Pelosi: The Master Trader (09-25-2024--Hour3)

[00:00:04] [SPEAKER_00]: What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast.

[00:00:08] [SPEAKER_00]: It is her live every day from noon to three on WBT radio in Charlotte, and if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream,

[00:00:16] [SPEAKER_00]: I Daily Show prep with all the links. Become a patron, go to the PeteCaliner Show.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free,

[00:00:25] [SPEAKER_00]: write to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support.

[00:00:29] [SPEAKER_00]: So I'm also checking my stock trades.

[00:00:35] [SPEAKER_00]: Right, okay. Well, I just follow what Nancy Pelosi is doing, and it's been very, very lucrative for me so far.

[00:00:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Apparently her husband unloaded about half a million dollars worth of visa.

[00:00:49] [SPEAKER_00]: Visa stock, the credit card company. And he did that in July.

[00:00:56] [SPEAKER_00]: I want to say, and then yesterday purely coincidentally the company got hit with a lawsuit saying that it has illegally monopolized the debit card market.

[00:01:14] [SPEAKER_00]: The culmination of a year's long review conducted by the Department of Justice's antitrust unit,

[00:01:23] [SPEAKER_00]: which makes a lot of sense. Like I would think the entire Department of Justice is part of antitrust.

[00:01:27] [SPEAKER_00]: But anyway, the visa company has been under review by the DOJ, and then just before the lawsuit from DOJ comes at them,

[00:01:38] [SPEAKER_00]: Paul Pelosi sells half a million. Well, to be fair, we don't know if it's half a million.

[00:01:45] [SPEAKER_00]: It could be all the way up to a million. It's just a range that is reported.

[00:01:49] [SPEAKER_00]: Visa allegedly used its dominant market position to penalize customers and merchants who use competing payment processors according to the lawsuit.

[00:02:02] [SPEAKER_00]: Anti-trust cops also alleged that visa forces financial tech firms to work with it by threatening to penalize those who do not,

[00:02:12] [SPEAKER_00]: which I could totally see that being the case.

[00:02:15] [SPEAKER_00]: Some of this stuff is like visa offering discounts to the retail or something like, hey, if you're joining exclusive agreement with us and then we can give you a lower rate or something.

[00:02:31] [SPEAKER_00]: Because then what's the alternative? That visa and MasterCard is masterCard still around? I think they are.

[00:02:37] [SPEAKER_00]: So like Visa MasterCard that they work together to set a rate, that they charge the retailer because that seems also bad.

[00:02:50] [SPEAKER_00]: Christopher Joseph's the tech entrepreneur who runs a tracker account on Twitter.

[00:02:58] [SPEAKER_00]: It's called the Nancy Pelosi stock tracker.

[00:03:02] [SPEAKER_00]: I follow this. Like I follow this account.

[00:03:07] [SPEAKER_00]: And he literally does is tracks the Pelosi's stock trades.

[00:03:16] [SPEAKER_00]: So other people can make trades off of those stock trades. Now you're not getting it in real time,

[00:03:23] [SPEAKER_00]: because this stuff doesn't get reported.

[00:03:28] [SPEAKER_00]: But that's how you can tell.

[00:03:30] [SPEAKER_00]: The Nancy Pelosi is like the greatest stock trader of all time. Are you aware of this?

[00:03:34] [SPEAKER_00]: Like she has made so much more money than like anybody else that has ever lived in the financial industry.

[00:03:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Like Warren Buffett is small-fries to her.

[00:03:49] [SPEAKER_00]: He posted a screenshot of a congressional filing on July 3rd which showed that the former House Speaker's husband Paul Pelosi had sold 2,000 shares of Visa

[00:03:59] [SPEAKER_00]: worth between $500,000 and $1,000,000.

[00:04:03] [SPEAKER_00]: The disclosure form shows that Pelosi's transaction is marked SP or spouse.

[00:04:10] [SPEAKER_00]: Right? It's a reference to her husband Paul.

[00:04:13] [SPEAKER_00]: The San Francisco based venture capitalist and real estate investor.

[00:04:18] [SPEAKER_00]: At the time, Paul Pelosi sold Visa stock. There was no public indication that an anti-trust lawsuit against the company was coming.

[00:04:26] [SPEAKER_00]: Nobody knew if it was imminent or not.

[00:04:31] [SPEAKER_00]: Not even the Pelosi's, which is why they sold right before it did become known.

[00:04:39] [SPEAKER_00]: Quote, Speaker Pelosi does not own any stocks and she has no prior knowledge or subsequent involvement in any transactions according to a spokesperson for Pelosi.

[00:04:52] [SPEAKER_00]: Nancy Pelosi.

[00:04:55] [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, you know what? Here's an easy solution.

[00:04:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Blind trusts for everybody.

[00:05:01] [SPEAKER_00]: Blind trusts for every elected official and their family members.

[00:05:07] [SPEAKER_00]: Give us all your stocks. Give us all of your investments. We're going to put them in a blind trust for as long as you are an elected official.

[00:05:16] [SPEAKER_00]: That money is going to sit in that trust and you don't get to make decisions based on your knowledge of what is in or is not in the trust.

[00:05:28] [SPEAKER_00]: That's fair. Right? That's fair.

[00:05:32] [SPEAKER_00]: Which is why they won't do it.

[00:05:33] [SPEAKER_00]: The people are making quite a bit of money in public service. Naturally.

[00:05:39] [SPEAKER_00]: Ron Gephner is a former enforcement attorney with the SEC, security security and exchange commission.

[00:05:52] [SPEAKER_00]: And he said hang on.

[00:05:56] [SPEAKER_00]: The appearance of impropriety has to be tempered when taking other factors into consideration.

[00:06:04] [SPEAKER_00]: He said before public opinion judges Pelosi unfairly. It's important to determine who engaged in the transaction on her behalf.

[00:06:15] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, in this case it was her husband Paul because she doesn't own any stock so it's not even on her behalf right?

[00:06:20] [SPEAKER_00]: That's just Paul doing his own thing.

[00:06:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Also, was it part of a broader change of her portfolio?

[00:06:29] [SPEAKER_00]: The July 3rd Disclosure also had some other changes, some other sales.

[00:06:36] [SPEAKER_00]: For example, 2500 shares of Tesla were sold.

[00:06:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Also he bought stock in Nvidia, the chip maker right in video which remember that was going gangbusters but then

[00:06:53] [SPEAKER_00]: I believe that that came back down look I don't follow the markets I don't

[00:06:57] [SPEAKER_00]: engage in the trading. I have a blind trust that I can look at but I basically treat it like a blightrust.

[00:07:04] [SPEAKER_00]: I have a financial advisor, I give it to him and he does whatever he moves some stuff around.

[00:07:10] [SPEAKER_00]: We got the 401k go in like that's the extent of my knowledge of what's inside all of these things.

[00:07:17] [SPEAKER_00]: Movement of the stocks inside these funds are you know I do not monitor this stuff.

[00:07:24] [SPEAKER_00]: Pelosi and her husband have a nine figure net worth which is

[00:07:29] [SPEAKER_00]: that's like in the millions. The San Francisco Democrat has long resisted calls from a bipartisan group of lawmakers

[00:07:36] [SPEAKER_00]: to ban legislate wars and their spouses from trading stock given the inherent conflict of interest

[00:07:42] [SPEAKER_00]: and that's the key. The conflict of interest is inherent. You are making laws based on or that

[00:07:50] [SPEAKER_00]: you're making laws that affect directly industries. And so you're going to know what ideas are coming

[00:08:01] [SPEAKER_00]: forward, what those ideas look like, whether there's a chance they're going to help or harm an

[00:08:06] [SPEAKER_00]: industry or a business which businesses are uniquely positioned right? You're at this sort of

[00:08:20] [SPEAKER_00]: investigators are reportedly looking into visas, relationships with companies like square,

[00:08:27] [SPEAKER_00]: stripe and PayPal. According to the Wall Street Journal visa is alleged to have offered those companies

[00:08:33] [SPEAKER_00]: financial incentives to prevent those firms from using competitive payment processors.

[00:08:41] [SPEAKER_00]: So they gave them they gave them a deal. The Justice Department was reportedly keen on examining

[00:08:47] [SPEAKER_00]: whether PayPal was coerced by visa to encourage customers to make payments using visa brand

[00:08:54] [SPEAKER_00]: car branded cards. Visa is also alleged to have offered lower fees and other incentives to square

[00:09:01] [SPEAKER_00]: their subsidiary cash app on the condition that its steer customers towards making transactions

[00:09:08] [SPEAKER_00]: using visa branded services. I don't know like on the one hand, I could totally see why you would do this.

[00:09:17] [SPEAKER_00]: You're trying to capture more market share. So you're going to offer incentives to get that done.

[00:09:24] [SPEAKER_00]: But on the other hand, blind trusts for everybody. You know stories are powerful. They help us

[00:09:29] [SPEAKER_00]: make sense of things to understand experiences. Stories connect us to the people of our past while

[00:09:34] [SPEAKER_00]: transcending generations. They help us process the meaning of life and art stories are told through

[00:09:39] [SPEAKER_00]: images and videos. Preserve your stories with creative video started in 1997 in mint hill North

[00:09:46] [SPEAKER_00]: was the first company to provide this valuable service converting images, photos and videos into

[00:09:51] [SPEAKER_00]: high quality produced slide shows videos and albums. The trusted talented and dedicated team

[00:09:57] [SPEAKER_00]: creative video will go over all of the details with you to create a perfect project.

[00:10:02] [SPEAKER_00]: Satisfaction guaranteed. Drop them off in person or mail them they'll be ready in a week or two.

[00:10:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Memorial videos for your loved ones. Videos for rehearsal dinners, weddings, graduations,

[00:10:11] [SPEAKER_00]: Christmas, family vacations, birthdays or just your family stories all told through images.

[00:10:17] [SPEAKER_00]: That's what your photos and videos are. They are your life told through the eyes of everyone around

[00:10:22] [SPEAKER_00]: you and all who came before you and they will tell others to come who you are. Visit

[00:10:27] [SPEAKER_00]: creativevideo.com. The walk to end Alzheimer's is coming up. So they're actually underway every weekend

[00:10:34] [SPEAKER_00]: in various cities around the Carolinas. This is going on across the country but

[00:10:40] [SPEAKER_00]: the walk to end Alzheimer's. We've got the one coming up on October 5th. That's in Gastonia.

[00:10:47] [SPEAKER_00]: I'll be seeing that one so I won't actually be able to walk with you but if you would like to

[00:10:52] [SPEAKER_00]: donate to the team, that would be a great help it's called Pete's Pack. So go to alz.org slash walk

[00:10:58] [SPEAKER_00]: look for my name Pete's Pack PACK. It's not a political action committee here and so you make

[00:11:05] [SPEAKER_00]: donation that helps us get to our goal and then on October 19th I will be walking in the

[00:11:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Charlotte one a truest field right over here and if you want to walk with me you can do that or if

[00:11:18] [SPEAKER_00]: you just want to help me raise money for the Alzheimer's Association Western Carolina chapter.

[00:11:23] [SPEAKER_00]: It funds research, it funds resources and support for family members and caregivers. It's a great

[00:11:29] [SPEAKER_00]: organization doing really great work and we've got to break through in one of the drugs that has

[00:11:35] [SPEAKER_00]: been developed so that's been a really bright spot over the last couple of years but so let me give

[00:11:43] [SPEAKER_00]: some shoutouts to Deborah Peggy Chris Mark Michael Walter Kerry Tracy Teresa Nick Kim Mark

[00:12:01] [SPEAKER_00]: and Renee have all donated to the Pete's Pack and some will be walking, some will not but

[00:12:07] [SPEAKER_00]: thank you very much for the donations I believe. I think it looks like we have hit our $3,000

[00:12:15] [SPEAKER_00]: go I got to up the goal again. I'm gonna have to increase the goal because we hit our $3,000

[00:12:20] [SPEAKER_00]: go we started at a thousand and then everybody is donated all the money and so we've now

[00:12:30] [SPEAKER_00]: it's a my grandfather had Alzheimer's and that's why I have been a supporter of the Alzheimer's

[00:12:36] [SPEAKER_00]: Association for so long and so I appreciate everybody's support and they're helping us to

[00:12:42] [SPEAKER_00]: to change some lives and find a cure you know that's what this is all about.

[00:12:50] [SPEAKER_00]: Kmart, do you remember Kmart? I used to work at a Kmart. I actually worked I think it was the first

[00:12:57] [SPEAKER_00]: Kmart on Long Island but maybe not but it was a big one it was in Bayshore. No sorry West

[00:13:05] [SPEAKER_00]: Babylon it was in West Babylon South Shore of Long Island I worked at this Kmart not very long

[00:13:11] [SPEAKER_00]: I want to save for like six months or something and it was I was like a junior in high school

[00:13:15] [SPEAKER_00]: oh my gosh it was so boring all I was doing was stocking shelves you know and I mean it was good it

[00:13:22] [SPEAKER_00]: was a good good to work in retail for a little bit but I was not a fan I worked in a lot of

[00:13:31] [SPEAKER_00]: restaurants instead front of house back of house but yeah retail is a whole different kind of beast

[00:13:39] [SPEAKER_00]: I felt like see cuz okay this may be a bit of a humble brag but I feel like I have a pretty good

[00:13:47] [SPEAKER_00]: work ethic and by that I mean like workaholic and so like you give me a list of tasks

[00:13:54] [SPEAKER_00]: I am going to get all of those things done as quickly as possible and then I do and then I realized

[00:14:00] [SPEAKER_00]: crap I've got four and a half hours left on a five hour shift and what am I going to do so then

[00:14:06] [SPEAKER_00]: I walk around and I try to find stuff to do but I don't know what I'm doing because everything was

[00:14:13] [SPEAKER_00]: so compartmentalized you know I was working in the back and then I was like well let me go up

[00:14:19] [SPEAKER_00]: and I like I knew I could get up to the cashiers and I could collect the box of hangers so I would do that

[00:14:25] [SPEAKER_00]: and then they got sick of seeing me like every 20 minutes because I what they weren't filling up the boxes

[00:14:30] [SPEAKER_00]: which probably was a good indication kind of writing on the wall on that one if you're not selling enough

[00:14:37] [SPEAKER_00]: merchandise to fill up the hangers you know in the box then anyway came art is closing

[00:14:43] [SPEAKER_00]: its last full size store this full the end of an era a tension blue light shoppers

[00:14:54] [SPEAKER_00]: I never did get to say that over the the PA system which you would think given where I landed like

[00:15:00] [SPEAKER_00]: I would be a pretty good person to stick on on microphone you would think I had yet to develop those skills

[00:15:06] [SPEAKER_00]: though I suspect and also I don't think my voice had changed so some would say it still hasn't

[00:15:13] [SPEAKER_00]: those are very hurtful people but the stores located in the posh hamlet of bridge Hampton

[00:15:20] [SPEAKER_00]: as the name indicates the Hamptons right long island one of just two remaining full-size stores

[00:15:27] [SPEAKER_00]: that once spanned more than 2000 before the rise of wallmarked and amazon so this store out in

[00:15:35] [SPEAKER_00]: bridge Hampton is going to be closing on October 20th that according to an employee who works there

[00:15:41] [SPEAKER_00]: and I think they might know but also the company that owns the shopping center as well

[00:15:46] [SPEAKER_00]: alright how let a season approaches and here's an idea give a gift that makes a difference

[00:15:52] [SPEAKER_00]: with simply nc goods you directly support North Carolina's local artisans while gifting

[00:15:57] [SPEAKER_00]: something truly unique simply nc goods it's a curated box service owned by two lifelong

[00:16:03] [SPEAKER_00]: North Carolinians the boxes bring the best of North Carolina directly to your doorstep the boxes

[00:16:09] [SPEAKER_00]: from simply nc goods feature handpicked treasures from across the state think artisinal foods

[00:16:14] [SPEAKER_00]: handcrafted beverages unique home decor skin care items pretty much anything nc every item

[00:16:21] [SPEAKER_00]: shares a piece of North Carolina's heart and you'll discover new businesses in every box there are

[00:16:25] [SPEAKER_00]: boxes of various sizes and prices so it's super easy to find the perfect gift for anyone

[00:16:31] [SPEAKER_00]: and any occasion the special holiday themed boxes are available for order now until October 15th

[00:16:37] [SPEAKER_00]: so time is running out these boxes make great gifts for friends family even yourself

[00:16:43] [SPEAKER_00]: don't miss out on spreading the joy with gifts that support North Carolina based small businesses

[00:16:48] [SPEAKER_00]: just visit simply nc goods dot com slash peat and check them out that's simply nc goods dot com slash

[00:16:56] [SPEAKER_00]: peat and thanks for being a part of simply nc good story all right so kmart had one

[00:17:04] [SPEAKER_00]: full size store left in america apparently i was not aware of this but they they have smaller stores

[00:17:11] [SPEAKER_00]: have you ever seen a smaller kmart store i have not apparently these things are like the size of a

[00:17:17] [SPEAKER_00]: yes or a wall greens or something i've never seen them i've only seen the big you know box stores

[00:17:26] [SPEAKER_00]: took up you know most of the strip mall um usually with nothing on the shelves when you go in

[00:17:32] [SPEAKER_00]: wow okay but that's so that's like the last decade but this was the very last store in bridge

[00:17:37] [SPEAKER_00]: Hampton, New York on Long Island which is a very rich sea part of Long Island's the Hampton's

[00:17:43] [SPEAKER_00]: it opened this store opened in 1996 and it became kmart's proudest and most productive location

[00:17:54] [SPEAKER_00]: because all the richy richies flocked to the store

[00:17:59] [SPEAKER_00]: alongside the richy areas working class population

[00:18:04] [SPEAKER_00]: the stores local clients had included martha steward who joined forces with the retailer licensing her

[00:18:11] [SPEAKER_00]: the steward every day line of home goods in the late nineties remember that

[00:18:16] [SPEAKER_00]: oh the good old days back when we thought kmart was gonna last right

[00:18:21] [SPEAKER_00]: i think i marked the steward as before she went to prison if i recall correctly so

[00:18:29] [SPEAKER_00]: like wow she put her stuff in kmart holy smokes my people like kmart became a joke you know

[00:18:38] [SPEAKER_00]: like a punch line but people don't know like in the early nineties kmart was it was the bomb

[00:18:44] [SPEAKER_00]: like i said i worked at the kmart they had full shelves back then of stuff you wanted well

[00:18:51] [SPEAKER_00]: a lot and some stuff you wanted i mean well mostly yeah mostly stuff you wanted but analysts noted

[00:18:56] [SPEAKER_00]: the kmart store also did well because the nearest wall mart and target were located more than

[00:19:03] [SPEAKER_00]: 20 miles away in riverhead long island which by the way riverhead is

[00:19:08] [SPEAKER_00]: swear that the if you look at long island it looks like a fish it's got like two

[00:19:13] [SPEAKER_00]: tail fins coming off it splits at the end there riverhead's right where the split happens anyway

[00:19:18] [SPEAKER_00]: kmart's martha steward partnership died years ago

[00:19:22] [SPEAKER_00]: in recent seasons the bridge hampton kmart which is like 90 thousand square feet

[00:19:29] [SPEAKER_00]: became known for well empty shelves that's yeah an empty shell oh and the lack of customers so

[00:19:37] [SPEAKER_00]: yeah not a lot of people go in there um well because if you're located in a ritsy part of

[00:19:46] [SPEAKER_00]: long island like people that are really wealthy now that kmart doesn't have stuff they're not

[00:19:51] [SPEAKER_00]: going to go in there like it was different when martha was selling her wares and now she's not there anymore

[00:19:57] [SPEAKER_00]: in 2003 it went into bankruptcy protection but remember there's a guy named Eddie Lampert

[00:20:05] [SPEAKER_00]: who guided the store out of bankruptcy and merged it with sears that juggernaut yeah that no

[00:20:17] [SPEAKER_00]: that that didn't that did not yeah that did not go well his aggressive cost cutting failed to return

[00:20:24] [SPEAKER_00]: kmart and sears to profitability and they suffered from poor customer service outdated facilities

[00:20:30] [SPEAKER_00]: and a lack of inventory like i've said like the the two things that sears had going for it in my

[00:20:39] [SPEAKER_00]: opinion the craftsman tools which that brand is still a good brand in my opinion still a good

[00:20:46] [SPEAKER_00]: brand now there are a lot of other tools that are out there that I'm sure compete with it but the brand

[00:20:50] [SPEAKER_00]: itself of craftsman was always very good craftsman tool right and similarly the houses

[00:20:58] [SPEAKER_00]: the sears catalog you go buy a house the craftsman house you people bought homes in a catalog

[00:21:06] [SPEAKER_00]: and then they would deliver it and you could build your house like it's amazing their craftsman

[00:21:12] [SPEAKER_00]: homes all over the country their craftsman homes here in charlete right and they're and they're nice

[00:21:18] [SPEAKER_00]: looking homes too you see the homes they build now and i'm starting to sound like an old person right

[00:21:23] [SPEAKER_00]: the homes today you know maybe you see that they have no architectural uniqueness you know

[00:21:30] [SPEAKER_00]: and what they try to do to make something look architecturally interesting isn't it's just a waste of

[00:21:38] [SPEAKER_00]: materials like they put all of these extra peaks you know and slopes on the roof lines

[00:21:45] [SPEAKER_00]: they stack them up you know and it's like what am I looking at here it's like a you know to

[00:21:51] [SPEAKER_00]: remind me of whenever i see the houses that look like this it reminds me of do you ever go into

[00:21:56] [SPEAKER_00]: like a bathroom or something where you've got a mirror in front and a mirror behind and then you

[00:22:02] [SPEAKER_00]: look in the mirror and you can see the mirror behind you and you get this like like it just goes off

[00:22:07] [SPEAKER_00]: into infinity like the same image but but but but but but but like that that's what that reminds me when i look at a

[00:22:13] [SPEAKER_00]: house and it's got these four five peaks and they're all just kind of lined up in front of each other

[00:22:18] [SPEAKER_00]: to make it look architectural interesting but it's not i just look at it is wasteful you could have

[00:22:24] [SPEAKER_00]: just gone right up just make just put take the whatever the front wall isn't a little way to the top

[00:22:29] [SPEAKER_00]: you get more living space underneath what why would you why would you do that just doesn't look right

[00:22:36] [SPEAKER_00]: or even worse they don't even try to do anything architecturally interesting and then it's just like

[00:22:41] [SPEAKER_00]: just like an a frame and there's nothing on the front of it it's just black anyway i digress a smaller

[00:22:48] [SPEAKER_00]: came art in Miami Florida will remain open you go smaller came art in Miami long live this is so this is one

[00:23:00] [SPEAKER_00]: of the small the small stores like the size of a CDS um that's gonna stay open in Miami after the chain

[00:23:07] [SPEAKER_00]: closed a store in westward new jersey last year um and then they also closed another one in

[00:23:14] [SPEAKER_00]: avonell new jersey in April of 2022 so i guess this is the last one in america because they

[00:23:21] [SPEAKER_00]: now they do have several stores outside of the united states the fifty states i should say they've got some in

[00:23:29] [SPEAKER_00]: virgin islands and guam which may tip over as i understand it which no well in the

[00:23:37] [SPEAKER_00]: exact why you would put a kmart on guam if you don't have a lot of people coming through then you don't

[00:23:42] [SPEAKER_00]: risk the uh the the capsizing of the island right had to there to hang johnson congressman from

[00:23:48] [SPEAKER_00]: Georgia so when i was a kid my grandpa died with Alzheimer's and before he died by mom and my dad

[00:23:53] [SPEAKER_00]: and all of us really helped take care of them as he got progressively worse 40 years ago there were

[00:23:59] [SPEAKER_00]: no treatments and not much support for caregivers and family things are different today because of the

[00:24:04] [SPEAKER_00]: work is so many people including the Alzheimer's association of western north carolina it's a great

[00:24:10] [SPEAKER_00]: organization with awesome people they've got huge hearts i've been a supporter for like 25 years this

[00:24:15] [SPEAKER_00]: cause means a lot to me i participate in the annual walk to end Alzheimer's and i am leading a

[00:24:21] [SPEAKER_00]: pilot team this year it's called piz pack you can sign up and join the team and walk with me it's on

[00:24:27] [SPEAKER_00]: october 19th at truest field in uptown sign up at a z dot org slash walk and then just look

[00:24:34] [SPEAKER_00]: from my team piz pack and there's also a link in the podcast description here also i'm going to be

[00:24:39] [SPEAKER_00]: m seeing the gastonia walk on october 5th so make a team and join us or make a donation to help me hit

[00:24:45] [SPEAKER_00]: my goal i would really appreciate it there are a bunch of other walks around the carolina's

[00:24:50] [SPEAKER_00]: you can go to a lz dot org for all of the dates and locations we are closer than ever to stopping

[00:24:57] [SPEAKER_00]: Alzheimer's uh and if you can help us get there we would really appreciate it will you come walk with

[00:25:02] [SPEAKER_00]: me for a different future for families for more time for treatments this is why i walk

[00:25:08] [SPEAKER_00]: couple of emails here regarding kmart that has announced the closure of its final full-size store

[00:25:16] [SPEAKER_00]: in the united states it's up in uh bridge hampton which is on long Island what are the Hamptons

[00:25:25] [SPEAKER_00]: and stances if you think about it the process of kmart's demise is similar to the

[00:25:31] [SPEAKER_00]: progressing demise of america but on a much larger scale eventually people get in charge of running things

[00:25:37] [SPEAKER_00]: and they realize that they can personally make more money selling it out than representing it

[00:25:43] [SPEAKER_00]: yeah that's one of the things to you know these guys that take over companies you know leveraged

[00:25:48] [SPEAKER_00]: buy out you admit romney types they're you know that kind of um they they know that the company

[00:25:55] [SPEAKER_00]: is worth more in parts to sell off and spin off right and this is the thing about a free market

[00:26:05] [SPEAKER_00]: system is that you can build something like sears you can i mean sears i remember reading stories

[00:26:12] [SPEAKER_00]: i've talked about this i think on the show over the you know in the past um over the years where

[00:26:18] [SPEAKER_00]: when sears first started um and they were mailing these catalogs out to people there were

[00:26:23] [SPEAKER_00]: towns that would take all of the catalogs they would collect up all the catalogs and they would

[00:26:29] [SPEAKER_00]: like hold bonfires in the town square and burn these sears catalogs because they they viewed

[00:26:36] [SPEAKER_00]: them as competition that they were putting uh small mom and pop businesses out of business right

[00:26:44] [SPEAKER_00]: the destruction the creative destruction if you will new things come along they replace existing

[00:26:50] [SPEAKER_00]: things and people who are in those businesses uh or making certain products that now become obsolete

[00:26:57] [SPEAKER_00]: they um they go under and so they viewed the sears catalog as a threat like they were very

[00:27:06] [SPEAKER_00]: controversial at the time which is like to me was amazing to learn because i grew up in the sears

[00:27:12] [SPEAKER_00]: catalog was something that we always looked forward to because we would get you know the big

[00:27:16] [SPEAKER_00]: fat catalog and it would come around in the fall i want to say um and we would go through and

[00:27:22] [SPEAKER_00]: the whole section on uh toys and then all of them my brother my two sisters and we would we would

[00:27:31] [SPEAKER_00]: circle things that we liked we would look through this catalog it was just so big it was huge

[00:27:37] [SPEAKER_00]: but we never looked at all of it right when you get to the next section like the tool section we're

[00:27:42] [SPEAKER_00]: like that we're done right but we would circle and we would put our little initial you know i

[00:27:47] [SPEAKER_00]: put a P next to the stuff that i liked and um that was my only memory of the sears catalog

[00:27:54] [SPEAKER_00]: but people hated it and what's really amazing is if ever a company was positioned to uh to take

[00:28:04] [SPEAKER_00]: control of the you know direct to consumer um sales like amazon is now sears should have done it

[00:28:15] [SPEAKER_00]: that's their roots right the sears catalog was the amazon of its day so when amazon comes along

[00:28:23] [SPEAKER_00]: and sears is completely unprepared to do battle right because they got complacent

[00:28:32] [SPEAKER_00]: and then they lost sight of their core mission and that's the thing about the free market it will

[00:28:38] [SPEAKER_00]: punish you for doing so john says peed i invested into sears because of lamparts reputation at the

[00:28:50] [SPEAKER_00]: time i lost a lot yeah the the story of sears is sad and came art is too i mean came art

[00:28:59] [SPEAKER_00]: you know how old they are they human they started came art started in 1899

[00:29:08] [SPEAKER_00]: when sebasians sparing crezki founded his first store there was just a little five of the time

[00:29:14] [SPEAKER_00]: and kids today don't even know what a five-in-time is i i do or if we called it a five-in-10

[00:29:20] [SPEAKER_00]: i don't know why but we called it the five-in-10 um it was called suffix stores

[00:29:25] [SPEAKER_00]: along island in west islip suffix stores and it was uh you know it's like a small little shop whatever

[00:29:31] [SPEAKER_00]: but it had just you know department store kind of variety of old different things and that's what

[00:29:37] [SPEAKER_00]: came art started as crezki quickly expanded his reach over the next decade under the name ss crezki

[00:29:46] [SPEAKER_00]: company and by 1912 so within 13 years he had 85 stores around america the first official came art

[00:29:55] [SPEAKER_00]: opened in garden city michigan nineteen sixty two that same year 17 more stores opened around

[00:30:05] [SPEAKER_00]: the country in four year of yeah in four years nineteen sixty six there were 162

[00:30:13] [SPEAKER_00]: came art stores located in towns and cities nationwide in 1977 the company officially changed its name

[00:30:20] [SPEAKER_00]: to came art and then by the nineties they had two thousand three hundred stores around america

[00:30:28] [SPEAKER_00]: with three hundred fifty thousand employees and now they don't have a single full-size store

[00:30:38] [SPEAKER_00]: that was fast slowly at first and then very quickly all right that'll do it for this episode

[00:30:43] [SPEAKER_00]: thank you so much for listening i could not do the show without your support and the support of

[00:30:47] [SPEAKER_00]: businesses that advertise on the podcast so if you'd like please support them too until i'm

[00:30:52] [SPEAKER_00]: your herded here you could also become a patron at my patreon page or go to dpcalinner show dot com again

[00:30:58] [SPEAKER_00]: thank you so much for listening and uh don't break anything while i'm gone