The Best One Yet
🛒 “Where the rich shop” — Walmart’s renaissance. Jersey Mike’s $8B sandwich. Google’s Chrome divorce.
Wed, 20 Nov 2024
Google’s Chrome Browser is used by 61% of us… but now Google may be forced to split it off.Jersey Mike’s sandwich chain was just acquired for $8B… but it’s really an education company.The #1 non-tech stock of 2024? Walmart… It’s winning on rich families with six-figure incomes.Plus, can a banana duct-taped to a wall sell for $1.5M?... The art market decides today (so take our Spotify poll).$WMT $GOOG $BX🧢 The TBOY holiday merch drop ends Thursday 11/21: Shop now @ www.tboypod.com/shop🎙️ Check out the latest episode of our new weekly deepdive show The Best Idea Yet: The untold origin story of “Levi’s 501s… The World’s 1st Jeans” 👖Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinks —-----------------------------------------------------GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts FOR MORE NICK & JACK: Newsletter: https://tboypod.com/newsletter Connect with Nick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/ Connect with Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/ SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ Subscribe to our new (2nd) show… The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinksEpisodes drop weekly. It’s The Best Idea Yet.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: What is Google's Chrome browser controversy?
So in theory, yeah, consumers, yeah, we benefit from more choices like splitting up Google and Chrome. But in practice... consumers might be okay with this big tech monopoly situation. You may prefer the seamlessness to the split up. But besties, we want to know what you think. Drop an idea in the comments. Do you think consumers would be better off if Chrome was separated from the rest of Google?
For our second story, Jersey Mike's, the sandwich chain, just sold for $8 billion. But Jersey Mike's Subs isn't actually in the food business. Good point, Jack. They're in the education business. And we'll explain. But funny things yet is, you know, Jack and I have noticed that even more so than politics, few things are more divisive than the terms we use for sandwiches.
Where I grew up, we called the sandwich a grinder. Like I want a six inch meatball grinder. Jack, where I grew up in New York, they were calling them heroes. When I was in Philadelphia for business school, they were calling them hoagies. Down on the Jersey shore though, they're called submarines. Oh, and the submarines from Jersey Mike's are huge.
Jersey Mike's basically turned the cold cuts into a hot business. Let's jump in, Jack. Founded in 1956 in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, Jersey Mike's has 4,000 locations today. Jersey Mike's is basically Subway's cooler, more profitable cousin topped in oil and vinegar, drowning in oil and vinegar. Or the juice, as they call it in Jersey. If you know, you know. But here's the news, yetis.
Jersey Mike's was just acquired by a private equity firm for twice the value of Lyft. Blackstone is the proud new owner of Jersey Mike's, but they didn't buy it for the Capicola. No, they didn't. They bought Jersey Mike's for the cash flow. Yeah. You know, the state of New Jersey, it is known for Taylor Ham Jack, but Jersey Mike's is known for turning profits, and we got the numbers and receipts.
But Nick, now that they're owned by PE, those meat slicers are going to have a lot of mileage put on them. Blackstone, they're getting hungry for that gobble ghoul. But Jack, I got to ask at this point. Let's talk mortadella. I mean, money. What is the context on the broader restaurant industry right now? This is the worst year for restaurants in years.
Besties, remember that whole $20 Big Mac drama we talked about over the summer? People are upset about restaurant prices, and they've been trading down to frozen pizzas. In fact, so far in 2024, it's been a record number of restaurant bankruptcies in America. And yet- Jersey Mike's is defying all those trends. They're feasting on record revenues and just had a really nice exit to private equity.
So in order for us to really analyze Jersey Mike's, Jack and I thought we needed a comp, a comparison. So Jack, how can we compare Jersey Mike's to Subway? We can compare it to Subway. There's 4,000 Jersey Mike's locations compared to Subway's 40,000. Okay, so Subway has 10 times as many locations. But what about Jersey Mike's performance on a per location basis?
average Jersey Mike's has one and a half million dollars of sales per location, which is three times more than your average Subway location. Subway's only doing $500,000 per location. I mean, Quiznos would kill for these kind of Jersey Mike's numbers. So Jersey Mike's is crushing it at each location and they're growing really fast too.
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Chapter 2: Why was Jersey Mike's sold for $8 billion?
And the people in Bentonville, Arkansas, they've been executing on transitioning to the Amazon-dominated e-commerce world. Which is why Walmart is shockingly the best-performing non-tech stock of 2024. Execution.
It's underrated.
Jack, you'll whip up the takeaways for us for Savice Wednesday. To end Google's monopoly, the DOJ wants Google to be forced to sell Chrome. But if that happens, besties, would consumers actually be better off? Would you take a monopoly for efficiency? Let us know what you think in the comments. For our second story, it's Jersey Mike's. They just sold for $8 billion.
It is booming while other restaurants are busting. Jersey Mike's advantage? It's training. This food chain is really an education company. And our third and final story is Walmart. It's the best non-tech stock of 2024 as everyone flocks to their low prices. Walmart stock. It is proof that execution is underrated. And that's why Bezos gets his avocados from Walmart. I'm not fact-checking, man.
Buddy Timmy was in the text. But yetis, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, Greece. Yeah, the country that struggled with all those debts, they just repaid $5 billion in long-term debt early. It's an incredible show of financial strength for a formerly debt-ravaged country. Second, Shake Shack and Delta just formed a new partnership 35,000 feet high.
Delta will now serve Shake Shack burgers on domestic flights starting on December 1st from Boston, and then it expands. That sounds amazing. Yeah, it does. The Shack burger is Delta's new competitive advantage for airline loyalty. And finally, we just got the numbers on that epic Netflix fight. It was the most streamed sports event in history. 108 million watchers globally.
But that live stream was riddled with glitches. This puts Netflix under some major pressure on Christmas Day when they're streaming their first ever live NFL game. And as we mentioned yesterday, Beyonce is doing the halftime show of that Netflix Christmas Day football game. No pressure, Netflix. If Netflix glitches that halftime show, there's going to be riots. No pressure.
Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Yeti Vito over in sunny Santa Monica. On Monday, we did a story on the only child economy. How the only children in America make different financial and career decisions that have an impact on our economy. Only children are less likely to be entrepreneurs, but they're more likely to become CEOs. Now, interesting detail here.
We mentioned that Leonardo da Vinci was an example of a legendary only child in history. Slight correction here. Yeah. While he was an only child from his two parents together, he ended up having 17 half-siblings. After Da Vinci's parents had him, they both went on to have more kids with other spouses in Tuscany, so Leonardo da Vinci ended up with 17 half-siblings.
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Chapter 3: How is Jersey Mike's different from Subway?
Happy 35th birthday to Nevin, who's celebrating with his girlfriend Sonia at an incredible dinner, Albee, in Washington, D.C. And Karen Tsai in Overland Park, Kansas, is celebrating a birthday as a huge Chiefs fan, almost undefeated. Happy birthday to the future business dragon, Luke Baker, in skinny-at-lees New York. And Jacob Haft, happy 25th birthday doing logistics in Chicago.
And a happy 70 to Sandy Freshy in Menlo Park, California. What a birthday bash. 70th Not Too Shabby in Grover Byer to turn 13 years old celebrating down in Jacksonville, Florida. Happy 10-year birthday to Matthew Stewart of Houston, Texas, who, like me, loves tall buildings. Loves them. I still look up at the skyscrapers when I'm in New York City. Never gets old. Congrats, Matthew.
And Austin Belhansley in Morrisville, North Carolina, is celebrating his best birthday yet with wife Lex and their cats, Maze and Max. And finally, a big shout out to Jeremy Braunschweig, who reaches out to us on Instagram. Jeremy's been a Yeti for years because he says this show makes him a most interesting person in the room.
But he just shared it with his sister, who now may become the most interesting person in the room. So thanks for sharing it, Jeremy, and sharing the spotlight of being the most interesting. Yeah, Jeremy, that kind of backfired, actually.
You're number two now.
You're both the most interesting. This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon and Netflix. Nick owns stock of Delta and Shake Shack. And we both own stock of Apple. And we both own one Bitcoin, whose name is Ben.
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