Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Tim
Speaker 1: Stenebeck on Bloomberg Radio. Well. Since nineteen eighty five, Delivering
Speaker 1: Good has distributed over three billion dollars worth of new clothing,
Speaker 1: home goods, toys, furniture, books, and other consumer products through
Speaker 1: its network of more than eight hundred community partners, and
Speaker 1: they do it to at risk children, families, and individuals.
Speaker 1: The group does it by uniting retailers, manufacturers, foundations, and
Speaker 1: individuals all within the retail and fashion industry. So with
Speaker 1: an update on the work that they are doing and more,
Speaker 1: we're going to dig into a couple of different things.
Speaker 1: Is Delivering Good board member Jaron Bloom, who is here
Speaker 1: in our Interactive Brokers studio. She's also a group president
Speaker 1: of retail over at Michael Core's. And then Delivering Good
Speaker 1: President and CEO Matthew Fasciano. He's on Zoom in New
Speaker 1: York City. So welcome, welcome, welcome, thank you. It's so
Speaker 1: nice to have both of you here. And I've talked
Speaker 1: with members of your team in the past, of the
Speaker 1: Delivering Good team in the past. I do want to
Speaker 1: before we get into a little bit more of the organization.
Speaker 1: I want to start my grow macro if we may,
Speaker 1: because when we have leaders of organizations and companies, it's
Speaker 1: great to kind of figure out what's going on in
Speaker 1: the environment because we spend so much time kind of debating.
Speaker 1: And you know, Matt, let me start with you. Because
Speaker 1: so many members of Delivering Good are in the retail
Speaker 1: and fashion industry. We had some retail earnings this week.
Speaker 1: How are they finding it right now? Is it difficult?
Speaker 1: Is their clarity? Is their visibility?
Speaker 2: Well, I think it's a difficult time for many people,
Speaker 2: both in the industry and outside of the industry. And
Speaker 2: I think we have the great fortune of having some
Speaker 2: very committed brand partners that support the work of Delivering Good,
Speaker 2: and that allows us to keep doing the important work
Speaker 2: we're doing. And I think, you know, the reality is
Speaker 2: the need is as great as ever right now, so
Speaker 2: we continue to rely on them and have great appreciation
Speaker 2: for their support of our work.
Speaker 3: It does seem like we have a real bifurcation. I mean,
Speaker 3: we talked ten years ago about wealth inequality, but the
Speaker 3: pandemic seems to have worsened that. Right The higher income
Speaker 3: consumer is still able to spend and has a fat
Speaker 3: bank account, whereas the lower income American is having to
Speaker 3: put things on credit card if they even have that
Speaker 3: kind of access. What kind of what kind of economic situation,
Speaker 3: Jaron are you seeing right now, Michael, course.
Speaker 4: Well, in North America specifically, I mean, the climate is
Speaker 4: definitely the consumer sentiment is a little tough right now.
Speaker 4: It feels we're feeling it in all of our businesses,
Speaker 4: and it's not just exclusive to Michael. Core's right, industrywide.
Speaker 4: So listen, you know, the economic situation, recession looming, Consumers
Speaker 4: are nervous. We're lapping COVID spend of last year, so
Speaker 4: we're compared to last year and that was post COVID spend.
Speaker 4: On top of that, there's a lot of talk about
Speaker 4: the transition from spending from goods to services and experiences.
Speaker 4: All of that combined creating a somewhat tricky landscape right
Speaker 4: now in North America specifically, so not the same necessarily
Speaker 4: in some of the other regions. So there's a lot
Speaker 4: of travel, and there's more there's more traffic to stores
Speaker 4: and in Europe, and there's a lot of folks going
Speaker 4: from the US to Europe, especially the summer. Asia's finally
Speaker 4: out and shopping and there's a lot of growth and
Speaker 4: a lot of activity and a lot of excitement in Asia.
Speaker 3: By the way, I'm curious because you know, retail and
Speaker 3: in general the consumer is affected broadly by the economy.
Speaker 3: But I wonder in fashion, if there's something that's hot,
Speaker 3: you know, if there's something that's new and completely different,
Speaker 3: does that change the picture a little bit?
Speaker 4: It does it incentivized? I mean, we're, you know, in
Speaker 4: fashion industry, we don't sell anything that anybody needs. So
Speaker 4: creating the demand is a big is a big motivator.
Speaker 4: And for sure, or we're seeing in our business that
Speaker 4: something that's new and it's innovative and really fashion customers
Speaker 4: abting at that.
Speaker 3: So is there anything like that?
Speaker 2: I mean when.
Speaker 3: I don't know because I don't hang around in that
Speaker 3: world too often. But if all of a sudden, you know,
Speaker 3: we go from dark blue heavy denim to acid wash
Speaker 3: ripped jeans, does everybody have to go out and change?
Speaker 3: Is there something like that right now in fashion?
Speaker 4: So something like that right now in fashion? If there is,
Speaker 4: I don't think so.
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, I know, I know what you're saying, Matt.
Speaker 1: It's kind of interesting, Matt. Let me pull you back
Speaker 1: into the conversation because I mean some of the issues
Speaker 1: and I do feel like, you know, you get to
Speaker 1: talk with folks in the retail and fashion world and
Speaker 1: what they're seeing, like Jaron and you also in terms
Speaker 1: of what Delivering Good does and the populations, whether there's
Speaker 1: more demand for your services. Give me an idea here
Speaker 1: we are, what a couple of years out of the pandemic,
Speaker 1: what is the demand for the services that you guys,
Speaker 1: you know, supply delivering good.
Speaker 2: I think the demand is as great as ever. You know,
Speaker 2: we know there's no shortage of need. The biggest challenge
Speaker 2: for us is getting enough merchandise to be able to
Speaker 2: meet the need. And it's you know, we work with
Speaker 2: communities that are experiencing every every social issue you can imagine,
Speaker 2: from everyday poverty to homelessness. We work with people in
Speaker 2: the foster care system, workforce re entry. There is need
Speaker 2: across communities, across demographics. It's just the work is as
Speaker 2: important now as it was during the pandemic and before.
Speaker 1: Matt remind us what you do specifically, like what Delivering
Speaker 1: Good does in terms of connecting the folks in the
Speaker 1: retail and fashion world and then getting the goods out
Speaker 1: to people.
Speaker 2: How it all works, Yeah, Carol, you said it perfectly
Speaker 2: in the opening. We connect retailers and manufacturers and mostly
Speaker 2: in the apparel space and get their excess new merchandise
Speaker 2: into the hands of people affected by poverty, by disaster
Speaker 2: and other social challenges. UH. There's an emphasis for us
Speaker 2: on new merchandise and and we have this strong belief
Speaker 2: that that comes with a sense of dignity and self
Speaker 2: esteem in every every item that we distribute. And again,
Speaker 2: we do this through a network of over eight hundred
Speaker 2: community partners across the United States, predominantly UH. And they
Speaker 2: work in in all sorts of communities and small cities,
Speaker 2: large you know, small towns, large cities, working with all
Speaker 2: types of people and so it really does, you know,
Speaker 2: require partnership sort of on both ends of the relationship
Speaker 2: with the brand partners UH and the and the community partners.
Speaker 1: Jaron, you're one of those brand partners, sure, I am.
Speaker 1: I am curious though about part of you know, running
Speaker 1: any kind of retail organization of any ILK, if you will,
Speaker 1: is also kind of your inventory and delivering good benefits
Speaker 1: maybe when those things don't sell, right, I'm assuming right,
Speaker 1: if it's excess. So talk to us though about your
Speaker 1: guys role and how you think of that about it
Speaker 1: and what you you know, what you want to give
Speaker 1: to this organization.
Speaker 4: Well, the truth is we've been working with Delivering Good
Speaker 4: since two thousand and eight and.
Speaker 1: You've seen a few crises.
Speaker 4: And then in June of twenty twenty, all of a sudden,
Speaker 4: we had a glood of merchandise, as did many of
Speaker 4: our of our Callo retailers, and so what we did
Speaker 4: was we made a substantial donation. Michael Cores made a
Speaker 4: thirty five million dollar donation in June or July of
Speaker 4: twenty twenty, which was because we had that merchandise that
Speaker 4: was so at the end of the day, Delivering Good
Speaker 4: is in this interesting crossroad between you know, social impact
Speaker 4: and environmental sustainability and really gives the you know, companies
Speaker 4: that work with Delivering Good an opportunity to you know,
Speaker 4: do some thing productive with the inventory that's sitting in
Speaker 4: the warehouse versus ending up in landfills. So it's a
Speaker 4: really it's a feel good thing. It's an easy sell
Speaker 4: and we had the merchandise. Now now with you know,
Speaker 4: fast forward six months or eight months, when there was
Speaker 4: not a blood of inventory right in the market. So
Speaker 4: that's a little more challenging to get inventory because there
Speaker 4: is none now, mind you, now fast forward another six
Speaker 4: months and there might be a different situation. So at
Speaker 4: the end of the day, Listen, you don't plan to
Speaker 4: have excess inventory. You always plan to turn your inventory
Speaker 4: into profit. That said, if that doesn't always happen, like
Speaker 4: for example, COVID, you know, this is an amazing way
Speaker 4: to do something super great. You know, delivering good aligns
Speaker 4: with all of our corporate values and it was just
Speaker 4: a feel good thing and we had the inventory to
Speaker 4: do it.
Speaker 1: I have to say, Matt, I keep thinking of a
Speaker 1: story we.
Speaker 3: Do well, Matthew, have you not talked to Audidas about
Speaker 3: getting their easy shoes? They have one point three billion
Speaker 3: dollars speakers in a warehouse that they can't sell.
Speaker 1: They started selling this week, actually.
Speaker 2: I think, and we we'd love to get some of
Speaker 2: the some of the proceeds from those sales.
Speaker 1: Well, what's interesting is and we've got to take a
Speaker 1: break and do some news, but we'll come back with
Speaker 1: Matt and Jaron. But I do think about the stories
Speaker 1: to both of you that we've talked about landfills of
Speaker 1: clothes ending up in developing nations and being thrown out
Speaker 1: and so on and so forth. It's really just a
Speaker 1: crime when you know that there are so many people
Speaker 1: who could use it. I want to get back to
Speaker 1: our guests Delivering Good board member here in our studio,
Speaker 1: Jaron Bloom. She's also group president of retail at Michael
Speaker 1: Core's and still with us, as well as Matt Fasciano.
Speaker 1: He's president and CEO at Delivering Good on Zoom in
Speaker 1: New York City. Matt, one thing I want to ask you,
Speaker 1: and I was trying to find it and I found it.
Speaker 1: It was a Bloomberg story that we did earlier this
Speaker 1: year about kind of a fast fashion backlash to be
Speaker 1: quite honest, and just showed pictures in Ghana of just
Speaker 1: textile waste showing up on their shores. And I'm just wondering,
Speaker 1: we talk about this when it comes to the ag sector.
Speaker 1: How much food is wasted and you have people starving,
Speaker 1: So how do you work on something like that when
Speaker 1: there is probably a lot of clothing from retail that
Speaker 1: kind of ends up maybe in a landfill.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think Jaren said it incredibly well before before
Speaker 2: the break that. You know, we really do sit at
Speaker 2: this crossroads and offer brand partners a responsible way to
Speaker 2: deal with excess. You know, we think we help companies
Speaker 2: check the E and the S boxes of ESG and
Speaker 2: we would obviously much rather those goods end up distributed
Speaker 2: through us rather than in landfills or shredded or however
Speaker 2: else they might get disposed of. Again, the need is there,
Speaker 2: we want to help distribute it and do the responsible
Speaker 2: thing with that merchandise.
Speaker 3: All right, So how do you drum up new partners?
Speaker 3: I mean Jaren clearly has been working with you guys
Speaker 3: for a while. Well, how do you get new people
Speaker 3: in the door?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's you know, we we we want to keep
Speaker 2: developing new relationships. I think, you know, part of what
Speaker 2: we offer is what we just talked about, that that
Speaker 2: sustainability solution. I think we operate with tremendous efficiency. Ninety
Speaker 2: nine cents of every dollar we raise goes directly to
Speaker 2: fund the program. So we want to demonstrate to brand
Speaker 2: partners that we can be efficient in the work that
Speaker 2: we do. Part of it is through conversations like this
Speaker 2: one and through the work of our other brand partners,
Speaker 2: and we want to just keep developing new relationships so
Speaker 2: that we can get new product in the pipeline.
Speaker 3: Jared, how did you get involved?
Speaker 4: I got involved because I was so inspired by the
Speaker 4: work that this mission does. Really, so they kind of
Speaker 4: reeled me in based on my x amount of years
Speaker 4: in the industry and figured I could be a match
Speaker 4: just smile at that, and figured that I was aggressive
Speaker 4: enough since I am in fashion retail, that I would
Speaker 4: be aggressive enough to network and try to utilize this industry.
Speaker 3: For a while, you were at Kenneth Cole I was
Speaker 3: a baby. Yeah, when you were a baby, and then
Speaker 3: when you were a teenager you moved to Michael Kors.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Yes, it's a powerhouse.
Speaker 4: But I also actually want to point out that we
Speaker 4: actually we have this event next week week yeah, and
Speaker 4: it's called the Women of Impact Summit, And that's a
Speaker 4: way that we're going to create transparency to you know,
Speaker 4: what we do and influence I want to say, three
Speaker 4: to four hundred guests on Wednesday and inspire them an
Speaker 4: educate the event.
Speaker 1: Why are you guys doing it now?
Speaker 4: Well, it's actually an anorgural event of something. It's an
Speaker 4: evolution of an event that they had called the Women
Speaker 4: of Inspiration Lunch and they have done that for the
Speaker 4: past fifteen years. This is going to be more inspirational
Speaker 4: because it's going to be more collaborative, and it's going
Speaker 4: to be Matt helped me here. This is this event
Speaker 4: is going to create excitement because you're actually going to
Speaker 4: meet women that have done some really great things and
Speaker 4: been able to combine, for example, business innovation with philanthropy
Speaker 4: and community to create some significant outcomes and help with
Speaker 4: some of these social issues. And that we're all faced.
Speaker 1: I think the CEO of Talbots is going to be
Speaker 1: there and Taylor come on and Matt and talk a
Speaker 1: little bit more about it.
Speaker 2: That's right, absolutely, and Jaredy did a great job.
Speaker 1: We don't need anything but go ahead.
Speaker 4: We have to give him speaking.
Speaker 2: In Jared will take it from there. I'll sign off. Really,
Speaker 2: you know, it's it's a Reimagine event this year, and
Speaker 2: and it's it's meant to be interactive and the first
Speaker 2: part of it will will feature a gallery walk where
Speaker 2: we'll have four of our community partners people were actually
Speaker 2: distributing goods on the ground representing the wide array of
Speaker 2: work that we do, and they're going to talk about
Speaker 2: working with delivering good and the impact that our partnership
Speaker 2: has on their ability to impact lives and change communities.
Speaker 2: It will also feature a product display, so for someone
Speaker 2: new to delivering good who may or may not have
Speaker 2: a sense of the kind of high quality goods that
Speaker 2: get distributed, they're going to see goods from some of
Speaker 2: our very recognizable brand partners. So we're excited about that.
Speaker 2: And then, as you said, we'll have the CEO of
Speaker 2: Talbots there, and we'll have Lisa Kaplowitz from the Center
Speaker 2: for Women in Business at Rutgers moderating a panel of
Speaker 2: some incredibly powerful, dynamic women in the industry. Jill Barod,
Speaker 2: who sits on the board of Levi, Giselle Ruiz of
Speaker 2: Sam's Club and currently sits on the board of Alta,
Speaker 2: and Teresa Strickland, a digital brand transformation expert. They're going
Speaker 2: to talk about their path to in impact and really
Speaker 2: what we want is for participants to hear a call
Speaker 2: to action and think about their individual ability to have impact,
Speaker 2: think about our collective ability to have impact. And then
Speaker 2: the day is going to close with twenty eighteen silver
Speaker 2: medal Olympian Lauren Gibbs. She's a Bob the bottle sled.
Speaker 1: That's pretty cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, And she's going to tell her story. I
Speaker 2: don't want to give too much of it away, but
Speaker 2: she's going to talk about trying out for the Olympics
Speaker 2: at thirty years old, having never done the bob sled before.
Speaker 2: So we want it to be a day of inspiration.
Speaker 2: We want to introduce new people to Delivering Good and
Speaker 2: have people walk away feeling responsible to do something.
Speaker 4: It's pretty impressive what I just think.
Speaker 3: Lauren Gibbs won a silver medal and she was like
Speaker 3: thirty five when she actually won that.
Speaker 1: Which is what she was saying, really impressive. You know,
Speaker 1: when you think about Jaron, the impact that you guys
Speaker 1: are making at Michael Core's on people. And I don't
Speaker 1: know what kind of feedback you hear in terms of
Speaker 1: the goods that you provide to people. You know, what
Speaker 1: is it that it jumps out? We just got about
Speaker 1: thirty seconds left here.
Speaker 4: Well, well, actually, when you hear about the stories of
Speaker 4: what these community partners do, it's so inspiring and there's
Speaker 4: so much work. And the truth is, when I got
Speaker 4: involved with Delivering Good as a board member, I didn't
Speaker 4: recognize that there were so few folks that actually work
Speaker 4: in this organization. So it's a it's a small amount
Speaker 4: of people doing a huge amount of work, and it's
Speaker 4: really inspiring.
Speaker 1: Like as we said at the beginning, three billion dollars
Speaker 1: of clothing and home goods and so much other.
Speaker 4: Stuffy billion dollars. Fantastic.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's pretty incredible. And we talk about public private
Speaker 1: partnerships and people working together, and this is really a
Speaker 1: sign of it. Guys, good luck with the event next week.
Speaker 1: Jaron bloom thank you so much. And Matt Fasciano, of course,
Speaker 1: CEO of delivering good jutting us right here on Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Business Week. This is Bloomberg Radio.