Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason
Speaker 1: Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. Hi am Jason Kelly. Welcome to
Speaker 1: the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week. My partner Carol Masser,
Speaker 1: she's off this week, So throughout this week I was
Speaker 1: joined by Alex Steele. You'll hear her voice, great questions,
Speaker 1: great journalism throughout this show. Well, it was week twenty five,
Speaker 1: Yes twenty five, half a year working from home, and
Speaker 1: this is a special edition of the magazine. It's a
Speaker 1: voters guide to the most volatile election in decades. We'll
Speaker 1: hear about the nine types of voters that will decide
Speaker 1: this election. Josh Green has that story, and we'll take
Speaker 1: a look at how Pennsylvania turned purple. Pluss will bring
Speaker 1: you some of our favorite interviews from our daily radio show,
Speaker 1: heard weekdays at two pm Wall Street Time right here
Speaker 1: on Bloomberg Radio. We dive into the new book After
Speaker 1: the Gig, how the sharing economy got hijacked and how
Speaker 1: to win it back. And we also hear from Lands
Speaker 1: and CEO. He tells us about how COVID nineteen impacted
Speaker 1: his business and really the lifestyle that has emerged in
Speaker 1: this COVID world. First up, though, let's get inside the
Speaker 1: magazine and look at those nine types of voters that
Speaker 1: will decide the election. We spoke to Business Week national
Speaker 1: correspondent Josh Green, also the author of The Devil's Bargain,
Speaker 1: the definitive account of the sixteen election. He joined along
Speaker 1: with editor Joel Webber. I mean, it's hard to boil
Speaker 1: it all UH down to one surprising the most because
Speaker 1: we have nine categories and each on its own could
Speaker 1: be kind of, you know, instrumental in the final event.
Speaker 1: I think the most surprising and interesting one to me, though,
Speaker 1: were refugees of Hurricane Contrina. These are Puerto Ricans American
Speaker 1: citizens who moved to Florida who relocated there after Hurricane Maria.
Speaker 1: In they've moved in such enormous numbers. They're about four
Speaker 1: hundred thousand of them who have moved, their most concentrated
Speaker 1: in and around Orlando, that they have quickly grown to
Speaker 1: become the second largest Hispanic voting group in Florida, next
Speaker 1: to humans who have been there now for generation. And
Speaker 1: if you look at the way most Puerto Ricans feel
Speaker 1: about President Trump and the way he treated UH, the
Speaker 1: island of Puerto Rico. Their voter sentiment runs very strongly Democratic.
Speaker 1: We we found and interviewed several of them, and it's
Speaker 1: just a really fascinating cross section of an important voter group,
Speaker 1: but also one, as you might imagine, that's struggling with
Speaker 1: all sorts of things beyond politics, finding a job, finding housing,
Speaker 1: navigating the COVID economy, uh, you know, moving family members
Speaker 1: from the island back and forth. I spoke to one
Speaker 1: mom who had sent her children moved. She moved to
Speaker 1: Florida after the hurricane, sent her children back to Puerto
Speaker 1: Rico because she decided COVID was worse in Florida than
Speaker 1: Puerto Rico. So you can imagine these voters, um, both
Speaker 1: parties kind of competing for their attention. It just ability
Speaker 1: to get them to turn out and vote for a
Speaker 1: candidate in November. The other group that you talk about,
Speaker 1: which in some ways played a large part in the
Speaker 1: election two sixteen, also were the shy Trumpers. Um, they're
Speaker 1: still out there. Where are they? What are they saying? Well,
Speaker 1: it's not clear. I mean I think of shy Trumpers
Speaker 1: as being kind of like Bigfoot, Like there's a real
Speaker 1: debate about whether or not they even exist. So so
Speaker 1: shy Trumpers first came on my radar four years ago
Speaker 1: in the Trump campaign. Was absolutely convinced that there was
Speaker 1: a large pool of voters out there who supported Trump,
Speaker 1: who intended to vote for him, but who wouldn't admit
Speaker 1: this to pollsters and members of the media. And of
Speaker 1: course Trump ended up over performing expectations. So some reason
Speaker 1: to think that might have been a factor in the
Speaker 1: debate this time around is, you know, are there still
Speaker 1: shy Trumpers who think that there's a social penalty to
Speaker 1: speaking out about their support for Trump, because most pollsters
Speaker 1: say there isn't any more that you know, if you're
Speaker 1: a Republican, you're now an out and proud Trump supporter.
Speaker 1: But on the other hand, I think we know people
Speaker 1: in our own lives, and we found a few remarkable
Speaker 1: ones for this issue who said, no, we do still
Speaker 1: support Trump, but because of the family and the social circles,
Speaker 1: or you know, the culture at workplace isn't something we
Speaker 1: can talk about openly. So that could be another group
Speaker 1: that that tilts the election if there are enough of
Speaker 1: them in critical battleground states. Another one Josh that I
Speaker 1: loved was double haters and that's a category that existed
Speaker 1: last time as well, but what's different about it in
Speaker 1: this election? So double haters was a category to say
Speaker 1: credit for this one, that that that I discovered or
Speaker 1: at least popularized in twenty sixteen when I was doing
Speaker 1: my book on the twenty fifteen election, Devil's Bargain. Double
Speaker 1: Haters was the nickname that Trump's data scientists gave to
Speaker 1: a group of voters that they were fascinated with being
Speaker 1: to get. Double haters were people who hated both Trump
Speaker 1: and Hillary Clinton in but whose voting history suggested that
Speaker 1: they were going to show up at the polls on
Speaker 1: election day and pull the lever for somebody. So there
Speaker 1: was this frantic competition between Hillary's campaign and Trump's campaign.
Speaker 1: In the end, Trump want almost all of those voters.
Speaker 1: So this cycle there are still double haters. Of course,
Speaker 1: this time there are people who disliked both Biden and Trump.
Speaker 1: The huge difference this time, though, is last time they
Speaker 1: tended to be fairly conservative folks. This time the vast
Speaker 1: majority of them are progressive, and they tend to especially
Speaker 1: be people who supported Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary,
Speaker 1: but for whatever reason just haven't quite come around to
Speaker 1: committing to Biden yet. So we found and interviewed some
Speaker 1: of these guys, some of them kind of leaning towards Biden's,
Speaker 1: others thing absolutely, there's no way I'm going to vote
Speaker 1: for him. Alright, thirty seconds, give us just a half
Speaker 1: minute on swinging seniors. Loved us. Swinging seniors not necessarily
Speaker 1: what you think they might see. I'll leave that to
Speaker 1: your imagine. Swing seniors are seniors. People over sixty five
Speaker 1: were one of the categories that Trump won by the most.
Speaker 1: I think he won by thirteen points in well because
Speaker 1: of a lot of reasons, coronavirus, disillusionment with Trump. They
Speaker 1: have swung hard to Joe Biden and a lot of
Speaker 1: reason calls. I've seen their tied or Biden's even a
Speaker 1: little bit ahead. If they swing from Trump to Biden
Speaker 1: in this election is going to go to Democrats. And
Speaker 1: that's National correspondent Josh Green, also author of The Devil's Bargain,
Speaker 1: keeping us up to date on who's ultimately going to
Speaker 1: decide this election a fascinating deep dive into the electorate.
Speaker 1: He was joined by magazine editor Joel Webber, the architect
Speaker 1: of this issue. We do it every four years every
Speaker 1: time we're electing a president. You're listening to Bluemberg Business Week.
Speaker 1: Coming up, Dr Ken red Cross. He tells us why
Speaker 1: the virus is affecting African Americans more than any other population.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg. Welcome back to Blueberg Business Week, bringing
Speaker 1: you today some of the highlights from our daily radio
Speaker 1: show and podcast. Carol Master is off this week and
Speaker 1: I was joined throughout the week by Alex Steele. Alex
Speaker 1: and I caught up with Dr Ken red Cross. He's
Speaker 1: the founder of Red Cross Concierge. He's also the author
Speaker 1: of a book about the healthcare system. He talked to
Speaker 1: us about the virus and why COVID nineteen is affecting
Speaker 1: more African Americans than any other population. Yeah, you know, Jason,
Speaker 1: that's an important point. You're right, most viruses in this case,
Speaker 1: they're they're agnostic, they don't care, right. But what's happened
Speaker 1: this time is that COVID nineteen has really shined a big,
Speaker 1: big light on the healthcare disparities that we have here
Speaker 1: in the United States between those who are minorities and
Speaker 1: those who are not. And so we're seeing that kind
Speaker 1: of break out into different little sessions now because of
Speaker 1: the differences in the disparities that we're seeing, and it's
Speaker 1: been it's been pretty stark. I guess the question is
Speaker 1: why we've heard many different explanations. It is that the jobs,
Speaker 1: is it access to healthcare? Pre this it's a pre
Speaker 1: existing conditions. What are some of the reasons you know, Alex,
Speaker 1: Actually it's it's a little bit of everything you said.
Speaker 1: So look think about it this way. There's a there's
Speaker 1: a medical side to this because the disease states that
Speaker 1: are really affecting those who get the coronavirus, such as diabetes,
Speaker 1: heart disease, lung disease, and also obesity are very common
Speaker 1: in the minority community, especially African American community. Then on
Speaker 1: the second side of your questionnaire, Alex, we have those
Speaker 1: socio economic issues such as access to healthcare, such as
Speaker 1: income equalities, such as issues with housing. That's when we
Speaker 1: get to the point where I always say that in
Speaker 1: those areas, social distancing is an absolute luxury, right, it
Speaker 1: can't happen. And so when you have all of those
Speaker 1: things come together, Alex, it's almost like a perfect storm.
Speaker 1: So talk to us specifically about black communities, if you will,
Speaker 1: Dr Red cross because we have seen some of that data. Uh,
Speaker 1: sort of take us down the level in terms of
Speaker 1: the data and and help us understand some of those
Speaker 1: issues that you're just describing in specifically in black communities. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so look, everyone, So it's it's important to to understand. Look,
Speaker 1: as they always say, you know, united is what we
Speaker 1: should be, right, because if you're divided, we fall. And
Speaker 1: this is even more important because even if you're not
Speaker 1: an African American, these um, these health care disparities affect
Speaker 1: all of us because whether it be on the health
Speaker 1: care system, the cost, I know, this is a financial
Speaker 1: um financial station and those things impact us all. But
Speaker 1: when you're talking about what's going on in the community
Speaker 1: with those disease states that are in there, which all
Speaker 1: of them are associated with vitamin D deficiency as well,
Speaker 1: So it's important to hit in on that as well,
Speaker 1: because vitamin D guys is not a treatment for the coronavirus.
Speaker 1: But what it does hit home is the importance of
Speaker 1: the immune system and all these disease states that Alex
Speaker 1: asked me about. When she says, well, why is this
Speaker 1: all of those are affected by the immune system, and
Speaker 1: in our community and the African American community. We have
Speaker 1: been hit so so hard. In fact, if you look
Speaker 1: at some of the studies out there, it says only
Speaker 1: about of African Americans can actually telework. That just gives
Speaker 1: you a little bit of an idea of the sort
Speaker 1: of jobs that a lot of African Americans have and
Speaker 1: how hard that is to kind of stay out of
Speaker 1: harm's way in addition to balancing your health care access
Speaker 1: as well. So let me ask, there's been conversations of
Speaker 1: how you distribute the vaccine and obviously, you know those
Speaker 1: essential workers like say health healthcare workers, nurses, doctors will
Speaker 1: get it first. Then there's been conversations around minority communities
Speaker 1: like the black community, Um is that, dude, do we
Speaker 1: want that? Because there's also a downside. I would think, well,
Speaker 1: we we do. But there's a couple of challenges. So
Speaker 1: the big challenges is that if you're starting to find
Speaker 1: out a lot of the vaccine companies are having a
Speaker 1: very hard time signing up minorities, they're having a hard
Speaker 1: time signing up minorities. Number one, it's to that access issue,
Speaker 1: but it's also alex because of some of the history
Speaker 1: that has been there with African Americans in the medical
Speaker 1: community all the way back to the tugkey He experiment
Speaker 1: in the nineteen thirties or forties. You may think, guys, gosh,
Speaker 1: that's almost that's almost fifty years ago, but believe it
Speaker 1: or not, it still runs rampant in the African American
Speaker 1: community to talk about you know, I don't know if
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take that vaccine. Remember tuskey He experiment. I
Speaker 1: mean those sort of things in skepticism or things that
Speaker 1: need to be face head on as well. So the
Speaker 1: vaccine when it comes, it needs to be tested in everyone.
Speaker 1: You can't test it in one group. Um. So that's
Speaker 1: why it's so important to make sure there's an education
Speaker 1: piece for a lot of the minorities to really work
Speaker 1: on this skepticism and where we're headed with this vaccine
Speaker 1: and when we'll get the vaccine. And so what is
Speaker 1: the right message then, especially to Black and African American
Speaker 1: communities around vaccines. What what are you saying to to
Speaker 1: folks to convince them. Well, one of the things that
Speaker 1: you know, I had mentioned I wrote my book earlier
Speaker 1: called Bond and the important thing there and never what
Speaker 1: I have known would be something we talk about in
Speaker 1: the pandemic. But my whole, my whole passion is the
Speaker 1: patient doctor relationship. So it's those four things that are
Speaker 1: very important. Trust, respect, empathy, and communication, especially in our community.
Speaker 1: When you you have to be trusted in order for
Speaker 1: me to to put a vaccine in right, for us
Speaker 1: to have that discussion, then there needs to be an
Speaker 1: equal respect to say, hey, look, it doesn't really matter
Speaker 1: how much melanin you have in your skin. Your life matters,
Speaker 1: your health also matters. And then there has to be
Speaker 1: a feeling of empathy. It's important that we understand that
Speaker 1: you that you really understand kind of the struggles that
Speaker 1: we have each and every day that most of my
Speaker 1: friends and myself have been through UM as an African
Speaker 1: American male. And then that communication piece is key. You
Speaker 1: need to be able to sit down with that person
Speaker 1: and kind of talk eye to eye UM and really
Speaker 1: communicate what you want to do or why it's so
Speaker 1: important for all of us. And Dr Redcrost, you had
Speaker 1: talked a bit about vitamin D. Tell us more about that,
Speaker 1: because I feel like D is one of these things
Speaker 1: where every time I go from my check up, I
Speaker 1: get told I'm deficient and then I feel like I
Speaker 1: read that everybody's deficient and maybe we shouldn't worry about it,
Speaker 1: but maybe we should, like, what's the latest science here, Well,
Speaker 1: I'll tell you. So it seems like if you're right,
Speaker 1: as the world starts started to kind of wake up
Speaker 1: to the importance of the mention of vitamin D, it
Speaker 1: does seem that a lot of us are deficient. But
Speaker 1: in the African American community it's about eighty deficiently in
Speaker 1: Hispanic community about seventy um And people may say, well,
Speaker 1: what does that kind of matter? Like I mentioned before,
Speaker 1: those disease states, whether it be heart disease, lung disease,
Speaker 1: and also I'll bring in obesity, they're all associated with
Speaker 1: lower vitamin D levels, which gives us the reasons to think,
Speaker 1: what would happen if those vitamin D levels were optimal? Guys,
Speaker 1: where would that actually be? And and I h even
Speaker 1: had a report that vitamin D deficiency could actually even
Speaker 1: be a plausible explanation for a higher mortality potentially. A
Speaker 1: lot of these studies are going on, but we see
Speaker 1: it clinically and it's something that's easy to take and
Speaker 1: something that luckily is also inexpensive as well. Okay, so
Speaker 1: before we move on to like why it's not getting
Speaker 1: more widespread adoption, Can you explain you what is vitamin D? Sure, so,
Speaker 1: vitamin D everyone, that's all you know that that's nature's
Speaker 1: vitamin that comes from the sun. This shows you how
Speaker 1: amazing our our bodies are. Everyone that we actually make
Speaker 1: really not even a vitamin, it's really a hormone. It's
Speaker 1: a pro hormone. And that's how important it is for
Speaker 1: our bodies. But we used to think it was all
Speaker 1: about bone health, where now we're learning vitamin D does
Speaker 1: so much more, especially when it comes to immunity. In fact,
Speaker 1: when you look at the levels you're supposed to have
Speaker 1: for your vitamin D, I kind of wear an Eastern
Speaker 1: medicine had guys and a Western medicine hat. So my
Speaker 1: Western medicine hat tells you're supposed to be around thirty.
Speaker 1: But when you look at the Eastern medicine and some
Speaker 1: of the newer studies are levels should be between forty
Speaker 1: and sixty. And that's Dr Ken red Cross. You're listening
Speaker 1: to Bloomberg Business Week coming up, we look at the
Speaker 1: pandemic three different lens, retail and fashion. Our conversation with
Speaker 1: Jerome Griffith, the CEO of lands End. Coming up. This
Speaker 1: is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser
Speaker 1: and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. Welcome back to Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week. I'm Jason Kelly. Carol Master is off this week,
Speaker 1: so I was joined throughout the week by Alex Steele. Well,
Speaker 1: lands End reported earnings this week, and we have a
Speaker 1: chance to catch up with the company's CEO, Jerome Griffith.
Speaker 1: He's got a long history in retail and travel and hospitality,
Speaker 1: even worked for j Peterman for a stint YEP the
Speaker 1: company made famous on Seinfeld. Well, he's looking at a
Speaker 1: very different retail environment, a very different consumer amid this pandemic.
Speaker 1: Here's what he's saying may happen. Coming up. I think
Speaker 1: that where world has changed has been a little bit
Speaker 1: topsy from you know, as we had said earlier in
Speaker 1: March when demand really shrunk to a full recovery, and
Speaker 1: in May, June and through the rest of the summer
Speaker 1: being relatively strong. So we've had to go back and
Speaker 1: relook at projections for a lot of our items and
Speaker 1: and increase uh quantities that we were ordering because we
Speaker 1: think that the holiday season is gonna be bigger than
Speaker 1: what we thought it was. I think one of the
Speaker 1: things which is a concern for us is that all
Speaker 1: of the carriers that are carrying packages today two homes.
Speaker 1: They're really stretched. So if you look at the big
Speaker 1: three of USPS and fed X and UPS, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: every day is like Christmas for them. So we're you know,
Speaker 1: doing a lot of work with our partners to plan
Speaker 1: for what the holiday season is going to look like,
Speaker 1: which is something that does have us, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: a little concerned. And then going into next year. One
Speaker 1: of the things that we've seen over the course of
Speaker 1: the last couple of years is our product people have
Speaker 1: continued to refine and improve what the quality and the
Speaker 1: look of the products that we're selling, and we see
Speaker 1: a lot of increased demand. I think he Goes probably
Speaker 1: saw the uh numbers that we're seeing with new customer acquisition,
Speaker 1: which was up about quarter, and then the large reby
Speaker 1: rates that we're having from our customers. Are active customers
Speaker 1: tend to be around new customers are around thirty, which
Speaker 1: are pretty great numbers for the industry. UH, And we
Speaker 1: see that continuing. Are you seeing, you know, sort of
Speaker 1: a real change in the way people dress. That seems
Speaker 1: to be, at least for a certain category, just a
Speaker 1: market change here. Absolutely, people are looking for comfort. They're
Speaker 1: working from their homes. Not everyone's home was actually shet
Speaker 1: up to be comfortable for them. So you see people
Speaker 1: ordering comfy clothes, something that looks good on top, but
Speaker 1: it's a little bit more casual on the bottom. Uh,
Speaker 1: you see people ordering lots of stuff for the home
Speaker 1: as well. Our home business has been extremely strong because
Speaker 1: kids have been coming home, they're loosed with mom and dad,
Speaker 1: and people are getting together, so people are are retooling
Speaker 1: what their lives are. Our dress our business, and we
Speaker 1: sell a lot of dress shirts with monograms on them.
Speaker 1: That's been a little depressed for us the last several months,
Speaker 1: as has uh some of our dress pants business. But
Speaker 1: when you look at the lion's share of our selection,
Speaker 1: it's really casual clothing. And when you get to a
Speaker 1: knit tops and lounge where and pull on pants and sleepware,
Speaker 1: it's it's really good of being dress. So in this environment, UM,
Speaker 1: I'm curious as to how you plan because there's a
Speaker 1: bit of confusion as too. If you know Jason is
Speaker 1: going to wear dress shirts and dress pants again in
Speaker 1: the next two years, you know, and even if things
Speaker 1: open up, if you still will, how do you plan
Speaker 1: for that? UM, we spend a lot of time looking
Speaker 1: at trends and analyzing trends. We also use artificial intelligence
Speaker 1: for a lot of our basics in order to make
Speaker 1: smarter decisions. Is how much you're going to be purchasing,
Speaker 1: and you know, inevitably you run out of stuff or
Speaker 1: you have some overstocks and the two things. But I
Speaker 1: have to say that the guys have done a pretty
Speaker 1: good job making it through spring and summer, and we've
Speaker 1: relooked at what we think fallen Winner is going to be.
Speaker 1: But things that will screw up I think that you
Speaker 1: just didn't think of or can't plan for, Like you know,
Speaker 1: if if we have seen this when certain states have
Speaker 1: spikes and COVID demand goes down, so over the summer,
Speaker 1: when you saw the southern states Florida, Texas, California have spikes,
Speaker 1: you saw the demand go down. As you see the
Speaker 1: spikes start to recede, demand goes back up and supply
Speaker 1: chain issues. Anything that you've run into in a meaningful
Speaker 1: way up to this point, and what's the status Now,
Speaker 1: we knew several months ago that we were going to
Speaker 1: have some of our full deliveries a couple of weeks later,
Speaker 1: of which we were prepared for and I've dealt with.
Speaker 1: But generally we've divested ourselves of being reliant upon anyone
Speaker 1: country or anyone factory. So what we've seen is pretty
Speaker 1: good deliveries and expect that into the back part of
Speaker 1: the year. Um. But again, you know, I can't stress
Speaker 1: enough it's not really the supply chain coming in. It's
Speaker 1: going to be deliveries on the other west, on the
Speaker 1: other side, And yeah, it's gonna be on the other side,
Speaker 1: right all right, Jerome, I gotta bring something up Alex Steel.
Speaker 1: Now we're just talking about it in our chat. You
Speaker 1: were the president of J Peterman and I just think
Speaker 1: that is the coolest thing ever as a longtime Seinfeld fan, Like,
Speaker 1: did you really dine out on that at cocktail parties?
Speaker 1: That must have been amazing. It was kind of amazing.
Speaker 1: I've been living in London for several years prior to that,
Speaker 1: and uh, to be honest withly, I did not know
Speaker 1: the side felt connection. And when they recruited me to
Speaker 1: come to Kentucky, it was just the coolest thing human.
Speaker 1: Was an awesome person, an awesome guy. Yeah, loves him
Speaker 1: a lot, But unfortunately the business model was not really
Speaker 1: set up for success and it was a short lived
Speaker 1: stint for me. And that's Jerone Griffith, the CEO of
Speaker 1: lands And for our full conversation, be sure to download
Speaker 1: our Business Week Extra podcast. He talked at length about
Speaker 1: his own history in the fashion business. He's had quite
Speaker 1: a journey and looking at lands End through a bit
Speaker 1: of a different lens as we alter our shopping habits. Well,
Speaker 1: you're listening to Bloomberg Business Week. Coming up, speaking of
Speaker 1: fashion of a different sort, we hatch up with the
Speaker 1: CEO of swimm a Nista. She's got an eco conscious
Speaker 1: swimwear line. Yep, this is Bloombern. This is Bloomberg Business
Speaker 1: Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Bloomberg Business Week. I'm Jason Kelly, Carol Masser.
Speaker 1: She's off this week, so I was joined throughout the
Speaker 1: week by Alex Steele and Alex and I had a
Speaker 1: chance to catch up with Andrea Bernholt. She's an entrepreneur
Speaker 1: and she's now the CEO of swimming Nista. I guarantee
Speaker 1: you because I saw it with my own eyes and
Speaker 1: she admitted it. Alex was actually doing some shopping on
Speaker 1: swim Anista during this interview. They've got some fabulous suits.
Speaker 1: They're eco conscious. And Andrea told us about how she
Speaker 1: got started in this business. It all came about. Long story,
Speaker 1: short is, I was in Mexico with my friends and
Speaker 1: we were all complaining how our bathing suits never hit right.
Speaker 1: It's you know, saying student um if it fit on top,
Speaker 1: it was too wide in another area, and everyone's moaning
Speaker 1: about it. So they knew that I had a background
Speaker 1: in manufacturing because I had started and sold the company
Speaker 1: Rock and Republic, and so they said, you know how
Speaker 1: to make clothes. You just make some bathing suits, you know.
Speaker 1: And I saw it to myself, like, you know, I
Speaker 1: had just sold a company. I'm on holiday, I'm having
Speaker 1: a great time. The thought of going back to work
Speaker 1: wasn't as appealing as you might think, and I had
Speaker 1: just had a baby. I thought, no, I'm not going
Speaker 1: to do that, you know, but it planted that seed,
Speaker 1: that entrepreneurial seed. So after that trip I went home.
Speaker 1: I started Frankenstein in my swimsuits and putting them together,
Speaker 1: so many things, and then I thought, you know what,
Speaker 1: I think about this every single day. I think I
Speaker 1: have to do this. So then so it was an
Speaker 1: organic kind of progression. So then, how so where do
Speaker 1: you go from there? Because if I go on the
Speaker 1: beach and complained to my friends, we just like drink.
Speaker 1: We're not like, I'm gonna go start my swimsuit line.
Speaker 1: You're another Margarita exactly. You know what I think, asked
Speaker 1: my biggest problem. I don't drink, So therefore I've made
Speaker 1: bathing suits. So so so you're like, all right, let
Speaker 1: me do this. Then where do you go from there?
Speaker 1: Because the other part of it is that it's a
Speaker 1: environmentally friendly it's an ego swimsuit, Like what does that mean?
Speaker 1: How did you wind up doing that? Well? I grew
Speaker 1: up being a very eco conscientious person. I grew up
Speaker 1: my mom was kind of a hippie, and I always
Speaker 1: thought we were poor because you know, it was like
Speaker 1: saving bottles and newspapers and turning off lights to save electricity,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, well, what's the deal here, mom? You know,
Speaker 1: and she kind of educated my brothers and I about
Speaker 1: being environmentally conscientious and so it's always been a part
Speaker 1: of who I am, so, especially with the ocean. I've
Speaker 1: always done ocean cleanups and supported, uh you know, things
Speaker 1: that revolved around saving I mean the Earth. Even though
Speaker 1: I was involved in a very polluted business with denim
Speaker 1: at Rock and Republic, we actually made our denim in
Speaker 1: Los Angeles because is the emissions and the controls were
Speaker 1: so much higher for pollutants in America than anywhere else
Speaker 1: in the world. That's why we actually decided to make
Speaker 1: everything in America. So it's who I am so, especially
Speaker 1: coming from doing something for the beach. It had to
Speaker 1: be something that was eco friendly, and I had heard
Speaker 1: like whispers over the years about this eco friendly fabrics
Speaker 1: where you they take uh, plastic bottles, they break them
Speaker 1: down and then they weave the fibers into threads, and
Speaker 1: then from those threads they make the fabric. So the
Speaker 1: technology is really racing right now and they're coming up
Speaker 1: with amazing things. You would never know, I mean, even
Speaker 1: in the time that I started just even thinking about
Speaker 1: Simonissa to what it is now. I mean, even you know,
Speaker 1: those those horrible little liners in the bottom of your
Speaker 1: babysuit when you try it on. Yeah. Yeah, well even
Speaker 1: that I have it, it's compostable. Oh very cool. So,
Speaker 1: like all of my packaging is made from recycled materials,
Speaker 1: it's compostable, and um, you know see right now it's
Speaker 1: still it's very expensive. But um, you know what I
Speaker 1: My goal right now is to make women happy and
Speaker 1: kind of reduce my carbon footprint in the world. So, um,
Speaker 1: that's not the first and foremost thing that I'm I'm
Speaker 1: doing this for. This is definitely a passion project. That
Speaker 1: is you know, I think if you do things the
Speaker 1: right way and do them truly organically, then people understand
Speaker 1: it and catch on it. Yeah. So, and I want
Speaker 1: to take you back to Rock and Republic for a minute,
Speaker 1: because obviously that really caught fire in a big way.
Speaker 1: You've got a lot of people paying attention to It's
Speaker 1: very famous people, um paying attention to it. And I
Speaker 1: mean that is a fiercely I mean we'll talk about
Speaker 1: Swimson's get in a second in the in the similar light,
Speaker 1: but I mean, denim is fiercely competitive and everybody's got
Speaker 1: to take on that. What did you learn from that
Speaker 1: business around fit, around marketing, around all of it? That
Speaker 1: you're really applying directly here to swim Anissa. Uh, That's
Speaker 1: it's a good question because, um, you know, yeah, we
Speaker 1: it was and still is a very competitive market. And
Speaker 1: it's not like we invented anything new. We just built
Speaker 1: a better mouth trap. And that's essentially what I'm doing here.
Speaker 1: You know, there were a lot of little, if you will,
Speaker 1: cheats that we did to make your body look better.
Speaker 1: We you know, took the side seams and brought them
Speaker 1: into a little bit and made you I looked in her.
Speaker 1: We hang the pockets in a certain way, so they're
Speaker 1: all these like these little cheats on things that made
Speaker 1: our fit superior. And also the same thing with Rock
Speaker 1: and Republic that I'm applying now is that we didn't
Speaker 1: start out using run of the mill fabrics or materials.
Speaker 1: We used the best of the best. And yeah, our
Speaker 1: profit margins weren't like the other competitors initially to start out,
Speaker 1: but because we had a quality product, because we had
Speaker 1: you know, it was so amazing. It's one of those
Speaker 1: things you don't know why you love it or why
Speaker 1: it looks so good on you, It just does. And
Speaker 1: it's because of all the things in the background, like
Speaker 1: for us. It's I used super expensive lining. I use recycles,
Speaker 1: amazing materials that come out of Italy that all the
Speaker 1: luxury houses use. Um, you know, I have little cheeks
Speaker 1: inside of my swimwear that stuck you in, push your boobs,
Speaker 1: round out your butt. It's like all those little things,
Speaker 1: all these little tricks, if you will, that I've applied
Speaker 1: to the human body. Well, let's get to that. And
Speaker 1: this is the moment where Jason and gets really uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: But so I'm on money website right now and I'm
Speaker 1: scrolling through and you can shop bottoms and tops and
Speaker 1: then one pieces. So like, if you're going on your site,
Speaker 1: how do you know how to shop for yourself? Well,
Speaker 1: if you go there's a button there also and it says, um,
Speaker 1: you know, find my size. So if you go in
Speaker 1: and you punch in, it'll ask you questions, what's your
Speaker 1: gene size? What's your dress sizes? With your brass eyes? Um,
Speaker 1: you know, Jason, put in your brass eyes, You'll be fine. Um,
Speaker 1: you put in your brass eyes and it calculates what
Speaker 1: it's going to be the right fit in swimming EASTA
Speaker 1: for you. And this is something that I developed during
Speaker 1: COVID when I I started to panic for a minute
Speaker 1: in the midst of all. This is launching a new product,
Speaker 1: you know, and I thought, well, you know what, I'm
Speaker 1: going to take this time. I'm going to read you
Speaker 1: my website and make it better. I'm trying to troubleshoot
Speaker 1: everything that women want and think about how are they
Speaker 1: going to shop, what are they going to shop for?
Speaker 1: How is it gonna fit? Because I, like, I don't
Speaker 1: like to return stuff when I buy something online. I'm
Speaker 1: an avid online shopper. So I tried to apply all
Speaker 1: of my favorite websites and all those tricks and tools
Speaker 1: that they had and applied into my own site. So
Speaker 1: if you go on there, it should I mean knock
Speaker 1: on wood, I wouldn't know it worked. I just didn't
Speaker 1: it works. Yeah, okay, so um uh no, but I
Speaker 1: mean so far like even when when women put it in,
Speaker 1: I was gonna say knock on wood. Um, no one
Speaker 1: has said, oh my god, your your calculator was all off.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm extra small. But so it's it's we
Speaker 1: put a lot of time and effort into that so
Speaker 1: that you can find your ultimate best size. And so
Speaker 1: tell us Andre more of that I want to pick
Speaker 1: up on something you just mentioned about, sort of the
Speaker 1: pandemic life. Um, I mean, tell us what else you
Speaker 1: had to do or got to do amid or have
Speaker 1: gotten to do or can do amid all of this.
Speaker 1: It's a very unusual time, to say the least, in
Speaker 1: the world of commerce and life and everything else. I
Speaker 1: mean we're in New York here in California, and I
Speaker 1: mean the world is locked down still in many ways.
Speaker 1: I do wonder how you run a company amid all
Speaker 1: of this, especially a new company. Well, um, it's been
Speaker 1: super easy, not kidding, No, definitely challenging, and trust me,
Speaker 1: I wrote the wave of um anxiety there for a minute.
Speaker 1: But then I thought, you know what a strong survive here.
Speaker 1: And I know I have a great product and I
Speaker 1: know that, Um, once things turned around, everyone's going to
Speaker 1: catch it. But there were two camps. Basically, there was
Speaker 1: the fat camp everyone got fat, and then there was
Speaker 1: I'm going to work out and challenge myself camp, right right?
Speaker 1: Um So UM, I really focused on on these women
Speaker 1: who were working out and wanting to get fit during
Speaker 1: this time, and I followed them on Instagram. I would
Speaker 1: reach out to them and it was kind of created
Speaker 1: this camaraderie and it's like, hey, you're doing it so great.
Speaker 1: You know, you deserve a new swimsuit. They're like, I do.
Speaker 1: You know. It's like, hey, it's sunny somewhere. You you know,
Speaker 1: you deserve to show off your new body. And it's like,
Speaker 1: oh my god. Yeah. So I was trying to empower
Speaker 1: these women and give them recognition even online, even when
Speaker 1: nobody else could could recognize that or see their new
Speaker 1: bikini bodies. And um, you know. Also a big part
Speaker 1: of my uh sales strategy was resourts. I was doing
Speaker 1: a lot of trunk shows in resorts, and you know
Speaker 1: a lot of that too, was just evoking that wonderful
Speaker 1: memory when you go on holiday and you're at the
Speaker 1: Four Seasons in Maui, right, and you just discovered this
Speaker 1: swim and these to swim suit and it's so great
Speaker 1: and you're so happy every time you wear and you
Speaker 1: now you go online and you bought you know, three
Speaker 1: more colors and two more styles, and like I loved
Speaker 1: those women. Um um, those are good customers. Those are
Speaker 1: great customers. I love them, you know, and I just
Speaker 1: I love making people feel good. It really, it really
Speaker 1: satisfies my soul and so um, you know, in evoking
Speaker 1: that making women feel good, I couldn't do it now
Speaker 1: by you know, having them beyond their holidays in in
Speaker 1: Hawaii or Bahamas anymore. So like how else could I
Speaker 1: empower these women and make them feel good? And so
Speaker 1: I think it really kids, it came from a true
Speaker 1: you know, a true person. That was greenness. I wasn't
Speaker 1: some you know, algorithm going you look great, send us
Speaker 1: your pictures. I really admire these women and like they
Speaker 1: would challenge their bodies and challenge themselves. And so I
Speaker 1: tried to key into it that way. And also, like
Speaker 1: I said, shook closing on my website, redoing it, making
Speaker 1: it better. Yeah, and that's Women Needs to CEO. Andrea
Speaker 1: Burne holds a really fun conversation understanding how she came
Speaker 1: to create this company, her history as an entrepreneur, and
Speaker 1: much more. Well. That wraps up the first hour of
Speaker 1: the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: I'm Jason Kelly alongside Alex Steele. Throughout the week, Carol
Speaker 1: Master one vacation plenty for you. In our next hour,
Speaker 1: we go inside that special Voters Guide issue of the magazine.
Speaker 1: We look at how Pennsylvania is turning purple, a deep
Speaker 1: dive courtesy of Sean Donnan, who's been checking in with
Speaker 1: One Town since March. Plus the CEO of Bruins Sports
Speaker 1: Capital are pal, George Pine. He comes along to tell
Speaker 1: us how Boycott's may impact the value of sports team
Speaker 1: and what is going on in the world of sports.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol
Speaker 1: Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. Hello, and welcome
Speaker 1: back to Bloomberg Business Week. I'm Jason Kelly. Carol Master
Speaker 1: is off this week. I was joined throughout the week
Speaker 1: by Alex Steele. Well ahead, in this hour of Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week, We're gonna hear from George Pine. He's an
Speaker 1: old pal of mine. He's now the CEO of Bruin
Speaker 1: Sports Capital. He was a top executive at NASCAR, he
Speaker 1: was a top executive at I m G as well,
Speaker 1: So he knows the world of sports and he knows
Speaker 1: how unprecedented this world is. He's going to talk about
Speaker 1: those protests and sports getting back to business. Plus a
Speaker 1: special edition of the magazine this week. It's a Voters
Speaker 1: guide to the most volatile election in decades, the presidential election,
Speaker 1: and also all of those other races down about we're
Speaker 1: gonna hear from the CEO of Vote America about voting
Speaker 1: by mail and what we may see over the next
Speaker 1: couple of months running up to that election. First up, though,
Speaker 1: let's get inside the magazine and talk about how Pennsylvania
Speaker 1: turned purple. It is one of the most contested states historically,
Speaker 1: will be no different. We caught up with reporters Sean Donnan.
Speaker 1: He spent some time looking at one specific town that
Speaker 1: defied a lot of expectations. He joined us along with
Speaker 1: editor Joel There. Well, it started off in the spring
Speaker 1: when we started getting the lockdown UH with coronavirus, and
Speaker 1: I just really wanted to find one place in America
Speaker 1: that I wanted to track through this crisis. And the
Speaker 1: place I settled on for a number of reasons, including
Speaker 1: the fact it's sitting in a pretty crucial part of
Speaker 1: of Pennsylvania politically, was was Ambridge and has this astonishing history,
Speaker 1: UH going back to the nineteenth century when it was
Speaker 1: actually called Economy Pennsylvania, UH, and it was the home
Speaker 1: of a religious sect called the Harmonists who had a
Speaker 1: whole ethos of communal living and ended up actually setting
Speaker 1: up a huge business empire and selling the town to
Speaker 1: the American Bridge Company in the early twentieth century UM
Speaker 1: and the American Bridge Company renamed Ambridge after itself and
Speaker 1: brought the steel industry to town. And you had the
Speaker 1: whole ride through the twentieth century of the steel industry,
Speaker 1: which ends in the in the eighties when American Bridge
Speaker 1: moves out of town, other steel mills shut down, and
Speaker 1: we have the last thirty year or so years or
Speaker 1: thirty plus years of a kind of that the industrialized
Speaker 1: America experience that we all became so familiar with. And
Speaker 1: then there was this one added wrinkle that that that
Speaker 1: I just couldn't get out of my head, which is
Speaker 1: Ambridge didn't go with the flow in the former steel
Speaker 1: town and it actually voted for Hillary Plinny. And so
Speaker 1: it goes against the political cliche, if you will, of
Speaker 1: of these the industrialized temps. And so I wanted to
Speaker 1: find out why. I wanted to find out how this
Speaker 1: town was was getting battered by the health crisis and
Speaker 1: the economic crisis, and I wanted to try and ask
Speaker 1: a question, which was, you know, after four years of
Speaker 1: Donald Trump, do we know what the future is for
Speaker 1: these places that that he really made so many big
Speaker 1: economic promises to. So what was your answer that you
Speaker 1: found in this Well, the answer you find in a
Speaker 1: lot of places is that it's complicated. And the answer
Speaker 1: is it's a town that is still caught between two
Speaker 1: different identities. There's a big chunk of people in town
Speaker 1: who really are hanging onto the industrial past. But what
Speaker 1: we've seen this year is the kind of last major
Speaker 1: industrial employers are are shutting down UM, partly as a
Speaker 1: result of of the coronavirus downturn UH and things aren't
Speaker 1: looking good on the industrial front. And on the other
Speaker 1: side is this idea that Ambridge, which is twenty five
Speaker 1: minutes from downtown Pittsburgh, maybe can reinvent itself as a
Speaker 1: bedroom community. And there's all sorts of challenges with that.
Speaker 1: The school system isn't as good as it should be,
Speaker 1: the property mixes these are old factory it's an old
Speaker 1: factory towns, a lot of old factory houses that aren't
Speaker 1: necessarily going to attract a young family today. And you've
Speaker 1: got a main street, merchant street that's called UH which
Speaker 1: is still just dominated by vacant buildings. In fact, it's
Speaker 1: it's cheaper today to rent a storefront on Merchant Street
Speaker 1: and Ambridge to store your excess uh stuff than it
Speaker 1: is to rent the storage unit on the outskirts attempt,
Speaker 1: which is kind of a damning economic statistic. So it's
Speaker 1: we don't know what the future is for a place
Speaker 1: like that, but we do know that the kind of
Speaker 1: the easy answers and the promises that Donald Trump made
Speaker 1: in in sien that he was going to bring the
Speaker 1: steel mills back, that he was going to reinvigorate these
Speaker 1: places I haven't necessarily come true, and that's been exposed
Speaker 1: by the pandemic. So so Sean, let's zoom out here
Speaker 1: just a little bit, because the real significance here is Pennsylvania, right,
Speaker 1: And so how does Ambridge and Beaver County, which Ambridge
Speaker 1: sits in, play into the larger role that the state
Speaker 1: might play in the election? Sure, so Beaver County is
Speaker 1: hugely important. Uh. Ambridge was a blue dot in a
Speaker 1: red county in ten uh. Trump wins Beaver County by
Speaker 1: about fifteen thousand votes, that's about a third of his
Speaker 1: margin in Pennsylvania overall, which he won by just under
Speaker 1: forty five thousand votes. UM. And this time around, he
Speaker 1: really needs to hold that margin in Beaver County even
Speaker 1: build on it, uh to to hold Pennsylvania again. And
Speaker 1: at the same time, it's a place that is in Ambridge.
Speaker 1: Is this is true of Ambridge, which vote for Hilly
Speaker 1: Clinton as it is broader Beaver County that is still
Speaker 1: incredibly socially conservative, that has an older population, largely white population. Um.
Speaker 1: And they see stuff happening in America that Donald Trump
Speaker 1: is pointing out to them and is now running on
Speaker 1: this whole law and order message, this whole pointing to
Speaker 1: the protests, the violent protests in Portland and and some
Speaker 1: of the violent protests and that we've seen in Kenosha, Wisconsin,
Speaker 1: uh in the past week or so. And um and
Speaker 1: he's saying, you know, be warned, America. And and that
Speaker 1: message resonating. And that's reporter Sean Donn and magazine editor
Speaker 1: Joel Weber. I love Seawn's work because it really takes
Speaker 1: complicated issues and distills them down to the people underneath them.
Speaker 1: The story of that town in Pennsylvania tells us so
Speaker 1: much about the election and more importantly, the electorate. You're
Speaker 1: listening to Bloomberg Business Week coming up. We keep the
Speaker 1: focus on the election, and here from the CEO of
Speaker 1: Vote America. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week
Speaker 1: with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to Bloomberg Business Week. I'm Jason Kelly today breaking
Speaker 1: you a lot of highlights from our daily radio show
Speaker 1: and podcast. Carol Master was off this week, so I'm
Speaker 1: joined by Alex Steele throughout the show, our conversations catching
Speaker 1: up a spec actually on this special edition of the magazine,
Speaker 1: it's a voter's guide to the most volatile election in decades.
Speaker 1: We want to stick with that theme, so we caught
Speaker 1: up with the CEO of Vote America, Deborah Cleaver. She
Speaker 1: talked to us about how they're helping people vote by mail.
Speaker 1: Vote America runs very large scale national voter registration and
Speaker 1: voter turnouts campaigns, and what we do is identifying clear
Speaker 1: roadblocks to casting ballots. Uh and this year the big
Speaker 1: roadblock is COVID nineteen. There is a global pandemic that
Speaker 1: is going to make it harder for people to vote
Speaker 1: in person. So we are focused almost entirely on vote
Speaker 1: by mail, which is apparently the topic of the moment.
Speaker 1: Thank you, President Trump. So what so? Okay, So, if
Speaker 1: your job normally was to go around and sign up
Speaker 1: voters and get them to the polling stations, what is
Speaker 1: your job going to be this time around? It's helping
Speaker 1: people navigate the vote by mail process. Isn't hard, it's
Speaker 1: just new for most people. Um. And you know, most
Speaker 1: of us know how to vote in person. You registered
Speaker 1: to vote, and then you just go vote on election day. Um.
Speaker 1: But if you want to vote by mail, you register
Speaker 1: to vote, then you request your mail in ballot, then
Speaker 1: you receive your mail in ballot, and then you return
Speaker 1: your mail in ballot by the election day. There's a
Speaker 1: few extra steps and again it's not that they're hard,
Speaker 1: it's just that there's more of them. But uh, Now,
Speaker 1: as if that wasn't enough for people, there's also now,
Speaker 1: U how do we put this? Mail delivery is slower? Um? So,
Speaker 1: so we basically pivoted from being an organization that primarily
Speaker 1: focuses on helping people vote in person on election day
Speaker 1: to an organization that helps people, uh vote by a mail?
Speaker 1: How does this vote go from here? We're sixty or
Speaker 1: so days out. What's the sort of rhythm? And I
Speaker 1: know it's a different sort of year because the pen semic,
Speaker 1: but early voting, mail in voting, what's the how does
Speaker 1: it go? Um? These are a great question. So mail
Speaker 1: in voting officially kicks off tomorrow. North Carolina is going
Speaker 1: to be sending the mail in ballots out to people
Speaker 1: who signed up for them. So mail in voting has started. UM.
Speaker 1: Early voting won't start for a few weeks. It generally
Speaker 1: starts out four weeks before the election UM and then
Speaker 1: runs through election day and most states but not all,
Speaker 1: have early voting UM, and then of course there's election
Speaker 1: day voting. The thing that's going to be so interesting
Speaker 1: this year is that we're going to see record numbers
Speaker 1: of people vote by mail. And in about half the
Speaker 1: state UM and half the states your ballot needs to
Speaker 1: be received by election day, but the other states it
Speaker 1: just needs to be postmarked by election day, which means
Speaker 1: millions of ballots are going to come in after election day.
Speaker 1: And for the first time in our nation history, realistically,
Speaker 1: we're not going to know who won the presidency on
Speaker 1: election day. Oh sorry, that's right. Good. I blocked two
Speaker 1: thousand out for a while. So for the second time
Speaker 1: in our newsctory, we won't know. But in two thousand
Speaker 1: we didn't know because everything was was contested. This year,
Speaker 1: we're not going to know because the ballots just won't
Speaker 1: be in yet. So you just walk me through the
Speaker 1: logistics of that. So, um, okay, literally, like all these
Speaker 1: ballots wind up in a big trunk where and then
Speaker 1: is there like some person counting them? Like, how does
Speaker 1: that actually happen? Yeah, so you actually need to open
Speaker 1: the ballot and then count them. Um. And if something
Speaker 1: needs to be postmarked by election day, and we all
Speaker 1: know how flow mail delivery is this year, I mean
Speaker 1: ballots are going to be received these after the election
Speaker 1: and then you need to open up up and count
Speaker 1: them and humans do this, um, And I expect that
Speaker 1: will be counting ballads for three weeks for show after
Speaker 1: the election. So what will actually have this year? One
Speaker 1: way to think of it is we're going to have
Speaker 1: voting Day, which is like when people are voting, and
Speaker 1: then election day, when we know when the winner is
Speaker 1: a few weeks later. But what I think will happen
Speaker 1: is instead of everyone being calm and rational and not
Speaker 1: freaking out, I think we're gonna see Uh. A bunch
Speaker 1: of people try to say that the reason we don't
Speaker 1: know the result yet is because there is voter front
Speaker 1: so it's it's going to be pretty wild. But the
Speaker 1: unusual thing is this is how most other countries do it.
Speaker 1: Like in most other countries, you have voting day, and
Speaker 1: then three weeks later, when everything's been certified and every
Speaker 1: least vote has been counted, you announced the winner and
Speaker 1: that's election day. Like we are the only country that
Speaker 1: really does is like easy process um. And you know,
Speaker 1: you guys have seen the returns come in. Have you
Speaker 1: ever noticed that we forget the winner when like five
Speaker 1: of three things are in right? That's so crazy, that's
Speaker 1: so crazy that we view that. So this year we're
Speaker 1: not going to be able to stay who the winner
Speaker 1: is and who we've counted every ballot, which is actually
Speaker 1: exactly how elections should be run. But it's new. Whenever
Speaker 1: you do something for the first time, there's going to
Speaker 1: be a little bit of like chaos and uncertainty. But unfortunately,
Speaker 1: I think there's going to be deliberate attempts to make
Speaker 1: that chaos and uncertainty. So I do want to ask
Speaker 1: you before we let you go. You know, one thing
Speaker 1: we've talked a lot about on this program, and I've
Speaker 1: done a little bit of reporting about, um because I
Speaker 1: also look at the world of sports and the business
Speaker 1: of sports, is this movement by Lebron James and a
Speaker 1: number of athletes and celebrities. And we had the NBA
Speaker 1: sort of come out very much in favor of this
Speaker 1: of you know, opening arenas up for early voting and
Speaker 1: for election day as well. I've heard sort of varying
Speaker 1: experts or varying opinions from experts as to how much
Speaker 1: that could actually impact turnout. Do you have a take
Speaker 1: on that in terms of what you've seen in those
Speaker 1: efforts to create these sort of super precincts and and
Speaker 1: other elements around getting out the vote, it's definitely a
Speaker 1: net positive um. If nothing else, it's strong a lot
Speaker 1: of attention to early voting voting in general, which is great. UM.
Speaker 1: As for whether or not it will have like a
Speaker 1: measurable impact, that's kind of hard to say. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: there's there's pluses and minuses to these, like mega voting centers.
Speaker 1: The plus is easy to find, yeah, you know, like
Speaker 1: we all know where the stadium is. The minus that
Speaker 1: people need to drive to get to those stadiums, and
Speaker 1: not everyone drives. But plus again this year is it's
Speaker 1: kind of hard to have a socially distanced election, and
Speaker 1: stadiums are huge, so it's actually home for people to
Speaker 1: line up and stand six ft apart. I see nothing
Speaker 1: but positive coming out of this. I think increase awareness
Speaker 1: is always wonderful. I mean, we know our our government
Speaker 1: will spend money working to increase turnout, so it comes
Speaker 1: it falls to the rest of us. And that's Deborah Cleaver,
Speaker 1: the CEO of Vote America. Obviously, voting is talked about
Speaker 1: all the time, and in a different way here given
Speaker 1: the pandemic and so much politicization of the simple act
Speaker 1: of voting. You're listening to Bloomberg business Week. Coming up,
Speaker 1: we hear from the author of After the Gig, how
Speaker 1: the sharing economy got hijacked and how to win it back.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol
Speaker 1: Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. Welcome back to
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week. I'm Jason Kelly. We're bringing you some
Speaker 1: of the highlights from our daily radio show and podcast.
Speaker 1: Carol Master, she was off this week, so I'm joining
Speaker 1: throughout the show by Alex Steele. Well, Alex and I
Speaker 1: got a chance to talk with Juliette Shore, a well
Speaker 1: known author and sociologist. She teaches at Boston College. She's
Speaker 1: got a new book out, Apropos for Labor Day. It's
Speaker 1: called After the Gig, How the sharing economy got hijacked
Speaker 1: and how to win it back, And she told us
Speaker 1: about a decade of research that went into this book.
Speaker 1: I was writing a book in two thousand eight nine
Speaker 1: about sort of how we could respond to what at
Speaker 1: that time, of course, was the financial collapse and economic
Speaker 1: problems and the climate crisis. It was really interested in
Speaker 1: ways that people could begin to be more self sufficient,
Speaker 1: the link from jobs they really didn't want to be
Speaker 1: in corporate you know, kind of rat race jobs. And
Speaker 1: one of the things I started looking at as they
Speaker 1: were just being founded, were new sharing economy initiatives, things
Speaker 1: like Airbnb. Originally the ride share companies now now no
Speaker 1: longer really ride share, but um so these things were
Speaker 1: all just getting started, they were being founded just as
Speaker 1: I was writing that book. As soon as I finished
Speaker 1: that book, I started on a research project and I've
Speaker 1: spent the last ten years studying the sort of early
Speaker 1: promise of the gig or what was called the sharing economy,
Speaker 1: and then of course how things developed. So in in
Speaker 1: your research, was there one big takeaway that you learned
Speaker 1: from this? Well, I say there too. I mean the
Speaker 1: first one is that these were This technology that these
Speaker 1: platforms us is really great and it does hold wonderful promise.
Speaker 1: But the platforms came to be, they were founded by
Speaker 1: and then investors came in people who really weren't interested
Speaker 1: in having them achieve all the social benefits um that
Speaker 1: you know, they were promising in the early days, and
Speaker 1: they really just went for market domination, growth and profitability,
Speaker 1: and and they kind of commercialized what was originally supposed
Speaker 1: to be a very personal person to person kind of
Speaker 1: economic structure. So that's one takeaway is sort of, you know, greed,
Speaker 1: greed got the better of these things. Um. But there's
Speaker 1: one other really important finding in our book, which is
Speaker 1: that people who were just using these platforms for extra
Speaker 1: income what we call supplemental income, mostly had really good
Speaker 1: experiences on them. And whether we're talking airbnb, ride heals.
Speaker 1: We looked at a lot of task Rabbit, which is
Speaker 1: a kind of errands and home home based work platform
Speaker 1: people who were trying to earn a living on them.
Speaker 1: We're really having to struggle, and you know, many of
Speaker 1: them were earning below the poverty line. We didn't have
Speaker 1: any of those what we call dependent earners who were
Speaker 1: actually making a good living. So one of the problems
Speaker 1: is that more and more people on these platforms are
Speaker 1: people who need to make a living on them, and
Speaker 1: that's especially true in ride hail and food delivery. So
Speaker 1: the that's another really important thing that I think has
Speaker 1: has gotten lost, which is that they're they're really not
Speaker 1: feasible as jobs. And yet of course many you know,
Speaker 1: they they offer themselves as as being able to provide
Speaker 1: like a real income to people, especially ride hail food delivery,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't work. And Juliette, I got to ask you,
Speaker 1: I mean, you've been doing this research, as you said,
Speaker 1: really looking into this for the better part of a decade,
Speaker 1: and here we get to and I feel like everything
Speaker 1: gets turned upside down, including the gig economy, the sharing economy,
Speaker 1: however you wanted to find it, every aspect of every
Speaker 1: economy got turned upside down. Absolutely. I mean, right hailing collapsed.
Speaker 1: Suddenly there was insatiable demand for in store shoppers and
Speaker 1: delivery UM. The other thing that we're seeing in the
Speaker 1: interviews we're doing is that these workers can't get work
Speaker 1: anymore because the companies have hired so many people. There
Speaker 1: was a story out Bloomberg today about UM, a group
Speaker 1: of delivery workers on Amazon who were positioning phones in
Speaker 1: trees right next to the stores as a way of
Speaker 1: being the first one because that the algorithm picks the
Speaker 1: closest phoones. So it's gotten really brutal out there. Our
Speaker 1: people were interviewing or telling us that, you know, other
Speaker 1: people are using bots to snag ships, and so they
Speaker 1: can't get work anymore. So, yes, it's really upended a
Speaker 1: lot of people's lives. And that's Boston College sociology professor
Speaker 1: Juliet Shore, author of the new book After the Gig
Speaker 1: Hick that up you will learn a ton about where
Speaker 1: we are in the economy. So much has changed, but
Speaker 1: so much changed in that specific category. We talk about
Speaker 1: the tech companies so much, but the workers. Maybe we
Speaker 1: don't pay enough attention to their struggles and the implications
Speaker 1: both economic and social. You're listening to Bloomberg bus Week
Speaker 1: coming up. Speaking of social justice sports stars they are
Speaker 1: fighting for it publicly. We take a look at how
Speaker 1: protests may impact the world of sports, including their valuations.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol
Speaker 1: Masser and Jason Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. Welcome back to
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week. I'm Jason Kelly, Carol Masser. She was
Speaker 1: taking a much deserved vacation this week, so I was
Speaker 1: joined throughout the week by Alex Steele. We got a
Speaker 1: chance to speak with George Pine. He's an old pal
Speaker 1: of mine. He's now the CEO of Brewin Sports Capital.
Speaker 1: He was the president of IMG interne National also had
Speaker 1: a top job at NASCAR, so he knows the world
Speaker 1: of sports inside and out. Check out what he had
Speaker 1: to say about the state of sports. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: I think it's positive. I think you have players and
Speaker 1: people that I really want to see positive change, better
Speaker 1: things for the country, and believe strongly in social justice.
Speaker 1: And I think people, you know, stood up for what
Speaker 1: they believe, and so I think fundamentally it's a really
Speaker 1: good thing. It's kind of refreshing, and you know, you're
Speaker 1: seeing in the case of these athletes really taking a
Speaker 1: stand on something they believe is a real moral issue. Um,
Speaker 1: they don't have to, that's there, that's not their responsibility,
Speaker 1: but they as as citizens really standing up for something
Speaker 1: they really believe in. So I think it's fundamentally a
Speaker 1: good thing. Why hasn't it something like this happened before? Well,
Speaker 1: I think it's an evil. I think it's an evolution.
Speaker 1: And I think also to watching What's Happened, you know,
Speaker 1: on on TV through social media, it's just so disturbing
Speaker 1: that I think it's brought a real more emphasis to
Speaker 1: an issue that we all know. It's been there a
Speaker 1: long time, but us key, it's just to watch it
Speaker 1: is visceral for so many people. So I think I
Speaker 1: think it's a good thing. And of course you've had
Speaker 1: if you think back, I mean, I think these moments
Speaker 1: also make you think about people like Bill Russell or
Speaker 1: Muhammad Ali or Jesse oh And or Jackie Robinson, and
Speaker 1: just the things that they did and the challenges they
Speaker 1: must have faced. It just really makes you appreciate them,
Speaker 1: I think a little bit more today as well. So
Speaker 1: I guess sports has always been a platform for some change,
Speaker 1: but I think now you're seeing it being used in
Speaker 1: a more universal way, and I think a very constructive way. Well,
Speaker 1: And it's interesting, George, to think about how sports are
Speaker 1: being played right now. And I was speaking with somebody
Speaker 1: earlier in the sports world, and they were saying that
Speaker 1: the power is in part owing to the concentration of
Speaker 1: athletes and the focus to some extent, I mean this
Speaker 1: notion that just taking the NBA for a second, that
Speaker 1: all of these players, all of these teams, you know,
Speaker 1: the majority, not every team and not every player, but
Speaker 1: the majority were in one place and able to get
Speaker 1: together in one room and and make decisions. So the
Speaker 1: moment in some ways has met them. And all of
Speaker 1: this is sort of coming together, this nexus of the
Speaker 1: of the pandemic as well as facing down structural racism,
Speaker 1: some of it in it in an almost perverse way,
Speaker 1: has been made possible by the pandemic. Well, the fact
Speaker 1: that the players were together it probably did make it
Speaker 1: that much easier for them to act. I think the
Speaker 1: other kind of inspiring moment and all this is all
Speaker 1: the other sports that that joined in that weren't that
Speaker 1: weren't in one location, and and you know, almost universally
Speaker 1: professional sports and college sports you know, stood together and
Speaker 1: made it, made us stay and so I think, you know,
Speaker 1: it's inspiring. I think it's a good thing. And uh,
Speaker 1: you know, hopefully, you know, better things will come. I
Speaker 1: mean sports is not the pantasy to solve all problems,
Speaker 1: but it is a platform and uh, and people can't
Speaker 1: make a positive contribution to hopefully moving things forward in
Speaker 1: a constructive fashion. Um, broughting it out a little bit
Speaker 1: just to talk about playing sports? Um, what kind of
Speaker 1: sports are we gonna keep playing? Like? Are we gonna
Speaker 1: get used to? Oh, a bunch of these players got
Speaker 1: to got tested and therefore we're gonna stop games for
Speaker 1: about a week and then we'll pick it back up.
Speaker 1: Like is that going to be the new normal for
Speaker 1: sports now? Too? Well? I think so. I mean, as
Speaker 1: long as you're living in the pandemic, you know, anything's possible.
Speaker 1: I think when you look at it on balance, it's
Speaker 1: been amazingly done well. I mean, the NHLs had zero
Speaker 1: positive tests, hasn't canceled a contest. I mean, NBA hasn't
Speaker 1: canceled a contest and has had very few positive tests. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, NASCAR gone off well, PGA Tour, you know,
Speaker 1: the National women's soccer league did really well and had
Speaker 1: a really good TV writing. You know, the only sports
Speaker 1: that's had a real, real, real challenge has been baseball,
Speaker 1: where they don't haven't played in the bubble, but even
Speaker 1: there they've played the most games they've had a canceled,
Speaker 1: you know, thirty five or forty games. But still I
Speaker 1: think I've executed it is safely and done really well.
Speaker 1: And you know, the other other areas that don't get
Speaker 1: a lot of coverage. You know, there's about seventy five
Speaker 1: college football teams that have gone through a preseason and
Speaker 1: prior to that train for eight or nine weeks and
Speaker 1: have done that, you know, pretty safely. And that's consistent
Speaker 1: with what we're seeing around the world. People are playing rugby,
Speaker 1: they're playing soccer, and it's being played safely, and so,
Speaker 1: you know, so far, so good. But in this world,
Speaker 1: in this day and age, you know, I suppose anything
Speaker 1: is possible well, and economics have driven some of that,
Speaker 1: whether we like it or not. George, And this is
Speaker 1: something you and I caught up on earlier this summer,
Speaker 1: right as we're getting into it, and you were giving
Speaker 1: me some statistics then about the economic impact taking college football,
Speaker 1: specifically that those teams and those programs have on their
Speaker 1: local markets. So part of this is an economic recovery
Speaker 1: story as much as people wanting sports to come back
Speaker 1: because they like them. Yeah, well it's a I think
Speaker 1: it's gonna be devastating what happens here. I mean to
Speaker 1: take Tuscaloosk, Alabama, whether Alabama players are not this year,
Speaker 1: the economic impact for one games about twenty million dollars
Speaker 1: of games such million, and but you put that out
Speaker 1: to Madison, Wisconsin, Columbus, Ohio, and Knoxville, Tennessee out in Georgia,
Speaker 1: and you know, communities are really depending on these games
Speaker 1: take place. They're not gonna if they take place, there's
Speaker 1: not going to be anywhere near the fans. And not
Speaker 1: to mention, you know, the game day revenue, uh you
Speaker 1: know includes people that sell tickets, security, people that provide concessions,
Speaker 1: service industries, all those industries are getting people who in
Speaker 1: jobs are being furloughed. You know, it's really gonna be
Speaker 1: very quite challenging. And it's gonna be challenging not just
Speaker 1: this year. I mean, best I could tell I think
Speaker 1: about it every day. I think the first half of
Speaker 1: next year for a lot anything live events is going
Speaker 1: to be very difficult, and I think all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: when you say let's go back to live events, I
Speaker 1: don't think everyone's running back is going to be very
Speaker 1: challenged and probably two and you hope that you come
Speaker 1: out of it. Also, at a time when your revenues
Speaker 1: are going down. I remember sweet sales, sponsorship, hospitality, taking
Speaker 1: these consumer products. When those are all going down, your
Speaker 1: costs to run these events are going to go up
Speaker 1: because you have to create a safer environment. So, George,
Speaker 1: you know, one of the interesting things since you and
Speaker 1: I last talked is sports are back, and they're being
Speaker 1: played in a very different way as we were discussing
Speaker 1: at the top of the conversation. But people are watching it.
Speaker 1: I think many people agree, especially when it comes to
Speaker 1: the end be a it's a pretty good product. What
Speaker 1: have we learned about consumption and media and how does
Speaker 1: that become investable for someone like you? Well, I think
Speaker 1: what you're learning is that you know, boy, it's a
Speaker 1: strong television product. I think you know, going into the
Speaker 1: pandemic sports with eighty eight or any nine of the
Speaker 1: top hundred programs on television, and you know that hasn't
Speaker 1: changed here. And on top of it, I mean you
Speaker 1: have sports on top of sports, on top of sports,
Speaker 1: and they're all their ratings are up, so they're getting
Speaker 1: strong ratings. So I think, you know, long term, it's
Speaker 1: a great sector. And for us, the things that we
Speaker 1: see that you know, we have a number of we
Speaker 1: operating thirty countries and you know what we're seeing is
Speaker 1: that you're streaming data, design, things around digital are really
Speaker 1: accelerating and doing well, so you know, and that's not surprising.
Speaker 1: And you know, again, I think even the live event space,
Speaker 1: while I mentioned it's gonna be very difficult, I think
Speaker 1: there'll be reinvenged opportunities. You know. One interesting thing I
Speaker 1: think is what ted Leonsis is doing and DC. I think,
Speaker 1: you know, gambling and arenas are going to be places
Speaker 1: where you're gonna go with your friends to place bets
Speaker 1: and probably gamble on games, not just one game, but
Speaker 1: a number of games. I mean to say, Yankee Stadium,
Speaker 1: you'll go take your buddies and go to watch a game.
Speaker 1: I'm one place bets maybe when the game's not playing,
Speaker 1: and maybe even when there's not a baseball season. So
Speaker 1: I think I think You're gonna see growth in all
Speaker 1: those areas in the future, but the next a couple
Speaker 1: of years and be a little chopped in terms of
Speaker 1: just financially, be a lot of pressure on teams and
Speaker 1: leagues and federations and in the companies around them. So
Speaker 1: there's sort of two parts of that, and one is
Speaker 1: like the ancillary businesses that exist now that are going
Speaker 1: to be struggling versus the new ancillary businesses that are
Speaker 1: up and coming. Um, talk to me about the former
Speaker 1: and what kind of opportunities you see there. Well for us,
Speaker 1: so we we've we've invested in data, so we're at
Speaker 1: data analytics. I think the way sponsorship is going to
Speaker 1: change streaming and technology are areas. And one of the
Speaker 1: companies we have a design company. When I was like
Speaker 1: why is design doing so well? But in the digital world,
Speaker 1: design is more important. So I think all things digital,
Speaker 1: all things gaming, I think those are really going to
Speaker 1: be strong irrespective of the pandemic and are really unaffected
Speaker 1: by the pandemic. And then, like you said, Alex, there
Speaker 1: will be new companies coming along that will be able
Speaker 1: to take advantage of live events or established companies that
Speaker 1: are as part of their return, they're going to have
Speaker 1: to adjust to new opportunities in the world. And that's
Speaker 1: George Pine, the CEO of Bruin Sports Capital, some really
Speaker 1: interesting insights about sports, professional college and otherwise big questions
Speaker 1: not only socially but economically about the world of sports,
Speaker 1: a reminder of just how intrinsic it is to so
Speaker 1: many regional and local and really the national economy. Well,
Speaker 1: that wraps up the weekend. Additional Bloomberg Business Week from
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Radio. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Jason Kelly.
Speaker 1: Be sure to tune into Bloomberg Business Week Radio Live
Speaker 1: Monday through Friday, starting at two pm Wall Street Time.
Speaker 1: You can also watch the show live on YouTube. Just
Speaker 1: search for Bloomberg Global News. And in addition to our
Speaker 1: daily podcast Get That twice a day, download our Business
Speaker 1: Week Extra podcast this week as well. It's right there
Speaker 1: in the feed. It features our full conversation with the
Speaker 1: CEO of Lands and Jerome Griffith. You'll learn a lot
Speaker 1: about him and the business of clothes and fashion. We'll
Speaker 1: be back next week right here at the same time.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg