1
00:00:00,200 --> 00:00:04,680
Speaker 1: From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is

2
00:00:04,760 --> 00:00:09,080
Speaker 1: riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or

3
00:00:09,160 --> 00:00:12,119
Speaker 1: learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A

4
00:00:12,200 --> 00:00:13,880
Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio.

5
00:00:26,320 --> 00:00:29,040
Speaker 2: Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,

6
00:00:29,160 --> 00:00:30,000
Speaker 2: my name is Noah.

7
00:00:30,280 --> 00:00:33,360
Speaker 3: They call me Ben. We're joined as always with our

8
00:00:33,479 --> 00:00:37,680
Speaker 3: super producer Dylan the Tennessee pal Fagan. Most importantly, you

9
00:00:37,760 --> 00:00:41,560
Speaker 3: are you. You are here that makes this these stuff

10
00:00:41,640 --> 00:00:45,360
Speaker 3: they don't want you to know. When's the last time

11
00:00:45,640 --> 00:00:47,240
Speaker 3: you guys picked up groceries?

12
00:00:47,280 --> 00:00:49,720
Speaker 4: Groceries it's a new word, is it?

13
00:00:49,760 --> 00:00:49,800
Speaker 3: No?

14
00:00:49,880 --> 00:00:52,600
Speaker 4: What did he say? Trump says some funny stuff about groceries.

15
00:00:52,720 --> 00:00:56,280
Speaker 4: It's been He's fascinated by the word old fashioned, old

16
00:00:56,400 --> 00:01:00,160
Speaker 4: timey word, I believe is what he said. If it

17
00:01:00,200 --> 00:01:02,680
Speaker 4: refers to stuff in bags, I think is where he

18
00:01:02,760 --> 00:01:06,640
Speaker 4: landed in terms of what what does a grocery make?

19
00:01:07,280 --> 00:01:10,800
Speaker 4: Make make anyway? Yeah, I like grocery shopping. I find

20
00:01:10,840 --> 00:01:12,600
Speaker 4: it to be somewhat zen and I like to do

21
00:01:12,720 --> 00:01:17,040
Speaker 4: smaller shops rather than one big shop. And I do

22
00:01:17,120 --> 00:01:19,080
Speaker 4: wish that I lived more like in a city where

23
00:01:19,120 --> 00:01:21,800
Speaker 4: you could walk to the corner bodega or something like that,

24
00:01:21,880 --> 00:01:23,840
Speaker 4: But we had a couple of options here. I'm a

25
00:01:23,880 --> 00:01:24,720
Speaker 4: public's man.

26
00:01:26,560 --> 00:01:30,959
Speaker 2: Really publics man. We have all figured out and decided

27
00:01:31,000 --> 00:01:40,640
Speaker 2: the publics.

28
00:01:37,440 --> 00:01:41,039
Speaker 4: I heard I like a crozet as well. I do.

29
00:01:41,440 --> 00:01:46,040
Speaker 3: I bet some of us hit up a local market

30
00:01:46,160 --> 00:01:49,040
Speaker 3: every week, the fancy folks. Some of us buy in

31
00:01:49,200 --> 00:01:52,280
Speaker 3: bulk at a Walmart or a Costco, and some of

32
00:01:52,360 --> 00:01:57,480
Speaker 3: us just go to our closest available option, closest grocery store, chap.

33
00:01:57,760 --> 00:01:59,920
Speaker 2: What if the Trader Joe's you've you've forgotten about?

34
00:01:59,920 --> 00:02:03,600
Speaker 4: The Trader Trader jos is a special occasion kind of trip,

35
00:02:03,800 --> 00:02:05,120
Speaker 4: you know, for special snacks.

36
00:02:05,360 --> 00:02:07,280
Speaker 3: That parking lot is a conspiracy.

37
00:02:07,680 --> 00:02:09,880
Speaker 2: Oh, in the company culture, I like it.

38
00:02:09,960 --> 00:02:12,360
Speaker 3: I like when they you know, I like a close

39
00:02:12,480 --> 00:02:13,440
Speaker 3: moment of rapport.

40
00:02:13,600 --> 00:02:15,680
Speaker 4: If you want to get flirted with hard to go

41
00:02:15,720 --> 00:02:18,120
Speaker 4: to TJ's. It's like it's like it's in their training

42
00:02:18,160 --> 00:02:19,440
Speaker 4: manual or something, you know.

43
00:02:20,160 --> 00:02:24,120
Speaker 3: I love how every purchase is super interesting, you know

44
00:02:24,120 --> 00:02:26,960
Speaker 3: what I mean. You get a little therapy real quick.

45
00:02:27,160 --> 00:02:30,880
Speaker 4: It says something about your personality. Which TJ frozen good

46
00:02:30,960 --> 00:02:33,679
Speaker 4: or snack item that you buy and do consult the

47
00:02:33,960 --> 00:02:36,160
Speaker 4: what is it called the fabulous Flyer or something like

48
00:02:36,240 --> 00:02:38,520
Speaker 4: that is their little their little magazine that tells you

49
00:02:38,520 --> 00:02:40,600
Speaker 4: all the new snacks they're rolling out. I'm a huge

50
00:02:40,600 --> 00:02:41,440
Speaker 4: fan of Trader Jows.

51
00:02:41,680 --> 00:02:44,440
Speaker 3: Now, you guys know that in the wake of the pandemic,

52
00:02:44,600 --> 00:02:48,000
Speaker 3: a lot of folks still pony up a premium and

53
00:02:48,080 --> 00:02:51,600
Speaker 3: get their groceries through online delivery services.

54
00:02:51,760 --> 00:02:53,920
Speaker 4: I do it from time to time I'm feeling lazy.

55
00:02:54,480 --> 00:02:54,760
Speaker 3: Yeah.

56
00:02:54,840 --> 00:02:55,280
Speaker 4: Yeah.

57
00:02:55,320 --> 00:02:58,680
Speaker 2: And the big ones, the at least where I live. Guys,

58
00:02:58,919 --> 00:03:02,880
Speaker 2: the big chains that keep popping up everywhere are your

59
00:03:02,919 --> 00:03:05,720
Speaker 2: Aldise and your is it Legal?

60
00:03:06,120 --> 00:03:08,480
Speaker 4: Why did I not mention legal? That's actually pretty close

61
00:03:08,480 --> 00:03:10,880
Speaker 4: to me to a huge fan. I love Allegal the bank.

62
00:03:10,960 --> 00:03:13,200
Speaker 4: The small German boy in me is a huge fan

63
00:03:13,320 --> 00:03:13,760
Speaker 4: they bank.

64
00:03:16,040 --> 00:03:19,320
Speaker 2: They certainly have prices that are not as insane as

65
00:03:19,400 --> 00:03:21,119
Speaker 2: my local public's knowl.

66
00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:23,880
Speaker 4: Hey, listen, I forgot that I actually prefer legal to publics.

67
00:03:23,880 --> 00:03:27,640
Speaker 4: So well, if you calm down, people, co op it

68
00:03:27,720 --> 00:03:30,160
Speaker 4: benefits the employees they get to buy in.

69
00:03:30,680 --> 00:03:34,760
Speaker 3: It's kind of inspiring. But regardless of the specifics, as

70
00:03:34,840 --> 00:03:38,840
Speaker 3: checkers said, you got to eat write most honest tagline ever,

71
00:03:39,240 --> 00:03:44,800
Speaker 3: and everyone pretty much in the United States who has

72
00:03:44,840 --> 00:03:49,120
Speaker 3: to pay for food has noticed there's a sharp uptick

73
00:03:49,480 --> 00:03:52,760
Speaker 3: in the price of grocery goods. Right. We talked about

74
00:03:52,800 --> 00:03:57,280
Speaker 3: this in our post pandemic price height conspiracy episode, and

75
00:03:57,360 --> 00:04:01,360
Speaker 3: as we discussed in our weekly String News segment back

76
00:04:01,360 --> 00:04:05,480
Speaker 3: in November, more and more folks are convinced their local

77
00:04:05,720 --> 00:04:11,200
Speaker 3: grocery store, whatever it may be, is up to something sketchy,

78
00:04:11,480 --> 00:04:15,000
Speaker 3: a conspiracy in the food aisle, Big Brother and your Kroger.

79
00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:19,000
Speaker 2: And if you're watching this on Netflix and wondering, hey,

80
00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:22,040
Speaker 2: where's where are those strange news episodes? Go on and

81
00:04:22,240 --> 00:04:24,880
Speaker 2: find the place where you listen to podcasts and search

82
00:04:24,960 --> 00:04:26,560
Speaker 2: up stuff I don't want you to know, and you

83
00:04:26,560 --> 00:04:27,279
Speaker 2: will find them.

84
00:04:28,160 --> 00:04:31,160
Speaker 3: And we're gonna pause for a word from our sponsors.

85
00:04:31,800 --> 00:04:39,360
Speaker 3: Then we'd like to play a game with you. Here

86
00:04:39,400 --> 00:04:43,520
Speaker 3: are the facts. Grocery stores. We're not saying they're perfect,

87
00:04:44,279 --> 00:04:47,159
Speaker 3: but they're pretty fricking cool, right.

88
00:04:47,520 --> 00:04:50,039
Speaker 4: And they're also, if I remember correctly, back in the

89
00:04:50,040 --> 00:04:54,360
Speaker 4: old pandemic, they're considered essential, you know, because there were

90
00:04:54,440 --> 00:04:58,400
Speaker 4: whole issues around essential workers, and grocery store employees were

91
00:04:58,440 --> 00:05:02,440
Speaker 4: considered to be that but didn't really get any any benefits,

92
00:05:02,480 --> 00:05:05,520
Speaker 4: you know, for being such a frontline type of type.

93
00:05:05,520 --> 00:05:05,880
Speaker 4: Of job.

94
00:05:05,960 --> 00:05:08,680
Speaker 3: I'm also very proud of all of us for not

95
00:05:08,839 --> 00:05:13,880
Speaker 3: doing the PPE grift. We could have taken out those loans.

96
00:05:13,960 --> 00:05:16,000
Speaker 4: Guys, I bought so many Pokemon cars with that. What

97
00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:16,760
Speaker 4: are you talking about?

98
00:05:17,360 --> 00:05:17,720
Speaker 3: What?

99
00:05:18,520 --> 00:05:21,400
Speaker 4: Remember that that guy that used his PPE money to

100
00:05:21,400 --> 00:05:23,320
Speaker 4: buy Pokemon cards. I think he was from Atlanta.

101
00:05:23,360 --> 00:05:27,919
Speaker 2: Actually, oh dang, I was gonna say, really smart, but

102
00:05:27,960 --> 00:05:29,440
Speaker 2: also that's terrible, really.

103
00:05:29,400 --> 00:05:32,360
Speaker 3: Right, plague, We'll do it the next plague.

104
00:05:32,920 --> 00:05:38,080
Speaker 2: Okay, cool, But grocery stores are incredible, and we forget

105
00:05:38,120 --> 00:05:41,000
Speaker 2: it because I don't know, especially in the US, if

106
00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:43,520
Speaker 2: you live somewhere near a grocery store, if you live

107
00:05:43,600 --> 00:05:45,440
Speaker 2: in one of those pockets that we talked about that

108
00:05:45,480 --> 00:05:49,880
Speaker 2: are not everywhere that has easy access to grocery store

109
00:05:50,240 --> 00:05:53,680
Speaker 2: or grocery stores, then you just get used to being

110
00:05:53,680 --> 00:05:57,320
Speaker 2: able to walk into a place and seeing every possible

111
00:05:57,360 --> 00:06:00,240
Speaker 2: food you can imagine and having access to it if

112
00:06:00,279 --> 00:06:02,679
Speaker 2: you've got the funds. That's a superpower.

113
00:06:02,800 --> 00:06:06,640
Speaker 3: It is a superpower, dude, I like. Okay. Public food

114
00:06:06,760 --> 00:06:12,280
Speaker 3: markets have been around ever since agriculture began, right, and

115
00:06:12,440 --> 00:06:16,160
Speaker 3: early humans were able to stay in one place for

116
00:06:16,320 --> 00:06:19,840
Speaker 3: an extended amount of time, but all the stuff they

117
00:06:19,920 --> 00:06:24,560
Speaker 3: sold was also dependent upon what was quote unquote in

118
00:06:24,680 --> 00:06:29,200
Speaker 3: season or what was available there. So, for instance, if

119
00:06:29,279 --> 00:06:33,600
Speaker 3: you like Dylan and hopefully all of us wanted some

120
00:06:33,800 --> 00:06:36,560
Speaker 3: route of Vegas, you would have to hope that they

121
00:06:36,600 --> 00:06:39,080
Speaker 3: grew up nearby. You would have to hope they were

122
00:06:39,120 --> 00:06:43,080
Speaker 3: also in season. Otherwise, regardless of how much money you had,

123
00:06:43,680 --> 00:06:48,240
Speaker 3: you would be sol And then it shifts. Trade networks evolve.

124
00:06:48,800 --> 00:06:52,720
Speaker 3: Society's top badgers are able to pay for luxury goods

125
00:06:52,760 --> 00:06:56,600
Speaker 3: from far far away, and food is not an exception.

126
00:06:57,080 --> 00:07:01,120
Speaker 3: Over On our sister show, Ridiculous History, we talked multiple

127
00:07:01,360 --> 00:07:05,240
Speaker 3: episodes about how spices were so important that they were

128
00:07:05,360 --> 00:07:09,240
Speaker 3: used in currency. And Noel, I gotta tell you again

129
00:07:09,800 --> 00:07:14,960
Speaker 3: this pineapple thing, this pineapple thing. Remember, like people would

130
00:07:15,440 --> 00:07:16,640
Speaker 3: rent pineapples.

131
00:07:16,840 --> 00:07:18,720
Speaker 4: Oh of course, yes, yes, yes, of course, the ancient

132
00:07:18,760 --> 00:07:22,640
Speaker 4: heart of pineapple renting. Yeah, it meant it was a flex.

133
00:07:22,680 --> 00:07:24,080
Speaker 4: It meant that you were a big shot. Put it

134
00:07:24,120 --> 00:07:25,840
Speaker 4: on your center put it as a centerpiece on your

135
00:07:25,880 --> 00:07:28,400
Speaker 4: kitchen table, because you know, the average people couldn't afford

136
00:07:28,480 --> 00:07:31,200
Speaker 4: them at the time, because they were so dear. Pineapples

137
00:07:31,200 --> 00:07:33,360
Speaker 4: are pretty tasty. But I don't know if I don't

138
00:07:33,360 --> 00:07:34,680
Speaker 4: know if I'd rent a pineapple.

139
00:07:35,240 --> 00:07:37,040
Speaker 2: I really thought we were going cruise ship with the

140
00:07:37,080 --> 00:07:47,880
Speaker 2: pineapples things. I mean, you know, be into whatever you're into.

141
00:07:48,080 --> 00:07:52,200
Speaker 3: Sure, just consent is key and don't hurt people. Folks

142
00:07:52,360 --> 00:07:58,600
Speaker 3: literally were so impressed by produce and other food stuffs

143
00:07:58,640 --> 00:08:01,600
Speaker 3: from abroad that they would, as you were saying, Noel,

144
00:08:01,840 --> 00:08:04,520
Speaker 3: they would just flex on each other with it. The

145
00:08:04,600 --> 00:08:08,960
Speaker 3: modern grocery store, to your point, Matt changed the whole game.

146
00:08:09,280 --> 00:08:13,040
Speaker 3: For the first time in human history. You could, as

147
00:08:13,080 --> 00:08:16,880
Speaker 3: an average person walk around. You could find fruits and

148
00:08:16,960 --> 00:08:21,960
Speaker 3: other goodies from across this wide Earth. And it rose

149
00:08:22,040 --> 00:08:27,120
Speaker 3: in step with agricultural technology. So for now you don't

150
00:08:27,240 --> 00:08:30,800
Speaker 3: need to worry if strawberries are in season, whether it

151
00:08:30,880 --> 00:08:34,240
Speaker 3: is August or February, you just pop by the store.

152
00:08:34,640 --> 00:08:38,240
Speaker 3: You pick up whatever you want. So long as you can.

153
00:08:38,120 --> 00:08:41,280
Speaker 4: Afford it, you too can have a pineapple. It's true.

154
00:08:41,760 --> 00:08:43,440
Speaker 4: I'll tell you. The part that always blows me away

155
00:08:43,720 --> 00:08:47,880
Speaker 4: is how the logistics of it all, and the calculations

156
00:08:47,920 --> 00:08:51,520
Speaker 4: behind supply and demand that keep all of that produce

157
00:08:51,559 --> 00:08:53,280
Speaker 4: from just like rotting on the shelves.

158
00:08:53,280 --> 00:08:58,880
Speaker 2: Ooh, the technology, the just in time. Yeah, well we

159
00:08:59,000 --> 00:09:03,040
Speaker 2: learned the technology you can deprive produce of certain things

160
00:09:04,160 --> 00:09:06,040
Speaker 2: and you can store it for a long time. Then

161
00:09:06,040 --> 00:09:09,000
Speaker 2: you can inject other things into an environment where they're

162
00:09:09,000 --> 00:09:12,680
Speaker 2: stored and then they begin their ripening process. It's almost

163
00:09:12,760 --> 00:09:14,640
Speaker 2: like putting them in stasis for a while.

164
00:09:14,840 --> 00:09:17,240
Speaker 4: Yeah. I gotta wonder too if sometimes you catch one

165
00:09:17,280 --> 00:09:20,800
Speaker 4: they forgot to inject, Like an avocado that just never ripens.

166
00:09:20,840 --> 00:09:22,800
Speaker 4: I think I've griped about this on the in the past,

167
00:09:22,840 --> 00:09:25,000
Speaker 4: on the show, where you'll just get this avocado that

168
00:09:25,120 --> 00:09:28,080
Speaker 4: just stays like hard, like a plastic prop you know,

169
00:09:28,280 --> 00:09:30,320
Speaker 4: and I just don't understand what's going on with it.

170
00:09:30,400 --> 00:09:34,360
Speaker 4: But we did talk about the conspiracy surrounding fake fruit yeh,

171
00:09:34,360 --> 00:09:37,120
Speaker 4: and fake avocados. I think that that was part of

172
00:09:37,120 --> 00:09:40,679
Speaker 4: the conversation about some of those very materials that you're

173
00:09:40,720 --> 00:09:41,640
Speaker 4: talking about there, Matt.

174
00:09:41,840 --> 00:09:44,520
Speaker 3: I forgot to tell you, guys, because we haven't caught

175
00:09:44,600 --> 00:09:49,679
Speaker 3: up for a while. But the cashew seed is a

176
00:09:49,720 --> 00:09:52,440
Speaker 3: seed and it has a fruit on the bottom of it,

177
00:09:53,240 --> 00:09:56,199
Speaker 3: and you can't get the fruit in the United States

178
00:09:56,320 --> 00:09:58,040
Speaker 3: because it is still perishable.

179
00:09:58,400 --> 00:10:00,560
Speaker 4: So the cashu nuts is the seed and then there's

180
00:10:00,559 --> 00:10:02,920
Speaker 4: an extra part of the cash, right. I am blissfully

181
00:10:03,000 --> 00:10:04,160
Speaker 4: unaware of until.

182
00:10:03,880 --> 00:10:07,640
Speaker 3: Now wonderful, and I'm sorry to sacrifice your bliss. It

183
00:10:07,800 --> 00:10:11,240
Speaker 3: is beautiful. It's perishable. You can't gas it up like

184
00:10:11,600 --> 00:10:15,360
Speaker 3: Nole's point to Apple's. But the thing is, you can

185
00:10:15,440 --> 00:10:19,920
Speaker 3: get a lot of stuff now. When the predecessors of

186
00:10:20,040 --> 00:10:24,360
Speaker 3: the modern grocery store first opened, they were still way

187
00:10:24,400 --> 00:10:27,520
Speaker 3: different from your Safeway or your crokers or your publics.

188
00:10:27,760 --> 00:10:32,760
Speaker 3: They were more generalized. They were selling basic necessities of

189
00:10:32,840 --> 00:10:36,480
Speaker 3: life in addition to food. So you could buy three

190
00:10:36,559 --> 00:10:40,120
Speaker 3: pounds of flour, and then you could buy a plowshare

191
00:10:40,400 --> 00:10:43,080
Speaker 3: as well. Right, you could maybe make a deal to

192
00:10:43,120 --> 00:10:46,680
Speaker 3: get a cow or something. And you couldn't buy the

193
00:10:47,040 --> 00:10:49,560
Speaker 3: like you couldn't pick up the stuff yourself. You had

194
00:10:49,600 --> 00:10:52,480
Speaker 3: to go to a counter like at a gun store,

195
00:10:52,760 --> 00:10:55,959
Speaker 3: and you had to tell the clerk what you wanted,

196
00:10:56,840 --> 00:11:00,440
Speaker 3: and if they had it, which didn't always happen, would

197
00:11:00,520 --> 00:11:06,120
Speaker 3: come back and be like, oh, mister Tennessee, pal your

198
00:11:06,360 --> 00:11:09,680
Speaker 3: three pounds of flour for your approval.

199
00:11:10,080 --> 00:11:13,240
Speaker 4: Almost like the old trading posts kind of just so right,

200
00:11:14,400 --> 00:11:15,480
Speaker 4: can we bring that back?

201
00:11:16,040 --> 00:11:17,920
Speaker 2: That sounds like a delightful experience.

202
00:11:17,960 --> 00:11:19,640
Speaker 4: Come on that some things should stay in the past.

203
00:11:19,679 --> 00:11:20,120
Speaker 3: I think.

204
00:11:22,400 --> 00:11:25,000
Speaker 4: The good parts of modernity. I think the grocery store

205
00:11:25,040 --> 00:11:25,719
Speaker 4: being one of them.

206
00:11:26,160 --> 00:11:28,960
Speaker 3: Just play Oregon Trail at this point, you know.

207
00:11:29,200 --> 00:11:33,000
Speaker 4: You can have dysentery right right, and you two can

208
00:11:33,080 --> 00:11:36,679
Speaker 4: have a gravestone because you don't know how to afford rivers.

209
00:11:37,120 --> 00:11:41,840
Speaker 3: They also they also operated on credit or barter systems,

210
00:11:42,040 --> 00:11:46,760
Speaker 3: especially during times when currency itself was unreliable. But now

211
00:11:47,000 --> 00:11:52,920
Speaker 3: this all changes. Fast forward nineteen sixteen. Pigley Wiggley the

212
00:11:53,240 --> 00:11:57,160
Speaker 3: creepiest game mascot for any grocery store.

213
00:11:57,400 --> 00:12:01,719
Speaker 4: And he's cute, he's murderer. Does he have a name,

214
00:12:01,760 --> 00:12:04,600
Speaker 4: because his name is mister Pigley Wiggly. I got no care.

215
00:12:04,679 --> 00:12:05,559
Speaker 3: I'm not going to hum a.

216
00:12:05,920 --> 00:12:08,480
Speaker 4: Wow, you really got beef or pork it as it

217
00:12:08,520 --> 00:12:10,439
Speaker 4: were with mister Piggy.

218
00:12:10,360 --> 00:12:15,200
Speaker 3: And cutting up other pigs. Is he really been the

219
00:12:15,240 --> 00:12:16,200
Speaker 3: old school mascot?

220
00:12:16,400 --> 00:12:17,240
Speaker 4: Yea, all right?

221
00:12:18,440 --> 00:12:21,920
Speaker 2: You know yeah, guys, we talked about already in previous episodes.

222
00:12:21,960 --> 00:12:25,520
Speaker 2: But I just returned from Qatar from a little work trip,

223
00:12:25,960 --> 00:12:29,000
Speaker 2: and one of the things that you were told that

224
00:12:29,040 --> 00:12:31,720
Speaker 2: you should go visit there is a thing called the souk,

225
00:12:32,240 --> 00:12:35,319
Speaker 2: which is a it's a modern version of an old

226
00:12:35,360 --> 00:12:39,640
Speaker 2: school open air market that existed out there in that region,

227
00:12:39,800 --> 00:12:44,160
Speaker 2: specifically in Qatar, and I'm thinking about those types of

228
00:12:44,200 --> 00:12:48,240
Speaker 2: markets as we imagine this new piggly wiggly thing where

229
00:12:48,240 --> 00:12:50,240
Speaker 2: you walk in and you pick out all the things

230
00:12:50,280 --> 00:12:53,160
Speaker 2: you want, because there you would have if you go

231
00:12:53,240 --> 00:12:55,360
Speaker 2: to the soup and places like that, open air markets,

232
00:12:55,400 --> 00:12:58,199
Speaker 2: you'd have individual sellers, right as we're saying here.

233
00:12:58,240 --> 00:13:01,160
Speaker 4: Sort of like a farmer's market type situation, or even

234
00:13:01,160 --> 00:13:03,800
Speaker 4: a flea market you know here in the States where

235
00:13:03,920 --> 00:13:05,840
Speaker 4: you swap meat or something like that.

236
00:13:06,000 --> 00:13:09,600
Speaker 2: Right, yes, I mean right, it's individual produce that has

237
00:13:09,640 --> 00:13:13,240
Speaker 2: brought because you know, somebody has an apple farm, lemon farm,

238
00:13:13,320 --> 00:13:15,520
Speaker 2: whatever it is. But it totally makes sense to me

239
00:13:15,600 --> 00:13:18,439
Speaker 2: that this pigley wiggly thing, as you know, as abhorrent

240
00:13:18,559 --> 00:13:22,800
Speaker 2: as the character may be been, it's a it's a

241
00:13:22,840 --> 00:13:25,920
Speaker 2: glorious thing, right nineteen sixteen.

242
00:13:26,240 --> 00:13:28,760
Speaker 3: Yeah, now you could just walk around. It's now it's

243
00:13:28,800 --> 00:13:32,080
Speaker 3: a soup in one building. To your comparison.

244
00:13:32,200 --> 00:13:34,600
Speaker 4: Oh, Matt, I bet you knew this, but I just

245
00:13:34,600 --> 00:13:36,640
Speaker 4: want to point it out to the listeners. The soup

246
00:13:37,240 --> 00:13:39,720
Speaker 4: there's like the more popular wedding. There's like an older

247
00:13:39,720 --> 00:13:42,280
Speaker 4: one and there's a new one. It looks like something

248
00:13:42,360 --> 00:13:44,680
Speaker 4: out of like the Arabian Nights. You know, it's got

249
00:13:44,880 --> 00:13:47,080
Speaker 4: like all of these old fixtures on the walls and

250
00:13:47,120 --> 00:13:49,680
Speaker 4: like everything looks kind of cracked and old and then

251
00:13:49,720 --> 00:13:53,000
Speaker 4: like ropey. But it's like Disneyland, dude, it's not real.

252
00:13:53,120 --> 00:13:55,680
Speaker 4: It's not actually old at all. It's just made to

253
00:13:55,880 --> 00:13:58,360
Speaker 4: look old. And Ben and I I think did not

254
00:13:58,480 --> 00:14:00,880
Speaker 4: know that initially and then found out after the fact,

255
00:14:00,880 --> 00:14:02,640
Speaker 4: and we're both a little bit blown away by it.

256
00:14:02,720 --> 00:14:05,560
Speaker 4: But the vendors and the model of the whole thing

257
00:14:05,760 --> 00:14:07,960
Speaker 4: is very much in line with the way things would

258
00:14:07,960 --> 00:14:10,160
Speaker 4: have been done. You know, in the days of old.

259
00:14:10,320 --> 00:14:15,840
Speaker 3: Everything is president right, So a supermarket is not especially

260
00:14:16,080 --> 00:14:17,440
Speaker 3: an original idea.

261
00:14:18,240 --> 00:14:21,120
Speaker 4: That super prefix is really that that was the super market,

262
00:14:21,200 --> 00:14:23,120
Speaker 4: the future supermarket.

263
00:14:23,560 --> 00:14:28,160
Speaker 3: We're going to keep it. So the first real quote

264
00:14:28,240 --> 00:14:33,360
Speaker 3: unquote supermarket is in New York in the nineteen thirties,

265
00:14:33,840 --> 00:14:38,440
Speaker 3: King Cullin k U. L. L. E En. They're the

266
00:14:38,480 --> 00:14:43,080
Speaker 3: ones who figured out how to have dedicated departments for

267
00:14:43,400 --> 00:14:47,800
Speaker 3: you know, your meat counter, your seafood, your dairy. This also,

268
00:14:47,960 --> 00:14:53,840
Speaker 3: the guy who created this wrote a pretty strident letter

269
00:14:54,440 --> 00:14:57,600
Speaker 3: to the top brass at Kroger at the time, he

270
00:14:58,760 --> 00:15:02,760
Speaker 3: made a manifesto actually, and then he just did his

271
00:15:02,800 --> 00:15:06,800
Speaker 3: own thing. And believe it or not, after all these improvements,

272
00:15:07,560 --> 00:15:13,480
Speaker 3: shopping carts were not invented before supermarkets. They came way after.

273
00:15:13,840 --> 00:15:16,120
Speaker 2: I guess baskets were the thing there for a while.

274
00:15:16,520 --> 00:15:19,360
Speaker 3: Maybe you just did like a supermarket sweep and you

275
00:15:19,520 --> 00:15:21,840
Speaker 3: just like took everything you could grab.

276
00:15:22,160 --> 00:15:24,680
Speaker 4: Supermarket sweep involves baskets evolve.

277
00:15:25,080 --> 00:15:29,880
Speaker 3: It does, yeah, nineteen thirty seven. Thank you, Sylvan Goldman.

278
00:15:30,160 --> 00:15:32,880
Speaker 4: Answer the question though we got the sup the grocery

279
00:15:32,920 --> 00:15:34,960
Speaker 4: cart being vent in nineteen thirty seven, When does the

280
00:15:35,000 --> 00:15:38,280
Speaker 4: grocery cart corral come into the picture? And who are

281
00:15:38,320 --> 00:15:40,480
Speaker 4: these people that are leaving their carts just willy nilly

282
00:15:40,480 --> 00:15:43,320
Speaker 4: in parking spots these areas. They're not good people and

283
00:15:43,400 --> 00:15:44,800
Speaker 4: they need to be punished. Well.

284
00:15:44,880 --> 00:15:50,920
Speaker 3: Sometimes sometimes there are, for instance, vulnerable or disabled people

285
00:15:51,080 --> 00:15:54,720
Speaker 3: who cannot return their card to the trolley, but that

286
00:15:54,880 --> 00:15:58,760
Speaker 3: is an exception to the rule. Most people should return

287
00:15:58,840 --> 00:16:01,200
Speaker 3: their shopping carts. It's a good point, Ben, It's a

288
00:16:01,200 --> 00:16:03,640
Speaker 3: good point. But I do agree the exception to the rule.

289
00:16:03,680 --> 00:16:06,240
Speaker 4: And typically of most grocery stores they will offer to

290
00:16:06,280 --> 00:16:08,480
Speaker 4: help you out to your car, even if you do

291
00:16:08,560 --> 00:16:11,600
Speaker 4: not have any kind of accessibility issue. So take them

292
00:16:11,680 --> 00:16:11,960
Speaker 4: up on that.

293
00:16:12,160 --> 00:16:14,200
Speaker 2: Have you guys done the thing where you run into

294
00:16:14,400 --> 00:16:16,760
Speaker 2: a supermarket thinking you're only going to get one or

295
00:16:16,760 --> 00:16:19,440
Speaker 2: two things, and so you pick those things up and

296
00:16:19,480 --> 00:16:23,960
Speaker 2: they're manageable and easy, and then you remember, oh, cra yeah,

297
00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:24,400
Speaker 2: and so.

298
00:16:24,320 --> 00:16:26,920
Speaker 4: You when you don't get the cart because you know

299
00:16:27,000 --> 00:16:29,640
Speaker 4: that you can hold in your little hand the bacon

300
00:16:29,800 --> 00:16:32,400
Speaker 4: or egg, and then before you know it, the psychology

301
00:16:32,400 --> 00:16:34,160
Speaker 4: of the grocery store gets to you and you've got

302
00:16:34,160 --> 00:16:36,280
Speaker 4: an armload of stuff and you're dropping things like a

303
00:16:36,320 --> 00:16:37,040
Speaker 4: dumb dumb.

304
00:16:37,040 --> 00:16:39,440
Speaker 2: But you're too you know, prideful to be like, I

305
00:16:39,480 --> 00:16:41,080
Speaker 2: need help, I need to get a cart.

306
00:16:41,360 --> 00:16:43,480
Speaker 4: You just like, I can do this.

307
00:16:44,280 --> 00:16:45,600
Speaker 2: It's so much fun, the.

308
00:16:45,640 --> 00:16:49,120
Speaker 3: Lazy man load. Yeah, let me carry all this stuff

309
00:16:49,400 --> 00:16:53,960
Speaker 3: like I'm a wounded veteran going to the cashier. Why

310
00:16:54,000 --> 00:16:57,640
Speaker 3: is there someone in front of me in line? God,

311
00:16:57,720 --> 00:16:59,680
Speaker 3: this is gonna be great for my lats.

312
00:17:00,200 --> 00:17:03,360
Speaker 4: You know, you've exceeded the whatever ten items or less

313
00:17:03,400 --> 00:17:05,240
Speaker 4: line and then you're holding all that crap weight and

314
00:17:05,240 --> 00:17:06,640
Speaker 4: in line with all the people with the cards.

315
00:17:06,760 --> 00:17:10,159
Speaker 3: Now you're basically a criminal, at Passport Control. You know,

316
00:17:11,080 --> 00:17:14,760
Speaker 3: so America loves to buy stuff. The shopping cart is

317
00:17:14,800 --> 00:17:18,960
Speaker 3: a brilliant invention because it made things more convenient, but

318
00:17:19,000 --> 00:17:22,520
Speaker 3: it also encouraged people right to buy things they might

319
00:17:22,560 --> 00:17:27,640
Speaker 3: not necessarily purchase otherwise. And there are more innovations as

320
00:17:27,680 --> 00:17:31,879
Speaker 3: time goes on. They're barcodes, their loyalty programs. Of course,

321
00:17:31,920 --> 00:17:35,280
Speaker 3: we all remember that grift huge parking lots for everything

322
00:17:35,400 --> 00:17:40,440
Speaker 3: except for Trader Joe's. Obviously, frankly, not everyone is a

323
00:17:40,480 --> 00:17:45,240
Speaker 3: fan of these innovations. Can we talk just a little

324
00:17:45,320 --> 00:17:49,639
Speaker 3: bit about the psychology behind the layout of grocery stores.

325
00:17:49,680 --> 00:17:51,600
Speaker 4: I want to say we have a whole episode on

326
00:17:51,640 --> 00:17:55,120
Speaker 4: that from a little ways back, if not a discussion

327
00:17:55,320 --> 00:17:58,200
Speaker 4: in one of our Listener Mail or Strange News episodes,

328
00:17:58,600 --> 00:18:00,399
Speaker 4: but I almost want to say that we definitely did

329
00:18:00,440 --> 00:18:02,960
Speaker 4: a whole episode about some of the psychology behind like

330
00:18:03,240 --> 00:18:06,199
Speaker 4: where the cereal goes and what you pass along the

331
00:18:06,200 --> 00:18:07,840
Speaker 4: way in order to get to the thing that you

332
00:18:07,880 --> 00:18:10,959
Speaker 4: actually need, and all of the kind of weird psyops

333
00:18:10,960 --> 00:18:13,159
Speaker 4: that go into the layout of a grocery store.

334
00:18:13,320 --> 00:18:17,280
Speaker 3: Casinos, we did a live episode on how casinos work,

335
00:18:18,000 --> 00:18:20,080
Speaker 3: which is the one hundred percent of the same thing.

336
00:18:20,119 --> 00:18:23,200
Speaker 2: And the economics of the end cap and how much

337
00:18:23,359 --> 00:18:27,600
Speaker 2: money corporations will pay to be in specific spots in

338
00:18:27,640 --> 00:18:31,120
Speaker 2: those stores. They catch your eye just at the right

339
00:18:31,160 --> 00:18:34,639
Speaker 2: time when you're thinking about product X. Then you turn

340
00:18:34,680 --> 00:18:37,560
Speaker 2: your head and you see product why, and you're like, oh,

341
00:18:37,600 --> 00:18:38,280
Speaker 2: I gotta have.

342
00:18:38,480 --> 00:18:42,280
Speaker 3: That, right You know, who am I if I don't

343
00:18:42,320 --> 00:18:47,680
Speaker 3: have gum after this journey? Right, So the biggest innovations

344
00:18:47,760 --> 00:18:51,840
Speaker 3: are a direct result of a brutally competitive market. The

345
00:18:51,920 --> 00:18:57,840
Speaker 3: grocery empires live and die on very slim margins of profit,

346
00:18:58,160 --> 00:19:01,880
Speaker 3: and so all their innovations now that are occurring and

347
00:19:02,040 --> 00:19:08,320
Speaker 3: our conspiratorial are built around anticipating what you want and

348
00:19:08,440 --> 00:19:12,640
Speaker 3: how they can push you to get more stuff. They

349
00:19:12,840 --> 00:19:18,720
Speaker 3: are leveragey big data, machine learning, shady info brokers, and

350
00:19:18,880 --> 00:19:23,920
Speaker 3: quote unquote AI. Right now, your local grocery store chain

351
00:19:24,440 --> 00:19:28,880
Speaker 3: knows more about you and your household than ever before.

352
00:19:29,440 --> 00:19:33,840
Speaker 3: Like they probably know some of your family member's birthdays

353
00:19:34,000 --> 00:19:35,480
Speaker 3: that you do not remember.

354
00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:38,000
Speaker 2: Let's really think about this. If it was one of

355
00:19:38,000 --> 00:19:40,960
Speaker 2: those stores that you described at the top bend where

356
00:19:40,960 --> 00:19:43,560
Speaker 2: you walk up to the counter and it's one person

357
00:19:43,840 --> 00:19:45,719
Speaker 2: and they just say, well, how may I help you?

358
00:19:45,760 --> 00:19:46,160
Speaker 4: Today.

359
00:19:46,400 --> 00:19:49,400
Speaker 2: Oh well we have Unfortunately, we have no cantalope today

360
00:19:49,800 --> 00:19:52,480
Speaker 2: that one person might know a lot about you, that

361
00:19:52,520 --> 00:19:56,720
Speaker 2: one person might know a crep ton about the specificity

362
00:19:57,080 --> 00:20:00,480
Speaker 2: of your diet and you're in the things your family buy, right.

363
00:20:01,200 --> 00:20:05,080
Speaker 2: But you would think one would think that in these

364
00:20:05,600 --> 00:20:08,920
Speaker 2: giant corporations that exist, like the Kroger's, and you see

365
00:20:08,920 --> 00:20:11,439
Speaker 2: how many there are the publics and the you know,

366
00:20:11,520 --> 00:20:14,560
Speaker 2: the Trader Joe's and Sprouts and whatever.

367
00:20:14,280 --> 00:20:19,560
Speaker 3: Else, Peter's Safeway, three other examples just for the vibe.

368
00:20:20,040 --> 00:20:23,199
Speaker 2: But there's so many of them out there, you I

369
00:20:23,240 --> 00:20:27,960
Speaker 2: think there's the maybe a thought process that there's diffusion

370
00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:31,360
Speaker 2: of knowledge, right, And I'm not actually interacting with anybody

371
00:20:31,400 --> 00:20:33,480
Speaker 2: when I go to these places anymore. I'm going to

372
00:20:33,520 --> 00:20:37,480
Speaker 2: an automated checkout counter at the Walmart to do this.

373
00:20:38,560 --> 00:20:42,879
Speaker 2: There's a feeling that of anonymity in a way that,

374
00:20:43,200 --> 00:20:46,040
Speaker 2: as we're going to talk about, is actually the complete opposite.

375
00:20:46,119 --> 00:20:50,159
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh. Yeah, this goes way deeper than we

376
00:20:50,200 --> 00:20:54,200
Speaker 3: would like to imagine. Look, we're gonna call this ad

377
00:20:54,200 --> 00:20:57,480
Speaker 3: break buy one, get one free. We'll be heare to go. Sure,

378
00:21:02,800 --> 00:21:06,919
Speaker 3: Here's where it gets crazy. As we get into the

379
00:21:07,000 --> 00:21:12,359
Speaker 3: details about this very true conspiracy. We're always going to

380
00:21:12,400 --> 00:21:16,119
Speaker 3: go back to the concept of something called dynamic pricing.

381
00:21:16,240 --> 00:21:19,760
Speaker 3: You guys remember this, right, Tomor Oh my gosh, have

382
00:21:19,840 --> 00:21:20,760
Speaker 3: you encountered it?

383
00:21:20,840 --> 00:21:20,919
Speaker 1: No?

384
00:21:21,359 --> 00:21:23,959
Speaker 4: I don't know. I mean I remember when we first were

385
00:21:23,960 --> 00:21:26,280
Speaker 4: talking about it. There was this notion that there would

386
00:21:26,320 --> 00:21:29,520
Speaker 4: even be like instead of the old fashioned barcodes and

387
00:21:29,560 --> 00:21:32,480
Speaker 4: there's little printouts that you'd see on your grocery store shelves,

388
00:21:32,480 --> 00:21:35,600
Speaker 4: that some would be replaced with little led readouts. Have

389
00:21:35,680 --> 00:21:38,320
Speaker 4: not seen that come to pass, at least at my

390
00:21:38,400 --> 00:21:41,479
Speaker 4: local grocery store chains. But that was the idea that

391
00:21:41,520 --> 00:21:44,879
Speaker 4: they could be updated in the moments based on the

392
00:21:45,280 --> 00:21:49,440
Speaker 4: ever changing you know, dynamics, dynamic pricing of supply and

393
00:21:49,520 --> 00:21:54,719
Speaker 4: demand of whatever the variables that drive the market and

394
00:21:54,800 --> 00:21:58,360
Speaker 4: pricing might be, and that this would of course benefit

395
00:21:58,880 --> 00:22:01,480
Speaker 4: nobody but the folks at the top making the money,

396
00:22:01,600 --> 00:22:02,880
Speaker 4: certainly not you as a consumer.

397
00:22:03,600 --> 00:22:07,280
Speaker 3: Let's do the corporate friendly definition. It's something like Dylan,

398
00:22:07,320 --> 00:22:11,200
Speaker 3: give me some weird music. Here a strategy where businesses

399
00:22:11,359 --> 00:22:16,760
Speaker 3: adjust prices in real time based on demand, supply, logical

400
00:22:16,880 --> 00:22:22,440
Speaker 3: competitive pricing, and past present consumer behavior to share value.

401
00:22:23,520 --> 00:22:26,720
Speaker 4: Wow, that's lovely spin right there to share to share

402
00:22:26,880 --> 00:22:28,439
Speaker 4: enough value they're sharing that with.

403
00:22:28,640 --> 00:22:31,640
Speaker 3: What does that we'll get to it that shareholders. Perhaps

404
00:22:31,760 --> 00:22:35,520
Speaker 3: that's from Harvard Business Review share value.

405
00:22:35,680 --> 00:22:38,520
Speaker 4: Well, good on you, Harvard Business Review for keeping it,

406
00:22:38,920 --> 00:22:40,520
Speaker 4: keeping it, keeping it fake.

407
00:22:42,880 --> 00:22:45,280
Speaker 2: Well, let's talk about what that really means, because there

408
00:22:45,359 --> 00:22:48,199
Speaker 2: is one. The first level to that, at least to

409
00:22:48,320 --> 00:22:53,080
Speaker 2: my understanding, means that you don't have employees in your

410
00:22:53,119 --> 00:22:56,480
Speaker 2: store where that are going through and having to change

411
00:22:56,520 --> 00:23:00,280
Speaker 2: the price tags you know, on every aisle for everything

412
00:23:00,440 --> 00:23:04,280
Speaker 2: as the dollar changes or as you know, as they're

413
00:23:04,280 --> 00:23:06,760
Speaker 2: saying sublime demand changes. You don't have to go through

414
00:23:06,800 --> 00:23:08,560
Speaker 2: and do all that stuff. You could just be at

415
00:23:08,560 --> 00:23:12,159
Speaker 2: a system and update what those prices are and they're done.

416
00:23:12,520 --> 00:23:16,000
Speaker 2: I can imagine that's a cost cost saving thing in

417
00:23:16,080 --> 00:23:18,720
Speaker 2: some way. The And I would say, I don't know

418
00:23:18,760 --> 00:23:20,880
Speaker 2: if you guys have been to a best Buy recently,

419
00:23:21,160 --> 00:23:23,800
Speaker 2: but best Buy does that where every single one of

420
00:23:23,840 --> 00:23:27,640
Speaker 2: their price tags on the shelves is it looks like paper,

421
00:23:28,160 --> 00:23:30,680
Speaker 2: but it's kind of like that paper, I.

422
00:23:30,600 --> 00:23:32,359
Speaker 4: Think is what they call it. And Matt, I was

423
00:23:32,400 --> 00:23:34,679
Speaker 4: at a best Buy recently and I did not notice

424
00:23:34,720 --> 00:23:36,920
Speaker 4: that at all. And I would argue that's probably by

425
00:23:36,960 --> 00:23:40,320
Speaker 4: design because it looks like yeah, like you're describing.

426
00:23:39,960 --> 00:23:43,399
Speaker 3: It looks like paper and not a high road any

427
00:23:43,480 --> 00:23:47,480
Speaker 3: of us tuning in at home. But yeah, we go

428
00:23:47,560 --> 00:23:48,120
Speaker 3: to best Buy.

429
00:23:48,400 --> 00:23:49,880
Speaker 4: We have been well, I had to buy a ring

430
00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:51,720
Speaker 4: light for a trip to make sure that I was

431
00:23:51,760 --> 00:23:54,520
Speaker 4: able to you know, look, look, look my best.

432
00:23:55,240 --> 00:23:59,240
Speaker 3: So we're talking about something called ESLU. That's gonna be

433
00:24:00,119 --> 00:24:03,080
Speaker 3: going to be part of it, right, electronic sign labels.

434
00:24:03,200 --> 00:24:06,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh okay, yes, that is so that is the

435
00:24:06,080 --> 00:24:08,440
Speaker 2: first layer to me of like why you would as

436
00:24:08,440 --> 00:24:11,240
Speaker 2: a large corporation do this kind of thing, make this move.

437
00:24:11,920 --> 00:24:14,560
Speaker 2: There's other stuff that we have talked about in the

438
00:24:14,600 --> 00:24:17,600
Speaker 2: past that I have not seen come to fruition yet. Guys,

439
00:24:17,640 --> 00:24:19,800
Speaker 2: I don't know if you have, and I guess we

440
00:24:19,920 --> 00:24:23,240
Speaker 2: need to get into it. But the concept of changing

441
00:24:23,359 --> 00:24:26,040
Speaker 2: prices for an individual.

442
00:24:26,160 --> 00:24:29,400
Speaker 4: That's the spookiest part, that's right, that's the slippery slope

443
00:24:29,440 --> 00:24:31,240
Speaker 4: of it all. Where based on that data that they

444
00:24:31,280 --> 00:24:34,720
Speaker 4: have about you, and I suppose it would be really

445
00:24:34,720 --> 00:24:36,960
Speaker 4: hard to implement because they have to have a track

446
00:24:37,000 --> 00:24:39,159
Speaker 4: on you from the moment you walked in, like in

447
00:24:39,240 --> 00:24:41,400
Speaker 4: terms of your physical presence.

448
00:24:41,680 --> 00:24:45,240
Speaker 3: Like one of like one of see what you're doing

449
00:24:45,280 --> 00:24:50,119
Speaker 3: here recognition SIGs. We can play a game with you

450
00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:53,160
Speaker 3: right now. If you like folks right along at home.

451
00:24:53,600 --> 00:24:56,880
Speaker 3: You need at least one buddy or buckaroo for this one.

452
00:24:57,320 --> 00:25:01,639
Speaker 3: Pull up a rideshare app, Uber app Lift, pick your poison.

453
00:25:02,160 --> 00:25:05,200
Speaker 3: Just make sure it's the same thing, and make sure

454
00:25:05,480 --> 00:25:10,119
Speaker 3: your partner in this also inputs the same start and

455
00:25:10,520 --> 00:25:15,040
Speaker 3: endpoint on the same app for the same ride. Select

456
00:25:15,080 --> 00:25:19,440
Speaker 3: the same car, option the same What is it? It's

457
00:25:19,520 --> 00:25:25,400
Speaker 3: like a conversation preferred or cool air whatever, Just do

458
00:25:25,480 --> 00:25:29,560
Speaker 3: the do everything the same while you are physically standing

459
00:25:29,680 --> 00:25:32,959
Speaker 3: next to that person. You might be surprised how the

460
00:25:33,040 --> 00:25:37,000
Speaker 3: exact same app for the exact same service at the

461
00:25:37,080 --> 00:25:41,880
Speaker 3: exact same time will give you small differences from one

462
00:25:41,920 --> 00:25:42,840
Speaker 3: customer to the other.

463
00:25:43,040 --> 00:25:45,600
Speaker 4: And I do think that with more modern things like

464
00:25:45,840 --> 00:25:51,240
Speaker 4: ride share apps and maybe even like online shopping, we

465
00:25:51,440 --> 00:25:54,040
Speaker 4: maybe are a little more forgiving of that kind of thing.

466
00:25:54,160 --> 00:25:56,760
Speaker 4: Or it's like there's an expectation that there's even with

467
00:25:56,760 --> 00:26:00,320
Speaker 4: like airplane tickets or concert ticket stuff. It's like more

468
00:26:00,320 --> 00:26:03,359
Speaker 4: inherently already kind of in a digital environment. I just

469
00:26:03,400 --> 00:26:06,720
Speaker 4: think that nobody's got any illusions that anyone's getting the

470
00:26:06,760 --> 00:26:09,040
Speaker 4: same price or the same treatment. But I think when

471
00:26:09,040 --> 00:26:12,120
Speaker 4: we start incorporating old school things to your point about

472
00:26:12,160 --> 00:26:15,040
Speaker 4: the single dude at the trading post, it starts to

473
00:26:15,400 --> 00:26:18,200
Speaker 4: feel a little weirder or a little bit more dystopian,

474
00:26:18,359 --> 00:26:18,680
Speaker 4: you know.

475
00:26:18,840 --> 00:26:23,520
Speaker 3: Right, It's a little bit more immediately noticeable and off putting. Yeah,

476
00:26:23,640 --> 00:26:26,240
Speaker 3: when we're in a brick and mortar situation, if you

477
00:26:26,280 --> 00:26:29,920
Speaker 3: want to have more fun with this experiment, folks, close

478
00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:33,600
Speaker 3: that first app, keep your buddy with you. Open a

479
00:26:33,920 --> 00:26:36,679
Speaker 3: different app that does the same thing. So if you

480
00:26:36,680 --> 00:26:40,200
Speaker 3: have Uber, close it, open Lift or Grab or whatever

481
00:26:40,600 --> 00:26:43,000
Speaker 3: it is in your neck of the world, check the

482
00:26:43,080 --> 00:26:46,800
Speaker 3: price for the exact same trip with the exact same options.

483
00:26:47,440 --> 00:26:51,400
Speaker 3: Close it, go back to that first app, reopen it.

484
00:26:52,359 --> 00:26:58,080
Speaker 3: The price will properly have changed. This is a real thing. Yeah,

485
00:26:58,119 --> 00:26:58,800
Speaker 3: you'll even notice that.

486
00:26:58,800 --> 00:27:01,280
Speaker 4: If you've got a rideshare Q to up and you

487
00:27:01,359 --> 00:27:03,439
Speaker 4: don't pull a trigger on it for a little bit

488
00:27:03,480 --> 00:27:05,840
Speaker 4: and then you do. It'll sometimes cancel it because it

489
00:27:05,840 --> 00:27:09,000
Speaker 4: says the pricing has changed. Because there's so much data

490
00:27:09,359 --> 00:27:12,240
Speaker 4: that's going into what that price is going to be

491
00:27:12,320 --> 00:27:16,280
Speaker 4: based on the availability of cars in the area. Surge

492
00:27:16,280 --> 00:27:18,400
Speaker 4: pricing all of that stuff. How many people are calling

493
00:27:18,440 --> 00:27:21,280
Speaker 4: cars at that exact moment, so those prices will change.

494
00:27:21,680 --> 00:27:23,440
Speaker 4: And again, I'm not meaning to harp on this too much,

495
00:27:23,440 --> 00:27:27,280
Speaker 4: but I don't feel that that's that unusual. But when

496
00:27:27,280 --> 00:27:30,239
Speaker 4: we start talking about things like e inc you know,

497
00:27:30,480 --> 00:27:32,959
Speaker 4: price tags at Best Buy and like you know how

498
00:27:33,040 --> 00:27:35,000
Speaker 4: much a pineapple is going to be from one minute

499
00:27:35,040 --> 00:27:36,960
Speaker 4: to the next, that's when it starts to feel a

500
00:27:36,960 --> 00:27:38,840
Speaker 4: little more invasive. And then when you mentioned this stuff

501
00:27:38,840 --> 00:27:41,600
Speaker 4: about like your phone and being tracked and taking it

502
00:27:41,640 --> 00:27:45,800
Speaker 4: from that what's it called loyalty program into something much

503
00:27:45,880 --> 00:27:49,200
Speaker 4: more big data driven that knows exactly where you are

504
00:27:49,320 --> 00:27:51,960
Speaker 4: and what you're doing and big brothering you, that's when

505
00:27:51,960 --> 00:27:53,200
Speaker 4: it starts to really feel icky.

506
00:27:53,440 --> 00:27:56,560
Speaker 2: I think moving the tracking from the point of sale,

507
00:27:56,600 --> 00:27:58,239
Speaker 2: which is the loyalty.

508
00:27:58,080 --> 00:28:00,040
Speaker 4: Card that's at the end, yeah.

509
00:28:00,160 --> 00:28:04,800
Speaker 2: You the point of entering or even having an inkling

510
00:28:04,880 --> 00:28:06,959
Speaker 2: to go to the store, by let's say putting it

511
00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:09,639
Speaker 2: into your Google Maps app or something that you're going

512
00:28:09,720 --> 00:28:12,440
Speaker 2: to head to the croaker. I mean, there are all

513
00:28:12,480 --> 00:28:16,080
Speaker 2: kinds of things that could theoretically be implemented, and we'll

514
00:28:16,080 --> 00:28:18,600
Speaker 2: see a few of those in this episode. That are

515
00:28:18,680 --> 00:28:23,639
Speaker 2: being implemented, but ultimately all of it depends on data

516
00:28:23,680 --> 00:28:27,520
Speaker 2: that's being collected at all times on you by I

517
00:28:27,520 --> 00:28:30,560
Speaker 2: don't even know how many companies are collecting the data

518
00:28:30,600 --> 00:28:34,040
Speaker 2: on your credit card purchases or your bank card purchases

519
00:28:34,280 --> 00:28:38,520
Speaker 2: right or your travel, your location data on your phone,

520
00:28:39,240 --> 00:28:41,920
Speaker 2: and on all the other things that all comes into

521
00:28:41,960 --> 00:28:47,640
Speaker 2: play here the ride share app thing. I don't mean

522
00:28:47,680 --> 00:28:51,640
Speaker 2: to be contrariy, and I hope I'm not misunderstanding. We're

523
00:28:51,680 --> 00:28:54,720
Speaker 2: saying that that trick that we're talking about doing. Ben

524
00:28:55,560 --> 00:28:59,160
Speaker 2: is working on dynamic pricing in the moment for those apps.

525
00:28:59,240 --> 00:29:01,080
Speaker 2: Or is it dynamic pricing are we seeing for the

526
00:29:01,120 --> 00:29:03,080
Speaker 2: individuals that are using the app?

527
00:29:03,200 --> 00:29:06,560
Speaker 3: That's an excellent question. Is for the individuals we'll hear it. Reply,

528
00:29:07,520 --> 00:29:10,760
Speaker 3: We'll hear it referred to as surge pricing, demand pricing,

529
00:29:10,880 --> 00:29:15,080
Speaker 3: time based pricing. Shout out to Harvard Business, et cetera,

530
00:29:15,440 --> 00:29:18,640
Speaker 3: and all the NBAS. This occurs everything NOL. I like

531
00:29:18,720 --> 00:29:23,600
Speaker 3: your note about airline ticket purchasing. That's a great example

532
00:29:23,760 --> 00:29:26,760
Speaker 3: pro tip. The best time to buy airline tickets is

533
00:29:27,080 --> 00:29:30,120
Speaker 3: two to three am Eastern Standard.

534
00:29:30,280 --> 00:29:32,440
Speaker 4: Interesting, and of course I'll obviously maybe maybe this isn't

535
00:29:32,480 --> 00:29:34,840
Speaker 4: even that pro a tip. But the farther out you

536
00:29:34,880 --> 00:29:37,560
Speaker 4: can do it, the better. And I have noticed in

537
00:29:37,600 --> 00:29:39,400
Speaker 4: the Hopper app which is I think is a pretty

538
00:29:39,440 --> 00:29:42,120
Speaker 4: good one. It gives you kind of like color coding

539
00:29:42,160 --> 00:29:44,840
Speaker 4: depending on how pricing the tickets are going to be

540
00:29:45,000 --> 00:29:47,680
Speaker 4: in various times of the year when it's going to

541
00:29:47,720 --> 00:29:49,960
Speaker 4: depend on certain factors. But I do have to go

542
00:29:50,000 --> 00:29:53,320
Speaker 4: back to this point about does it know who you

543
00:29:53,480 --> 00:29:56,880
Speaker 4: are and what is it basing it on. Is it

544
00:29:57,040 --> 00:30:00,520
Speaker 4: saying that because you have a certain income level, that

545
00:30:00,560 --> 00:30:03,200
Speaker 4: you're willing to pay more and therefore it's going to

546
00:30:03,320 --> 00:30:05,600
Speaker 4: juice you up a little bit? Like are we going

547
00:30:05,680 --> 00:30:06,120
Speaker 4: that far?

548
00:30:06,840 --> 00:30:07,000
Speaker 3: Yes?

549
00:30:07,120 --> 00:30:09,320
Speaker 4: Or I think we are. I think that's at least

550
00:30:09,360 --> 00:30:12,680
Speaker 4: the conspiracy of it, all right, that's the reason.

551
00:30:13,480 --> 00:30:15,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was gonna say that is the conspiratorial thought

552
00:30:15,920 --> 00:30:17,960
Speaker 2: future that is not happening right now, at least to

553
00:30:18,040 --> 00:30:18,840
Speaker 2: my knowledge.

554
00:30:19,440 --> 00:30:22,120
Speaker 3: It's getting close. It depends on your neck of the

555
00:30:22,160 --> 00:30:26,640
Speaker 3: global woods. Folks in the United States currently, which still

556
00:30:26,720 --> 00:30:32,880
Speaker 3: suffers from an abundance of food deserts. This technology is

557
00:30:33,000 --> 00:30:38,560
Speaker 3: in early rollout. However, we could argue this is inevitable.

558
00:30:39,200 --> 00:30:41,800
Speaker 3: It just makes too much sense for the companies whatever

559
00:30:41,840 --> 00:30:45,520
Speaker 3: you want to call it, surge pricing, dynamic pricing, time

560
00:30:45,560 --> 00:30:49,880
Speaker 3: based on demand. This strategy is coming for you because

561
00:30:49,920 --> 00:30:55,560
Speaker 3: it's a natural extension of older, pre existing tactics. Like

562
00:30:55,640 --> 00:30:59,720
Speaker 3: we've all noticed it, right. You are in your grocery

563
00:30:59,760 --> 00:31:05,160
Speaker 3: store and you see discounts on perishable products, right, meat,

564
00:31:05,800 --> 00:31:10,200
Speaker 3: baked goods, produce, Right, they get twenty percent off, and

565
00:31:10,200 --> 00:31:13,240
Speaker 3: you're like, hey, this might be a good hang if

566
00:31:13,240 --> 00:31:17,560
Speaker 3: I cook it right now. This this gives the grocery

567
00:31:17,560 --> 00:31:21,360
Speaker 3: store the ability to sell something off and make some

568
00:31:21,480 --> 00:31:24,880
Speaker 3: kind of profit before they throw it away. For the

569
00:31:24,960 --> 00:31:28,320
Speaker 3: crosspunks and the dumpster divers, you know, it can be

570
00:31:28,400 --> 00:31:31,360
Speaker 3: a win win. Who doesn't want twenty percent off on

571
00:31:31,480 --> 00:31:33,800
Speaker 3: some rude begas? Dylan? Are we right?

572
00:31:34,240 --> 00:31:40,320
Speaker 4: Amen? All hell the great Lord rude Bega.

573
00:31:40,520 --> 00:31:45,280
Speaker 2: But I said the baby back, baby back, baby back ribs?

574
00:31:46,120 --> 00:31:50,360
Speaker 3: Yes, oh baby's back. Yeah. Did you guys ever know

575
00:31:51,200 --> 00:31:53,240
Speaker 3: super coupon people the clippers?

576
00:31:53,560 --> 00:31:55,720
Speaker 4: Yeah? I was one, and I bet you were a

577
00:31:55,800 --> 00:31:59,440
Speaker 4: mat It is such a rule follower. I love it well.

578
00:31:59,280 --> 00:32:01,720
Speaker 2: And for a time there my Kroger app would allow

579
00:32:01,760 --> 00:32:04,240
Speaker 2: me to get digital coupons. I believe it will still

580
00:32:04,240 --> 00:32:04,880
Speaker 2: offer that.

581
00:32:04,760 --> 00:32:08,640
Speaker 4: To your car. I like the physical clipping of it

582
00:32:08,680 --> 00:32:10,760
Speaker 4: all though I think that I wonder if that phenomenon

583
00:32:10,800 --> 00:32:12,880
Speaker 4: is still around it. There are hardcore coupon clippers out

584
00:32:12,920 --> 00:32:15,560
Speaker 4: there with their scissors going to town on the weekly

585
00:32:15,600 --> 00:32:18,080
Speaker 4: inserts in the in their local newspapers.

586
00:32:18,360 --> 00:32:22,520
Speaker 3: Check out the h Bart circular. We know that this

587
00:32:22,640 --> 00:32:27,160
Speaker 3: does still exist. Like many of us listening now, uh,

588
00:32:27,280 --> 00:32:33,120
Speaker 3: I was super into chaining combos, specials and then manufacturer coupons,

589
00:32:33,480 --> 00:32:36,680
Speaker 3: and then you you gain the loyalty program a little bit,

590
00:32:37,080 --> 00:32:40,520
Speaker 3: you can get massive. You could get massive discounts on

591
00:32:40,560 --> 00:32:44,200
Speaker 3: the bottom line because you, as the customer, were able

592
00:32:44,240 --> 00:32:48,120
Speaker 3: to move more quickly than the stores themselves. They had

593
00:32:48,120 --> 00:32:52,080
Speaker 3: to wait for additional data before they adjusted the price

594
00:32:52,120 --> 00:32:52,600
Speaker 3: of something.

595
00:32:52,720 --> 00:32:55,320
Speaker 2: Yeah. Bet you remember the good old days of the

596
00:32:55,480 --> 00:32:58,840
Speaker 2: lunches we would have at Capital City Plaza there and Buckhead.

597
00:32:59,480 --> 00:33:02,080
Speaker 2: The number of soups that you could find, like one

598
00:33:02,200 --> 00:33:05,120
Speaker 2: one time of the month you could get like twelve soups.

599
00:33:05,440 --> 00:33:10,400
Speaker 3: Matt and I used to have way less money crossed over.

600
00:33:10,680 --> 00:33:12,280
Speaker 2: Yeah, we way more sodium.

601
00:33:13,040 --> 00:33:17,320
Speaker 3: No, we would straight up consult each other like which

602
00:33:17,400 --> 00:33:20,400
Speaker 3: soup is like the good soup on the.

603
00:33:20,240 --> 00:33:23,040
Speaker 4: Salt murder Kroger.

604
00:33:23,400 --> 00:33:25,200
Speaker 2: They were on sale at Murderkroger all the time.

605
00:33:25,240 --> 00:33:27,960
Speaker 4: Okay, Murder Troger is an Atlanta phenomenon. For anyone out

606
00:33:27,960 --> 00:33:29,000
Speaker 4: there that doesn't.

607
00:33:28,680 --> 00:33:29,920
Speaker 3: Know what we're talking about.

608
00:33:30,960 --> 00:33:33,360
Speaker 4: It went through a much needed rebrand. I believe they

609
00:33:33,400 --> 00:33:35,560
Speaker 4: call it the disco Kroger. Now, oh, they call it

610
00:33:35,560 --> 00:33:37,720
Speaker 4: the belt line. There you go, belt Line Kroger. Even

611
00:33:37,760 --> 00:33:41,280
Speaker 4: more boring. Disco I think is Yeah, it's a different way. Anyway,

612
00:33:41,280 --> 00:33:43,480
Speaker 4: the Kroger is around here. Get some fun nicknames. There's

613
00:33:43,480 --> 00:33:46,520
Speaker 4: Facebook Kroger, Yeah, black Broger, as.

614
00:33:46,400 --> 00:33:49,720
Speaker 3: You mentioned, Yeah, what's the one off memorial gold.

615
00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:51,720
Speaker 4: I'm not sure it might be the Facebook Croker. There

616
00:33:51,760 --> 00:33:54,920
Speaker 4: was also Crowbar, because there was one that had There

617
00:33:54,960 --> 00:33:56,640
Speaker 4: was one that had a like a like a little

618
00:33:56,680 --> 00:33:59,160
Speaker 4: pub inside, and I believe that closed. It's not beautiful.

619
00:33:59,440 --> 00:34:01,120
Speaker 4: Nobody goes. Turns out we want to go to grocery

620
00:34:01,160 --> 00:34:02,440
Speaker 4: stores for a happy hour.

621
00:34:03,320 --> 00:34:05,600
Speaker 3: Da, that's gotta be a weird egg.

622
00:34:05,400 --> 00:34:07,880
Speaker 4: Right, Georgia, believe me?

623
00:34:08,760 --> 00:34:12,600
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, Jillian, keep this in, but can you add

624
00:34:12,640 --> 00:34:15,160
Speaker 3: like a dramatic sound cue after you said believe me?

625
00:34:16,640 --> 00:34:21,040
Speaker 3: All right? So we talked about this electronic shelf labels.

626
00:34:21,120 --> 00:34:24,400
Speaker 3: They are a game changer. If you visit the United

627
00:34:24,440 --> 00:34:28,360
Speaker 3: States and you're not from that country, you've experienced something

628
00:34:28,560 --> 00:34:34,880
Speaker 3: weird firsthand. The old school printed shelf store price labels,

629
00:34:35,360 --> 00:34:39,560
Speaker 3: they're super misleading because it's never the actual price. It

630
00:34:39,600 --> 00:34:43,640
Speaker 3: doesn't count your local, state or federal taxes. And then,

631
00:34:43,719 --> 00:34:48,880
Speaker 3: of course the boffins in marketing research, all the NBA's

632
00:34:49,040 --> 00:34:53,080
Speaker 3: and whomever we save from Operation paper Clip, they figured

633
00:34:53,120 --> 00:34:58,400
Speaker 3: out some cognitive sorcery or sorcery. It's funny if you

634
00:34:58,440 --> 00:35:01,680
Speaker 3: read it on how to display a price. So that's

635
00:35:01,760 --> 00:35:06,760
Speaker 3: why everything is four ninety nine or three ninety nine

636
00:35:06,800 --> 00:35:09,720
Speaker 3: instead of just straight up five or four dollars.

637
00:35:10,040 --> 00:35:13,360
Speaker 2: Oh and if you're buying let's say, a technological good

638
00:35:13,600 --> 00:35:17,600
Speaker 2: or a piece of furniture or anything that requires assembly,

639
00:35:18,239 --> 00:35:22,279
Speaker 2: or anything above fifty dollars, you're gonna get hit with

640
00:35:22,320 --> 00:35:24,480
Speaker 2: another little thing that you may not expect at the

641
00:35:24,560 --> 00:35:28,719
Speaker 2: checkout counter, and that is some kind of insurance policy

642
00:35:29,640 --> 00:35:33,400
Speaker 2: or warranty policy on that thing. They can range anywhere

643
00:35:33,400 --> 00:35:36,360
Speaker 2: from like four ninety nine to one hundred and twenty

644
00:35:36,440 --> 00:35:37,440
Speaker 2: extra dollars.

645
00:35:37,600 --> 00:35:39,800
Speaker 4: What's an offer though, right, especially at the best pause

646
00:35:39,880 --> 00:35:41,680
Speaker 4: of it all, I mean, it's like an extended warranty

647
00:35:41,760 --> 00:35:44,279
Speaker 4: or like whatever, and just I usually decline those.

648
00:35:44,600 --> 00:35:46,719
Speaker 3: You can also get it for free if you sign

649
00:35:46,840 --> 00:35:49,920
Speaker 3: up for the loyalty program in some cases CE So

650
00:35:50,160 --> 00:35:55,280
Speaker 3: just give me your information and if your overpriced Hdmi

651
00:35:55,360 --> 00:35:58,359
Speaker 3: cable poops the bed, then I'll give you another one.

652
00:35:58,600 --> 00:36:01,800
Speaker 3: Just let me know your social Security number. But type

653
00:36:02,080 --> 00:36:05,839
Speaker 3: every closest relationship you have to Kevin Bacon a list

654
00:36:05,880 --> 00:36:09,960
Speaker 3: of your childhood fears and tell me about your dreams exactly.

655
00:36:10,280 --> 00:36:12,680
Speaker 2: But the psychology of it, especially for someone who's risk

656
00:36:12,800 --> 00:36:17,680
Speaker 2: adverse like me, you have that moment of kind of

657
00:36:17,719 --> 00:36:20,640
Speaker 2: crisis at the checkout counter of oh crap, oh crap,

658
00:36:20,640 --> 00:36:22,360
Speaker 2: I should probably do this thing, like what if it breaks,

659
00:36:22,360 --> 00:36:23,760
Speaker 2: what if this happens, What if that happens?

660
00:36:23,760 --> 00:36:24,719
Speaker 3: Oh crap, I should.

661
00:36:24,480 --> 00:36:28,160
Speaker 2: Probably do this, And it will cause It will not

662
00:36:28,200 --> 00:36:31,080
Speaker 2: cause you to do anything. It will maybe push you,

663
00:36:31,280 --> 00:36:34,160
Speaker 2: because this whole episode is about these little pushes, right,

664
00:36:34,600 --> 00:36:37,319
Speaker 2: might push you to accepting something that you wouldn't have

665
00:36:37,360 --> 00:36:39,319
Speaker 2: done if it was there on the label when you

666
00:36:39,360 --> 00:36:40,279
Speaker 2: picked that thing up.

667
00:36:40,320 --> 00:36:42,960
Speaker 4: Creates a little cognitive dissonance kind of in the moment

668
00:36:43,000 --> 00:36:45,799
Speaker 4: where you're like super stoked about this thing that you're

669
00:36:45,840 --> 00:36:48,400
Speaker 4: about to purchase to whatever it might be an HDMI

670
00:36:48,480 --> 00:36:50,839
Speaker 4: cor or maybe even like a camera, but then all

671
00:36:50,840 --> 00:36:54,080
Speaker 4: of a sudden you are presented with the eventuality that

672
00:36:54,160 --> 00:36:56,080
Speaker 4: your thing might be a lemon.

673
00:36:57,120 --> 00:37:03,600
Speaker 3: Have I confronted mortality here at the counter of best buying?

674
00:37:03,719 --> 00:37:10,160
Speaker 3: Will one day degrade and bring ah? Is there ballman gilliad?

675
00:37:10,480 --> 00:37:13,200
Speaker 3: Is there no hope? I will sign up for your

676
00:37:13,440 --> 00:37:14,759
Speaker 3: loyalty program?

677
00:37:15,040 --> 00:37:17,200
Speaker 4: There are certain things where you extend a little a

678
00:37:17,239 --> 00:37:19,439
Speaker 4: little depending on the costs or an extended warrantsy isn't

679
00:37:19,440 --> 00:37:22,840
Speaker 4: the worst idea, and it's like a major appliance, for example,

680
00:37:22,960 --> 00:37:25,880
Speaker 4: and it gives you a little bit of extension past

681
00:37:25,920 --> 00:37:28,440
Speaker 4: whatever the manufacturer warranty is. But typically if it's a

682
00:37:28,480 --> 00:37:32,359
Speaker 4: decent products the manufacturer warrants he's going to be good enough.

683
00:37:32,360 --> 00:37:33,759
Speaker 4: Not to get off on a tangent here.

684
00:37:33,800 --> 00:37:36,960
Speaker 3: But it's a good point. No, you're making a great point.

685
00:37:37,680 --> 00:37:40,759
Speaker 2: There are these massive corporate insurance outfits that are that

686
00:37:40,840 --> 00:37:43,919
Speaker 2: are going into places like Staples. I just found this out, guys,

687
00:37:43,920 --> 00:37:47,799
Speaker 2: because this chair I I got recently. We are not

688
00:37:47,840 --> 00:37:52,359
Speaker 2: sponsored by Staples. Chair say very nice, Well, it's it's

689
00:37:52,400 --> 00:37:57,400
Speaker 2: not it's actually not that nice. It works perfectly for

690
00:37:57,560 --> 00:37:59,759
Speaker 2: my purposes, but it was definitely not one of the

691
00:37:59,840 --> 00:38:02,439
Speaker 2: nice ones they had for sale there. But I did

692
00:38:02,480 --> 00:38:05,200
Speaker 2: find out that they ensure. There are these massive corporate

693
00:38:05,239 --> 00:38:10,200
Speaker 2: insurance companies that are working with like these other departments

694
00:38:10,200 --> 00:38:13,879
Speaker 2: and outlets that will ensure things like this as part

695
00:38:13,960 --> 00:38:16,520
Speaker 2: of the purchase price, and then you sign up for

696
00:38:16,560 --> 00:38:18,839
Speaker 2: this other little things. It's not called avanti. I can't

697
00:38:18,840 --> 00:38:21,960
Speaker 2: remember the name of it's. So there are crazy, huge

698
00:38:22,000 --> 00:38:25,719
Speaker 2: corporations that are a part of this whole system of

699
00:38:25,880 --> 00:38:28,520
Speaker 2: ensuring something to replace it if something goes.

700
00:38:28,400 --> 00:38:32,520
Speaker 3: Wrong and you can get you can get something like

701
00:38:32,600 --> 00:38:35,440
Speaker 3: that at your local grocery store. Right you buy something

702
00:38:35,440 --> 00:38:41,800
Speaker 3: it doesn't work, you can take it back, yes, food hopefully. Yeah.

703
00:38:41,920 --> 00:38:45,280
Speaker 3: I think they make so much money that if Noel

704
00:38:45,320 --> 00:38:48,520
Speaker 3: Brown comes back with a bad avocado, they'll just give

705
00:38:48,560 --> 00:38:49,680
Speaker 3: them another avocado.

706
00:38:49,840 --> 00:38:52,879
Speaker 2: I did it recently with blackberries. I bought one of those,

707
00:38:53,040 --> 00:38:55,799
Speaker 2: you know, a container of blackberries, brought it home, open

708
00:38:55,840 --> 00:38:57,880
Speaker 2: it up the next day to give them my kids,

709
00:38:57,920 --> 00:39:01,839
Speaker 2: And there's mold all in it when you purchased it.

710
00:39:01,880 --> 00:39:03,719
Speaker 2: But you take the first one off and then there's

711
00:39:03,719 --> 00:39:05,759
Speaker 2: just a ton of mold in there. I took it

712
00:39:05,840 --> 00:39:08,520
Speaker 2: right back. Sorry, Kroger, but I took it right back

713
00:39:08,520 --> 00:39:11,560
Speaker 2: to you, and but thankfully you replaced it immediately.

714
00:39:11,640 --> 00:39:16,400
Speaker 3: And if this implementation of electronic sign labels right, that

715
00:39:16,680 --> 00:39:21,200
Speaker 3: that signage, if that kicks in and becomes normalized the

716
00:39:21,200 --> 00:39:25,319
Speaker 3: way it's normalized across parts of Western Europe, then your

717
00:39:25,440 --> 00:39:31,000
Speaker 3: local Kroger Matt Frederick would clock that someone's returning those

718
00:39:31,080 --> 00:39:34,359
Speaker 3: berries and say, okay, do we dip the price down?

719
00:39:34,760 --> 00:39:36,719
Speaker 3: Do we dip it up a little bit? What's our

720
00:39:36,800 --> 00:39:42,040
Speaker 3: demand v supply? Right? What's our fung Gui index? And

721
00:39:42,640 --> 00:39:46,319
Speaker 3: this means that now in certain grocery stores, and this

722
00:39:46,480 --> 00:39:49,640
Speaker 3: is going to happen to you, folks. You can walk

723
00:39:49,719 --> 00:39:52,840
Speaker 3: down the cereal aisle at the start of your sojourn

724
00:39:53,080 --> 00:39:57,520
Speaker 3: with your grocery card, and then you can walk back

725
00:39:57,560 --> 00:40:01,360
Speaker 3: down that aisle, same cereal aisle, and you will see

726
00:40:02,040 --> 00:40:06,680
Speaker 3: a different price on raisin brand from the time you

727
00:40:06,840 --> 00:40:11,279
Speaker 3: entered to the time you left. And maybe it's going

728
00:40:11,320 --> 00:40:15,400
Speaker 3: to be a small shift, but eventually it might not

729
00:40:15,640 --> 00:40:18,040
Speaker 3: just be the system of supply and demand. It might

730
00:40:18,040 --> 00:40:21,359
Speaker 3: be targeting you specifically. So I'm Matt Frederick, I walk

731
00:40:21,440 --> 00:40:24,920
Speaker 3: by the raisin brand right, it's four ninety nine. I

732
00:40:24,960 --> 00:40:28,440
Speaker 3: love raisin brand. I'm Matt Frederick. I love that stuff,

733
00:40:28,840 --> 00:40:32,239
Speaker 3: but it's for ninety nine. I walk back on the

734
00:40:32,280 --> 00:40:37,160
Speaker 3: way to the cashier and now it's three ninety nine.

735
00:40:38,280 --> 00:40:39,320
Speaker 3: I'm going to get my brand.

736
00:40:39,640 --> 00:40:41,160
Speaker 4: Gotta have you, gotta have your brand.

737
00:40:41,480 --> 00:40:42,640
Speaker 2: I was gonna get it anyway.

738
00:40:43,680 --> 00:40:45,160
Speaker 4: Well, and I know we've talked about this in the

739
00:40:45,200 --> 00:40:49,160
Speaker 4: past when dynamic pricing has come up, but we have

740
00:40:49,320 --> 00:40:53,080
Speaker 4: no illusions of this not happening with say gas prices.

741
00:40:53,239 --> 00:40:57,080
Speaker 4: Those billboards or the you know, the street facing signs

742
00:40:57,320 --> 00:41:02,120
Speaker 4: attached to gas stations are digital and they can absolutely fluctuate,

743
00:41:02,440 --> 00:41:05,440
Speaker 4: you know, from moment to moment, depending And I know

744
00:41:05,719 --> 00:41:07,640
Speaker 4: from having worked in a gas station once when I

745
00:41:07,719 --> 00:41:10,680
Speaker 4: was a teenager, a lot of those are pretty arbitrary.

746
00:41:10,680 --> 00:41:13,480
Speaker 4: They're not like connected up to some crazy network. Typically

747
00:41:13,560 --> 00:41:17,040
Speaker 4: it's usually input by like the proprietors, at least at

748
00:41:17,080 --> 00:41:19,160
Speaker 4: the place where I worked. It may be different with

749
00:41:19,239 --> 00:41:23,480
Speaker 4: like larger, you know, petrol chains, but we've never really

750
00:41:23,560 --> 00:41:25,400
Speaker 4: had a sense of like the price of gas is

751
00:41:25,440 --> 00:41:27,080
Speaker 4: not going to change, you know, from day to day.

752
00:41:27,200 --> 00:41:31,080
Speaker 4: So I'm not saying that this is okay. I am

753
00:41:31,160 --> 00:41:33,640
Speaker 4: just saying that there are examples of things that we

754
00:41:33,719 --> 00:41:38,040
Speaker 4: sort of accept this for and for some reason this

755
00:41:38,160 --> 00:41:43,600
Speaker 4: is causing another little bit of cognitive dissonance as to like, well,

756
00:41:43,640 --> 00:41:45,279
Speaker 4: why this, you know, but not that?

757
00:41:46,040 --> 00:41:51,000
Speaker 3: Again a natural extension of, as you said, pre existing strategies.

758
00:41:51,320 --> 00:41:55,719
Speaker 3: I love the note about gas station prices because, of

759
00:41:55,760 --> 00:41:57,759
Speaker 3: course there were some of the first things to go

760
00:41:57,800 --> 00:42:02,640
Speaker 3: to a full digital display, and it changes never buy

761
00:42:02,760 --> 00:42:06,600
Speaker 3: that much unless a natural disaster is occurring. Maybe we

762
00:42:06,800 --> 00:42:10,359
Speaker 3: pause for a word from our sponsors and go through

763
00:42:10,400 --> 00:42:22,160
Speaker 3: some pros and cons of dynamic pricing. We're back, okay,

764
00:42:22,560 --> 00:42:25,879
Speaker 3: As we said, this makes sense for companies, right. It's

765
00:42:25,920 --> 00:42:29,120
Speaker 3: similar to any other arms race, because if all your

766
00:42:29,239 --> 00:42:33,239
Speaker 3: competitors are doing this and you are not, then you

767
00:42:33,320 --> 00:42:37,279
Speaker 3: are leaving money on the table. So businesses argue that

768
00:42:37,560 --> 00:42:42,200
Speaker 3: when this stuff is implemented, well, it can again allow

769
00:42:42,320 --> 00:42:46,800
Speaker 3: companies and customers to share value. Whatever the heck that means.

770
00:42:48,000 --> 00:42:51,400
Speaker 3: Their idea is that, or they're public facing pitches that

771
00:42:51,560 --> 00:42:56,520
Speaker 3: accurate pricing will allow grocery stores to provide better service

772
00:42:57,120 --> 00:43:02,280
Speaker 3: over time. Those are the pros, These are the cons.

773
00:43:02,880 --> 00:43:06,560
Speaker 3: What if you are beholden to this store's real time

774
00:43:06,719 --> 00:43:10,279
Speaker 3: pricing inflation. What if you have, like so many of us,

775
00:43:10,560 --> 00:43:13,759
Speaker 3: a schedule that only allows you to shop on specific

776
00:43:13,840 --> 00:43:17,400
Speaker 3: days or at specific times. What if you're on a

777
00:43:17,480 --> 00:43:21,440
Speaker 3: fixed income and you can only get a ride to

778
00:43:21,760 --> 00:43:26,200
Speaker 3: your grocery store, you know, Sunday at three pm. Right,

779
00:43:26,520 --> 00:43:30,120
Speaker 3: you have no control over what happens there and how

780
00:43:30,200 --> 00:43:33,120
Speaker 3: much they decide your case of Da cheese is going

781
00:43:33,200 --> 00:43:35,279
Speaker 3: to cost. But you have to play the game.

782
00:43:35,520 --> 00:43:38,799
Speaker 2: You would you would have to redo, like, you'd have

783
00:43:38,840 --> 00:43:41,719
Speaker 2: to find a way, right because you wouldn't be able

784
00:43:41,760 --> 00:43:46,640
Speaker 2: to afford groceries. But potentially you have to just completely

785
00:43:46,680 --> 00:43:49,520
Speaker 2: change your schedule in your life to be able to eat.

786
00:43:49,760 --> 00:43:52,759
Speaker 3: And also if you ask the question why did this

787
00:43:52,880 --> 00:43:57,920
Speaker 3: price change? Currently, there is no transparency on what's happening.

788
00:43:58,280 --> 00:44:04,960
Speaker 3: Why the ESL. The electronic signage is going to display

789
00:44:05,080 --> 00:44:08,360
Speaker 3: maybe a QR code. It will give you a price.

790
00:44:08,560 --> 00:44:11,439
Speaker 3: It will probably give you a QR code, but it's

791
00:44:11,480 --> 00:44:14,680
Speaker 3: not going to give you some weird ted talk about

792
00:44:14,719 --> 00:44:18,719
Speaker 3: why Ruda begas were two dollars yesterday and now they're

793
00:44:18,760 --> 00:44:19,400
Speaker 3: two fifty.

794
00:44:19,800 --> 00:44:22,120
Speaker 4: How much could a Rude Beega cost. I've never purchased

795
00:44:22,120 --> 00:44:24,279
Speaker 4: a Rude begga. Do they come in bunches. Do you

796
00:44:24,280 --> 00:44:27,320
Speaker 4: buy them one at a time? How does a rudebega come?

797
00:44:27,440 --> 00:44:27,839
Speaker 4: I don't know.

798
00:44:28,840 --> 00:44:30,680
Speaker 2: I've only seen them individually, so.

799
00:44:30,560 --> 00:44:33,960
Speaker 4: I mean I could give radishes or beats come in bunches.

800
00:44:34,000 --> 00:44:36,440
Speaker 4: So rudebega is a is a one and done kind

801
00:44:36,440 --> 00:44:40,600
Speaker 4: of thing, like a potato's a root vegetable. Right, I'm sorry,

802
00:44:40,719 --> 00:44:42,439
Speaker 4: I'm getting two in the weeks. It great, it's great,

803
00:44:42,520 --> 00:44:43,279
Speaker 4: rude Vega's here.

804
00:44:43,680 --> 00:44:47,360
Speaker 3: It's also so many difficult for us, the average shopper,

805
00:44:47,760 --> 00:44:51,480
Speaker 3: to know what the grocery store knows about us and

806
00:44:51,960 --> 00:44:56,400
Speaker 3: how that grocery store got that information. And that is because, again,

807
00:44:56,880 --> 00:45:02,399
Speaker 3: as we've said for years, innovation all ways outpaces legislation.

808
00:45:03,360 --> 00:45:07,680
Speaker 3: So also the US, let's be honest, the US political

809
00:45:07,760 --> 00:45:13,600
Speaker 3: class is beholden to very powerful private interests. They control

810
00:45:14,239 --> 00:45:19,239
Speaker 3: campaign donations, and politicians the wolves run the headhouse.

811
00:45:19,600 --> 00:45:22,960
Speaker 2: It's weird because you try to imagine what a grocery

812
00:45:23,000 --> 00:45:25,360
Speaker 2: store could know about you, right but because we know

813
00:45:25,400 --> 00:45:27,920
Speaker 2: there are so many third party data sales going on

814
00:45:28,040 --> 00:45:30,200
Speaker 2: right now, and that data is one of the primary

815
00:45:30,239 --> 00:45:34,080
Speaker 2: things that you collect for your business, for your economic

816
00:45:34,120 --> 00:45:38,880
Speaker 2: goals as a company. You think about think about the

817
00:45:38,920 --> 00:45:43,120
Speaker 2: things you choose to watch on Netflix, Like who knows

818
00:45:43,560 --> 00:45:45,400
Speaker 2: the stuff that you watch on Netflix? Who knows the

819
00:45:45,440 --> 00:45:48,200
Speaker 2: stuff you pull up on Google and what you search

820
00:45:48,239 --> 00:45:48,680
Speaker 2: on Google?

821
00:45:48,920 --> 00:45:52,000
Speaker 4: The shadow, the shadow knows man. That's who knows well

822
00:45:52,040 --> 00:45:54,560
Speaker 4: for certain By the shadow, I mean big data, who

823
00:45:54,640 --> 00:45:57,440
Speaker 4: is basically all of our daddies at this point. I mean,

824
00:45:57,520 --> 00:45:59,560
Speaker 4: that's just there's no two ways about it. They've got

825
00:45:59,719 --> 00:46:02,040
Speaker 4: every thing they need. I swear to God too, I

826
00:46:02,080 --> 00:46:04,880
Speaker 4: still see stuff getting served up to me based on

827
00:46:04,920 --> 00:46:07,960
Speaker 4: things I've spoken out loud. And I know that we've

828
00:46:08,200 --> 00:46:10,720
Speaker 4: heard perspectives that that's not a thing, but I swear

829
00:46:10,760 --> 00:46:13,960
Speaker 4: to God it is. I've getten served ads for things

830
00:46:14,000 --> 00:46:16,399
Speaker 4: that I've had conversations about that never made it into

831
00:46:16,440 --> 00:46:22,160
Speaker 4: an email or into a particular Netflix choice or a text,

832
00:46:22,200 --> 00:46:24,000
Speaker 4: whatever it might be. I'm sorry, I don't mean to deral,

833
00:46:24,040 --> 00:46:26,600
Speaker 4: but a big data freaks me out, and it's just

834
00:46:26,680 --> 00:46:29,359
Speaker 4: going to get freak here. Please I yield by time.

835
00:46:29,560 --> 00:46:31,360
Speaker 2: My point is, we know that all that data is

836
00:46:31,360 --> 00:46:33,440
Speaker 2: for sale, right, we know what it's out there, it's

837
00:46:33,480 --> 00:46:37,400
Speaker 2: being collected and is for sale. I can't see, or

838
00:46:37,400 --> 00:46:40,600
Speaker 2: I can't make the argument in my mind why a

839
00:46:40,640 --> 00:46:44,240
Speaker 2: Publix or a Kroger would spend all of the money

840
00:46:44,239 --> 00:46:48,279
Speaker 2: to find out that kind of minutia data on individuals,

841
00:46:48,840 --> 00:46:51,800
Speaker 2: because I can't see how much that actually goes into

842
00:46:51,800 --> 00:46:55,359
Speaker 2: whether or not you buy strawberries or you're focused on,

843
00:46:55,640 --> 00:46:58,120
Speaker 2: you know, the less perishable goods that are on the

844
00:46:58,440 --> 00:47:01,479
Speaker 2: middle shelves, right, I just I don't see the connect there,

845
00:47:02,040 --> 00:47:03,960
Speaker 2: And maybe maybe I'm just missing something.

846
00:47:04,280 --> 00:47:08,360
Speaker 3: It's really economy of scale because we will tend to

847
00:47:08,960 --> 00:47:14,439
Speaker 3: or Americans especially will tend to think of individual data

848
00:47:14,880 --> 00:47:20,680
Speaker 3: as precious, sacro sacd or high priced. None of those

849
00:47:20,800 --> 00:47:25,800
Speaker 3: three things are true. The data can be attained very cheaply.

850
00:47:26,200 --> 00:47:31,840
Speaker 3: This is a brutal competitive market. So in my battles

851
00:47:31,920 --> 00:47:36,760
Speaker 3: with optimism, I think the smart thing for the Americans

852
00:47:36,960 --> 00:47:39,760
Speaker 3: in the crowd, actually for any of us around the world,

853
00:47:40,200 --> 00:47:44,880
Speaker 3: is to have something like a unified data report transparency,

854
00:47:44,920 --> 00:47:50,000
Speaker 3: a compilation of everything various companies and data brokers and

855
00:47:50,160 --> 00:47:54,319
Speaker 3: institutions have learned about you and have sold to each other,

856
00:47:54,600 --> 00:47:56,440
Speaker 3: and when they did it, that.

857
00:47:56,280 --> 00:47:57,440
Speaker 4: Will could credit for it.

858
00:47:57,880 --> 00:47:59,319
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, dude, just so.

859
00:47:59,640 --> 00:48:03,080
Speaker 4: But why is that not being demanded? And there must

860
00:48:03,080 --> 00:48:06,360
Speaker 4: be a reason that that's not logistically, or it's just

861
00:48:06,400 --> 00:48:09,160
Speaker 4: the stuff they don't want us to know literally. Like,

862
00:48:09,600 --> 00:48:11,759
Speaker 4: that's a great idea, Ben, But how come I haven't

863
00:48:11,760 --> 00:48:14,600
Speaker 4: heard anybody pushing for something like that? Is it just

864
00:48:14,640 --> 00:48:17,800
Speaker 4: out of a question? Are there too many disparate players

865
00:48:17,840 --> 00:48:20,400
Speaker 4: in the game for it to all be like aggregated

866
00:48:20,400 --> 00:48:23,479
Speaker 4: in that way? I just it's a very Surely there's

867
00:48:23,480 --> 00:48:26,879
Speaker 4: an organization or an agency that could produce something like that,

868
00:48:27,360 --> 00:48:30,399
Speaker 4: but there's a reason that they don't want to give

869
00:48:30,440 --> 00:48:31,040
Speaker 4: that to us.

870
00:48:31,480 --> 00:48:34,280
Speaker 3: I appreciate you, man. Yeah, this is my first pitch.

871
00:48:34,360 --> 00:48:38,120
Speaker 3: We're open to notes of workshopping, but I to your point,

872
00:48:38,320 --> 00:48:41,319
Speaker 3: very powerful entities don't want to do that because the

873
00:48:41,360 --> 00:48:44,759
Speaker 3: status quo already exists. We had a professor friend of

874
00:48:44,800 --> 00:48:50,040
Speaker 3: the show years back who went on a mad escapade

875
00:48:50,600 --> 00:48:54,520
Speaker 3: to make terms and conditions and the fine print we

876
00:48:54,560 --> 00:48:59,200
Speaker 3: all click agree on to make that more readable, and

877
00:48:59,520 --> 00:49:03,240
Speaker 3: the guy shut down to your point, Well, that's why

878
00:49:04,040 --> 00:49:08,960
Speaker 3: it benefits the consumer, not the rent seekers.

879
00:49:09,200 --> 00:49:11,959
Speaker 4: It's interesting though, too, and I know I preface things

880
00:49:11,960 --> 00:49:13,920
Speaker 4: with it's interesting too much. I'm gonna work on that

881
00:49:14,000 --> 00:49:17,759
Speaker 4: this year, guys, But how would that benefit us to

882
00:49:17,880 --> 00:49:22,640
Speaker 4: know those things? Like we know what we like. Presumably,

883
00:49:23,400 --> 00:49:27,400
Speaker 4: how would what would be actionable based on having that

884
00:49:27,440 --> 00:49:31,280
Speaker 4: information and knowing what data is out there in these ways,

885
00:49:31,320 --> 00:49:33,719
Speaker 4: like what could we actually do about it? Isn't it

886
00:49:33,760 --> 00:49:35,919
Speaker 4: just like wouldn't it just piss us off? Even more

887
00:49:36,440 --> 00:49:39,319
Speaker 4: like there's really no recourse once you know, it would

888
00:49:39,360 --> 00:49:41,560
Speaker 4: just be kind of like, well, I guess now I know.

889
00:49:41,800 --> 00:49:44,640
Speaker 4: But how would it change behavior or change the leg

890
00:49:44,719 --> 00:49:48,120
Speaker 4: up that all of these whatever companies trying to buy

891
00:49:48,160 --> 00:49:49,480
Speaker 4: for your dollar would have on you.

892
00:49:49,840 --> 00:49:53,160
Speaker 3: That's a great question. Part of the answer here is

893
00:49:53,200 --> 00:49:58,160
Speaker 3: that it would establish legal precedent to network with other

894
00:49:58,440 --> 00:50:05,520
Speaker 3: existing acts, specifically stuff that outlaws price discrimination in the

895
00:50:05,680 --> 00:50:09,720
Speaker 3: United States. So, if, for instance, your Wegmans or whatever

896
00:50:10,080 --> 00:50:14,840
Speaker 3: is using facial SIGs and using you know, your social

897
00:50:14,920 --> 00:50:19,360
Speaker 3: media activity, your political leanings and so on to charge

898
00:50:19,400 --> 00:50:23,480
Speaker 3: you more for your what's a fun thing to buy?

899
00:50:23,719 --> 00:50:25,120
Speaker 3: What's a fun food thing to buy?

900
00:50:25,239 --> 00:50:32,080
Speaker 4: Confetti, funfetti, funfetti cupcake mix, the funnest of cakes.

901
00:50:32,239 --> 00:50:34,880
Speaker 3: Yeah, so you could go then if we had that

902
00:50:35,000 --> 00:50:40,000
Speaker 3: kind of unified data report, you could go to court

903
00:50:40,080 --> 00:50:44,760
Speaker 3: with that and say these jerks are charging me more

904
00:50:44,840 --> 00:50:48,960
Speaker 3: than they should or more than other people for my

905
00:50:49,160 --> 00:50:54,400
Speaker 3: funfetti cupcake mix. And it's because they did the facial

906
00:50:54,440 --> 00:50:58,319
Speaker 3: signature stuff. It's because I know and can prove what

907
00:50:58,480 --> 00:51:01,520
Speaker 3: they learned about me and how they used it against

908
00:51:01,640 --> 00:51:04,360
Speaker 3: me for only a dollar and fifteen cents.

909
00:51:05,000 --> 00:51:06,080
Speaker 4: That's true for me, guys.

910
00:51:06,080 --> 00:51:08,920
Speaker 2: It's about being able to enact some kind of legislation

911
00:51:09,560 --> 00:51:13,640
Speaker 2: to give individuals the right of erasure, right, the right of.

912
00:51:13,719 --> 00:51:16,360
Speaker 4: That's exactly you're right, Yes, thank you mad. That was

913
00:51:16,400 --> 00:51:19,040
Speaker 4: exactly the concept that I was reaching for, Like that,

914
00:51:19,480 --> 00:51:21,680
Speaker 4: at some point, could you then have the right to

915
00:51:21,719 --> 00:51:25,040
Speaker 4: have that information removed or to be you know, rescinded

916
00:51:25,120 --> 00:51:26,319
Speaker 4: or whatever it might be. Right.

917
00:51:26,520 --> 00:51:28,799
Speaker 2: It's but to the to Ben's point about the terms

918
00:51:28,800 --> 00:51:32,000
Speaker 2: of service thing, it's in that terms of service like

919
00:51:32,560 --> 00:51:34,840
Speaker 2: you are giving us the right to use your stuff

920
00:51:35,200 --> 00:51:38,680
Speaker 2: by using our thing, right by coming to our store,

921
00:51:38,880 --> 00:51:41,920
Speaker 2: by using our app, and all of those things. But

922
00:51:42,000 --> 00:51:45,120
Speaker 2: it would be interesting if there was a world in

923
00:51:45,160 --> 00:51:47,720
Speaker 2: which you could opt out of that kind of stuff

924
00:51:47,760 --> 00:51:52,799
Speaker 2: but still get groceries, right, which theoretically you can if

925
00:51:52,800 --> 00:51:56,120
Speaker 2: you use cash. If you don't have you know, you

926
00:51:56,160 --> 00:51:58,920
Speaker 2: take you leave your phone at home or in the car.

927
00:51:59,440 --> 00:52:02,320
Speaker 2: The idea just a human being with cash money.

928
00:52:02,719 --> 00:52:05,120
Speaker 4: We're so very much talking about an escalation of the

929
00:52:05,239 --> 00:52:08,799
Speaker 4: very rudimentary like do not call lists or like you

930
00:52:08,800 --> 00:52:11,879
Speaker 4: know what used to be we would get spammed with

931
00:52:12,120 --> 00:52:16,000
Speaker 4: telemarket calls or whatever. And then in theory, you could

932
00:52:16,040 --> 00:52:19,920
Speaker 4: have your number removed from those lists. But then it

933
00:52:20,000 --> 00:52:22,120
Speaker 4: just seemed like a whack a mole situation because even

934
00:52:22,160 --> 00:52:23,920
Speaker 4: once you got your number off that list, that did

935
00:52:23,920 --> 00:52:26,840
Speaker 4: pop up in another place, or they'd find you again,

936
00:52:26,960 --> 00:52:28,480
Speaker 4: or I don't know, I just never really put much

937
00:52:28,520 --> 00:52:30,520
Speaker 4: stock in the do not call list. So forgive me

938
00:52:30,520 --> 00:52:32,520
Speaker 4: if I maybe a little skeptical as to whether something

939
00:52:32,560 --> 00:52:34,000
Speaker 4: like this would even take.

940
00:52:34,640 --> 00:52:40,520
Speaker 3: Technology again always outpaces legislation. I mean, further, what happens

941
00:52:41,000 --> 00:52:46,440
Speaker 3: if the store system predicts a dire imbalance in supply

942
00:52:46,680 --> 00:52:49,560
Speaker 3: and demand before you do. You can picture it right now,

943
00:52:50,160 --> 00:52:54,200
Speaker 3: friends and neighbors. You're picking up a case of bottled water,

944
00:52:54,960 --> 00:52:58,680
Speaker 3: right watch out for the microplastics. But suddenly, as you

945
00:52:58,719 --> 00:53:02,239
Speaker 3: have your hands on the case, the label jumps by

946
00:53:02,320 --> 00:53:04,680
Speaker 3: five dollars and you turn to look out of the

947
00:53:04,680 --> 00:53:08,719
Speaker 3: window and you see a mob of people running for

948
00:53:08,840 --> 00:53:12,040
Speaker 3: bottled water in the store because that hurricane is coming.

949
00:53:12,760 --> 00:53:16,120
Speaker 3: You know, this is price Scuchy, this does happen, and

950
00:53:16,360 --> 00:53:20,160
Speaker 3: this will be aided and embedded by this current conspiracy.

951
00:53:20,719 --> 00:53:26,080
Speaker 3: Twenty eighteen, Kroger rolled out ESL in a pilot program.

952
00:53:26,440 --> 00:53:31,080
Speaker 3: They expanded it, and then they got in trouble and

953
00:53:31,120 --> 00:53:33,840
Speaker 3: we got to talk about Wegmans and the facial.

954
00:53:33,480 --> 00:53:37,560
Speaker 2: Sikes, not English second language. Just every time I hear

955
00:53:37,800 --> 00:53:38,960
Speaker 2: ESL for some reason that.

956
00:53:39,960 --> 00:53:44,800
Speaker 3: It yeah's elect electronic labels.

957
00:53:44,480 --> 00:53:47,840
Speaker 4: Because weirdly, people aren't really talking about this much. Because frankly, guys,

958
00:53:48,200 --> 00:53:50,120
Speaker 4: when this came up in the outline, it was the

959
00:53:50,120 --> 00:53:52,200
Speaker 4: first time I'd ever heard that acronym referring to something

960
00:53:52,200 --> 00:53:55,000
Speaker 4: other than English as the second language. And I do

961
00:53:55,080 --> 00:53:57,600
Speaker 4: have to wonder. I had mentioned that I haven't really

962
00:53:57,680 --> 00:54:00,200
Speaker 4: I'd heard this being discussed, that this was coming and

963
00:54:00,200 --> 00:54:02,680
Speaker 4: that this is what dynamic pricing would lead to. And

964
00:54:02,719 --> 00:54:05,080
Speaker 4: I mentioned that in my grocery stores, I hadn't noticed

965
00:54:05,080 --> 00:54:07,600
Speaker 4: any change like that. But then I totally went to

966
00:54:07,640 --> 00:54:09,640
Speaker 4: Best Buy recently, and I just think I just didn't

967
00:54:09,680 --> 00:54:12,080
Speaker 4: notice that it looked any different. So I'm wondering if

968
00:54:12,080 --> 00:54:14,719
Speaker 4: that's the case at other places too, if it's so

969
00:54:15,200 --> 00:54:19,280
Speaker 4: innocuous that it doesn't look like a change but yeah,

970
00:54:19,360 --> 00:54:20,520
Speaker 4: I don't know. What do you guys think?

971
00:54:20,760 --> 00:54:25,000
Speaker 3: It's the old adage of the slowly boiling water, right,

972
00:54:25,560 --> 00:54:31,319
Speaker 3: It is increasingly normalized. The boundaries are gently nudged, right,

973
00:54:31,440 --> 00:54:34,040
Speaker 3: pushed just a little bit, so it's never a rise

974
00:54:34,520 --> 00:54:39,040
Speaker 3: outside of a natural disaster, right or the self apparent

975
00:54:39,120 --> 00:54:43,360
Speaker 3: collapse of civilization. Your route a Bega price doesn't go

976
00:54:43,480 --> 00:54:46,480
Speaker 3: up by ten dollars, not all at once. It slowly

977
00:54:46,560 --> 00:54:50,680
Speaker 3: goes up in increments that they hope you won't notice.

978
00:54:50,800 --> 00:54:54,200
Speaker 3: And this is where we get to We get to

979
00:54:54,239 --> 00:54:55,120
Speaker 3: the normalization.

980
00:54:55,560 --> 00:54:58,080
Speaker 2: Yes, let's go back to our example where we're trying

981
00:54:58,120 --> 00:55:00,279
Speaker 2: to game the system a little bit by leave all

982
00:55:00,280 --> 00:55:04,880
Speaker 2: our electronic devices at home. We're driving our non new car,

983
00:55:05,000 --> 00:55:07,879
Speaker 2: like one that's just a gasoline engine and it doesn't

984
00:55:07,920 --> 00:55:11,160
Speaker 2: have any perks on it. We're driving to our local

985
00:55:11,320 --> 00:55:14,279
Speaker 2: let's say Wegmans in Brooklyn. Let's just say that's where

986
00:55:14,320 --> 00:55:17,000
Speaker 2: we are. It's where we live. Here, we are we

987
00:55:17,000 --> 00:55:18,600
Speaker 2: were trying to get around this is. We got just

988
00:55:18,680 --> 00:55:21,120
Speaker 2: cash on hand. We're gonna walk in and get an

989
00:55:21,160 --> 00:55:25,400
Speaker 2: amazing dinner to cook. Then we see, as we approach

990
00:55:25,480 --> 00:55:29,600
Speaker 2: the door a sign that says, how hey, everybody, here

991
00:55:29,640 --> 00:55:33,359
Speaker 2: at Wegmans, we've decided, as a cost saving measure and

992
00:55:33,640 --> 00:55:37,200
Speaker 2: to protect our stores, our employees and you, we are

993
00:55:37,280 --> 00:55:41,200
Speaker 2: enacting facial recognition for anyone who walks into our store.

994
00:55:41,320 --> 00:55:43,319
Speaker 2: Oh and by the way, we've been doing it for

995
00:55:43,360 --> 00:55:46,000
Speaker 2: a while now. We did just put this thing on

996
00:55:46,040 --> 00:55:49,600
Speaker 2: here because of some legislation from back in twenty twenty one. Anyway,

997
00:55:49,680 --> 00:55:51,560
Speaker 2: come on in and.

998
00:55:51,680 --> 00:55:53,840
Speaker 3: By seeing this sign you have consented.

999
00:55:54,560 --> 00:55:56,319
Speaker 2: Yes, that's a that's a big part of the thing.

1000
00:55:56,880 --> 00:55:59,359
Speaker 2: So like you could get around the system unless there

1001
00:55:59,440 --> 00:56:02,960
Speaker 2: is a secondary piece of technology like facial recognition in

1002
00:56:03,000 --> 00:56:06,200
Speaker 2: a store that just knows, Oh, hey, that's Ben. We

1003
00:56:06,320 --> 00:56:09,040
Speaker 2: know Ben. He's gonna head straight on over to the

1004
00:56:09,040 --> 00:56:12,880
Speaker 2: bananas because he loves bananas. And how long it takes

1005
00:56:12,880 --> 00:56:15,160
Speaker 2: for them to degrade.

1006
00:56:15,480 --> 00:56:17,600
Speaker 3: Thank you for teaching me off air. By the way,

1007
00:56:17,719 --> 00:56:21,000
Speaker 3: that trick with the stem that was awesome. I appreciate that,

1008
00:56:21,200 --> 00:56:24,920
Speaker 3: and I am going to deploy it we also. Okay,

1009
00:56:24,920 --> 00:56:29,760
Speaker 3: so we're in Wegmans. Let's say it's a few years

1010
00:56:29,800 --> 00:56:33,600
Speaker 3: from now, right, assuming the US doesn't burn down. We've

1011
00:56:33,640 --> 00:56:37,799
Speaker 3: got the ESL, we've got the electronic shelf displays, and

1012
00:56:37,840 --> 00:56:40,520
Speaker 3: they also have a QR code. Let's say you have

1013
00:56:40,640 --> 00:56:43,800
Speaker 3: your phone. Folks, you have to remember whenever you scan

1014
00:56:44,120 --> 00:56:49,000
Speaker 3: a QR code, you are practicing vampire rules. You are

1015
00:56:49,040 --> 00:56:53,480
Speaker 3: inviting a thing in Okay, so it's gonna learn more

1016
00:56:53,520 --> 00:56:57,480
Speaker 3: about you in ways that you can't really imagine, Like

1017
00:56:57,520 --> 00:57:01,320
Speaker 3: how do they get all this information? Is it really

1018
00:57:01,440 --> 00:57:07,719
Speaker 3: worth a dollar thirty five profit per person? Possibly?

1019
00:57:08,160 --> 00:57:08,719
Speaker 4: I don't know.

1020
00:57:09,000 --> 00:57:11,320
Speaker 2: Maybe, Oh kay, I just put this out here, guys,

1021
00:57:11,440 --> 00:57:14,120
Speaker 2: Wegmans isn't the only one. So like Wegmans we know

1022
00:57:14,160 --> 00:57:17,320
Speaker 2: about because of those signs and because there's legislation specifically

1023
00:57:17,360 --> 00:57:19,800
Speaker 2: to New York that required them to let everybody know.

1024
00:57:20,320 --> 00:57:22,800
Speaker 2: But there are other companies out there that you may

1025
00:57:22,840 --> 00:57:25,560
Speaker 2: see yourself on a camera when you're checking out, Like

1026
00:57:26,440 --> 00:57:28,720
Speaker 2: Walmart comes to mind. If you're checking out at one

1027
00:57:28,760 --> 00:57:30,480
Speaker 2: of their automated things, you are on camera.

1028
00:57:30,760 --> 00:57:32,840
Speaker 3: Any place with a self checkout.

1029
00:57:32,760 --> 00:57:34,520
Speaker 2: Some of those self checkouts, though I've been to that

1030
00:57:34,640 --> 00:57:36,840
Speaker 2: they don't have any They at least they don't outwardly

1031
00:57:36,960 --> 00:57:39,320
Speaker 2: they like don't show you right with video output.

1032
00:57:39,360 --> 00:57:42,160
Speaker 4: There may be a Selfiy're fun, well, so.

1033
00:57:42,360 --> 00:57:44,400
Speaker 2: Is my son. He just loves like he's like.

1034
00:57:44,320 --> 00:57:47,600
Speaker 4: Ah, I'm right there with him. Man.

1035
00:57:48,240 --> 00:57:53,080
Speaker 2: But they these companies are using facial recognition technology. It

1036
00:57:53,120 --> 00:57:55,800
Speaker 2: may look like it's just security camera, but they are

1037
00:57:55,960 --> 00:57:58,800
Speaker 2: using that to see if you are a person on

1038
00:57:58,880 --> 00:58:01,080
Speaker 2: their list of people who who has in the past.

1039
00:58:01,480 --> 00:58:04,240
Speaker 2: At least the system believes that you shoplifted, even if

1040
00:58:04,280 --> 00:58:06,720
Speaker 2: you know somebody didn't catch you and take you in

1041
00:58:06,840 --> 00:58:07,640
Speaker 2: or anything like.

1042
00:58:07,760 --> 00:58:12,280
Speaker 3: Target is actually a surveillance company that happens to have

1043
00:58:12,360 --> 00:58:16,080
Speaker 3: a few few markets for the public. Next time you'd

1044
00:58:16,280 --> 00:58:19,080
Speaker 3: know that. Yeah, no, they make a lot of money

1045
00:58:19,320 --> 00:58:23,720
Speaker 3: off selling their surveillance system. Yeah, look up at the

1046
00:58:23,800 --> 00:58:26,520
Speaker 3: roof or the ceiling next time you walk in, folks.

1047
00:58:26,520 --> 00:58:29,320
Speaker 3: And I know Target is a very charged thing. It's

1048
00:58:29,320 --> 00:58:31,160
Speaker 3: also a weird name for a store.

1049
00:58:31,880 --> 00:58:33,400
Speaker 4: I just like the big red balls outside.

1050
00:58:33,520 --> 00:58:37,040
Speaker 3: They're fun, they are cool, they are cool, So I go,

1051
00:58:38,880 --> 00:58:42,600
Speaker 3: you go for the big red bulls. Also true story,

1052
00:58:43,040 --> 00:58:47,400
Speaker 3: we'll keep it brief. Back in our Buckhead days, I

1053
00:58:47,440 --> 00:58:50,920
Speaker 3: did make the mistake of rocking up to a local

1054
00:58:50,960 --> 00:58:54,960
Speaker 3: Target in khaki pants and a red shirt. I was

1055
00:58:55,160 --> 00:58:59,040
Speaker 3: mistaken for an employee and I played it all the

1056
00:58:59,040 --> 00:58:59,480
Speaker 3: way home.

1057
00:58:59,640 --> 00:59:01,919
Speaker 4: I bet she did that. Sounds like something Ben Bollen

1058
00:59:01,960 --> 00:59:03,120
Speaker 4: would do. I'm here for it.

1059
00:59:03,400 --> 00:59:07,080
Speaker 3: Oh, thank you old brown ladies and gentlemen, friends and neighbors.

1060
00:59:07,960 --> 00:59:11,840
Speaker 3: Matt Frederick Dylan, the Tennessee pal Faga. How much does

1061
00:59:11,920 --> 00:59:16,680
Speaker 3: your grocery store know about you? Facial recognition is on

1062
00:59:16,720 --> 00:59:21,560
Speaker 3: the table, Biometric data is already happening. Kroger has in

1063
00:59:21,680 --> 00:59:26,479
Speaker 3: specific disavowed Microsoft Tech and said they're walking it back.

1064
00:59:27,120 --> 00:59:30,080
Speaker 3: But I think the surveillance state is here, guys. I

1065
00:59:30,160 --> 00:59:33,400
Speaker 3: don't think it's a single switch. It's a small amount

1066
00:59:33,400 --> 00:59:37,320
Speaker 3: of boundary crossing. Bullying, gas lighting, things are not normal.

1067
00:59:37,720 --> 00:59:41,040
Speaker 3: Rubicon exists, and we're crossing it with this. We would

1068
00:59:41,080 --> 00:59:43,800
Speaker 3: love to hear your thoughts, folks. You can find us

1069
00:59:43,800 --> 00:59:45,840
Speaker 3: on the lines. You can call us on a phone,

1070
00:59:45,960 --> 00:59:48,120
Speaker 3: You can always send us an email.

1071
00:59:47,920 --> 00:59:50,480
Speaker 4: And you can find us all over the internet if

1072
00:59:50,520 --> 00:59:53,760
Speaker 4: you wish at the handle Conspiracy Stuff or Conspiracy Stuff Show,

1073
00:59:54,240 --> 00:59:57,400
Speaker 4: depending on which social media platform you choose.

1074
00:59:58,080 --> 01:00:00,360
Speaker 2: We have a phone number. It is one one eight

1075
01:00:00,560 --> 01:00:05,600
Speaker 2: three STDWYTK. To call that number, just turn the letters

1076
01:00:05,600 --> 01:00:08,840
Speaker 2: into numbers, figure it out three minutes. Give yourself a

1077
01:00:08,840 --> 01:00:10,440
Speaker 2: cool nickname and let us know if we can use

1078
01:00:10,440 --> 01:00:12,280
Speaker 2: your name and message on one of our listener mail

1079
01:00:12,320 --> 01:00:16,640
Speaker 2: episodes that you'll find in our audio podcast feed. You know, Ben,

1080
01:00:16,720 --> 01:00:19,240
Speaker 2: One thing we didn't talk about in this episode that

1081
01:00:19,280 --> 01:00:21,160
Speaker 2: I think is a whole other episode for us to

1082
01:00:21,200 --> 01:00:24,960
Speaker 2: cover it is this weird thing that the Immigration and

1083
01:00:25,040 --> 01:00:29,480
Speaker 2: Custom Enforcement is using. It's like a facial recognition software.

1084
01:00:29,920 --> 01:00:32,720
Speaker 2: I think it's called a mobile Fortify, but I couldn't

1085
01:00:32,760 --> 01:00:35,560
Speaker 2: find too much information on it. I think that's our

1086
01:00:35,600 --> 01:00:39,040
Speaker 2: next episode along the same line, at least that I'm imagining.

1087
01:00:39,880 --> 01:00:41,920
Speaker 2: Call us in let us know what you think about that,

1088
01:00:42,000 --> 01:00:44,240
Speaker 2: or if you've learned anything. If you want to send us

1089
01:00:44,240 --> 01:00:45,280
Speaker 2: an email, you do that too.

1090
01:00:45,440 --> 01:00:49,360
Speaker 3: We are the entities that read each piece of correspondence

1091
01:00:49,400 --> 01:00:53,000
Speaker 3: we receive. Be well aware that's I'm afraid. Sometimes the

1092
01:00:53,120 --> 01:00:57,080
Speaker 3: void writes back to you specifically. You write us now,

1093
01:00:57,600 --> 01:01:00,560
Speaker 3: we've got a buy one, get one free on our

1094
01:01:00,840 --> 01:01:05,040
Speaker 3: random facts. They will not be what you expect. We

1095
01:01:05,160 --> 01:01:08,080
Speaker 3: cannot wait to hear from you. Will hang with you

1096
01:01:08,320 --> 01:01:30,920
Speaker 3: out here in the dark conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.

1097
01:01:31,080 --> 01:01:33,120
Speaker 2: Stuff they don't want you to know is a production

1098
01:01:33,240 --> 01:01:37,760
Speaker 2: of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

1099
01:01:37,840 --> 01:01:41,120
Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.