Bread’s Out. Avocado’s In

it's not rainy, at least not here right now. Maybe in your area that these are great times to be grilling because that grill can get up to seven hundred degrees and change and you get a little warm there. I can still do it in my shorts. Get out there, do some grilling and enjoy yourself this wonderful, overcasty Saturday. All right, So a lot of issues going on with

restaurants and fast food. Still, if you're fast food, you have a fast food location, whether it's franchise or what have you out in Southern California or California at you got kicked in the scrot another time with the minimum wage hike. Now, listen, I'm all for people making more money. I just think there are certain jobs out there that are the demand is different. You don't have to have an education per se, and anytime that's where you land, the demand is not going to be much. I don't

care if you're unionized. I don't care if you're not. It doesn't matter. Eventually, if they can replace you with something else, they will. That's robotics, that's with the Kiosk. Whatever it is, it's going to happen. In addition to that, there's other things that get expensive. The ingredients get expensive. But for one particular fast food restaurant that was the biggest, it continues to shrink. Now, this shrinking started long before

the twenty dollars, you know, minim wage. But those things don't help, and it continues to compound compound rather So Subway just shut down over six hundred stores, and this has been going on for a while. They were the biggest fast food chain in the US by number of locations, and I don't know a lot of people know that. I think if you were to guess, you probably would have said McDonald's, but that's not the truth. So by number of locations, they were the king for a long time.

So they shut down a ton of their restaurants last year. That's sick, about six hundred and thirty one restaurants that they shut down last year alone, so that could very well have been affected by, you know, the rays of minimum wage. Back in twenty fifteen, Subway had around twenty seven thousand stores across the country. It's not internationally or anything like that, just in the US. By the end of twenty twenty four, that number has fallen below twenty

thousand for the first time in decades. Now it's at about nineteen to five something like that. Some of the closures hit hard were in Oregon, and they had twenty three Subway locations shut down suddenly, leaving over two hundred employees jobless without warning. One store manager, Joanne Kennedy, said she and her team were completely blindsided. That happens now.

That obviously doesn't tie into that. But the overall juggling of this is the cost of product along with serving it to you is a battle with fast food because by definition definition fast food is to be quickly served inexpensively. Now, we were told by Subway that a five dollars foot long, even if it was a discount or pick you a particular day of the week, whatever it was, that was kind of the norm. Well, now they're somewhere between thirteen

and fifteen bucks. I think so even in your mind, you always still have the song playing in your head that it's a five dollars foot long and it's not anymore. It can be very expensive. I walked out of a subway with three foot long sandwiches, one soda, two bags of chips, and it was thirty seven dollars almost forty bucks. Right, So the battle's going to continue with these fast food places in getting you what it can for the best price possible. And there's just a point where we won't.

It's hard. Sandwiches are great, man. I love sandwiches. I love Subway, among others. I think you are great sandwich places out there, and you've got Jersey Mics, which is wonderful. You've got these places, but to have good ingredients is expensive and it's hard to wrap your brain around a fifteen dollars sandwich at a quick stop. Now, as far

as making money, McDonald's is still the king. McDonald's has fewer US stores in you know, in the past year or so, about thirteen to five, but it does make the most revenue. Starbucks was in second place, if you can believe it. It seems like they have four on every corner with just over sixteen thousand, So things are slowing down in the US. Subway has been expanding, They're doing more international stuff, updating restaurants with new looks, a different

vibe in some of them. They tend to be very clean places. That's been my experience. Focusing on what they refer to as smart growth, That means they're very strategic about where they're putting stores. They're going to put them in the best spots, run by the right people and with a better customer experience. Their hope is, you know, even if they have to close some locations or move some locations, that they're going to make more in the

long run by doing that. Nearly thirty percent of subway locations in the US have shut down in less than ten years. So this is a battle that is not going to be one or lost by one particular decision. But as we look at the wars going on with fast food and our dollars, those of us that spend money going to fast food restare runts. Our dollars are being uh, you know, battling if they're going to be you know, battling for your dollars. They have to find ways to, you know, take care of us. The battle

continues for your fast food dollars. And here in California we have the extra edition of the higher minimum wage. And I know, listen, it sounds horrible. I know, we get, we've gotten so emotional in the US. We can't. We don't like reason anymore. Oh great, my wife, former producer at KFI by the way, is now texting me what have you done? Thanks Kayla in front of my wife of these seventeen years. Well yeah, Tracy, Tracy really gets you to listen.

tried it. Yeah, we thought we were going to be out somewhere. That's not an excuse anyway. Okay, I was talking about being way too overly emotional. The point is this that we're looking at things through our heart, and I get it. It's you want people to be able to make more money, but the system breaks down. It can only handle so much. I mean literally, it's like, Oh, this person's hungry, why don't you dump four hundred pounds of food on them. Well, then they'll be crushed and dead.

But I just want to feed them. And we're looking at a breakdown in a system that can only work if the food is quickly served and inexpensive. And when you're at the point of paying fourteen dollars for i'll say two sandwiches, I think that's more fair. I guess because a foot long sandwich is a big sandwich. You know, I can go for a foot long, no problem, But your average person. I don't think Kayla's going in there and throwing back a foot long. I don't think Andrew's

doing that or Robin's doing that. You know, you put half away in the fridge, so let's say that still it's getting expensive, and when you're to do it with the best ingredients possible, and especially when you see it put together right in front of you, I think that that's going to be a difficult path for Subway to get over. I think the things that they've tried, I think they're doing the nachos, the foot long nachos right

now with Dorito's. They did the foot long specials with the pretzel, with the chocolate chip cookie, the churo, which none of those I liked. I didn't think any of them were very good. Quite frankly, they just weren't that tasting. Now, the wraps that they do with the cheese and chicken and stuff, those are very tasty. But that battle is going to continue for them and for other fast food restaurants.

And we're going to be seeing this now. This may have started, you know, within the last decade and is being topped off now for Subway, but ultimately across the board, this is happening. We're seeing more closures, we're seeing more tech getting involved, and we're going to be looking at restaurants with very few people in them at all running them soon. I'm telling you that's just what it's going to come down to.

selling Del Taco off as well. So the chain currently working with Bank of America Securities and they want to lower their debt, create some sort of strategy, and look around as what they need to do. Now. The reason why I'm telling you these things is because I am a big believer that the entirety of the food ecosystem

is having issues. I have said that. One of the reasons that my very first show over a decade ago on the Fork Report was telling you that the local economy rises and falls on hospitality, on going out to eat, even fast food, so fast food chain restaurants, mom and pop shops, little towns with different cultures, and foods where they're bringing foods from countries that they used to live in, or their heritage restaurant, chefy forward places, whatever it may be.

All you know, vendors, street vendors. We don't want to forget them because all of that food, this is all part of the very important ecosystem that is creates the protection of the economy locally. It just is. And so these things may not seem like they're that big of a deal, or it's like, oh, well people aren't just aren't eating in as much or whatever it is, or big deal. This This is predicting something, pointing to something, shining a light on something that I feel we should

be looking at. That's why I don't know exactly what it means at this point. But all these kind of rolling of the eyes saying oh, this won't matter much, or this won't matter, or from shutting down the state for COVID, all these things are not political. It's not about the politics of it. It's about about the actual tangible repercussions of it. And again we've gotten so emotional that you know, it's the if you're not with me, you're against me thing, And that's not true. If you're

part of a political party. I'm not anymore. I am independent, completely judge everything independently based on its merits. I've said this before. If the devil told me two plus two equals for it, he'd be right. So to kind of look at these things and say, how is this ultimately going to end up? Instead of going It's almost like we're spending someone else's money and sometimes that's the way

it works and we think it'll just work out. Well, yeah, but it might not work out in your favor, might not work out the way you think, and there are unintended consequences.

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wrong with you. At pop, indie rock, everything all mixed together. This year. They got Letting Kravitz out there, Sublime out there, Alanis Morris set, you have the Pretender's Cake, Jackson Brown, just tons of great performers out there. Beachlifefestival dot com,

Beachliffestival dot com if you're interested. All right. So, more and more we're reading about things going on in the food industry, and as I said, people are coming up, whether it's fast food or anything else, just to get you in there, come up with creative ways to do that. I wonder if we're at the point where maybe we've peaked when it comes to avocados, because it's always, oh, avocado on this, avocado on that, and you think, oh, well,

what else are they going to do with avocado? Well, this one sounded like an April Fool's joke, but it is not. Apparently. Food Beast talks about the new combination of and partnership between avocados from Mexico, which I used to be a spokesman for. The great Product by the way, has partnered with witch Witch, which if you haven't tried their sandwiches, they're bombed. They're just I think they're excellent. So now they have something called the avo Witch. Okay,

so what does this mean? Where are they putting it? They're using it as the bread, so instead of bread, they're avocado slices. I know, right, But I'm trying to put that in my flavor bank. I got it. Okay, I'm with Young Flavor Bank. I get it. They cover, they put the top on the top. There they have this ava witch seasoning that looks great, you know, so I know that's going to give you this texture and a little bit of crunch on the top. Of the avocado.

But they're using ripe avocados, and the only thought that comes to mind is that texture. I don't know that that's the first texture I want to experience on the outside of something. I mean, maybe i'd cut it with a fork or mash it up and just have it as a salady thing, because it essentially is their classic Turkey club. So you've got turkey, ham, bacon, lettuce, tomatoes, cheddar cheese, mayo, and honey mustard. I mean, all of

that sounds excellent. And like I said, which Witch has great sandwiches, But you wrap your hands around that and you've got ripe, creamy avocado. I'm curious what kind of doesn't say if it's like forte or it's has or hass avocados. It doesn't say because some are a little more dense and fleshy than others. And I'm thinking, right right, avocado. You know, I love bananas. I don't know that i'd want to eat a sandwich between two bananas, especially ripe ones. You know what I'm saying, Like.

It's good. I love avocados. But they're you know, as as we've said many times before, toxicity is in the dose. And sometimes there are foods that I like that too much of them would would freak me out. Like have you ever seen someone crack open an ostrich egg?

I mean, some people go, you just keep putting more protein on it. That doesn't necessarily make it better to me, because the dances with the crunch of the lettuce, you know, a little bit of the acid from the tomato, whatever it is that you're putting in there, spinachs that herbaceous kind of that green is how I refer to it. It's not grassy, but just brighten or base. That all makes for a great sandwich. And then you you that bread that gives you that toothy deliverily delivery, you know

it just I don't know. I don't want to bite into something and have it go. So I'm gonna have to try it because I do like witch witch. And we'll have to see if the avo, which removes the bread and uses two slices of avocado as the bread, is any good. We'll just have to find that out. All right, we come back, we're gonna chat with Andrew Caravella a bit. He didn't even know that, but this is his last day with us. He'll be leaving KFI and just want to chat with him before he goes.

And of course Tiffany will come aboard as says, she is going to be taking things over at five o'clock. So go no where.

Some of my drawings are on there too, just all kinds of things that deal with that love for sci fi, pop culture, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, things that I make. It was originally for my small business where I make promotional items, but that's not really open. I don't sell to the general public right now at least, so so really just started using that as a place to put art stuff. So check that out Savco Industries on Instagram. So I brought Tiffany in because we want to talk

about what's going on with her. But I thought Tiffany and I could ask Andrew some questions because Andrew Caravella this is our last show with him. So I'll start and we'll have Tiffany jump in. But so let's find out, first of all, how you got into radio.

over into San Bernardino over at KVCR. Had a had a news director position a little after that at a string of radio stations up in the High Desert and in Arizona, because they had they were like a franchise. And during that time, it was during the pandemic, I auditioned my second time for KFI, and former news director Chris Little thought I was decent enough to give me

a shot at KFI, and the rest is history. I've I've been covering news in TV and in radio in southern California now for ten years, in my fifth year now with KFI here in La though, and it's been a fantastic ride.

personality on the radio, but as a journalist. Stephen Gregory and also Chris Little, like they really kind of honed helped me, hone in my skills. And I was working at other radio places while I was at KFI, and I became an award winning personality. I have my own golden mic from some of the news documentary stuff that I've done. But it was because of the skills that

I built here at KFI. So I'm gonna be forever grateful for that because it was what I learned here that made me an award winning journalist.