The Best One Yet - “Liam Neeson got TikTaken” — TikTok (isn’t) banned. InFarm’s vertical farms on aisle 3. AT&T’s ad test.

Episode Date: September 21, 2020

Soooo TikTok downloads are banned as of last night… but there’s a difference between the headline you saw Friday and the headline that should’ve been written. InFarm snagged $170M to make vertical farming a thing. And AT&T don’t care what HBO says — it’s testing the limits of ads because life comes down to pricing.$T $ORCLGot a SnackFact? Tweet it @RobinhoodSnacks @TBOYJack @NickOfNewYorkWant a shoutout on the pod? Fill out this form:https://forms.gle/KhUAo31xmkSdeynD9Learn 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. Welcome back. It is Monday, September 21st. Nick, let's get right to this. We happen to have the best one yet. T-B-O-I, Jack, what we got for a story over here? The most annoyingly politically driven business story ever is over for now. For now, within 48-hour Snackers, TikTok went from being banned to not banned. For our second story, in Farm, a Berlin-based company just sagged $170 million to scale their vertical farming business. Honestly, this is wild. Think of a farm where you pick your own produce, but in the grocery store next to the dairy section. None of the apples are bruised. None of the apples are bruised. Third and final story, Jay. AT&T wants to test the limits of where they can stick ads. And put them in your HBO Max account and on your phone every time you open it. But first, Snackers, Nick and I want to acknowledge a hero for the fight for women's equality in America. Yeah, before we get to those wonderful stories, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, born 1933, mid-depressions,

passed away on Friday 2020. This legal icon was born in Brooklyn and enrolled as a mother at Harvard Law School. We're talking about someone who was one of just nine women in her class of 500 people in law school. Now, she used her law degree to get a teaching job at Rutgers University teaching law. Yeah. But she was paid less than her male colleagues because they said her husband's income justified her getting paid less. The exact type of sexism that motivated her to fight for equal treatment under the law and in the workplace. As a lawyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, found herself in front of the Supreme Court, arguing that single fathers deserved parental benefits.

Brilliant, because once judges agreed that a man deserved those rights, it became indefensible to treat women any differently. That is the brilliant mind at work of Ruth Bader Ginsburg as a lawyer and as a women's rights activist. So she fought for certain men's rights because that was the best way to get certain women's rights. Reminds us of Thurgood Marshall's similar strategic dismantling of racial discrimination. Oh, and by the way, Snackers, when Ruth Bader Ginsburg did become a Supreme Court justice, there was only one bathroom at the Supreme Court on site, men's room.

Sandra Day O'Connor was already a Supreme Court justice, and they hadn't installed a women's bathroom. That's how messed up the times were back then. Oh, also, when she became a judge, the gender pay gap was 60 cents to the dollar. Today, it's 80 cents to the dollar. So we're not done yet. We're not a dollar to a dollar. but we do have a whole lot to thank RBG for.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Let's hear our three stories. You're tuned in to snacks daily. We spoke to the lawyers and we got to get something legal out the way. The snacks about to hear ain't food. It's air candy. They don't reflect the views of the Robberhood family. It's all informational just so.

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. The financial LLC member FINRA slash SIPC. For our first story, the most flippy, floppy political drama is over.

Nick, never say it's over. For now, Trump is not banning TikTok. Nope. And he's caving on his demand for it to be sold to a U.S. company. All right, Snackers, Jack and I are going to be fully transparent with you. We always are. We always are. But we're going to, an extra full disclosure here.

On Friday, we recorded a TikTok story for today's podcast. Full, full disclosure. It's Sunday morning now. Nick and I are about to play golf together, but we decided to record a new story because of a change in the news. Yeah, you know, when big news happens on Friday, Snackers, Jack and I jump and record it on Friday so we can relax over the weekend. Nothing rests a larynx. Like 48 hours off. So on Friday, this is the headline Nick and I saw. Trump administration bans downloads of TikTok, but lets the app continue operating on your phone until November 17th. That was the news. We should cover it. It's Friday, so we did. We recorded a podcast. So we recorded that story, and we knew there was like a 40% chance something happens over the weekend that requires us to delay our golf game and

re-record the story. When that news came out, it seemed that President Trump was appearing tough on China by banning new downloads of TikTok. But at the same time, he wasn't upsetting potential voters who use TikTok because he was letting the app continue operating until after the election. He also, by the way, banned WeChat straight up, which is a Chinese messaging app, because that look tough on China too. And there's very few American voters who use WeChat, so there are few political consequences. All right. So then Snackers, Friday night, the sunset. The sun rises on Saturday. Always a great thing. And we had an entirely new TikTok story. Saturday morning, we were all still mourning the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and wondering what was going to happen to her see on the Supreme

Court. But then very quietly, President Trump approved TikTok's proposed partnership with Oracle, which changed a bit. Now, Snackers, expect Oracle stock to jump today because it is getting a 12.5% ownership of TikTok and a billion dollars in annual revenue by managing the cloud computing business of TikTok. And that isn't just like brand new business. That business used to be with Amazon and Google, but now it's with Trump-friendly Oracle. Oh, by the way, Walmart makes a cameo in this story. At a nowhere, Walmart's coming in, taking 7.5% of TikTok stock and becoming their official e-commerce partner straight out of Arkansas. This story is like Ocean's 12. Started with

Just George Clooney and Matt Damon. Now we got every male actor over 30 with a chiseled chin involved in this thing. Oh, by the way, by the way. A judge said, on Sunday morning that Trump's ban of WeChat, that's not okay. WeChat is going to keep operating. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over TikTok? TikTok's not getting banned, period. Unless Trump changes his mind again.

So Snacker is the national security concern that had us talking about TikTok in the first place? It appears it's actually still there. With this new deal that got approved by Trump on Saturday, China's bite dance will continue owning 80% of TikTok. So what bite dance says, bite dent gets. But maybe not, because if you think about bite dance, it's actually 40% owned by U.S. venture capital firms. And if you combine that with Walmart and Oracle's little ownership stakes in TikTok, add it all up. Technically, TikTok is 50% owned by U.S. investors, it looks like. So then if we go to the actual problem, which President Trump was so concerned about,

if the Chinese government asks Bightance to hand over American user data, we don't really know if it would comply or not still. Snackers, this story, however, is a political circus. And we're not going to cover it again. We promise you unless things officially happen. In the meantime, what you need to know is TikTok was going to be banned on Friday, but now it's not banned. For our second story, can you hear me now, by the way, Jack?

I can hear you now. AT&T is testing the limits of where you can. put ads. They'll drop the price of your phone plan by up to $10 a month if you agree to get pummeled by ads. Oh, Snackers, this brings us to a rule. Looks like rule number, I think it's 172 of economics, Jack. Rule of 172. Ads are annoying, and you can pay to not see them. Case in point next page, Hulu, $5 a month with ads, $12 a month to never see ads. Following page, Spotify is free with ads or $10 and you'll never hear an ad again. We really wish Facebook and Instagram offered an ad-free version these days.

Right. Then we'd stop accidentally Googling something and then seeing ads for that something for the next eight months. Hey, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, I already have an air purifier. I bought it a month ago. So we saw last week, AT&T is taking Rule 172 of economics and putting it in reverse. Yeah, here's what it looks like, Snacker. Rule out 172 Part B. You can pay less if you agree to see ads. Snackers, AT&T has an unlimited wireless phone plan. that costs $50 a month. And then boom, their CEO said this last week. They're considering dropping prices by $5 to $10 a month

in exchange for you staring at some ads. Imagine you could save $100 over the course of the year if you agree to see like an ad, let's say every time you open your smartphone. Here's how this would go down. Jack walks out the door. He's having a nice Saturday stroll. He's walking out.

He looks like he's getting a text. He opens up his phone. Billy Mays here with OxyClean. You can't skip that guy. You can't skip that ad. Yeah, so that's the first part of the story. The second, there's also a bunch of PFWTMs that are predicting AT&T is going to launch a discount HBO max streaming if you're willing to see ads, probably off $5 off a month. Yeah, AT&T is basically trying to stick ads in all these places where it never used to stick ads. Your phone in HBO.

It's not TV. It's HBO Max with a commercial interrupting the Sopranos kill scene. No, Snackers. Let's say you're a little bit more carbon-clined. here's what this is like. It's like you say, uh, excuse me, waiter, how much is the Fetuccini-A-Fredo special? Oh, that's $1599. It's our house special. Nice. But it's $12.99 if you agree to let an insurance salesman sit at the table with you the whole meal. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at AT&T? Tiered pricing lets companies win a whole new group of customers. Snaggers back when like

movie theaters were a thing and colleges were a thing. College students got pretty big discounts to movies. Now, movie theaters want to charge $15 for each ticket. But let's be honest. It's also a win if a whole bunch of college kids come and pay $12 each. Ipsop facto AT&T wants $50 a month for phone plans, but it's happy with $40 a month and a little bit of ad revenue from someone else too. Now, premium customers of AT&T, they're probably going to stick with the $50 a month plan because they don't want to see ads. Yeah, Billy Mays is kind of intense, but AT&T would love to steal some lower income customers from Boost Mobile or U.S. cellular with tiered pricing.

Tiered pricing, like this unlimited wireless with ads, snags a whole new bunch of customers for AT&T. For our third and final story, this one's wild. We got our almost unicorn of the day. Berlin-based In-Farm just raised $170 million for in-store vertical farming. Emphasis on the in store. Yes. This is the most innovative thing in German engineered food since... Yeah, I know what you're thinking, Jack. Putting the bra in a roll. It was simple, but it did the... trick. Now, Snackers, we actually had a snack fact tweeted in today by Kelly Johnson in Chicago, Illinois. We promoted it to this story because it was so relevant. Jack, the snack fact.

The average distance traveled for your produce to get to your grocery store in America is 1,500 miles. That's right, Snackers. Technically going farm to table, but with 1,500 miles in between the two. Which brings us to InFarm the 7-year-old German company that's already in 10 countries and promises zero miles from farm to table. And that's because their core product is vertical farms. They are literally growing veggies upward in a vertical space in the grocery store. According to InFarm's website, they're the largest off-farm farming network in the world. Unverified, but Italian basil, scarlet kale, maybe Jack, where's the baby bok choy orchard? All three of those lovely herbs and greens are growing on aisle three. You can go see them and pick them yourself. Next to dairy.

Snackers, you heard of SaaS software as a service companies. This is fast. We're talking farming as a service. InFarm's product is literally a mini farm growing herbs and greens in the produce section in the grocery store. That's why Aldi and Kroger have signed up to put these vertical farms in about 1,000 of their grocery stores by 2025. So Jack and I jumped in snacks now. We're looking at the business model. And infarm screams sustainability, but its real competitive advantage we notice is that it crushes costs.

It's a cost crusher. Produce produced by InFarm requires 95% less water and 90% less transportation cost because it's literally grown on Isle 3. And the way they're able to pull this off is with hydroponics, which control the water usage, and that's all happening within the store within the product. And your typical produce, let's say Florida oranges, they require a truck driver to drive 3,000 miles to your Safeway San Francisco grocery store. Nice little real estate advantage InFarm has is that it's growing those same oranges, although they don't do oranges yet, in your San Francisco Safeway. In the store. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at EnFarm? Retail's not dead, Nick.

Bad retail is dead. Snackers, we've said it before. But InFarm is not renting out some industrial space like on the outer edges of Brooklyn. They actually just took over a small section within a Whole Foods grocery store on the island of Manhattan. And when you walk in there and you see this InFarm, it feels like a green Wonka factory. before your eyes. A problem with grocery stores, they got complacent. Their stores lost their experiential magic, even nothing having to do with COVID-19. Yeah. So many of us are thinking like, hey, if I'm doing grocery delivery now, I'll just continue doing online grocery delivery after the pandemic. So one key

to get grocery shoppers back in stores is to make the shopping experience worthwhile. Case in point, all birds, the innovative shoe company, did this to fashion retail. They have a human hamster wheel in their Soho, New York City store. So you can control. dry on the shoes and run in a hamster wheel. It is adorable. But InFarm can do the same thing for food retail. Think about it. You could take your kids grocery shopping and show your kids where Bibb lettuce comes from.

Jack Kenyo whip up the takeaways for us to start the week. TikTok was getting banned for 24 hours. Now it's not getting banned. TikTok's app became political football. It appears it won't get thrown again away for a while. Nick TikTok isn't getting TickTexile. No, Jack, call Liam Neeson. TikTok's not getting Tick-Tek.

For our second story, AT&T is thinking about replacing customer revenue with ad revenue instead. Lower price plus ads couldn't lock a whole new set of low-income customers. For our third and final story, nowhere near Berlin. In Farm is trying to reduce the distance from farm to table to zero. Jack, we said it before. We'll say it again. Retail's not dead. Bad retail's dead. Now time for our snack fact of the day. This one tweeted in by Kristen, who we didn't get her hometown.

She's kind of a citizen of the world, it seems like. Kristen tells us that Walter Frederick Morrison invented the frisbee in 1948 and originally called it the Pluto platter, like a dinner platter, but on the planet Pluto. It had a great run, and then in 2010, at the age of 90, he passed away, but his family cremated him and turned his ashes into a frisbee. Actually, into a series of frisbee's, which he wanted to sell to raise funds to make a frisbee museum. We don't know where Kristen's from, but we do know that Walter is from. Richfield, Utah. A great Utah. Now, before we go, Snackers, congrats to Justin and Bree, their

anniversary up in Toronto, Canada. And we're having a digital housewarming party for Maria and Alex, who just moved into a new place in Morristown, New Jersey. And Emmanuel in Cleveland, Ohio, happy one-year snack aversary. Been listening for a year. And let's pop a bottle for Brittany Idol who just bought a home in Cookville, Tennessee. Allie and Joe are impressed because they just got married on Saturday in lovely Baltimore, Maryland. Happy anniversary to Lee and Mary Burr Allen in North Carolina. And to Sydney and John just got engaged on the boardwalk near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Happy 50th to Aaron Tankersley in San Diego, California.

And happy birthday to Christina Zaler in Edina, Minnesota. And Adam Mafuda. I love the food in the name. 35 years old from Oxford, Maryland. And John Jenks turning 30 in Jersey City. Pretosh DeKal, happy birthday in Akron, Ohio. and Tavine in Bradenton, Florida. And Paul Roche, happy birthday.

Not just outside of Boston, no. In Boston. Rare. You don't see that often, Jack. It's rare. Snackers, Nick and I love doing this. Thanks for listening. We'll see you guys tomorrow. The Robin Hood Snacks podcast you just heard reflects the opinions of only the hosts who are associated persons of Robin Hood Financial LLC

and does not reflect the views of Robin Hood Markets, Inc. Or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates. The podcast is for informational purposes only, is not intended to serve as a recommendation to buy or sell any security and is not an offer or sale of a security. The podcast is also not a research report and is not intended to serve as the basis of any investment decision. Robin Hood Financial LLC member FINRA SIPC.