Who's Driving
Who's Driving with Wesley Turner & Steven Merck is all about the entertaining stories we share and brainstorming topics we discuss as two best friends would on a long road trip. Come along for the ride as we check in with friends & offer a wide range of informative topics centered around running small businesses, social media, and all things Home and Garden.
Who's Driving
Who's Driving - High Point Market Trends S2E39
Join us as we navigate an unexpected whirlwind of events, starting with a race against time at the High Point Furniture Market, only to dash off to Amsterdam.
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Buckle up buttercup. I'm buckled up. Are you ready to go? It's time for another episode of who's Driving. Welcome to who's Driving. I'm Wesley Turner.
Speaker 2:And I'm Stephen Merck. We're two best friends and entrepreneurs.
Speaker 1:Who's Driving is an entertaining look into the behind the scenes of our lives, friendship and business.
Speaker 2:These are the stories we share and topics we discuss, as two best friends would on a long road trip.
Speaker 1:Along the way we'll check in with friends and offer a wide range of informative topics centered around running small businesses, social media and all things home and garden.
Speaker 2:Buckle up and enjoy the ride.
Speaker 1:You never know who's driving or where we're headed. All we know is it's always a fun ride. So on this week's episode, we just got back last night from the High Point Furniture Market.
Speaker 2:Are you rested?
Speaker 1:up today.
Speaker 2:I'm a good 75%. I think after tonight I'll be good, oh, I'm shocked.
Speaker 1:I'm shocked, you're that good. You must have slept real good.
Speaker 2:I mean, I felt like death warmed over last night.
Speaker 1:It was a quick trip, a quick, quick market, and one of the reasons is I made us come back a day early, well, really a day and a half early, because we are leaving for amsterdam on friday. So I was like I need to be back yeah, they laid on monday and then you laid it on me.
Speaker 2:You were like I'm just, I'll go back early and do a live. And then I'm it on me. You were like I'll go back early and do a live.
Speaker 1:And then I'm like and you can stay and I'll go back and since I'm back, I'll do a live sale.
Speaker 2:And then you were like, oh, okay, I was like, if I hustle, I can get it done, and I did, yeah, you did, you did.
Speaker 1:It was a quick one. We didn't get to do any live sales, though.
Speaker 2:no, while we were there well, they just didn't have anything new for, like the, the vintage stuff, right? It didn't fall in place like it normally you know we didn't want to do the same old same old.
Speaker 1:uh yes, so we'll get to the market in a minute in our trip, but we have a brand new problem. I haven't even told you about this.
Speaker 2:What.
Speaker 1:Brand new development. It doesn't affect you.
Speaker 2:Oh good, but I have to talk about it. I can't have any more developments for myself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it doesn't affect you, but our damn dryer went out here and it's a Samsung. So I have to do another little. Don't buy a Samsung. Maybe their TV's fine, their TVs are great. We have their TVs and I even hate them, just because.
Speaker 2:Well, I had one, for I mean literally, I had one that lasted a million years TV.
Speaker 1:Well, that was probably years ago, I think, I don't know. But you know all of their reviews are bad on their appliances and that sort of thing. So when we moved here to the farm, you know it was pretty janky, so we ended up getting all new appliances we got, you know, in the kitchen we got refrigerator dishwasher oven we got refrigerator, dishwasher, oven and you did all samsung because you wanted that.
Speaker 1:You wanted that new um black stainless steel, which I do like the color of them I do too, um, but we've only been here eight years. The fridge, the ice maker stopped. You know, that's a known thing with samsung the, the ice makers freeze up and they just stopped working. And you have to, like, completely defrost it, which ours is currently working, because when our power was out for it de-thawed yeah, it completely de-thawed when our power was out for over a week and at that time I took it out, I wiped everything out, I got, you know, I got it all like new and so I think it's still working.
Speaker 1:You know, it'd go for a few. There's something with the insulation or something. I don't know what causes the problem, but it freezes up. So right now it's working. Then our power went out a few days ago, just for like a few hours, and I was like the shower went out a few days ago just for like a few hours and I was like, oh, let me go dump all the ice out so it doesn't freeze back up in one big you know cluster. So I took it all out again, wiped everything out, made sure there wasn't any standing water in whatever weird places so it doesn't freeze up.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, here's my thing with appliances, and I tend to like and I guess maybe from being in the restaurant business too I want as few bells and whistles Right, I want stainless steel and just simple. That's what I like about Sub-Zero and Wolf, because I mean, hell, it's like one knob, two knob, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so of ours. So our refrigerator has been janky from the beginning. They won't do nothing. Our dishwasher went out.
Speaker 2:It's awful.
Speaker 1:It broke and it was some kind of, like you said, moving part belt something and it was going to cost more to get it fixed than the stupid thing cost us originally. So we got a new dishwasher and now the dryer is not heating. So Daniel ordered. He said I watched a YouTube video, that's what he said and he ordered some kind of kit. We're going to see if we can fix it ourselves. You can probably fix it if it's like the Element or something.
Speaker 2:Element, yeah, you probably can, but I wouldn't go too much past that.
Speaker 1:But what's crazy is for those products is it's just two of us. It's not like there's a household of people. You know the dryer's not running 24-7. The dishwasher wasn't like. None of it has been over you.
Speaker 2:None of them are made to last like used to. I got a washer and dryer in 1995 when I bought my first house. That damn washer and dryer went and went and went. I got new because not because the washer and dryer was great, work, great, but I was like this has got to die any day now. Yeah, I swear, if I had just kept that washer and dryer, but it would still be going, probably you know it's like your refrigerator 96 and my parents.
Speaker 1:I've told you I think we may have talked about this even on the podcast. I think they have the same refrigerator from 94, because that's when we moved into their current house and mine's 96. New refrigerator and when you had this refrigerator in your house.
Speaker 2:I was like oh that's my parents' refrigerator.
Speaker 1:Yours is like the newer model. They still have theirs from 1994.
Speaker 2:I mean, if that one blows up today at the the store, my old ref, it is going on 29 years old, yeah, and still trucking. Yeah, we hadn't even cleaned, we had even nothing.
Speaker 1:Nothing, and theirs is still going probably go out now. I think maybe their ice maker did stop working, but I mean they still haven't got. Every year I go home I was like I need to get a new refrigerator, but I'm like I mean it's doing its job like it cools. It's just the two of them, you know whatever. So, um, it's just funny though, because you, when you moved, put your refrigerator in the retail store for like the break area, and it's still back there in the home store.
Speaker 2:And I said then I was like this old thing might last a year or two and it's still back there in the home store and I said then I was like this old thing might last a year or two. Yeah but it's still trucking along, they don't make them like that anymore. They don't. I mean, okay, my grandmother died. My grandmother died five years ago. They had a deep freeze, a chest-type deep freeze, oh honey. That they bought in 1953.
Speaker 1:Okay, I was going to say, my mom has one in her garage that's like from her great aunt or aunt or someone. That thing is definitely from the 50s. Yeah, it is still going.
Speaker 2:I mean, I've never seen. I need to ask what year that's from. My grandparents was 1953. And the reason, I know it it was a year older than my mother, so it was 1953. And they had even moved the thing from the other house to the new house back in the 50s.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, it is. No, it is just crazy the difference. But my mom still has one, that is. I mean, it looks like when you go to the vintage market and you're look, and you're like, dang, look at this ice chest thing.
Speaker 2:I mean, they look like an old car yeah, like a 1950 yeah, you know they got a little rust here and there On the top. Yeah, yeah, you know it's got a little rust here and there, but honey, she trucks. I mean I think you could put a body in there and it'd be there forever.
Speaker 1:Forever and ever. Amen, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 2:They just don't make them my aunt has one too, and we were counting up how old it is, and it's older than my oldest cousin, and my oldest cousin is 64 years old. Oh my gosh, and that thing is still trucking too. Yeah, and I mean, that thing has worked.
Speaker 1:That's crazy. You know what they don't make. Also, I think you and I have talked about this personally, I don't think we've ever talked about it on here, but my biggest complaint these days is also AC units. The same. I don't know if we discussed this here or not. I can't remember these days what we've discussed, where it all blurs together.
Speaker 1:But when we moved again to the farm, when we bought the farm, there were no working AC units and so we got them enough to gimp along like. They got them working and they're like you're going to have to replace these. So for the first three years we lived here, every year we got a new AC unit started with the main, then this one, and then that one, whatever. Got a new AC unit Started with the main, then this one and then that one, whatever. And so, being the responsible adults we wanted to be, we signed up for a maintenance program. So twice a year they come out and service our AC units and there's always something wrong with them, like there's always. Well, this is, this is well. We needed to add a little something, and I don't know. And it's a very trustworthy. We've done a lot of business.
Speaker 1:great company with the company it's not the company, it's the, it's the equipment I don't know if it's the company or the equipment, because we got train, you gotta train. It's the best.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm a snob, I'm a snob and that was me saying you got to get train. That was me because, you know, in McDonald's you got to have some good air conditioning and train is what I always used.
Speaker 2:But you know, there is what I found. You know, because when I first bought my loft, the bar fridge and the bar ice maker had to be replaced the ice machine. So I was pinching pennies, but not just do, not just pinching pennies, but I had always used Manitowoc or Scotsman ice machines at McDonald's. So I said, oh well, I'll do a Scotsman ice machine at home because I knew how to work. You know, I knew the basics to work on that. Well, I did not read any reviews on the residential. Well, scotsman is amazing commercial.
Speaker 1:Commercial but crap residential.
Speaker 2:Yep, and that thing didn't last but 18 months, so I bit the bullet. I did a sub-zero yeah.
Speaker 1:But like with our AC units, okay, before this house we lived in a house for almost five years. We never had, we didn't even have that. We changed the filter and that was it we never had that service my house.
Speaker 2:I had it for 21 years replaced. The unit never touched the damn thing. I changed the filter and that was it. And my parents growing up my parents up.
Speaker 1:They never had a maintenance program. So while all of a sudden we're trying to be responsible and there's always something wrong with the damn thing, it's just the quality of. Well, your whatever is low. Oh, whatever mechanism has got to be replaced.
Speaker 2:My tank's half empty too. I need maintenance.
Speaker 1:Right, well, I've got some exciting news. Oh no, we got before what I got we got. We got to talk about the elephant in the room before you talk about your exciting news, because you've already brought it up.
Speaker 2:You brought it up mcdonald's oh, what do you want to know? What do we want to talk about? The E coli breakout.
Speaker 1:Oh, your opinion, you can't just. Oh, now he forgot about McDonald's, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:No, I didn't. And you know, as you know, because I've discussed it with you, my heart has really gone out to all the owners, right, you, my heart has really gone out to all the owners, right, and the corporate people, and I'll just say this support your local mcdonald's and um, just know this can happen to anybody and and the scary thing is it can happen to your produce at the grocery store well, it has happened it has happened, like um, vintage and kale, it was all.
Speaker 2:This was always one of my biggest fears in McDonald's that and just you know, some crazy person shooting up a restaurant and it's very unfortunate that so many people have been sick and died. And I just hate it so much and you know what we were talking. It affects the entire company. You know, the next day the stock's dropped. And that does not affect me. I have liquidated all of my stocks, yeah, but and I shouldn't have, because they've done very well. But you know, I just really hate it for McDonald's and I hate it for all the people that got sick.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. But I want to hear, like what would that have been like for you if you were still owner?
Speaker 2:Like what kind of you know what I'm saying what would it be like on the?
Speaker 1:inside. Yeah, because, like we talked about briefly, we were like, oh my gosh, you know how that affects, even though that's been out in the Midwest, I guess, and West Coast.
Speaker 2:More West.
Speaker 1:Coast.
Speaker 2:It affects everybody, even in the South, because, as you hear that, on the news, you're, as a consumer, going oh, I ain't going there today. I mean even me, yeah, and I'm as McDonald's, I still bleed ketchup. I'm as a McDonald's as you can get. I'm as McDonald's, I still bleed ketchup. I'm as a McDonald's as you can get. But after you hear that it's human nature that you're not going to rush out and go, I think I want me a quarter pounder. Right, you know, it's just human nature. But what I get, what you're asking, like on the inside of the company, yeah, when a situation happens like that, because you know we've had in my 30 years we had lots of different situations, right, not the e-coli, but we've had different it's scandals or whatever it may be, it is it's hard.
Speaker 2:It's hard for you to imagine unless you've ever worked within a multi-billion dollar corporation corporation. It is like emergency 9-1-1, at the millionth degree. Yeah, like when I tell you it is it was.
Speaker 2:It was, it would be crazy. So like immediately every field service person would have been activated into the field. They would have been I. It would have been so crazy on it from an operation standpoint. And then on the legal standpoint. You know McDonald's doesn't have one attorney or two attorneys. Mcdonald's has a complete department of attorneys. So it goes just to complete insanity when that happens.
Speaker 1:So are they sending out like?
Speaker 2:press releases or things internally. When you are a McDonald's owner and I guess I still have mine you have a private media hotline number that you carry with you, so I just kept it programmed in my phone. So if there's a situation and you get approached by media or anything like that, you call that number and they immediately start supporting you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're correcting you you can choose.
Speaker 2:You know you can choose to write your response or whatever you want to say. Then the attorneys will have to look over and approve it, or you can let them write it Personally. The few times that ever happened with me, I let them do the work. I just was like.
Speaker 1:That's what they're there for.
Speaker 2:That's what they're there for. They're professionals and you know you can say something that you really don't mean to say and it gets construed yeah, yeah, but no, I know it's just been really chaotic for all. I was very happy. My first concern when I heard it was after I got out of mcdonald's. Mcdonald's had gone to fresh meat for the quarter pounders.
Speaker 2:Right. So my biggest concern was it was a food safety issue with the fresh hamburger meat. So I was very happy to find out that was not the case, right. So, um, and I can just tell you from my 30 years being in McDonald's, mcdonald's is probably the safest place you can eat anywhere in the world right now. Yeah, because it's so, and you know they are. They are under so much scrutiny and they're just taking it. Mcdonald's takes everything like incredibly serious. So, um, you know, if you, if you're in a town that you go to, and especially you know this was a grower in California and it affected distributors on the West Coast. So if you're on the East Coast or you're not in those areas, it wouldn't have affected you anyway.
Speaker 1:So you know it wouldn't affect you as the restaurant, but as the consumer. That's what I'm going back to. You don't know.
Speaker 2:You still, in your mind, are like I know, but you just guys, you have to remember those people are small business owners and they're struggling and they are in a horrible situation. So support them, even if it's going by and getting a Coke or ice cream or something, because they're just in a tough situation. My heart goes out to all of them.
Speaker 1:Well, tell me what you had before I cut you off. You said you had something for us today.
Speaker 2:Hell, I think I forgot.
Speaker 1:Oh, you were all excited. You're like oh, I got something for you.
Speaker 2:Oh, my baby went excited. You're like oh, I got something for you. Oh, my baby went into the hospital today, my little Mercedes.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, the one, that piece of crap.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:You know his Mercedes. We talked about it. If you missed that episode it got a little ding His. Mercedes got a little ding on the back we think from a rock. Could have been from a bullet. He's got a little ding on the back, we think from a rock, could have been from a bullet. Whatever, we don't know, and you know when something of Stevens gets damaged, whether it's a pair of pants or a shirt or shoes or a car, it wrecks me, wrecked and just done with it?
Speaker 2:No, I'm not done with it.
Speaker 1:You said last night it's funny though.
Speaker 2:No, I just said I'm always up for something new.
Speaker 1:But I'm not.
Speaker 2:No, you said I really want to go buy a new one, but I'm not, but you have that feeling. It's in me, I can't help it. And when you're a car person like I've been a car person since I could walk, you know. And when you're that person, you know you always want some shine.
Speaker 1:Here's what you don't know for the next, when he gets this car back for about two weeks. I'll have to listen to him it's not right, no, no no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It starts for about two weeks of how good they uh, it's this. He's convincing himself. Oh, it looks like. No, you can't tell a thing. Nothing, nothing's wrong. He'll try to talk about it and tell himself that for about two weeks and then it slowly turns, because he knows that blemishes thing, Well, they didn't do as good.
Speaker 1:It's not going to hold up. It's not going to hold up the way it should. I can tell it's just a little different there it's an illness.
Speaker 2:I can't help it.
Speaker 1:I'm just going to have to get rid of this. I can't help it.
Speaker 2:Well, I was already thinking, you know it's like. Well, I was like I was thinking because that was a really expensive car and it's still worth a lot of money.
Speaker 1:And I thought well, you know, I could sell that.
Speaker 2:And I could get a brand new, like a brand new BMW, and not pay any extra money.
Speaker 1:I told y'all go back and listen to the podcast, and we talked about this before how he said oh I, I just that thing, I just don't drive that much. And I'm just going to have to get rid. I told you y'all go back. No, no, no, no.
Speaker 2:Dylan said listen, dylan, dylan would kill me because he has already said I get the next car. And then, because you know, I've told him we're out of the car business. We are out of the car business, tired of spending money on cars.
Speaker 1:But y'all are car people, so you're not going to stop.
Speaker 2:So no, you know what I need me a 1974 chevy pickup truck. Just I don't have to worry about it, just get in it, just go down the road, don't even worry you can't do that, you can't.
Speaker 1:You couldn't do. You could only have the best 1957 no, no dents, no dings. Oh, she purrs like a kitten kind of tree.
Speaker 2:Like you act like you're gonna go get some, but it was nice when I had a company car because I didn't really worry about it and it was so big. You know I knocked every, I took signs down, I took curb. I mean, if you drive a suburban for your first month, your first month, you are very dangerous. You should get a lot of more extra insurance. And I drove Suburbans and you know, after I knocked the hell out of it it was a very liberating feeling you running over all kinds of crap, Because then I was like you know.
Speaker 1:Y'all, he cannot.
Speaker 2:Well, I was used to little sports cars and then I went to a full-size Suburban. Well, I forgot there was like 12 feet of truck behind me, yeah, and you turn a stop sign and then you hear you done run over something.
Speaker 1:I hit.
Speaker 2:I don't know if I ever told you this. On Pleasantburg I hit a crispy cream truck.
Speaker 1:I knocked the hell out of that crispy, were you turning too sharp or did you know?
Speaker 2:I was going about 70 miles an hour, sounds right down-hmm, and that truck just stopped Mm-hmm and I tried to stop and it was. This was like this was in the 90s. It was a mid-90s Suburban, so that thing weighed probably 10,000 pounds. And it just said oh, oh, my gosh. But the guy was like it just bent his bumper down, barely bent my bumper, did not put a dent in my Suburban, but it just kind of made my bumper a little cockeyed. And he's like ah, we good, good, don't worry about it.
Speaker 1:I was like all right because they have like those steel or they would have been like a steel bumper across the it was like a tank.
Speaker 2:It was like a sherman tank, that crispy cream like it. I'm shocked it didn't total that suburban. I mean, I knocked the hell out of that thing.
Speaker 1:That's funny. You also ran over some barrels or something. You told me that, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:I was coming back from a meeting in North Carolina and I was in one of my suburbs I think that one and ran. You know I don't pay attention to construction signs. I didn't.
Speaker 1:Oh, no, we talked about that, I started hitting those big orange barrels.
Speaker 2:Boom, boom, boom. And one got wedged under my Suburban and I had to stop and get it. It was awful.
Speaker 1:But you know it didn't hurt me.
Speaker 2:It didn't hurt it.
Speaker 1:Just taking the barrels out one at a time.
Speaker 2:I'm telling you, a Suburban is one of the best, safest, most durable cars on the road, and every time I mention getting another one, you're like you don't need that, because you would just run over and I can just see you.
Speaker 1:Oh, it was just I mean, I just rode with you yesterday in a U-Haul, I know how you drive.
Speaker 2:But you get to going about 90 in a Suburban. I tell you they lift off.
Speaker 1:You're just floating.
Speaker 2:You're just floating down the road. I mean it is just like woof. I mean they're nice.
Speaker 1:Good trucks, good. I mean. I just can't imagine. You just don't know the way Stephen drives in the like. I don't want to say innocence behind your driving. No, oblivious, you're just oblivious when you drive.
Speaker 2:And I'm wide open.
Speaker 1:You get in and you're just oblivious, like you're gonna be that, like 80 year old person driving and your car is just beat to shit. Like you're gonna, like I'm gonna pull up and like steven's gonna have these big, I don't I don't know where, I don't know, but I gotta go get a new one yeah, I don't know where that came from. That's how you're just getting in. He cranks it up.
Speaker 2:He goes Wide open and he's oblivious. Wide open.
Speaker 1:I mean, we were driving the other day and I'm not saying this is his fault, but he's just oblivious. And I look over in our mirror from this U-Haul I am not joking, it was two inches or less away from a semi-truck.
Speaker 2:But it wasn't my fault.
Speaker 1:It wasn't your fault, but you don't.
Speaker 1:You're just like I was in my lane, yeah, but you also hug the left lane. So like when we're on the left side line, I guess, whatever lane you're in, you hug the left side. So when we're in the right lane and a semi-truck is passing us in the left lane, you're already over to the left a little bit. And then he came over and I'm like my eyes, I'm just like uh, and he's like what, I'm in my lane, I'm like you are in your lane but you're oblivious to the semi-truck.
Speaker 1:That is also in our lane, but you're oblivious to the semi-truck that is also in our lane.
Speaker 2:Well, it wasn't my fault. That's all I'm saying that's all I got to say about that. It was not my fault and people need to stay in their lane. It's true.
Speaker 1:They do, oh my gosh. Okay, so I have been tagged. Have you been tagged on Instagram or sent in the message of the girl that has and she's? I'm not familiar with her. I feel like we should call her out. It might start a little drama on Instagram, I don't know. Let me see if I can. I don't know her name. I've been tagged, getting these messages from peeps who are sending me because she has, um, she has put lights inside of her refrigerator christmas lights. You know, we did um, oh my gosh, we did a whole thing she decorated it for christmas.
Speaker 1:it's not decorated for christmas. That is a very understatement. I'm going to have to find who sent it to me. No, okay, how do I talk? Because I don't want to.
Speaker 2:She has.
Speaker 1:Okay, she, I got to find it to show it to you first of all, so you can just oh hell, I'm going to decorate my, I am putting, I'm decorating my, my refrigerator for christmas.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna, I'm gonna have, I'm gonna have reindeer and christmas trees people have sent it to me.
Speaker 1:Surely I gotta figure I'll find it just in a second. I did, oh, I screenshot it. That's what I did, if you do last night in bed. I screenshot it because I was like I'm not sending this to steven because I don't want to give the engagement to the post or whatever. And then I was like how am I going to remember her name?
Speaker 2:So let me see this.
Speaker 1:Let me pull it up for you to see.
Speaker 2:Let me get my readers on.
Speaker 1:Okay, let me get back over here to Instagram. So what she did is she took her light bulb out of a refrigerator and then she put in one of those sockets like we've used at the store where you can screw it into the light bulb socket. And plug something in and plug in and she did colored lights in her refrigerator. They're just they're, and I'm sure I'm telling you she's in a lot of the same circle as I am. I'm not familiar with her.
Speaker 2:Let me see this.
Speaker 1:And then she here, you watch this and then the extra lights are just like slung in her empty you know crisper drawers or whatever. But so many people have because we did a whole you know fridge scaping thing and I'm like what is this janky? Shit that she's doing first of all my word then. Second of all, my next problem is with it is that people in in our same home decor circle are like oh, I love this. No, you don't.
Speaker 2:You don't love this look at the comic girl. It's magic no, it's not magic it was stupid as shit oh my god, stop it so cute so clever?
Speaker 1:it's not cute, it's not clever oh, here's one.
Speaker 2:As an electrician, I would not advise you do this but there's people.
Speaker 1:I was just blown away by the comments that were encouraging this oh, here's one.
Speaker 2:This is the stupidest thing I've ever seen?
Speaker 1:oh, is that in there? See, last night I didn't see any um like that what in the the Uncle Eddie, is this?
Speaker 2:Okay, here's what I would say to you. You know, because I'm going to tell it like it is If you are doing that crap, it is time that you go be a big brother, big sister, adopt a child, do something. Go donate some of your time, Do something. That's the dumbest thing I've ever seen. There is no like. Why would you even do that?
Speaker 1:I don't know. I mean, does it make you?
Speaker 2:giddy when you open the refrigerator and see I would look at it and go God, this is just janky mess.
Speaker 1:And to me it looks desperate, Like you're trying to come up with content. I'm just going to say it. It looks like you were out of ideas and was like what the hell can I do? And look, you can see the extra down there in the crisper drawer. That looked real good. And then she's got it taped in there, which you know, the humidity, that shit ain't going to stick and what? And then the biggest kicker that doesn't have anything to do with these lights she's got peanut butter in the refrigerator. Who puts peanut butter in the refrigerator? You can't spread that. That was the other con and what is yo?
Speaker 2:no, that turns into concrete. And what did she? What did she do with all those olives?
Speaker 1:I don't know that's the biggest bucket of olives I've ever seen this real and this is what really just irks me she posted it twice the real. I don't know if it's the exact same one, but it's the refrigerator. One has 146 000 likes and one has 78 000 likes likes.
Speaker 2:I'm going to put Christmas lights around my toilet seat. You should Do. You think I wonder what people would do.
Speaker 1:I would get more enjoyment out of that Happy pissing for the holidays, I mean yeah, light it up when you're taking a dump right there on the toilet. I mean, you know, maybe you can get it in some kind of you know, synchronized lighting.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, you know the fancy bidet toilets come with lights oh my gosh um just saying so anyway.
Speaker 1:And uh, let's see, I didn't even look to see if this person I don't think no, they don't follow me, but a lot of our you know, influencer friends that I'm familiar with do, and they were even commenting like no, don't support this is what I don't get. Like no, um, best mom ever. This is so rad, this is so fun. I mean, these are people I'm reading, these names are people that I follow and I just want to say stop it, do not encourage the dumb shit. Okay, that's. I'm not gonna say who it is because that's not whatever, but you're gonna see it on your. You know, you'll see it. It's just color.
Speaker 2:I'm done.
Speaker 1:Speaking of trends, we should talk about the High Point Furniture Market, but before we do, I want to pull from our little game box. I don't have a riddle for you this week.
Speaker 2:Oh good, I don't have one for you either. I was too tired.
Speaker 1:This is the Delve deck that you ordered. We love.
Speaker 2:Delve deck. It's a game.
Speaker 1:It's a game. You just pull out and there's conversation starters. We haven't done this in a little while, but it always seems like I pull out the same way.
Speaker 2:I wonder if they duplicate that. I know they don't. No, I think we just put them back in the wrong spot.
Speaker 1:Wait, am I picking one? You can pick one, but I'm picking first. What physical trait does society consider attractive but doesn't appeal to you? Oh, you're asking me, yes, what is something in? I guess it could be the physical trait. So I'm gonna say a man or a woman, that's, you know, society's like okay one, I think the big fat lips that look like you've burned them. Mm-hmm. Where everybody's injecting their lips Like where you've been punched in the face.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah I mean a little bit's fine, but if you look like some kind of animal, that's not good. And I also hate those big eyelashes that look like bugs. Oh yeah, Ugh.
Speaker 1:The big eyelashes that look like bugs. Oh yeah, the big eyelashes.
Speaker 2:Okay, so a little over the top on the lips and eyelashes.
Speaker 1:Okay, I can agree with both of those.
Speaker 2:Yeah, those are good ones.
Speaker 1:Let me see I'm going to pull another one for you. You're going twice. What's the fastest way to your heart? Fastest way to my heart, like what really makes you I don't know connect with someone.
Speaker 2:Doesn't have to be like a partner, but like just you know being kind, yeah, kind and generous, like if I see somebody doing something for know a person, a homeless person or a disabled person or a child, I'm just a genuine good.
Speaker 1:You can tell someone that's just a genuine good person. Yes, I just automatically love them yeah, I agree, because you just meet some people and you're like around them for just a few hours and you're like they, they're genuinely good, or they at least come off that way. That's their, that's their personality trait that they exude and you automatically connect. I agree.
Speaker 2:And, if someone's like, mean to a homeless person or a disabled person or a child or a dog then bad.
Speaker 1:I feel like this one I'm flipping through some and I'll let you pull. I feel like this one I'm flipping through some and I'll let you pull. I feel like this one really fits your personality.
Speaker 2:Oh God, here comes the insult.
Speaker 1:No, it's not an insult, but I feel like you're quirky. What's your favorite weird smell?
Speaker 2:Oh, I have one Like something that's bad that. I shouldn't like that. I love yeah, this is. This sounds bad y'all. I do not. I do not carry a huff rag with me or anything like that. I love the smell of gasoline when. I pump gas and I mean, that's probably really bad. I mean, but I'm not going, I'm not down there going. Yeah, but I like that, I like that's probably really bad.
Speaker 1:I mean, but I'm not going, I'm not down there going, but I like that smell. You know what smell I kind of like Not for a long term Is a skunk Like drive through. But if it's, I don't know.
Speaker 2:But now I do not want gasoline on me.
Speaker 1:I don't like that.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, but I'm just saying that little faint smell when you're pumping gas and I like that.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, I'll let you pull some and see what you can spark here, if you want to grab that, okay, oh lord, I still can't get over this refrigerator with the damn spring here's a deep one. Oh, we're going deep.
Speaker 2:What about the future? Worries you the most?
Speaker 1:What about the future? Worries me the most is AI technology, and it's not even what bad can happen with it, but what fakeness is that going to bring to the world? I feel like everything's going to become kind of fake. There's a lot of really, really, really good things that can be done with it, but I was thinking today and I'm not a huge music fan or person, I'm a fan of music, but I'm just not into it like you are with music but I was thinking today how is AI technology? There's already auto-tune and stuff.
Speaker 1:And that's ruined music, which has done a whole different thing to music. And then I'm like when you add, say, AI technology on top of that, where's that going to go?
Speaker 2:People like Etta James, stevie Nicks, carly Simon, I mean of these people that just had this raw talent, of this amazing voice. And then you've got people like Britney Spears. That is very marketable, but can't sing.
Speaker 1:It's a difference between a performer and a natural singer. I mean she can't sing, but she's a good between a performer and a natural singer.
Speaker 2:I mean, she can't sing but, she's a good performer and what is that going to do? Because I mean, is it going to be like?
Speaker 1:is everybody going to be like Milli Vanilli, like just fake, or will society turn on it and it flip the other way? I don't know, but I just see AI things becoming even like they're be to do movies with all even more ai, and I feel like it's just gonna kill the imagination and uh, I've got two for you authenticity of things, okay if you could choose your manner of death, oh, what would you? Select, if you could choose. If I can choose, I just want to go to sleep and not wake up.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's me too, isn't that everybody? I mean, doesn't everybody want that?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I don't want to know.
Speaker 1:Yeah that, or just dropping dead of a heart attack, yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, it's kind of the same. I don't want to know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean there's flip sides to knowing.
Speaker 2:There's flip sides to knowing and then there's not. I don't want to know either. That surprised me. But yeah, I mean, when you're not the one you know, I mean it's kind of hard. You know, because I knew with my mom and I would have wanted to have known because that gave me extra time and her extra time. Like there's benefits to knowing, yeah, but what that person goes through it's I hate that for them. But then maybe in the end that was good for them. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2:Well, it's I hate that for them, but then maybe in the end they that was good for them. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. Well, something that I don't want to know I want to get, I'll just yeah just let me go to sleep and not wake back up those were all deep ones, that really brought me down there.
Speaker 1:Okay, so let's get to the High Point Furniture Market. Let's talk about some trends In the October market. What just happened there? That was me Ding ding, ding. Yeah, that was me. Something went weird in my ears. Okay, so the October market. You usually see less new introductions in October. The newest introductions are in January and April, but everything at market is a slower moving trend.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:It's not like you go, and it's just drastically different. But you start to pick up on what the difference is. So this one, I feel like for me and I talked about this in on instagram um, I feel like there is an even bigger shift away from gray and everything is more cold gray yes, not that there's not still gray and the gray is not still a color and if you have your brown grays, your your warmer grays are good yeah, it's going more towards a grayish or a beige.
Speaker 1:Everything like everything has that, but it goes back to we've been talking for the last few markets everything having like an earthy undertone to it or like a dusty. You know what I'm saying. Even the colors like a bright. They're not bright, vibrant colors, they're moody, earthy colors very very 70s.
Speaker 1:Yes, so you're seeing that where everything would have been gray, it's now beige undertone is, to me, the biggest noticeable, like oh, when I look around this showroom, the walls are beige, the fabrics have beige undertones and gray is still in there. Gray is still there, but I'm just saying that's kind of the the biggest everything color is very.
Speaker 2:The best way I can describe it is very going, very 70s brady bunch, color wise.
Speaker 1:You've got your oranges, your burnt oranges, um they're all very, very brady bunch, your browns, your oranges, olive green, yes, your avocado greens, all your greens, and um in one vendor.
Speaker 2:I was and I love this vendor and, and this was their higher end segment of the business, they even had, like avocado green stained furniture and it sounds horrible, yeah, but I'm just going to tell you it was good was it like a wash over the furniture or was it a green?
Speaker 1:it was solid.
Speaker 2:It was solid but it was, it looked, you could, it was solid, but you could see wood grain, wood grain. But you could see wood grain, wood grain. But you could. It was very 70s. But I'm telling you, like bedside tables it was cool, yeah, I would use them. Yeah, and lots of textures. You know you've got your, your tweedy. You know fabrics on furniture.
Speaker 2:Which goes back to that cottage, feel that modern cottage we talked about last time, but very, very 70s, but it's pulling it off in a much better way. So you've got a lot of texture in your fabrics, you've got your velvets and your knobby fabrics, a lot of texture and your knobby fabrics a lot of texture.
Speaker 1:The other thing that I noticed in upholstery is a lot of florals. They're coming back, A lot of floral patterns coming back.
Speaker 2:On sofas.
Speaker 1:And that's what I was going to say, and patterns of different types on sofas, whether it was a plaid on a sofa, floral on a sofa, whatever it may be, but a lot of pattern on sofas was being presented and we'll see. I don't know if that one will, you know, translate to the consumer. I feel like something like that takes a lot longer. I mean, it looked good in the lifestyle and the looks, but the consumer, I don't know that they'll switch to having that was a late 70s, early 80s thing.
Speaker 1:A lot of florals on sofas, but even in the 90s your formal one. Oh yeah, your formal stuff, your cabbage roses when, oh yeah, you're formal, your cabbage roses, yes, but I just don't know if that one would will really take off on the consumer level. Um, we, you know, had before in our store a sofa with a pattern on it. We kind of learned our lesson. Like, that's the slowest selling because people want a solid fabric sofa and I feel like I did a pattern sofa in the 90s.
Speaker 2:Do you remember my big plaid?
Speaker 1:sofa. I do.
Speaker 2:Which I love. That, yeah, but I wouldn't do it again, yeah.
Speaker 1:For us on the consumer level, for our customers. We sell pattern on chairs because those are easier to switch out and they're not as bold, they're not taking up as much visual space as a sofa does you don't feel as trapped? Yeah, so we do sell a lot of pattern on chairs, but not on sofas.
Speaker 2:And a lot of steel, a lot of travertine.
Speaker 1:Yes, travertine is making a big.
Speaker 2:It's warmer. It's warmer than your, and marble's always going to be around, but see, travertine has that beige tone to it.
Speaker 1:And it goes with what we're saying about beige being the undertone.
Speaker 2:And I've always mixed my table that I had custom made in my foyer you know it's seven feet long I did travertine on top, yeah, and after I did I was like gosh, should I have done like a gray marble? But I'm glad I mixed it up because I've got you know I've got carrera marble travertine, yeah, gray, you know I've black, I've got.
Speaker 1:I really kept it mixed and I'm glad I did yeah, because it's not well, and that's the good thing nowadays with design, you're mixing stone, you're mixing metals, you're mixing finishes, and it's all good and it works because it gives it. When you're mixing like that, we, you know, we talked about in the past where in the 90s you matched everything, um. But when you mix it, it really gives it your own design feel to it because everyone's mixing them in mixing the metals or the stones or whatever in different ways. So it makes your house feel more like you or like designer. You know curated finish, whereas back in the 90s, when you match, you know every light fixture if you picked brass, every light fixture was brass, your faucets were brass, your doorknobs were bright, like the whole house looked like a package deal. And now, by mixing, it really gives it that curated look, which is what I like. So that's the good thing. Even as the designs shift or the trends, if you've mixed, you've already got some of those elements in there.
Speaker 2:It's just what's the dominant element and it doesn't look like wet between West Coast and East Coast. It looks a little bit more the same than it used to, I feel like with the new look yeah, um, yeah, it used to be.
Speaker 1:West coast had a very. You could pick west coast vendors out and you it was a very strong different and I can still pick, like lighting, west Coast lighting versus East Coast.
Speaker 2:But upholstery, I feel like, is a little more blended. Yeah, the same, but you know, west Coast always goes a little lighter and a lot more nickel yeah, they do a lot more nickel chrome on the West Coast. But you know the east coast is older. You know you've got new england, you've got, you know, older homes and right, you know you've got the antique to blend right when the old homes and it's just different.
Speaker 1:I guess they don't have the antiques like we do on the well they're, they're beach, yeah more especially like places like las vegas and that want a little bit more glam look more cosmopolitan look and yeah, so it does depend on it's kind of funny depends on where you are in the and a lot of crystals are still on their comeback so you're gonna have a lot, you know your crystal chandeliers are back in full swing. Yeah, crystal and cut glass.
Speaker 2:And I love me some crystal. I mean I do like in a formal dining room, a crystal chandelier is very elegant. Yeah, it is. It's always been timeless, but now it's on trend.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it definitely is. Well, when you were out gallivanting around market because we actually ended up splitting up for market most of the time and our franchisees were there with you Did you see anything else? Trend wise, Any big Still? A lot of antiques yeah, antiques are mixed in, or antique reproduction.
Speaker 2:antiques are really back in a big way in a big way and the price tag is in a big way. You know, it's just very hard to find a good deal.
Speaker 1:Yeah, with the antiques well they're so good to mix in. Again, it goes back to the same way you're mixing in metals or you're mixing stones. It's good to have those few antique pieces mixed in because again, it gives your home a curated look.
Speaker 2:Like you, it can express your style, um, because not everyone's gonna have the same antique piece mixed in, so it gives it its one thing I found that I was like, oh love was an antique dealer from italy, yes, and she had a piece, very old piece, from italy, for that would have been amazing in a kitchen island, and the top was removable so you could put like a piece of cray or marble or leave the butcher block on there and then put the top on it was 10 feet long. It was delicious.
Speaker 1:Was that? In the antique section? I saw those pieces. I even put it on my stories. They had a piece that was also a big, long table.
Speaker 2:Yeah, delicious, it was all amazing fourteen thousand dollars had a little price tag with it, but you know where are you going to get some an antique like that from italy? I mean, it's really not horrible, I'm just saying it's not but it is.
Speaker 1:it is, but it isn't Right.
Speaker 2:Until like 10 years, when you're like I'm tired of antiques, yeah but I mean come on, you know. We ever really that? I've never been that tired of anything antique, I know.
Speaker 1:Oh my goodness. So that's a quick sum up of the markets there.
Speaker 2:Steel hides are huge. Yeah, axidermy is even bigger.
Speaker 1:Anything warm and rich, Warm, natural textures, beige florals, it's all good yeah.
Speaker 2:You can throw your deer mount right up there and put a crystal chandelier right next to it Absolutely.
Speaker 1:This Friday I'm leaving for Amsterdam. We talked about this, but I just have to mention it one more time In the middle of our holiday season In the middle of our holiday season. I'm leaving you to man, the place which I have full faith in, that you can do.
Speaker 2:But if I had left I just want to point I would still be cussing you out.
Speaker 1:You would I would be cussing you out.
Speaker 2:You would be.
Speaker 1:I cannot believe. Just admit it, admit it.
Speaker 2:Just that's all I need is you to admit that I'm being way nicer than you are, you are, I told you, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:You are being way nicer. Oh, I you, I appreciate it. You are being way nicer. Oh, I would give you hell from. Uh, from the time you told me you were going until the day you get.
Speaker 2:Oh, I could hear you now. I ain't worried about it. I ain't worried about you. Know what I'm? I may work, I may not. Well, I'm not worried about it. If you're not worried about, I'm not worried about if you go away, and during the holiday season, I mean to hell with it. That is exactly what you would be saying those are my exact words.
Speaker 1:I will admit it. Yeah, I will admit it.
Speaker 2:You got me down, but that is exactly what I would be saying exactly what I'm doing I don't care yeah you don't care, you're gonna go away yeah the hell with it, that's what you'd be saying, but here's my we don't need the money, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1:Here's where I'm coming from with it.
Speaker 2:This is a banked opportunity for me.
Speaker 1:I know you are going to hold it over my head.
Speaker 2:No, I'm not holding it over your head. I want you to go and have a lovely time.
Speaker 1:I am.
Speaker 2:And it's going to be fine. It's not a big deal, yeah, but see, I have me that banked time. I'm like not just to not. I got you back.
Speaker 1:No, not like that, because we don't play like that. No, we really don't.
Speaker 2:Just that banked time to go. Oh my gosh, this is a big opportunity. I am so sorry, but I'm taking my little sabbatical here, right, and like I said, and I don't mean it. I do not mean it in a negative kind of way, okay.
Speaker 1:Really no, because we don't play that way. Okay, don't play that way, okay. Honestly, though, I don't know, based on what week we're in. If I would have given you as much hell about it, I mean, I would have just out of principle.
Speaker 2:Oh, you would have, you would have. No, don't backtrack.
Speaker 1:You would have been. No, this is what I'm going to say, though, when I definitely would have, I would have like thrown a temper tantrum. Okay. I'm going to say, though, when I definitely would have, I would have thrown a temper tantrum. Okay, I'm painting myself worse than I would, but I would have really given you hell about. Is, if you try to leave during Christmas, floor set.
Speaker 2:Or Thanksgiving week. Yes, it would be hard.
Speaker 1:Yes, and I wouldn't have gone if it was either of those weeks. I would have been like no, I absolutely can't, because I can't be left manning all the people. It's too many moving parts. Yes, I need the moral support, even during. You know, the Christmas floor set Like your mom got sick and you missed two of the Chris like one year you miss both stores and I was like oh, my, like that, just about.
Speaker 2:And it was torturous for me too.
Speaker 1:It's not that I can't pick up the extra, you know, physical part of it or getting it done. It's that, that co relationship that we have, even just like.
Speaker 2:Well, I missed one floor set. I did one, and then she got sick. I did the garden store, did you? Mm-hmm?
Speaker 1:Okay, and then you missed the home store, which was the biggest one that week yeah, is when shit hit the fan. But we have that unspoken language that we can Like if an employee's doing something we're like oh.
Speaker 1:God, we can look at it. We just need that. I need that outlet. That's the more so. Those are the weeks when I would have really been bent if you were leaving. But this week you are going to be uh, my headset went out, hello. Uh, I can't hear myself, but I'll keep talking because it's recording. But, um, this week you are gonna be doing, or next week when I'm gone um, an open house without me so that's a pretty big deal. So at the garden store we'll have mistletoes, martini and mistletoe.
Speaker 2:I'm so thrown off by my headset here, martinis and mistletoe is our first holiday open house of but you don't do that much for those in the past years, you just show up yeah, I mean, but I still okay, whoa back it up, back it up.
Speaker 1:I'm just saying I tend to deal with the food and whatever, but I do all the emails and the marketing I agree scheduling I agree with a lot that goes into it.
Speaker 2:I'm not saying that, I'm just saying from a um, from a physical, physical standpoint.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't, I just I just show up and look pretty these days for that. So if you are in the Greenville area, you have to come out on November 7th to the garden store, the Nested Fig Garden. Come out from 5 to 8 pm on November 7th and and have some Goodies Martinis, little drink drink and some little snack snacks and some specials and kick off the holiday season. It'll be fun. And then the next week when I'm back what is that? The 14th? I believe November 14th is the home store From 5 to 8 pm. Cocktails and candy canes. Cocktails and candy canes Right there.
Speaker 2:And then that kicks off our weekend of Christmas open house. So Friday, saturday and Sunday at both stores we're having Christmas open house.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so a three-day. Well, it turns into a three-and-a-half-day event there for the holiday season and I'll be back and we'll be at it and I can't wait. You're going gonna be tired as hell I know I will be see this is your first european trip.
Speaker 2:So I've been, y'all I've been trying to prepare him because I've I've done this several times, not amsterdam, but other places. This ain't the restful vacation kind of deal. This is um, it is a fun trip, but it is a tiring trip.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because it's moving, yeah, and we're on the itinerary yes yeah, daniel said they. He did get the itinerary, and there's good chunks of like free time too, you know that, where we can do something or hopefully rest.
Speaker 2:I don't know um, I'm just along for the ride I just want to see you getting up at eight in the morning and making it onto your little bus oh, must be in the lobby at 8 am sharp.
Speaker 1:I'm like, oh my, oh, my goodness, we'll see about that. But with that next week we are not going to have an episode of who's Driving. So we will see you back in two weeks, once I've returned, and we'll hear about Amsterdam, yes, once I've returned from Amsterdam, and we'll hear about you surviving without me.
Speaker 2:Well, I ain't me for that.
Speaker 1:So hopefully it's a great trip Smooth I hope.
Speaker 2:It'll be fun. You're going to love it. You're going to love it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know I'll love it and I'll love seeing it. And I'm glad you're going and I'll be exhausted and we'll get back to our holiday. Europe is just so.
Speaker 2:Holiday season. It's just so rich in every way.
Speaker 1:And I can't wait to see. You know, if you missed it, we're going with one of Daniel's suppliers. They've put together this tour, so we're going to see, like, some flower farms and greenhouses and flower auction, and so I can't wait to see that part of it as well. But, like you said, this isn't a leisure, relaxing vacation, it's a trip. It's going to be fun, it will be fun, it'll be a fun trip. But it's not just like I'm over there, you're going to be tired. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:But I'll power through.
Speaker 1:I will power through.
Speaker 2:Listen, it won't be worse than the 10 days that we spend at market in January. That's true. It will be better than that. That is true.
Speaker 1:Well, it's time to pull this baby over, and we got to get our week going. I got to start packing for Amsterdam. I don't even know what the temperature, the weather, nothing Ain't got nothing packed. Layers, layers Leaving on Friday Layers Take laying layer leaving on friday layers. So take layers, layers and layers. I hear you layers and layers, so we're gonna pull this baby over. Remember to share us with your friends. Leave us a review wherever you're listening to us, and we will see you back here in two weeks bye y'all.