The Best One Yet - “Starbucks wants to pick you up at the airport” — Sprint/T-Mobile gets approved. Samsung’s flip phone. Starbucks’ airport deal.

Episode Date: February 12, 2020

Sprint surged nearly 80% on word its T-Mobile merger is good to go (because Sprint was basically a dead wireless man walking). Samsung whipped up a foldable new phone that you should definitely care about because we don’t actually live in an iPhone world. And Starbucks snagged a new airport partnership that’s innovatively all about getting you coffee without any terminal friction.Learn 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, February 12th. This is the best one yet? By far. Now, the first story is the wireless wedding. It's finally complete. It's beautiful. Did you get an invite? Sprint and T-Mobile. The merger finally got the green light. We're white to this thing. It's the good thing. There is a new big three in the wireless industry. Except it's the deal that almost killed Sprit. Second story, Jack. Speaking of phones, Samsung had a major product unveil. Like iPhone events, just no one watches them. So we watch. And the whole event was foldable. It was a beautiful thing. Third and final story. No more terrible airport coffee.

It's not a good thing. That's kind of the headline from Starbucks, which just snagged a new partnership for your most critical coffee moments. Airport 6 a.m. flight delayed three hours. And this is in pursuit of eliminating airport coffee. Starbucks meet us outside of TSA, but not before TSA. I don't have pre-check, so you're going to have plenty of time. Indulge yourself, ruin that thing.

Now, before we jump into that, Snackers, Jack and I noticed that we had a lot of feedback from yesterday's pod in our inboxes. We love when you tweet at us. We love DMs on Insta. Nick even got a couple LinkedIn messages. I'm getting LinkedIn linked up over here. I'm going to do a network paloosa. So, yeah, there was a lot of feedback from yesterday's snacks.

Now, first, we mentioned that the New York Times and, what was it, Mint? They did a study showing the average American spends $53 on digital subscriptions per month. So we asked you to tell us, who's got something higher, who's got something lower? Well, we were expecting things in the range of like $40, $70, $30, $60. Nope. Heidi Ortiz came at us with a shocker. Apparently, she shops at the dollar store. She spends $0.99 a month.

That's it. That's her only digital subscription. And it's ICloud. We're impressed. That's impressive. We're a little concerned. Well, speaking of concern. Tampa Movie Guy on Twitter, he spends $50 alone on Hulu.

Birth name? I don't know. I didn't check the records on that one. Now, we also said that doctors are encouraging people in the age of coronavirus to start fist bumping instead of handshaking. Because a fist bump transmits 90% fewer calories. Sorry, germs. Germs than a handshake. Now, we weren't the only ones to pick up on this, but our friend and snacker Ashley Cotain decided to take it a step further.

Yeah, you can get 0% germs transmission if instead of physical contact, you just nod and say namaste. Again, really nice life hack then. Now, finally, we mentioned that restaurant brands International, the company that owns Burger King and Popeyes and Tim Hortons. Their ticker symbol is QSR. Right. We didn't know what that meant. We were like QS. Why didn't you go with like POP or something?

So then Daniel, Bruna, Hoda, Justin, Paris, Andy, Danny, CJ, and about 50 other snacks. It's like the Brady brunch over here. They chirped up on Twitter to tell us, QSR stands for quick serve restaurant. So the fact that restaurant brands international uses QSR is their time. ticker symbol is actually kind of brilliant. Actually makes a lot of sense. Quick serve restaurant, better name than fast food restaurant. Snackers, we love it when you send us your feedback.

We can take any kind of feedback. You're tuned in the snacks daily. We spoke to the lawyers and we got to get something legal out the way. It snacks about the hair ain't food. It's air candy. They don't reflect the views of the robberhood family. It's all informational just so. We're not recommending any securities.

It's not a research report or investment advice. Not an offer or sale of a security. Snacks is digestible, business news for you. Rob her financial, LLC, member Fenra slash SIPC. For our first story, T-Mobile and Sprint Marriage, it's finally blessed. The deal is done. The deal is done. Sprint stock, by the way?

Celebrating aggressively. Yeah, talk about a honeymoon. The stock is up 78% yesterday. It's like you do the honeymoon on the same day as the wedding. Now, the merger was announced nearly two years ago, but it finally became a little. official yesterday. Do you have those friends who like, they've been dating for a while, but you just found out that they were dating? Yeah, it finally defined the relationship. It took a long time. I actually don't have friends of them. Yeah, I actually can only think of one. You know who you are.

I know, yeah, yeah, you're listening. There are two regulators in the United States that make sure monopolies don't form because monopolies kind of screw over customers. Right. These regulators, they're anti-power couple. Like, Brangelina wouldn't have happened. Too much. Now, the FTC, the Federal Trade Commission, and the DOJ, the Department of Justice, those two, the regulators, had already approved this merch. They blessed the marriage. But the last hurdle was 26th Attorney's General representing

26 of 50 states. Jack, I'm so impressed, it is so hard to hit that plural on that lawyer one. I'm feeding to the lawyers. Now, they sued. They sued. Yeah, yeah. Because they were not fans of this. But the judge approved the deal anyway yesterday. Final hurdle cleared. Now, Snackers, we were excited to cover this because we know what you're thinking,

is this worse for us? Am I going to have to wear magenta all the time? Right. Not like for investors. No. Better for you and me as wireless phone. People plan people. Phones in our ears. Right. Now, you can actually argue both ways.

Our instinct was that this consolidation will hurt customers. Right. T-Mobile was like a famous wireless disruptor. They would show up and basically force the big telecom companies to do things differently. Verizon and AT&T were the big telecon companies. They are famous pros before co-com companies. They put profits before customers. Now, they reluctantly lowered prices and offered unlimited data because they had to

match that annoying T-Mobile. Team Mobile just came out of nowhere and just made them disrupt them and made them do lower. Right. So competition from T-Mobile, forced lower prices and better plans for everybody, including you and then. So our thought is, all right, if we're going from four to three major wireless companies, that creates a threoply, and that means less competition. Yeah, they'll all probably raise prices a little bit because there's less competition.

But it's interesting to see that Sprint T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T are spitting this like the opposite way. Yes. T-Mobile really wants you to think this will actually be better for you and me. Right. Their argument is that, hey, wait a second. There actually are only two major companies providing 5G. Right.

AT&T and Verizon. They're basically saying, we're not up there with AT&T and Verizon, and we need to be up there. And to be up there, we have to merge with Sprint. It's as if you've got Superman and Batman and the other superheroes in existence are like the Flash, which no one really cares about, he's just really fast. Right. The Flash is T-Mobile. And, like, if they pair up with Ant-Man, which... which is Sprint, together they could, like, really compete with Batman and Superman.

Yeah, it's the only way you're going to compete with Batman and Super. So, in other words, this deal means more competition, three, instead of the two that was really existing. So that's the opposite of our instinct, but you could argue it either way. Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Spin and T-Mobile? Sprint was a dead man walking. So regulators kind of had to approve this. Snackers, the Sprint Company is a distant fourth in the telecom world.

It's like Ringo Star, but even more Ringo. It's Ringo's second company. who like still is living in the parents basement. So Verizon, AT&T, and T, and T Mobile, they're the Paul, the John, and the George. Wonderful crew here. They grew their customer base by 40%, 50%, and 257% in the last 10 years. Over that same period, Sprint's customer base fell by 9%. And Sprint stock got cut in half over the last six months on concerns that this deal would get blocked.

So because it like would have died. So basically, regulators had two on. options here. Three wireless companies, if they approve the merger, but three wireless companies that they block it, because Sprint's probably going to fall apart and never exist again. Yeah, Sprint probably would have died if this merger didn't go through. For our second story, Starbucks just snagged an innovative new airport partnership. It's 3 a.m. Right after they lost one. Your flight was delayed. You got that thing under your eye. It's your nose, but you don't realize it.

Liguardia to ATL. The worst. You walk out. All you want is a cup of coffee. What do you see? Duke of Sandwich. What the hell is that? coffee bean and leaf? But they're like, is it a tea company? What's going on there? Codoba. No one knows what Codoba means. All you want is a reliable almond milk latte in size grande right now with extra almond milk.

But you can't get it because you're stuck in an airport terminal. You're like Tom Hanks in that movie. And no one knows why he was stuck in the airport in that movie. Couldn't he have just used his cell phone? This story is about airport economies and they are fascinating. Fascinating. You know why Snackers? Because airports are like the Truman Show.

It's a fake word. world of retail. Two movie references in 30 seconds. I'm kind of exploding inside. It is like the Truman show, though, because airports are owned by cities and counties, but then they don't want to, like, sell out every storefront to 30 different stores. And I don't want to lease to Jamba Juice, another Jamba Juice. They don't want to do contract negotiation. So they get one company to outsource all their storefronts to everybody in Terminal B. They hire a company like OTG or another company called HMS host. Those are the two companies that do this. There's the main ones. And they do all the leasing. get all the restaurants, all the retail, into the airport terminal on behalf of the city that

owns the terminal. So Starbucks just ended a 30-year deal with HMS host, but they started and signed a new one with OTG. OTG, kind of an awkward name, has 350 retail locations, but that spread out among just 10 airports. So each airport, on average, has 35 retail locations where they can put John McHood. If you're at JFK or at Newark, boom, you're staring at OTG retail. So O'T leases some of them to third-party companies like Starbucks, but they also manage some of their own retail location. Snackers, maybe you've been in line for a piece of gum from Chibo. Saibo?

Cheap, it's pronounced Cheebo. Really? It's Italian, yeah. C-I-B-O. Now, you also may have grabbed a little Bonmee sandwich over at Bonham Vietnamese restaurant in Houston. Maybe, maybe. Or maybe you went to Chef Lenny Rousseau's place in Minneapolis. Turns out, those are all managed and owned by OTG.

All those properties aren't. Distinctive-owned restaurants. They're all owned by O.T.G. It's one company. They just window dress and, like, change their clothes. Window dress, by the way, great verb. You could throw that on anything. Also, OTG is famous for an awkward number of little iPads.

Every table's got a built-in iPad. You've walked in. It looks like a Star Wars robot army in front of you. iPad, iPad, iPad, iPad, iPad. They're like, do you want to gamble? You know who you want to order a pizza? You know who loves iPads? Parents love iPads.

They love taking photos of iPads. Just throwing that iPad. They're like holding it up like it's a bulletproof mess. You need a spotter when you're trying to order. taking a photo with that thing. So our first thought upon hearing that Starbucks signed a new deal with OTG to get into some of those 10 airports across the United States. Cha-ching.

Che-ching. They have access to a captive audience who has nowhere to go. Nope. A bunch of time to spend. And they're really thirsty. And money in their pocket. And that's why when you go to like Hudson News and check out after getting like maybe a kind bar, a little bit of grapefruit juice.

That kind bar was eight bucks. Or that banana was like 378. Two Advil Tabits? 20 bucks. Oh, excuse me. I have a headache. I need to take out a shot. Short-term loan Hudson News.

Yeah, that's right, Snackers. You get ripped off at airports because there's less competition. But we don't think Starbucks is about to jack up prices because they're too good a brand. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Starbucks? What Starbucks gets with this airport deal is a anti-friction testing laboratory. And Snacker, Starbucks is obsessed with eliminating friction in your coffee transactions. Along with the news report yesterday, we learned that Starbucks plans to serve in three ways at airports. All right, so you're going to get your normal Starbucks storefront between.

like gate A24 and gate A26. There's probably going to be a huge line. Right, it's going to be awkward. Then there's going to be mobile carts right outside of gate B12, because there's a red eye that's just landing from San Francisco to New York City, and those people want a coffee. They ordered ahead, and the coffee's going to be waiting as they walk out of the tarmac gate thing. They ordered on their phone the minute the plane touched down.

And boom, it's waiting. And the last one, a human being can run and hand your coffee and be standing right there after security. No joke. You get added like TSA pre-check and boom. I just got to put my... my shoes on and I just hold it for one more minute. Somebody's holding a coffee out just like they hold out waters during America. I'm putting the electronics back in the case.

You're running to gate A16 like Kevin McAllister. You grab the coffee. Throw it right in the face. Now the question here that we're wondering is if they're going to do this at airports, can they do this in other places? Can they meet you right outside the subway? Could they meet you right side of Equinox? Coffee in bed?

With your alarm? Why not? That'd be a little creepy. Yeah, we can do it. For our third and final story, Samsung just jacked up. prices with a foldable phone. The flip phone is back. Remember you'd study abroad. You had like a burner phone essentially. The Nokia was like more of a mini weapon. But they're back. Motorola just came out with a new razor phone. Right. And now Samsung's got like the Galaxy Z. It is such a satisfying feeling

hanging up on someone with authority after a bad call. Hey Apple, you want to do something cool? Build an extension for the iPhone so that we can slam it shut when we're angry. The best is when you talk somebody off on a pay phone and you can really just like, Snackers, Jack had an incident when he was 12, a phone call he does not want to talk about it. It was a collect call. It was a tough moment. They denied my charges. No one wants to talk about it. Now, Samsung did its best Apple impression, announcing a bunch of new products in San Francisco.

Here's the thing. They got a Galaxy S20, huge screen runs on the 5G network. We should just rename smartphones cameras. Yeah. This one has a giant hump with five cameras. Honestly, Snackers, you hold this thing up to your face to take a photo. You could lose an eye. Now, the second product, you can aggressively hang up on somebody with the new Galaxy Z flip phone. Slam that thing shot. Jack, we need to talk.

You're having way too many angry phone calls here. We need like a namest day call every day. I'll call you in the morning. I'll call you in the morning. So open. This thing is a 6.7 inch giant, but closed. It's only like three by three. It's like the size of a big clam.

When you slam it shot, right, Jack? Now, the price for this clam-like phone, It's $1,380, and it's available on Valentine's Day. I'm impressed. I mean, this is a quick time to get a foldable smartphone on the market. And Snackers, in case you were wondering about the Samsung stock, it's listed in Korea, not in U.S. Mark. This company is like the pride and joy of South Korea.

Now, here's the thing, Snackers, that Jack and I found fascinating. You probably have an iPhone, but the rest of the world has a Samsung. The United States is a higher-income country, and we can afford iPhones, which are very expensive. That's why we said odds are you have a iPhone. because 54% of Americans have iPhones. Only 42% have Android. Oh, by the way, guess the holdouts. There's about 11 states that are majority Android states.

You don't want to be one of those states. We're talking Maine and Rhode Island. They're just, they won't convert. There's also Alaska and Hawaii and Maryland, I think, a couple of it. Bold states, rebellious states. Vermont is an iPhone state. New York is probably entirely iPhones. That's true.

But the rest of the world is more price sensitive and can't afford the iPhone is much. Right. Non-United States Earth is 75% Android. That's right. 75% of the world has Android, but only 42% of Americans have Android. Snackers, Samsung is the number one phone company in the world. They're an Android company. Number two is Huawei, also an Android company. And number three is Apple, which is not an Android company. So, Jack,

what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Samsung? Phones are getting more expensive and cheaper at the same time. On the high end, you've got the iPhone 11 and S-20, which are like double the price from five years ago. That is only possible because we use our phones so much that we are willing to pay a lot for it. Snackers, you're willing to pay $200 more for like an iPhone because you use it so much, it comes down to just like 25 cents more a day. If you use that phone for two years, yeah, that's right, $200 extra for a phone is only $0.25 a day. And you're using that thing for like seven hours a day. Bold guess here, you're probably on it right now listening to us. So yeah,

25 cents a day is worth it. But on the low end, there are Chinese companies now offering 90% as good phones for 10% of the price. No joke, we Googled this. ZTE, which is a Chinese smartphone maker, they have a smartphone for 60 bucks. You could give this out as like a party favor for kids. You don't even notice this on your credit card bill. It's the bifurcation of the phone market, and it's fascinating. You got like a million dollar mazoradi or you got a $10,000 carol. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us? T-Mobile is merging with Sprint. It's official.

We think this will probably mean higher prices for you. The companies promise it won't. Fingers crossed. Fingers crossed. Second takeaway, Jack. Starbucks just got a sweet real estate deal where customers are stuck and need caffeine now. Airports are the perfect place for Starbucks to test out its friction-killing futuristic delivery methods. Third and final story, Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Z flip.

Great name. Seven inches open. Okay. Three and a half inches close. The average American has an iPhone. The average earthling has a Android. And Jack's actually a nice guy on the phone. Full disclosure.

The average Kramer slams his phone shot. Snack fact of the day, this one's sent in by a new snacker, so we got to welcome her. Samantha Ross from Pleasantville, New York. We didn't rehearse that. That's just natural. Girl Scouts sell $800 million in cookies every year. We know you're thinking that's not quite a billion. How good is that?

Well, it's more than Oreos. Way more than Oreos. More than Oreos. And it's only during that four-months. period. No, it's incredible. They crush the streets. They are all over the place. And let's be honest, they're delegating a little bit to their parents. Always be closing. Nothing like being gilded into a Girl Scout cookie. They're fantastic. We would buy them anyway, but it's also a captive audience. Snackers, we loved being with you today. Fantastic. You guys looked fantastic. We'll see you

tomorrow as long. Can't wait. The Robin Hood Snacks podcast you just heard reflects the opinions of only the hosts who are associated persons of Robin Hood Financial LLC and does not reflect the 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.