The Best One Yet - 🌮 “Uno. Dos. Taco.” — Duolingo’s language cafe. Target’s tumble. Women’s Soccer’s payday.

Episode Date: May 19, 2022

Target and Walmart stocks just had their worst days since 1987 because you’re not buying TVs anymore - you’re buying Barbie Dolls. The language-learning app Duolingo’s newest product is… a taco restaurant? And in one of the biggest money moves in history, American women’s soccer is getting a historic payday.$DUOL $TGT $WMTFollow us 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. It's Thursday, the new Friday, May 19th, and today's pod is the best one yet, Jack. It's a T-B-O-Y. Speaking of T-B-O-Y, tomorrow is the first episode of T-Boy Live. Yeah, chat with us, 3 p.m. Eastern, 12 p.m. Pacific only on Instagram. You got to follow us at T-boy Pot. Jack, can you share with us the catchphrase you whipped up for the event?

Oh, yeah, this is going to be our first live event of many, unless this goes terribly wrong. In the meantime, what's our first story? Target and Walmart just had their worst stock market days in 30 years. Because they showed us America's receipt and is not looking good. Jack. For our second story, the U.S. Soccer Federation just announced they'll pay women and men the same pay. Which makes sense because soccer is always tied one-one. Always.

For our third and final story. Duolingo is a language learning app to teach you Spanish. But Duolingo just opened a Mexican restaurant. But before we hit that wonderful mix, I mean, is this the new Friday or is this the new Friday, Jack? Nick, I was a teacher's assistant at Michigan, teach an econ. You know what I told my students? Talk to me. What do you talk to that about?

There's no such thing as a free lunch. Okay, if you took econ 101, you're getting lectured like seven classes that everything has a cost. No free lunches. There's no such thing as a free lunch, but guess what? Grubhubhub, respectfully disagrees. Yesterday, the food delivery app literally gave out free lunches, a lot of them.

Grubhub gave out a free lunch to all New Yorkers, all 9 million people. No joke. For three hours, Grubhub offered free lunch to anyone using their app in the biggest city in the United States. All New Yorkers, all five boroughs, fans of both baseball teams.

Jack, we're talking taxi drivers and Brooklyn bankers on Wall Street, babysitters and Queens, free lunches. Grubhubb Hub was dishing out free $15 lunch promo codes like it was Oprah. You get a Cuban sandwich. You get a Cuban sandwich. Well, that marketing stunt,

it generated some interest. It got 6,000 orders. Every single minute, 6,000 orders. So there were so many orders, the bakers and the burger flippers got brutally backed up. There were not enough delivery drivers to drop off the delicious dishes.

At the end of the day, less than half of the free Grubhubhub promotional lunches, even made it to the diners. Because Grubhub didn't give the restaurants the heads up. So restaurants weren't ready for the onslaught of orders. Ipso facto Grubbub tried to defy the law of a free lunch. And Grubhub failed.

Jack, the takeaway? Gwok is always extra. Let's rip up our three stories. Which are always extra. 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 the best is the 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 the show. Start the show.

For our first story, if you want to know how America is spending our money, you look at Walmart and you look at Target. Americans are spending less and they're spending differently. Clean up aisle six. We need to clean up all the big box chain companies. Besties, when Home Depot, Lowe's and the container store all report earnings on the same day. It's like seeing one really, really long receipt for America. Are you picturing those CVS receipts? Just like one long, three foot long receipt.

Hands across America style receipt. It's a long receipt. That's what these stores are. But the two most important big box stores are Walmart and Target. Yeah, and they reported earnings too this week and their Stocks just had their worst days since 1987. Walmart's down 18% since Monday. Target's down 25% just yesterday. Now, pretty straightforward reason why 2022 sales growth slowed because 2021 was so good. It's hard to compare. But even worse, Walmart and Target showed us that Americans' spending has changed in two ways.

It's changed. Really interesting ways. Neither one of those ways is good for Walmart or Target. All right. Let's start off with Target. First of all, you go into Target for one specific thing, and you walk out with like an entire bedroom of stuff. I mean, honey, let's go in for the tweezers. How did we leave with the whole bathroom?

Jack, by the way, the brand I've seen most referenced on TikTok these days, it's Target. Target is TikTok. Target husbands. Target wives. Target families. Target couples. It's like gravity. Target pulls you in.

Here's the change we saw from Target's results. It's a big change. We Americans are buying experience-based products, not... Home goods. Exactly. So you're buying stuff for going out, not the stuff for staying in anymore. We're buying luggage for trips or like stuff you need for a birthday party. So like less patio furniture, more balloons and pinaas for Becky's big backyard barbecue birthday. I don't know why I threw the barbecue in there, Jack, but let's just write. Okay. This pod so far is the definition of alliteration, by the way.

In the meantime, it's not just Target. Jack, what's the big change going on at Walmart? We're trying to save money by buying cheaper things. You're buying cheaper meats in particular. You're not just buying fewer items because prices are up. We tend to be buying cheaper items right now. Right. So we're not buying a gallon of milk. We're buying a half gallon of the off-brand milk.

Jack, you're not going for that imported Genoa salami. You're going for the local slab of swine something. So recap, people are spending more on experiences than they are on goods. Yeah, which is bad for Walmart. Bad for time. And they're buying fewer things and cheaper things at the same time. which is also bad for Walmart and bad for Target. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are America's big receipt companies?

Even the old faithful of this stock market are cracking right now. Old faithful, Jack, who has dragged down the stock market for the past six months more than anyone? Tech companies, specifically the profitless tech companies whose growth has slowed down. Well, big box stores are the old faithful of this market. Big box companies have had resilient stocks, and that has kept the overall market from becoming truly nasty. But this week, that just changed. And we see it in the S&P 500, which plummeted 4% yesterday on this news. Because even Walmart and Target, the old faithful of our market are cracking under the inflation pinch.

So far this year, profitless tech has been the reason markets are so down. Now profitable physical stores are down too. Even the old faithful. For our second story. By the way, Jack, someone who ordered on Grubhubb didn't get their pad tie yesterday, definitely triggered by that intro. No Cuban sandwich for you. That's the real takeaway here. For our second story, the U.S. Soccer Federation just did something no major sports league and no industry has done before.

The U.S. Soccer Federation just guaranteed equal pay for men and women. FIFA. FIFA. FIFA. The International Federation of Football. They love soccer. I was hoping you were going to jump in with that acronym. I was kind of waiting. I was trying to say that for that. I just want to point out. This Federation loves soccer. They hate hands for some reason. They have a lot of money. Okay. With the 2022 World Cup starting in November in Qatar, FIFA expects to make how much money, Nick? Jack, they're going to make a hefty $4.7 billion. That's almost half a lift.

$4.7 billion is about half the revenue the NFL makes every year, but they're making it in less than one month. That's what FIFA's pulling in on this single soccer tournament. The FIFA World Cup is going to make a billion dollars in TV rights in Europe, another billion dollars of TV rights in Asia and North Africa, and another billion dollars of TV rights in North America and South America. It's a beautiful game with a beautiful business model. Here's the issue in America. soccer dominates and men's soccer lacks. And yet, the men's national soccer team players are making way more money than the national women's team is. Not anymore because yesterday, the U.S. Soccer Federation announced a historic deal. Now, the key issue here was actually

the World Cup that we were just talking about because the men's World Cup, it brings in 10 times more money than the women's world's cup. Right. So it's not that the U.S. Soccer Federation was paying men more than they paid women. It's that FIFA was. And all you have to do is look at these two numbers from the last World Cup to see what we're talking about. All right. The last women's World Cup was in 2019. And FIFA paid $30 million total to the 24 competing national soccer teams. Well, in this year's men's World Cup, there is 15 times more money being paid out the 32 teams. That FIFA payout is the root cause of the pay equity issue between U.S. men and women soccer players. But here's the new development. This new labor deal,

which is going to last six years, by the way, it pools all. the money from the men and the women together for the U.S. teams. That's right. The U.S. men and women are going to pour all that FIFA money into one pot, mix it up, and then split the booty 50-50. So the average U.S. player is going to make $450,000 a year not too shabby. And they're going to make even more if they advance in the tournament. Which, of course, we hope they do.

So equal pay for men and women on our national soccer team. That is actually a landmark thing. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who hate using? their hands. Bold change requires bold examples. Okay, the reason pay equity has been so hard in corporate America is it's complicated. Right. In sports, it's TV money. That's the reason. Men's sports leagues just make way more TV money than women's sports leagues too. But here's the funny thing. In America, women's soccer, its viewership actually dwarfs men's soccer. This equal pay deal is bold and it actually required a bold move from the men too. Interestingly, the U.S. men soccer players

are going to get paid less for this deal. But U.S. soccer, men and women, this is a landmark symbol for pay equity for the whole world to see. So for pay equity to catch on in the workplace, it needs bold examples. The U.S. national soccer team is a pretty cool, bold example.

And now worried about our sponsor, Robin Hood. We see ads all the time. All over the place, 10 bucks off this $5 promo code for that, Jack. You can buy three suits. You can get one free. But something we always thought was cool about Robin Hood, the free stock promo. Yeah, this was wild.

The promo isn't like some X amount of dollars. It's one stock. If you signed up for Robin Hood, they'd thank you with a single share in a publicly traded company on the house. And that free stock promo, it actually helped drive Robin Hood's growth and got new users in the stock market right away.

One of the most creative moves in promotional history. So when Robin Hood became our sponsor, naturally Jack and I said, we got to do the free stock giveaway. If you're not on Robin Hood yet, you want to get started, go to robin hood.com slash T-boy and get cash to select your free stock.

That's Robinhood.com slash TBOY. Certain limitations apply all investments involved risk. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member SIPC, Robin Hood is no longer affiliated with us or the podcast. For our third and final story, this one's wild. Duolingo is a language app that now has a talkeria. Because every brand should invest in joy. Yoparlow to parli, you'll parla.

Nice conjugation, Nick. Nice numbers over here from Duolingo too, Jack. Oh, wait, what was your Italian name? Oh, it's probably just Nick, right? It's my existing current name. $3 billion, duolingo. It is a language tech company started at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, and they're still based there.

Yeah, you can learn over 30 languages with, like, cute, fun little games on this app. So you're like conjugating verbs while you're commuting on the way to work. If you see someone talking to themselves on the subway, they're either crazy or they're learning Polish. So don't judge them. 42 million people have downloaded the Duolingo app. So there's nearly as many Americans on Duolingo. Then there are Americans in the American public school system.

Now, just to be clear here, this is a 100% mobile-based phone app for learning languages. But Duolingo's latest product is a brick and mortar's physical restaurant. Okay, get this. Next to their Pittsburgh headquarters, Duolingo. just built a tachorea. Duolingo is pivoting from technology to tacos. And you don't have to be a user of Duolingo. Like anyone in the public can just go and order their adobe marinated pork with the salsa

Verda. Here's the catch. You get a 20% discount on your order if you build up the courage to order in Spanish, which you've been practicing on Duolingo. Then, Jack, they're going to ask you a trivia question so that you could get a free item. They're going to say, how do you say heirloom corn? In Espanion. I think they're going to say,

how do you say Ehrlichorn? Right. And if you get it correct, I don't know the correct answer. You'll get a free item. Okay, Jack, just whipped up an example for you. El Pollo est on the plateau or the pollo estes de con el plato.

I think the answer is aros con poa. Okay, you're not getting the free dish. In the meantime, this is just like the language table that you had to attend every week in college just to get credit for that semester course. But this takaria isn't Duolingo's first food swarek. No, it's not because when Duolingo launched a Yiddish learning program, they were given out free bagels at participating delis in a whole bunch of cities. If you ordered in Yiddish. But this is the first time this app has built and

owned its very own restaurant. So, Jack, Quale de los take away for allos and amici and besties? One of the most underinvested investments is in joy. Yeah. When Jack and I were in college, The late night grill up on campus, it would shut down early because it didn't make money. They even considered closing this institution. But Nick and I were like, the library doesn't make money either. You're not considering closing that institution. Well, that grill, that late night food oasis, it brought students joy. Joyful investments don't necessarily return profits, but they pay off in long-term intangible ways.

Yeah, Duolingo's going to get PR and press for whipping up a language enchilada. But they're also going to get love. from their users for being creative, even if you never go to Pittsburgh to check this out. So doolingo, they could invest in more Spanish courses and get like marginally more engagement. Or they could invest in a profit losing but joy boosting Mexican can'tina. And that's how you do an investment in joy. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us for the new Friday? Walmart and Target are suffering because Americans want experiences, not stuff.

Yeah, even the old faithful this market is cracking. For our second story, the U.S. Soccer Federation has committed to equal pay for men and women. Bold change requires bold examples. And congrats to the women of the U.S. national team whose years of fighting made this change happen. For our third and final story, Duolingo just opened a restaurant to challenge Spanish learners. Yeah, because it's an investment in joy. And time for the best fact yet sent in by a legendary Yeti, Savannah Westwood from lovely Orlando Florida. The Queen of England.

She does a lot of writing, Nick. Okay, get this. The Queen of England, Elizabeth II, she has sent one million cards, more than a million cards. She has sent 300,000 cards alone just to people celebrating their 100th birthday. Okay, Jack, she has sent over 900,000 cards just for 60th wedding anniversary. She's not just the Queen of England. She's not the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the realms and the territories and the head of the Commonwealth.

And the head of the Church of England. also the patron saint of stationer. And she may be a Yeti or a Bestie. We don't know. She never told us. In the meantime, Bestie Yetis, you look fantastic to it. And we love to see you tomorrow at 3 p.m. Eastern, noon Pacific on Instagram at T-Boy Pop. Nick and I, we'll see you tomorrow.

If you know, you know. And before we go, congratulations to Dan Moseng, who just got a pole vaulting personal record at the Northern California Championships. And congrats to Isaac Del Monte for grabs. graduating from Fordham. And Hannah Brassard also graduating over in New York City. Happy birthday to Nate Lowry, born in Dallas, but a proud New Yorker today. And happy birthday to Kareem down in Miami.

And happy birthday to Morgan McQueen in San Francisco. And Ashley Settle Meyer, happy birthday in Atlanta. And happy birthday, Teresa Long in downtown L.A. And Jan Hein just had the birthday and the graduation and got engaged in Oxford, Mississippi. And to anyone else celebrating something today, Make it a TV. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack.

We both own stock of Robin Hood and ETFs in the S&P 500. And now a word from our sponsor, Robin Hood. The first time I tried to buy a stock, I got burned badly. Is this when you wanted to buy a share of Ford? Because you liked the chassis over in Detroit? Yes, I had $200, so I bought $200 of Ford stock. I didn't get $200 of Ford stock, though. I got $192.

Oh, the commission fees. By the time the stock climbed back to $200, I sold it, but again, I didn't get $200. I got $192 again. Another commission fee. The stock grows 8%, but I was down on my investment. Because commission fees made small money investing impossible. So Robin Hood came in and killed commission fees.

And commissions are still dead in stock and crypto trading thanks to our sponsor. If you're not investing on Robin Hood yet, to get started, go to robin hood.com slash t-boy and choose a free stock. That's robin hood.com slash T-B-O-Y. Certain limitations apply for a list of other fees. View their fee schedule at RBE. BNHD. dot CEO slash fees. All investments involve risk.

Robinna Financial LLC, member SIPC. Oh, and by the way, Robynid is no longer affiliated with us or the podcast. And the stocks Jack just said are for illustrated purposes only and are not recommendations. For our third and final. Beembeninos are the best one yet. Quar deuce are those takeaways for us,

allos los amigos.