The Best One Yet - 💎 “She went to Jared’s” — Rocksbox’s Zoom bling. China’s digital currency. Booking’s awkward quote.

Episode Date: April 7, 2021

Jewelry legend Signet just acquired Rocksbox because it can turn 1 diamond into an infinite transaction. The Booking CEO just dropped a quote that’s extremely painful for every airline stock. And China whipped up the 1st ever national digital currency. We’re calling it, the command currency. $SIG $BKNG $JETS $DAL $KHC Got a SnackFact? Tweet it @RobinhoodSnacks @JackKramer @NickOfNewYork Want a shoutout on the pod? Fill out this form:https://forms.gle/KhUAo31xmkSdeynD9 Got a SnackFact for the pod? We got a form for that too:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe64VKtvMNDPGSncHDRF07W34cPMDO3N8Y4DpmNP_kweC58tw/viewformLearn 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. And this is Snacks Daily. It is Wednesday, April 7th. And we're serving up a piping hot, steamy, delicious tea boy. Honestly, this is the best mix of stories we've ever done, Jack. TV-O-I. What's our first story?

The owner of Jared's Gallery had just acquired a jewelry subscription startup. Diamonds are forever. Second story, Jack. For our second story, China has whipped up the first ever national digital currency. It's called the Digital Yuan. Snackers, what if we told you your money could expire? For our third and final story, the CEO of booking.com had a single quote we couldn't ignore. A single quote, the airline industry's biggest profit puppy, it's never going to be the same.

But Snackers, before we hit those three wonderful stories. Wonderful mix. It's like week 78 of the pandemic. Yeah, Jack. So we have to update you on the hoarder's almanac. Yeah, basically, we're one year in, but we're still running out of things. First, the shortage was toilet paper, then hair clippers. Okay, then it was bicycles and baking geese.

And dumbbells and outdoor heaters. Jack, who could forget the great grape nuts drought of February? February, 2021. These Snackers couldn't because we've mentioned it like four times. It's gotten its undue fair share. Well, Snackers, there's a new shortage where, sad to update you are. Yeah. The ketchup packages. The ketchup packet shortage. The three inch tubes that require like 12 fingers to open. Now, is it just me or do you need like 12 of those for every chicken finger? No, I know what you mean, Jack? It's like 26 per wing and you have to use your teeth and you need a spotter to open them. I used to open three at once, Nick. You have line them up and you. You line them up and you're,

you just tear to get three packages. And then the shirt goes straight in the washing machine. Now, Snackers, all those drive-thru diners, all the ghost kitchens, all the delivery orders, those are all huge ketchup package consumers. And Jack and I looked up the numbers, ketchup packet sales up a whopping 300% in the last year. Texas Roadhouse, they went through 55 million packages of the tiny little ketchup last year. Jack Long Jong Silvers spent an extra $500,000 just on ketchup. packets. Now, Pittsburgh's own Kraft Heights. They sell 70% of American ketchup. They got 57 varieties over at Kraft Heinz, but they got one big problem. Catchup? Can't catch up. No, it can. And condiments,

their collateral damage. Let's hit our three stories. You're tuned in the snacks daily. We spoke to the lawyers and we got to get something legal out the way. The snacks about to hear ain't food. It's air candy. They don't reflect the views of the robberhood family. It's all informational just so you know. We're not recommending any securities. No. It's not a research report or investment advice. Not an offer or sale of a security. Snacks is digestible. Business news for you. Robberhood Financial, LLC, member Fenra slash SIPC.

For our first story, Earth's biggest jewelry company just bought a rental startup. Turns out diamonds are actually perfect for renting if you think about it. Okay, this is a great game to play with the significant other. Ask them about Cigna. Are you familiar with Cignaud? Do you know Cignaut? What Cigna? Every kiss begins with K.

Yeah. Zales, Jared the Galleria, all part of publicly traded Signet jewelers. They trick you with the horrible name. That's how they get you. Now, the problem for Signet, about half of their revenue comes from weddings, whether it's a wedding band or an engagement rate. Tough time with the micro wedding season. Oh, the other problem we noticed that Signet's facing, they got a one-time customer. It's 34-year-old Chad. He went to Jared's to get his ring so he could get down on the knee and propose. That was it. Here's the problem with Chad. Chad doesn't return to Jared.

after that for like a long time. That's why Cigna is acquiring San Francisco-based Rocksbox, a jewelry subscription that caters to women, much like Rent the Runway does. And here's why Cigna's doing this deal. By acquiring Rocksbox, their new target customer is 25-year-old, young professional Cindy, who spent it $21 a month to get three pieces of $100 jewelry. So with this acquisition, Cigna is literally cutting out the middleman. There's literally they are. No more man. No. The man is gone. Chad, He's gone. No more 30-for-old Chad. Now, we're looking at this acquisition, and it looks like Rocksbox is selling at a high because

we're in the era of Zoom Blink. Zoom Blink, Snackers, you're not going out right now, but that doesn't mean you can't look good. The top selling items in Rock Blox's subscription is earrings and pendants, the stuff that is point-blank in your Zoom camera every day. Jack, can the Rocks Block's team interest you in a monthly pair of Valencia Stutz? Oh, I'm sorry. I'm listening.

You've got these very nice blonde. highlights, maybe the gold choker will work better for you? Anything that makes my 5 p.m. Friday afternoon, Zoom happy hour, less depressing. And that's the situation over at Rocksbox. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies at CigNet Jewelers? Rocksbox has achieved subscription nirvana. Snackers, unlike other rental concepts, Jack and I have noticed something funny here. Renting out jewelry entails minimum maintenance. Rent the runway is a similar business model. Yeah, it is. But when they rent your dress, they have to launder it, drop.

I clean it and maybe stitch up like a tear before giving it to the next customer. Yeah, Jack, I'm looking at this DVF maxi dress over Rent the Runway. It's going to get worn down. It's going to need to be replaced. And apparently that happens after like 10 uses. So rental gowns at Rent the Runway, they last for like a year. True. But a diamond literally lasts forever. Stones don't depreciate. Metal depreciates a little. My golden wedding ring here is like a little dinged up, but they barely depreciate. Golden Stone Jewry. It is a one-time purchase. it. And then you like polish it off before the next customer gets to jump on it. The only higher cost for jewelry compared to dresses is that you might have to ensure the items, which is costly

too. With lower maintenance and replacement costs, rental jewelry enjoys higher profit margins than like any other rental business we can be thinking of right now. Plus, get this, Nick, half the jewelry rented on Rock's Box. This is wild. It ends up getting bought instead of sent back because they like it so much. Rocksbox's business model, it almost looks more like a Netflix subscription, then I rent the runway subscription. You want to be Netflix. For our second story, Jack, can I interest you in the chicken or the halibut? Um, I don't know. You go with the lasagna on the flight. Jack, second story, business class travel. It's never going to fully come back for airlines, it looks like. Yes, and that tells us one huge takeaway for the whole stock market right now. So the travel industry right now,

it's facing like an uncertain future. Yes, there's so many bullish and bearish competing forces. You could fill up a zoo. This is very Bronx. First of all, you got a bullish situation going on. Americans are stir crazy. We've been stuck inside for a year. We're ready for some revenge travel. I mean, just book the last call from all batch party in Nashville. That's what you're going to do.

But there's also a bearish force for the travel industry. Yeah, there is. International travel could stay down because you just have fewer vaccinations abroad. Back to the bullish side, permanent remote workers. Maybe they'll want a vacation more or work from a vacation destination. You like my Zoom background? It's a real coconut tree because I'm buying a coconut tree. Back to the negative bearish force.

Yeah, everyone adopted dogs during the pandemic. TSA makes it really hard to travel with dogs. If so facto, you're probably not going to travel. True story. We wonder if new dog owners are they going to travel as. But Snackers, the biggest force we think is bearish. And that force is business travel. Businesses began to ask last year,

did we need to send Joan to that conference in Tampa? I'm looking at the papers here. Could the four nights and the 14 dinner she expense that the Sheraton bin an email? Well, step one is. admitting you have a problem. And the CEO of Travel Giant Booking.com admitted they have a problem. I mean, Jack, this is an aggressive quote from the CEO of booking.com. The share of business travel will be forever lower than pre-pandemic.

That's a big deal. Now, some salespeople will continue to pay for a trip to Wichita. It's fun. But others will just zoom into Wichita for free. All right, so Snackers, here's why we think that the most significant force is business travel. Because business travelers are profit puppies. They represent just 12% of passengers on airplanes. That's it.

But they represent 75% of those airlines' profits. Let that say again, 12% of travelers are doing business class, but that business class ticket is 75% of the profits. It's because leisure travelers, they search for the lowest price flight. Business travelers, they actually want the highest priced flight. I can fly to JFK for $218. Or I could fly to Newark for $58. Let's do Newark.

It's less. convenient. The drive to Manhattan takes forever. It does. But it's business class. Yes, it is. And my company lets me expense in Uber Black. And I know what you're thinking, Jack. You know what I'm a points guy? You're a points guy. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in the whole airline industry? It's a new era for stock market snackers and don't compare it to the past. Yeah, pre-pandemic, airlines run a multi-year streak of record profits, not too shabby. Then 2020 happened. And United Airlines, as one example, they're raced two years of profits with last year's loss. Yeah, post-pandemic, their profit puppy business class, it's never going to fully come back.

And yet, despite the awful new reality of post-pandemic airlines, stocks are down just 11% for the industry from where they were in February before the pandemic. We just said airlines lost their entire core profit puppy, and yet their stocks are only down 11%. That is bizarre. Here's the thing. You cannot compare today's stock prices to, before the pandemic. Yep, you got the Fed, which is basically promised to keep markets high by keeping interest rates low. And today, we have a Congress that has shown a willingness to spend at levels

not seen for a century. Also, Jack, you got retail investors, a new force of buying demand we have never seen before. Add those three forces up, and you just can't compare today to before the pandemic. The airline industry stocks today reveal we're in a new era for stock markets. For our third and final story, this one, this one is wild. According to the Wall Street Journal, China just, you know, created its own digital currency. It's active. Yeah. And we're calling it the world's first command currency. Okay, so this story really begins like a thousand years ago. That's when China just casually invented paper money. Great trivia question, but they kick things up nine notches this week. That's right, because Snackers, right now, in China, today, someone just used their national

digital currency to buy a Frappuccino. That's right. A hundred thousand Chinese citizens are testing out the digital yuan app right now. This is real. In the real life wild market. It's out there. It's being used at Starbucks. Probably being used at Luckin. Probably being used at Lockett. Now we've got to do a stock disclosure. Now to sprinkle a little context on the Snackers, if you're trying to see how this fits in, Venmo is like a digital payment, but it's not a digital currency. You're moving US dollars electronically, but it's still a US dollar currency payment. Okay. So that's Venmo. Now, Bitcoin also is digital like Venmo is. But Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency.

It's decentralized. It's a currency alternative to the U.S. dollar with no government in charge. This new Chinese currency, though, which is being called the digital wand, it is a new combination of things. It's a digital currency, but it's not a cryptocurrency. So this digital one, it is digital legal tender. And it is officially issued by the People's Bank of China. It is official.

The picture of Mao's. face on your phone when you're using this app, it makes it official. This is Chinese money. Now, apparently China wanted to get a head start on this. So they began thrown engineers at this back in 2014. Impressive foresight. But Nick, China is likely to become soon the world's biggest economy. And honestly, they're probably a little annoyed that the U.S. dollar controls basically all the world's trade. 88% of foreign exchange transactions in the world involve the U.S. dollar on one side. 88%. For China's yuan, it's only four. percent of global transactions. So being digital, easy to send, that's a nice differentiator for the digital

one. But that's not the wildest part. I'm ready, Nick. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in China? China is a command economy. This is a command currency. Honestly, Snackers, we like bury the lead on this thing. This digital currency, it is fully surveillanceable. The government in America cannot track what you spend your $5 a-blinken note on. Do what you But China can surveil everything that you spend with the digital yuan. President Xi in China, he knows you got 796 digital won in your digital savings account. That means if you get caught speeding in Beijing, the cop could push a button and not just find you, but take the money from your digital wallet right there.

Let that sink in. It's a little wild. But then get this. This digital currency is testing expiration dates, like a deadline on your spending on your cash. Imagine a certain province of China needs an economic boost. Why not? The Chinese government could put a two-day expiration day, a two-day countdown.

Yeah, real thing. To spend your most recent paycheck or disappear. Boom, command. You must splurge 200 digital wand by Friday or it's gone. Say the ski industry needs support because remember, Beijing is hosting the Winter Olympics in two years. Good example. China could order citizens to spend half of their paycheck on the ski industry. And if you don't spend it, it disobey.

Now, the U.S. is not a command economy like China. No, it's not. The government can't order us how to spend money. It would violate some bill of rights. But we're like thinking about this feature, the expiration on money, that is a really interesting new concept. Instead of stimulus checks going to all Americans and hoping that Americans spend their money wisely to boost the economy. What if the Fed gave out stimulus checks that had to be spent locally and had to be spent right now? Or what if stimulus checks got a 50% boost if dollars were spent at local farmers markets? Cheching, it's like a video game over here. The digital yuan is the first ever command currency for that command economy.

But we're thinking the funniest parts of this thing could work in America's free market economy too. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us over there? Half of Cignaut Jewelers customers are guys who don't wear jewelry. They acquired rock blocks because diamonds are forever, even if you only have it for a month. It's rock box, but I called it rock blocks like three times as well. It's just easier to say rock blocks. They may want to consider that. For a second story, airline stocks, as represented by,

the ETF jets are down just 11% compared to pre-pandemic. So don't compare stocks today to pre-pandemic. We're in a new era. And the digital yuan is incredibly innovative. Yeah, that is. And it's live in China right now. You can't copy and paste it to America. But the expiration date thing is kind of wild despite all the other disturbing stuff. Now, time for our snack fact of the day. This one's sent in by Alexis Verano from lovely Garden City in New York, NASA County, baby. St. Patrick's Cathedral stands as a renowned New York City landmark. hosting 5 million visitors each year. However, it is not commonly known that it is the largest building in Manhattan to adopt

a geothermal heating and cooling system. In 2017, the system was installed by digging 2,500 feet down into the gardens of the cathedral. It has been estimated that the building has reduced its carbon dioxide emissions by 30%, which correlates to 200,000 pounds of carbon dioxide annually, or in more relatable terms, the weight of five tractor trailers. Someone took the LIRR, got off at Grand Central, and then headed up town. Avenue. I remember looking at St. Patty's Cathedral as a kid. That thing is gigantic. I didn't know it was green. That stretch of Fifth Avenue. Stunning. Snackers, before we head out yesterday, we mentioned

that Sonas is the one company with an amogram for a name. Sam forward, same backwards, same, upside down, is right side up. Well, the snackers woke up from their social media hibernation to let us know we were wrong. Apparently OLO went public like two weeks ago, lowercase, OLO. Not a publicly traded company, But the city of Ventura in Southern California has an awesome script logo that is an ambergram. It defies the grammar rules and logic for an ambigram, but it matches and nails the design ones. And then Honey, the app for like finding a discount promo code, they have an H at the beginning and a Y at the end that if you flip it, it works.

Remember Snackers, when Jack and I screw up or miss something, you should definitely let us know. You can tweet us at Jack Kramer and at Nick in New York. That's today's pod. If you got a buddy who needs snacking, HY, HY, Y as day. Have you had your snacks daily? We'll see you tomorrow. If you know, you know. And before we go, Snackers, big congrats to Jerry Stogsdale over in Boston.

Happy birthday. And happy birthday to Ben from Chicago. Not the Bitcoin. And to Curran in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. And congrats to Nico in Venice, Italy, who just got into the Chicago Booth School for an MBA program. And Chris Chan, congrats on the new job down in Mountain View. Congrats to Hayden Braun, who just got to medical school in South Carolina. Jack, Jopondu, and Caitlin, they got their first child coming just in D.C.

Congratulations. And Slick Guy has a baby girl in Calgary, Canada. Congrats. Owen Bismazee, graduating in Fort Worth, Texas. Congrats to Matt Greenhall, who's on their first week of the job in Denver, Colorado. And to anyone else who is celebrating something, anything today, make it a tea boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack.

I own stock of Netflix. Nick on stock of luck and coffee. The Robin Hood Snacks podcast you just heard reflects the opinion. of only the hosts who are associated persons of Robin Hood Financial LLC and does not reflect the views of Robin Hood Markets, Inc, or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates. The podcast is for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as a recommendation to buy or sell any security and is not an offer or sale of a security. The podcast is also not a research report and is not intended to serve as the basis of any investment decision. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member FINRA, SIPC.