Podcasts about ThinkGeek

Lords: * Andi * Casey Topics: * Lifehacks as communion with the divine * I decided to fire my computer * Winston is starting to forget things Microtopics: * A Star Trek watchalong podcast that doesn't exist yet. * Positing that what you said is no longer an NDA violation by the time this episode comes out. * Plugging a fake game that you worked on. * Astrobot. * Horror movie clinky noises that you can't hear over the PS4 fan noises. * Caffeine-infused mints with Tux the Penguin branding on Think Geek dot com. * The pre-eminent source for Life Hacks. * Using a hotel shower cap to bake bread. * Anime girls that are happy to see you. * That one time Film Crit Hulk broke character. * The joy of moving efficiently through the world. * More efficient ways to set the microwave timer. * Hotel rooms that you can bake bread in. * Whether bread should contain hair. * Tricking yourself into not being bored while doing something you have to do. * Reading 50 life hacks and applying none of them because. * Viral Life Hack that's killed 33 people. * A life hack that already had a body count in the double digits before someone made a TikTok about it. * Getting really fed up with computers. * Cryptographic signing processes that you can't participate in. * The HDCP certification board taking steps to ensure nobody can take a screen shot of their Crunchy Roll anime. * The analog hole. * Open source web browsers that can't see DRM content. * Microsoft-authenticated Linux installations. * Designing a circuit that solves a math problem. * Stamping a circuit onto your circuit clay. * An independent circuit re-implementation of video game hardware. * Should you use FPGA to do a thing? * Ridiculous multi-level memory caching systems. * Bootstrapping an FPGA design tool that runs on an FPGA device. * Every single circuit doing something on every single cycle. * Voltages going high and/or low. * Making a bunch of CPUs and testing them afterwards to see how many GHz they have. * Why the PS3 Cell processor had 7 SPUs * The industrial uses of the Cell processor. * A GLSL compiler that outputs FPGA circuits. * Mr. MiSTer. * Open-hardware laptops. * Inventing an open-source GPU. * Multics or Minix. * Writing a Breakout clone in Rust targeting the weird CPU your friend just invented. * Making a terrible first effort that is the right kind of good enough. * A laptop that has a FPGA where the CPU/GPU usually goes. * 1970s-era TV games. * The Epoch Cassette Vision. * A game console with interchangeable cartridges where the CPU is on the cartridge. * The Glasgow Interface Explorer. * Describing your FPGA circuit in Python. * Manufacturing homebrew Cassette Vision Homebrew cartridges for the audience of zero Cassette Vision owners. * Making art just for you, in the most overly elaborate and overly complicated way possible. * The programmer equivalent of going to swim with the dolphins. * Diagonal pixels. * Childhood amnesia. * Remembering your memories. * Using 10% of your brain. (And also the other 90%.) * Knowing things about stuff. * When one brother dies, the other brother gets their memories. * Memories that are formed before vs. after you learn to talk. * Being persecuted for being friends with a girl. * Rules of heteronormativity being enforced by three year olds. * Getting off of Wordpress.

Venture Capital is all about the cash — but in a crowded field, money is a commodity. To truly stand out, you have to go above and beyond for your portfolio companies. Today's guest has set themselves apart by providing exceptional support.We're sitting down with Seth Spergel, who is a managing partner of Merlin Ventures, where he's responsible for identifying cutting-edge companies for Merlin to partner with and invest in. Seth has more than 20 years of experience building, selling, and investing in software and startups.Prior to Merlin Ventures, Seth was VP for Infrastructure Technologies at In-Q-Tel, a strategic investment firm that invests in startups that meet the mission needs of government customers. There he led a team of technology experts to evaluate companies and identify novel uses of their technology within the In-Q-Tel customer set.Before In-Q-Tel, Seth was the VP of engineering for ThinkGeek, an online seller and manufacturer of geeky toys and clothing. He also spent 12 years at IBM in roles ranging from software developer to sales manager. Highlights:Merlin's background and evolution into VC (3:44)What differentiates Merlin in the VC market (7:32)What an ideal portfolio looks like for Merlin (8:38)Seth walks us through the support system Merlin provides their companies (9:21)The unique guidance Merlin offers on compliance and political relations (12:57)Seth tells the story of one of Merlin's successful exits (14:52)Seth's advice for founders seeking funding (17:59)Current trending market opportunities (18:50)How cloud computing and migration are affecting the cybersecurity space (20:35)Seth describes the current state of Israel's funding environment (22:00)Values and culture at Merlin (25:35)Seth's predictions for the future of Merlin and the VC market (26:55)Links:Seth Spergel on LinkedInMerlin Ventures on LinkedInMerlin Ventures WebsiteICR LinkedInICR TwitterICR WebsiteFeedback:If you have questions about the show, or have a topic in mind you'd like discussed in future episodes, email our producer, marion@lowerstreet.co.

Matt Chwat is an accomplished product & experience design leader. On this episode of Mock IT, he shares his career at ThinkGeek (later GameStop) and discusses the path and skills he needed to go from the world of gaming to government. CSG: http://bit.ly/3Fpbh7J Careers: https://mss.fyi/404GyEP Find Matt: http://bit.ly/3FnF7ct Follow Civvies: https://mss.fyi/3mRTShA

Our guest for the show is Seth Spergel, Managing Partner of Merlin Ventures. Seth brings over 20 years of experience building, selling, and investing in software and startups. He joined us to talk about the Browser security and Browser Isolation market To promote our work and support the podcast, please review us here https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/security-architecture-podcast-1313281 Season 4 KickOff episode with Chase: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWB05cb7XRQ&feature=youtu.be About Seth: Seth Spergel is Managing Partner of Merlin Ventures. Seth brings over 20 years of experience building, selling, and investing in software and startups. Seth came to Merlin from In-Q-Tel, the strategic investment firm of the US Intelligence Community. Prior to In-Q-Tel, Seth was VP of Engineering at ThinkGeek. Seth is a graduate of Brandeis University, where he majored in Computer Science and Economics. About Merlin: Merlin Ventures is the strategic investment arm of Merlin Cyber, a firm with 25 years of experience helping the largest cybersecurity brands in the world tackle the US Federal market. In 2019, we established Merlin Ventures to find the next generation of cybersecurity solutions, and in 2021 stood up our office in Tel Aviv to gain insider access to the unique cybersecurity ecosystem that Israel provides. Leveraging our network of US-based security executives, as well as Merlin Cyber's public sector go-to-market expertise, Merlin Ventures helps our portfolio companies understand and rapidly accelerate into both commercial and government markets in the US.

What is a viral product launch?Jamie Grove and a team of friends launched Mini Museum on Kickstarter hoping to raise 10k or 20k. The kickstarter campaign did over a million. The team met while working at ThinkGeek  (acquired by Gamestop for 140mil). Luckily, they knew a bit about product development, manufacturing, and fulfilling large volumes of orders.Learn more about Mini Museumwww.minimuseum.com

Use code LTT at MechanicalKeyboards at https://geni.us/RecNBTI Try FreshBooks free, for 30 days, no credit card required at https://www.freshbooks.com/wan Buy a Seasonic Ultra Titanium PSU On Amazon: https://geni.us/q4lnefC On Newegg: https://lmg.gg/8KV3S Check out the WAN Show & Podcast Gear: https://lmg.gg/podcastgear Check out the They're Just Movies Podcast: https://lmg.gg/tjmpodcast Timestamps: (Courtesy of NoKi1119) 0:00 Chapters 1:03 Intro 1:31 Topic #1 - Microsoft's acquisition of Activision 4:44 Luke's take of the positive side 8:50 Linus's rebuttal of the negative side 10:36 Fears of Microsoft monopoly, effects on multiplayer 18:00 Sony VS Xbox duopoly, Xbox Game Pass advantages 23:17 Sony's "Spartacus" Game Pass, Nintendo's Back Up service 25:35 Sony's memory stick, Xbox series S/X VS PS4/PS5 26:53 LTTStore's non-zipper processor hoodie 29:05 Topic #2: Lenovo vendor locks AMD processors via PSB 30:03 CPUs brick once fuse blows, enabled by default 31:56 Anti-consumerism or badly implemented? Discussing e-waste 35:02 [TRIGGER WARNING] Blizzard's "Cosby Suite" 36:20 Sponsor - MechanicalKeyboards 37:26 Sponsor - Freshbooks 38:11 Sponsor - Seasonic 38:44 Clearing opinions on AMD's PSB, remastered games 43:34 Merch Messages #1 43:52 Stopping GPU sag 44:50 Linus interpreting American Sign Language 48:29 Government reform thoughts for tech industry 49:18 AMD's CPU vs GPU innovative roadmap 50:35 Not all LMG employees are techies, Linus idea of trolling 52:33 Cables signal degradation shielded VS unshielded video idea 53:41 Tel Aviv LTT videos, Bill Gates buying lands 55:14 Game development & SSD expectations 56:56 Topic #3 - AMD's Anti-4GB VRAM post deleted after 6500XT 58:32 Better than nothing, functional & in stock 1:00:16 Specifications, APU usage explains the lack of decoding 1:03:29 Removal of anti-4GB post, graphics card & hardware demand 1:07:26 Topic #4 - NFT overtakes cryptocurrency after crashing 1:10:08 Twitter NFT profile pictures on iOS 1:12:06 NFTs are cosmetics that people value 1:18:40 ThinkGeek bought by Gamestop 1:20:30 Topic #5 - Samsung's Exynos 2200 SoC RDNA2 1:21:32 Topic #6 - Valve verifies games that work on Steam Deck 1:23:21 Merch Messages #2 1:23:28 LTTStore's free items, GPU wasteland postcard for labs 1:24:55 Linus's take on data science content 1:25:55 Linus & Luke regret mining prior to BTC explosion 1:27:17 Right to repair laws on Canada follows America's 1:28:28 LTTStore CPU pillow dirt smell from alpaca fur 1:29:16 Game development for LMG labs, Floatplane notifications 1:32:04 4K TV vs monitor for gamers, LTTStore screwdrivers 1:33:22 Shirt stretching, Twitch staff leaving & unprofitability 1:36:03 LTTStore's RGB diode T-Shirt, labs audio space & roadmap 1:39:40 LTTStore's new desk configurator for mousepads 1:42:38 Crypto crashing & GPU upgradability, DIY channel idea 1:44:16 LTTStore screwdriver price, LTT in Cuba, labs ideas 1:49:22 LTTStore screwdriver design 1:52:46 US shipping & taxes, variable refresh rate on Sony TVs 1:59:56 Front-end early development for Floatplane 2:01:34 LTTStore's upcoming waffle shirt, delayed shipments 2:04:15 Outro 2:04:49 YouTube Superchats still not fixed

Tracy gifts Mike a very special, expensive appliance. Mike gifts Tracy a different but also very special, expensive appliance. They ate the same garbo frozen pizzas growing up.

Seth Spergel is Managing Partner at Merlin Ventures, where he is responsible for identifying cutting-edge companies for Merlin to partner with and invest in. Seth has more than 20 years of experience building, selling, and investing in software and startups. Most recently, Seth was VP for Infrastructure Technologies at In-Q-Tel, the strategic investment firm of the US Intelligence Community. Prior to In-Q-Tel, Seth was the VP of Engineering for ThinkGeek, an online seller and manufacturer of “geeky” toys and clothing, and also spent 12 years at IBM in roles ranging from software developer to sales manager.

George Sherman is the CEO of GameStop Corp, an American video game, consumer electronics, and gaming merchandise retailer. The company is headquartered in Grapevine, Texas (a suburb of Dallas), United States, and is the largest video game retailer worldwide. As of January 30, 2021, the company operated 4,816 stores including 3,192 in the United States, 253 in Canada, 417 in Australia and 954 in Europe under the GameStop, EB Games, ThinkGeek, and Micromania-Zing brands.

A cada 10 programas iremos realizar um GAMESTOP, dedicado à indústria dos Jogos, mas sobretudo àquilo que este enorme mundo trouxe ao desenvolvimento tecnológico, que tem vindo também ele a influenciar outras áreas da Sociedade. A GameStop Corp. é uma empresa americana de jogos de vídeo, electrónica de consumo e venda a retalho de produtos de jogo. A empresa está sediada em Grapevine, Texas (um subúrbio de Dallas), Estados Unidos, e é o maior retalhista de jogos de vídeo do mundo, operando 5.509 lojas de retalho nos Estados Unidos, Canadá, Austrália, Nova Zelândia, e Europa a partir de 1 de Fevereiro de 2020. A empresa foi fundada em Dallas em 1984 como Babbage's, e assumiu o seu nome actual em 1999. As lojas de retalho da empresa operam principalmente sob as marcas GameStop, EB Games, ThinkGeek, e Micromania-Zing. A empresa declinou durante a metade da década de 2010 devido à mudança das vendas de jogos de vídeo para lojas online e aos investimentos falhados da GameStop no retalho de smartphones. Com Vasco Elvas

Welcome back to Paper Play Action! The podcast were we talk the way we talk on subjects like:Kid Cosmic | Kevnyan on YouTube | Akuma II by ALEX and TOKYO ROSE | "The World's Strongest Wizard Becomes Manaless" | Valheim | "Six Ways| Approaches & Entries For Practical Magic" by Aidan Wachter |"The Egyptian Book of the Dead" | Pokemon legends https://youtu.be/SbIA8FKhwl0 | Hot Wheels https://youtu.be/Rl4CitGqvPc | Sifu: https://youtu.be/PS32M1R-U-8 | Solar Ash: https://youtu.be/7adguXJNliQ | FNAF security breach: https://youtu.be/YiZNN9sFAPM | Death loop: https://youtu.be/sj39uFEnhgU | Kena: https://youtu.be/pWh5388AEHw | FF7R Intergrade: https://youtu.be/El_tG6PyHic | Stonefly https://youtu.be/EeKPSgBmd4Q | Outriders demo https://youtu.be/_s48C6YlZH8 | Skullgirls season pass https://nintendoeverything.com/skullgirls-2nd-encore-announces-season-1-pass/ |The Nerf Nuke exist now from Thinkgeek https://hiconsumption.com/nerf-nuke-fires-80-darts-in-all-directions/ | Last air bender animated movie coming from the minds of the creators |Anthem is finally dead. | Dark Moonlight https://youtu.be/TlHT_fT-BRQ |Officially MCU Spider-man 3 https://youtu.be/r7M-XNGT5G0 |Star war republic commandos https://youtu.be/MTi1KSZt5Jw | Bomb Rush Cyberfunk https://youtu.be/218qo9zMmZI | CoD https://youtu.be/Q9OdsuLTdtM | https://www.ign.com/articles/a-500gb-ps4-may-no-longer-be-able-to-fit-call-of-duty-black-ops-cold-war-and-warzone |Jupiter's Legacy https://youtu.be/pnz1zJiHTKw |Arkham Horror: Mother's Embrace game https://youtu.be/meufucAIilI https://youtu.be/ZuaEGixrWqM |Sony confirms that PSVR 2 is in development It |We Were Here Together https://youtu.be/Q6XVZ0W5vX0 |Pascal's Wager https://youtu.be/4S_WQEF7PCY |Cham Cham in SS https://youtu.be/Tp9q402WB8c |The Age of Daft Punk is over |Dota Netflix show? https://youtu.be/XRMP6slcJ9o

GameStop Corp., a Fortune 500 company headquartered in Grapevine, Texas, is a digital-first omni-channel retailer, offering games and entertainment products in its over 5,000 stores and comprehensive e-Commerce properties across 10 countries. GameStop, through its family of brands, offers the best selection of new and pre-owned video gaming consoles, accessories and video game titles, in both physical and digital formats. GameStop also offers fans a wide variety of POP! vinyl figures, collectibles, board games and more. Through GameStop's unique buy-sell-trade program, gamers can trade in video game consoles, games, and accessories, as well as consumer electronics for cash or in-store credit. The company's global family of brands include GameStop, EB Games, Micromania, ThinkGeek, and Game Informer® magazine, the world's leading print and digital video game publication. Cold Funk by Kevin MacLeod http://incompetech.com Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/cold-funk Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/Vhd6Kc4TZls Website - https://thefinchart.wixsite.com/finchart Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thefinchart/ Narrator- Ritesh Singh (https://www.instagram.com/ritesh282/) Content Writer -Gyanansh Garhwal (https://www.instagram.com/gyanansh_19/) Mic used in this podcast-https://amzn.to/3e1YJEm Thanks for listening to my podcast --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

In this week's episode, we talk to Mark Alves, SEO Manager at GMMB.We discuss his beginnings growing up as a beach kid in Massachusetts, going to college for political science, and his first foray into digital marketing and SEO while experimenting on his wife's church website in the 90's. From there we talk about his time working as a jack-of-all-trades at Freddie Mac, his time doing freelance consulting, what it was like doing SEO for ThinkGeek, and how he transitioned into agency SEO.For our core topic, we focus on doing SEO and analytics for non-profits, as well as the issue of agism within the search industry.Finally, we wrap the episode up by answering our Twitter questions of the week and selecting the winner of a Page 2 Podcast t-shirt!

It's time to nerd out and talk about the current events! In this show the nerdy group, Brittney, Mike, Martin and Heather talk GameStop, Playstation 5, ThinkGeek and SpaceX. Please check out the Patreon Page to subscribe to behind the scenes and check out our "Special" Podcast.

In this Hasty Treat, Scott and Wes bring you more web dev horror stories! Sentry - Sponsor If you want to know what’s happening with your errors, track them with Sentry. Sentry is open-source error tracking that helps developers monitor and fix crashes in real time. Cut your time on error resolution from five hours to five minutes. It works with any language and integrates with dozens of other services. Syntax listeners can get two months for free by visiting Sentry.io and using the coupon code “tastytreat”. Show Notes 2:26 - Perf Woes 3:42 - Always Backup Your Backups 4:54 - Kill Children 6:03 - Robots Don’t Eat Food 8:32 - Email Goof Up 9:44 - Hundreds of Thousands of Date Issues 10:46 - Spooky August 12:32 - You’re up to .bat 13:17 - Printed Code 15:12 - ThinkGeek 16:12 - It would take a while to Ketchup on all these orders 17:05 - This story makes me want to stick my head in async Tweet us your tasty treats! Scott’s Instagram LevelUpTutorials Instagram Wes’ Instagram Wes’ Twitter Wes’ Facebook Scott’s Twitter Make sure to include @SyntaxFM in your tweets

With Netflix and Amazon firing the next two shots in the Streaming Wars, how can this not be great news for the Geekwatchers? 00:29 - Brian finally gets to the second card game from the last podcast. 05:35 - After taking ThinkGeek over, GameStop will now close many underperforming stores by end of the year. Hello, irony! 08:56 – We discuss Warner Media's new deal with JJ Abram's regarding the BAD ROBOT project. In the cutthroat world of the streaming wars, this might just give WB the boost it needs. 11:38 – James Cameron proves his metal as a visionary filmmaker when he answers a question about AVENGERS: ENDGAME in a Deadline interview. 14:12 – Mandy talks about the trailer for DOCTOR SLEEP, how it seems to diverge from the book and the homage it pays to THE SHINING. 15:29 – Brian checked out the trailer for SEE, an upcoming show on Apple TV+. We have a better idea of the story now and we grapple with the many ways this premise can be a mindbender. 17:24 – We also caught the trailer for JOJO RABBIT. It's a movie that we're rooting to be funny and sensitive in the right way, and in the hands of Taika, we have a lot of hope. 20:33 – Yet another trailer we loved – THE LIGHTHOUSE – from the creators of THE WITCH. There are many similarities in the setting and Brian is eager to watch it. 22:24 – Apple shocks many by announcing its streaming service, Apple TV+ for $4.99/month. Mandy explains her theory on the low pricing. Brian talks about the unexpected benefits of an Apple TV box he bought recently. 26:18 – Brian is finally onboard the CARNIVAL ROW and DARK CRYSTALS ride. 28:06 – Brian also watched IT: CHAPTER II. He works very hard to keep it spoiler free. No laughing at his pain, please! But if you want the spoiler version, check out our Patreon page at https://www.patreon.com/geekwatch for the very first episode of BRIAN RUINS A MOVIE.

AKA "Geek Story": We interview John Frazier, longtime employee of the website ThinkGeek. Because we want all their things. Find out how Fraize became a mad scientist and gadget wrangler. —June 2013

Thank You for listening to Episode 6 of The Balcony Time Podcast! Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/BalconyTimePC Andy: https://twitter.com/PodcastAndy Russ: https://twitter.com/tentslayer Andrew: https://twitter.com/EclecticJester Nick: https://twitter.com/bt_roland Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/balconytimepodcast/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxbpev7GJW1euuDFyFv7PrQ AdVenture Capitalist: https://hyperhippogames.com/adventure-capitalist/ Horizon Zero Dawn: https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/horizon-zero-dawn-ps4/ Spider-Man: https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/marvels-spider-man-ps4/ Bob Iger: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Iger Ultimate Beastmaster: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimate_Beastmaster Makoto Nagano: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makoto_Nagano Yamamoto Shingo: https://sasukepedia.fandom.com/wiki/Yamamoto_Shingo MXC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Most_Extreme_Elimination_Challenge Shadow of the Colossus Easter Egg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQNeYbBiCKw&feature=youtu.be The return of WoW Classic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5o8_bvthkw Fable: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fable_(video_game_series) Knights of the Old Republic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars:_Knights_of_the_Old_Republic Supernatural: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernatural_(American_TV_series) Justified: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justified_(TV_series) Deadwood: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadwood_(TV_series) The Sopranos: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sopranos Scrubs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrubs_(TV_series) Gamestop troubles: https://www.businessinsider.com/gamestop-struggles-why-photos-2019-1 ThinkGeek links to Gamestop: http://www.thinkgeek.com

KFC made me so sad, chicken wing day, a visit to a ThinkGeek Store, and unboxing my new instant pot on YouTube. SUBSCRIBE to me at www.youtube.com/oldnerdreviews --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/oldnerdradio/support

Controversial Ariel, Sandwiches, Hiking Adventures, Freedom, Birfday’s, Thinkgeek’s demise, Old people, and news. Tune in now!Hosted by Amanda King & Adam TuckerProducer Will GilmanEdited by Andrew DresdenA product of Pants Pending StudiosBecome a Patron at Patreon.com/pantspendingWe are just like you, working full time, and trying to make this network great. Would you like to donate to the cause without committing to a monthly subscription? Visit our Amazon wish list to help us get the gear we need to bring you the highest quality content available! http://a.co/ivHnAvkAll music by: Kevin Mcleod from Incompetech.comThis is a copyrighted internet broadcast. Any reproduction or rebroadcast without express permission of its creators is strictly prohibited. For more, visit nerd.pantspending.com. Find us on facebook at Facebook.com/NERDpodcast, or on Twitter @PPSnerd. We can be heard via iTunes and Google Play Podcasts!

EA са недоволни от публичния си облик, GameStop бавно загива и взима със себе си безброй придобити през годините бизнеси (ThinkGeek, Game Informer), Age of Empires се играе от повече от милион геймъри месечно, защо Artifact е най-големият провал на Valve и други.

GameStop is closing down the website ThinkGeek and rolling the brand's collectibles business into the main GameStop website as a ThinkGeek section in its online store. Supporting Articles https://gamasutra.com/view/news/344781/GameStop_closing_down_ThinkGeeks_standalone_online_store.php #gaming #gamer #ps #xbox #gay #minecraft #instagood #playstation #shitpost #videogames #funnyvideos #games #music #fortnite #hilarious #lmfao #jokes #game #oof #spicymemes #funnymeme #memelord #explore #followme #twitch #pc #memes #l #explorepage --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/pixel-sultan/support

It's Christmas in July for Star Wars: TIES! In this lost Star Wars: TIES episode from the 12 TIES of Christmas of 2018, J-2SO (Jameson) and CalebWookie (Caleb Parham) furthered the 12 TIES of Christmas with what was originally Day 6! For day 6 these rebel jesters get together and discuss Star Wars clothing. The topics covered include what they have in their own wardrobes, Star Wars tee-shirts, sweaters, and even Star Wars underwear! They do this and more over a seasonably sweet glass of Christmas Cookie Blue Milk! Think Geek is a great place/website to check out all things Nerdy or “geeky.” Check out what clothing items and more they have here: https://www.thinkgeek.com/ Her Universe is a clothing line designed and run by Ashoka voice actress, Ashley Eckstein. Check it out here: https://www.heruniverse.com/ While already very Sold Out, check out information about the Columbia Jacket discussed in the episode here: https://www.columbia.com/starwars/ Be sure to join our Facebook group page at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/StarWarsTIES/ Have any feedback for us? We'd be honored to receive your email at: starwarstiespodcast@gmail.com! We have a website! Check us out at: https://sites.google.com/view/starwarsties/home Special thanks to Laurent Bernadac & 3Dvarius for allowing us to use their amazing cover for our outro music entitled, "Star Wars Cover - Star Wars Main Theme & The Imperial March." Be sure to check out their amazing cover at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icxWE2anT80&feature=youtu.beand their main website at: https://www.laurentbernadac.com/. Another special thanks goes our friend and fellow Retro Junkie, William Culver, for our Star Wars: TIES logo for our Facebook group page. If you're an arcade enthusiast, be sure to check out his main page at: https://www.facebook.com/ArcadeUsa/. And yet another thank you goes out to Beejay Hawn for drawing our podcast logo. For more artwork from out of this world, check out her art and commission page at: https://www.facebook.com/OodlesofDoodlesbyBeeJay/?fref=ts The Walt Disney Co. and Lucasfilm LTD. own all rights to Star Wars and the Star Wars franchise. Thank you to both companies for providing material for us to be fans of and share about on this podcast. May the Force be with you, always.

The RIOT declares a Judgment Free Friday... and then almost immediately backpedals when they are confronted with something so terrible that it must be judged. We also hear about Paul Rudd's new movie, the Gas Station Ice Lady, Super Mario Maker 2, and more ThinkGeek Bummer Talk. Have a great weekend!

Another big week! Microsoft testing a Chromium-Based browser, and Adam got an SD card for his Switch. ThinkGeek is shutting down, Google to retire tablets, Vertigo is closing, Mate X foldable delayed, and morons wants Netflix to cancel Good Omens. We discuss if it's a good idea for play-to-win games to be legislated. Housekeeping/Follow-up/Openers: Testing Chromium-Based Edge Adam Got An SD Card for His Switch Short Takes: ThinkGeek Shutting Down Avengers: Endgame Returning to Theaters Galaxy Note 10 Coming in August Marvel Returning to Hall H All Best Buy Locations to Repair Apple Products Google Retired Tablets Headlines: DC Comics Closing Down Vertigo Mate X Foldable Delayed Until September Main Story: Should Pay-To-Win Be Legislated And, Our WTAF: Cancel Good Omens Netflix! Wanna Donate to our Beer Fund: Donate to our PayPal Venmo: @thelazygeeks_1010 Contact Us: Blog: https://thelazygeeks.com/ Email: themailbag@thelazygeeks.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thelazygeeks/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thelazygeeks Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelazygeeks/ YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/c/Thelazygeeks --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thelazygeeks/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thelazygeeks/support

The team takes a look at the very first movie to be re-released with DLC, the fate of ThinkGeek, and the future of Destiny 2's Eververse store.

Welcome to the Spidercast Podcast, the podcast where a father and son go down the rabbit hole talking, tech, gaming, and the meaning of life. (which is always 42). Todays Episode Is this the Last Gen for Consoles, Cutting up a Tesla, Avengers Endgame, The Closing of Thinkgeek website, and last two E3 games of interest. We Stream Live Mondays about 8pm (ish) EST. on Twitch.tv/spiderara713 Find us Travis @mydunnlife (twitter, instagram) Austin @spiderara713 (Twitter) @spidersnest713 (Instagram) Make Sure to check out my Youtube channel "My Life is Austin" for back catalog of videos of gameplay and podcast. https://cutt.ly/wiStTf

There was a lot of news that came out of E3, but I really screwed up trying to get Ultimate and now have three years worth of Xbox Live Gold codes I can't use. Beat Saber got a DLC pack full of Imagine Dragons songs. Konami announced the TurboGrafx-16! Final Fantasy VIII is finally being remastered! Banjo-Kazooie is in Smash! Animal Crossing was delayed to 2020, and Nintendo's new President Doug Bowser says it was to preserve work-life balance for the development team. Shenmue 3 was announced to be an Epic Games Store exclusive for one year, and they aren't refunding Kickstarter backers who wanted a Steam version. The Star Control lawsuit between Stardock and the original creators is now over, and all parties seem happy. Gamestop is shutting down ThinkGeek and will roll their products into the Gamestop stores. Amazon quietly laid off many people in it's Amazon Game Studios division, having them seek other opportunities within Amazon or take a severance package. Then we take calls about Beat Saber licensing, Elite: Dangerous in VR, and if E3 is dead or not.

Think Geek is closing their online storefront to open a brick and mortar store called Game Stop...WHAT YEAR IS IT???

We wave goodbye to ThinkGeek, raise eyebrows at Twitch's lawsuit against Artifact trolls, and consider Starbase and other games with programming inside them. Show notes: https://hammercast.fm/87/

EP178 - Chewy IPO and Listener Questions Part 2  Recap of Chewy IPO (Chewy S1) Listener Questions Part 2: Q5: Nick Barrett Would be really interested to hear your guys thoughts on how an established e-commerce store should expand into new product categories. Is it a good idea to launch new niche websites through Shopify to do this, or is it better to keep focus within a single e-commerce site and expand within that? Q6 Rebecca Saunders Have you seen any recent data on the costs of customer acquisition online via the various channels, and how these have changed over time? I hear a lot anecdotally but haven’t managed to access any reliable data. Thanks in advance! Love the show btw (all the way from rainy London). Q7 Amit Agarwal Have you ever done some research on e-commerce subscriptions such as amazon subscribe and save or autoship? Also, what is the industry trends for bark box, hello fresh and other bundle subscriptions? Q8: Parker Block  Hey Scot, What do you see as likely business implications of rising appetite for anti-trust action (see FTC/DOJ announcement , Lina Khan joining Congress staff, etc ) on platforms which monetize  consumer data ? Q9: Baxter Overman How do you put consumers at ease with in-home delivery services? (i.e. Walmart grocery). Wouldn’t drop-off when the customer is home for certain items (or lockers) be easier to sell? Q10 Aakash Gupta What’s your favorite app that you’ve downloaded in the last few months? Q11 Twitter: Natalie Dillon mentioned us as one of her top podcasts – thanks Natalie! Q12 Ted: Mixed use retail entertainment? Q 13 Michelle Grant  Thoughts on pricing strategy in an omnichannel world where price transparency is high and filled with bots to find the lowest price Q15 Melissa Burdick The advertising race to the wallet – We’ve seen some big news lately: Target in talks to buy Triad, Walmart who is bringing advertising in house and just made a key hire Suresh as their CTO….where is this going for ads?  Is it going to be a war for brands wallet? Is everyone going to take a page from the Amazon playbook, bring ads in house, and move to a self-service performance advertising, PPC world? Where is the $ coming/going to come from?  In the chart below, it looks like Amazon is taking from Google.  (I asked a big CPG this question and I asked where is this coming from – or are you just getting more $$?  Their answer – more $$). How should brands prepare? Q16 Melissa Burdick Is Amazon going to do to walgreens/bartells/CVS what they did to the bookstore (kill the bookstore to build a bookstore) with the acquisition of pill pack + private label (aspirin, etc) and enable the ability to sell mass CPG profitably? Q17 Melissa Burdick Can Scot please update his Amazon Scape – how has it changed? Q18 Melissa Burdick When is Spiffy coming to Seattle? Don’t forget to like our facebook page, and if you enjoyed this episode please write us a review on itunes. Episode 178 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Tuesday, June 18th, 2019. http://jasonandscot.com Join your hosts Jason “Retailgeek” Goldberg, Chief Commerce Strategy Officer at Publicis, and Scot Wingo, CEO of GetSpiffy and Founder and Executive Chairman of Channel Advisor as they discuss the latest news and trends in the world of e-commerce and digital shopper marketing. Transcript Jason: [0:24] Welcome to the Jason and Scott show this is episode 178 being recorded on Tuesday June 18th 2019 I’m your host Jason retailgeek Goldberg and as usual I’m here to host Scott Wingo. Scot: [0:38] He Jason and welcome back Jason Scott your listeners well we if you listen to good ol episode 177 we had so many listener questions we could not get to the mall. So this is kind of a episode 2 or continuation of that episode before we jump into a star questions though we a while ago on a new show about 30 days ago now we talked about the chewy S1 and since then she has gone Publix we wanted to give you a quick update on what’s going on with you once you take us to the Jason. Jason: [1:14] So they did their IP aware According to some Tuesday it was Friday do I have that right. And you’ll tell me if this is good or not I think it is the day they had announced a rainy a price range for the offering at like 19 and 21 bucks and they actually came out at $22. That’s a little higher than the range they have a lot of good activity and they closed closed event on Friday it was at 35 bucks which is like 80%. So That seems like a pretty successful offering at least compared with like all the the Uber news or the with news. Scot: [2:07] This is the only been one to one IPO process and you know what would they tell you you’re so far. Knock on wood so what they what they tell you is that the Brain Trust at Goldman Sachs these kind of place is you want to go to one school of thought and this is not with the bankers agree with so you have to kind of navigate your way through all this obviously you got a fox and how so she was here once thought is you price your I get the maximum because that’s what’s best for the company the bankers would tell you to look your building long-term shareholder relationships so you want to give these shareholders that take a risk in your company a little bit of a benefit so you price a little bit lower than kind of where you can look at Newburgh lift they both would be kind of what’s the bankers would say kind of broken IPOs where they traded below their IPO price therefore now if you’re someone that participate in IPO you feel sheepish because you came in it what was a $20 now it’s trading at 18 where is this true IPO performed a lot better in a bottle the bankers would recommend I said if you want to come to clear range up there can a price above that range slightly and then have kind of a good pop and then stay there and then come out with your results and then kind of beet raisin your off the races did you could do. [3:30] Secondary offerings happy happy shareholders by wear stockings all kinds of good things happen at kind of tend to think this is the way to do it and they did really well. Jason: [3:43] Yeah now a couple of things that make it particularly interesting in the the sort of Commerce retail world so folks may remember. Chewy was acquired by PetSmart a couple years ago and it was a big deal at the time I was over three billion dollar. Acquisition. And so a incident PetSmart is now spinning off chewy as a separate public company and so I Like You by. And read my notes correctly that that close kind of values the company at that north of 4 billion dollars. Weather so acquire company for 3 billion ticket public at 14 billion sounds like. Pretty exciting acquisition for acquisition and transaction for PetSmart do I have that right. Scot: [4:42] I guess yeah they’re kind of Phoenix it’s almost like a private Equity, think it’s unusual for a company to do what they did cuz usually you fold it in you. You get rid of the brand overtime you make it your eCommerce brand so so young to the degree they have integrated it you could argue it Kris Russell because you know now I’m Siri chewy could be acquired maybe I do think that they sell and over half so I think they can control that but let’s say they do a secondary in overtime their ownership get step know maybe they need to sell some swimming in debts and then let’s say doomsday scenario Amazon acquires chewy and your PetSmart that’s what’s running your e-commerce site then you can kind of have a you know really bad day for someone at PetSmart to listen to see what happens with that integration now that you have these kind of. The amoeba is being pulled apart here and and how does that work for PetSmart. Jason: [5:42] Yeah so that’s kind of what I was going was like from a pure Financial standpoint if we look at it as a banker like it’s it’s hard not to see this as a win but but for your point. [5:55] PetSmart was not a particularly digitally Savvy brick and mortar retailer prior to this acquisition so I can the time part of this acquisition was to bring more digital competency to PetSmart and once pain the PetSmart team arrived PetSmart like really abdicated digital responsibility to that team so like as far as I understand it. There are fewer. Digital people at PetSmart today than there were before the acquisition so they’ve they’ve essentially made themselves extra dependent on chewy and it’s now not clear. What. [6:36] Responsibility going forward she will have for PetSmart digital footprint like you can imagine they have a deal to run petsmart.com. I haven’t explicitly seen that but that that seems like a logical assumption but you know what happens with all the. The start of omni-channel things and you know when PetSmart wants to launch new services or they want to like Market the Veterinary Service veterinarian services that she doesn’t sell but PetSmart does through their stores. Like they’re certainly isn’t like a really strong digital team at PetSmart to be solving the. The start of Digital customer experiences for PetSmart so it it it does it feels to me like it definitely create some risk. For PetSmart and I’ll be interesting whether they they have like. Chewy braintrust walked up some how or whether they’re going to try to rebuild their own their own capability there I guess I just it’s an interesting. [7:36] I think to follow so I found that interesting and then my assumption is that the kind of felt like they had to do it because. The the one interesting thing about the chewy idea that we haven’t mentioned is that that chewy is losing money, and like despite some like phenomenal hockey stick. Customer acquisition growth and sales growth and they have over three years they went from under a billion dollars to 3.5 billion dollars on sales they still haven’t found their way to profitability so your PetSmart you own this fast-growing money-losing venture. And you used a lot of debt to buy them so like. That they’re not helping you pay down the debt you used to buy them because they’re losing money by doing that idea o u stand up a bunch of cash in my understanding is the whole IPO like. Like tried to raise about a billion dollars and 900 million of that went straight to death from the PetSmart acquisition so for your point like it sounds like going public makes it easier to do subsequent raises. So maybe that. The way to bring more operating cash. Chewy but like there’s not a billion dollars in the bank as a result of this IPO that you can have spend on marketing that they didn’t have last year. [8:58] It’s all very interesting is going to be interesting to watch watch how it all plays out and then I guess the other thing is fun for me and you cover this on a previous show a little bit but like. In the process of going public May disclose a bunch of details that we don’t normally get to see and so I know there’s some interesting metrics that came out. They they do a really good cohort analysis of a evaluate. How sticky their customers are from each year that they acquire them and how valuable those customers are in so they have a like in their filings they have a nice what we call a wedding cake kind of showing. Each of those previous years cohorts. Growing in value over time and have some really favorable long-term metrics our customer retention is amazing a big chunk of their customers are on subscriptions are longer-term customers are continuing to spend more and so like. In general they’re having to spend a lot of money to acquire each new customer but the the lifetime value of those customers like is a significant multiple of that customer acquisition cost, so it just spend together inside peek at a pretty big size e-commerce business. Scot: [10:14] Yeah you know the history of e-commerce is littered with companies that they do all this math off of cackle TV and they’re using kind of known LTV, acquire new customers off that no nail TV and then at some point you get through your lines cut across and that LTD of that new customer surprisingly goes down over time because the early days you’re you’re bring in these these early adopters their Advocates they stick around and then the Slater customers you acquire you know maybe they’re just sampling and that kind of thing so it’ll be interesting to see. At the same time Irwin size applying data science and machine learning all his new technologies to try to fight all this in the sea. How to do another big thing when you go public as you have to decide. Which of these metrics are going to publish Schnitzer it’s pretty tricky thing cuz you kind of you know you kind of have to think well metric out there instructions down that’s bad so you can you can actually have a much different and you should have different kind of TV is you put out this one versus on your quarterly so will cover the first quarterly and no be interesting to see if they if they continue with a really transparent Buick faculty because that’s one they had some really good date on them. Jason: [11:31] Yeah it’ll be fun to see. Scot: [11:33] Cool swell I’m springing this on you but did you have a chance to look at the big Facebook crypto announcement today Libra new crypto-currency. Jason: [11:45] Yeah you should have spring stuff on me cuz you know I did all day so I just rushed to the hotel room to get to chat with you so tell us about. Scot: [11:57] Well I’ll just point point listeners to it the immediate reaction from Regulators was oh heck no so the other side quotes from the EU and both parties in the US saying we’re not really sure we trust Facebook with this so that that’s kind of I’m still adjusting it and it looks like they had a big team here the guy that got from PayPal but they put on chats Dave music. He’s leading this so it’s a big pretty big initiative at Facebook it’s what’s called a constant. Constant coin so it it’s kind of going to an individual value versus versus the US dollar does versus floating around the reason the white paper it looks like it’s going. It’s going after being a payment mechanism, like miles and that kind of thing for people. Within the Facebook Network they do have several people that have signed on to this kind of governing body eBay was announced today is also looking at it location being that the company Side dance this governing body will ultimately takes this currency along with the u.s. dollar other payments down the road so it just feels like it’s the payment thing to watch to see how it goes. Jason: [13:23] So do you think the the Winklevoss twins will be all in in this will be the Zuckerberg Winklevoss reunions. Scot: [13:29] That direction was an article where they have had something to do with it I know that’s compliment you can find them. [13:45] I think that they were asked to apine on it because they they have put a lot of stuff into the crypto thing. Jason: [13:53] I don’t know what we’ll see how it all plays out like superficially. I I simultaneously and surprise and admire Facebook’s ability to sort of ignore their currents. Situation and launching new products so I do I do feel like. Visa V the other big technology giants like Facebook is it the biggest sort of trust deficit of all of them and yet they continue to launch products that like. At the core require like this really strong level of consumer trust for adoption so launching portal and putting like on microphone and camera and everyone’s living room and the launching of cryptocurrencies likes that there’s some hotspot doing those kind of launches when it it it feels like you’re you’re not exactly killing it in terms of earning your user stress. Scot: [14:44] Okay one of our one of our many interns just look this up and they actually it so Facebook had talked to the Zuckerberg they have an exchange called Gemini and they’re not sure they’re to work together but the Winklevoss folks said you know it’s time to let bygones be bygones and waste will probably be Frenemies so if you’re very Millennial wait till dresses. Jason: [15:07] Let’s jump into listener questions. [15:19] Questionnaire questionnaire questionnaire questions. Scot: [15:24] Yes sir we are so we covered for last time so I can start out here with number 5 this was from Nick Barrett and it came through Facebook I believe Nick is from Australia or New Zealand so I don’t know if that puts it in context but there you go I think he works for this company called Mighty ape which is kind of like GameStop it’s like an FYE but an American kind of context to hear your guys thoughts and I’ll and established e-commerce store could expand in a new product categories is it a good idea to launch new Niche websites to Shopify to do this or is it better to keep Focus within a single e-commerce site and expand with a nut I’ll take a stab at this kind of depends so I’ll use a I use a metaphor here of orbits right so so at the at the at the center of this orbit is your existing customer in your existing e-commerce experience I think customers will. Pretty easily let you go one or two orbits out you start to go three or four orbits out then you really need to start thinking about that customers buying experience and the messaging it doesn’t make sense to have it going to tie it to something on a closer orbit to what you’re doing today so use example it looks like a Mighty Eighth the selling games Collectibles those kinds of things so. [16:50] You know another example of a store like yours is ThinkGeek here in the US and you’ll think he did a really good job of starting with your muesli. [17:00] Kind of collectible stuff and then bringing in toys stand life-size figures and then they going deep into categories so then in the store are they and the lion to have a pretty, deep Star Wars category a Harry Potter category Etc and then online and license the brands and then there’s there’s actually extra deep in this category So within the Star Wars world. They did, cleverly came up with a sleeping bag that looks like a tan tan and so they they kind of got so deep into this vertical they’re actually kind of able to come up with their own products around that. But you wouldn’t go in there expecting to find a non geechie pizza oven or something strange like that so so you know. [17:49] Two to the same argument if if you guys wanted to add kind of your you know you’re on private label Collectibles I’ll keep that in the main side what say you wanted to get into something totally out of what you’re doing today like I don’t know Sporting Goods or hammocks or something like that then I do think you know having another e-commerce site is the way to do it you know what. Yeah what you didn’t necessarily but all all kind of kind of keep replying to thread is how do you find what to add in this is where it’s really interesting set a channel advisor we have 3000 customers and the overwhelming majority of them are Supernatural and it’s always fascinating to me to find out how they. Figure out what products to sell a lot of them spend a lot of time date of money so don’t go through comments feedback on products they look at no search results that’s a cool place on your own website to go find things you’re what are people searching for on your website and not fighting that’s really interesting kind of area to learn a lot about consumer Behavior a lot of them use tools like camelcamelcamel this one called jungle Scout and then there you can go look at Amazon’s data my favorite example it won’t surprise listeners is a Star Wars example so these guys are our customer and they like. [19:10] Like kind of a GameStop in FYE Etc solo Star Wars stuff and they’re trying to look for new products they had a license with Lucas sounds do what do they had the image of Han Solo Carbonite that they put on almost everything they did a phone case but it started poking around and using some his tools they win the Star Wars category of Amazon Founders All these people looking for Star Wars beach towels yo when you’re out in your bathing suits on the beach you’re always so obviously want to Star Wars down so they came out with Han Solo in carbonite on a beach towel you are really big one so it looks like it’s on the beach cuz she’s there. And that became a top selling product on Amazon very quickly and they should develop that product by looking at null search results in finding those little imbalances between supply and demand that people are looking for a date use that create a product extension anchor so ankers electronics company in there is. Picture in China or Taiwan they started mining the Amazon feedback and people would buy. [20:23] Chargers and accessories and Illinois say one glad this has two USB ports but I have 6 devices looking at you Jason and you know I really wish you had a a charge faster and be it had reports. I think a lot of the anchor kind of lease early products were developed off skimming and parsing and really understanding the Amazon product feedback and then saying alright this product at 3 stars why can we develop a product. Our own just got five stars in address to Consumers. Jason: [20:58] Yeah and I mostly agree a side note on anchor like I literally have to have anchor products delivered to a email stop because my wife has banned me from buying Morty. Totally has my number. And one piece of bad news for you Scott I don’t know if you’re aware of this but I think was purchased by GameStop and effective July 2nd they’re shutting it down. Scot: [21:23] Oh man I didn’t know that. Jason: [21:25] Yeah so it’s not going to be a a section of a GameStop versus a separate site so. Scot: [21:32] Mulligan artist closes stores. Jason: [21:35] I don’t know maybe per your point and M4 Next original question again GameStops hoping to. Aggregate that traffic from their side and Think Geek and do more effective cross-selling because they. Basically I agree with your answer but I would almost come to it from the opposite and I would just say, it’s extremely hard there very few businesses that can be very profitable by selling a single item in a car and there are very few businesses that can be profitable by only selling an item once to a customer and so in general you’re looking for businesses where you have multiple products for the customer put in in your reason for the test come back and shot from you multiple times and so to me that means. Looking at your existing existing customer base as you suggested and finding adjacent products that might also appeal to those those customers. In the early days of e-commerce there was this artificial thing. SEO from Google search engine optimization bring much favored keyword stuffing in the URL and so you saw a lot of. [22:48] Individual sites that were selling one item in the name that URL after the item they were selling and that him for a while that that could be very effective Google’s dramatically depreciated the the effect of keywords in the URL so you know it now makes more sense to aggregate as much traffic you as you can on a single URL and sell a bunch of stuff but what I would suggest is having a lot of different content for that different stuff in different landing pages for that different stuff so for your point you’re selling Video Star Wars video games over here at Star Wars beach towels over there you might have separate landing pages for those two and you might have separate like digital marketing campaigns for those two so it kind of feels like a separate site in that sense but once you get there and get that beach towel I can I can try to cross sell you the video games and try to make you up a bigger more valuable. Does I guess that’s that’s the way I would think of. Scot: [23:43] Yeah it’s kind of fun fact two big companies were created off that crazed were you just putting one product on a domain name hayneedle and Wayfair Wayfair had like coffee tables kitchen tables dining chairs that all these Furniture things and you go to dining chairs if you like just dining chairs slice of the things they ended up ruling all that stuff up both of them did and and getting rid of that strategy one. Question number 6 is from Rebecca Saunders have you seen any recent data on the cost of customer acquisition so this is a question which we just kind of chewy online via the various channels and how these are changed over time I hear a lot and it totally but haven’t managed to access any reliable data thanks in advance love the show by the way all the way from rainy London. Jason: [24:34] Well thanks for the question Rebecca on answering from rainy Seattle today good night my SAT answer is. Generally know why there are people that publish short of some industry data on customer acquisition that I would submit to you that it’s almost completely useless because. The variance depending on the specific industry in the specific customer circumstances are so great that looking at these. Averages are are somewhat meaningless and so you know you both have like. Companies that are selling individual packs of Band-Aids you know for $3 online and guess what your customer acquisition cost has to be extremely low when you’re selling a $3 item with free shipping. And you have customer selling $10,000 diamond rings and. Not surprisingly that the customer acquisition cost can be much higher for that if you’re a company that’s already doing billions of dollars in sales right you. To get meaningful growth you have to reach a really broad audience and that tends to be more expensive per user for customer acquisition if you’re a small startup. You can very cost-effectively acquire some really valuable customer so your customer acquisition ends up being a lot lower so. [26:03] As much as I’d love to point you in a particular resource and say hey just check out these numbers. I guess I really don’t feel like other companies numbers are in less than a direct competitor of yours somehow are likely to be that useful to you I will tell you you know what I was digging into that chewy S1 a little bit and for example in 2017 chewy added about 3.7 million new customers in the matted 3.8 million new customers in 2018 but that’s 2017 customers they spent about 60 bucks a customer to acquire around and for this 2018 customers they spent $101 a customer. So there are not a lot of businesses that are much smaller in scale than chewy that could afford that kind of. Customer acquisition cost but if you look at Chuy’s lifetime value and the dispenza previous cohorts if these new cohorts Behavior chewy the way the previous ones that has a Scott sort of alluded to earlier then like even spending $100 a customer could be. A tapered an investment like a it’s a risky one so so we’re going to have to wait and see but I would definitely not look at Chuy’s numbers and go oh gosh for my business I should spend a hundred bucks a customer because it works. Scot: [27:22] Yeah and dumb ass gets in dead to your point the reason it’s hard to compare your business when Elsa’s you’re not only are you different categories you know Supernatural businesses where they essentially say look if I can spend a dollar and make 3 I will I will consider it almost cogs and I will have an unlimited budget. Other people kind of say you’re the kind of come from an advertising View and they took people to come from marketplaces they tend to have that cogs kind of totality cuz they’re looking at it as a percentage of sales people that come at it from the ADI to SeaWorld they’re looking at a return on ad spend the inverse of a Crepes and they’ll say look I’m going to have a budget and demands that budget to a 4X or whatever it is returned my dad stood socially really part of its Theology and and and some of it is other times I’ve seen really big companies for the CEO says I want to be number one to strollers and then you say well that’s insanely. Expensive in your money I want to be number one in strollers and. [28:37] It doesn’t matter cuz when the boss looks at strollers and your shoulders not there you’re going to get fired so you don’t really care what he’s done or you know they are building a Brandt and they don’t really care about a transactional kind of a Roi on on the stent there so it’s a hard hard to nail down. And it does kind of depend in my experience where people come from if they come from that ad world of that Marketplace Road. [29:06] What’s your view on return on that seventies. Jason: [29:10] Yeah I mean I tend to be sort of green eyeshade out of about it I I like to have a pretty short return on ad spend to make the investment the. Because frankly like the more expensive the customer is to acquire the least likely the customer is to be very loyal so in general I like those customers I can earn organically and cultivate a lot more than the customers that I have to go out and by so like you know for sure Mary meters suggestion I’d way rather have some sort of freemium model what I have customers coming to me and find the use my product for free on a limited basis and then turn them into paid customers and and sort of do growth hacking then spend a fortune buying a customer and trying to monetize those that being said I work for a giant ad company and that’s mostly what we. What we do. [30:13] Spend a bunch of money to to acquire customers and it absolutely can work. It’s not again it it’s somewhat related to your risk profile and. And comfort level I will say the one thing one nice thing about being a small company a lot of my clients are very large and and they have to acquire huge audiences and. The markets that have huge audiences that have inventory or tend to be pretty efficient so it’s really hard to get a good deal but one of the nice things about being a small company is you can play in a lot of small customer acquisition formats where the market isn’t very efficient yet and you can. I often get outside return so no being a in early player on Instagram when people weren’t advertising on Instagram was a great way to make money or being a you know a really excellent executor on Pinterest or even like fractional television versus heading to buy Super Bowl spots or different things like that like there are definitely ways to sort of piecemeal together audiences to get an outside return as long as you can get by with a a relatively modest audience size but you know as soon as you get into having a choir or million new customers a year to hit your numbers. You’re you’re pretty much stuck thing the market rate for customer acquisition. Scot: [31:42] Yeah where it where I’ve seen small businesses get upside down on this is day they take care of an Amazon eBay way of looking at things the applied to Google and they kind of think all right eye I just spent 20% took Wireless customer and then what they don’t realize is the next time that customer comes to they’re going to probably come through Google so now and then now you had another drink song that one in so I know what you’re saying is if you think you’re acquiring a customer for a hundred Google and you’re getting a $300 kind of LTD with them they’re heading Google twice more and you’re paying another couple hundred bucks. Upside down you really look like to have to get especially with the CPC stuff and and you have to be real careful with with how your measure know that. [32:28] Question number 7 this is from a bit Agarwal have you ever done some research on e-commerce subscription such as Amazon subscribe and save our auto-ship also what is industry trends for BarkBox hellofresh and other subscriptions. Jason: [32:42] Great question I’ll be curious what Scott’s answer is because I’m always looking for better data in this category than I have in general I would say like there is not a lot of traffic data it’s it’s the usual story like they’re these. Third-party data aggregators that do things that customer surveys and things to try to give us some data or there’s the universe Creek receipt scrapers like 1010data or slice a rocket and they can give us some insight into like. Amazon subscribe and save is performing versus individual products but. Those are like directional it best I haven’t seen awesome data there there’s one of the reasons that you yes one was kind of fun Chuy’s and I ever get with their trade name is for their subscription program. [33:38] 67% of all Chuy’s Revenue comes from the subscription program in as we talked about in one of the previous answers you know the real key to to profitability in an e-commerce business is about. Repeat purchases and customer retention and like there’s no better flavor of customer retention then auto-ship and so like. I’m a big fan of the tactic I haven’t always had the best third-party data to validate that tactic. The second half of your question I will I will say, yeah you asked about some of the the well-known subscription offers out there like BarkBox and hellofresh. [34:21] There’s a general sense. It’s been hard to scale those subscription services and that customer retention hasn’t been awesome and so there’s this phenomenon called subscription fatigue and in general the subscription Services tend to have a lot of churn so they don’t maintain all of last year’s subscriptions and a bunch of new ones and so there’s kind of a dirty little secret amongst the. The companies we tend to think of as subscription companies that are successful and that dirty little secret is most of them have an offering that’s not subscription-based that’s on the man ordering. And the bulk of the revenue tends to come from that on demand order so you know Stitch fix the bulk of their revenue is from. Young people that are ordering a fixes on demand rather than have a a a recurring a box coming all the time and in the. [35:22] My understanding is the BarkBox and Dollar Shave Club and Harry’s have all had like three big turn on their subscription list I think when the hair is got a choir that came to light that 80% of Harry’s Revenue was from there. Their retail deals are people walking in at Target and buying Harry’s Razors rather than being on the the the subscription program so I would say like subscriptions are really valuable thing to try to achieve and there definitely is evidence that Amazon’s program is really potent seems like chewy has a really potent program but you know you probably need to be careful about assuming it’s easy or that you’ll have great great customer retention from doing. Scot: [36:05] Yeah. I think that spot on a couple editions it it seems to work well in anything that’s replenishable I do think it’s kind of jumped the shark like I I see tons of News subscription programs for coffee and beer and wine just feels like we’re probably Pastor the subscription craze. If you’re interested in the topic that you know again one of the nerdy things I recommend is when companies go public and they file that S1. [36:36] That that is like a gold mine of data and it’s if you’re interested in these topics if you can find a company that has Nest one out there it’s really a good read because you’re you’re dealing with these companies that have managed a business cycle were talking about up to the point where it’s at a pretty good scale so so so they’re kind of on Generation 8 thinking and yeah that’s the guy you got started on Generation 1 thinking right live red and really enjoyed Stitch fix I would say you know there is a lot of negative cinnamon around Stitch fix prove the critics pretty wrong with the success they’ve had there is one is a really really good read and then when I when you read an s-1. [37:22] It’s kind of like a poop sandwich so so you know the where the bread is the poop in the good stuff’s on inside you have kind of dig in and find it the the part you want to read on this one and Skip all the way to Management’s discussion and and they’re in the Stitch fix one it’s a textbook on how they think about their cohorts and and how they fight this Trends Jason’s talking about how do you know how do you make the algorithm better and how do you also scale it with with computers instead of just people so I recommend that a good Counterpoint is Blue Apron went public and has not been successful so in a reading their ass one it’s really interesting because you know. [38:08] It’s not as strong and it’s not as clear that they’re actually getting in front of the sky turn problems so that’s a good one and then if you’re interested in the food deliveries area GrubHub is public and I find their public stuff to be very interesting as well. A good reading it going back to this one in either Coeur d’Alene updates her are so it’s hopefully that gives you something to chew on a it is hard to find a lot of like the previous couple folks asked about CAC LTV out there I like reading a case of a prospective cuz it really. Gives you an idea of how these teams are thinking about things and and I learned like a thousand things from repossessed one so I think that’s one of the best areas to go research the subscription program if you’re interested. Jason: [38:59] Yep and it just occurred to me there’s one other point we kind of touched on I’m the last person to call episode that I’ll just reiterate there’s certain segments that are much more mature and subscriptions and so that’s Professional Services and digital subscriptions Regza think Netflix Amazon Prime you know subscriptions to publishing companies Wall Street Journal newspaper all those sorts of things and if you look at how those industry of olives a couple of interesting things have happened. These aggregators have emerged because customers have subscription fatigue and their subscriptions are fragmented everywhere and it’s really annoying so you now have Amazon with a service where you do all your media subscriptions through them and they give you a single dashboard to turn on and off subscriptions and control them. [39:54] Apple just wants to be similar offering the financial institutions have noticed that people locking all the subscriptions they spend a fortune and they don’t tend to use a lot of the subscription so every budgeting tool out there like mint like a big feature that they offer is identifying all these recurring. Cost and continue to turn off all the ones that you probably aren’t using and I think that’s now a national television campaign for. Wells Fargo is they have a feature in their mobile app called control tower which is all about helping people like turn off the. [40:29] The dearth of subscriptions they signed up for not getting value from so like give you. [40:36] Use that as sort of a time machine and you let you know it’s it’s probably unlikely in the future you want a copy subscription with one vendor and a water filter subscription with another vendor and you know and have all these things coming on different schedules and on different payment periods and you know it. To me that’s one of my Amazon subscribe and save the big advantages is there started the de facto everything subscription aggregator for physical Goods. Scot: [41:04] How many active subscriptions do you have Jason. Jason: [41:08] So I’ll be honest I am not the biggest personal fan of that there is huge convenience but I do find that I waste a lot of money when I do their subscriptions and stuff tends to pile up so I’m not a huge fan my my wife does a lot of our household management and she’s way more organized than me so she uses a bunch and I I couldn’t tell you how many she has. Scot: [41:31] Is that work that has like around 20 and he has an Amazon credit card and it says so they’ve gotten every kind of replenishable thing in their house that like kids can I come from Amazon if he’s done some calculus on it and it’s like the optimal savings for a little leverage on the on the Amazon Prime card. Jason: [41:50] Side note taking a deeper dive in this answer than we intended to but the today most of these subscriptions and most Auto replenishment is what I call explicit like you go and sign up for something and you have to ask for it and pull it. And it starts coming until you get around and turning it off but I do think the future for a lot of this physical goods are implicit replenishment where. If if you do most of your spending on Amazon or you do most of your purchases on Walmart like they they just get enough. Data about your habits you proactively. Send you the stuff when you need it without you even having to ask and both Walmart and Amazon have had various packet patents on this this idea of predictive shipping in that it does seem to me that like combination of big data and artificial intelligence in this face that like their there’s going to be in near future when a lot more of this purchasing is autonomous and the reason that’s interesting to me is. You know when you never have to think about ordering toilet paper again or buying toilet paper because your your house just always has the right amount for the paper what do all the physical stores that today have an entire aisle of the grocery store dedicated to toilet paper do that space so it’s like there’s an interesting challenge for brick-and-mortar retailers in the future as Auto replenishment gets more dominant. Scot: [43:16] All right question to break comes from Parker block he always throws curve balls we appreciate that Parker this one came from LinkedIn hey Jason Scott what do you see as likely business implications of rising a Type 4 antitrust action on platforms which monetize consumer data. I think she’s just a little bit in the last episode but a lot of the platform’s especially ones with user-generated content like Facebook Twitter Google search YouTube they rely on the section of law code section 230 which essentially makes thumb the same as a utility like like a phone line if you if you say something on the phone line that could be sheet Suites or something like that you know it’s not AT&T job to monitor that so say since we say we are not a newspaper where I your you have liability around what is it libel in was written once. [44:20] Slander libel and slander you can be sued if you say the wrong thing she actually very careful with what you say that’s why they have fact-checkers they say look this is just a platform we’re just kind of here I am so happens but as they increasingly are kind of changing and and. People offer what they say it is interesting to see should they still be within section 230 so that’s one interesting area another one is Noah senior up get really aggressive with these do not follow laws gdpr and you know all these kinds of things I I do think there’s going to be increasing appetite I’m not hugely political and. The times I had to kind of watch that stuff you always shake your head like when Zuckerberg was in front of Congress and they had like no idea you know the problem is our Representatives have no idea how this stuff works so slow. Do anything that I just I’m not optimistic that it makes any sense what I shall do so I have to see. The other thing I will say is there’s a lot of people Scott Galloway is really big on this on kind of breaking up Amazon and it a lot of people kind of gunning for Amazon it’s not really in the spirit of your question which surround customer day. [45:38] I’m sure Jason has deeper thoughts on that everything about Amazon is a monopoly there has to be someone the consumer being hurt you know usually have Rising prices when you have a monopoly with like the power company or something Amazon is lowered prices so and you know if you look at it. Their ownership of retail it’s very small e-commerce store at 50% so yeah that’s pretty big but you know you have Walmart got to swing an atom if if you if you took antitrust action at Amazon you know most certainly have to Walmart because Walmart has such a big share of much bigger share of offline and I feel like Amazon’s probably be okay and I think Facebook Google Twitter are prime or in the crosshairs because of the section 230 stuff and then the fact he’s ad models are built off of tracking across internet I think they going to have double risk there that will be nurse to watch. Jason: [46:33] Yep this is the way I sort of think of it there’s a couple categories of Regulation like they’re there are business models that various government entities. [46:46] Might want to influence by writing new laws and so that’s what all this privacy stuff is right like they’re you know you’re up isn’t trying to in for some some fifty-year-old privacy law. Against Google and Facebook they wrote a new I called gdpr specifically to change the behavior about how companies collect consumer data and use it the. You know there’s lots of new laws that get proposed for you know regulating energy companies and and how they influence the Earth and all these various things so a lot of these companies have risk that that dries, countries will pass new laws so you’re up obviously passed a Big Lot in the gdpr that as meaningful impact on how I’m we all do data collection for people and personalization there is a proposed law in California called the California consumer privacy act on which is very similar to gdpr and that goes into effect, you know it it’s sort of difficult to treat customers in California wildly different than the rest of the United States in California such a big Market that it could potentially have the effect of having companies serving us consumers behaving very similar to companies that are serving. [48:07] European consumers because they they just won’t want to risk getting Sideways from the the CCPA so. I do think that the biggest impact of those kinds of regulations is companies chains self moderating the their behaviors to not make it a necessity for a legislator to pass these laws and it’s. [48:29] In a legislative bodies aren’t super efficient it’s really hard. That’s why I was frankly and so you know you wouldn’t you wouldn’t have big expectation that like the US Congress is going to you know suddenly the House and Senate are going to agree on a bunch of stuff and pass a bunch of new new regulation and so it’s it’s more that they’re going to threaten regulation in that causes companies to like somewhat moderate their behavior. It is absolutely true that Europe is more aggressive than this right in regulation right now and so like it’s more likely that you that European regulation affects us companies then. Then you know that we’re going to see a huge wave of new u.s. regulation so that’s my long-winded answer on writing new laws and then purr. Scott’s point in the case of companies that whose primary business model is selling stuff that consumers there are t. Is regulation in prokaryotes that’s called the antitrust laws at the Sherman Act and so it’s it’s a less about Congress writing a new law that would have some negative impact on Amazon and more about how the US antitrust laws affect Amazon in first God’s point but the laws are. Like arguably someone outdated you both have to be in Monopoly and despite how big amazon is there really not. [49:53] The majority of very many markets right like they might be that the largest Bookseller in the u.s. I’m so so digital books could be a potential Market. If you could get a court to agree that e-commerce is a market separate from retail then you know you could argue that they’re up for ality even then there be arguments that they really aren’t cuz even though we say they’re 50% of e-commerce that doesn’t include some. Some huge businesses like marketplaces and pouring and all these other things the and in the second prompt per Scott’s point is once you’re a monopolist you you have to do behavior that negatively affects consumers in an amp us antitrust law that behavior is you have to raise prices and so you can’t just make the argument that oh my gosh Amazon’s reducing choice and that is fundamentally bad for consumers in Europe they have antitrust laws like that and so it’s it’s frankly at the moment a lot more likely that. European Regulators like impact how Amazon can grow as they get as big in Europe as they are here than it is that us antitrust law is going to be very effective against Amazon because they just don’t look like a a monopolist and then they they don’t sort of trigger any of the hot atoms of of the Sherman Antitrust Act. Scot: [51:19] Alrighty number 9 this comes from Baxter Overman how do you put super cities within Home Delivery Services IE Walmart grocery wouldn’t drop off when the consumer is home for certain items are lockers be easier to sell. Jason: [51:36] Yeah it was so one service that just got an ounce in the last couple weeks. Involved in last couple weeks is this Walmart delivered a fridge door and that’s kind of what I think of when you asked this question and so that the principle here is hey you order milk from Walmart you don’t want that like sitting on the curb for 8 hours while you’re at work. It’s a Walmart has this offering where we’re like using an electronic lock they have permission to go in your house they go in your kitchen and they have employees that are trained. Put away your groceries for you including putting the perishables in the fridge in the. This was a big deal they made it their shareholders meeting a couple weeks ago and they had a video of Mark Lori doing the first delivery and when they first proposed this service like a year ago the idea was that they would install cameras in the customer’s home in the customer would be able to monitor the delivery guy on the camera this year what the evolution is the delivery guys wear a body Cam and so you can watch everything the delivery guys doing while he’s in your house so they had Mark Lori wearing a body body cam. [52:44] Delivering groceries to Consumers house and I do think some of those tactics like the body can can help. Instill trust like I do think there’s a major trust issue here like I don’t think the Walmart service is going to be a. A huge mainstream service I think there’s some niches where it might appeal to but I always chuckle because. In this Walmart video I’d be intent is seeing marks wearing a body cam so you can trust him so you have nothing to worry about and in my head I’m thinking Mark what is worth like two billion dollars the one guy that’s not likely to steal any of my students. [53:23] He probably didn’t need a camera at like there’s probably nothing in my house that he wants that he doesn’t already have so that that’s my my sarcastic answer. Scot: [53:33] If you hard boil a nurse problem-solve. Jason: [53:36] Yeah yeah so when it’s the. Scot: [53:38] Not enough of them. Jason: [53:39] Exactly I buy Cuban would do some deliveries. Like trust is the big impediment here in in you so you see lots of interim step so I Amazon has this very robust program called Amazon key and it both. As a version where guys can open the Smart Lock and put stuff just inside your door they put stuff inside your door as opposed to all the way in your kitchen so there it’s slightly less invasive and so maybe you press them more but the I’ve been told that the big version of chi that’s really popular is customers aren’t willing to give give Amazon delivery drivers access to their home but they’re willing to give them access to the garage so in a lot more customers have an electronic garage door opener and then have an electronic lock on the front door so there’s a lots of places where the Amazon delivery guy can deliver the packages inside your garage and that’s easier to have trust in there’s also a business-to-business component to key where Amazon installs the Lockers in. [54:42] Commercial buildings and obviously you have a lot more trust giving giving a delivery guy access to your secure Lobby than you do your individual house so I feel like they’re all these different tiers of trust but the one thing I would say is overtime as the services get more popular and more people use them and have good experiences There’s an opportunity for trust to grow and so when. Uber and Lyft first launch trust was a huge impediment I’m I going to get in some random strangers car today we all no lots of other people that successfully use Uber and so it seems less scary and and you know even more so with Airbnb as we have more people in our networks that. Regular use Airbnb and have good outcomes it feels safer to me and so in the same way if Walmart is able to find. A decent-sized niche that’s willing to do this refrigerator delivery service and I have to get out. He’ll probably share that experience with their neighbors and friends and you could see the service grow and get more trustworthy over. Scot: [55:49] Yes I don’t have a beautiful answer. Number 10 also from LinkedIn this Crumbs from Akash Gupta and what’s your favorite app that you downloaded in the last few months. Jason. Jason: [56:10] So my can’t rain answers I don’t like apps that there’s all kinds of data that we like apps have huge abandonment rate and so for most clients I’m actually advocating they build really good mobile websites that replace the functionality of a nap and that’s using a technology called Progressive web app so that’s my sort of boring work answer in my personal life the app that I recently downloaded that I had no idea existed that’s been really useful for me is it’s actually a plug-in for the mobile browsers so it’s a plug-in called screenshots and essentially What it lets me do is when I’m on a mobile web page it lets me take a screenshot of the entire webpage not just the the part that’s visible above the full and so it for work a lot I need. Screenshots of an entire entire page and sewed this was a new fine for me that I tend to be using a lot but. I’m not that can be pretty itchy. Scot: [57:12] It’s good I would say at at spiffy we use this thing called geckoboard and they just updated their app. And up so gives me all my kpi is in one what kind of screen which is nice. Jason: [57:29] What’s the app for the Star Wars experience in Disney if you like that should be our favorite app. Scot: [57:36] Play Galaxy’s Edge I don’t I don’t know if it’s a blister not you so I didn’t download the Amazon go Store app. Okay this is just a comment over on Twitter Natalie Dylan and she is at Maverick witch you like this Jason that’s the VC firm started by Howard Schultz founder of Starbucks to invest in consumer-oriented companies she mentioned just as one of her top podcast that was a typo at first but I’m pretty sure she actually meant us so wow I was speechless. Jason: [58:11] That’s very cool Natalie if you’re listening I’d like to think that I have some partially funded your child’s college education so thank you very much for that. Scot: [58:20] Did the Starbucks usage. Jason: [58:22] Exactly. Scot: [58:22] I think we’re now Pisco effectively at this question number 12 this comes from our friend Ted down in Austin he said make sure Jason talks about mixed-use retail entertainment I don’t know what that is but I’m glad you get to answer. Jason: [58:38] Yeah I mean. In general like in the 1960s when the mall was first invented the the appeal of the mall was there a bunch of sores aggregated that you all wanted to get get tune so you know we built a big building and surrounded it with a giant parking lot and and put a bunch of stores together in overtime we added things to that mall that made it even the game customers another reason to go and spend more time there so for those indoor malls that was things like ice rinks and movie theaters in food courts and as. [59:16] That the collection of the stores has become less and less appealing and it’s been less and less valuable that drive traffic just buy this assortment of stores a lot of these venues have had to get more persuasive with the non-retail things that they put them all so you know the food courts have have often been replaced or augmented with more significant fine dining and today like a mixed-use small almost certainly means like in addition to shopping and entertainment that there’s probably a residential component to and so you know you can live in an apartment building that’s like upstairs from the stores or adjacent to the stores and like I would argue even Hudson yard is a classic example of a mix you space there’s both a significant residential component of these various condo Towers that are adjacent to it like and there’s these entertainment features in it like the Skydeck in the that the stairway installation is named I’m forgetting at the moment and so in general. [1:00:28] New successful shopping destinations 10 to have the this this multi-use component and let’s focus on shopping meme only reason that you’d go visit at so I assume that’s what that’s talking about. You won’t see many new balls built that aren’t like very focused on the the other traffic generation activities on the other revenue streams besides. Scot: [1:00:53] That’s not sorry. Jason: [1:00:55] Well but we haven’t what’s the name of the. Scot: [1:00:57] The Vessel. Jason: [1:00:58] That’s all thank you. Scot: [1:00:59] Yes take a walk in the vessel okay alright Michelle Grant has a twofer one is should Amazon be worried about broken up I feel like we asked and answered that one did you want to comment on that. Jason: [1:01:14] I think we covered it pretty well right based on current US antitrust I think Amazon has very little risk like they I think potentially digital books could be in area where you can see some enforcement or like I might have said like Amazon web services is it greater risk lucky I feel I can Google and Microsoft have made enough action lately that that you know that that probably isn’t immediate in Amazon where to get as big in Europe as they are in the US it would be more interesting question. But I like I’m defending companies in the US I think Amazon has a lot less to worry about from regulation then does a Facebook or do. Scot: [1:01:57] Cool and then this is clearly in your wheelhouse cuz it’s got the O word you’re Jason what are your thoughts on pricing strategy in an omni-channel world where price transparency is high and filled with Bots to find the lowest price. Jason: [1:02:15] Yeah so there is a bunch of controversy about pricing right now like lots of omni-channel retailers don’t have Universal pricing so they might have a different price in every store the online price might be different than the store price you know a complicated retailer like Walmart there could be five prices for every item there to be a store price there to be a ship to home price there could be a ship-to-store price there could be a pickup in-store price and online grocery pick-up price and you know Walmart slogan is is everyday low prices well if they’re 5 prices for everything spoiler alert for them are not alone. [1:03:02] Inside you know most retailers today like have these fragmented pricing models and I believe that trust is such a big deal moving forward and there’s so much information and transparency available as a result of digital in the web that I feel like it’s inevitable that all retailers are going to get forced. To adopt a much more transparent pricing model which generally means so much more Universal pricing model so you’re not going to get away with. Having a different price in the stores then you do online and hoping the customer just doesn’t catch you so in general will see more Universal pricing. But you probably at the same time will see that price change a lot more based on Real World Market circumstances and so you’ll see a lot more Dynamic pricing but it won’t be secret prices that are changing without you knowing it like I think retarded you know tend to be transparent about that and into me the best example today is is Amazon they have a super Dynamic pricing model that changes all the time but if you put something in your cart and the price goes down they don’t just take that extra margin they tell you. And they lower the price of the item in your cart and when you you don’t go to their stores they now have digital prices and all the store so they can show you the same price online that they have in the store so I you know it’s. [1:04:27] It’s very difficult for retailers to make changes like this and break down silos so we’re not going to see it happen overnight but I think we’re we’re already starting to see retail shift in that direction so to me the future is. Universal transparent Dynamic pricing. Scot: [1:04:42] All right most sybaritic had a whole bunch of questions I’m going to lightning around a couple of them when is spiffy coming to Seattle. Stay tuned Ken Scott please update is Amazon scape and how has it changed unfortunately there is an inverse correlation between my time to work on the Amazon scape and your first questions to come to Seattle so position where I don’t have a ton of time to work on that it’s changed a lot so I think Amazon’s probably launched. It’s been a year old I would say two programs a month 24 to 30 programs since I did that so like the Amazon Prime wardrobe isn’t on there 4-star store is not on there there’s a lot not on there one day delivery yes those are not on there. Jason: [1:05:39] Scot I have no cars in Seattle so between those two I’m going to vote for the Amazon scape. Scot: [1:05:44] Maybe maybe I’ll find an internship this one of our many interns can help with this this should be an interesting one is Amazon going to do to Walgreens drug stores what they did to the bookstore with the axis of pill pack and private label enable the ability to sell Massey pg-propyl probably you think there’s one for the drug source. Jason: [1:06:11] I think it is I mean they’re going for everything so it is a market like that they made some Investments and they’ve already like I think had some material effects on valuations for the national companies. [1:06:25] I’m not sure like I mean there’s that Jeff has a equip that I kind of like and agree with Amazon denim put book stores out of business the internet put book stores out of business and I think the same made partly be true for retail pharmacies like I’m sure Amazon’s going to take a go after and take a chunk of the pharmacy business and that will be derogatory to traditional pharmacies but the bigger deal is we’re shifting from picking up prescriptions in store to having prescriptions delivered to our home so increasingly the old wanting majority of all the prescriptions we take R tronic, Africana conditions and returning things and the insurance companies are basically mandating that we all get shipped these bigger quantities of those prescriptions at home so as a smaller percentage of prescriptions get picked up in-store there’s less traffic in those doors the only reason people go to the stores his prescriptions they’re not good retailers if they don’t have prescriptions and so like I feel like that friends that macro-trends. Is really going to dramatically affect the retail pharmacy space now most of the retail pharmacies have already pivoted they own insurance companies and mail-order prescription services so that seems like where they’re putting their big bats well I’m sure Amazon will have some success in Pharmacy in and probably some Innovative products. [1:07:55] I’m not sure that’s why I’m wearing they’re going to capture. Huge market share super fast because there is a bunch of Regulation and Power in the hands of individual insurance companies that that you know are some institutional impediments that make it a harder Market to dominate them say books was not saying they won’t get there but it would take long. Scot: [1:08:19] Yep Mike my take on that is when I go to a drugstore I stand in line and there’s usually. More helpers than customers but there’s only one person to check out the person five people in front of me has a thousand questions and it takes me an hour to get something but she took me 5 minutes so I feel like there’s a huge customer service kind of customer experience got there that the Amazon could definitely fill in in his going to go at it because it’s very clearly something that they can make a huge Improvement. This is a good one Jason how we doing on time. Jason: [1:09:02] I think we are coming up to the end. Scot: [1:09:06] Listen to all your questions about sitting on a big one can you talk about the advertising race to grab the wallet we seen some big news lately Target in talks to buy Triad Walmart Spring advertising and house and made a key hire there where is ever

We wave goodbye to ThinkGeek, raise eyebrows at Twitch's lawsuit against Artifact trolls, and consider Starbase and other games with programming inside them.WRUPKingdoms and CastlesIslandersMinecraftStellarisTom Clancy's The Division 2The Division 2's new Gunner specialization is available nowFinal Fantasy XII: The Zodiac AgeFinal Fantasy XVFinal Fantasy VIISquare Enix has an ethics department and it told Final Fantasy VII Remake developers to "restrict" Tifa's chestKerbal Space ProgramNOTESTwitch sues last month's Artifact trolls for copyright infringement and fraudWhy Pokémon Sword and Shield's limited Pokédex is such a huge deal to fansTodd Howard wishes FO76 had a real betaEVE Online Monthly Economic Report - May 2019Starbase comes with its own programming language, YOLOLRobot WarOmega)ScreepsHarry Potter: Wizards Unite launches June 21 on iOS and AndroidHP:WU OverviewIngressMike's early Pokémon GO beat at Apple InsiderThinkGeek officially absorbed by GameStop, offers 50 percent off closeout saleThinkGeek's BestsellersTHIS WEEK'S HOSTSJoe HollisDuane SibillyMike WuertheleMUSIC CREDITSMusic for this episode of HammerCast is Mega Hyper Ultrastorm by Kevin McLeod of incompetech.com. Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

Questions about Facebook crypto Libra; going low tech to fight surveillance; photoshopping women into tech; Meeker's trends; Jessica Jones; lyric battles; the reality of being a musician; CDs are back; Huawei; Fall, or Dodge in Hell; the impossible whopper; Musk quits Twitter, not really; feedback loop, we killed ThinkGeek. Show notes at https://gog.show/354

Es ist viel passiert: Zum einen hatte Martina ihren Einstand als E-Sports-Kommentarorin im Final der Schweizer «Rocket League». Zum anderen – hat sie Jürg im Virtual-Reality-Duell vernichtend geschlagen. Ausserdem: Die 5. Season «Black Mirror» und & Larry Leisure ist zurück. Schlagzeilen: 02:35 Boaty McBoatface 04:55 Pewdiepie spielt KIDS 05:50 Pressekonferenz mit Katzenfilter 06:50 Factorianer zünden Rakete 09:30 Cyberpunk 2077 ist Steambestseller 10:35 Playstation zeigt Treadmill für Arme 12:10 ThinkGeek gehört jetzt zu Gamestop 14:05 Stadia ist vielleicht doch vielversprechender als wir denken? 16:00 Wo ist Guido? Die Martina Gassner Show: 17:55 Martina hat E-Sport Geschichte geschrieben ???? 25:35 Martina ist Beat Saber Königin! Der Rest: 33:55 Neue Black Mirror Staffel ist eine Enttäuschung 50:35 Leisure Suit Larry: Wet dreams dont dry – etwas zahm, aber ok.

Sad news for anyone who loves geeky goods and top-notch April Fools' jokes: ThinkGeek.com, the 20 year old online retailer known for selling more geek-centric gadgets and peripherals than you could fit in a TARDIS, is going away. According to an FAQ sitting at the top of its site, ThinkGeek isn't “shutting down”.

Geek is the new black. It's a GREAT time to be a geek! The cinematic world of superheroes is bursting with goodness, comic book stores are plentiful, and D20's are rolling all crits. However, can you truly call yourself a geek these days if the things that are now wildly popular and mainstream were the same things that put old school geeks on the receiving end of many a wedgie decades ago? What does it even mean to be a true "geek" anymore? Do you have your towel ready for May 25th? Sharpen those pencils and grease up those slide rules cuz it's an all out Geek Bonanza! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/bardscollege/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/bardscollege/support

A QUICK BITE FROM OFF DUVAL STREET NEAR CAPTAIN TONY'S IN KEY WEST This Quick Bite continues our week-long look at trip we took to Key West to run the Southernmost Half Marathon at the beginning of October.  This continues our post-race celebration along Duval Street in Key West. We used to watch Tiki Bar TV religiously.  We loved all the tiki drinks they would make.  We have a set of our own geeky tikis from Think Geek.  So this place, Tiki House, was just our speed.  We wanted to hang out at this little place and have several tiki beverages, but we only had time to try their signature drink, the Zombie.  It was deadly delicious!  We will be back and you should stop by, too!  Great drinks, great atmosphere, and a great bartender make this a place to have a drink and stay a while. THAT'S A WRAP Thank you for watching! Here's hoping for a great second year of the podcast because of all your support!  Please subscribe and rate us on iTunes. We would love to hear your feedback and need your help getting discovered as a podcast! Follow us on our website, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Bluetooth vs RF mouse, downloading YouTube videos, MS Mail (configuring Verizon mail), responding to SPAM (not a good idea), Wi-Fi security (MAC address filtering vs WPA2), Profiles in IT (Morris Chang, Father of Taiwan chip industry), fun Geeky websites (ThinkGeek, ScientificsOnline), Supreme Court rules to protect cell phone location, Internet sales tax is coming (Supreme Court has ruled), DHS ignoring tech alternaives at the border, Summer Soltice defined (longest day of the year), ten years ago on Tech Talk (human migration and near extinction), and IOS12 will support location data for 911 calls (Android not far behind). This show originally aired on Saturday, June 23, 2018, at 9:00 AM EST on WFED (1500 AM).

Special thanks to our sponsor, Health I.Q.!  Health I.Q. celebrates the healthy choices people make by helping them find lower rates on life insurance.  If you are a weightlifter, swimmer, yogi, runner, or cyclist, you could get rewarded for the healthy lifestyle you are living.  For more information and to see if you qualify, go to www.healthiq.com/red or mention the promo code RED when you talk to a Health I.Q. agent at www.jeffgalloway.com, this drill helps you create quick turnover during run-walk-run intervals.   EAT No, this week we are not indulging.  We make spring rolls, which are a low-calorie snack or lunch option.   These spring rolls include: Rice Paper Wrappers Steamed Shrimp Sliced Red Bell Pepper Pre-Shredded Carrot Sliced Hot House Cucumbers soaked in Rice Vinegar Sliced Jalapeno Cilantro Leaves   That is what was in our version, which was inspired by this recipe from Food Network .   DRINK This week, instead of a cocktail or craft beer, we show you what we do to jazz up water to keep us hydrated.  We add fruit to our water and often use no sodium sparkling water to vary up our beverages.  To have more fun, we put the water in these Star Wars tikis from ThinkGeek.    THAT'S A WRAP! Thanks for watching!  Please subscribe and rate us in iTunes. We would love to hear your feedback or about places we should feature in upcoming episodes.  You can follow us as we accomplish, explore, and indulge on our website, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.      

In this week’s installment of the Fancy Ramen Podcast, Lizzie joins in to discuss the intricacies of the Netflix adaptation of Death Note and issues on Splatoon 2 Multiplayer, Cuki finds Rabbids difficult, and Neil finishes the Letter (and not much else). Scott joins in remotely from Montana with news of overheating SNES’s that… on … Continue reading "Episode 30 – Cigarettes are Cool and Algebra is Hard Shit"

This week we talk about the video game industry’s myriad shenanigans of late.  I’m sure we’ll find something positive to talk about! 31:53 – Lawbreakers dev says game not Switch-bound because not enough buttons 41:03 – Metroid: Samus Returns gates content behind amiibo 52:47 – ThinkGeek hoards NES Classic Editions and forces you to buy ...Continue reading ‘Molehill Mountain Episode 59 – Bad Game Industry, Bad!’ »

Cuki’s out of town, so Scott and Neil deal have the freedom to discuss breakfast burritos, salt, and cease and desist orders! Questions, corrections and comments can be sent to podcast@fancyramen.com! // 0:00:55 – Disappointing Breakfast Burritos // 0:04:46 – Breath of the Wild (Scott) // 0:13:32 – Persona 5 Progress (Scott) // 0:17:16 – … Continue reading "Episode 26 – In Which Cuki is Absent"

Mayanna Berrin, formerly of the ThinkGeek store in Orlando, FL and now residing in California, joins us for Episode 47. We start off with a quick discussion about ThinkGeek and the ThinkGeek stores before moving onto one of Mayanna's favorite fandoms.  Steven Universe.  She discusses the plot, art style, characters, episodes and of course, fandom drama.  It is definitely an eye opener to hear about this show and everything it encompasses. From there, we talk about the Legend of Zelda franchise.  Find out which games she's beat, which game is her favorite and why she just loves the franchise. She recommends people watch the 90's anime Revolutionary Girl Utena and play the 3DS game Fire Emblem: Awakening or Fire Emblem: Fates for a good tactical game with a great story. You can find Mayanna at: http://www.instagram.com/majube12

ABOUT OUR GUEST He's the creator of Shawnimals, NinjaTown, ReSketch and a whole lot more. His work has been covered by NY Times, Entertainment Weekly, Spin Magazine, Elle Girl Korea, MTV.com and more. He's based in Chicago. IN THIS EPISODE It's a long episode because we talk about a LOT! During the interview we cover designer toys, working a niche, perils of over saturation, scaleability, working with major distributors like ThinkGeek.com, Quality, the importance of community, the starving artist mythology, and a whole lot more. Full show notes here.

This week, Amazon launches the Fire set-top box, OKCupid takes a political stance and blocks Firefox, news from Microsoft's Build conference, DVD/CD ripping is finally legal in the UK, April Fools on the web, and much more... What We're Playing With Andy: Disney Movies Everywhere / iTunes Digital copy Dwayne: WWI Tech: Air Traffic Control Headlines San Francisco Giants (and most of MLB) adopt Apple's iBeacon for an enhanced ballpark experience Twitter rolls out photo tagging, ability to share up to four photos in a tweet So You Think You're Smarter Than A CIA Agent UK Govt: DVD and CD Ripping Will Be Legalized This Summer Audible Book of the Week Foundation by Isaac Asimov Sign up at AudibleTrial.com/TheDrillDown Music Break: It's a Fireby Portishead Hot Topics Amazon announces Fire TV streaming set top box Amazon may have used a shell company to keep the leaks to a minimum OkCupid Blocks Firefox Over Anti-Gay CEO Microsoft releases Office for iPad, subscription required for editing docs Microsoft Build Conference news: Microsoft's new universal Windows apps run everywhere, from phones to the Xbox One Windows Phone 8.1 adds voice assistant Cortana, gesture typing Music Break: Won't Get Fooled Again by The Who Final Word: April Fools Day on the Web April Fools' 2014 roundup ThinkGeek April Fool's Products Geeks of Doom's complete April Fool's Day coverage The Drill Down Video(s) of the Week April Fools Day Prank: Netflix Streams Rotisserie Chicken Movie YouTube Announces Upcoming Viral Video Trends #newtrends *This week's show title is also the name of a really bad Sandra Bullock film. Subscribe! The Drill Down on iTunes (Subscribe now!) Add us on Stitcher! The Drill Down on Facebook The Drill Down on Twitter Geeks Of Doom's The Drill Down is a roundtable-style audio podcast where we discuss the most important issues of the week, in tech and on the web and how they affect us all. Hosts are Geeks of Doom contributor Andrew Sorcini (Mr. BabyMan), marketing research analyst Dwayne De Freitas, and Box tech consultant Tosin Onafowokan. Occasionally joining them is Startup Digest CTO Christopher Burnor.

Mysterious Martian landscaping, El Chupacabra caught in cage and on tape,  the “Cyber-olympics”, new dwarf planets in our own system, other sentient races controling our own, An extended UFO roundup complete with present and past sightings as well as a recent abduction encounter, and more! For this week's ThinkGeek promotion, visit: theparanormalehradionetwork.wordpress.com For info on ConCardia: concardia.info

This week, April Fools...on the web, Amazon snaps up Goodreads, Bitcoin breaks a 1 Billion dollars, the elusive Facebook phone may be on Android, a new iPhone gears up for production, and a special message from The President. Intro: BallBlazer Theme What We're Playing With Andy:WonderCon, Bioshock Infinite Dwayne: Drobo 5D Tosin:SimCity Headlines April Fools 2013: The Round-up All of Google's jokes for April Fools 2013 Google Nose Gmail Blue YouTube's Ready to Select a Winner ThinkGeek April Fools Game of Thrones Pirates Break BitTorrent Swarm Record GDC 2013: top 10 moments from the conference GDC 2013 Activision Shows Off Next-Gen Engine Rendering Battlefield 4 preview, "Fishing in Baku" OUYA available at retail on June 4 for $99 Audible Book of the Week Doctor Who: Tales From the TARDIS, Volume 1 Sign up at AudibleTrial.com/TheDrillDown Music Break: The Curse of Monkey Island More Headlines Amazon acquires Goodreads, aims to meld Kindle with social Bitcoin Hits $1 Billion Still Nobody Knows Who Created Bitcoin Facebook's Home On Android Could Give You A Sixth Sense For Your Social Life Apple to Begin iPhone Production This Quarter Disney Shuts Down LucasArts Just 154 Days After Acquiring It Viral Video of the Week A Special Message From The President Outro: Themes from Grim Fandango Subscribe! The Drill Down on iTunes (Subscribe now!) Add us on Stitcher! The Drill Down on Facebook The Drill Down on Twitter Geeks Of Doom's The Drill Down is a roundtable-style audio podcast where we discuss the most important issues of the week, in tech and on the web and how they affect us all. Hosts are Geeks of Doom contributor Andrew Sorcini (Mr. BabyMan), VentureBeat editor Devindra Hardawar, marketing research analyst Dwayne De Freitas, and Startup Digest CTO Christopher Burnor. Occasionally joining them is Box tech consultant Tosin Onafowokan.

Robbie and Erika play air guitar and give away a slew of amazing prizes to viewers who cast ballots over the past week.

This week, The Drill Down team takes a look at April Fools' Day on the web, Apple's upcoming revolutionary TV vs. existing console-based options, and further bad times for Yahoo, as Facebook strikes back, but first, this week's hot tech headlines. Instagram comes to Android, details on Sony's next-generation Playstation, Ashton Kutcher to play Steve Jobs, Apple addresses worker violations at Foxconn, an iPhone stalker app raises privacy concerns on Facebook, Amazon wins sales tax fight in Colorado, Google to sell tablets online, Google tests augmented reality goggles & OMGPop's CEO gets catty. Show Links Instagram Finally Comes To Android The Next PlayStation is Called Orbis, Sources Say. Here are the Details. Ashton Kutcher to play Steve Jobs Apple, Foxconn pledge to revamp worker conditions after "serious and pressing" violations This Creepy App Isn't Just Stalking Women Without Their Knowledge, It's A Wake-Up Call about Facebook Privacy Creepy Girl-Stalking App Girls Around Me Has Been Yanked From The App Store Amazon wins in sales tax fight with states, Prime users rejoice. Google to Sell Tablets on Its Own This Year Google Begins Testing Its Augmented-Reality Glasses OMGPop CEO Dan Porter: staffer who quit rather than join Zynga is a weak, selfish failure Audible Book of the Week Jacked: The Outlaw Story of Grand Theft Auto by David Kushner Musical Interlude #1 Hot Topics Visually Connected Future - Apple's TV Set or the XBox Approach? Possible Apple Television Set in 2013 Facebook Smacks Back at Yahoo With Patent Claims in Counter-Lawsuit Yahoo Cuts 14 Percent Of Workforce; 2,000 Given Pink Slips; Will Save $375M Musical Interlude #2 Final Word A Round Up of ALL of Google's April Fools Jokes. ThinkGeek April Fools' April Fools 2012: We Ruin Every (Tech-Related) Joke On The Internets Mind-boggling XKCD April Fools comic Geeks of Doom April Fools' links George Takei To Target That Explosion and Fire Again In Sulu Spinoff ‘Star Trek: Excelsior' GOP Seeks Headbanger For President; Megadeth's Dave Mustaine Answers The Call DC ReRelaunch: DC Comics Announces ‘New New 52′ Bummer: ‘Mars Attacks' Not Coming To Broadway The Drill Down on iTunes (Subscribe now!) Sign up here to be alerted by SMS when the podcast is live!

Adam is in the sky someplace.  Tev gets a new job, then drinks Hoegaarden and reviews the iCade.  Yep, it’s another mini-episode.  Don’t worry, we don’t plan on making it a regular thing. End song: Pacman Fever (Buckner & Garcia) iCade on ThinkGeek.com