The Best Newsletter Yet

Happy Saturday Besties,

In honor of Reddit’s IPO week, here are the best subreddits…

• r/TipOfMyTongue — For when you can’t think of the name of that movie, show, or that other…thing.

• r/DataIsBeautiful — For our buddies who geek out over a visual representation of “How much $ would you have if you bought Apple stock instead of the latest iPhone.”

• r/OutOfTheLoop — For when you want to get the scoop on a trending story in the media, like about the Neuralink-chipped person who won in chess.

With Reddit, always remember Rule #4.

This week’s newsletter is 10% of the best of the pod and 90% things we had to share off the record. 

Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Subscribe here to get our weekly edition.

• 🔻 Lululemon’s stock dropped 16% on Friday because there’s been a “shift in the US consumer” (CEO’s words).

  • New: Lulu is building up its footwear offering (its 3rd year in the shoe space) and its men’s business (incl. in footwear).

  • Hot, New Competition: Beyond the OGs, like Nike and Adidas, Lulu is now facing newer names in activewear like Alo and Vuori that are stealing share of Millennial pocketbooks.

  • Bad day for all athleisure: Nike fell 7% too, and is even cutting back production on Air Force 1s — that’s like Levi cutting down on 501 jeans (BIG deal). On the flip, Nike did pick up the German football ⚽️ national team after the team ended its 77-year run with Adidas.

• 🔺 Bentley’s stock jumped after seeing “jaw-dropping demand” for custom (“bespoke”) cars. The numbers are gas to the share price.

  • 7 out of 10 bespoke car-buyers spend over $42K on personalizations. Someone even had wood from his backyard added to the interior.

  • For our car buddies: These are some of The Best custom Bentleys ever made according to Miami. 🤑

🙈 You may not be anonymous anymore: Glassdoor just added some users’ names to reviews of companies without their consent. This move feels like corporate suicide.

• The background: Back when Glassdoor acquired Fishbowl in 2021, every Glassdoor user was auto-signed up and their identity was verified.

• The tea: One blogger just noticed that Glassdoor will add a user’s real name (and potentially other info) to their account without their permission if Glassdoor learns it (like through a customer support email). Your only other option? Cancel your membership if it already has your name.

👉 Poking is back. Facebook just made a design change that drove a 13x spike in poking over the last month. The “poke” button never really left, but you had to go deeeep into settings to do it.

• Who’s poking: Over 50% of new Pokes were made by users ages 18 to 29 (Gen Z).

• The best fact: The poking feature came out in 2004, before the News Feed did (and before those new Pokers were born)

🥡 The Takeout (by Quartz) — This is the holy grail for everything food. It’s got stories from…

…the news that Chick-fil-A is trying out pizza (pic below), to Costco denying frauds (aka non-members) from the $1.50 hotdog+soda combo deal, to the grocery habits of specific states according to Instacart data, like these:

• Arizona is ordering the most “spirits.” 🍸

• California is the most likely to taco on a Tuesday. 🌮

• New York has the shortest average message length with their Instacart shoppers (we’re all about saving time). “Get milk.”

Last week we asked: “Is 8 am too early for a meeting?” And you said…

For next week…

• Storytelling guru, Amanda Reill, wrote about the formula for speaking effectively:

  • “Bond, James Bond” is one of the most recognized movie lines because it repeats terms. Other examples of this are “burn, baby, burn” or “home sweet home.”

  • Repeating a word at the beginning and end of a phrase makes it stick in people’s minds — and that phenomenon is called Anaphora.

• “Super Tasters” have a tongue density 3x higher than a typical tongue.

  • Could you be one? In a Harvard Study, 25% of people were sensitive to bitter-tasting chemical (6-n-propylthiouracil). Super tasters tend to be picky eaters not liking spicy foods. So if you take wings Blazin’… you’re not super.

• R & D turned into “Ranch” “Dressing.”

  • “Research & Development” is one department in a business, while Marketing is a totally separate one.

  • Butttt we think Hidden Valley Ranch essentially merged the two: R & D & M(arketing)

  • 51% of Ranch sales are Hidden Valley – And a key driver of the brand’s success is from turning Research work into Marketing events…

  • For example: Hidden Valley hosts “tasting” parties with those “Super Tasters” to test new flavors before launching them.

  • And that’s why there’s a Ranch Dressing Renaissance at Hidden Valley. Ranch is now the #1 sauce/dressing/condiment in America (beating out ketchup!).

  • Not convinced R&D can become Marketing? See: Ranch Ice Cream and Hidden Valley Chap Stick.

• Business: Earnings for GameStop, Carnival, Walgreens, & McCormick Spices

• Holiday: Good Friday (the stock market will be closed) & Easter Sunday

• Sports: MLB Opening Day (Thursday), More March Madness (both weather and basketball)

👂 Monday: The best new side hustle is running a vending machine 😉

👂 Tuesday: The best Vibee is a concert on water

👂 Wednesday: The best deal in history is coming to Prime Video

👂 Thursday: The best mug is pivoting back to dudes

⭐️ Friday: The best IPO of the year is the short king of social media

 👀 Next Monday’s pod: The best new startup extends your pup’s life 🐶…

And one more thing. The “Midnight Movie Club” is officially in session. MMC is when your significant other is out for the night (or sleeping), so you stay up late and watch a movie they wouldn't watch. If you want a review from some of our latest midnight watches, reply “MIDNIGHT MOVIE” and we’ll hit ya up with some before next weekend.

(and hit us up if you have any recs for us too). We’ve got Ep #1 of Beef ready to roll…

🍿🌛

—Nick & Jack