Transcript
Speaker: It was very weird.
Speaker: But it was like, why are you so overreacting to like the sum of all this?
Speaker: It's a great movie.
Speaker: It's one actually, it's, I like it.
Speaker: I really, it's entertaining.
Speaker: That was actually Jeff that called in.
Speaker: It was, ahhhh.
Speaker: You mentioned something, Jason, the other day you were kind of reflecting on, and I don't know if you were thinking about your time at Best Buy, but you made some, was it a video iPod reference?
Speaker: But I was thinking more, because you were what, Wilson's Leather, right when you moved to Minneapolis?
Speaker: Journey Shoes.
Speaker: Oh, Journey's, that's right.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I worked at Journey's, and then I went to Wilson's to make another 45 cents an hour.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: Great.
Speaker: Great.
Speaker: And then people are like, would you buy a leather jacket?
Speaker: And I go, I'm not really a leather jacket guy.
Speaker: And I remember.
Speaker: You had fun there.
Speaker: Yeah, it was different.
Speaker: You could tell who leather jacket person was just because they almost always came in smelling like cigarettes and not like classy cigarettes.
Speaker: Like maybe when the brand originated, it was a classy cigarette company and they just kept pulling the, you know, pulling the chain and smoking them as, as the cigarette brand slipped and slipped in value.
Speaker: And they're just like, this is my brand.
Speaker: This is what I smoked.
Speaker: So that was, that was interesting.
Speaker: And then they complain at the cost of a full grain cowhide jacket.
Speaker: That was like $400 ago.
Speaker: This was an $80 jacket when I bought it in black Friday, three years ago.
Speaker: And you go, right.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: You should have bought it then.
Speaker: Sounds like you got a, sounds like you got a great deal.
Speaker: Why didn't you buy two?
Speaker: No, no, no.
Speaker: They didn't buy it.
Speaker: And so they were lamenting the fact that they missed it.
Speaker: Correct.
Speaker: And so it went from $80 to $400, but it's, it's, they're totally different, you know?
Speaker: And that's the thing with, with any sort of clothing or attire, it's
Speaker: Every shirt is different.
Speaker: Even if you get them off of the same rack back to back, there's slight differences.
Speaker: And so trying to explain that when you're making $7.45 an hour, I don't know.
Speaker: Didn't you work in an offshoot of Wilson's Leather?
Speaker: Like it wasn't even a full store?
Speaker: So I did work at the full store.
Speaker: And then I was recruited to work at an accessory store.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: They were working the premium goods line of wallets, handbags, gloves, like all high-end.
Speaker: Are they private label?
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Everything was private label.
Speaker: It's internal, yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And they're not in the business anymore, right, I think?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I don't believe so.
Speaker: I don't believe so.
Speaker: Who would have thought a complete mall store with leather goods would be able to survive PETA?
Speaker: I knew it wasn't, especially when it came to are these ethically sourced cow hides.
Speaker: Define ethical because they're sourced, right?
Speaker: And so that's kind of the only thing as you look back at things that don't exist now that did then that were still like, you know, oh, this is still really classy to have a leather jacket.
Speaker: And I don't know, like, have you ever been intimidated by anyone wearing a leather jacket in the last 15 years?
Speaker: And don't say dog, the bounty hunter.
Speaker: He's the only guy.
Speaker: Well, talk iPods.
Speaker: What were you – you mentioned something.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: So retail chain, you spend years selling regardless of whether it's shoes, leather jackets, accessories.
Speaker: And then it's just like, man, I'm going to go work at Target for a while.
Speaker: And then I realized I just kind of want to –
Speaker: sell and I ended up getting a job at Best Buy, which is phenomenal.
Speaker: And it was the Black Friday that the iPod video came out.
Speaker: So Apple, fall time, they would sort of hold stock and wait until Black Friday, which is the Friday after Thanksgiving.
Speaker: And I remember that week and, you know, the hustle and bustle of it all that like Saturday, we had a couple extra ones that had come in and it was right when the iPod video had come out and highest capacity iPod that you could get at the time was a 30 gig iPod video that we had in stock.
Speaker: So a guy comes in and he was there and I didn't like, I approached him.
Speaker: I walked up, there was the display and I walked up kind of behind him and said, Hey, how are you doing today?
Speaker: And I said, Oh, we're fine.
Speaker: We're fine.
Speaker: We're, you know, we're just, we're just getting, getting understanding of the iPod of the iPods that you guys have.
Speaker: And I want to get one because I'm huge into audio books.
Speaker: And I was just,
Speaker: you know, one track mind, focus, focus, focus.
Speaker: And I went, Oh yeah, well we have this in stock.
Speaker: We have this in stock.
Speaker: Um, we actually have an iPod video, uh, which is brand new and it's 30 gig capacity.
Speaker: Um, and the good thing is, is obviously you can play, you know, video on it.
Speaker: It's really cool.
Speaker: You should check it out again the whole time I'm looking at the display.
Speaker: And I like, I glance over and I see, you know, something kind of low in my line of sight, but I didn't, I didn't like put two and two together.
Speaker: I was just trying to open the case.
Speaker: And, um, I'm a little bit concerned about where this is going.
Speaker: Well, I grabbed the iPod video out and I go to hand the person, the box, the gentleman that was talking and the daughter's hand goes to grab it.
Speaker: And I go, Oh no, no, I want him to see it.
Speaker: And she's like, well, he can't see.
Speaker: And I went, what?
Speaker: And I looked and I kind of did the toes up and I saw a red tipped cane and I went slowly up and he was holding the cane.
Speaker: And as I, as I trail up, he started to smirk and I went, Oh my God, I am so sorry.
Speaker: And he laughed and he said, you know, it's okay.
Speaker: Even though you wanted me to see it, I probably wouldn't be able to.
Speaker: And I went, all right.
Speaker: And the daughter was trying not to laugh.
Speaker: And I said, and I was red faced at this point.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: And I said, so how many audio books do you listen to?
Speaker: And he said a lot.
Speaker: And so I'm still trying to sell the capacity of a 30 gig iPod video to a blind man.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And the daughter is just like, oh, do we have anything that's like last?
Speaker: I was like, well, we have the iPod mini, but it's eight gig.
Speaker: And I mean, it's up to you, whatever you want to do.
Speaker: I was like, I wish I could give you a discount.
Speaker: I'm just totally like caught off guard here.
Speaker: And they're like, well, how much is it?
Speaker: And I said, well, it's $300.
Speaker: And he said, for all your effort, you did not make a sale today.
Speaker: Just like that.
Speaker: For all your effort, you did not make a sale today.
Speaker: And I thought in my head,
Speaker: You know, I wanted to crawl in a hole and just go away for the rest of my shift.
Speaker: But I had just started like an hour before.
Speaker: So, so kids, let that be a lesson.
Speaker: Don't try and sell a blind man an iPod video and then further try and sell the capacity benefits of an iPod video because it won't make a difference.
Speaker: He won't care.
Speaker: Well, I had two things that popped out when you said that.
Speaker: Number one, at first I thought you were going to say you looked down and he had no pants like he was Donald Duck.
Speaker: That's what I thought.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So that was one concern.
Speaker: And then the second one is, did you not try and say, well, hey, listen, I know the $300 for the video iPod.
Speaker: The iPod video is probably not worth it.
Speaker: But how about a nice Microsoft Zoom for $85?
Speaker: That was Microsoft's iPod, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Zune, Zune, Z-U-N-E was same capacity, if not more.
Speaker: They had the ability to do, you know, totally uninterruptible, like lossless files at that time.
Speaker: So you could get higher quality.
Speaker: It was a much better player.
Speaker: But it was more expensive or less expensive?
Speaker: It was the same price.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: But their whole draw was, well, if you have a Microsoft Windows computer, we can work with Microsoft and you don't need to download any additional software.
Speaker: Oh, that's right.
Speaker: So that was their draw.
Speaker: iTunes.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: Then you try and use it and you realize the font was like 10 point Arial italic.
Speaker: So it was like the tiniest font that they put on this.
Speaker: And then they did what I feel like alternative level of background.
Speaker: So it was just like.
Speaker: too dark of a display with too light of a font.
Speaker: So you couldn't really make sense of it.
Speaker: Almost every single one of them got open box, brought back until we realized like, oh, you're trying to resell personal data.
Speaker: So they all went back to Microsoft to get white and totally clean.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: The problem is, is like their methodology about using open source music rights and these sorts of things.
Speaker: It's a very important thing is do you want to commit to Apple audio content or do you want to commit to a different audio format that truly has, you know, no barriers?
Speaker: And they were kind of ahead of the curve, but they missed it on internet radio.
Speaker: And then what helped like further demise it was Sirius XM.
Speaker: We're urging and giving away their stuff.
Speaker: I mean, it was weird about that particular time period, like 2005 through 2010, 2011.
Speaker: But you don't think about all these things that were decided kind of for us because, you know, we just didn't control it anymore.
Speaker: Like CDs died during that time.
Speaker: I had a Zoom.
Speaker: I knew, see, I knew Jason.
Speaker: I was watching.
Speaker: I was watching the wheels turning and I'm thinking there's one person on this call who I know had a Zoom or a Zoom-like device.
Speaker: No, I was a happy owner.
Speaker: I was a happy Zoom owner.
Speaker: I owned it for years and actually that's how I got into podcasts as well actually.
Speaker: Is it?
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Through Zoom.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And then Zune also had built-in games and it also had an FM radio.
Speaker: So it was really like a media player for all sorts, but at the same time, it's like, you can get the same functionality with the cell phone now and even cell phone with FM radios.
Speaker: But there's that whole ecosystem that Jason's talking about, like,
Speaker: Now that everybody's streaming, it's, you know, can you play the app that streams it?
Speaker: And now that obviously with the capacity not being a factor, you know, and you can have basically unlimited stuff in the cloud.
Speaker: I'm still a physical media person.
Speaker: We even talked yesterday, I think, Jeff, or last week about, you know, the rise of both DVDs and also CDs.
Speaker: Kind of making physical media is making a return, not just with vinyl, but they say at Walmart, I'm using Walmart as the big retailer, but they say,
Speaker: Hey, like we're, we're getting rid of physical media at Best Buy or whatever, but Walmart still has like a pretty prominent vinyl.
Speaker: It's locked, you know, for whatever stupid vinyl.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I thought you were talking about the, uh, the indoor swimming pool full of $3 DVDs that, that, that you're like, Hey, listen, if you fall in, you better, you better call out for help or have a whistle because, or maybe they have a lifeguard.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I don't want to watch Ernest Saves Christmas and Meet Joe Black.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I don't want to watch Michael starring John Travolta.
Speaker: It's a terrible movie.
Speaker: Who's the chucklehead that goes to Walmart on a Black Friday sale?
Speaker: You know how you're supposed to put your hand on it, and that's like your way of claiming that you're going to get like the $98 TV or like the lawnmower.
Speaker: But some goofball is like just hovering over that $3 pool of DVDs and like, I want that copy of Like Mike or whatever.
Speaker: It's like, no, you don't.
Speaker: You don't really want that.
Speaker: Hold on a second.
Speaker: As far as –
Speaker: child rapper starring movies.
Speaker: Okay, Like Mike is probably not the worst one, right?
Speaker: It's really not.
Speaker: It's really not.
Speaker: Bow Wow is pretty good.
Speaker: He's actually a very decent actor.
Speaker: Well, he was good.
Speaker: I liked him in Tokyo Drift.
Speaker: I thought he was phenomenal in Tokyo Drift.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Didn't Masterpiece Kid Romeo, didn't he make a movie too, I think?
Speaker: You know, I didn't watch that many movies with children as an adult, Jeff.
Speaker: So I'm just saying that happened when we were kids, I think.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: Pivoting a little bit, but we used to get big family nights for Blockbuster when I used to work there.
Speaker: My retail horror story is not as, I wouldn't say as interesting.
Speaker: Is this a Blockbuster thing?
Speaker: This is a Blockbuster thing.
Speaker: It's a Friday night and I'm an assistant manager.
Speaker: Jason, you might have heard this story before, but...
Speaker: You know, everything is basically operating just the same.
Speaker: And what I wasn't prepared for was the Suburban that basically crashed into the store at like Friday afternoon.
Speaker: What happened?
Speaker: Hold on a second.
Speaker: I almost did a spit take there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We're just minding our own business.
Speaker: Just rewinding tapes and stuff at the front?
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Did you have tapes or did you have DVDs?
Speaker: Tapes, DVDs.
Speaker: We were rewinding DVDs as well.
Speaker: So we have a DVD rewinder.
Speaker: I'm just kidding.
Speaker: Jason, I don't think that exists, by the way.
Speaker: That doesn't exist, right?
Speaker: It actually does.
Speaker: You can buy a DVD rewinder.
Speaker: It just spins the DVD.
Speaker: It's pretty funny.
Speaker: It's a real thing.
Speaker: DVD Christmas.
Speaker: I mean, holiday present.
Speaker: Get ready.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: So it's a Friday night and maybe quarter to six and we have a line and it's very busy.
Speaker: And I just brought somebody back from break because they were kind of in the back, like kind of break desk, which is, if you remember Blockbuster's config, it's like there's a desk where you can sit to take your breaks rather than go outside.
Speaker: But you can see that like, hey, it's busy.
Speaker: Maybe you shouldn't be on break.
Speaker: So this person came off a break.
Speaker: They're checking out all three registers are occupied.
Speaker: What year is this, by the way?
Speaker: 2003, maybe?
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So you're furiously renting copies of From Justin to Kelly, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And The Sum of All Fears.
Speaker: Yeah, pretty much.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: With Ben Affleck.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Along came a spider web.
Speaker: This is another Morgan Freeman movie you might want to watch.
Speaker: Actually, side note on Sum of All Fears, there was that program of Blockbuster having it guaranteed in stock or it's free if you remember that.
Speaker: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: And so it's essentially like it's a voucher program.
Speaker: So if you came in and the Sum of All Fears was out, you'd get a voucher for a free copy.
Speaker: We had 30 copies on VHS or DVD or something.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And somebody called ahead saying, do you have some of all fears?
Speaker: And we were like, no, I don't think so.
Speaker: And we ran over to the shelf to figure out if it's there.
Speaker: And then when it wasn't there, they made like the highest pitch, like disappointed noise.
Speaker: It was like, ah, it was very weird.
Speaker: But it was like, why are you so overreacting to like the sum of all fears?
Speaker: It's a great movie.
Speaker: It's one actually, it's, it's, I like it.
Speaker: I really, it's entertaining.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I like it, but I wouldn't let out.
Speaker: That was actually Jeff.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No, we like, we walked over, we walked over and, and like you said you had it before.
Speaker: And, and then we realized we didn't have any goes, I was like, do you, would you like a voucher?
Speaker: No, do you still have a box of snow caps that have been sitting on the shelf for six years?
Speaker: I used to eat snow caps.
Speaker: I'm sure you had to mark them down because to Jason's point, even though they have an eight year shelf life, they'd been there nine years.
Speaker: They're so good.
Speaker: They're so good.
Speaker: So you're munching on snow caps.
Speaker: You're checking out copies of Some of All Fears.
Speaker: And what happens?
Speaker: The one note to make prior to this is when stuff goes bad or expires, you're supposed to delete it from the inventory.
Speaker: So I had a crate of old orange juice, kind of like a half crate, wedged right where the front desk was, basically.
Speaker: Right under the mainframe PC.
Speaker: It was close to the side.
Speaker: You've got orange juice cooking under the super hot computer that is running the Blockbuster video checkout system.
Speaker: It's okay.
Speaker: Yeah, not a big deal.
Speaker: So it's already expired and you're expiring it further.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: He grabbed one and gave it to Matt.
Speaker: That's what made Matt so sick at one time.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: The orange juice popcorn.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: Well, it would make sense.
Speaker: That's the ingredients at Blockbuster.
Speaker: But it was right by the desk basically.
Speaker: And I was at the main terminal next to the desk without warning.
Speaker: All we heard was this like huge crash.
Speaker: And it was the side, it was the side like wall window, like big, like humongous 10 foot tall window panel.
Speaker: And it was a suburban that basically crashed into what we thought was the building, but eventually became like there was a there was a metal rack with if you remember Blockbuster Music, we relocated that rack over to the corner because Blockbuster Music at that point was defunct.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Anyway, this, again, like this thing comes in and then this break desk panel starts kind of flying toward me.
Speaker: I mean, not necessarily, it wasn't leaving the ground, but it was like sliding, like it was going to hit me.
Speaker: And guess what?
Speaker: It bumped up against that crate of expired orange juice.
Speaker: And so it didn't completely like wallop or pancake me.
Speaker: Did you say waffle or pancake you?
Speaker: wall wallop oh wallop i thought you said it waffle or pancake okay yeah waffle it didn't wall yeah um but the reason i know this is because we saw the security video and so the security video and it was frame by frame but it wasn't like a full frame like you couldn't see the whole you know it was like
Speaker: It was like stop motion kind of animation.
Speaker: And you could see me like turn and see what was happening.
Speaker: And then I could see the wall coming toward me.
Speaker: And then you just see me like, instead of stepping out of the way, all I did was like crouch down.
Speaker: Like, I don't know why I didn't step out of the way.
Speaker: I was like, oh my gosh, this wall is coming toward me.
Speaker: The vehicle is driving into my store.
Speaker: And I was like,
Speaker: Well, when you saw those copies of That's What I Call Music 1, right?
Speaker: Because this is 2003.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: When those CDs come flying at you, that's why you ducked.
Speaker: It was actually full of plushies now because the music was gone.
Speaker: So all the toys we had relocated.
Speaker: like for some inexplicably over on that rack.
Speaker: So, you know, a few seconds later I walk over and I'm like, what is going on?
Speaker: Like the chaos, like the power had kind of pulsed and like somebody else called 911.
Speaker: And then like the person who had driven in was trying to back up their car.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker: Like, you know, we found out later the reason why they drove in was because they were, this is going to sound goofy, but they were driving with a cast on their foot and they couldn't move their foot over to the brig.
Speaker: Hold on a second.
Speaker: So they're driving in 03, a Suburban was like one of the biggest vehicles on the road, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so they're driving one of the largest vehicles on the road with a cast on their foot.
Speaker: And they said, yeah, this seems reasonable.
Speaker: Let's drive around in public.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And there was a, and the, the handicap spot was directly in front of like, not a ramp, but it was like an incline.
Speaker: So essentially there's no curb to block a car from coming in.
Speaker: Basically there were no, yeah.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: So I mean, it was essentially just an accident waiting to happen, but here's the funniest thing.
Speaker: This is the most hilarious thing.
Speaker: Like a minute or two after all this happened, the sirens are going off.
Speaker: Let's just say our power's down.
Speaker: I'm pretty sure like the computer power's down.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: People are still waiting in line with their movies.
Speaker: People are like, I'd just like to check.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Go.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We're not we're done.
Speaker: We're done for the night.
Speaker: You got to go.
Speaker: And it's like Milton waiting for cake in an office space.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: They're just they're oblivious to what else is going on.
Speaker: I was told I could bring to some of all fears.
Speaker: I like Dogma.
Speaker: Can you give me Dogma?
Speaker: Hey, that's a great movie.
Speaker: I wish Dogma was streaming.
Speaker: It's a great movie.
Speaker: It's one of my favorites.
Speaker: But that's the type of person that would totally be there or like the one desperately waiting for what's another movie?
Speaker: The Neverending Story 2.
Speaker: You reminded me of something with the suburban hitting the store.
Speaker: I'm appraising cars.
Speaker: And, you know, when you get in a stranger's car, if they don't tell you that something is wrong with it, you know, you're just along for the ride.
Speaker: A quick aside is...
Speaker: You get in the habit, if you do something at work, whether it's retail, restaurant, otherwise, you just build the habits, right?
Speaker: Because you do the same things again and again and again, so you're used to it.
Speaker: So Jason, I'm sure you could do a lot of the stuff, whether it was Best Buy or Target or Wilson's or Journey's, you could kind of do that stuff almost mindlessly because you're in that rhythm.
Speaker: It's the same reason why you promoted the video iPod to the man who had...
Speaker: no visual, uh, ability to discern what was on the screen.
Speaker: Uh, James, you, you, uh, pushing, uh, expired orange juice on people.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But that was, that was just a routine for you.
Speaker: And so it's the same thing when I was appraising cars is you get in cars and, and so you don't pay attention.
Speaker: And so, uh, one scary ish moment was I got in a car.
Speaker: It's like, uh,
Speaker: 830 at night, you know, and it's dark.
Speaker: And while I'm on the test drive, I look up and I about veered the car off the side of the road because the person had an oversized, think like the biggest prize at a carnival, novelty stuffed gorilla in the backseat.
Speaker: But
Speaker: But I didn't notice it.
Speaker: Like I opened the door and I get in and I start to drive.
Speaker: I'm driving and I look in the rear view mirror and I was like, because I thought there was a gorilla in the backseat.
Speaker: There wasn't.
Speaker: It was a stuffed gorilla, but that startled me.
Speaker: But the one that's related most to the Suburban, so I'm driving this customer's car, and it was some kind of Ultima Buick, to use a Fletch reference.
Speaker: And on the test drive, we'd take it on at least a one-mile test drive, made sure the odometer turned, engine transmission, et cetera, all that stuff worked.
Speaker: Well, during the test drive, I noticed the brake pedal was a little soft.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: Again, it's a stranger's car.
Speaker: They didn't say anything about the brakes.
Speaker: I didn't, you know, so I'm driving and I'm like, well, that's a little bit soft.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So then I go, I get done with the test drive.
Speaker: And this particular store that I was at, the parking lot was actually sunken in versus where the street was.
Speaker: So think like, you know, you'll have a road and maybe, you know, there's a sidewalk and then there's a little like berm and a couple of feet lower is the, is the parking lot.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It's just the way that that was built or whatever.
Speaker: So I finished the test drive and I'm whipping the car right into the front spot, like right there in front of the front door.
Speaker: Oh no.
Speaker: And as I whip the car into the front spot, cause again, it's just habit.
Speaker: It's routine, right?
Speaker: It's muscle memory.
Speaker: As I whip the car into the front spot and go to hit the brakes, uh, the brake pedal goes flat to the floor.
Speaker: Boom.
Speaker: I hit the berm and,
Speaker: So the brakes failed.
Speaker: So I hit the berm.
Speaker: Boom.
Speaker: And so I'm like, oh, yikes.
Speaker: Well...
Speaker: If you think about it, now the car is not, and I didn't crush the front end, but the bumper sustained some damage for sure.
Speaker: But now I need to back it off of that little berm.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Now you might be thinking, you know, at home, Hey Jeff, the brakes don't work.
Speaker: Well, that's not what I thought of because I just need to take the car off the berm.
Speaker: So I put the car in reverse and I go to back it up.
Speaker: Boom!
Speaker: I hit the light pole behind me because remember the brakes don't work.
Speaker: So if the brakes don't work going forward, the brakes also don't work going backwards.
Speaker: So not only did I damage the bumper and the passenger fender, but I also damaged the passenger quarter panel because that spot that I pulled into directly behind it was a light pole with, and not like, hey, it's this little light pole.
Speaker: No, it's a big ass commercial light pole with that huge cylinder base.
Speaker: And so now I've not only smashed the front, smashed the back,
Speaker: And done this all within full view of the showroom and all of the associates watching everything that's happened.
Speaker: And then I'm like, holy smokes.
Speaker: So then in a moment of clarity, I say, wait a minute, Jeff, if the brakes don't work, the e-brake should work.
Speaker: So I, this time with my foot on the e-brake,
Speaker: backed the car away from the pole and was able to use the e-brake to pull it forward into a spot.
Speaker: At which point, you know, and I was okay.
Speaker: I mean, my pride was hurt, obviously.
Speaker: And the car was kind of jacked up.
Speaker: But...
Speaker: At that point, I got one of the guys that I worked with and we went and talked to the customer and it's like, well, hey, you know, did you notice anything about your brakes?
Speaker: Well, yeah, they've been kind of soft, but we didn't really think, you know, they're a little bit iffy.
Speaker: Hey, we would have appreciated if you if you had told us that the brakes were iffy before we took it on a test drive.
Speaker: So we made it right with the customer.
Speaker: And effectively at that time, we appraised the car as if there was no damage.
Speaker: And that the brakes were fine because that was, you know, that's the right thing to do.
Speaker: And the car, to be fair, wasn't ultra expensive.
Speaker: You know, it was a multi thousand dollar car, but it wasn't like it was a fifty thousand dollar car.
Speaker: It may have been a three thousand dollar car or four thousand dollar car.
Speaker: And so, you know, it was the right thing to do for the customer in spite of them not.
Speaker: disclosing, yeah, the brakes were soft, but you talk about a humbling experience, you know, hitting the berm as I whipped it into the spot, that was humbling.
Speaker: But then what really knocked me in the head was backing into the light pole because again, I forgot that the brakes didn't work.
Speaker: Do you check now that the brakes, like, you know, like when you rent a car or whatever, are you, are you always checking to make sure that, oh, all those work?
Speaker: You're right.
Speaker: I probably after that would have been more aware of of breaks.
Speaker: And certainly I would say some of those situations, learning from that experience, hey, I may not take the car out of the parking lot if it's above a certain age or whatever.
Speaker: But, you know, I think I think in that environment, my goal was to appraise as many cars as I could and give the customers the best offers I could and all that stuff.
Speaker: And so, you know, you can't.
Speaker: You can't let one situation like that keep you from doing your job.
Speaker: And so I think there's a balance there.
Speaker: Neither one of you guys did food service, right?
Speaker: I did.
Speaker: What did you do, James?
Speaker: Food service?
Speaker: I worked at Marie Callender's for a summer.
Speaker: Really?
Speaker: In Silicon Valley, in the Bay Area?
Speaker: Yes, it was in Silicon Valley.
Speaker: Hold on a minute, sir.
Speaker: Can I get you an apple pie?
Speaker: Or would you like the crusted apple pie?
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: I had most of it down in the first week.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Then, you know, I think it was mostly just, you know, it becomes a personality job.
Speaker: And I, at that time, you know, I'm 18 years old.
Speaker: So of course I had not just a personality, but I felt like a kind of a winning personality at that.
Speaker: Well, you,
Speaker: You still have a personality.
Speaker: Yeah, but I don't think I have the temerity to do food service.
Speaker: I mean, I did work also at Caribou, so that counts.
Speaker: But I can't work at Caribou anymore because they have a pretty strict no call, no show policy.
Speaker: If you do it three times, then they'll just permanent, they'll perma ban you basically.
Speaker: I worked with one at the airport, actually.
Speaker: Oh, that's right.
Speaker: I remember.
Speaker: Yeah, it was pre-security.
Speaker: And then I was like, well, I kind of, what's weird is, like, they're basically saying to me, hey, like, you can save time.
Speaker: And, like, you know, it's a lot more convenient to get to work because you don't have to go through the hassle of, like, getting...
Speaker: you know airport security which was also like even at that point easy but you know there's a level of strenuousness trying to get through that at like 4 45 in the morning basically because i worked the graveyard shift on weekends um but i i was i was loyal to the manager and i said no i'm not gonna work there and i just no called no showed three times and i love caribou like the animal or caribou coffee
Speaker: Oh, okay.
Speaker: Yeah, it's the coffee.
Speaker: So a lot of people swear by Dunkin', but in the Midwest, specifically Minnesota and West, it's caribou.
Speaker: I gotcha.
Speaker: And by the way, you said strenuous and temerity.
Speaker: Jason, I know that we've been monitoring his punniness.
Speaker: What?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But should we also consider if he's using a bunch of five dollar words, high dollar vocabulary, should we should we consider tracking that to some degree?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yes, because we can call it Silicon speak because we clearly don't understand.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You have been committed guilty.
Speaker: You've heard temerity.
Speaker: No, we have not.
Speaker: I don't even know what that means.
Speaker: We know.
Speaker: I think we know what it means.
Speaker: Context clues are helpful, but I don't know that we're using temerity conversationally.
Speaker: Oh, no, no, no, no.
Speaker: The biggest word I use is tertiary.
Speaker: Tertiary.
Speaker: That's a good word.
Speaker: That's a good word.
Speaker: Tertiary is definitely a $5 word.
Speaker: But would I say it on a podcast with my brothers?
Speaker: Au contraire.
Speaker: Oh, wait.
Speaker: Are we recording this?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Uh-oh.
Speaker: Well.
Speaker: Well, great question to ask, by the way, 43 minutes into a podcast.
Speaker: Yes, we are.
Speaker: We are recording this.
Speaker: Did you?
Speaker: Did one of you hit the record button?
Speaker: I'm not going to manufacture laughter of seeing you fly in a Buick Roadmaster or an Oldsman Cutlass Supreme.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It was some kind of Oldsman Buick.
Speaker: What model it was, I can't remember.
Speaker: Probably a LeSabre.
Speaker: Could be a LeSabre.
Speaker: Could be a LeSabre.
Speaker: Jeff, you did a spelling bee, didn't you?
Speaker: Didn't you go to regionals for spelling bee?
Speaker: I did win the sixth grade spelling bee at my school, and I went to regionals where I lost spectacularly.
Speaker: Do you remember the word you lost on?
Speaker: I remember the word I won on, and I remember the word I lost on.
Speaker: Ooh.
Speaker: Let's hear it.
Speaker: Can I take a guess?
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: Yeah, Jason, you go.
Speaker: Temerity.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: The word I won on was succotash.
Speaker: And that to me is pretty easy.
Speaker: S-U-C-C-O-T-A-S-H.
Speaker: I mean, we didn't eat a lot of succotash at home, but that I thought was pretty okay.
Speaker: So then when I went to the regionals or the districts or whatever, and I maybe made it through one or two rounds, but at that one event that I did after qualifying from the school, the word I lost on was Wunderlist.
Speaker: And I said, wait, Wunderlist?
Speaker: And so I thought they said it.
Speaker: I'm going to get really podcasty here.
Speaker: I'm going to talk just as if...
Speaker: So the word that they used was wonderlust with a T, except they pronounced it wonderlust.
Speaker: And I said, wonderlust.
Speaker: So I said, W-A-N-D-E-R-L-E-S-S.
Speaker: That's what I said in my head, but I'm like, hey, could you repeat the word?
Speaker: They repeated it.
Speaker: Could you use it in a sentence?
Speaker: They used it in a sentence.
Speaker: And so I said, W-A-N-D-E-R-L-E-S-S, wonderlust, which I don't think, by the way, is a word.
Speaker: But, but they said, Nope.
Speaker: And then the next person did it and it was W A N D E R L U S T. And in my head, I'm thinking, well, Jiminy Christmas, why didn't you pronounce the T?
Speaker: Because if they had said Wanderlust or Wanderlust, you know, they, but nobody made the T sound.
Speaker: So anyway, so I lost.
Speaker: I remember the word I went out on in sixth grade.
Speaker: I got fourth place.
Speaker: It was accountancy.
Speaker: But I didn't get as far as you did, Jeff.
Speaker: And I remember watching you actually in sixth grade.
Speaker: We went to a special school, not a special school, but we went to school.
Speaker: We didn't go to like X-Men school or anything like that.
Speaker: Professor Xavier's school where they gifted.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: summer of 2000, I think we stayed up really late playing like Driver on the PlayStation.
Speaker: Do you remember this?
Speaker: And then also like we just hung out that summer, but that was also the summer I worked at Safeway and I came home.
Speaker: Jeff, do you know this or do you remember this story?
Speaker: No, I don't remember.
Speaker: You don't remember this story from 23 years ago?
Speaker: Why not?
Speaker: No, I don't.
Speaker: I don't.
Speaker: I worked at Safeway as a bagger and then I rode my bike to and from and we lived like within walking distance.
Speaker: I thought I could get there faster.
Speaker: Just so we're on the same page.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Typically, items with wheels will get you there faster than than walking.
Speaker: OK.
Speaker: And even in most cases, even faster than running.
Speaker: So it's a logical leap that you took by thinking, hey, if I ride my bike to work, regardless of how close it is, I will likely get there faster.
Speaker: So we got you.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I rode my bike to work one shift and I didn't lock it up outside the store because I hadn't done it before in the summertime and it wasn't a big deal.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But then when I came out to take my lunch break, my bike was there.
Speaker: But because Jason was in town, I thought maybe there's the off chance that Jason like got my bike and like walked it home or rode it around.
Speaker: Hold on one more.
Speaker: One more thing.
Speaker: Jason, if you had gone of your own volition,
Speaker: That's a $5 word to get James's bike.
Speaker: How likely is it that you would have walked at home or more likely would you have gotten on it and started pedaling?
Speaker: James, the, the, the logical leaps that you're making or not making in many cases are astounding.
Speaker: The temerity that you have, uh, did I use it right?
Speaker: Jason?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Don't ask me.
Speaker: Just because I graduated from college ahead of you guys doesn't mean I actually knew anything when I graduated.
Speaker: That's fair.
Speaker: So, okay.
Speaker: So James, you think, Hey, maybe Jason has just borrowed my bike.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: And maybe it's best.
Speaker: I don't know, Jason, if you want to just kind of walk through what maybe the James tornado was like.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So I'm sitting there, I'm playing wipeout on PlayStation.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Which was the futuristic sled game.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I was locked in.
Speaker: It was hours of this where I'm just sitting in, you know, two, three hours there to playing, uh, amazing techno music and gravity kills as part of it too.
Speaker: So just James's favorite at that time.
Speaker: So, so I'm there super glued in and I hear the front door open and I hear, uh,
Speaker: Where is it?
Speaker: And it's like, what?
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Well, you know, I'm still playing.
Speaker: So I think, no, no one else's home.
Speaker: So it's just me.
Speaker: I'd shut the bedroom door and out of nowhere.
Speaker: Jason, you were playing a video game by yourself in the house.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: A strange voice comes in and screams.
Speaker: Where is it?
Speaker: And you didn't get under the bed?
Speaker: No, it wasn't strange voice.
Speaker: I knew it was James's voice.
Speaker: Oh, okay.
Speaker: Yeah, but the way you're in the door.
Speaker: I'm a grown-ass man, and if someone comes into my door right now and screams, where is it?
Speaker: I'm going to scream and get in the closet or under the bed.
Speaker: Okay?
Speaker: I'm just saying.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: So I'm there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The door was on the other side of the paper thin wall.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: But it was like, okay, I heard it open.
Speaker: Where is it?
Speaker: And then I heard the door shut.
Speaker: And then I heard footsteps going down to the kitchen, which is just around the corner.
Speaker: And it was like,
Speaker: Okay, like what?
Speaker: And then quickly down the hall.
Speaker: And I think James, you might have been wearing a jacket or something because it was like this weird groovy noise.
Speaker: And the door flies open.
Speaker: And he goes, where's my bike?
Speaker: And I was like, oh, he got this close.
Speaker: And I dropped the controller and I was like, what?
Speaker: And he says, where's my bike?
Speaker: Where is it?
Speaker: You tell me where it is.
Speaker: And I was like, what?
Speaker: What are you talking about?
Speaker: And he said, I walked inside.
Speaker: My bike was there.
Speaker: And now it's not there.
Speaker: Did you take it?
Speaker: Are you playing a joke on me?
Speaker: Are you messing around with me?
Speaker: That's my bike.
Speaker: Tell me.
Speaker: And I was like...
Speaker: What are you talking about?
Speaker: And I said, hold on.
Speaker: So I paused the game.
Speaker: And I mean, he was just, you know, out of breath from running the two blocks or three blocks fast.
Speaker: Did you finish your shift at least?
Speaker: Or as soon as you saw your bike?
Speaker: Well, this is the part.
Speaker: Jason will get to it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So I said, well, I can go back and help you look for it.
Speaker: And he's like, it's fine.
Speaker: It's fine.
Speaker: Let's go.
Speaker: Let's go.
Speaker: I think is what happened.
Speaker: Is that what happened?
Speaker: Did I come and help you look for it or what?
Speaker: Remember, like I was in a rush because I had to get back to work on, I was on a lunch break or something.
Speaker: Oh yeah, that's right.
Speaker: I just got to go back.
Speaker: If it comes home, let me know.
Speaker: And I'm thinking, what do you mean if it comes home, let you know?
Speaker: It's not a lost puppy.
Speaker: It's not going to ride.
Speaker: It's going back.
Speaker: And I think he had said, well, if dad comes home with it, then let me know.
Speaker: Because I'm pretty sure he's playing.
Speaker: He's making a lesson out of this.
Speaker: Is what James' thought was, is like dad was making a lesson out of it, of him not locking his bike.
Speaker: Because I think he had talked to you before about it, right?
Speaker: Didn't he go there once and he saw it was unlocked?
Speaker: You should lock your bike up.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: James, didn't you also have a car stolen?
Speaker: So I'm starting to see a pattern here.
Speaker: What modes of transportation have you had stolen?
Speaker: Because I didn't lock it also, too.
Speaker: I'm never letting you borrow my camper.
Speaker: You're never allowed to borrow my camper.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: That was hilarious though, because I couldn't like, you know, I had to get back into work and I was like, I ran, I remember running there and like, I was like, I have to go.
Speaker: But that also is good practice.
Speaker: Like the car, the car driving into Blockbuster happened like three years later.
Speaker: So polar opposite reaction, instead of being overwhelmed by this like massive vehicle or like this insane thing happening at work, I'm like, it's cool.
Speaker: We'll figure it out.
Speaker: No, you can't rent movies.
Speaker: You got to go.
Speaker: I remember dad came home from the bicycle incident and I had said that, and I think he drove over there.
Speaker: He and I drove over there looking and we, we walked all around while you were still trying to finish your shift.
Speaker: And obviously someone had stolen it.
Speaker: There's no, there's no getting around it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: To be fair, it did have a banana seat and streamers coming off the handlebars and a little ding, ding bell.
Speaker: So, I mean, it was, it was ripe for the picking.
Speaker: Did you take my Tim Belcher noise-making card?
Speaker: What?
Speaker: That was my lucky Tim Belcher card.
Speaker: Now that's a reference.
Speaker: That is a reference.
Speaker: Of James's bike.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: I sent y'all a picture of, um, a bike, uh, one of my bikes when I was a kid, actually grandma, I think took a picture in 1989 was sort of an eight years old or whatever.
Speaker: Um, and, uh, yeah, it was just me on a bike and I love the cushion.
Speaker: Like, obviously it's there for safety, but I love the cushion, you know, in between.
Speaker: So that if we were to like nose dive off of the bike or whatever, um,
Speaker: You're talking about the little pad on the handlebar, BMX style?
Speaker: And on the bars.
Speaker: Oh, on the bar, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, basically to avoid any sort of injury.
Speaker: Is that what it's called?
Speaker: You're an avid cyclist.
Speaker: It's called the nut crushing bar?
Speaker: The nut crushing bar, yeah.
Speaker: Perennium saver.
Speaker: Hey, I'll buy that domain.
Speaker: Jason, that was a good word.
Speaker: That's a $5 word.
Speaker: Yeah, but it's also very graphic.
Speaker: We shouldn't be talking about that part of anatomy.
Speaker: So Jason, you never did any food service, right?
Speaker: No.
Speaker: Not officially.
Speaker: You've probably gotten behind a bar or two either when you're for fun or when you're working or whatever, but not actually bartended or served or anything like that.
Speaker: Yeah, I never got paid for it.
Speaker: I got yelled at because I did go behind the bar and started making drinks and I did a good job and they were not very happy that I did it.
Speaker: Sir, you don't even work here.
Speaker: What are you doing?
Speaker: I did this.
Speaker: I was like, hold on one second.
Speaker: One second.
Speaker: Hold on.
Speaker: Hold on.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I did the, hold on one second.
Speaker: To be fair, you were just probably covering for a bartender who went outside on their smoke break, saw their bike was missing and went running home to their younger brother to say,
Speaker: Where is it?
Speaker: Where is it?
Speaker: It was during my radio days.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I was 20-ish years old.
Speaker: I wasn't even 21 yet.
Speaker: And it was nightclub time and whatever.
Speaker: And I had known – I regularly would be going to this to support events that we had had.
Speaker: The bartenders are like, you want to come back here and try and make a drink?
Speaker: And I was like, yeah, sure.
Speaker: I'll try it.
Speaker: And then people started coming up.
Speaker: And so the chaos of it all was just like, it was fun to me.
Speaker: And then the bar manager who's working at the other part of the nightclub had come over and seen me this Yahoo working with the person who I'd kind of become acquaintances with.
Speaker: I was like, what are you doing?
Speaker: And that's why I went, hold on, hold on a second.
Speaker: I'm making drinks.
Speaker: Just give me a minute.
Speaker: And they're like...
Speaker: You're not supposed to.
Speaker: I was like, hold on.
Speaker: Give me a minute.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: The confidence of this kid.
Speaker: Well, it was like two vodka sodas, two Jack and Coats.
Speaker: What is it?
Speaker: Two.
Speaker: What is it?
Speaker: Well, they didn't order like a Long Island iced tea or Harvey Wallbanger or stuff.
Speaker: Yeah, it was, it was, it was simple.
Speaker: It was a grab the stick.
Speaker: Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
Speaker: Away you go.
Speaker: dip in the, the, the rail vodka or rail, whatever.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I roll them up on the bar.
Speaker: Um, and then, you know, what's the name?
Speaker: And then I say the name to the person that was doing it.
Speaker: It was like five minutes.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: But in that five minute timeframe for the bar manager to come over and be like, you need to leave.
Speaker: And I was like, okay, all right, all right, fine.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Well, I'm going to pull it.
Speaker: If I can tell this in 60 seconds or less,
Speaker: on the way to on the means of I've got to leave.
Speaker: So it's Valentine's Day, one of the restaurants I worked at.
Speaker: I go to greet this couple and I would always offer an appetizer anytime, but especially Valentine's Day, you know, let's make for a great experience, etc.
Speaker: So I said, Hey, you know, how are you?
Speaker: I'm so and so.
Speaker: I said, I'm Jeff.
Speaker: And, you know, get started with drinks, maybe an appetizer.
Speaker: Well, yeah, we'll take this, take that.
Speaker: OK, perfect for drinks.
Speaker: And I said, well, how about this now or this?
Speaker: I said, or even if why don't you do like a side of grilled shrimp?
Speaker: Because it was a steakhouse.
Speaker: And so I could sell them just like an add on shrimp.
Speaker: You know, you get like six shrimp.
Speaker: Very easy.
Speaker: And the wife says, yeah, that's great.
Speaker: And the husband says, no, I don't want that.
Speaker: And she goes, what?
Speaker: And he goes, yeah, I don't want shrimp.
Speaker: And she's like, OK, well, I still want them.
Speaker: And he's like, yeah, we're not going to do that.
Speaker: And so meanwhile, I'm frozen because I'm like, well, I'm just trying to sell you like a little appetizer of shrimp to start your Valentine's Day meal.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And so I look at him and I said, I'll give you a minute.
Speaker: So I go back to the wait station.
Speaker: I'm watching from afar.
Speaker: I see, you know, them talking.
Speaker: There's kind of a break in the conversation.
Speaker: I walk back over and they both look at me and they said, we still need another minute.
Speaker: I said, okay.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Walked back over.
Speaker: The discussion, as it were, got more heated to the point where he got up and walked out one direction.
Speaker: She got up and walked out the other.
Speaker: And so on that lovely note, I'm fairly certain that I broke a couple up on Valentine's Day over offering them an appetizer of grilled shrimp.
Speaker: Oh, my gosh.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And they left, you know, and I was like, well, I'm never going to offer shrimp to a couple again.
Speaker: So let that be a lesson for you guys.
Speaker: Offering shrimp to someone who doesn't want it or who one part of the couple doesn't want it can be divisive.
Speaker: Just buy the shrimp, bozo.
Speaker: Well, that's what I thought, man.
Speaker: What's wrong with you?
Speaker: And it was like $5.99 because it wasn't like a full grilled shrimp appetizer.
Speaker: It was just like the add-on that you put on the steak.
Speaker: I'm like, man, it's six bucks.
Speaker: I almost wanted to buy her the shrimp, but I was like, well, that seems inappropriate to buy some strange woman shrimp on Valentine's Day.
Speaker: You're letting him buy you the shrimp instead of letting me buy you the shrimp.
Speaker: Maybe they just go to restaurants on Valentine's Day to fake breaking up with each other.
Speaker: Jeff, you were just a prawn in their game.
Speaker: Oh, shimmy Christmas.
Speaker: Jason, I know we've talked about it.
Speaker: We need to start establishing a penalty.
Speaker: The prawn, that's worth at least – well, James, we're charging – we're going to charge you $5 to charity for the prawn in their game.
Speaker: That's worth $5.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: I'm down with that.
Speaker: I don't have anything else to add other than – maybe this is a tailing thought, but –
Speaker: Well, you're getting a penalty too for that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, actually, we'll give you your first one as a warning.
Speaker: But next time, it's going to be five bucks to charity.
