Scott Galloway · 42:11
This this Oculus thing isn't working out, but they're big... They really wanna kind of jump start the metaverse. Mhmm. Where do you think they'll go? Yeah. Do you think they could acquire? They'll start... And by the way, these are iconic titles. And it would be a 2% dilution.
Kara Swisher · 42:27
Think they'll...
Scott Galloway · 42:27
It would be nothing.
Kara Swisher · 42:28
Absolutely. I think you're right. I think one of the things that's interesting is the ride of Mark Pincus. I mean, he... Again, he was super early to a lot of the stuff, and it was the hottest company. He still is an owner. He's been CEO twice. I think it's twice. It was the company. I can't even tell you. And then it was the IPO. They had a problem, and then they had all these pricey acquisitions But and stuff like he owns about 5% of the company at this point. So he'll make some money here, not as much as you think, but it's interesting that he's gonna make a ton of money. I think he's gonna make about $400,000,000 or something like that. But he was gonna be the... I don't know how much money he has at all, but sort he of at the lead of it. And so then he's getting sold. It's kind of... I was gonna write him saying, oh, this is how it ends. Guess, okay. But but it was... Farmville and and what he had done on Facebook was really a big deal way back when. And he had all kinds of... There was all... But there was all kinds of drama around that company almost always in terms of how they hired and different people that went in and out of there. And anyway, they... But they had some great ideas about their virality and this and that. So there's some there's some there's some sadness here in terms of that it was gonna be the it was gonna be the Facebook or whatever. And then it's this. It's...
Scott Galloway · 43:49
He's gonna have to settle for 400,000,000?
Kara Swisher · 43:51
He's got to settle for 400,000,000.
Scott Galloway · 43:53
Well, okay.
Kara Swisher · 43:54
It was... Oh, Don Matric was in there, Microsoft Xbox, and then then he left, and then Mark was the CEO, and they brought in this guy who wasn't as well known who was, like, from Electronic Arts, Frank Gibno. Gibbo. Gibbo. Excuse me. Gibbo. Anyway, so it's just interesting. It's an it's an interesting story, and, you know, good. This is what's gonna happen. You're right. There's a lot of others. A lot of people think that Pinterest should be in there. There's a whole bunch of companies that are at Lowe's, and so you're gonna see a lot more purchasing going on in the next six months because a lot of them are at Lowe's. Tons and tons of companies are
Scott Galloway · 44:31
Pinterest and Twitter.
Kara Swisher · 44:32
Yeah. Gonna be interest in everything. Pinterest is the one I'm looking at. I'm looking at that one.
Scott Galloway · 44:37
Really?
Kara Swisher · 44:38
Yes. I think it's a bargain. It's a bargain. It's a bargain. Anyway, and they've had ups and downs, but it's it's down a lot. So we'll see. Alright. Let's pivot to a listener question.
Scott Galloway · 44:50
You've got you've got I can't believe I'm gonna be a mailman. You've got mail.
Speaker · 44:55
Hi. This is Hashem from the Mojave Desert. I'm a Silicon Valley escapee. My question is what you think the principles of good retail should be as we get through COVID. The pandemic accelerated e commerce and shook out a lot of bad retail. But coming out of it, there seems to be a desire for physical connection and maybe a new approach to physical retail that isn't all about going to e commerce. If you were starting a consumer brand, what would you prioritize in a physical experience today? Thanks a lot.
Kara Swisher · 45:26
That's a great question from Hashem. But why did you go to the Mojave Desert if you're escaping silk? I'm thinking Hawaii, Fiji, or Scott's home in Florida where I can send you the map exactly where it is if you'd like. You answer this one, Scott. You're the retail. You
Scott Galloway · 45:43
Well, first off, the desert is the most beautiful ecosystem in the world, Kara. Best sunsets. Anyways, look, you said this. Retail is bifurcating. From a consumer end, retail is bifurcating. And so either mass efficiency, I can get everything at a good price within forty eight hours to your doorstep, or experience. And whether it's the Museum of Ice Cream or the way you feel in Lululemon, where there's someone doing yoga in the room, or when you go into a Restoration Hardware and you think, wow, I'd like to hang out here for the entire weekend. Or you go into an Apple store and you feel inspired or a nice young man comes up to you and as a 57 year old man makes you feel comfortable with him actually putting tea tree oil on your bags. And you somehow feel like your eyebags think, wow, this guy really makeup and has incredibly high EQ, and their cast is amazing. That was probably a weird example. But I think it's one or the other. Music festivals are a form of retail. They're gonna boom. So merchandising always matters, the voice. But it's bifurcating into experience or efficiency. And the new core competence, as led by Amazon, in terms of bifurcating or determining the winners and losers, is having enough capital to rethink and reconfigure post COVID your supply chain, whether it's a quick service restaurant that gets over 50% of its orders online as the biggest the kind of biggest QSRs do. Or a company like Urban Outfitters is now basically an e commerce company with five fifty warehouses called Storrs, your ability to create buy online, pick up in store, pick up at the curb, seamless returns across channels.
Kara Swisher · 47:28
Experiential is critical. I almost took a picture today and I didn't. Maybe I'll send a man out and take a picture of all my boxes. Such an ad for what's happened. I had them all in the basement and organized them lovely out at the curb for the recycling people. But it's just if... I try really hard to shop local, but it's so frustrating. You know what I mean? Like, it's just nothing's there. It's not just because of the supply chain, but you never find what you want. And then Amazon, you find what you want in two seconds or wherever, anywhere online, not just Amazon. Etsy, I've been shopping at Etsy quite a bit lately
Scott Galloway · 48:06
Mhmm.
Kara Swisher · 48:07
And some other places. I was at Macy's the other day. I bought something from Macy's online. Obviously, have stores, Walmart, all kinds of stuff. And so, I think the online experience has to be experiential in creative, pleasing, or you can't get it anywhere else kind of thing.
Scott Galloway · 48:26
I
Kara Swisher · 48:26
think people have a tolerance, they may want to get back into stores. The same thing with movie theaters. They've got to have good popcorn or good seats or good something. Something that makes it like where I can... If I can do it at home similarly, why would I go there? Like, why would I go there? And I don't... You know, I know people talk about the social experience, say movies or things like that. I don't talk to anyone at the movies. Unless it's a totally packed theater, which you don't find anymore, and it's some like, you know, I don't know, Marvel movie or something. So, in any case, I think experiential is the only way to go here, like something. Mhmm. Something special. Correct?
Scott Galloway · 49:06
Well, I like to make things and then put them on Etsy, so I'm I'm trying to sell my kids on Etsy. Don't know. Think it comes to... I like
Kara Swisher · 49:15
furniture stores. I don't like shopping for... I like to go look. Although, I just bought two chairs without going to a store, and they're very fine. They had a very good experience online. I bought two stores from West Ham.
Scott Galloway · 49:25
Literally, one of my favorite things in the world on weekends is to go to this Furniture. The best furniture store in the world, this BDDW store in Soho Mhmm. Where like a lamp cost $45,000 and just walk around and look at it. And have them ask me about five times if I can help you, which is their way of saying, Get out of here.
Kara Swisher · 49:42
I love a furniture store. But I literally just started buying furniture online, so I don't know. I don't know, Hush, Shim. It's gotta be fun. It's gotta be fun or interesting or something.
Scott Galloway · 49:54
What's old is new or your favorite store?
Kara Swisher · 49:58
What's your favorite store? Furniture That's
Scott Galloway · 50:01
a really good one. My favorite store? Oh, hands down, BDW. I think they do an amazing job. And I think Restoration Hardware is an absolute inspiration. I think they're grand plazas or grand whatever they're called. Even if you don't like that furniture, what they've done there mean, things. You know the restaurant Yeah. On
Kara Swisher · 50:19
Mhmm. That's a
Scott Galloway · 50:19
nice But you know what you know what Gary Freeman did at the restaurant? He said wine, but no alcohol. I don't want a bunch of guys getting drunk up here and making limits
Kara Swisher · 50:28
on ladies up there. A lot of ladies.
Scott Galloway · 50:30
And and they feel like they're in Mendocino or in the wine country.
Kara Swisher · 50:33
Yeah. It's pretty.
Scott Galloway · 50:34
And it's just the vibe is wonderful. And to do that and forego the margins of alcohol, every business person would go, no, that's a bad idea. He's like, no, we want this to be a And field that you're
Kara Swisher · 50:47
they buy like a sham on the way down, a $4,000 sham. I I... My favorite store ever was
Scott Galloway · 50:54
What's your favorite?
Kara Swisher · 50:55
Now? My hardware store. Love a hardware store. You can't you can't have an Amazon Amazon doesn't give you a hardware store experience.
Scott Galloway · 51:02
I love one of them. I'm just gonna hold my tongue. I'm just gonna hold my tongue.
Kara Swisher · 51:07
Ask Amanda. I love a hardware store. I'd love... I know I'm so happy in a hardware store.
Scott Galloway · 51:11
You're literally... You're baiting me. You're baiting me right now. This is a But is literally a ploy to get me canceled. Well, I see what's going on here. See what's going on here.
Kara Swisher · 51:22
Here is what I like. I like... There was a store when I was growing up called Fiorucci. I would take a bus from Princeton, New Jersey to New York to go to Fiorucci. It was delightful. I didn't know what I was gonna find there, and it was like all these trendy...
Scott Galloway · 51:36
Like Z Gallery when I was young. I'm like, you have the coolest furniture.
Kara Swisher · 51:39
It's cool. You remember Spencer's gifts? They had the dirty toys. They had the dirty presents and stuff like that.
Scott Galloway · 51:45
That's really old. They're so much great retail. I love Super Target. I love roaming around Best Buy.
Kara Swisher · 51:49
Apple. I guess the Apple store, I suppose. I like
Scott Galloway · 51:53
store. If Apple opened a coffee store,
Kara Swisher · 51:55
I would just
Scott Galloway · 51:56
like... I go to my desk. New office.
Kara Swisher · 51:58
I don't order it online. I go there. I go there. There... There's there's a store I go to. It's as easy to order online.
Scott Galloway · 52:03
Fantastic.
Kara Swisher · 52:03
Fantastic store. I enjoy it. I'm very happy there. Yeah. That would be a good example. Anyway, Hashim, thank you for the good...
Scott Galloway · 52:09
I love airport retail. I love boutique stores. Mean, there's...
Kara Swisher · 52:14
I like luggage stores at retail. Anyway, we're so strange. Anyway...
Scott Galloway · 52:18
The Ramoa store. I I love Ramoa. There's so many amazing great brands right now. I love the new on store.
Kara Swisher · 52:23
One of those.
Scott Galloway · 52:23
On running store in Soho does a fantastic job. There's a lot of That cologne, that new artisanal coffee place. There's just so much great retail out there. It has to be great.
— Predictions segment begins —
Kara Swisher · 52:33
I think called Compass Coffee. It's wonderful. Anyway, that's a good question. Send us more. Send us more. If you got a question you're curious about, go to nymag.com/pivot and submit it for the show. Alright, Scott. One more quick break. We'll be back for predictions. Okay, Scott. Give us this week's Bridges. So nice of us remembering good stores. Stores can be wonderful. Anyway, what is your prediction? I need a prediction from you.
Scott Galloway · 53:04
By the way, I took my boys to Barnes and Noble last weekend. Speaking of stores, it's interesting. They're like, let's go to Barnes and Noble. We went to Barnes and Noble Why? And Chick fil A. And unfortunately, I made the mistake of going on Sunday. Alright. Jesus getting in the way of my bonding with my kids. Anyways, everyone just totally mocked me on Twitter. I'm like, we're off to Chick fil A. I'm like, shithead, it's Sunday. Anyways, my prediction. We're gonna see there's a lot of really healthy discussion around the concentration of power and the onerous rents it charges on people, whether it's big ag, big pharma, and obviously the one we love, our go to's big tech. In 2022, we're finally going to see an overdue discussion around big ed. And when I say big ed, I mean the cartel that is higher education and their ability to embrace preying on middle class homes, this dream that you've or this general feeling that you failed unless you send your kids to college, this rejectionist culture that arbitrages kids down to a Hyundai for the price of a Mercedes, which places huge strain emotionally and financially on middle class households. We need more competition. We need to reject the nonprofit status or revoke the nonprofit status of any school with an endowment over a billion dollars that's not growing its freshman seats faster than population. They've decided they're no longer public servants, that they are, in fact, luxury brands. We need to dramatically open the spigot in terms of competition. We need to put schools on the hook for some of that bad debt. So their job isn't to get you debt sponsored by taxpayers that they then cash the check, and they have no real incentive to ensure you're able to pay it back because they got their money. They're not on the hook for it. So it is overdue. We're going to see the conversation around antitrust, around monopoly, and big whatever, put fill in the blank, is going to move to this talk around big Ed. We know the problems, and it stems from the same ugly place, and that is artificial scarcity Mhmm. And monopoly power. So over the 2022, you're gonna hear the term Big Ed more.
Kara Swisher · 55:10
Big Ed. Alright. I'm gonna put in a little prediction here. Pinterest.
Scott Galloway · 55:15
Yeah. Go for it.
Kara Swisher · 55:16
You're gonna see some action around Pinterest. I'm just guessing. Pinterest.
Scott Galloway · 55:21
And who do you think it'll who do you think it'll be?
Kara Swisher · 55:24
I don't know. That one, I haven't figured out yet. We'll talk about that next week.
Scott Galloway · 55:27
It's probably gonna be PayPal again. You know, PayPal's interested.
Kara Swisher · 55:30
Someone.
Scott Galloway · 55:31
I I... You're a 100% right.
Kara Swisher · 55:33
That number is so far down. Like, I kinda wanna buy it.
Scott Galloway · 55:37
You're in? You're ready?
Kara Swisher · 55:38
I'm in. I'm not buying anything. Are you kidding?
Scott Galloway · 55:40
Let's do it. You know, we could do a DAO. The jungle cat and the dog DAO. Okay. We're buying Pinterest.
Kara Swisher · 55:47
Yeah. Yeah. I just... I don't know. I just have a... I have my little spidey sense is tingling. It's tangling.
Scott Galloway · 55:52
I think he I think he knows something.
— Predictions segment ends —
Kara Swisher · 55:55
Anyway, Scott, as usual, what a great show. We are very excited to be going... I'm excited to go to Florida soon. Really do have a really good program. It's coming up, and it's gonna be great. So buy your tickets and stuff like that. I think we have a lot of people on the list, but please, if you'd like to go, let us know. Okay, Scott. That's the show. We're observing MLK Day, so we'll be back on Wednesday, but we're not gonna not have a show for you because that's the kind of people we are. So we are gonna tape on Tuesday and come on Wednesday. Scott, will you read us out?
Scott Galloway · 56:27
Today's show was produced by Lara Naaman, Evan Engel, and Taylor Griffin. Thanks also to Drew Burrows and Mia Silberio. Ernie Entertaud engineered this episode. Make sure you subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts. Or if you're an Android user, check us out on Spotify or, frankly, wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to Pivot from Box Media. We'll be back next Wednesday for another breakdown of all things tech and business. The greatest assault on middle class prosperity, the self aggrandizement, arrogance, and poor commitment to the commonwealth of higher education that is drunk on exclusivity and has raised rents faster than any sector in the world. It is time to break up Big Ed.
