The Best One Yet - 👶 “What comes after Gen Z?” — Facebook’s 1st Metaverse. Home Depot’s Halloween. Gen Alpha’s Mom-lennials.

Episode Date: August 20, 2021

Snackers, this TBOY is our last pod until Tuesday, September 7th. (we’re taking some August vacation to rest the pipes). So we’re looking at Facebook’s first move into the Metaverse… through your office. Then Home Depot’s biggest story of the summer is actually Halloween (spoiler: 12-foot skeletons). And finally, we’ve found the next generation after Gen Z: Gen Alpha is the new startup target.$HD $FBGot a SnackFact? Tweet it @RobinhoodSnacks @JackKramer @NickOfNewYorkWant a shoutout on the pod? Fill out this form:https://forms.gle/KhUAo31xmkSdeynD9Got a SnackFact for the pod? We got a form for that too:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe64VKtvMNDPGSncHDRF07W34cPMDO3N8Y4DpmNP_kweC58tw/viewformLearn 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. And this is Snacks Daily. It is Friday, the real Friday, August 20th. Bittersweet moment. Last pod. It is. Until the day after Labor.

But we are coming back on a T-Boy Tuesday, Jack. That's unprecedented. Which is cool. That's cool. In the meantime, when Nick and I are on vacation, follow us on Instagram at T-boy Jack and at nick. of. It's Nick of New.

It's Nick of New York, but with heavy punctuation. And to get daily news while we're gone, check out the Robin Hood. Snacks daily newsletter. You can subscribe at Snacks.robinhood.com. In the meantime, Jack, looking at the lineup here and our last pod for two weeks happens to be, honestly, it's the best one yet. TBOI. For our first story, Facebook just took a huge step towards their metaverse. Zuck calls it Horizon Workrooms. It's the Sims meets Zoom, but for going over TPS reports. For our second story, the Home Depot just told us about their summer. Yeah, but everyone was talking about

Home Depot Halloween. For our third and final story, what comes after, Jen? NZ. Great question. It's actually, according to demographers, Gen Alpha. Real thing. And companies are already targeting three-year-olds, but they're speaking to 30-year-olds. Interesting. Kind of messes with your head. I'm kind of curious. But Snackers, before we hit those three great stories. This is a fantastic mix. I love this mix, Jack. Two weeks with no takeaways, but I will be posting stand-up snacks daily on Instagram.

You're even in that paddleboard. I mean, honestly, you're paddleboarding. If there's fresh water surrounded on four sides, you're paddleboarding on that, right? I am. Now, your love language is the paddleboard, Jack. It is. It's a stroke, actually. It's a love stroke. Now, I'm doing a wedding in Maine this weekend. Very nice. And then mostly staycationing for the rest. So I guess I'm doing like the opposite of a staycation because I don't know, they're like 14 time zones involved in this thing. Nick is flying east, way east to his ancestral homeland of Italy to rest as the Roman podcasters used to. Fun early snack fact here, Jack, Sicily, inventor of the unlimited breadstick. Is that so? It is so. Well, Snackers, we figured while we're gone, we'd give you one last hoarder's almanac update. We whip this up for you.

Week 75 of things we're running out of because they're hoarded during the pandemic. We're running out of vacation days. Yeah. Snackers. In fact, all things vacation days are getting hoarded right now. Get this. 20% of U.S. workers in the private sector don't get any paid vacation days, unfortunately. Ifso facto, big business is hoarding vacation days. And get this. Of those who are lucky, Lucky enough to get paid vacay? Lucky.

Less than half of Americans use up all their paid vacation days. I'm so facto workers are hoarding vacation days. I'll be honest. In my 20s, Nick, I know it was the same for you. We stupidly didn't take all of our vacation days. Yeah, three quarters of all Airbnb pool toys go unused, Jack. But now we're lucky enough. Yeah.

We're wise enough. We're in our 30s. We're taking each and every day. You use those Airbnb pool toys. Because unused vacation days are like chocolate. at the end of a long buffet. You earned it. So eat it.

Snackers, it's going to be rough. Yeah. Not potting with you the next two weeks. We want to be doing this pot for like, what do you say, Jack? Decades. Let's go decades, centuries. But let our vacay be a reminder if you can, even if it's just a couple hours, take your time on. Staycation or going to Guam.

Either way, take your time off. Because guac, guac, still going to be extra when you get back. Let's get our three stars. Mantras, mattress, mattress. You're tuned in the snacks daily. We spoke to the lawyers and we got to get something legal out of the way. It 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. Snacks is digestible, business news for you. Robohood Financial, LLC, member Fenra slash SIPC. For our first story, Facebook just launched a virtual office so you can go to work wearing nothing but VR goggles.

Yeah, that's a not tasteful nude. I went in that direction, Jack, and I'm just going to run with it. It's up to you to finish the thought. It's virtual reality that starts as the workspace, but could end as your metiverse. Okay, Jack, let's kick this off with an ambiguous corporate name for a new thing. Facebook has already launched something they call Horizon. Horizon is a virtual reality game, a lot like the Sims from back in the day. Yeah. But you play wearing Facebook's Oculus branded VR goggles.

Yeah. And on Thursday, Zuck put on his favorite old Everlane T-shirt and went on CBS this morning and told Gail King about a new thing called Horizon Workrooms. Before we get into Horizon Workrooms, yes, please, Jeff. Let's talk about Workplace Tech because it's a very hot space for innovation right now. Very, very hot. The straightforward goal of Workplace Tech is make communication. frictionless. Yeah, some worked on making messaging quicker and easier. Yeah, like Microsoft Teams and Slack. Others worked on video calls. It's the pandemic. Zoom. Google meets. And in June, Jack and I were telling you about holograms. We were talking about that. Get this, WeWork is working on holograms so that like Yoda, you can join the Jedi Council meeting without actually being there. Yeah,

not a distraction we work. I think just keep running with that too. But get this. Facebook yesterday leapfrogged all of that. Yeah. Snack. Wild Story, virtual workrooms with their new VR headset. This came out of nowhere. Here's how it works. You create an avatar, like a bitmoji. It kind of looks like you, but it's digital and virtual. Kind of, kind of.

And then you put on an Oculus headset and you walk right into a conference room. Yeah, it's going to look like a Pixar version of you that had a botched plastic surgery situation. It looks like you're in the conference room. It feels like you're in the conference room. Hey, it's me. I'm right here. Hey, I'm over here. And if your colleague, Bree, also has one of these VR headsets, you could.

see her avatar sitting right across the table. Hey, Bree, how you doing? Hey, no work. There's a shared whiteboard in this virtual conference room so you can collaborate and your computer that's physically in front of you. It is virtually in front of you in this VR conference room as well, so you can use it. Now, if you don't have a headset, then things get a little awkward. You can still attend this conference, but you appear not like a cute little bit mojee of yourself. No, no, no. You appear just as a screen, like a typical your Zoom face. You're that guy. And honestly, you can't even talk to Bree. It's not going to be cool. Now, we just exhausted our illustrative articulation abilities. Great words, Jack. But Facebook gave an image to mock this thing up. They showed a

terrifying Mark Zuckerberg avatar lecturing Facebookers about connecting people. It looked like everyone was having a time, like an okay time. Now, this is a groundbreaking launch. Huge deal. First of its kind product. But Facebook has one big disadvantage. Facebook's involvement. I mean, Jack, it's just like when they launched that digital currency Libra and then we're insisting they're not going to do anything with your data, not going to take your data. Right. But lack of trust in Facebook badly hurt their chances at Libra. Right. And they've actually had to relaunch Libra twice. They got to rebrand that thing to make you forget Facebook's even involved. Well, we're going to see at the business world, trust Zuck and the Everland T-shirts enough to try out a virtual remote work situation. So, Jack,

what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Facebook? Your office is actually an innovation incubator. Yeah, Snackers. Step back for a second. The biggest innovations, they often start at work before they ever reach your home. We've told you on this pod that Zuck is obsessed recently with his metaverse. He loves the metaverse. Which he thinks is the third coming of the internet where you're not just looking at a screen. No. You are in the internet. But here's the thing Snackers. All that depends on freakishly expensive virtual reality goggles. You may not want to splurge. But maybe your company is willing to splurge on virtual reality goggles. Interesting. Similar situation because computers started at the office two decades ago. Right. They were big and they were expensive and only

corporations could afford them. Workers learned how to use computers at the office and then the cost started coming down. And then they could buy one for their own home. Same story with smartphones just 20 years ago started as Palm Pilots and Expensive BlackBerry. That's why Zuck calls this the first step towards his metaverse. Because some of the biggest innovations start at work before they reach your home. For our second story, the Home Depot is already talking about Halloween. Like this week, they started doing that. Because last year's DIY trend has evolved into a new trend. By the way, I mean, if we're talking about it, do you have your outfit plan? Yes, I do.

What do you got? Well, it's a family affair. Oh, this sounds very private. River's going to be Dobby the Elf. Okay. Wilder's going to be the boy who lived, Harry. There you go. Alex is going to be Luna Love Good.

All right, so you put a lot of fun in this. Okay. And I'm going to be Voldemort. All year long, I just keep a note going to my iPhone, Jack, and I'm just adding to it every week. Every ideas every week. How's that working out for you? It's okay. It's stressful.

In the meantime, Snackers, Jack and I noticed an underperformer when Home Depot reported earnings. It was rough. Yes. DIY. That was the underperformer because fewer people are self-fixing up their homes. I mean, you already did the subway tiling and the bathroom cocking, right? You're already done with that. Cocking. It's a one and done project. It is. You never do it again. Pro contractors are still buying from Home Depot to build new homes, but the DIYers are taking a chill-pill. So the stock fell 5% after Home Depot reported earnings. But here's what Jack and I find fascinating is that the action actually wasn't anything to do with Home Depot's earnings, Jack, was it? The action was on Home Depot.com because Halloween came to Home Depot in August.

That's right, Snackers, the day before Home Depot announced its earnings, it also launched an early Halloween goods website. It was a pre-release on Tuesday, just a few days ago, and the CEO said that the stuff in their pre-release sold out almost immediately. Yeah, the highlight here was an eight-foot, giant-sized, animated LED Dark Angel. Those are Home Depot's words, not ours. It's $279 and guaranteed to terrify children. You seem like a nice guy. Can I interest you in the upgrade? Have you seen their 12-foot giant skeleton at Home Depot? Have you seen this? I have. This thing is the iPhone. Yeah. Of Halloween home decor. I mean, even in San Francisco, someone in our neighborhood had it, their porch looks like six flags is what it looked like. San Francisco.

How apropos, because this skeleton has clothes you can buy for $100. This skeleton is the iPhone of home goods, Jack. You could get in an iPhone case. Yeah. New thing that Home Depot is actually selling Snackers, they're selling wardrobes for $100. So if you buy the 12-foot skeleton, you can now pay more to dress up the 12-foot skeleton. And again, sales of these elaborate decorations and expensive decorations sold out almost immediately.

I'm looking at one of them right now. It's the size of a boat. Now, sales of holiday horrors on Home Depot isn't going to move the needle on profit. But here's what Jack and I think is so key. The key is that immediately selling out was a signal. A signal about the American home-owning consumer. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Home Depot? DIY is over.

Decoration is just beginning. Exactly. Snackers. House hype. We've talked to you about it before. House hype happening. People spiffed up their homes last year now that we're working and going to school from home. But Jack and I like to dive to the trends within the trends. And within that trend, DIY is clearly slowing down.

Both Home Depot and Sherwin Williams have recently announced that. But decorating is the new DIY. People have these nice homes after 18 months of the pandemic. And they're still spending on their homes, but with a different purpose. Yeah, here's the twist. DIY you were doing for yourself. But decoration, you're doing to share and show off to other people. Guess who just led?

Framingham. finest company, T.J. Max's earnings report last quarter. Jack, can you drop this one on us? I think I know what you're thinking. It was T.J. Max's sister company, Home goods. And home goods is the palace to decorate living rooms or having guess over. Yes. DIY investment is getting replaced by decoration dollars. And selling out Halloween in the summer was the first data point in the new trend. For our third and final story, there is a generation after Gen Z. And it's called Gen Alpha. This is our first story about Gen Alpha, but definitely not the last. No, it's not. No, it's not. And Gen Alpha's style is probably going to end up just like their millennial parents.

All right, Jack, we should sprinkle a little context on here. First, millennials, we've had a nice run. We've been doing great. This has been fun, Jack. I remember when marketers badly wanted us, and then we ruined everything. Yeah, we did. Like, from golf to homeownership, apparently we did ruin everything. But millennials, we are the largest living adult demographic. Yeah, there you go. We got it on their resumes. Then you got Gen Z, which is, Gen Z's having a great run too.

We love what's going on. They made TikTok and they made middle hair parts happen since Dwight True. They did kill the crying, laughing emoji. I'm bummed about that. Also, like, no one even remembers the whole eating tidepods thing. What eating tide pods thing? Yeah, it's in the past. But then Snackers, you have something we like to call Zillenials.

This is the best of both worlds. It's the millennial demographic and the Gen Z demographic. It's roughly half of the U.S. And honestly, this is the most desirable target demographic of consumers of every company pretty much out there. We've had hundreds of stories about millennials, Gen Z and Zellennials. Yeah, we have. But what comes after Gen Z, the younger, younger demographic? It's a fair question because Z is the last letter of the alphabet, so it's kind of ominous.

Well, apparently it's Gen Alpha. Yeah, we start all over again. Yeah, except with Greek. Anyone born after 2010? And here's what Jack and I find fascinating about. Gen Alpha. It's the first generation of kids whose parents experience Instagram ads. Okay. More on that in a sec. This changes everything. Okay. Alex and I, all we see since having a baby is gorgeous toys, gorgeous furniture,

gorgeous food for babies in our Instagram. You ever make that bassinet, by the way? Nick, I would venture to say that Zuck knows Wilder's weight to the ounce. They know that much without targeted ads. Jack, I know you're nervous laughing. I don't think you built that bassinet. You've seen the bassinet, dude. You saw it.

I did see the bassinet. But Snackers, Jack and I also noticed a great piece in Vox that was discussing American parents and specifically moms how they've predominantly decided what kids get these days. Right. But for decades, purchasing decisions for kids, they happen in the aisles of the grocery store or in a shopping mall. Yeah, so this is a 180-degree change. Today, decisions for baby are made.

starting on social media, and then they're executed in a couple clicks. And that's totally different because Instagram knows that you subscribe to bark box for your dog. So they're showing you a subscription box for your baby too. Who is great and doesn't have a podfather, I want to point out. When we were young, we were begging our moms for toys in the aisles of Toys R Us. But today, Instagram ads are who beg for your toys, not the kids. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in every generation? Bassnet, best net, best net, to reach Gen Alpha, brands are targeting their millennial parents.

Snackers, bottles, strollers, toys, all those things. Gen Alpha is the user of those things. Key difference. But the customer of those baby items is their parents who are millennials. Exactly. So brands, they used to target kids directly. Like they toss like a rainbow and a cartoon mammal on a cereal box and their day was done. Today, though, since they're targeting their millennial parents on Instagram, they're branding baby items the same way they brand parent items. I mean, Jack, looking at this right now, it's like minimalist design for a stroller. You got to have the seraphons. The lovely collection of pastel colors branding the whole thing. It's branding that parents are familiar with. Snackers, Gen Alpha is the new generation you should know right now. But targeted ads to mom millennials

are the key to reaching Jet Alpha. Jack, can you whip up these takeaways for us over there? We're going to miss it. Facebook just launched Horizon Workrooms for work. Because the biggest innovations often start at work before they reach your home. Home Depot's earning suffered a bit from less DIY sales. DIY is over. Decorating Halloween is just the beginning. Gen Alpha is the younger, younger demographic. And here's the key.

To reach them, companies are branding and targeting the mom millennials. Now, time for our snack fact of the day. This one tweeted in by Scott Dixon from lovely Atlanta, Georgia. Did you ever, I actually didn't notice this? I added it either. Yeah. Did you ever notice that most tables, just about all of them at Starbucks, are round tables? Yeah.

In fact, like every Starbucks location, we like Google image this too to like triple check it. A lot of the tables, like most of the tables are round tables. Yeah. The King Arthur situation goes back to 1992. When Starbucks's new president at the time required that all tables be circular tables. Yeah. And there was one reason Starbucks made this executive change. Round tables apparently make customers who are rolling solo feel.

less lonely. If you're at a roundtable, I don't know it. It's like the right angles, don't freak you out, but you feel pretty good about yourself at a round table. You're hosting Corr. Snackers, you're going to look fantastic these next couple weeks. Jack, I'm really going to miss this for the next couple weeks. I'm going to miss you. I'm going to miss the Snackers. Can't wait to see a post-labor day. Cannot wait. If you know, you know. And before we go, happy birthday to snacker, Ollie Proctor from London, England. And David Christom in Zurich, Switzerland. And Amina Amad in Islamabad, Pakistan. And Jordan, in Tel Aviv, Israel.

And happy birthday, Natty Fong, down in Sydney, Australia. And Mike Gingrich in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. And Umbra Agerwald has a birthday and a wedding in Virginia. Happy birthday to Anuk in Cyprus, California. And Jaden Rashke in Chattanooga. And Gus Getz in Chicago. And Laurel Sanchez in Salt Lake City. Kenneth, happy birthday in Tampa, Florida.

And Leo Horvath in Ashland, Oregon. And Amra Alec in Jacksonville, Florida. Rachel, happy 24th in New York City. Michael Silva, happy 40th in Sacramento. Matt Burgess. birthday in Conchahoke in Pennsylvania. And happy birthday to Daniel Andrade in Prosper, Texas. Jack, Martha Chapman, just became a dog mom down in Austin. Congrats to Katie May for getting her master's in nursing. And Edwin and Elena finishing the

Amazon internships together. Fantastic. Congrats to Noah Cook for finally landing the engineering job over in Maryland. Madison Taylor, congrats on snagging the dream job, too. And congrats on the new gig at Comcast to Leet Carey in Philadelphia, PA. Matt and Helen Pags have an 11th year anniversary in Jersey. Happy anniversary to Jacob and Lisa in Los Angeles. Ian and Taylor got a new baby Ray Lay in Florida. Congratulations to Josh and Gabriel Chang who are getting married in San Francisco. And our buddy Dave Reed and Lisa Lincoln getting married in Maine with a lot of lobster. Anybody else celebrating something any day. The next two weeks, make it a tea boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon and Nick and I both own stock of Airbnb.

Robin Hood Snacks, newsletters, and podcasts reflect the opinions. of only the authors who are associated persons of Robin Hood Financial LLC and do not reflect the views of Robin Hood Markets, Inc, or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates. They are meant for informational purposes only and are not a recommendation to buy or sell any security, cryptocurrency, or investment strategy in any account. This is not an offer or sale of a security, not a research report, and is not intended to serve on the basis for any investment decision. Any third-party information provided therein does not reflect the views of Robin Hood Markets, Inc., Robin Hood Financial LLC or any of their subsidiaries or affiliates.

All investments involve risk, including loss of principal and past performance, does not guarantee future results. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member FINRA, SIPC. Dude, actually, you love iguanas. That's true. Alligator is one of my favorite animals. It's a great animal. Do you know that they can lay at the bottom of a pond, no air for like two days?

How terrifying. Well, the crazy part is when they get up, they're like, Why do I keep doing this to myself? Two days. I'm going to come up any time. Why do I keep doing that?