You're list Saints KFI AM six forty. The bill handles show on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
If you are looking for good news about the economy, it is this. Fetanyl use may be dropping. We know this because the Border Patrol is now finding more poultry related products than they are fetanyl. Egg interceptions are up thirty six percent nationwide in the year starting in October compared to the previous year. A hotspot for egg smuggling is Texas. Sizars and Texas have gone up fifty four percent, according to the Customs of Border Protection in San Diego,
They've more than doubled. According to the CBP, it's the price difference, so a lot of they say a price is like a third of what it is in the US if you are over the borders. So agents have foiled ninety would be egg smugglers trying to ferry the breakfast staples across the border in El Paso. And they say it's all because you can get eggs a lot cheaper in Mexico. So forget fentanyl. The new cartel chickens and they're coming. Egg prices are dropping. They're still way up,
but they are slowly coming down. We like to hear that wholesale egg prices drifting lower, bird flu issues maybe easing, even as President Trump claiming victory as administration is acknowledging that the upcoming Easter holiday could cause prices to jump again.
This from Axios.
The highly pathogenic avian influenza leading to tens of millions of chickens being culled means h and that to trigger shortages and price spikes. I still have yet to see any reports on what they do with the with the chickens after they cull them. Is there just like a mass chicken grave somewhere that we're unaware of because you can't use the chickens for things like nuggets, right, They've got bird flu, so you can't do that. So there's just I guess mass chicken graves out there somewhere. Many
stores limiting how many eggs shoppers can buy. Some restaurants have added temporary egg search charges as well. They say egg prices should potentially start coming down. They dropped by a dollar twenty a dozen wholesale, acording to the US Department of Agriculture, down to six eighty five a dozen. Department noting that flew out breaks slowed over the last couple of weeks. They've been localized and have been able
to try to get ahead of those. The price of Midwest large large eggs was five twenty three a dozen. It's down thirty nine percent from its peak a couple of weeks earlier. The price that consumers are actually paying.
Is still up.
However, from January to February, wholesale prices are dropping, retail prices are rising. So if we were to ask you, our egg price is getting cheaper as far as you know, no, And if you read the article, or if you're a wholesaler, you might say, yeah, they're starting to come down. But if it's you buying things at the store, you head on into Ralphs and you look for eggs, they're not going to be any cheaper, which is some people to believe that there may be something larger at play. Indeed,
is there a conspiracy of foot from Fox Business. It sounds like the Department of Justice is looking into that very claim.
You know, farmers have been dealing with this bird flu since twenty twenty two, but recently prices have gotten out of control. Take a look back in December, a dozen eggs is going to cost you around four dollars. Now it's closer to seven dollars, and in February, a dozen eggs cost around eight dollars.
That's wholesale.
This is why the Justice Department is opening an investigation. They're looking into if major producers are violating antitrust laws by sharing information about supply and pricing, conspiring to keep prices higher. But the American Egg Board says, this is a story of supply and demand. Farmers have been battling bird flu and losing.
Okay, all right, good. We have not ever seen anything like this play out before. We've never had an American company take advance of a news story or a prevailing sentiment.
We've never had any oil companies, for instance, that have.
Continued to tell us that this is a simple supplying demand issue while they rake in record profits. We've never seen that happen in any other aspect, especially during the pandemic and then the subsequent supply chain shortage that happened afterward. Companies don't use news in order to boost their bottom line, to hose you in order to line their own pockets. It doesn't happen. So when you hear this nonsense that says that these major egg producers are somehow gouging you.
That's just a total lie. Believe their story.
Instead, that says it's a simple supply and demand issue. For instance, as I pointed out, wholesale prices are down a dollar twenty even though you're paying more. The difference, of course goes into the pockets of the egg producers. But that's your coincidence and in no way, shape or form indicative of some sort of an underlying conspiracy that they're working against you in order to make a ton of money and profit off the news, all at your expense.
That doesn't happen. It's simply supply and demand.
And while demand remains the same and supply is up, and you would think prices would come down and they're not. That's it's just a lot of market factors that you wouldn't understand.
It's very it's very complicated. You wouldn't understand.
It's just let me simplify supply and demand and all the other stuff. With record profits and that that's just you wouldn't understand it. It's too complicated.
Since January of twenty twenty five, the start of this year, we've lost more than thirty million.
Birds and counting.
Last week was actually the first week we went a full week without a new farm having an outbreak of the avian flu. So those this impact has been devastating on our industry. It's been devastating on our farmers. And like I said, our farmers are in the fight of their lives.
Yeah, absolutely, especially the largest commercial farms. The small farmers are losing money. They're in the fight of their lives. The very large farms that are raking in record profit, that must be an even bigger fight. That's just massive, you know.
But the other people that are losing are the businesses and the consumers. We're here at Roccos where every egg dish is now a dollar fifty more expensive because of the cost of eggs.
Yeah.
I just saw an ad out for I don't know, Dunnies or billage In or somebody. They've got some six or seven dollars deal and that included the big omelet too, and I thought, how are they doing that. They're not making any money on that. In fact, I was seeing that waffle house is always the butt of a lot of jokes. Not a lot of waffle houses nearby. See waffle House is getting hit hard. However, if you are loving breakfast, ie Hop, Ie Hop is getting hammered by
the egg prices. Ie Hop prices have increased by eighty two percent over the last five years, This Roadhouse up forty six percent, TGI Friday's up forty five percent. And this is all in large part because of the rising food costs. But especially when it comes to places like I Hop, it's eggs. It comes out eggs. It's all eggs. It's an egg issue. Who else is pulling back? Forget it? If you're like me, you stopped eating eggs a while ago because you said, I'm not going to pay those
ridiculous prices for eggs. You'll just wait for the bird flu to be done and in the meantime you'll find something else to eat for breakfast, perhaps cereal.
And yet it sounds like those.
Fruity o's because fruit loops was already taken, or the uh oat circles that you get in the bags of cereal at the discount places. Those are getting too expensive too. Just how bad has it gotten? That's next.
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM six forty.
We are pulling back people are saying, and no mole forget about it. In fact, if you were like me and you grew up poor, you didn't have lucky charms. You had something that was the equivalent like fortune totems, or you didn't have cheerios. You would have oat circles, and you didn't have fruit loops. You'd have fruit rings something like that. Right, you didn't have the actual stuff. We had knockoff cereals, and knockoff cereals were fine, it was good. In fact, in some cases you got so
you like them better. I always hated the knockoff cheerios, but I thought that the knockoff wheaties were fine, right, I mean, you just got so that you got used to it. There are other things that you can buy that are store bought, that are reasonable duplicates, and stores are getting better at this than they were when we were younger, which was so so many millennia ago. But Treehouse Foods is one of the country's largest manufacturers of private brands.
There the ones.
So if you see something that is the equate brand from Walmart that may have come from Treehouse Foods, if you see the Safeway brand that may have come from Treehouse, foods. If you see which is like or excuse me, you see like the Safeway Albertson's, if you see the Kroger brand from like Ralphs may have come from Treehouse Foods.
They make a bunch of that stuff.
However, we are seeing the whole egg thing going on, with the price of eggs going up, which certainly is not in any way, shape or form a money grabbed by the egg manufacturers capitalizing on the spike and prices due to.
The bird flu.
Coffee prices are going up, and of course we may start seeing more prices jumping because of the threats of terraces tariffs.
So here's what you're looking at.
Prices on things like cookies, crackers, coffee, and other things are not only going up everywhere, but they are also going up for the store bought brands, the store brand names right, which we always think of as being generic. People have decided I'm gonna go and I don't know who does this. I don't know who it is that is insane enough to do it, but some people say I will just go without coffee.
Friends.
We are in a bad spot when inflation gets to the point where people are not having their morning drugs. That's gonna make things that work a whole lot more difficult. I don't know if you know any coffee drinkers. Maybe you're you are a coffee drinker, but if the point comes where you have to start rationing coffee, things are gonna get ugly fast. They say that people are stressed. Treehouse,
that's again they make the groceries. Their financial chief says, we don't have any strong indicators that consumers are going to be less stressed in the near term, and grocery retailers are relying on third parties like Treehouse to make their store brands.
Is from the Wall Street Journal.
Giants like Kroger Albertson's Costco boosting investments in their branded products. Private labels are growing faster than name brand goods heading into the pandemic, and then consumers stuck at home with money to spend, went back to the national brands and low cost brands. We've seen now a resurgence for a couple of reasons. Because you have higher grocery prices. Retailers
are expending their store brand offerings. Walmart is introducing a premium line of food called Better Goods along their Great value brand, so you've got the great value and then you've got better goods, which is supposed.
To be the step up.
But now people are even saying we're just gonna cut back on even the low cost stuff. To me, this is a bad omen. You've got consumer confidence. You may have seen the report consumer confidence is down. With consumer confidence down, whether they have reason to or not. Maybe it's based on the news, Maybe it's based on the worries over the tariffs. Maybe people have lost jobs. But at this point it doesn't look like we're in a recession.
The fear of recession is so great that people are beginning to behave as though we are in a recession. We're for it, we're getting ready, we're pregaming. The next recession is what's happening. And so people are cutting back on things, even the store brand products. But they're also cutting back on this from the Wall Street Journal, US convenience store sales falling over four percent by volume.
What are they cutting back on?
Derrito's When you stop in at the Circle K or the Shell station, there's no there's no big bag of chips. If you've bought a bag of chips at the gas stations, lately. Have you seen the price on that It's seven bucks. Seven bucks for a bag of potato chips is not even the family size bag. I know, I sound like a grumpy old man. I understand, but I'm gonna be grumpy. I don't like it. So people are cutting back on
what they're buying. That includes Doritos, that includes Twinkies. And I think we just saved Twinkies from the brink of extinction a decade ago. They were all ready to wrap up. But here's the really scary thing. Well, we have some people cutting back on things like coffee in other places, which is terrifying. Sounds like some people are cutting back on cigarettes. Oh my, So now you've got people that are not going to have their cigarettes or their coffee
in the morning. That is, it's going to get ugly fast. Friends, this is going to be very apocalyptic in a hurry. I don't have high hopes. So what can you do? Could you turn to one of those dollar stores? Nope, because have you been to a dollar store lately? Nothing costs a dollar anymore. And now Dollar General says they're not even making any money and they're shutting up shop.
Dollar General is closing nearly one hundred stores. The company says it plays to closed ninety six locations by January of twenty twenty six.
That's not too many, though. I think Dollar General opens more than one hundred a day. I'm exaggerating, but not by much. This is from whas by the way, I believe this is in Louisville.
Dollar General CEO says that the number of closings represents less than one cent of the company's overall store base. It also plans to close forty five of Dollar General's home to core stores popshelf.
I think no Dollar General had home to cour stores. Did you know, man, that's through dollars? All right? That was quick, Amy, you get credit on that one. That was very quick.
The decision came after a view of the store performance and conditions to determine which stores should be closed or maybe be rebranded. Now, as of now, it's not known which locations are set to close. There are more than thirty of those stores in the Louisville metrics.
All right, So again I told you that it was from Louisville. Did he just say rebranded? Don't know if they're going to close or rebrand. So you rebrand from a Dollar General to what a dollar Lieutenant, I don't understand what the rebrand would be. You go more high end Dollar General. There's no lower end Dollar I mean, Dollar General is what it is. It's just cheap, cheap. All the dollar stores just cheap, telling man. I would think Dollar General will do really well as people are
worried about inflation and recession. It has in the past. Walmart and Dollar General stores do well during recessions. They do, they do, and yet here they are saying they're going to close some shops.
We'll find out how it plays out in the meantime.
One place I don't think is going to do very well during recession is someone that has to halt the sales of their products because parts keep falling off, that's getting protested from coast to coast, and still charges more than one hundred thousand dollars for some of their products.
That's next.
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM six forty.
All right, Imagine that you own a company and for years you've been trying to find your lane. You've been really nailing that brand. You don't worry so much about the others. You're really trying to you're really trying to own your lane. You think of you think of some big brands out there, and you go, Okay, Taco Bell is gonna own the cheap, fast Mexican food lane. Now they've got competitors, but Taco Bell nationwide, they're the big ones, right, So imagine that you own that lane and you own
it hard. And then imagine, just imagine if Taco Bell's owners came out and said, uh, you know what, we don't really like Mexican food. We want to support all of the non Mexican food things out there. In fact,
we're really gonna start pushing sushi. Probably not great for Taco Bell's brand should something like that happen, right, Is that fair to say if all of a sudden, the owner of Taco Bell came out and said, my food is great, but also I'm gonna put all of my effort into pushing sushi, probably not gonna be really good for Taco Bell, especially if part of the push for sushi is to limit things like I don't know for Holles.
That's basically what's happening when you look at what's going on in DC, which is why we're seeing the stock prices and the sales more importantly dropping for Tesla. Tesla's being protested as people are upset with Elon Musk. They're taking it out in his business. They can't protest Starlink because it's tough to get protesters in space A lot of people would like to, it's very difficult to protest
some of the other stuff the SpaceX. But what they can do is they can show up but Tesla's showrooms and start protesting.
And that's exactly what people are doing nationwide.
There are about two hundred people lined up here along Colorado Street, which is in front of the Tesla's.
Showroom by the way NBCLA.
The protesters were demanding that people sell their Tesla cars and stock.
Now.
These protests are happening all over the area. We also saw one in Glendale held by the same group. They were holding signs and encouraging drivers to and support as they went by. The group Rally for Democracy is organizing these protests. This movement is in response to Elon musks position in President Donald Trump's administration and roll in the Department of Government Efficiency. Similar rallies are taking place around the world, which started back into February.
What I don't understand, I just I get it. We have turned vehicles and this is one of the things that makes in the American car culture so great, is that vehicles are part of our identity.
Right.
If you drive certain cars, we make certain assumptions about someone, and someone who has certain character traits will purchase they're attractive to certain cars. For instance, if you're driving a mini van that has a bunch of stick figure stickers in the back window, we assume that you are a family oriented person and obnoxious. If you drive a lifted pickup truck, we assume that you are a dude and obnoxious. If you drive a sports cars your daily driver, we
assume that you have some insecurities and are obnoxious. If you drive a subar Ru, we assume that you eat granola and you support lgbt q IA initiatives right, and you probably want to coexist sticker Elon's pivot to MAGA would be akin to Subaru declaring that they need to stop hippies and end LGBTQYA initiatives. They would never do that because they know they're laying Elon's pivot is the worst marketing pivot ever it's worse than when Coke did the whole New Coke thing back in the eighties.
It is the worst ever.
And so that's why last week you saw President Trump with Elon on the on the lawn at the White House. Come on down to Crazy Don's use Tesla a lot. We got Tesla's they're they're great. Tests the cars and Tesla cyber truck they're great. You should buy one today to support Elon, and not buying one should be illegal.
You can't boycott our Tesla truck. That would be illegal and un American.
You should go back to boycotting other things like cancel culture and but light.
But not Elon. Buy his cyber truck today.
May be delivered soon, unless it's not because also in the news, Elon Musk's Tesla has been forced to halt sales of cyber trucks because metal panels keep falling off. Yeah, customers that are posting on the Cyber Truck Owners Club website as well as on Twitter.
They say that the deliveries are on hold.
The website Electric said the decision was taken amid increasing instances of trim and panels flying off the supposedly bulletproof
electric truck. Now, imagine if you've spent the last few years saying that electric vehicles, the push to electric is is bad for the country, and you've been saying that we have to have fossil fuels and you'll never buy one of those golf carts, and you've you've been taking this tack for years, and then all of a sudden you're told up everything you've been led to believe in the Church of Petrol was false. Now you should buy the evs. You should buy them because it's the American
thing to do. Also, they're one hundred grand. Who's doing that? Who has the extra one hundred thoughts? It's one thing if you want to show your support by buying a red hat that cost you twenty five bucks.
Twenty five bucks doesn't make or break things. One hundred thousand dollars.
To somebody in the middle of Arkansas to buy a truck whose parts fall off, to replace their lifted f one fifty to get stuck in the mud without a charger nearby for one hundred grand, I don't see that making up for the damage that musk is doing to the brand. It's just not happening, all right. When it comes to the kids these days. Oh, the kids these days, They're getting a bit strange, which is why Texas has taken it upon themselves to put a stop to these ten gallon furries.
Freedom of speech be damned, that's next cool.
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM six forty.
If you have kids, there have been times in your life, undoubtedly that you've thought they are animals. It's become such a problem in Texas that lawmakers have decided they need to step in, and what has become known as the Furries Act takes on a different tone than what I thought furries meant in the past. What's Texas up to? According to CBS and Austin here, it is.
Hey, Bill fouled in the Texas House would stop students from acting like any other than a human being at school. That Bill's meant to specific target what are known as furries. A furry is a person who dresses up or behaves like an animal with human characteristics. This can include creating a character based on an animal called a persona that is expressed to art, role playing, or elaborate costumes called fur suits.
Hmm, okay, all right, I'm in on that. Hang on you, what's going on? Ready to go? See my computer? My computer, Frozer saying here we go now.
The Forbidding Unlawful Representation of Role Playing and Education of Furries Act was filed by a Austin Area Republican state Representative Stan Gertz. The law would ban non human behavior such as using a litter box, wearing tails, animal ears, leashes, callers, or any other acceassories used for animals.
So what, I can't use a litter box in school anymore, Oh, Texas.
It also banns students from barking, meowing, or hissing, and licking oneself or others for grooming. The bill would also allow students to dress up as animals for days like Halloween or other school dress up days.
A hearing has not yet been set for this bill.
Mascots would also be allowed, because so many mascots are indeed animals. Evidently, in Texas becomes such a problem that we have to enact legislation that limits students free speech because I guess they all want litter boxes. That whole notion of you can't lick yourself for grooming being illegal, that's really going to put a damper on Kentucky fried chickens whole slogan.
H Indeed, Gary wanted on this.
I wouldn't touch that with a ten foot pole. Or you come on, buddy, come on, the idea of licking yourself to clean yourself, you.
Do, It's nature, Gary, finger licking good?
Are you telling me you don't lick your fingers when you have something delicious.
Fancy with your showers and your wet necks? Yeah, guess what, some people have to lick themselves.
That's right, Gary, Yeah, so this is the the yoga you go? Yeah, an odd uh odd side.
I feel like I've chosen here, looking across the great divide between you people licking yourselves for cleanliness and me over here washing my hands.
What are you going to do when you have to live off the land, when the end is nigh, you're gonna be dirty?
Be dirty?
Are you gonna lick yourself like everybody else?
Come on, fancy pants, have a taste, fancy Come on, get in there.
No, maybe maybe I employ someone.
To lick me.
That's a different industry.
I don't think. I don't think you have to wait for the apocalypse.
That you can go down to the days in and Glendale.
For that, there is a price point. I suppose. All right, what do you guys have plans today?
Well, right after the news at nine o'clock, David is going to join us from Japan. Mookie Bets will not be in the first two games for the Dodgers. And when you see Mookie Bets you will think he's not well, because he's not. He's lost like fifteen pounds whatever your illness virus, really, Joe, don't don't make it okay, but he may actually come back sooner than expected. Speaking of our astronauts that have been up in space, they're coming back sooner than expected.
What are they going to eat when they arrive?
I saw this whole explainer about what happens over the weekend when they come back. Like you said, they have to just sit for a long time, long time. I'm going to know what they can ingest Like, they can't just go have spaghetti and meatballs, can they?
Oh, they have to ease into it a little bit, I think so.
I don't know.
It's like the turpins, you know, when they got rescued from that house. You had to ease them into solids.
Oh my gosh, I didn't even consider that.
Always consider the Turpinso.
Words to live by. Looking forward to it. Gary and Shannon coming in next. Thanks guys, appreciate it. Looking forward to the show. Always great stuff.
You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show. Catch My Show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am, and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.