This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Tim Stenebeck on Bloomberg Radio. Well. Since nineteen eighty five, Delivering Good has distributed over three billion dollars worth of new clothing, home goods, toys, furniture, books, and other consumer products through its network of more than eight hundred community partners, and they do it to at risk children, families, and individuals. The group does it by uniting retailers, manufacturers, foundations, and
individuals all within the retail and fashion industry. So with an update on the work that they are doing and more, we're going to dig into a couple of different things. Is Delivering Good board member Jaron Bloom, who is here in our Interactive Brokers studio. She's also a group president of retail over at Michael Core's. And then Delivering Good President and CEO Matthew Fasciano. He's on Zoom in New York City. So welcome, welcome, welcome, thank you. It's so
nice to have both of you here. And I've talked with members of your team in the past, of the Delivering Good team in the past. I do want to before we get into a little bit more of the organization. I want to start my grow macro if we may, because when we have leaders of organizations and companies, it's great to kind of figure out what's going on in the environment because we spend so much time kind of debating.
And you know, Matt, let me start with you. Because so many members of Delivering Good are in the retail and fashion industry. We had some retail earnings this week. How are they finding it right now? Is it difficult? Is their clarity? Is their visibility?
Well, I think it's a difficult time for many people, both in the industry and outside of the industry. And I think we have the great fortune of having some very committed brand partners that support the work of Delivering Good, and that allows us to keep doing the important work we're doing. And I think, you know, the reality is the need is as great as ever right now, so we continue to rely on them and have great appreciation for their support of our work.
It does seem like we have a real bifurcation. I mean, we talked ten years ago about wealth inequality, but the pandemic seems to have worsened that. Right The higher income consumer is still able to spend and has a fat bank account, whereas the lower income American is having to put things on credit card if they even have that kind of access. What kind of what kind of economic situation, Jaron are you seeing right now, Michael, course.
Well, in North America specifically, I mean, the climate is definitely the consumer sentiment is a little tough right now. It feels we're feeling it in all of our businesses, and it's not just exclusive to Michael. Core's right, industrywide. So listen, you know, the economic situation, recession looming, Consumers are nervous. We're lapping COVID spend of last year, so we're compared to last year and that was post COVID spend.
On top of that, there's a lot of talk about the transition from spending from goods to services and experiences. All of that combined creating a somewhat tricky landscape right now in North America specifically, so not the same necessarily in some of the other regions. So there's a lot of travel, and there's more there's more traffic to stores and in Europe, and there's a lot of folks going
from the US to Europe, especially the summer. Asia's finally out and shopping and there's a lot of growth and a lot of activity and a lot of excitement in Asia.
By the way, I'm curious because you know, retail and in general the consumer is affected broadly by the economy. But I wonder in fashion, if there's something that's hot, you know, if there's something that's new and completely different, does that change the picture a little bit?
It does it incentivized? I mean, we're, you know, in fashion industry, we don't sell anything that anybody needs. So creating the demand is a big is a big motivator. And for sure, or we're seeing in our business that something that's new and it's innovative and really fashion customers abting at that.
So is there anything like that?
I mean when.
I don't know because I don't hang around in that world too often. But if all of a sudden, you know, we go from dark blue heavy denim to acid wash ripped jeans, does everybody have to go out and change? Is there something like that right now in fashion?
So something like that right now in fashion? If there is, I don't think so.
Yeah, No, I know, I know what you're saying, Matt. It's kind of interesting, Matt. Let me pull you back into the conversation because I mean some of the issues and I do feel like, you know, you get to talk with folks in the retail and fashion world and what they're seeing, like Jaron and you also in terms of what Delivering Good does and the populations, whether there's
more demand for your services. Give me an idea here we are, what a couple of years out of the pandemic, what is the demand for the services that you guys, you know, supply delivering good.
I think the demand is as great as ever. You know, we know there's no shortage of need. The biggest challenge for us is getting enough merchandise to be able to meet the need. And it's you know, we work with communities that are experiencing every every social issue you can imagine, from everyday poverty to homelessness. We work with people in the foster care system, workforce re entry. There is need
across communities, across demographics. It's just the work is as important now as it was during the pandemic and before.
Matt remind us what you do specifically, like what Delivering Good does in terms of connecting the folks in the retail and fashion world and then getting the goods out to people.
How it all works, Yeah, Carol, you said it perfectly in the opening. We connect retailers and manufacturers and mostly in the apparel space and get their excess new merchandise into the hands of people affected by poverty, by disaster and other social challenges. UH. There's an emphasis for us on new merchandise and and we have this strong belief that that comes with a sense of dignity and self
esteem in every every item that we distribute. And again, we do this through a network of over eight hundred community partners across the United States, predominantly UH. And they work in in all sorts of communities and small cities, large you know, small towns, large cities, working with all types of people and so it really does, you know, require partnership sort of on both ends of the relationship with the brand partners UH and the and the community partners.
Jaron, you're one of those brand partners, sure, I am. I am curious though about part of you know, running any kind of retail organization of any ILK, if you will, is also kind of your inventory and delivering good benefits maybe when those things don't sell, right, I'm assuming right, if it's excess. So talk to us though about your guys role and how you think of that about it and what you you know, what you want to give to this organization.
Well, the truth is we've been working with Delivering Good since two thousand and eight and.
You've seen a few crises.
And then in June of twenty twenty, all of a sudden, we had a glood of merchandise, as did many of our of our Callo retailers, and so what we did
was we made a substantial donation. Michael Cores made a thirty five million dollar donation in June or July of twenty twenty, which was because we had that merchandise that was so at the end of the day, Delivering Good is in this interesting crossroad between you know, social impact and environmental sustainability and really gives the you know, companies that work with Delivering Good an opportunity to you know, do some thing productive with the inventory that's sitting in
the warehouse versus ending up in landfills. So it's a really it's a feel good thing. It's an easy sell and we had the merchandise. Now now with you know, fast forward six months or eight months, when there was not a blood of inventory right in the market. So that's a little more challenging to get inventory because there is none now, mind you, now fast forward another six months and there might be a different situation. So at the end of the day, Listen, you don't plan to
have excess inventory. You always plan to turn your inventory into profit. That said, if that doesn't always happen, like for example, COVID, you know, this is an amazing way to do something super great. You know, delivering good aligns with all of our corporate values and it was just a feel good thing and we had the inventory to do it.
I have to say, Matt, I keep thinking of a story we.
Do well, Matthew, have you not talked to Audidas about getting their easy shoes? They have one point three billion dollars speakers in a warehouse that they can't sell.
They started selling this week, actually.
I think, and we we'd love to get some of the some of the proceeds from those sales.
Well, what's interesting is and we've got to take a break and do some news, but we'll come back with Matt and Jaron. But I do think about the stories to both of you that we've talked about landfills of clothes ending up in developing nations and being thrown out and so on and so forth. It's really just a crime when you know that there are so many people who could use it. I want to get back to our guests Delivering Good board member here in our studio,
Jaron Bloom. She's also group president of retail at Michael Core's and still with us, as well as Matt Fasciano. He's president and CEO at Delivering Good on Zoom in New York City. Matt, one thing I want to ask you, and I was trying to find it and I found it. It was a Bloomberg story that we did earlier this year about kind of a fast fashion backlash to be quite honest, and just showed pictures in Ghana of just
textile waste showing up on their shores. And I'm just wondering, we talk about this when it comes to the ag sector. How much food is wasted and you have people starving, So how do you work on something like that when there is probably a lot of clothing from retail that kind of ends up maybe in a landfill.
Yeah, I think Jaren said it incredibly well before before the break that. You know, we really do sit at this crossroads and offer brand partners a responsible way to deal with excess. You know, we think we help companies check the E and the S boxes of ESG and we would obviously much rather those goods end up distributed through us rather than in landfills or shredded or however
else they might get disposed of. Again, the need is there, we want to help distribute it and do the responsible thing with that merchandise.
All right, So how do you drum up new partners? I mean Jaren clearly has been working with you guys for a while. Well, how do you get new people in the door?
Yeah, it's you know, we we we want to keep developing new relationships. I think, you know, part of what we offer is what we just talked about, that that sustainability solution. I think we operate with tremendous efficiency. Ninety nine cents of every dollar we raise goes directly to fund the program. So we want to demonstrate to brand partners that we can be efficient in the work that
we do. Part of it is through conversations like this one and through the work of our other brand partners, and we want to just keep developing new relationships so that we can get new product in the pipeline.
Jared, how did you get involved?
I got involved because I was so inspired by the work that this mission does. Really, so they kind of reeled me in based on my x amount of years in the industry and figured I could be a match just smile at that, and figured that I was aggressive enough since I am in fashion retail, that I would be aggressive enough to network and try to utilize this industry.
For a while, you were at Kenneth Cole I was a baby. Yeah, when you were a baby, and then when you were a teenager you moved to Michael Kors.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Yes, it's a powerhouse.
But I also actually want to point out that we actually we have this event next week week yeah, and it's called the Women of Impact Summit, And that's a way that we're going to create transparency to you know, what we do and influence I want to say, three to four hundred guests on Wednesday and inspire them an educate the event.
Why are you guys doing it now?
Well, it's actually an anorgural event of something. It's an evolution of an event that they had called the Women of Inspiration Lunch and they have done that for the past fifteen years. This is going to be more inspirational because it's going to be more collaborative, and it's going
to be Matt helped me here. This is this event is going to create excitement because you're actually going to meet women that have done some really great things and been able to combine, for example, business innovation with philanthropy and community to create some significant outcomes and help with some of these social issues. And that we're all faced.
I think the CEO of Talbots is going to be there and Taylor come on and Matt and talk a little bit more about it.
That's right, absolutely, and Jaredy did a great job.
We don't need anything but go ahead.
We have to give him speaking.
In Jared will take it from there. I'll sign off. Really, you know, it's it's a Reimagine event this year, and and it's it's meant to be interactive and the first part of it will will feature a gallery walk where we'll have four of our community partners people were actually distributing goods on the ground representing the wide array of work that we do, and they're going to talk about working with delivering good and the impact that our partnership
has on their ability to impact lives and change communities. It will also feature a product display, so for someone new to delivering good who may or may not have a sense of the kind of high quality goods that get distributed, they're going to see goods from some of our very recognizable brand partners. So we're excited about that. And then, as you said, we'll have the CEO of Talbots there, and we'll have Lisa Kaplowitz from the Center for Women in Business at Rutgers moderating a panel of
some incredibly powerful, dynamic women in the industry. Jill Barod, who sits on the board of Levi, Giselle Ruiz of Sam's Club and currently sits on the board of Alta, and Teresa Strickland, a digital brand transformation expert. They're going to talk about their path to in impact and really what we want is for participants to hear a call to action and think about their individual ability to have impact,
think about our collective ability to have impact. And then the day is going to close with twenty eighteen silver medal Olympian Lauren Gibbs. She's a Bob the bottle sled.
That's pretty cool.
Yeah, yes, And she's going to tell her story. I don't want to give too much of it away, but she's going to talk about trying out for the Olympics at thirty years old, having never done the bob sled before. So we want it to be a day of inspiration. We want to introduce new people to Delivering Good and have people walk away feeling responsible to do something.
It's pretty impressive what I just think.
Lauren Gibbs won a silver medal and she was like thirty five when she actually won that.
Which is what she was saying, really impressive. You know, when you think about Jaron, the impact that you guys are making at Michael Core's on people. And I don't know what kind of feedback you hear in terms of the goods that you provide to people. You know, what is it that it jumps out? We just got about thirty seconds left here.
Well, well, actually, when you hear about the stories of what these community partners do, it's so inspiring and there's so much work. And the truth is, when I got involved with Delivering Good as a board member, I didn't recognize that there were so few folks that actually work in this organization. So it's a it's a small amount of people doing a huge amount of work, and it's really inspiring.
Like as we said at the beginning, three billion dollars of clothing and home goods and so much other.
Stuffy billion dollars. Fantastic.
Yeah, it's pretty incredible. And we talk about public private partnerships and people working together, and this is really a sign of it. Guys, good luck with the event next week. Jaron bloom thank you so much. And Matt Fasciano, of course, CEO of delivering good jutting us right here on Bloomberg Business Week. This is Bloomberg Radio.