The Best One Yet - 🇸🇪 “Fluügen-sofa” — Ikea’s maze strategy. Apple’s banned iPhone. SkinnyDipped chocolate.

Episode Date: September 8, 2023

Apple stock just lost $210B in value in just 2 days — Because China found an iPhone replacement.Ikea just confirmed that their loopy maze-like store layout is both loved and lucrative — And there���s a psychological reason why.And SkinnyDipped just raised capital from a dozen celebs for its chocolate-covered snacks — Because they’re doing nothing innovative (and that’s exactly the point).$AAPL $TGT $GISSubscribe 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. It's Friday, the real Friday. September 8th, and today's pod is the best one yet. You are this close to the weekend, yaddies. You are so close to the weekend. That Saturday is the new Friday, isn't it, Jack? All right, all right.

Now I'm confused. Let's start the show. Smells like Sunday. First story, what do we got for the new Friday? For our first story, it's Apple. Apple just lost $210 billion of stock market value in just two days. And it's all because of a ban in China and some very funny timing. For our second story, you know that maze you have to go through if you're buying something at IKEA?

I'm still stuck in the maze like a box of a motion check. You don't get lost in that maze, you get found in that maze. That IKEA maze is actually a psychological phenomenon. And our third and final story is Skinny Dipped. This chocolate snack startup just raised big celebrity money. Because Skinny Dipped is stealing candy like an artist. But Yeties, before we had to be... that wonderful mix of stories.

A fantastic mix of stories for the real Friday, Jack. You may be mid-cocktail or mid-mocktail, mid-podcast right now. And no judgments, Yetis. So we're going to tell you about the best-selling drink there is right now. And what is that, Jack? The Grey Goose Honey Deuce. The Grey Goose Honey Deuce, Yeti's, the best-selling drink right now is also the most exclusive drink right now.

The Honey-Duce cocktail is one part vodka, one part lemonade, and one part raspberry lique. And it comes with two melon spheres shaped like little tennis balls. Because the honey deuce is exclusively sold at the U.S. Open tennis tournament. And besties, if you're not watching tennis, you can't honey deuce. But get this, Yetis. During the two-week tennis tournament happening in Queens right now, the U.S. Open sold 4005,000 honey deuces. And get this, turns out this year, they're on pace to sell even more.

That's almost 4,000 honey deuses sold every hour. Which is 60 honey deuses sold every hour. every single minute. Holy John McEnroe. Sweet Serena, Jack. But this price, it costs a pretty penny. $22 per deuce. So, Jack, we sprinkle on a little more mathematical context on this cocktail.

The U.S. Open makes $10 million in revenue in just two weeks on their one signature drink. Which means if the honeyduce drink was sold all year, then it would be a quarter billion a year business. That's as big as all birds. That is maybe bigger than Bud Light right now. But the key with the honeyduce, you got to keep that a thing. official cup it came in. Because, Katie, if you don't keep the Honeyduse Cup,

did you even go to the U.S. Open? Yeah, he's canceled that espresso martini order. Besties for, get that frose. It is DIY HoneyDeuce weekend. And if some listener out there has got the official Honeyduce Cup, please mail it to us. Jack and I'll send it back post Deuce. Deuces, let's hit our three stories.

15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dawn. 50%, that's a fat tip. Tea Boy City on. You're 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, two pieces of shocking news out of China just sank Apple's stock by $210 billion. Apple's plan A needs a plan B ASAP. But Jack, we got to jump in geographically on this one. Can we talk about the second most important country for Apple, please? Well, number one is the United States. It's the biggest market and it's where their employees.

are. But number two is China and how much are they doing in China in terms of business, Jack? 20% of all of Apple sales happen in China. Which is a big number, but what's a bigger number, Jack? Way more important than that is that 95% of all the products that Apple sells are manufactured in Chinese factories. Club Apple is a Chinese club yet. He's just about every single iPhone, MacBook, iPad, Apple Watch, AirPod, you name it if it's got an eye, it was made in China. That's why Tim Cook's number one job the past 10 years It's not really be CEO of Apple. It's be the unofficial U.S. business ambassador to China. Slap that on your LinkedIn, Timmy.

Oh, by the way, Tim Cook has done a pretty good job of this, hasn't it, Jack? Despite declining U.S. and China relations over the years, none of that has impacted Apple yet. But here's the shocking news. Apple stock dropped by 7% in the past two days. Yes, it did. Erasing $210 billion of stock market value. from Apple. I'm sorry, Jack, can you sprinkle on some context so I can understand that number?

Nick, that is 60 lifts worth of stock market value. Erased. Gone. Poof. Done. Deuces. And it's all because of two surprising headlines that came up in the same week and got us curious.

First, China just banned iPhones for government employees and the employees of state-owned Chinese enterprises. It's a big deal. No more eye messaging or business. buddy in the Beijing Communist Party Club. Now, in the U.S., we've done something similar. Many U.S. government entities have banned TikTok and Huawei. So this Chinese iPhone ban is kind of a government tit for TAT.

They're titing our TAT. Our Tad has been Tits. And the second surprising headline from this week is that Huawei, the smartphone company that's banned in the U.S., just announced a breakthrough new smartphone that is shockingly on par tech-wise with the iPhone. Get this yet. This new Chinese phone runs on computer chips. didn't even realize China was capable of making.

It's alarming news for economists that China was able to produce this phone all by themselves. So China just banned the iPhone from government news. At the same time, they have an iPhone alternative coincidence, Jack? To quote Commissioner Gordnick, we don't believe in coincidences. No, we don't. Yeties, China has always needed Apple for its phones and the jobs that Apple phones creates. But this iPhone ban and the rise of an alternative iPhone could be. be the beginning of China cutting off Apple. And that is why Apple stock just lost $210 billion of value.

Apple has to accelerate its plan B. Lockheedities, it is unlikely that China would just shut down its iPhone factories. It needs those factories. Those iPhone factories employ hundreds of thousands, if not millions of young Chinese people who need those jobs. But this is the biggest warning yet that Apple would be wise to have a backup plan ASAP. As U.S.A.P. As U.S. official relations with China have worsened, Apple has started to snuggle up with a plan B. That's India. In fact, by 2025, Apple wants a quarter of all Apple products to be made in India. But based on this week's news, they should probably accelerate that plan to diversify away from China. Made in China is plan A, but made in India may need to become the new plan A. They should

accelerate that plan B. For our second story, IKEA just made one of the biggest discoveries in the history of physical retail. The shopping maze, which IKEA is known for, isn't just more lucrative for IKEA. IKEA customers actually prefer the maze. Jack, if we're going to kick off an IKEA story, can you whip up that completely unsubstantiated fact that we believe in? Sure, Nick. More arguments happen among couples in one retailer than any other retailer.

And who is it, Jack? IKEA. Yeah, he's Jack and I are both in couples therapy, and IKEA brought us there. Are we getting the Shurgan flu for? or the Foggin' Dufin'iades, 58 years ago, IKEA pioneered a brand new retail concept, and that concept was the maze. To get from the entrance of an IKEA to the exit,

you have to walk through one endless looping aisle from start to finish. The besties, we have all been there. It is a serpent light entanglement, a retail labyrinth, a winding course you cannot escape. The store layout of any IKEA is actually an architectural marvel. Yeah, Jack and I jumped in T-boy style. turns out the IKEA maze was actually inspired by the winding Guggenheim Museum in New York City. But two years ago, IKEA tested out a micro retail model with a more traditional store layout.

The type of layout with multiple aisles and an open floor that you're used to seeing. Like your local grocery store or your typical target or any retailer. You could roam freely at your will in these new IKEA's. If you want, you can pop in, grab your thing and pop out without going through a maze. But here's the news. IKEA just announced that that, that, didn't work. In fact, they're shutting down a lot of those new stores. Because IKEA's data tells them that shoppers prefer the maze that IKEA is known for. Now, yet here's what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. It's not just that customers prefer the maze. It turns out

profits also prefer the maze. Because the more you see as a customer in a store, the more you're going to buy. It sounds simple and it's true. Like Jack, let's talk about a typical retail store layout. What's the situation there? A typical customer walking into a typical store only walks past 33% of the items that the store has. Because you're going to aisle 3 or aisle 6, you don't remember, you go into 1 and then you bounce out of the store. But IKEA's signature maze layout is one long, three-dimensional real-life advertisement. By the time you get to the end, you have paged through every item that IKEA offers. And that layout results in some wild numbers, doesn't it, Jack. Six out of every 10 purchases at an IKEA store is an impulse buy.

We repeat, Yeti, 60% of IKEA sales are unplanned purchases. Sit down, stand up, and sit back down on that futon again. That flurgan sofa, you bought it because you sighed. I mean, Jack, I came in for the lamp. I left with a lusht and flukin. The only way you're going to buy just the one thing you plan to buy in IKEA is if you're wearing those periphery blinders they put on horses. And then you're going to smell the meatballs and you're going to take off the blinders and walk out with another futon.

Because each turn at Nike adds suspense. What's around the corner here? What's around the corner there? That's the beauty of the maze. It's like you're an excited kid in a haunted house who can't wait to see more. Or as the IKEA CEO puts it, the maze is a reminder to the customer to buy the thing you forgot about. Like a flurgan couch. Sir Jack, roots the takeaway for our buddies over at IKEA.

Nick, IKEA has conquered the paradox of choice. Ah, the paradox of choice. Yetis, there is an ironic comfort about the IKEA maze. You have no choice but to follow it. Which is different than a Walmart. At Walmart, there's hundreds of directions you can go. But at IKEA, there's only one direction you can go. And Yetis, with limitless choice, more and more of us are facing analysis paralysis.

All those decisions, they become exhausting. The economists call analysis paralysis the paradox of choice. In certain cases, customers prefer last choice. IKEA's maze, it offers exactly that. So at first glance, IKEA's maze seems obnoxiously limited. It forces you through one way. But in reality, it's actually liberated. It unburdens you from thinking.

The IKEA maze has conquered the paradox of choice. Flurgin choice. For our third and final story before the weekend, Skinny Dipped is one of the fastest growing snack companies in America, and they just raised another round. Skinny Dip's secret to chocolate-covered success is doing the same thing, but a little different. Well, yadies, before Jack and I tell you this story, we're going to read off a list of names, and you've got to tell us, like, what comes to mind.

Amy Schumer, Post Malone, Mark Wahlberg, Steve Aoki, and Shakira. I believe it's Shakira, Jack. Did you just correct me on our own pod? Hips don't lie, Jack. Hips don't lie. Yeties, that is not the cast of the latest Spike Lee movie. those are the investors in a chocolate-covered nuts startup. Called Skinny Dipped.

Because Skinny Dipped just announced their $12 million fundraise so they can cover even more almonds and even more cashews in chocolate. You may have seen Skinny Dipped in like Costco or Whole Foods, but it was... Or my freezer right now. But it was actually founded by a mother-daughter team 10 years ago. And their sales grew 150% last year because snacking on nuts covered in chocolate is so hot right now. Yetis, this is what Jack and I got curious about was skinny dipped. The competitive advantage of this chocolate-covered nut company, what is it, Jack?

Less chocolate. Yeah, that's it. It's just the skinny or dip. It's a skinnier dip of chocolate over the nuts, right? For example, let's look at their top selling products right now. First, you got dark chocolate peanut butter cups with less chocolate. And then you got caramel-covered cashews. With less caramel.

And then you got white chocolate-covered almonds. With less white chocolate and a hint of lemon. Add it all up. SD's chocolate covered nuts, peanut butter cups, uh, paging officer Reese's, there doesn't seem to be anything new here. There really isn't. And that's the whole point. Exactly. Because instead, Skinny Dip is remixing old products that have stood the test of time.

Like Reese's, a 95-year-old brand. They just make it with a little less sugar, a little less caramel, and a little less guilty. A little bit softer now. A little bit softer now. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Skinny Dipped? Steal like an artist. Eddie's copycats, plagiarism, zucking. When you do something unoriginal, not unique, lame, we like to call it out. We don't like any of those things.

But stealing like an artist, that's more nuanced. Yes, it is. It's when you take something that's working and then add your own spin. Here's how it works. Strategically, you take an existing concept. So you know there's a market for the product. And then creatively, you make it your own. With your own unique twist.

It's inspired, not stolen. It's related, not a ripoff. Skinny dips top. product is basically Reese's, but with a little less chocolate, higher quality, and a hint of lemon. That's it. Because yet he's nothing is completely original. So great brands know they could steal like an artist. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us for the real Friday? Apple stock sank 7% in the last two days because China banned iPhones and seems to have a homegrown alternative. Apple's working on Plan B, but it needs to accelerate Plan B. And our second story is IKEA.

They tested a traditional store layout, but they went back to IKEA's signature. store maze. Ikea's retail maze has conquered the paradox of choice. And our third and final story is skinny dipped. They lightly dipped their nuts and it's one of the fastest growing snacks out there. Skinny dips stole from reseason M&Ms like an artist. Steel like an artist. But yet he's this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, thieves in Spain, just stole $500,000 worth of olive oil. Extraverd. In the kitchen olive oil. Olive oil supplies have plummeted, prices have popped, so thieves are stealing it and selling it on the black market.

And second, Tesla just partnered with Hilton hotels to add 20,000 chargers to their hotels by 2025. If you own a Tesla and you want to travel, you might go to Hilton, not Marriott. And finally, Tom Brady has a new job with Delta Airlines. Now that Tom's done losing money with crypto, he's become a pitchman for a conventional air. Can I offer you some Bitcoin and I on 33B, Jack? Now, time for the best fact yet. This one whipped up by Jack and me because we wanted to hook you up before the weekend. We told you earlier about the Honey Deuce cocktail that served at the U.S. Open tennis tournament.

Yeah, they sell 405,000 of them over a two-week period. It got Nick and me thinking, there's a lot of sporting events with signature cocktails. Yeah, the one that seems to sell the most, though, is the Kentucky Derby with the mint julep. In just one day that the Kentucky Derby. Derby happens, they sell 120,000 mint juleps. And those 120,000 mint jolps require 1,000 pounds of mint. And 60,000 pounds of ice. Yeties, that mint julep, it's not a drink.

It's an economic stimulus for Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky. Yeties, you look fantastic today. Jack, you're looking flurgin, Bak Dilabot. And besties, if you want to help grow the show, you can drop down and give us a five star review. If the next five-star review is not about Nick's Swedish accent, I'm gonna flurgin, you're dirgan. No, good night. We'll see you Monday. And before we go, a shout out to Yeti, Vienna Singh, who's starting middle school today in New York City. Those multiplication tables don't have a chance against you, Vienna. And Jorge Mice is traveling from Mexico to Europe for

some vacation. Enjoy that vacation, Jorge. And congratulations to Zach Roberson down in Texas, who's training for a new job. And congratulations to Colleen and Jin, who just got engaged also in New York City. Let's see some ring picks, guys. Congratulations to Julian and Megan Curtin, getting married in Baltimore. Not too shabby and Ashley and Ramon Gordon

also just got married in New York City. There we go. Congratulations to Katie Savaries, who's getting married on my favorite, the Brooklyn Bridge. You might as well just show up and go there, Jack. Legendary. And congratulations to Tim Obert

and Amy Cesarys. Considine who had their six-year anniversary celebrating in a tiny cabin in Florida. Happy 19 years together to Bobby and Terry Malestra in Florida. And Darrell and Patricia Rudolph, happy 50th wedding anniversary over in Washington. And a happy birthday to our buddy down in Louisville, Kentucky. Emma Gardner, celebrate some wins. Louisville, Kentucky, great city, got even better when Emma arrived. And Mike Cooney has got a 27th birthday over in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

And happy birthday to Janine Koover. celebrating her 60th at Oracle Park for a Giants game. And legendary Yeti Andrew Kazemcheck has got a birthday down in Morris Plains, New Jersey. Happy birthday to Kara Imberato, who's celebrating a bridal shower as well in Savannah, Georgia. And Rajesh, happy birthday in Menlo Park. Happy birthday to Kayla Stammer in Dallas, Texas. And Cini Vong is on the way to swim lessons over in San Jose with a birthday. And happy birthday to Haley Robinson on a sustainability trip with her B-School buddies from Kellogg down in Ecuador.

And Vestie Daisy Elliott is in her T-Boy Slammin' Sammon hat in Signal Mountain, Tennessee. Celebrating a birthday. Signaling T-boy to everyone who can see her. This is Jack. Nick and I both own stock of Apple, and we both own some Bitcoin. I love when you send me ice cream, dude. It's always such an ice cream. That was really nice of ice cream.

I think there was a bunch of cones in there, too. You know, I still have like a puppy. Do you remember you sent me like a puppy thing? Yes, the puppy flavor. Yeah, the one that they can eat. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Can I confess something?

I tasted it. And? I'm 90% sure it's just regular humanism. They're like, yeah. Charge twice the price, give them half the portion, put puppy on it. Boom. I swear, it's just the same ice cream. Oh, yeah, it's probably it's made for it.

It's like, what makes it a puppy ice cream? You're going to buy it or you're not going to buy it?