The Driverless Car Debate & The Price of Eggs

Summary

Brew Markets Podcast Summary

Episode: The Driverless Car Debate & The Price of Eggs
Date: July 10, 2026
Host: Ann Berry (with John Curto)

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Episode Overview

This special "curiosity episode" of Brew Markets features hosts Ann Berry and John Curto exploring four timely market stories that piqued their interest:

• American attitudes toward driverless cars
• Barnes & Noble Education’s textbook strategy
• The liquor industry’s “Big Tobacco moment”
• The egg price-fixing settlement

They exchange fresh takes, dig into recent data, and reflect on the investing implications for each topic.

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1. Do Americans Really Want Driverless Cars?

Timestamps: 00:26 – 06:37

Key Points:

• Waymo (Alphabet-owned), along with Zoox, Cruise, and Tesla, is expanding driverless car tests to new cities in the US and abroad.
• Ann notices Waymo reconnaissance in London, signs of imminent expansion.
• John observes Waymos mapping NYC and recalls seeing driverless vehicles in LA 18 months ago.
• Main Debate: Are people ready for a driverless future?
• CDC data: Car accidents cause over 40,000 US deaths/year. John argues removing human error could save lives, but still prefers to drive himself over trusting a stranger or a machine.
• Pew Research (Feb 2026):
  • Only 5% of Americans have ever been in a driverless car.
  • Of those who haven’t, 95% say they wouldn't feel comfortable trying.
  • Of those who have, only 4 in 10 say they’re “extremely” or “very” comfortable in one.
• Ann and John agree: the technology is impressive, but adoption may be slow due to cultural and psychological barriers.

Notable Quotes:

• “If I'm looking at statistics...humans are probably more prone to accidents than maybe these cars are.” — John Curto, 03:26
• “Not only have only 5% of the US population taken a ride in a driverless car...95% [of non-riders] said they would not be comfortable getting in one.” — Ann Barry, 05:10

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2. Barnes & Noble Education’s “First Day” Textbook Strategy

Timestamps: 06:37 – 10:35

Key Points:

• Barnes & Noble Education (ticker: BNED) operates separately from the main bookstore chain; went public in 2015, and suffered years of heavy losses due to the digital textbook revolution.
• “First Day Complete” bundles all required course materials (digital/physical) into tuition—students don't separately buy books and perceive less sticker shock.
• The company claims this model saves students 35-50% on average, though Ann notes many students simply charge books to bursar bills anyway.
• Added revenue stream: “Room Service”—dorm supplies bundled for student move-in.
• Despite turnaround efforts and 27% share gains YTD, BNED is still finding its footing in a rapidly evolving education market.
• Ann reflects on the value of campus bookstore real estate as more than just a textbook vendor.

Notable Quotes:

• “It felt like a bit of a racket...new editions coming out with such high frequency that you couldn't even buy secondhand books.” — Ann Barry, 07:46
• “By packaging this bundle, it saves the average student 35 to 50% on textbooks.” — John Curto, 08:18

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3. Big Alcohol’s “Big Tobacco Moment”?

Timestamps: 11:46 – 14:48

Key Points:

• US alcohol consumption, particularly spirits, has declined for four straight years.
• Wall Street Journal article (Carol Ryan, July 5): Liquor shares now trade cheaper than tobacco giants as moderation, affordability, and other relaxation alternatives (e.g., cannabis, GLP-1 drugs) cut into demand.
• Spirits prices in bars/restaurants up 30+% in five years, but people aren’t shifting to drinking more at home—overall consumption falling.
• Alcohol industry M&A: Brown-Forman (Jack Daniels) rejected $15B takeover; companies looking for ways to scale amidst shrinking pie.
• Emerging markets (e.g., India) still show growth for global players like Diageo.
• Investing takeaway: Liquor stocks could be part of a "balanced mix," but not time to binge.

Notable Quotes:

• “Liquor shares are trading more cheaply than those of British American Tobacco and Altria, which owns Marlboro.” — Ann Barry, 13:22
• “Maybe the message about moderation is sound advice for investing in alcohol too. Now isn't the time to binge on spirit stocks. But they can be part of a balanced mix, especially at these prices.” — (Wall Street Journal via Ann Barry, 14:32)

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4. The Price of Eggs: Settling the Price-Fixing Scandal

Timestamps: 14:48 – 17:35

Key Points:

• Major US egg producers (Cal-Maine, Hickman’s, Fursanova) settle federal antitrust lawsuit for $3.5 million, plus donating 53 million eggs to food banks—allegations of collusion but no admission of guilt.
• The probe started when eggs hit $6/dozen in March 2025 amid avian flu and supply disruptions.
• "Unveil moment": John recalls questioning Cal-Maine’s surging profits last year; later, their "calm" ticker adds irony.
• Investors appear unfazed—Cal-Maine shares rose 5% post-settlement. Settlement amount not deemed material.
• Implications: ongoing scrutiny of food industry pricing, but sector profits often persist despite legal actions.

Notable Quotes:

• “Egg producers have been told they have to pay three and a half million dollars to settle [a] federal price fixing lawsuit...plus donate more than 53 million eggs to food banks.” — John Curto, 15:02
• “You are feeling as though you personally observed collusion right before your very eyes.” — Ann Barry, 17:00

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Memorable Moments

• The friendly, bantering tone—Ann’s “sample size of one” approach to driverless car hesitance, and John’s glee over the “calm” egg ticker.
• Data-driven arguments (Pew, CDC, WSJ) balanced with anecdotal observations and personal memories.
• The repeated theme of “bundling”—from tuition-inclusive textbooks to the packaging of liquor sector stocks.

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Content Timestamps Overview

| Segment | Start | |---------------------------------------------|---------| | Waymo & Driverless Cars Debate | 00:26 | | Barnes & Noble Education’s Strategy | 06:37 | | The Alcohol Industry’s Big Tobacco Moment | 11:46 | | Egg Price-Fixing Settlement | 14:48 |

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Takeaway

This episode blends fresh news, personal recollection, and investing insight—leaving listeners with a nuanced perspective on how shifting consumer behaviors and corporate strategies ripple through public markets. Ann and John urge listeners to share which companies or trends to cover next, as quarterly earnings season approaches.

Transcript

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[Ann Barry]

Noble Education, the OG textbook company has a new strategy for selling to students. We examine how investors are grading the approach. Drink responsibly. It's the advice from big alcohol companies. But might it be leading to their big tobacco moment and eggs? Major producers are settling price fixing claims. We crack open what it could mean for investors. Plus, Waymo, Zoox, Tesla, they're all racing toward a driverless future. But do Americans really want it? For Friday, July 10th, it's Brew Markets Daily and I'm Ann Ber. Around the office, we are always sharing market stories that catch our eye. And with fresh news of the day always popping up as the trading session goes on, there isn't always enough time to explore these stories in the show. So on this summer Friday, while you're all pretending to be working from home and we know that you're actually sipping Bellinis by the pool, wherever you may be, before we get flooded with results as we get into the new earnings season, we wanted to dig into some of those stories. And that just John and I found interesting, that piqued our curiosity. So it's a curiosity episode. So John and I both have two topics to share with each other. We haven't really previewed them much together, so we're just going to get our knee jerk reactions. And we just thought we'd take it as an experiment, see what we each think, see what you all think. Write in, let us know. And I'm going to kick it off with one that caught my eye. So let's start, John, with Waymo, Zoox, Cruise Do Americans really want driverless cars? And so there's been a lot of buzz about Waymo. You and I talked in the show this week about Waymo, which is owned by Alphabet, announcing expansion into four more American cities. I caught them doing a reconnaissance in London. I was there over the last two weeks and I could see Waymo cars with human drivers, but with the whirring of all the lidars and the detectors clearly doing reconnaissance in preparation to launch the driverless version. You've seen them here in New York,

[John Curto]

right here in New York City. They still have drivers in them, but they're sort of mapping out the city, I imagine.

[Ann Barry]

Yes.

[John Curto]

And then when I was in Los Angeles, as long ago as 18 months ago, they had driverless versions of Waymo that were going around the city. You know, Los Angeles is spread out, there's a lot of highway. It seems like it'd be easier to figure out than the congested roads of London and New York City. But it seems like it's coming.

[Ann Barry]

It's definitely, definitely coming. That is absolutely the intention. But. But the question is, do people want it to come? So let's start with you. We're going to do our sample size of 1. Have you been in a Waymo?

[John Curto]

I haven't been in one yet.

[Ann Barry]

Would you go in a Waymo?

[John Curto]

I would.

[Ann Barry]

Why would you go in one?

[John Curto]

Well, I think the conversation around these driverless cars is often because we see some humorous problems that Waymos have. You know, it backed up into a U turn and people were goofing on it.

[Ann Barry]

Yeah, they become memeified.

[John Curto]

They become memeified. Sometimes it can be more tragic. There have been been actual accidents that have caused injury to people. Overall, if I'm looking at statistics, the CDC cites that car accidents are one of the leading causes of death in the United states with over 40,000 fatalities a year. Those are significant numbers. Driving is one of the most dangerous things that there is. And so while there may be accidents or problems with some of these self driving cars, I think that overall humans are probably more prone to accidents than maybe these cars are.

[Ann Barry]

So you would vouch for Waymo and the like because you would say, let's get rid of human error as much as possible. Yes, that's what I'm hearing.

[John Curto]

Although. Okay, let's put it this way. Would I get into. I'd rather drive the car myself because I trust myself.

[Ann Barry]

Yes, I knew you were gonna say that.

[John Curto]

But if I'm looking at a taxi where there's a stranger driving me, I think I would be open to having it be the car driving.

[Ann Barry]

Well, it turns out you're in the minority. So there's one source of information that I like to look at. I'm a nerd. We all know that. I'm a data ner. And I like to read research that's issued by an organization called Pew, Pew, Pew Research, which is a nonpartisan Washington D.C. based think tank. And what Pew Research does is study American and global attitudes on a huge array of topics. They do tons of surveys who do Very detailed, almost anthropological research, including on US Politics and technology and religion and media habits and demographics. I mean, you name it. Like, if it's surveyable and it's behavioral, they sort of get on top of it. And I sign up to their emails because I like to just see the headlines come through. And occasionally I'll click on one that captures my interest. And they've really good charts. I do like a good chart. And they really distill the information down in a visually appealing way. And one of the ones that hit my inbox recently was a new report that's come out by Pew Research using data and surveys that they undertook in February of this year to see if Americans actually would be willing to ride in a driverless car. And according to this research, not only have only 5% of the US population taken a ride in a driverless car, the 95% of those who have not been in One of that 95%, 95% said they would not be comfortable getting in one.

[Aflac Advertiser]

Sure.

[Ann Barry]

Okay. So people really don't want. This is what I'm. Is what I'm seeing.

[John Curto]

And here's the thing. We're both talking about numbers. I cited CDC numbers. You're talking about these surveys that all goes out the window when you get into a car, that you've been familiar with the concept of a car your whole life, and there's no steering wheel or a brake that you can see.

[Ann Barry]

Yes.

[John Curto]

And so that all goes out the window. All these numbers go out the window when you have the experience. I imagine. So I'll give it a shot. But I can see why people are concerned.

[Ann Barry]

Well, it's really interesting. Even those who have been in a driverless car. Right. And again, that's only 5% of the American population. Here's what's really interesting. Four in ten adults who have been in one say that they are comfortable. Extremely comfortable and very comfortable. That still means 60% of them are not.

[John Curto]

Less than half.

[Ann Barry]

Yeah, less than half. So, you know, keep on watching this, because I'm really curious. Whenever there's a great new technology, whenever there are lots of technology enthusiasts, and I do think autonomous cars are amazing. I do think this driverless car concept's incredible technology. But I'm going to be very curious to see what the adoption is like, because we often think about what's been going on in San Francisco, because that's usually the pilot city for these kind of frontier technologies. I'm going to be very curious to see how these go in other parts of the country. All Right.

[John Curto]

Ann, let's go to another story. This one piqued my interest this week because I was looking at the Investor Day event for Barnes and Noble Education. And so I wasn't aware that Barnes and Noble, we know Barnes and Noble as the bookstore chain B and N. They have over 750 locations. This is a separate company. It was started by the same person. But Barnes and Noble itself, the bookstore that we know of, went private in August of 2019. And so this was spun out as its own publicly traded company with the ticker bned. And it hasn't been doing well, Ann. It spun out in 2015. For the next 10 years, the company was struggling because it went public right around the time that textbooks were evolving. Things were going digital and the textbook model was just collapsing in general. And so over the next couple years, Barnes and Noble Education bned was racking up 60, 70, $90 million in annual losses. And then they came upon something called First Day. So let's start with it's been a while since you and I were in college.

[Ann Barry]

It has been, yes. What happened? What does first day do?

[John Curto]

Well, what was your experience buying textbooks?

[Ann Barry]

Expensive.

[John Curto]

Yes.

[Ann Barry]

Like that is the one word that springs to mind. I turn up in college scholarship kid. And I, I'm just floored by the cost of textbooks. And you'll remember that problem is what caused Chegg to come to life. Right. Because students like me were saying it's just unimaginable how much these textbook costs. It felt like a bit of a racket because you'd have new editions coming out with such high frequency that you couldn't even buy secondhand books and sort of keep up with the page references and stuff. So no, this is a huge pain point.

[John Curto]

And you make an interesting point about being on scholarship.

[Ann Barry]

Yeah.

[John Curto]

And so I'll tell you what first day is. That came out and it has turned a profit for this company. First Day complete. Students sign up for all their required course materials in advance, both in physical and digital form format before classes start. So you're not going traditionally the bookstore and buying each one, it's all packaged together and it's put into your tuition. And so out of sight, out of mind, you might not even, unless you're looking at a list of what your expenses are, you might not even know how much you're paying for textbooks. It does say that by packaging this bundle, it saves the average student 35 to 50% on textbooks. But you know, talking about being on scholarship, when I was in school and I didn't have money for books. I just put it on the bursar bill. You know, you had all these different things. If you had a meal plan or how much your rent was or something, you just put it all on the big number. And so they're doing that now with textbooks. And it has turned the company around. It's been a source of growth. And one more thing that they're doing, they're launching room service. Barnes and Noble Education will outfit your entire dorm before you get there with everything from bedding to refrigerators, anything that you want so you can, you can show up. So they're diversifying away. Shares are up 27% to date. They're flat year over year. So this is still a company that's trying to figure itself out. But this idea of first day just lumping all those books together in the charges into your tuition is an interesting.

[Ann Barry]

But there's real scale here because it's just. There's about 650 physical stores. Right. For Barnes and Noble Education. And I actually, this is sort of a heartback to my time in private equity. This must have been about 10 years ago. May not be the exact number of years ago, but I do remember at one point looking at bidding to buy a college bookstore business.

[John Curto]

Interesting.

[Ann Barry]

And at that time, which hadn't seen as much of erosion as we've seen now, it was very interesting. I do remember that even in that moment, books were becoming a decreasing share of the revenue of this kind of business. The value of that kind of asset sat with its physical location on campuses.

[John Curto]

Right.

[Ann Barry]

And the fact that you could, you know, that last minute dash for snacks or for sodas or even for college merch.

[John Curto]

Yeah. Branded materials.

[Ann Barry]

Branded materials. Right. The ring binders through to the sweatshirts, whatever it is, the merch. And so actually just the sheer real estate footprint of this was pretty attractive. I had this like searing memory of doing due diligence and going around to try and suss out what it was like at different college bookstores.

[John Curto]

Yes. I think the textbooks have become an afterthought.

[Ann Barry]

Yeah, they definitely. Possibly true of college life in general, by the way. That could be true.

[John Curto]

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[Ann Barry]

well, here's my next one for you, John, and I'm going to turn to a Wall Street Journal article which is so well written. The journalist here, Carol Ryan, did a great job on this and the title of this article which published on July 5, liquor stores are Priced for a Big Tobacco Moment. And the sub the subtitle here is Declines in Drinking are Hurting Distiller Shares. But has the Sell off Gone Too far? Now, you and I have talked on the show about secular trends in alcohol consumption in the United States, right?

[John Curto]

Young people are drinking less. Are they? Are the surveys accurate, all these things?

[Ann Barry]

Well, alcohol companies have been encouraging people to drink responsibly, which I think is a bit of a, sort of a bit of a hook. I think the point here is that, yes, Americans have been drinking less. The volume of spirits sold by the liquor companies has declined for four straight years. And the Wall Street Journal article says affordability is actually part of the problem. And the reason they've identified that is they've said it's not just drinking out in bars and restaurants that have seen challenges. And by the way, prices of spirits and bars and restaurants have risen about 30% over the past five years. What the Journal article says is consumers aren't opting to drink at home instead either, Right? They're cutting back completely. So it's that overall pie seeming to shrink which is driving the concern. And so when we take a look at what this has translated into for the share prices of the liquor sector, it's really extraordinary. The punchline of this article is that there has been a decline in the stock prices of Pernod Ricard in Diageo in Brown Forman, which owns Jack Daniels. And if you take a look at the valuation of these businesses now, meaning as a multiple of expected earnings, these liquor shares are trading more cheaply than those of British American Tobacco and Altria, which owns Marlborough.

[John Curto]

We've also talked about that there's legalization of other alternative ways to relax. And also GLP1s are apparently cutting into people's interest in drinking.

[Ann Barry]

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

[John Curto]

And from a markets perspective, we've talked about this. You mentioned these companies, Brown Forman, like you said, the maker of Jack Daniels. There was talk that they may be taken over earlier this year by Bruno Ricard, as you mentioned, and then that deal fell out. Then weeks later, Brown Forman rejected a $15 billion takeover from Sazerac, which makes Buffalo Trace and Fireball. So these companies seem to be trying to figure out a way to scale up, but it's just not working the deal.

[Aflac Advertiser]

Right.

[Ann Barry]

And the market has been nervous in those cases. You've seen the share price reaction to these potential merger announcements with investors saying, wait, are you just doubling down on weakness? Right. That's been the underlying. Well, just to conclude on this particular piece, the article does say that companies like Diageo, it does make the point they have a big presence in emerging markets such as India. So they're still seeing healthy demands in those kinds of markets. But I wanted to read you, John Verbatin. The last two lines in this article quote, maybe the message about moderation is sound advice for investing in alcohol too. Now isn't the time to binge on spirit stocks. But they can be part of a balanced mix, especially at these prices. I thought that was cute. I like that. I liked it. Coming on July 5th as well.

[John Curto]

All right, onto the fourth thing that caught our eye. And this one is from me. And, and this is eggs.

[Ann Barry]

Eggs.

[John Curto]

Let's the price of eggs. We've been talking about that. This caught my eye because egg producers have been told that they have to pay three and a half million dollars to settle federal price fixing lawsuit. And this is an antitrust lawsuit brought against the major egg producers by the federal government in 17 states. Allegations of collusion. This first came to mind in March of 2025 when eggs hit a record high of over $6 a dozen. The federal government started looking into it. And now to make this clear, the defendants, which include Cal, Maine, Hickman's Egg Ranch and Fursanova, they've acknowledged no wrongdoing as part of the settlement. So that's part of it. But they do have to pay that, like I said, over $3 million to the states and donate more than 53 million eggs to food banks.

[Ann Barry]

Oh, I like that. I like that food bank donation element. I Think that's a very smart way to sort of drive the point home, actually.

[John Curto]

So, Anne and I was thinking, how come I know about this company, Cal Maine?

[Ann Barry]

Well, we covered it in one of our shows. We did that? Yeah. Yeah.

[John Curto]

So you remember last summer?

[Aflac Advertiser]

Yes.

[John Curto]

We were in here and it first caught our eye because it has the ticker calm.

[Ann Barry]

Which you loved.

[John Curto]

Which I loved.

[Ann Barry]

Loved.

[John Curto]

That's so curious.

[Ann Barry]

We do love a good ticker on the show.

[John Curto]

Absolutely. And so last summer, we looked up the egg prices. We talked about how the company, Cal Maine had a revenue of $1.1 billion, which was up 72% year over year. This is last summer. And profits were up 33%. And we asked ourselves, okay, well, how does that work with supply and demand? Well, it makes sense. Because of the bird flu, there were fewer eggs, so the prices went up.

[Ann Barry]

Do you have been rational? I would go to Trader Joe's and everywhere it would say you were limited to buying two cartons of eggs.

[John Curto]

Absolutely. When we looked at the earnings report, it also said that There was a 5% rise in egg volume versus the previous year. And on this show we asked ourselves, well, if volume is up and demand is up.

[Ann Barry]

You've been sitting there all this time, ever since we talked about it on the show last year, you've been sitting here going, why is it with demand strong, but also with these companies saying they've been investing in biosecurity to protect against avian flu so supply can keep up with demand, why are prices going up? So, John, this has been a big unveil moment for you.

[John Curto]

Unveil moment.

[Ann Barry]

You are feeling as though you personally observed collusion right before your very eyes.

[John Curto]

I mean, that's what the settlement says. And Sherman Miller, the president and chief executive Cal Maine said this week, quote, temporary supply shocks, including in connection with multiple outbreaks of avian influenza, weather, other market dynamics compounded by high inflation at the time, caused egg prices to surge. Now, Ann, I don't think investors are too upset about this settlement. It might not necessarily be a large number.

[Ann Barry]

It's not a large number exactly.

[John Curto]

Even those millions of eggs. Shares in com are up 5% since the settlement.

[Ann Barry]

Well, these were all four. Look, we are about to head into earnings season. This was our brief moment of respite. We've got the weekend earnings season is coming hard and fast at us, folks. But let us know which companies you're excited about. Let us know which names you want us to unpack. We'll be right back with you next week. That's it for today's Brew Markets Daily.

[John Curto]

Brew Markets Daily is hosted by Anne Barry and produced by John Curto. Tarka Villa, Tief Avenue, Laroya and Emily Millarn. Brittany Nataco is our audio engineer and the president of Morning Brew Inc. Is Devin Emery.

[Ann Barry]

Wake up on Monday with the Morning Brew newsletter and tune in to Neil and Toby on Morning Brew Daily. See you back here next week, same time, same place, and have a brilliant weekend.