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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.

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Speaker 2: Hello and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots podcast.

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Speaker 2: I'm Joe Wisenthal, and I'm Tracy Alloway Tracy cat Cherry's

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Speaker 2: something I don't know if I've brought it up on

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Speaker 2: the podcast before, but I love grocery stores. I love

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Speaker 2: like visiting different kinds of grocery stores. I love produce aisles.

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Speaker 2: I like seeing new ones. If I'm like a rush

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Speaker 2: or whatever, it's not so pleasant, but I really like

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Speaker 2: grocery stores.

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Speaker 3: How often do you do the weekly grocery shopping, Joe.

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Speaker 2: Well, so we usually buy online, but I go to

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Speaker 2: Key Foods, which is in my neighborhood, probably once or

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Speaker 2: twice a week for things. And actually even those quick

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Speaker 2: runs I actually enjoy. Obviously, unboxing is not fun, and

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Speaker 2: there are aspects of it are fun, but like, that's

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Speaker 2: an interesting experience and I like food.

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Speaker 3: I will say I'm starting to comes cynical about the

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Speaker 3: American grocery experience, which is terrible because I didn't go

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Speaker 3: to American grocery stores for a really long time.

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Speaker 2: So what years are you talking about? Like when you're

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Speaker 2: in Japan.

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Speaker 3: So I grew up in Japan. I remember going to

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Speaker 3: grocery stores when I came back to Chicago in middle

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Speaker 3: school and just being absolutely wowed by the variation that

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Speaker 3: was there. You know, like literally a kid in a

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Speaker 3: candy store running down the cereal aisle going out, oh,

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Speaker 3: oh my god. I've never seen any of these things before,

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Speaker 3: doing the whole what's the famous?

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Speaker 2: So you can get how at least they spark joy, of.

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Speaker 3: Course, of course, but now I think I take them

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Speaker 3: as an accepted because now I'm sorry. I shop a

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Speaker 3: lot at Walmart in Connecticut, which is sometimes a soul

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Speaker 3: sucking experience. I shop a lot at the grocery store

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Speaker 3: that we're about to discuss. I shop a lot at

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Speaker 3: the nearest grocery store in Manhattan.

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Speaker 2: Which one's that.

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Speaker 3: That one's Morton Williams, Okay, yeah, and that one, I'm

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Speaker 3: trying to be diplomatic, just depressing the price. I've ran

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Speaker 3: in there once and I grabbed like a cup of soup,

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Speaker 3: like freshly made soup, because I was having dinner, a

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Speaker 3: girl dinner, basically twelve freaking guys.

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Speaker 2: The Manhattan specific grocery experiences, I would say uneven, to

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Speaker 2: put it best. There are some decent ones. But there's

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Speaker 2: a lot of places that are like high end and expensive, yeah,

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Speaker 2: and low end and expensive. You know what I'm saying, Like,

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Speaker 2: you go to these places and they're like they're sort

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Speaker 2: of shabby and they're dirty and stuff like that. You're like, well,

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Speaker 2: at least I'm getting a deal, and then it's like, actually, no,

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Speaker 2: it's just the worst experience and also it's expensive.

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Speaker 3: This reminds me also when when my husband first came

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Speaker 3: over from the States to join me here in New York,

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Speaker 3: the first place I took him to was the Whole

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Speaker 3: Foods on Columbus Circle Ruse. I just wanted to show him,

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Speaker 3: look at this grocery store. It's crazy.

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Speaker 1: You know.

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Speaker 2: There's a new Wegman's at astroplace, which is where I

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Speaker 2: get off, and I expected that to become part of

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Speaker 2: my routine because I get that's where I get on

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Speaker 2: the subway. I like it. It's cool and they have

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Speaker 2: a lot of stuff, but it hasn't become part of

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Speaker 2: my routine. So like, there's opportunity still, I would say

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Speaker 2: for the better Manhattan and just the better grocery store experience.

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Speaker 3: Still, it is very true that Manhattan has a shortage

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Speaker 3: of let's say lower priced, lower price stores. Right, We've

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Speaker 3: got the Whole Foods. Well, we have Trader Joe's maybe, yeah, true,

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Speaker 3: the closest, but we have a lot of Whole Foods,

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Speaker 3: a lot of Wegmans. I'm not even going to mention,

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Speaker 3: what's the one with the g oh Christiti's, Morton Williams,

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Speaker 3: places like that, But we don't really have you know,

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Speaker 3: we definitely have a Walmart.

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Speaker 2: Well in Texas, we have HG B which everybody loves.

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Speaker 2: It's like one of the most beloved brands I think

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Speaker 2: in the region. They're like super and they're huge, and

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Speaker 2: they're clean, and they have good price and incredible variety

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Speaker 2: and a sushi bar and a barbecue pit in the store. Anyway,

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Speaker 2: there's a new grocery store opening up. We're recording this

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Speaker 2: June eighteenth, tomorrow as of the time we're recording this,

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Speaker 2: but tomorrow, like right in Times Square, right adjacent to

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Speaker 2: Times Square. There's a brand new ality, which is I

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Speaker 2: guess where you shop sometimes when you're in Connecticut.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so this is very unusual in my mind because

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Speaker 3: you wouldn't expect a giant grocery store to open just

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Speaker 3: off Times Square. I think the new location is something

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Speaker 3: like twenty five thousand square feet, which is just absolutely

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Speaker 3: huge qpressure for that here. I can't even imagine actually

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Speaker 3: finding the space for something like that. And then secondly,

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Speaker 3: you wouldn't necessarily expect I don't want to say discount

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Speaker 3: grocery store, but yeah, like a lower priced grocery store

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Speaker 3: that competes squarely with the Walmarts. The cost goes of

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Speaker 3: the world.

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Speaker 2: Totally, and they are I think substantially cheaper. You know,

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Speaker 2: I search this, they claim that they're cheap. But also

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Speaker 2: the third party.

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Speaker 3: Well, we could just say we already wanted on a tour,

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Speaker 3: we got a new location.

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Speaker 2: You're a little biased because also they gave us a tour,

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Speaker 2: So there's the disclosure. They gave us a tour, and

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Speaker 2: they had all these like little snacks out for us

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Speaker 2: and stuff like that. So I'm already predisposed.

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Speaker 3: But on the plus side, we have personally witnessed ground

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Speaker 3: wag you b four five ninety nine. It does exist,

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Speaker 3: but I.

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Speaker 2: Haven't tried it yet. Anyway, let's get to the conversation.

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Speaker 2: Let's talk about opening your grocery store. Let's talk about like,

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Speaker 2: how do you actually ring prices out of the system

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Speaker 2: because that is the story and that is what's exciting

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Speaker 2: for us. We're going to be speaking with all the

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Speaker 2: US Chief Commercial Officer, Scott Patton. Scott, welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 2: We saw you yesterday inside of the new Aldi and

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Speaker 2: now you're here on the podcast. So thank you so

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Speaker 2: much for joining us.

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Speaker 4: Thanks for having me, and so glad you could make

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Speaker 4: it out to the store yesterday. It was a really

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Speaker 4: awesome experience to walk through really Times Square, all the

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Speaker 4: officers right for the Times Square. Amazing.

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Speaker 2: Let's just talk about what is what does the chief

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Speaker 2: commercial officer do? Tell us about, like what's your actual

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Speaker 2: job and your career at all day.

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Speaker 4: So I actually started with all the over thirty years ago.

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Speaker 4: I've been through all the various operations from running stores

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Speaker 4: to running a warehouse, and I joined the buying department

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Speaker 4: about eleven years ago. So I'm responsible for all of

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Speaker 4: the products in the stores and that's what I do.

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Speaker 4: We work with the teams who developed the products and

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Speaker 4: get them onto the shelf.

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Speaker 3: So tell us about the new location because as we

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Speaker 3: were just it's our same Times Square, not necessarily an

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Speaker 3: intuitive place to start a giant grocery store.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, so Midtown Manhattan. That's our second location in Manhattan.

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Speaker 4: You're right, it's not intuitive.

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Speaker 2: Where's the first one?

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Speaker 4: First one is up in Harlem. Okay, Yeah, So we

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Speaker 4: have fourteen in the Chicago I'm sorry, fourteen in the

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Speaker 4: New York area, one in Harlem Midtown now and another

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Speaker 4: opening in Harlem next year, and two blocks off a

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Speaker 4: Times Square.

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Speaker 2: You're right.

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Speaker 4: It's a very unique location for us, but a lot

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Speaker 4: of traffic. We have a lot of tourists, we have

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Speaker 4: a lot of commuters. There's going to be a lot

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Speaker 4: of e commerce, and it's just a great location.

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Speaker 2: There's a close space what was there before.

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Speaker 4: It's a brand new building. It's a brand new building

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Speaker 4: with residential on top, and we've taken the ground floor.

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Speaker 2: Do you think that's an appeal? Like I think I

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Speaker 2: would like to live above a grocery store. It seems

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Speaker 2: like a nice like amenity. It's great.

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Speaker 4: I mean there's going to be residential above us and

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Speaker 4: unbelievable apartments and to have that convenience for the people

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Speaker 4: who live there, it's going to be great.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. A lot of cities in Asia, yeah, as you

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Speaker 3: know now have mixed use building.

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Speaker 4: Yeah. I love it. So much.

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Speaker 3: Some of them even have daycare is on the bottom,

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Speaker 3: and then the grocery store, dry cleaner, Like you take

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Speaker 3: care of your entire life within.

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Speaker 2: One compound, I'd be totally down.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. So the Time Square location, I get that there's

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Speaker 3: a lot of foot traffic, but how much of it

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Speaker 3: is just creating a showcase for the ald brand in

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Speaker 3: an area where you know there's going to be a

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Speaker 3: lot of visitors, a lot of tourists, versus how much

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Speaker 3: of it is the expectation that this is going to

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Speaker 3: be a really busy location that's actually making profit.

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Speaker 4: There's no doubt that having that visibility is going to

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Speaker 4: be great for the brand. But to be fair, we

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Speaker 4: intend to be very profitable at this store. We're going

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Speaker 4: to have a ton of customers. That would be a

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Speaker 4: very expensive billboard if we weren't going to sell a

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Speaker 4: lot of groceries.

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Speaker 2: We've done an episode, We've done a few like produce episodes.

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Speaker 2: We recently did an episode on Tomatoes with one of

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Speaker 2: the senior vps at Beldour. It was amazing conversation. We

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Speaker 2: did a conversation a few years ago about the Hunts

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Speaker 2: Point delivery distribution center in New York and maybe why

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Speaker 2: it's not the optimal sort of node for delivery. What

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Speaker 2: is the supply chain between? For example, when we entered

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Speaker 2: the store, we were like in the produce aisle and

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Speaker 2: tried some grape, some blueberries that are very nice. Why

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Speaker 2: do you walk us through what is the supply chain

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Speaker 2: from like where that grape comes from to where the

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Speaker 2: distribution center is to the store and that journey.

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Speaker 4: And that's a prime example of how we buy a

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Speaker 4: bit differently. So we have over twenty six hundred locations.

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Speaker 4: So what does that mean is we can't just buy

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Speaker 4: from the local market. We start with the grower. I

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Speaker 4: have the opportunity in my role to visit the growers.

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Speaker 4: So we've been to the grape growers in California, in

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Speaker 4: Mexico and Chile. And it really starts probably three to

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Speaker 4: four years in advance in partnering with these growers. We

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Speaker 4: go to the fields, we try their varieties, they're all

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Speaker 4: sampled out, and we decide as a company which varieties

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Speaker 4: do we want them to grow for us. From there

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Speaker 4: they start growing. We have the contracts and they grow

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Speaker 4: specific plots dedicated to our business. So of course we

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Speaker 4: have the harvest. It goes straight from the grower into

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Speaker 4: our distribution facilities and then to our stores often the

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Speaker 4: next day. So it's a complicated supply chain, but the

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Speaker 4: key to success is going all the way back to

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Speaker 4: the origin. So whether you're growing grapes or berries or apple,

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Speaker 4: those relationships with the farmers and the growers, that's actually

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Speaker 4: what makes it. That's what makes it special.

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Speaker 3: But in terms of the actual distribution into New York,

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Speaker 3: because we've had conversations with not just grocers but people

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Speaker 3: who are trying to build things in New York, and

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Speaker 3: they talk about how hard it actually is to get

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Speaker 3: bulky things into the city. How are you trucking in?

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Speaker 3: I assume truckloads of groceries every day, and where are

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Speaker 3: they coming from?

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Speaker 4: So we come from South windsor up in Connecticut. We

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Speaker 4: have a truck that comes over. We come at night

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Speaker 4: because of the congestion, and you're right, it's very difficult

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Speaker 4: to get a truck, especially into midtown. We have to

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Speaker 4: have a bit of a shorter truck. We actually have

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Speaker 4: to have two drivers.

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Speaker 2: Say a bit of a shorter truck.

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Speaker 4: It's a bit of a shorter truck because of the

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Speaker 4: they can't hit the turning radiuses. So for instance, at

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Speaker 4: the store, when the truck comes into deliver, it's a

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Speaker 4: shorter truck. There's two drivers, one to kind of guide

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Speaker 4: and watch the parking and make sure we can cut

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Speaker 4: the radius back in, another one to unload the groceries.

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Speaker 4: So it's a two team just to deliver groceries. And

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Speaker 4: this store is going to get three to four truckloads

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Speaker 4: a day. So it's a lot of effort, it's a

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Speaker 4: lot of manpower, and it's a logistical really kind of

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Speaker 4: a symphony to get it done.

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Speaker 2: Well, let's just talk more about that, because when I think, okay,

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Speaker 2: why do we pay a lot for groceries in New

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Speaker 2: York City? Intuitively that makes a lot of just even

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Speaker 2: the trucking component and the fact that it's a go

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Speaker 2: onto the suburbs and they don't have to have like

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Speaker 2: a guy thing and the bee is there a car,

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Speaker 2: There is a kid on a scooter or something like

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Speaker 2: that there. Tushila is a little bit more figuring that

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Speaker 2: component out and the two drivers and like how that's

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Speaker 2: sort of you know, the math of what that contributes

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Speaker 2: or saves in terms of groceries.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, and with everything we do and we're really focused

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Speaker 4: on efficiency. You mentioned sushi bars and barbecue pants before,

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Speaker 4: so we don't have those. But when we're going to

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Speaker 4: put a truck, you know we're going to get two

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Speaker 4: guys onto a truck, two drivers onto a truck three

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Speaker 4: to four times a day. That goes into the calculus.

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Speaker 4: Of course, we look at the rent we're going to pay.

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Speaker 4: It's more expensive in Manhattan, no doubt about it. But

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Speaker 4: then we look at the sales. It's just a math equation.

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Speaker 4: We make sure that yes, there's going to be extra

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Speaker 4: cost on delivery, there's going to be extra cost on

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Speaker 4: on properties. That's just a fact. But it goes into

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Speaker 4: the equation.

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Speaker 3: So, okay, you've got trucks delivering the groceries overnight. You

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Speaker 3: have a huge space. I should just emphasize we saw it.

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Speaker 3: We ran through the aisles because we never got a

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Speaker 3: chance to run through groceries. I'm going to speed it

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Speaker 3: up two times. It'll look really good. Yeah, that's right.

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Speaker 3: You're expecting a lot of people in that location. How

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Speaker 3: are you going to be restocking the shelves because it's

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Speaker 3: a big space, But there are a lot of people

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Speaker 3: in New York. I imagine things will literally be flying

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Speaker 3: off the shelves to some degree. What does that restocking

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Speaker 3: process look like in a crowded city?

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Speaker 4: Great question, and we have awesome employees at the store.

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Speaker 4: First and foremost. Some unique things about how we restock

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Speaker 4: our stores is all of our product comes in a

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Speaker 4: display case. So again we go back to those supply

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Speaker 4: partners and we say, okay, how can we restock the

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Speaker 4: organic greens? How can we restock the spinach? They put

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Speaker 4: into a display ready case.

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Speaker 3: We take a box to conceive the items, yet.

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Speaker 4: It's a tray, so our staff can restock case after

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Speaker 4: case after case, and I'd have to stack at unit

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Speaker 4: by unit by unit. So we're going to restock that

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Speaker 4: produce three to four times a day, but we can

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Speaker 4: do it really really fast.

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Speaker 3: Joe, did you ever watch Superstore?

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Speaker 1: No?

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Speaker 2: What was it?

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Speaker 3: I never heard about the show until recently. It's basically

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Speaker 3: a thinly veiled sitcom of workers who work at Walmart.

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Speaker 3: They don't explicitly say Walmart, but it's obviously Walmart, and

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Speaker 3: I swear to got ninety percent of their time is

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Speaker 3: stalking shells like unit by unit. That's basically all they do.

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Speaker 3: Huh and talk good?

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Speaker 2: Should I watch it.

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Speaker 3: It's actually a really it's sort of like the office,

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Speaker 3: but for Giant retails.

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Speaker 2: I wrote the novel about work at Target that we

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Speaker 2: should have someone recently in the last few years. It'll

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Speaker 2: come back to me, we should have.

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Speaker 3: You should watch that one. It's all some viewing.

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Speaker 2: Wait, let's talk about we're going to get to I

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Speaker 2: know a big part of your thing is that a

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Speaker 2: substantial number of skews our private label. But before we

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Speaker 2: get to the private label and how that business works out,

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Speaker 2: I just want to like sort of clarify on things.

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Speaker 2: So one of the brands that we noticed that is

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Speaker 2: on your shell is Sweet Baby raised barbecue sauce, my favorite.

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Speaker 2: And so what you're saying is you will work with

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Speaker 2: Sweet Baby Rays. They're not going to like have like

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Speaker 2: a custom all these Sweet Baby Rays or change the flavor,

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Speaker 2: but talk to us about the degree to which a

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Speaker 2: brand provider will modify the sort of delivery package so

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Speaker 2: that it's like ideal for your logistical setup. Yeah.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, we are mostly private label, but we do have

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Speaker 4: some brands like Sweet Baby Rays, and we have them

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Speaker 4: they will take that case and they'll do a display

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Speaker 4: ready case just for us. So unique to all the

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Speaker 4: and they'll even go a step beyond the display ready case.

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Speaker 4: They'll put two or three flavors into that case. So

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Speaker 4: for us, again, it's one shelf spot, it's one palette.

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Speaker 4: In our warehouses, it's one one slot and we can

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Speaker 4: get two to three flavors out of that. So we

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Speaker 4: work with the brands as well, but really within our system.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, how do you decide which brands to actually have

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Speaker 3: in store versus when to go private label? Because as

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Speaker 3: you say, like, there are a lot of recognizable things

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Speaker 3: Sweet Baby raise craft.

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Speaker 2: We saw Helman's mayonnaise, but we didn't see heinz as ketchup,

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Speaker 2: so talk about that.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, there's going to be some what we would call

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Speaker 4: iconic brands, and we know customers love some of their brands.

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Speaker 4: Now in this market, it's going to be Helman's. Down south,

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Speaker 4: it's going to be Dukes.

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Speaker 2: A great American in the Southern is not okay, yeah,

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Speaker 2: got it.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, So we'll have a few of that. But these

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Speaker 4: iconic brands. Think about coke, You're gonna find coke in

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Speaker 4: our store. You're going to find Sweet Baby Rays. They

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Speaker 4: are one of the market leaders in barbecue sauce. You're

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Speaker 4: gonna have the all the versions of barbecue sauce as well.

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Speaker 4: But we're fine to carry some of those iconic brands

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Speaker 4: as long as they can fit our fit into our

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Speaker 4: system and hit the efficiencies and restocking that we need

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Speaker 4: for busy stores like in Manhattan.

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Speaker 2: Sorry not to just keep pressing on this like Helmans

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Speaker 2: versus Hines is, but I think of like Hines, Tomato Sauce,

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Speaker 2: the fifty seven, whatever it is like being.

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Speaker 3: I would have thought of it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I would have too, Like I would not have

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Speaker 2: guessed that people are so chill with not having had

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Speaker 2: what I assume it comes down to the data. But

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Speaker 2: when you're looking at okay, when do we need to

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Speaker 2: have an iconic brand versus a non iconic brand as

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Speaker 2: our limited ketchup offering? First, well, how many Ketchup skews.

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Speaker 4: Do you have? We have two Ketchup SKUs? Wow?

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Speaker 2: And how many would it typical? I don't know if

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Speaker 2: a typical grocery store between thirty and forty. I mean

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Speaker 2: that right there is like a sort of remarkable state.

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Speaker 2: So then what is the data that says, Okay, it's

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Speaker 2: okay to like not have a hinsays, but it would

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Speaker 2: be like a sort of mistake or strategic ara to

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Speaker 2: not have a helmet. Yeah, this ocation, Yeah, there's two.

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Speaker 4: There's I would call the data point would be private

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Speaker 4: label penetration. We look at private label how accepting our

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Speaker 4: customers of private label in that space in that category.

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Speaker 4: And for instance, we know in mayonnaise there are some

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Speaker 4: very dedicated fans in the debate between Helman's and Duke's

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Speaker 4: that that's what We're not going to settle that today

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Speaker 4: for sure. But also comes down to what I call

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Speaker 4: Grandma's recipe. Sometimes grandma has handed down the recipe and

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Speaker 4: she calls for a specific brand in her recipe, and

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Speaker 4: we know those items and we can see that from

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Speaker 4: the data, we can see it on social media, and

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Speaker 4: those are the items that we want to carry in

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Speaker 4: our store. And sometimes grandma's recipe is the reason.

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Speaker 3: So more broadly all these is I'm not sure famous

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Speaker 3: is the right word, but one of the differentiators of

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Speaker 3: the grocery stores that you have fewer skews, right, you

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Speaker 3: just have fewer products there, or you're more mindful about

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Speaker 3: the products that you're actually putting on the shelves. What

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Speaker 3: have you learned from that process that surprised you at all.

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Speaker 3: Versus say, if I go into a Walmart and I've

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Speaker 3: got sixty different types of ketchup staring me in the face,

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Speaker 3: including the new Dill flavored pickle one which does something, yeah, tempting, tempting.

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Speaker 4: We have two thousand skews in the store, probably four

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Speaker 4: thousand varieties. Now let's take the ketchup example. So we

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Speaker 4: just talked about the typical store is going to have

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Speaker 4: thirty to forty varieties, and as you asked, we have two.

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Speaker 4: I would simply ask the customer, do you really need

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Speaker 4: forty choices for ketchups? Or we have organic? We are conventional?

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Speaker 4: Is two enough? We have the right size? Do you

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Speaker 4: need upside down? Squeeze, right side up? Squeeze small glass,

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Speaker 4: big glass? And what we actually we did some I

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Speaker 4: will call it. I'll call it a study, but I'll

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Speaker 4: call it some interesting walks with customers through our competitors,

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Speaker 4: and sometimes you would stand in front of so let's

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Speaker 4: say an olive oil selection ketchup is thirty to forty

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Speaker 4: olive oil could be fifty or sixty different selections, depending

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Speaker 4: on where you're shopping. And what we found was afterwards

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Speaker 4: the customers felt less confident in their purchase. So we

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Speaker 4: have four different varieties of olive oil. Four is a

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Speaker 4: pretty good selection for our store. You're gonna have organic,

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Speaker 4: you're gonna have Sicilian, you're gonna have pure, and you

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Speaker 4: kind of extravergent. Good selection. If you're a consumer faced

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Speaker 4: with sixty different choices of olive oil, how do you

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Speaker 4: know which one to buy? So they were less confident

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Speaker 4: in their choice when they were trying to choose from sixty.

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Speaker 4: When you have four, they felt pretty good about their selection.

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Speaker 4: Unscientific for sure, but to watch the reaction on the

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Speaker 4: customer's face when you walk them in front of it,

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Speaker 4: they were really puzzled with which one do I buy?

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Speaker 2: This is unfair question on all sides around what do

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Speaker 2: you think conventional wisdom is in the grocery store business?

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Speaker 2: If we're talking to the chief commercial officer whatever cute food,

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Speaker 2: what do you think the conventional wisdom is in grocery

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Speaker 2: about why it's important to have sixty different olive oil skills?

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Speaker 4: It's about selection. The belief is that customers want these

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Speaker 4: different options, and to be fair, customers do want some

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Speaker 4: of those options, and it can come down the shelf space,

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Speaker 4: which suppliers are paying you to be on their shelf,

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Speaker 4: and sometimes the more you pay, the more shelf space

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Speaker 4: you get. So at all, you know with our private

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Speaker 4: label we have two ketchups. There's no shelf space, there's

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Speaker 4: no slotting fees, and that's a big difference. So yes,

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Speaker 4: there can be selection, but we need to move those

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Speaker 4: articles through the store very very quickly.

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Speaker 3: Well, talk about this further. So again, like a hallmark

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Speaker 3: of all these is fewer skews. How does that actually

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Speaker 3: feed into, I guess, more efficient processes for the grocery

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Speaker 3: store and then lower prices for shoppers.

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Speaker 4: You mentioned the TV show earlier about the people, and

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Speaker 4: I grew up in a grocery store, so I was

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Speaker 4: I didn't grow up, and so I worked there in

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Speaker 4: high school and I was paid probably three twenty five

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Speaker 4: an hour to come in at night and turn the

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Speaker 4: labels and stock everything forward and me and eight if

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Speaker 4: my buddies would do that for about six hours. And

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Speaker 4: you think about that cost, how expensive that to do

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Speaker 4: that in a grocery store. And I was in a

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Speaker 4: small local grocery store. Think about a big competitor who's

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Speaker 4: paying all those folks to do that. Now, our products

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Speaker 4: come in, you're in the case, you only have two

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Speaker 4: thousand SKUs to put on the shelf. We're not having

435
00:19:12,359 --> 00:19:14,080
Speaker 4: our folks come in and turn the labels in front

436
00:19:14,080 --> 00:19:16,080
Speaker 4: everything at night. In fact, they sell out so quickly

437
00:19:16,160 --> 00:19:18,320
Speaker 4: we don't need to. So that's just one example of

438
00:19:18,359 --> 00:19:21,040
Speaker 4: all that cost that goes into turning those labels and

439
00:19:21,080 --> 00:19:22,679
Speaker 4: pulling everything for it. We don't have that.

440
00:19:22,720 --> 00:19:25,280
Speaker 2: What is turning the labels mean? So let's walk through

441
00:19:25,280 --> 00:19:27,480
Speaker 2: some math. Let's say I don't know. Let's say a

442
00:19:27,640 --> 00:19:30,880
Speaker 2: store sells a thousand bottles of olive oil a day.

443
00:19:30,880 --> 00:19:32,959
Speaker 2: I don't know the number, but that's probably somewhere sell

444
00:19:32,960 --> 00:19:35,840
Speaker 2: its a thousand bottles. And let's say that store sells

445
00:19:35,880 --> 00:19:39,000
Speaker 2: five hundred brands of extra virgin and have five hundred

446
00:19:39,000 --> 00:19:42,040
Speaker 2: brands of organic, and then the earth bottles. And then

447
00:19:42,040 --> 00:19:44,800
Speaker 2: there's another store that sells a thousand bottles of olive

448
00:19:44,840 --> 00:19:49,440
Speaker 2: oil a day. But it's like fifty saciliate, fifty organic,

449
00:19:49,560 --> 00:19:53,400
Speaker 2: fifty extra virgin, fifty whatever, fifty whatever. Walk us through

450
00:19:53,400 --> 00:19:55,840
Speaker 2: the math of why a thousand bottles with the two

451
00:19:55,880 --> 00:19:58,879
Speaker 2: skews is going to be significantly more efficient and cheaper

452
00:19:58,960 --> 00:20:01,960
Speaker 2: from a store perspective than the thousand bottles with more skins.

453
00:20:02,200 --> 00:20:04,640
Speaker 4: So when the truck comes in. At a traditional grocery store,

454
00:20:04,680 --> 00:20:06,720
Speaker 4: let's say you have fifty different skews. If you have

455
00:20:06,760 --> 00:20:08,960
Speaker 4: to restock them all, that's fifty different cases you have

456
00:20:09,000 --> 00:20:11,359
Speaker 4: to open. You have to find the fifty different cases.

457
00:20:11,520 --> 00:20:12,879
Speaker 4: You have to match it up to the spot on

458
00:20:12,960 --> 00:20:15,800
Speaker 4: the shelf. Restock it. Make sure you have the right one,

459
00:20:15,840 --> 00:20:18,000
Speaker 4: Get the labels all turn the right way, get the

460
00:20:18,000 --> 00:20:20,040
Speaker 4: bottles all square. You don't want to drop any So

461
00:20:20,080 --> 00:20:23,080
Speaker 4: you have fifty different options. So one person is sitting

462
00:20:23,080 --> 00:20:25,359
Speaker 4: there with a cart with fifty different cases trying to

463
00:20:25,359 --> 00:20:27,320
Speaker 4: match them to the right spot on the shelf. Come

464
00:20:27,320 --> 00:20:30,280
Speaker 4: to the oldie store, we have two. Sorry, olive oil,

465
00:20:30,280 --> 00:20:33,280
Speaker 4: we have four. You can very clearly see this one

466
00:20:33,480 --> 00:20:36,720
Speaker 4: goes right here. So we can literally restock all of

467
00:20:36,720 --> 00:20:39,640
Speaker 4: our olive oil in probably two percent of the time

468
00:20:40,240 --> 00:20:43,000
Speaker 4: that it takes to stock another store. So just think

469
00:20:43,040 --> 00:20:45,040
Speaker 4: about the math on trying to put that puzzle together

470
00:20:45,080 --> 00:20:48,040
Speaker 4: of fifty different varieties compared to four.

471
00:20:48,680 --> 00:20:52,080
Speaker 3: Your price labels are digital, right, Yeah, most if not

472
00:20:52,160 --> 00:20:53,800
Speaker 3: all of your stores now all of our stores are

473
00:20:53,960 --> 00:20:57,080
Speaker 3: all the stores. Okay, how does that help with labor costs.

474
00:20:57,119 --> 00:20:58,960
Speaker 3: And then also I have to ask, there's been a

475
00:20:58,960 --> 00:21:01,720
Speaker 3: lot of criticism of some of these digital labels because

476
00:21:01,720 --> 00:21:05,240
Speaker 3: people think they're dynamic pricing and that as they reach

477
00:21:05,640 --> 00:21:08,280
Speaker 3: for an avocado, the price is going to go up

478
00:21:08,280 --> 00:21:10,680
Speaker 3: by two dollars or whatever. How should we.

479
00:21:10,640 --> 00:21:13,000
Speaker 4: Think about those Yeah, it's a little handle that part. First,

480
00:21:13,040 --> 00:21:15,840
Speaker 4: we've heard those same criticisms or concerns out there. We

481
00:21:15,880 --> 00:21:19,320
Speaker 4: do not do dynamic pricing. We would never do dynamic pricing. Actually,

482
00:21:19,359 --> 00:21:21,760
Speaker 4: all of our stores have the same price. We change

483
00:21:21,800 --> 00:21:24,080
Speaker 4: them usually once a week or so, depending on what's

484
00:21:24,080 --> 00:21:24,879
Speaker 4: going on the produce.

485
00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:27,080
Speaker 3: More New York store would have the same prices.

486
00:21:26,760 --> 00:21:29,280
Speaker 4: Same price in New York as out in Connecticut. And

487
00:21:29,359 --> 00:21:30,120
Speaker 4: I know that's going to.

488
00:21:30,040 --> 00:21:31,600
Speaker 3: Be it's hard for me personally.

489
00:21:31,640 --> 00:21:32,480
Speaker 2: It's just a little.

490
00:21:32,240 --> 00:21:34,439
Speaker 4: Pleasant surprize for those in Manhattan and they walk in

491
00:21:34,440 --> 00:21:36,119
Speaker 4: and they say, you know, a chicken breast for two

492
00:21:36,200 --> 00:21:38,240
Speaker 4: nineteen a pounds or eggs for a dollar forty seven,

493
00:21:38,280 --> 00:21:40,360
Speaker 4: So it's going to be kind of amazing. But when

494
00:21:40,359 --> 00:21:42,959
Speaker 4: we talk about the electronic shelf labels, we were spending

495
00:21:43,000 --> 00:21:46,760
Speaker 4: between three and four hours per store per week to

496
00:21:46,880 --> 00:21:49,240
Speaker 4: change out our signs. So when we switch to the

497
00:21:49,280 --> 00:21:51,960
Speaker 4: digital version. We save all of that labor. So again,

498
00:21:52,240 --> 00:21:55,439
Speaker 4: twenty six hundred stores times four hours a week. You

499
00:21:55,440 --> 00:21:57,399
Speaker 4: can do the math on that. Think about all that

500
00:21:57,440 --> 00:21:59,680
Speaker 4: savings again. That's how we get Chicken Breast down to

501
00:21:59,720 --> 00:22:02,800
Speaker 4: two now, team, but the opportunity is there to abuse

502
00:22:02,840 --> 00:22:04,600
Speaker 4: that system, but we will not do that.

503
00:22:04,680 --> 00:22:06,320
Speaker 3: So just to be clear, I mean, the reason you

504
00:22:06,359 --> 00:22:10,000
Speaker 3: were changing out physical labels is because the price were changing.

505
00:22:10,080 --> 00:22:12,520
Speaker 3: The prices were changing, but you're not changing them on

506
00:22:12,600 --> 00:22:13,720
Speaker 3: a minute to minute kind of.

507
00:22:13,720 --> 00:22:15,240
Speaker 4: Now, we would usually change them once a week.

508
00:22:15,240 --> 00:22:15,399
Speaker 2: You know.

509
00:22:15,440 --> 00:22:17,280
Speaker 4: We have the all the Fines area where those come in.

510
00:22:17,359 --> 00:22:19,440
Speaker 4: We have one hundred new items every week. I don't

511
00:22:19,440 --> 00:22:20,960
Speaker 4: know if we'll talk about that, but we'd have to

512
00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:23,320
Speaker 4: put all those signs out, take the old signs down.

513
00:22:23,400 --> 00:22:24,919
Speaker 4: That's a lot of labor to do those things. Well,

514
00:22:24,960 --> 00:22:26,120
Speaker 4: we don't have to do with that anymore.

515
00:22:26,160 --> 00:22:28,600
Speaker 2: This was something I did not know about prior to

516
00:22:28,680 --> 00:22:31,800
Speaker 2: yesterday's field trip. So the all the Fines section, I

517
00:22:31,840 --> 00:22:35,200
Speaker 2: guess apparently your fans have dubbed that the Isle of shame.

518
00:22:35,320 --> 00:22:38,919
Speaker 2: They had. So this is where some brilliant merchandise, like

519
00:22:38,920 --> 00:22:42,000
Speaker 2: a true showman, a merchandizer has figured out something, so

520
00:22:42,080 --> 00:22:45,920
Speaker 2: explain these Explain what this aisle is and why it's

521
00:22:45,920 --> 00:22:48,879
Speaker 2: so iconic too. So there's like a four million person

522
00:22:48,920 --> 00:22:51,800
Speaker 2: Facebook group dedicated to this specific isle. Where did this

523
00:22:51,880 --> 00:22:53,800
Speaker 2: come from? This aisle that's so called Isle of.

524
00:22:53,760 --> 00:22:56,359
Speaker 4: Sham, So it actually to explain the concept. You know,

525
00:22:56,400 --> 00:22:58,640
Speaker 4: you walk into a grocery store, you're expecting to buy groceries,

526
00:22:58,640 --> 00:23:00,600
Speaker 4: your soup, your sushi, all those time types of things.

527
00:23:00,760 --> 00:23:02,280
Speaker 4: And we have a whole aisle that's a lot of

528
00:23:02,359 --> 00:23:04,920
Speaker 4: general merchandise. So we're going to have swimming pools, we're

529
00:23:04,920 --> 00:23:07,879
Speaker 4: going to have seasonal right now, fourth of July is

530
00:23:07,920 --> 00:23:09,600
Speaker 4: coming up for World Cups in town, so we have

531
00:23:09,640 --> 00:23:12,080
Speaker 4: those articles as well. The origins of that actually goes

532
00:23:12,119 --> 00:23:14,680
Speaker 4: back to our origins in Europe. So if you think

533
00:23:14,680 --> 00:23:17,040
Speaker 4: about European I know, if you've been to Europe, they

534
00:23:17,040 --> 00:23:18,760
Speaker 4: don't have a lot of the competitors that we have here,

535
00:23:18,800 --> 00:23:21,159
Speaker 4: a lot of the big box stores. So all the

536
00:23:21,280 --> 00:23:23,399
Speaker 4: actually had a pretty big business and still has a

537
00:23:23,440 --> 00:23:26,720
Speaker 4: significant business selling these types of general merchandise. It could

538
00:23:26,760 --> 00:23:29,639
Speaker 4: be diy, it could be paint, it could be power tools.

539
00:23:29,960 --> 00:23:31,679
Speaker 4: So we took that concept when we came to the

540
00:23:31,760 --> 00:23:34,879
Speaker 4: US and it's been pretty successful. Now, how it's different

541
00:23:34,880 --> 00:23:37,960
Speaker 4: in the US is it's still very unique that you're

542
00:23:37,960 --> 00:23:40,440
Speaker 4: going to have all of these articles right next to

543
00:23:40,520 --> 00:23:43,040
Speaker 4: your groceries. So what we do is we bring in

544
00:23:43,040 --> 00:23:45,479
Speaker 4: about one hundred new items every week, and they're going

545
00:23:45,520 --> 00:23:48,560
Speaker 4: to be i'llcohol it random, but not so random. They're

546
00:23:48,560 --> 00:23:50,439
Speaker 4: actually going to be the items you need when you

547
00:23:50,520 --> 00:23:53,000
Speaker 4: need them. So we're not going to carry these articles

548
00:23:53,320 --> 00:23:56,080
Speaker 4: all year long. We're not going to have an inflatable

549
00:23:56,080 --> 00:23:58,879
Speaker 4: pool in February. If you look at the competition, they

550
00:23:58,920 --> 00:24:01,000
Speaker 4: will have that sitting on the show. So we bring

551
00:24:01,040 --> 00:24:03,840
Speaker 4: in the inflatable pool right when you need it. So

552
00:24:04,320 --> 00:24:06,840
Speaker 4: back to your comment on the Isle of Shame, which

553
00:24:06,880 --> 00:24:08,960
Speaker 4: I will say, we do have a Facebook group started

554
00:24:08,960 --> 00:24:11,160
Speaker 4: by our fans and it's called the Isle of Shame

555
00:24:11,240 --> 00:24:14,240
Speaker 4: or AOS, and this popped up I think four or

556
00:24:14,280 --> 00:24:16,560
Speaker 4: five years ago, and we started looking that as a business,

557
00:24:16,560 --> 00:24:19,199
Speaker 4: saying what is going on here? What is happening in

558
00:24:19,200 --> 00:24:22,760
Speaker 4: this isle of shame? And as a retailer, you're always

559
00:24:22,760 --> 00:24:25,160
Speaker 4: worried about your brand. You're concerned about your brand, and

560
00:24:25,240 --> 00:24:28,800
Speaker 4: you see this growing Facebook group called the Isle of shame,

561
00:24:28,840 --> 00:24:31,480
Speaker 4: and you have to ask yourself, what are we going

562
00:24:31,560 --> 00:24:33,920
Speaker 4: to do about that? So it is one hundred percent

563
00:24:34,000 --> 00:24:36,239
Speaker 4: driven by our fans, and really what happens is our

564
00:24:36,240 --> 00:24:39,000
Speaker 4: customers come in each week, they start posting back and forth,

565
00:24:39,000 --> 00:24:40,800
Speaker 4: Oh look what I got. I got the pool, I

566
00:24:40,840 --> 00:24:42,600
Speaker 4: got the chainsaw, I got whatever it is, and they're

567
00:24:42,600 --> 00:24:44,560
Speaker 4: having a lot of fun with these things. And this

568
00:24:44,600 --> 00:24:47,560
Speaker 4: group has grown to over four million users on a

569
00:24:47,600 --> 00:24:51,800
Speaker 4: regular basis. So origins of Isle of Shame pretty interesting.

570
00:24:52,119 --> 00:24:54,879
Speaker 4: People were posting onto Facebook. I went to al the

571
00:24:55,200 --> 00:24:57,240
Speaker 4: I got my ketchup, I got my barbecue sauce, I

572
00:24:57,280 --> 00:24:59,960
Speaker 4: got my olive oil, and I also got these que

573
00:25:00,040 --> 00:25:03,080
Speaker 4: athletic shoes. And then they were like, I'm so ashamed

574
00:25:03,640 --> 00:25:05,639
Speaker 4: I didn't stay on budget. I'm so ashamed. So they

575
00:25:05,680 --> 00:25:08,959
Speaker 4: were posting these shame photos from trunks of their cars,

576
00:25:08,960 --> 00:25:11,680
Speaker 4: from their kitchens. We sell a tremendous amount of candles.

577
00:25:12,119 --> 00:25:16,320
Speaker 4: People were posting their family rooms with fifty sixty seventy

578
00:25:16,359 --> 00:25:17,800
Speaker 4: different candles.

579
00:25:17,400 --> 00:25:20,840
Speaker 3: Of all these and they were scented candle. I fully

580
00:25:20,880 --> 00:25:23,320
Speaker 3: admit my basic noess when it comes to scented candles.

581
00:25:23,440 --> 00:25:25,080
Speaker 4: So it was shame in a good way. So I

582
00:25:25,119 --> 00:25:28,000
Speaker 4: think as a brand, we've said, okay, let's not fight this.

583
00:25:28,480 --> 00:25:30,800
Speaker 4: It's great because people love it. So it's the isle

584
00:25:30,840 --> 00:25:33,600
Speaker 4: of shame. It's the all the fines, and we love

585
00:25:33,680 --> 00:25:35,680
Speaker 4: that our fans want to post about it and talk

586
00:25:35,680 --> 00:25:38,040
Speaker 4: about it. And we learned from this as well. So,

587
00:25:38,160 --> 00:25:40,240
Speaker 4: like I said, I run the buying department and we

588
00:25:40,280 --> 00:25:43,080
Speaker 4: have great buyers out there. They watched this all of

589
00:25:43,160 --> 00:25:43,359
Speaker 4: the t.

590
00:25:59,359 --> 00:26:01,199
Speaker 3: You've been in this business for a long time. It

591
00:26:01,240 --> 00:26:04,280
Speaker 3: feels like one of the things that's happened I can't

592
00:26:04,280 --> 00:26:08,119
Speaker 3: even say relatively recently, but in recent ish years, is

593
00:26:08,160 --> 00:26:11,679
Speaker 3: that social media has become such more, such a bigger

594
00:26:11,720 --> 00:26:14,680
Speaker 3: force when it comes to shopping. So you have Facebook

595
00:26:14,680 --> 00:26:16,760
Speaker 3: groups like the one you just described, and you can

596
00:26:16,800 --> 00:26:19,480
Speaker 3: watch those and maybe get a sense of what customers

597
00:26:19,520 --> 00:26:22,320
Speaker 3: are liking. You also have social media trends, so every

598
00:26:22,359 --> 00:26:24,880
Speaker 3: once in a while, you have a food item or

599
00:26:24,920 --> 00:26:28,840
Speaker 3: an Alison Roman recipe that goes viral and suddenly everyone

600
00:26:28,880 --> 00:26:32,080
Speaker 3: wants to buy new tomatoes or a particular type of cheese.

601
00:26:32,440 --> 00:26:35,400
Speaker 3: How has that impacted the buying process for you?

602
00:26:35,520 --> 00:26:38,040
Speaker 4: Certainly we have to pay attention to those trends. And

603
00:26:38,280 --> 00:26:41,240
Speaker 4: you mentioned the FETA cheese and tomato recipe from a

604
00:26:41,280 --> 00:26:43,200
Speaker 4: few years ago. Our feticheese sales went through the root,

605
00:26:43,200 --> 00:26:44,840
Speaker 4: so we had to work very quickly with our supplier

606
00:26:44,880 --> 00:26:47,800
Speaker 4: to get more feta. More recently, one is the sourdough trend,

607
00:26:48,359 --> 00:26:51,840
Speaker 4: So sourdough baking at home, the sourdough trend. Now, Sarado's

608
00:26:51,880 --> 00:26:53,920
Speaker 4: not easy. You got a future starter. I would love

609
00:26:53,960 --> 00:26:56,639
Speaker 4: to do it. I don't have the patience for it.

610
00:26:56,920 --> 00:27:00,160
Speaker 4: But that tells us and our buying team, Hey, what's

611
00:27:00,160 --> 00:27:01,760
Speaker 4: going on with sourdough. So now we've launched a couple

612
00:27:01,800 --> 00:27:04,000
Speaker 4: of soaradough items a couple of years ago. It's actually

613
00:27:04,000 --> 00:27:06,119
Speaker 4: the top performing item in the bread set now. So

614
00:27:06,200 --> 00:27:09,280
Speaker 4: we are selling over half a million loaves of sourdough

615
00:27:09,800 --> 00:27:11,080
Speaker 4: every single week in our stores.

616
00:27:11,760 --> 00:27:15,080
Speaker 3: So when you suddenly see feta flying off the shelves,

617
00:27:15,359 --> 00:27:17,440
Speaker 3: how long does it take you to actually figure out

618
00:27:17,440 --> 00:27:20,560
Speaker 3: what's going on here and what's driving the additional demand,

619
00:27:20,600 --> 00:27:21,960
Speaker 3: and then how long does it take for you to

620
00:27:22,000 --> 00:27:22,760
Speaker 3: respond to it?

621
00:27:22,920 --> 00:27:24,960
Speaker 4: And that's one of the great things about being private label,

622
00:27:25,040 --> 00:27:27,560
Speaker 4: because we're in control of our label, we're in control

623
00:27:27,600 --> 00:27:30,320
Speaker 4: of our supply chain. We work directly with our producers.

624
00:27:30,480 --> 00:27:32,199
Speaker 4: So if we were a brand, we'd have to call

625
00:27:32,240 --> 00:27:33,679
Speaker 4: them and say, hey, can we get more of your

626
00:27:33,720 --> 00:27:35,959
Speaker 4: brand that you're sending to every other retailer. We go

627
00:27:36,080 --> 00:27:38,840
Speaker 4: directly to the manufacturer. We say, look, how can we

628
00:27:38,880 --> 00:27:41,399
Speaker 4: get more line time, how can you dedicate more ald product?

629
00:27:41,440 --> 00:27:43,040
Speaker 4: What can we do with packaging? It can be as

630
00:27:43,119 --> 00:27:44,879
Speaker 4: quick as a couple of months, It can't take a

631
00:27:44,920 --> 00:27:47,040
Speaker 4: little bit longer depending on the item. But being a

632
00:27:47,080 --> 00:27:49,760
Speaker 4: private label, we can just pick up the phone called

633
00:27:49,800 --> 00:27:52,679
Speaker 4: directly that supplier. Oftentimes it's the owner, the president of

634
00:27:52,680 --> 00:27:55,080
Speaker 4: the company, and say, look, what can we do about FETA?

635
00:27:55,119 --> 00:27:57,199
Speaker 4: How can we expand your sourdough line? What can we

636
00:27:57,200 --> 00:27:59,240
Speaker 4: do to help you? Then we partner with them.

637
00:28:00,359 --> 00:28:02,520
Speaker 2: And I had never I had never gone into an

638
00:28:02,560 --> 00:28:04,320
Speaker 2: all day before, and I'm not sure I would not

639
00:28:04,440 --> 00:28:07,280
Speaker 2: I would have noticed it had you not pointed it out,

640
00:28:07,280 --> 00:28:09,480
Speaker 2: But then once you pointed out it was quite obvious.

641
00:28:09,600 --> 00:28:11,639
Speaker 2: So for example, like on a bag of chips, you

642
00:28:11,680 --> 00:28:14,359
Speaker 2: have really big barcodes, and that either in some boxes,

643
00:28:14,359 --> 00:28:17,280
Speaker 2: then you notice had a barcode on on every surface

644
00:28:17,880 --> 00:28:19,920
Speaker 2: and some of it really big barcodes, and it's like, okay,

645
00:28:19,920 --> 00:28:22,800
Speaker 2: I get that that's intuitive. It makes the swiping faster.

646
00:28:23,040 --> 00:28:25,800
Speaker 2: Give us a little history of barcode innovation and how

647
00:28:25,840 --> 00:28:29,680
Speaker 2: do you actually sort of measure the optimal I guess

648
00:28:29,800 --> 00:28:33,639
Speaker 2: ratio of adding barcodes and figuring out how much that

649
00:28:33,680 --> 00:28:37,280
Speaker 2: could contribute to faster throughput versus adding barcodes and then

650
00:28:37,320 --> 00:28:39,160
Speaker 2: like you can't even see what the product is. So

651
00:28:39,240 --> 00:28:43,440
Speaker 2: finding that sort of efficient frontier of barcode allocation on

652
00:28:43,480 --> 00:28:44,040
Speaker 2: a package.

653
00:28:44,080 --> 00:28:46,120
Speaker 4: And I think before we talk about barcodes and scanning,

654
00:28:46,120 --> 00:28:47,680
Speaker 4: we actually have to go all the way back to

655
00:28:47,720 --> 00:28:50,440
Speaker 4: before we had scanners. Okay, so we were actually the

656
00:28:50,520 --> 00:28:53,120
Speaker 4: last retailer to roll out scanning and soores. So I

657
00:28:53,160 --> 00:28:55,880
Speaker 4: started with a company in nineteen ninety five. I showed

658
00:28:55,960 --> 00:28:58,360
Speaker 4: up on day one in my training district manager said

659
00:28:58,360 --> 00:29:01,160
Speaker 4: I hope you've memorized all the prices by now, Oh

660
00:29:01,160 --> 00:29:02,840
Speaker 4: my god, And I had this look on my face

661
00:29:02,840 --> 00:29:05,280
Speaker 4: and I said, no, No, No one told me about that.

662
00:29:05,560 --> 00:29:08,680
Speaker 4: Memorized all the price, memorized all the prices. So up

663
00:29:08,760 --> 00:29:11,520
Speaker 4: until nineteen ninety eight, all of our employees memorized all

664
00:29:11,560 --> 00:29:13,960
Speaker 4: of the prices and they would enter them by hand

665
00:29:14,040 --> 00:29:16,880
Speaker 4: on an old fashioned ten key. And so the price

666
00:29:16,960 --> 00:29:20,360
Speaker 4: memorization was critical to our efficiency. We talked abou efficiency

667
00:29:20,400 --> 00:29:23,160
Speaker 4: and throughput. Now you could say why didn't we do scanning?

668
00:29:23,200 --> 00:29:26,720
Speaker 4: Back then our cashiers were they were too fast. We

669
00:29:26,760 --> 00:29:29,840
Speaker 4: couldn't find a scanning system that was fast enough peak

670
00:29:29,960 --> 00:29:32,440
Speaker 4: up with our ten key. So we did two things.

671
00:29:32,480 --> 00:29:35,960
Speaker 4: One we started working with scanning manufacturers and the bi

672
00:29:36,080 --> 00:29:38,320
Speaker 4: level scanner, which you may or may not be familiar with.

673
00:29:38,360 --> 00:29:40,120
Speaker 4: If you think back long, long time ago, there was

674
00:29:40,160 --> 00:29:43,720
Speaker 4: one scanner it was level yeah and cashiers. So bi

675
00:29:43,800 --> 00:29:47,000
Speaker 4: level scanners were essentially created out of our input saying, look,

676
00:29:47,040 --> 00:29:49,120
Speaker 4: we need to do this faster by level.

677
00:29:49,160 --> 00:29:51,760
Speaker 2: So that means there's the horizontal service and then the version.

678
00:29:51,800 --> 00:29:56,000
Speaker 2: They're both have a chance picking up the bark exactly.

679
00:29:56,040 --> 00:29:57,480
Speaker 4: So that was one of the innovations that we were

680
00:29:57,480 --> 00:30:00,240
Speaker 4: pioneering with our suppliers to say, look, how can we

681
00:30:00,240 --> 00:30:02,920
Speaker 4: move memorizing prices. Wasn't the long term fit for sure,

682
00:30:02,920 --> 00:30:04,800
Speaker 4: It's very difficult, by the way, but when you have

683
00:30:04,840 --> 00:30:07,239
Speaker 4: these bi level scanners, says okay, there's a chance here.

684
00:30:07,240 --> 00:30:09,160
Speaker 4: And the second part was on packaging. So I think

685
00:30:09,160 --> 00:30:11,400
Speaker 4: we've all been in a grocery store and you've seen

686
00:30:11,440 --> 00:30:14,320
Speaker 4: the cashier struggling to kind of turn the item and

687
00:30:15,360 --> 00:30:16,680
Speaker 4: self checkout.

688
00:30:17,800 --> 00:30:18,000
Speaker 3: Yeah.

689
00:30:18,200 --> 00:30:20,240
Speaker 4: Yeah, So we came up with the idea and we're

690
00:30:20,240 --> 00:30:23,360
Speaker 4: just gonna have multiple bar codes. So we measure everything

691
00:30:23,360 --> 00:30:26,000
Speaker 4: we scan, right, so all of our associates they measure

692
00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:27,600
Speaker 4: on items permitt it and we can we can track

693
00:30:27,640 --> 00:30:29,360
Speaker 4: the items per minut it. So if we're going to

694
00:30:29,440 --> 00:30:31,440
Speaker 4: do a scanner update, does it pick up scanning faster?

695
00:30:31,520 --> 00:30:33,920
Speaker 4: We track those items per minute. If we do packaging

696
00:30:33,920 --> 00:30:36,280
Speaker 4: innovations and we get we'll get feedback from our store

697
00:30:36,320 --> 00:30:39,120
Speaker 4: staff to say, look, this item's not scanning well. So

698
00:30:39,160 --> 00:30:41,720
Speaker 4: to your example, you didn't notice it in the store,

699
00:30:41,800 --> 00:30:44,640
Speaker 4: and actually most of our customers don't because we hide

700
00:30:44,640 --> 00:30:47,240
Speaker 4: it so well. So you can take an article, any

701
00:30:47,240 --> 00:30:49,840
Speaker 4: item in the store, you will find four, five or

702
00:30:49,840 --> 00:30:52,840
Speaker 4: six barcodes and until we pointed out to a customer,

703
00:30:52,960 --> 00:30:54,760
Speaker 4: they don't even know it exists. So hopefully people go

704
00:30:54,840 --> 00:30:56,400
Speaker 4: check their pantry and go, oh my gosh, I never

705
00:30:56,480 --> 00:30:56,800
Speaker 4: noticed it.

706
00:30:56,920 --> 00:30:59,080
Speaker 3: Well. It is funny though, on the chips example, it

707
00:30:59,120 --> 00:31:01,320
Speaker 3: almost looks like it's part of the bag design because

708
00:31:01,360 --> 00:31:04,480
Speaker 3: it's like a strike basically it goes around the whole thing.

709
00:31:04,840 --> 00:31:08,000
Speaker 3: But wait, now I'm thinking back in the age of

710
00:31:08,080 --> 00:31:11,800
Speaker 3: when cashiers were memorizing grocery prices. Do you think that

711
00:31:11,880 --> 00:31:15,160
Speaker 3: had an impact on the monetary policy transmission mechanism? Do

712
00:31:15,160 --> 00:31:18,760
Speaker 3: you think, oh yeah, price increases didn't filter down into it.

713
00:31:18,760 --> 00:31:22,440
Speaker 2: Would It would have been too burdensome. On the compliment

714
00:31:23,920 --> 00:31:25,320
Speaker 2: is like, do another memorization?

715
00:31:25,840 --> 00:31:28,320
Speaker 3: Someone needs to do a paper. Yeah, yeah, we should, Okay,

716
00:31:28,400 --> 00:31:31,800
Speaker 3: obvious question though. The barcode thing kind of blew my

717
00:31:31,880 --> 00:31:35,120
Speaker 3: mind because, as you said, I've never noticed it before.

718
00:31:35,440 --> 00:31:38,560
Speaker 3: How come other grocery stores or other brands don't do

719
00:31:38,600 --> 00:31:40,440
Speaker 3: something similar Because.

720
00:31:40,200 --> 00:31:42,800
Speaker 4: We're a private label. These are our products and we

721
00:31:42,880 --> 00:31:45,240
Speaker 4: use that real estate. We designed the labels, we designed

722
00:31:45,280 --> 00:31:48,080
Speaker 4: the brands, we control the ingredients, we designed the labels.

723
00:31:48,120 --> 00:31:50,720
Speaker 4: So for us, we're based on efficiency. I would say

724
00:31:50,720 --> 00:31:52,720
Speaker 4: some of our competitors aren't. Is it focused on that

725
00:31:53,080 --> 00:31:55,120
Speaker 4: it does take up real estate on the package, There's

726
00:31:55,160 --> 00:31:57,400
Speaker 4: no doubt about it, But the fact that nobody notices

727
00:31:57,440 --> 00:31:59,920
Speaker 4: it is pretty interesting as well. So for us, it's

728
00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:03,400
Speaker 4: strictly productivity. And since we control the product and the packaging,

729
00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:05,640
Speaker 4: we could put twenty bar codes if we wanted to.

730
00:32:05,840 --> 00:32:07,840
Speaker 3: But if I'm like a hoggin DAWs or something, and

731
00:32:07,880 --> 00:32:11,600
Speaker 3: I'm designing my box of ice cream sandwiches or whatever

732
00:32:11,680 --> 00:32:14,280
Speaker 3: it is, I would be reluctant to give up some

733
00:32:14,400 --> 00:32:15,920
Speaker 3: of that additional space to barcodes.

734
00:32:16,280 --> 00:32:17,840
Speaker 4: I think so. I mean, if you're a brand, you

735
00:32:17,880 --> 00:32:19,400
Speaker 4: want to talk about the products, and we have the

736
00:32:19,520 --> 00:32:21,240
Speaker 4: romance copy, and you want to tell the history of

737
00:32:21,280 --> 00:32:23,479
Speaker 4: the product. I think they're more focused on that than

738
00:32:23,520 --> 00:32:26,440
Speaker 4: the retailer's productivity. We're focused on the productivity so we

739
00:32:26,480 --> 00:32:28,400
Speaker 4: can get the savings for the customer. But you're absolutely

740
00:32:28,480 --> 00:32:31,400
Speaker 4: right adding romance copy and all those great foods on

741
00:32:31,400 --> 00:32:31,800
Speaker 4: the back.

742
00:32:31,640 --> 00:32:33,920
Speaker 2: Of the art.

743
00:32:34,000 --> 00:32:35,160
Speaker 4: It's called romance copy.

744
00:32:35,560 --> 00:32:38,160
Speaker 3: I have often felt feelings of romances. I read the

745
00:32:38,200 --> 00:32:39,440
Speaker 3: back of ice cream packaging.

746
00:32:39,440 --> 00:32:43,040
Speaker 2: You ever like those things, It'll be like Bob and

747
00:32:43,120 --> 00:32:45,520
Speaker 2: Joe's corn chips, and it's like the story will be

748
00:32:45,520 --> 00:32:48,720
Speaker 2: like Bob was working at Goldman Sacks and realized, why

749
00:32:48,720 --> 00:32:50,800
Speaker 2: am I devoting my life to M and A when

750
00:32:50,800 --> 00:32:53,040
Speaker 2: I could be devoting it to like design bake. I

751
00:32:53,040 --> 00:32:55,640
Speaker 2: always I'm not a fan. I always think that's I

752
00:32:55,680 --> 00:32:56,720
Speaker 2: do not need romance.

753
00:32:57,280 --> 00:32:59,920
Speaker 3: You need to know the origin story of your potato chips, Joe.

754
00:33:00,080 --> 00:33:00,960
Speaker 4: You need more barcodes.

755
00:33:01,280 --> 00:33:05,440
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, talk to us about what you see in

756
00:33:05,600 --> 00:33:07,440
Speaker 2: this sort of this current say to the art of

757
00:33:07,480 --> 00:33:09,520
Speaker 2: self checkout and the reason there are a couple of

758
00:33:09,520 --> 00:33:12,280
Speaker 2: things I ask because, for example, Unicloe, which is where

759
00:33:12,280 --> 00:33:14,280
Speaker 2: I buy a lot of my clothes. I love their

760
00:33:14,280 --> 00:33:16,840
Speaker 2: self checkout, but there's clothes. It's on grocery, but you

761
00:33:16,920 --> 00:33:19,400
Speaker 2: dump all of the clothes into a bucket, it spits

762
00:33:19,400 --> 00:33:22,240
Speaker 2: out a price probably like RFD or whatever. It's done.

763
00:33:22,400 --> 00:33:25,840
Speaker 2: It's that. And then so my local key Foods, you're

764
00:33:25,880 --> 00:33:28,760
Speaker 2: like doing the thing where you're twisting half the time,

765
00:33:28,960 --> 00:33:31,040
Speaker 2: like someone has to come by and like swipe something.

766
00:33:31,080 --> 00:33:35,000
Speaker 2: Maybe something will need an age verification. It doesn't really

767
00:33:35,080 --> 00:33:37,280
Speaker 2: quite seem to work yet. And so I'm curious what

768
00:33:37,320 --> 00:33:40,520
Speaker 2: you're seeing at all day in terms of where we

769
00:33:40,560 --> 00:33:42,360
Speaker 2: are with self checkout technically, I think it kind of

770
00:33:42,400 --> 00:33:43,200
Speaker 2: drives people crazy.

771
00:33:43,320 --> 00:33:45,400
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it's it's a mixed bag. I mean,

772
00:33:45,400 --> 00:33:47,120
Speaker 4: some people love it, some people don't love it. And

773
00:33:47,160 --> 00:33:48,800
Speaker 4: for all the reasons that you said, you know, RFID

774
00:33:48,880 --> 00:33:51,240
Speaker 4: hasn't come to grocery yet. RFID is a pretty expensive

775
00:33:51,240 --> 00:33:54,120
Speaker 4: technology when you're talking about selling avocados and tomatoes. So

776
00:33:54,240 --> 00:33:57,440
Speaker 4: RFID hasn't quite made it there yet, even the best

777
00:33:57,440 --> 00:33:59,400
Speaker 4: self checkout, you're gonna have to have an age verification

778
00:33:59,440 --> 00:34:02,360
Speaker 4: for alcohol, You're going to struggle sometimes to weigh the produce.

779
00:34:02,440 --> 00:34:04,360
Speaker 4: So we have it into about a third of our stores.

780
00:34:04,560 --> 00:34:06,320
Speaker 4: I think some customers love it. But in of our

781
00:34:06,360 --> 00:34:09,160
Speaker 4: stores that have self checkout, we always have an employee

782
00:34:09,239 --> 00:34:11,360
Speaker 4: checkout as well, and that's the option to the consumer.

783
00:34:11,640 --> 00:34:13,960
Speaker 4: I think we're still learning. Retailers are figuring out what

784
00:34:14,000 --> 00:34:16,319
Speaker 4: works best for them. Do you want a corral, do

785
00:34:16,360 --> 00:34:19,560
Speaker 4: you want an attendant? What's the best layouts corral? So

786
00:34:19,640 --> 00:34:21,960
Speaker 4: you might want to move people through more of a line,

787
00:34:22,040 --> 00:34:24,080
Speaker 4: or do you want more of a separated area. So

788
00:34:24,120 --> 00:34:26,120
Speaker 4: the layout of the self checkout can have a pretty

789
00:34:26,160 --> 00:34:29,360
Speaker 4: big impact on the effectiveness. How many people are monitoring it?

790
00:34:29,400 --> 00:34:31,560
Speaker 4: And by the time you pay someone to stand there

791
00:34:31,600 --> 00:34:35,239
Speaker 4: and monitor it, could you just scan their groceries for them? Yeah,

792
00:34:35,239 --> 00:34:37,000
Speaker 4: those are the questions that I think all the retailers

793
00:34:37,040 --> 00:34:37,839
Speaker 4: are facing right now.

794
00:34:38,040 --> 00:34:40,520
Speaker 2: I actually think Tracy, the way the Ligmans does it

795
00:34:40,600 --> 00:34:43,920
Speaker 2: and Aster plays with self checkout is not bad. Or

796
00:34:43,960 --> 00:34:46,719
Speaker 2: they have one line and then like thirty different or

797
00:34:46,760 --> 00:34:48,879
Speaker 2: fifty different machines and they're like you in twenty five

798
00:34:48,960 --> 00:34:51,200
Speaker 2: you at twenty eight. Yeah, that it actually seems to

799
00:34:51,239 --> 00:34:53,720
Speaker 2: work reasonably well compared to some of the other versions

800
00:34:53,760 --> 00:34:54,080
Speaker 2: I've seen.

801
00:34:54,160 --> 00:34:56,080
Speaker 3: I think, I mean, I think it's fine, especially in

802
00:34:56,120 --> 00:34:58,439
Speaker 3: New York where people are usually like grabbing a few

803
00:34:58,480 --> 00:35:00,640
Speaker 3: items and then just leaving. Yeah, I could see the

804
00:35:00,719 --> 00:35:03,120
Speaker 3: argument for a self checkout. But actually this brings me

805
00:35:03,200 --> 00:35:04,840
Speaker 3: to what I wanted to ask. You opted for no

806
00:35:04,960 --> 00:35:08,000
Speaker 3: self checkout at the New Times Square location, so I'm

807
00:35:08,040 --> 00:35:10,600
Speaker 3: really interested in why you decided to do that. And

808
00:35:10,640 --> 00:35:14,640
Speaker 3: then secondly, you mentioned corral versus line. So there is

809
00:35:14,680 --> 00:35:17,160
Speaker 3: a big space in front of your checkout counters that

810
00:35:17,200 --> 00:35:20,279
Speaker 3: we saw yesterday. What system is that and what's the

811
00:35:20,360 --> 00:35:23,440
Speaker 3: logic behind having that particular system in New York.

812
00:35:23,840 --> 00:35:26,040
Speaker 4: I think when you think about self checkout, the appeal

813
00:35:26,040 --> 00:35:27,960
Speaker 4: in that and a lot of our competitors is their

814
00:35:28,040 --> 00:35:30,799
Speaker 4: checkout system is pretty slow. So we've already talked about

815
00:35:30,800 --> 00:35:33,160
Speaker 4: we have our multiple car codes, we have our scanner systems.

816
00:35:33,280 --> 00:35:36,439
Speaker 4: We're incredibly efficient, so we don't always need the self

817
00:35:36,480 --> 00:35:39,319
Speaker 4: checkout to speed that process along. Now that space is there,

818
00:35:39,320 --> 00:35:41,760
Speaker 4: we might decide in the future to try some self checkout.

819
00:35:41,800 --> 00:35:44,040
Speaker 4: We want to have the real estate and available to

820
00:35:44,160 --> 00:35:45,880
Speaker 4: change the layout if we think we need it. So

821
00:35:45,920 --> 00:35:47,840
Speaker 4: I said, we're still trying to figure out what works.

822
00:35:48,440 --> 00:35:50,520
Speaker 4: But for us, if there's three people in front of

823
00:35:50,520 --> 00:35:52,480
Speaker 4: you in line at an Aldier store, you're going to

824
00:35:52,560 --> 00:35:55,640
Speaker 4: get so get through so quickly you may not even

825
00:35:55,680 --> 00:35:57,399
Speaker 4: need the self checkout. And I will say, if we've

826
00:35:57,400 --> 00:35:59,720
Speaker 4: watched people in self checkout, it's kind of like standing

827
00:35:59,719 --> 00:36:02,239
Speaker 4: in a food restaurant. Which one do you pick? Who's

828
00:36:02,280 --> 00:36:04,040
Speaker 4: going to be fastest, who's going to be able to

829
00:36:04,080 --> 00:36:05,680
Speaker 4: figure out the machine? That can be a bit of

830
00:36:05,680 --> 00:36:07,720
Speaker 4: a frustration as well, because if you pick the wrong one,

831
00:36:08,280 --> 00:36:10,440
Speaker 4: you could be waiting even longer, even in a self checkout.

832
00:36:10,640 --> 00:36:13,040
Speaker 3: So the space we saw yesterday, that's just you go up,

833
00:36:13,080 --> 00:36:14,920
Speaker 3: you decide which checkout you want to go up to.

834
00:36:15,080 --> 00:36:17,360
Speaker 3: You're not waiting in a single line. No, okay, that

835
00:36:17,480 --> 00:36:20,920
Speaker 3: was my question. I found line management really interesting for

836
00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:23,680
Speaker 3: a few years, and I kind of wanted to write

837
00:36:23,680 --> 00:36:26,640
Speaker 3: a book about lines and like the strategy behind lines.

838
00:36:26,640 --> 00:36:27,799
Speaker 3: So maybe I'll get back into it.

839
00:36:27,840 --> 00:36:29,399
Speaker 2: I'm sure that we could do, you know, I'm sure

840
00:36:29,400 --> 00:36:32,680
Speaker 2: there's a lot of really impressive mathematics behind line and

841
00:36:32,800 --> 00:36:35,719
Speaker 2: queueing theory. And all that stuff. How many different types

842
00:36:35,760 --> 00:36:37,920
Speaker 2: of green grapes are that we talked about it yesterday

843
00:36:37,920 --> 00:36:39,960
Speaker 2: and I just let you go back to that. Okay,

844
00:36:40,080 --> 00:36:42,120
Speaker 2: go to the farmers, you pick a grape, like, how

845
00:36:42,120 --> 00:36:45,520
Speaker 2: many different options are you looking at? Et cetera. Novelty

846
00:36:45,640 --> 00:36:47,839
Speaker 2: And we talked about this again with tomatoes, they alway

847
00:36:47,840 --> 00:36:49,680
Speaker 2: seemed to be coming out with the new tomatoes. Where

848
00:36:49,680 --> 00:36:50,920
Speaker 2: are we at with the great market?

849
00:36:51,080 --> 00:36:51,279
Speaker 1: Yeah?

850
00:36:51,320 --> 00:36:54,240
Speaker 4: So the great market is fascinating because for the average consumer,

851
00:36:54,320 --> 00:36:56,680
Speaker 4: which we are all average consumers, right, you have green grapes,

852
00:36:56,719 --> 00:36:58,600
Speaker 4: you have red grapes. You go to the store, you

853
00:36:58,600 --> 00:37:00,720
Speaker 4: want green, you like red, and you ask a customer,

854
00:37:00,920 --> 00:37:02,399
Speaker 4: I like the green ones. I like the red ones.

855
00:37:02,400 --> 00:37:04,160
Speaker 4: But when you get into the details, like I said,

856
00:37:04,160 --> 00:37:06,440
Speaker 4: we have an awesome produce buying team. There's over one

857
00:37:06,520 --> 00:37:09,360
Speaker 4: hundred varieties of green grapes. So when you go to

858
00:37:09,600 --> 00:37:12,480
Speaker 4: the Aldie store or the competitor next door, likely you're

859
00:37:12,480 --> 00:37:14,560
Speaker 4: going to have two different varieties. Now, each of those

860
00:37:14,600 --> 00:37:17,759
Speaker 4: varieties has a different tape, flavor profile, different yield. The

861
00:37:17,840 --> 00:37:20,200
Speaker 4: higher the yield, sometimes the less the flavor. So there's

862
00:37:20,239 --> 00:37:22,359
Speaker 4: trade offs and all those types of things. So what

863
00:37:22,440 --> 00:37:24,120
Speaker 4: we do you know, we work with the growers. We

864
00:37:24,160 --> 00:37:26,640
Speaker 4: mentioned this earlier. We figure, you know, what's the best

865
00:37:26,680 --> 00:37:29,080
Speaker 4: flavor profile. We don't want the customer to have to

866
00:37:29,080 --> 00:37:31,160
Speaker 4: think about it. We want them to come to our store,

867
00:37:31,200 --> 00:37:33,640
Speaker 4: come to Aldi and say I love the Aldie green grapes,

868
00:37:33,680 --> 00:37:36,080
Speaker 4: or I love the blackberries. I love the blackberries, and

869
00:37:36,080 --> 00:37:36,799
Speaker 4: they don't know the.

870
00:37:36,800 --> 00:37:40,080
Speaker 3: Details berries huge, they have that.

871
00:37:40,160 --> 00:37:41,080
Speaker 2: Sort of tart that.

872
00:37:42,600 --> 00:37:44,880
Speaker 4: Yeah, and that's that's another example of picking the varieties.

873
00:37:44,880 --> 00:37:46,680
Speaker 4: So if we were just buying off the market, you're

874
00:37:46,719 --> 00:37:48,319
Speaker 4: just going down to the local produce market and saying,

875
00:37:48,320 --> 00:37:50,399
Speaker 4: give me whatever blackberries you have, You're going to get

876
00:37:50,400 --> 00:37:52,600
Speaker 4: what they have available. Working with the grower, you can

877
00:37:52,680 --> 00:37:55,680
Speaker 4: narrow that hundred varieties of green grapes down to the

878
00:37:55,680 --> 00:37:57,240
Speaker 4: one or two you want to have in your stores.

879
00:37:57,520 --> 00:37:59,680
Speaker 4: What's in season, what's going to have the right flavor profile.

880
00:38:00,000 --> 00:38:01,800
Speaker 4: Don't want it too sour, you don't want it too sweet.

881
00:38:01,920 --> 00:38:04,120
Speaker 4: You want to have good shelf life, produce waste. That's

882
00:38:04,280 --> 00:38:06,520
Speaker 4: all those types of things go into the decisions of

883
00:38:06,560 --> 00:38:10,479
Speaker 4: our produce team. It's actually pretty sophisticated, and it's fine

884
00:38:10,480 --> 00:38:12,440
Speaker 4: the customer take it for granted. We just want them

885
00:38:12,480 --> 00:38:14,480
Speaker 4: come in and say these green grapes are great, but

886
00:38:14,520 --> 00:38:15,880
Speaker 4: we've done all the work to figure that out with

887
00:38:15,920 --> 00:38:16,440
Speaker 4: the farmers.

888
00:38:17,120 --> 00:38:19,520
Speaker 3: I want to ask at least one what ald you

889
00:38:19,560 --> 00:38:23,120
Speaker 3: can tell us about the macro environment right now type question. So,

890
00:38:23,280 --> 00:38:25,719
Speaker 3: one of the stories that we've been talking about on

891
00:38:25,760 --> 00:38:27,600
Speaker 3: the show, and lots of other people have as well,

892
00:38:27,680 --> 00:38:33,760
Speaker 3: is high produce prices, higher beef prices, certainly general inflationary

893
00:38:33,800 --> 00:38:37,399
Speaker 3: pressures on the consumer. And I'm very curious if you've

894
00:38:37,440 --> 00:38:40,680
Speaker 3: seen that in the spend at your own stores, if

895
00:38:40,719 --> 00:38:44,719
Speaker 3: you've maybe seen smaller basket sizes, or maybe you've seen

896
00:38:44,760 --> 00:38:48,160
Speaker 3: people training down from beef to chicken, that sort of thing.

897
00:38:48,400 --> 00:38:51,160
Speaker 3: What are you seeing in terms of inflationary pressures on

898
00:38:51,200 --> 00:38:51,800
Speaker 3: your shoppers.

899
00:38:52,200 --> 00:38:55,000
Speaker 4: So shoppers are I think they've been under pressure for

900
00:38:55,120 --> 00:38:57,680
Speaker 4: several years now, and for all the reasons we talked

901
00:38:57,719 --> 00:39:00,520
Speaker 4: about before, whether it's a case design or the PCs

902
00:39:00,680 --> 00:39:02,719
Speaker 4: or going straight to the farmer. We try to keep

903
00:39:02,719 --> 00:39:05,400
Speaker 4: all those cost pressures down, but we're not immune. We're

904
00:39:05,440 --> 00:39:08,040
Speaker 4: not immune to commodity market. You mentioned beef. For instance,

905
00:39:08,320 --> 00:39:11,200
Speaker 4: beef prices are at seventy year highs, so we still

906
00:39:11,200 --> 00:39:14,360
Speaker 4: see our customers buying beef However, I'll give you an example.

907
00:39:14,560 --> 00:39:18,040
Speaker 4: Ground beef right now is relatively expensive by historical context.

908
00:39:18,440 --> 00:39:20,279
Speaker 4: You can talk five ninety nine or six ninety nine

909
00:39:20,400 --> 00:39:22,759
Speaker 4: pound even at the ALDI store for ground beef. What

910
00:39:22,800 --> 00:39:25,840
Speaker 4: we've seen is some consumers opting for ground turkey or

911
00:39:25,880 --> 00:39:28,920
Speaker 4: ground chicken, a nice substitute, a good quality of product,

912
00:39:28,960 --> 00:39:32,800
Speaker 4: still fresh, probably thirty percent cheaper or forty percent less expensive,

913
00:39:33,080 --> 00:39:34,759
Speaker 4: and that's a good option. Customers are still going to

914
00:39:34,760 --> 00:39:37,160
Speaker 4: buy their protein. Protein is all the craze right now, Yeah,

915
00:39:37,239 --> 00:39:39,040
Speaker 4: but we have seen some switch in between maybe a

916
00:39:39,120 --> 00:39:42,919
Speaker 4: higher protein, expensive protein like beef and a lower cost

917
00:39:42,960 --> 00:39:43,400
Speaker 4: like chicken.

918
00:39:43,920 --> 00:39:45,520
Speaker 2: I guess we should ask you a question about that

919
00:39:45,640 --> 00:39:47,400
Speaker 2: protein all of the craze right now. So it's like

920
00:39:47,640 --> 00:39:50,000
Speaker 2: the problem with all this, there's a lot of confounders,

921
00:39:50,160 --> 00:39:53,520
Speaker 2: right because sailouts changed in the last ten years on

922
00:39:53,600 --> 00:39:55,759
Speaker 2: all kinds of levels. We can talk about the role

923
00:39:55,800 --> 00:39:58,440
Speaker 2: of social media. We can talk about obviously COVID and

924
00:39:58,520 --> 00:40:01,080
Speaker 2: inflation or just co of it and how that made

925
00:40:01,120 --> 00:40:03,920
Speaker 2: sour dough bread a thing the hobby. But GLP one's

926
00:40:04,000 --> 00:40:07,320
Speaker 2: clearly part of the story. I think with the protein boom,

927
00:40:07,520 --> 00:40:11,000
Speaker 2: what are some sort of like clear data points that

928
00:40:11,080 --> 00:40:14,840
Speaker 2: you see where you say okay, like the golp ones

929
00:40:14,840 --> 00:40:18,000
Speaker 2: are changing consumer buying behavior other than just say yes,

930
00:40:18,040 --> 00:40:18,840
Speaker 2: they want more protein.

931
00:40:19,320 --> 00:40:21,279
Speaker 4: Yeah, so glp ones. We worked with some of our

932
00:40:21,320 --> 00:40:23,840
Speaker 4: partners probably eighteen months ago and I think it was

933
00:40:23,920 --> 00:40:25,920
Speaker 4: roughly five percent of the population and that time was

934
00:40:25,960 --> 00:40:28,560
Speaker 4: on glp ones. We'd have to check that, but they

935
00:40:28,600 --> 00:40:30,560
Speaker 4: also said, when this goes to pill form, which is

936
00:40:30,560 --> 00:40:32,960
Speaker 4: happening right now, we're going to see that adoption rate

937
00:40:33,040 --> 00:40:35,719
Speaker 4: go up. So as glp ones are coming into pill form,

938
00:40:35,880 --> 00:40:38,920
Speaker 4: of course we're seeing more protein sales. What's interesting is

939
00:40:38,960 --> 00:40:40,799
Speaker 4: if you talk to the meat team and the meat

940
00:40:40,800 --> 00:40:42,960
Speaker 4: growers out there, they would say, we're the original protein,

941
00:40:43,000 --> 00:40:45,000
Speaker 4: and of course we're selling more of that. But we're

942
00:40:45,040 --> 00:40:49,000
Speaker 4: seeing is protein really go throughout the store? Protein bagels?

943
00:40:49,200 --> 00:40:54,399
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, are you talking about protein popcorn? Which there's

944
00:40:54,400 --> 00:40:55,600
Speaker 4: going to be a point when it comes to far

945
00:40:55,600 --> 00:40:58,200
Speaker 4: we're rolling out of protein sparkling water. So our data

946
00:40:58,239 --> 00:41:00,879
Speaker 4: points would say it's actually quite taste when you take

947
00:41:00,880 --> 00:41:05,200
Speaker 4: a protein sparkling water. Anything with protein right now is accelerating.

948
00:41:05,440 --> 00:41:07,160
Speaker 4: I think there'll be a pullback at some point.

949
00:41:07,440 --> 00:41:10,520
Speaker 3: Yeah, the pendulum needs to swing to fiber. Americans need

950
00:41:10,560 --> 00:41:11,080
Speaker 3: more fiber.

951
00:41:12,280 --> 00:41:15,320
Speaker 4: Fiber is coming on as well, Okay, you can have fiber.

952
00:41:15,600 --> 00:41:18,439
Speaker 4: Bean sales are actually up significantly real, Yeah, we're selling

953
00:41:18,440 --> 00:41:19,319
Speaker 4: significantly more beings.

954
00:41:19,480 --> 00:41:20,719
Speaker 3: Is that a GLP one thing as well?

955
00:41:20,920 --> 00:41:23,400
Speaker 4: It's a fiber, it's a fiber protein combo. Yes, we

956
00:41:23,440 --> 00:41:25,680
Speaker 4: have a Greek chickpe that we've just rolled out, which

957
00:41:25,719 --> 00:41:28,479
Speaker 4: is actually amazing. And I would say two years ago

958
00:41:29,000 --> 00:41:31,600
Speaker 4: we wouldn't have carried a Greek chickpea, but now we've

959
00:41:31,680 --> 00:41:34,120
Speaker 4: rolled out a Greek chickpea high in fiber. Customers are

960
00:41:34,160 --> 00:41:36,680
Speaker 4: responding to it. We're rolling out of fiber water. You're right,

961
00:41:36,800 --> 00:41:39,960
Speaker 4: more protein, more fiber, And for us, it's making sure

962
00:41:40,000 --> 00:41:42,839
Speaker 4: we have the products the customers want and being on trend.

963
00:41:42,920 --> 00:41:46,800
Speaker 4: But bean sales five years ago, bean sales weren't searching.

964
00:41:46,920 --> 00:41:49,040
Speaker 4: But we're seeing a research in some of these categories

965
00:41:49,080 --> 00:41:51,399
Speaker 4: that maybe weren't thriving in the past, but now they're

966
00:41:51,400 --> 00:41:52,319
Speaker 4: starting to come back to life.

967
00:41:52,400 --> 00:41:55,440
Speaker 3: That might also be inflationary pressure because one of the

968
00:41:55,480 --> 00:41:58,640
Speaker 3: greatest value meals, most filling meals you can ever make,

969
00:41:58,800 --> 00:42:01,360
Speaker 3: is red beans and rid as. I like to say. Anyway,

970
00:42:01,760 --> 00:42:04,799
Speaker 3: just going back to the sort of competitive advantage of

971
00:42:04,880 --> 00:42:08,120
Speaker 3: all D. So we talked about your own label and

972
00:42:08,160 --> 00:42:10,319
Speaker 3: how that makes you more efficient and all of that.

973
00:42:11,120 --> 00:42:14,880
Speaker 3: We've seen a lot of other stores, I guess grow

974
00:42:15,000 --> 00:42:18,440
Speaker 3: their own label options. So Walmart I think has it's

975
00:42:18,440 --> 00:42:21,759
Speaker 3: called great value or something very obvious like that. And

976
00:42:21,760 --> 00:42:24,480
Speaker 3: they've been talking about the customer like trading away from

977
00:42:24,560 --> 00:42:27,840
Speaker 3: known brands into their own great value labels because of

978
00:42:27,880 --> 00:42:33,000
Speaker 3: the inflationary pressures. Have you boosted your have you ever

979
00:42:33,080 --> 00:42:35,600
Speaker 3: decided to do your own sort of al D brand

980
00:42:36,000 --> 00:42:38,399
Speaker 3: for a lot of these items, because when we say

981
00:42:38,480 --> 00:42:41,160
Speaker 3: your own label, a lot of them don't say all D.

982
00:42:41,360 --> 00:42:47,040
Speaker 3: They say some random forms, something acres, you know, something

983
00:42:47,080 --> 00:42:48,279
Speaker 3: pastoral like that.

984
00:42:52,719 --> 00:42:54,799
Speaker 4: Yeah, So we we p asked our customers a couple

985
00:42:54,840 --> 00:42:56,239
Speaker 4: of years ago, we said, how do you feel about

986
00:42:56,239 --> 00:42:58,200
Speaker 4: the Alder products? And they say, we love your products,

987
00:42:58,239 --> 00:43:00,440
Speaker 4: and we love your prices, we love your quality, but

988
00:43:00,480 --> 00:43:03,879
Speaker 4: they don't understand our branding. So about six months ago

989
00:43:03,920 --> 00:43:05,600
Speaker 4: we made a big announcement that we need to change

990
00:43:05,640 --> 00:43:07,919
Speaker 4: the way we brand. So right now we had over

991
00:43:08,040 --> 00:43:10,439
Speaker 4: ninety different we'll call them all the brands in the store,

992
00:43:10,480 --> 00:43:13,000
Speaker 4: And you're exactly right. Burman's would be a good example.

993
00:43:13,280 --> 00:43:16,080
Speaker 4: It was the Burman's Barbecue sauce. So we asked our consumers,

994
00:43:16,160 --> 00:43:18,160
Speaker 4: We said, do you understand what's happening here? Of course

995
00:43:18,160 --> 00:43:20,239
Speaker 4: I've worked at all the alcohol it too long. When

996
00:43:20,239 --> 00:43:22,359
Speaker 4: you're an insider, you don't see these things. You're like, Okay,

997
00:43:22,360 --> 00:43:25,560
Speaker 4: of course Burman's is Burman's Barbecue sauce and Sweet Harvest's

998
00:43:25,560 --> 00:43:28,239
Speaker 4: apple sauce. Everybody knows that. And the customer said, no,

999
00:43:28,360 --> 00:43:31,000
Speaker 4: we actually don't know what you're talking about. So we said, okay,

1000
00:43:31,000 --> 00:43:33,160
Speaker 4: what should we do? So we asked them, which brands

1001
00:43:33,200 --> 00:43:35,839
Speaker 4: do you know? Of course clancies of our chip brand.

1002
00:43:35,840 --> 00:43:37,920
Speaker 4: That's actually a lot of customers knew that brand. Mama

1003
00:43:37,960 --> 00:43:40,200
Speaker 4: Cozy for our frozen pizza, they knew that one. So

1004
00:43:40,239 --> 00:43:43,239
Speaker 4: we're switching from ninety brands down to about twenty three.

1005
00:43:44,040 --> 00:43:46,439
Speaker 4: Now that's a big departure. We're going to relabel every

1006
00:43:46,440 --> 00:43:48,640
Speaker 4: product in the store. That's that's a big shift for

1007
00:43:48,680 --> 00:43:51,880
Speaker 4: the consumer. But even within that, you're exactly right. We're

1008
00:43:51,920 --> 00:43:53,000
Speaker 4: going to put all the on the front of the

1009
00:43:53,000 --> 00:43:55,319
Speaker 4: package because all these is a great brand. We've been

1010
00:43:55,360 --> 00:43:58,600
Speaker 4: in the States for fifty years and we recognized I

1011
00:43:58,600 --> 00:44:00,719
Speaker 4: don't know why it didn't dawn on us. Early we

1012
00:44:00,760 --> 00:44:03,360
Speaker 4: didn't have Aldi the logo and the name on the

1013
00:44:03,400 --> 00:44:05,799
Speaker 4: front of the package. It was always on the back.

1014
00:44:05,920 --> 00:44:07,960
Speaker 4: So now when customers come in, they're going to know

1015
00:44:08,480 --> 00:44:11,080
Speaker 4: it's an Aldi product. Now, the trick is, we have

1016
00:44:11,200 --> 00:44:13,520
Speaker 4: ninety percent private label in our store. So if you

1017
00:44:13,600 --> 00:44:16,160
Speaker 4: imagine a store with all all the on the front

1018
00:44:16,400 --> 00:44:18,560
Speaker 4: and it's ninety percent versus competitors are going to be

1019
00:44:18,600 --> 00:44:20,799
Speaker 4: twenty five to thirty percent, it could look a little

1020
00:44:20,800 --> 00:44:23,239
Speaker 4: bit boring. So the trick is to make sure that

1021
00:44:23,280 --> 00:44:26,280
Speaker 4: we designed the labels in a way that it's not boring.

1022
00:44:26,480 --> 00:44:29,200
Speaker 2: That actually is my final question. I could ask a

1023
00:44:29,280 --> 00:44:33,080
Speaker 2: ton of grocery questions. But before it was called private label,

1024
00:44:33,160 --> 00:44:34,720
Speaker 2: like when I was a kid, they were called generic,

1025
00:44:34,880 --> 00:44:38,160
Speaker 2: and generic is like basically synonymous with boring. When did

1026
00:44:38,160 --> 00:44:41,680
Speaker 2: the grocery industry sort of figure out that these quote

1027
00:44:42,160 --> 00:44:45,480
Speaker 2: in house brand, that this kind of business should not

1028
00:44:45,520 --> 00:44:47,919
Speaker 2: be called generic and should be called private label, which

1029
00:44:47,960 --> 00:44:50,640
Speaker 2: does not sound as boring. Yeah, I think there was

1030
00:44:50,640 --> 00:44:53,160
Speaker 2: a negative connotation. He bought the generic code, you bought

1031
00:44:53,160 --> 00:44:54,239
Speaker 2: the generic. Catch up?

1032
00:44:54,280 --> 00:44:56,400
Speaker 4: What in generic? If you think about the labels, if

1033
00:44:56,400 --> 00:44:58,160
Speaker 4: you go back, they were black and white. Yeah, they

1034
00:44:58,160 --> 00:45:01,480
Speaker 4: were actually poor quality generic. It was poor quality. It

1035
00:45:01,520 --> 00:45:03,160
Speaker 4: was actually not a good quality, and it was labeled

1036
00:45:03,160 --> 00:45:04,080
Speaker 4: appropriately because it looks.

1037
00:45:04,280 --> 00:45:06,800
Speaker 2: So when was the moment where it's like, let's actually

1038
00:45:06,840 --> 00:45:08,080
Speaker 2: make these appealing things.

1039
00:45:08,120 --> 00:45:09,719
Speaker 4: I think we had something to do with that, because

1040
00:45:09,760 --> 00:45:12,040
Speaker 4: in nineteen seventy six we opened up with all private label,

1041
00:45:12,080 --> 00:45:14,480
Speaker 4: So I think we started the private label transition. Now,

1042
00:45:14,480 --> 00:45:16,560
Speaker 4: it took a long time for our competitors to catch up,

1043
00:45:17,000 --> 00:45:19,120
Speaker 4: but this is what we've done for fifty years, So

1044
00:45:19,160 --> 00:45:21,960
Speaker 4: I think we started the trend. We started with great labels,

1045
00:45:22,200 --> 00:45:24,680
Speaker 4: we started with good quality, and then eventually you can

1046
00:45:24,680 --> 00:45:27,080
Speaker 4: see that cost difference. So if you're talking thirty to

1047
00:45:27,120 --> 00:45:30,960
Speaker 4: forty or fifty percent difference for us, the consumers resonated

1048
00:45:31,000 --> 00:45:33,680
Speaker 4: with it. Now, if you're a competitor, do you want

1049
00:45:33,719 --> 00:45:35,480
Speaker 4: to sell the branded product or do you want to

1050
00:45:35,520 --> 00:45:38,720
Speaker 4: sell your private label? That depends it depends on your margins.

1051
00:45:38,719 --> 00:45:41,520
Speaker 4: But we are set up to develop those products. Our

1052
00:45:41,520 --> 00:45:46,040
Speaker 4: whole buying organization has been buying and developing products for

1053
00:45:46,080 --> 00:45:48,800
Speaker 4: fifty years. And I talk about buying, it's easy to

1054
00:45:48,800 --> 00:45:51,880
Speaker 4: buy a branded product. You call up your local CpG

1055
00:45:52,080 --> 00:45:53,880
Speaker 4: and you say I want to carry these five skews.

1056
00:45:54,040 --> 00:45:55,840
Speaker 4: But what's my cost? You negotiate a little bit, You

1057
00:45:55,880 --> 00:45:57,399
Speaker 4: have a little back and forth, which is always fun

1058
00:45:57,440 --> 00:45:59,680
Speaker 4: to negotiate. You get a cost, it's on your shelf and.

1059
00:45:59,600 --> 00:45:59,880
Speaker 2: Off you go.

1060
00:46:00,680 --> 00:46:02,280
Speaker 4: If I want to do that with a private label,

1061
00:46:02,600 --> 00:46:03,880
Speaker 4: we have to have an idea. We have to have

1062
00:46:03,920 --> 00:46:05,279
Speaker 4: a buyer who says, you know what, I want to

1063
00:46:05,280 --> 00:46:07,719
Speaker 4: have a Greek inspired chickpee. We have to go find

1064
00:46:07,719 --> 00:46:10,279
Speaker 4: a supplier. We have to create the recipe, we have

1065
00:46:10,360 --> 00:46:12,080
Speaker 4: to sample it, we have to send it over. We

1066
00:46:12,120 --> 00:46:14,680
Speaker 4: put in our test kitchen, we sample multiple varieties, we

1067
00:46:14,680 --> 00:46:17,120
Speaker 4: say this is the variety I want. Then you start

1068
00:46:17,120 --> 00:46:19,160
Speaker 4: negotiating the costs, and then you ship it to the store.

1069
00:46:19,400 --> 00:46:22,640
Speaker 4: So it's a whole different business operation developing and selling

1070
00:46:22,719 --> 00:46:25,719
Speaker 4: private label products as compared to i'll call it just

1071
00:46:25,880 --> 00:46:29,560
Speaker 4: buying and selling brands. Much more complicated and requires expertise.

1072
00:46:29,960 --> 00:46:31,600
Speaker 4: And that's why I say we've been doing it so long.

1073
00:46:31,680 --> 00:46:34,080
Speaker 4: That's what we're built on. It's easier to just buy

1074
00:46:34,120 --> 00:46:36,960
Speaker 4: someone else's product, but when we're developing our own, it

1075
00:46:37,080 --> 00:46:38,960
Speaker 4: takes a lot of skill, a lot of market research,

1076
00:46:39,000 --> 00:46:40,160
Speaker 4: and a lot of category management.

1077
00:46:40,480 --> 00:46:42,759
Speaker 2: All right, Scott Patton, thank you so much for coming

1078
00:46:42,800 --> 00:46:45,360
Speaker 2: on onlinees. I love talking about food. You know, the

1079
00:46:45,440 --> 00:46:47,520
Speaker 2: Times Square All Day is not on my typical route,

1080
00:46:47,560 --> 00:46:48,960
Speaker 2: but I'll try to check it out soon once.

1081
00:46:49,320 --> 00:46:49,640
Speaker 1: I would.

1082
00:46:49,760 --> 00:46:53,240
Speaker 3: I would go there for the hot honey goat cheese

1083
00:46:53,360 --> 00:46:56,600
Speaker 3: that we have. I would make a special trip.

1084
00:46:56,760 --> 00:46:58,680
Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll go there in one of day's afternoon.

1085
00:46:58,719 --> 00:47:00,200
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, I appreciate thanks for having.

1086
00:47:12,920 --> 00:47:15,439
Speaker 2: Interesting I thought there was one. Actually, I would genuinely

1087
00:47:15,480 --> 00:47:20,800
Speaker 2: say I learned a lot about grocery store business operations

1088
00:47:21,280 --> 00:47:23,399
Speaker 2: in the last day, and between that and our trip

1089
00:47:23,440 --> 00:47:24,640
Speaker 2: to the All Day store life, Yeah, I.

1090
00:47:24,640 --> 00:47:26,920
Speaker 3: Know more about the grocery book and it was fascinating

1091
00:47:27,080 --> 00:47:28,879
Speaker 3: just to see. I don't want to say little, but

1092
00:47:29,320 --> 00:47:35,560
Speaker 3: these just of subtle, a subtle variety of efficiency movements,

1093
00:47:35,760 --> 00:47:39,120
Speaker 3: like the packeting system, the display cases, the bar codes

1094
00:47:39,160 --> 00:47:42,600
Speaker 3: everywhere that in theory could be replicated by other stores,

1095
00:47:42,600 --> 00:47:43,839
Speaker 3: but like you don't actually see it.

1096
00:47:44,160 --> 00:47:47,280
Speaker 2: No, it definitely seems like you have to make a choice,

1097
00:47:47,280 --> 00:47:49,120
Speaker 2: because I would say, like, there's two things. You know,

1098
00:47:49,160 --> 00:47:52,319
Speaker 2: we did that episode on the proliferation of snack foods, right,

1099
00:47:52,800 --> 00:47:55,759
Speaker 2: and one of the trends is we truly live in

1100
00:47:55,760 --> 00:47:59,799
Speaker 2: a Golden Age of variety, right, that's yeah, ob skew.

1101
00:48:00,280 --> 00:48:03,520
Speaker 2: And it's like, you know, we talked about how you know,

1102
00:48:03,560 --> 00:48:06,120
Speaker 2: you can go to a place like, you know, let's

1103
00:48:06,200 --> 00:48:10,000
Speaker 2: there a couple popular Asian grocery stores and see forty

1104
00:48:10,040 --> 00:48:13,600
Speaker 2: five different version of kitkats from Green Tea or whatever,

1105
00:48:14,360 --> 00:48:17,439
Speaker 2: Prong kit Cats. But then also you're like, okay, here

1106
00:48:17,480 --> 00:48:19,640
Speaker 2: is a company that has made a choice to just

1107
00:48:19,640 --> 00:48:22,520
Speaker 2: go in completely the opposite direction. But then you can

1108
00:48:22,600 --> 00:48:24,760
Speaker 2: see it's like, all right, well the consumer really doesn't

1109
00:48:24,760 --> 00:48:26,799
Speaker 2: have as much choice, but if you can get them

1110
00:48:26,840 --> 00:48:30,239
Speaker 2: to mostly what they need, then the price differentials seem

1111
00:48:30,280 --> 00:48:31,759
Speaker 2: pretty genuine and real.

1112
00:48:31,920 --> 00:48:33,719
Speaker 3: The other thing I was thinking is it feels to

1113
00:48:33,760 --> 00:48:39,600
Speaker 3: me like technology changes are such are still an understudied

1114
00:48:39,760 --> 00:48:43,480
Speaker 3: area of inflation dynamics. And I mean just the actual

1115
00:48:43,520 --> 00:48:47,680
Speaker 3: barcodes switching from like physical labels to barcodes and maybe

1116
00:48:47,680 --> 00:48:51,239
Speaker 3: now having the tags that uniclow has and things like that.

1117
00:48:51,280 --> 00:48:53,960
Speaker 3: I would love to see more research on that particular area.

1118
00:48:54,120 --> 00:48:56,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, that's like the because the original is

1119
00:48:56,600 --> 00:48:58,680
Speaker 2: like menu costs, right, you can't update them men, Yeah,

1120
00:48:58,719 --> 00:48:59,759
Speaker 2: but it's that real.

1121
00:49:00,160 --> 00:49:02,040
Speaker 3: Wow, we all order to QR code.

1122
00:49:02,080 --> 00:49:04,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's been so much change like those some of

1123
00:49:04,200 --> 00:49:06,239
Speaker 2: those first things need to go back and revisit it.

1124
00:49:06,239 --> 00:49:08,000
Speaker 2: But yeah, all all very interesting to me.

1125
00:49:08,600 --> 00:49:09,400
Speaker 3: Shall we leave it there?

1126
00:49:09,480 --> 00:49:10,200
Speaker 2: Let's leave it there?

1127
00:49:10,280 --> 00:49:12,960
Speaker 3: All right? This has been another episode of the Authoughts podcast.

1128
00:49:13,000 --> 00:49:15,960
Speaker 3: I'm Tracy Alloway. You can follow me at Tracy Alloway.

1129
00:49:15,800 --> 00:49:17,719
Speaker 2: And I'm Jill w isn Thal. You can follow me

1130
00:49:17,760 --> 00:49:21,000
Speaker 2: at the Stalwart. Follow our producers Carmen Rodriguez at Carmen

1131
00:49:21,080 --> 00:49:24,479
Speaker 2: armand Dashill Bennett at Dashbot, Kilbrooks at Kilbrooks and Kevin

1132
00:49:24,560 --> 00:49:27,680
Speaker 2: Lozano at Kevin Lloyd Lozano and from Moor odd Loots

1133
00:49:27,680 --> 00:49:30,120
Speaker 2: content go to Bloomberg dot com slash odd Lots. We've

1134
00:49:30,120 --> 00:49:32,600
Speaker 2: a daily newsletter and all of our episodes and you

1135
00:49:32,640 --> 00:49:34,800
Speaker 2: can chat about all these topics twenty four seven in

1136
00:49:34,960 --> 00:49:38,200
Speaker 2: our discord Discord dot gig slash odlines.

1137
00:49:38,440 --> 00:49:40,640
Speaker 3: And if you enjoy odd Lots, if you like it

1138
00:49:40,719 --> 00:49:43,239
Speaker 3: when we take field trips to grocery stores in Manhattan,

1139
00:49:43,239 --> 00:49:45,640
Speaker 3: then please leave us a positive review on your favorite

1140
00:49:45,640 --> 00:49:49,080
Speaker 3: podcast platform. And remember, if you are a Bloomberg subscriber,

1141
00:49:49,160 --> 00:49:52,360
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1142
00:49:52,400 --> 00:49:54,480
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1143
00:49:54,520 --> 00:49:57,840
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1144
00:49:57,920 --> 00:50:03,800
Speaker 3: listening in