Who's Driving

Who's Driving- It's A Road Trip Kind Of Day S4E4

• Wesley Turner • Season 4 • Episode 4

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0:00 | 46:41

We record on the road to Atlanta Market, taste-test McDonald’s Big Arch burger, and break down how trends move from runway to living rooms.

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Join the conversation by calling their hotline at 864-982-5029 with your own stories or topic suggestions, and experience the authentic charm of two best friends who truly never know who's driving or where they're headed.

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Tempo: 120.0

SPEAKER_01

Excuse me and buckle up. This is literally where we are. We are literally, this is not food driving. I'm driving. We are headed to the Atlanta market.

SPEAKER_02

And all I know is it's time for another episode of Food Driving.

SPEAKER_00

Welcome to Food Driving. I'm Wesley Kurt, and I'm Stephen Burke with two best friends and entrepreneurs.

SPEAKER_02

Food Dropping is an entertaining look into the behind the scenes of our live sprints of business.

SPEAKER_00

These are the stories we share in topics we discuss. Two best friends would along the way.

SPEAKER_02

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 coming hard.

SPEAKER_00

Buckle up and enjoy the ride. You never know who's driving or where we're headed. All we know is it's always a fun ride.

SPEAKER_02

So the intro this week was brought to us by Kristen. I think she said in a live sale that every time I say get in and buckle up, that I'm gonna follow up with buckle up bitches. So that's for you. And we are literally in the car. So there may be some background noise, the car noise, whatever. Deal with it.

SPEAKER_01

This is the only time we this is how we decided that we wanted to do a podcast. Who's driving? Was driving in the car. We have the best conversations when we're in the car.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and we would say, if people were riding in the backseat listening to us, I mean, this is truly when they should be recorded.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, idiot drivers. So either you hear the bumps right now, we're going to cross the bridge into Georgia. Yep.

SPEAKER_02

All right, so we are headed to the Atlanta market. Today is Monday, Monday afternoon, and so this will come out on Tuesday. We're gonna be at Market all week. Well, we're gonna be there today, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday doing live sales, which is funny. I was thinking about when we recorded last, we pre-recorded because I was going to Florida. We haven't done a podcast since then, and you were going to the Atlanta market, and we're already heading back there.

SPEAKER_01

Well, hell yeah. Because we left the Atlanta market on Saturday night, drove to Savannah, and we worked at the Savannah store Monday and Tuesday and drove home Tuesday night. That was just this past week. I know. And now it's- It seems like it was a month ago.

SPEAKER_02

And now it's Monday. So let's uh back it up and rewind. Um, so Daniel and I went to it to the Florida house. House for our house. Yeah, your house is still our our house is still in great shape. Um got a lot of bookings while we were there too. People like to see it. They were booking booking their vacations. Good. Um, but yeah, so this was a quicker one for us because we only stayed a week. So we really treated it. I mean, we did stuff to the house. Daniel washed the outside, we cleaned deep cleaned and stuff like that. But other than that, we didn't really start any big, you know, projects. And you shouldn't need anything. No, it was it was good. Um, and so we were good. We had fun. And so the whole time we were there, it was nice. I forgot about this part already. It was so nice, the weather was nice, and then we got back here and it was cold as shit.

SPEAKER_01

It was cold, it wasn't expected because you know, I always look at the weather. Right. And so, and I, you know, oh generally overpacked. Well, it said it was gonna be warm. All I did was bring like a shacket, yeah, you know, so I had nothing warm. Yeah. So I but I I was like, well, I could go buy a coat or a jacket. But I'm like, I have so many at home, I'm not doing that.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I so I just, you know, and I really wasn't out, we weren't on outside that much, you know. You just walk a little faster. So y'all went to the Atlanta market.

SPEAKER_02

We had a great market. Where'd your tails off?

SPEAKER_01

It it was a great week. Uh, we got a great deal. We stayed at the Rinz Carlton. Um, the most exciting part was um, you know, I've been on a diet since December 26th, but Dylan got rent service a few times, and he ordered off the kids' menu. And they had so crazy. They, well, you know, sometimes it's just what you want. Yeah. And because honestly, the kids' meals were really great. Yeah. So you got a peanut butter and jelly sandwich that came with fries. I did have two of the fries. They were phenomenal.

SPEAKER_02

Two of the fries.

SPEAKER_01

And but I was so jealous of that peanut butter and jelly. It was a triple decker and toasted. Peanut butter and jelly? This is what you said. I didn't. And it was toasted. Yup. So at some point in the future, when I get down to my birth weight, I'm going to stay. I'm coming to Atlanta and I want to stay at the Risk Carlton. Just to have. I'm gonna order that. Just to treat yourself. Yes, it looks so good.

SPEAKER_02

But yeah, we had a great well, maybe great week. We are, we're staying at the Marriott Marquee. You think they have a triple decker?

SPEAKER_01

No. They're their room. Listen, I love Marriott Marquee in many ways. It's that has served us well. Yeah, it's it's our home away from home. But their room service is lacking. And it's just because it's so big. I get it. Yeah. It's not their fault. It's just there's just so many damn people, and the Rinz Carlton is so much smaller. You can you can toast peanut butter and jellies, I guess. Yeah. But yeah, we had a great time. It was funny because when when we got home, you were already home and we were talking, and I had forgotten that I was even gone.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. You were like, oh yeah, you were gone too. We were both gone at the same time, but I was back before you and y'all were still in Savannah. And then we got back and you were like, oh yeah, like in your mind, you pictured I was there all week. Yeah, I was just working. Yeah. So y'all left Atlanta and went to Savannah. Savannah. How was Savannah?

SPEAKER_01

It was good. It's a good time at the store. Uh, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful store.

SPEAKER_02

Yes. So if you don't know if you're or if you're newer here, we franchised our store, the nested big. And so we have a franchise location in Savannah, Georgia. So if you're ever down there or near Savannah, Georgia, go check out the Bested Big Home. 2428 Apricorn right there. Beautiful. Um, so you know, which franchising is different than it being our own store and that sort of thing. But we, you know, you talk to the owner of that store. Y'all are friends, y'all talk like all the time. So we know everything, but we haven't been there in a minute. Since like October last, like I've been once. Oh, yeah, you went once.

SPEAKER_01

But uh I do enjoy going and it's nice being in there, and I wanna I do want to go a little bit more. Yeah, I hope I don't get stopped right now.

SPEAKER_02

Oh we're speeding. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

That was a close swing, y'all. Well, I would be a that would have been a super speeder too. Uh going down to 85, and there's the poke. Well, I see I look at it as 85 drive 85. So it doesn't hurt to go five over if you hit 90, right? But the speed limit's 70. Is it 70? Well, that I mean, yeah. Listen, why should it be that that stupid anyway?

SPEAKER_02

Uh-huh. Well, you know, it reminds me of the time that you were speeding we were on our road trip. We've told this story before, but when we were coming back from New York City, I driven to New York. We had driven to New York City.

SPEAKER_01

I had driven you, your ass rode.

SPEAKER_02

Um, and he's got a little left foot. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01

He's a little heavy on the listen, I like a big engine and I want it to go when I mash the pedal. Yeah. And I don't mind to fiddle fart around.

SPEAKER_02

We were coming back, we've told this. In Maryland, white fan, unmarked, loaded up with flowers and stuff, coming back from the sweating that we had done. And y'all, they don't play in Maryland. Stephen got pulled over.

SPEAKER_01

And frisk spread eagle on the back.

SPEAKER_02

I thought we had drugs and they thought we had mead in the clerk.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I was like, he was like, What is this? I was like, moss. And he looked at me like, yeah, okay. And I I mean this was where he five minutes from South Carolina. And you did a wedding in the city. Yes. It was a whole thing. I honestly think I didn't get a ticket because he felt bad for what he actually put me through.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. For no reason. He had, well, see, Steven, you know, has a sense of humor, and he likes you naturally can use your sense of humor to like break the ice. And get out of all kinds of situations. But it's just with customer. You're good at breaking the ice and being friendly, and not that you're not friendly, but like you come across and he got out and made a joke, and this officer was not having it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I made a joke. He was like, Does your friend have any wives or guns? And I said, What? And he said, I just want to make sure I'm safe. And I said, only thing he could do is whip you up an orchid arrangement. You have nothing to worry about. He didn't think it was funny. No, but he did. And then next time I said was funny.

SPEAKER_02

I'm sitting in the passenger seat looking at the rear view mirror because I didn't want to turn around. And I just see Steven pressing up against the back door, spread eagle getting it was horrible. I mean, looking back, that was ridiculous. That is funny. It was funny. It made for a good time. Before he got put through the torture, though, as we were getting pulled over, I was like, I'm not paying for this ticket.

SPEAKER_01

I told you, you you speed everywhere. I'm not paying for this. You're paying for this. I said, shut up. You're like, oh, I needed to slow down. Uh-huh. Just like right now.

SPEAKER_02

I know I can't. I will never. That was we have gotten into some of the funniest things. That is hilarious. But back to Savannah. So you went down there, y'all spent a couple of days, hung out at the store. Did you do anything fun while I don't even know if I asked you, did you do anything fun while you were in Saban? We went to the antique store while the store. Wait. Did y'all go on the ferry?

SPEAKER_01

Did y'all ever go on the ferry? We did. We did. We froze to them. Okay. But we did. It was fun. That's a good thing to do. Um, we stayed at the Weston, um, right across the Savannah River.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And it was$179 a night. Where did they really not get from there over to River Street? Oh, so then y'all just walked around Savannah. Yeah, it's free. So like it was such a nice resort. I mean, there's golf, there's a huge pool, everything there at the Weston, and then you could take the ferry for free all day long. It runs back and forth. Huh. So it's kind of like the best of both worlds. I've never stayed there, never really heard of it. They have a lot of convention centers beside the convention center.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

After that was done.

SPEAKER_02

So Well, I have wait, go ahead. I have to ask you if you have seen, this is something I saw, and I meant to ask you this. Have you seen this going around? I saw it on TikTok, but you know, social media, whatever. Of the McDonald's CEO case, like their new, I don't even know what the new burger is. The Archburger.

SPEAKER_01

Archburger. Okay. Did you see this video? Yes, it's embarrassing. Chris Kay, if you happen to be listening to this, I used to be an operator when you were with the company and you look like an idiot. And Chris, I would also like to say to you, when you're speaking of McDonald's menu items, and you're speaking to the public on social media like that, don't you're even burger. We kept referring to it as product. Oh yeah. That isn't that is an in-house thing we do. We sell products, but people buy food and burger.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, that was what made it even more this product.

SPEAKER_01

This product. Yeah. Well, that's what you say at a board meeting. Yeah. We call on products when we are looking at a product mix or we're working with marketing. Right. We're, you know, in a meeting. But with social media and advertising and public relations, we call it burgers and biscuits and food and delicious and this meal meal.

SPEAKER_02

This burger is gonna be amazing. He should never, okay. But the funniest thing is, okay, he made it super awkward. If you haven't seen this and you're I mean, like I said, I saw it on TikTok. Look up like McDonald's CEO, it will come up. But then the funniest part is the other people digesting it. Like it came across. Yes, and they make so much fun of him. But it's true.

SPEAKER_01

And he's a small man, framed, he's a smaller framed man. Yeah, he's a little man. I don't mean that in a bad way. I just mean he's not like a macho type man. Yeah. And it just it was just wrong, wrong. And you know what I can't believe is that the the McDonald's marketing department actually thought that was a good idea to release that.

SPEAKER_02

That is what Yeah, who was filming it? Because you know, they don't make a reel like we make a reel where we just whip out our iPhones. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. You know what I'm saying? Oh you know, we make a video, we just whip out our phones and say, go for it. They that was a production type thing.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, because I used to do those. I mean, even when I did radio, when I did radio and magazine and everything, like they would shut a McDonald's down for like two or three days while we're shooting. I mean, close it. Yeah. And so that that it was a very purposeful video. Yeah. But that one would be so I am dying to try the R. Have you tried it yet? I I have not. Okay.

SPEAKER_02

We're almost to we always stop halfway to playing it. And we're running behind. But you're gonna pull in, you're gonna get the sparker. Oh, okay. Like dying to get it. We're like five miles. Wait, what exactly? We're at one sixty. Okay.

SPEAKER_01

Well, I'm on a I'm on a diet, but I'm on a protein. Screw the diet. Well, I'm on a protein diet. Okay. So I can I'll I'll take one. I'll take a bite of the whole and then eat the meat. Okay. But so I've been talking about this burger. You know, I am out of McDonald's.

SPEAKER_02

I'm gonna get a far back too, Mommy.

SPEAKER_01

I've been out of McDonald's now for almost eight years, which is crazy. Um, no, no, longer. Nine, almost nine years, but you know, I still have my circle of owners and friends and friends that are still McDonald's owners. This burger is what I'm hearing is a little pricey. So the food was already gone up. Well, this burger is over$8. So I won't quote what it is because it's priced differently in different markets. Yeah. It is over$8, and the value mill is over$11. I'll get the value mail because you you'll eat the food.

SPEAKER_02

Um, but fries, a bun, and Starbucks, I'll be good.

SPEAKER_01

I called, I called an an owner friend, and I said, tell me about this burger. And he's a big, big, big muscular guy, works out a lot, and he was like, I couldn't eat it all. Really? It's huge. From what they're saying. I don't know. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03

It's huge.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. They say I said, is it as big as a whopper? And he laughed and said, Oh, way bigger than a whopper. Is it a single padding or double paddy? I think it's a double paddy.

SPEAKER_02

We're about to find out here in just a minute.

SPEAKER_01

I don't know. See, and it's weird that they named it the arch burger. Because many, many years ago in the 90s, we had I thought there was arch deluxe. Arch deluxe. That's what I I thought they had brought something back when I burned. Arch Deluxe went over like a turd in the punch bowl. It you know, the arch deluxe just never it never did well. And typically, I hope this burger does well for McDonald's. I you know, I want McDonald's to always do well. Um but that is a very, very um small percentage of the customer base that compets uh that much. Yeah, a big burger. So it is uh challenging to sell that, sell enough to make it matter and keep it fresh, keep the quality.

SPEAKER_02

So I really don't know. Like, why are you trying to add a new burger to the big? You know what I'm saying? Like, that's a hard thing when you're already known for SARC.

SPEAKER_01

Well, and especially all we've talked about for 20, 20 plus years is simplifying the big. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And now we're adding yes. Do you think it has to do with it's a higher price point, so it will raise the average checks, it's gonna make their sales look good.

SPEAKER_01

I don't know. I was talking to with another retired owner, and he was just like, that's insane. The food costs on this burger must be astronomical. And I just reminded him, I said, Well, as you know, even if it had food cost of four dollars, which it doesn't, right, remotely have a food cost of four dollars, but your penny profit is still over four dollars on that sandwich. Yeah, so you know, in McDonald's, in the McDonald's world, like the McCaffe products, the espresso based drinks are expensive. Yeah. The food, you know, they're expensive to purchase, but they're also expensive for us to make. Um, it's very high food cost. Yeah. But the penny profit is so high, and I've never understood why anybody gives a shit. Like, why do you care what percentage the food cost is because you're looking, look at it, that you know, that's kind of how I am with the sofa.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_01

It's it's a high cost, but look at how much money you're making on that versus a candle. Right. So who cares? Right. Your margin's not as much. Right. But I just look at business differently. Yeah. But it is a problem, and I will say this those uh those streets and those products, as Chris Kay likes to say, that is a it's an issue when you're throwing a lot of it away. Yeah. But not your your moving area. Yeah, yeah. Huh. So I'm excited to try it. I'm shocked you're actually encouraging me to stop.

SPEAKER_02

We are stopping at the McDonald's that probably won't have a single employee interaction. That's good. We'll have to go through the drop three.

SPEAKER_01

Um and it's funny, so uh McDonald's was just rebuilding our area. I won't say which because I don't want to get into to that. And Dylan's parents actually went and visited the restaurant. I have not been there personally, but they were unsolicited talking about their experience at this McDonald's, which was a very good friend of mine's restaurant. Yeah. They used to run at a very, very uh very high grade level. Yeah. And they were just talking how how disappointing it was. And like the lobby areas, the dining rooms are just there's nothing to almost non-existent. Yeah. It's really a waiting area now where you pick up. I think you get you know what it reminds me, it reminds me of, I don't know why, but this is what I think of with the new McDonald's. They remind me of the ATMs in New York City. Yeah, you said it's like a bank lobby, but that bank hotel. Yeah. I'm like, we're like, it's not inviting at all. I really think, you know, and like Chris Kay or no one in McDonald's gives a crap what I say or my opinion, but I did spend 30 years in the company, and I just feel like they've taken the pendulum and gone too far.

SPEAKER_02

Well, it's one of those things I think about, like, you know, obviously we don't have kids, but if you're traveling and want to stop somewhere, I mean, they've already taken away the kid aspect of, you know, basically Ronald and all the fun things that we all remember as growing up that made it fun. Then they've all taken away their play areas now. And now like you literally happy milk toys up. Yeah, and like you literally there's no lobby. Like if you were wanting to stop and you had your kids like, hey, let's stop here and eat, there's like two tables of stock in there.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

It's it's kind of crazy, like they keep removing. Well, they they really have her stopped.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, they've removed what the company was built on.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Which is what got them to where they are. So now where do they go? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And it, you know, he really it's something we talk about, but it's something in all seriousness that bothers me and disappoints me. Yeah. Because I I'll always carry such a big part of that with me till I die. And it's sad to see things going not the right way.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Okay, we're coming up on our exit, so we're gonna pause this. Just pick back up when we have secured the goods. We need Starbucks stop, we need McDonald's stop, okay? Okay, and I don't know. Maybe we'll have to switch drivers. Yeah, I'm gonna have to eat the I'm gonna be driving bitches. All right, we'll be back. We have secured the goods. Critic Steven is here. We haven't even looked in the bag. He won't let me look in the bag. I said you can't open it, you can't look at it, and we need the real reaction. We stopped at McDonald's. You got the meal. It was like around 13-ish dollars.

SPEAKER_01

It was. We got a large value meal. This is just insane to me. It was the value meal for the burger, the fries, and the drink was$12.39. Before tax. Before tax. It was$14. What's high? It this does look big.

SPEAKER_02

The box looks big. Yeah. It is a double patty, it's all in the sun. And it says limited time. So they're probably bringing it in and bringing and bringing it out. Like McRib. The big arch. The big arch. Open this big daddy up. It looks pretty. It is pretty. It's got some little sesame seeds with some little poppy seeds. Ooh, it's okay.

SPEAKER_01

One thing I don't like about McDonald's is doing. So Chris K, if you're listening, these little ass tomatoes. They downgraded their quality. They they do these little piddly ass tomatoes. And I don't I don't know why we do that. And I don't save it all about food bottles. Well, no, they put like three or four on there, but I don't have to to cover the damn burger. So it's got like poppy seeds and sesame seeds on there. Is it a white chatter or is it a Swiss? I don't know.

SPEAKER_02

Let me oh well make a damn mess. Oh, it's big. That's what he said. She's got they said Oh, take a big bite. Smack around on that. I mean, he'd be surprised if you do that. Just same old, same old flavor, flavor less. It doesn't I can't wait to hear. Do tell with your mouth full. He's trying to be nice, food pretty much. No thinking.

SPEAKER_01

He's processing. Okay, it's a cross. This is this is the best way I can describe it. It is a cross between a big Mac and a quarter pounder with cheese.

SPEAKER_02

It's good. What's the difference between those two? One has sauce and one doesn't.

SPEAKER_01

Well, this is made with the fresh hamburger meat. Okay. Uh-huh. In my opinion, the fresh hamburger meat just puts a whole a halo over the whole sandwich. Okay. Because they cook it to order.

SPEAKER_02

Allegedly. No, they do. Uh-huh. So here's the thing. I'm not a meat eater, so I'm not tasting the sandwich, but just looking at it from like when I was, I cannot stand, I think we've talked about this before, a messy ass sandwich, and that is a messy ass sandwich. It is dribbing. It is saucy. It is nasty. Like that is nasty AF. I don't have nothing to do with that. She's big. But she's not like abnormally big. It's like a restaurant burger. I mean, I guess it's big for McDonald's or like if you're going fast food.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So it's like the facade you would get in a moment talk.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

It is. The um the sauce is not like a Big Mac sauce. It is a it's almost like you would take like mayonnaise with a steak sauce. Uh-huh. Okay. It's good. Little tang, little little tangy.

SPEAKER_02

Mm-hmm. It looks like does it have like um onions off? Like uh onions, caramelized onions. Yeah. It's good. The girl scared it up. I better watch the road. I'm driving. I gets distracted. So let's rate it. One out of ten. Where do you put it? Or rate it compared to like a Big Mac and a what's the other thing? Quarter pounder. Quarter pounder. It's an eight to a nine. Okay, so it's I mean it's good. It is good. From the one you got's fresh and it's fresh. Uh-huh. Okay. So you would get it again. Or you would just go for your regular. I wouldn't get it again because it's so big. But it's so big is like overrated, but whatever.

SPEAKER_01

I wouldn't normally get a burger this big. But you would normally get two burgers.

SPEAKER_02

Two cheese burgers. Well, I mean cheeseburgers, well. The tiny cheeseburger. Yeah, that the okay, so that's our McDonald's. I wish it was a little cheesier. Okay. It's got a fork out eating it now. Uh so let's talk about. So we went from McDonald's and we went across the street to Starbucks. Uh-huh. My go-to drink, white chocolate mocha. No whip. But and I got a little sandwich over there because they have, you know, meat-free options over there. So that's not to talk about. But let's just talk about what we experienced. So Steven was like, Here, I want to get this because I have a hundred dollar bill I want to break because I'll need like tip money. Tip money for the parking or whatever. They won't take a hundred dollar bill. Irritates shit out of me. Which I thought, I mean, I know a lot of businesses are going cashless, but this is kind of crazy. I mean, you know, in our life lifetime, they're probably gonna be cash at all. That scares Steven to death. It's like, uh-uh, that won't go away thing.

SPEAKER_01

Well, I don't think I don't think it will ever go away, but it's gonna get like this. And it'll become useless, but it won't go away. Well, I mean, if you live if you work in the service industry, that would be a disaster to you.

SPEAKER_02

I know. Like we you and I talked about that before, like we said earlier in this, we always say at the Marriott Arquet when we're going to the plan of market because it's right there, they've gone cashless there. And so, like trying to tip, like you even asked, like, how has that affected y'all's tips? Because like the parking lot they hate it, the employees hate it. Yeah, because they're like, Yeah, if you don't have cash to give back, you know, or whatever, we don't get our tips. So that is kind of crazy.

SPEAKER_01

They have a machine that will break your bills, but sometimes people are in a rush. Yeah, I wouldn't do that. You're not running across the hotel.

SPEAKER_02

I ain't worried about it. I'm just being honest. Like, yeah, I go to say, hey, do you have uh work cash? Let's be like, oh, well. Most people don't worry about it like I do.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And I'm a good tipper. I'm a good tipper. Right, you're just not good. But I'm not gonna go out of my way. You know what I'm saying? Like, I'm not gonna be inconvenienced to try to tip something. That's not on me. That's on them. Right. It's just the way I see it. I think it's stupid that Marriott did that. No. So, anyway. It's the times we live in right there. Perilous times. Oh my goodness. So this week at the Atlanta market, since that's where we're headed. Oh, you finished that big call? I did. It was so big, I don't know if I'll get it, but it's gone. So I guess it wasn't that big. He he scarked that thing. It wasn't that big. No, it really wasn't. I mean, it really was I don't know.

SPEAKER_01

It's the size of a double whopper. Okay.

SPEAKER_02

Um, so we're headed to the Atlanta market. And I'm oh, I meant to bring it out here. The the the hotline phone that I hadn't looked at since Christmas. Oh, God. I brought it with us, but that's here or there now. But someone had asked, and I felt this was a good thing, and I think we kind of touched on it before, but they had left a message saying, talking about market and us going to market. But their question they love hearing about us going to market and the trends and that sort of thing. But their question was who sets the trends for the vendors? Like, you know, we go and say, oh, this year, this is what we're seeing that's trendy at market. So I thought we could hit on that. Spopped in my head since we're headed there. Um basically vendors do like research, but it's kind of the same level. Like vendors, unless they're the like manufacturer, and most vendors aren't actually manufacturers. Like they might have um factories that they work with, but they don't own the factory. It just depends on the the business. Yeah, depends on that's a good point. Because like furniture companies, they will own their own.

SPEAKER_01

And they will sometimes do a lot more extensive research. Research and research, i.e., uh you know, going to Paris and happening in fashion. It's all tied to fashion. Yeah, basically everything in home decor, in my opinion, this is just Steven's opinion. Trickles in for fashion. Yeah, it does. Some kind of inspiration. Especially color and texture. Right. You know, when um I feel like when Boho was at its its biggest, you were seeing a lot more Rafia, earring, texture, fringe, yeah, clothing. And uh, you know, right now with the moody earth tone colors, you're seeing that with in clothing and angels. Yeah, it all ties in.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. So, but vendors like, for example, they were asking specifically about Christmas. I always said, like, uh Ralph Horn, you know, is a trend, or this is a trend. Like they're like, who thought of that to be the trend? And basically, like Christmas vendors, for the most part, they are not manufacturers, they go to a market the same way we go to a market, they're just on a different level. They're going to the manufacturing market, whereas we're going, you know, to their market.

SPEAKER_01

And um and there's a lot of markets and in different stuff, like in China.

SPEAKER_02

Right. And they're seeing what the manufacturers are presenting, but they're also responding to what their customers, which would be us on the store level, is wanting, and we're responding to what you as the consumers are wanting. So, like when we go to market across the board, not just seasonal, we'll see, like, oh my gosh, this item was these items were big sellers, and this is their sister to that. So we know theoretically, or you can kind of bet, like, oh, well, this is gonna be a big seller too. They like this, they're gonna love this. They love this, they're gonna like that sort of thing. Um, so really the consumer is what drives the overall trends in the end. Um, and you try to get a read on that. And that's also what the vendors are doing. So it's all a guessing game and what people are gonna respond to. It really is. It's all about vendors, vendors hire designers who lead their company, especially like in florals and Christmas and that sort of thing. Well, really, in all of it. Yeah, but and they're going to markets and picking out like the trends that they're seeing and that sort of thing. But we, my point was, we watched a vendor in the last five years. They went out of business last year because they had a bad designer, a bad buyer that they were letting, and this was a huge been in business for oh like 50 years or something, or maybe more. Um, an industry-wide known vendor. And they let this designer lead them in the wrong direction, and now they're out of business. When I met him, when I met him, I said, We called this with our rep. First of all, this was a vendor we bought from every market, and about three years ago, we were like, What is the where are y'all going? Like, we we went from like a huge order to like a minimal order, and then she was like, the vent the rep was like, I know.

SPEAKER_01

And it really wasn't a quality issue, it was just weird. The design.

SPEAKER_02

They weren't the colors, they weren't in touch with the trends, and we were like, y'all need some help, or y'all are y'all are not, you're not trendy with what we're seeing.

SPEAKER_01

And then we met the designer, yeah, which was like not being ugly, you know, I'm getting older, I'm getting long in the tooth tooth, but it was an 80-year-old queenie man, and it was just he was so out of touch. It wasn't like, okay, you know, there's the 80-year-old men like Ralph Lawrence, right? That just when you see a picture of him or see him in an interview, I don't care if he's was a hundred, that man has style. Right. This man didn't have not a lick of style, taste, nothing.

SPEAKER_02

It has nothing. So funny that it matched the product in like you could see, oh, this makes sense.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, this is going straight in the ditch. And about three years later, in the ditch it went. Yeah. And we were there once, I remember vividly, and we were looking at this Christmas the very last one. Yeah, the year before they went out. They had this unveiling of what they said was the their their big Christmas, iconic Christmas display.

SPEAKER_02

And it was the ugliest shit I it had a lot of what was supposed to be gold, but this is where they weren't in touch, and it was the wrong color gold. You know, at the time it was already it was the fake gold look. And the end, which is now is more of a brassy gold and antique gold, a gold brass, a brassy gold. This wasn't even a this was like your orangey gold. I mean, it was horrible. And when we walked away from there, Steven said, Well, they ain't gonna be here much longer.

SPEAKER_01

That was it. And people, and you could see the reaction of the raps, because it was a rap meeting, and you could see the reaction of like, oh my god, I've got to try to sell this shit. Yeah. I bet you they didn't sell one thing out of that collection.

SPEAKER_02

But that was crazy. So it is interesting how it works, it just works on different levels. Like, you know, you listening are on the consumer level, we're on the store level, they're on the vendor level, then there's the factory level. So, you know. It all ties in. It all ties in. And then some vendors, like I said, aren't they don't own the factory. So multiple vendors are buying from the same factories, and they might just say, like, oh, this vendor bought this item too, and then vendor B may say, okay, well, I want that same item, but I want it in different colors than vendor A bought it in or whatever.

SPEAKER_01

And when we were ordering from like 200 vendors, we have scaled that down. We literally at one time probably had 200 vendors at least. Um, and our business had grown so much, and we were doing so many orders, we could not keep up.

SPEAKER_02

We like what we like, and um, we ended up duplicating getting the same item from different vendors because we liked it at both, but didn't realize we'd already ordered it.

SPEAKER_01

So we still have a lot of vendors, yeah, but we've had we've scaled down some so that we don't have those issues.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, but specifically when it comes to product, we what we tried to do in our business is say, for example, FOSIMs. We used to probably buy from like 15 different vendors, and we would spread out our orders all across these vendors, and now we buy from like five vendors, and that way we can keep different, we can keep track with what we've bought, what we've ordered, so we're not duplicating things, and that's like the handful of vendors that we need to more buying power too. Yeah, it gives us buying power, but it's the handful of vendors we need to cover the product that we want as a collection. Same thing with Christmas. We used to buy from all these Christmas vendors, and now we buy from a handful uh for like our ornaments and that sort of thing, so that we're not duplicating that. And it makes it, and that's been a transition for us over the last year and a half, yeah. I should say, really. Year and a half. Um, because it takes time because you know we're always buying in advance. So, like, you know, we went in January, we've already bought Christmas for 2026. So it takes time to transition into that method, but it really did help. This past Christmas was the first Christmas where we had narrowed down our vendors. It made such a huge difference in getting things on time for us and being able to set up the stores and keep track. And it it was a it was a great decision. But you know, you always gotta Bob and weed. Bob and weed. The downside to doing that is if a vendor there's an item you really want, but they end up not producing it or running out, you might you know not get it because you have less vendors, you're not doing that caller sort of thing. So that's that's how that works. Yeah. And then what else this week? So this week we're gonna be at market, like I've mentioned several times, doing live sales. So if you're listening to this in current time, make sure you have the nested fig out. It is um down in the show notes below. But join us, we're gonna be live every day, and we got a wide variety this time. So when Steven was here, Stephen and Dylan came, it was just a week and a half ago, two weeks ago now. Um they focused on like bags and jewelry, women's accessories, that sort of thing. And this time we're focusing on home decor, garden decor, some gift items. There'll be a little women's accessories, but it's not as heavy on that.

SPEAKER_01

We're gonna do like one afternoon of um women's clothing, jewelry bag, uh just casual tote bags. Yeah. So it's gonna be a lot of fun. Yeah. Well, a lot of variety this week.

SPEAKER_02

Well, I I think it's time to uh wrap up this road trip because I'm holding my coffee and I want to eat my sandwich.

SPEAKER_01

And let us try the banger. Yeah, let us know. Let us know if you try the big arch burger.

SPEAKER_02

Let us know on our hotline if you don't know the number, but it's also in the show notes, too. Um I think it would be better with Big Bang S.

SPEAKER_01

But I'm just I guess I'm used to Big Bang Sol.

SPEAKER_02

Okay, a little different free.

SPEAKER_01

It's a little more mustard.

SPEAKER_02

It was good. I'm glad we had our real time review with uh drive along with this literally in the car today.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, this was our first one recorded in the car. And I don't know how it's gonna sound or whatnot, but I don't know.

SPEAKER_02

It's better than nothing. That's right. I mean, it may turn out bad.

SPEAKER_03

I know.

SPEAKER_02

Make sure you leave us a review. Only if it's a good one, though. That's right. And I would say we're gonna pull this over, but we've got another hour to go over at the Atlanta market. But I'm gonna down my uh white chocolate mocha, eat my little Meiji sandwich over here, and we'll continue on and see you next week. Bye, y'all.