Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news. This is Bloomberg business
Speaker 1: Week inside from the reporters and editors who bring you
Speaker 1: America's most trusted business magazine plus global business finance and
Speaker 1: tech news. The Bloomberg Business Week Podcast with Carol Messer
Speaker 1: and Tim Stenebek from Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2: Hey, two tech companies that are on our radar today.
Speaker 2: That includes an Amazon related story as a rate of
Speaker 2: goods that may have been headed for Amazon. We'll get
Speaker 2: more on that in just a moment, but first we
Speaker 2: want to talk about Micron.
Speaker 3: Yeah, investors shipping away this year's more than a thirty
Speaker 3: percent rally as the largest US maker of computer memory
Speaker 3: chips dropped efforts forecast disappointed investors who are looking for
Speaker 3: a bigger payoff from AI mania. This report, Carol definitely
Speaker 3: won about investor expectations and from Micron having to deliver
Speaker 3: and then.
Speaker 2: Some Micron shares by the way right now down about
Speaker 2: six percent, down nearly eight percent and at their lows today.
Speaker 4: Let's get to it.
Speaker 2: Bloomberg News US Semiconductor and networking reporter Ian King back
Speaker 2: with us from our San Francisco bureau. Ian, you know,
Speaker 2: as we were breaking down Micron's results last night. I
Speaker 2: got to say, we were scratching our heads a bit
Speaker 2: at first because the results seemed pretty good. So we're
Speaker 2: exactly is the miser disappointment? Is it just again about
Speaker 2: investor expectations for this one?
Speaker 5: No, you've nailed it. That's absolutely the case. I mean,
Speaker 5: they're predicting that revenue is going to be up over
Speaker 5: ninety percent in the current period, which you know is
Speaker 5: not a bad performance. I mean, obviously last year was
Speaker 5: a particularly brutal year for this industry, for this particular
Speaker 5: part of the industry. But you know, there was nothing
Speaker 5: wrong with the numbers according to all of the you
Speaker 5: know what the analysts said. It was just that some
Speaker 5: of the higher estimates. You know, we're in the sort
Speaker 5: of eight billion dollar range for the quarter, and obviously
Speaker 5: they didn't come out and be that bullish, but really
Speaker 5: nothing wrong with the direction that the company's heading in
Speaker 5: terms of fundamentals.
Speaker 3: We're talking about this as we're preparing for the segment.
Speaker 3: It's the largest US maker of memory chips, and to
Speaker 3: what extent does it play in AI and just remind
Speaker 3: everybody where it is in the chip space compared to
Speaker 3: all the other companies that you and we follow.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean in terms of AI, we're still at
Speaker 5: the beginning stages of that having an impact on the
Speaker 5: memory chip industry. But according to Micron and its competitors,
Speaker 5: it's going to have an absolutely profound impact for a
Speaker 5: number of reasons. But basically the biggest reason is if
Speaker 5: you want to train a model faster, you bombard it
Speaker 5: with information. The best way to bombard it with information
Speaker 5: is to have more memory and have that memory be
Speaker 5: much at faster at providing that information. So we've got
Speaker 5: this new product called a high bandwidth memory that they're
Speaker 5: pushing able to charge a lot of money for it.
Speaker 5: It's not just a plug and play commodity type product
Speaker 5: or any number of reasons that this will have a
Speaker 5: positive impact on the memory chip industry and Micron, but
Speaker 5: we are at the beginning stages of that.
Speaker 2: Hey, one last quick question and anything for you not
Speaker 2: answered on the Micron earnings call. Just got about thirty
Speaker 2: seconds here.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, I'd got a lot of questions on
Speaker 5: where are we in terms of that HBM memory introduction,
Speaker 5: the problems is it difficult to make? And they said, yes,
Speaker 5: it's difficult to make, but We're doing exactly what we
Speaker 5: said we would. Was still on Cove.
Speaker 2: All right, good stuff as always, Bloomberg News US Semiconductor
Speaker 2: networking reporter Ian King. Now, let's get to Amazon.
Speaker 3: And a police rate of a southern California warehouse filled
Speaker 3: with suspected stolen merchandise that authorities say likely would have
Speaker 3: ended up on online marketplaces run by Amazon and other
Speaker 3: retailers with one on his Bloomberg exclusive. Here's Bloomberg News
Speaker 3: Technology and e commerce reporter Spencer Soaper with us from
Speaker 3: Southern California. Spencer, you're outside of Seattle, where you usually are.
Speaker 3: Talk to us a little bit about where you are
Speaker 3: and how the raid unfolded this morning.
Speaker 6: Yes, so we're here in Santa Anna. It's about thirty
Speaker 6: miles south of Los Angeles. We're right off the Interstate
Speaker 6: five freeway here, and there's a warehouse behind that is
Speaker 6: actually like a liquidation business. You know, these can be
Speaker 6: legit businesses where they get products that are damaged or
Speaker 6: returned and then and then resell them. But police California
Speaker 6: Highway Patrol rated this location this morning because they suspected
Speaker 6: that it's involved in trafficking of stolen goods. And a
Speaker 6: lot of the stuff that they've pulled out you can
Speaker 6: see is right next to me. Here you've got like
Speaker 6: space heaters, and you look on down the line. Then
Speaker 6: there's there's wine coolers, there's dog food down there. There's
Speaker 6: just all kinds of stuff. They're bringing it out one
Speaker 6: palette at a time. And a telltale signed for law
Speaker 6: enforcement was something like this is when it's a bunch
Speaker 6: of the same products wrapped up in in nice new
Speaker 6: boxes like we're seeing here. They say, that's very suspicious
Speaker 6: because generally a liquidator is going to have just like
Speaker 6: a jumble of different stuff in like damage boxes that
Speaker 6: have been returned.
Speaker 2: Spencer, as we said, you know this is an exclusive.
Speaker 4: What led you to this story? What led police to
Speaker 4: this raid?
Speaker 6: Well, this has been an ongoing effort to crack down
Speaker 6: on cargo theft. If it's a huge problem, it just
Speaker 6: keeps going up every year with no end in sight.
Speaker 6: Cargo theft nationally was up about fifty percent in the
Speaker 6: first quarter compared to the same period a year ago,
Speaker 6: and that number just keeps going up. So it was
Speaker 6: basically a routine law enforcement bust here and their efforts
Speaker 6: to try to shut down what's known as a fence,
Speaker 6: because once cargo thieves take this inventory, those generally get it.
Speaker 7: They're getting it by the truck load.
Speaker 6: Usually from a warehouse. They're often impersonating the person who's
Speaker 6: supposed to pick up that truck load, so no one
Speaker 6: even knows that they're thieves stealing stuff. They just kind
Speaker 6: of show up and pick it up, and then it
Speaker 6: can wind up in a place like this, And the
Speaker 6: effectiveness of shutting down a fence is it just makes
Speaker 6: it harder for cargo thieves to find a place to
Speaker 6: turn their stolen goods into cash. And so that's why
Speaker 6: they're hoping that this can maybe cool things off a
Speaker 6: little bit.
Speaker 3: Nay Spencer, I think a lot of consumers understand the
Speaker 3: implications of shoplifting in the sense of, Okay, we see
Speaker 3: security increasingly at stores. We see going into stores things
Speaker 3: locked up behind plastic and you have to ask a
Speaker 3: sales associate for for help getting some toothpaste or deodorant
Speaker 3: or something. What are the implications of cargo theft? Talk
Speaker 3: to us about what happens to prices, what happens to insurance,
Speaker 3: and what happens to bottom lines.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's that's a really great question a point, and
Speaker 6: that's exactly it is. It's the cost is just going
Speaker 6: to get spread out to everyone. You know, the the
Speaker 6: retailers can take a loss if they lose the inventory
Speaker 6: that's en route to them. The brands take a loss
Speaker 6: if they're there inventory that's stole, and the insurance companies
Speaker 6: take a take a hit, the legitimate logistics companies take
Speaker 6: a hit. And there are estimates that this is like
Speaker 6: a you know, seven hundred million dollar problem annually. So
Speaker 6: it's it's a it's a big problem, and just like shoplifting,
Speaker 6: it's hit the point where executives have to talk about
Speaker 6: it on earnings calls. They have to talk about their
Speaker 6: money they're losing from theft, either shoplifting or more organized
Speaker 6: cargo theft rings and so it is a problem that
Speaker 6: affects everybody.
Speaker 7: Well.
Speaker 3: As we mentioned Spencer, this authority is saying that the
Speaker 3: stolen goods, allegedly stolen goods behind you would likely end
Speaker 3: up on a marketplace on Amazon or perhaps other marketplaces
Speaker 3: on the Amazon part of this, You've covered Amazon for years.
Speaker 3: I still think that consumers don't necessarily understand the marketplace
Speaker 3: part of Amazon versus buying directly from Amazon. Talk a
Speaker 3: little bit about how stolen goods could end up on
Speaker 3: what many would consider a legitimate service like Amazon.
Speaker 6: Yes, so if you buy something on Amazon, sixty percent
Speaker 6: of the products sold on Amazon come from independent merchants.
Speaker 6: It's kind of like going to a mole and going
Speaker 6: into a store. You're not buying from the mole, You're
Speaker 6: buying from that particular store. So the Amazon is like
Speaker 6: the digital version of that. So I've got a truck
Speaker 6: backing up next to me. So basically, if you have
Speaker 6: stolen goods and you want to unload them, selling it
Speaker 6: on Amazon is really a good way to do it
Speaker 6: because you almost put some legitimacy in to it. Someone thinks, oh,
Speaker 6: I'm buying this from from Amazon, it must be legit
Speaker 6: as opposed to like the other day I was in
Speaker 6: Seattle and a guy was selling pork chops out of
Speaker 6: a gym bag. You know, I'm not I'm not really
Speaker 6: trusting the supply chain of that operation. Whereas if I
Speaker 6: see it on Amazon and it's new, I might I
Speaker 6: might buy that.
Speaker 2: Our producer Elizabeth talking about somebody selling dry cleaning clothes
Speaker 2: on the corner like five dollars or something like that. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so it stuff happens in all different forms. What's Amazon's
Speaker 2: role in this, I mean in helping the police and
Speaker 2: other retailers to find these individuals.
Speaker 6: Yeah, Amazon is involved. We know they've been communicating with
Speaker 6: law enforcement that's about this particular situation. That's as far
Speaker 6: as Amazon goes with us on that, But yeah, they are.
Speaker 6: They do have, you know, entire teams dedicated to try
Speaker 6: and identify what might be stolen inventory help law enforcement
Speaker 6: if they're trying to track trace stuff back. And that's
Speaker 6: exactly the problem, right once you lose a cargo container
Speaker 6: of stuff it and it gets out of your site,
Speaker 6: if you don't catch those people in the act of
Speaker 6: doing it, how do you differentiate between what's stolen and
Speaker 6: what isn't Because there's so much inventory and circulation, and
Speaker 6: that's where Amazon can be helpful with law enforcement in
Speaker 6: terms of helping them identify. Yes, this this load was
Speaker 6: supposed to come here on this day and it never arrived,
Speaker 6: or this trailer was taken on this day and it
Speaker 6: never got to its destination. That's where companies like Amazon
Speaker 6: can can be helpful with law enforcement.
Speaker 3: Okay, Spencer for those watching on TV, they can see
Speaker 3: the boxes and palettes stacked up behind you. Do you
Speaker 3: have any understanding from authorities at this point about the
Speaker 3: size and scale of this bust, the value of products
Speaker 3: that was found.
Speaker 6: Yeah, so they're estimating about about seven truckloads right now.
Speaker 6: So these would be big eighteen wheel rigs, so about
Speaker 6: about seven of those and the estimated value of at
Speaker 6: least at least a million dollars.
Speaker 2: All right, real quickly, how often is this happening, these
Speaker 2: cargo thefts?
Speaker 6: So in the first quarter there were nearly a thousand,
Speaker 6: so I mean you're looking at several a day in
Speaker 6: southern California is a real hotspot California, Texas, Illinois or
Speaker 6: where most of the stuff is going down. So we're
Speaker 6: kind of right in ground zero of cargo fift right now.
Speaker 4: Well, you are a smack in the middle of it.
Speaker 2: Exclusive reporting Spencer, thank you so much, Bloomberg News Technology
Speaker 2: and e Commerce reporter Spencer sober there in Santa Ana, California,
Speaker 2: smack in the middle of it as they are trying
Speaker 2: to figure out exactly right the complete value of it.
Speaker 4: But he said, what seven truckloads? Did you say?
Speaker 3: Yeah, Wow, it's a lot million dollars worth of goods.
Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Business Week podcast. Catch us
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Speaker 2: Well, yesterday you might recall our chat with the CEO
Speaker 2: of Carnival, Josh Weinstein. He talked about record setting demand
Speaker 2: for cruises that's helping sell tickets at high prices. He
Speaker 2: was our higher prices. He was incredibly beat. We wanted
Speaker 2: to know more when it comes to summer travel. So
Speaker 2: that brings us to our next guest and the online
Speaker 2: travel company Booking Holdings, a belt weather for global travel,
Speaker 2: and the owner of Priceline, Kayak rental Cars, Open table
Speaker 2: and so much more with us right now is Priceline
Speaker 2: CEO Brett Keller joining us from Norwalk, Connecticut. Brett, great
Speaker 2: to have you here.
Speaker 7: How are you doing very well gearing up for the
Speaker 7: Fourth of July weekend?
Speaker 4: Here we'll talk about gearing up.
Speaker 2: What are you expecting for Fourth of July and really
Speaker 2: summer travel overall.
Speaker 8: Sure, Well, let's start with the holiday, because what we're
Speaker 8: seeing this summer is demand really compressing into the holiday periods,
Speaker 8: and fourth of July is typically the biggest of the year,
Speaker 8: and I think that's certainly teen up already. At the airports,
Speaker 8: we're seeing you know, good healthy demand flowing through TSA
Speaker 8: checkpoints up anywhere from you know, six to ten percent,
Speaker 8: and we should see another record breaking I think holiday
Speaker 8: versus where we were back in twenty nineteen. Now with
Speaker 8: that said, you know, if you compare it to two
Speaker 8: thousand and ninete, we're really where we should be in
Speaker 8: twenty twenty one in terms of overall volumes. But of
Speaker 8: course with the pandemic, we're now just really coming out
Speaker 8: of that and still feeling some strength there. So things
Speaker 8: are looking good. We should have over seventy million visitors
Speaker 8: on the road, either mostly by car and then of
Speaker 8: course the rest by flight or bus.
Speaker 3: Where you seeing particular strength or maybe changes in trends
Speaker 3: that you didn't see in previous years this year.
Speaker 8: Sure, we last year it was the year of Europe,
Speaker 8: and we had a lot of outbound travel heading over
Speaker 8: to Europe. This year, we're seeing some of that mix
Speaker 8: flow back into kind of nearby zones within the US,
Speaker 8: So folks flying down to Mexico, flying to the Caribbean,
Speaker 8: even out to Hawaii. So we're seeing somewhat closer destination
Speaker 8: travel taking place, and of course some happening more in Asia.
Speaker 8: Asia has been a very hot destination this year as
Speaker 8: things now there are fully opened up, especially with the
Speaker 8: end to dollar ratio, a lot of travel going into
Speaker 8: Japan and especially into Tokyo Kyoto. Those areas so hot markets. Obviously,
Speaker 8: the Olympics are going to help your pickup as we
Speaker 8: get into later in July, and so that will help
Speaker 8: props in business there as well.
Speaker 2: Hey, Brett, any sign that travelers are looking to trade down,
Speaker 2: are looking for bargains or you see that on the
Speaker 2: provider side of things where they are making deals cutting prices.
Speaker 8: Not in a material way. No, we've seen flight prices
Speaker 8: come down quite a bit over the last year. Flight
Speaker 8: prices are down almost fifteen percent, but that's largely due
Speaker 8: to expanded supply. So airlines have opened up more supply.
Speaker 8: American Airlines recently announced they've opened up eight percent more capacity,
Speaker 8: and so with that capacity that helps pull prices down
Speaker 8: for consumers, which is great. On the accommodation side, however,
Speaker 8: prices are still up a couple percentage points. And so
Speaker 8: you know, the major hotel chains here in the US
Speaker 8: are doing everything possible to keep their prices up. They
Speaker 8: don't want to see those prices fall, as that's what
Speaker 8: they lean on to drive their profitability.
Speaker 7: So they've been doing a pretty decent job of that.
Speaker 8: But again in some of the valley periods, as we
Speaker 8: move through the summer, we are hearing from our partners
Speaker 8: that there's some help needed there to fill some excess
Speaker 8: capacity as and again in the accommodation space, there's always
Speaker 8: excess capacity.
Speaker 7: They'd love to fill it all if they can, but
Speaker 7: that just isn't possible.
Speaker 3: It's interesting because you know, Carol and I have been
Speaker 3: hitting the road doing some traveling lately, and the prices
Speaker 3: that we've seen in some of the cities that we've
Speaker 3: gone to for hotels have just been absolutely astronomical. I mean,
Speaker 3: in some cases we're going from three digits to four
Speaker 3: digits a night.
Speaker 9: Brett.
Speaker 3: It's just shocking to see that the prices go up
Speaker 3: so much. Are you only seeing that in major metropolitan
Speaker 3: areas around sort of peak travel times with business conferences
Speaker 3: and the like, or is that a new sort of
Speaker 3: trend that we're seeing.
Speaker 8: Yeah, for the most part, I think that's true. Take
Speaker 8: New York City as an example, right, New York City
Speaker 8: put in some legislation that prevents alternative accommodations from really
Speaker 8: expanding there. So that's put additional pressure.
Speaker 3: Talking about the ban on airbnbs.
Speaker 8: Here, yes exactly, and so that obviously drives prices higher
Speaker 8: on the the hotel side. And New York has had
Speaker 8: a lot of inflow from outside of the US in
Speaker 8: terms of traffic coming in again now that it's fully
Speaker 8: opened up from other countries, a lot more visitors coming
Speaker 8: in from China, which was not the case a year ago.
Speaker 8: So that's helping to keep prices up in New York.
Speaker 8: As you move to some other marketplaces, though, like Vegas
Speaker 8: and Orlando, which are really high leisure destination centers, you know,
Speaker 8: those seem to be not pushing up as high on
Speaker 8: the pricing point, and especially if you're not traveling in
Speaker 8: the peak vacation periods, you can get some amazing and
Speaker 8: incredible deals in those markets because there is so much
Speaker 8: supply in those markets.
Speaker 2: Right, you talked about the importance of the July fourth
Speaker 2: holiday and your expectations around it. How does what happens
Speaker 2: July fourth, the week around it, if you will, and
Speaker 2: what that kind of how it sets the tone maybe
Speaker 2: for the rest of the summer season.
Speaker 8: Well, that's a great question, and it's always hard to
Speaker 8: predict because you know, the fourth of July is really
Speaker 8: the peak travel period in the summer, and then people
Speaker 8: usually anchor their other vacation in time off around that.
Speaker 8: So it is a good indicator that leisure demand will
Speaker 8: continue through the summer at a healthy pace. However, again
Speaker 8: it's really business is carrying a lot more of the
Speaker 8: weight right now, I think in the travel industry than
Speaker 8: is the leisure traveler. So while it's great to see
Speaker 8: leisure demand peaking during the fourth of July, the industry
Speaker 8: is going to lean a lot more heavily on the
Speaker 8: business sector as we move through the rest of the
Speaker 8: year because business is growing at a healthier clip than
Speaker 8: leisure demand is. Right now, I think leisure travelers are
Speaker 8: really filling the pinch when it comes to the cost
Speaker 8: of airline tickets especially, and all of the other expenses
Speaker 8: that they're trying to fill, whereas on the business side,
Speaker 8: there's still growth there and that I think is predicted
Speaker 8: to growing. Where from seven to eight percent, which will
Speaker 8: be a real help and offset to some of this
Speaker 8: softening leisure side.
Speaker 2: As Tim said, we have been doing more traveling as
Speaker 2: of late. The business sector in terms of travel, how
Speaker 2: much does it still have to kind of catch up
Speaker 2: to where it was pre pandemic.
Speaker 8: Yeah, we're still about ten percentage points off of where
Speaker 8: we we're in twenty nineteen, so a little bit more
Speaker 8: to go.
Speaker 7: Whereas leisure exceeded.
Speaker 8: Twenty nineteen and twenty twenty two at the end of
Speaker 8: twenty two, so the leisure side really rebounded first and
Speaker 8: is now starting to, you know, kind of move into
Speaker 8: a more normal cyclical pattern, whereas business is still trying
Speaker 8: to catch up. And so the more business that can
Speaker 8: lay on top of that leisure demand, which already has
Speaker 8: caught up, it just makes for you know, a there
Speaker 8: is still growth happening in the in the travel business
Speaker 8: here in North America.
Speaker 3: Hey, Brett, how are you feeling in terms of your
Speaker 3: comfort being in the online travel agency space right now?
Speaker 3: Given that anytime you go on an airline or call
Speaker 3: an airline, they remind people, okay, the best place to
Speaker 3: book is directly with the airline. How comfortable are you
Speaker 3: feeling being this sort of middle person right now.
Speaker 8: Sure, Well, you know, listen, any company wants their customer
Speaker 8: to book directly with them, and the reason that online
Speaker 8: travel agencies exist is because we provide really compelling value.
Speaker 8: So the question is, okay, so what's the value we provide,
Speaker 8: And there's a number of points here to offer. One
Speaker 8: is clearly our ability to drive comparison shopping. So you know,
Speaker 8: when you come to price Line, we don't show you
Speaker 8: one or two suppliers. We literally show you everybody, every airline,
Speaker 8: every hotel, chain partner, every independent property, and so you
Speaker 8: can make a really educated decision as a customer. The
Speaker 8: second is we're constantly fighting for you to find the
Speaker 8: very best deal that we can get from our partners,
Speaker 8: and oftentimes when you come here you sign in, we're
Speaker 8: going to get you a better price than what you
Speaker 8: can find in many other locations around the world. And
Speaker 8: so those are the couple of values that we provide.
Speaker 8: We provide packaging where we can bundle these things together
Speaker 8: and drive our prices even more.
Speaker 4: Brett ten seconds. Where are you going this summer?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 7: I'm heading to Idaho. My favorite day in the summer.
Speaker 8: Got to get out into the woods, do a little running,
Speaker 8: a little fishing, and just enjoy some decompression time.
Speaker 4: All right, sounds pretty magical. All right.
Speaker 2: Brett Keller, thank you so much, Chief executive officer at Priceline,
Speaker 2: joining us from Norwalk, Connecticut.
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Speaker 10: My got it, Get to Denny's to get it one
Speaker 10: on list.
Speaker 3: Just You're a perfect song. Paul Brennan for our next interview,
Speaker 3: thank you. You'll recall yesterday we were joined by the
Speaker 3: CEO of Carnival, who gave us his view that consumer spending,
Speaker 3: at least when it comes to booking Carnival cruises, continues
Speaker 3: to be very strong.
Speaker 2: All right, So we've got a question, how are consumers
Speaker 2: feeling when it comes to eating out at restaurants? The
Speaker 2: data tell us one story. Spending at restaurants in the
Speaker 2: United States decline four tens of a percent in the
Speaker 2: month of May compared to the month before. That's according
Speaker 2: to last week's read on retail sales figures. While overall
Speaker 2: retail sales there rose and anemic one tenth of one percent.
Speaker 3: Meanwhile, employment in food services and drinking places, according to
Speaker 3: the Non farm payrolls report for last month, continue to
Speaker 3: trend highre in May, rising by twenty five thousand. But
Speaker 3: for review from the front lines, we're joined by Denny's
Speaker 3: President and CEO, Kelly Valaid. She joins us from Dallas, Dennis.
Speaker 3: We should not. It's a small cap. It's got a
Speaker 3: market value around three hundred and sixty million dollars. The
Speaker 3: stock down about thirty six percent so far this year. Kelly,
Speaker 3: good to have you with us. We know Denny's is
Speaker 3: doing some really interesting stuff when it comes to DEI,
Speaker 3: we're going to get to that in it just a bit.
Speaker 3: But first, you've got more than sixteen hundred restaurants, most
Speaker 3: of which are in the US. You've got a great
Speaker 3: view of what's going on with the consumer. In your view,
Speaker 3: how is the American consumer doing?
Speaker 10: Yeah, thank you, it's great to be here. I appreciate
Speaker 10: the opportunity to talk today and talk all things consumer
Speaker 10: and then some conversations about d and I and I
Speaker 10: think with the consumer today, it's a tough time for all.
Speaker 10: I think people are still spending, but as we know,
Speaker 10: they are spending and using credit to do so. And
Speaker 10: I think they are also hearing and feeling this narrative
Speaker 10: of the rising costs that have happened for all industries,
Speaker 10: and they're looking.
Speaker 11: For great value.
Speaker 10: They're looking for great value, and they're coming to places
Speaker 10: when they see They're going to restaurants when they see
Speaker 10: there's a great value.
Speaker 11: We have that at Denny's.
Speaker 10: We're on air today with our all day diner deals
Speaker 10: and really that resonates with guests at a time when
Speaker 10: they know they need to know they can count on
Speaker 10: people like in brands like Denny's to meet them where
Speaker 10: they are. So I think, yeah, I think transactions slightly
Speaker 10: slightly down. That's that's been the case in the industry
Speaker 10: for some time, and so the stronger brands capturing traffic
Speaker 10: is the name of the game. Doing that with great
Speaker 10: a great value proposition is Denny's sweet spot, and it's
Speaker 10: where we'll continue to really make sure our consumers know.
Speaker 2: Kelly, one thing I want to go back to you said,
Speaker 2: you know, people are using credit now. To be fair,
Speaker 2: I do everything on kind of a credit card. Nobody
Speaker 2: carries cash anymore for the most part, And I love
Speaker 2: the point. So I'm just trying to understand how do
Speaker 2: we kind of write because most of us, I think,
Speaker 2: are using their credit card to do most things now nowadays,
Speaker 2: or our bank cards. So I'm just trying to put
Speaker 2: that in context. Or is there something you are seeing
Speaker 2: that people are actually going into debt to eat out that.
Speaker 11: Is exactly not to eat out.
Speaker 10: But I just mean that discretionary spend being where it is,
Speaker 10: it is hitting our consumers and certainly hitting the middle
Speaker 10: to lower income consumer a bit more so. Not not
Speaker 10: necessarily using credit cards more to pay for food, but
Speaker 10: just in general dipping into their own savings and dipping
Speaker 10: into their own and maybe having more credit card debt.
Speaker 11: Is what I meant by that. Thank you for thank you.
Speaker 2: No, I just wanted to make sure I read you right.
Speaker 2: So Kelly and you talk about, you know, those that
Speaker 2: really kind of will win within the industry, or those
Speaker 2: that are thinking about the value for their customers. How
Speaker 2: have you guys been adjusting that to meet for your customers.
Speaker 2: Let's say over the last month or so or the
Speaker 2: last couple of months.
Speaker 10: Absolutely, So yes, we brought back something that we've had
Speaker 10: in the pantry, I would say, right, something we've used
Speaker 10: in the past to really again meet those consumers where
Speaker 10: they are. We see what's happening in quick service and
Speaker 10: in fast food, and so for us, we're on air
Speaker 10: with our all Day Diner Deals offering right now, which
Speaker 10: is a starting price at not five ninety nine and
Speaker 10: six items under that all Day Diner Deals menu available
Speaker 10: twenty four to seven in many locations.
Speaker 11: So we're leaning into.
Speaker 10: That we'll actually be continuing to innovate all summer long
Speaker 10: around even the next evolution of a great value proposition
Speaker 10: and great value offer. Everyday value at Denny's is something
Speaker 10: we want every consumer to know they can count on us.
Speaker 3: For the vast majority of your restaurants are franchised, but
Speaker 3: you do have you do operate restaurants, So from an
Speaker 3: operating perspective, talk to us about the costs that are
Speaker 3: associated with those restaurants in terms of food, in terms
Speaker 3: of labor. Are you starting to see that stabilized or
Speaker 3: is it still tough to attract and retain workers and
Speaker 3: are you still seeing food prices rise.
Speaker 10: So food sale, I'll seek food first, and that part
Speaker 10: of your question. First food, the commodities environment as a
Speaker 10: whole has stabilized, and yet there were so many years
Speaker 10: the cumulative inflation has still made it a higher environment
Speaker 10: and cost higher on food overall, although it is stabilized
Speaker 10: significantly in the last twelve months. On labor, we don't necessarily.
Speaker 10: We are feeling really good. We've got great retention programs
Speaker 10: in place, not only for our company restaurants we operate
Speaker 10: sixty six as you mentioned, and.
Speaker 11: Then for our franchisees.
Speaker 10: We really feel good about what we're seeing in terms
Speaker 10: of the stabilization even in markets like California, stabilization of
Speaker 10: the labor situation and our turnover our retention is pretty
Speaker 10: strong given how we take care of our employees in
Speaker 10: the company restaurants.
Speaker 11: We have so those things have stabilized.
Speaker 4: Yes, no, I'm sorry, please finish, go ahead, just.
Speaker 10: Say both have stabilized to some extent. The run up
Speaker 10: and the cumulative effect over the years certainly changed the
Speaker 10: business model in general for all restaurants. These last few
Speaker 10: years have been difficult, and again there was such a
Speaker 10: run up for so long, especially on food costs. Though
Speaker 10: it's stabilized, there's still an effect there to the business
Speaker 10: model that we're all mindful of.
Speaker 2: You've been in this industry for a while, You've seen
Speaker 2: the ups and downs of it. Obviously, you know understand
Speaker 2: the impact of the pandemic. You are CEO of Red Lobster,
Speaker 2: CEO Black Box Intelligence, you are at Brinker International, you
Speaker 2: are at Chili's.
Speaker 4: You've seen a lot.
Speaker 2: You're now at Denny's and you've been there since June
Speaker 2: of twenty twenty two, so a few years now. How
Speaker 2: would you describe kind of the current cycle for the
Speaker 2: restaurant industry, especially within this space that Denny's operates within.
Speaker 10: Sure, I think absolutely this is an industry that is
Speaker 10: a resilient industry. Denny's is a resilient brand. And though
Speaker 10: there are some there's movements, and you referenced, you know,
Speaker 10: a couple of the different brands. There's movement in the industry. Always,
Speaker 10: there are winners, and there is room for great brands
Speaker 10: to continue. A brand like Denny's being as resilient as
Speaker 10: it is seventy years young. We absolutely purchased and acquired
Speaker 10: a breakfast Cafe's Breakfast Cafe So we have two brands now,
Speaker 10: one very large flagship brand and then one that we
Speaker 10: are really bullish about and excited about growing. And there's
Speaker 10: room for that. So there's room for great brands that
Speaker 10: are resilience. There's room for great brands that again are
Speaker 10: meeting their consumers where they are today and are responding
Speaker 10: to the model that's in place today and strengthening the
Speaker 10: business model all the while.
Speaker 3: So, Kelly, is that where the growth is? Is it
Speaker 3: outside of Denny's for you? Because I look at the
Speaker 3: function on the Bloomberg terminal that shows us how many
Speaker 3: locations you have each year, and you're down from seventeen
Speaker 3: hundred back in twenty fourteen to at the end of
Speaker 3: twenty twenty three to one thousand, six hundred and thirty overall.
Speaker 3: So we've seen a decline when many restaurants have expanded
Speaker 3: the number absolutely.
Speaker 11: So that's a great question. It's a fair question.
Speaker 10: So what you've seen for us is through the pandemic,
Speaker 10: like many other restaurants, you saw declines, you saw closures,
Speaker 10: you saw markets maybe move, trade areas move slightly, and
Speaker 10: then you did see some really difficult decisions for operators
Speaker 10: that didn't either didn't reopen or have struggled since the pandemic.
Speaker 10: We are actually opening quite a few restaurants and we're
Speaker 10: back to opening more restis, John said we did in
Speaker 10: two thousand since twenty eighteen in pre pandemic days. But
Speaker 10: we've got closures that we've been dealing with as well,
Speaker 10: So working with our franchisees, trying to do everything we
Speaker 10: can to strengthen their model, help them where we can.
Speaker 10: But we absolutely that's why you're seeing then that number
Speaker 10: be where it is. So Kiki's stabilizing and continuing to
Speaker 10: thrive for the Denny's brand is the goal. And then
Speaker 10: we've got something brand new that's very small that we
Speaker 10: have a separate now brand team.
Speaker 11: For set up to deliver really big growth.
Speaker 10: And we're excited about the growth that you'll see us
Speaker 10: demonstrate with Piki's in a different segment of the same
Speaker 10: kind of breakfast lunch category.
Speaker 2: Hey, one thing we did want to ask you. We
Speaker 2: mentioned you were CEO at Red Lobster for a short time.
Speaker 2: How did you view the company's recent bankruptcy.
Speaker 10: You know, I'm probably not I was there a very
Speaker 10: short amount of time. I'm probably not in the best
Speaker 10: place to comment on that at this point it was
Speaker 10: a short time and I am in a great place
Speaker 10: here at Denny's, in the place I belong.
Speaker 2: So one of the things we want to ask you,
Speaker 2: because culture is so important, certainly for workers, for customers increasingly,
Speaker 2: we do want to talk to you guys about some
Speaker 2: of the initiatives you are doing when it comes to
Speaker 2: a diversity, equity, inclusion. What is it that really kind
Speaker 2: of drives the strategy at the company.
Speaker 11: Yeah.
Speaker 10: Absolutely, this is something that is so true and so
Speaker 10: foundational to who Denny's is as a brand. This is
Speaker 10: a brand that has never been apollo, that has got
Speaker 10: humble beginnings given this space, but thirty years ago the
Speaker 10: journey to what I would say is best in class,
Speaker 10: a best in class approach to this, a thoughtful and
Speaker 10: intentional approach to a diversity, equity and inclusion for all.
Speaker 10: We say we embrace openness, we are open for all,
Speaker 10: and it is foundational in everything we do.
Speaker 11: So what we do.
Speaker 10: Today and the programs that we have today really started
Speaker 10: thirty years ago, thirty years in the making. And the
Speaker 10: new alliance that we just announced called our Unity and
Speaker 10: the Community Alliance was really just another way to cement
Speaker 10: our commitment, our true commitment.
Speaker 11: To embracing diversity for all.
Speaker 10: And so it's an alliance with multiple organizations that we've
Speaker 10: been working with for many, many years and cementing.
Speaker 11: That true partnership. And now we're just kind of.
Speaker 10: Signing this pledge to say we'll pledge even more to
Speaker 10: demonstrate our commitments through, you know, through and through with
Speaker 10: key organizations. We were just out at Saint Thomas University
Speaker 10: at the Benjamin L. Crump School of Law and donated
Speaker 10: their five hundred thousand dollars scholarship there. We were we
Speaker 10: have many other partnerships and we've committed to three point
Speaker 10: three million dollars over the next multiple years giving to
Speaker 10: those organizations that have been with us, that have supported us.
Speaker 10: And it's built on again multiple years of just being
Speaker 10: standing with and being a part of all these communities
Speaker 10: that we serve.
Speaker 11: We're really proud of the work we do there.
Speaker 3: You know, it's interesting I saw in the notes ahead
Speaker 3: of our interview that our producer Paul sent us that
Speaker 3: you are still referring to these initiatives as DEI initiatives,
Speaker 3: which surprised me because to many people the term DEI
Speaker 3: has become a word that they don't necessarily want to
Speaker 3: use our own. Simon Foxman here at Bloomberg News has
Speaker 3: done some great reporting over the last few months about
Speaker 3: Wall Street Banks retreating on DEI over backlash. How are
Speaker 3: you thinking about that as you lead this company?
Speaker 11: So how we're thinking about it?
Speaker 10: And it's absolutely we pay attention to the narrative and
Speaker 10: we're very conscious of how we think about it. Right
Speaker 10: the head of this effort reports directly to me. She
Speaker 10: is our Chief Inclusion and Community Engagement Officer, that's her title.
Speaker 11: These efforts around diversity, equity, inclusion are so foundational to
Speaker 11: who we are that.
Speaker 10: We don't want to change the narrative. We say we
Speaker 10: are America's diner for today's America, and that means we're
Speaker 10: diverse in every single sense of the word. Our communities,
Speaker 10: every community we serve, every guest we serve, we are
Speaker 10: every franchise e.
Speaker 11: Our franchise e base is.
Speaker 10: Incredibly diverse, our workforce is more diverse, invest in class
Speaker 10: and all of our programs again support that. So changing
Speaker 10: the narrative for us, or changing the name of how
Speaker 10: we've refer to it didn't necessarily make sense for us.
Speaker 10: Because our commitment is it just runs so deep, and
Speaker 10: it would be counter to who we are to say
Speaker 10: as America's diner for today's America that we don't want
Speaker 10: to still embrace this conversation.
Speaker 2: So I will be quite honest with you. You know,
Speaker 2: we are very much thinking about tonight's debate here at Bloomberg,
Speaker 2: and I think a lot of Americans are, and certainly
Speaker 2: the media organization. I'm watching some footage President Biden arriving
Speaker 2: in Atlanta getting ready for the debate, the presidential debate,
Speaker 2: the upcoming elections. How are American politics and the November
Speaker 2: outcome impacting your business or overall strategy.
Speaker 11: It's a great question.
Speaker 10: Election years are always interesting for the restaurant industry. Historically
Speaker 10: they mean lots of people tuning in and maybe not
Speaker 10: dining out. They mean different things depending on what is
Speaker 10: happening in that environment. So not going to comment at
Speaker 10: all on that environment. Our strategies are not impacted. We're
Speaker 10: staying again, very true to who we are and our
Speaker 10: strategies and being very focused on on those strategies so
Speaker 10: that things will happen as they are going to happen,
Speaker 10: and we'll be doing what we do to take care
Speaker 10: of guests and our team members and make sure that
Speaker 10: we are staying focused on the importance of taking care
Speaker 10: of the people we serve.
Speaker 3: Okay, Kelly, before we let you go, we got to
Speaker 3: ask you about in Nvidia.
Speaker 7: And for people who.
Speaker 3: Are watching or listening right now, they might be thinking of themselves.
Speaker 3: Why are you asking the CEO of Denny's about in video?
Speaker 3: Are you guys doing AI? No, it's not that, because
Speaker 3: legend has it that back in the early nineteen nineties
Speaker 3: and Vidia's founders, including Jensen Wog came up with their
Speaker 3: idea for Nvidia aut a Denny's in Silicon Valley, and
Speaker 3: Jensen even worked at a Denny's in Portland when he
Speaker 3: was a teenager. Talk to us about I mean, a
Speaker 3: few months ago you went and met Jensen at that
Speaker 3: Silicon Valley Denny's. Talk to us about what this has
Speaker 3: done for the brand.
Speaker 10: So I'm so grateful to Jensen. I did get to
Speaker 10: meet Jensen. I consider him a friend. He is an
Speaker 10: amazing He's an amazing person. So aside from being the
Speaker 10: most valuable company, all the things that are happening, he's
Speaker 10: an amazing person that we met and we talked about
Speaker 10: our first jobs. His edit Denny's my first job in
Speaker 10: this industry. We connected, but he gives so much credence.
Speaker 10: He's so kind about what he learned at Denny's, how
Speaker 10: he learned to interact and connect with people, the promotions
Speaker 10: he got from dishwasher to then best boy to then server.
Speaker 10: He's an amazing, outstanding individual, and I appreciate the call.
Speaker 11: Outs that he does, the acknowledgment that he does make.
Speaker 10: To what restaurants can do, what a restaurant like Denny's
Speaker 10: can do for you, for you socially, for you know,
Speaker 10: he paid it back by coming into the restaurant. He
Speaker 10: said he was one of the worst customers we've ever
Speaker 10: had because he sat there all night drinking coffee.
Speaker 11: All him one of the best. And I think he's
Speaker 11: He's just truly remarkable. So did it's help, It's been great?
Speaker 11: Did you get great?
Speaker 2: Did you get a black Well chap or anything like?
Speaker 2: Did he say, hey, thanks, Kelly, here's a chip. It's
Speaker 2: worth a million dollars?
Speaker 11: No, I'm just kidding now totally.
Speaker 10: We did do a trillion dollar incubator contest at Denny's
Speaker 10: and inspired.
Speaker 11: Other people, and he voted with me. He was a
Speaker 11: judged with me. But haven't haven't gotten nothing else yet.
Speaker 4: Okay, well he knows that. Call me, call me Jensen.
Speaker 4: All right, Denny's President CEO Kelly Valad joining.
Speaker 11: Us brom.
Speaker 1: Journal.
Speaker 9: How about you let me drive?
Speaker 1: Oh no, no, no, no, who's going to honey? Please gravel?
Speaker 1: Let's wait?
Speaker 2: I want to dry.
Speaker 5: It's good question.
Speaker 1: This is the drive to the clothes.
Speaker 7: Do think we'll buy around on Bluebirg Radio.
Speaker 2: All right, everybody, just about eighteen minutes left in today's
Speaker 2: trading session. Bouncing around here, certainly on the equity trade.
Speaker 2: Remember we've just got you know, today tomorrow, and then
Speaker 2: we wrap up the month of June. We wrap up
Speaker 2: the second quarter, and we wrap up the first half.
Speaker 2: So kind of interesting to think about that heading into
Speaker 2: what will probably be a pretty much of a mellow
Speaker 2: week next week, because we're July fourth holiday.
Speaker 3: I mean, Jessica's you're going.
Speaker 4: To be I'm working, I'm working.
Speaker 3: Can you give a little preview for what you're doing.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna be hosting the Boston Pops.
Speaker 2: Bloomberg has been involved in it for seven years, So
Speaker 2: remain Boston and I are going to go to Boston
Speaker 2: and host it with the Boston Pops. It's really wonderful,
Speaker 2: the July fourth celebrations, so much fun.
Speaker 3: Well, we will certainly be tuning in before we get there, though.
Speaker 4: Some stuff to get to you.
Speaker 3: It's some business to get.
Speaker 4: To we do.
Speaker 3: Let's get to Amanda Gotti. She's chief investment officer at
Speaker 3: PNC Asset Management Group, joining us once again from Philadelphia. Amanda,
Speaker 3: how are you.
Speaker 9: I'm doing great. How are you guys doing?
Speaker 3: We're doing pretty well. Do you agree with with Carol's
Speaker 3: sentiment it's going to be a little sleepy next week
Speaker 3: on this holiday week?
Speaker 9: I think it will be a little sleepy, although we
Speaker 9: might get some early fireworks out of tonight's debate. That's
Speaker 9: the thing that's sort of top of mind at the moment, so.
Speaker 2: Boom, Well, let's go there, play that out for us. Yeah,
Speaker 2: what are the fireworks? And what does it mean from
Speaker 2: your perspective as a chief investment officer? What does it
Speaker 2: mean for investors?
Speaker 5: Well?
Speaker 9: I think really, I mean, I don't know that anything
Speaker 9: tonight is really going to be market moving in nature,
Speaker 9: but it's so so highly anticipated that you know, today's
Speaker 9: economic data comes out it's basically a snoozer relative to
Speaker 9: what might actually happen tonight, and so I don't think
Speaker 9: that the market is going to move necessarily on what happens,
Speaker 9: but it certainly is setting the stage for what we
Speaker 9: might expect over the next few months. At the end
Speaker 9: of the day, the market does not really care about
Speaker 9: who is in the White House. It's really much more
Speaker 9: about the makeup of control. And so it's a holistic
Speaker 9: look at what happens this election cycle. But I think
Speaker 9: I think tonight it'll be very interesting, for sure.
Speaker 3: So one thing that we do know, or we're told
Speaker 3: I guess, is that markets are efficient. It's always pricing
Speaker 3: in future events. And I'm wondering what is priced in
Speaker 3: in your view right now, Amanda. Is it Biden or
Speaker 3: a Trump win, or is it a full control of
Speaker 3: Congress from one party, a split Congress? What's priced in?
Speaker 9: I'm not sure any of it is really priced in.
Speaker 9: I think I think this election cycle is perhaps the
Speaker 9: most complex and most uncertain in history, and so it
Speaker 9: really is anybody's guess at the moment as to what
Speaker 9: the path forward is going to hold. And of course
Speaker 9: it's very polarizing, right the two candidates are at complete
Speaker 9: opposite ends of the spectrum, and so we have seen
Speaker 9: some movement at the margin in terms of companies, industries,
Speaker 9: et cetera, but we don't have any clarity really on
Speaker 9: the path forward. So I think it's a lot less
Speaker 9: about politics and a lot more about the FAB five
Speaker 9: And you know, this concentrated market and the fact that
Speaker 9: financial conditions continue to loosen up a bit. Those are really,
Speaker 9: in my view, the key drivers, at least based on
Speaker 9: where we are at halftime here for this year.
Speaker 2: Of some of the dynamic trends, whether it be the
Speaker 2: consumers holding up, whether it's the artificial intelligence play. I
Speaker 2: do wonder when you think about investment strategies that really
Speaker 2: have longer legs, what are they or don't have longer legs?
Speaker 9: Think, well, I think it's a great question, and it's hard,
Speaker 9: I think in this environment to zoom out. I keep
Speaker 9: talking about one of my favorite asset classes being global infrastructure.
Speaker 9: Certainly US infrastructure I think has a lot of legs,
Speaker 9: but I think also global infrastructure does as well. So
Speaker 9: if you have more than a hot minute in terms
Speaker 9: of a time horizon, I actually think there's a lot
Speaker 9: of opportunity over a very extended kind of multi year
Speaker 9: period in that area. Of course, many of our investors
Speaker 9: aren't quite that patient, and so in this environment, we're
Speaker 9: still very much focused on high quality and quality oriented exposures,
Speaker 9: both in terms of equities and fixed income. It's just
Speaker 9: the right positioning for the late endings of this cycle.
Speaker 3: What about longer term? How does that view shift for
Speaker 3: those investors who do you have that longer time horizon.
Speaker 9: Well, we're starting to kick the tires on some sort
Speaker 9: of interesting I will spare you some of the details
Speaker 9: as it's not fully baked yet, but we're starting to
Speaker 9: kick the tires on some longer tailed infrastruction ructure type
Speaker 9: opportunities here. We've started to see some investor flows kind
Speaker 9: of move in that direction this year. It's kind of
Speaker 9: been an interesting technical move that we've seen, and so
Speaker 9: I think this is just very early innings as it
Speaker 9: relates to infrastructure. So we're thinking through some creative ways
Speaker 9: to play that and leverage it because I think really,
Speaker 9: regardless of who wins this election cycle, I think that
Speaker 9: is going to continue to be a pretty dominant theme
Speaker 9: going forward.
Speaker 3: All Right, I'm looking at your notes that you sent
Speaker 3: our producer Paul Brannan ahead of your appearance, and you're
Speaker 3: right that your song of the year is I can't
Speaker 3: get no satisfaction by the Rolling Stones. It's a classic.
Speaker 3: We all know it. I don't think we have the
Speaker 3: rights to it, so we can't play it right now.
Speaker 3: But Amanda, what's going.
Speaker 9: On, Well, it's every year we have a lot of
Speaker 9: fun picking a song of the year. We do this
Speaker 9: at the beginning of the year, and I thought it
Speaker 9: was just timely to share that with you at the
Speaker 9: halfway point of the year, because for as much as
Speaker 9: I didn't feel I had a lot of satisfaction and
Speaker 9: investors didn't have a lot of satisfaction at the beginning
Speaker 9: of the year, everybody sort of felt kind of angsty
Speaker 9: and itchy about you know what comes next. We're coming
Speaker 9: off the heels of a torrid rally at the end
Speaker 9: of twenty twenty three. What does it mean for twenty
Speaker 9: four And we've had so many I think existential yet
Speaker 9: unanswered questions that started the year, and we still don't
Speaker 9: have those answers, and so I would really like, from
Speaker 9: an investing standpoint, to get some answers to those questions
Speaker 9: to feel a lot more satisfied in the second half
Speaker 9: of this year. I think it'll happen. Time is on
Speaker 9: our side if you get that reference as well.
Speaker 2: But there's a lot of true wait, are we going
Speaker 2: to be singing this though by the end of the year, possibly.
Speaker 9: Singing this song?
Speaker 6: Ye?
Speaker 9: Is that the question? I hope that we're not. I
Speaker 9: hope that we're moving on to other songs and certainly
Speaker 9: happier times. I do think over the next six months
Speaker 9: we're going to get a lot more clarity to some
Speaker 9: of the unanswered questions around. You know, where the inflection
Speaker 9: point in the economic cycle is, What does the trajectory
Speaker 9: of earnings growth look like? How is the consumer holding up?
Speaker 9: Will we get a change of control in DC? Of
Speaker 9: course I'm pleading the fifth right now, but we will
Speaker 9: get hopefully clarity on that. So there's a laundry list
Speaker 9: of questions. But as we start to get clarity, I
Speaker 9: think it adds fuel to this market rally. So I
Speaker 9: think it could be a strong second half.
Speaker 3: Carol, you can sing that song whenever you want? Which
Speaker 3: one I can can't. I can't get any satisfaction.
Speaker 4: Okay, I'll work or any or any of.
Speaker 3: The songs on Amanda's playlist.
Speaker 4: Okay, thanks there.
Speaker 11: Yeah, I had a whole bunch for you.
Speaker 9: We've been doing this since twenty fifteen, so I can
Speaker 9: give you the playlist.
Speaker 4: What was the song it? Last year?
Speaker 9: Last year was an entire album. Actually it was Ping
Speaker 9: Floyd's Dark Side of the movie. Yeah, perfect metaphor for
Speaker 9: a recession. Of course it failed to materialize, but we
Speaker 9: had so much fun with that one last year.
Speaker 3: Just got to watch that one in sync with the
Speaker 3: Wizard of Oz? Which have you ever done that? What
Speaker 3: you didn't know about this?
Speaker 9: Oh, you have to do your homework.
Speaker 4: You have to kill me later mine. I love both
Speaker 4: the Wizard of Oz and Pink Floyd grew up on
Speaker 4: that album.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you you started on the third roar of the
Speaker 3: MGM Lion and it's just an amazing experience. Am I wrong?
Speaker 3: Paul Brennan. Everyone's giving me the thumbs up, Amanda, how.
Speaker 11: Have I missed it?
Speaker 9: I'm going to do this together, and then when I
Speaker 9: come back and talk to.
Speaker 3: You, we're gonna break it all all right, We'll be changing.
Speaker 4: It's a deal. Amanda Gotti, Chief Investment Officer and B
Speaker 4: and C Asset Management Group.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, having good holiday.
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