The Best One Yet - 🤸‍♀️ “Grandpa wears Lulu” — Lululemon’s multi-generational strategy. Amazon’s monopoly lawsuit. Yelp’s hall of shame.

Episode Date: September 27, 2023

The surprise reason Lululemon enjoys consistent 20% growth every quarter? Cause it’s selling to moms and daughters *and* grandmas — Because Lulu prioritizes function over fashion.Amazon was just sued by the FTC and 17 states for running an illegal monopoly — But the biggest challenge to this lawsuit… is the law.Yelp is cracking down on what we’re calling “faux-star reviews” — It’s a fake review Hall of Shame.$LULU $YELP $AMZNSubscribe 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 Wednesday, Subit J Wednesday, September 27th. And today's pod, it is the best one yet. It is a team boy, Jack. But Nick, the Dow just had its worst day since March. Jack, stocks haven't suffered this much since spring break. The Dow dropped almost 400 points on.

You guessed it. Yes, Jack. Interest rate worries across Wall Street. Ah, interest rate's classic. First story, what do we got for this show, Jack? Lulu Lemon is popular among daughters, moms and grandmas. Because Lulu Lemon has accomplished something few brands ever have.

Multi-generational appeal. They've crossed the age chasm. For our second story, Amazon just got hit with the one lawsuit it fears most of all. Oh, the Amazonopoly. And our third and final story is Yelp. Yelp has a problem that we're calling faux star reviews. So Yelp just launched its Hall of Shame. But Yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix,

on Sashimi Wednesday. I mean, Saviche Wednesday. By the gods of the vertebrae fish, what are you doing over there, Jack? Yeties, have you ever shown up to a restaurant for a first date?

And everything seems just perfect. The flowers are perfect. The ambiance is perfect. Everything feels perfect. Everything's perfect except your date is naked. Ah, your date is naked. And that's not just a shocker, Yeties.

That's the premise of a new game show on HBO. Yeah, it's a dating show, but no clothes. No joke. No clothes. For real. The newest series streaming on Max is called Naked Attraction. Or Takka, no shirt, no pants, no problem. This is a dating show that shows everything. Like the dress coat is birthday suit required. Here's what you'll see if you stream this thing. Six contestants walk onto the stage and their bodies are slowly revealed from the bottom to the top. And then one chooser picks one of those contestants as their bodies are revealed. This show is the opposite of Love is Blind. Literally.

Love is blinded. It's blinded by the naked bodies on stage. Now to sprinkle on more context, Jaddy. See, it looks like during the writer's strike, the Max team needed content really badly. So they dumped all six seasons of this UK show onto their service all at once.

Now, this show says that every episode begins where a good date ends. Which sounds creepy when we say it like that. I don't even feel comfortable having said it, Jack. But here's wildest twist of naked attraction. Get to this, Yetis. When the couple actually goes on a date in the final episode, they put clothes on. I can't wait to see what he looks like with clothes on, they say.

So the date starts with pants off, but ends in khaki. Yeties, that is called a plot twist. Best is that's how you win an Emmy. Jack, hold on to your Q-Tuff. Let's hit our three stories. Fifteen years before this song, two boys from the northeast met in the dawn. an idea that caused a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is a norm. That's it. I don't even think 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, Lulu Lemon has pulled off one of the rarest accomplishments of any brand. Lulu Lemon has crossed the generational chasm. But Jack, we should sprinkle on some here. I noticed something when I was younger with my sister. What did you notice? So Katie did not like wearing the same clothes as my mom. That doesn't surprise me. Yeah, like Katie, the juicy couture, my mom was more calypso. But yet is, analysts have

discovered an exception to that Martel Familia rule. And that exception is Lululeu Lemon. Yeah, it is, just about every quarter since the pandemic, Lulu Lemon's sales have grown by 20% or more. But here's what Jack and I found interesting about this story. What's more impressive than Lulu's numbers is the phenomenon that Lulu has solved.

Lulu has crossed the generational chasm. Lulu has straddled the parent-child divide. And it's not just young and old shoppers. Lulu also transcends genders with male and female customers. For example, mom is wearing the Lulu align leggings while little Lucy is wearing the Lulu flow shorts. Meanwhile, Dad is rocking Lulu's ABC pants and Teen Tommy is rocking the commission slim joggers. We've even seen this since like the Gap in 93.

It's a family affair apparently when you go over to Lulu, right, Jack? True. The Gap was a family affair. I shopped there with all my brothers, my mom, and my dad. If you didn't have that sweatshirt with the giant font GAP, I mean, what was your family even doing? Still, the gap aside, this is a big deal what Lulu Lemon has achieved. And it's a big deal because for most industries, age in particular is mutually exclusive. You can either get young consumers or old consumers, not both. Yeah, newer products, they get the younger users.

And when the old users jump in, the young users, they tend to jump out. The classic example of this phenomenon is Facebook. Oh, that is so true. It is absolutely Facebook, isn't it, Jack? Facebook was literally for young people only. Like, you had to have a college email address to the login. It was like age-gated. But nearly 20 years later, Facebook is for people 50 plus.

Yeah, the teens these days, they're not poking each other. They're on TikTok and they're on Snapchat, Jack. The teens don't even know what reference you just made, Nick. If you know, you know. And yet, Lula Lemon has found. generational harmony today. And the force within the families, it is strong with Lulu. According to the Wall Street Journal, family shopping outings is a key source of Lulu Lemon sales. So Jack and I are looking at the situation here and we're wondering, how is Lulu able to cross

generations when other brands simply cannot? Can I phone a friend? I'm going to call Katie, your sister, and ask. Actually, she's going to try to sell me juicy Couture sweatpants. I was going to say you may want to Snapchat or Jack. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Lulu Lemon. Lulu put function over fashion. Yeties, Viori, Allo, Skims, those top athleisure brands, they're on the edge of trends right now. For new apparel like those brands to stand out, they focus on fashion. On the other hand, Lulu's CEO has had a different approach.

Lulu's CEO has put function before fashion. Lulu Lemon solved the fit, comfort, and performance challenges first. Because fashion tends to be a subjective choice that differs by age. But function solves problems that can be universal. And that is how Lulu Lemon crossed the generational chasm. Lulu Lemon has multi-generational appeal because it chose function before fashion. For our second story, the FTC just sued Amazon for illegally maintaining monopoly power. That's the verbatim headline of the lawsuit, by the way.

This is the heavyweight antitrust lawsuit that Lena Khan has been waiting for. And Amazon has been feared. Yetis. Dial back to 2017. Back then, 29-year-old Lena Khan became a famous law school student at Yale for writing a paper. She wrote a really long-term paper with a whole lot of footnotes, Jack. Here's the title of that extremely intellectual paper, Amazon's antitrust paradox. Now, we don't know what grade she got on that paper, but we do know she argued that Amazon was an anti-competitive force in our economy. Now, she's the head of the FTC, the Federal Trade Commission, and she's suing Amazon in court with that very same argument. Yeah, the FTC and 17 other states sued Amazon yesterday in a blockbuster lawsuit.

So we jumped in T-Boys style to the 172-page lawsuit. It's quite a document. And now we need some glasses. Now, yet is this lawsuit does not argue that Amazon is too big. No, that's what's so fascinating about this lawsuit. What is it exactly argue, Jack? It argues that Amazon's bigness lets it be a bully. It lets it be a bully.

And that part is key. And the best way Jack and I can explain this to you is by whipping up an example, right, Jack? The lawsuit cites on page one, anti-discounting measures, where Amazon punishes companies for discounting the price of their products. Okay, so here's an example of this. Let's say you are Tupperware. You're selling some lovely plastic Tupperware. And you're selling that Tupperware on Amazon and on Tupperware.com. If Tupperware offers a lower price on its own website, then it offers on Amazon, Amazon will punish Tupperware.

Oh, Jack, I don't want to go medieval on us, but can you describe exactly how Amazon punishes another company? Surely, Nicholas, it will punish Tupperware by burying their products so deep in the search results, they might as well be invisible. Oh, like page 12 at Amazon. It's like Amazon oblivion. And this lawsuit says that Amazon does just that. They coerce companies to list the best price on Amazon. And then they coerce those companies to also ship via Amazon Prime for two-day delivery. And because so many customers shop on Amazon.com, companies have no choice. They have to follow those two Amazon rules. So there is no chance for an Amazon competitor to gain any traction.

It's like a fifth grade bully who's bigger than all his classmates on the playground. And that fifth grade bully gets to make their own rules for dodge balls so that they always win the dodgeball games. Now, the bully is not in trouble for being big. he's in trouble for writing the rules of the dodge ball game so that he wins. That's the key distinction here. And that's what the FTC is arguing. If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a takeaway. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Amazon?

The biggest challenge for this lawsuit is the law. Yet he's that 2017 term paper, Jack and I mentioned. The key argument that Lena Khan made was that there's a fundamental problem with how we stop monopolies. Historically, monopolies have abused their power by jacking up prices on us all. So historically, Congress wrote laws to prevent monopolies from raising prices on us. And guess what? Those laws haven't changed despite our transition to the internet economy. That's the problem with this lawsuit. The laws are so old about monopolies. And since they're old, Lena Khan has to prove that Amazon's power raises prices on us all.

Although it's pretty hard to prove that Amazon raises prices on us all. So the problem with this lawsuit, it's the law. For our third and final story, Yelp is cracking down on fake reviews with a new strategy. And here it is. The Hall of Shame. Because one of the most powerful forces in business is shame. Jack, before we jump into this story, I got to know, you got to tell me. You got to tell us.

What is your go-to favorite secret smoothie ingredient? What do you do? The peanut butter power smoothie at Tom Girl, right on Pine Street in Burlington. Well, I was asking your ingredient. What kind of ingredient? We think of pineapple? Yeah, peanut butter, I guess. Okay. Interesting. I'd go mango or date. All right, let's say pineapple, mango, and date. The key is don't have a water base. For many years, I had a water base. What am I doing? Life's too short. Go almond milk or go bust. So, yeties, let's say you walk into the smoothie shop. You order Jack's pineapple smoothie.

And they say, we'll give you 15% off if you give us a five-star review on our Yelp page. Interesting. You get a discount if they get a five-star review, Jack. That's the five-star discount. We got to ask, is that morally wrong? Is that ethically a problem, man? Because it does compromise the value of online ratings. Well, over at the review website Yelp, they think, yeah, that is wrong. They call it a compensated review, basically a quid pro quo. It's a quid pro Yelp.

Yelp says that compensated reviews mislead the public and bring all the reviews on their platform into question. Whether it's a smoothie shop or a construction company, if they are paying you or you in any way to give them a better review than all reviews come into question. And Yelp has amassed a list of 5,000 businesses that are doing this. 5,000 businesses that are doing what we're calling the faux star review. Faux star reviews. The faux star review, it's a problem, but here's the funny thing, Yetis.

It's not just happening on Yelp. The fake review industry has reached a breaking point. For example, last year, the FTC discovered there was a whole underground paid review business that was publishing fake reviews on, get this, 240,000 Amazon products. Really, Amazon? That toilet bowl cleaner was market leading and a best in class product. Really, Amazon? That toilet bowl cleaner gave a dog CPR? Either Mr. Clean wrote that review, or it was a paid review. And you know what, Yetis? It's not just Amazon where all these fake review action is happening.

That same FTC report found 500,000 individuals in Facebook groups that were participating in fake review schemes. Because even fake reviewers have to meet up at a shady online alleyway. Now with AI on the way, this fake review problem will get even worse. Hey, chat, GPT, please write 50 gushing reviews for Bluth Banana Stand. There's money in the banana stand. Yeah, literally. Now, the FTC has proposed a plan to find businesses $50,000 if they're soliciting fake reviews.

But here's the interesting thing, Yetis. Yelp's got a new solution that could be more elegant, more faithful. fundamental and more human and less foe. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Yelp? One of the most powerful forces in business is shame. Shame. Public shame. Yeties, the solution that Yelp has whipped up, Yelp just unveiled a hall of shame,

a list of businesses with shady reviews. Yelp developed a tech tool that tracks and publicizes stores that have a funky review history. For example, a review that says this smoothie, saved my mom's life, but it's got a whole bunch of typos in there. That's a yellow flag. Or another example, what if an IP address has posted a thousand other reviews? That's a red flag that will put you in Yelp's Hall of Shame. A Hall of Shame.

Because reputational risk in a consumer-facing business, that is a powerful force. And if we're giving out checkmarks for businesses that are verified, why not flag businesses for being fake? Yeties, at the core of the online review economy is trust. And to save that trust, we may need some shame. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for Cevice Wednesday or Sashimi? Lulu Lemon is booming, thanks to its appeal to the whole family. Lulu has crossed the generational chasm because it put function before fashion.

For our second story, Amazon was sued yesterday in an antitrust lawsuit from the FTC and 17 states. But the biggest challenge for this blockbuster lawsuit, it's the law. And our third and final story is Yelp. Yelp is going public with a list of businesses suspected of fake reviews. Because public shame is a powerful force in business. We don't have any faux-star reviews on our show, do we? We would never, Jack. But yet is this pod's not over yet?

Here's what else you need to know today. First, President Joe Biden joined UAW auto workers on the picket lines over in Michigan yesterday. Oh, and guess what? Former President Trump is planning to do the same thing. They both want workers' votes. And second, NASA just got its first ever sample from an asteroid that's four and a half billion years old. Our spacecraft took the sample from a live asteroid and brought it back safely into Utah. That's where it landed in Utah.

And finally, nearly half of young adults aged 18 to 29 now live with their parents the highest level since the 1940s. Makes sense why? Everything's expensive, especially homes. No shame in it, just really expensive out there. Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by legendary Yeti, Khaled from Kuwait. In the 24 hours after Taylor Swift graced her presence in Travis Kelsey's luxury box next to his mom at the Chiefs game on Sunday night. It was a laugh right. Can't believe we didn't get an invite.

In the 24 hours after that happened, Travis Kelsey gained 300,000 followers on Instagram. Sales of Travis Kelsey jersey searched by 400%. And viewership by women, age 18 to 49, of that Chiefs game on Sunday night, it jumped 63% thanks to T. Swift. But that's not even the best part, is it Jack. We mentioned yesterday that Taylor's favorite number is number 13. For obvious reasons. Travis Kelsey is the 13th known boyfriend that Taylor Swift has had. You say boyfriend, we say pre-fiancee.

The NFL would love this marriage to happen. Taylor, if you propose to this man, Roger Goodell will give you the Chiefs. Yetis, you look fantastic today. Jack, you looked fantastic today. And remember, the best way you can help grow the show. The best way you can support this pod, what is it, Jack? Tell your buddies, H-Y-H, T-B-O-I. While you're watching that naked dating show, just turn to your buddy and say,

Have you had the best one yet? Nick and I, we'll see you tomorrow. Can't well. And before we go, a happy anniversary to Alex McMahon, who met his fiancee, seven years ago and is getting married to her in Santa Barbara in 10 days. Congratulations, Alex. And happy birthday to Matthew Lee in Irvine, California. And Chris Jills turned it 58 down in Carpentiera, California. Happy 30th birthday to Emily Lex in Springfield, Illinois.

And happy 30th birthday to Asasu Ibo over in New Jersey. And another 30th birthday, the trifecta, to Jacob Erlich in Austin, Texas. We're crossing the generational divide. This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon and Nick and I both on stock of Lulu Lemon. Newer products tend to attract young consumers. But when old people try that product, the kids ditch. That's a tough one, dude.

I feel a horrible thing. Hey, the kids do their thing where they download the upload the upload.