The Best One Yet - 🤌 "Mob Wife Life" — The Soprano's salami strategy. Where Ya Bin's purge pricing. IBM's mysterious stock pop

Episode Date: January 29, 2024

The #MobWifeAesthetic is trending thanks to the Soprano’s 25th anniversary TikTok account — HBO cut The Sopranos into 25 second episodes because of “The Salami Strategy.”IBM’s stock is (shockingly) close to an all-time high — So we’re looking at what IBM actually does, and why prestige ≠ profits.There’s a fascinating chain you’ve never heard of called Where Ya Bin — They sell out of what Amazon can’t thanks to a new pricing strategy: “Purge Pricing.”$IBM $WBD $AMZNSubscribe to our newsletter: tboypod.com/newsletterWant merch, a shoutout, or got TheBestFactYet? Go to: www.tboypod.comFollow The Best One Yet on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypodAnd now watch us on Youtube Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. Welcome back. It is Monday, January 29th. And today's pod, it is the best one yet this. This is a T-boy, Jack. We're bringing you the top three pop business news stories you need to know today. How's your weekend, man?

I went skinning again. I went to the 60th anniversary of my favorite ski resort. Yeah, well, I kind of got a workout in, too, Jack. It's called lifting this pink Stanley mug. Can you believe this thing? I got one of them, man. How does you pay for that, I can't disclose it. I had to jump over like six children to get it, man.

Did you get that on eBay? I was in person. It involved a lot of waiting. It may have taken the whole weekend. Besties, Nick is holding a limited edition, Starbucks, Pink Stanley Tumblr. I mean, this is slamming salmon. It looks fantastic. You know, your birthday's coming up, Jack. Nick, I know you just turned 36. You don't need to prove how young you are with that pink Stanley Tumblr. It's a lifestyle, Jack. First story for today's show. What do we got, man? For our first story, as the Sopranos turns 25 this year, the mob wife aesthetic has taken over TikTok.

Because HBO is using the salami strategy. For our second story, it's a shocker. Out of nowhere, IBM's stock is close to an all-time house. IBM, UBM. We got to look into what's going on at IBM. And our third and final story is a wild business model. There's a company we've never covered before called Where You Been. Where you been?

They invented a new concept we call purge pricing. But yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. Fantastic mix of stories to kick off the week. If you went to a wedding last weekend, you may have noticed something new. It wasn't the new cake. It wasn't a new cocktail. And it wasn't the new bridesmaid dance off. The new wedding trend we're talking about is birds of prey.

That is right. We're talking hawks. We're talking falcons. We're even talking owls at the wedding. Yeties, the new wedding. The newest wedding trend that Nick and I haven't experienced yet, but we're looking forward to, is hiring a falconer so that a falcon can be the ring bearer. The newest wedding vendor is a bird with a six foot wingspan. According to the Wall Street Journal, for $1,200, you can get a raptor at your nuttobules, travel fees and dinner included.

Dinner for the falcon. Well, we're talking a bald eagle swooping in with the ring. A paragon fralcon, diving in with a bouquet. You say I do, and then a horned owl says, hoo-hoo, hoo-hoo. Now, one reason we're into owls, millennial couples grew up reading Harry Potter. Ah, you miss headwigs, so you want an owl at your wedding. Oh, and since the pandemic, couples have been pushing the boundaries of typical weddings. Jack of an Osprey didn't witness it, is the marriage even legally binding?

I mean, barn weddings are kind of lame at this point, but a barned owl? Nothing goes viral like a vulture on the podium, man. Does anyone here object to these two bonding in holy matrimony? I think I just heard some. You hear that, man? Yeties. I'll see it the wrong. Bar. Jack, a falcon ate the oysters.

Not the canapes. Not the canapes. Festies, what bird of prey you bring it to your wedding? Jack, let's hit our three storms. Fifteen years before this song, two boys from the northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea that caused a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is an norm. 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. Our first story. There's a new viral trend, and that trend is the mob wife economy. And it's all because of the Sopranos, HBO, and some salami. Yiddies, wherever you are, whatever you're doing, toss out the beige sweaters, the juice cleanses, and the yoga mats.

The Clean Girl aesthetic is officially out. And the Mobwife aesthetic is officially in. Besties, for years, the style trend has been minimalist, simple, neutral, and healthy. But in 2024, you're dressing up like you're now a member of the five families, Jack. The big hair, the big fur, and the big glitz. We're talking about hashtag mob wife, which now has a hundred million views on TikTok. And this mob wife aesthetic is creating its own little economy. Eddies, Jack and I jumped into the numbers.

Searches for hoop earrings are up 70% right now. Searches for leopard print clothing is up 213% right now. Besties, when you step out of the house, you're grabbing a phone. foam main coat with a faux chita scarf. Less Gwyneth Paltrow, more Joe Pesci. Funny how? Funny how. Now, Yeties, we know what you're thinking.

What is driving this desire to look like the wife of Frankie fast finger Sorvino right now? I just asked Carmella. It's the Sopranos. Because it's the Sopranos anniversary. 25 years ago, Tony Soprano cried about the ducks in his pool. It's when we realized that this mob boss has some sensitivity. And to celebrate this 25th anniversary. Anniversary, HBO, we launched the entire Sopranos series on Max, their streaming network.

But here's the key. It's not the Sopranos on TV that's driving the Sopranos back to relevance. Right. It's the Sopranos on your phone that's doing it. Yeties, this is what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. HBO used the 25th anniversary of the Sopranos to launch an official Sopranos TikTok account. It's called Sopranos in 25. HBO created 25-second TikTok videos for each of the 86 episodes of Sopranos.

Every single 86 of one of those episodes. This is wild because we love Sopranos, but it is a slow show, Jack. HBO managed to put every episode, like the whole plot, into a 25-second TikTok video. Again, we love watching Tony smoke on a cigar and a two-tone polo shirt while he's bada-bang, bada-boom, but it's a slow show. But HBO cut out all the long pauses between the canoes. So yet, he's as an Italian American here and as Jack being someone who worked at the Olive Garden, we want to know, why is HBO put in so much effort and giving away so much of its IP for free? Show me a warrant and I'll give you a takeaway.

Jack, I'll take you up on that takeaway. How you doing? So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies down the road in New Jersey over at the Sopranos? HBO is using the salami strategy. Yadies, when you buy a big salami, you don't just chow down on it, right? Like, you don't do that. You don't take a bite of that sausage. You slice it up into cold cuts.

You slice it up like gabagool. Media companies are realizing now that cultural moments aren't happening on TV. They're happening on TikTok. So we noticed media companies are taking a meat slicer to their content. They're cutting it up into 25-second slices and posting it on TikTok. Last October, on Mean Girls Day, Mean Girls celebrated by posting the whole movie in 23 different TikTok posts. Now, HBO is doing the same thing with Tony Soprano on his 25th anniversary. Now, HBO is not making money directly on TikTok by posting these Sopranos clips for free.

But HBO is making money indirectly because TikTok just made all of the Sopranos go viral. Oh, by the way, if they didn't post it, pirates would have. So they might as well be in control of it. And that is why Jack and I think we're going to see. see more of the salami strategy. Hollywood is slicing itself up to post on TikTok. Bada bing, gabagoole. For our second story, IBM, the once blue chip technology company is back, baby. IBM stock is approaching an all-time high. Which leads to the existential question, what does IBM even really do? That's actually the top FAQ on their website. What does IBM do? And we're going to tell you

in a second. But yet he's in the meantime. IBM Big Blue. It is the most powerful acronym in corporate history. IBM is the original OG gangster of American technology. Everyone's got a friend doing something ambiguously tech oriented over at IBM. Somebody's consulting on a case study for a B-to-B client who's trying to harness transporter synergies. In between years one and two at B school. Now, IBM actually stands for international business machines, but we got to ask because you're wondering, what exactly does IBM do? It's like an office base. What would you say you do? So, here's their answer. They do software consulting, cloud computing, and infrastructure. Those are actually IBM's three core lines of business, and they make good amounts of money on each one of them.

They seem ambiguous, but those three businesses are booming. But yet is here's why Jack and I wanted to cover this story. IBM was founded 123 years ago, but its stock is now close to an all-time high. Stock jumped 8% last week as they announced earnings, and it's up 40% in the past 12 months. Well, we jumped in T-Boy style to those earnings. IBM reported a 19% pop and profits in the fourth quarter. Not too shabby. How's this for swagger, Nick? IBM just launched a half a billion dollar fund to invest in AI venture capital.

Venture Capital is pulling back right now. IBM just launched another venture capital fund. Because remember, IBM had Watson, the artificial intelligence like 20 years ago, remember? Oh, and AI revenue over at IBM. It doubled in just the last three months. IBM today has nearly 300,000 employees. Can you sprinkle on some context for us over there, Jack? That's a bigger workforce than the population of St. Louis.

IBM is a St. Louis and then some. But IBM is still a shadow of its former self. IBM was the number four most valuable company in the world, as recently as 2012. Today, IBM is number 71. But it's climbing back up those rankings for world's most valuable companies. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at IBM? Prestige does not equal profits. Yeties, you have no idea how many IBMs, how many international business machines.

IBM has actually invented. IBM invented the ATM machine. They invented the magnetic stripe on credit cards we still use today. They invented the floppy disk you used in middle school. IBM, they invented the disk drive, the barcode, and of course the personal computer. Yeah. your computer invented by IBM. IBM once controlled 85% of the computer market.

Today, they control 0%. Because although IBM had immense historical prestige, profits for computers got squeezed by low-cost foreign competition. So in 2005, IBM sold off their entire computer business to Lenovo. They've lost so much prestige since exiting the physical computer business that they invented. But Wall Street's realizing their new software business, is even more lucrative. Even though IBM doesn't have the prestige you used to have, its stock is still close to an all-time high. Because prestige does not equal profits.

For our third and final story, Where You Been? It's a chain of stores that you've probably never heard of, and they're here thanks to Amazon. Where You Been is how Amazon sells out every week. Yeties, if you're walking around Columbus, Ohio, you may notice a huge store in a strip mall with blank walls and very basic branding. That store is called Where You Been. Where You Been. It's got Helvetica font, very simple, but there's something fascinating going on in there. Bin is spelled B-I-N.

Right, not B-E-N. It's spelled B-I-N-W-Y-N-W-Y-B-E-B-B-E-Bin. Where You Bin. Because the store is filled with 128 big blue plastic bins, the size of food troughs. And, Jack, what exactly is in those bins inside of Where You Been? Stuff that someone bought online and then returned online. It's returned. It's like you got that cute top, but it wasn't cute enough. It ends up eventually at where you been.

Well, there's a term, actually, for everything that's sold at where you been that we happen to have returned. And what's that term? Where you bin calls their product, Slob. Slob Slob. Stans for slow-moving obsolete inventory. That's a real term. So where you've been's aisles are filled with Slob. Isle 6, boom, it's filled with Slob, all your returns. You thought T.J. Max was a treasure hunt.

Where You been has even better. bargains if you're willing to sift through huge piles of bins. The surprise about where you been is that their key partner is Amazon. Amazon doesn't own where you been, but without Amazon, there is no where you been store. And there isn't just one where you've been store. There are nine where you've been stores across the country right now. And growing, because where you been is basically the Amazon outlet store. Yeties, we return so much stuff that Amazon's returns would probably be the number one or number two biggest retailer in the Americas. The biggest retailer is Amazon?

The number two would be Amazon's returns. Now, Jack, some items return to Amazon are pretty easy to resell. If someone sends back a box of unopened AirPods, that's so easy for Amazon to resell. But what if you return an already opened box of cliff bars? That's hard for Amazon to resell. What about New Year's Eve party sunglasses that say 2022? Even harder to resell. Jack, what about a calendar from four years ago with a Tiger King theme?

A 2020 12-month calendar, that's the hardest for Amazon to sell. Yeah, it's added all up. And this reveals a negative consequence of all our online shopping in America. We got so many returns. The National Retail Federation estimates that 18% of things Americans buy online get returned. 18%. I got one out of five of those cute tops. It's going back, baby.

And here's where where you've been comes in. Amazon brings their overstocked and unsellable stuff to where you've been, and they say you better sell. all this in one week. And that has led to a fascinating new pricing strategy. Where ya been? Where's our takeaway. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at where you been? Introducing purge pricing. Yeti's Uber invented surge pricing. You know surge pricing. But where you been has a new concept that we're calling purge pricing. Because Amazon's trucks deliver items on Friday every single week to where you been.

And after Where You Been unloads that tractor trailer truck, they sell every item, regardless of what it is, for $14 each. Then on Saturday, they drop the price of all remaining items to $10 each. On Sunday, they sell what's left for $7 each. Prices keep falling every single day of the week until Thursday, the last day before the dump run. On Thursday, everything that's left is selling for $0.25 each. Besties, where you been, has been. created a dynamic day of the week ever-falling prices strategy to purge the entire store of everything. And then it all starts over again on Friday with a new tractor trailer worth of stuff.

Where you've been in Amazon, they created a whole new pricing model to handle our returns. We call it purge pricing. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us to kick off the week? Bob Wife aesthetic is trending. Thanks to the Sopranos 25th anniversary and their brand new. TikTok account. This is the salami strategy. To stay relevant, Hollywood is slicing itself up and push and post. For our second story, it's IBM. They're not the corporate blue chip icon they once were, but the stock price is close to an all-time high. Because prestige does not equal profits.

And our third and final story is where you've been. They get a truckload of Amazon returns every week, and they sell out every week. It's thanks to a new concept we call purge pricing. But Yeties, this pod's not a over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, this week, five of the super six big tech stocks report earnings. It's happening like right now. We're getting earnings reports this week from Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, Meta, and Microsoft. And second, those tech companies, they may report record profits, but they also may report record layoffs. Remember we had a ton of layoffs last January? We'll get this. We've actually had more tech layoffs this January,

according to layoffs. FYI. For any Yeti's affected, we're thinking of you. And finally, we have to report that a woman was arrested in California

for stealing 65 Stanley Cup mugs. That is a huge number, Jack. Don't know who she is. It's over $2,500 of stolen merchandise because those Stanley tumblers, they were the pink ones. I know nothing about it. I got receipts for this thing.

Show me a warrant, and I'll show you a takeaway. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one sent in, by Savannah Westwood and Kelsey Black from Orlando and Austin. First of all, today is National Bubble Wrap Day. But here's what you probably didn't know. Bubble wrap was originally invented to be a wallpaper.

That's right. Bubble wrap was a wallpaper at first, like a padded wallpaper. Just in case you accidentally sprinted into your wall, you'd hit like padding. Bubble wrap was invented for your living room, but then the company realized not many people want plastic air bubbles all over their house. So they pivoted. They went to IBM and said, hey, do you need this bubble wrap?

And they were like, yeah, we actually have to ship some computers. Can we use bubble wrap for that? Yeah, can we protect this expensive equipment as we ship it? And they said, yeah, I guess you could use it for that purpose. Well, today bubble wrap is owned by Sealed Air Corporation, and they do $400 million in annual bubble wrap sales. Bubble wrap, one of the great accidental inventions of all time. Yeties, you are looking fantastic in that head-to-to-tow tiger onesie with a perm like

Adriana. Who's that? My wife aesthetic? If you have to ask, you may need an alibi jacket. Ladies, if you haven't yet, you can drop down and give us five stars to help grow the show. And if you haven't yet, followed the show so you can get us every day. Jack and I got to grab some Gabagool. Jack, let's see him tomorrow.

We're actually going to pivot this business to waste management. If you know. Yeah. And before we go, a happy birthday to Yeti Eduardo Yuha, who's enjoying that celebration with an ice cream cake in San Paid Rosula Honduras. Happy birthday to Jack Gonzalez, who's celebrating on the beaches of Chicago. Doing logistics. And Naomi Alston celebrating her 30th on a cruise to Cabo.

Happy birthday to Royce Yossibal, who's a third grader celebrating right now on the way to school at Malcolm X Elementary School in Berkeley, California. And Mima Maldonado is celebrating the birthday down in lovely Santa Clara, California. Happy ninth birthday to Felipe Scalette in St. Louis, Missouri. And Nikki Jones has got a 28th birthday. and a promotion living the sink life in Grapevine, Texas. And congratulations to Imi. Not celebrating a birthday today, but got promoted over in Austin, Texas.

And Hayden, the Bonn-Extram, has a happy 30th birthday in Tucson, Arizona. And happy first birthday to Brooklyn Parko in Phoenix, Arizona. And Blake and Air Arnett have a new baby girl. Congratulations to Emma Arnett in Laguna Niguel, California. We're pumped to me. And a huge welcome to the world to Mia Rose Macias. and her parents, Cameron and Chelsea, in Roseville, California. And the best uncle yet, Adam Macias.

And to anyone else, celebrate something today, make it a T-Bor. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon, and Nick and I both on stock of Apple. Funny how! Funny how! If I amused you? Do I amuse you?

Do I amuse you? Yeah. Am I like a clown? Do you want to laugh for me?