The Best One Yet - 🍿 “Snacks ate everything” — Kellogg’s disowns cereal. Chanel’s V-VIP store. Instagram’s TikTok zucking.

Episode Date: June 22, 2022

We looked at our instagram feed over the weekend, and we found TikTok (all our friends’ posts were gone). Kellogg, the sultan of cereal, is splitting into 3 separate companies because snacks are eating everything. And Chanel just unveiled a store so exclusive, you can’t go in without a ticket #VVIP.$K $META $LVMUYFollow 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 Wednesday, June 22nd, and today's pod is the best one yet, best we've ever done. DBO-I. He's a 9, but he thinks gux included. He's a 7, but he just raised interest rates. He's a 4, but he listens to the best one yet. Sounds like a keeper.

Jack, what's our first story? Kellogg, the Sultan of cereal, is splitting up into three different companies. Because, get this, Yetty, snacks are eating the entire food industry. For our second story, Instagram, just made a huge change to your feed. It'll now look and feel exactly like TikTok. Jack, hath, we just seen the ultimate zucking? It doth have been proclaimed. Yes, it hath.

For our third and final story, Chanel, just opened up a store so exclusive, you can't get in without a ticket. The new era of VIP is VVIP. But Yeti's besties, before we hit that wonderful mix. Honestly, the perfect mix for a Wednesday, check. Last week, we informed you that Coca-Cola sales have been slowing for quite a while. But wait, Jack and I, we got your back. There is hope. A new Healthy Coke has gone viral. But one problem with the new Healthy Coke.

Healthy Coke isn't owned at all by Coca-Cola. No, Healthy Coke. It is a TikTok trend with 7 million views that has nothing to do with the real Coca-Cola company. I've tried it. There's only two ingredients for Healthy Coke now. So Jack and I jumped in T-Boy style. It's one part seltzer, one-part. part, balsamic vinegar. But there's one other part required, Nick, and that is imagination. You have to believe in Healthy Coke for it to exist. Because Healthy Coke, it makes you smell like a tossed salad afterwards.

Yeah, we tried it visually. This looks like it's straight out of a classic Coca-Cola factory. That's good. Yeah, I'll take a Healthy Coke really light on the balsamic vinegar, please. Taste-wise, it's like a kombucha made it with a root beer out in the wild. Now, a TikTok influencer named Mandy Jones is credited with first. first posting the now viral Healthy Coca-Cola recipe. And now Healthy Coke has more views on TikTok than Coca-Cola the company does.

But Mandy Jones got the idea and the recipe from her Pilates instructor. Because nothing is more LA than a healthy Coke recipe. Now, Nick and I tried it. You can make it at home. It's pretty easy. Straight-forward. It tastes better to your brain than it does to your tongue. Like, Jack, I'm not consuming aspartain and I'm happy about that.

Yeah, but your taste buds kind of wish you were consuming aspartame. So, Yetis, hold the LaCroix, give it a try. Let us know what you think, a T-Boy pod. Is Healthy Coke the best one yet? Or is it a Noka Cola? Let's hit it. Fifteen years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dawn.

They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best. 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. Or our first story, Kellogg Corp is breaking itself up and it's disowning cereal.

Because executives just want the snacks. And cereal ain't no snack. All right, Jack. I'm no English major. But I believe it was Robert Frost who said, what is Kellogg without cornflakes? Highly doubtful, the accreditation of that quote. But John and William Kellogg, this one's fully vetted.

They invented the cornflake, the cornflake cereal back in 1894 Michigan. That same year, those brothers, the Kellogg brothers, co-founded what would become the Kellogg's Serial Company. One of the Kellogg Brothers was a medical doctor, and the other was a religious man. And both were hungry. So it makes sense that their company convinced Americans it was medically sound to religiously eat sugar cereal every morning. I mean, Jack, I got to have my pops.

Yeah, this company, Kellogg is behind frosted flakes, fruit loops, frosted mini-weets, rice crispy treats, apple jacks. They made you kuku for cocoa puff jack. Wait, I don't think they did. Can I get a cookie crisp? Can I get a cookie crisp? It was General Mills, but caw cookie crisp. So, yeties, you may not love Raisin brand, but Kellogg, they loved cereal. But after 128 years of overparenting, Callag just announced their disowning cereal. Sit down, stand up, and sit back down again.

Kellogg's identity. Kellogg's just said that cereal is not part of their own balanced breakfast anymore. This is like Voldemort disowning evil. Okay, I was curious where you were going with that. The Kellogg Company in the meantime is literally spinning off. It's two underperforming businesses. And one of those underperforming businesses is cereal. That's right.

Soon, the North American cereal business of Kellogg and the plant-based meat business of Kellogg will become separate publicly traded companies, not called Kellogg. Okay. So, Jack, what's going to remain when we've just got a new Kellogg with two other Kellogg's? This core Kellogg business, which isn't going to have cereal. Yet he's Jagged and I are looking at this. It's actually kind of a cruel situation. Here's the cruel part.

The new smaller cereal company, which is going to be set off on its own, it doesn't even have the rights to use the Kellogg name brand. Get this. The new Kellogg cereal company will have to license the name Kellogg from their old parent company, which just disowned it. It's like getting kicked out of the house and then still having to ask your dad if you can like grab something from the fridge every day. It's like getting kicked out of the house and then your dad saying,

you can't use my last name anymore, Chuck. But you must for your business, so you have to pay him every day to use it. Now, Kellogg says it's time to separate. It just doesn't make financial sense to live under one roof with all these different food businesses. Nick and I looked at it. Kellogg's stock is actually up this year and rose even more on news that Kellogg is getting rid of cereal. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddy Tony the Tiger over at Kellogg? It's a Mugatu moment.

So hot right now. Is it Mugatu or I guess is it Hansel? Hansel, so hot right now. Yeti's dirty secret about Kellogg. Turns out Kellogg wasn't even a cereal company anymore. 80% of Kellogg's business is actually now snacks. And yesterday, Kellogg's explained why they're getting rid of the other 20% of their business, which is cereal.

It's pretty simple. Snacks are the fastest growing segment in food and that's what they want to focus on. 80% of their business is cheez-ins, Pringles, Nutragrine, RX bars, Pop-Tarts, and other snacks. Jack, I still got a maple RX bar stuck in my molar from the other day. It's a chewy treat. And thanks to a recent combination of nostalgia, indulgence, and people being on the go, snacks are selling big.

In fact, get this, Kellogg's snack news from yesterday? Wasn't even the biggest snack news yesterday, Jack? What was it? Oreo's owner Mondalees just acquired Cliff Bar for $2.9 billion. Bar, like the first protein bar you tried 12 years ago and you didn't know what it was with all those seeds. And two years before that, the candy giant Mars, which has M&Ms, they bought Kind Bar for $5 billion. The one with the chocolate on top and like a bunch of the cashews. Your wallet is getting pinched by inflation right now.

But snacks, they are getting pinched. In fact, this new trend hit a whole new level yesterday. Snacks so hot right now. For our second story, we have a warning for you. The ultimate zucking is afoot. Facebook's apps are knocking off TikTok entirely. The brilliance of TikTok was replacing friends with recommendations. Yeties, one week ago, the Verge reported that Facebook was changing its algorithm to take on TikTok.

Yeah, Facebook has honestly just copied so many features. Check, we could do like a deep dive pod convention over at South by Southwest about this for six hours. Instagram stories. Instagram Reels, Facebook groups, Facebook gaming, Facebook marketplace, Facebook dating. Zucking here, zucking there, could be a doctor sues everywhere. All those Facebook features were innovations of other companies and Facebook copied them. Yeah, but this, this situation, Jack and I have just noticed, this is more than your standard zucking. Facebook is changing what is core to Facebook.

Your friends. Facebook is getting rid of your friends. Besties, your feed will no longer be populated by friends. you follow. Instead, it'll be populated by Randos going viral. We saw it firsthand on our T-BoyPod Instagram account this past weekend. Okay, this is where things got... Can we say personal, Jack? It got personal.

All right. T-Boy Pot, at T-Boy Pot, that is our business account for this podcast. We got 5,000 followers. You should come join us. But we only follow two people. That's right. We only have two follows. We followed T-boy Jack, which is me, and Nick of New York, which is Nick. Yeah, this is Nick. This is Jack. And so we follow those two people. two people. And since we only have two follows on Instagram, the main feed when we log in from

our T-BoyPod account, the main feed is super stale and super boring. Because it's literally just whatever the last thing Jack or I posted was, that's the feed. And we don't post that often. No. So, yeah, it's a really boring feed. But then last Sunday, things just, things changed for at T-boyPod. Our main Instagram account, when we log in, went completely berserk. Yeah. Our main feed became TikTok. Totally random posts, random accounts, all reals videos, all of them suggested. We're watching people do this, that 20 seconds off and on. It is freaky. I'm used to seeing a picture of my puppy and Nick's like cake that he just baked. Instead, I'm seeing like some flight attendant, like doing some dance while piloting an airplane. This is literally how we got the idea to do an

intro on the healthy Coke story. It didn't matter that our account only has two follows. Our algorithm made our feed go nuts with dance and travel videos and the other. other stuff you see on TikTok. Our Instagram was videos not post, and it was begging for us to swipe up TikTok style. It was reported last week by the verge that Facebook was zucking TikTok. Yeah, well, we just experienced it in real life. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Facebook? Facebook invented the social feed.

TikTok redefined it. Yeties, the most innovative thing Facebook has ever created? It was Facebook in 2004. It was almost 20 years ago. It was Zuck's idea from the dorm room. social feed filled with things that your friends post. But here's the problem. Facebook today.

Facebook is slowing down in developed markets. Facebook is dying. And even the Instagram feed that Facebook acquired, even that is shrinking because of TikTok. And a key reason for this, TikTok redefined the social feed with their for you tab. The for you tab. The four you tab on TikTok doesn't care who you follow or who your friends are whatsoever. TikTok redefined the social feed. to be about virality, not about your friends.

And that app, TikTok, it's the most downloaded app. What is it? Three years running now. At least, let's round it. It's clear that the world prefers TikTok's version of social media, not Facebook's friend-centric one. So Facebook is doing what Zuck does best, copying TikTok entirely.

It's the ultimate Zucking. Now a word from our sponsor, Robin Hood. Okay, so Jack and I got into the news business with our previous company. markets. Our goal was basically to democratize financial news for our generation. Cut the jargon. Talk about the profit puppy. So when we first connected with Robin Hood, there was a chemistry there. We were doing for financial news what Robin Hood was doing for the financial system. Robin Hood was democratizing finance for all and it started by eliminating trading commissions and building a beautiful app. Remember, we had the same color green. The green was destiny. Destiny, absolutely.

So we sold market snacks to Robin Hood and we launched Robin Hood snacks. The equivalent of proposing getting married, and building a family together in just three years. Much more to come on why we're thrilled that Robin Hood is our exclusive sponsor. If you're not investing in Robin Hood yet to get started, you can go to robin hood.com slash T-Boy and choose a free stock. That's robinhood.com slash T-B-O-Y. Certain limitations apply for a list of other fees. View the fee schedule at RBNhd.co slash fees.

All investments involve risk. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member SIPC. By the way, Robin Hood no longer affiliated with us or the podcast. third and final story for the four day a week. Chanel is enjoying record luxury VIP sales, but there is growing concern about a recession. So here's Chanel's plan. All right. The VIP. VVIP. VVIP. Very, very important. Yetis, you already know that prices are up. Jack, the price of everything. Except for this pod, the prices of everything are up. True. The price of this pod still free. But the price of the most expensive things, that's up the most of all. I mean, Can you talk to us about Chanel handbags, please?

Whip it up on the whiteboard. A Chanel handbag, which full disclosure I've never, never touched. They're up 71% in price since before the pandemic. Well, now I feel awkward that I have touched one, but in the meantime, Chanel handbags have passed $10,000 in some cases. A maxy flat bag with a lamb skin cross-body strap was $6,000 before the pandemic. Now it'll cost you $11,000.

But here's the best part. Yeties, all of that hasn't stopped people from buying them. Chanel's sales are up 50% during the pandemic and profits have tripled. Like Jack, our old business school professors used to say, there is a willingness to pay. When it comes to Chanel handbags, there's an eagerness to pay among wealthy shoppers. So here's what Jack and I found so fascinating about this situation. The music is ending. The economy is slowing.

A recession isn't here, but a lot of people think a recession could be coming. Yeah, so here's Chanel's defense plan. go more luxury. Chanel is doubling down on more costly or more expensive things. This isn't VIP. This is VVIP we're thinking. VVIP. Throw an extra VE.

It's going to cost you more. There is a new store concept for Chanel that's opening first in Asia. And it is such an exclusive store. You can't just go in there. You have to be invited in advance and show a ticket. We're not talking about like some roped off section with the bouncer. This is an entirely separate store for Elite Chanel customers that you have to get a ticket to. The entire store you get to roam by yourself. There's zero percent chance. You'll bump

into some common falcon aisle too. You want some like rare leather cardigan good clutch. You can only get it at certain of these VVIP stores. That's right. These products are exclusive to the VVIP section. So the way Jack and I see it, Chanel is already charging so much for a single bag that they had to add a service on top of that bag just to justify the new high price. Buying an $11,000 bag feels pretty unjustifiable during an economic recession. On the other hand, Jack, a bag plus a palatial sales floor all to myself with a personal butler and a caviar lunch included 11 grand, sign me up. I'll pay 12 grand for that.

Must be nice. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Chanel? Exclusivity is ironically limitless. Yeah, besties. is another strategy that Chanel could do here. And it's so obvious, everyone else is doing it. They could have done the opposite of what they did. And the phase of a recession just offer lower priced goods to get greater sales. Focus on all those first-time bag buyers who bought a bag during the pandemic for the first time with their new money. Yeah, focus on affordable luxury jacks.

So people can still indulge even while they're losing money. Like a recession special kind of thing. Instead, though, Chanel is creating an even more. more exclusive tier as the economy is slowing down. The rich are becoming a little less rich. Yeah. So Chanel plans to squeeze even more money out of the extra VVIP rich. So the way Jack and I see it, exclusivity is ironically limitless. Jack, can you whip up this complete balanced takeaway for us?

Kellogg is disowning cereal to focus all its attention on snacks. Snacks. Snacks so hot right now. For our second story, your social media apps, they're not going to include your friends anymore. Yeah, because Facebook defined the social feed. TikTok redefined it and now Facebook zucking TikTok. For our third and final story, Chanel,

it's opening stores. We're not even allowed to go to it. We're not even allowed to talk about it. This pot is going to get shut down. We're going to get sued. Because exclusivity is ironically limitless. We're not even allowed to talk about it. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Jesse Breffle over in lovely Salt Lake City, Utah.

The term riding shotgun, like dibs on shotgun. Classic. It's a car. right? It means when you sit next to the drive. Well, it turns out riding shotgun actually comes from back in the day when stagecoaches were the standard form of transportation. What is this stagecoach? It's like a car, but slow and no motor.

Okay, the driver would assign an armed partner to sit next to him or her in the passenger seat. And their job was to protect the stagecoach from thieves by having a shotgun handy. Hence, riding shotgun. Historically, we should point out, the middle seat never really liked. Even back in the stage coach stage, people like said, dibs no middle seat. Yet is, you look fantastic today. And while you're not eating cereal, turn to the person across from you enjoying a snack and say, hey, H-YH-TBOY. Have you had the best one yet?

Sharing this pod with their friends is how we grow best. If you know, you know. Nick and I, we'll see you tomorrow. And before we go, happy birthday to best eat Julian Roman over in Dary Ann, Illinois. And happy birthday to Dahlia Chowdery in Nashville, Tennessee. And Jack, Maxwell McDonald is having a ninja-themed birthday party in Fremont, Michigan. I had a ninja-themed birthday party when I was a boy. Yeah, I did.

Oh, my God. I love it. This is fantastic. I made a bunch of sneak attacks. And Dave, Audio, Sonafeld, happy birthday down in Austin. Happy 29th birthday to Chenice in Los Angeles, California. And Brooke Pillow, happy birthday in Richmond, Virginia. And a special shout-out to Emma Silverstein, a nurse from Long Island who lives in Manhattan now.

Okay. during the toughest days of the pandemic, Emma showed up at work, at her hospital every day, and she was in the cancer part of the hospital. During the first wave, during the second wave, during Delta, during Omicron, Emma was on the front lines. Emma, thanks for potting with us. This is Jack, Nick and I both on stock of Robin Hood.

Now a word from our sponsor, Robin Hood. So four years ago, we sold our company and we joined Robin Hood. A lot of people asked, when did we decide that selling was the right move? So it was actually in our meeting with the co-founders, That's what sold us. Vlad and Bejou, also former roommates, also met in college. Also, we're hanging out in New York City's East Village after the financial crisis. And they just figured out how the financial system worked.

So Vlad and Bejou saw that Wall Street bigwigs, they were getting their fees waived. And they figured out a way to waive commissions for everyone else, too. So we saw a big, bold vision and decided to join these guys. That's where we spent the last three years until now. It makes sense now that Robin Hood would sponsor our newly independent podcast. If you're not investing in Robin Hood yet, you can get started. by going to Robinhood.com slash T-Boy, choosing a free stock. That's robin hood.com slash T-B-O-Y.

Certain limitations apply for a list of other fees. View the fee schedule at RBNhd.co slash fees. All investments involve risk. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member SIPC. By the way, Robin Hood is no longer affiliated with us or this podcast.