The Best One Yet - 🥢 “Crazy Rich Weeeeeeeee” — Weee!’s ethnic food app. Carnival’s wedding cruises. Baby Formula’s 90% problem.

Episode Date: May 23, 2022

Just before a record summer of weddings, Carnival Cruises is reintroducing its port-side profit puppy, the Wedding Cruise. Weee! isn’t just the best name for a startup we’ve ever heard — it’s the $4B grocery app that just hired the Director of “Crazy Rich Asians.” And we’ve got an ironic update on the Baby Formula Shortage: There’s not enough diversification and too much diversification.$CCL $ABTFollow us on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypodAnd now watch us on YoutubeWant a Shoutout on the pod? Fill out this formGot the Best Fact Yet? We got a form for that tooLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I actually think the best question, Jack, is when someone's like, when you guys sound really close or really far from the mics, are you actually really close or really far from the microphones? That was a great question. That was a great question. That was a great. I said Nick likes to get theatrical and so do I. The answer is we're actually moving away from the microphones. Three, two. This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Monday. Welcome back May 23rd.

And today's pot is the best one yet. TBIO-I last full week. week before Memorial Day. Hot Pod Summer, Jack? Is it Hot Pod Summer almost? It's Hot Pod Summer, Nick. I don't care if it's not Memorial Day. I'm wearing white baby. No one's going to stop me. For our first story, after two years, Carnival Cruises is bringing back the cruise wedding. You're focused on your plus one. They're focused on your plus 50. For our second story, Wee. Wee. We is the name of the company. They just had the best company name we've ever heard. Yeah, it's a $4 billion grocery startup that just hot.

hired the director of crazy rich Asians. For our third and final story, we got an update on the baby formula shortage. Okay, so there's not enough baby formula diversification, and yet there's too much baby formula diversification. Well said, Dick. But before we hit that wonderful mix, just a perfect mix to start a week. Four years ago right now, Nick and I were on the subway talking to ourselves. We were talking to ourselves on the two train.

Because we were rehearsing for the pause. So Jack and I are crazy, but we also were rehearsing for this podcast. Four years ago today, we published our first ever podcast, kicking off our podcasting careers. Yeah, it was called Market Snacks Daily. Different names, same pod, right, Jack? Episode one hit May 23rd, 2018. I'll never forget the day. It was not the best one yet at the time. We had no studio. So we were writing the newsletter and then taken the subway out of town to record at 5 o'clock in a stand-up comedy bar on 78th Street, before the comedy like was happening.

We were like the pre-opening, opening act. The floor under the microphone, I remember the floor under the microphone, Jack? It smelled like a Long Island ice tape. Our feet were sticking to the floor each step. That's right. It was sticky. Also, for the first episode,

we didn't have our format down. We had five stories, not three. We did. No joke. And honestly, we have no idea why we did five stories. We were reaching to find a fifth story valuable enough for your time. So, Jack, what is the takeaway for our final story on IHop

having a hamburger they're now selling for breakfast. We were running out of breath. We needed a heimlich to hit that last takeaway. Okay, but then things started to change. We started trying out new things. We started honing our pod craft. We added a fact of the day. We added birthday shoutouts. We got some consistency. Yes, we did. And then Jack and I realized, hey, wait a second, each of these episodes is better than the last episode. So between Market Snacks Daily at the beginning and Snacks Daily after that and the best one yet now, Nick, talk to me, Jack. What numbers? We're up to 950 episodes. of daily pods.

And besties and yetis, some of you have listened to every single episode and all 2,850 takeaways. It was just a handful of you, though, because our first episode got like eight downloads. And that includes our moms.

We love doing this now, not for eight downloads, for like millions of you. And we are so thankful you're listening still. Happy Pod Day. Let's hit our three stories, Jack. And then let's hit another 950 episode.

Let's do it, baby. 15 years before this song, Two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm They had an idea to cause a cultural storm It's the best one yet But the best isn't known I don't even do they need to practice 50% that's a fat tip

T-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 For our first story After two years Carnival Cruises is bringing back

The Wedding Cruise This isn't just a party on the sea It's a port side profit. Okay, Jack. Two years ago, the first thing you did when the pandemic hit. If I had a cruise book, I'd cancel. Did you have a cruise book? No, but I saw the Grand Princess cruise ship coming into the San Francisco Bay.

We saw it. We saw that in the Bay. And like patient number one was on board. Did not look like a lot of fun. But Carnival stock, it hasn't had a lot of fun either because it fell 75% after that. And it's still down 75%. Cruise lines were one of the worst hit sectors. of the pandemic. Well, put Jack, because like, you might be okay on a plane for three hours,

but you're not that comfortable being on a ship with 3,000 other humans for 13 days. But after two years, Carnival's bringing back one of the most overlooked strategic products we've ever. Like, we didn't even know about this. Jack was shocked by this one you heard. The at sea cruise ship wedding ceremony. It is a profit puppy and it's coming at the perfect time. Now, we all know this is a. record summer for weddings. Talk to me about your fridge, Jack. What do you see it on it? My fridge is

like paper machined with the thick paper invitations to weddings and the save the dates. Dana and Tim Long Island is going to be a blast. But here's the problem. There aren't enough venues for all of those weddings, Jack. So what are you going to do? Simple solution. Look at the earth. There's more blue than there is green. Yeah, there is. Do the wedding at sea. And before the pandemic, Carnival was loving this wedding at sea industry. Okay, Jack and I discovered that Carnival used to do 2,400 weddings on their cruise ships at sea every year. Nick and I jumped in T-boy style. They offer nine different wedding packages aboard Carnival cruise ships.

Yeah, they do. They start around $2,000 and get you a 20-minute ceremony on board with a photographer and like champagne. You get a half-hour couples massage included in that lovely package, don't you, Jack? The captain of the ship is the efficient because they're on international waters and what the captain says goes. Yeah, so it's like, who married you? A Poseidon, God of the oceans. Yeah, so they started $2,000, but for an extra $1,000, your two-tier cake becomes a three-tier cake. Interesting upgrade. And what happens with the drinks, Jack? The regular champagne becomes a fancy French champagne.

Yeah, Carnival Cruises, they know about pricing power. And weddings on cruises make sense because your friends were getting hotels for the wedding weekend anyway. why not do a floating hotel? So the way this is getting bundled together, Carnival Cruises is giving you a wedding with a built-in honeymoon. It's the only wedding with a built-in honeymoon. So you're going from saying, I do, from riding a ski-do off the starboard bow.

Jack, what is the takeaway for our buddies over at Carnival Cruces? Carnival has turned the plus one into the plus 50. Okay, besties, Yeti, stick with us on the math here. Jack and I calculated that if your average ocean wedding is $2,500, And they do 2,400 of them over at Carnival Cruises. That's actually only $6 million a year. Even if that's a profitable $6 million, that's not moving the needle for a $15 billion cruise company.

That's why we think Carnival's focus isn't actually on the wedding package, but what comes with the wedding package? The guess. It's not about the 20-minute starboard ceremony. It's about the 50 guests who are hanging out on the poop deck for the next five days. Yeah, the real value here is that guests have to come. They have to book. They have to stay on the cruise.

A cruise wedding is basically a destination wedding, but it lasts way longer. And all those dollars splurged by the guests, they all go to Carnival because you're captive in the galley. There's nowhere else you can spend money but the cruise ship. Carnival cruises just turn the plus one at a wedding into a plus 50. For our second story, we... Is now worth $4 billion to deliver your Asian and his... Hispanic groceries. It's spelled W. E.E. E. Exclamation point.

Wee. Except it's not delivering groceries. It's delivering a feeling. Best rom-com of 2018. What are you thinking, Jack? Crazy rich. Classic. Henry Golding is a tall glass of spin drift.

I don't know what that means, but I'm so into it. You haven't seen this man. I have. Are you talking about the guy who gets married? Yeah, I got distracted by all 14 of his abs. Well, the director of that wonderfully heartwarming movie. just took a job at this startup. Yeah, the Crazy Rich Asians director, John Chu,

is now the chief creative officer of WE. But Wee's not just hiring. They're fundraising. They just hit a $4 billion valuation in grocery delivery. Exactly, because the biggest winner of the pandemic, it was arguably grocery delivery, right, Jack? Yeah, Instacart is now the number two most valuable U.S. startup. Oh, one thing Jack and I should mention,

we is not your typical grocery delivery. app. We doesn't deliver food. They deliver an entire field. Okay, so Jack, let's jump in T-Boy style here. Let's go to Instacart.com. Let's go to the Instacart app and you open it up. What sections are you seeing at the top? Meats, produce, snack, dairy, juices. Okay. So now go to the Wii grocery delivery app. What sections are you seeing in that? I'm seeing Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Filipino. Exactly. Same product, but different products here. Because we started specifically Asian and specifically curated hard-defined Asian brands. Content is king.

Yes. Curating that content is queen. And Jack, can you share more about the founder's story here? How did he start this thing? The founder is an Asian-American and was frustrated that the food of his homeland and the food of his parents was jammed into this tiny ethnic food section of the grocery store. Okay, so that was the opportunity here, that the real estate was just so limited. So We's founder said, you know what, we're not just going to do chili oil and we're not just

going to do dumplings. We're going to add 500 foreign products that our customers will love every week. Okay, Jack, let's whip up some examples here. What kind of stuff are we seeing? All right, you can find Golden Happiness Chinese stretch donuts. Yes, you can find those only in Nanjing, China, or on we. All right, how about Goldilocks brand Filipino frozen boppies? Jack, you can find those in Manila, or you're going to find them on Wii. We started by making Asian American shoppers feel at home. So we competitive advantage is the feeling you get from seeing the variety of kimchi cheese that you grew up with that you hadn't been able to find anywhere else. And now they're expanding to try to do the same thing for

Hispanic Americans too. So Jack, what is the takeaway for our buddies over at Wee? Horizontal is bigger, but vertical is deeper. Besties, Yetis, grocery stores, they're often horizontal. They have at least one thing, love everything. It's a huge market and they want to provide for everyone. They have peanut butter, they have They have everything on your list. But Wee's focus, it's different. It's vertical. They only deliver specific things to a smaller market.

They're not making everyone happy, but they're making some people incredibly happy. Extremely happy to see hundreds of types of fish sauce when you can't really order more than one from Kroger. Instead of going horizontal for size, Wee is going vertical for depth. Instacart users, we're going to guess they're probably not that passionate about their grocery app. We's users, we're guessing they probably. probably are. Now a word from our sponsor, Robin Hood. Okay, so Jack and I got into the news business

with our previous company. Markets now. Our goal was basically to democratize financial news for our generation. Cut the jargon. Talk about the profit puppy. So when we first connected with Robin Hood, there was a chemistry there. We were doing for financial news what Robin Hood was doing for the financial system. Robin Hood was democratizing finance for all and it started by eliminating trading commissions and building a beautiful app. Remember, we had the same color green. So the green, so The green was destiny. Destiny, absolutely. So we sold market snacks to Robin Hood and we launched Robin Hood Snacks. The equivalent of proposing, getting married, and building a family together in just three years. Much more to come on why we're thrilled that Robin Hood is our exclusive sponsor.

If you're not investing in Robin Hood yet to get started, you can go to robin hood.com slash t-boy and choose a free stock. That's robinhood.com slash T-B-O-Y. Certain limitations apply for a list of other fees. View the fee schedule at RBNh-C-O-S-F-Fee's. All investments involve risk. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member SIPC. By the way, Robin Hood no longer affiliated with us or the podcast. For our third and final story, Jack and I have an update for you on the big baby formula shortage. And it shows there's actually a downside to diversification.

Okay, two weeks ago, Jack, we had an entry in the Horde's Almanac and it was baby formula. Yeah, we told you that a recall had happened to Abbott Laboratories that sparked a baby formula crisis. But this just wasn't a shortage like any other shortage we've seen in the last two years. First way this was different is that it wasn't a shortage caused by COVID or the pandemic. Yeah, this formula shortage, it was a health issue that actually caused the recall of all that formula. The second big difference to this shortage is it's not some chicken wing or fire pit shortage. This is about food for babies. If there's no Xbox for sale, that's a bummer. But if there's no baby formula, that's life-threatening. So we just got an update.

last week of a solution from the government, and it's disappointed. Yeah, the Biden administration actually invoked the Defense Production Act, which is a wartime act to make things get made. In this case, he used that wartime act to ensure that baby food makers get all the ingredients they need. They're at the top of the list. Okay, so you think there's a solution there. But here's the problem. Baby food makers, they don't actually need ingredients to make the food for the babies.

They just need that huge Abbott factory in Michigan to get. get restarted. Okay. So then this actually led to something that did feel like a good development, right, Jack? Right. The FDA reached a deal to reopen that Abbott factory in Michigan, ASAP. But then we got another problem. Abbott, which is making all this baby formula, said it's going to take another two weeks just to get that factory up and running. And then another two months after that before the formula hits the shelves at your Walgreens or your Walmart. Okay, so we're talking about maybe the most critical shortage of the pandemic and it's probably going to last. Another two months.

What we really need is more companies to be making baby formula. Jack, this feels like a takeaway moment. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies in the baby formula making industry? Downside to diversification is distraction. Okay, besties, yeties. Get this. 90% of baby formula comes from just four companies. Four companies.

That's it. We need more companies making formula. So each company is too big to fail. And guess what? Abbott failed. And here is the ironic. thing. Abbott failed because it's too diversified. Abbott is a science conglomerate. They get six divisions selling hundreds of products to hundreds of

countries. Yeah, well, their U.S. Baby Formula business, it's actually like a tiny part of their business. Jack, how small is that business? U.S. baby formula sales are just 5% of Abbott's total sales. Okay, so when this baby formula crisis hit in February, did Abbott's CEO spring into action? No, he didn't. No, he didn't. Because a problem that's just five percent of its business, that might not make its way up to the C-suite. So the way we're seeing it, the downside of diversification, it's a distracted CEO. Jack, can you whip up the T-boy takeaways for us to kick off the week?

Carnival is doing weddings on their cruises again. Yeah, Carnival doesn't see a wedding plus one. They see wedding plus 50. For our second story, whee! Delivers Asian and Hispanic groceries and just hired the director from crazy rich Asians. Instead of going horizontally wide, they're going vertically deep.

Our third and final story is Abbott. You're not getting the baby formula for another two more months. Yeah, it shows the downside of diversification is distraction. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one catapulted in by Jamie Mosing from lovely Santa Rosa, California. All right. Here we go. Let's whip it up.

Pole vaulting is one of those unique sports where every win actually ends in a failure. Athletes compete until they have had three unsuccessful attempts to clear a new height, even the winner. This is a classic example of why we focus on the wins. That is a really just cool thing I've never thought of. Amelia! I mean, if so facto, you win until you fail? I'm trying to think of another thing like that.

I can't think of anything. I don't think so. I'm still recovering from that incredible death fan. But then when you fail, Nick, you still win. Exactly. It messes up with your mind and we got to start the whole pot over. Let's celebrate the wins. Besties, Yeties, you look fantastic for this.

Monday. If you haven't yet, you can drop down and give us a five-star rating. That helps grow the pot. We'll take it. We love reading it. Drop down and give me five. Nick and I'll see tomorrow. If you don't give us five stars. We enjoy reading those too. They're pretty entertaining for us. Yeah, if you give us one star, we'll read it. We'll read it. In the meantime, H-Y-H, T-B-L-Y. Five stars. We'll see you tomorrow. If you know, you know. And before we go, congratulations to Air Force, husband and wife, Brittany and James, who are stationed in Hawaii, and both just got promoted to captain. And sending big love and big congrats to Gigi Jung, who was stuck in lockdown in Shanghai for weeks, but got 10,000 steps a day into this pot. Yeah, Diana Garcia, congrats on that new job at SoFi.

And to Jenna Marshall, land home! Because she just started a cruise with her family. And Lieutenant Gabriel Garosi and Max DeLong, congrats on graduating from the Army and getting engaged. Congrats to Shane McKinney, the Commodore, who just got an offer for an eye banking job. And happy birthday to Asato Ida in Glendale, California. Happy birthday to Mason Stokes in Atoka, Tennessee. And ooh, Zeyer's Amir, happy birthday in San Jose. Happy 30th to Kevin in Raleigh, North Carolina.

And Jenna's got that birthday and is getting married to Evan, not too shabby. Happy birthday to Kathleen and Mary Clara Mandy, who are twins in Columbus, Ohio. And Patrick McCarthy enjoy that birthday in Long Island City. Happy birthday to Tyler Ross in Grand Rapids, Michigan. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-Block. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. Nick and I both own stock of Robin Hood. Now, a word from our sponsor, Robin Hood.

So four years ago, we sold our company and we joined Robin Hood. A lot of people asked, when did we decide that selling was the right move? So it was actually in our meeting with the co-founders, that's what sold us. Vlad and Bejou, also former roommates, also met in college, also were hanging out in New York City's East Village after the financial crisis. And they just figured out how the financial system worked. So Vlad and Bejouzzius saw that Wall Street bigwigs, they were getting their fees waived. And they figured out a way to waive commissions for everyone else, too.

So we saw a big, bold vision and decided to join these guys. That's where we spent the last three years until now. It makes sense now that Robin Hood would sponsor our newly independent podcast. If you're not investing in Robin Hood yet, you can get started by going to robinhood.com slash T-boy choosing a free stock. That's Robinhood.com slash T-B-O-I. Certain limitations apply for a list of other fees. View the fee schedule at RBNh-C-O-C-S-Fee. All investments involve risk. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member SIPC. By the way, Robin Hood is no longer affiliated with us or this podcast.

Weese users, we're going to guess they are passionate. Dude, do you want me to say like... What was the final words of your sentence of their grocery app? They're not passionate about their grocery app. Weese users, we're guessing, they probably are passionate about their grocery app. It's funny. I think there was a natural pies that like we think they actually are or something. They are passionate about their grocery app.

Do you want to read it? Try it. Here, we'll try it over there. Instacart users, we're guessing they're probably not that passionate about their grocery app. We's users, we're guessing they are probably passionate about the grocery app. Do they do it again? Thank you.