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314 — Whole Lotta Bread
64 Plays1 year ago
Ty & Eric report on a recent homicide in a Chicago Subway, the surge in negative feedback on Wendy’s surge-pricing model, and Subway’s discontinuation of yellow mustard. They also discuss the rising heat tolerance of American pallets, bullet-proof sneeze guards, whether the customer is ever right, revitalizing tartar sauce, adding deflationary vegetables to your footlong, the mass appeal of Punjabi ketchup and Subway’s sriracha warchest.
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Transcript
Introduction and Tone Setting
00:00:05
Speaker
Good afternoon, breadheads. How are we doing? Oh, we are having a bit of a somber day, Eric. Yeah, that's right. We have a pretty crazy news story across our desks today. I won't tell you what it is. I'm just going to play this news clip that I found, okay? Take a listen.
Crime Story from Chicago
00:00:28
Speaker
We're starting here with a stunning crime overnight inside of a Chicago fast food restaurant. A man who was sitting inside of a subway was shot in the head. I mean, can you believe that? I don't know why I'm laughing. That's crazy. That's terrible. It's almost unbelievable. However,
00:00:50
Speaker
That's not even what the article is called. Okay. This is, that's like the first thing they say in the news clip, but the article itself says Chicago police orders 24 hour subway restaurant closed due to public safety threat. So the news piece here, and I think this reveals a lot about America is that the news article is the subway is closed and not that someone died. Right. The real tragedy here is that we had to shut down capitalism.
00:01:18
Speaker
Yeah, we have to pause fast food for a day. Holy shit. Wow. Okay. So Chicago that this is not good for Chicago's reputation. Definitely not.
Bulletproof Glass and Safety Concerns
00:01:31
Speaker
And if you haven't already guessed, this is from South side of Chicago. So obviously a very like violent area, like in reading further into the article, they said that this subway is no stranger to violence and
00:01:48
Speaker
The, the subway actually has a bulletproof glass separating the artists from the patrons. Wow. Like Florida ceiling. Yeah. Florida ceiling. It's looking like a toll booth. That's crazy. That's like more gas, more glass than you'd find at a bank teller or the, uh, the TSA agent has protecting them. 100%. It makes me think like, do you think whoever manufactures this bulletproof glass is like lobbying the government to like keep guns legal?
00:02:18
Speaker
Whoa, it's probably in their best interest. If there's no bullets, there's no need for the glass. Exactly. Like having a law that can throw your business away is just bad for business. Obviously. It's so weird. So like there's the only like things that have
00:02:34
Speaker
bulletproof glass or like the Pope's little balcony, the cyber truck, and then like a subway in the south side of Chi-town. That's funny. Yeah, that is pretty wild. But it makes me think like, what other acts of violence are happening in this subway? And like, are the acts of violence
00:02:54
Speaker
specific to the fast food that you're consuming. At Subway, are you hitting dudes over the head with your footlong on a regular basis? Whereas at McDonald's, you're hucking nuggets. The footlong does hit a little harder when you get rocked with that missile.
00:03:14
Speaker
But it's got to be pretty toasted for it to keep its keep its shape as it whirls across the room. That's right. That's right. Too many sauces and it's going to be looking like Drake's peepee. Yeah, dude, that thing will be sloppy in the face of somebody smack.
00:03:31
Speaker
like a wet snowball. Yeah, dude, some wet work at the latest, uh, at the, at the south side, uh, subway. That's crazy, man.
Humorous Speculations on Subway's Image
00:03:41
Speaker
Hit me with the waterworks. Dude, this is so crazy. I think this is like obviously bad for the dude that got shot in the head, but good for
00:03:48
Speaker
Subway's general credibility on the streets because all of these rappers out of Chicago will make references to churches or occasionally like a McDonald's parking lot or Papa John's or something. And Subway never gets referenced. Subway never gets even a sniff or a nibble in music. So I think tragedies like this are
00:04:14
Speaker
are good because it makes Subway harder. It makes it more toasted as a brand. Absolutely. Ty, really, really quickly, I want to show you what this Subway looks like on the inside. It's absolutely gnarly. It's like the sandwich artist is the veggies because they're in a glass box.
00:04:32
Speaker
Yo, that's so meta. This is so cool looking in a like dude. It's crazy that this is Somebody's life is that they get into the bulletproof sandwich making chamber and then make sandwiches all day as their job Yeah, dude. I mean check out this bespoke design here There's no sneeze guard like the it's like an open-air market in there as soon as you're inside the cube It's an open-air market
00:04:55
Speaker
Yo, that is wild that there's actually no, the sneeze guard, it is one and the same. The sneeze guard goes to the ceiling. So the sound artist, they have complete coverage of those buckets. Like if they sneeze, that whole area is getting fumed.
00:05:14
Speaker
Yeah, that's true. They're in one big hot box with the hot chilies. You want to get like just like a foot long, but it has like just the slight tint of your sandwich artists farts. Like this is the place to go. No, when you're a sandwich artist and your olives are marinating in the same brine. Shit, dude. But yeah, pretty wild, man. This is kind of a theme I'm seeing like all over the States. I don't know about you, but like
00:05:42
Speaker
every target has the deodorant locked away and stuff like that. All these things are just being locked away for safety. I think it makes you think, is America on its downfall now?
00:05:58
Speaker
It's giving downfall for sure. It is absurd the lengths are going to go for these types of contraptions. We actually zoom in on this image of this subway with the floor to ceiling bulletproof glass. They had to make sure that there was no way someone could get around that glass.
00:06:15
Speaker
the even the there's they've built a custom like dolly that's got made of bulletproof glass that rotates in a circle so that they can bring the sandwich to the patron and the patrons I guess currency back into the Zeus like the zoo animal cage size without Yeah, they're ever being an exposed moment for like the sandwich artists to have a target. There's no target there, you know, you're completely covered totally at all time.
00:06:44
Speaker
Yeah, it's kind of like when you're buying new boards at four in the morning, like you have to use that little metal tray at the gas station. Yeah. And like you can't have direct contact with the, not patron, but the, I don't know, whoever's behind the glass. Yeah, this is wild.
Details on the Shooting Victim
00:07:01
Speaker
Okay, we got to talk about like the actual tragedy that happened here, Eric. Like, so a dude got shot in the head. That sucks.
00:07:09
Speaker
Get everything that's going to happen when you're at Subway. That sucks. It really sucks, Ty. I don't know why. It's really unclear based on the information I've compiled here, which is one article. And in the article, one thing was kind of noteworthy. The person who died was neither an employee nor a customer, but rather someone hanging out in the restaurant's waiting area. So thanks to the question, were they waiting to become a customer or were they waiting to die?
00:07:39
Speaker
Interesting. They always say don't loiter, but they never tell you why. Dude, yeah, I know shit. But yeah, I don't know. It sounds like this was a targeted event and Subway was the unfortunate stage for this act of violence. Dude.
00:07:59
Speaker
I think yeah, it must've been targeted. If they weren't there to dine, why would you go linger in there? Cause you know, this is, you're just like, this is my final resting place. Do you think as gang members, you get like, instead of like a last meal, you get like a last location, like a last pin drop. They're like, what do you want your last pin drop to be when we like clip you, you get to pick and the guy's like, well, I really, I really just like the subway and my neighborhood.
00:08:26
Speaker
Holy shit, yeah. Wow, yeah, that's an interesting question. Where do you want to die? I mean, if true, that's kind of interesting and shout out to all the murderers out there who offer the chance, I guess. It's really user-centric, really good customer experience, I don't know.
00:08:49
Speaker
Yeah, I think we've talked about the death row meal thing before. I don't even know if Canadians do this. I'm so detached from Canadian anything. I hear about American stuff and I assume we do it too, but do Canadian prisons even offer a last meal when you're on death row? Do we even have the death sentence here anywhere? I don't think so.
00:09:10
Speaker
I don't think we have death sentence, but we have like, what is it, assisted suicide, which is self-inflicted. And in that scenario, you are probably eligible for a last meal as well. That is true. What if the food takes you out?
00:09:28
Speaker
like that would actually might, that might be a more humane way, you know, like just poison the foot long. Give me the perpetual stew. That's what I was going to say, dude. I want the poison stew, you know, take my life into my own hands, literally in my own spoon, in my own handheld.
00:09:51
Speaker
I'm not gonna be able to walk in subway ever again and think like I could die like I never thought for a second like I thought if I was gonna die in here it's from choking or food coma but yeah I never ever thought oh the other patrons are a liability to me yeah fuck I mean
00:10:12
Speaker
It's a tricky one, Ty. I don't know. Some subways I've walked in and I've felt like I could be harmed. It's not out of the question, even in Vancouver.
00:10:25
Speaker
you walk into the main street subway and the person before you is yelling at the cashier and the person after you is yelling at the cashier. It's a common occurrence. Once in a while, that argument can escalate to a potential food fight. Damn.
00:10:46
Speaker
It's crazy. It's interesting because it's like sometimes people are like, Oh, I had bad service at that restaurant or I had good service at that restaurant and like your worst experience at a restaurant from interacting with the restaurant employee.
00:11:02
Speaker
is usually like your experience from worst to best is pretty like it's not that big of a spectrum I guess is what I'm saying but the possibility for how bad a customer can be to how good a customer can be is like the wildest spectrum.
00:11:21
Speaker
Yeah, true. It's a little bit one sided in that sense. Like your employee only has like a little bit of wiggle room to be bad or good, but the customer can do, they can literally shoot another customer in the head. Yeah, no kidding. And we have capitalism to thank for that guy, because the employee has to be interviewed. And if they don't perform, then they can lose their job.
Subway's Swift Reopening Post-Incident
00:11:42
Speaker
And that
00:11:44
Speaker
removes them from the scenario entirely, right? It's like if they're too bad at their job, they probably won't even be there. Like they don't have the opportunity to do something crazy. Whereas like anybody that is a customer can walk through that door and worst case, something like this happens. You know, someone gets blipped in front of you and
00:12:03
Speaker
You can't do anything about it as an employee. But one more, the fact I want to pull up from this article was the restaurant reopened the next day. The next day. The next day, yeah. It just reopened on the Friday morning. And I'm just thinking the logistics of that. So did one of the closers have to wipe the blood and brains off of the window?
00:12:26
Speaker
Like I don't understand how that happened. Shit. I got to clean this up cause my shift's ending and I'll get reprimanded. Yeah. It's like, Oh fuck. I just wiped down table seven. Dude. That's insane. Yeah.
00:12:44
Speaker
That's why the police ordered the restaurant to close because it was actually open. That's the crazy thing. They're just like business as usual. You can still get your tuna sub. Just don't look to your left. Yeah, exactly. Don't order the marinara. Yikes. Well, okay, here's actually the weirdest thing though Eric. It doesn't seem that surprising.
00:13:07
Speaker
And it doesn't seem that surprising because this is a 24 seven subway and a really, really bad part of town. And at a certain point as a business owner, do you put the floor to ceiling bulletproof glass open so your subway can be open all night? Or you just say, you know, we're not going to make that much money at four in the morning, but we incur a lot of risk to our business and our customers. Maybe we just close like a normal business at a normal time for this particular location.
00:13:35
Speaker
Mm-hmm like what do you think they really like make enough money all night to justify the risk they're incurring? So it's a good question cuz I imagine the high-risk areas are also the high-yield areas, you know what I mean like
00:13:51
Speaker
You're outside the clubs or something like that. So like people always want to get a bite after the after they are clubbing all night. So maybe they're there at three in the morning. But then also that guy you bumped into at the club at three in the morning as well is like following you to your late night food spot and is going to whack you get here and get clubbed. Yeah. So it's like I imagine if the subway was in the middle of nowhere and there's like no activity nearby, then there's going to be no sales, but also little risk.
00:14:20
Speaker
So the laws of the market will dictate that if there are no food options in a high density area, somebody will be willing to take the risk. Presumably there's not enough comp, not a ton of competition. Totally. Yeah. Great walk walk-in traffic, but terrible, terrible risk to employees and patrons. Yeah. A lot of walk-ins, slightly fewer walkouts. Wow.
00:14:49
Speaker
That's crazy. Damn. I guess you could probably say almost every business has fewer walkouts than walk-ins. Like statistically, it just has to be the case. Yeah. Because at certain points, someone's getting wheeled out or carried out on a stretcher for a variety of reasons that it isn't always getting whacked. That's true. That's true. So think fresh field trip.
00:15:11
Speaker
To Southside, what do you think? I'm never going to this subway location, Eric. I value my life far too much. I'm not even going to go to the US anymore. I think I'm good on the US. I don't really have any more reasons to go visit. I've seen New York. I've seen LA. I'm good. Yeah, for sure. Stories like this made me want to just denounce my passport entirely. 100%. I understand the suburbs now. Yeah, I mean, you should just move to Denmark.
00:15:39
Speaker
They haven't had a crime there since the 80s. Yeah. I mean, you go to Denmark and go to the subway and it's very nice. No crime. No more podcasting. We started a canoe tour. Yeah. We do arm wrestling challenge only.
00:15:58
Speaker
Is that a thing that Danes do? Do they arm wrestle? I have no clue. I just imagine some strong Scandinavian men wrestling in oil. Totally normal thing to think about. Dude, I think if anything they would have like peak level calves and little weak little arms because of all the cycling, you know? Oh, true. Yeah. Just insane quads, just birthing quads. They got the birthing quads.
00:16:27
Speaker
Yeah, they can do a wall sit for the whole their whole eight hour shift. That's crazy. Crazy. Damn. Ty, I got some more news that I want to share with you and I had to do slightly more research for this one because I couldn't believe it. And a few listeners may already know this, but Wendy's is said they're experimenting or I won't even say they said this. OK, this is where the heavy research came in.
00:16:55
Speaker
people have claimed that Wendy's has said that they're going to experiment with surge pricing. And obviously the comments on this are just gold because I'm looking at this like Instagram post where people are like commenting on this news story and everyone's like, well, Wendy's just lost another customer. It's just like, it's just like fake outrage and
00:17:23
Speaker
Every corporate fast food company is jumping at the opportunity to be like, we'll never do that to you guys. Everyone gets a free whopper. It's just like a fucking marketing circle jerk here and it's really unfortunate.
00:17:41
Speaker
dude, this is crazy. I, I, I could totally see like McDonald's hopping and he'd be like the junior chicken pricing is only going to be changed by inflation. You know, like we promise only inflation will adjust these numbers. Exactly. Exactly. So it turns out Ty that this is actually a misconception because people said that
00:18:04
Speaker
or Wendy's themselves posted on their blog, which has a great media statement image. It's just a blank, blank image that says media statement.
00:18:15
Speaker
It says that they intend to use menu boards that are digital in order to change their features as frequently as needed, right? And apparently this was misconstrued in some media reports as an intent to raise prices when demand is highest. So all for nothing, everyone can calm down, put the pitchforks down, you know what I mean? The tiki torches can be put out. No need to fear, Wendy's baconator will stay the same.
00:18:45
Speaker
I think they're walking back their claims. This is the official Wendy's statement, but I bet you they did hint at it. I don't know the entire narrative here, but I bet you they were considering it and then they saw the only thing that actually surged was their negative publicity.
00:19:04
Speaker
Yeah, it's entirely possible that someone leaked this news and then before they even had a chance to do it, they walked back because they saw the leak and the response to the leak.
00:19:15
Speaker
I'm kind of bummed. I'm kind of bummed because I like this idea. Like I'm not going into Wendy's during peak times. I'm going into Wendy's when I'm desperate and it's vampire hours. And there's like, I haven't seen another human in 45 minutes. So there's no way I'm getting a good deal on my whatever. I don't even like flurry. What do they sell there? I never go into Wendy's anyways.
00:19:37
Speaker
Totally. I feel like Wendy's, their locations are very random and they're located next to real restaurants instead of where people want the Wendy's to be. Yeah, totally. It's because you didn't want to wait 35 minutes for a table at Olive Garden, so you walk next door to Wendy's for dinner. Yeah, but why aren't they on Granville Street, for example?
00:20:04
Speaker
I don't think there's a Wendy's there, but that when that McDonald's is popping at like four in the morning every single Friday and Saturday, you know? Yeah. And it doesn't even need bulletproof glass. Yeah, dude. Canadian society just is better, I think. I guess so. So we got to talk about how like whether the surge model popularized by Uber is appropriate for subway. Hmm.
00:20:33
Speaker
Is there a play here? Is there a play for Subway? Playway. Playway. I don't know. How is it any different than Wendy's? Well, the challenge with Subway is everything's already free. I guess you could get more or less of one of the Subway series, but it doesn't really matter because I guess everything could raise or lower in price. Everything goes up 10% if there's a lineup and everything lowers if there's not. That's one option.
00:21:03
Speaker
Okay. Here's, here's the play tie. The menu has 13 sandwiches on it, right? That's Taylor Swift's favorite number. Okay. There's 13 sandwiches. And how many times are you getting the veggie patty every single time, right? Almost every single time. Yeah. 100% of the time. So, but what if you were offered a discount to mess with the not so tuna, tuna, would you do it?
00:21:32
Speaker
twist my arm. It was quite tempting. If we were to offer cosplaying as Subway's CEO, what if we were a discount for the lesser ordered sandwiches?
00:21:50
Speaker
Ask where my head went to Eric, but not even sandwiches, like ingredient by ingredient. Like maybe they have the lettuce is starting to get a little bit too brown. So lettuce is now like the special. And if you get the special ingredient, we take 10% off your foot long price, no matter what it is. You just have to add that to your sandwich.
00:22:10
Speaker
Right. So it's like a clear. You're you're adding the multiplier. This is exactly more for less. And they get to fly their veggies off the shelf to get some fresh stuff going. Mm hmm. That's interesting. But then I see a downside with this, though, because if subway patrons are eating what they think is fresh, there's a good chance they'll be happy with their sandwich. Right. But if they're ordering the things that are not fresh intentionally,
00:22:38
Speaker
they're almost guaranteeing themselves a bad sandwich or like potential stomach issues, you know what I mean? Just a bad time overall, which could decrease the overall sentiment towards Subway, even though it's their fault. Well, that's a really good point, Eric. I would like to offer a counterpoint, which is that if you need to save 10% on your sandwich, which is like 70 cents to the point that you're willing to compromise what you actually want to eat for it, then you don't have much taste to begin with.
00:23:07
Speaker
Yeah. No, you're totally right. The same people are eating at McDonald's and not complaining. The only reason being is they don't look in the burger. The ingredients are in there, but it doesn't mean they're fresh. Yeah. Dude, this is the craziest thing about people though is that they will only be able to complain about something that has completely engrossed their attention and only for a few minutes.
00:23:32
Speaker
It's like, you could be like, this sandwich was meds and then you like go home and you, your home is like a lawn chair and like a bottle of lube and like 40 empty cans of monster. And that's like all you own. And you're like, I didn't really like my sandwich today. It's like my brother in Christ, your life is meds, you know? How, how are you considering yourself a tastemaker for this particular thing? Wow. That's a great point. It's like you have no reason or no right even to
00:24:01
Speaker
complain about someone else's sandwich that they made for you when your TV is on top of a cardboard box. Yeah, dude. As soon as someone that I meet says something negative about anything, they try to be critical, the first thing I do is immediately look at their haircut. Yeah, dude. We need to understand the credibility of what you just said and are you entitled to any sort of opinion?
00:24:28
Speaker
That's a great point because this is also a really important tactic used in the courtroom. Like the first duty is to discredit the witness if you're on the other side, right? So if you can discredit what this person is saying, then the jury can just strike that out, right? It's like this person is clearly a wacko. You can't listen to them. And I think that's really important here as well. It's like anytime someone critiques something that you are experiencing or maybe something that you like,
00:24:58
Speaker
You can really quickly just look at them, see if their opinion is valid. Like, if they have an OnlyFans, then opinion rejected, you know?
00:25:07
Speaker
Yeah, you've made your bed now, you must lay in it with a camera. Dude, and this is the thing with like, I think at the courtroom is such an interesting situation because you need to like appeal to people in a certain way. Like Young Thug puts on a suit if he's going to like the Grammys and he's got to look good in that suit. You know, you got like the perfectly fit of Versace going.
00:25:34
Speaker
But if he goes into the courtroom, you need to put on the drab worst fitting suit imaginable. So you look like a sad pathetic human so that people empathize with you. You know, you can't you can't get like the three piece perfectly tailored. You've got you got to look a little bit a little sad. I don't know, dude. I think I disagree with you on that one because think about like the think about mug shotty's, for example, like when the when the defendant is looking sharp
00:26:04
Speaker
or they're like an attractive lady. It's really easy to be like, there's no way she could have done that. Or like, there's no way this man committed that crime because look how charming and handsome he is. Or on the flip side, you could say, well, shit, I let him do that to me. So
00:26:22
Speaker
Like being well-dressed, it can only work in your favor, Ty. Yeah. Okay. That's a fair point. I think like that logic works maybe more often than not. But what I was thinking about is like in the post me too era, that charming, sharp, well-dressed man is actually the villain. And there's a new narrative where it's like, we're looking for them because we want to out them. Feel so good to take that guy down. Mm-hmm.
00:26:49
Speaker
Damn, what a sad world we live in, where instead of aspiring to be the heroes in our society, we try to tear them down. Dude, the best thing you can be is a cog, let me tell you. One other news story I wanted to make sure I got to talk to you about today, Eric, is closing the lid on a conversation we had last episode about whether or not Subway is discontinuing Mustard.
00:27:18
Speaker
Oh. Yes. If you remember, we've heard a lot of listeners writing in and complaining in the forums that yellow mustard is no longer a sauce option available at Subway. That's clearly got many people in a bit of a tizzy because it is a classic. Okay. I need to clarify first of all, was there ever a mustard on the menu?
00:27:43
Speaker
I believe there was. What I've learned is there was a mustard. This is not a Mandela effect.
00:27:50
Speaker
So it's more of a mustard than a mustard. Yeah, we can only talk about mustard in the past 10th, but here's what's actually going down. So I guess Canada in particular has a mustard shortage right now, and I'm not sure why. And mustard is a bit on the decline at Subway as far as, and just in general and cultural, over the last few years.
00:28:18
Speaker
So Subway is indeed removing it at least temporarily from the menu. There will be no more mustard. Crazy, right? That's absolutely nuts. Makes me think back to the great sriracha shortage of 2023. And I'm pretty sure Subway always had it on the menu. So it makes me wonder, like, did they have a housemaid sriracha or were they simply very bullish on sriracha early Q1?
00:28:49
Speaker
and just have like a little nest egg to lay back on. Yeah, the war chest of sriracha bottles at Subway in the vault. Totally. The sanctions weren't working and Subway was able to hang on. I think that the mustard vault is a little more skimpy because they have
00:29:12
Speaker
publicly admitted that they are moving on from mustard, but they're not moving on completely. They're currently in negotiations to transition to a different mustard supplier, but they don't know when contracts will be signed and mustard will be sent to stores and what stores will get them once it's all said and done. So there's a good chance if mustard has left your location, it's not coming back.
00:29:35
Speaker
Oh, no. That's all I want to hear, Ty, because I'm really hoping it comes back and I'm hoping it comes back stronger and more fuerte than ever. You know what I mean? Yeah, dude, I want my mustard to just punch me in the face. 100%. I need that little Dijon action. If it can just really make that shit just clock me in the face every time, then I'll be happier.
00:30:01
Speaker
Yeah, dude, I mean, there's only some, in some ways I do wanna be shot in the face at Subway, but it's with a really intense sauce. And it's more symbolic. 100%, dude. I just feel like, okay, it's one of those things where it's like, you don't really know how good you've got it until it's gone.
00:30:26
Speaker
And that's how I feel with the mustard. I myself have denied my foot long mustard drizzle probably the last like 200 inches. I haven't gone near the mustard. I was bored by it, but now the minute it's gone, I want it so bad. I want the taste of that yellow mustard on my sandwich. You're totally right. It's crazy. Like Subway, do they just offer you so many options of sauce that like
00:30:51
Speaker
just the pure fact that there are so many choices makes you want to go crazy with it. Like, yeah, I'll try the ranch. Like, that does not belong in a sandwich whatsoever. But because you're offering it to me, I'm more inclined to try it. And I'm going to skip the classics, right? Because I probably have mustard at home, but I don't have barbecue at home.
00:31:13
Speaker
Yeah, the sweet onion chicken teriyaki sauce is a little bit bespoke. It's a Subway exclusive. So I think that's what's happening here is I think that the choice has expanded so much recently that mustard is just getting a smaller and smaller inch of the sandwich, slice of the pie. And that's going to continue to be the case. And so I started looking at
00:31:39
Speaker
Sauce trends all across North America and that seems to be the case is that as more choice enters the market our main players catch up mustard relish their their market is shrinking and shrinking Mm-hmm
00:31:53
Speaker
sad to see. But also, I don't feel very apologetic for ketchup. I think ketchup is one of the mainstream acts that doesn't really deserve to be there. Maybe it did at one point, but I think it's long overdue for a ripening.
00:32:11
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And so this is what's really interesting. I started getting into a, like, what's happening next in sauces whole. And I learned a little bit about where the market thinks the next sauces are going to be happening. And one of them is like a strain of ketchup. It's like the Omnicron of ketchup. It's Punjabi ketchup.
00:32:33
Speaker
Wait, hold on. Good job, you catch up? Yeah, dude. So, like, this is apparently the thing is... Bro, Korean ketchup has been around for a while. I'll just say that. It has been, but you don't really see a lot of Korean ketchup options kicking it next to Heinz on the grocery store shelf unless you're at, like, Lazy Acres or something. Mm-hmm. Right. Or at a, like, Bratwurst pop-up.
00:32:59
Speaker
Yeah, or an actual Punjabi market. So we're thinking like, I guess like just more vibrant, spicy ketchup, which I'm all for. I think that sounds awesome.
00:33:10
Speaker
Yeah dude, spicy ketchup. It kind of just reminds me though of like brunch places that have their in-house ketchup. Like they all have an in-house ketchup that is with cumin or like kind of spicy and it's like it's a welcome change but maybe a little overplayed. I don't know, I'll be honest. I get that. Do you think the market is heading in this direction?
00:33:32
Speaker
I think what we're going to see is we're going to see it start hitting everybody's fridge door. That's the next big move for catch up with a little bit of smoked paprika in it. Interesting. Yeah. The other one that's really big is they calling the trend spicy, which is not quite swass, but it's spicy. Wait, wait, wait. Let me guess. Yeah, yeah. Go ahead. Spicy and sweet.
00:33:57
Speaker
yeah it's pretty obvious sorry i didn't give you that opportunity anyways sweet and spicy this has been a chinese food staple since the han dynasty thai why is this trending now i think it's because the north american palette is getting hotter like i think whether it's i don't know if it's hot ones or just like
00:34:20
Speaker
general food banality, but it's now like people want spicier and they need a little bit of sweet to balance it out. I love this. I'm a bit of a hot head as you know, and I'm curious type if you came across any of this in your research, but how common is like spice in the North American palette these days because it's kind of like a club, you know what I mean?
00:34:50
Speaker
It's a club where the entrance fee is practice. If you want to be in the club of spicy sauce consumers, you got to put some shots up in the gym. You got to take down some sriracha once in a while to train the palate. I'm just curious, is that club getting bigger or smaller?
00:35:14
Speaker
I think it's getting bigger my guy like everyone wants to say they get a five at the Thai restaurant, you know, like you guys so people are I think people are putting the time in and I think like Subway is where entry-level there's I mean a lot of places will give you entry-level heat but like they added that hot sauce to the menu that things got a little bit of kick and you know what I think they're leaving a few more seeds in the jalapeno now they used to strip that thing seedless but we got a little little pocket of heat happening
00:35:44
Speaker
That's right. And you can probably do a quick Google search term trend forecast here, but spicy marks have been having a very productive quarter as well. Exactly. So I think what's happening here, Eric, is that spicy spice is no longer localized. We now live in a, let's call it a global skull village of sorts. I only said that. It was a bit forced.
00:36:13
Speaker
It's pretty exciting. There is one other sauce that is supposed to be up and coming. That's a real throwback. And I don't know if I believe in this and I want to hear your take. Okay. Tartar sauce coming back. Oh, I never thought it left. Tartar sauce hits bro. Are you kidding? I think what's happened to tartar sauce though is it fell into this GMO hole.
00:36:41
Speaker
And like this processed whole where like all tartar felt like it was like, came from like this, it like, it like comes out of like a big fat tube, like a slug. And I think Kraft tartar sauce is what's going to revitalize it.
00:36:58
Speaker
Fuck yeah, dude. Dude, nothing better than a little fish and chippy, some tartar sauce. Oh, man. That and the game? What's the ideal Friday? Damn, yeah. Fucking awesome. A man around the world just said, hell yeah, in sequence, dude.
00:37:20
Speaker
Dude, if we all say hell yeah in unison, then the world would implode. But yeah, dude, tartar sauce has always been one of the best things of all time. It's perfectly creamy. You know what I mean? There's little chunks of stuff in there. I'm not sure what it is. Maybe celery. I don't really know. But this is why this is why we need like the craft complex of craft beer and artisanal catch ups to move into tartar so they can start explaining to us why that shit's in there.
00:37:48
Speaker
and why it's so special to the experience of the tartar. Mm hmm. Totally. There's also this iconic line from SpongeBob where he's like, he uses tartar sauce as a derogatory way to explain his anger. You know what I mean? He says tartar sauce.
00:38:09
Speaker
I'm pretty sure. That's awesome. It goes to the whole nautical theme, I would imagine. Makes sense. Wow, the writers there, clever. I saw this Instagram post the other day that I don't like repeating content I read on the internet on this podcast, but it was pretty funny. The conversation went like this.
00:38:29
Speaker
Hey, have you heard of Squidward? Yes. Well, you should check out this show, SpongeBob. He's in it. Wait, I don't get it. That's the joke. What the fuck? I don't understand. It's pretty funny, hey? Thinkfreshpodcast.com is the website. Yup. You can listen to episodes on Spotify and Apple Music.
00:38:56
Speaker
And thanks for listening, everybody. Make fresh, everybody. Ciao. Make fresh.