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- Easter Shenanigans & Tariff Talk S3E12
Wesley and Stephen share their Easter weekend experiences and explore how tariffs impact small businesses, providing practical insights beyond the political headlines.
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Let's get this baby rolling. It's a gorgeous spring day, it is, and it's warm, it is so nice and 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. And, coming up on this week's episode, we're going to talk about tariffs in small business and not political. Not political. No, no, no. No, we're not talking political, but I've got messages saying how's this affecting your small business? How do you handle it? I think it's good to hear directly from you know our point of view, so I thought we would talk about that coming up in a bit.
Speaker 2:And you'll be, I think we'll have. We have some surprising information about that too. Insight, yeah, yeah, information.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know how it works and that sort of thing. Anyway, we'll get to that, but Easter was this past weekend, sunday yesterday.
Speaker 2:Yes, well, it was well, we're friday, yeah no, we're monday, I mean monday is monday easter was yesterday.
Speaker 1:It comes out on tuesday, that's what I just said this past. Yeah, sunday, so we wouldn't confuse ourselves.
Speaker 2:But you know, there we go with that.
Speaker 1:how was your easter though? Good was y'all's good, it was good. It was, you know, a really pretty day. I know you don't like their food. You are such a liar. Well, you said he tries to set me up and plant these little things in here. No, the food was good. What?
Speaker 2:about Ours was too. Was it fit to eat? Yeah, it was fit to eat, it was good. I mean, there's always my favorite things. I'm not a big meat eater, never have been a big meat eater, so I'm not really into that. I'm more green beans potato salad. Oh, I'll tell something funny on Dylan's mom. Okay, do that, this is good. So you know, we've been together like six years.
Speaker 1:And I come. She still doesn't like you. No, she does.
Speaker 2:I'm a connoisseur of good Southern food and I love potato salad. Oh, you either love it or you don't.
Speaker 1:Yeah, do you like yours with mustard, the mustard.
Speaker 2:You just put it just a little bit in the southern way to do it. I judge you on your potato salad.
Speaker 1:I'm just going to go ahead and tell you. Coming out strong.
Speaker 2:I will judge you on potato salad. So the first time we did a holiday meal at Dylan's parents' house, first time we did a holiday meal at Dylan's parents' house I sat down and I was like damn, this potato salad looks good. Oh, Like I'm like, that looks like my mom could have made that.
Speaker 2:Hmm, but then you tasted it and it didn't live up. Well, I got it and I tasted of it and I was like, damn, this is good. Oh, it was good. And you know me. I was like you know what? This potato salad I said this out loud is good. This might work out for everybody, this could work out. And she was sitting across the room and she said thank you, yeah. And Dylan said she didn't make that potato salad oh, she bought it, she buys it uh-huh and um.
Speaker 2:It's very funny because his mother is a good christian, nice lady, but she lies about the potato salad. She lies by deception. She goes and gets it at this particular supermarket, which is really good potato salad. So if you're in the South and you have an Ingles, they in their deli. They have good potato salad. There's several different ones, but you get the original, and so she goes and gets the big one and she takes it out of that container Dumps it in hers.
Speaker 2:She dumps it in hers and does it like she made it and then brings it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, does she doctor it at all or just smooth it around? No, she didn't do a damn thing to it.
Speaker 2:That's funny. It's funny because I'm always like. I'm like. I always say is this your potato salad? I'm always like, I'm like. I always say, is this your potato salad? And she's like, yeah. So I know I need to get a big helping in that because it's really good. But you know, and I told this at the table at Easter yesterday, I was like, do y'all know? Because it was all the whole family. I was like how she lies about her potato salad.
Speaker 1:You just called her out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're not supposed to call them out, but it was funny and it was really good and it kind of spreads the word hey, this is good, you should get it. Yeah, why go through all that potato peeling and all that work if you could go get it? I mean, I ain't hating on it.
Speaker 1:That's true. I have two things to interject here, and we're going to talk about family more one I just spilt.
Speaker 2:Oh, you spilt from your water bottle you're drooling over there, yeah I need my sippy cup dribbling. I'm gonna have to go to sippy cup well, okay, first of all, I forget.
Speaker 1:Now I got three things. My brain is jumping around today.
Speaker 2:I see what kind of day this is going to be.
Speaker 1:First of all, remember it's still the month of April and if you join our, If you join us in our members-only community at the who's at who's driving podcast dot com that's our website, who's driving podcast dot com If you join the online community this month and use the coupon code April, you get two months for half price. So it's like two months and you're basically getting one month free there. So that is where you can watch us and you know, see Steven drooling on the table and me fumbling around.
Speaker 1:If you just want to take it up a notch?
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you can also comment and have fun there as well, If you'd like to make fun a little bit more, I mean you can do it with visuals.
Speaker 1:In the month of May we are going to early May we're going to select an active member and going to give them one. Use your words. We're going to give one active member a hydrate spark water bottle, which is our favorite water bottle. I got mine out and cleaned it the other day.
Speaker 2:Still have water in it, you don't have to clean them.
Speaker 1:They're good. No, mine has been sitting with water in it for probably at least eight months.
Speaker 2:Well, if you get a new one, all the rubber on these is now microbial.
Speaker 1:So it doesn't mold, it doesn't get black he hasn't washed his in ever Ever.
Speaker 2:It's clean, gross okay so that's shout out number one.
Speaker 1:Go to whosedrivingpodcastcom. You can join our members only community. That's where you can watch. Use the coupon code april to get that bonus. You can also go to that website and listen for free as well, or you can listen to us anywhere you can listen to podcasts. Now back to the dishes. I have two more thoughts to complete before my brain now, what was it?
Speaker 2:what was that main dish that that daniel's mom makes, that you said you hate?
Speaker 1:that is not true. We're gonna get back to that in a minute. We're talking about family.
Speaker 2:He is trying to just terry'm just, I am so messing with him. But, Terry, act like you're mad about it, please, and I'll give you a gift card or something.
Speaker 1:Well, first of all, speaking of putting things in dishes, you know we used to have, well, two places on Augusta Road where our retail stores are. There was a business next to our home store and we know, a bakery on there, and both of those places have told me that at Easter, christmas, any holiday, people bring them their dishes, their casserole dishes, to these places and they make the casseroles in the dish for them so that these ladies can come pick up the casseroles and bake them. And it looks like they made wires.
Speaker 2:See, I'm not doing all that. You know what? The best cake in greenville? In my opinion, there are many good cakes, look, we obviously like cake, okay, so, um, but one of my favorites is, uh, brick street downtown. Yeah and um, I don't I make no bones about it. I go walking right up in there with my big brick street box.
Speaker 1:So you could probably take your you know your favorite cake dish or something and have them put it on that.
Speaker 2:You know I do not give a shit enough to go to that trouble, but it's funny.
Speaker 1:People don't really expect a pretty cake to be homemade. You know you can pass that off like off, like oh, this is my favorite cake, my favorite bakery or restaurant or whatever, and that's acceptable.
Speaker 2:But a casserole they won't eat it in the south. They if they I mean in all fairness I can see why they like, because you know that is very frowned upon. That's when they're like but I want to also tell you, though in the South, unless it is a really good cake, like from Brick Street, nobody says a word when you bring a Brick Street cake.
Speaker 1:Because they know that damn thing is good.
Speaker 2:Nobody judges you. You go in there with a cake from Publix or Ingalls or something.
Speaker 1:She brought that old cake.
Speaker 2:They would cut your eye. Don't get that one that small. Or if you use a mix, you do not tell that.
Speaker 1:That's another thing. This is grandma's recipe. I had to get it to you sometime. I don't have it on me right now, then you just never seen it, hadn't your mom done that before?
Speaker 2:I mean, didn't you say it was there or something?
Speaker 1:we did a thing, uh, where we were setting up. I had a little garden shop or whatever and we were setting up at this garden festival, at this um, it wasn't really a garden center, it was out in the country. This lady had an herb farm and she would have a plant sale but she would invite vendors to set up there and you were supposed to bring something with, um, herbs or something in it, you know a dish type thing. I don't remember so well. We forgot to the last minute. So we went and got slice and bake sugar cookies and I feel like. And then we did put like chocolate mint leaves in it, like just cut up fresh chocolate mint leaves, like legit or whatever. And then people were like, oh, like, oh, my gosh, these are so good. And we were just laughing because all we did was take a few mint leaves, chop them up, press them into the slice and bake.
Speaker 1:I mean, it wasn't even from a mix, it was from the tube, the slice and bake sugar cookies and my mom was like these are something, something you know, I don't know my mom's so late so if you have a secret, we will not call your name out on here.
Speaker 2:by the way, If you have a secret recipe that you go and get and put in your own casserole and just flat out lie about it, let us know. Let us know on our hotline and we will not call you out. The number is 864-982-5029. But we want to hear it because I love hearing these. It's comical to me.
Speaker 1:It is comical, we have to go back. I forgot. We'll do it for the next episode. There were some funny text messages from previous about awkward moments and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:We hit that oh yeah.
Speaker 1:The other thing that I can't forget to talk about is going back to potato salad. These are my getting through my thoughts here. There was this cafe in anderson, south carolina, and if you know this recipe or know these people, or maybe you own this cafe- what cafe was. I will pay you for the recipe. It was called doodah day cafe.
Speaker 1:I've never been there it was downtown at one time and then they moved out. I don't. I can't remember the street on anderson anymore, you know, like the high school where um, yeah, the main high school, they were out there somewhere. Anyway, they had the best daniel and I still talk about it potato salad and they used like a honey mustard on top or something. It was amazing and I so want that recipe. So maybe you know doodah cafe back in the day.
Speaker 2:I mean it closed at some point. Speaking to that, I do like some different recipes for, yeah, potato salad like I like a german you would love this recipe.
Speaker 1:It was so good. We used to what? Because I lived in anderson at one time and we went there and then, even when I didn't live there anymore and we were here, daniel and I went there a couple of times just to get the potato salad back in the day. Uh. So, anyway, that was my potato salad. Talk, thought uh, but back to family time and dylan, what else did you like there? Do you like everybody? Was everyone nice?
Speaker 2:yeah, I actually, I really do. Yeah, there's nobody that I mean I have my favorites, but there's nobody, like they're all really nice was there a dish that you were just like I ain't touching.
Speaker 2:No, but there was. There's one that I love, all of the ingredients in it. Yeah, that dylan's aunt makes, but I don't eat blueberries so I have to pick them out. But I told her it would be much appreciated if she would use cherries instead of blueberries. Oh, did she listen? But Dylan doesn't like cherries so much, oh gosh. So it was just. You know, it was just an issue, so she made one of each. Oh well, that's very nice. Yeah, she was like I made one of each for my favorites.
Speaker 1:What is this? Is it a dessert?
Speaker 2:It is a dessert, it is. She makes the crust and then she slices bananas in it.
Speaker 1:What kind of crust it's like a pastry crust.
Speaker 2:Okay, like a pie crust, pie crust, and then she slices bananas in it, and then there's a cream-ish Some kind of filling and then there's a cream-ish filling that has Dream Whip packet milk and cream cheese. And it is really good, and then you just put the topping on top of that it is very good, and I like bananas. You could even mix in some coconut in there and you could even do strawberries and you could do pineapple topping with coconut and do like a pina colada. I need the recipe.
Speaker 2:This could be some good content.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I can get it for you. So back to Daniel's family, who I love, and I love all of Terry's dishes as much as you like to make fun of that.
Speaker 2:Terry, give him a hard time please, she makes.
Speaker 1:I don't eat the meat either. Right, so it was good casserole. I mean we had the pineapple casserole. Do they ever have that at your family functions, where it's the baked pineapple and it's got? I've had it. I like it. We had a hash brown casserole.
Speaker 2:And I know you, big girl, you love a hash brown casserole. And I know you, big girl, you love a hash brown casserole, yeah, but you know I've never, not any of my family, dylan's or mine ever makes. I should make one, you should, but you know. And then the mac and cheese.
Speaker 1:See, I eat all the sides like that, no meat.
Speaker 2:Hell yeah.
Speaker 1:And it's all good, and I love.
Speaker 2:One of my favorite things is green beans.
Speaker 1:We didn't have green beans, we had asparagus.
Speaker 2:They have to be done right. And I'm not a big meat eater, but I do like my green beans flavored with some ham, bone or bacon. Just for the flavor Okay.
Speaker 1:She did make a so good with fresh strawberry like pie, and his family, like it's a small gathering, so one of his younger brother.
Speaker 2:They just had a baby like a week ago, so they weren't theirs we have a new segment I forgot to mention on our podcast that we're going to be doing and I've got to tie it in here because it makes sense with that we're going to be doing. And I've got to tie it in here because it makes sense with what we're talking about Okay, well, hold on Before we get to your new segment.
Speaker 1:Terry did give me some grief, though, because she was like.
Speaker 2:Thank you, terry, because they listened to the podcast.
Speaker 1:Okay, she was like, well, I am part of a book club Because you know, know, we talked about book clubs. And I was like oh my gosh. And I was like, well, how does it work, do you wait to the last minute? And you're like, oh my gosh I gotta read it was like sometimes I do see that stresses me out.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, well we don't read. If you're 80, if you're severely ADD, all jokes aside, or if you have children or grandchildren that are ADD. Just know that reading is very challenging for us?
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, we're not stupid we just have other strengths.
Speaker 2:Yes, and reading is not one of them Reading. Comprehension is not good.
Speaker 1:I mean my reading is just be the most torturous thing was reading, and I'm dyslexic too.
Speaker 2:I don't know how you did it. Well, you've heard me talk, I just stumbled around but I mean, you made it through school pretty good, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, is that I mean, and that's hard you know, with that they would be like school would get out in the summer. You know when you're elementary, middle school, now we're gonna read every day for 30 minutes or something, hell, no, that was the most torturous, I mean it would last, maybe a week or two.
Speaker 2:Doing that shit?
Speaker 1:Hell, no, it was the worst, I have to tie it, it's southernisms.
Speaker 2:We have a lot of people relocating to the south, a lot relocating to Greenville from all over the country and you know we're good southerners, we welcome you. But there's things I was just thinking through it that you need to know.
Speaker 1:So new segment you're going to throw in occasionally Southernisms. Okay, this is the new. I feel like we need, like a Like a lead way to it Southernisms.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, yeah, I like this, but I feel like I should be clogging to that. I feel like it needs to be. So, first off, before we get into this, you need to know what you are. And when I say you need to know what you are, and when I say you need to know what you are, you need to know where you're from what you're considered moving here. Okay, and this is not Stephen and Wesley, you know, do not send us a message that you're offended or we offended you or anything.
Speaker 1:It's not about us. We welcome the message.
Speaker 2:But this is truly a public service for all of you people moving in.
Speaker 1:So you're talking about if someone is moving to the South, or maybe to Greenville South. Carolina, we have a huge influx of people coming to our city. This is what you need to know. And when you get here, you need to shop at the Nested Fig home, the Nested Fig garden and online at the Nested Fig. But anyway, go ahead.
Speaker 2:First of all, if you live any higher than Kentucky in the United States, you're a Yankee.
Speaker 1:Oh hell, yeah, Yankee, and not in a derogatory way. No, no, I'm just telling you it's different personalities.
Speaker 2:When you move into a neighborhood here and you've got a true southern grown person living right there, they're like they're yankees and it doesn't even matter if you're, if you're, like from Northern Virginia, you're Yankee, it's just the way it is. And if you are from, if you're from out west, anything really past like Missouri, mississippi River, yeah. You're just from out west and you're really. They're from California.
Speaker 1:They could be from like Utah, but they're from California.
Speaker 2:You, you know they're from the west coast yeah, you know, and here's the and, if, if you, if you don't go back, if you live in florida, that is not the south, florida and texas are not the south, but those are two very, very different places, uh-huh. But you know, I had an aunt and an aunt that married a man from New York and they lived my entire life in Florida. Yeah, and I can remember being taught as a kid well, you know, they're from Florida, they're different down there and seriously, and I would say why? Well, you know, a lot of Yankees moved down there.
Speaker 1:So Florida's like a mixed pot.
Speaker 2:It is. And then Texas. Texas is like a country in itself. It is, it is. So I have family all the way from here to California. Well, I have an uncle and aunt that live in Corpus Christi. Well, you're right up there with California. If you are like Corpus Christi, texas, you might as well be from Newport Beach, california.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then there's different parts of Texas that is more Southern, and it really just depends on where you're from, but you will find out if you ask. When you relocate here, though, we good Southern people will let you know. Yeah, and you may or may not be able to cook. You will find that out at the church potluck.
Speaker 1:Oh, I mean, here's the thing too. There's like Southernisms, there's things you got to get used to, but you, if you are relocating to the south, don't think you got. You have got to leave behind.
Speaker 2:Everything you knew.
Speaker 1:Everything you knew. You are joining the south. It's a great place to be. It's a great place to be. Up North's a great place to be. But if I'm moving up there, I'm going to get my horn adjusted and I'm going to be honking at you when we're driving the road.
Speaker 2:You move to New York City, you're not going to go to a potluck and you're going to make sure that damn horn works on your car.
Speaker 1:That's beat off to hell, right, when you move down here, don't honk that damn horn. Severe emergency. Do not honk that horn when you are driving. I don't care if the red light turns green and you have to sit through the whole thing you sit there and you do not honk that horn.
Speaker 2:No we do not.
Speaker 1:We do not do that here.
Speaker 2:That is correct. Absolutely not, and this is very helpful if you're relocating, I mean in this.
Speaker 1:See, we're getting more and more mixed people here in Greenville Mm-hmm and you go out on the new side of Greenville area, like where our warehouse is, the Woodruff Road area. That's where a lot of that's the suburbs of Greenville and that's where the new well, I mean new is everywhere. They start honking at you over there. I'm like, damn Yankee, you better back up.
Speaker 2:No, ma'am, we have had a huge influx in our building of New Yorkers and it's very interesting 're not only new yorkers, new york city, and I guess? Your meal in the meal and, I guess, being in that meal, that lofty atmosphere, demanding and um. There's an adjustment period for them? Yes, because they figure out, they're not gonna hand us.
Speaker 1:But they have to figure out they're not gonna get their way we've had.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's been an adjustment now and once you know who you are, what you, what we call you and all that kind of stuff into place and and and what. And here's the other thing if you're really nice and listen, there's a lot of nice people moving here and a lot of people that I love and and we make sure when we introduce you to other people behind your back we say they're from New York, but they're nice people.
Speaker 1:They're. Yankees, but they are really nice, so you got to get in with at least three good Southerners. So they'll spread the word about you. You're going to be on an island by yourself, with your other Yankee friends. It can be bad.
Speaker 2:It can be bad. So there's a few terms that we need to talk about, just so you know, when you get here sometimes, what we're speaking about and the reason this ties into Easter. Yeah, well, sop it up yet. Well, sop it up. Oh, sop it up now. Sop it up can mean lots of things, but what that generally means is, when you're having a meal, sopping it up with a biscuit per se is soaking it up, and it usually involves large amounts of gravy.
Speaker 2:Soap it up, soap it up. You know I need, and you would use it in context like can you hand me one more biscuit? I need to sop this up.
Speaker 1:Well, that means I need to sop up this gravy, because your plate's going to be clean when you're done Right.
Speaker 2:You're using that biscuit as a sponge as a sponge and you literally sop it up with that biscuit.
Speaker 1:Uh-huh, and then you eat it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, mm-hmm. So we're clear on that, yeah, what we're clear on that? Yeah. But the other is, if you're told we will get to that directly, we will get to that directly, directly. I learned this terminology from my dear sweet grandma, mark. Well, we'll get to that directly, mm-hmm. Well, it took me about 30 years to figure out what in the hell she was talking about. So if somebody uses the word directly, to you that means directly is what they're saying, yeah.
Speaker 2:But we say it here directly and that means we're going to get to it in the next little bit, like right away yeah.
Speaker 1:We're going to get to it directly Next on the list Directly, directly there's an extra R in there Directly. The other is Okay, you have to, if you're listening, share your favorite Southernisms.
Speaker 2:Or Southernism, or Northernism or Westernism. Is there something we don't know about? Educate us, because we visit y'all and I'm sure you know, it's like hillbillies come to town.
Speaker 1:But okay, this goes two directions though, because we've had some Yankees move down here and some work for us and some do work for us and you know, always growing up in the South thought, oh, they're the. You know, they're not rednecks, they're the proper. Sophisticated, they're more sophisticated, they're proper. Hell, no, no I don't know, we might be redneck and they just might be. Well, my mother was. I don't know grammar police call them.
Speaker 2:My mother was, you know, and I look this is after years of my mother like literally hounding me, chastising me, but you things that I would have had my teeth knocked out for, for example, correct would be. I saw that. Did you see that? On the way to work? I saw that. I saw that, yeah, no, we have people from the north that have worked for us. I seen that.
Speaker 1:I seen that, mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:I seen that.
Speaker 1:So yeah, it goes different both ways. It's not just the rednecks and the southern top and the hillbillies. We might have a little southern draw, here and there we might add a few extra syllables, but y'all aren't all perfect and proper up there. One thing, uh-uh.
Speaker 2:Did your family ever use this? I can remember my papa saying well, we ain't got a new truck, oh you did, oh yeah. Saying well, we ain't got a new truck, oh you did, oh yeah, yeah. I had to give them my old truck and ten thousand dollars to boot boot, oh yeah, boot yeah, to boot was to finish it up like to I don't know to boot that came from. Let me look, I did. It means in addition, you know, on top of that yeah, I was going to say to finish it off.
Speaker 2:Let me see I think that actually came from a real estate terminology.
Speaker 1:Yeah, had to give them something to boot. To boot, mm-hmm For sure. Oh my gosh, that is so funny. There's all kinds, for sure. Oh my gosh, that is so funny. So let us know on the hotline 864-982-5029. Or, if you're in the members only community, put it down in the comment section what's your? You know, southernisms or northernisms or west coast isms?
Speaker 2:Oh, actually to, um is old english in addition to uh, so it actually originated in england oh to be to be in addition to in addition to, and the last Southern ism for today will be I feel like we've gone to class here Mess, mess and gom.
Speaker 1:No, it's mess, mess and a gom.
Speaker 2:Yes, well, it's actually written out mess and a gom I thought it was gom Mess andU-M.
Speaker 1:I thought it was gum Mess and a gum.
Speaker 2:To use it in correct Southern-ism, you would say oh my gosh that kitchen is a mess and a gum and it just means just a wreck Just upside down. But you don't ever say gum, because then nobody would know what you're talking about Mess and a gum, no. Mess and a gum. It's a mess and a gum, just a mess.
Speaker 2:One of my favorite terms actually. So that is Southern School today and I hope that that helps anyone relocating, or if you're coming to visit. If you're coming to visit, you might need to know. If you're coming to visit, you might need to know, and at least if somebody goes, well, it's a mess and a gom out there on that Woodruff Road. You'll know we shouldn't go that way. Yeah, it's just a mess and a gom, or do you want extra biscuit to sop that up? You're going to know. I tell you what. Oh my God, you're going to know. I tell you what. You give me that watch. You got on tradein and give me $10,000 to boot and you can have this new.
Speaker 1:Rolex.
Speaker 2:You know what to boot means To boot To boot.
Speaker 1:Is to boot, not a. Is that a Southern thing? You think that's just a Southern thing?
Speaker 2:I don't. I've never heard, I've never been in New York City and heard to boot.
Speaker 1:To boot. It's so funny. We have been in like a cab or an Uber or whatever in Las Vegas, like Daniel and I have been, and they're like where are you from, what country are you from? Just because of our accents, and I'm like our accents sound normal to me. I don't know.
Speaker 2:It's very exotic. I used to be very, very self-conscious because I, as all of you know, went to Clemson University and 98.9% of all the students at Clemson University when I was there in the 90s was from New Jersey and they all talk like this. And I was self-conscious until I started traveling.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm not self-conscious about having a Southern accent or Southern drawl and I know like a lot of people like it. I was about, I guess, maybe Southernism or not pronouncing the word right, you know, like Chester drawers, it's chest of drawers, not Chester drawers, or you know when.
Speaker 2:I went.
Speaker 1:Or Runt or Runt.
Speaker 2:Yeah, which is?
Speaker 1:ruined. The milk is Runt? No, it's ruined.
Speaker 2:So you know, so if you're here and they're like oh, that's Runt you don't want none of that.
Speaker 1:It means it's gone bad. Yeah, all ball saw. You know I had to teach oil boil soil. Those are the things I corrected. Was that, you know? I say Monday, tuesday, wednesday. Monday, tuesday, wednesday. You know, it's all. That's the kind of thing, but the accent part.
Speaker 2:The thing I had to correct is when I was a kid I would say I knew that Knew, Did you do that? No, so when I got to college I was like it's not new, I knew you would do that. It was I knew. I knew that I got new shoes. I didn't get new New shoes. I said that I got me some new shoes. I didn't get new New shoes. I said that I got me some new shoes. I mean yes you can get more country than us, that is funny.
Speaker 1:So you know, that's the kind of things, like I said, I've tried to correct, but not the southern accent. It is what it is. You know northern people have their accents boston, people have boston the pot, the car, yeah, when I like hearing theirs too.
Speaker 2:I don't mind hearing other people's accents?
Speaker 1:yeah, I don't either. Just depends on where you are and that sort of thing. And as long as you're nice, yeah, you better be nice, especially if you're moving down here.
Speaker 2:If you're going to stay here, you better be nice or you won't get invited to that potluck, it's true.
Speaker 1:So you want to get into tariffs the hot topic oh yes, let's talk about tariffs. You see it everywhere Tariffs. Oh, you see it everywhere.
Speaker 1:Tariffs. It's the hot topic that's being pushed around everywhere is clickbait, I feel like on some things. So again we're talking about tariffs because I've gotten asked about it. You know, from small business owners how does tariffs affect you? What do you think about tariffs and that sort of thing? Not from any political standpoint. This is the you know, just our small business, the reality sort of thing. Not from any political standpoint. This is the.
Speaker 1:you know, just our small business and how it affects things or doesn't affect things. So let's get into it. What do you want to talk about? First of all, I think what we should mention is tariffs aren't anything new as a small business owner. Tariffs have come and gone. There's been a lot of surcharges. They change the verbiage.
Speaker 2:That's what they do. Tariff, as we all know, is the form of a tax and for a small business that hits us in different ways. Sometimes they love to call surcharge and you have those companies. First of all, nothing has really hugely negatively affected our business yet or made it more challenging.
Speaker 1:It hasn't trickled down to our level yet, but it will start in the next, you know few weeks, just depending on how things change. I mean, we're getting communication about them.
Speaker 2:Right and um, and, quite honestly, you always have those companies that are going to try to take advantage of it. Right, and you know, because I can remember having fuel surcharges way back.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we've had, as business owners, we've had fuel surcharges that were a higher percentage. We've had additional freight charges.
Speaker 2:Something's going on and the thing is they try to leave them there like once it's gone. Because I've called companies, I'm like what the hell is it? They're like well, that's fuel surcharge. I said, well, hell, the price of fuel has been down for a year.
Speaker 1:It depends on the vendor and that's really where you get to learn who your good vendors are. And from the last time before we this isn't a tariff thing but from the last time I think we were most impacted was, I don't know where it was around 20, 22 or whatever when all the ports were getting backed up with the supply chain and I know it was talked about a little bit but I don't know, you know, if the consumer really, you know, knew how much it was affected. But it was really hard to get product in for importers and manufacturers and they were having to pay like three and four times their normal shipping cost to get it imported into the country.
Speaker 2:From a consumer standpoint, if you felt any of that, you may have perceived that a business might be just taking advantage of supply and demand, but that wasn't the case.
Speaker 1:And it was also during all the inflation talk as well. So you see these higher prices too. So there was a surcharge at the time for shipping, because something a shipping container, for example may have cost the actual container, I think, normally like I think it's like $3,000, the container that they would buy to put it in and it was like $15,000 or $20,000. So that's a huge cost. And then it was being passed on in some form of sleaze surcharges to the small businesses such as us who are importing or buying from our suppliers home decor, holiday decor and all of that. Well, there were a few vendors and one we still won't shop with who just jacked up all their prices Ridiculous and then tried to leave them there.
Speaker 1:And we were like no, we went there at market and—. It was one of our huge vendors, yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm still pissed about it. I get mad when I walk by the showroom. I'm like the rep said the rep asked me um, in january, are you ready to go back? I was like, nope, they're still on the list. Yeah, she was like, seriously, I'm like, yeah, I don't know when they're gonna come on, probably not because they haven't it, they're still don't get it, yeah.
Speaker 1:So instead of just saying, hey, you know the shipping's this, we're going to do a line item as a surcharge. We'll drop it off when we can. Yeah, their prices went from being like wholesale what we buy it at, and then you know there's a markup on that and that's the retail price. Their prices went to being higher than our retail prices were on the items.
Speaker 2:I would have been embarrassed to put their, their products in our stores. Yeah, people would have thought we had lost our mind. Yeah, I was like. I mean it was crazy, right, and we even said have you changed your pricing? Like, is it? Are you priced? Cause some vendors, when you go to market, price it as MSRP, like what the retail price is. Yeah, the suggested retail. And you get a discount off of that. So I thought, oh, this is retail, yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh no. So getting into tariffs, small businesses have dealt with these type things that you're hearing a lot about in the media. It's everyday part of business and tariffs come and go, surcharges come and go, and that is for us as the retailer, the small business. It is our, you know, job to talk to the vendor, look for where we can get a discount, where we can absorb that call. You know you have to look at that. That's what we do every day.
Speaker 1:Whether there is a tariff or isn't, is what can we do for pricing? How do you know? Our goal is to sell as much as we can. That's how we make money. So we have to look at that and see, you know how it makes sense. So, before all of this tariff talk, that's already part of the daily business and we've had tariffs from China since, I mean, the last eight years there's been a tariff. Now what happens is, a lot of times it may start out as a tariff. I mean, it's still technically a tariff, but it will start out as a line item. So they'll say, oh, your tariff is 10%, so they'll have their regular. This is, you know, the way that kind of makes sense is they'll have their regular cost, and then there'll be a line that's a surcharge.
Speaker 2:It's usually surcharge of some sort.
Speaker 1:It'll just say surcharge 10% and it'll have your amount on there. Now, if a tariff goes on and on and it's years and years, you know, and it's just part of everyday business, at that point they just put that into the product cost along the way.
Speaker 2:And sometimes what you have to be, what you have to know, is we look at every item. For example, we, you know I won't speak specifically because I don't want to call anybody out because I didn't I don't blame them for going up, but we had one product go up. We've had a lot go up, but we had one product in the past few weeks that have gone that went up and it was not a huge amount, it was $10 per item and I, you know, I looked at it and I told Wes, you know I don't want to, I mean, I do not want to go up on that item. Like, I looked at where our price was and I just said you know, we'll just absorb, we're going to absorb that because I, I don't, I think customers will have a problem paying more for that one item than marking that up.
Speaker 1:And so that's what you have to do on the retail level is say, okay, if I mark this up and this vendor had not gone up on this item, it's a very staple item.
Speaker 2:In over 12 years.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they had never gone up in 12 years. So they went up by $10 and we're like that's a reasonable, it made sense, and. But we were like, okay, but we can absorb this and we feel like we will still sell the amount of these that we do, which is great. But if we increase this, will we then not sell as many and actually make less money and make less money? So that's where you have to calculate it from the retail side. It's like what can we do?
Speaker 1:So when you're hearing all these tariff numbers being thrown around and these like huge amounts, what you have to understand is vendors, huge amounts. What you have to understand is vendors. So we were on the retail level and we're buying from either an importer or a manufacturer. Like we're either buying from a vendor who goes to markets could be in China or anywhere in the country or anywhere in the world, and they're importing items on a wholesale level or some of the people we buy from actually manufacture. They have their own factories, so that they are manufacturing their own product and we're buying that way. So they too are then talking to whatever, wherever factory manufacturer is, and they're negotiating the tariffs too.
Speaker 2:So they're like, hey, we still want to buy from you, but we can't mark these products up this much, so a lot of that tariff does get absorbed on the other side, then it gets absorbed in the middle, and then it gets absorbed on the retail level, or it's just shocking, too, because you really don't understand where the squeeze is coming from, and you've heard me over the past several years going to mcdonald's I mean this one right out here that I owned right out next to you and there are items there that are more than three times what they what they were.
Speaker 2:they were when I owned that McDonald's and I, you know, in my mind, you know I'm going to buy the damn filet of fish or quarter, whatever I'm there getting. I'm not one of those people that says I'm not. I have friends that are retired McDonald's owners and I kid you not, they will not go to McDonald's because they don't agree with the price of their coffee. And I'm like, oh my Lord really.
Speaker 2:But I'm still going to go there and I'm still going to buy it. So I have just thought, oh my gosh, like if I had charged that when I was an owner I would have been making like insane money. Yeah, so I had to go just out of my curiosity and ask a friend of mine that is that still owns multiple McDonald's Are y'all just killing it? Are you just making an insane amount of money because of the price of your menu prices? Well, come to find out, you know, after I do a little digging just for my curiosity. Yeah Well, their package insurance, like all their liability workers comp, you know, and like each McDonald's is going to have like $37 million of insurance. That has tripled. That's a huge amount of money. And then the cost of employees has got has almost doubled. Yeah. So I mean, when you really back up and look at it, they, they're just breaking even yeah it where they were.
Speaker 1:It's just. It's not like they're making more profit, it's just everything.
Speaker 2:It is truly just inflation, but to me, because I was in McDonald's for 30 years, that's what I measure. I measure things by the Big Mac, and so it's the same with our business.
Speaker 2:And it shows up in lots of different ways. The other thing that affects us and we have been in the business for a long time so we know to expect it is it always doesn't. It's not that one company, but it's the components of that company, of what they make. Like, for example, our upholstered furniture is a united states company. Right, it is made in the united states, but there are components within in that product that come from maybe um, china or indonesia, wherever may be where something is made. And it can be random things, because unfortunately, we learned way too much about all of this during COVID, because we found out like a lot of burled wood comes from Indonesia and it sat in ports forever and ever and ever and ever, and so it may be one component that is going up, so it doesn't raise the whole price of that significantly.
Speaker 1:Or at all.
Speaker 2:Sometimes the vendors are like we're going to eat it with our item.
Speaker 1:We're like we're just going to eat this, and they also look sometimes like is this a temporary situation or is this a permanent situation, or is there's going to be one or two shipments of this part? That's going to be higher, but you know what, after that it's going to be done and we're going to make it up in the long run the better.
Speaker 2:Companies don't make knee-jerk reactions.
Speaker 1:I feel like so which is funny because I just opened my email because there was a vendor I was going to actually refer to and there was an email from a different vendor sitting there today talking about the tariffs. We're getting them every day just from our vendors, and a lot of them are doing like this one is talking about how you know, okay, so there's tariffs currently in place, but vendors can call their factory in I'm just going to say China, for example and say, hey, hold our order, we don't want it to ship because it's not the tariff's not on the order until it shows up in the US and they receive it. So there's also windows and opportunity as well. So if they're like, hey, you know what we feel like this is going to change within the next two weeks Hold our orders, because it takes like it's several weeks to even get here anyway, and then we'll, you know, hold it and we'll tell you when to ship it. So they can say things like that.
Speaker 1:But this was basically saying that that they're looking at production times and this is talking about holiday products and how they have opportunity to hold it, and they're talking to the vendors and you know that sort of thing. And then it said we're not rushing decisions. Instead, we're taking the time to gather facts, access the impact and move forward thoughtfully. So it says a surcharge may be necessary and we will approach in everyone's best interest in mind when a decision is made. So that is a lot of what we're seeing right now and I think we'll, we'll, we'll follow this up, you know, when we start seeing it on the retail level, because right now we haven't seen, not that it's not coming, we've got a lot of warning, like there's a couple of vendors that are saying okay, may 1st there's going to be the small surcharge, and then we may increase it.
Speaker 2:I'm most concerned about fall and Christmas.
Speaker 1:The one thing that we have done is we've already started taking delivery of fall and. Christmas, Some of our vendors have reached out and said hey, we actually have these items that have already arrived in our warehouse. If you want to go ahead and take them, there will be no surcharge.
Speaker 2:And we're like hell.
Speaker 1:yes, we're like ship it on now because that will save us later and save our customers. Yeah, and that's the other thing vendors will do as well. They'll look at what their current inventory is and what they didn't have to pay tariffs on and they're like, okay, we're going to sell all of this. So, even though it might be X number of tariff that we're paying on this portion, if we spread it out across everything, it's only a 2% tariff or something like that.
Speaker 2:Most of the good ones are doing it in a very intelligent manner so that it does not negatively impact the market.
Speaker 1:Honestly, um, I got one from another vendor and they do every day and holiday as well and they were basically saying, um, that they were prepared to implement a surcharge. Uh, but, due to encouraging developments and how things have been changing, that from a political standpoint on the with the tariffs. Yeah, just how things are like one day. They're this one day.
Speaker 1:They're this there seems to be some negotiation going on. They feel like maybe that's a positive sign. So they are hoping that it'll be resolved in the next 30 days. So they will hold off on implant implementing um any adjustments at this time. Um. So the goal is, you know, to hopefully not have those surcharges there.
Speaker 2:As a whole and, as you know, as a whole, we are pretty optimistic on the whole situation.
Speaker 1:I think the worst thing for the whole tariff talk again, not from a political standpoint, I think is when something like this becomes such a hot topic and it's being driven home who is going to impact, or there's speculation on who it's going to impact, how it's going to impact it becomes so emotional. It becomes so emotional as it comes and as a consumer, especially in you know, products such as ours home decor that isn't a daily, you know. Just necessity. You have the option to decide if the item you're buying is worth it or not to you.
Speaker 2:So I feel like that it just causes this hysteria almost for consumers uncertainty, I guess is the word and it makes them more like I don't know and that does more damage or or they get angst and run out and purchased a large item, for example a car, in anticipation that it's gonna go up, yeah, and then it's going to go up, yeah, and then it's yeah.
Speaker 1:So that's kind of the tariff situation. I think the other thing is, from my point, if you are a small business owner maybe you're a newer small business owner and you haven't been through something that's talked about this much Don't panic. That's the first thing. First thing is don't panic. Second thing is you still have to stop. If you don't have it for sale, you can't sell it. So if you don't have it to sell, you can't sell it. So you have to continue to stock your shelves in order.
Speaker 1:And then you have to deal or decide how to deal with the surcharges on your level and based on your customers. Because what some vendors will do let's say an item is $10 and there's a 10% tariff, so that's a dollar tariff surcharge on that one item. Some vendors will do a normal whatever. Their retail markup is based on that $10 price and then they'll just add in the tariff a dollar on top of that. Then some people will add in well, really, I paid $11 from that item and have their markup from that price. So there's even on the retail level, there is room to make the items.
Speaker 2:It's not like everything's just going to go up by so if you're a business owner, I would not approach it in a blanket Like we're going up this much, right. I would look at it on a product by product, you know, vendor by vendor basis, because you you can shoot yourself in the foot that's doing having that knee jerk. Oh, my God, we got to go up this much. Well, maybe you do, maybe you don't, right.
Speaker 1:And maybe you, like we've talked about the item that we were talking about, you absorb it yourself and you're like it's going to be fine, I'm just going to absorb that cost. Or maybe you go, it's going to be fine, I'm just going to absorb that cost. Or maybe you go, okay, I'm going to keep mine as close to what they have been, but when I go to do promotions I'm going to know, oh, there's not that as much room to do promotions. So maybe, instead of doing normally 20% off at the end of a season or as a promotion, I'm now going to do 15% off, and you can calculate that on the backside. Yes, and so there's ways. So I just want it's interesting from the business standpoint and the consumer standpoint.
Speaker 2:It's so black and white.
Speaker 1:When you are hearing it talked about so much, I feel like, even for me, when they're just you know, I'm paying attention to it. I feel like I'm going to go outside to buy something and it's going to be like 400 times what it cost yesterday and I'm like, oh my gosh, and then that's not the reality because it gets absorbed all along the way in the supply chain. I think that's it. Yeah, I hope that makes sense Talking through it.
Speaker 2:And yeah, and just don't be so emotional about it. Yeah, and talking through it, and yeah, and just don't be so emotional about it. I know it's scary and I know you hear it and that's what they're I feel like sometimes that's what the media in general wants to create.
Speaker 1:Is Well, stress and worry? Yeah, and I'm not.
Speaker 1:And again, not political and not talking about, but it's the world we live in is everything is so competitive nowadays. The world we live in is everything is so competitive nowadays it's almost like what can I? What hype or clickbait can I create to get people to consume? With anything? Yeah, with anything, but especially in the media. You know they're fighting for views they're fighting for how can I keep you watching, how can I keep you coming back? My ratings, my ratings With anything. And so the way they do that is by playing up certain things or whatever.
Speaker 2:Sensationalizing everything, Whether it's weight loss or tariffs, or I mean my gosh, it's all kinds of things. Oh, Zympic, Whatever, it is Like anything, so Zempik whatever, it is like anything.
Speaker 1:So I don't know. You just have to do your research and you still shop and decipher it. You still shop and you go is this item worth it for me or not? Can I get it this week, Can I not? And you just like to me the way I shop all the time.
Speaker 2:And ask questions I mean, that's what I did with the McDonald's prices rather than going, oh my gosh, these owners are making a killing. I asked questions. I was like are you making a fortune? And listen, I do not know any McDonald's owners that are slumming it all of a sudden.
Speaker 2:I don't think they're doing bad owners that are slumming it all of a sudden. I don't think they're doing bad, but I don't think I don't think these menu price increases are funding them a new house on the coast in italy either. Yeah, I think it's all, and I think the other thing with.
Speaker 1:Say, if you are a small business and stocking your store, go to your vendors and say can I get a discount, or maybe you have to. We've done this. We go to vendors all the time and say you know what we really like you. We've done business with you for a while. If we kind of want to cut out a vendor and we want to bring you that business, can you give us a discount if we buy more?
Speaker 1:from you, so maybe you have to look at your inventory and say you know, these two vendors are similar. What if I go to this vendor who I really like and say hey, I'm going to bring some additional. You know, I'm going to buy additional amount from you. Is there anything you can do?
Speaker 1:You know, they might say they might say if you spend this amount, you get 5%, 10%. You just never know, know, and it doesn't hurt to ask. That's part of business. Um, and I feel like so far we've been able to set ourselves up in a very good way, kind of unknowingly, because we started really asking for vendors um, in the last year.
Speaker 2:Hey we what can we do what?
Speaker 1:can we we?
Speaker 2:wanted it to be easier too. We were trying to streamline things. Like sometimes we had five vendors and you know we buy so much. Like the best example is Holiday. We might have five vendors and our dumbasses would go order the same thing from three, because you're so overwhelmed just over. We would buy the same thing and we bought it three times. So we were like, well, if we could get rid of those three and bring it down to one, it makes our life easier, yeah.
Speaker 1:So we went to vendors and said, hey, we like you, we want to get rid of these two vendors and you throw out those names because they're their competitor and we want to bring the business we used to give them to you. But to do that, we're going to need something like what kind of discount can?
Speaker 2:you give us.
Speaker 1:If we commit to doing business with you, what can you commit to doing business with us?
Speaker 2:And it worked and we might look at a vendor and go hmm, you know, we see we're seeing that in that vendor a lot in this box store, discount store.
Speaker 1:We and that's not a boutique. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So we're going to just cut that whole line out, because we can. We can step it up over here and we can leverage our business and get it at a better price.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's what you have to do on the store level. On the business level, go to your vendors, don't be afraid to talk to them. Maybe you commit to bringing them something. They commit to bringing you something. We missed that for a lot of years. Yeah, we missed out on that because we were just.
Speaker 2:We thought it is what it is, yeah, and it isn't you go talk to them.
Speaker 1:They might be able to do something for you. Squeaky wheel gets the grease. I mean they want the business, just like you want the business, and they want their life easier.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's the way it is. Alright, we're going to pull this baby over. I think that's enough tariff talk. We're going to pull this over. If you have questions about tariffs or small business that you would like for us to answer from the business level maybe something didn't sound right or confusing or you just want more let us know and we'll have to do another follow-up. I feel like on the retail level, it does take a while for it to trickle down. I feel like it will. Really, if nothing changes, by the end of May we'll have a good update. We'll see what vendors and I will tell you what they're. You know like this vendor is charging five or ten. I don't want to name vendors specific, but it would be interesting for I feel like you to hear like, oh, the tariff's X percent, but see, on our level it's only this percent. You might hear, oh, it's 100% here, but on our level it was 5% or 10%. So we'll keep you posted.
Speaker 1:All right, let's pull this baby over and we'll see you next week. Remember to join the members-only community at whosedrivingpodcastcom. You can use the coupon code APRIL to get two months half price through the end of April, and in early May we're going to select one current member to get a Hydrate Spark water bottle. Yes, lots of fun. So we'll see you there and we'll see you next week. Thanks guys.