Man Cereal, caffeinated chips, and the rise of wellness retail

0:00Welcome to our first ever podcast episode of The Curious Consumer. Ooh, that sounds good coming out of my mouth. Curious consumer. I like that. The consumer ain't curious. I wish somebody called me the curious consumer. Like, explicitly. I wish I didn't have to come up with that. I don't think I want anyone to label me as a consumer. I think that's just. We're all consumers. I know we're all consumers, but there's something that sounds so insulting to be like, you consumer. You know what I mean? I don't necessarily want to be called a consumer, but the reality is. We're all consumers. We all are.

0:31and we're going to be participating in this ecosystem, then we should get curious about it. I agree. I think we should be curious about it, too. We should be curious about it. I think it's crazy. I think it's really important for people to understand how the world works, and a lot of the way the world works right now is the buying, making, shipping, selling, and marketing of goods. Of stuff. We love stuff. We love stuff. TM. I'm literally looking at your socks right now, and they're quince socks. They're quince, except I have the right on the left and the left on the right. Okay, hot take. Socks don't need to be left and right.

0:59They're the same. Apparently. But relevant because we wrote about Quinns recently in our newsletter, which we have. We talked about dupes. We talked about dupes. I think dupes is just... Now dupes has just become private label, basically. Yeah. Another form of that. Yeah. I think thanks to Target, which we will talk about more today. All right. But right now, okay, we are in a setting that we wish would be a permanent setting. This is great. This is a temporary setting because we are in Denver for Newtopia Now, which is a trade show for natural products, not just food and beverage. I keep saying food and beverage, and there's a whole section not on food and beverage.

1:37It's been emailed us from a natural clean skincare company. Yeah, so there's skincare and beauty as well, but the umbrella term, I guess, is natural products. The more popular version of this is Natural Products Expo West, which is in March and is enormous. And it's in Anaheim. But this is a much smaller version of that. Much smaller. It's like 10 times smaller. It's our first time, right? So our first time. So the second year they're doing it. Apparently they're going to be moving it to another city. And we were talking about that earlier. But yeah, so we're here for this. And basically these expos, you just walk around and you look at all of the brands that you know and love and see in Whole Foods.

2:15Have a table. And you get to talk to a person behind the table who is either the founder or someone who is very loosely affiliated with the brand. Friend of. Shelling out samples. Yeah. And I call it adult trick-or-treating because you get to... It's the best. Try a bunch of samples. I only brought a carry-on. Me too. Unwise. Unwise. So either I'm shipping stuff back or I will be very restrained and not get a bunch of free samples, which will not happen. I will get a bunch of free samples. I know you and that won't happen. So you're probably going to end up shipping things. There's probably a UPS nearby.

2:47Yeah. So that's what we're here for, which is very exciting and fun. And the show really starts tomorrow. and we'll be sharing some stuff from the show floor. Some of our favorite bites and sips. And how do I like, what's a word for - Bites, sips, and - Like putting something on my face. Wipes? Wipes I don't love. No, smear get cream cheese. You smear your face though. Butter of your face. Okay. The butter of the face. The butter of the face. Well - Bites, sips, and - Testers. Testers. Ew, I hate it, but that's what it is. It sounds wrong. It's a tester. I guess so. When you're sampling beauty, it's a tester.

3:20I don't think we will be sampling a lot of beauty, but I am curious what there is. You'll be smelling a lot of beauty, I bet. I'm very scent-oriented, so I'm thrilled, actually. We'll touch some stuff. We'll touch some stuff. Also, we're in the great state of Colorado, so there'll probably be some THC products, some CBD products, perhaps. I hope there's some. I would like to partake. I know there are. I know there are, actually. I feel like partaking at mostly a food and beverage trade show is the best idea ever, or the worst idea ever. A little both. Because I'm really proud of getting a tummy ache at these things.

3:50Yes. So usually I actually come strapped with Tums. I didn't, but there's a wellness section. I bring Gas X. Gas X is gold. Gas X is gold. Whatever the generic one is, I just buy it from Target. I feel like there will be like a Wonder Belly version or something here. Wonder Belly does have that. There we go. So I'll beeline to Wonder Belly. The Wonder Belly one is really, I like that one because it tastes fun. They're so expensive. about one of the wonder belly skews the one that's like i think the pepto-bismol replacement it makes my tongue turn black black black i take it a night i wake up and my tongue is black what i have never experienced anything like this and i wasn't even talking about it i was talking to a friend recently about how i take tums all the time and he was like does your tongue tongue turn black all the time and i was like what wait this is a thing apparently it's a thing it doesn't happen with tums but it happens to me with the one of the wonder belly skews and it is alarming I have no idea what it is.

4:47That can't be a thing. I promise it's not just me. Interesting. And it's only when I take that. Like, I don't wake up with a black tongue otherwise. I have a pink tongue. Yeah? Normally, yeah. A sign of good health. That is the wildest thing we've ever heard. Now that we've said a lot about my tongue. What's this podcast? What is this podcast? So generally, we're going to focus on talking about new consumer brands and trends and what's going on within the food and beverage, beauty, skincare, retail space. I think generally we'll structure it a little, a little gap in the beginning, a little back and forth, a little bit of what's new, what new products, new brand extensions, all that kind of good stuff.

5:27We'll get into some of those today. And then each of us will bring a little deep dive that we've researched, a little story that we've researched and educate the other person. I love it. Yeah. I think a lot of consumerism can feel very mindless, and we're here to get cerebral with it. So. Every time I hear cerebral, I think of X-Men. I've never seen X-Men. The judges. I'm sorry. That's horrible. All right. Well. I won't explain what it is. You don't need to. But that's fine. Let's just get into it. Caffeinated potato chips. No. Absolutely not. You will never catch me eating caffeinated potato chips.

6:05I liked them. Did he say? The light chips. Yeah, I'm sure they taste like chips. Think what upsets me about it. And I eat functional things. Like, I eat like a protein bar because I'm too lazy to make a high-protein meal. Yes, things can be dual-function, but it is so optimization culture. I hate it. You have time to eat chips and separately have a coffee. I will say the positioning of these chips is less... Like gamer core? It's more gamer core. Yeah. So they're in over 1 ,000 C stores and truck stops. Like, they're not targeting heroin. They're targeting... No, they can't. I don't think that ingredient label would allow them to target.

6:42So they're called bangers. Yeah, they're four. It's so polarized. G-fuel. It's G-fuel, but in a chip. Bangers on one side of the spectrum. Longevity chips on the other side of the spectrum. That is the spectrum of chips right now. That's crazy. The spectrum of chips. That, like... We're so... It's... Everything is a spectrum. Yeah. I agree. but it is so weird that like when something goes too far in one direction and this is in anything in life but like there will be an equal and opposite reaction of like we are going so hard on caring about like the simplest possible ingredient label and then other people are like i'm rebelling i'm gonna put every ingredient in there including caffeine and like just eat chips and have coffee or like i can't get enough caffeine so she doesn't speak for me that's married i can't get enough caffeine i say as i drink a green tea and already had a coffee this morning but like i'm drinking my caffeine look i think drinking caffeine is probably the best i like it i guess like i'm drinking like a monster it's probably not the best but like a celsius or a gorgia or blue sure sure it's like one of those things that like doesn't obviously doesn't need to exist but exists kind of i think in like an act of resistance and there's something kind of cool about that in a way but i think it's true yeah true bangers banger ships for sure who knew There's so much to say about potato chips.

7:59There's so much to say about everything. Okay. The next thing that you had here was Fly by Jing's new collab, which is so much fun. So Fly by Jing collab queens over there. They love a collab. Everybody. But I feel like they've been collaborating mostly with other brands. And this is with a creator. And he's such an awesome creator. I'll let you explain it. I actually don't follow the creator. I know. I just discovered it from the collab. The creator is a Taiwanese recipe developer slash just blogger, but he is so creative. He makes, he remakes a Pop-Tart, but inspired, like Taiwanese inspired.

8:36And he doesn't just make it, he'll rebrand it too. So he comes up with a whole visual aesthetic and recipe. No, he's a phenomenal, very talented creator. His thing is little boy Frankie, I think. That's, I, I tagged him multiple times in our post the other day. So he's so cool. So he collaborated with Fly By Jing. And this totally, again, makes sense because it's taking an American classic, which is what he always does, and making it like a little bit more of like an Asian flair. So I think it's still like Szechuan Chili, which like Fly By Jing is known for their Szechuan Chili crisp. Delicious.

9:09But Szechuan Chili ketchup, which like we need more fusion. We need more fusion products. Purple ketchup. No, that's not a fusion product. That is literally the most American white. craft times if you're listening thing bring this shit back the fly by jing collab is a great one i love when a brand very thoughtfully collaborates with a creator it doesn't happen that often it just kind of feels like a creator slapping their name on something for clout this is so quintessential to frankie's brand um and he's not like the most enormous creator in the world and i think that's so authentic and cool it doesn't need to be kim kardashian every time no in fact it's probably reaching like the right audience because exactly yeah i haven't tried it yet i need to get my hands on it for sure because i love ketchup all right next you want to talk about this one yeah of course i do okay so built puff if you've been on tiktok which you are not unfortunately i'm not on tiktok she has a good brain built puff is a very popular bar i mean that brand that's that product for bills does about to hook them i don't think people knew what built was before built off it does about i i heard it was like 200 million plus a year every time i go to buy them they are sold out they're so good they're a bit pricey they're like three something they didn't used to be they did not used to be i feel like when they first before the whole big wave when they started getting really popular they were one of the cheaper ones they were like 180 get them at costco Canterbury Costco.

10:40Canterbury Costco, but then you can only get the chocolate flavor and the coconut flavor. See, I don't want the coconut flavor. I like the coconut flavor. I love the churro one. I haven't had it. Oh, it's so good. The cookies cream one's pretty good. So, Bill Puff, basically. It's a protein bar. It's a protein bar. But it's very different than the average protein bar. It's puffy. It's like a jelly marshmallow texture. It actually reminds me a lot. Okay, Jewish reference. Covered in chocolate. It reminds me a lot of... That's exactly right. Oh, my God. That's exactly what it... I didn't even say what it was.

11:09Oh, my God. It's like a Passover candy. It's the joy of a marshmallow. It's covered in chocolate. You always keep it in the freezer. I didn't. My family didn't keep it in the freezer because we would eat them within days. But it reminds me a lot of chocolate covered marshmallow. They're so good. Wait, that's exactly the shape too. Similar. Like log vibes. Log vibes. That's it. They are so good. So what did they come out with? Sour. Fruity sour. It was weird to me. Three. Blue raspberry. Peach. Apple. Apple. You can't be marshmallow and fruity. I feel like I bought them off the TikTok shop the second I saw them last night.

11:4630 bucks. I bought them three boxes. Each flavor. That's a lot. It was too weird for me to not try. Yeah. Which I, that strategy generally almost exclusively works on TikTok shop. But too weird not to try. And me. Well, it works on you via TikTok shop. Sometimes. Because you need, for the like too weird not to try things, it needs to be impulse purchase. you're not gonna like go to someone's website go through their car all of that stuff just to get something that's gimmicky and too weird to try but you will buy it through tiktok although wait another note quickly about built puff um there's something really interesting about this that i don't know i have to dive into more but the texture is the way it is because the protein is collagen and i'm not sure that it's a complete protein probably right well collagen is not and this is something that bodybuilder vibes people care about um is getting all nine essential amino acids from your protein source i eat normally elsewhere sure collagen which on a label of a collagen powder vital proteins or whatever it says eight grams of protein so you're oh that goes into my i don't know if you're actually trying to gain muscle mass maybe you're trying to have 150 grams of protein a day that does not count towards the 150 because it's not a complete protein i don't know i think it's possible that built supplements with another protein as well and so it is a complete protein but it not all of the grams of protein that are in it are complete proteins which is really interesting and i feel like nobody has really called that out and i think about it a lot okay man cereal speaking of bodybuilding vibes man cereal it's real it's coming out two flavors So this is a cereal called Man Cereal.

13:32Cereal called Man Cereal. It's a great name, right? One of us may agree with that. I made a TikTok about it and people have thoughts. What are the thoughts? I'm going to pull up the video and get some of the comments. So for context, this is a, I believe one of the call outs is that it's a keto cereal, high protein, and the kicker is that it includes creatine, which is a supplement that many, I was going to say men because this is male branded, but many people generally take when they are usually trying to gain muscle mass, but it has lots of other benefits. It also does not. It has like not enough creatine from my knowledge, 2.5 grams per serving.

14:14I'm not sure what a daily serving of creatine actually should be. Yeah. It's like something that in theory, a man would be taking as part of his morning routine. And so they're like, why not put it in cereal? The comments are. I like the comments. I've been saying this for years. I want human kibble. Human kibble. And this feels like it's headed towards that, but I hate that it's the boring man, manly man marketing. I just want nutritionally complete kibble that I can eat forever. There's a brand called, that I made a video on called Dog Food. D-A-W-G. Dog food. There's a dog in you. It's literally human kibble.

14:52As in like, soylent but dry? No, it's like fresh ground beef with vegetables. It's frozen. And then you thawed. Eat real food. Just eat food. No. No, like literally just eat food. Somebody else also commented non-liquid Soylent. Wait, that's what I just said. That's kind of crazy. As in like for context, Soylent is like a meal replacement. And it was so, it was a big thing a while ago, but it was like very tech bro-y because it's like you don't even have to think about making your meal. You can just drink your meal. And now it's, you can cereal your meal. A couple of other good comments here that I think are interesting.

15:26Some are funny. Some are like something to talk about. Enough of the performative minimalism. So for the audio listeners, the box is a white box with one singular cereal in the middle, like a nipple. And then it says man cereal on top in a serif black font. I think it's sans serif. Sans serif, the one without the loops on the end? Sans serif font. Like it's the most minimal thing. Man cereal sounds like an SNL skip. Yep. This one I really liked. Man cereal with man milk? Stop. I hate... We actually... That, like, really got me thinking about how, like, the breast milk stuff is trending. Like, there's, like, breast milk ice cream, which, like, don't even...

16:08I don't even... It's fine. I like that marketing activation for Frida. It was interesting. It's not real breast milk. Right? No, it was... They added breast milk. I think so. Whatever it is. Bizarre. But it's really interesting. It's like, oh, you can have breast milk with your man cereal. we're defying all like gender barriers oh i got a lot of those comments too okay this one i really like isn't man cereal just eating a rotisserie chicken in the parking lot right out of the bag that's so good that's that's so real and then a ton of ones like this is just kibble it is just kibble but yeah so i don't know sometimes i'm do people come out with these things solely for the shock factor or is someone actually gonna be like a regular lifelong consumer of man cereal the latter no i don't think maybe probably not like enough yeah i don't think so either and also like magic food exists and has the distribution and has the brand recognition but it doesn't have the creatine doesn't have the creatine and it and it's not maple bacon flavored by the way crazy they called out keto friendly in the year of our lord 2025 people are still doing it i have nothing wrong with people doing it it's just it's not a i feel If somebody's looking for keto, they will look out for keto.

17:23Yeah. Like, they're not going to... Protein. People care about protein content above all else, which it does have... And caffeine. A good amount of. I'm surprised there's no caffeine in this, actually, now that I think about it. It would have been amazing. I would have bought that. There's something about it being maple bacon flavor, too, that I'm... Wow, they couldn't have made this more bro-y if they tried. You know what? We're going to make cereal meat flavor just to, like, really rub in the manliness of it all. It feels like actually what... Why am I forgetting his name? Ron Swanson. Ron Swanson eats man cereal and you can't tell me any differently.

17:52Actually, no. Ron Swanson eats rotisserie. Ron Swanson eats rotisserie. Out of the bin. Exactly. He would. Ron Swanson would hate this. You're actually right. This is parody of Ron Swanson. It's funny. That's really funny. Yeah. I'll link the video in the show notes, but people are really good with the comments. And I'm posting videos about this stuff, but not being super, oh my God, did you see what they did? It just sort of hears what it is, maybe a little bit of my opinion. It's so interesting to see what people think about these things. Yeah, you give them the big... We come more from the brand side and the founder side.

18:27Totally. So we have a different perspective, but so do the consumers. And they have the money. Yeah. And from our side, the perspective... I mean, it's just silly. It's just a brand that doesn't need to exist. We know how much goes into these brands. And the amount of work that even to launch a cereal company, it's not insignificant. And also adding all these additives to it. So much time. So much effort. How much is it going to cost? I don't know the MSRP. I feel like it's going to be$10 a box. I mean, Magic Foom, when it first came out, was more. For sure. Yeah. It's now less. It's not sold yet, I don't think.

19:02Coming this fall, everyone. But we're not going to have a price on it. And what retailer is going to pick that up? Air One. I can't think of another. Every bodega in the city. There's no world in which a bodega is selling man's cereal. Bodegas know better. They know better. I like really can't think of who's selling this because it's like, honestly, I'm like, I'm the wrong. Actually, I do think that more than a natural grocer, like a lifestyle brand would be the one who has this on their shelves. Like not, not a grocery store. Maybe I was going to say like this makes sense to be sold in like a, like athleisure.

19:35Oh, well. Stay tuned for man cereal. So man cereal, does that fit in the wellness? Trying to transition. It does. It does. it does in the optimization of everything like your cereal has to have a thousand functions in the same way that your now skincare routine hell yeah has to have supplements it's it's real and we're seeing that play out in ulta right now yes we are so tell me more about that knee so ulta big beauty retailer we love her now multinational really they're expanding into the least i think they're in the uk wow they're they're coming for sephora so interesting they're coming but they are expanding they're 3xing their wellness section so they've offered a wellness section for two years now a year now um i think it was three years it was post pandemic so they're You're expanding from, what is it, like four to eight feet to almost 30 feet of shelf space for wellness products.

20:42So this is everything from greens powder to a sleep mask to a silk pillowcase to a Theragun massager to ritual vitamins. Like anything sort of in the wellness space, both. Colostrum. Colostrum. I have thoughts on colostrum separately. That's a future episode. That's an entire episode, actually. I'll let you run that one. cool yes oh yeah 30 to 45 feet no apparently it's been working really well and they're expanding it both online and in store and their wellness shop online has so much so much stuff all of the bloom nutrition products yes the energy drinks the greens powder the hydration powder they have colostrum they pre-workout they got everything under the sun they have really been doubling down on this but they're not the only retailer that's doubling down on the wellness section and wellness options too target walmart they're all doubling down on that yes and it's interesting to see also we were looking at the press releases from these retailers when they were expanding their explaining their expansion of their wellness sections the way that they define it is so interesting like target was we're introducing 2 000 more wellness products but the things that they listed were yes the ferragons and the supplements of the world that they also were like and like cataluna bedding like that's like a wellness product as well um so it's really interesting to see like the cross categorization of what we deem to be wellness whereas like when in walmart press release they were talking about introducing like 50 new wellness products and they were mostly just referring to like supplements so it's kind of interesting to see yeah i mean the term diluted ulta and target have become very lifestyley brands yes and also in general like more and more products have entered into the wellness space like bedding i think partially because of tiktok and social media and these influences are like okay what other ways can we sort of optimize yeah but also it's like i think post pandemic people were like taking stock of what's in their home and how do we feel better and feeling better sometimes is getting linen sheets like yes in that all of these things mean like i will feel better in my day-to-day life but i hate the like consumerist labeling of like calling everything a wellness product when it's just like that just is sheets i feel like it's just being diluted so much and being like used to describe so many things that it's lost all meaning in the same way that like when functional was used to describe like every new product on the planet better for you like it just kind of lost all meaning i kind of feel like wellness has also lost all meaning i'm like i don't know but that's a side note so yeah i think it's also people looking for like quick fixes to feeling better about themselves and we all want to just feel better the quickest fix to anything is buying something for sure for sure i bought a big bag of skittles yesterday and that's how you're feeling good wellness it's a wellness product it is a well don't you feel better skittles is a wellness product write that down sue me write that down something that's really interesting about this too is like we're seeing brands like ulta target walmart expand into wellness for whatever definition they want to use for that at the same time we're seeing brands that like were kind of og wellness destinations like gnc and the vitamin shop suffering yeah i just like this up because i wasn't 50 off everything in store they both filed for bankruptcy within the last uh five years so gnc filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2020 and vitamin shop did in 2024 like they both are struggling which is so ironic to me because they have all the supplements they have all the protein powders they have everything they have everything that like you need for wellness but they aren't capturing the lifestyle shopper it's marketing they're they're i think they're failing on marketing and aesthetic it's just so interesting to me because they do have the same products they don't just have the same products they actually owned that category and now that category has become so diluted it needs to exist within like yes it needs to exist within every category It needs to exist within bedding.

24:45It needs to exist within hair care, whatever. For it to be, you can't have a wellness shop. That doesn't work. Which is so interesting. I think the other thing too, I think it is also wrapped into like fitness in particular. Like fitness is for everybody now. It's not just for fitness people. You know what I mean? Totally. Yeah, I do. There isn't a look. There isn't a specific, like sure, there's certain people you see online or whatever, but now it's for everybody. And I think that that plays in the lifestyle piece in particular. It's still under that notion. It's like, this is a lifestyle. This is not just like, I'm just a workout person.

25:16Sure. A workout person. There was something, yeah. There was something that was like really not approachable about GNC and vitamin shop. They felt really like sterile or like clinical. Yeah. Malls too. Yes. And they were associated with malls. And that wasn't, people didn't see themselves in that, in the way that everybody sees themselves in Target, in Ulta, in Walmart. And so they were able to capture that audience and like run with the wellness trend in a way that the OG wellness like old guard couldn't. I think also some of the products too have shifted away from like being like clinical and very functional looking to like, I mean, you look at Celsius versus Bloom Nutrition, their energy skews, their energy drinks.

26:00One is this looks like a fitness thing. Or like bro-y. or or whatever you know in that light and then the the other one's like it's kind of cute kind of cute kind of yeah more like feminine lighter colors and more about welcoming the copy and like vibe is more about like yeah and i think that's feeling better not like exactly and i think that's why they were able to even catch up they're the number one selling greens powder in the country that's why they were able to sell up to ag1 so fast because they they spoke to a bigger audience than AG1 women, but also people who want those products but felt like AG1 was too clinical, was too specific of a user.

26:42And also, AG1 was only speaking to a very specific type of consumer. And is more expensive also. It's much more expensive. Yeah. It definitely was speaking to a very specific consumer that Bloom feels a lot more... Actually, my mom called me this morning and was like... What? My mom didn't call me. That's tough. We have a sample of Bloom in the house right now that I brought to them. Because I was like, I wonder what they're going to say. Is this the Frosted Lemonade one? The Frosted Lemonade one. I like that one. My mom loves it. And she was like, I'm going to be a consumer of this. She would never buy AG1.

27:13Yeah. That's not, that would not, first of all, does not taste as good. But there's so much more like accessible language on Bloom, like that anyone can see themselves in. It's not like Functional Mushrooms, which is what's on AG1 label. Which, by the way, I have been an AG1 consumer. And actually, I like the product. But it's not bad. It's like, do you ever blow? Like, has your tummy ever hurt? And like my mom and I and everyone is like, yeah, it has. And they're like, I guess I need to take this every day to feel better. Like, that's a different angle that's really effective. It's so different.

27:45Yeah. It's so different. I talked about this in a video I made about IG1's new flavors and like sort of like why they're making a lot of moves now. And it's, well, if they want to grow anymore, they have to speak to a much bigger set of consumers. Yeah. Which Bloom has been doing a very good job. Very good job. And now they're partially owned by Nutribolt, which is part of KDP and owns C4 and Ghost. And they have all of this other stuff going on to make them look a very successful business. But before all of that, it's the accessibility of these products and also taste. They leaned in with really punchy, good flavors.

28:18Yeah, it tastes good. It tastes good. And their influencer strategy is killer. And their founder's an influencer. All these things are helpful. Yeah, but interesting to see how the old guard is really suffering. At the same time, a company like Ulta is really expanding in this. And relatedly, I mean, we'll get back to this wellness conversation. But in our last edition, we were talking about how Ulta and Target broke up. So if you're not familiar, in a lot of Target stores, I think 600 Target stores, which is just shy of their goal of like 800 Target stores. Target has a little under 2 ,000 stores.

28:50So like a very good, over 25%. That is a solid chunk of stores. Did I do that math right? Yes. 500 because they wear glasses does not mean i know my contacts aren't getting me very far um a lot of their stores had what's called a shop and shop with ulta so ulta had a shop and a shop basically like a little dedicated section with like all ulta branding and ulta products in target and this was successful to a point for three years um right 2021 they launched it yeah well Okay, so four years. In theory, successful, as in it existed. It worked. And they brought in some money from it, for sure. Target way more than Ulta because of their profit-sharing model.

29:31I think Ulta only got a royalty from it, so it didn't really make a huge dent in their overall revenue. But Target was doing well from it. It is now no longer. So all of these little shop-and-shops in Target's going away. And it's interesting because this is happening at the same time as Ulta is expanding in its own stores into wellness products, which is products that already exist in Target, which is kind of interesting. So it was, yeah, not a flop. Not a flop, but like I think enough was happening on both ends. All the press releases said it was mutual. I honestly feel like Ulta probably pulled the plug.

30:06Because Target was benefiting from it and Target would have continued to benefit from it as Ulta becomes seen as more of a overall wellness retailer. I'm assuming Ulta was the one that pulled out of this partnership because this is actually going to be like a loss for Target, I would say. I think so. I think so. Especially now, like Target has been getting hit. I mean, literally today as we're recording it, whatever today is, August 20th, the CEO left. Yeah. The CEO left Target after 11 years. And they've reported flat or declining sales from physical stores and online channels for nine out of the past 11 quarters.

30:46Yeah. I think there's compounding things here. One, their decision to get rid of DEI and the protest and backlash that followed. They have seen a significant decrease in store traffic month over month since that decision. Which is, one, very impressive that consumers realize their dollar has power, but also lights for Target. The other side of it too, Walmart has been coming for their launch. Totally. I would say like Amazon and TikTok shop have been coming for their launch. It's this new platform. Whoa. I know. Does a confident bald man run it? Confident? Never. I think Target used to be like, okay, the DAI piece is a huge piece of it, I'm sure.