The Best One Yet - 💺 “Zero-Bathroom Airplane?” — RyanAir’s plane prowess. Hollister’s fashion flip. The Elevator explains the housing crisis.

Episode Date: July 23, 2024

This airline CEO proposed 1 bathroom for 200+ passengers… so let’s talk about RyanAir’s biz.Hollister is now the top teen fashion brand… and it’s made Abercrombie the top stock of 2024.US elevators cost 5x more to build than in Europe… They’re a microcosm of America’s housing crisis.Plus, Mountain Dew is bringing back “Do The Dew”... so we brought back the top 10 beverage slogans.$ANF $RYA $SPYSubscribe to our Saturday Newsletter: tboypod.com/newsletter  Watch us on YouTube Submit Facts & Shoutouts Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn (Nick) & LinkedIn (Jack)About Us: From the creators of Robinhood Snacks Daily, The Best One Yet (TBOY) is the daily pop-biz news show making today’s top stories your business. 20 minutes on the 3 business, economics, and finance stories you need, with fresh takes you can pretend you came up with — Pairs perfectly with your morning oatmeal ritual. Hosted by Jack Crivici-Kramer & Nick Martell.00:00 - intro01:25 - Monster turns 3004:25 - Hollister’s fashion flip09:55 - RyanAir’s plane prowess15:50 - The Elevator explains the housing crisis20:59 - Takeaways21:53 - OTHER NEWS!23:26 - Best Fact yet24:26 - Shout Outs Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Tuesday, T-Boy, Tuesday, July 23rd. And today's pod is the best one yet this is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Okay, if any world leaders want to make big news right now, if you could do it before we finish recording the podcast, that would be great. Yeah, it's usually Elon Musk who makes us return to the microphones on Sundays.

Yeah, it's true. But this weekend, it was the president of the United States. Jack, are you getting slanned with political text messages right now or what? Okay, I've pushed stop to so many political donation requests. And unsubscribe. Three stories for today's show. What have we got on the pod, Jack? For our first story, we've already told you that the top performing stock of the year

is actually Abercrombie and Fitch. But Jack and I haven't told you about Hollister. And right now, Hollister's business slaps. For our second story, there's one airline carrier that transformed travel more than any other. And that airline is Ryanair. Ryanair. Now, Ireland's Ryanair is grounded like a leprechaun. And we'll tell you why.

Yes, we will. Boarding! And our third and final story. A top cause of America's housing crisis may actually be elevators. Because an American elevator costs five times more than a Spanish elevator. And elevators are a microcosm for our housing problems. Dios meo, los edictories. But yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories.

What a mix of stories! else is doing this mix. Love the mix, Jack. You did not have an American childhood unless you've heard these three words. Do the do. Do the do. Do the do, do the do, do and do the do, Jack. Do the do. We're not talking about your dewy skin care routine. You've adopted as a 30 year old. We're talking about Mountain Dew. That's how you do the do. Mountain Dew, the citrus flavored, nuclear colored, 46 grams of sugar soda drink. Mountain Dew, the only beverage with more caffeine than liquid. Today, Mountain Dew sells $7 billion of products a year. It's the number two selling soda at PepsiCo.

Mountain Dew. It tastes like a skateboard sounds. When I was a kid, I would put down a two-liter of these things with my brothers every single Friday. Hey, Jack, you may want to see a doctor because there was a lot of yellow five, and those two liters of cola. You know what I mean? I know. I'm past the statute of limitations, though.

Maroon five, okay. Yellow five. But yet is this is what Jack and I found fascinating about the story. This year is the 30. anniversary of Mountain Dew's famous slogan. 30 years ago, the people at PepsiCo introduced do the do. Do the do. Do the do is turning 30 years old. Do the do is officially a millennial, is what we're saying.

And that's why Mountain Dew is bringing back Do the Do for the first time in like 10 years. And basically, Mountain Dew, is redoing the do. And that's what we're saying. You may say do less. Uh-huh. They say do more. But bestie, is that news? It got us missing our other favorite throwback beverage phrases from our childhoods.

Because think about it. The sugary drink industry has some of the greatest marketing taglines of all time. Oh, Jack, you want to jump in T-boy style and drobble on some, I don't know, spill over some context for us over there? How about this one? Obey your thirst. Remember that? Oh, thank you. Sprite. It's a classic.

And who gives you wings? I believe it's Red Bull, Jack. But Nick, is it in you? Yes, it is Gatorade. Don't you want to Fanta, Fanta? No. I actually do. I do want a Fanta, Jack.

I do want a fanta. And, of course, what's the drink that's made of the best stuff? on earth Nick. Well, that would be a good old-fashioned snap-lice tea for $399, Jack. The Yetis, go make seven. Up yours. If there is a favorite drink slogan that we are missing, drop it in the comments

here, because there are so many of them. You can drop a comment on Spotify, YouTube, or Instagram right now. In the meantime, redo the do, and Jack and I will hit our three story. 15 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. We 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. First, a quick word from our sponsor. For our first story, Hollister, their sales are thriving right now on teens across America. But it's all thanks to one strategic choice. Hollister and Abercrombie aren't siblings. No. They're cousins. All right, Jack, I'm getting a whiff of something right now. It's not an axe body spray. I don't know. What it is? What is it? Well, anyway, Jack, what is the top performing stock from the last year and the first half of this year?

I think you're smelling a topless man wearing Abercrombie Cologne. Because Navidia is not the top stock of the year. Abercrombie and Fitch is the top stock of the year. That's right. The company making cargo shorts is beating big tech badly on the stock market. Abercrombie stock is up 330% in the last year. That is a 4x return. And yes, Abercrombie is now bigger than Lyft.

It's up for X so far this year after quadrupling the year before, too. Oh, sit down, stand up, and pop that moose collar. Now, yet as we know what you're thinking, you listen to this pod every day. Jack and I, we have told you that Abercrombie story before, haven't we, Jack? Yes, we've told you that Abercrombie and Fitch is thriving. Yes. Thanks to its pivot to adults. The pivot to adults.

The same adults who loved Abercrombie and Fitch's teens, they love it again today as women. It's the nostalgia, the 20-year-old. rule of nostalgia, you're back in Abercrombie. That's why Abercrombie's top seller right now is a $100 dress that you can wear it at the wedding this weekend for that cocktail event on Friday night. You're not buying that if you're 17. You're buying that if you're 27. All right, so Abercrombie's doing great. But for 13 of the past 14 years, the best brand at Abercrombie wasn't its namesake Abercrombie and Fitch. No, no, no, no, no. The top brand at Abercrombie was actually Hollister. Hollister. That's the name of it.

of the brand that Abercrombie and Fitch invented from scratch in the year 2000. You know, I drove by Hollister, California the other day, Jack, and I was like, is this the town? Like, is this where this came from? Like, what's going on? It is the town, Nick. And Abercrombie and Fitch would make you think that's where the brand was invented by the surf community there. But they actually completely fabricated a backstory for Hollister, claiming it went back to 1922,

but it didn't. Call MTV. I feel like I've been catfish, Jack. When this scandal broke, Abercrombie and Fitch. got a lot of heat because they catfish their customers with a fake backstory of the Hollister brand. But here's the thing yet is the new Abercrombie and Fitch, they know that their current customers have forgotten about that whole brand scandal that Jack just mentioned. Because Hollister's current customers weren't alive back then when the scandal happened.

Boom, here's the news. And it's a headline from the Wall Street Journal. Abercrombie won by leaving teens behind, but its sibling brand Hollister is taken the opposite approach. That's right. While Abercrombie's customers' age have gone up, Hollister customers' age has gone down. And now that Hollister is Abercrombie's sole teen brand, they're mingling with the kids out there these days to find out their style preferences, and the results are fascinating. Here are the moves that Hollister has made recently to win the love of today's teens. So Jack and I jumped into the Abercrombie earnings call, and here's the interesting stuff. For boys, they discovered that boys' phones were like falling out of their pockets when they were sitting down school in class. So Hollister designed their pants now to have a front pocket zipper to keep your

phone in there. And for girls, they discovered through surveys that young girls just weren't comfortable wearing a dress all day in class. So now Hollister dresses have shorts stitched right inside the dress for comfort. In fact, Hollister has pivoted so hard to high school that they are hosting maybe the most badass thing we've ever seen at a high school. Get this, Yendies. Hollister has a series of concerts that they're promoting that are taking place in the gymnasiums of local American high schools. Oh, we repeat, a clothing brand is going full Coachella on your local gymnasium. Are they going to have Blink 182 here, Jack? I don't know, but high school kids deservedly think Hollister is cool. This is an unambiguously cool move. I think what we meant to

say was Maroon 5. Yet he's Abercrombie. It seems to have found the formula for Hollister to thrive. and Jack and I think we've pinpointed it. One sec, Jack, let me just unzip my pants and get this phone out. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Hollister? The best advice for companies with multiple brands is this. Be cousins, not siblings. So Yeties, Abercrombie owns Hollister. One brand is now focused on adults and one brand is now focused on teens.

They're both successful, and what's critical to that success is the extent that they appear different. Abercrombie could just take their successful adult designs and make lower priced versions for Hollister. The two brands would look very similar, like siblings. There'd be an older sibling and a younger sibling. But frankly, that would be like duplicative. Instead, Abercrombie and Hollister make different styles from scratch for each of their respective target audiences. And today, the brands appear more like cousins than they do siblings. And that's the key. That's the balance.

Similar enough to benefit from corporate synergies, but different enough to target two different customer types. That distinction is why both Abercrombie and Hollister have all-time high sales right now. It's just the right amount of familiarity, but not too much familiarity. Abercrombie and Hollister, their cousins, not siblings. For our second story, Ryanair, their stock tanked yesterday, but Ryanair is still number one in investors' hearts. We'll tell you how the cheapest airline in travel is the richest airline in the stock market. Oh, Jack, call Leslie Nielsen,

Because airlines, they've been looking less airplane, the flying device, and more airplane, the movie. I'm trying to think of an airplane quote right now, but I'm drawn to blank. Sir, I ordered this Chardonnay slightly chilled. I think that was a good one. I love that one. I am serious. And don't call me Shirley. Yeah, it is, if you haven't traveled over the last week, you know that Delta has been suffering from an IT outage that is still not fixed.

The IT outage happened on Friday, but still on Monday, Delta had to cancel 700 plus flights. Jack, I didn't even tell you this, but my flight on Saturday from JFK to SFO was delayed two hours because of no pilot. And you know what they did? Yeah, you did tell me. They drove a pilot up from Virginia. He drove up from Virginia. They were like giving updates like, he's now on I-95. He just got off the exit.

He parked the car. It was outrageous. Did the pilot turn his tablet around and ask you to answer one last question about a tip? Yeah, a 15% tip. We would have given it. Thank God he made it on that flight check. But yet he's Europe's most famous airline, Ryanair, is dealing with a different issue the right now. Because stock of Ireland's Ryanair fell 15% yesterday on news of a summer

travel disappointment. Ryanair expected travel demand to be bonkers for a third straight summer. Yeah, Ryanair, they expected you and the gal pals to go get a Guinness over an Ireland and enjoy a nice bachelorette trip. Instead, Ryanair just told Wall Street that they had to lower fares to fill seats this summer. Yeah, the peanuts on Ryanair, they're now costing more than the seats. Basically the problem for Ryanair and the rest of the airline industry right now is you can't say there's pent up demand for post-pandemic travel anymore. No, you can't. It's been two years. It's not pent up anymore.

We got the travel, you know? It is not, but yet is this is what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. If anyone can climb out of this travel mess, it's Ryanair. Because Ryanair was born as a disruption. Bezzi, if you have traveled abroad at any point in your life, then you have taken a 14-year-flight. from Bartholona to the middle of Austria on a Ryan Air no-leg-room airplane. Here's how Ryanair became ubiquitous in low-cost European travel. So here was Ryanair's first bet when they launched their airline back in 1984.

They bet that people would be willing to go to a second-tier airport if they could save money on the flight. So Ryanair disrupted Aer Lingus's Irish airplane monopoly that existed throughout the 80s. They don't go to London Heathrow. They go to London-Gatwick. They go to London, where is that again on a map? Yeah, they go, is this a London airport? Ryanair's second bet was that money talks. Ryanair bet that people would gladly sacrifice unnecessary frills on the airplane in order to save money on the ticket. So get this, Ryanair didn't just eliminate free check bags, drinks, and seat selection.

What else did Ryanair eliminate Jack? They eliminated a couple bathrooms. We repeat, Ryanair eliminated bathrooms on the... aircraft to save you money. Here's the story. In 2011, Ryanair removed two bathrooms from the plane in order to fit another row of seats back there. There is a wild interview with the CEO of Ryanair saying that he was going down from three lavatories on the plane to just one lavatory on the plane. And he bet that passengers wouldn't actually mind. No, no, no. Because the extra seats he stuck back there allowed him to lower the ticket prices by 5%. Basically, he thought that for eight bucks in

savings, you were willing to like cross your legs and just hold it in for a few hundred more miles. Now, full disclosure, guys, regulators killed the idea. Yeah, they did. They did. Ryanair had to put the lavatories back in the airplane. Even though again, Ryanair CEO thinks for saving $8, you are willing to damage a kidney. Regulators disagree. They said one toilet for 200 captive passengers is just too big a risk. They don't want you landing at Gatwick and then needing a new kidney is what we're saying. But still, that instinct to remove the bathrooms was a sign. of Ryanair's winning strategy. Yes, it was. And that strategy is our takeaway. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Ryanair? Every industry has a lowest price winner.

We call them the low-price peacock. Yeah, it is one thing you learn in business school is that you can't win on price. Someone is always going to drop the price lower than you. Winning on price isn't fun to try to do it. No, it's not. Because you have to do it with a lot of volume to make up for the razor-thin margins. And yet, Jack and I have noticed that every industry has one player whose entire focus is the lowest price. They make the lowest price like their entire brand. Because even though it's a cut-throat way to run a business, low price is universally loved by customers. In 50 years, their customers are still going to like the lowest price stuff. Today, you've got Amazon, Walmart, and Ryanair. Each is the most valuable company in their respective industries of

e-commerce, retail, and airlines. And they did it by having the consistently lowest price. Each of them was a low-price peacock. Today, Ryanair isn't some cheap airline. They're the number three most valuable airline in the world based on their stock price. Oh, and by the way, the number one and number two biggest airlines in the world, they received government bailouts over the years. Ryanair never has. And that is what led Jack and I to this wild conclusion. The airline known for cheapness is actually the richest, financially speaking. So add it all up, Yetis, and every industry has a low-price peacock. The company that offers the lowest price and loves to show it off.

Now a quick word from our sponsor. Our third and final story, if you want to understand America's housing crisis, then look to the elevator. Because America invented the elevator, but we've basically stopped installing them. All right, Jack, let's kick off this story with a hero stat. Actually, this is a surprise hero stat that you haven't heard yet. You ready for this thing? All right, Jack, how many elevators are in the Empire State Building? Well, I think there's 86 stories.

I know, because you and I were there this summer. A lot of elevators. I'd say, like, I don't know, 12? 73 elevators, including service elevators in the Empire State Building. Let me ask you this. Did any of them go entirely from the bottom all the way to the top? I think the answer to that is all of the above. You have to be an emperor to use that elevator.

Yeah, it is in 1930, America built the lovely empire state building of New York City. A thousand-foot skyscraper, but it wouldn't have been possible without the elevator. Now, here's the fascinating thing. The elevator was actually invented in the United States 80 years earlier back in 1852. And the elevator's invention was a metaphor for America's industrial rise in the world. The elevator. It was invented by a company called Otis, which is now still around today, a $40 billion publicly traded company. They're based in Bristol, where there's still this huge tower out of nowhere. Look, it's like rural Connecticut,

and then there's a 38-story tower that's used just for the testing of the elevator shaft. You can see it from all the way up here! But here's the surprise. Fast forward to today, and the data shows that we've basically stopped building elevators in the United States. Get this, besties.

The United States has one million installed elevators, which, Jack, that sounds like a lot, you know, man. A million elevators. But it's actually very few. Jack, could you sprinkle on more context? please. Spain and Italy have the same number of elevators as the United States, even though our population is seven times bigger. Now, Basties, in Western Europe, two or three-story buildings, it is common for them to come with elevators. It's just a standard. But in the United States,

not a chance. No, you are huffing and puffing up to that six-floor of a new building. New apartment buildings that are six stories tall are being built without elevators. Jack, when we lived in the East Village, we had a four-floor walk-up. That was not a fun situation, my friend. And the reason for all these stairs and no elevators is cost. Do you remember, our buddy Timmy barely made it up there? We'd like carry him from the third floor to the fourth floor sometimes. But back to the shocking cost. Yet is the basic four-story elevator costs $160,000 in New York City. In Switzerland, they cost less than a quarter as much to build today. Because in Switzerland, they don't cost 160 grand, they cost just $36,000. And according to a night,

nonprofit dedicated to lowering building costs in America, there's one reason why we have to pay four times as much for an elevator as the rest of the world does. Jack, take us to the lobby and tell us the answer. The one reason is regulations. Regulation. Because yet he's in the United States, elevators are bigger. Because regulations dictate, they must be able to hold an ambulance stretcher. So we have elevators twice as big as the rest of the world. And in the United States, elevators are custom. Here, elevators must pass a special code, not the uniform code that they're. We have to the rest of the world uses. And in the United States, labor costs are just much higher. Elevators must be built by documented workers here due to regulations. Every high-income country,

they use lower-cost immigrant labor for apartment construction, but in the United States, you can't really do that. Because of immigration policies and regulations. American exceptionalism in construction. It's made elevators economically unviable. And this elevator problem we have is actually a microcosm for our entire housing problem, nation. while. If you want to understand the housing crisis, it's the elevator. It's not the elevator. For us, it's the Darth Vader. Yeah. Second Vader reference of the show. Take me to your lobby. That's not a good Darth Vader impression, to be clear. Well, Jack, can we at least pause the elevator and press all the buttons for a moment? It looks like a Christmas tree.

It does look like a Christmas tree. So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies who are anyone riding an elevator? We have too many houses, not enough apartments. and elevators show why. Yeties, every year, our population grows faster than the number of new houses being built. In the past 20 years, we're actually 5 million housing units short to keep up with our growing population. Interesting thing, Bessie's, Jack said housing units because people can live in a single-family house or in a multifamily apartment. And that's the issue. We have too many houses, not enough apartment buildings. Yep, the regulatory problems that make elevators crazy expensive. Also make apartment buildings crazy expensive.

But single-family homes, which only hold one family, not a bunch of families, single-family homes have much less red tape and no elevator to go along with them. So what can we do about it? We can streamline regulations to let builders build apartment buildings for a lower cost. Until then, we've got too many houses, not enough apartments, and elevators show us why. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us for T-Boy Tuesday? Abercrombie and Fitch stock is at an all-time high, but Hollister deserves a lot of credit. Because when it comes to companies with multiple brands, don't be siblings.

Be cousins. Cousins, not siblings. For our second story, Ryanair stock fell 15% yesterday because they're lowering prices this summer travel season. One sec, Jack, Ryanair will now pay you to fly to Dublin. This is insane. What kind of a deal is this? As long as you pedal really hard on the flight to operate the engine. And don't have to go to the bathroom.

But Ryanair is still a low-price peacock. It's the lowest price in airlines, and it loves showing it off. And our third and final story is elevators. Elevators. They cost four times as much to build in the United States as they do in Europe. And that's a microcosm for our housing crisis. We got too many houses, not enough apartments, and elevators show us why. But Yeties, this pod's not over yet.

Here's what else you need to know today. First, it is a huge week for earnings. If you own stock and a company, they are probably reporting earnings this week. One out of four of the U.S. S&P 500 companies report earnings. over the next four days. We're talking Tesla, Alphabet, Visa, Chipotle, Ford, IBM, UPS, Spotify, and more. They are all reporting earnings. We'll jump into the most interesting and important earnings reports so you don't have to. And second, Kamala Harris seems destined now to become the Democratic nominee for president. All the Democrats who had been floated as potential

challengers have all now lined up to support her candidacy. And in the 24 hours since Kamala declared her candidacy, she's gotten $100 million in donations. So the big question now is who will she pick as her running mate? And finally, the top movie the weekend had a surprisingly huge opening and that movie was Twisters. Not Twister, the movie you might have seen in the early 2000s,

Twisters, plural. Which is the sequel to that 1996 movie starring the talented Helen Hunt. I've never seen the letter S indicate that this is a sequel. I'm impressed Jack and I kind of love that they went with this. Twisters brought in $81 million at the box office

in its opening weekend. Because it's the summer of sequels, and even Inside Out 2, is still crushing it out there. Gladiator 2 is coming out soon. Remember we watched the trailer together? I know, but we didn't like the trailer. We didn't love the trailer. CGI was impressive. It was. The plot didn't seem to be. Excited about the rhinoceros. They put a rhino in the calls game. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one whipped up by Jack and me while we were researching Mountain Dew, and we happened to do the do. We do the do.

Mountain Dew is actually slang for moonshine. Yeah, Mounted-Doo the beverage by Pepsi. That was invented actually back in 1940, but the term Mountain Dew goes back even further. It goes back to the moonshine era of Prohibition. Yeah. The Doe was a popular mixer for moonshine booze. A hundred years ago, Do the Doe had a very different meaning.

Yet is, you look fantastic for T-Boy Tuesday. And remember, we want to know in the comments, what is the all-time absolute, insistently best, beverage slogan. Remember that wine that said, it's going to be a beautiful evening. It's going to be a Benacera. Sounds like a slap-the-bag situation.

Yetis, drop a slogan in the comments, and Jack and I will see you for Saviche Wednesday. And before we go, a congratulations to Yeti's Matt Vona and Stephanie Bazado in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who just got engaged, guys. Let's see some ring picks. Congratulations.

Congratulations to Cameron Casco in Chicago's West Loop for getting an epic promotion. Logistics all over the place. And Tasha Holzer in Portland, Oregon, has got a new job leaving dental hygiene after 10 years of making the most fantastic teeth. By the way, Tasha, I still haven't had a cavity. Jack may need you to take a look before you leave the practice.

True. It seems every time I go, they've got something they're concerned about. Tell them, it's the left molar. And on Charles Sude in Temakula, California, has got a birthday celebrate that win. And Kathleen Sipes from DeKalbilt. Illinois, your sister wants to say, happy birthday. As siblings, not cousins, and Penny Chiang in Taipei, Taiwan has got a cute, chubby orange

cat named Lulu, and they are celebrating that birthday win together. And to anyone else, celebrating something today, make it a tee boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Abercrombie and Ford, nickel in stock of Delta, and Nick and I both own stock of Chipotle, Spotify, and ETFs of the S&P 500.