The Best One Yet - 🍻 “No More Mr. Nice Bud” — Budweiser’s angry. 1800-Flowers’ repeat roses. Roe v Wade’s new work perk.

Episode Date: May 6, 2022

Just in time for Mother’s Day, shares of 1800-Flowers.com are down because donuts are beating daisies. Budweiser revealed that the new drink of 2022 is the opposite of Budweiser. And with the Supreme Court leak on Roe v Wade, we’re noticing that companies are increasingly becoming America’s Everything-Of-Last-Resort — it’s no longer a political story, it’s a business one, too.$BUD $FLWSFollow us on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypodAnd now watch us on YoutubeWant a Shoutout on the pod? Fill out this formGot the Best Fact Yet? We got a form for that tooLearn 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. It's Friday, the real Friday, May 6th. And today's pod, today's pod, is the best one yet. Yesterday was Cinco de Mayo. Today is Seiste Molly Martel. Seiste de Malay, as in happy birthday to the other first lady of this pod, Molly Martel. Happy birthday, Molly.

Now, yesterday was a bad day for tech stocks. It was. It was actually an awful day for tech stocks. We're going to regroup and give more on that on Monday. In the meantime, today's pod, TBOY, Jack, first story. 1-800 flower stock is wilting. right now. Yeah, because you're not sending daisies these days. You're sending donuts. For our second story, Budweiser, just dropped a report that should have microbears shaking in

their boots. No more Mr. Nicebud. Our third and final story, Roe v. Wade, it's not just a political story anymore. Yeah, Jack and I noticed American corporations are stepping up with some new perks. But before we hit that wonderful mix, a fantastic mix to end the week on Jack. This Sunday isn't just this Sunday. No, it's not just any Sunday. This Sunday, FYI, hi, it's Mother's Day. You may send chocolate. You may send tulips. Handmade pottery.

Handmade poetry. Handmade poetry to your mother. Yeah, remember, she gave you life. Mothers are the producers of the producers of this economy. Yeah, the mothers out there. They hold the means of production on like little Timmy and baby Janine. Now, we've got a warning, though, this mother's day. Yeah, we do.

It's a warning for Verizon, for AT&T, and for TMO. Prepare for an unprecedented stress test, a telecom stress test. This is the beginning of the call-a-mom marathon jack. Because Mother's Day isn't just a Sunday. No, get this. On Mother's Day, the United States sees the most phone calls of any day of the year by far. 122 million phone calls were made last Mother's Day. We're talking to 122 million phone calls made on the second Sunday of every single May.

Now, it doesn't have to be your mom who you're celebrating on Sunday. No, Sunday's a celebration of all the moms out there. Because Christmas is for malls. Mother's Day, it's for calls. Grab an iPhone, grab a Zoom link, grab a landline if you have to. Yeah, the one with the curly cord. This thing's are cute.

Smile, dial, call a mother, any mother. Say thank you. Hey, Siri, dial 1-800 call mom. Hello, operator. Can you get my mom? It's okay. Jack and I can wait. You can call your mother right now.

We'll pause the pot. We'll wait for all 122 million of you. Okay, let's hug our three stories. Fifteen 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 you need to practice 50% that's a fat tip

T-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 For our first story 1800flowers.com Is suffering right now

Spontaneous flower purchases are out Random gifts though are in Jack we got to talk about this 1-800 Flowers.com. Best name in corporate America right now. I'm all right? The name is a CTA. It is a call to action.

This is like if the name of your store included the address at the end of the name of your store. You got the 1-800 for the greatest generation and then the dot-com for the boomers. What's the name of your company? Make a left on Maine or right on Richfield and we're right there.

It should actually be at 1-800flowers.com to get the young... Just throw on another suffix. In the meantime, 1800flowers.com stock is down 70% in the last year. And they just announced that revenue fell last quarter by 1% compared to the year before. Now, the CEO of 1,800flowers.com, which is so fun to say, did say that Valentine's Day was fantastic, but it's everyday gifting occasions that are slow. Yeah, inflation, gas prices are up.

People are cutting back on flowers. Jack, I love seeing you every single day. I apologize. I haven't sent as many spontaneous snapdrag. I would appreciate some surprise sunflowers, Nick. I'm just going to point out, I haven't seen any coming my way either. Now, Nick and I, our relationship's going to be fine. It is going to be fine.

But 1-800 flowers just revealed that they're not even a flower company anymore. Check your mailbox, Jack. 1-800 flowers has transformed into food gift. Forget this, 1-800flowers.com Incorporated is actually now made up of 17 brands. And only one of those brands. Just one is 1-800 flowers. it is the biggest brand. They make up half of the total business,

but the rest of the business is these elaborate mail order gift things. Here's what's coming your way, Jack. Maybe some Sherry's berries, maybe some simply chocolate, maybe 1-800baskets.com. That's a real brand. They also have a whole brand dedicated

to those big three-section popcorn tin barrels, you know? You're eating the caramel one because it's marginally healthier than the fried chocolate one. I eat the ones that just make your fingers completely orange. orange after. Which is all of the above. And it's a good thing to have these foods because gourmet food and gift baskets were the top performer for 1,800 flowers last quarter. Yeah, 1,800 flowers saw the biggest

growth, a 10% jump in these intense gourmet food and gift baskets last quarter. Right. Towers of Turam suit. That is the more popular gift than a dozen daisies right now. Now, here is the one statistic, Jack and I thought was the most fascinating. A key strength of 1,800flowers.com is the 70% of its customers who return. The equivalent of going on a second date. So, Jack, what is the takeaway for our second date buddies over at 1-800flowers.com, Inc? Repeat customers are the roses of retail. Getting a new customer, that is expensive. It's actually estimated it costs five to 25 times more to get a new customer than to get an existing customer. Right. To get a new customer, companies have to splurge on ads, promotion codes, those mailers and flyers that are in your mailbox to get your

attention for the first time. Exactly. Like 20% off peonies, here you go. That is costly. But repeat customers, they don't need that marketing education. Repeat customers come to you. And as 1-800 flowers has noticed, those repeat customers are more likely to buy things, spend more money, and then buy things from different categories like those delightful caramel popcorn. Everybody talks about growing to new customers, but retaining existing customers is a beautiful thing. 1-800 flowers is bending on the repeat customers because they're the roses of retail. For our second story, Jack, rosé or frose? Roseae with ice.

Dude, I put ice in white wine and in rosé and I have no problem with that. It was all of the above, but we can go with that. I'm down with that too. Okay, second story, the granddaddy of macro beer just gave us a hint of the drink of the summer. Microbrewers, beware. No more Mr. Nice Bud. No more Mr. Nice Budweiser. Jack, can you whip out the ID over there and tell us more about the AB InBev Budweiser?

family of beers. Doing the research for this story, I had to type in my birth date to like six websites. It was really annoying. If I'm off by a day, are they going to track me down? Who's actually covering this? So A.B. InBev has the Budweiser family, the Corona family, Modelo, Bex, and dozens of more international beer brands. It's basically like a Long Island Ice Tea mix of brands. And in North America, over the last quarter, they sold fewer beers. But here's the interesting distinction. They sold more beer. Yeah. Volume of beers sold was down, but revenue of beer sold was up. Okay, so Jack, can you translate that kind of awkward beer situation for us over there?

You might have gone from a six-pack in the past to a four-pack today, but that four-pack is more expensive. Okay, sprinkling on a little more context here. Basically, we all bought less beer, but we all spent more money on that beer. That's some good, clean inflation fun right there. But you, me, us, analysts, we're all wondering what will be the same. summer drink of summer 2020. Okay. So, Jack, first thought here, you're thinking, uh, White Claw? Is White Claw going to be the summer drink? White Claw summer is long gone, Nick. That was 2018, 2019 at best. It tastes like a bachelor party from three years ago. And we can prove it. We control effed, seltzer, spiked and hard. There was not a single mention of any of those seltzery words in the

earnings deck of the ABM. It was a truly travesty. Now, in recent years, hard seltzer was replaced as the summer drink of choice by ready to drink canned cocktails. Exactly. We're talking about your like Negronies on the go kind of a thing. Your Paloma for the parking. Exactly. And those sales of these ready to drink cocktails, they're doing well. In fact, they're doing really well, Jack. Sales grew at ABM Bev by 6% in this category, which is three times faster than beer sales grew. But here is something that just shocked Jack and me. You're going to sit down, stand up, and sit back down again. One of the three, top growth categories for Budweiser owner, A, B, InBev, what was it, Jack?

Non-alcoholic drinks, like their new Budweiser Zero, which has us asking the big question, could zero-proof non-alcoholic drinks become the drink of 2022? Somebody call liquid death because we got a murder suspect in the beverage aisle and it's stone, cold, sober. Hey, San Pellegrino, you're the party drink of this year. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Budweiser? A new era for Budweiser is upon us. No more Mr. Nice Bud. Look, the craft beer and the hard seltzer trends, they made A.B. InBev and Budweiser angry. This huge corporation, their stock fell 50% in the years that those trends were going on from 2016 to 2020. Jack, I'm looking at the middle shelf stuff over here, Fireball whiskey, truly hard seltzer, canned froset that stole Budweiser sales.

So A.B.M. Bev has taken off the gloves and they're stealing tricks from Mark Zucker. Yeah, A, B, InBev. They copied the popular drink trends. And then here's what they did. They tossed their age old brands onto those drink trends. That's why we now have eight different types of Corona. We have 19 different alcoholic beverages with the Bud Light brand on the camp. Oh, and Jack, can we talk about the very first word in the Budweiser earnings report this quarter? The very first word was relentless. Oh, watch out. Startup Microbreweries. Macro beer. And now word about our sponsor, Robin Hood. Nick and I got to know Vladin Bejou, the co-founders of Robin Hood when we worked there for three years. And there's this one business principle we heard from them. And we just, we honestly loved it. A, B, L. Always be launching.

Always be launching. That's what keeps customers engaged. It keeps investors happy. And it keeps competitors kind of concerned. Always be launching is also consistent with Robin Hood's mission to democratize finance for all. Yeah, not just stock trading. Also options, crypto, spending. wallets and more. They launched a lot of stuff. And that's something we heard, we saw,

and we adopted it. Yeah, this week, we relaunched the podcast as the best one yet and launched a video pod right here. More to come. If you're not on Robin Hood yet, want to get started, go to Robinhood.com slash T-Boy and choose your free stock. That's Robinhood.com slash T-B-O-Y. Certain limitations apply. All investments involve risk. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member SIPC. By the way, Robin Hood is no longer affiliated with us or this podcast. For our third, And final story before the weekend. With Roe v. Wade likely to be overturned, companies are stepping up again. Because companies have become America's everything of last resort.

Okay, so here's what we know so far. Five Supreme Court justices are working on a draft opinion, which would overturn Roe v. Wade completely. So it's likely that sometime before July, before the middle of this summer, the federally protected right to an abortion will be gone. And that would leave it up to the states. Yeah. And experts think that if this does happen, then 26 states will ban abortions.

Now, over the last few years, conservative laws are increasingly clashing with young liberal workforces. And that's putting pressure on companies to speak out for the values that their younger workers happen to believe in. Our year end 2020 year in review podcast, we gave this phenomenon a name. Yeah, we did. We called it the chief woke officer, whole new position. And once again this year,

companies are having to make tough decisions on divisive cultural issues. Here's what Jack and I are noticing. Many companies are siding with their younger workers who happen to support more progressive policies. Exhibit A, Disney. They condemned the new law in Florida that got passed that's commonly referred to as the don't say gay bill. So in this case, Disney was supporting its LGBTQ workforce. Now, with abortion, companies have already come out to support their female workers living in states where abortion may be. become banned. Okay, so this is an interesting development. These companies are turning abortion support

into a health perk. Now, here's how it will reportedly work. In the case of Amazon, for example, Amazon will pay $4,000 for employees medically related travel, which would include travel to a state for abortion care. And here's the list so far. It's not just Amazon. It's also Citibank. Apple, Levi, Uber, Lyft, Match, Bumble, all of them are doing this new type of health burden. The list isn't That long yet. The great majority of Fortune 500 companies have been silent on this Roe v. Wade issues so far. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for all of our buddies who are involved in this new phenomenon in America? Corporations are America's everything of last resort. So Jack and I were looking at this situation before today's pod and we thought, you know what,

Americans depend on corporations way more than other countries do. For example, in America, we don't have guaranteed health care. companies provide health insurance for the majority of Americans. In America, only nine states require paid family leave. And child care? It's pretty much on affordable nationwide. So it's often up to companies whether to support mothers and fathers. And in America, we don't have federal policies to fight climate change. So it's the companies who are leading the effort to cut America's carbon dioxide. It's just how it is. In this country, our elected politicians haven't done the things that many citizens expect. So we're increasingly depending on companies to do them instead. And that is uniquely

American. Jack, can you whip up the T-boy takeaways for us before the weekend? Popcorn gifts are trending up. 1-800.com flower gifts are trending down. But return customers, you are the roses of retail. For our second story, Budweiser is selling less beer, but for more. And some of it's non-alcoholic. No more, Mr. Nice Bud. For our third and final story, with Rose. Roe v. Wade likely to be overturned. Some companies are taking action. Yeah, companies have become America's everything of last resort. Now, time for our best fact yet.

And yeah, Jack, would it kill you to send me some Gardinias? I don't know. Who knows? You know you were into that, but I'm glad to hear you are. Time for our best fact yet. This one sent in by Nick Sorisei from lovely New York City. Yesterday's pod, we were talking a little bit about Logan, aka Wolverine. Wolverine, the one superhero who literally wears jewelry on his fist. Lethal jewelry.

But the question was, is he in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Yeah, there's actually a lot of debate. And actually, the answer is Wolverine in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is complicated. Wolverine and the X-Men are part of Marvel. But Storm and Magneto are not part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that Disney recently acquired. That's right. The X-Men and the Fantastic Four, they were historically owned by Fox, not Disney. But here's the plot twist.

Now Disney has bought Fox. So the Marvel family is no longer divided. So Disney Plus has X-Men and Fantastic Four now, but they put them in the category Marvel Legacy Films. Not the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So I was right. So now we're all more confused. Besties, Yetis, T-boys, T-girls, T-Bays.

We're going to have a name for you next week. In the meantime, Jack, plenty of wins to celebrate for the people out there. Have a fantastic. weekend, everybody. And remember, your mother gave you life. 1-800, call mom. We'll see you Monday. And before we go, happy birthday to Molly Martel. Happy Seistamaya. We're actually going to be in Mexico, Jack, celebrated in Mexico. Saystay, Molly. Sayst to Molly. Good clarification. And a happy early birthday to the birthday girl, Brooklyn Brink, the princess of unicorns in Hingham, Massachusetts.

And happy birthday to Sasha Glat in Mexico, San Diego. And Arturo Campo is down in Lima, Peru. And Adid al-Aid in Santa Clara. And Lexi Copa-Cac, over in day in. Ohio. Happy birthday to Kenny V. in Lake Oswego, Oregon. And Connor Norden turned in 25 in Sunnyvale. Happy birthday to Trevor in Chicago. And a happy birthday to Merriam Offsale, who also just had her first baby in Michigan. Congratulations. And happy birthday to Ava Rukhama, who's celebrating down in Cancun. And John Angerman, congrats on those 10,000 steps today. Same to Daniel from Colorado, 10,000 steps. And Elisa Pasejik is going to space camp. And congrats to Macy. Damdar, who just finished the Suzuki Book 2 piano recital.

And Mary Alight, congrats on graduating with that MBA. Congrats to Brett Addington, who got a new job in Louisville, Kentucky. And Billy and Jamela Broom, enjoy that fifth year wedding anniversary in Washington. Sarah and Stephen Holeshauser are getting married in the mountains of North Carolina. Nick and I wish you the best. Yeah, let's see some picks. This is Jack. Nick owned stock of Apple, and I own stock of Amazon, Bumble, and Levi's, and we both own stock of Robin Hood.

And now we're at our sponsor, Robin Hood. Funny little thing about the Robin Hood logo. Okay, go look at it right now. Most people, you just see a feather. Robin Hood's feather and a cap. Pretty classic. But it also looks like something else. If you look closer, closely or you may see an arrow pointing up to the right.

Yeah, the Robin Hood logo. Nice little Easter egg in there. It's not just a feather. It also symbolizes bullishness. There's a little arrow in there. If markets are up or down, it's nice to be optimistic. We always love that little detail in the Robin Hood logo. Honestly, it's all about the little things in life.

If you're not on Robin Hood yet, want to get started. Go to robinood.com slash T-boy and choose your free stock. That's Robinhood.com slash T-B-O-Y. Certain limitations apply. All investments involve risk. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member S-I-P-C. By the way, Robin Hood is no longer affiliated with us or this podcast. Bud.

Wise. So, Jack, what's the take away? way.