The Best One Yet - “Uber Eats Pass” gets leaked, Target is retail-pocalypse-proof, and the Boeing update you wanted

Episode Date: May 23, 2019

A “reverse-engineering specialist” discovered within code in the Uber Eats app plans to release a $9.99/month unlimited food delivery service. Yesterday we told you how the retail-pocalypse is crushing JCPenny — Today we jump into how Target is thriving through it. And Snacks Daily listeners asked us for an update on Boeing... so we’re giving it to them.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. This is snacks. Daily, it's Thursday. May 23rd, and this is the best one yet. Honestly, we spent a lot of time on them this week. Stocks barely budged, even though the Fed released its minutes and showed it's going to be pretty chill with interest rates. I just want to emphasize, I really do think this is the best snacks daily we've done.

We got three great stories for it. Please, keep breakdown on the first one. A leak has revealed that Uber Eats, the delivery company, is working on free food delivery subscription for $999 per month. I love a good leak. I also like a good sweet green salad, so I'm. really interested in this one. Second story, a change of pace from yesterday when we told you about department stores that are dying. It was depressing. Target just searched 8% because it's one of the ones that's winning. We're going to jump into Tarjeet and tell you why. Third and final story is Boeing.

Snackers have been tweeting on us that they want a Boeing update. Bowing, Boeing, Boeing. So after two months of drip, drip, drip, drip news, we're giving it to you. We always listen to our snackers. I really like doing that, Jack. But before we get into that, I know wine gets finer with the age, but does beer? Well, we kind of have a situation here we can find out. An Israeli researcher has discovered a pot that's 5,000 years old. This thing is ancient. We're talking about like Pharaoh's pot here. And it contains yeast, which is a key ingredient of beer.

Apparently, the culture of yeast were able to survive in this little pot for eons. So this israeli... Aions? Aeon's. This Israeli microbiologist decided to take the yeast and brew some beer. Apparently is a microbrewer, too, on this side. Apparently. They brew the beer, and the microbiologist said it's actually not bad, which is great.

Which is also humble because a taster from the International Beer Judge Certification Program. That is a very big deal. Gave it two thumbs up. Which is critical. We're talking about an IPA-ish kind of a situation. So apparently the Farrow with drinking beer, that's not bad. There is definitely some snacks listener in, like, Portland, Oregon who's like, you know what, I've been brewing with ancient yeast for decades. If that's true, tweet out us at Robin Hood Snacks.

But before we hit our stories, listen to these important words. You're tuned in the snacks daily. We spoke to the lawyers and we got to get some. out the way. The 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.

You know, we're not recommending any securities. It's not a research report or investment advice. Not an offer or sale of a security. Right. Snacks is digestible. Business news for you. Robahood Financial, LLC, member FINRA slash SIPC. For our first story, a leak just revealed that Uber Eats is working on an

limited food delivery subscription. Wow. Let that sink in. Excited to sign up. Sit on your couch and just let this one see. I got chicken teakam masala and saug panir. On the brain. Comment toy.

Is that your go-to-old delivery? Indian food for sure. The best thing about ordering that food takeout or delivery? What? It's even better 48 hours later. Let those flavors sink in. Just like mom's lasagna. Let the saffron.

48 hours later. Sink in. Now, Jack, can you like sell me on what this product is from Uber Eats? Yeah, let me give you the sales pitch. Eats hasn't announced this yet, but this is how they would do it. And it's called Uber Eats Pass. Right. Uber Eats Pass. For $9.99 per month, you get unlimited Uber Eads delivery, and it's going to waive

that 15% delivery fee. I see why Uber does, like, banner ads. That was not as enthusiastic as I thought you'd get on this thing. Because this is like, you can just sit at home and order every day all day with this. But you still have to reach that little minimum amount. Now, the minimum amount is key, because they don't want to lose money because you just ordered, I don't know, some non-bread. One garlic non-bread.

No. That's uneconomical. You got to hit that. the food minimum, a square balanced meal, your mom would appreciate this. Now, what's arguably more exciting than the product itself is the way that this news leaked. Oh, we jumped in snacks out of here more about it. So can we tell this story, please? Jane Manchun Wong is a notorious reverse engineering specialist. Don't know if that's on her LinkedIn, but that's what she's known for in the world of technology. Now, this is what she does. She looks at the code that's available

on some of the apps, and she finds things that are hidden in it, like what's going on in the Uber Eats app. And she takes screenshots on her phone of this, like, code that most of us can't see, but she, like, peels open the internet, peels open the app, and she saw a couple of juicy quotes. If you're picturing something from Harry Potter, you're absolutely right. It kind of looks like this. So she found a quote that said, get free delivery, any restaurant, anytime. And then she saw this image of the Uber Eats pass, like, entryway package, and it also said how much you could save on each order with Uber Eats Pass versus just a one-time delivery. This was all baked into the code. She knew she found something juicy. So she called up TechCrunch,

which she's done a few times, which is a tech news company. And she tipped them off and said, cover this cool story. She becomes their tipster. Is she making money off this? I don't think so. She probably could be. TechCrunch probably isn't paying her. What she could have done is told Uber Eats about this and said, pay me money or I'm sending this to TechCrunch. Jane, you got some real value here. You can come to us too any time. Now, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Uber Eats? Food subscriptions. Subscriptions in general are all about guilt loyalty. It's so true. DoorDash, Postmates, your food delivery throwbacks, they all have the same monthly commitment pass that it looks like Uber may be whipping out pretty soon.

So Uber Eats is just matching those competitors. But once it does match those competitors, you're not going to order your favorite Han Dynasty Don Don Don't Noodles. I like that. Via caviar if you've already paid a $10 a month Uber Eats pass. Exactly. the Uber Eats Pass demands your loyalty, turns it into a habit, and then that grows Uber Eats. So unless you're cashing out 20 bucks a month, your loyalty is just going to lie with one of these companies. And then once you're addicted... Oh, I know what's happening.

Once you've developed a habit of ordering out... Don't even tell you. Four nights a week. Oh, it's brutal. That's when Uber Eats is going to jack up the price. On my favorite numping chicken sandwich. For our second story, Target Target, Target, just officially made its comeback official. Yeah.

Or targets for all our Midwestern listeners. we told like everyone here, everyone on snacks daily yesterday about the department store drama that was going on with Jason. It was really bad. And C. And Coles. And Coles. Today, yesterday, Nordstrom was also very bad.

Then Target came out of nowhere and surged 8% on Wall Street. It's like the exact opposite. We were super curious. We decided to jump into this. It all got summed up perfect. Oh my God. This is the kind of moment where Jack and I are like, thank you. Here we go.

We are continuing to see the bifurcation of winners and losers in retail. That's a direct quote from the CEO. of Target during the earnings announcement. Couldn't have said it any better ourselves. He's basically doing our work for us. We love this kind of outsourcing target. Sales rose 4.8% for Target nationwide. And those gains were at the expense of JCPenney for sure.

And it's because Target has done some fascinating things here to get you all up in the app and all in the doors. Okay, so you can do curbside pickup at Target. Yeah, we got to talk about these. These are cool. You know, you're at work and you realize you don't have any toilet paper at home. Again, we have to always deal with this. You order it online and then when you get to the store on your way home from work, you can just pull over at the curb, run inside and grab it.

Right. But they have an extra perk if you do it via the app. What a way to get people in the app. If you do it, if you order it via the app. So you want the toilet paper, but you're a little lazy. They'll send Johnny the bagger to carry the groceries out and give it to your car. You know, it's like a drive-through play situation. It's fantastic.

Well, they acquired an entire delivery company called Ship. That was about a year ago. That was about a year ago. $99 a year a year. You can deliver same day with online orders. We're talking like before you even realize you want the toilet paper, you could probably get the toilet paper. That's Uber Eats Pass, but for entire grocery cards full of stuff. Shipping it the same day.

That's a big deal in shipping land. There's a lot of logistics that go away. Finally, they are embracing retail disruptors. We're talking like direct-to-consumer brands that typically just sell directly to you. Get this. If you walk through your local target, you'll find Casper, Quip toothbrushes, native, which is another all-natural, non-Beber deodorant. You got Harry's razors in there. So instead of viewing them as

enemies, they're kind of making it like a cool place to go to Target and see what's going on. Which is also crazy because these direct-to-consumer companies are based off the idea of not selling their products anywhere but their own websites. Yeah, they're embracing the middleman. It's exactly the kind of marriage you wouldn't expect to see, but Target's pulling this thing off.

They really are. It's almost like you walk into a Target, and it feels like a very cool department store. You really are loving this Target strategy. Jack and I were talking I really like that analogy a lot. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Targier? You want to know how to survive the retail Poculips? Talk to me.

Spending. Natural reaction to whenever you're losing the battle against Amazon is cut costs. Because then you think maybe I can still salvage a little bit of profits. Squeeze them out like some wet toilet paper. And that's like the natural thing to do. Like if you lose your job, you're probably going to cut costs. But it's different for businesses. No, because once you start cutting those costs, it becomes a vicious cycle, like circle of,

circle of life, but depressing hell like the fanscape. Yeah, you start cutting costs and the morale of the employees at the store goes down. The experience at the store goes down. And that leads to even lower sales. I was hoping for a third goes down. It's a vicious circle. And companies like Sears and J.C. pennies, they've been cutting costs. But Target and Walmart, they spent big in the face of Amazon.

And both are not only surviving. I'd say thriving. Let's go with it. For our third and final story, Boeing. It's been two months since we last covered them. Oh, my God. And we were hearing from Snackers like middle of the night they wanted an update on this. Well, like, every day the Wall Street Journal has a front page, tiny little micro update about Boeing.

Drip, drip. It's like a little bit of Boeing news dripping along the whole way. So we've like captured all those drips into a jar, Mason jar. And now we're going to, where should we go to this analogy? We're going to feed you. We're going to open your mouth here. We're going to pour you some Boeing update. All right. You ready? Please.

Well, let's provide the sad context. Okay. In October and in March, two separate plane crashes happened. They were both 737 max planes. Now, since then, those planes have been grounded. And Boeing's been really busy doing a lot of things to try to fix it. It's got software updates. It's trying to retrain the pilots.

Its PR team has been in overload mode, just trying to like handle all these bad stories. They must be on steroids. Good luck to you guys. And currently, that software update and the retraining of pilots, that's like pending regulatory approval and its planes will continue to be grounded until then. But there are two kind of key pieces of news from the last month you got to know about. The first one's more internal. The second one's more extra.

All right. Internal has to do with a New York Times investigation of the South Carolina plant where a lot of Boeing planes are made. So the New York Times Daily podcast listened to some whistleblowers and discovered that, like, they were pointing out, hey, this part doesn't work. They would tell their boss and their boss be like, yeah, no big deal, no big deal. Yeah, bottom line, it was a really bad look for Boeing's culture and it suggested they were cutting corners. And then what happened like yesterday on this news? The head of that South Carolina plant got like reassigned. and sent back to his home country of Australia.

So that is the internal drama. The external drama is playing out on like the world stage. Yeah. Lots of airlines have 737s that they can't use. They're the core Boeing customers because they buy the planes. Those planes cost a lot of money and they need to make a lot of money. And travel season starts to this weekend? Right now.

I'm pretty sure. Memorial Day weekend. Not only that, this is the busiest travel season on record in the United States as you try to get to anywhere that's a little less hot and a little less humid than wherever you are right now. So you got a lot of companies, a lot of airlines that are making less profit this summer because they don't have their full fleet of planes. First, we're talking about the top three Chinese airlines, which are like, hey, you need to compensate me. We can't use your planes. And then you got Ryanair. Exactly. Just not happy either. If you study abroad in Europe,

you probably flew that for 15 bucks a seat every day. And this is a global phenomenon. You got airlines in Norway, Poland, India. All of this is expected to cost $100 million in compensation per month that the 737 maxes are grounded. So they want $100 million per month from Boeing because they can't use their Boeing planes? Correct. Exactly. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Boeing? Boeing's only got one big threat, and it's a super big threat, and it's super long-term.

I love the superness of this thing. Now, this is not our bold prediction, but it is the bold prediction of some serious airline experts who, snack style, we like to delve into to learn more about the industry. We're seeing some whispers out there that China could be building its own Boeing slash Airbus rival. Now, we've got to back this 77 thing up for a second. In the airplane manufacturing industry. It's a fascinating industry. But it's a duopoly.

Exactly. There are two companies that basically own the whole thing. Yeah. We're talking the wide-body planes with a couple of big engines and like six seats per row. Yeah, you know what we're talking. 99% of those sales are Boeing or Airbus, which is a European company. Exactly. Now, there is a third very small company.

here called... A tiny little baby company. We're talking, do they even like serve the hors d'oeuvres on this? Commercial Aircraft Corp of China. It's like a peanut packet size. Now, China has wanted to grow that company, but maybe it will be emboldened by this Boeing drama to really grow that company. Right.

China wants to become the third big player in this duopoly market, and we're starting to see some signs that this is their opportunity. First, these Chinese airlines were the loudest ones demanding compensation right now from Boeing. And then China was actually the first country to ground the Boeing. 737 max planes when it showed there were issues. Now, you got the United States banning Huawei from the United States. Maybe China would like to retaliatory of this thing? Ban Boeing in China.

The bottom line, China could be the biggest threat to Boeing if it wants to grow its plane at exactly this time. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways over there for us? Uber Eats is offering free delivery passes for $10 a month so that you become guilty, loyal. This is dangerous and probably great for Netflix. Target has spent a lot of money, and that was its. It's key to surviving to retail apoculus. Splurge.

You just got a splurge. That's how you work your way out. And then Boeing. It's actually doing okay company-wise during this awkward summer of no travel for 737 max. But its one big threat is China. Coming out of nowhere. Now, time for our snack fact of the day. This one sent in by a legendary snacker and the creator of the word fomo.

The term, FOMO. The term FOMO. No joke. Patrick McInnes. Patrick also hosts a podcast called FOMO sapiens. True. We're big fans. We were interviewed on them.

It's a great podcast, and he doesn't like missing out on his, I would say, boot sales? He's a maniac. Literally. He's from Maine. Figuratively. He tells us that L.O. Beam, which is based in Freeport, Maine, has only closed its stores thrice. Okay?

Three times. It's open year-round, but it closed the day that the founder died, the day that JFK was assassinated. And it closed the day that recent CEO Leon Gorman died in 2015. Now, if you are a maniac like Patrick, then you'll also probably think we're idiots for not knowing the fact that the thing to do in Maine is like to go to LLB and because it's literally open every single day. On Christmas, on Thanksgiving. It's what you do in Maine.

Every day. Lobsters are cliche. Getting involved in the boots is not. It's a main thing. Now, there were a couple other stories yesterday. You should check out our Snacks Daily newsletter. The first is that Amazon actually had its annual shareholder meeting and it voted down a big climate change plan. And second, Victoria's Secrets lost a lot of market share and we got to break down its earnings for you.

Jack, really enjoyed doing the pot with you today. I like the green shirt, by the way. Likewise. Thank you. We will catch up with you all tomorrow. 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 views 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 service. 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.