The Best One Yet - 🧸 “Toy-vasion” — Toys ‘R’ Us’ land-air-sea plans. Covid’s Nobel Prize. Sphere’s U2 concert.

Episode Date: October 3, 2023

Toys ‘R’ Us is back with an ambitious expansion plan that they call “land, air, and sea” — Because location isn’t just a physical place, it’s also a mindset.The Nobel Prize was awarded to 2 scientists who invented the mRNA platform — But the surprise winner of the COVID vaccine is UPenn.And the Sphere in Las Vegas just hosted its 1st concert, so the stock popped 15% — This 8th wonder of the world highlights a new phenomenon: “Second-Screening.”$SPHR $AMC $MRNA $PFESubscribe to our newsletter: tboypod.com/newsletterWant merch, a shoutout, or got TheBestFactYet? Go to: www.tboypod.comFollow The Best One Yet on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypodAnd now watch us on Youtube Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Tuesday, T-Boy. Tuesday, October 3rd. And today's pod, it is the best one yet. What a T-Boy, Jack. On October 3rd, he asked me what day it was. It's October 3rd.

Two weeks later, we spoke again. That's all we got to say about that. First story, what do we got for the show, Jack? Toys R Us is coming back from bankruptcy with the strangest strategy we've ever heard. Toys R Us is expanding by land, by air, and by sea. Somebody grabbed G.I. Joe. He's needed in aisle six. Second story, what do we got, Jack?

Two scientists were just awarded the Nobel Prize for inventing the M-R-N-A vaccine. But the real winner of the COVID-Vax? It's the University of Pennsylvania. And our third and final story, the Las Vegas Sphere just hosted its first concert ever, and it lit up social media. Sphere stocked on 15% because it is officially the eighth wonder of the world. Well, unofficially. We're calling it that.

We're thinking about the Romans. We literally were talking about the redons. We actually were just talking about the romance. Yes, we were. But yet, he's, before you hit that wonderful mix. Aquedox, wonderful mix for a T-Boy Tuesday, Jack. You just ordered that double-digit latte. And then the barista flips the screen for one more question.

Boom, we've all been there. The awkward tip standoff. 18%, 20% 22% Jack. Or the dreaded no tip button and get the dirty stare down. We're talking, of course, about tip fatigue. We've warned you about it on the pot a couple months ago. Tip fatigue. It's in all of us. We're all feeling that right now, Jack.

The proliferation of screens have created more places where we have to decide to tip or not. And tip creep has led to tip fatigue, which leads now to a tip turnaround. A majority of Americans are fed up with the pressure to tip right now. We're tired of the tipping out there. People are feeling the tip fatigue. So get this. The average U.S. tip across the board for restaurants, coffee shops, and bodegas. It is down to 18.9.

But we just got more juicy information on Americans' tipping habits. Toast just unveiled which American states tip the most and which American states tip the least. That's right. We have the list of the best tipping states and the worst tipping states. Jack, whip out the whiteboard for us. What is the most generous state for tipping out there? The most generous tipping state is one of the smallest states. Because Yeti's the highest tipping state in the union is Delaware. Delaware. Delaware tips 21.5% on average. The fighting blue hens.

Our first state is also our nicest state. If you want to work at the Olive Garden, you better hit up the one in Wilmington. Because Delaware does tipping. Cha-ching. So if Delaware is the top tipping state, which state tips the least? Oh, Yeties, Jack and I don't want to throw anyone under the bus.

So we'll tell you at the end of the pod. We're going to throw you under the bus at the end of the pod. We don't want to shame you at the beginning of the show. We'll shame you later. Jack, let's hit our three stories. Fifteen years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm.

It's the best one yet, but 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 the show. Start the show. For our first story, six years after declaring bankruptcy,

See, Toys R Us is opening 24 flagship stores by next year. More than just stores, Nick. Toys R Us is focusing on land, air, and sea. This is wild. But Yeties, it is also a key time for the toy industry, isn't it, Jack? October, fourth quarter just began. That's when 40% of a company's annual sales happened for toys. Perfect timing. Toys R Us just announced that they are back from the dead.

Jeffrey Giraff is alive. He's alive. Yeties, in 27th,000. Toys R Us shut down each and every one of their 700 plus U.S. locations. Toys R Us and their backwards are declared bankruptcy. It was tough, Jack. It was the saddest day for kids since your Tomogatchi's battery died. Furby, never forget.

But in 2021, a private equity firm bought that Toys R Us brand and opened the first new store in New Jersey. That went well. So they opened new stores within stores at 400 different Macy's department stores. You could actually go to a Toys R Us in the Macy's, and this worked really well, didn't it, Jack? Yeah, the kid comes in for the Barbie, and the mom leaves with a blast, too. Store within a store, Inception, retail. Not too shabby. Toys or Us gained some momentum. But here's the news, which is a grand crescendo of that momentum. So well put, Jack. Yeties, Toys are us owners are seeing so much demand, they've got a bold new comeback strategy.

And they're calling it the Land, Air, and Sea campaign. We'll repeat the Land, the Land, Air, and Sea. campaign. Toys R Us is literally launching stores on Earth's three vital elements. The CEO talking about this sounded like General MacArthur, Jack. They're storming the beaches with retail. So yet is Jack and I jumped in T-Boy style. Here's how it's going to break down. The first Toys R Us stores are going to be on the land.

Toys R Us is planning 24 new flagship locations across the U.S. in prime cities. We're talking theme park style, like Picture Duncan's toy chest from Hull Alone or dancing pianos, like we saw in big, that's what you're going to get. They're coming next year. They sound pretty exciting. But here's the thing, 80s. It's not just the land. The Toys R Us stores are also coming to airports. Dallas-Fort Worth Airport. You're getting to Toys R Us right next to Gate 34B.

Is Plato a Liquid? Doesn't matter. TSA can't confiscate it if you buy after the gate. But it's not just land. It's not just air. Toys R Us is coming to the sea. Carnival Cruises. Congratulations. You're getting a Toys R Us store. right off the starboard bow.

It's the biggest new thing for cruises since Jack Dawson painted rose. If you went overboard, then you got too far, Jack. Now, this is an aggressive plan for a company that was bankrupt just six years ago. It's very aggressive, isn't it, Jack? But here's the strategy behind the strategy. That strategy behind the strategy is our takeaway. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Toys R Us? Location isn't just a place.

It's also a mindset. Yeties. The number one piece of advice that you, here in retail. It's about location, location, location. You need to be where the people are. On the busy street corner, at the important intersection, or it's just the cool location. But Toys R Us thinks it's not just about where the customer physically is, but where the customer is happiest. Like on vacation. At the end of a business trip, you can grab some hot wheels for your podson before you get on the plane. Or on a cruise, get a little Johnny, a care bear, so he has a first mate for that voyage.

So Toys R Us is thinking about location, based on the moods, that people are in while they're there. Because nothing keeps the vacay vibes going like a magnet doodle and a polypocket. Locations, they're not just defined by the physical, but also by the psychological. For our second story, without two people. And one photocopier machine. We would never have had the COVID vaccine. Those two people just won the Nobel Prize.

But the surprise winner is the University of Pennsylvania. So, Jack, who invented the COVID vaccine? feels like some good trivia. Wasn't it Madonna or was it Pfizer? It wasn't Johnson and Johnson, wasn't? You're thinking Johnson and Johnson? That was my first shot. Yeties, those three pharmaceutical companies made the vaccine,

but they did not invent it. Because besties, the vaccine for COVID was actually invented 15 years earlier. And this week, the inventors of that vaccine won the highest honor of science. The Nobel Prize. It's Nobel Prize week. Every day, a new Nobel Prize is going to be given out in a whole different field. And on Monday, the Nobel Prize for Medicine went to Catalan Carrico and Drew Weissman. Those two invented the technology back in 2005 that saved millions of lives in 2021. Yeti's back in the 1990s, these brand new Nobel Prize winners were just colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania.

Actually, they didn't even know each other. That's the funny thing. But then one day, they happened to run into each other at a photocopier. She was a molecular biologist. He was an immunologist. They both had to copy something. Forget the water cooler, the photocopier is where the real ideas come, Jack. At the time, though, Dr. Criko was struggling.

She'd recently immigrated from Hungary and just wasn't progressing well. Yeah, her last few medical experiments were failures. In fact, she had just been demoted at the University of Pennsylvania. But she had an idea, and she had strong conviction on her idea. Carriko's idea was to modify messenger RNA and give it a message to go in and change her body. And then Weissman showed that injecting these messenger RNA RNA into the body could act as a really beneficial and effective vaccine. And together, they published a signature paper in 2005 that invented the modified MRNA,

and it got zero attention. It got like no attention. It actually didn't go anywhere. The top journals didn't even want to publish it. Carrico hope that one day, maybe one person in her lifetime, would be saved by their breakthrough invention. Yeties, in 2005, the two inventors of MRNA vaccines hoped to save one person's life. But 15 years later, they saved a whole bunch of lives.

Yeties, when COVID hit, the drug companies built the COVID vaccines in record speed thanks to their MRNA platform. Every COVID shot was built on the platform that Carrico and Weissman had invented 15 years earlier. They didn't save one life. They saved millions of lives. Thanks partially to that photocopier. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in the whole medical industry? The surprise winner here weren't the inventors or the drug companies. It was the University of Pennsylvania.

Yet these two professors invented the COVID vaccine platform, but now the University of Pennsylvania owns that platform. That's right. Every single time Pfizer or Moderna sell a COVID vaccine, they send a royalty check to Philadelphia. Because the Ivy League University patented that breakthrough MRNA technology of Carrico and Weissman's. And to date, 13 billion COVID vaccines based on... their MRNA technology have been sold.

And Jack, how much money has the University of Pennsylvania made on those 13 billion vaccines? Because they own the patent, they've made a billion dollars on royalties. The University of Pennsylvania made a billion dollars on the COVID vaccine technology that they own. Now, Yeties, those Quakers in Philadelphia, they reinvest those royalties to hire more professors so they can fund more research and come up with more breakthroughs. Oh, it's shocking that the warden MBAs haven't IPOed this technology already. Jack. But what about Carrico and Weissman, you might be thinking? Well, don't worry about those two scientists. They did pretty well, didn't they, Jack? Yeah, Carrico worked at Biontech, which made the

vaccine with Pfizer and probably got a bunch of stock options. And both Carrico and Weissman got a million dollars each for winning the Nobel Prize. So two professors invented the most important vaccine of our lifetime, but the University of Pennsylvania owns it. For our third and final story, The Sphere, the publicly traded entertainment company just opened The Ninth Wonder of the World. It's in Las Vegas. You've probably seen pictures of it on social. So we'll explain the business.

Yetis, in July, we told you about this. We covered on this pod the sphere. The giant $2 billion hemisphere that is bulging out of the ground next to the Las Vegas trip. This is the largest physical sphere on the entire Earth. The entire exterior of this sphere is a massive screen the size of the pyramids. It's not just massive. It's massively massive. this screen is a record 580,000 square feet.

Can we sprinkle on some context here, Jack? It's 100 iMacs of screen in one giant outdoor screen. And that giant sphere made news in July when the outside was turned on. But this weekend, the inside, turned on. That's right, because you, too, the legendary Irish band, christened the sphere with a concert on Saturday evening, and this thing took off. Among those in attendance were Matt Damon, Katie Perry, Orlando Bloom. Oh, keep going, Jack. Who else we got?

Dr. Dre, Paul McCartney, Oprah all attended the opening of the sphere. They literally listened to the song Vertical while they got Vertica. That's how big it is. So clearly, this unique concert was culturally significant. But here's Jackson my question. Is it financially significant? Well, we now have the numbers to answer that question. And it's a definite, hello, hello.

Oh, we got to talk about the profit-pubby potential here, Jack. Yeti's the sphere. It's a publicly traded company. That's how we have the numbers on this thing. And after the successful debut concert opening the sphere, the stock popped 15% on Monday. Because as YouTube played the stage, the real shock was the screen enveloping the fans that none of us had actually seen. Yeah, the sphere is hollow. And the inside of the shell is also a giant screen.

So yeties, here's how the business breaks down. On the outside of the sphere, they make money as the most valuable billboard in the world seen by the entire city. But the inside of the sphere also makes money, selling very expensive tickets for a life-changing immersive concert. But here's the funny thing. It's not just concerts that are being performed in this sphere, or is it, Jack? Filmmakers are producing videos just for that sphere's unique inner screen. And they plan on showing three films every single day inside the sphere in Las Vegas. And the ticket to watch one of these films inside the sphere?

It's not your AMC theater ticket. No, what kind of numbers are talking here, Jack? Tickets sell for $50 on the low end up to $250, depending on the seat. And we're not even talking about the $14 for junior mince there. This is so crazy. The Sphere has 20,000 seats, too. It's more like an arena than a movie theater. Yet he's, it's as big as Madison Square Garden, selling tickets for as much as the Nick sell tickets.

But there's three games every day with a YouTube concert afterwards. At $250 a ticket, that is the pedigree of a profit puppy. And that's why Sphere stock jumped 50. 15% on Monday, valuing the company at $1.5 billion. Which happens to be the same value as AMC theaters and all of its 10,000 screens. One giant screen versus 10,000 screens. So Jack and I whipped up a takeaway about screens. Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in the entertainment industry?

We've entered the era of second screening. Yeties, in Mary Meeker's famous internet trends report, she just noted that 88% of us use a second. screen while we're watching TV. You're watching the bear on Hulu while Googling Mikey's spaghetti recipe on the iPad over there. Or you're crunching Excel on your work laptop while you're flipping Instagram on your phone. We all do it. We've all done it. It's called second screening. Second screening. And Jack and I have noticed the omnipotence of two screens in the entertainment world. To enhance the value of the first screen, we're increasingly involving a second screen. Well, the way we see it,

the sphere is the ultimate expression of that second screening phenomenon. The first screen, is what you see on stage. Where the concert's happening. But there's a giant second screen surrounding everything. So besties, any business looking to entertain should consider how to use a second screen to supplement the first. Because one screen can impress you. Two screens immerses you.

And that is second screening. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us for T-Boy Tuesday? Toys R Us has an ambitious comeback plan by land, by air, and by sea. Oh, it gets me every time because Yeti's location isn't just a place. Location is a mindset. For our second story, Catalin Carrico and Drew Iceman just got a Nobel Prize for inventing the MRNA platform. But the surprise winner was the University of Pennsylvania Quakers who happened to patent that invention. And our third and final story is The Sphere.

They hosted you two and a bunch of celebs for their debut concert there this past weekend. Because we're in the era of second screening. But yet, he's this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, Sam Bankman-Fried's trial for his massive crypto fraud at FTX begins today with a jury selection. Also today, Michael Lewis's new book on Sam Bankman-Fried debutses for sale. It's called Going Infinite. And second, after years of struggles, Smile Direct Club has declared bankruptcy.

Smile Direct Club's stock fell 60% yesterday. Smile Direct Club keeps operating for now until Invisaline. probably eats it up. And finally, remember when we said that Taylor Swift's Erez tour was coming to movie theaters this month? October 12th, I think. Well, so is Beyonce's, and it's October 13th. Beyonce is in talks with AMC theaters to turn her Renaissance tour into a film. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one whipped up by Jack and me to tell you the worst tipping states in America. At the beginning of the pod, we told you Delaware was the best tipping state. Delaware's average tip is 21.5% not too, too,

Shabby, Deli. Well, let's go to the other Nick, the measly Mongols down at the bottom of the tipping chain. The fourth worst tipping state in America, it's actually a tie between Florida and Nevada. Apparently, people don't tip when they're on vacation, Jack. The second worst

tipping state is Washington State. The weather's not great. It's rainy over there. Maybe you don't like the rain see you tip less. And the number one, worst tipping state in America? It's California, Jack. Californians tip on average just 17.4%. Which means, Yetis, that Californians tip 20% less than Delawareians do.

Now, as a former Olive Garden Wine Salesman of the month, institution. I tip 22 to 25% no matter what. You don't have to be from Delaware to leave a good tip, Yeties. Yettys, you look fantastic for T-Boy Tuesday. And if you haven't yet, you should sign up for our newsletter. And where can you do that, Jack? T-boypod.com slash newsletter. In tomorrow's newsletter, we're going to answer the,

First, ask us almost anything question. If you want to know how much Jack and I tip on that double-digit latte, we're going to tell you in the newsletter. Even though I just told you a minute ago on this pod. But we're going to find out if that's really what you tip Jack in the newsletter. Nick and I, we'll see you tomorrow. If you know, you know. Before we go, a happy 50th birthday to Yeti Carlos Nooyola down in Monterey, Mexico, the home

of Topo Chico. And happy 26th birthday to Hannah Gable. High School Homecoming Queen over in Cleveland. And Jackie Lopez is living it up for her birthday celebrating in the Cayman Islands. And a huge happy birthday to Alexa Marino from Chicago, now living over in the sunset. And congratulations to Tim and Dana Maloney celebrating their fifth anniversary over in Sea Ranch, California. And to anyone else, celebrate something today, make it a tea boy. Celebrate the wins.

This is Jack on stock of Madurna. And Nick went to Penn. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha