Spilling The Beans On Restaurants! | Restaurant Point-of-Sale Systems | B2B Vault | Episode 148

Yo, what's up everybody? It's Justin live from B2B Vault, the payment technology podcast sponsored by Nationwide Payment Systems, hosted by this guy, the Joe Montana of payment processing himself, Allen Kopelman, and we'll be providing you educational information about fintech, small business payment processing, and the technology businesses are using in the world today. And in today's podcast, Allen, uh, wanted to touch on all of the changes, uh, or what he would call spilling the beans on restaurants, or stir the pot. Oh, we're stirring the pot. Yeah, stirring the pot in my sense would be, you know, doing something a little bit, uh, what's the word, you know, non-conforming.

We're making like a meatloaf today.

Stirring the pot, you know, like you say something you're not supposed to, right?

Well, some people might not agree with what we're going to talk about.

Yeah, well, it is Friday, so shout out to everyone out there in, uh, you know, finishing up the work week. Um, we will be, you know, this podcast will be, you know, pre-recorded, so I'll make sure to post it next Friday though.

Yeah, so we had a nice morning today. We had a little— went on a little adventure, field trip. Yeah, to, uh, we went to City Furniture.

Oh yeah, City Furniture! And it was so crazy because he walked in, it sounded like someone was stealing everything.

Yeah, it was nuts. Their fire system was having a little bit of a hiccup or something.

SNAFU, situation normal all messed up.

Yeah, the lights were going off, the siren.

Yeah, I was like, dang, Allen, what'd you do, bro? Uh, yeah, that was all right.

Um, it was a meeting with the Better Business Bureau of South Florida, and it was kind of interesting to see the new changes that they're trying to do, that, and how they're going to help, you know, the business, the local business community in South Florida. So it was interesting.

It was all right. Yeah, I mean, you know, let's see if the guy talking when he seen me— I mean, the CEO, I don't remember his name. What's his name now?

I don't know. I should have got his business card.

Yeah, you should have. You didn't get his business card?

No, I do have his business card. I should have brought it in here with me.

Oh, I was gonna say, man, you didn't get the— we asked him to be on a podcast.

Well, no, we have to contact the communication— Cynthia, the communications director.

She's the gatekeeper.

She has to approve when he's going to come on the podcast. And yeah, so we're going to have him come on the podcast because I think it's interesting, you know, how this— how, you know, the things that they describe that they're trying to do— increase their social media presence, increase their activity and interaction with local businesses more. And, you know, so I find, you you know, let's see if they, you know, how they do it. Yeah, I mean, and we met with their social media person this morning too, talking to them about what we're doing on social media, how we have a podcast for the business.

So yeah, I was talking to their ads guy from— who does, who does the paid buying, whatever they call it nowadays. I don't know, stupid to me. Anyway, uh, he does all the paid advertising for BBB, and, uh, he seemed like he was a pretty cool guy. Um, he didn't really have much to say though, like, so I've dealt with the BBB in that capacity, right, prior to then today. So I mean, they talk a lot. Let's talk more action.

Exactly. Let's see what they're gonna do.

There's one thing I didn't, uh, from learning about is their review policy.

Yeah, that was a little odd.

So like, if you get a bad review, it stays there for 3 years.

Well, they didn't call it a bad review, they called it a complaint.

It doesn't matter, like a bad review or a complaint.

Okay.

It stays up there for 3 years. But the average, you know, the CEO said the average consumer only goes for 6 months. Right? And then through the BBB, every year you have to get reaccredited, right? So I guess, I mean, I understand you want people to understand, you want the business to be, you know, relevant and everything's like up to date.

Um, well, they want to make sure you're— you have your federal tax ID.

Yeah, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the accreditations. I'm just talking about the, you know, the info. Of course you want all that to be Right, but so like you get accredited once a year, but then your reviews are only, you know, wiped clean. I, I just didn't— I just don't understand the logic between 3 years and why are you gonna keep a bad review up for 3 years. Whatever, you know, they said the bad—

the bad reviews or complaints are there for 3 years and the, and the good reviews are there for 3 years. And then they're off of the website.

Yeah.

Which didn't make— he said if we're going to keep the bad stuff only for 3 years, they decided to make it even Steven with the good stuff.

Doesn't make— I don't understand the logic, that's all. I don't— the timeline doesn't make— like, why is it 3 years? Like, why would you even take them off? What's— you know, I don't get it.

I don't think Google takes it off.

Google does not. The only— you get a Google review removed Yeah, you knew somebody or you paid somebody or something. I mean, like, I known one person in my life, right, that has actually had a specific phone number or a person that she could call. Faith, wherever you are in the world, J Classic still loves you for all of the stuff that you did for me. You are amazing person because normally you can't get through to Google My Business. There's no one to call.

Exactly.

And she actually had someone to call.

Cool.

It was— yeah, I wish she would get— she wouldn't give me the phone.

I like your new hat.

Hey, Dead Boy Jake from Instagram, thanks for, uh, paying attention. You got the right size, you know, it's got the nice, uh, side patch.

The, the, the—

it's not pink, it's mauve, right? Mauve. I like the underbrim. Very nice. Thank you. Essential. Got to keep the crown right at all times, sir. Protected.

You know, Justin has a fan that also likes the Yankees.

Oh yeah, it's your son.

I know.

So shout out to Dead Boy Jake, AKA Jacob Kopelman. I appreciate you, man. I look forward to going to the ballgame with you.

Oh yeah, we're going to go to the— that's in two, like two weeks. We're going to the Israel versus the Marlins, right, at the World— it's a World Baseball Classic warm-up game before the World Baseball Classic starts and is being hosted in Miami. No, the World Baseball Classic is in Miami, but this warm-up game is going to be in Jupiter, Jupiter, where The Marlins play their pre— what do they call it?

Preseason.

Preseason training camp baseball games up there. Yeah. So we're going to be headed up there on March 2nd.

How far away is that?

It's about a 45-minute drive. We'll probably have to head up there a little early because you want to get some swag.

I hope they have the hats.

Yeah, the hats look so cool. They sold out in like one day, not even a day, right?

No, as soon as I shared it to you and by the time I went to go look for the sizes, my size was already gone.

Yeah, it's crazy.

So I really hope that New Era or the Israeli, uh, baseball team is listening. I want one of your fitted hats, please.

I'll take any hat.

Yes. And then Allen would like any hat. I looked online and their hat—

I saw some ripoff hats too, like, like on eBay and stuff. And they were like, they were not even close to the hat that was on that website. The, the hats that were on the website.

Yeah, I went to newera.com, they didn't have any. Then I went—

maybe they'll restock soon.

I hope so. They should, because hopefully before the game.

Yeah, for real, that would be nice.

Got anything planned for the weekend?

This, this weekend, um, I don't know if there's some— you know, I always started to look around to see if like there's a festival or an art fair.

I missed the art festival last weekend. I wanted to go up to the Boca Art Fest or something like that.

Yeah, there was a Boca Art Fest, and there's one coming up in Los— on Las Olas. There's an art fair.

Yeah, there's always one down there, I feel like.

Well, they have it like 2 or 3— they have it twice a year, so the part 2 is coming up. So that's, you know, interesting. You know, we've been doing a lot of, uh, a lot of networking, and we'll be talking about that on another podcast because next week we're going to a couple of, uh, networking events.

We're going to 2 next week.

Yeah, we're going to the Disaster Expo. Uh-oh. And we're going to the, uh, Alternative Product Expo, which was a lot of fun.

Yeah, I went to the Alternative Products with you last year. That was cool.

And then we had a really fun podcast afterwards. Got trippy, which was pretty crazy.

I gave Allen some— no, you had the one thing.

No, I ate that chocolate the guy gave me.

No, the one your, your Jewish brethren gave you some, uh, that gummy thing. Yes.

Yeah. And then between the two of those things, I was like, dude, wow, zooted and booted. I was like, not gonna have— and then I got that whatever. That was like— that stuff is very—

then he had shawarma.

Yeah, then we had shawarma. It was delicious. It was a very enjoyable day.

It was a good day.

That was a great day. We had a lot of fun. So let's talk about what's going on at the restaurants. So I was, you know, looking through the news today and want to see, like, you know, what industry is having a lot of activity in the news, you know. So try to find something that's not too mundane, right? And, you know, so, you know, one of the things that, you know, obviously inflation is on everybody's mind all the time with prices and everything of everything. So there was a a couple of surveys that were out there about dining habits and how dining habits have started to change because of inflation. For sure. So they said that 50 to 60%— I don't know whoever added this up— but 50 to 60% of consumers who preferred delivery will now go pick up their food if the restaurant offers a discount, at least 5%. And, you know, with the way I've seen restaurant prices lately, yeah, you know, people, yeah, people are going more to pick up their food.

I mean, before the podcast started, you know, Allen, as obviously I'm a vegetarian, so like going to restaurants is tough for me. I don't go. My family doesn't typically order out, you know what I mean? So I don't know. What's the trendy thing?

Well, like, we go, we're getting, you know, we had lunch today, staff lunch.

Yeah.

So we go pick it up because it takes too long to get a delivery because delivery drivers don't want to spend, you know, gas is through the roof. They don't want to drive around with the food. So it's more efficient just to go pick it up. And, you know, I know when Anna went, she said there was, you know, quite a few people there going to pick up food.

I believe it.

And then, you know, 12% of consumers that make over $100 grand a year don't really care about the extra cost that they're paying for food right now at restaurants or the grocery store, I guess.

Man, I know I care.

I mean, I was in Publix the other day.

I don't buy it. The real— I can't afford to order food out, so like to be able to barely afford groceries is crazy.

Yeah, I was at Publix the other day and I'm standing there and there was like 3 women looking at the eggs. So I looked over at them, I go, listen, you guys gotta go get— gotta head over to Costco. There's eggs at Costco, we're around $6, $6.50 for 2 dozen, and they wanted $6, $7, $8 for a dozen eggs at Publix. I mean, that's just—

I have even a better solution.

What, don't get some chickens?

Yeah. Build a chicken coop. Everyone can have chickens, and as far as I know, down in South Florida, I don't think there's any law against anyone having a chicken.

I don't know how Rocky would get along with a couple of chickens in the backyard.

You gotta have to— you're gonna have to fence them out. Yeah, yeah, yeah, fence them in. I wouldn't trust Rocky with some chickens, bro. Yeah, he might come home and there'll be chicken feathers everywhere.

And then, you know, and then still 30 to 38% of consumers said they recently dined out for their last meal.

You know, their last meal, they're dying.

No, no, rather than, I guess, cooking at home. I mean, I do a lot of cooking at home, so I'm not big on like going out to restaurants all the time, every day, going out, going out, going out, you know. And I don't eat fast food, right? I mean, so I'm with you.

I don't trust it, bro. Like, you're not telling me at BurgerFi Sorry, BurgerFi, but you're, you're not cooking the burger, the veggie, the veggie burger on a special little griddle or grill. And if you are, enlighten me, tell me that, show me. I would love to support and be able to go to eat food, but like, I'm not eating french fries that get fried in chicken nuggets, you know what I mean? Yeah, I'm not doing that. I get it.

It's the same thing for me. Like, I don't eat shrimp Right. And lobster and pork. Right. So are you throwing all that on the grill next to my chicken? You know, they are. No, I'm just saying, like, that's not, you know, that's the hardest part about for me, for dining, you know, like, yeah, we don't eat pork. So like when I was— so like when I was a chef, you know, we didn't ask you that. Yeah.

So but it's been a while since you've had a restaurant. So like veggie burgers weren't really a thing. No, but in my lifestyle wasn't a thing. I know for a fact, bro, you— every— not every day someone was coming in there for a veggie burger.

No, but I will tell you that we did have people that had like gluten-free, people that asked for, you know, um, you know, vegetarian option, right? So I knew which things on the menu were strictly vegetarian because I knew how I made them. And the other thing was, is, you know, the way I learned to cook is a lot different. Like today you go in these restaurants, have like a massive flat grill. I cooked in pans. I cooked in pots and pans. So when you're cooking in pans, it's very easy. You can make sure, like, someone's got— someone is allergic to, right, something, something. You're not gonna, you know— and also I had two different sets of pans, one for meat and one for fish.

Smart.

So I'm not gonna cook fish and then wash the pan out and then try to go cook a steak in the same pan. So you had two separate sets of pans, and that's how I learned to cook. So But you know, I don't know what people do today. And the same thing, like I had a grill and on the grill we had the grill for the chicken and one grill, one side of the grill was for the chicken, the other side of the grill was for the steaks or porks. We didn't have pork on the menu.

Nice.

But you know, like shrimp, fish, all that was cooked in pans, not on the grill, so that we didn't mix, contaminate, contaminate things. Because you don't want—

contamination is real, ladies and gentlemen.

Yes, it is.

And taking account for all the people have allergies or, you know, religious things or just health choices. Like, I'm not vegetarian by choice. I had no choice. Like, I had bleeding ulcers as a child. I'd be crawling up the two flights of stairs to get to my grandmother so she could comfort me.

Listen, everybody's, you know, I'm, I'm sensitive to certain foods, so, you know, man, and You know, but here's like another thing. So, you know, restaurants are, you know, they're in a struggle. They're in a struggle with labor, you know.

Oh, yeah. And definitely no one wants to work at a restaurant.

Yeah. People don't want to work at restaurants and they don't want to deliver food. So restaurants—

15-year-old daughter.

Yeah.

Doesn't want to work at a restaurant.

Jacob tried the restaurant business. He didn't last very long. He didn't like it. He likes retail. That's his thing.

I was 22 years old. I had just had my one of my kids. And, um, I was working third shift, but I thought I should go get a second job because in America one job doesn't really cut it. Um, so I went to work at McDonald's and I lasted for 30 minutes. They put me on the griddle for breakfast and, uh, I don't know what it was that popped and burnt me, but something burned my arms and I grabbed the— I did it smooth though. Grabbed some garbage. So yeah, I'm gonna take this garbage out real quick. Bang! Out of there. Never to return.

I guess you didn't get paid for that.

No, I didn't. Actually, I had— they kept calling me because they were gonna charge me for my uniform and because my paycheck wouldn't have covered the 30 minutes that I worked there. Yeah, wouldn't have covered the threads that you give them back. The uniform, of course I wouldn't— gave it back to them.

Okay, so you know, that's a struggle they're having at restaurants. And then I was reading this thing about—

real quick, man, I'm sorry, no disrespect to anyone who works at like McDonald's or fast food or anything. I'm not—

it's just some people like it.

Yeah, I know a lot of people who love it, right? They like the restaurant business, love that stuff, you know. It just wasn't for me, you know. And I actually love cooking. And I don't mind getting burned, but it was something I just couldn't do it.

Listen, cooking in, in the restaurant is very difficult. Like when we have a problem, you know, a problem, you know, here at Nationwide Payment Systems, if it takes a few hours or a couple of days to sort it out, it's not the end of the world. In a restaurant, you have minutes and seconds, so you got to get her done. And, um, you know, so, you know, restaurants are having like a lot of struggles with the price of food going up. And every time I go out to eat, it's like almost sticker shock. But, you know, whatever, you, you know, but I like to cook just like you, so of course cooking. And then, you know, another thing I'm reading about is like all these subscriptions at restaurants and rewards. So like They're talking about, you know, and then the big talk always with the economy is people have subscriptions. And then like, I know like one of my credit cards, when I log into the website, it says, oh, you— these are your subscriptions, right? And then there's that app, what's it called, RocketPay or something?

I just signed up for it again. Rocket Money.

Rocket Money, right?

I was just trying to figure out where my money's going, right?

So people are looking at—

I don't have any subscriptions. I have one.

Okay.

Well, I have one entertainment subscription that I pay for. The rest are pretty much mandatory.

So it tells you what's— what kind of recurring payments you have rocking on your accounts and then helps you cancel them if you want to get rid of them. But you know what, there's a talk about like how many are people bailing out of, um, like Panera Bread as a subscription.

What do you get for a subscription though?

You get a coffee cup, and then when you come in, you don't have to pay for— you get like free coffee with your food. I think you have to order something to get the free coffee. And there's a few other restaurants, I guess, contemplating like how to do that. And another thing is like rewards at restaurants. Like, there are some restaurants down here, like there's a place, Duffy's, they give you rewards for like when you eat there, you get points, and then you accumulate a bunch of points, and then you get money off of your bill.

A lot of places do that now, right?

And so like Domino's, you like one of those— yeah, they track your phone number. Yeah, right. So like Domino's now, there's like a whole commercial on TV, oh, order your pizza but pick it up at Domino's. And they show these people like in Superman costumes, super person costumes.

Right?

Okay, going, and they go pick up the pizza, right? And then you get $3, but they don't give it you the $3. It's, it's in your account. So on the next order, you get $3 off your pizza. Yeah, which doesn't make sense. And then the next time, then you get— you go pick it up again, you get another $3. So you keep getting $3 off your pizza if you go pick it up.

Did they raise the price of their pizza?

I'm not sure. I don't— I'm not a Domino's orderer, so But their prices are, you know, have Domino's cheap. Yeah, they have like their cheap pizza, but then if you want the upper pizzas, you know, all the different pizzas they have in the commercial— Brooklyn pizza, this pizza, gluten-free pizza— those are all more money than the regular Domino's.

How do you— what's your thoughts on the gluten-free pizza?

Um, I tried it just to try it. It was okay.

I'm— I couldn't— the crust was like hard.

Yeah, it's very weird, the crust. It's like a crackery Kind of hard.

Yeah, there's the, the, you know, the—

you want to take a bite of the crust and they cut it in like little squares.

It's funny, like cauliflower pizza is terrible. Where? Cauliflower crust pizza.

I, I buy some cauliflower crusts at the frozen at Publix, and they have a fresh one. I didn't try their fresh one yet. I saw it in the case and I was like, if I needed some, I was like, maybe that when I run out of the ones I have I'll try.

I just noticed that Publix, they got the giant bags of rice cauliflower.

Yeah, organic. Yes, they have it at Costco too. I bought it, 4 bags, and it's inexpensive.

Tastes terrible.

I don't know, I fix it up, you know. I take it—

how do you fix up cauliflower?

Okay, so I take the cauliflower and I microwave it a little bit to— so that you get some of the water out of it, because otherwise it's going to be watery. Then I, you know, punch a hole in the bag and drain it out. But then in the pan I put garlic, onions, throw the cauliflower in there, season it up. You can put— throw some soy sauce on there, put some peas and carrots, fry it. Yeah, put it like in a dry fry. Yeah, no oil, very tiny, tiny bit of oil, or just there's water with a little oil. For the onions and the garlic.

Okay.

And then I throw everything— then I put that in there.

All right, so I'm gonna do it your way tomorrow.

And then, and then some— and then I'll put some frozen peas and carrots or whatever I have. Maybe I got some chopped up celery, some peppers, whatever vegetables I have. Could be broccoli, whatever. I chop it all up. Yeah, mix it. I heat that up separate, like in the microwave or in another throw that in there, right? Then after that's all kind of cooking, I'll make a little— in the center, scramble an egg, throw it in there, and then it's like a fried rice. Season it up a little ginger.

We're talking about restaurants seasoning up my cauliflower rice, but I just— it's the texture for me was, um, no, but if you put some—

if you make it like a fried rice then you're giving it—

well, I told my wife not to fry it. I said, you know, it's— if you don't run this no-carb thing, so you can't be frying food.

Like, yeah, but it's not fried fried, you know what I mean?

Fried fried?

Yeah, you got like a little water and a little—

that greasy fry bread, right?

It's not—

you've ever had fry bread? Yes, it's amazing.

Yes, powdered sugar.

Yes. Oh my God, shout out to all you Native Americans making fry bread.

So what do you think about a subscription at a restaurant? Like, are you gonna pay for a coffee cup and then you come in, order your sandwich, and then you get a free coffee because you have—

I mean, I could definitely see how like coffee drinkers could utilize it.

I think you got to get some food, you got to have food to get the free coffee. So they're making money off of you.

I mean, Starbucks is making hand over fist.

I mean, that's crazy. When I drive past a Starbucks in the morning and I see the amount of cars outside Starbucks, the only restaurant restaurant that has more cars than Starbucks is either Popeyes or Chick-fil-A.

Popeyes or Chick-fil-A? Yeah, I don't know, it's not so much anymore because the spicy chicken sandwich is fizzled out, but Chick-fil-A, yeah, they're equal for sure.

I mean, that's just crazy.

They're always around the corner.

Yeah, it's nuts. The one by my house is insane too, and they take two rows of cars through there. I don't know.

Chick-fil-A is crazy.

That pickle juice soaked into the chicken is—

I don't know, it's fried their brains.

It's—

it's that good.

Whoever— I guess it's delicious.

Do you— it's not kosher, so how do you go?

I mean, I've tried it before. Okay, so I'm just saying, I've tried it. I've tried it, you know, got to try it out. So try to make me call the rabbi on you, dude. Listen, the rabbi watched me eat it, so it was under rabbinical supervision. Oh, he was all good.

The rabbi called Allen Kopelman to make sure those, uh, those those jelly beans.

The rabbi said— yeah, he did. He said, oh, I saw you guys do that jelly bean challenge. He goes, that was really funny. He goes, are they kosher? I said, I don't know, I didn't check the package. I said, oh, since you watched it, it was under— I'll say it again— rabbinical supervision. Because that's like kosher foods kosher if it's under rabbinical supervision.

Oh, then you're good to go.

So, you know, with that, we're good to go. So kiosks, you know, kiosks at restaurants, that's just growing and growing and growing.

Yeah, we mentioned about the, uh, pizza kiosk where there's nobody. It's like a— you just— there's just this giant machine inside of the airport. I think it's in Queens, right? Or I don't know, it's somewhere out east.

We saw one on— we saw one on YouTube that was just outside, just outside.

Yeah, but in New York for sure.

Yeah, it was just outside somewhere and it makes a pizza, like a personal— Jay-Z invested in it, but it didn't get— but the pizza like the slices weren't cut, so it's not really meant to like eat it right there in your car. You better bring like a fork and knife with you with that.

Yeah, but so yeah, I mean the kiosk at restaurants, they're popping up.

You go to like McDonald's has it, and a lot of restaurants are switching out to like, oh, scan the QR code for the menu and then order your food on your phone.

I don't like that.

And, you know, service is going away.

Service is getting crappier and crappier.

Well, they don't have employees. I went to a restaurant near my house a few weeks ago to meet some friends, and we went in and I was like, oh, how come we can't sit? And there's the guy's like, yeah, I know there's open tables. The owner, he goes, but I don't have enough waiters and waitresses to, you know, for you to go sit in that part of the room. You know.

Oh, and that's like away from everyone?

No, just like that room was closed, you know. They had like 3 rooms. There was like outside, then there's a bar area, there was tables around there, and then there was a little room off to the side, and then, and then another side of that room. And they didn't, they didn't have enough staff to open up the whole place. And it's, you know, I see that's happening all over, and I think we're gonna see like You know, in 2008, 2009, we kind of saw like, you know, Chipotles pop up and all those type of restaurants where it was like counter service, and then you just go sit down. And I think we're gonna see like another hybrid to restaurants pop up. It's kind of sad because, you know, I— when I go to a restaurant, I think about having like a dining experience. You know, like you're going for— you're not just going that— you're— or you're going there to hang out with your friends and your family, right? It's a friends and family thing, you know, but it's also sometimes it's like, you know, you're coming there for the service and, and to be served and all that.

I mean, it's just to break a monotony for me. Like when, when our family really decides to go out to eat, right, you know, it's just it's finally, you know, no one wants to cook, we're fed up, or it's a special occasion, right? Special, like a very— like the last time we've been out to dinner I can remember is my daughter, one of my daughters graduated high school, and that was 3 years ago. Okay, like a family dinner. Yeah, that was 3 years ago.

No, but like, you know, I don't know, you know, I don't know. It's like a lot of, a lot of things are becoming very self-service. Like you go into the grocery store self-service checkout. Walmart, self-service checkout. Costco, self-service checkout. There's a lot of self-service going on.

I'm all for the self-service.

I'm just—

I don't know about the, the restaurant thing, how that's going to work out.

Um, what, you sit down in a restaurant and they have a tablet on the table and then all of a sudden the food arrives? Yeah, and then, and then a robot comes with your food.

We're just gonna push me away further from even going out.

Yeah, I mean, there we also— I also saw like on, on YouTube the first McDonald's, um, where there's no con— there's no people, there's no person, no personal contact with the customer. So you have to order your food like on an app or on the kiosk, then you wait for your food, and then the restaurant was up high, and then you pulled up to the drive-through, and then an elevator like came down, conveyor belt gives you, and the food's there. There, boom, you don't even talk to anybody. It's crazy.

I, I get it, you know. I mean, technology is advancing, and so, you know, business—

but it's not good because, you know, now that you're eliminating a lot of jobs for like teenagers, how are teenagers supposed to get—

I think like that first job you were talking about, like, it wasn't during the podcast. I was pretty sure I was telling you about Um, I was listening to one of these, uh, economics— economists talk about— economists, yeah, talk about, um, this basically, it's gonna be equivalent to a natural disaster the way that artificial intelligence and, you know, robots and all this— there's— is the, the, you know, the middle class And the working class, you know, underneath that, um, are going to get really hit hard. And he was saying it's going to be as bad as what you would say like a natural disaster, like our—

like a hurricane, or it's going to be a disaster for kids in another couple of years. A teenager, what kind of job are they going to be able to go get? No, there's not going to be a job.

Services— there won't be a service industry.

I'm not a big believer in this whole AI thing because Every time I read about AI, I see like, you know, ChatGPT's putting a watermark into the stuff. Uh, they put it— some of it, they're putting a disclaimer at the bottom, written by ChatGPT. Someone, some school sent out an email, they didn't erase it, they didn't retype it, the wording wasn't like 100% correct. You know, we've talked about the guy with the chat GBT-0, GPT-0, where it can detect whether the content was created by AI. And you know, we have like a war going on with Google and, and Microsoft over who's gonna have the best AI attached to their— I can tell you one thing, Bing, I've tried it out for a couple days, like the Bing Edge deal. No, their search is horrible.

Like trash.

It's no good. I'm not I switched back to Google. I wanted to just try it out because, you know, why not, to see what was going on with it, right? But it's not good at all. The searches were horrible.

I mean, it's just a very conversational thing, and it, to me, uh, I also didn't like how it was. I don't like it either.

I didn't like how it was displayed either.

The way that it's pretty ugly.

Yeah, they're not displayed— it's not displayed in an eye-catching way. They—

I mean, like, you know, like I said, it's young and new, and so there's going to be a lot of changes.

So I was reading an article about the AI, right? So they're like, oh, we—

were you reading or watching?

Reading a video? No, I was reading this time.

So there's a— there's some going around along the internet that says the next time someone says, yeah, I was reading this article, the majority— like, there was a poll or something— like, the majority of the people saying that They didn't read anything. Yeah, they saw— they watched a TikTok, you know what I mean?

So no, this was an article. It was either in the Times or Forbes or something, and they were talking about— this guy was writing in the article about how he put ChatGPT to the test. So he's like, oh, I put it to the test. So he's like, oh, I asked it to do this, this, and that, a few things that he's writing in— write an article, write a letter. Write some kind of document. He said that was all pretty horrible. Then he said that he gave— asked it to take a test, and it passed, um, like the bar exam and some other, some other like tests that are—

well, I know ChatGPT passed the Google coding exam. Yeah, that's what I'm starting at, $200,000 a year, right?

That's what I'm talking about. So they asked it to do do this like online job interview stuff, and they said, oh, it passed it. But when you asked it to do something where it required some human interaction, you know, a more human type answer, you got nothing. You got— it didn't really do well.

It didn't make sense.

Plus there's people that have figured out some crazy hacks to make it like curse and do some other, some other stuff, which I'm not going to even go play with because I don't have enough time in my day. I like to relax. I don't need to see if I can make ChatGPT curse. But it's, uh, you know, it's interesting. But, you know, the restaurant business is getting hit hard. And now we also see, like, the retailers— we see all these retail places, like we saw, see Bed Bath Beyond, Tuesday Morning, and a bunch of places, you know, closing up. And You know, I think if someone has some kind of business where you could use the goods or whatever they have in those stores, now's the time to go grab some— grab stuff and sell it online or sell it in your store, or fixtures or whatever. But I don't know what—

you know, I mean, this is— the economy is down, um, when the economy is spiraling out of control and towards a recession. A lot of people generate wealth.

Yeah.

So there's a lot of times there's a lot of opportunity during this time. So don't get discouraged. To all the restaurants or the people out there, you know, you got to adapt, persevere, and overcome, man.

Yeah, figure out something to do. Like, I was reading about also— what I— who was I? Now I'm not going to remember the name of the restaurant company, but there's one called Lazy Dog and they sell like frozen dinners. I saw where now other restaurants are starting to do the same thing, to sell like food you can go put it in your freezer.

Oh yeah, I know a bunch of people that are doing that.

Yeah, so I think more restaurants, and I think like the mom and pop Italian restaurants have been doing that forever. Well, I think they kind of like do to-go, but I'm talking about like actually like package it up.

No, I'm—

I don't have a case.

Where I'm from in Milwaukee, bro, you go down to the Italian restaurant Uh, what is it? Uh, whatever, Gloriosos. And you say you want Parmesan, you know, they got one. Either they got one that you can put it in the micro and take it with you, or they got one that's frozen, right? And you, you know, that's, that's just—

I think that's more like up north they do that a lot. Yeah, probably, because I know like when I lived in New York and also like when I lived, when I was growing up here in Miami, you would go into like you know, different stores, and they had like a lot of prepared meals. And now I even see in Publix, when I go to Publix, like they had a whole row now over near— oh yeah, yeah, yeah, with all kinds of cooked food. And they have this Blue Apron thing or some apron food or something. And I think restaurants need to hop on the bandwagon with that and figure out like, hey, what kind of things can I sell to my customers I mean, a lot of the restaurants, they tried during COVID but they just failed miserably because most of the food isn't made to travel like that. So like, well, I'm just saying, that's where you got to figure out like, hey, what few things— like, we had a—

you need your packaging. You need to figure out the packaging, how the food fits in the packaging, right? Like, you can't just get a, you know, a two-whatever-sided meal tray and say, you got to really—

you got to really think about the packaging and how to package it up. And the same thing, like, if you're going to deliver food— like, we had a part— we had a client, right, when COVID first started, right? And they were getting a ton of chargebacks. And I called the guy up, I go, what's going on? I'm reading these chargebacks. I'm like, there's some food on your menu you need to take it off your, uh, ordering website because obviously it's not traveling well. And that you're getting complaints on the same 3, 4, Uh, right, items, right? So get rid of those items because you're just causing a problem. And he's like, oh, well, people want those items. I go, well, then you either need to figure out how to package them up better or don't sell them. And then they— couple of them, they figured out a better packaging. And then a couple of them, they just decided no, they're not going to do it because it just didn't work for traveling. And that's what restaurants have to do. I think if you— you know, I saw another restaurant recently near my mom's house and they took out a couple of tables up in the front of the restaurant and they put in a refrigerator and they got all kinds of soups and different things in there to sell. And you know, I think restaurants need to adapt and change, just like I tell you all the time, my favorite book, Who Moved the Cheese. The cheese is getting moved right now and you need to figure out where that— what that cheese is at your restaurant and how— what are the things you're going to take advantage of discounts to get people to pick up food? Does some kind of subscription work for you? Maybe that'll bring in more people. If you have— if you don't have a rewards program, put one in place.

Absolutely.

That people want to save money. Kiosk— is it time to think about how to put a kiosk in your place to give better service when people come in and order? Do you have a website? Right. And selling some kind of like frozen or bulk foods, you know, sauces, your sauces, something from your restaurant, your spices, spice mix or something. Yeah. Something to beef up your sales.

Absolutely.

Right. And, you know, that's what— that's our thoughts on the restaurant business. Yeah.

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It's a great book. I did read it.