The Best One Yet - 🍽️ “Death of a Meal Kit” — Blue Apron’s autopsy. The Stock Market’s sad September. Porsche’s 1st apartment.

Episode Date: October 2, 2023

Blue Apron was sold to Wonder for $100M — The problem? That’s 95% lower than the mealkit compay’s peak valuation. We found out why.The S&P 500 fell by 5% in September — We found the quintuple whammy of economic worries that explain it.And luxury car brands are moving from car sales to condo sales — Because the cure for a commodity is a brand.$APRN $SPY $DRPRY $VWAPY $AMLSubscribe 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. Welcome back. It is Monday, October 2nd. And today's pod, it is the best one yet. It is a T-boy, Jack. You know what I did this weekend, Nick? I've got something else I got to talk to you about.

What did you do this weekend, by the way? I watched the Toy Story NFL game with Wilder. Not too shabby. To infinity and beyond. Were you watching it with two collared shirts on it once, Jack? I told you. It's the fashion of the fall. Two-collared shirts.

Either it's really cold or it's Paris Fashion Week, Jack. Neither of them are popped. Anna Wintorpe, she's a fan. First story, what do we got for the show, man? For our first story, we're looking at the stock market. It just finished its worst month of the year. Because our economy is facing a quintuple whammy. Five whamies.

For our second story, we're looking at Blue Apron. The OG Milkit Company was once worth $2 billion, but it just sold for a fraction of that value. So Jack and I aren't doing an obituary. We're doing an autopsy. For our third and final story, we're introducing you to the latest real estate trend that we're calling car apartments. Get this. Porsche, Bentley, and Aston Martin are all going from cars to condos. But yet, yet he's, before we hit that fantastic mix.

Jack, no one else is doing this mix today. I love the mix we chose this weekend. Let me flip the page open to week 185 of the hoarder's almanac. Things were running out in this economy. Jack and I been keeping track for you. This week, we are running out of pandas. We repeat panda bears. our MIA, pandas are gone. Specifically, we are running out of giant pandas. Specifically, specifically, we're running out of pandas at zoos. Because get this, Yetis. China has announced that they are taking back all the pandas

that are currently in America's zoos. Apparently, pandas are only native to a very tiny part of China. So the only pandas that we have in America are in captivity at our zoos. Which means that the U.S. will soon have zero pandas. The three pandas currently at the Smithsonian, The National Zoo in D.C. They're growing back to China.

The pandas we have in Atlanta in San Diego, in the Memphis Zoo. They're shipping back to China. And this is such a sad story because pandas are actually adorned. This is such a mean story because pandas are just so cute. And pandas aren't just pandas either. Good point. Good point, Jack. The reason this is happening is that pandas are also about politics. Because Yetis'i's panda gifts are actually a form of diplomacy,

a form of diplomacy known as panda diplomacy. Yeties, for years, the Chinese government has lent out their panda bears to foreign nations in order to build international relationships. A classic case of panda gifting. Yeah, because sending money is nice. But sending pandas, oh, that's delightful. America received its first live panda in 1972. After Richard Nixon's first trip over to China. Canada got their first panda from China. After a trade deal they did with China. And Finland received their first panda from China. After a national independence celebration. But now that tensions with China are high, China is taking back all the pandas that

they've lent out. China is demanding repandement. Yetis, that's why we have a shortage of pandas. Basties, that's why you got to hug those pandas while you still can. From now until December, it's Pandapalooza. A giant farewell to all our zoo pandas. Because puppy. People ultimately prioritize pandas. Yeah, they do. Jack, let's hit our three stories. Boys from the Northeast met in the dawn. They had an idea that caused a cultural storm. It's the 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. For our first story, September is over. It actually was the stock market's worst month of the whole year. Because our economy faces a quintuple whammy of worries right now. Yet it is the best reflection of the stock market overall.

But where are you going to look, Jack? The S&P 500. The S&P 500. If you want to know what the whole stock market's doing, you don't look at the Dow, you don't look at the NASDAQ, you look at the S&P 500. It's an index that tracks the 500 biggest stocks in America, and it fell by 5% last month.

Now, here's why that is just a cry and shame, Yetis. Going into September, we were just 5% away from an all-time record high. It was a bull market, baby. People were swinging. It was fun out there, Jack. But that bull got beaten down, and that swing and ended last month. Today, Yetis, we now sit 11% below with the all-time stock market high hit in January of 2020.

September. It's the biggest month for birthdays, but the stock market wasn't celebrating. So, Yeties, when Jack and I noticed it was the worst month of the year, we had to ask, why did stocks fall continuously over the past 30 days? We found a quintuple whammy of economic worries. That's right, besties. We found five whamies of reasons. The first economic worry was caused by Russia and Saudi Arabia who cut oil production last month. Yeah, they cut the oil production, which means prices of oil are getting up to nearly a hundred bucks a barrel. Expensive oil means expensive gasoline, which is like a tax that slows down the whole economy.

All right, that's worry number one. But worry number two is the government shutdown. All month, investors have feared that Congress would fail to fund the government leading to another government shutdown. That would have messed with economic data and the IPO market and just hurt. hurt the economy in a whole bunch of different ways. But news update on Saturday night at the 11th hour, Congress passed a 45-day spending bill. So the government's not shutting down right now, but investors thought it would all last month. Which brings us to worry number three for the economy right now. The child care cliff.

The child care cliff. Yet his Congress allowed a pandemic-era child care bill to expire just this past weekend. Which means that 70,000 child care programs are projecting. to close, which would affect 3 million kids in America. And that's not all. Whammy number four, student loan payments resumed yesterday on October 1st. And whammy number five is the strikes that are still happening among actors and car workers in this country. Yeah, he's added all up, and it's like Halloween came early this year.

It came a month early. The scariest part of Halloween was September. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are everyone in the stock market? Individual stocks face individual risks. but market-wide risks hit everything. Yeah, it is, if you buy stock in Tesla, then you face risk that Elon does something crazy. Yeah, Elon's antics are an individual risk to Tesla stock.

He's only a risk if you own stock of Tesla. But if you buy stock in Tesla, you also face systemic risk. Those five economic whammies we just mentioned, those are all systemic risks. Yeah, so they affected just about every stock in the stock market, from Pepsi to Pinterest, not just Tesla. Last month, Apple stock was down. Amex's stock was down.

Even Peloton was down in September, despite that Lulu Lemon partnership. And Lulu Lemon stock was down too. The whole stock market was down in September. Because five systemic risks affected the whole economy. For our second story, after years of rising and falling, Blue Apron Meal kits has finally been acquired for a fraction of the price it was once valued at. We're not doing an obituary on Blue Apron. We're doing an autopsy on it.

But Jack, if we're going to tell this story, can you talk to us about the coolest date you could do back in 2011, man? The coolest date night you could pull off was not dinner at Dorsey's Friday at 8 o'clock. Yet he's 2011, the coolest kind of date you could do. Meal Kit, Tiny Apartment in Manhattan, be there or be square? 12 years ago, Blue Apron offered us just that. They didn't just pioneer the meal kit. They invented it. We're talking slamming salmon on a bowl of Jamaican.

sticky rice sent to your door. Serves two people, cost you only $20. Jack, how about the sheet pan ravioli with the Brussels sprout flambay? It only has two steps to prepare. It only takes 10 minutes before you're eating it next to a candlelight. They send you the ingredients, just the ingredients, because this was the key insight that Blue Apron made about meal kits. Millennials were both time poor and money poor. And the meal kit solved both those problems.

For example, the meal kit cut down on prep time. The Blue Apron Carnitas meal kit came with onions that were pre-choped. And the meal kit saved you money. You need cilantro for those carnitas. You can get just a couple stems with Blue Apron instead of the bushel you have to buy at the grocery store. Nothing worse than when you need a pinch of coriander, but you have to spend $18 on a whole can of coriander. That innovation powered Blue Apron to a $2 billion valuation. And it was the first meal kit company to IPO.

The first Pure Play meal kit company stock, things were looking wonderful for Blue Apron. But Yeties, here's the news from Blue Apron. Blue Apron stock has fallen by 95% and its years as a publicly traded company are officially over. Because Blue Apron was just acquired for just $100 million. Now, Yeties, when a business or a business person reaches their end, we do an obituary. That's what made us curious about this story. In this case, Yetis, we're not going to do an obituary. Jack and I are going to do an autopsy. We're whipping out the scalpel and putting on a pair of latex gloves. Because to find out what went wrong at Blue Apron, Jack and I decided to do an interesting thing.

We went back to Blue Apron's IPO paperwork from 2017. And Jack and I looked at what Blue Apron wrote six years ago to investors to convince them on why to invest in Blue Apron. And here's our observation. The strengths that Blue Apron highlighted about their business turned out to be their weaknesses. Yeah. For example, Yeties, Blue Apron said their number one strength. was an emotional brand connection. Which didn't actually exist.

You ditched Blue Apron for a meal kit competitor. Blue Apron said its second strength was constant product innovation. I think they just did meal kits through their history, right? Not much innovation there. And their third strength that Blue Apron highlighted six years ago, strong unit economics. That's just false. They never turned a profit at Blue Apron.

So Yetis, after jumping in T-Boy style, we found a bunch of things wrong at Blue Apron. But we wanted to know what was the coup de grace? wasn't the lentil soup, it wasn't the cavitelli, and it wasn't the carnitas. Or that cilantro. Or the pineapple peanut butter smoothie. It was our takeaway. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over? At Blue Apron. Blue Apron is the perfect example of a feature, not a product. Yeties, a product is something that can be a standalone money-making business. A feature is an element of a product. A feature cannot stand alone. Well, for 12 years, Blue Apron,

tried to be a product. But you know what? They never once made money. Because meal kits aren't a product. They are a feature. Exactly. So like if Whole Foods launched meal kits, that would be a great feature within the Whole Foods business. Yeah, it'd give you a reason to keep shopping at Whole Foods instead of switching to Gourmet Garage. Besties, now that Blue Apron has been acquired by a bigger food company, it's finally becoming a feature. Blue Apron is the perfect example of a feature, not a product. our third and final story. This one's wild. Porsche, Bentley, and Aston Martin are all opening what we're calling car apartments. Carpartment buildings. Carpartment buildings. Yeah. Luxury car brands are expanding from selling cars to selling condos. Ooh, Jack, the spiciest new trend in real estate. What is

it, man? It's not a modern farmass. No, unfortunately it's not. It's branded real estate. Luxury brands are sticking their logos on your home. Yeties. New York. Times reporting has found that luxury car companies in particular are dipping their toes into real estate. Look at Porsche, Bentley, and Aston Martin. They have all opened or are in the process of opening apartment buildings. We are not joking. Jack, can we head on down to Miami and enter the Porsche Tower? The Porsche Tower opened in 2017. The lobby of this building is decked out in the same bronze, red, and black as the Porsche logo is. The doorman are like a Formula One pit crew. Jack, can you describe the elevator for us over there?

There is a car elevator where tenants of the building can drive their car into the elevator, push the button for 58 because that's where your apartment is, and all while sitting in your car, go up to the 58th floor and then drive your car into your 58th floor apartments. Yeties, the gym looks like a V-12 engine. The building has two car driving simulators. That's a two-bedroom chassis. So that's the Porsche Tower. But let's head down the beach to Aston Martin Apart.

apartments, which are about to open. The Aston Martin apartments are a 66-story car turned into a skyscraper, as they described it. If you book the penthouse, it literally comes with the sedan. Oh, and that's not all. Also in Miami, they're breaking ground on a Bentley building, too. The lobby is going to have the same diamond studded leather as the interior of the car. But yet he's here's what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. We jumped in T-Boy style, and we noticed it's not just luxury car brands that are getting into branded real estate. In Italy, four top fashion houses are also selling homes. Bendi, Bulgari, Mizzoni, Armani, all of those fashion houses are selling real houses now.

In Toronto, Nobu, the famous sushi restaurant, is going from Black Cod to condos. Jack, this is just like the last season of succession. No spoilers, by the way. This is what Living Plus was. It's extending a non-real estate brand into real estate. But frankly, Yetis, here's what Jack and I are thinking. The more strong, strategic opportunity here, it's branded hotels, not apartment buildings. Yeah, because only the tenants can experience this Porsche building. If it were a hotel, many more people could experience Porsche. For example, a Goop Beach resort, that would do pretty well, wouldn't it, Jack?

Every Goop superfan would book a hotel vacation at Goop. Gwyneth would sell more face cream at her hotel than on her website. I might even stop by. They may make you remove one of your collars, Jack, but we should definitely go. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our? Buddy is over at the Porsche Tower. The cure for a commodity is a brand. Yeties, most beachfront condos in Miami, they look the same.

Frankly, they're commodities. If one of the buildings adds valet parking, so does every other building on the strip. And you know what? Here's the problem with commodities. The cheapest price usually wins. So to not be a commodity, these Miami developers are borrowing luxury car brands. And guess what, besties, Porsche? They have no involvement in this Porsche.

Tosha Tower thing. Like, they're just licensing their brand and logo to the building. The developer is paying Porsche to use the Porsche brand because the Porsche brand has value. The Porsche Tower has a story they can tell prospective buyers to avoid being a commodity. And if they avoid being a commodity, they can demand a higher price. Because how do you cure a commodity, Jack? You cure it with a brand. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us to kick off the week? The S&P 500 fell 5% in September.

It was the worst month of the year so far. Because of the five whammies, five systemic risks affected the whole economy and the whole stock market. For our second story, it's Blue Apron. It hit a $2 billion valuation for inventing meal kits, but just sold for only $100 million. Because Blue Apron is a feature, not a product. And our third and final story is the Porsche Tower in Miami. It's an example of branded real estate. The best cure for a commodity is a brand.

But Yeties, this pod's not. over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, the house shockingly passed a 45 day spending bill just in the nick of time before the deadline on Saturday night. We shockingly avoided a government shutdown at least for 45 days. And second, New York City just had its wettest weekend in two years way too much flooding. Was not pretty. Best use and yeties across the five boroughs. We hope you're safe and dry and have an easier week of commuting this week. And finally, Honda just unveiled an adorable electric car specially equipped for kids in hospitals. It's a fantastic story.

Sick children can now zip around the hospital wing and actually have some moments of fun. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by legendary Yeti Kelsey Black from lovely Austin, Texas. Let's do this one in the form of a trivia question. I like this, Jack. Good way to kick it off. What is the national animal of Scotland? I mean, you're thinking something with horns, multiple horns, some type of deer, it feels like, game?

Why are you thinking horns? I don't know. It just feels like something from the crown that I remember seeing. In the U.S., we have a bald eagle. In Scotland, the national animal is a unicorn. That's right. The mythical animal of the unicorn is the official animal of Scotland. Because in Celtic mythology, the unicorn was considered a symbol of purity,

innocence, and power. Even today on the United Kingdom's coat of arms, they've got a lion for England and a unicorn for Scotland. The unofficial animal of Silicon Valley is the... the official animal of Scotland. Yeties, you look fantastic to kick off the week. And you know what? If you want to get our takeaways written down, like so you can share them with friends and stuff,

you can sign up for our newsletter anytime you want, like now. Takeaways in text. Just go to t-boypod.com slash newsletter. Sign up today for the best newsletter yet. Nick and I will see you tomorrow. Can't wait. Before we go, a bon compiliano to Martino Perleti over in lovely Milan, Italy. And happy birthday to...

Owen Coates in Fort Worth, Texas. And David Barona, happy birthday in Pine, Colorado, just outside Denver. And happy birthday to Cheddar Tang, the one-year-old puppy down in Las Vegas. And Avery Kamalzada just got promoted to First Lieutenant in the Marines stationed in Japan. Thank you for your service, Avery. Congratulations to Jake Whitney, who just got a new job as an airline pilot over in Kalamazoo. And Eric Pfeiffer just got promoted over in Pennsylvania, not too shabby. Congratulations to Mazus Moni.

who just got a new job in D.C. at Amazon's HQ2. And Priya Gupta and Injernil Chokrobordi are celebrating an anniversary in their lovely new house in Little Rock. Congratulations to Ben Meyer for starting his first day at his new job. Ben, you're Benough. And Kara Phillips and Connor Kastner are moving in together big moves over in the East Village. You know what, Benin, Ben. You're more than Benoff. And congratulations to Kay Morris, who's visiting Boston for the first time ever. Hit up the Boston Com.

Look at the place where they had that conversation at Goodwill Hunting on the bench. And congratulations to Michael and Emily, who are spending the next seven months traveling around the world. Guys, send us some picks. And congratulations to John Knapp and Katrina Long, who just got engaged on Baker Beach

in San Francisco with the Golden Gate Bridge in the backdrop. Not too shabby. That is lovely, guys. And to anyone else, celebrate something today, make it a tee boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon

and Nick and I both own stock of Lulu Lemon, Peloton, and Apple. And we both own ETFs of the S&P 500. For years, China, the country, has lent their pandas to fall. No clarification necessary, Jack. I think that it's funny. The fact that you clarified that China is a country or that you waited until halfway through the story, just in case anyone is lost right now.

I gotta bring this back to basics. For you, China. The country, not the dishware.