A supermarket beef, a quantum leap, and Christmas trees for cheap

Summary

Episode Summary: A Supermarket Beef, a Quantum Leap, and Christmas Trees for Cheap

Released on December 13, 2024 by The Indicator from Planet Money, NPR

In this engaging episode of The Indicator from Planet Money, hosts Darian Woods and Waylon Wong navigate through three distinct yet impactful topics: the tumultuous collapse of a major supermarket merger, groundbreaking advancements in quantum computing, and an unexpected downturn in the Christmas tree market. Through insightful discussions, the episode sheds light on how these events influence both the economy and everyday life.

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1. Supermarket Showdown: Albertsons vs. Kroger

The episode kicks off with a deep dive into the recently failed merger between two grocery giants, Albertsons and Kroger. Waylon Wong introduces the financial stakes involved, highlighting Albertsons' demand for a substantial breakup fee.

• [02:14] Waylon Wong: "My indicator is $600 million. That is the amount of money that the grocery chain Albertsons wants to collect from fellow grocery chain Kroger as a breakup because their proposed merger just went kaput."

Key Developments:

• Merger Timeline: The merger, announced in October 2022, faced prolonged scrutiny and opposition, particularly from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) under Chair Lina Khan.
• Regulatory Hurdles: Recent rulings by both federal and state judges favored the FTC, leading to the official termination of the merger.
• Legal Battles: Albertsons isn't halting at the breakup fee; the company is also seeking billions in damages, accusing Kroger of inadequate efforts to secure regulatory approval.

Impact on Stakeholders:

• Employees and Stores: Albertsons' CEO hinted at potential store closures or layoffs if the merger doesn't proceed, raising concerns for workers and local communities.

  • [03:47] Darian Woods: "But what does this mean for everyday shoppers and workers?"

• Regulatory Landscape: The fallout serves as a notable chapter in Lina Khan's tenure at the FTC, especially with her impending departure and replacement by Andrew Ferguson.

  • [04:30] Darian Woods: "A little Christmas come early for Lena Khan."

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2. Quantum Computing Breakthrough by Google

Transitioning from the grocery aisles to the realm of technology, the hosts explore Google's latest achievement in quantum computing—a field that promises to revolutionize computational capabilities.

• [04:37] Darian Woods: "You're going to need a bigger stocking because my indicator is 10 septillion years."

Highlights of the Discussion:

• Quantum vs. Traditional Computing: Darian explains the fundamental differences, emphasizing quantum superposition where particles exist in multiple states simultaneously, enabling unprecedented processing speeds.

  • [05:06] Darian Woods: "Google says this chip can make incredibly fast calculations."

• Google's Claim: The new quantum chip can perform calculations that would take the world's fastest supercomputers ten septillion years in under five minutes.

  • [05:31] Darian Woods: "And just give a little primer on what quantum computing is. It's using subatomic physics to build really fast computers."

• Potential Applications: From accelerating pharmaceutical drug discovery to enhancing artificial intelligence, the implications are vast. However, concerns about cybersecurity threats, such as hackers cracking passwords at lightning speeds, are also discussed.

  • [06:54] Darian Woods: "I can imagine hackers trying every combination of my password in a nanosecond."

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3. Christmas Trees Plummet in Price

Injecting some holiday cheer, Nick Fountain shifts the focus to the Christmas tree market, revealing a significant drop in wholesale prices—an indicator of economic shifts affecting consumers directly.

• [07:27] Nick Fountain: "I do not think that Christmas trees are in any of the inflation counting bundles that the BLS uses."

Insights Provided:

• Price Reduction: Wholesale prices for Christmas trees have decreased by 30 to 40%, attributed to a return to normal market conditions after price spikes in previous years.

  • [08:34] Waylon Wong: "Prices drop pretty hard."

• Supply and Demand Dynamics: The Great Recession had previously led to reduced tree planting, causing a tight market. As supply catches up with demand, especially for smaller trees, prices stabilize and drop.

  • [09:08] Darian Woods: "As a consumer, I am happy."

• Consumer Benefits: Lower prices provide relief to consumers during the holiday season, making festive traditions more affordable.

  • [09:43] Nick Fountain: "You know, I got a noble fir at Lowe's for 60 bucks. I thought that was an amazing deal."

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Conclusion

This episode of The Indicator from Planet Money masterfully intertwines stories from the supermarket sector, cutting-edge technology, and the festive economy of Christmas trees. Through lively discussions and expert insights, Darian Woods, Waylon Wong, and Nick Fountain illuminate the intricate ways these diverse topics impact both macroeconomic trends and individual experiences.

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Notable Quotes

• Waylon Wong: "My indicator is $600 million. That is the amount of money that the grocery chain Albertsons wants to collect from fellow grocery chain Kroger as a breakup because their proposed merger just went kaput." [02:14]

• Darian Woods: "You're going to need a bigger stocking because my indicator is 10 septillion years." [04:37]

• Nick Fountain: "This is a soap opera. Ugh. Love it." [03:22]

• Darian Woods: "As a consumer, I am happy." [09:02]

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This summary encapsulates the key discussions and insights from the episode, providing a comprehensive overview for those who haven't tuned in.

Transcript

[NPR]

Npr.

[Darian Woods]

This is the indicator from Planet Money. I'm Darian Woods.

[Waylon Wong]

I'm Waylon Wong.

[Darian Woods]

And here to spread holiday cheer is Planet Money's very own star at the top of their Christmas tree, one Nick Fountain.

[Nick Fountain]

Oh, indicators of the week. Oh, indicators of the week.

[Waylon Wong]

It is.

[Darian Woods]

Indicators.

[Waylon Wong]

Indicators of the week.

[Darian Woods]

Now we have got some Christmas tree related indicators from you, Nick. We're also looking at grocery store wars and I'm going to be diving into some subatomic computing.

[Waylon Wong]

That's what I put at the top of my tree.

[Darian Woods]

Computer engineers rejoice. That's all after the break.

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[NPR]

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[Darian Woods]

Okay, so indicators of the week. Waylon, let's start with you.

[Waylon Wong]

My indicator is $600 million. That is the amount of money that the grocery chain Albertsons wants to collect from fellow grocery chain Kroger as a break because their proposed merger just went kaput.

[Nick Fountain]

This merger was in the works for so long and as we all know, it was one of the targets of the Federal Trade Commission's antitrust crackdown under chair Lina Khan, who's presumably gonna be leaving very soon.

[Waylon Wong]

Now these companies first announced their deal in October of 2022. Can you believe it's been that long? And this week there were a few developments that doomed the merger. A federal judge ruled in favor of the ftc, which had sued to block the deal. And then state judge in Washington also blocked it. On Wednesday, Albertsons announced it was calling off the merger, but it was not done yet. It also said it was suing Kroger.

[Darian Woods]

Yeah, it escalated quickly from wanting to be together To. I don't know. Wanting to fight.

[Waylon Wong]

Albertsons is basically accusing Kroger of not doing enough work to get approval from regulators. They're like, you get an F for effort.

[Nick Fountain]

This is a soap opera. Ugh. Love it.

[Waylon Wong]

I know. Yes. And you know Albertsons wants that $600 million breakup fee. They're not stopping there. The company is also seeking billions of dollars in damages. Kroger, for its part, says Albertsons claims are baseless and it is not entitled to that fee.

[Darian Woods]

All right, so that's the high finance drama. But what does this mean for everyday shoppers and workers?

[Waylon Wong]

Well, you know, during the trial, Albertson's CEO had said on the stand that if the deal didn't go through, the company might have to consider closing stores or laying off workers. You don't know.

[Nick Fountain]

Not the Vaughn's two blocks away from my house. I really wish they opened.

[Waylon Wong]

Yes, Nick, this could affect you if, in fact, these kind of dire pronouncements he was making on the witness stand do come true. But you know who is out of a job is Lina Khan. Just this week, President Elect Trump announced her replacement, a current FTC commissioner named Andrew Ferguson. And I don't know, just to take a step back, the failure of this merger is a little bit of a valedictory for her. You could argue she's in her final weeks on the job, and she got to see a conclusion to this rather thrilling story before leaving office.

[Nick Fountain]

A little Christmas come early for Lena Khan. All right, Darian, what do you got for me? What's in my stocking?

[Darian Woods]

You're going to need a bigger stocking because My indicator is 10 septillion years.

[Waylon Wong]

Whoa. I don't even know what a septillion is.

[Darian Woods]

Yeah, yeah. Quadrillion quintrillion. Yeah. Then it goes up to septrillion. It's the seventh one.

[Capital One]

Oh.

[Darian Woods]

The more you learn, the more you learn. It is 1 followed by 25 zeros.

[Waylon Wong]

Is this the biggest indicator we've ever had on this show?

[Darian Woods]

I would love that. Rise.

[Waylon Wong]

Biggest number.

[Darian Woods]

Anyway, I'm saying this because this week, Google announced a new quantum computing chip. And Google says this chip can make incredibly fast calculations.

[Waylon Wong]

Like 10 septillion miles an hour.

[Darian Woods]

Close, but not quite so. Take the world's fastest supercomputers right now, a calculation that would take them ten septillion years to make. This quantum computer chip would take less than five minutes.

[NPR]

What?

[Darian Woods]

And just give a little primer on what quantum computing is. It's using subatomic physics to build really fast computers. As in these spooky ways that things smaller than atoms behave.

[Waylon Wong]

Did you say spooky? We're getting spooky in here.

[Darian Woods]

We're getting spooky. But let's. Let's just start here with the real concrete world. We begin with. So a traditional computer, as you know, uses ones and zeros. That's kind of a metaphor to represent something either switching on or off.

[Nick Fountain]

Sure.

[Darian Woods]

And the next part is pretty mind blowing, though. You've got quantum computers using subatomic particles to communicate information. Like, they may take, let's say, an electron. Maybe if it's spinning clockwise, that could be analogous to a one. And maybe if it's going anti clockwise, that could be a zero. But the really strange thing about quantum computing is that this particle could exist in multiple states at the same time. And by doing that, you can make really, really fast calculations.

[Waylon Wong]

Multiple states at the same time?

[Darian Woods]

Yeah, they call it superposition.

[Waylon Wong]

Whoa.

[Darian Woods]

So examples of quantum computers have been around for a while, but the huge problem has been that while they're really fast, they give a ton of errors. Google claims to have basically solved the error problem.

[Waylon Wong]

Oh, could they help my middle schooler with her math homework? Because that's giving us a lot of trouble right now.

[Darian Woods]

That would be useful. I mean, or more darkly. I can imagine hackers trying every combination of my password in a nanosecond.

[Waylon Wong]

Oh, okay. Well, now we're back to being spooky.

[Darian Woods]

Okay, but beyond math homework, there could be other opportunities. Think of pharmaceutical drug discovery, better AI Movies. I don't know. The list is as long as your.

[Nick Fountain]

Imagination can't wait for this grim future or exciting future.

[Darian Woods]

Oh, yeah.

[Waylon Wong]

Last but not least, Nick, I believe you are in the festive spirit today.

[Nick Fountain]

I am producer Angel. Cue the sleigh bells because I get very excited this time of year. I used to play them in high school band. I get very. I love them, too. This morning, the Santa Claus of the Indicator, editor Kate Kincannon, asked me to get a feel for the Christmas tree market this year.

[Darian Woods]

This has become your beat. You're somewhat of an expert on this subject.

[Nick Fountain]

For those who don't know, I used to sell Christmas trees at farmers markets after that for a Planet Money show. I bought a truckload of them at auction in Pennsylvania and sold them on the streets of Brooklyn. So, yeah, I've been under the mistletoe one or two times.

[Waylon Wong]

Keep it safe for work, Nick. Okay, so what's the update? What's the economic update, please.

[Darian Woods]

I thought you'd never been kissed, Nick. Now I'm starting to reevaluate.

[Nick Fountain]

Well, I just got off the phone with Ben Courtney, who is the operations manager at the Buffalo Valley Produce Auction. That's where I bought those Christmas trees back in the day. They hold the country's biggest Christmas tree auction every year. How'd the auction go this year?

[Waylon Wong]

Prices drop pretty hard.

[Nick Fountain]

Really? That's right. My indicator of the week, maybe my indicator of the holiday season comes from Ben, who says wholesale prices for Christmas trees dropped a lot, 30 to 40%. 30 to 40%, yeah. Bad news for the Federal Reserve, though. I do not think that Christmas trees are in any of the inflation counting bundles that the BLS uses.

[Darian Woods]

As a consumer, I am happy.

[Nick Fountain]

It's pretty exciting to see prices go down. It rarely happens.

[Darian Woods]

And so what's the reason?

[Nick Fountain]

Yeah, Ben says this is kind of a return to normal. He thinks prices went pretty wild in the last few years and part of that was just increased demand. But part of it has to do with actually the Great Recession. We go into this in detail in the Planning Money episode. But basically because trees take so long to grow and farmers weren't planting them during the Great Recession, a decade later, the market got really tight. Now the market is less tight, especially Ben says for smaller trees. Those are where the deals really are this year. If, Darian, you are still in the market.

[Darian Woods]

I'm in the market for some Norway spruce.

[Nick Fountain]

You know, I got a noble fir at Lowe's for 60 bucks. I thought that was an amazing deal. Seven footer.

[Waylon Wong]

Have you trimmed your tree yet, Nick? Did you decorate it yet?

[Nick Fountain]

We had a little party last weekend and little kids got paint everywhere and made their own ornaments.

[Waylon Wong]

Oh, that sounds really cute.

[Darian Woods]

Wait, Nick, you're floating. Where are you going?

[Waylon Wong]

Jolly old Saint Nicholas, he's away. Coming right down Santa Claus Lane.

[Darian Woods]

He's got work to do.

[Waylon Wong]

Make more deliveries.

[Darian Woods]

The world's most famous postman. Before we wrap up, we want to say a quick thanks. If you donate to your local NPR station or have joined npr, that support lets us come to you every weekday with episodes like Indicators of the Week.

[Waylon Wong]

If you don't know about npr, it's a great way to hear this. And more than 25 other NPR podcasts sponsor free. There are other perks, too, like bonus episodes and discounts at the NPR shop.

[Darian Woods]

You get all that for a small recurring donation and know you're supporting NPR's mission of creating a more informed public. To sign up, just go to plus.npr.org that's plus.npr.org this episode was produced by.

[Waylon Wong]

Angel Carreras with engineering by Neil Rauch. It was fact checked by Sierra Juarez. Kate Kincannon is our editor and the indicator is a production of npr.

[Nick Fountain]

Give me cookies and Milk.

[NPR]

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