The Best One Yet - 👖 “If Zeus shopped for jeans” — Levi’s denim-topia. SoFi’s student loans. Walmart’s otherworldly HQ.

Episode Date: April 8, 2022

Slim-fit is out, wedge-cut is in. So Levi’s whipped up a new store feature designed to be a Profit Puppy. SoFi dropped 7% on word your student payments got deferred, again — they’re frozen for the summer. And Walmart’s new HQ design is going big and going home (spoiler: Meditation Park + 3 swimming pools).$LEVI $SOFI $WMTGot a SnackFact? Tweet it @RobinhoodSnacks @JackKramer @NickOfNewYorkWant a shoutout on the pod? Fill out this form:https://forms.gle/KhUAo31xmkSdeynD9Got a SnackFact for the pod? We got a form for that too:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe64VKtvMNDPGSncHDRF07W34cPMDO3N8Y4DpmNP_kweC58tw/viewformID: 2117366Learn 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 Friday, the real Friday, April 8th, baby. This pod is the best one yet, Nick. It's a TBIOI. Honestly, it's the best pod we've ever whipped up for you. It's so good.

For our first story, Levi's just got a gig to teach some Econ 501. You see how to do that? Yeah, Levi's, the earnings reveal you're doubling down on denim. And our second story is SoFi. SoFi stock dropped 7% yesterday. We got some good news out there if you're a student or you once were a student. Federal student loan payments aren't due this month. No, frozen again.

Until September. Pause. Student loan summer break. Our third and final story is about Walmart. Their new headquarters in Arkansas is so not Walmart. Okay, Jack, I got two words for you. Meditation Park. Meditation Park at Walmart.

Because there could be a meditation meadow, but it's just like eight of those. But Snackers, before we hit that wonderful mix. It's a fantastic mix before a weekend, Jack. Yesterday, we told you who should be your third roommate this summer. Yeah, your buddy who applied to the Goldman internship, probably didn't get accepted. 1.5% acceptance rate. That's all it is.

But if they did get accepted, dinner's on them. Yeah, dinner's on them, the next dinner's on them, and probably the next three months of Wi-Fi. They're getting paid almost $7,000 a month, but Capital One interns are making the most money on Wall Street this summer.

Capital One interns, they're paid so much that their boss fetches them coffee. But Nick and I dove deeper into the summer pay situation for summer interns this summer. Because summer interns aren't just getting paid, They're getting paid. Now, I'm an econ major, full disclosure.

It's a great major. And it seems I chose the wrong field. Capital One is the number one financial firm for paying interns, but it's number 10 overall for paying interns. It's number 10. The first financial firm is still number 10. Yeah, the rest are all tech. Tech companies dominate when it comes to intern pay.

The number seven, highest paid internship? It's LinkedIn. And number five on the list of highest paid interns is Facebook and Amazon. paying $8,000 a month. Discounted cash flow. Oh my God, that's a lot of money for an intern. Okay, number two is Uber. They're paying their interns over $8,000 a month.

And number one, paying nearly $10,000 a month. Jack, dramatic pause. Roblox. Roblox. Isn't that a game for kids? It basically is a game for kids, but it's paying people like they're the Royal Highness. Good thing they're not paying these interns in Robux. That'd be a big mistake.

Yeah, you don't want your summer bonus stuck in the meta. Nick, let's replace our econ degree with computer science and learn to code our three 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 about the hearing food is air candy. They don't reflect the views of the Robin Hood family. It's all informational just so you know. We're not recommending any securities.

It's not a research report or investment advice. Not an offer or sale of a security. Snacks is digestible. Business news for you. Robberhood Financial. For our first story, Levi's is loving the return to denim right now. While you're zipping into jeans again, Levi's is buttoning up their stores. Okay, skinny jeans are out.

Wedgy fit is in people. I'm still a 5-11 guy. Through and through. Okay, I'm going to just stick with the cuckies and the cords. Oh, Snackers, don't know if you've heard this. Nick doesn't wear denim ever. It just, well, it gives me the chills. Ever.

Honestly, looking at you right now, I'm getting like the chills in my fingers. Ever. It's like a weird Velcro. Although he has some chinos that are so blue and jeans looking, you might as well call him jeans. And that's why I bought him. No one knows the difference. Snackers, bring it back to 1853, San Francisco, California. That is when Levi Strauss Company was born.

And Jack, bring it forward to 2020. That's when Levi Strauss jeans died as he switched over to sweatpants. As all of America switched to stay in home in sweats. But Jack, what comes along with pent up demand to travel? and to go to concerts and to hit up bars that we are all feeling right now. That would be pent up demand to look good. You want to look fantastic and people you look fantastic. So Levi's recognizes that this coming out of the pandemic moment,

they're trying to make up for lost sales with higher priced jeans. Jack, I love this quote from the CEO. Even as we have raised prices on jeans, consumer demand has continued to grow. He almost feels naughty saying that. Because like we're raising prices and it's working. People don't care. This is actually B-School 5.

501 raise prices until they stop slipping into your highways jeans. But what Nick and I find most fascinating is what Levi's is spending money on. And that is their next generation gene stores. Now, Levi's could pull an Avicromby and stake Bruce Springsteen's glutes on stores to, like, get people coming in. Born in the USA, if you know, you know. Instead, though, Levi's 3,000 stores are aggressively innovating with what they're calling next-gen features. Here's the latest addition to some Levi's stores. This is good.

The tailor shop. The tailor shop. Levi's is like scaling the Italian neighborhood tailor. It's a tailor and alteration shop within a Levi's store. And I know you like you like what the way they're presenting. Well, they have a menu of like alteration choices and prices. And it looks like a nice brunch place you'd want to go. It's a bespoke alteration list of options for your new Levi's.

And it's like all out on a chalkboard for you to indulge it. And this way, you don't just walk out with a pair of Levi's at the end. No. You walk out with a pair of your. Your Levi. I mean, Jack, this sunflower patch, maybe you get that sewn into your jean jacket, add a little flare to the jeans. Or maybe you make the bell bottoms a little less bellbottoming.

Maybe you make the 501 original a little more original. Nick and I have said many times, retail's not dead. It's bad retail that's dead. Exactly. Well, a nationwide chain that tailors dead into your body, that's good retail. That's a reason to come into the store physically. That's a reason to test out the new straight ankle. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies?

over at Levi's, and I'm pretty sure that's a thing. What do we want? Higher prices. Where do we want it? Direct to consumer. Snackers, there should be a cheer, and that should be the cheer for all retailers today. Yeah, the floor manager is getting sales associates hyped up with that cheer. Like they do a trust fall to that cheer.

Two keys to Levi's success right now. They're selling at higher prices, and they're selling more directly. That combo is the life goal of every retailer. That's why that cheer is the old. ultimate cheer for every retail. We already told you that Levi's is raising prices on their jeans more than enough to cover inflation. Yeah, $85 jeans. It seems like an obvious profit puppy. So Levi's has the high prices. What about the direct-to-consumer? Well, they want to sell to you from their own stores and their own websites that they don't have to give Macy's a cut of that gene sale. The Taylor Shop is one way

Levi's gets you to come directly to a Levi's store. And it's working. Levi's direct-to-consumer sales jumped to 39% of total sales last quarter from 36% the year before. So Levi's is cheering whatever retailer should be cheering right now. What do we want? High prices. When do we want it? Direct to consumer. BDTC.

B. DTC. For our second story, so far the financial stock, it just dropped 7%. Because amazing news for student borrowers is terrible news for students. lenders like so fine. Mortgage debt, credit card debt. Emotional debt. Emotional debt. Student debt is actually the biggest of them all.

Yeah, it's kind of messed up, but student debt, it doesn't even go away even in personal bankruptcy. It kind of just haunts you. I know. Student debt can be emotional debt too. It's not a new beginning. And the average college kid who graduated in 2020 has $28,000 of student debt. You haven't touched a textbook in a decade, but you still may be paying. for that textbook. School, the most expensive non-physical purchase in your life.

So Jack and I come bearing good news if you have a student loan. And 46 million Americans do have a student loan. Boom. Yesterday announced a moratorium on student loans was extended again. Let's go back to the beginning. As a form of pandemic relief, President Trump froze federal student loan payments early on. Yeah, so like you wouldn't have to make payments under student loans. It's been extended about a half dozen times since then, though. Yeah. So if like you have a federal student loan, nothing is due until August 31st. It's like a summer break. The longest summer break ever. It's ironic because, you know, your professor never moved the term paper deadline, but the government keeps on moving the student debt payment deadline. I know it's due April 15th, 2023. Now, Snackers,

here's the funny thing about this situation. It's great if you're a student who's borrowing money. It's bad if you're a company lending money. Yeah, enter publicly traded student lender SOFI, which just responded to the news with a pretty big statement. This extension of the freeze on federal student loan repayments is going to cost SOFI $30 million in lost business. It's because student loans are actually a third of SOFI's lending business. SoFi mentioned the word student 22 times on their last earnings report. Students are really important for the SOFI bottom line. That's because students on average owe SOFI $51,000.

And SOFI would love if you're a student, you could just, you know, come over here and pay them back a bunch of the money they gave you. And this is actually like good information. SoFi thinks this isn't the end of the freezes and the extensions on the federal student loan freeze. Jack and I noticed that yesterday, SoFi also mentioned they think the deadline for paying your student loans is going to get extended again into next year. Their forecast has baked in that 2023 is when students will finally start repaying their federal student loans. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies with student loans? Why does this hurt SoFi? Because SoFi's competition is actually the government.

Yeah. Biden's student loan freeze, this only applies to federal student loans. And part of SoFi's business is refinancing federal student loans by giving you a better interest rate. So like you may be paying Uncle Sam 6% interest on that loan you got from the government. government so you could attend four years of college. So-Fi might send you something in the mail offering you a cheaper loan. 5.5% if you'll let them refinance for it. But here's the thing. Right now, federal student loans have zero percent interest because of this fee. We repeat zero percent. You might owe $40,000 to the federal government and you're paying zero percent interest since March of 2020.

Yeah, because the government student loans have been frozen free money with zero percent interest. So-Fi's 5.5% that can't compete with Uncle Sam's 0%. If so facto, So-Fi's refinancing business, it's completely dried up. So-Fi's competition right now is the government. Yeah. And right now, So-Fi can't compete. For our third and final story, the most lavish new office we have ever seen was just unveiled.

It's not Facebook, not Apple, not Google. It's Walmart. Walmart. A picture of Luke Wilson and Vince Vaughn riding around the Walmart campus. Sam Walton's family. The Walton family. They founded Walmart. They still own like almost half of Walmart.

They own 47% of Walmart. And since the company's worth $430 billion, yeah, the Walton family's pretty rich. They're rich. And they really, really, really, really like Arkansas. Like it's cozy. They think it's nice.

They want to keep the headquarters there. Here's the problem. Walmart has to compete with Amazon. So they must convince tech, finance, and business school talent to move to Arkansas. Yeah. Northwest Arkansas, lovely. Santa Monica, lovely. Here's another problem.

They haven't updated that headquarters building in northwest Arkansas, Bentonville, to be specific, since 1971. The kind of office where they have like a whole closet devoted to staple removers. Not anymore. Here's the news. Walmart just unveiled their new billion dollar Bentonville, Arkansas headquarters. And the Walton family, they're tossing in $225 million to make this thing look. chef's a kiss. They got the naming rights. They did. New Walmart campus knackers. Jack and I checked it out. It's in Arkansas. It looks like tattooing. I actually think that's a terrible Star Wars reference because tattooing's like a desert.

Oh, really? I thought it was like a paradise. I'm thinking I got my planet's wrong. Let's just say Zeus would work there. Yeah, this is like Mount Acropolis, but you know, for the gods and the people. 14,000 Walmart corporate workers will get access to cafes, to a child care center, to a meditation garden. Oh, wait, and then there's more. There's tennis courts. Indoor and outdoor. There's fitness studios. Plural.

There's pools. Also plural. And about that fitness center? Oh, please, Jack. It's 360,000 square feet. This gym is the size of two Walmart stores. It's a gym. It's the size of two Walmart super centers.

But Jack, do you see what happens when you turn in the corner? That's when you're going to run into the teaching kitchen. They want workers to feel fancy. So they're running food cuisine classes. This is like the Food Network. but it's run out of Walmart's headquarters. The highlight, though, for Walmart workers is the Child Care Center. The Child Care Center.

This thing can fit 500 kids, like a university. The Child Care Center has its own auditorium so that Walmart kiddos can do like an annual recorder recital for the whole workforce to come and watch. And that on-site child care, it's actually a pretty critical perk. Yes, it is the most requested benefit of all American workers is on-site childcare. The corporate employees who work at Walmart. headquarters, they have 300 babies a year. That's a lot of babies for an HQ. And having on-site child care not only saves you like 25 grand potentially a year, but also gets you closer to your

kid. But again, they also have the indoor and the outdoor tennis cards, which are pretty cool. And multiple pools and multiple fitness centers. Snackers, Jack and I are looking at this situation. This isn't a headquarters. This is a city. The whole family can spend a whole day there. Right. The only thing you can't do is sleep there. Although to be honest, like, I'm sure the janitor is not going to care. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Wall City? An emerging theme we're seeing in offices, go big and go home. Yeah, Snarangers, many companies, they've gone remote first.

And that's putting pressure on companies that want to go office first. Yeah, so to get workers to come back to the office, companies are going big and they're going home, turning offices into homes. Let's look at Facebook. Yeah. They're going big in New York City. They just spent a billion dollars just on Midtown Manhattan space, just in one neighborhood. Google's doing the same thing. They spent $7 billion.

to make New York City and London offices feel like their headquarters, their home offices. Well, Walmart's doing the same thing here. They're dropping a billion bucks on Benville offices to make it feel like Wall City. Walmart needs to compete with big tech talent. So Walmart's going big and going home. To get workers back in the office, go big and go home. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us before the weekend? Levi's Taylor Shop is good retail. It's a reason to come into Levi. Yeah, high prices, direct to consumer. That's what retailers want, and that's when they want. Second takeaway, what do we got? SoFi stock is down 7% on news of another student loan deferral. Because SoFi's competition is the government. Our third and final story is Walmart's

$1 billion Arkansas headquarters. We're calling it Wall City. Go big or go home? Go big and go home. You want to do both. Now, time for our snack fact of the day. This one sent in by Tyler Ross from lovely Detroit, Michigan. This week marks the beginning of the 2022 Masters Golf Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia. Augustine National is known as one of the most beautiful golf courses in the world. However, back in 1932, when the property was purchased, the plot of land was just a nursery. Today, this fact is remembered throughout the course, where each hole is named after a tree or flower that could be found on the property. This is so significant that 2017 Masters champion, Sergio Garcia, named his firstborn daughter after the 13th hole, Azalea.

Big fan of plant-based names. Snackers, you look fantastic this week. If you just got an internship, hit us up on Twitter. Celebrate the wins. At Jack Kramer, at Nick and New York. We'll tell you about our internships. But we're curious about that Roblox internship. Nick and I'll see you Monday.

And before we go, Kevin and Wendy, congrats on the anniversary in New York City. And their first date, they connected on both being Snackers. This is a dating app. Brandon and Lisa Walker. enjoy the five-year wedding anniversary down in Alabama. Congrats to Zeeke who just got a new job in Los Angeles. And Cliff A, happy birthday over in Seattle.

Long-time snacker? Long-time snapper, too. Sally Thompson, happy birthday in Sydney Valley, California. Happy 24th to Kirby Motoka, celebrating in Mexico. And Tommy Diaz, Valdez, enjoy the Buenos Aires' birthday. Happy birthday, Sarah D'Artiguna on the island of Haiti. And Alex Goldberg, happy birthday in Chicago. No, no logistics.

We just got to acknowledge real quick, Sebastian, who drank nine cups of water yesterday. He's extremely hydrated. Sebastian, congrats on the hydration. This guy's being clear. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-ball. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon, Levi's, and Roblox, and Nick owned stock of Apple.

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