The Best One Yet - 💸 “The Rich Fee” — Uber Eats’ spy pricing. Nvidia’s Coachella for Chips. The Spa/Pilates Economy. +Don’t Invest in Duke

Episode Date: March 18, 2026

Nvidia’s hosting the Coachella for Chips… and dropped 20 press releases to celebrate it.Say hello the Botox & Boxing Economy… For the 1st time, the majority of American retail is servicesDoes Uber Eats charge you more if you use an Amex?... AI is testing personalized prices.Plus, fill out your March Madness bracket like an investor… Buy low, sell high, & don’t bet on Duke.$NVDA $UBER $SPYBuy tickets to The IPO Tour (our In-Person Offering) TODAYNew York, NY (4/8): https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/0000637AE43ED0C2Los Angeles, CA (6/3): SOLD OUTGet your TBOY Yeti Doll gift here: https://tboypod.com/shop/product/economic-support-yeti-doll NEWSLETTER: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 Wednesday, 7th, Wednesday, March 18th, and today's part is the best one yet this is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Oh, boy, you still on hold with Verizon over there, Jack? So I called Verizon and I said, hey, AT&T's offering me a free iPhone 17. I'm planning to leave for them because that's a sweet deal. I say, can you match it because I've been a customer for eight years? And?

Not only do they match it. They offer me an iPhone Pro Max. Then they gave me another iPhone for my wife. Then they gave me $10 off a month for both of our lines. They're like, I have terrific news. Yes, Jack? Another $10 off for both your lines. And that is why Verizon's stock is down today, besties.

Jack, three fantastic stories for today's tea boy, though. What do we got on the pot? For our first story, five New Yorkers placed the same Uber Eats order at the same time from the same place, but they all got different prices. Does Uber Eats charge you more if you use an Amex plan? Platinum card, say hello to personalized pricing. For our second story,

NVIDIA is hosting its epic annual tech event right now. It's Coachella for computer chips. So to give you a sense of how big this event has become, NVIDIA issued 20 press releases in 24 hours. That's got to be a record. And our third and final story. For the first time in the history of America, we have more stores selling services than stores selling stuff.

Besties, it's the Botox boxing economy. Spas, gyms, and salons, now outnumber. everything else. But yet, he's, before we hit that wonderful mix and thank Verizon once again. I mean, coolest place in capital is in the best business mix in the biz. What do we got, Jack?

Last year, we warned you not to pick Duke in your March Madness bracket. And Jack, who won March Madness last year exactly? Not Duke. Yeah, we were shooting 100% on that one. Because Nick and I pick our basketball brackets based on our Wall Street experience. Yeah, we go full banker mode on this one.

We choose teams like a value investor. You need to go full Warren Buffett on your bracket. or portfolio manager mode on that March madness. Basically what we're saying is buy low, sell high. Like buy St. John, sell Duke. And we'll explain why. According to the Wall Street Journal, 30% of brackets on Yahoo so far this year

have picked Duke to win it all. But Duke has just a 20% chance of winning, according to your prediction markets. That means the Duke Blue Devils are the most overvalued team in the tournament, just like they were last year. I like the game stock AMC of this tournament check. Even if you pick Duke and they end up winning,

you'll have to share the pot with like a dozen faux Duke fans in your office. And then the real Duke fans are, well, we all know real Duke fans, Jack. So picking Duke for your bracket, it's like buying Peloton shares mid-pandemic. You're buying high, not low. So instead, besties, we suggest you find the team with the biggest probability to popularity gap. Find the team with the higher chance of winning than those picking them to win. Like Michigan, they got a 19% chance of winning. But only 15% of people have picked them to win. I mean, Jack, no one at work is picking Iowa State, right? Just like nobody at work. was picking in Vida back in 2003.

Yeties, Jack and I are long on Siena College, if you know, you know. Because they got a better chance of winning than people in your office have picked them for. Tell this takeaway to your financial advisor. Don't pick Duke. Unless you work with your financial advisor, in which case sabotage him by telling him to pick Duke. Or unless you're getting harassed by Duke fans, which is highly probable at work. Jack, let's get our three stories. 15 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 one yet But the best is a norm That's it I don't even think they need to practice 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 to show First a quick word from our sponsor For our first story Last year Instacart was caught Doing personalized pricing But now Uber Eats has been caught as well With special prices depending on who you are Because the price isn't the price anymore.

This is in shittification on a whole new level. Oh, Yeties. Remember we did that interview with the Lyft CEO? You know, one reason Jack and I were so excited to speak with him and interview him last year, well, it was this particular quote. It was this nugget of truth. He said that people hate surge pricing with a fiery passion. He said that about his own product.

Now, imagine if that surge pricing was just for you because Lyft saw you got a promotion and thinks you're making more money now. That would make you fiery passion like Mount Lesuvius. Well, that happens to be what is happening over at Uber, according to an investigation by Peter Kafka at Business Insider. Here's what Business Insider's Newsroom did. They tested a theory. What happens if we all order a Big Mac right now from the same room,

and we all do it on Uber Eats? Ah, the Big Mac task. And Jack, what were the results of that then? Each of those people in the room ordered a Big Mac, but they each paid a different price for it. I'm sorry, Carol from accounting, $9.22. cents, frank in finance, 1234? The difference was only by 20 cents, but Uber told Business Insider that prices are, and I quote,

never based on users' personal characteristics. I'm sorry, but pause the pot here. There is one funny detail we should mention, right, Jack? If you tap a few times on the fine print in the Uber app, you see the opposite written right there on the phone. Yeah, quote unquote, this price was set by an algorithm using your personalized data. That's what Uber actually says in their app, contradicting what the press person told Business Insider. Now, Basties, we jumped in further T-boy style for you. And this experiment happened in New York, which is a state that has a law requiring that disclosure.

If you're doing personalized pricing for people, you must tell them about it. Only New York has that law. So it's probably happening everywhere else. We just don't know about it. And we know what you're thinking here. Yeah, last year we covered a similar personalized pricing test happening at Instacart. The personalized potato pricing test, as we called it back then. Instacart was, you know, a little embarrassed by the headline, so they ended that personalized pricing test. For the avocados, $10 for a VP, $5 if you're a plumber, not too shabby. But to sprinkle on some context, this like personalized pricing, you get one price, you get another price, that could never have happened before e-commerce.

I mean, Jack, back in the physical store era, the price was the price, my friend. But when the store is your phone, everyone's phone can show a different price. Basically, Bessie's, each screen is a brand new price tag. And they can set that price tag based on how much income they think. the person has. Now, Yet he's Jack and I should context sprinkle on a little further here, because this is not what hotels and airlines do, is it Jack? No, they do dynamic pricing, where the price changes depending on the supply and the demand. Now, dynamic pricing for that hotel you're now annoyed you're paying such a high price for it because you book too late. That is based

on the anonymous forces of economics. Supply and demand. Personalized pricing is based on the not anonymous forces. Your personal data. It's how much the company think you have and think you can afford to pay. Because they've been looking at your TikTok page. For example, your Uber Eats account may be linked to your Amex Platinum credit card. So Uber Eats is going to try to charge you more. That could happen. Or maybe your Tinder profile says, proud Nepo baby. Nick and I wouldn't advise that for one reason, because Uber Eats would charge you more for it. Or maybe Jackie boasted the opposite. That on Instagram, you have worn the same underwear for four years because you're just that kind of a dude. If Uber found that on your data, they'd probably

charge you less because you probably can't afford the regular fees. Now, Yetis, Jack and I should point out, I hate to use the word lick on the pod, but economists are drooling and want to lick this phenomenon. I'll let that one slide next. But yes, price discrimination, which is what we're talking about, it allows firms to maximize profit by taking each consumer's full willingness to pay. But besties, Jack and I, we are students of economics, and yet Jack and I do not love the personal pricing phenomenon. We actually hate it. We do because of our takeaway. So, Jack, what is the takeaway for all our buddies curious about the art of pricing? Algorithmic pricing is in shittification to the max, and it hurts the economy.

Ah, in shittification. When a company makes the product worse because they're nickel and dime in you to make more profit at you. Gradual in shittification is why you see 13 sponsored results with every Amazon product search. That one doesn't look very good. Well, inshittification is good for short-term profits, but it is bad for long-term brand love. Even worse, incitification makes us consumers more suspicious with every app we open and every time we have to buy something. And that's bad for the economy overall. Totally. Until now, companies have been forced to set one price for all, anchored by the physical price tag. But with AI, they'll be able to set a personalized price for everyone based on our publicly available data from the web. Yet he's not surge pricing or dynamic pricing. We're talking about the worst form of personalized

pricing. AI surveillance pricing. Spy. pricing. Unless the law gets passed for bidding it, AI surveillance pricing is coming. Now, an economy works best when consumers believe it's fair. And algorithmic pricing feels inherently unfair. The result, not just potentially boycotts of companies that try this, but justified paranoia and increased protection of our personal data. Oh, and Jack, that kind of consumer paranoia, like scaled across the economy, that could put a huge dent in our GDP. So we hope laws get passed banning personalized pricing, especially if it's assisted with AI. Especially that AI spy pricing over there. We see ya. Because algorithm pricing is in shittification to the max, and we think

it'll hurt the economy overall. For our second story, Nvidia's Silicon Valley Super Bowl of AI is happening right now down in San Jose. And Nvidia dropped 20 press releases in just 24 hours to celebrate it. Jack and I are going to connect all of this to Alexander Hamilton. More than a second, more than a sec. But in the meantime yet, he's open up your chatbot and type, hey, invidia, and then push enter. Because whatever chatbot you just pushed enter into, Nvidia chips are going to process that query. That's right, because since 2009,

Nvidia has hosted the annual conference to celebrate their main thing, their main product, their profit puppy, the GPU, the graphic processing unit. Which has become an AI processing unit over the years. And this huge annual Nvidia event, it's become the Oscars of compute. Promptopaloza.

Coachella Ford computer chips. It's called GTC, which is the GPU tech conference, and it's become the woodstock of artificial intelligence. Or chip stock, if you will. And Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, is truly the new Steve Jobs of tech. Or Jack, do we want to say he's more like the new Tony Stark, right? Yes, because the event he kicked off on Monday feels like the Stark Expo from Iron Man.

And he's got the numbers to back it up. Jensen Wong just doubled the amount of revenue he expects Nvidia to bring in over the next two years, from 500 bill to $1 trillion. Get this, Yet this, Yeti's. Invidia's profit this year will be bigger than its two main rivals will chalk up in sales. Combine. Sit down, stand up, and let that sink in again. You only say something like that, Nick, if you got rockets built into your boots.

But besties, let's dive in deep-voiced out to the event. Because Jensen Wong, Nvidia CEO, spoke for two and a half hours at the keynote. That is quite a keynote. And it was a lesson not just in revenue growth we just told you about. It was a lesson in exponential growth. Here's what Jensen said. I believe that computing demand has increased by one million times in the last two years. He says that computing demand is increased by a million times in two years. That's not hockey stick growth. That's pole vault growth. And it's a good thing that Nvidia developed the Blackwell chip two years ago to meet all that new demand.

Which, by the way, is named after the scientist Blackwell, just like all Nvidia chips are named after scientists. And it's a good thing because the Blackwell generates 68 times more performance per watt of electricity than its predecessor. the hopper chip. Yeah, now, even if you don't know what a watt is, what matters here is how much different that is from the prior chips, right, Jack? Yes, and Blackwell's successor, which hits the market this year, it's called the Ruben chip. That's another 13x leap in performance. So, Jack, can we pause the pot and whip out the whiteboard here and look at how different each of these chips is and how much faster they've gotten? Blackwell is 68 times better. Rubin will be 13 times better. Ipso facto, the Rubin chip, which comes out this year, will have 900 times the

computing performance of the hopper chip from two years ago. I mean, we haven't seen numbers and angles like that since high school physics. 900x performance growth. Besties, this is like if you traveled on vacation to Paris in one year, Mars the next year, and then a brand new dimension after that. This is the definition of exponential. These claims are incredible, but they're also credible. True Jack. Because Jensen has a track record of doing what he says he'll do. And the leader in compute is still NVIDIA. Years after becoming a coal company, NVIDIA is still number one in the market. Invita is the brain cell of every chat bot and the heart of every data center. And sadly, the teardrop of every glacier. But that's the story for another pod. So Jack, what's the

takeaway for all our buddies over at NVIDIA and the Coachella for Computer Chips? The future has its eyes on you, Invidia. That's from the musical Hamilton. George Washington says and sings to Alexander Hamilton, history has its eyes on you. Well, we're telling Jensen Huang, the future has its eyes on you. That's right, because our entire economy is one giant bet on AI right now, and Nvidia is all up in every part of that bet. You want proof? Get this. On Monday, Nvidia published 20 press releases. That's more than most companies published in an entire year. You want more receipts? They did press releases with IBM, HP, Adobe, Amazon, T-Mobile, and Disney. They announced deals Monday with Nissan, B-Y-D, Hyundai, Uber,

and Lyft. Have you noticed that Nvidia's not enemies with anyone? In fact, Nvidia's biggest rival in the chip industry, AMD, is run by Jensen Wong's cousin. And Nvidia has no enemies because every element of our economy has a bet on AI, and everyone needs Nvidia to make that bet on AI. In fact, the only ones who don't like Nvidia are arguably the customers who love it the most because they're basically addicted to Nvidia. True. Big tech companies are trying to develop their own in-house GPUs to break their dependence on Nvidia. So when Nvidia speaks, Yetis, investors listen, markets react, and now the world shakes a little bit. Because to misquote Hamilton, the future has it ties on you, Nvidia. Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, America just passed a wild milestone. For the first time

ever, the majority of stores don't sell stuff. They sell services. And it's because of a tidal wave of trends. spas and gyms are beating shoes and shampoo. Jack, I'm sorry. Can you remind us, what are you doing again this weekend? You guys got a good plan? You and Alex? We're going to the Home Depot. We're going to buy some wallpaper,

maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe bed bath and beyond. Vestis, a 2026 updated version of that old school quote. It would actually have Frank the tank going to the spa for a little Swedish massage, maybe Orange Theory. I don't know if we've enough time. Because of this hero's doubt. For the first time in American history,

The services sector now leases more than 50% of all retail square footage. I mean, what a hero stat. You see, for all of America's history, the majority of store space was dedicated to selling stuff until now. Most American stores don't sell stuff. They sell shavasana. So here's what we found fascinating about this. Jack, let's start on the supply side of this spa surge.

Well, service businesses have become the ultimate retail profit puppy. That's right, because the services surge is just. driven by two specific categories, spas and fitness studios. Berries, Soul Cycle, Yoga 6, Health Spas, Med Spas. I mean, in New York, in the Flatiron District, there is a cross-country skiing fitness boutique studio right now. Indoor cross-country skiing, and that's right next to America's biggest sauna,

a real business in the Flatiron of New York. Speaking of Plumpjack, the spas and the gyms happen to be more premium tenants, so they're paying higher rents, and landlords are loving it. They're more premium tenants because, on the demand side, healthiness in this economy, is being driven by wealthiness. That's right.

Healthiness is tied to wealthiness, so the well-off are spending more to look and feel good these days. The status symbol of this economy used to be having a luxury handbag. But today, it's having Pilates classes every morning with a post-class facial every once in a while. Which reminds us of a story you may remember from last year. We did it on the med spa surge. Med spas. They're like in the gray area between a hundred, hospital in a totally not medical center. But get this, the number of med spa locations in America

has 6x since the year 2010. And a lot of those med spas are taken over space that used to be a right aid. In fact, get this, there are now 10,000 med spas in America compared to 13,000 McDonald's. That says a lot, doesn't it? So besties add it all up, and Botox and boxing is the new Starbucks and shopping. You're not buying stuff, you're paying for services. Or if you are buying stuff, you're not doing it in stores, which leads to our takeaway. So, Jack, Jack, What's the takeaway for our buddies over in the Botox and boxing class economy? There are trends, and then there are tidal waves of trends. Now, yet he's interestingly, America has long had a services-driven GDP.

We do our banking, tech, entertainment industries better than we do manufacturing. But for services to become the majority of retail, that's the result of many forces. Yes, for example, let's start with e-commerce, right, Jack? We simply do much of our shopping online and need less shelf space in real life. Oh, another surprise factor here, social media. All the time we spend on our Instagram and TikTok feeds has us more aware of how we look so Americans are investing in wellness. And those two forces work together.

As traditional physical retail fell, services retail slipped right on in to fill the void. You got a gym membership and you got a facial. From planet fitness to Equinox and all the med spas in between, the wellness industry is living its best life right now. We call it the boxing and Botox economy. And it isn't a trend. And this is a tidal wave of trends. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us for Saviche Wednesday in Slamming Salmon?

Uber Eats got caught charging different prices to different people. It's personalized pricing. Ah, AI spy pricing. That's in shittification to the max that would actually hurt our economy. For our second story, Nvidia issued 20 press releases on Monday because our economy's become a giant bet on AI. To Jensen Wong, we say, just like Hamilton, the future has its eyes on you. And our third and final story is a new milestone. More than half of retail stores in America are selling services, not stuff.

It's the Botox and Boxing Economy because e-commerce and social media are two tidal waves of trends that made it happen. But besties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, surprise, Spandex just filed for bankruptcy. Can't believe we're saying it, Jack. Spandex, who was invented by DuPont scientists back in 1958, changed fitness forever. Spandex walked so that Lulu could. run. Now, we should point out, spandex is owned by the Lycra company, which supplies basically

the whole athleisure industry. And Athleisure Slowdown has simply stretched the spandex too thin. And second, Arizona just filed criminal charges against CalSheet today, accusing the prediction market company of operating any legal gambling business. Because betting on sports is the same as predicting on sports. We think this is the start of a legal question that's going to go all the way to the Supreme Court. And finally, Open AI just got sued by the dictionary. They're claiming that OpenAI is guilty of, quote-unquote, massive copyright infringement, their words, literally, by the way. To use it in a sentence, Dictionary has a copyright on 100,000 articles that were all scraped by OpenAI, allegedly. And if you ask Chatchipati, like, what is chrysanthemum? It'll plagiarize what it read in the

dictionary. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by legendary 11-year-old Yetty, Bodhi-Botty Botter Eye from lovely Concord, New Hampshire. Push and play. My best fact yet is the plural of Lego is Lego. That is because you always say Legos in your episodes where you talk about Lego and it's very annoying. Buddy, thank you for the fact checked on this. We really appreciate it. The Lego Lego controversy is one that we still struggle with. We should point out.

Buddy, I'm sorry. That's on me. I've always called them Legos with an ass. No, Jack, you don't have to take this. This is on both of us, man. Nick, the kid's name is Bodie. He's from New Hampshire. He must be a great skier.

Definitely. So I'm going to defer to him on how to describe multiple Lego. Bodie, thanks for always giving us the fact check. Yeties, you're looking fantastic for Civece Wednesday. That's why we're wearing the slamming salmon. But we really would like to see you when you look your most fantastic. April 8th, we will be at Irving Plaza. The show is at 7 o'clock.

Arlington, Virginia was our best show yet. I think New York is. going to be even better. It's our New York City live show. They're just a few tickets yet, so grab them now, April 8th, 7 p.m. Can't wait to see you there. Links in the episode of description. This podcast was born in New York City. I'm just saying. So was I. We're just saying. We're just saying. And before we go, a happy birthday to legendary Yeti, Matt Rowland, turning 32 in Rochester, Michigan. Since his dad is his boss, we hope he gets the day off to go to Costco in his crocs. Happy 29th birthday to Claire Logging and Carrie North Carolina. She just started free.

And she's crushing it. And Jackson Baker has got a 19th birthday in Skinny Atleys, New York. Congratulations, Jackson. Happy 16th birthday to Gabriella Aguado in North Bay Village, who's celebrating her Sweet 16 with a lead role in the local performance of Hades Town. And Meredith Johnson, enjoy that 29th birthday down in Texas. Happy birthday. Happy birthday to Zach Steinfeld, turning 31 in Atlanta,

celebrating that birthday with the slamming salmon pink T-boy crewneck sweatshirt. Hopefully, getting to 300 bowling game two. Or at least to Turkey. Nowe Bauer. It just got promoted to Director of Technical Accounting down in Houston. Congratulations, Alyssa. And congratulations to Kelsey Black, one of the five finalists for Austin's 40 under 40 for retail. That's quite an honor.

And a special shout out to Vijay and Kirsten who are building True Chroma, this insanely cool app that actually uses AI to help plan your wardrobe. Check it out. Two Yeties building something awesome. And to anyone else, celebrate something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I'm on stock of Amazon, Disney, and Lyft, and Nick and I both on stock of Palaton.