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🥔 “Surge Potato Pricing” — Instacart’s personalized pricing. Utah’s for-profit football. Australia’s teen insta-ban. +In-N-Out’s 67.

21 min episode · 2 min read

Episode

21 min

Read time

2 min

Topics

Fundraising & VC, Marketing, Sales & Revenue

AI-Generated Summary

Key Takeaways

  • AI Personalized Pricing: Consumer Reports investigation reveals Instacart charges customers up to 23% different prices for identical items at the same store, using AI experiments to test price tolerance and showing false original prices to inflate perceived savings.
  • College Sports Monetization: University of Utah creates for-profit corporation valued at over $1 billion, selling minority stake to Otro Capital for $500 million. Private equity will manage player salaries (currently $21 million annually) and optimize revenue streams across athletic department operations.
  • Social Media Age Verification: Australia's ban requires apps themselves to verify user ages and face fines for violations. The law only restricts logged-in experiences where algorithms create addiction through endless scrolling, notifications, and personalized content, not passive viewing.
  • Regulatory Whataboutism: US social media regulation stalls despite majority support because critics raise endless objections about VPNs, app store responsibility, privacy concerns, and unintended consequences. Australia overcame these objections with 77% public support to implement their teen ban successfully.

What It Covers

Instacart faces backlash for AI-powered personalized pricing that charges different customers different amounts. University of Utah sells athletic department stake to private equity. Australia becomes first country to ban social media for teens under 16.

Key Questions Answered

  • AI Personalized Pricing: Consumer Reports investigation reveals Instacart charges customers up to 23% different prices for identical items at the same store, using AI experiments to test price tolerance and showing false original prices to inflate perceived savings.
  • College Sports Monetization: University of Utah creates for-profit corporation valued at over $1 billion, selling minority stake to Otro Capital for $500 million. Private equity will manage player salaries (currently $21 million annually) and optimize revenue streams across athletic department operations.
  • Social Media Age Verification: Australia's ban requires apps themselves to verify user ages and face fines for violations. The law only restricts logged-in experiences where algorithms create addiction through endless scrolling, notifications, and personalized content, not passive viewing.
  • Regulatory Whataboutism: US social media regulation stalls despite majority support because critics raise endless objections about VPNs, app store responsibility, privacy concerns, and unintended consequences. Australia overcame these objections with 77% public support to implement their teen ban successfully.

Notable Moment

In-N-Out Burger now skips order number 67 at all locations after Gen Z turned it into viral code, causing crowds to gather and create chaos when the number gets called, forcing the chain to eliminate it entirely from their ordering system.

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Episode Transcript

This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Thursday, the new Friday, December 11. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is a T boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Yetis yesterday, Jerry Powell of the Fed gave us the interest rate cut we all asked for for Christmas. Although our central bank said it only plans one additional cut next year for all of 2026. Come on, Jerry. We need a Hanukkah gift too, man. But you want mortgage rates to come down? It was mixed mixed news yesterday. Well, stocks surprisingly went up, and this pod is our best one yet. Jack, three stories for today's t boy. What do we got on the show? For our first story, Instacart got caught doing personalized pricing. Real thing. Different prices for different customers at the same grocery store. Basties, are you paying $1 for bananas but your buddy is getting charged $2? We have an explanation for it. Mhmm. For our second story, for the first time ever, a big university sold a piece of its athletic department to Wall Street investors. The University of Utah Utes Athletics is officially a for profit corporation. College sports is the new pro sports. And our third and final story. Yesterday, Australia became the first country to ban social media for kids 16. Is Instagram the new cigarette? We'll dive in t boy style. Speaking of banning, Nick, before we hit those wonderful three stories. What a mix of stories for the new Friday. In N Out Burger has banned the number 67 at all of its restaurants. True story, Yetis, will explain. 67. 67. Two consecutive numbers that Gen Z has turned into secret code. What's it mean? We don't really know, and you know what? Neither do they either. And whatever urban dictionary says, that's not right either. Nobody really knows. But the new viral trend is to gather at an In N Out Burger and wait for order number 67 to be announced. And when order number 67 is announced, the kids go crazy. Push and play. Let's hit the tape. In N Out doesn't want their restaurants becoming, mosh pits, whatever that was. So now they're skipping order 67. '67 has been 86. But it's not the only business in history that has banned a particular number. Is it, Nick? That's right, Jack. For years, Apple's weather app wouldn't show you the number 69. It was really bizarre. We covered it on this pod. True. They would skip straight from 68 to 70. They'd never show 69. If you live down in Tampa, never turn 69 degrees Fahrenheit. Now tech companies have also dropped the number nine in a case of roundup marketing. Yeah. There was never an iPhone nine or a Windows nine operating system, in fact. Apple and Microsoft skipped straight from version eight to version 10 to signal faster innovation. Sorry, besties. If you own an iPhone …

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