The Best One Yet - 🛴 “Just bought Macklemore’s Moped” — Bird e-Scooter’s resurgence. New Balance’s dad shoe. Apple’s Oscar strategy.

Episode Date: March 29, 2022

Even though Bird Scooters is worth less now than 4 years ago, electric scooters are back, baby. New Balance doesn’t just do your dad’s shoes… it’s doubling down on Made in America. And Apple just became the 1st ever streamer to win Best Picture — We’re looking at how they pulled it off.$BRDS $AAPL $NFLXGot 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: 2099882Learn 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 Tuesday. Tea Boy, Tuesday, March 29th. Stocks rose yesterday, despite a budget proposal from President Biden. Because this thing is a one, two, three punch at Wall Street. Well, yes, it is.

But Biden's proposal, it's a proposal. It probably won't become laws. So stocks, which are stocks, rose anyway. And this pod, which is a pod. It is. It's the best pod yet. It's a TVOI. Jack. What's our first story?

Bird's electric scooter business was founded in 2018. It's worth less today than the year it was found. That is shocking, but Snackers, e-scooters are back and they're loving every minute of it. For our second story, Apple, step on up. You win the Oscar for first-ever streamer to win an Oscar for Best Picture. When it comes to movies, it's all about prestige over profits. And our third and final story is New Balance.

New Balance is not the official sneaker of LeBron James. That's key. They're the official sneaker of your dad. But does Maine in America make any money? But Snackers, before we talk about New Balance, we are four months from Lollapalooza. The annual four-day music fest over in Chicago, never been invited. Chicago does logistics. Yeah, we'll take the deep dish mosh bits for two.

Snackers, we just got the musical lineup for this summer's Lollapalooza. Okay, not too shabby. Jack, they got Dua Leap. They got Metallica. They got J. Cole. They got Green Day. And the sponsor of the event is Goldman Sachs. Actually, it's not the sponsor, and that's the shocking thing.

That's right, Snackers. The Goldman Sachs CEO also gigs as a DJ on the side of being a CEO. We repeat, the CEO, David Solomon is playing Lollapalooza. Not David Gathe. No, no, no. David Solomon, aka DJD Saul. The Diplow of Wall Street. Yeah, runs finances like Jamie Diamond.

He runs tunes like DJ Jazzy. He's about to announce Goldman's first quarter earnings and then boom. He dropped levels. Dropping levels like it's a Biza. Do do do do do do. DJ D.S. He's thinking less term sheets, more Tiesto. Not a standing desk, a turntape.

Snackers, if you're going to Lala Pallusa this summer, enjoy, have fun. But have your resume ready because DJD. Saul's going to be. Yeah, dress code for Lollapalooza Jack. Business extremely casual. Let's mix our three stories. Drop their bees. You're tuned in the snacks daily. We spoke to the lawyers and we got to get something legal out the way.

The snacks are about to hear rain food. It's air. They don't reflect the views of the Robberhood 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. Right.

Snacks is digestible. Business news for you. Robberhood Financial, LLC, member Fenra slash SIPC. For our first story, electric scooters are having a comeback, and it's not just because of Scoot Sharrant either. People are buying their electric scooters because micro is the new macro. First of all, have we covered like electric scooters since 2018? In 2018, all of the VC world was obsessed with e-scrutters.

Freaking out. They were like covering the streets like a messy mariner on your favorite white t-shirt. The scooters were. And cities hated them because when you use them, you just leave them on the sidewalk. Yeah, you're like, what is that? Weren't people tossing them like into the bushes and into the river? It seemed to be being used as weapons to some degree. But Snackers, that moment.

when the pandemic started. Yeah, the pandemic scooters got squashed. Because, like, who's going to pure all those handlebars for you? And you weren't dining out, so you weren't popping on a bird or a lime to get to the restaurant. But seriously, how many hands have been on these scooter handles? A lot of hands. Bird scooters was worth $3 billion in the private market. And they finally went public during this pandemic via SPAC.

Yeah, but since Macomor's moped is now stuck in the garage, the stock of bird scooters is down 75%. And to understand the business model, this is Uber, but for e-scooters instead of cars. Yeah, which makes sense because it was founded by an Uber guy. For three bucks, you grab a scooter, you stand up, you whir yourself across town. There you go. For three miles, then you just leave it, wherever you're finished. Reminders to self, make sure not to get in the back of one of Jacks were in scooters over there.

The only difference, I guess, between them and Uber is they own fleet. True, because Uber does not own cars. But Snackers, shocking earnings from Byrd last week that we noticed. Bird just announced that the number of scooter riders doubled last quarter compared to the year before. Yes, they did. And so did the revenues. But here's what Jack and I found fascinating about this earnings report.

Bird rose to fame by sharing its fleet of scooters. Now they're doing something different too. They're selling scooters straight up. Because yeah, you could always just grab a bird scooter off 14th Street and like take it for one ride A to B, point A to point B, pretty simple. But if you do that ride every day and you have an outlet to plug it into at the end of the night, you could buy a scooter from them for 600 bucks. You can literally do this on their website.

We're on their website right now. They got a shopping page for Bird's scooters. The cheapest stand-up scooter sells for $600. The most expensive e-bike sells for $2,300. Also, all I'm seeing, Jack is sold out, sold out, sold out, sold out, sold out. The cheapest one is not sold out. Okay, okay. That's an interesting signal.

But is $600 cheap? Okay. Well, Snackers, according to the Wall Street Journal, visits to this shop page on Byrd's website jumped 30% in the last quarter. And sales of these vehicles are up 60%. So what we're telling you is that Bird's electric scooter share program now makes 8% of their money from just selling you a scooter. This would be like if Uber or Lyft added a link on the app

to let you buy the car that you just got to ride it. What do we got to do to get you into this Honda Civic? And Bird, though, they're not the only one selling e-scooter. True. There's a big urban e-bike and e-scooter scene app. This is when Jack and I were like, we got to cover this story. Apparently, they're like little moped gangs of young professional millennials, like meeting up on two wheels on a Tuesday evening. Except it's actually just...

Get this. There's an e-scooter Facebook group that had like a thousand members just a year ago. Oh, yeah? Are you a member? No, I wasn't. But now they got 40,000 members. That is some gross. We've got to whip out our old childhood razors.

So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Bird Scooters? Scooters are enjoying the last straw of transportation. The last straw. Snackers, first came the return of commutes in January. A lot of us are finally having to go back to the office three days a week. But then we got a car shortage. You have to get back to the office, but there's an eight-month wait at your local dealership for a car. Okay, so now you finally got your car and you got your routine and you got your commute.

Then gas prices search past $6. That's more than a Philly cheese day. For many, that was the last straw. The Wall Street Journal interviewed some recent scooter buyers, and they said that gas prices were the last straw. The last straw. Scooter sharing, it is enjoying a comeback as so many trends just came together in this perfect moment. But gas prices, that is the last straw that's getting some people on scooters. It may get them to stick. For our second story, Apple has officially beaten Netflix to the best picture race.

And here's how they pulled it off. Prestige over profit. Seesover profits. Snackers, while Jack and I were getting walked off with music yesterday, just trying to do the introduction of this podcast. Thanks, Adam. Apple was winning Oscars. Apple was winning Oscars. Coda got Best Picture on Sunday night. Yes, it did. The top award of the Academy Award. You saw it, right? Coda, it's a beautiful movie. Child of Death Adults. That's what it stands for. The other beautiful part about this movie is that Apple is now the first ever streamer to win best picture. Now, Apple isn't Steven Spielberg. No, no, no, no. It is not. And Tim Cook isn't the second coming of Scorsese.

fascinating part of this story. Apple didn't produce or create or think of the movie Coda. Yeah. It merely bought it. Yeah. Apple just acquired an already made movie. Like Vendome Pictures and Path A Studios, they actually produced the movie Coda for less than $10 million. And it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Prior to Apple ever being involved, the movie was done. But some Apple execs threw on some Montclair coats, jumped over to Park City, and saw the movie Coda. And they're like, this has best picture. potential. It does. Has anyone bought this yet? Because we'll give you $25 million, which they did.

And then they threw it on Apple TV and then it won Best Picture. Because they spent another $10 million getting people from the Academy to vote for the movie. Oh yeah, good point. Apple spent an estimated $10 million campaigning the voters of the Academy to get this best picture. Yeah, it is like instead of doing a bake sale to win the votes for like high school president, you're giving out some serious cookies. They spent more money, campaign. painting for the Oscars, then it took to create and produce the entire movie. Okay. So, Jack, let's look at the scoreboard here. Apple took three Oscars on six nominations.

They shot 50% on Sunday night. Netflix, on the other hand, got one Oscar on 27 nominations. Netflix was like Shaquille O'Neal from behind the arc. Yeah. They shot 4% on Sunday night. So here's the big question, Snackers. Does it matter that Apple beat Netflix in the best picture race, which Netflix has wanted for years? Yes. Because PR, the good PR Apple's getting, it can drive business development.

Yeah, Snackers. This best picture win, it is not going to add that many subscribers to Apple TV Plus. Coda's a beautiful movie, but it's not a blockbuster and it's just not going to be viewed by billions of people. But now, despite Netflix's seven-year headstart and filmmaking, Apple can say, hey, we're on par with Netflix right now. Because Apple has a best picture and Netflix doesn't. Again, that won't actually lead to like millions of people subscribing to Apple TV Plus, but... But the best picture might get Leonardo DiCaprio or Kate Winslet, no big deal, to choose Apple TV Plus for the next movie instead of Netflix.

Do you think in Titanic 2, the prequel? I think they've been in a few movies together. They've got great chemistry. Snackers, great content doesn't always lead directly to new subscribers. And that's okay. That's okay. That's why Tim Cook has put prestige over profits. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Apple?

uniquely become a leader in streaming. Let's say you're a casual streamer. I'm a casual streamer. Jack's casual streamer. Maybe you think Apple has like a few flicks, mostly snobby films. They got Lasso, Ted Lasso. People keep saying the morning show.

That would be false, though. It has quietly become a top-for video streamer. And Apple TV Plus is growing faster than the rest of it. Now, here's the wild part about this. It's totally stealthy. Like, Apple doesn't tell us or report it's Apple TV Plus subscribers. No, I think they're in the other category of their earnings report. They're like, next question, please.

Next question, please. But some reporters have estimated that there are 40 million Apple TV plus subscribers. Oh, and that's not all. Apple also has a content budget estimated at $6 billion with a B dollars. Those are big numbers. They are. They're less than HBO Max, but they're more than who. Yeah, they're less than Disney.

But they're more than Peacock. And it's got more best pictures than Netflix. Apple, like a submarine, it has sneakily turned into a stealthy streaming leader. Our third and final story for T-Boy Tuesday, New Balance, just announced it's fifth U.S. shoe factory, first time of the pod. We got to ask, does Made in America shoes make sense? Okay, before we do that, Jack, what is the best way that you figured out or you realized that someone else knew you were a dad? I started getting ads for New Balance shoes and for lawnmowers. There are only three things dads talk about when they get together.

First is, what route did you take to get here? And what route are you taking home? And grilling and New Balance and Lawnmore. Did you get the New Balance 680s or the New Balance 980s? Snackers, despite barely any athlete endorsements, like none. New Balance is the number five American sneaker company. Pull up the whiteboard, Jack.

We got Nike at number one. You got Adidas in number two. You got Jordan, surprise number three. Which is basically just Nike. It's part of Nike. Number four shoe company in the United States, it's sketchers. Tony Romo is a salesman. Living his best life.

in retirement. And at number five, you got Boston-based New Balance. Yes, right outside Boston. You see it on the Boston Turnpike. Is that what you're going to say? Totally. On their way to like every Neskack school, it's basically sponsored by New Balance. This is the only private company in the top five shoe ranking. So Jack and I are putting together this story and we're wondering to ourselves, before we like completed the takeaway, what is it about these shoes that make people buy shoes? Before we answer that existential consumer question. It's a little bit of a cliffhanger. There's news from the back bay of Boston. Yes, Jack, New Balance. Just opened up a new factory in Methuen, Massachusetts to make running shoes.

Big news for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Dahlene, get this guy two pumps of hazeln. Get him an extra pump of hazeln. He deserves it. Now, Snackers, this is a shocking story because when you think sneakers, you think made in China. Which you should think, because get this, in 2019, 70% of U.S. shoes were made in China. Not New Balance, though. They own five American factories. All in New England, by the way. Not like spread out across the U.S.

They're like all within a short Subaru drive of each other. Nike, the biggest shoe company in the world, doesn't own a single factory, period. They completely outsource their manufacturing. Totally. They're doing it in China and Vietnam. Nike doesn't do anything in the U.S. New Balance owns five American factories, all in the great states of Maine and Massachusetts, by the way. Now, they do have factories in Turkey and Haiti and China and Vietnam too, but they have the other ones in the United States.

They're proud of their U.S. manufacturing. But by Nixon, my math, we crunch the numbers. It costs New Balance a lot to make sneakers in the United States instead of Southeast Asia. So, Darlene's brother, Derek, he's getting paid 20 bucks more per shoe than a worker in China would make. That's a lot more expensive. It is. The only savings for Made in America is the savings on shipping because you're not shipping it from China, you know? Yeah, it's not coming across the Pacific.

It's coming across like the Charles River. So by our math, it costs $19 more per pair of shoes to make them in the United States. Now, even though this costs more, New Balance could actually be ahead of the curve. It could actually be ahead of the times. Okay. Last week, Snackers, we reported the end of globalization as we know it because of the pandemic and Russia, Ukraine. Yeah, companies are scrambling to control their supply chains. Maybe they make those supply chains a little bit more local.

New Balance already has. Been there, done that. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over a new balance? Country of origin only matters when there's history. Yeah, stackers, look, if a country's been making something for a century, three centuries, eight centuries, probably makes that thing pretty well. That's why, as a consumer, you want a suit that's made in Italy.

You want wine that's from Napa, and you want engineered mechanical metal stuff that's made in Germany. But here's the thing. There's no country with a brand associated with making sneakers. That's why Nike, which has the top five highest selling shoes in America last year, makes most of their sneakers in Vietnam and China. Because the truth is, for most consumers, quality and price are the number one and number two factors by far. And country of origin only matters if there's a history in that product. So made in the USA, it doesn't really have a history of great shoes.

That's why Nike is number one by far. Outsourcing. And Made in America, New Balance is number five. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us over there? Bird scooters is enjoying doubling of revenues and riders. High gas prices. They were the last straw for some scooter riders. For our second story, Apple's movie Coda won the Oscar for Best Picture.

Apple's sneakily becoming a leader in streaming. Who knew? Our third and final story is New Balance. They're building another factory in New England. But country of origin only matters if there's history. If not, it's all about pricing quality. So are you going to get the gray new balances or the gray on gray new balances? Sir, do you have this in a darker gray?

Now, time for our snack fact of the day. This one sent in by legendary snacker, Alyssa Zatterer from lovely Great Neck Long Island. Allergy season, unfortunately begins today. Yeah, like right now. 50 million Americans suffer from all that stuff that's suddenly spreading around in the air. Most of that is pollen, you know, the dust-like grains from plants. And the pollen loves to sit on cars so that you can write, like a word on the windshield.

Which is nice of them. But bees love the stuff too. Pollin, though, is actually the male genetic material for plants to reproduce. So pollen is like those little tadpoles. Only one wins. And if you have a worse headache this year than last year, it's because of climate change made the pollen situation worse. We got to get our flown days.

Snackers, you look fantastic for T-Boy Tuesday. A great way to help grow the pod. Ask a buddy, H-Y-H-Y-Y-S-D. Have you had your snacks daily? If you know, you know. Nick and I'll see you tomorrow. Can't wait. And before we go, happy birthday to Nassad Roy down the street in San Francisco.

And congrats to Russell and Pam, who are opening their first nitrogen ice cream store. Sounds incredible. Yes. In South Carolina. Maybe the first nitrogen ice cream in the whole state. And congrats to Rose Walker, graduating with an MBA from George Mason. Snackers, if you want a shout out on the pot, all you got to do, fill out a form in this episode. There's a Google form.

It's right in the description. In the meantime, celebrate some wins. This is Jack. Nick owned stock of Apple. and I own stock of Disney and Netflix. Robin Hood Snacks, newsletters, and podcasts reflect the opinions of only the authors who are associated persons of Robin Hood Financial LLC and do not reflect the views of Robin Hood Markets, or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates.

They are meant for informational purposes only and are not a recommendation to buy or sell any security, cryptocurrency, or investment strategy in any account. This is not an offer or sale of a security, not a research report, and is not intended to serve as the basis for any investment decision. Any third-party information provided therein does not reflect the views of Robin Hood Markets, Inc. Robin Hood Financial LLC or any of their subsidiaries or affiliates. All investments involve risk, including loss of principle and past performance, does not guarantee future results. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member FINRA SIPC. Drop the Bays.