The Best One Yet - 😬 “Millennial Cringe” — Sweetgreen’s low. Walmart’s villain-to-hero. Mini-Soap Drama surge. +Techie facelifts

Episode Date: November 17, 2025

Walmart’s CEO retired… his boldest move? Raising pay 90% across the biz like Spiderman would.Sweetgreen, Warby Parker, Allbirds… it’s the Millennial Cringe Stock Market.Microdramas have taken over Chinese media… and now they’re topping America’s app stores.Does your buddy in tech look younger? That’s because of nip/tuck.$SG $WMT $NFLXNEWSLETTER:https://tboypod.com/newsletter OUR 2ND SHOW:Want more business storytelling from us? Check our weekly deepdive show, The Best Idea Yet: The untold origin story of the products you're obsessed with. Listen for free to The Best Idea Yet: https://wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/NEW LISTENERSFill out our 2 minute survey: https://qualtricsxm88y5r986q.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dp1FDYiJgt6lHy6GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Linkedin (Nick): https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/Linkedin (Jack): https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ About Us: The daily pop-biz news show making today’s top stories your business. Formerly known as Robinhood Snacks, The Best One Yet is hosted by Jack Crivici-Kramer & Nick Martell. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. Welcome back to the funnest place in finance. It is Monday, November 17th, and today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Jack, it happened. I heard it. It's real. What happened? Mariah Carey, all I want for Christmas. Already heard it on the radio this weekend. Dude, we watched all three versions of the Grinch this weekend. Bestie's had it all up and yeah, you got to order the gifts today. Jack, three. stories for today's pod. What have we got on the T-Boy? For our first story, it's the millennial cringe stock market. Every brand that millennials love is tanking on Wall Street. Sweet Green, Warby, Auburts, all struggling right now because millennials can't afford them. And also because of a triple whammy of costs. For our second story, Doug McMillan is retiring from Walmart after raising worker pay there by 90%. Walmart's gone from corporate villain to corporate hero from Baltimore to Superman, and it's thanks to their wartime CEO. And our third and final story.

Four of the top apps in the app store right now are microdrama apps. Mini dramas. What's a microdrama? Yeah. It's 90-second episodes of addictively trashy TV. But besties, if you want to see the ending, you're going to have to pay a buck. Spoiler, the father of the baby is a billionaire werewolf. Classic, Jack.

But yet he's before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Fantastic mix to kick off the week. is doing that mix. Do you have a buddy who works in tech as an engineer? But do they suddenly look 10 years younger? It could be that they're part of a new trend in Silicon Valley, many facelifts for men. That's right. Just like your grandma down in Florida, tech guys and Cali are getting a lift these days. True story sent to us by a listener, Manish Parique. He found it in the Wall Street Journal. And this story, it's never looked better, baby. Here's the context. The tech industry has a bit of an age complex, A particular phobia for aging.

Peter Tio once said that he would never hire anyone over the age of 30. I guess he wants people with the stamina to work 100-hour work weeks. That's exactly what he's doing, Jack. So there is pressure to look so young you don't even know what an iPod is. Knowing what Napster is, is a red flag. And that's why engineers in their 30s are getting a little neck pinch. They want to look like they're interns. Oh, you work in tech and you don't believe us?

Well, we got the date on that. In San Francisco, male facelifts are up 25% since the pandemic. eyelid surgery, it's up 50% since the pandemic. If NipTuck came back for season 7 on FX, it'd be a very different kind of season. Oh, and if you know what show Jack's talking about right now, then yeah, you're probably part of this trend. Oh, and since each operation costs about $50,000 at least, Jack, that pairs perfectly with your annual holiday bonus, man. Correction, it doesn't cost $50,000. It's an investment in getting a job with Peter Thiel.

So besties, if you're PMB, at Google says they're getting some work done right now. Could it be some Figma design work. Could be account management work. Or it could be some chin work. Does that HSA approved? I don't think so. Does matter? It's a write-off.

Jack, let's sit on three stories. I don't think it is a right-off yet. 15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is an norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice.

50% that's a fat tip. Tea 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. First, a quick word from our sponsor. Our first story. Sweet green stock fell to an all-time low last week.

This is the Slop Bowl recession. But there's actually a much bigger story here, because every millennial brand is near an all-time low right now. It's the millennial cringe stock market. Hey, Eddie, this story kind of begins. earlier this month, when Jack and I had most of our team with us in San Francisco, and we took them out to the sweet green right down the street in Soma. I love the sweet green product.

We've interviewed the co-founder before. The Pesto chicken salad is unbelievably delicious and somehow under 700 calories. I'm more of a customizing guy, but I end up with Pesto 99% of the time, Jack. But the price for us four people was $74. Besties guac is always extra, but apparently now, so are the roasted sunshed. chokes these days. $18.50 per salad. None of us even got protein on top. And that explains Sweet Green's latest earnings. Sales fell 10% last quarter. Foot traffic at their stores fell 12% last quarter. And the new healthy French fry did not take off. Sweet Green's got no profit and they just sold off

their robot salad kitchen technology in order to raise cash for the company. And the stock is down 80% this year to an all-time low. Yet he's added all up and hold the hummus. Sweet Green is now worth under $1 billion. In this case, we can't use lift as a unit of measurement. Or actually, I can, but I have to use fractions. Sweet cream is worth one-twelfth of a lift. Now, yet is the term de jour for this situation is the slop bowl recession, which we don't really like that term, right, Jack?

I think what's being served in the bowls is delicious and healthy and fresh. I don't know why we call it slop. It's actually pretty organized. Like, usually you got the carrots on one side and you got the cabbage on the other side. But it's called the slop bowl recession because it's not just sweet cream. Holtland and Kava are facing the same exact sales shrinkage. But besties, this is actually bigger and wider and goes across industries. It is a phenomenon that we call millennial stock cringe.

Brands we love from the past decade are all at all-time lows. All right, four eyes. Let's start with Warby Parker. The hipster-cheek eyeglasses icon is down 70% from their all-time high. The only store that rivals Apple in terms of how clean and nice it looks inside. It is very eat-off-avidable. Albert's once worth $2 billion. Their shoes were in the closet of every CEO in San Francisco.

But Albert's stock is down 99%. The whole company is worth just $43 million. Mark Zuckerberg pays some engineers more than that company's worth. True story. Casper Mattress. They woke up to this trend years ago. They went private. You can't even buy the stock these days.

It's not just direct-to-consumer companies, though. Basically, if any brand bought an ad in the New York City subway in 2015, and hyped themselves as organic and used very clean branding? Well, now their stock is down near an all-time low. And no amount of curried cauliflower can fix it. And the reason is our takeaway. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies looking at the millennial cringe stock market? This isn't a triple play.

It's the triple pain. Yeties, all these companies in all these different industries have been hit with the same triple whammy of pains. All of these companies offered artificially low prices at first because they were subsidized by venture capital. True. But after the IPO, the subsidies went away and they had to raise prices. All these companies faced general inflation in the last few years, so they had to raise prices even more. And all these companies' millennial customers are now facing job stagnation, so they can't pay as much and are trading down to cheaper options.

Add it all up besties and prices pop from harvest bowls to eyeglasses to wool sneakers. But the millennials who used to buy them might have kids now and are saving money instead. Oh, and the dinks out there? They have jobs to worry about and debt, so they go. got a pass on that extra guac order. We're rooting for him, but the timing is tough right now. Millennial stocks are facing the triple pain. For our second story, Walmart's CEO turned the company from villain to hero, from Voldemort to Spider-Man. He fought back Amazon and he defeated Target. But now he's retiring, so we're looking at his most strategic move, the 90% pay raise across the company. Jack, let's start with some historical context, the era of

retail warfare. Tell me about it. In 2014, Walmart had just fallen out of the top 10 list of most valuable companies in America for the first time in 13 years. Funny timing, Jack, because guess who who joined the top 10 list that same year? Amazon. Amazon. A weapon of mass commercial destruction. Besties Walmart, just like Circuit City and Radio Shack, was doomed because of e-commerce. And on Walmart's physical flank was Target, the high-end Walmart. Basically, Walmart customers were defecting over to Tarje. Or they were defecting over to Amazon. So when Doug McMillan took over a CEO that year, he was a wartime CEO. And last week, when Doug retired, he retired with the highest valor. Because Walmart stock has shockingly quadrupled in his 11 years to a new all-time high. Sit down,

stand up, and ask for help in IL-6. Yet he's the data is clear. The data is clear that Walmart is back and better than ever. It's the biggest grocer in America. It's the biggest retailer on earth. It's The biggest, biggest, but anecdotes also prove Walmart's glow up. Because 10 years ago, a millennial wouldn't get caught dead shopping at Walmart. Millennial Millie, are you kidding me? Today, though, Walmart's kind of a cool place to shop. Just like Costco, people are humble bragging about the money they saved by shopping at Walmart. Oh, I'm sorry, you paid full price for Lulu?

I got these dupes I'm wearing right now over a Walmart in Isle 6. Walmart's also become an economic melting pot. The percent of high-income American shopping there is at an all-time high. They're lured in by the e-commerce that matches Amazon and the fiscal perks that Amazon can't match. When I was in Florida, I was going to the beach. I ordered a sunblock on Walmart, picked it up at the Walmart that was right on the way to the beach. Amazon can't match that. And I know you like your sunblock, Jack.

Well, acquiring Jet.com in 2016, that was Doug McMillan's playing catch-up in the industry of e-commerce. But Walmart also transformed during this era from corporate villain. to corporate hero. It became like the Batman of corporate responsibility over here, right? In 2015, Bernie Sanders was campaigning for president, and he singled out Walmart for paying, and I quote, starvation wages to the staff. Uh, well, shockingly, Doug, CEO of Walmart, actually agreed. So he jacked up worker pay a whopping 90% more in the last 11 years. Now, Bernie still calls out Walmart. Yeah, he's got some issues with it. But they've made major progress on pay and it leads to our takeaway. Yes, it does. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at

Walmart? McMillan's Walmart turnaround lesson, pay more, perform better. Yes, Yeti's Walmart's smart investments in tech helped defend off an Amazon attack. But its investments in people set the tone for the company's glow up. Get this, McMillan's first big move as CEO of Walmart was to raise the minimum wage from seven bucks and 25 cents an hour to nine bucks an hour. Then he raised the minimum wage again to 10 bucks an hour, then 11 bucks an hour, and today, 14 bucks an hour. What did Wall Street think of all these pay raise moves? I mean, they hated it. Oh, I hated it. Yeah, always low prices. That's supposed to mean always low wages, too, to the investors. Today, the average worker gets paid 90% more than 11 years ago when Doug McMillan began.

Basties, we're talking 1.6 million American workers getting paid double than they did a decade ago. In 2015, Walmart greeters handed out smile stickers. Remember those? They were yellow. Today, they might actually smile because they're paid so much more. It's lower turnover costs, improved customer service. It's brought in a higher income crowd from the Upper West Side. And it's even won over the love of Wall Street, thanks to the nearly one trillion valuation Walmart has today. The big reason Doug McMillan quadrupled Walmart stock, because it's a great place to work. McMillan's corporate lesson is if you pay more, they'll perform better. Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, it's a brand new industry.

Micro dramas, the freaky second cousin of Hollywood movies, 90-minute shows being cut up into 90-second addictive episodes. In China, micro dramas are way bigger than the box office movie industry. And now they're coming here. But Yeties, our story really begins back in 2020. And Jack, it begins with Shrek, right? It begins with the creator of Shrek, Jeffrey Katzenberg, who launched Quibi. We covered it on this pot. But unfortunately, Quibi never became a verb. Quibi was short for quick bites. It was premium shows, but to be watched on your phone, 10-minute-long episodes. A new industry was created, microdramas. Super short episodes of TV on your phone. But unfortunately, after just six months, Quibi burned through a billion bucks and fell apart.

They ended up selling their entire catalog to Roku for just $100 million. Micro dramas as an industry appeared dead. But, Yeti's, some enterprising entrepreneurs over in China saw Quibi fix it. the business model and made it work. And today in China, micro dramas generate more revenue than box office movies do. They remix the business and here comes the new plot twist. After China copied the idea from Quibi, now we're copying the idea back from China. It's come stateside. But here's the best part of the story, Yetis, because Jack dove in T-boy style for like three hours while we were prepping the show. No, no, no, let me stop you right there. Let me tell the story. I

watched the first three episodes of, I had a baby with you. But I watched the whole microdrama in just four minutes. Yeah, again, I Had a Baby with you is an example of a very popular microdrama right now. And here's how you make a microdrama. You basically grab an airport fantasy novel and then turn that into a screenplay. You ruthlessly cut out the parts that aren't essential, so it's just the steamy juice cut. You hire some budget actors, a budget set, and some rando directors and record the whole video production in 90 minutes. the plot. The heroine's husband's brother has twins with her mom's step-uncle on the family vacation during Christmas. And wait, he's also a trillionaire merman. Somebody described it as fantasy smut. And I can tell you, because I watched the first three

episodes, I had a baby without you is very much that. Yeah. Wait, Jack, be real with us. Was it the first three episodes or the first 13 episodes? It was extremely addictive. I'll give you that. Well, either way, these companies then slice that entire 90 minutes into 57, total episodes, give or take. And each episode ends with an epic cliffhanger. It's the digital equivalent of a page turner. But yeties, here's the catch and the profit puppy. To turn the page, you have to watch an ad or pay some money. Boom, there is your industry. Quibi had the right product, but the wrong business model. Instead of a monthly subscription of 10 bucks a month, do the freemium model. Let people consume it for free with ads or pay to skip the ads. Oh, and if they

want to find out if the Murman Trillionaire ends up with his ex-wife's cousin, they're going to have to pay an extra 10 cents. Quibi also should have made the episodes shorter like these microdramas do, not 10 minutes per episode, 90 seconds per episode. But the microdramas did it. And Jack, what's the result? A $7 billion a year industry in China. That's what microdramas is. Oh, and microdramas are already in the U.S. making a billion dollars of revenue per year. We're talking drama box, net short, good short, real short, where are they in the Rankins, man. These are all apps in the top 200 in the Apple App Store right now. And they're so high up because people are hooked. People end up paying probably way more than they intended to to keep

watching these steamy dramas. You end up paying more than Netflix, Nick. Bessies, if Jack keeps watching a season a day as he's currently been doing, Amex is going to cut him off. But seriously, it heads up to more than a Netflix subscription. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in the microdramas. When you unlock micro payments, you unlock micro industries. Yeties, have you ever hit a news article paywall and wish you could just buy that one article? Not like the whole newspaper subscription? Not the whole month? Well, in China, you can because micro payments are commonplace there. With micro payments, with one quick tap to pay one dollar, digital commerce can happen at a smaller scale. Like microdramas, I can't watch past episode 18 of I had a baby with you unless I start paying

money. The micro-payments concept, it's broken down our economy into ironically, quick bites. Instead of a whole meal, you can order any product a la carte, just a quick little bite for a buck. Micropayments, they're in video games here already, but they haven't hit mainstream American digital commerce quite yet. But when they do, they'll unlock entire micro industries. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us to kick off the week? Sweet green stock has had an all-time low. So is every other brand that got big as millennials came of age. millennial cringe stock market because of the triple whammy of pains. For our second story, Walmart stock has had an all-time high as its wartime CEO retires with honor. His boldest move to go from villain to hero, raising average worker pay 90%. That's why Walmart is booming. And our third and final

story are microdramas. They're China's most addicting version of what Quibi tried to do. And now they're here in the states too. Micro payments are the key to unlocking microdramas. Jack, I'm sorry. I I have to take away your phone. One sec. Sorry, guys. One sec. Yeties. All right. Give it over. Give it up, pod. All right. Okay. Okay. It's a steamy show. I won't lie. Proceed with caution. But besties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, Callaway Golf is reportedly close to selling Top Golf to a private equity firm for $1 billion. Awkward for Callow. Awkward for Callow. Because they paid $2.5 billion for Top Golf just four years ago. You're going to want to call four on this one. Top Golf was extremely fun during the

pandemic, a pandemic friendly activity, really. But top golf sales have slowed big time since the pandemic. And second, Warren Buffett, the patron saint of profits, made a surprising new investment, Google. Berkshire Hathaway just revealed a $4.3 billion investment in Alphabet that they made in September. The only other tech investment we know of that Warren's made is Apple. But now Warren Buffett, who is stepping down next year as Berkshire Hathaway CEO, is betting big on Google. And finally, a strong. Strange business victim of the government shutdown? It's cannabis. Hemp, a low THC version of cannabis, was legalized in 2018 nationwide. But then shockingly, the new bill to reopen the government last week

illegalized hemp again. Some politicians slipped it in there last second. I don't even know if anybody noticed. So hemp-based, gummies, drinks, vapes, those will all be illegal at a federal level. Once again, Maui, wowie. Now time for the best fact yet. This one, because it's Monday, It means T-boy trivia, and we whipped it up for you. We just learned that the Department of Defense, changing their name to Department of War, actually cost $2 billion in terms of new signage and new stationery. Yeah, it actually cost $2 billion to change the name, which reminded us of a 14-year-old kid who had the opposite effect on the government 10 years ago.

This 14-year-old kid had an idea to save the government $400 million a year. So, Basties, our trivia question to you today, What was the creative idea that this 14-year-old kid had that saved the government $400 million? The kid was severe merch on Dundi, and let's hope he got into Harvard because of this idea. Yeties, you look fantastic to kick off the week. Jack, you're looking fantastic as well over there. Thank you, Nick is. I'll see you later this week in New York City.

That's going to be a fun one. Oh, yeah, I know. We're funny. We got the big interview this week. This is going to be awesome, man. I'm flying in and out same day, but I think we'll have time for a burger. I think we'll have time for a couple sweet cream salads. Jack, it may be 20 bucks a salad. That's a write-off of we're together.

That is a right-off. That actually is this time. Besties, if you haven't yet, drop down to give us five stars a rating and a review. Jack and I love reading them. And Nick and I, we'll see you tomorrow. It helps us grow the show. If you know, you know, see you. And before we go, a happy birthday to my wonderful mother, Alice Martel from Philadelphia, but living in New York, she is the queen of Midtown Books. And happy birthday to Phil Albright.

26 years old in Atlanta, Georgia. And a happy birthday to Alex's mom, an ocean aisle Beach, North Carolina. She is a mama with a great birthday. And happy birthday to Dave Franzel, the king of the Upper West Side, who recently recommended I go to Celeste. Dave, you didn't tell me it was a cash-only establishment. Thank goodness they accepted Venma. And congrats to Dave's cybersecurity firm Naxo,

who just did a deal with Google to stop spam texting. Congratulations to Alyssa Cervalino and Kennedy Tourne, who got engaged in Tampa Flo. And Matthew Caneller is moving on after 14 legendary years of just doing it over at Nike. Happy seven-year anniversary to Jess and J.P. Moralda in Hopedale, Massachusetts, and their welcoming baby number three next year. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Warby Parker, Netflix, Berkshire Hathaway, and Lyft, and Nick and I both

on stock of Apple and Chipotle.