The Best One Yet - 🥖 “Limited Breadsticks” — Olive Garden’s new spice. Amazon’s dressing rooms. Redwood’s urban mining.

Episode Date: September 24, 2021

Olive Garden’s record high stock price explains the rift between Wall Street and Main Street. Amazon is whipping up its 1st department stores with a focus on the dressing room (#EndRetailGhosting). And the future of electric cars is literally in your pocket thanks to Redwood Materials’ “Urban Mining” plan.$DRI $AMZN $TSLA $FGot 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/viewformLearn 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, September 24th. Today's pod is the best one yet. It's a TVOI and Jack, you're wearing your Friday uniform again. I see what you're doing over there. My crewnecks sweatshirt.

Yeah, a crew neck, hot mics can't lose. I have nine of these in different colors. You've created your own personal trend, Jack. That's what this is. First story, what do we got? The Olive Garden stock has quadrupled since March of 2020. Yeah, sadly, corporate lasagna, it's more profitable than mom's lasagna. Our second story, Amazon.com, was created. It was e-commerce to disrupt the department store.

I love that you threw in the dot com, but more importantly, Snackers, now Amazon is specifically disrupting the dressing room. I threw in dot com because now Amazon is launching a department store, a physical, and the dressing room is the key. For our third and final story, redwood materials thinks your phone is critical to the future of electric cars. And they have pioneered a wild new thing Jack and I never heard of, get this, urban mining. Get to know it. Urban mining. It's one of the coolest things we've covered on this pot.

Wild, which, by the way, this is a wonderful mix of stories down the week on. We've told you, though, Snackers, about the whitest white. Yeah, we did. The whitest white. Purdue White, as we call it, also known as Extreme Eggshell. Then yesterday we told you about the black is black. The black is black paint known as Vanta Black, which is darker than Darth Voldemort's soul. Naturally, you're all waiting to hear, what is the pinkest pink?

The pinkest pink snackers, a company called Stewart Semple, they created what they're calling the pinkest pink. So Jack and I, though, Vince Stackstyle. You can't make this up. Oh, wait, Stuart Semple did make this up. They claim it's the pinkest pink. No one has verified that. This is like a millennial exploded. It's extremely pink. They took a bucket of paint and spiked Rose-Seltzer and doused it in this paint. This is so pink. Like if you own a cafe that only sells matcha, this is what you paint the walls of that cafe. Here's the wildest part about this story. And it's wild. You're going to be shocked that this is true, but it is. There is one person forbidden from buying the pinkest paint. And here's why it's wild. It's the guy

who owns Vanta Black, the Blackest Black, the Blackest Black, paint. That's right. This whole story is coming together. One British artist named Anish Kapoor owns the exclusive rights to using Vanta Black, the Black, the Black is Black, for artistic purposes. And this artist, he won't share the Black is Black, Vanta Black, with any other people. So the people behind the Pink is Pink. Yeah. They won't sell him the pink is pink because he won't sell them the black is black one second jack my mind exploded what's the takeaway for everyone listening on this pod please you don't choose the pink color no snackers the paint color chooses you and state yeah your move let's in 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

here ain't food it's air candy they don't reflect the views of the robberhood family it's all informational just so you know we're not recommending any securities nope 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 restaurants they are struggling right now but darden restaurants is thriving right now this story explains the wall street versus main street economic divide okay let's Let me just consult with my buddy over here who happens to be the wine salesman of the month six times. Olive Garden Burlington must be nice.

Three times. And I wasn't going to mention it this story. Are you getting smoky? Are you getting smoky notes in this Kianti? I don't know. I was 18. I couldn't even drink the stuff. They're like, how does this taste?

I'm like, I don't know. You want red or do you want white? Give me a break. The Olive Garden. It is thrive during the pandemic because they mastered the art of takeout before anyone else. Olive Garden slogan during the pandemic. Yeah. When you're here.

you shouldn't be here. Total sales of the Olive Garden. Get this. They only fell 10% during the pandemic year. That's pretty impressive. That's really impressive. And they said right at the top of their second quarterly earnings, we are benefiting from our digital platform.

They weren't given away 10 to 25% of their sales to the delivery apps like everyone else was. They built their own curbside pickup app. Wait, Jack, curbside pickup. Does that include the unlimited breadsticks? Or are they limited for the pickup? I think we found a hole in the universe. And are the Olive Garden waiters involved in curbside pickup?

Are you trying to answer my question with another question by avoiding the question? Are you trying to acknowledge my wine sales one of the month status one more time? I am. I am very impressed by it. I think it's great. But Snackers, Olive Garden told us even more detail. Get this. 27% of like the tours of Italy dishes they've been whipping up.

They were eaten outside of Olive Gardens last year. All right. Marshawn Lynch is doing beast mode. Olive Gardens done feast mode recently. This is where Olive Garden kick things up a notch. Listen to what they just announced. Yesterday, they declared a new dividend for shareholders. Cha-ching.

They announced a new stock repurchase plan for shareholders. Che-ching. And they boosted their full-year profit forecast. Cha-ching. And that is because Darden Restaurant says they got four competitive advantages and all those competitive advantages showed up at the dinner table right on time this year. The first advantage is they have 900 Olive Gardens. So that's significant restaurant scale.

Yeah, they can buy. caloric supplies in bulk at a way lower average price. They did it all year long. The second benefit is their extensive data and insights. They got thousands of number crunchers over at corporate, raising prices, cutting costs. They're like, hey, wheat prices down. Let's double up on the ravioli buddies. Exactly. Third advantage is their rigorous strategic planning. Yes, typical restaurants, they're surviving day to day. Darden restaurants, they've got a whole five-year plan. They've got to whip up for shareholders every single quarter. I'm pretty sure a bunch of hedge funders actually control Darden restaurants.

Now, their fourth competitive advantage. This is baloney. They say their results oriented. Our cultures are advantage. Come on. Congratulations. I'm proficient in Microsoft Word. Great.

You didn't even give away free meals to employees. You only gave us half off. Come on. This is literally the first bullet point on every MBA resume. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at the Olive Garden and Darden restaurants? Darden's gains are independent restaurants pains. Snackers, we all know a local restaurant that. couldn't survive the long pandemic, which is really sad and frustrating to think about.

Restaurant closures are a stark reminder of the pandemic's economic damage. But here is kind of the crazy thing. Chain restaurants, they haven't been closing. In fact, chain restaurants have been expanding faster than ever. Right. Those four competitive advantages that Darden brags about. They are advantages compared to independent restaurants, not compared to like KFC or McDonald's. And that's why Jack and I just noticed Darden restaurants, its stock is at an all.

time high. Their stock has quadrupled since March of 2020. The gains Darden has made, they're at the expense of the go-to red sauce neighborhood Italian restaurant used to love. And which we miss. So independent restaurants, they're still suffering from COVID. Shane restaurants with corporate resources, they've thrived from COVID and are coming out even stronger. For our second story, Amazon employees just leaked details on Amazon's planned department stores. Excuse me. Wait, where's the shopping? I mean, dressing room. It all comes down to the dressing rooms. Amazon Snackers, we don't need to tell you this. They've destroyed countless department stores across the world. And cold move now, they're preparing to launch their own department store.

This is like the bully takes your lunch money and then eats the sandwich in front of you. Two deep reported articles by the Wall Street Journal. PFWTMs are telling the WSJ that Amazon's department store is coming next year and the first two locations are Ohio, near Columbus. Columbus and San Francisco. So this is going to look like a Macy's, but like probably a lot cooler than Macy's. More tablets. Yeah. And fewer of those colored cards with numbers on them.

What are those? Saying how many items you've carried into the dressing room. It was like Macy's went to a coding boot camp. It's going to kick things up a notch. And the Amazon department store, it's going to be about clothes, not clothes. I actually thought you said clothes twice. Clothes, not clothes. Can you repeat that one?

Okay, Nick, Amazon's stores are going to have clothing, not clothes. Yes, clothing. T-H-No-V, Snackers. This is going to have clothes apparel like Amazon athleisure, not groceries and home goods. Forget the broccoli. Or anything else that you can buy on Amazon. It's mostly just clothing. So this could fail, the Amazon department store, kind of like their Amazon firephones dead.

But it's Amazon doing department stores. So it's a huge deal for the industry either way. But here's what Jack and I found fascinating about the. this Amazon Department Store. The biggest thing about Amazon's department store is actually the smallest thing in Amazon's department store. The dressing room. The dressing room, Snackers, it's all about the dressing room. Like, say you walk into this new Amazon department store, you see a slamming salmon sweater hanging up right there. You really want it. But it's out of your reach. It's one of those shirts that's the second row up and you can't reach chat close. Well, guess what? You pull out your

phone, you grab your Amazon app and you scan the conveniently placed QR code saying you want it and size medium. Boom, five minutes later, that slamming salmon sweater, it is in dressing room number three with your name on the dressing room. And all the other things you've scanned as you've perused the aisle. And then Jack, I'm walking into this dressing room. I'm not looking at a mirror. I'm looking at a smart mirror. I'm looking at a genius mirror. It's got a touchscreen. It's got a reflection of you. And it's also got your shopping cart in the top right, showing you how much the things you have in your dressing room with you cost. So you're going to tap around on this smart mirror and you can summon one.

one size bigger or one size smaller as you're trying Stefan staying in the dressing room. You're actually not a medium. You're not a large. You're a Marge. This is Nick and Jack and I are both Marge's and we think that should be a thing. Someone get on this. I think Nick's a Smedium. Smedium fits my figure.

Marge highlights my highlights. Then Alexa enters the conversation. Yes, she does. Nice white poncho. A handbag could complete the look. Your mirror in the dressing room is giving you recommendations based on what you're looking at. And the dressing room also becomes a den of data for this data-driven Amazon company. It knows that you brought in the floral print dress, but then you didn't buy it. You left it there.

So maybe there's a trend here. Patterns are out. And then maybe on Amazon.com, they stop showing this print dress that nobody seems to like once they hold it in their hands. Ultimately, they want the robots to come and bring you clothes and then the mirror to scan your body to customize your cardigan. This is all according to the Wall Street Journal. And this is all going to be either a utopia or dystopia. Interesting. Depending on your perspective. Perfect timing, Jack.

What's the takeaway for our buddies over in Seattle? Smart dressing rooms. They can end retail ghosting. Retail ghosting snackers. When you're shopping online, e-commerce companies hate when your shopping cart is just abandoned when you leave it. You tossed six sweaters in the shopping cart,

but then he got distracted and closed your computer. Sale never got made. Well, physical stores, they had the same abandonment going on, the same kind of ghosting. But in dressing rooms, not online shopping cards. And that's why Amazon's huge department store is focused on tiny dressing rooms. They're going to turn that tiny dressing room from a zone of clothing abandonment to a conversion factor.

Smart dressing rooms. They got one goal. Stop retail ghosting. For our third and final story, Redwood Materials has a $4 billion valuation and a fresh critical relationship with Ford. Interesting. Urban mining. Let's talk about it. First of all, though, existential challenge jack facing the whole electric car industry.

Yes. Guess how much an electric car's battery cost? Just the battery, not the wheels, not the motors, the seats, the steering wheel, just the battery. Are you thinking prices right rules on this thing? People are going to say 200, 300, 300. Do we have $500, $600,000 for just the car battery? That's the problem for electric cars. That price has to come down. Oh, and making this even more challenging Snackers, the price of metals that go into that battery, those metal prices keep rising. Bring in redwood materials. It's the biggest recycler of lithium for car batteries. On planet Earth, they're recycling up to 95% of each and every battery for the cars.

It's founded by someone who used to work at Tesla, and the valuation of redwood materials has soared to $4 billion. And now they're building a recycling factory. This is big. to deliver recycled batteries to the car industry, and they're spending a billion dollars on it. That's a lot of money. But what Jack and I found fascinating about Redwood is that they're focused on one thing, one entirely new thing, urban mining. To find metals for car batteries, they're mining your garbage. Your garbage. Instead of mining the earth. Yeah, we're not talking like finding gold in the lovely Sierra Nevada mountains or iron ore in the hills of Bulgaria. They're finding

metals in St. Louis, in Philadelphia, in Milwaukee, because there's lots of trash in those cities. And it's because of you, Snackers, it's when you drop off your laptop at a Best Buy. Redwood like jumps in and they take that laptop. Redwood finds nickel, lithium, cobalt, and copper and divvies it up to the right places like it was the sorting hat. Okay, a specific example here. Let's say Redwood gets 166 iPhones recycled. What are they going to do with those iPhones? Like an iPhone five, a six, and seven, they're obsolete products. They're going to yank out the cobalt, precious metal from those 166 iPhones. And 166 iPhones worth of cobalt, that's enough to make one car battery for a Tesla car. And Redwood is making all that happen with urban mining. Imagine all

the battery material sitting in the batteries of our old electronic gadgets like our iPhone fives and sixes. I think what you're trying to say, Jack, is imagine that one drawer we all have with random old 12-year-old phones. Marie Condo says I have to get rid of that. Now I finally know who to give it to. Redwood Materials is Marie Condoing an entire industry. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Redwood? For electric cars to proliferate, the supply chain must become the supply circle.

Supply circle. It's the new supply chain. Snackers making batteries. Today, it requires more passports than Jason Bourne. You need to find cobalt. Which is mined in the Congo. You need nickel. Which is mine in Indonesia.

lithium, which we get from Chile. And then refine all those metals into a battle, which is like happening in Finland and happening in China. That is a supply chain. Well, Redwood Materials just announced a mega deal with Ford Motor Company to turn the supply chain for batteries into a circle. This is how it's going to look like a circle. Ford's going to send Redwood a whole bunch of like scrap. Nobody's driving them cars that are sitting around. And then Redwood's going to salvage all the materials that are usable in modern electric car batteries. Boom. Toss in the remaining metal from 200. iPhones that were urban mind over in San Diego. Voila. Ford has a reliable source of car batteries made from recycled metals. For electric vehicles to truly take over, the supply chain must become a supply circle. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us before the weekend, please? Darden Restaurants is enjoying more meatballs than ever. Their gains, though, their independent restaurant pains. For our second story, Amazon's reportedly launching physical, big department stores to sell clothing.

It's all about the smart dressing room. That could kill retail ghosting. Redwood Materials finds treasure in your trash. It's urban mining. The battery supply chain must become a supply circle. Now, time for our snack fact of the day. This one's sent in by a legendary snacker. I think this is his second jack.

Johnny Henderson from lovely Highlands Ranch, Colorado. The name's Bond, James Bond. Great movies. And great books from Ian Fleming. Yeah, I'm on the fifth one. I just finished from Russia with Love. Very nice. How do they compare to the movies? They're just shorter? Shorter. It takes way longer to read a book than watch a movie.

He spends most of his time eating, so it goes quickly. Well, it turns out the character James Bond, 007, was a commander in the British Royal Navy in the books. Well, guess what just happened? The British Royal Navy just made actor Daniel Craig an honorary commander. A senior honorary commander. So the actor playing James Bond has the same military rank as the fictional character. James Bond. Unclear if the queen signed off on this, this feels like it may have been

under some other circumstances. God save the queen. Snackers, you looked fantastic all week. So it's Friday. Remember to celebrate some wins. We would love if you post it on social how much you love snacks daily. And if you don't like it,

we love hearing that too. It's kind of entertaining for us. Either way, we'll celebrate that win. We appreciate a strong opinion. Let's just leave it at that, Jack. Nick it out, see you Monday. Can't wait, man. And before we go,

we want to give a shout out to Doug and Betsy, who are driving right now from Virginia to New York to visit their daughter, have a safe and fun drive. Happy anniversary to Alicia and Aden in Maryland. And John and Karis Dahl, happy one-year anniversary over in Seattle. Congratulations to Wart Nights Ying Ming Ma and Yuchi Yang, who are getting married in Shanghai, China. Have a great time. And happy birthday to Janet Rahesia over in Mumbai, India. And Abraham Aziz in Toronto. And David Ayers having a birthday and driving to Los Angeles.

Same day. Happy birthday to Sean Shee. in Shanghai. And Michelle Jones in Samanak, Illinois. And Jasmine Singh in the Big Apple. And Ariel Gob in the borough of Queens. And Lindsey Muffin in Martinez, California. And Zach in Eureka, California.

Happy birthday to Bronlan in Columbia, Maryland. And Adam Prudham in Ottawa, Canada. And Kristen Sack in Minneapolis, Minnesota. And happy birthday, Alex Cruz, who's roasting a pig Cuban style down in Miami. And big, happy birthday to Vicki Mail. This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon. 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 Inc. 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 Robinood Markets Inc., Robinto 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. Che-ching.