Bloomberg Businessweek Weekend - September 8th, 2023

This is Bloomberg business Week Inside from the reporters and editors who bring you America's most trusted business magazine, plus global business, finance and tech news. The Bloomberg Business Week Podcast with Carol Messer and Tim Stenebeck from Bloomberg Radio.

Hi, everyone, Welcome to the Bloomberg Business Week Weekend Podcast. Bloomberg News Deputy team leader for US Equities Jess Metton, Carol and I are sharing the hosting duties this week and head on the program. We're going to continue with

Oh, it's good to be here with you today.

You know, every year around this time, I wonder what people think about who were there that day, and you were, of course one of the first people who were there that day. What does this time of year mean to you.

It's a time to remember. It's a time to remember the tragedy of that day, but it is also a time to remember how how firefighters ran into danger to save lives. And there's Another thing that we need to remember is that the global community came together and we supported each other in one voice against terrorism.

You were the first fire chief at the World Trade Center on that day, and remarkably, you already had a documentary film crew with you filming another instance, as far as when you were dealing with a routine gas leak. What kind of goes through your mind whenever you think back to that moment, having already been down there before everything began.

I remember it was a beautiful summer morning with bright sunshine, and we were standing in the street at an ordinary emergency, and then all of a sudden, we heard a loud noise of planes coming overhead, and as you know, we

You must have replayed those moments in your head countless times at this point.

I do.

And one of the moment I remember is that as we pulled up to the World Trade Center, we saw smoke coming out of the top, flames coming out, and people started to gather by the windows, and we knew that at that time there would be like twenty thousand people within the World Trade sent the complex, and every firefighter, every paramedic, every fire marshal, every police officer, every responder looked at the burning buildings and they knew they were

And your brother Kevin was amongst those that went up. And it was interesting that the documentary crew that you were with actually had a moment where the two of you were talking and he went up there. When you think back to that moment, how do you feel.

I think back to the moment when he came up to me without saying a word, and we looked at each other, wondering if we're both going to be okay. And then I ordered him to go up to evacuate and to rescue those that were trapped. And it was the same order I gave many fire offices. And I think back to that moment, which was a special moment that we saw each other. And then I saw him take his Unit Engine thirty three in turn to climb the narrow stairs of the World Trade Center.

So whenever you talk about in your memoir called ordinary heroes, is that the ordinary hero that you're talking about.

That is.

And as my brother went up, I know the firefighters went up. People were coming down, and the firefighters said to people, don't.

Stop, keep going.

You can make it out of here. Some simple words, and those words we know from people who survived. Those words made a difference because they made it out.

When I think about nine to eleven, I remember where I was, along with many other the people who are around my age and older, they remember where they were, they remember what they were experiencing. It was sort of like a you know, talking to my parents that moment that John F. Kennedy was killed, or talking to my grandparents that moment that Pearl Harbor was attacked. Since nine eleven, tens of millions of Americans have been born people who

The memory of nine to eleven is part of history, and certainly are young people many of them weren't even born, and they can read about it, But they also can see documentaries, and I think that's a different experience that they actually looking at a documentary experience it again. And the question for us, I think, is what do we want them to learn from it. Is this just an event that they look at it on a program or

Earlier this year, you actually came out of retirement to take on a new job as the nation's largest fire department here and you were named first Deputy Commissioners. That's the second highest civilian rank in the department managing those day to day operations, So very impressive. What motivated you to do this after you did retire from the FDNY in twenty eighteen.

It's coming back to the fire department that I love, that there's so much part of my life and saying, yeah, I got some more work to do. There's other things that I can do now. As I mentioned, it's not only responding to emergencies here, but how do we shape the department to deal with lithium battery fires and to deal with the climate change safety issues. So it's it's for me, it's exciting going to work every day.

It's pretty remarkable that in the last twenty years, twenty two years and moving forward, we'll probably see more people die as a result of the toxins the pollutants at Ground Zero than who were actually killed in the attacks, and continue we continue to see members of the FDN Y die each year as a result of this. How do we keep those heroes in our memory even though they're dealing with the health effects decades later.

It's hard to believe that twenty two years later, we're approaching the number of our firefighters that died on nine to eleven lost three hundred and forty three of our members, and we're approaching that number. We're at three hundred and forty one that died from Post nine to eleven diseases

Nine to eleven.

As we come to this twenty second anniversary, whenever you're speaking with family members of those who are going to have their names added, how are they feeling at this moment.

There's a level of sadness, but at the same time, there's a sense that we're supporting each other and they're not alone. Coming together as department and other family members that have lost loved ones. We stand arm in arm, and we stand arm with the City of New York and the country and even the world, and in that sense, we can make it through it.

Do you think there's more work to be done in taking care of those not just members of the FDN Y, but those who are living with the effects of nine to eleven More that Congress can do.

There's definitely more that Congress can do. They could continue to fund our medical programs, and we're dependent on that in FDN Y. For the people who have got sick that they've survived, actually eighty five percent of them survived longer than what was expected because of our medical programs, and those medical programs aren't cheap and seeing physicians and treatment. So Congress has a responsibility to care for the victims, not just from that day, but the victims that we're

What motivates you to keep serving? As Jess mentioned, you unretired after nearly forty years with the FDNY, and I think a lot of people in your position would would say, hey, that was that was a great career. A lot of people probably said to you, that was a great career.

I like the term unretired. It's actually fun being unretired, going back and looking at new challenges and looking at the complexity. So we have to deal with and bringing together our experienced people and our young people coming in and saying Okay, we can do this together. We can protect the city. We can deal with new challenges, new disasters, and we can do it together. Which is the secret. And it's not just with an FD and Y. I work closely with NYPD and emergency management and the city

Well, Chief Ffiffer, thank you so much for joining us. Really appreciate you taking the time.

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America's pre trial detention system is actually a global outlier. It's set apart by an emphasis on cash bill and the for profit infrastructure that supports it. So if you can't afford your bail, a company in the two billion dollar commercial bailbond industry will cover it for a fee. And if you don't qualify for bail bonds or can't afford them, you go to jail. You eight months or even years for a trial. Sarah Holder and Fulla Kenne

I didn't know about it, though, Did you know about it?

I had heard of it, okay, in terms of you know when we voted for it, yeah, but or voted against it, depending on how people voted. But I didn't know about the successes and failures of it.

So one of the things as we were kind of putting together the city's issue, we really wanted to take like this, look at where cities are three plus years after the pandemic, and this idea from Fulla and Sarah I thought was a really interesting way to talk about criminal justice and this experiment that's happened in New York that I think has been worthy of more national attention than it's perhaps received, and as you mentioned, us huge

Thanks Joil, and so I guess, first of all, the jail system in the US have been it's greatly expanded since the seventies and so there are four times as many people behind bars.

Pre trial on four times four times and pre trial.

Yeah, pre trial, so so you know, accused but not convictive of any crime than there were in the seventies. And so these systems have sprung up in jurisdictions across the US, New York having one of the most expansive ones to address this ballooning population of folks that are being held before they've been convicted. And so here in New York we have this supervised Release program. And so each borough has a provider, well Brooklyn shares Brooklyn and

And just so our listeners and viewers know, Rikers here in New York is a place where people are held, a pre trial place.

Yes.

Yes, it's just like people who are waiting trial.

People who are waiting trial. Most of them, I think, like ninety percent.

Of the folks were I want to bring Sarah into this conversation to get your insight on also the politics when it comes to letting people walk through, walk us through, as far as what the issues are there and the politics behind that.

Yeah, I mean, bail reform as a policy change has you know, attracted a lot of attention nationwide. It's kind of a new boogeyman. After the defund the police movement, people were talking about sort of diverting funds from police

What do they do?

And so Supervisor releases sort of like a programming change that attacks this or addresses this more political church political issue. And Fuller can talk a little bit more about, you know what politicians face when they do take on bill reform.

Well, before we let him do that, let's talk about what this looks like in practice. And there's a character in the story, Kevin, which is a pseudonym, But let's talk about what Kevin faced and how the program affected him personally.

Yeah, So, at a basic level, when you're arrested in New York City, your process, your booked, and then eventually, usually after twenty four hours or so, you're in front of a judge. And you know, in reporting out of the story, Sarah and I spent a lot of time in court watching watch these arraiements, watching this happen, right, and and and these these hearings take You wouldn't guess

Give you supervised release.

And so, once you're diverted to a program like this, someone like Kevin is is being connected with a social worker immediately and they'll have to meet. Depending on the severity of the charges, they'll have to meet a certain number of times a month. For him, it's it's four times a month, and essentially it looks like a therapy session. You know, he talks to his caseworker about issues he's

Even you know, one of the most interesting things I thought was reminded of is the economic toll that being in jail and not being able to afford bail actually is. Talk about what Kevin based on that front.

So when he was standing in front of the judge waiting to hear what his fate would be, you know, city prosecutors had asked for a million dollars bail, and that's something he could never could never afford or can never pay. And so this program allowed for another way, right, sort of a midway.

Right.

They don't have to let him go walk free, or they're not letting him walk free, but they're also not going to make him go to Rikers, right, And so he's able to do this programming. He's able to still go home, but he has this responsibility to come and participate in supervise release and he's been going he'do weekly for six months as his case winds to the system. That's six months he would have spent in rikers.

It's incredible that story full on its own. But Sarah, I want to bring you back in here and talk about how the city and advocates for this measure success on the larger term. How do we know if it's successful here in New York City.

Yeah, I mean it's a really interesting question. I think case workers are grappling with that as well. Like one of the biggest takeaways, like when we were at arraignment's court, was that people were not getting sent to rikers and they were getting sent to supervis release. And I think for caseworkers that's a measure of success. You know, are you diverting one more person away from that notorious jail.

And that's that's.

Really what bill is supposed to do. It's supposed to ensure that people, you know, face their day in court and don't disappear. Supervised release is another way of making sure that people do that, that they show back up. And then another way of thinking about this is whether people are getting re arrested while they're awaiting their day in court. You know, people out on supervised release in the city get re arrested less than ten percent of the time, less than two percent of the time for

Hey full of Something I'm curious about is how does the approach when it comes to the US differ than what typically is seen more internationally.

So in other jurisdictions I mean, cash bi able are seen as a last resort. I mean the UK and Canada, and in the EU cash bail is sort of like the last last resort, and bail bondser illegal in most jurisdictions. I think it's just the US and I believe the Philippines that.

Allow the US being more of an outlier.

Clearly, the US is definitely an outlier, but New York is also not totally an outlier, right, Like there is It's not like I want to get in the politics of this still, but like, who else is following New York's lead here?

And where else should we be watching to see what the programs how those programs unfold.

So there are quite a few jurisdictions, or I guess not quite a few, but there are some jurisdictions that are trying to address the same issue, right trying to reduce geo populations. Because we have to remember that jailing people is expensive for a jurisdiction, For municipality, what's the cost of New York. In New York, it's like fifteen hundred a day. I think per person, and so I mean it's pricey. Yeah, it's like a I think it's

And so there are those costs.

Okay, So I said, we talked about the politics. Let's talk about the politics.

What's the city line on this?

And what about where the state comes in?

So this is a city it's a city funded program, right, So the city spends about sixty seven million dollars a year on this and in the last budget cycle we saw more money set aside for this program.

Is that a lot of money or not a lot of money?

It's more than the pre K. Wow.

As we reported before, I will be off Thursday taking my son his first day pre K. So you did the great story on pre K earlier this year about Eric Adams not providing funding to those PreK centers.

And so I guess in the grand scheme of thing, the New York City budget is one hundred and seven million dollars, so it's not that much money, but it is for a program like this, quite a bit of it. It's quite a quite an investment.

And just keep in mind and also the economic side of this, right, like instead of paying fifteen hundred dollars per person per day, we're allowing those same people who you know.

Might not be even violent.

Offenders to basically like be able to be having you know, keep their normal the feeling right, and be in their community. So I think it's really interesting. So what about the how does how do other jurisdictions? How is this going over elsewhere?

Right?

Because clearly we brought up to defund the police as a talking point, like this is a charged idea because it goes against some conventional, long standing wisdom.

Definitely, And I think the New York City program is a great example of of the challenges that programs like these fates. Right, Like, on one end, the program seems to be working and it seems like it's it's getting support, right, and so it's ramped up and so the caseworkers have a ton of cases.

Right.

We've met some people that have seventy cases on their plate. On the other hand, they have to worry about the politics of this, right like New York has rolled back. New York State has rolled back it's bail reforms, I think three times at this point.

Right.

In other jurisdictions, we've seen campaign ads sort of demonizing bail reform leaves out in last year, ran ads right saying that he would, you know, reverse the bail laws. And so the politics of this are fraud to say the least. And we see this in juristictions across country.

Full of fantastic story, Sarah, A great story. Sarah Holder, city Lab reporter at Bloomberg News, on the phone from our bureau. Full of Kenneby, city Lab reporter here at Bloomberg News with us in the Bloomberg INTERACTI Brokers Studio, along with Joe Webber, the editor of Bloomberg BusinessWeek. This story and more in the City's issue, the Double Issue a business Week.

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There was a story if you saw this tim by our Ed Ludlow. It was about how to start it back by Microsoft, you know, the company that got us all nuts about next level AI.

Yeah, I think in videos I'm milcha, you know, hey, thank you exactly.

Well, we're talking about open AI and notes how it's on track for one billion dollars of annual revenue as businesses adopt the technology behind chat ChiPT, which is the generative AI bot. You know this that ignited that wave of artificial intelligence investment, I mean, and just set us all off and running.

Yeah, especially those in video shareholders.

Yeah. Yeah, it's all pretty good.

Yeah, with some thoughts on AI and what it means to our workflow and our world with us as the CEO and founder of Creatio, Katherine Costa Riva. Good to have you with us, Catherine. Creatio is a CVRM. It's a customer relationship manager and it sells software that automates workflows.

Yes, happy to what Creation does. We're doing no code platforms. So this is a little bit different type of software, the no code platform for workflow automation and CRM off top of it. But the whole idea of Creation is actually no code capabilities to automate workflow not being a professional software developer. Let me share some numbers with you.

Point, but break that down. Before we share numbers, what does that mean no code?

Yeah, for that was exactly what I want to do. Yes, these numbers will explain what no code actually means. In the world, there are twenty five million software developers. The demand for workflow automation today, Carol is five hundred million apps in the world. There are one point seven billion knowledge workers who can easily use the new code platform

It sounds like why wouldn't everybody use it? So give me an idea of the growth of your business so that we get an idea and who who are your partners, who are your clients, who are you working with?

Happy to happy to Creation? Despite the economic slowdown and everything happening in the world right now, Creatio continues to grow at fifty sixty percent. Yeah over, yeah, is that top line? What exactly is that inn is the top line. Okay, and you mentioned Salesforce in the beginning, so Creation is together with Salesforce in those Gardner Magic quadrants for Salesforce automation, like the best software for Salesforce autom for marketing automation,

Talk a little bit about the funders, how you're supported venture capitally you've raised.

Listen, we wouldstrap the company in twenty fourteen. We founded the company here in Boston. We bootstrapped for many years and then were raised caple two and a half years ago for the first time in the history of the company. That was a minority investment of sixty eight million dollars and again just just to speed up, to accelerate the growth of the company and to deliver the message of no code to as many people in the world as possible.

So you mentioned about working with salesforce, So are you could you be at some point a company their acquisitive that they take on and bring you into the fold. Or is your goal to.

Kind of do it?

Is your goal to do it alone?

You go as you go?

Is your goal to do it alone?

And I'm just curious we're doing it together with our partners all over the world system integrators. There are seven hundred organizations in one hundred countries of the world who evangelize Creatia as a no code platform and implement Creative to our clients in those one hundred countries. So we're not alone. We have amazing clients and amazing partners all over the world. But this is just the next generation

Just came and so many people.

Didn't believe actually at that time that cloud is going to be the future and all the software products will be in the cloud. What we're building here at Creation today is the next generation of software. We're saying that the future of enterprise software is no code, and in ten years from now, we're seeing that all enterprise products will have those no code capabilities when knowledge workers without technical skills can automate their workflows and can automate their processes.

I'm wondering what you're hearing from the sales your own salesforce, the folks that you have around the country, around the world selling your product right now in terms of what it tells you, what it tells us about the economy, because we've heard about softness, especially when it comes to software as a service.

Yes, that's that's a brilliant question, Kim, and listen, that's a very interesting topic because the demand is there. We clearly hear from each and every prospect and client of Creation that despite everyone is cutting budgets, everyone is cutting budgets. Digital transformation and investment into the technology and workflow automation tools like Creation is still on the top of the agenda. So that would be the last budgets that will be cut.

So if no code is meaning that you can design software that even non technical people can execute, do we still need we still need a lot of coders to do this because we keep telling everybody go learn how to code? Is that wrong?

And just very quickly?

Yes, that's a great question. We do need a lot of software developers. The population of software developers is growing just four percent year over year. We need more and more of them to build deep platform itself. But workflows have to be built by knowledge workers. The platform D technology needs to be built by software professional software coders and developers.

Really fascinating stuff. Come back soon. We really appreciate it. Katherine costera reva. She is the CEO and founder of Creatio. Joining us on zoom from Boston.

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John Wortheim is with US, executive editor and senior writer at Sports Illustrated, contributing course on it for sixty minutes. I'm gonna be a little bit of a fangirl, John, I love your pieces on sixty minutes. But he's here with us to talk about the US Open. He's on the phone in Los Angeles. John, welcome back, How are you good?

How are you?

I want to zam that intro music? What a great tennis on core?

We might be able to get you the information on that. I think pauls All to our team at Bloomberg Business.

Skaream it's cream? How about that? I didn't recognize that either. Hey, John, So let's talk tennis. What are you looking forward to this year? It's an interesting year and it's a packed year. I'm just warning you from.

When you're here.

Yeah, you know, I'll play any funny. This is the first US Open after Roger Federer and Serena Williams and for years and years tennis. And what are we going to do when these two titans are no longer around? What's going to happen at tennis? And I think three of the last five sessions attendance records. Someone was telling you about the the secondary ticket from from the secondary market for tickets is off the chart. There are a

Yeah. I love the Tiapos story as well, and he's currently battling it out right now in the third set, in the fourth set, actually right now. So who else are the big names that you're watching this year?

Oh? I, you know, some of them are the big names that we're used to. When Niga schwanhek won last year and is really establishing herself as this generational player and his Coco Goffin emerge his a rival, and Jesse Pegula is in fact the highest ranked American male or female of She's an interesting character with a much different

All on our toes. It's interesting, John, I always think about we talked about this a lot with golf, right, you know, golf after Tiger Woods. You know, in tennis, we've had a lot of conversations with the USTA over the years about, you know, making sure there's their interest with the younger generation. And we see it continuing and we do see younger, newer, interesting players come out. What is it about tennis that you think that continues to be a really popular sport.

I would love to see some sort of mess some sort of data on how many people are at the US Open, because it's fun at an event and you walk around and you eat good food, and they're guys, you know, juggling versus the actual tennis. I'm never quite I'd always sort of just for my own and it's just interesting to see. I think tennis is actually getting

You know, it's funny that you say that we talked with the folks over at IBM yesterday and talking specifically about trying to bring some of the content from some of the other matches that aren't either at ASH or you know, the main you know, kind of the main focus, if you will, here at the open to make sure that maybe some lesser well known and even you know, global players at least get their time and that their

They got a long way to go, though, John, don't worry. I watched a little bit last night. It's not anywhere close to what you do. It's not close to what we hear from the Macnrope brothers.

But is it good giving you know, some of these players who might not get attention and their matches some time. But is it also a little worrisome? I don't know.

With the AI component, Yeah, it's wear of AI.

We all recognize some of the outside of the potential. I'm not sure AI's most urgent need is for sports commentary. I mean, I've heard things that like, it's still whatever. We won't think, we don't bout AI. It gets better, right it sort of learns from its suma rapidly. But I've heard it's pretty cringey right now, and they're, you know, using terms that aren't real tennis terms. Suspect that will improve it. I got to think there are other ways

Yeah, Hey, John, I love I love every year the tips that you write.

I have been dying off air going.

Through the list.

I mean, it's not just the ones that you write, but you also crowdsource them this year with you know, help from people on Twitter x whatever you call it. Okay, a couple of things that I have a couple of things I want to ask now, I'm not going to take yours. What's the deal with how loud the crowd

I think it's healthy and I think, you know, at first level, I feel like crowds take their hue from players. And we talked before about Francisciajo. He will say very openly he wants crowds to be louder, he wants them to move around. Why I can't tell us to be more like the NBA. I think there's a sense that, you know, I go to a sporting event, I act a certain way. I get it. It's tennis, it's not Nastar.

I totally agree with you.

I got I saw daggers. I saw daggers from the player she looked at she looked out my way one of the matches earlier this week.

I love this.

Unless you have a match that day, there's no excuse for dressing like a player when you attend the US Open. You don't wear stirrups to a Yankees game and hint guards and leotards to the LA leave the ristbands home jam. It's so true. It is really funny to kind of look around the crowds and there are people, you know, who were just fans and they're dressed like a tennis player.

I don't get. I kind of sort of sometimes want to approach those people and say, listen, no judgment, but can you just explain that they can here, and I don't know if blaze me when you've got these you know, sixty year old Postelli guys with wristbands on to go to go watch. You know, I don't get it.

All right, there's another one we have to do because I felt like where is that one tent? Tim, because I felt like this happened to me because I did take that l I R R to go back home to Manhattan. Oh here it is. Your fund is crushing it and the Hamptons were amazing, and your kids left camp and your buddy got you these tickets. If you insist on a change over conversations, keep it down, Tiger.

Godness, it could have been a source for you, Carol.

But it gets a little crazy, right John.

Yeah, it's a certain type and you certainly see that type at the US Open. And you know, we all love we all love full markets, and we all love you know, and when we close on a high, as we seem to be close to doing. But yeah, I don't need to hear about that, and neither does the person of the.

See before you go.

One thing I did want to ask you, and getting back to just a little bit more serious, is the role of Saudi Arabia in sports specifically overall. You saw it with LIV, golf, WTA, stuff's percolating. How are you seeing it as somebody who's covered this industry for a long time or covered this world.

Oh man, we could do a whole hour on that. I did a piece a few months ago for sixteen minutes when I went. I went to Riatt and sort of saw what it was like on the ground, and I'm clearly the Saudis sports as a place to get involved. Their economics are much different from conventional sports economics, which is not about media rights deals and selling tickets and sweet and merchandise. I think this is about rebranding a country. And you know, we saw in golf that took it

To me, but it's tennis different. I mean, you mentioned China several times there, and what they did in China is tennis different.

You know, I think a couple of things. First, they the WTA left China citing these ethical concerns, so you sort of set a precedent for you know, ethics and morals and human rights that matters to us. It's a little strange to then say, actually, you know what, make that back. It doesn't. I think the Women's Tennis Tour sort of has this strand and has for for decades of activism and social and fairness and equality. And this is more than just about four hands and backhands and

Yeah, we got to rude. Come back into the hour in Saudi Arabia. We would love to you name the date at the time, John, you are here, John Wroth, I'm of Sports Illustrated of sixty minutes.

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Plenty ahead in our second hour of the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week, including a Bloomberg Big take on the one aspect of post pandemic life that just can't seem to get back to normal. Returning to the office full time. Plus, we'll go back to the US Open for a pulse check on the growth of tennis in America with former pro and former CEO of the United States Tennis Association Katrina Adams. First up this hour, a conversation with Josh Dominga's He's the founder and CEO of

Hey, so a story poptin on my radar while reading in for our next guest. It was from Dive. They're a business to business news organization. They wrote, as grocers dial up their efforts to reduce food waste, a key area of focus within sustainability, artificial intelligence and other digital innovations are helping food retailers improve their data processes and workforce efficiencies. So I'm curious what our next guest has to say about that, and so delighted to have back

Anyway?

Welcome back, welcome back. And Jess was reminded like this.

The first time we had she was here.

She's in for tim but like nice to have this continuity. How are you.

I'm doing well.

I mean, congratulations you have a bigger family now, yeah.

Thank you.

We had another one, so our newness is now three months old. And I was joking that, like I go from all all things crazy at home to all things crazy at work, but just on a journey, and it's so grateful to be in the position that we're at. We're really excited with what's happening stateside, Like.

Well, tell us about the journey and what's happened since April A lot. I mean you said to me, how's the world going on? Like it's crazy, it's not stopping. It has just been so busy. Even with questions about the outlook and all these problems, there's growth, people are doing things. What's changed since April A lot of things.

But I'll say the first thing is like the reliance on from shoppers on flash foot now like we've become a lifeline for some of our customers, some of our shoppers where like they're not feeding their kids or their families as affordably as they would read or as healthily without the app, and we're seeing that just play out

Like and I want to give you, but give me give me we are bloomberg. So we get a little like number crazy, but give me an idea in terms of like we'll go ahead, good.

Well, the size and scope that he threw out the last time he was here, he was talking about how it's about five to ten thousand dollars of food every day of stores throwing out and that really stuck out to me.

Yeah, we've now saved shoppers. So one number that comes to mind is like, we've now saved shoppers over two hundred million dollars in the groceries, Like, and we're in just under two thousand stores. There's so what does that mean?

So when somebody shop, tell me what that number means.

So the average the average discount on flash food is about fifty percent off. Okay, So like we've saved shoppers in total across the entire platform over two hundred million dollars now, and that number is like we're in nineteen hundred stores. There's forty or fifty thousand grocery stores in America. Like, we're still just scratching the surface. There's still so much opportunity.

Who's shopping? Who is your shopper?

I was talking about this earlier, Like there's a small cohort of people that don't have to ever think about how much their grocery their groceries are, And.

There's a cohort increasingly, not because I feel like, but to be fair, to be fair, there's people who are on It's a.

Very small number and it's getting smaller, and there's a small number of people who just like are on the other spectrum, and our shoppers are the mass market that's in between. Like, it's not just people who need to save money on their groceries. People need to save money anywhere now. So in terms of the shopper, it's typically young moms that are our main shopper. But it runs the gamut, like across the spectrum economically.

How does it work exactly? If you go to the store.

Remind everybody else, I know you went through this last time.

But yeah, so you usually check the app, So I'll talk the flow. You check the app in the morning, you see what a store posts, you buy it. So let's say you buy a pack of chicken rest and it's fifty percent off. Anytime that day, you go to the store and you go to the flash Food zone, which is by the customer service desk usually, and they have a device with the list of names of people that are coming to pick up. You just say I'm Jess,

Are they restrictions on how much you can buy?

No?

No, do you typically sell out? It's the purple fridge.

Right, Yeah, we're selling like depending on the store, but we're selling seventy five to eighty percent of all the food that makes its way on the flash food platform. Some of the markets, some of the stores, as we like have been on for a while, more shoppers know about them.

When we launched.

There's some like education to let shoppers know. For example, like from the last time I was here, we went from I think it was like ten or fifteen stores with Stopping Shop to now over three hundred stores live with them across New England, New Jersey, New York. So Stopping Shop is our biggest expansion in the last quarter that we've had.

So in context as far as if something is two to three days before the expiration date is due or even weak out. What causes that to happen? Are people just going in not if it's Saints Suitor? Are they not wanting to grab that and they're trying to buy something that's going to last a little bit longer. So that's why stores end up having to throw this out.

That's exactly it. It's consumer habits. Specifically in North America. When we go grocery shopping, we're always reaching at the back for whatever has Yeah, we're all guilty of it, and the near dated stuff moves to the front.

And we think that there's not quite as many items left. I'm kind of questioning why those things might be there.

That's exactly the next point. If you go buy a watermelon and there's one on the shelf, consumer is the worst one. So the retailer has to stalk the shelves. So it's a combination so that we get selection. It's a combination of like inventory getting into the store, but also consumer habits that drives to this like dual sided problem.

I guess someone who's created this business, Josh, do you think about, like you know so much when we talk about retail or some other markets you know, managing your supply chain is crucial, right, and I do wonder do you think that there is a moment in time where food or supermarkets are better at managing their food purchases so that there isn't waste that you can't tap into or is it not it's not the way this market works.

I mean, I mean, I'm just curious if you yeah, it's not. It's not serving to the business. But I mean, I would love if that were the case from personally, from like an environmental perspective, I would love if that were the case.

But is there something about it that almost makes it impossible.

It's it's not ever going to get there. It's so hard to manage inventory and fresh food. Like we're in New York City and you can get a banana at any time of the year. Like people forget how just much of a miracle that is, Like you're not they're not growing down the road. You got to get that across the world basically, and take that for any item

Isn't that funny? Like I think about growing up. I'm older than both of you, but it's like peaches were in season, like this was in season corn, and you know, there was just certain things that we would have and it was kind of fun. But it's not that way anymore.

It's gone away very different. And now if they don't have something at one store, your competitor has it down the road. So like because of that reason, in addition to supply chain, in addition to moving food, and in addition to every time you touch food like it degrades its quality a little bit, it's just really really difficult to get fresh food right forecasting. So my belief is, no matter what, we're going to have a surplus in

Where's the Whole Foods? The Walmart, Cosco, the Kroger, the Wegmans, the Albertson's, the all d to partner with you. What's what's the conversations you're having. Yeah, I'm assuming you are.

Yeah. Yeah, And if anybody knows any of them, like give them a call. No, we're speaking to uh, We're speaking to basically everybody in America.

Do they want to do it?

Yes?

And you have different levels within these big companies, decision making from different people. It depends who you get in through. With some of the like we are, what I'll say is we're very focused on being national in America and that is something that we continuously are focusing on. And then with some of those companies like I think it's a matter of time, like I just for whatever reason, bring.

Them revenue, you potentially bring them new customers.

We will absolutely drive in new shoppers that'll spend more money in their stores. We'll help produce the waistline, drive in like a contract of their waistline. So it's just found money in a lot of ways. But the challenge with big companies, and this is not just grocery, is you have a strategic priority list. What do you pull out to put some new in front of and who's owning it, Who in the organization, who's allowed at speaker,

Okay, So what different verticals are you thinking about next?

So one of the most exciting things that we're actually doing right now with a third party delivery company one of our grocery partners. All of our grocery partners have distribution centers that have waste because they can't get through so they bring all this food into these centralized locations and then they try to send it out to their stores and for whatever reason, there could be a breakdown.

That's great. And what's the business been like with that model?

Right?

It's early and Lancing is the university town, so without having the university in town, it's just there was yeah, no, no, it's fine. There were just kinks to for example, like at the beginning there was only five mile radius for delivery, and just so happens at these facilities that are going to be with every CpG or every food company are going to be in places that not a lot of people live. So you just you learn things as you go.

What's the delivery time though, or the delivery is it a long distance no?

Same day same same day delivery?

Ok?

And the cost for the delivery I.

Think it's five dollars depending on the order size, but it's like between five and ten dollars.

But your order is up.

To fifty percent off the food that you're getting. So this is a model that we're testing out now it's going well, it's going better than we anticipated. At the stage better than the original model. I think it can be bigger than our origine a model in terms of the amount of food waste production. I think it's different. I think it adds a whole bunch of different partners.

You also mentioned you have a bit of a reach on TikTok.

Now, yeah, so the Joshtok no no, no, no, the flash food brand, we would not we would not have any reach if it was the Josh we're getting, like, yeah, exactly and the kids.

That'll probably be more exciting as people are on boxing and shoppers aren't boxing. So on flash fed, you buy a box of produce and you see a picture of what's going to be in it. But a lot of times people are opening this box and they're seeing items that they never tried before. So there's been like a pretty big unboxing theme on TikTok where people are sharing

What's the most difficult part of the business.

Getting more retailers on board faster? That's it because I'll sit down with an executive and share all the things that I've shared on the show, and they're just there's one executive of a big retailer who has whatever, almost two thousand locations, and I was like, why don't you

I gotta say, Son of a great interview is that you're leaving and I still have like a dozen questions I want to ask you. So you're going to have to come back. It sounds like there's going to be in the future. Just Imanus, he's founder in CEO flash Food. Congratulations on the family and good to see you.

This be so much for happening.

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As Matt Boyle, Senior Management and Workplace Reporter rights in today's Big Take, it's hard to cast entire continents as monolithic. That is, Asian workers are coming back, European nations are adopting new policies, and US employers are fending for themselves. We've got Matt with us right now. Once again, it is Bloomberg, the Bloomberg Big Take. Matt's with us in the Bloomberg Interactive Brookers Studio right now. So, Matt, I

Yeah, we all along. That's the problem that none of us are stepping back. We see headlines, you know, Google says this. Elon Musk says that you know, what's Goldman Sacks up to. Oh they've gone to five days, and we all sort of freak out about every individual. I'm not to say those companies are not big, influential, blue chip employers, but they're only a very small part of

What do you think we're the main catalysts when you're looking at some of the counterparts in Europe as well as Asia being able to return to the office faster than us over here.

Well, just to start with Europe. One thing you're not seeing here in the US is policy makers are playing a huge role. In at least a half dozen European countries. You have either remote work laws or what's called right to disconnect laws where managers are not allowed to contact certain types of workers after normal business hours, and has a remote work law. The Netherlands has got one coming in as soon as the Dutch Senate passes it any

I know I'm from Texas.

Yeah, I definitely can't imagine that.

No, I mean, Matt, you write about it in Europe, not just the right to disconnect laws, but Unilever, for example, doing a four day work week. I mean, that's something that's completely foreign to US Americans.

Yes, although there they were doing it, not in Europe, but in New Zealand and Australia and those are two of the countries where you see some of the highest rates of remote work and some of the more English speaking countries you do see more. So it makes sense for them to try it there. Are they going to bring it to the Netherlands and the UK, we'll see.

Okay, you've got some just absolutely great data in this story. You point to McKinsey study that said by the year twenty thirty, we could actually see one point three trillion dollars of real estate value in big cities around the world erased as a result of differing remote work policies. That's bad. We know that. That's bad. What do policymakers say about that? And what do companies are What are companies doing to try to.

Well, there's what landlords are saying about it. First, Yes, that is bad if you are a landlord, or if you're a landlord with Class B and Class C real estate, you know, the Class A stuff seems to be doing okay. But again, what's really struck me was that how differently that's playing out in New York and San Francisco a much deeper impact because you have you know, downtown business districts.

But I wonder if what the sh shift, if there's a shift happening here, like if the pie doesn't necessarily change sizes, but if different slices get bigger. And I can give you my anecdotal example, Matt, that I've talked about. I mean, people listening to this have been tired of

That's why Sweet Green is opening in the suburbs. That's why Pretemage is opening outside of city centers.

In the UK.

I mean, businesses are not dumb. They're going to go where the customers are certainly so, Yes, if you're living in Brooklyn or by me and Westchester. In my town in Westchester, sleepy suburban town now has a flex work center right next to the train station. So I'm going to try it out and just like hang out in the flex work center to do it for work in the middle of west I mean, why not would this have happened in twenty nineteen? Of course not so, Yes,

So when you're speaking with your sources, because this is Bloomberg, obviously we're going to talk about what this means for the economy. How does that offset when you're talking about consumers and spending versus obviously the issues we continue to talk about when it comes to real estate and trying to get people back into offices.

Well, I mean what struck me as a former retail reporter was that some of you know, some of these changes really echo you know, the what we used to call the retail apocalypse, right, you know, when all the malls were dying, and what we're going to do about malls, well, maybe repurpose them people, you know, and you had started to see that certainly. And I know you cannot convert every single office building into condos, we know how hard that is.

But could they be.

Converted into other uses? Certainly? I think we do very well here at Bloomberg as we follow the money, and you know, right now, the money and the spending, as you know, as Tim saying, is sometimes being spent in more residential neighborhood. So is that where you should be opening up if you're selling sandwiches and salads?

Probably?

Okay, let's talk about the most important thing for employers, productivity, because they're you know, every few weeks we get this new study and you said a couple of them. Remote workers are more productive in some countries. Remote workers are less less productive when doing other tasks in other countries. Holistically, taken together, what does the data tell us.

It's tough because productivity is vastly misunderstood, and everybody loves to take their favorite bit of research that supports whatever their conclusion is and wave it around, you know, and saying I.

Was right, I was right, there was.

But there were studies on remote work even before the pandemic. One of the most famous one was about Chinese call center workers who when they went remote were just as productive, if not more, and happier, more satisfied. That's what we often fail to realize with a lot of these a lot of these studies, tim is that regardless of where productivity goes, and productivity is often in the eye that beholder. Is it how many emails did you send out today?

You know?

Or how many hours were you in the office? Remember the workaholics of the nineties, or were the last guy to leave the office? Where are they now? Maybe some of them are CEOs, but you know, do they regret being the last guy in the office every day? Were they most Were they the most productive? Though probably not? Were they Were they the most satisfied? Probably not?

So.

I think we need to take a little bit more holistic view of productivity and realize that you have to look at employee engagement. You have to look at whether your employees are being challenged, they're doing the test they want to do with the people that they want to do it with. You know, are they coming in on the right days. Don't have to be in five days a week, but are you coming on the days that matter?

Now you're going to help me build this incredible Bloomberg studio at my two better apartment.

Yeah, okay, cool, we have a butch you for it.

Let's do it perfect, Let's do it. Hey, this is a great piece. I encourage everybody to check out. It is Today's a big take, a great one to read just right after Labor Day as well. Matt Boyle is senior Management and workplace reporter. You got to read everything that he and his team are right. It is a great story. He's of course with our colleague here at Bloomberg News. He's with us in the Bloomberg Interactive Brookers Studio.

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Katrina Adams for President, Chairman and c. You have the US Tennis Association, Chair of the US Open, as well as the chair of the International Tennis Federation Cup and Gender Quality and Tennis committees. Former pro tennis pro double specialist, and I could go on and on and on. You're amazing, Thank you, thank you for coming back and finding time, and.

You're busy, always excited to be here with you guys.

Well, tell us about what you're excited about this year at the Open.

Oh my goodness to see you.

What's open?

It's facular, right, I mean, everything that's happening here. I mean, you know, obviously you just mentioned Venus Williams. Just to see her back on the court again, you know, since nineteen ninety four. I was sitting in her box in nineteen ninety seven when she played her first final and lost to Ortina Hingis. I was here when she played the final against Serena Serena, her sister. Yeah, when Serena

Does it feel like we're sort of in a you know, Andrea AGAs, see Pete Sampress, Jim Curry or Michael Chang sort of era where we have these Americans.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Let's let's yeah.

I think that we have the ability to get there, because when you talk about Taylor Fritz and tifone in the top ten, and Paul, Tommy Paul and knocking on the door and Ben Shelton, those guys are knocking on the door. Yes, we'll get there. But until they start winning majors like Pete Samprass and Andrea Agassi and Jim Curry and Michael Chang, then it's it's a different it's a different story.

But it's a long time. It's good, but it's a long.

Time coming to be able to talk about these guys being in these majors, get into the second weeks consistently and then having some new names to join that on the men's side. We've always been down on women's side, but to be able to talk about these these men is really exciting.

Gudrida. What is it that kind of keeps the younger generation coming back to tennis?

I think being able to see players like we just on the court week in and week out, you know, and at these majors going deep to motivate the young kids to want to get into the sport. So when you talk about Fritz and TFO and Paul, you know who were they watching when they were young kids, who motivated them to get into the sport. And for them, I think when they came up through the USC Player Development program where they really got to travel together, train together,

I still have this question about access. You know, tennis for a lot of people looked at as like a country club sport. Still it's very expensive to get courts and cities, especially during the winter if you live somewhere where it snows, I mean Tiapo for example. Let's look at his story. Would he be a pro tennis player if his dad didn't work at a tennis center. I don't know if the answer to that good.

Because he grew up in an njtail program. So the program itself was accessible, The program itself was free. The program itself, you know, provided opportunity.

I run a.

Program like that here in harlanm the Harlem Junior Tennis, an education program which provides access and opportunity for inner city youth. There are over two hundred those types of chapters in jtail chapters around the country in addition to after school program so access is available. It's not about having access. It's not about learning the sport. It's about once you develop to be a player and you become competitive, that's where the cost comes.

Okay, here's my concern. Every tennis court I see is being turned into a pickleball court.

Not every tennis court. Let's not. Let's not put that out there now.

This is this is driving me crazy. Thank you.

I know.

This is when you when you speak to a serious tennis player and you ask them about pickleball, that's the answer.

So what's the challenge?

So I think the challenge where you're looking at those courts are probably at clubs because clubs are about making money. So our club is looking at taking a court, one tennis court and turn into four pickleball courts where they can try. Now they've they've got sixteen players on a court versus four, right, So they're looking at the opportunity to be able to make more money. To you know, it's about monetization. But I also think, listen, I have

What do you love that people talk about when it comes to tennis generally, what do you hate that they talk about?

What I love is that it's an individual sport where you can just go out and build your own self esteem and your self confidence. Right you're figuring out Oh my gosh, yes.

I mean.

I love to compete. I'm a natural, boring competitor. So for me, it was about competing not just against you, but against myself and getting better, pushing myself to hit one extra ball, pushing myself to go one more rally, pushing myself to do one more drill, and pushing myself to get better. Every single day I went on the court, learning a new shot, learning a new spin, And I think that's the thrill that I had that hopefully everybody

Okay, So then what I want to ask you is, I'm thinking about Michelle Obama who at the beginning of the week was talking about just equality and pay. And here we are, and you know, Tim knows we talk about this all the time, that we continue to have these conversations and it's the same thing with women in you know, the CEO role. How do you feel about it? Why does it take so long for their baby parody with pay?

I think it's it's life, right, it's parody. There's no parody in plant paid anything that we have. So fifty years of equal pay here at the US Open, I mean that that says a lot. Yeah, we finally have parody and in pay at all of the Grand Slam events. Fifty years here, we have it at all of the Grand Slams in Australian Roland girls and Wimbledon. Wimbledon was the last one two thousand and two, but or twelve.

Same week, significant location.

That's where it's challenging. It's getting better, but it's about sponsorship. You know, why are we not getting the same level of sponsorship for the WCA or for the women events that the men are And so, you know, thank God for villaging Kings fifty years ago. So go out and find a sponsor to throw in the pot to make the prize money equal here at the US Open. That's because of her and Bristol Myers, who added fifty five thousand dollars to the women's prize money to make it

What's wild to me is that it's fifty years of equal pay here at the US Open. But there are so many other sports today where there's not even close to parody.

Oh no, I mean when you look at the women's soccer US.

W women's national team.

Women's women's national soccer team, it's it's it's crazy that that just happened, you know, And they fought for years when they were the better team with their better results at World Cup, better recomition, right exactly, and now you know, now we have a professional women's hockey team. It's we're constantly fighting. And you look at the Women's NBA, the w n b A not yet do they have parody, even though it's a shorter season, but just look at

And it says something about whether people say, oh, we still think you're valuableth No, it says something about your value and your worth.

It says a lot.

And so we still have a long way to go, and it's something that we as professional athletes have been fighting for for a very long time, longer than fifty years, and hopefully we can get there.

Hey, Katrina, one thing I wanted to ask you. You talked a little bit about earlier about what it took to be a professional tennis player all to practice you wanted having the desire to keep going. Tennis is a sport that drives individuals completely insane. I mean, you watch some of these players on the court and they're screaming

And you're like, I get that. I get that.

I'm wondering, though, how you take that after you retire and you use that energy in your professional career, Like does that keep going, that mental toughness that you built up? It does?

And I think you know we are. We build ourselves to be perfectionists in everything that we do, and so there is no room for failure quote unquote failure, but only for improvement. So whatever we're doing and whatever profession that is, we want to be the best. And I know for a fact there are people that hire former professional tennis players or athletes because they understand winning. They know that they want to win, but they understand what

So, yeah, that's an.

Individual sport when you're out there competing, but when you're training, it is teamwork. And so when you go into business, into the professional world outside of sport, or it could be business in sport, it's still working with a team and you're still driven to do and prepare. It's all about preparation. So for me to be the best on the court for my match, how well did I prepare? For me to do a presentation for you know, some some job or to get some deal, how well did

You only have about thirty seconds left here, any predictions here?

Yeah, an American.

Let's go on the men's and women's side.

Let's go American.

All right, go you think so, let's go. So we're back to we are back to the nineties.

There we go, There we go.

Do you still play? I do very little, but I do double singles.

I just hit.

I all compete, just well, I compete on the golf course.

Oh that's right.

Oh are you screaming yourself on the golf course?

Absolutely?

Okay, good, That's what I'd like to hear.

You know what we really want to notice? Do you throw clubs? But you're definitely hit though here. Thank you so much, awesod likely to everything. Thank you, Katrina Adams, former president, chairman, CEO of the US Tennis Association, former pro so much more so inspiring and so much fun. Thank you so much.

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Let's get to the guy who's behind it, the man behind it all is Chris Studley. He's senior director of Event Services at the ust A. Welcome. Nice to have you here again.

Thank you for having me.

Is it again we told you last year?

Did we?

I think briefly, Okay, briefly one year, one year. We've had you before.

I was just gonna say so, I know we always talk about food because it's such a big part of it.

Chris.

First of all, I can't believe you didn't bring us any food.

I'm sorry about that. I'll grab it after the segment.

No, no, no, I'm just kidding. But like, talk to us about what goes into it, because you do, Tim is right, as you walk around, that is such a big part of the experience. I've eaten here, Tim is eating here. Tell us about how you think about it as what you want to offer up to the people who come.

Well, I can tell you, first of all, I look at this tournament as a food and wine festival. And by the way, there's tennis. So much to what you were describing before. People are walking around eating and drinking. And what we want to bring in the names you mentioned is the best quality that there is in sports. We don't want you to come to a sporting event and say, oh I have to eat. We want you to come here and say what a great meal you

So, I mean it's really about the food to me for sure.

How do you make sure that the quality is what you get in you know, the year round establishment.

So great question. We meet with these chefs throughout the year.

I can tell you right now we've been talking to people even during this tournament saying I want in next year. I'm not going to give you any names today, but we will evaluate each and every one. We look at what sells, what do our fans want, what's the quality. We'll meet with these chefs throughout the year. I can tell you you know a number of chefs that we brought in, from James Kennet, Crown Shy to Melboy's of Harlem.

We've been there in the off season.

We sit with them, we talk to them, and you know, to some the menus might not lend themselves to a concession stand necessarily, but we'll work with the team to bring that item into that environment for our fan.

How important is it from year to year, Chris, in terms of some consistency so that people come back and they're like, I know this is going to be here, and then also bring in some.

New It's very important, right. Our fans always want to see us innovate. It's the name of the game and food especially Obviously, trends change over years and we want to be right there.

But you need to have the staples right.

Everybody talks about our lobster role as being one of the one of the iconic foods of the USO and it's also our hamburger.

Believe it or not.

They're all Patla free to even though his name might not be on that stand. It's all Paler free to meet Pat stand over here too. The stak sandwich has almost become just as famous as the lobster. Also, you know, we try to find what our fans love and really gravitate towards and work with it.

We talked a little bit.

Go ahead, girl, I'm gonna just what about price point, Like, how do you think about that as part of the experience.

Absolutely. You know, listen, we're in New York City.

Obviously we're a temporary event, but we were very price sensitive in a regard. You know, we would put ourselves up against any other New York City venue and say that we are probably not the most expensive. We may not be the least expensive, but we're right in that in that sweet spot because we want to have value for our fans. I would tell you that our quality

So are you seeing what's the typical markup from an established restaurant that you'd experienced in Manhattan and the same dish that you'd get here.

Is there a mark up?

It's not.

There's no direct correlation in that regard. You know, a concession stand, you're not going to really be able to compare directly to the items. I can tell you in some of our restaurants there's a slight markup just for you know, bringing the team out here and operating, but there's no set percentage.

Say hey, one thing you had brought up. We were thinking on this job's day, right.

Yeah, I mean it's pretty incredible. Hospitality one of the continued bright spots when it comes to the US labor market, and the biggest gains in August were in healthcare hospitality as well leasion hospitality. How is it getting employees right now?

You know, our team did a fantastic job. I mean I oversee our front of house services as well, and this was probably the earliest we were ever fully committed for all of our seasonal staff that we bring in, which is it's wild to think about with the lowest unemployment rate, right, but people want to come work here. We have people that take vacation to come work here.

Do people who work for one establishment get paid the same hourly wage that work for an their establishment.

Most of the time.

I mean, there is some different levels depending on how many years you've been here, who you're with, what restaurant in particular, but you know it varies. You interview for the position just like you would at a restaurant in New York City.

How difficult is it to settle this up? I love logistics because we come here and it just looks like it's been here forever and we know it goes away.

I love getting asked those questions.

I'd say the truth, the logistics behind it is mind blowing, to.

Say the least. How early do you start the day after it ends? I mean we're here figuring it.

Out, okay with that part, but building this and building everything that's in your world to make this happen. When does that start?

The planning goes into place right away. The build up I mean by the springtime, you'll see a lot of movement here and things getting physically set up, aside from any new buildings we're going to build right you know. Obviously we went under this massive renovation that was all year for a number of years, and we stopped for the open and we went back into it. But in terms of the general repeat business that we're doing, we'll start in the spring.

We're speaking right now with Chris Studley. He's senior director of Events Services here at the USTA. We're live at the twenty twenty three US open.

But on that in terms of the food part of it, like what's involved logistically with building that out.

So we'll have trucks showing up in early August. You know, with the volume of food and beverage we do here, we have trucks coming in every single day. But we'll build out a temporary warehouse facility essentially to house everything. I mean, you mentioned some of our drinks, the Honeyduce we sold for.

The Honey Duce cup at home, Well, we had a lot of.

People walking around like seven Honey Duce cups.

Okay, So to think about the logistics behind that, four hundred thousand cups are sitting behind the scenes right now. You know, they're ready to go, and the team's moving them about getting them all over the site. So, I mean, the logistics behind it is massive.

So, speaking of the Honey Duce, one of the reasons I asked about labor was because as I was leaving yesterday after doing our broadcast, the lines for some of these concession stands we're so low, Chris, and I couldn't help think to myself, there must be people who see these lines and say to themselves, I don't want to wait in this line and you know, therefore the USTA is not going to get my twenty two dollars for the honeyduce. How do you control for lines here?

It's a great question, and I'm glad you mentioned the honey Duce on that one. So innovation, right, So this is the first year we're actually able to batch some of the Honeyduce.

To try to speed those up.

We rolled it out in somewhat of a pilot program this year at ten different locations around the site, and we're seeing that we're able to increase service. So our goal here is let's roll it out all over next year. What does that mean that so we are able to prepare part of the drink in a ready to mix container, and we can control the quality most importantly. You know, if you go to a bar and you get a

But so that's the question. Is it then forgive the terminology here, but is it a failure to you you walk around and see huge lines and people waiting.

It's disappointing for sure.

I mean, we want to be able to service every customer as quickly as possible, but we also want to deliver that excellent experience. So it's a fine balance for you know, for sure. But we're trying to make sure that we innovate.

As much as this are. There areas are down here where you walk around this year and you say, okay, well we could do another of this type of concession right here and ease the demand a little bit.

Yeah, I mean, and you know, it's surprising because each year, I mean, we know there's some things that never fade. Right, The honey Juice is not fading. It is the most popular, is it, really? It is by far. But you know, sometimes they're surprising.

That's honey juice lovers. No, it's actually a matt sorry for sure.

For sure.

Yeah, No, it's it's always interesting to see what's going to be the top seller.

Of the year.

Are you adding more drinks that are.

Like, well, we have this year. We have the Aperol Sprits as well. Right, and Dobell has joined us with their Ace Piloma cocktail and they're both delicious. I encourage you to try them before you leave.

What's interesting, too, is are there workers that you needed that you couldn't hire or you said you could get everybody wanted.

I think we're pretty well staffed. I would say that we're really well staffed. And you know, we benefit from the folks that come back every year and they help us really make the operation home.

Here, Carol, I got a number for you. What one point two million? Okay, that's one point two million mellon balls that the USTAS.

I get a number for you.

What ninety pounds of beef? Did you have a Hamberger today?

I did have a Hamberg surprise.

And I ain't done yet.

We're going to come back with Chris Dudley, Senior Director of Event Services at USDA. He's got a big job here, he's getting it done. And we're still here with Chris Dudley, Senior director of Event Services at USTA. And I know the answer because we were talking about it before we got going again. But supply chains were you know, you go back a few years coming off the pandemic nightmare. Are you getting everything you want and at decent costs?

Or you've got enough lobster, would I think so?

Okay, I think so. I think we're in good shape this year. Vodka. No, Fortunately, it's one of those things. Let's get to the priority. For sure. Fortunately, it's one of those things that's kind of been in the past for us.

Now thankfully not an issue, but it wasn't issue.

It was an issue a while back. Yeah, for sure.

I mean I think everybody fought through the same thing, and I think we're on the other side of the supply chain in terms of our business right now.

What were the challenges this year? If it wasn't employees, if it wasn't supply chains, what's the what's the big challenge this year?

Weather? Who can control the weather?

But look at us, I know kind of day right here, it's amazing.

That's the biggest concern we have right now. I think we're doing okay.

I do wonder though, you said while we were off air, you know, I'm here before everybody else and I leave after everybody. I mean, what's what are the calls that you get? Is it that way? You know, electricity isn't working or we ran out of burger or something. What is it? What's the stress points for you?

Doing this, you know, to your point earlier lines and things. You know, you want to make sure everybody has a good experience. So we're trying to send people out. Like during the typical day, I might hear that we might have an issue with a line over here, a line over there in terms of food. If one of those facilities isues pops up. We have a great team here.

One of my.

Counterparts on the back house side helps me out tremendously. Give a quick call and we get everything right back on. So those are the little pain point.

How do you how do you alleviate a line?

Well, you can send more people over to help out, right, I mean if you get a honeydusee line, you try to get a couple more bartenders over there too.

Yeah. Yeah, I mean we've done everything we can.

I mean, pos is always one thing that we look at, and we've upgraded our systems over the years to try to process those transactions.

We met some folks from American Express earlier today. If you want to talk to them, they know a thing or two about our processing.

They're fantastic action. They are a good partner.

Well, I think about like a Disney right, you have apps and you can like kind of guide people. Do you think about that the role of technology is it's a big thing here. Do you say, listen, I know there's lines here, but.

You know what, so I have a great point on that. I mean, we tried out mobile ordering. We did it so that you could order anything from the food village and then you could grab it and go to your table. And what happened was our customers said.

We don't really want to do that seriously, And I'll tell you why.

I mean, you know, when you come here, because you're coming here once a year, you want to walk around and check out everything. To your point, we were talking about what's new. They want to see what's new. They want to go look at that menu. They want to pick what item they want. They don't really want to do it on a small phone screen. They want to see the kitchen. They want to know what's going on.

So, okay, one point two million mellon balls are are created. Are bald from melon's. I think that's the proper terminology here for sure. Each year, I guess. So I'm going to go ahead and say that it's Friday afternoon. I'm not making stuff up. I think that's how it goes

We actually get them pre bald. Okay, well we bring them in. We've done that. We started in the very beginning, right, interview's over. Got nothing, I'm telling you for you. We look for every way to make as comes to us from the supplier pre Ball. But we do have people that skewer each one till we get three. Because if you notice the drink, it's got three melon balls to indicate the same number, and a tennis ball cans.

That's the tie there.

I never knew why I was three.

Yeah.

What was interesting too, is I think about more broadly the things that you guys are doing here from the USTA and using this incredible space. I mean, it is obviously about tennis and this is your big event, rightfully so, but you're doing other things.

Yeah, absolutely, I mean tennis is number one. I got to say that off the top, I.

Had to stop talking about mellon balls. I'm just I'm just gonna say, ooops, I threw my pen on that one. I was a little but anyway.

Yeah, I know.

Obviously tennis is number one for us, but we're always looking for new ways to use the facility. It's great we can bring staff in. They can work with us along, you know, throughout the year, which is critical for us. Like a concert venue, we would love to if you know somebody wants to play here, you let me know.

But Taylor Taylor Swift as long as I can get it taken out.

But do you I mean, are you talking with people who have you know, whether it's Barkley's or other like, they definitely relationships and they do of course.

Of course, and we do have some people talking to other people. Yeah, to put it very vaguely, but no, we would love to host a show for sure.

I can tell you.

Ten days after the Open this year, we'll be converting the tennis court into a wrestling ring for AW Wrestling on September twentieth. So it's gonna be our third show here. They call it AW Grand Slam appropriately. Yeah, so it's drawn about eighteen thousand people you're over here.

That's quite a few for sure. You said twenty four thousand is capacity.

Twenty four thousand's capacity. We've got about eighteen thousand in the house for the show.

Is it Do you typically do it with the roof open or does it depending weather?

We actually keep the roof closed for all of our outside events. It makes things so much easier, less worry whether there's gonna be weather.

Yeah, I'm thinking about the dogs that we're here. They spend a lot of time getting their hair done. Talk to us about the Westminster I've seen it. I'm a dog lover. I've been to the Westminster dog Show. There's a lot of you know, primping, but you guys have done it.

We have, we have. We got one under our belts. We got them coming back again next May. We're super excited. They took over Arthur ash Stadium, all the player areas, you name it. We had three thousand dogs here over three days. It was wild.

Okay, what's the one event that you haven't gotten to host here that you want to host? What's on that's aid your wish list?

My wish list.

I'll take a concert I'll take a concert, give us a name, I call me, let's talk about it.

But you do think about the exclusivity. First of all, it is a great venue and it is a little bit smaller, which I like to go to smaller places, right, I mean, otherwise they get too big, so you could really do some really cool things.

I agree, I agree, all right, So easy to get to yeah, which I think people forget.

Just jump on the seven train or the l R R, which is where I did.

Someone's coming here, they're coming for a night. What would you advise that they do. They're going to watch tennis.

But okay, you got to explore.

You know, part of hosting all these other events is getting people out here that may not have been here before. And I can't tell you how many people come to one of our events, whether it be Westminster or a w wrestling and when they walk through the gates, I didn't even realize this place was here because they may not be a tennis fan. So I invite everybody that's

And what we got.

What would you go eat?

I would probably grab some gelato from the card over here right now is also really goodnest and Van Luin ice cream. Can we have our own flavor? This year they created our own us open. It's a honeycomb fudge slam.

Of course it is.

So this sounds pretty good.

Yeah, that actually sounds really good.

Thank you so much, my pleasure, good luck, good luck, and I hope you get a little bit of a break between your next events. Chris Dudley, of course, Senior director of Event Services at USTA.

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