The Best One Yet - 🛒 “TJ’s Chicken fans have spoken” — Trader Joe’s Hall of Fame. Amazon’s plunger problem. Sony’s PlayStation 5 MVP

Episode Date: February 6, 2023

Trader Joe’s just unveiled its Hall of Fame of food because great brands have fans… and fans need nurturing. Forget Alexa — Amazon’s most exciting business is advertising, but too much ads erase customer love. And Sony just enjoyed $9B in annual profit thanks to PlayStation 5 and Larry David. $SONY $AMZNFollow The Best One Yet 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. Welcome back. It is Monday, February 6th. And today's pod is truly the best one yet. It's a T-B-Boy. T-B-O-I. But Yetis, how did you like our interview pod with the founder of athletic brewing company?

So, Bessies, what do you think of the whole non-alcoholic beer movement? Hit us up, let us know. At T-boy Pod, we would love to hear your thoughts. Okay, Jack, first of all, I thought you did a great job interviewing. Second of all, curious, what was your favorite part of the interview? Nick, you were charismatic. Thank you. I was feeding off your...

energy. But my favorite part of Bill was him describing like the Celebrate the Winds moments where you want to crack open a beer because it was an interesting articulation. Then we actually did crack open a beer. I also liked his meditation. He meditates so much. That was great to hear. He manifests, Nick. He manifested that venture capital check. If you manifest, you stumble into success, Bill Shufeld. Jack, can you manifest the first story for today's pod for us over? For our first story, the most exciting business at Amazon right now is an online shopping or Alexa. It's, advertising. And it can all be explained by a toilet plunger. For our second story, Trader Joe's just opened up the Trader Joe's product Hall of Fame. Because Trader Joe has the most unique business model

in the whole grocery store. And our third and final story is Sony. Sony is winning the Olympics of video games. Because the PlayStation 5, that thing is a rare exotic beast. But Yeties, before we hit that fantastic mix. I love that mix and I love that whole intro. That was a blast. Great way to kick off the week. Porter's Almanac, week 151. Things were running out in the economy. Jack and I have been keeping track for you. Yeties, we've got an eggflation update.

Basties, it is an epic eggflation update for you. First, a few weeks ago, we told you that egg prices had popped by 60%. And then we told you people were smuggling eggs across the Mexican border. But get this. The newest shortage isn't of eggs. No. It's of chickens. Because people don't want to buy expensive eggs.

so people are buying cheap chickens. According to the New York Times, demand for egg laying chickens just hit an all-time high in this country. Looking at the numbers right now, a baby chicklet at tractor supply, you know what that thing costs? I can't believe they sell animals there, but yeah.

Okay, they do, and a chicken costs $4 there, which is less than a dozen eggs. So we are all buying up chickens to secure our own omelette supply chain. Now, we know what you're thinking, Yeties, that sounds crazy, but here's the ironic part.

We had a shortage of eggs in the first place because of a shortage of chickens. Right, because the avian flu virus killed off a whole bunch of birds last year. That's why a dozen eggs was six bucks earlier this year. But now we've got a shortage of chickens because there was a shortage of eggs. Because of the shortage of chickens. Which is now causing a bigger shortage of chickens. So which came first, the chicken of the egg? Jack, are you saying which came first, the chicken shortage or the egg shortage?

I don't care, just pass me a leg. Oh, but Jack, hold on a second. I'm checking the count. calendar right now, Easter is coming in a couple months. Oh, no. That means we could have an Easter apocalypse in April. Which means yetis, hold on to your waive us. Release the quiche besties. This frittata fiasco just hit a fresh new level. Let's scramble those three stories next. Before this song, two boys from the northeast. 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. For our first story, the most exciting business over at Amazon right now, it's advertising. And the advertising business can all be explained by a toilet plunger. Jack, can I for a second try to sound like a radio jockey right now? You ready for this? I mean, podcast is the new radio. That's true.

Here we go. Here we go. Yeties, where there are eyeballs, there are ads. Are you taking callers? Let's go to our first caller. Yiddies, if you're like me, when you need to buy some random thing, your eyeballs end up on Amazon.com or the Amazon app. Well, perfect timing because last week, Amazon announced earnings. And what stood out in those earnings,

it wasn't e-commerce, it wasn't Amazon Web Services, and it wasn't Alexa. What was it, Jack? It was Amazon's advertising business because quarterly advertising revenues passed $10 billion for the first time for Amazon. Okay, let's repeat that hero stat for a second. Amazon's advertising business, past $10 billion in three months. That is up 19% from last year. Nick, it was nearly $12 billion in ad sales. Huge number. Okay, get this, Yeti's.

Amazon now makes 10 times more money from advertising than Snapchat does. Snapchat is an online ads company. Amazon isn't, but Amazon is 10 times bigger than Snapchat and ads. Okay, Jack, just for extra emphasis emphasis, can we sprinkle on a little more context here? Meta and Alphabet. The two ad giants of the world both saw their ad sales shrink last quarter while Amazon's jumped by 19%. Now, Yeties, if you really want to understand Amazon's ad business, here's what you got to do.

Do what we did. Go to Amazon.com and search for the word plungers. Search for the word plunger. Plungers, like toilet plungers, that kind of a plunger. You're going to see Amazon search results. We've all seen them before. But at the very top, you're going to see a giant sponsored ad from a company called Master Plunger.

Okay, that's the first result. But Jack, when you search for plunger, what are like the number two, number three results? What are you going to see? Actually, the top three results is all master plunger. Okay, the first three results are advertisements for a plunger on Amazon. What about after that? Then what are you going to see, Jack? After that, there's four more results on the next row.

Three of them are sponsored ads. And the fourth is an Amazon branded plunger. Yet he's result number eight for plunger. It's Amazon choice, whatever that means, which is probably something sponsored too. Somebody probably paid for that. How long do we have to wait until we finally just see like a result that is there because it's highly rated? Jack, it was not until the ninth result that we stopped seeing ads for plungers. You can check this out.

If you search for plunger on Amazon, eight of the top nine are paid ads. Besties, that is why Amazon is making so much dang money on ads. Sponsorship results are a profit, puppy. It looks like companies that make plungers move their ad. budget from Google to Amazon last corner. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Amazon? Amazon is breaking Jeff Bezos's rule number one. Yet he's back when Jeff Bezos founded Amazon. He came up with 14 leadership principles for the company. It was basically the Amazon Bible. And rule number one was customer obsession. Yeah, do what's best for the customer and the profits will

follow. I got to ask, Nick, is selling eight of the top nine search results for plunger? Is that best for the customer? No, Jack, that's what's best for the profits. In fact, selling eight of the top nine spots, that's the opposite of customer obsession because customers want the best plunger. Yeah, like, we don't want the plunger whose Amazon marketing budget happened to be the highest that day. So yet, it's possible that Amazon's love for ads eventually erodes away customer trust in shopping on Amazon. Because Amazon is breaking Bezos rule number one. For our second story, Trader Joe's just inducted their inaugural class of Trader Joe's Hall of Famers. Because when you have fans, you must nurture them.

Yet is everyone knows. Rule number one at Trader Joe's. What is it, Jack? Have a spotter. You got to have a spotter. Like, one of you's got to stand in line, and then you got one buddy with you who's grabbing groceries out there. East 14th Street, New York City. That was our Trader Joe's. They had a bouncer, and the line was literally on the sidewalk outside of the store. Jack and I would get in line, and then our buddy Timmy would. go and it'd be like, oh, I got it. I got the calpasta. Oh my God. Rule number two is go in the middle of the night. There's no line. Which leads to the news. We just got the list of the most popular products at Trader Joe's.

Hold on to your Hawaiian shirts. This is a 14-year annual tradition at Trader Joe's. The Trader Joe's customer choice awards. And now, Bessies, the phrasing here is key. The way Trader Joe asked the question is, if you were stuck on a deserted island, which nine Trader Joe's products would you bring? Yeties, this is an award show, but replace the black ties with aprons. They got eight category winners. It's like the Emmys for eating, isn't it, Jack? This year, they got 18,000 responses, and last week they announced the winners. Nick!

Okay, Jack, here we go, Envelope, please. And the best Trader Joe's meal goes to? This year, it's butter chicken with Basmati rice. Okay, now, Jack, who got best snack? Chili and lime-flavored rolled corn tortilla chips. That is good. But Jack, I got to ask, who won best snack? sauce in a supporting role.

Vegan kale, cashew, and basil pesto. I've had it. That's a good product. So everything but the bagel seasoning, that didn't win anything? It got running up this year. That was a surprise to me, too. Everything but the bagel. Yeah. Now, yet, here's what Jag and I find interesting about this Trader Joe's story. This survey caused what we like to call the Michael Jordan problem. Remember Michael Jordan used to win MVP every year.

The story of our childhood was Michael Jordan winning MVP in like multiple sports. boring. So eventually they gave it to Carl Malone. Yeah, the mailman. Well, that's the same situation with Trader Joe's when it comes to Mandarin chicken. The Mandarin orange chicken over Trader Joe's kept winning the Trader Joe Choice Awards year after year after year. So this year, Joe's made a decision. They said, we can't let Mandarin orange chicken win for a 14th year in a row. Instead, we're going to do something a little different. They disqualified the Mandarin orange chicken, but with a creative twist. They disqualified it because they elected it to the Trader Joe's Hall of Fame instead.

So they took a manufactured marketing moment and created a second manufactured and marketing moment. That's right. Last month, Trader Joe's announced the inaugural class of the brand new Trader Joe's Product Hall of Fame. From here on out, the Hall of Famers are ineligible to be in the Trader Joe's annual choice awards. Don't worry, Yetis. They're still selling the Mandarin Orange Chicken. It's in the freezer aisle. And the best overall product is absolutely dark chocolate peanut butter cup.

So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Trader Joe's? Great brands have fans and fans need nurturing. Yet he's funny thing about this Trader Joe's annual survey. They didn't have to do it. They have all the sales data. They know what the most popular products are. Well, Jack and I have said before, great brands don't have customers. They have fans.

And Trader Joe knows they're a great brand because they know they have fans. And guess what? They nurture their fans at Trader Joe's. That is why Trader Joe's opened a Hall of Fame just like baseball did. And that's why Trader Joe's has a customer choice awards to rank the favorite products. Even though it literally knows exactly what are the most popular products. Because the award show is fun. Yet these great brands have fans and fans need nurturing.

Now a word about our sponsor, Robin Hood. You know, honestly your salad, it says so much about, yes. so much about you. Nick, you like to blaze your own trail at the salad bar. Yeah, I'm ordering a salad. I go off menu, man, like a combo of kale and croutons that has never been made before. Me? I'm not reinventing the wheel. I like to go classic. If you're squeakerian thinks it's a good combo, Jack's not going to change that. Kind of like investing strategies. Some want to build a custom portfolio of stocks, crypto, and options. Others don't want to reinvent. Just give me the most standard ETF. Whether you're

tweaking your one-of-a-kind portfolio every day or prefer a more hands-off approach, Robin Hood has the tools. If you're not investing on Robin Hood yet, to get started, go to robin hood.com slash T-Boy to choose your free stock. That's robinood.com slash TBOI. Limitations apply. Stocks offered by Robin Hood Financial LLC, member SIPC. Crypto offered through Robin Hood crypto.

All investments involve risk. By the way, this podcast is not owned or part of Robin Hood, and we are not employees of Robin Hood. For our third and final story, it is now official. Sony's PlayStation is the MVP in gaming. It's official because we gave the MVP title. We did. Jack and I got the dish this out like we were traded Joe. When it comes to Sony, somebody hire Larry David.

It is time for the accidental shortage on purpose. So, Jack, let's say there were an Olympics of video games. Who would actually dominate the podium? Who would be number one? Japan would have gold, silver, bronze, honorable mention, alternate. It had everything. Jack, can we talk about who was on the dream team of gaming over in Japan? Yet he's Japan.

Pan has Sony's PlayStation. It has Nintendo 64. It has Sega Genesis. It was your best friend when you were 11. Jack, when we were in Kyoto last month, I saw Donkey Kong drop a banana on our taxi. Was Bowser there to clean it up? True story.

Real life thing. Well, here in the United States, Yeties, we have Team USA of video games. And who's on that team, Nick? Well, on Team USA for video games, Jack, we have one player. It's Microsoft. That's it.

Microsoft launched Xbox in 2001. That's all we got. On this 2023 Olympic video game dream team of Japan, who is their most important player? It's Sony. Because Sony just announced earnings and they boosted their full year profit to $1.2 trillion yen. Yeah, $1.2 trillion, yen. How much is that in dollars actually? That's about $9 billion.

It ain't too shabby. I'll sprinkle on a little context for you. But yet he's not only is Sony the most impressive team on Team Japan in the video game Olympics, Its MVP is the PlayStation 5. The PS5. The PS5 has officially replaced Tom Brady as the ageless wonder. Because the PlayStation 5 ain't no young gun anymore. This thing launched back in November 2020.

So this past holiday season was the third holiday season that you could buy a PS5 for your nephew. Shout out to Aunt Sarah, who got me the PlayStation in 1996. It's a pretty good gift and it's still last. But despite three years of its novelty fading, the joysticks on that PlayStation 5 are looking better than ever. Sony just announced they sold 7.1 million PlayStation 5's last holiday quarter. Okay, Jack, how much exactly is 7.1 million PlayStation 5s?

It's nearly double the number of gaming consoles they sold one year ago. And that's not all yet. He's in the over two years since the PlayStation 5 launched. Sony has sold 32 million of them. And sales growth is only accelerating two and a half years in. Thanks to Jack's aunt Sarah, who still hasn't sent me a PlayStation 5, but I've only met her once. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Sony? It is time for the accidental shortage on purpose.

Yeties, there is one reason why Sony's sales were stronger than ever last quarter. It's because of a shortage. That global chip shortage during the pandemic, it hit PlayStation hard. Yeah, for over two years, the PlayStation 5 has been a rare exotic creature. If you wanted to play on this thing, you like had to be friend to friend. even if he didn't like that friend. If your buddy had a PlayStation 5, you were going to that buddy's house. Hey Tommy, I brought cookies.

You're going to love him. Where's your basement? So this past holiday season was the first holiday season. The PlayStation 5 was widely available at like Best Buy. Bestie's Sony's PlayStation 5 shortage, that was an accident, a product of the pandemic. But the scarcity it generated has been a powerful extender of demand the past couple years. So the way Jack and I see it, it may be time for Sony to consider an accident. The accidental shortage.

Unpurpose. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us to kick off the week? Amazon's ad sales are now 10 times bigger than Snapchat and a third as big as Facebook. But Jack, they're breaking the number one rule of Bezos. Customer obsession. For our second story, Trader Joe's just unveiled the Trader Joe's product Hall of Fame. Yet these great brands have fans and fans should be nurtured. And our third and final story is Sony.

They just announced that PlayStation 5 sales are stronger than ever. But we're waiting for someone to pull the accidental shortage on purpose. Yet. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Adam Speck over in lovely Saratoga Springs, New York. This fact is about the potato chip, which has a really funny origin story. Yeah, he's apparently the potato chip was born on a train in upstate New York in 1853. Cornelius Vanderbilt, a railroad baron, was complaining that the potatoes being served on trains were too thick and too soggy.

Like, what's going on with these limp potatoes? Well, after the dish was sent back multiple times, the chef on his train had an idea. He's like, why am I serving these sliced potatoes that sounds horrible? How about instead I sliced them very thinly, fry them to a crisp, and sprinkle them with some salt? Well, Mr. Vandebel loved those new potato thingies so much, he put them. them on all his trains. Imagine if he had nach cheese and cool ranch flavored ones next. And thus the potato chip was born.

Yetis, you look fantastic to kick off the week. And if you just got yourself a chicken, tell that chicken, H-Y-H-T-B-O-Y. Have you had the best one yet? That's how we grow the pod, even among poultry. Nick and I, we'll see you tomorrow. Can't wait. And before we go, a happy birthday to Yeti Camelia Huang, who is turning three in Rock Round, Texas.

And go blue to Catherine Jones, who's turning 22 at the University of Michigan. And Max D, enjoy that 30th birthday down in Brooklyn. And happy birthday to Yulia Edie Menko in Los Angeles, California. And Aubrey Allen, happy 13th birthday in Geneva, Illinois. Happy birthday to Ad Faith Cora, who's driving to school right now in Indianapolis, Indiana. And just a shout out to Yeti Haas Man, who gave us a fantastic review on Apple and has been teaboying with us since the pandemic. Happy anniversary to Kirsten and... in Alejo, who got two dogs and our big investors in puppy.

Puppy. People ultimately prioritize puppies. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. To anyone else who's celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins.

This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon and Nick and I both own stock of Robin Hood. Now a word about our sponsor, Robin Hood. Okay, so Jack and I both worked in finance for a while. And we know the six-monitor Bloomberg, with charts, numbers, balances, and more charts. They got coffees in both hands while they're executing some complex trade on a soybean future. Well, we're not trying to impress with our Mission Control Trading Center.

Just give us an app, please. Robin Hood, with its mobile first and intuitive design, it lets you trade with just a few quick taps on their app. And even if things still don't seem easy, Robin Hood has your back 24-7 with its live and robust customer support. If you're not investing on Robin Hood yet, to get started, go to robin hood.com slash T-boy and choose your free stock. That's Robin Hood.com slash T-B-O-Y. Limitations apply.

Robin Hood Financial LLC, member SIPC, all investments involved for us. By the way, this podcast is not owned by or part of Robin Hood, and we are not employees of Robin Hood.