DeepSeek Craze Tanks Tech Stocks & New Look Starbucks is Here

Summary

Morning Brew Daily: DeepSeek Craze Tanks Tech Stocks & New Look Starbucks is Here
Release Date: January 28, 2025

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Vanderbilt's Costly Court Storming Fines

Neal Freyman and Toby Howell kick off the episode by discussing Vanderbilt University's recent hefty fines imposed by the SEC due to repeated incidents of students storming the court after athletic victories. After Vanderbilt's men's basketball team upset Kentucky, the university was fined an unprecedented $500,000. This marks the third fine under the SEC's new court storming regulations, following previous penalties of $100,000 and $250,000 for similar infractions in football and basketball.

Neal highlights the financial strain on Vanderbilt, stating, “Vanderbilt has not got the memo and it's cost them nearly $1 million so far” (00:53).

Tech Stocks Plummet Amid DeepSeek's AI Breakthrough

The episode delves into the dramatic downturn in tech stocks triggered by DeepSeek's release of its R1 AI model. Neal explains how DeepSeek's open-source, cost-effective AI innovation led to a historic $1 trillion market loss, primarily impacting giants like Nvidia, which saw an 18% drop—the largest since the pandemic (03:05).

Toby adds, “Deep Seek has raised an uncomfortable question... what if companies don't need to spend nearly as much as they expected to develop AI models” (04:24). The discussion emphasizes the ripple effect on companies supporting AI infrastructure, such as Constellation Energy and Vertiv, which experienced significant stock declines.

Starbucks Revamps Under New CEO Brian Nichols

Neal transitions to Starbucks' strategic overhaul under new CEO Brian Nichols, who aims to recreate the company's nostalgic, community-focused atmosphere. Recent policy changes include the removal of free cups of water and the introduction of a "fixings bar" for customizing drinks (08:45).

Toby notes, “These changes are very vibe based. They're not efficiency based,” highlighting Nichols' shift from previous leadership focused on operational efficiency to enhancing customer experience (09:50). The hosts also discuss the significant compensation package awarded to Nichols, totaling approximately $96 million, reflecting Starbucks' commitment to reversing declining sales.

Tax Season Updates and IRS Changes

As tax season begins, Neal and Toby provide essential information for taxpayers. They discuss the IRS's expansion of the Direct File Service, now available in 25 states, allowing more Americans to file taxes for free (13:12).

Neal warns about the IRS lowering the threshold for receiving a 1099-K form from $20,000 to $5,000, aiming to clamp down on unreported income from side hustles (14:11). This change is set to further decrease to $600 in the coming years, potentially affecting millions of remote workers and freelancers.

Unionization Efforts at Whole Foods and Amazon

The conversation shifts to labor movements, focusing on Whole Foods employees in Philadelphia forming the first union within the Amazon-owned grocery chain (23:03). Neal draws parallels to Starbucks' unionization efforts, noting potential widespread implications for Amazon's workforce.

Toby cautions, “Winning a union vote doesn't necessarily mean that you will have a contract talk that will progress,” referencing the ongoing struggles faced by unionized workers at Amazon's Staten Island location (25:07).

New Zealand’s Visa Policy for Remote Workers

Neal and Toby explore New Zealand's recent relaxation of visa requirements to attract remote workers. The new policy allows foreigners to stay for up to 90 days while working for overseas employers, aiming to boost the local economy without displacing New Zealand jobs (25:07).

Toby enthuses about the opportunities, mentioning, “They really sell fruit-flavored ice cream... What if people just linger less with their cell phones?”

Social Trends: The Fast Walking Epidemic

The hosts analyze a National Bureau of Economic Research study revealing that pedestrian walking speeds in major cities increased by 15% from 1980 to 2010, accompanied by a 50% reduction in loitering and social interactions (17:00). This trend is attributed to the rise of cell phone usage and increased opportunity costs due to higher incomes.

Neal humorously reflects, “Cell phones are 80% of the story. Economic opportunity cost 5%” (21:19), underscoring the shift towards a more hurried urban lifestyle.

Final Headlines

White House Pauses Federal Grants and Loans

The White House has issued a vague two-page memo pausing various federal financial assistance programs, including those for disaster relief, foreign aid, and initiatives like the Green New Deal (23:03). This move has sparked confusion due to its broad scope and lack of detailed guidance.

Whole Foods Workers Unionize

Whole Foods employees in Philadelphia have made history by voting to form a union, seeking better wages, benefits, and working conditions. This movement mirrors earlier efforts by Starbucks and highlights growing labor pressure on Amazon subsidiaries (23:03).

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Notable Quotes

• Neal Freyman: “Vanderbilt has not got the memo and it's cost them nearly $1 million so far” (00:53).
• Toby Howell: “These changes are very vibe based. They're not efficiency based” (09:50).
• Neal Freyman: “Cell phones are 80% of the story. Economic opportunity cost 5%” (21:19).

Conclusion

Neal Freyman and Toby Howell provide a comprehensive overview of significant developments in business, technology, and social trends. From the financial repercussions of Vanderbilt's court storming to the seismic shifts in the tech stock market due to DeepSeek's AI advancements, and Starbucks' strategic policy changes, the episode offers valuable insights for listeners. Additionally, updates on tax season, labor movements, and social behavior changes present a well-rounded snapshot of current events shaping the economy and society.

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For more detailed discussions and updates, tune in to the next episode of Morning Brew Daily on your preferred podcast platform or YouTube.

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Timestamp References:

• 00:53
• 03:05
• 04:24
• 08:45
• 09:50
• 13:12
• 14:11
• 17:00
• 21:19
• 23:03
• 25:07

Transcript

[Dave]

Oh, such a clutch off season pickup, Dave. I was worried we'd bring back the same team. I meant Those blackout motorized shades lines.com made it crazy affordable to replace our old blinds. Hard to install? No, it's easy. I installed these and then got some from my mom. She talked to a design consultant for free and scheduled a professional measure and install. Hall of fame son. They're the number one online retailer of custom window coverings in the world. Blinds.com is the goat shop.

[Neal Freyman]

Blinds.com right now and get up to 40% off select styles plus a free professional measure. Rules and restrictions may apply. Good morning, Brew Daily Show. I'm Neal Freyman.

[Toby Howell]

And I'm Toby Howell.

[Neal Freyman]

Today, everything you need to know for the start of tax season.

[Toby Howell]

Then, stocks had themselves a no good, very lousy day as the market processed what cheap Chinese chatbots means for Silicon valley. It's Tuesday, January 28th. Let's ride.

[Neal Freyman]

You see what's going on at Vanderbilt? The students keep storming the court after big wins and it's getting ultra expensive for the school. The SEC find Vanderbilt $500,000 after fans stormed the court after the Commodore's men's basketball team knocked off number nine Kentucky on Saturday. And the reason the storming is so pricey is because this isn't the first time it's happened recently. It's the third under new SEC court storming rules. Vanderbilt got fined $100,000 last fall when the football team beat number one Alabama and students stormed the field. And it was fined $250,000 after a basketball court storming 10 days ago after beating number 610 Tennessee. Toby, they say when you beat a good team, you should act like you've been there before. Vanderbilt students have not got the memo and it's cost them nearly $1 million so far.

[Toby Howell]

I think the funniest part about this whole saga is that Vanderbilt's athletic director, Candace Lee was seen as the Kentucky game winded down, saying, please pleading with the student section, do not storm the court. Because she knew that the fine was coming. She was overheard saying, we could use this money for nil. Just stay in your seats. And then the fans obviously did not take heed. They did storm the court. And the worst part of this is Vanderbilt has to pay $500,000 to Kentucky. They're one of their main rivals, one of the richest teams in the sec. So that money is going straight into the pocket of your chief rival there. Act like you've been there before. Vanderbilt, though, congrats. 16 and 4. Pretty good season they're putting together now a word from our sponsor, Yahoo Finance. Neal it was a red day and the market yesterday.

[Neal Freyman]

I prefer to think about it as the indexes were blushing because they couldn't up with the AI advancements coming out of China.

[Toby Howell]

Interesting way to cope with the sell off. But if you don't just want to cope and instead want to educate yourself, check out Yahoo Finance.

[Neal Freyman]

One quick scan of their homepage and you can see the news driving the market's lousy day.

[Toby Howell]

And if you want to go deeper, that's where its research tab comes into play. You can use its stock comparison tool to weigh a company's fundamentals or pay for Yahoo Finance's premiums here to get expert investment ideas and research reports.

[Neal Freyman]

It's all there and it's all waiting for you@yahoo finance.com in the biggest route.

[Toby Howell]

We'Ve seen since the Commanders played the Eagles, Nvidia and other US AI companies got obliterated yesterday to the tune of $1 trillion in losses as the market digested the implications of Deep Seeks free and open source R1 model. Nvidia shares lost as much as 18%, which was its biggest drop since the pandemic. Obviously, Nvidia is a much larger company now than in 2020, so that drop corresponded to to nearly $600 billion in market cap wipeout, which was the biggest single day drop in US Stock market history. Due to Nvidia's oversized weight in many indexes, its meltdown rippled through the rest of the market as well. The S&P 500 was down as much as 2.3%, while the Nasdaq 100 fell by 3.6% before making some gains later in the afternoon. The drop was spurred by fears that US Companies may have gotten ahead of their skis when it comes to plowing resources into training their AI models. Deepsea claims its R1 model cost only $6 million to build as little as 3% of the estimated trading training price of OpenAI's top model. Neil it was pretty wild that a single chat bot release turned into a macro event. I mean, this was affecting 10 year treasury yields as investors rotated into safe haven assets.

[Neal Freyman]

A chat bot Neil Nightmare on Wall street yesterday because Deep Seek has raised an uncomfortable question. That question is what if companies don't need to spend nearly as much as they expected to develop AI models? And a metaphor you often hear with these gold rush types. What if prospectors don't need to buy as many picks and shovels in order to find their treasure? What if they found a way to access it with fewer tools and with older tool tools, that's what Deep Seek showed it could do. And so you saw companies that make the picks and the shovels to this AI gold rush. The Nvidia and every other company that goes into the data center economy, from power systems to chip makers to cooling systems, those were the companies that were hit the hardest yesterday.

[Toby Howell]

Yeah, I'll run down through some of the names that did fall the most. Obviously, Nvidia was down 17%. Microsoft was down 2%. Palantir sunk 4%. So those are some of the big names that you associate with this air rush. But also companies that provide the energy and the infrastructure were the ones that really felt a deep pain. Constellation Energy, which was up to this point, one of the best performing stocks in the S&P 500, they fell 20%. Oklo, which also does energy, nuclear energy, dropped 25%. And then Vertiv, which does cooling systems for data centers, they were down almost 30%. So you saw it wasn't just the actual companies developing AI models. It was all the companies that helped support their development of AI models that really felt the pain the most.

[Neal Freyman]

Let's take a step back. What does this all mean? Is this a Sputnik moment, as venture capitalist Marc Andreessen said, referring to the fact that the Soviets beat the US in terms of putting a satellite in space? Is this a alarm bell? Is this a wake up call for US Companies? Or is this mostly overblown? That it was the question that everyone was talking about yesterday, what is the true impact of Deep Seeks model and for people I trust? I was reading hours and hours and hours of thought pieces that came out yesterday. People I trust said that, look, this is a pretty big deal. It is not the end of the world for AI companies. That's why you saw a bunch of American tech companies actually up on the stock market yesterday. Apple was up, Metta was up. So they're not saying this is a cataclysmic event, but it is a big deal for a number of reasons. And here are some key takeaways. The first one is the cost breakthrough. Deep Seq was able to create a rival to Chatbots that it was 10% of the cost and that will lead to industry disruption. Because in previous hypotheses, our theory was that only a few of these firms can compete. There's only a couple of names like Metta, Amazon, Google, OpenAI that can spend tens of billions of dollars to build AI. And those were the only people that could ever play in the AI sandbox. The fact that deepsea could do it on the cheap and much more efficiently opens the doors up to a whole new host of competitors. So these companies will be disrupted. And the third big takeaway is it's going to be a huge accelerant for AI development. We're going to get much faster advances because Deep Seeks model first of all was open source. So now anyone in the world can build on that model and it'll lead to faster development, faster adoption of AI. So those are some three big takeaways. While maybe it's not the end of the world and we saw, we're seeing the stock market rebound a little bit this morning already, it is a big deal in that it will lead to much more competitors in the AI space and we will see faster development.

[Toby Howell]

And then finally, just a few more newsy things that happened to Deep Seek yesterday. It actually, deepseek ended up limiting user registrations because it said said that there was a large scale malicious attack on its servers, on its services. It also reached the top of Apple's App Store. It was averaging around 300,000 downloads a day. And then finally they also dropped a AI model called Janus Pro that is an image generator that it says actually is better than OpenAI's Dall Li as well. So just a few more things. They're just still releasing, still shipping products, still challenging, you know, the, the top tier of US AI companies. I don't think this is the last we're going to hear of Deep Seek.

[Neal Freyman]

In an effort to move forward, Starbucks is looking back. Yesterday, the world's largest coffee chain began to roll out new old policies across the 11,000 stores that operates in North America as part of new CEO Brian Nichols plan to rejuvenate struggling sales. If you went into a Starbucks yesterday, you might have noticed the changes. Free cups of water are out. Free coffee refills if you ordered them to stay are a grand return is the fixings bar allowing customers to style their own drinks with various creamers and sweeteners. And if you didn't buy anything, don't expect to be handed the keys to the restroom. Starbucks. His new policy, which only allows customers to use the bathroom, which was around until 2018, also kicked back in yesterday. Many of those tweaks are supposed to remind you of the Starbucks of old. When you'd order a coffee, find a comfortable chair to sit in and chill for a while with your friends or your laptop. Conjuring that indie coffee shop vibe is key to Nicholls Strategy to spark a rebound, which he's dubbed back to Starbucks. Toby, we've seen nostalgia work in movies, toys and fashion, but will it work with coffee?

[Toby Howell]

Yeah, I mean, the idea is to resign to remind consumers of the, quote, old Starbucks. This is all these changes are very vibe based. They're not efficiency based. The idea is to create shorter lines, you know, that cozier feel, a more thoughtful service environment. Because a lot of what Nichols is doing is undoing previous Starbucks CEOs kind of focus on efficiency. The CEO who predated nickel was from a consulting background. A lot of what they were doing was looking at, oh, wait, our condiments bar. This is a choke point. It's not good for people. Let's have the baristas do this. Have the baristas customized drinks. And while it might make sense cents in terms of a dollars and cents and efficiency perspective, there are certain things when it comes to getting a coffee that go beyond just efficiency. There are vibes that are very important. So you saw it in some of the marketing materials that Starbucks has unrolled over the last week. They showed a video of their baristas writing people's names and Sharpies on cuff. So it is very much a return to that old feel and that old kind of nostalgic coffee house aura that Starbucks is trying to recreate.

[Neal Freyman]

Meanwhile, Starbucks is going to report its fourth quarter earnings today. Sales have declined for three straight quarters and they're expected to continue to decline this quarter, perhaps not as much. And the spotlight certainly will be on this guy. Brian Nicholl, came over from Chipotle, is considered the messy of retail. And he's turned around Chipotle, he's turned around Taco Bell, and he's trying to turn around Starbucks as well. And he's getting paid very, very handsomely for it. He has already been awarded about $96 million in compensation. That's compared to his predecessor who got 22 million and the person before that got 62 million. So this is a ton of money that Starbucks is throwing at him. A lot of that is to make up for the shares of Chipotle that he voided by coming over. So this guy is one of the highest paid CEOs around. And we'll see what he has to say later this afternoon about his strategy for rejuvenating Starbucks. Okay, I can't withhold this news any longer. Tax season started yesterday and runs through April 15th. Can I get a. Exciting, exciting times. Not to sound like a parent, but hey, the earlier you file, the earlier you can get your refund. And taxpayers who file electronically and choose direct deposit should get their payments within 21 business days. The IRS said it's not a small chunk of change either. Last year, tax refunds average more than 30 $100. That's a pretty good ROI for the 13 hours and $290 it takes the average taxpayer to prepare and file. But if $290 still sounds like a lot, it could be free. Thanks to the expansion of the IRS's Direct File Service this year, one of a few new developments you should know about. Piloted last year and used by 140,000Americans, this free government service is more than doubling to encompass 25 states this time around and make more than 30 million Americans eligible. Those 25 states are Alaska, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois. Just kidding. I'm not going to read them all, but definitely look into Direct File to see if it can handle your taxes. It earned rave reviews during its debut last year and it should be available to most people in those states who earn a W2 income and have relatively simple taxes. Toby, what's on your mind this tax season?

[Toby Howell]

I mean, Direct File is a big deal because 25 states, I mean, we're getting close to, you know, half the country.

[Neal Freyman]

We might be at half.

[Toby Howell]

We actually are exactly at half the country. You're right. It was very well received. 90% of users rated their experience as excellent or above average. And that was over a 15,000 person customer service survey. So people do like it. It's also kind of beefing up some of its functions. It was pretty bare bones when it rolled out last year. You can actually import your W2 information straight to. The software can handle just a larger variety of different tax circumstances you might encounter, as well as process some of those tax credits that you will be available for. Because remember, a lot of tax credits were rolled out under the Biden administration. There were, there were that EV tax credit that a lot of people took advantage of. $7,500. So I do think that direct fire will probably be the biggest story this tax season because there weren't too many drastic changes to the IRS tax code this year.

[Neal Freyman]

No, the only one that I think people should know about, and this is directed at people who have a side hustle or freelance or basically people who get a lot of business income coming in on apps like venmo, cash app, PayPal, eBay, Etsy maybe have a really a pretty lucrative Etsy store. If you sold more than $5,000 worth of goods on any one of those apps, then you are going to be sent a 1099 K for K form for the first time this year. This is the IRS cracking down on some tax dodging from side hustles because previously the threshold was $20,000 to receive this form. And that is a lot of money from a side hustle. So not many people were sent this form. They weren't reporting this, these taxes. But there's this change going into effect that if you make more than $600 on any of these apps through business means, I mean, you can pay me for dinner up to $600 and it's not going to be a big deal. But if I actually am providing a business service to you and I make more than $5,000 this year, then I will be have to fill out this 1099 K. The IRS instituted this new measure a few years ago. They're saying we're going to go from the threshold of $20,000 down to $600. And that was kind of through these apps for a loop. They're like we haven't really been able to get our ducks in order to distinguish between a personal payment and a business payment. So give us some time. So there is has been a staggered rollout. It's going from $20,000 to 5,000 this year and then in two years it will go down to the 600 level.

[Toby Howell]

That reminds me, Neal, I actually do owe you for dinner yesterday, but it will not be tax. And then the final thing I should say about April 15 due date, there are some exceptions to that. The 10 million taxpayers who live in Los Angeles county do have an extension until October 15th that is due to the recent wildfires. There are some 2024 disaster areas that you you can have disaster relief on your 2024 returns or you can amend your 2023 return. So those are some of the exceptions to that April 15 deadline. Up next, I'm going to tell you about a trend that has recently caught my eye.

[Neal Freyman]

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[Toby Howell]

Tell you what, Neil, I feel bad for all the roses out there because no one is stopping to smell them. Pedestrians in big cities are walking way faster and socializing way less. And I want to talk about our constant need to be in a rush on today's edition of Toby's Trends. A recent study out of the National Bureau of Economic Research compared the walking habits of pedestrians in New York, Boston and Philadelphia from 1980 to 2010, and turns out we're all walking like our hair is on fire. Video footage shows that people moved an average of 15% faster in 2010 than 30 years prior. People are also less prone to just hanging out, as lingering and loitering in public spaces was down by about half over that same period. So why are we zooming around all the time? Cell phones have a lot to do with it. 80% of American adults had a cell phone by 2010, contributing to a lack of sidewalk small talk. Plus, people in the observed area saw their average incomes rise, so rising opportunity costs of strolling and chatting may deter people from slowing their roll. Neal I will be the first to admit I am fully part of the fast walking epidemic, but it looks like I am not alone.

[Neal Freyman]

No. Is that not the most economist thing ever by saying that? Oh, over from 1980 to 2010, average incomes rose. So people are understanding that their opportunity cost of just leisurely walking through the streets means that they're giving up more money than they used to. I mean, I don't know if I think about that, but maybe subconsciously I'm like, yeah, got to go, got to go back to my desk because I'm making more money now and I can't just be lingering around now. Urbanists, people who care about city life and you know, these social interactions are raising some alarm bells around this they say this is concerning. Cities are supposed to be an area of random encounters of dynamism and that's what leads to economic productivity and fulfilling cultural life. The fact that we're just going to bump into a random person on the street, have a chat and you know, maybe think of a new business idea, adventure or otherwise just make our lives better. So the fact that we're lingering 50% less than 30 years before and we're walking faster, they say is perhaps a negative development that leads to more private life and less public one.

[Toby Howell]

And then what is the antidote to this? Some urbanists were kind of putting forth some ideas of how you can get people to slow down. Making street spaces that are inviting to walkers is one of the easiest things you can do. That means probably more green space, more shade, more seating. Also potentially the New York just rolled out these anti congestion or these congestion laws that tax cards for entering the city. If you constrain automobiles coming around, that might make streets a more, you know, lovely place to, to walk. But even if you do slow or eliminate vehicular traffic, it only does so much. They actually looked at Boston's downtown crossing that's been car free since 1978, which predates this study. But they found that social engagements are still down there from 1980 to 2010. One of the things he pointed out is they took away a lot of benches. So maybe less people are lingering there. But there is some implications to the fact that, you know, sidewalks are becoming just thoroughfares and not places to bump into people and hang out. So let this be a lesson to you. Maybe if you're listening to this, take, take the headphone out, say hello to your fellow neighbor, maybe stop and chat a little bit.

[Neal Freyman]

We're, we're beating around the bush here. This is all about cell phones. Yeah, like this is all about cell phones. Because in the past you would have to say, hey, I'm going to hang out, let's meet at this particular statue, right? Or at this corner. Because you couldn't arrange ahead of time. As soon as cell phones become a thing, they say I can meet you at this exact time in this exact place, and then we'll meet at the same time. There's no lingering involved. So to me, cell phones are 80% of the story. Economic opportunity cost 5%.

[Toby Howell]

I also hate walking slowly. Like I just want to get. I'm actually known for running around the city too, because if I can get there in three minutes instead of eight minutes, I'm going to do that. So I am part of the problem.

[Neal Freyman]

One of the few times that. Just a quick story. The first time, one of the first times I met Toby, he ran from the East Village to Yankee Stadium so he could go to a Yankee game. He literally ran there. Okay, let's sprint to the finish with some final headlines. The White House dropped a spending bombshell late last night, ordering a pause in grants, loans and other federal financial assistance that has sparked loads of confusion and alarm. The federal government sends billions of dollars across the economy through grants and loans for things like disaster relief, transportation funding and loans to small businesses. The two page memo from the Trump White House was extremely vague, leaving experts unclear how to interpret it. According to the order, programs affected are quote, including but not limited to financial assistance for foreign aid, non governmental organizations, DEI woke gender ideology and the Green New Deal. One of the reasons that's confusing is because the Green New Deal, for example, was a policy that was never put in place. The White House did carve out an exception for, quote, assistance received directly by individuals as well as Medicare and Social Security benefits. But as of now, there are tons more questions than answers.

[Toby Howell]

Yeah, I think what is kind of confusing people is just the sheer scope of the order. Grants affect so many different people and so many different industries across the government. I mean, they go out to universities for education, universities for research purposes, also to nonprofits for health care and doing other studies, thousands of other purposes. So that's what has people kind of scratching their heads. Technically this is just a pause, just a re. They want to look at where all this money is going with the kind of under the guise of reducing federal spending. But it does leave a lot of question marks because just the sheer amount of people that it affects. Whole Foods workers in Philadelphia made history yesterday by voting to form the first union in the Amazon owned grocery chainsaw history. The employees are looking for improved wages, benefits and working conditions, specifically calling out dissatisfaction tied all the way back to Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods in 2017. The workers leading the union push hinted at inspiring similar movements across other Whole Food locations and Amazon subsidiaries. And Neal, there is union pressure forming all over Amazon now, including Staten island workers who voted in 2022 to form Amazon's first union in the US as well as third party delivery drivers who are trying to mount a campaign with the Teamsters as well. So a lot of union pressure coming at Amazon.

[Neal Freyman]

If you want a good parallel for maybe what's going on at Whole Foods right now, it's to look at Starbucks, the first Starbucks store unionized in 2021 in Buffalo. That's now spread to 500 stores. And it's similar workplace, a coffee shop and, and a grocery store where the employees are in close contact, they can form solidarity networks, they talk a lot, and they are able to share grievances with their employer. So the Starbucks one absolutely proliferated. And that's been a huge source of contention between labor and the company for Starbucks. And it looks like this could be the same for Amazon, Whole Foods and its employees if this spreads from Philadelphia to. I mean, Whole Foods has 500 stores around the countries.

[Toby Howell]

The one thing that I should mention, though, is that winning a union vote doesn't necessarily end or doesn't necessarily mean that you will have a contract talk that will progress. Because go back to those Amazon workers in Staten island that unionized in 2022. They still do not have a contract. Amazon has challenged the election outcome in court. They've refused to recognize or even bargain with the union. So even though that this is a win for, you know, labor in this specific story, it doesn't necessarily mean that Amazon will come to the table and negotiate with them. If you still have a job that lets you work remotely, New Zealand wants you to come a frolic amongst its sheep and hobbits in between zoom calls. Yesterday, the country relaxed its visa requirements for remote workers as they look to court the digital nomad class of workers who post up anywhere there's an Internet connection. Previously, it was forbidden for a foreigner to work for an overseas employer if they were in the country on a visitor visa. But that rule has been scrapped, hopefully opening the door to a new category of visitors. Neal, are we taking the podcast on the road?

[Neal Freyman]

So right now it is 12:30am we're taping this at 6:30am Eastern time in New York. It is 12:30am on Wednesday, tomorrow in New Zealand. So I don't know if that works with our schedule. Would you rather do the podcast really early or really late the next day? Either way, New Zealand is a beautiful country. They are going through some economic tough times right now. They entered a recession a few quarters ago and they're looking for these digital nomads to come in, stay up to 90 days, not work for a Kiwi employer. That's key. They want to work for a foreign employer because they wanted to stress that they didn't want foreigners coming in and taking New Zealand people's jobs. But I do want to get there at some point. It's just a little far away.

[Toby Howell]

I know my sister just did her honeymoon there. And it looked ideal. Her big takeaway was they really they a lot of the places sell fruit flavored ice cream, but they use a real fruit to actually flavor this soft serve and it did look life changing there. So again, if you are a remote worker, New Zealand is saying we want to welcome you with open arms. Now we're changing our visa policy. Come try our ice cream. Come check out the places where Lord of the Rings were filmed. It is a beautiful country.

[Neal Freyman]

The hours seem a lot. That's a lot to manage. Okay, that is all the time we have. Thanks so much for starting your morning with us and have a wonderful Tuesday. For any questions, comments or feedback, send an email to Morning Brew daily at Morning Broadcom. And if you find yourself enjoying the show, learning a lot about Deep Seek and other business news, share it with your network, who may be less informed on such matters. Don't spend any brain effort thinking about who you might share with. Toby has instructions.

[Toby Howell]

I want you to share the podcast with the walker in your life. We all have one. Maybe it's your mom, your cousin, anyone who loves lacing up their shoes and going for a stroll. MBD just so happens to pair perfectly with some ambling. So send this episode a walker's way.

[Neal Freyman]

Let's roll the credits. Emily Milian is our executive producer. Raymond Lu is our producer. Olivia Graham is our associate producer. Uchenawa Ogu is our Technical director. Garrett Peck is on audio. Hair and makeup is always a standard deduction from our show. Devin Emery is our Chief Content Officer Officer and the show is a production of Morning Brew.

[Toby Howell]

Great show today, Neil. Let's run it back tomorrow.