The Best One Yet - 🛍️ “Only 20 days left” — #NoSpendJanuary is trending. Instacart launches smart cart. Mister Car Wash’s growing empire.

Episode Date: January 11, 2024

The top-trending New Year’s resolution is #NoSpendJanuary — And it reveals the power of the Finfluencer (= “Financial” + Influencer”).Instacart’s smart cart will now convince you upsell you to buy ice cream — Because the game of groceries is still a physical sport.And Mister Car Wash became the largest car wash chain in America with 1 simple strategy — Chainification: It bought up all the mom & pops.$MCW $CART $SPYSubscribe 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. It's Thursday, the new Friday, January 11th. And today's part, it is the best one yet, Jack. This is just a T-boy, man. Nick and I are serving up the top three pop business news stories you need to know today. But Jack, before we hit the show, we should share something because we've been getting a lot of DMs, a lot of messages from the Yetis out there about what happened to our videos on Spotify.

Yes, we announced in December that we sadly had to shut down video on Spotify. Unfortunately, besties because of technical limitations, we just couldn't monetize the show through ads on Spotify with video. And since advertising is the main way the show makes money, we sadly had to turn off video on Spotify. We miss letting you see our faces, trust us. And we hope there's a technical fix that lets us turn video back on. But in the meantime, Jack, you can still watch us

our videos on YouTube every day any day. The cameras are on right now. I'm looking at the camera as we speak. And you can catch highlight clips on social at T-BoyPod all the time. So our faces aren't gone? they're just a little harder to find, unfortunately. Or maybe fortunately, Jack. First story for today's show, what have we got, man?

For our first story, we found the first ever pure play car wash stock. Mr. Car Wash, they built a $3 billion business by buying your local car wash. For our second story, it's Instacart. Instacart's newest product is a physical smart shopping cart. Actually, a genius shopping cart. The Instacart created a chauffefered shopping cart. That's also a cash register. And our third and final story, the top trending New Year's resolution is no spend January.

Oh, it's not planuary? I thought it would be planuary, Jack. It's no spend January. Yet he's no spend January reveals the power of the Finfluencer. That is three fantastic stories I cannot wait to hit. Love the mix of it, Jack. But first, Nick and I want to tell you about a big new feature coming to your phone. And you never saw it coming. Literally.

Because the next generation of smartphones will be able to smell. Jack, can you repeat that? The newest smartphone technology is a sense of smell. It's not a cell phone. This is a smell phone. Get this, besties. An Israeli startup called Mobile Physics already invented a nose for your phone. Okay, what we're saying here is they built a nose that you can stick into your phone.

That is a real thing right now. And they believe that Samsung, Google, and Apple will plant that nose into their future smartphone. Jack, I'm sorry. Can you grab me a handkerchief? We got a question on this one. Why do phones need noses? Well, there's actually a pretty good explanation, isn't there, man? Yeah, if your phone has a nose, it can detect the air quality around you from pollution.

Smell phone, it could be a smoke alarm in your pocket. If you accidentally left some slamming salmon broiling in the oven for too long? Your smell phone's going to smell that smoke before you do, ding, ding, ding, it's going to start ringing. And that could save the slamming and the salmon. But yet he's jacking and I think. They could actually take this smelling feature technology even further into your phone. Why stop it safety? A smell phone.

It could use scent to identify a wafting scent of wine. Or it could act as like Shazam, but identify smells, not music. Oh, what's that smell? One sec. Let me just whip out my iPhone, which can smell, Jack. Your iPhone could even warn you when you smell. Oh, one sec. My phone just told me I should take a shower.

That's offensive, but I guess I should do that, Jack. I'm glad they told me. Yetis, your next phone could have a better sense of smell than you do. It's not a camera lens. That's a nostril. Besties, let's hit our three stories. Actually, my phone says I have a great musk today. Now let's do it our three stories.

Let's hit them. 15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dawn. They had an idea that caused a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is an norm. Jack, nifty percent. 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. For our first story, your favorite local car wash is probably about to become a Mr. Car Wash. Mr. Car Wash shows why American mom and pop businesses are selling to corporate rawups. Jack, let's go back about a decade. Back when you were working in banking, you were covering the car industry. And remember what you shared with me when you were covering the car industry? I covered car companies, tier one suppliers and tier two suppliers. and that is a highly cyclical industry.

It's unpredictable, isn't it, man? That's what you always told us. Highly cyclical. When the economy's doing well, Americans buy lots of new cars. When it's not doing well, they buy no cars. First customers want an SUV. Then they want electric. Then they want leather.

Then they want plethora. They're all over the place, and then they may stop buying cars altogether. But there's one part of the car industry that is extremely reliable. What is that, Jack? The car wash. Yet he's during an economic downturn. You don't buy a new car, but you do. wash in your car. And when the economy's strong, you also keep washing your car. It just happens to be a new car.

That is how Mr. Car Wash hit a $3 billion valuation this year. They have 425 car washes in America, and they all have extremely reliable car washing. Daddy's, this is the largest national car wash brand in the United States. It's basically the McDonald's of cleaning or Dodge Ram. And here's the news. Jack, what do we got? Analysts at Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs just issued competing stock reports. Okay, they disagree on whether you should buy Mr. Car Wash stock or whether you should sell Mr. Car Wash stock. Wells Fargo likes the stock. Goldman doesn't. So Yeti's Wall Street is torn on Mr. Car Wash's value.

So what do we think, Jack? We're going to jump in T-Boy style to the business. Now, to sprinkle on some context here, Yetis, Mr. Car Wash, it isn't a he-him situation. No, the mister is for the mist of water that gently clean. cleanses your car as you go to their car wash. Because this business depends upon the conveyor belt. That's like their core asset, isn't it, man? It's one giant conveyor belt.

So you put your car in neutral and just relax as your car is pulled through a sudsy tunnel. And now here's what Jack and I found fascinating about the business model. The profit puppy for Mr. Car Wash is the unlimited car wash. It's the unlimited wash club because two million customers have signed up for that subscription program. They have two million customers in their loyalty program. That's like almost as big as Wendy's, I think, Jack. I know. And 70% of their sales come from those clean, loving drivers

who pay 20 to 30 bucks a month for unlimited car washes. What a little Irish spring on my tailpipe, please. But how did Mr. Carwash quadruple in size over the past decade, Nick? Were they doing it by growing sales because more cars were bought? Like, what is driving their sales growth, man? Acquisitions. Yeah. Actually, Eddie's, it's a pretty simple growth strategy over at Mr. Car Wash.

Mr. Car Wash has been writing checks to mom and pops and convincing them to sell their local car wash to them. Because Besties, the carwash industry, it's actually a super fragmented, like super local industry half there. Yeah, three quarters of America's car washes are owned by moms and pops who own just one or two locations. It's like Tommy and Son's car wash over on Route 9. And if you hit Route 6, you went too far, Jack. Right. So Mr. Carwash is going to approach Tommy, write him a big check, let them go into retirement, and then slap on the Mr. Car Wash branding and apply their corporate playbook. Jack and I, we don't know if this stock is worth $6 a share or $11 a share.

That's not exactly our purview right now. It's not in our purview, Nick. No, we didn't whip out the old Bloomberg terminals for this story. No discounted cash flows here, Yendies. But Jack and I do know about takeaways. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our business? buddies over at Mr. Car Wash. America is experiencing the final wave of chainification.

Yeties, so many American industries have been chainified already. From fast food to fast banking, you don't even think about it these days. But now, even highly physical, historically local businesses are consolidating into chains too. Jack, let's whip out the whiteboard bowling alleys have become chanified. Bolero, which is a giant bowling alley company, they want to buy out up to a third. thousand local American bowling alleys. Swimming pools have become chanified. Pool Corporation spent nearly a billion dollars since 2020 buying local pool companies.

Even funeral homes have become chanified. SCI consistently spends $100 million a year buying up local funeral home. Besties, all of those are publicly traded companies. All are grown in size and they're all doing it by making mom and pop shops and offer they can't refuse. And then they apply their corporate playbook of efficiency and profit growth. These entrepreneurs are creating new companies every day in America. Mom and pops are selling every day in America too. Because America is experiencing the final wave of chanification.

For our second story, Instacart just announced a huge update to their smart card shopping cart. But we got to say, Instacart's smart cart has a bigger potential than the Instacart app. Jack, the most exciting IPO of 2023, what would you say it was, man? Instacart. It was Instacard. That was the most exciting IPO. The delivery app went public and it's now trading at a valuation of $7 billion. But Yetis, the way Jack and I see it, the biggest move Instacart's ever made was actually three years ago. In 2021, Instacart spent $350 million to acquire a smart shopping cart company. It's its biggest deal ever. They acquired Caper, which, by the way, isn't just a smart cart? We're going to say it's like a genius cart. This physical shopping cart that you

push around the grocery store, has GPS enabled maps. It has a touchscreen, and it has a payment cashier all built into the cart. It's like the Jimmy Neutron of shopping carts, Jack. If a typical shopping cart is a dumb box of metal, which it is, by the way, a typical shopping cart has holes in it. Why does it have holes in it, by the way? Good question. Then this shopping cart is like a Tesla. Now, yeties, if you live over in Chicago doing logistics, you may have seen the shopping cart at Kroger, or if you live in New York, you may have seen these smart shopping carts at Fairway. They're in the wild because Instacart has moved past their delivery app to build physical smart shopping carts too. Now, yeah, it is before Jack and I jump in T-boy style to the news,

we should explain what a smart cart actually does. This one does three things, and the first one is instant checkout. Instant checkout. Basically, this shopping cart, it'll scan your oat milk when you drop it into the cart. Like, instantly, you get charged for it. in the car. It's got sensors all around it and it knows what you're putting in there. Or let's say, Jack, you want to buy one of your pineapples for your famous pineapple smoothies. You could just place that pineapple in your reusable NPR canvas tote bag and it would weigh them in the shopping cart. For my pineapple smoothie that I apparently love. The second innovation of this smart cart is a grocery list monitor.

You can build your grocery list from home with the Instacart app and then cast that grocery list to the screen that's right there on the cart. And then when you're in aisle 6, it's going to guide you around like Google Maps to find the food, won't it, Jack? Yeah, it'll be like, Jack, you wanted Hellman's Bannays. It's like 10 feet ahead on your right. Oh, you walked past it. Make a left and maybe you stop and get some tomato bisque while you're at it. And the third newest and biggest innovation of this smart shopping cart is ads. Ads, because Yeties, let's say you decided to drop in some cookies into your smart cart while you've been shopping. This cart will identify that you dropped cookies in and suggest you buy a pint of ice cream too.

But Jack, what's the funny thing about this smart cart suggesting that you buy ice cream to pair with your cookies? That was a paid ad from Ben and Jerry's. Yeah, Ben and Jerry paid for the ad on Instacart. So, like, Instacart is double dipping on your mint chocolate chip sunda. They sold you more food because you bought ice cream. And they sold an ad to Ben and Jerry's. What do they make it judge you? Judge the food you're putting into your cart.

Like, as you're throwing the stuff in, it's like, um, you got blueberries. Did you mean to get organic blueberries? Tony's frozen pizza again? Your wife said Greek yogurt. Why did you choose Bulgarian yogurt? Oh, the GPS is telling me to put the ice cream back. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over an Instacart with the smart card? The game of groceries is still a physical sport.

Yeties, the innovation of this smart cart, it actually reveals a fundamental challenge. for Instacart. Grocery delivery just isn't mainstream, and it may never be. During the pandemic, grocery delivery surged, and it's still higher than it ever has been. Just 28% of Americans order groceries online at least once a month. Just 28% of us are ordering groceries online. And Instacart's earnings, they show flattening growth as well. So the vast majority, they simply prefer snagging groceries with their own two hands. And that's why this smart shopping cart is so key to Instacart's future. Because the data shows most consumers want to shop in person. The game of groceries. It's still a physical sport.

For our third and final story, the trending New Year's resolution this year, it's no spend January. And no spend January reveals something bigger about the whole economy. Yetis, we've talked about the number one resolution this year for New Year's, haven't we, Jack? Well, the number one resolution this year is the same as every year. It's to lose weight. Yeah, but our New Year's resolution is, um, it's planuary this year. We're just about done planning the whole year this January. Plannuary. Like, Jack, haven't you planned like four trips in like the fall already? Yeah, we're talking about business. But for pleasure, I've booked a trip in April, a trip in June, a trip in July, and a trip in December.

Must be nice, Jack, but yeah. A couple of those trips were just drives. But Jack, what's the trending resolution new to 2024 this year? No spend January. No spend January. January. You only spend on essentials, like food, water, shelter, and your monthly bills. The kind of stuff you need to survive in January. In No Spend January, you can't spend on any new non-essentials, like clothes, takeout food, or parties. Sorry, the manicure, it's canceled.

Yes, to toilet paper, no to that cute top. Yes, to bread, no to the Buick. Walking is in, Uber's are out. And the hashtag no spend January already has 46 million views on TikTok as of yesterday. Best use. There's so many of us who are trying out no spend January this year. It's actually spawned another social media trend. What is that trend, man? Loud budgeting. Yet he's loud budging is an ironic reversal of the typical social media bragging that we're all used to out there. People always brag on social media about the expensive things they have.

But with loud budgeting, you show off that you're not spending right now. Yeah, for example, our buddy Timmy, they often post pictures of like his business class ticket to that beach side. condo at Cobba. Yeah, it's our buddy Timmy. He's showing off on Instagram about all the splurge when he's doing right now. But with loud budgeting, your buddy shows off. There's staycation that cost them no money at all and they still had fun. That's loud budgeting. And loud budgeting is the social media challenge of the no spend January new year's resolution. You're not bragging about the new handbag you bought. You're humble bragging about no handbag. Jack, here, watch this four minute video of me not going to target right now.

Look how much I'm crushing no spend January. Could have been a talk. target on, but it's just me. But No Spend January also shows something bigger about the economy we live in. Yeties, inflation has slowed down, but its impact hasn't slowed down. We're still in a world of inflated prices, so people are trying to save a buck or two. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies doing No Spend January? The newest cast of influencers is Fin influencers. Yeties, when Jack and I were considering doing this story, the surprise to us wasn't that

no spend January is an actual resolution. It's how that resolution happened. It happened because of Finfluencers. Finfluencers, the financial influencer. Finfluencers, they become the go-to-source source of money advice. Nearly two-thirds of people 18-24 use TikTok for financial advice. And half of people 18 to 24 have made financial decisions based on a TikTok Finfluencer's video. So no spend January is the New Year's resolution to know right now.

And Finfluencer is the term to know right now. Now, Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us for the new Friday? Mr. Car Wash has grown to 425 locations by buying up local mom and pop car washes. Mr. Carwash, it represents the final phase of American chainification. For our second story, it's Instacart. They've moved beyond their app to a physical smart shopping cart. Because the game of groceries, it's still a physical sports. And our third and final story is no spend January.

That's the popular New Year's resolution to buy no non-essential. for a month. And how did this resolution start trending? It's all thanks to Finfluensers. Financial influencers on TikTok. Which in a way, we kind of are, Jack. The best use, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, it is official. 2023 was a record year for bankruptcies. There was actually a 72% jump in bankruptcies last year. High interest rates are a key reason that we work, bedbath and beyond, and party city all filed for bankruptcy last year. And second, France just selected its youngest and first ever openly gay prime minister. He's a millennial. He's named Gabriel Atal, and he's now the prime minister of France at the

age of 34. And finally, the SEC has officially approved it. They changed their rules to allow a Bitcoin ETF. The approval is here, and it will let anyone with a brokerage account invest in Bitcoin. Even our buddy Bitcoin Ben. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Yeti, Mason Gravely from lovely Palmetto, Florida. Our boy Mason paddled on a stand-up paddleboard across Lake Okeechobee in Florida. Turns out, Mason is, he's that man from Florida because that is an alligator-filled lake, isn't it, Jack? He paddled past 30,000 alligators that are swimming in that huge lake. Okay, but then we got curious. And Jack, you're a Gators fan. Can you sprinkle on more

context to the population of gators in the state of Florida? They shouldn't call it the sunshine state. They should call it the gator state because there's 1.2 million alligators in the state of Florida. There are more alligators in Florida than there are people in Wyoming or Delaware or Montana or Vermont or in other states, in fact. It's so wild. You can get so close to gators there too. What you'll need is a smell phone jack because then you can smell the gators and then you can know you to move really quickly. That's a new use case for the smell phone. That is, you look fantastic for the new Friday. And actually, before the three-day weekend, we could use a fact on MLK Day.

What do you think, Jeff? If you have the best fact yet about the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we would love you to submit it at T-boypod.com to us. It could be a fact about his life, his speeches. We want to hear your fact. We've also got a link in the episode description right here. Send us that fact, and Nick and I will see you tomorrow. Smell you later, alligator.

Whoa. That really came together. I just circle back on that one, Jack. And before we go, a shout-out and congratulations to Yeti Boris Schmuckler from Kazan, Russia, who works over it, into it here in America. It just took her first big vacation in 20 years. And a happy birthday to Bestie Brittany Lee, who's turning 30 over in Brooklyn. And happy belated birthday to Jeff Wilson in Roseville, California.

And Delia Anaya celebrated a birthday with a hike and a husband and her two boys. Happy 27th birthday to Dana Giles in Wayne, Pennsylvania. And happy 21st birthday to Max Giles, also in Wayne, Pennsylvania. And happy 12th birthday to Andrea Alvarado, the president of the school newscasting club in Patterson, New Jersey. And a happy birthday to our Mid-Panther Buddy, Lizzie Horvitz, from Cleveland, Ohio, the Paris on the Lane. And to anyone else who's celebrating something today, make it a T-Booy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack.

I own stock of Instacart. and Nick and I both own a Bitcoin.