AJ Is On The Pod!

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We extend our respect to any First Nations Aboriginal and Torres Strait island of people joining us.

Today, always was, always will be Aboriginal Land. Hey everyone, welcome to close friends.

Matt's hairs calling out.

Oh it's been falling out for years, but now it's gotten real bad. Lightly, I just brushed, like fixed my hair, and about thirty strands of hair just fell into me. Lap. Get me a gloe stick, babes, I gotta put it back on.

Jings yourself because remember, like a few months back, in an episode, we were talking about hair transplants and two pays and all that. Yeah, and you're like, I'm never gonna need one.

I didn't say that. I said, if I go bored, you'll never see me again. Yeah, I'll be running. Remember, I'll be out in Katomba, living off the land.

And then now it's yourself.

But I said, if I go bored, I will embrace it and shave the whole thing off. Get one of those glue too, pays on. I'm all for it still.

Yeah, yeah, well you better than quite with someone right there. It's gonna he's pulled out by the second.

Also, we've got a big show today. A J is coming on the post.

Yes, we've got AJ in the studio.

He'll be coming.

He's got a head full of hair.

Nice turn around, let me see the back. Yeah nice. Right, he'll talk soon. We'll get him on the pot. We've got a few things to cover first. But anyway, AJ's on the pod today.

You actually yell out now so people believe us that you're here. KFC is here. Okay, he's actually here. He's coming on soon.

Anyway, I what are we even talking about today? Or we don't have a plan. That's good, that always goes well for us.

You mentioned when we were walking in that you're going op shopping after this.

Yeah, I am. That's what I'm doing after this. Very excited about it. I love an op shop. Although I will say, sorry, what is going on in the op shops these days? The price is through the roof, Like I'm not kidding you. I went to an op shop not long ago. I saw one of those one dollar Kmart candles for four dollars in the op shop yeah, absolutely, pulling my leg and pistol on it.

What is going on?

Is it?

Because op shops have clued on to the fact that people are just going into op shops buying vintage pieces or whatever and then selling them on deep hop for an extremely inflated price.

But that's their prerogative though, Like, it's not any of their business what I do with my clothes after I've purchased it from your store. If someone was buying from fate and marking it up, realistically, how big of a problem is that for you?

Why would anyone do that?

Exactly? So I'm like, what is the problem with If someone wants to go in and buy a top for five dollars and sell it for fifty, that's their life, Like why does that affect the op shops? And I'm mad That's.

Why op shops are doing it because I can't think of any reason otherwise Because they get given this stuff for free, right right, Like they get it for free.

The workers are volunteer. Who are they paying apart from the people that they're do they take the profits?

Like is it non for profits?

Well? I don't know who knows, sweetheart? What?

Like I've seen videos popping up on TikTok two of girls like going through the racks and whatever and like holding up like a Paul Frank t shirt from Wild Surf Co. Like ten years ago or fifteen years ago and twenty five dollars.

Yeah, why yeap, he is so old? Yeah ekitch No, not even that. I went op shopping with Toby once and he found this really nice shirt, really gorgeous shirt. We were like, wow, this is so nice, like that's amazing, and it was eighteen dollars and we were like, we don't know if it's worth eighteen dollars, but it is really nice. We weren't an op shop, like, we don't really want to pay eighteen dollars shop.

I'm expecting everything to be ten dollars or less.

Oh my god, seriously five dollars.

I'm selling shit for like seventy bucks.

Now I'm seeing books for twelve. I'm like, I have to get out a book, big w for six? What do you mean? So anyway, the shirt was stunning, it was lovely. He's tried it on, it fit him well. He's like, yeah, it's eighteen dollars. A done, A fuck, it's worth eighteen dollars from op shop. It's been worn before, blah blah blah.

This shit is second hand.

The first thing I goes, what's the brand? He checks the tag. It's Shane Shane. We locked it up four dollars fifty brand new one shrillan sorry, eighteen dollars. You're taking the piss, not real, do you know what I mean? So I'm just a little bit. I'm going today because I feel like I don't go to op shops for like much. I go for hidden gems, like, oh, I found a really nice vase for like six dollars not long ago.

Even that's expensive for a vas from a op shop.

Oh, but you should see this VARs. It looks like a fucking Lady Gaga costume. It is absolutely delicious.

Fair.

Yeah, so you know that's why I go. And you know, Toby that same day he found like a pair of brand new Doc Martins for like forty bucks, which is a steal. So there are some hidden gems, but I still.

Feel like forty dollars in an op shop, like that's a lot.

Yeah, for sure, but also for a brand new.

Paradog compared to the original prices. But it's still a lot. Yeah, I know, I'm expecting the shoes to be like seven dollars.

Yeah, for sure. So the prices are a little out of control because I think I've also got it twisted on what op shops are, because like I think when I was growing up, maybe just the demographic has changed, but I thought when it was when I was growing up, it was for people who like couldn't really afford to go buy actual clothes, so they would go to the second hand store. Yes, well, if you've got no money, you can't even afford to shop at the op shop.

Now, yeah, that makes no sense, you know.

So I'm like what is going on? And the fact the Kmart candle really got me because I was like, it's a dollar in camar and four dollars at the op shop. Not real? And then I think to myself, do I go up to the lady and say just letting you know that this one dollar candle is one dollar at Kmart?

Well, who's making the I want to know, like, who's making the decisions on the prices in the store. Is it the people, is it the volunteers working, is the owner of the store or is there a person higher up like just say if it's Salvos or whatever, and it's like an chain, Like who is deciding how much all this stuff is being priced at?

Well, that's okay, this might be the whole episode because let's talk about it, because I've got I've got so much to say about this because with Salvos, you know, they get donated, so it's not like they I don't know how it would work, but like maybe they have like a hierarchy of clothes and prices that they have to adhere to. But it's no, they don't because it's

But why are optops making it about the brands? Like isn't it just a like it shouldn't we be like removing all the brands and stuff and it's just like affordable clothes and accessories? Yeah, right, Like why is it all about like what brand it is?

I don't know, but I like, surely they have KPIs and stuff. But then I'm like, they're volunteers. I also think this is another thing I want to talk about. I'm matching volunteering in this economy and I mean, obviously, no, hang on, no, everyone's looking at me like that. I hang on, let me clarify. Everyone's looking at me like I'm fucked. But what I mean is fair enough volunteering for things like let's say, like you're feeding the homeless and blah blah blah.

Like we're just working in a shop where people are paying a lot of money for right hand shit. Yet makes no sense.

I go, if I'm going to volunteer, I'm going to do something that I guess would make me feel, meaning like like I'm doing something and I'm making a change, not saying that people who work in an OP shop aren't I going to change whatever, Blow it out your ass, But like, what I'm saying is waking up every day to go volunteer in an OP shop, not the volunteer

Could I reckonize? I think someone's even said that to me before when I've met them, that they volunteer at an op shop and they do it because they get really good discs and then when the clothes come in, they get first picked.

A lot, which I'm all for, but also, come on, I don't know, maybe I'm just unhinged, but like my thinking is, these days op shops make no sense to me.

Yeah, it doesn't the whole thing, the workers giving the prices, what's it giving capitalism?

Yeah? Probably, but I don't know. I just wish everything was still two dollars. Yeah, because the majority of people who are going in there are not deep hop influencers, right.

Or are they these days? Is that's what it's turned into.

I don't reckon everyone is surely yeah.

They need to do something. Someone needs to do something, but I don't understand who it is.

But even though you've said deepop influencers, well that doesn't excuse them putting up an Ancho singlet for twenty five dollars, you know what I mean? Like if I get it, if it's like vintage Jimmy Chew tracksuit set and they want to sell it for forty five dollars. I'm like, okay, I can understand that. There are some things where I'm like, okay, the price is justified because like the Doc Martins, great example,

Are you going to do a video while you're in there today?

Nah? Probably not because one none of them play any bloody music, so it's dead as a doornail in there. It's so quiet.

Is that good for videos?

Yeah?

On that background music, it's quat.

But everyone's listening to you. Because I had to do a sponsor video for Vinnie's Once, which I love. Vinnie's shout out to Vinie's Great. Actually my favorite op shop of all of them. If I had to choose and Vinnie's also sorts their books in rainbow color, which I love. But of Pride in Store lovely, But it's so dead silent in there that me trying to make that video was I had the attention everyone did YouTube video I got stuck in the vest. You know, people still mention that.

I'll have to go back and see, because I made like most of my videos private, I will have to go back and see. We went up shopping in Newcastle to put together like a bad outfit, and Matt put on like a fisherman's.

Looking vest, Like yeah, the vest zipper got stuck and I couldn't get out of it, and Brittany just run away. People still say that is like one of the funniest things I've ever seen from me, and I'm like, babes, the blood was rushing to my head. I was stressed. I was like, this ain't coming off, and I'm not buying this fisherman's vest.

But to be fair, it's probably two dollars.

Back then, I've had my rant. What's your rant?

Line's not really a rant, but it's something we can talk. I heard that Cosmopolitan magazine is coming back.

Oh yeah, stunning.

After all the magazines dropped off the face of the earth.

What was Cosmopolitan? What did they do?

Celebrity gossip? Okay, like all that kind of shit. They're coming back after they've been gone. Like I think all of them are gone, right, like Girlfriend Dolly, like they all went Mari Claire, like, they're all gone.

Well, I mean, who, when was the last time you bought a magazine?

Well, I yeah, very true. Well actually I buy them at their airport sometimes. Really yeah, just little celebrity gossip ones just gives you something to do. But I think with Cosmo coming back, they're just doing six editions a year, so every second month or whatever. I reckon this is going to be the comeback of magazines, and I reckon it's going to become a cool thing to buy a Cosmo magazine, and it's going to be like a thing that influencers promote that they do really and like it's wild.

Me?

Who do you hope? Are you?

Ky Are you going to have a Cosmo? Are you going to buy a Cosmo magazine? Yeah?

I'm gonna buy it when it comes out.

Who do I hope would be on it? I don't know? But who do you reckon will be on it? OHI hawkans Lara Bingles someone. It's an Australian.

Magazine, right, Yeah, but they might like I think they should even like go global, like put fucking Taylor Swift on the front.

They don't have the budget for that and she wouldn't do it anyway.

Yeah, it's going to be an Aussie icon surely, Kylie Minogue.

Yeah, I don't think she'd be on the cover of the first Cosmo. They probably put tones and I Appy chat Field.

You're going to be an influencer?

Nah? Who do you reckon? Maybe a Jess Now boy.

I reckon it might be I reckon they might go the angle of like a TikToker or an influencer like Sofa Dofa or something. You reckon like they're coming back, like they've got to do something different.

There's no way.

I reckon they're going to try and hit a different audience like magazines will always for Like i'd say, even like the generation above us, like people that are now in their forties or whatever would probably buy magazines back in the day. So I reckon they're going to try and hit the younger demographics.

I cannot see Sofa Dofah on the cover. I can see them doing a piece on her potentially and on page sixty.

Well, I'm interested to see, Like I'm interested to see what they're going to do and like how they're going to make a comeback and how it's going to be different because magazines went under obviously, so they're gonna have to do something different and hit a different demographic.

Well, I mean, the only people buy magazines are probably hairdressers, isn't it. Where else do you see a magazine?

You don't I see them at the airport or at.

A doctor surgery.

Yeah, And also I don't think hairdressers have magazines anymore because we have our phones to just scroll through.

Oh no, mine still does, but I don't use them.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think I've been going there for a few years now. I think I've picked up a magazine once.

I think they should. If I was at Cosmo and I was working there, I would try to hit the younger demographics in the maybe not like the young ones on TikTok, but I would try and make the magazines like an aesthetically pleasing thing, like a nice magazine. Yeah, and I'd make it more like that, not so like graphic key on the front with all these weird fonts

Would you put an ad in a Cosmo magazine?

No?

No, really no? Would you do a billboard on a bus stop?

We bus stop we have before when we opened our Westfield cham Side store, because like the billboard companies own like like there's huge companies that own like most of them kind of thing. So we did do one, but like, I don't think we got a single thing, Like you can't track Yeah, you can't track it, but we just did it to be like fate Westfield chirm Side is

Would you be willing to tell us how much a billboard costs? Oh?

It was actually surprisingly cheap. Do you remember how much it was aj? No, it was way less than that. It was like two or three Yeah, it was.

Only two or three grand to get one billboard.

Yeah, but it was on like and it was for a month or two a months or something, but it was on like a rotating one, so you were on there with a lot of others. But I remember being surprised at how cheap it was. But I think they were kind of no, I don't want to say they were desperate, but like they reached out to us, we'll give you this really good deal. So I think they just like were going through a thing of wanting to get more people on there. But it wasn't anywhere near

Sorry, I know we got to get Aj on the podcast in a second, but I do want to talk about the billboard thing for a sec. They had a really cool billboard on Oxford Street recently that was of a new car of some sort, but the car headlights actually lit up so at nighttime, like it looked like a real car up on top of the building, but it was like just lights in the headlights, And I thought that was really cool.

Like, you've got to do something that stands out right.

So what would you do for fate?

I'm just probably like take a stab at brands that only go to like a size twelve or fourteen.

I would make it controversial. Yes, yeah, fair.

I remember when we open our Westfield Miranda store in Sydney, we got given a VM box. You know how you go on around Westfields and there's like the mannequins in the box with like a sign and whatever. Like they offered us a free one for like a certain amount of time, and they were like, what do you want to do with it? Like you can style it however you want, and but we had to do it really quickly, so I wasn't gonna go out and buy all sorts of fucking decorations and this and that and the other.

What about outdoor espresso. I'd get a billboard next to a fountain and then have the coffee cup pouring and the fountain looks like it's coming from the coffee cup.

And then like pay Sabrina Carpenter to be there.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yep, I'm mrgan Lee because I'm a finger.

I actually did see one other thing at fashion Week. I know we spoke about that in the main.

Oh.

Yeah, a coffee company was like some sort of sponsor there or something, and they had like this shopping bag that was brown and in there like branding, and it's just said, like in massive writing, it was really clever, there's no X in espresso because you have so many people say espresso hate. I thought that was like really clever of them.

I think it's clever too.

I think Aj would have something to say about like the marketing that we could do for Outdoo, because like he's really involved with that as well. But wasn't there like one other thing that you wanted to say.

I don't know, but I feel like we're going to run out of time if AJ doesn't come on the podcast right now, AJ, come on over, come on on the But everyone welcome AJ to the podcast. Say hey, hello everyone. Well, I mean, I'm so sorry, but we are out of time and we cannot afford to be here any longer. I've got to go to a meeting and do a whole bunch of stuff today. So thank you for joining us. AJ on the podcast.

Great official episode, Thank you so much.

Great having you here, Thanks for having me. That's enough out of here. Thank you to everyone for listening to this week's episode. We'll have to get AJ on again.

Obviously, whenever he can come down again.

Obviously, had a great time with him here today, and thanks for listening. Make sure you rate us five stars and we'll see in our main episode. Anything else from you, AJ, No, I think you covered it. I hope you enjoyed a J on the podcast Stroller.

Thank you.

I appreciate you coming all the way down for that. I love it all right, See you next week, bus Stop