The Best One Yet - 👻 “Paranormal profits” — Horror’s box office record. Starbucks’ delivery biz. Gov Shutdown’s 2nd month. +KPop (Lehman) Hunters

Episode Date: October 31, 2025

Horror took 17% of the US box office this year, a record high… it’s the divisive dividend.Starbucks sales grew last Q for the first time in 7 quarters … thanks to coffee delivery.The Government Shutdown’s entering month 2… food stamps and healthcare are the focus.Plus, our biz-themed Halloween costume is… K-Pop Lehman Hunters$SBUX $BCS $SPYNEWSLETTER: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. It's Friday, the real Friday, Halloween day. 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, can I just say you look fantastic over there? Nick, I want to stream you right now.

I mean, when did you get bangs? We got to talk about it and we will talk about it. Besties, more on the costumes in a sec. But Jack, three fantastic stories for today's pod. What do we got on the T-boy? For our first story, 20-25. is the best year of all time by far when it comes to horror movies. Oh, yeah.

17% of the U.S. box office is booze. The horror movie numbers are so scary. You're going to have to close your eyes for this story. For our second story, the government shutdown enters month number two tomorrow, which actually means no more food stamps. The whole debate, it's about the biggest silent force of inflation, your doctor's bill. And our third and final story. For the first time in nearly two years, Starbucks actually actually,

grew last quarter. Starbucks, it is all thanks to one single Starbucks order, the delivery coffee hall. But yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. All right, who wants in on an Uber Eats Cappuccino? If you're watching us on YouTube right now, you already know. Yep, Nick and I are wearing Halloween costumes. And Jack, what are we wearing this year? What's our costume? Let's tell the besties. K-pop Lehman Hunters. That is right. K-pop Lehman hunters, as in Lehman Brothers. The investment bank that started the whole fight. financial crisis. Yeah, K-pop Lehman Hunters, the pop culture superheroes of this economy. And Jamie Diamond is reportedly also a K-pop Lehman Hunter this year.

That's true, Jack. You're wearing a purple wig. I'm wearing a red wig. I wonder what Jamie's going to wear. I feel like he's a blue wig kind of guy, man. But besties, even though Nick and I are going to win an Oscar for Best Actor in a Financial role, this isn't about us. This is the annual T-boy costume contest. That's right. Which Bestie had the best business-themed costume idea. Who is it, Jack? And thank you for all of those who submitted here are the five finalists. Okay, okay, Jack, the nominations, please. Gina Brusco is going this year as a Google Office bed bug.

Yeah, you're back to the office, and so are the bugs. Amanda Whitton, the legend, is a dupe diva. Yeah, she looks like she's decked out in Lulu Lemon, but it's actually a Costco Kirkland label. Amanda knows what she's doing. Savannah Westwood, she is a terrifying tariff. There is nothing scarier than a 30% import tax, my friend. Betsy Man, rocked as a couple's costume this.

year, she's going as a double click. Yeah, you dress up like corporate jargon. One of you goes as a computer mouse. The other one of you goes as a computer mouse. And finally, Joe Marshall is an identity thief. This is clever. You wore a burglar costume while holding a bunch of name tags. You stole everyone's identity. Yeah, including ours. The winner, yad is. It's actually up to you. Yes, it is. We are putting this up for a vote. And you can vote for us, by the way. Nick and I are putting our names in the hat, too. Yeah, K-pop Lehman Hunters, that's one of the things you can vote on as well. The polls are open. You can vote on Instagram with your comments. That's right, we got a poll on our T-Boy Instagram page at T-Boy Pod.

Which Yetty has the best business-themed Halloween costume? Which best he has the best costume yet? But in the meantime, Jack, Jamie, we got some demons to slay, baby. I thought you were going to start singing that golden song. That's playing non-stop on my Spotify. I meant Lehman's. Jack, let's in our three stories. Fifteen years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm.

They had an idea that caused a cultural storm. one yet, but the best is an norm. Jack Nick, that's it. This 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. For our first story, perfect timing for Halloween, there is no genre thriving at the box office right now, like horror. Scary movies hit a record high this year because of the divisive dividend. Now, Yeties, a top story that Jack and I did last year was about Romcommonomics. Jack, what a romcominics. Because romantic comedies became a surprise profit puppy. Mean girls, the reboot, anyone but you with Glenn Powell and Sidney Sweeney. Romcoms, they have way lower production costs than Superman and way higher ROI than Wonder Woman. But funny thing, besties,

in 2025, it's a different story at the box office, isn't it, Jack? Horror movies are putting up scary good numbers. Sit down, stand up, and shield your face again because Black Phone 2 did 27 million bucks in their first weekend earlier this month. The vampire movie, sinners? 367 million. It was a surprise hit earlier this year. How about the Conjuring, which has done nine movies? The audience would be sick of this after that many versions, right, Jack? Nope, just like Fast and the Furious, the ninth one might have been the best. 500 million at the box office. That's the number two horror movie of all time. The more the supernatural, apparently, the more the super numbers.

The new normal date night. Yeah, Jack? His paranormal activity six. Yeah. Don't worry, honey, we're going to see Beetlejuice. I shouldn't say that word again. But Yeties, here's the hero stat. 2025 has been the best year for the horror genre of all time.

Get this. Horror has taken in a record 17.2% of the United States box office this year. 17.2% is a record high share in the film industry. Jack, sprinkle on some context. It's up 70% from last. year, and it's up 4x from 10 years ago. It appears a greater percentage of us Americans are choosing horror. What does that mean if you're Bob Eiger, man? If you're Disney, that haunts you. Oh, it freaks you out. I don't think Disney's ever going to do a horror movie. Yeah, I think Tower of Terror has been

turned into like a Moana ride now. But one key reason for this, Jack, is calendar creep, right? Since the pandemic, things don't just happen around the holiday that they're associated with anymore. No, horror films are now made and marketed all year round, not just on Halloween. It's just like how Home Depot sells those 15-foot skeletons as early as July. Yeah. The Exorcist markets itself in July 2. Yeah, some more examples we found. Five nights at Freddy's comes out in December. You can have horror for Christmas. 28 years later, it came out in June. You had horror for summer too. We don't know what Jordan Peel's working on right now, but we're going to bet it has to do with

a horror movie around Easter. The Easter Buddy Zombie pops out of the Easter egg hunt to feast on eats the kids, actually. Beetlejuice. What's the takeaway for our buddies over in Hollywood? The horror industry is making money on the divisive dividend. Now, yet he's maybe the most interesting stat about the horror movie surge is that the demand is driven by division. Because no film genre has a greater number of haters than horror films. Ugov did a survey. 22% of American moviegoers hate horror movies. I mean, no other category has 10% hate rate. So it's the most hated by 2x over the rest of the film. Plus, horror has the greatest divide between critics and viewers.

Critics hate horror movies, but viewers give a two thumbs up on Rod and Tomatoes. And it appears that all of this divisiveness is a key driver to horror movies' success. And you know what, besties, we see in other industries too. Social media, the content that does best, it's the dividing stuff. In fashion, the outfits that define the trends are the divisive ones. And now in movies, the type of film driving the strongest reactions is also the fastest growing. It's the divisive dividend. end. And the horror industry is banking on it.

For our second story, the government shutdown enters its second month tomorrow, and it's about to get very real for 42 million poor Americans. But the debate is actually about health care. Yes, it is. Which is the quiet force behind rising prices. Yeties, check the calendars today, day 31 of the federal government shutdown second longest in history. 700,000 federal workers have been working without pay for over four weeks now. Jack, we've got 700,000 more who've been furloughed, not working and not getting paid. Now, troops and federal law enforcement people have continued to get paid.

President Trump and his administration have moved money around to prioritize them. But not for SNAP, the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, also known as food stamps. That's why tomorrow, November 1st, brings a new era of hardship for this government shutdown. And here's why, Basties, 42 million low-income Americans are going to stop receiving government assistance to buy food. And with our most vulnerable potentially going hungry, pressure is going to build on both sides to end the shutdown. Plus, you've got absenteeism growing among the TSA agents over at the airports across the country. They've been working for four weeks without getting paid. I wouldn't be shocked if some call in sick to drive for Uber because they need some kind of income right now.

But besties, we're now entering our second month of the government shutdown. Why are we even shut down in the first place again, Jack? As a reminder, according to Democrats, it's because of health care. You see, Eddie's desperate to push back on Trump's policies, Democrats have chosen that as the hill to fight on. They refuse to fund the government unless Republicans do one big thing. Undue the $1 trillion of cuts to health care that they passed with their big beautiful bill. Jack, can you jump in T-boy style and tells us what exactly the cuts were in the big beautiful bill? The big beautiful bill paid for some of its huge tax cuts by adding work requirements to become eligible for Medicaid.

Basically making it harder to get Medicaid. Also, the bill funded some of the tax cuts by cutting health insurance subsidies for people who have to buy individual health insurance. Now, most Americans, including most of our listeners, we know from our surveys, get health insurance through their employer. And it's mostly your parents, older Americans, who are getting health care from Medicare. But 24 million people have to buy health insurance on the Affordable Care Act marketplaces. And for them, the end of the subsidy means a huge spike in prices is coming next. year. And this month, we finally learned how much. So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies who are looking at another month of government shutdown? Imagine if your grocery bill rose 26% overnight. Now, yet, he said, according to government data, we spend exactly as much on groceries as we do on health care each year. That's right. In the CPI, health care and food at home are both categories that take up 8% of the typical Americans budget. And now, with the repeal of the Affordable Care Act subsidies, $25. million Americans will have to pay 26% more next year on average for health care.

Nick, it's wild. Grocery prices pretty much determined the last presidential election. They did. We said that's what it was. But we spend exactly the same amount on average on health care. Okay, and this is wild, Jack, but health care prices have gone up two and a half times more than grocery prices have in the last 15 years. But since we don't buy health care every week, like we buy groceries every week, we've become numb to the prices going up.

That's the psychonomics difference here. We're numb to the price increase of x-rays. but we are not numb to the price increase of eggs. Exactly. So, besties, imagine if your grocery bill jumped by 26% overnight. Economically, that's exactly what's about to happen for 24 million Americans. Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, one year into Starbucks's turnaround,

it finally broke the falling sales losing streak. Starbucks is bouncing back thanks to one thing. Mm-hmm. Delivered Starbucks' cost. I don't get it. I don't get it, but we can discuss it more in a moment check. In the meantime, yeties, our story doesn't start with Starbucks. It actually starts with Chipotle. Because Chipotle stock plummeted by 17% yesterday. Chippotle sales, they fail because young people just can't afford their food anymore. It's a fast, casual recession. The unemployment rate for 20-somethings

is up, burrito orders are down. And that's not good news for Chipotle, sweet green, or Starbucks. Oh, but, but, but, but, pause the pod for a sec, Jack. Um, for the first time, in nearly two years, Starbucks just announced sales growth. It was tiny growth. It was 1% growth. But still, the new CEO can label it a turnaround. Brian Nicol, he actually left Chipotle 13 months ago to take over CEO ship of Starbucks. And yesterday was the first time he's been able to say growth since joining Starbucks.

It's a good feeling, Jack. It's a good feeling. Now, hilariously, Starbucks is really trying to make protein cream happen. Yeah, Jack and I jumped in T-Boy style. the earnings call, Starbucks mentioned the word protein 19 times in one phone call. Chasing trends, are you? But the real star of the earnings show wasn't protein dust, pixie dust on top of a latte. It was delivery. Delivery lattes. Revenue for delivered Starbucks grew 30% last quarter, hitting $1 billion for the first time ever. Full disclosure, I've never ordered Starbucks by delivery.

I didn't even know you could, but you can on the delivery apps. Turns out you're hanging at home and ordering a double-digit plus the delivery fee. Or you're playing the office hero, organizing the whole team's giant order of Uber Eats and then going down to the lobby to pick it up. But here's the key besties. Delivery latte orders are bigger than in-store orders because 40% of them include food.

It's called the attachment rate. 40% of drink orders are attached with a food order too. And it looks like a profit puppy because delivery coffees are a haul. Not just coffee. You toss in an egg wrap, a banana, maybe a cake pop too. The way we see it, you're basically treating your coffee order like a T-Moo dress hall, right, Jack? You're filling up the shopping cart to justify that delivery

fee. Yeah, yeah, like we said, it's a profit puppy. Now, personally, Jack, I do have to say, I'm not a coffee guy, but I don't get delivery coffee because it messes with the most important thing, the latte art. I'm a hot coffee guy, and that's why I don't get delivered coffee. I mean, it would be served lukewarm, but then I realized half of Starbucks coffee orders are cold. But either way, Basties, after two years, Starbucks is finally killed its losing streak. thanks to a billion dollars of delivery revenue. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Starbucks? Does a brand need to have a physical soul?

Yeties, the key to the new Starbucks CEO's back to Starbucks turnaround plan is to get people to dwell in the stores. It's really funny. Brian Nichol, he's obsessed with this. He really wants customers not just grabbing a coffee and going, but chilling for like 20 minutes. They measure this. The actual data is called the dwell number.

And unfortunately, the number of Starbucks visits that lasted longer than 10 minutes fell by nearly 20% last quarter. So Bessie's, the bright side to the delivery coffee surge is bigger, more profitable orders for Starbucks. The downside, it confirms that Starbucks isn't the communal hangout place that it used to be. It's not a third place anymore. To a tough dilemma for Starbucks, Jack, like should it double down on these highly profitable delivery orders? Or should they not? Because delivery further undermines the importance of the Starbucks store. Are you ordering delivery because you fondly remember the brand through its store experience?

Or does the store have nothing to do with it? And the next generation is just ordering coffee. Store be damned. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for Halloween Friday? Horror movies have taken 17% of the U.S. box office this year. That is a record high market share. Horror is cashing in on the divisive dividend. What divides us also sells.

For our second story, the government shutdown is 31 days old. stamps run out tomorrow, but this debate is about health care. Imagine if your grocery bill jump 26% for 24 million Americans, that's happening next year. And finally, Starbucks announced quarterly growth for the first time in seven quarters. The losing streak is over. Delivery coffee halls are the highlight, which conflicts awkwardly with Starbucks's pride and physical stores. But besties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, the big trade meeting. President Trump and President Xi of China met yesterday and de-escalated trade tensions a bit. There was no trade deal announced, no TikTok deal either, just verbal pledges to do a few things.

China said that they would buy more American soybeans, and the United States said they would lower tariffs by 10%. Now, we should point out, almost the same exact announcement was made in 2019 between President Trump and President Xi, but that deal fell apart just months later. So we'll be watching. And second, more huge earnings from a big tech earnings week. Amazon, their stock jumped 13% on just a huge big cloud computing business. I guess that AWS outage didn't affect their cloud computing business at all.

Don't really have anywhere else to go, Jack. Apple stock rose two. Looks like the iPhone 17 is one of the biggest iPhone upgrade cycles ever. I actually did one. And Coinbase and Reddit announced too, and both of their stocks jumped on beats as well. And finally, Levi has a new plan to win the jeans market. They're going full fashion runway. Levi's just announced a new label of premium jeans.

It's called Blue Tab. Yeah, not Red Tab, like the tab they currently have. This is a blue Levi's tab for jeans that cost over $300 a pair. So if you see somebody wearing jeans with a blue tag on the butt, not a red tag on the butt, it means they spent a lot of money on those jeans. I was going to say you should get to know them. Now, time for the best fact yet.

This one sent in by Rachel, a legendary Yeti down in lovely Flagstaff, Arizona. You know how if you go to Google.com, the word Google is written in a different, interesting way every single day. And it's known as the Google Doodle. They've actually been around since 1998, but in the year 2000, they made their first ever animated Doodle. And they did it on Halloween. That's right.

Halloween is the anniversary of the first ever animated Google Doodle. What was it, by the way, Jack? What was that, doodle? The O's in the word Google were two jacked. Ackalantrons, which flickered with a little bit of 2000-era animation. Nothing like a Google engineer with a little sense of humor. Yeties, you'll look fantastic today. Now, remember to go to our Instagram page to vote for the best business-themed Halloween costume yet.

At T-BoyPod, Nick and I will be eligible to vote for. Yes, we have nominated ourselves for this, you know, because if you commit insider trading, the K-pop Lehman Hunters, we will find you and we will lock you up in a white-collar prison, won't we, Jack? K-pop Lehman Hunters. The best part of the costume is the name. I got the stapler. Jack's got a Bloomberg tournament.

We will find you. And if we don't, Jamie Diamond will, he's joining us. He's got the blue wig on. And if neither of us find you, we're going to get a government bailout because that's how Lehman rolled. Actually, Lehman didn't get a bailout. Never mind. Jack and I got to go wash these wigs.

Enjoy the bangs. And we'll see you on Monday. And before we go, a happy birthday to legendary Yetty, Jason Geiger, celebrated in Buffalo, Bill's New York. Happy birthday to Keswick Chu, who's turning 28 in Toronto, Canada. And Brandon Ang from Melrose, Massachusetts, heading up to Vermont to celebrate the Big 3-5, which is further than just outside Boston. Brandon, DME, I'll give him my best racks for wherever you're going. And Aaron Cahutt in Columbus, Ohio, is back to work after shoulder surgery. He's thrown faster than he ever has, Jack. Happy birthday to Brooke Morgan in San Diego, California.

And a congratulations to my legendary cousin, Chun Schlesinger-Fried, who just passed the New York bar on her first try. Your honor, she may approach the bench. And Vinnie and Angie Savatino and Esther of Florida have got our four-year wedding anniversary. It's a halloversary today. And happy anniversary to Jack and Joan of Dublin, California, who are celebrating five years together. Congratulations, guys. And to anyone else who celebrated something today, making a tea boy.

Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Reddit, nickel and stock of Lou Lemon, and we both own stock of Apple, Chipotle, and Spotify. What happens if you say Beetlejuice at third time? Well, now we just did, Jack.