm not swiping this thing. I'm not sticking the chip in the reader. This is a digital phone thing. Now Apple says... We're going to go to this LeMiz thing later. By the way, if Jack and bought something at a restaurant before this questionable laymiss date, it would turn orange. Right. It changes color. But Apple wants you to say that you hover. You Don't swipe, you hover your Apple Crows.

You're not sticking a chip in here and then waiting 10 minutes while the chip gets right. Now, we think there could be a better verb, perhaps waft, but Snackers, hit us at Robin Hood Snacks and let us know what the proper verb is for using Apple Bank. I like waft, but we need something better. Now, you probably love credit card points. Apple is hooking people up with credit card points. That's its point. In its announcement yesterday, 3% cash back on any Uber or Uber eats payments through Apple Car.

And they're given 3% cash back on Apple purchases. Like iTunes. 2% cash back when you pay. for anything using Apple Pay, which isn't necessarily linked to the Apple card. It could be any card. But we thought this was really interesting. They're only giving 1% cash back if you purchase stuff using the titanium physical version of the credit card. Because yes, there will be a physical version because yes, your friends do want to show off that they have a physical version. Although it's a lame move. Like the whole point is to be digital. It's so true. Apple really wants

you to use its iPhone. The whole goal here for Apple is to make its iPhones like essential because sales aren't growing for the iPhone. So it's using points to push you to its digital card. Jack, what is the takeaway for our buddies over now? Apple is writing its own rules and guess what? Everybody is going to want to play. 3% cash back? That's a lot of cash back. And guess who's paying it? The merchants, the companies you're purchasing from. Apple announced yesterday, it is inviting other merchants to join the 3% club. Right now it's just Uber, but we wouldn't be surprised if like Chipotle joins soon. So you're going to get 3% cash back. Uber is essentially paying that fee to you to be using the card. So Uber is agreeing to lose 3% on each Uber ride when

someone uses Apple card, but that is a small cost because guess what? If you have Apple card and you have an iPhone, you're going to start using Uber instead of Lyft because you get 3% off. And Uber wants access to iPhone Nation. That's a small price to pay. For our second story, this one's wild. Target is launching a flagship grocery brand and it thinks this thing is going to be worth billions in like a year. Target's announcing earnings today, but we couldn't wait for this story. This was a way more interesting story. We got to jump on this.

Now, it's a whole new grocery line. It's a, you know, it's crackers, it's bread. It's called Good and Gather. Interesting. That's the Target-owned brand. Now, we couldn't, like, what is the marketing team doing over there? They are trying to sound millennially, and they're doing it by taking vaguely wellness-sounding words and finding two of them that start with the same letter. Let's just throw a little alliteration in there.

Hey, Cindy, how about half and wholesome? True and tried. Let's just run with this thing. Good and Gather is the one that Target ended up with. And in all honesty, we love that it is launching this food brand because it's mostly organic food, and this makes healthy organic food accessible to everyone who shops at Target. Now, Target is going big with this thing. This is their biggest food launch yet.

It's 650 items coming out next month and then a whopping 2,000 coming out next year. All right, that's what's in it. 2,000 products. Guess what's not in it? Talk to me. Artificial flavors, fake colors, high fructose corn syrup. Mostly, these are organic products that are good for your body. We're talking about scary stuff.

Now, it actually covers a wide range of, like, food snack craving situations, Jack. Coco drizzle nut bar. That's the snack stuff. Blue corn flax seed chips with great guacamole. A little savory kind of snack. And then it also has staples like cage-free eggs and steroid-free milk. So the kind of stuff you're actually going to be using every day. And then, just in case you hate cooking too much, they got meals.

Yes. You can get an avocado toast salad. I don't know what that is. I don't know what that is either. But that's our second avocado-based product we've mentioned in this story. So if you're trying to visualize this thing, picture like a Sam's Club or a Whole Foods 365. It's a whole brand that the greater chain of stores owns itself like Walmart and Whole Foods. And if you want to know what this thing looks like when it comes to the branding, this is like if Casper and Allbirds had a baby, and then that baby was raised by Harry's razors in a way luggage.

It's true. It has very pleasant-looking colors with very simple white letters. Adorable. They're really pushing the millennial appeal on this. Now, a bold claim by a Target CEO, they say this will be a multi-billion dollar brand by just next year. It's in a very bold claim. We were curious as to why. And the reason is because Target's really become a one-stop shop retailer. Yes. 75% of Target customers who go into Target to buy a non-food item. Yep. End up leaving with food because it's right there. Jack, you couldn't have served up that

fact any better. Now, Jack, what is the takeaway for our buddies over at Target? Groceries are Amazon proof. It's the one thing Jeff Bezos has. hasn't been able to touch. You need groceries because you need food daily, and people still prefer shopping for those groceries offline. Look at Amazon's grocery attempts. You have Whole Foods, which had acquired. You also have Amazon fresh delivery. Those are experiments that haven't been hugely successful. On the other end of the spectrum, you've got Walmart, which is the biggest U.S. grocer, and it gets 50% of its revenues from grocery. 50% that's wild. Walmart's stock is close to a record high, despite Amazon because of groceries. And if you're not, you're

your target, you're looking at this as an opportunity because only 20% of targets revenues come from groceries. Looks like it wants to get up to that 50% that Walmart has. Have a little good and gather. Hey everybody, this is Jack. I own Amazon shares. For our third and final story, Tesla's solar division is now getting more buzz than Elon Musk's Twitter after more big news this week. We're talking about Solar City. Very nice. Solar City is a company Tesla acquired literal name in 2016. And Solar City was founded by two of Elon's cousins. Oh, what's your source? Based on a tip from Elon.

Where'd you get that? Wikipedia. Very nice. Now, Solar City is literally all about solar panels and solar-y kind of stuff. And it's part of Tesla. But Tesla has got a few areas of focus. Tesla today is electric cars, electric storage, like batteries. And then they always say this, quote-unquote, finally, solar panels.

Solar panels are totally an afterthought at Tesla, small part of the business. Yeah, they're only 7% of Tesla's total business. And you can rent, lease, or buy solar panels to generate electricity from the sun. So this was the big news. came out this week, Tesla's deciding, you know what, we're not just going to sell these things. We're going to offer them up for rent as low as $50 a month. You can slap these thing on your room. All right, Snackers, if you own a home, because that's a requirement. Must be nice. If you own a home, think about what your electric bill is every month. If it is more than $50 a month,

you might want to think about renting these solar panels. And that's why Tesla's dropped the price to make this something that you're finally willing to try. There's actually no installation fee, but if you bail and, like, want to take them off, it's a $1,500. But there's one more caveat here. It's really only available in states that have enough solar energy. These are states with lots of sunlight and lots of progressive governments that give incentives for solar energy. California, Arizona, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and then New Mexico. Now, this is all to revive solar sales because solar cities sales have declined three years straight. A lot of S's in that story. It was hard, but I'm impressed you got that out there.

Now, that was the really positive news. Turns out there was also a big negative news. Walmart is suing Tesla. I repeat. Wait, Walmart is suing Tesla over those same solar panels. You don't say that that often. Now, it's suing Tesla because it had a bunch of those panels on a bunch of its megastores, and they happened to catch fire, and they didn't like how Tesla dealt with the situation. Yeah, get this. Tesla didn't do much.

It's a bad look. But Walmart is actually a big Tesla supporter. Yeah. It pre-ordered 45 of those electric semi-trucks, which looked like a villain in Terminator. We're talking about those electric ones that Tesla's, like, come out with that are actually kind of scary-looking. Yeah, they're not available yet. But it also bought a bunch of solar panels for a lot of. a lot of its megastores and is unhappy about it.

They're kind of cool friends that hang out together and you wouldn't expect it. So, Jack, what is the takeaway for our buddies over Tesla? Solar panels are the Renee Zellwiger to Tesla's Jerry Maguire. They complete me. You complete me. It's a perfect combination because Tesla has a focus on the environment. But in order to fulfill that, it really needs to focus on the environment. Yes.

A Tesla vehicle runs on electricity, not burning gasoline. That's good for the environment, right, Nick? Not necessarily, Jack. I'm glad you brought it up. If the electricity you put in your Tesla came from a coal-fired power plant, that's like a slap in the face to Mother Earth because coal is really dirty.

So if you're Tesla, you're envisioning a whole circle-like ecosystem where everyone owns a Tesla car, but they also own Tesla solar panels. Solar panels take the electricity from the sun, put it in the battery, put it in the Tesla, around and around it goes.

That's how becomes a sustainable energy company. This is Nick, and we want to let you guys know that both Jack and I own shares of Tesla. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us? there. Apple's credit card is now available to all Americans who own an iPhone. And joining the 3% Club is how you win business from iPhone Nation. Target has unveiled its own Whole Foods 365 style food brand so it can start owning the grocery market. Called Good and Gather, we don't

love the name, but we like the idea. And then finally, Tesla's solar panel business is struggling. So it's offering them for rental installation included. The next time you think of Tesla, just picture Renee and Tom. It's a beautiful thing. Now time for our snack fact of the day. This one is a nice little anniversary one. Show me the money. Google IPOed 15 years ago from this week. And since then, it's made a few acquisitions. A lot of acquisitions.

A lot of them. Talk to me. Over 200. Now, can you think of any big ones? Only one. What are you thinking? YouTube. That's true.

One billion dollars back in like 2006. Enterprise Software, like all the other ones. Yeah, the other $100.99. It also brought Zaget, the food review coming, which is pretty cool. Snackers, we'd love some snack facts of the day from you. Tweet us at Robin Hood Snacks. And by the way, people have been asking us for a little more details about Jack's wedding. I just want to share this. He gave an absolutely unreal speech at the wedding. You Snackers would all

be proud. It was incredible. I'm blushing. Nick, thank you. Also, great. Rehearsled that I don't even go there. The tension is on you, my man. Snackers will catch you tomorrow. 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, 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.