February 28, 2024 • 29 mins
A GAME-CHANGING MERCADO SPARKS A QUESTION: “WHY COSTA MESA AND NOT SANTA ANA?”
HOW AMERICAS GREAT DEPARTMENT STORES BECAME A DYING BREED
NEWS OUTLETS ARE COLLAPSING AS ADVERTISERS FLOCK TO SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS, WITH MAJOR IMPLICATIONS FOR SOCIETY
UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS IN CALIFORNIA COULD HAVE A NEW PATH TO HOMEOWNERSHIP
HOW AMERICAS GREAT DEPARTMENT STORES BECAME A DYING BREED
NEWS OUTLETS ARE COLLAPSING AS ADVERTISERS FLOCK TO SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS, WITH MAJOR IMPLICATIONS FOR SOCIETY
UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS IN CALIFORNIA COULD HAVE A NEW PATH TO HOMEOWNERSHIP
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
You're listening to kf I AM sixforty. The bill handles show on demand
on the iHeartRadio app Tomorrow being LeapDay, and it looks like the government
is not going to shut down Saturday. Speaker Mike Johnson and the various other
leadership both in the Senate and theHouse. I had a meeting with the
(00:21):
President and it looks like we're probablygonna have some kind of a deal cut.
Now. I want to tell youwhat's going on in Coasta Mason,
very very interesting and it makes allthe sense of the world. There is
a family, Gonzalez family that ownswell Northgate Gonzales supermarket chain, and it
(00:43):
is a Hispanic change. It's achange. Now there is, for example,
vayat at the market. There's onein the valley that I have gone
to many times, and it istailored to the Hispanic community. Because how
big Latino community we have in southerncaliforn This one is different. This one
approximates the mercados in Mexico, youknow. For example, this one has
(01:07):
a little pond in front of thefront door, waters knee deep, just
for nostalgia's sake. And it notonly provides the kind of Hispanic Latino products.
You know, tortillas, homemade tortillas. They have a tortilla machine there
in their own masa, and youbuy products and you buy spices that basically
(01:30):
come from Mexico, Central America.You've got South America. But within it
they also have the stalls, thelittle stalls where if you go to a
mercado in Mexico, you go toa mercado basically any especially smaller towns,
(01:53):
medium sized towns in South America,you will see both a place where they
sell products and connected to it orright near it is the open market.
Well, this sort of combines thetwo and there's nothing like this in southern
California. And since it opened inNovember, and it opened in Coasta mesa
(02:14):
seventy thousand square foot space and itopened in November, I gotta tell you
it has exploded. It's the firstout post. Well it looks like the
Chordia el Moro outside of Mexico,which is a hugely popular supermarket, and
it just does the same thing.And they just followed that pattern. And
(02:38):
it makes the fact that it tookso long, and the fact that you've
got so many latinos. I mean, I think La is well, certainly
the number one Hispanic. The numberone population is Hispanic. I don't know.
Is it over fifty percent now Latinopopulation in La County. I think
(03:00):
it is, but it's by farthe biggest single group of people. And
the various stores, the retail storesthat are looking at the buying power the
same thing. By the way,here in the radio business, and Neil
and I could talk about this andAmy, it used to be the Latino
(03:23):
market was ignored. No one paidattention to it. It was all catering
to the white market. The advertisers, Well, guess what. Latinos also
buy toilet paper, They also buystaples, they also buy cars, they
also borrow money, and they wereignored. And now you look at the
(03:46):
top ten stations that are listened to. And I always refer to radio because
this is where I live and obviouslywe pay attention to it. Here you
look at the top five stations thatare listened to in the La Metro that's
La Orange County, probably the topten five of them are Hispanic, usually
Latino stations. There are two orthree news talk stations in LA and when
(04:14):
you look at the number of otherstations, you know urban hip hop stations.
I think there are more Latino stationsin one given format than there is
in anything else. And they finallysaid, okay, we get it.
And the same thing is going on. And it's not like the Gonzales family
didn't understand. The Gonzales family isthe family that said, okay, we're
(04:39):
going to take advantage of this.This one is brand new. This is
a full service supermarket and within itthe Mexican style indoor mercado's stalls and vendors,
so shoppers can stop in for groceriesand then walk up to a stall
for a fresh store a god thoughwhich I have no idea what that is,
(05:02):
uh, Neil, you can tellme what an ahol god torta is.
I know what a torta is.I know what an outpost store torta
with pulled pork. Uh a cutof bone? I know which is?
Uh? I understand? Uh tacosal cad of bone, which is a
taco that has activated carbon in itand it's actually very very tasty. No,
(05:27):
do I have that wrong? Thetorta abagado is a torta made of
it made of lawyers. Yes,yes, okay, that's not bad Albogado,
of course, being lawyer. Uh. But it's in the inside the
store are these stalls where you getthese fresh foods made right there and tables
(05:51):
are around. So according to oneof the old uh, one of the
owners said, if you were anewly arrived migrant, you could probably go
to one of these grocery stores.And first of all, of course you
speak Spanish. They speak Spanish.That's the primary language. I don't know
how many people speak English there,very few, and it seems like you
came from your home country there.I'm not going to get into politics about
(06:13):
how many of these migrants are legalor illegal. No one asks, of
course when you go to a store. I mean, I've got a story
of at seven point fifty about undocumentedby migrants, so I'll do that then.
But this is you know why itdidn't happen before. And they're first
out and they have fourteen stores now, these guys are creating a dynasty.
(06:39):
Good for them, and actually Ilove those markets. I mean the thought
of going up and getting a freshshurtro made right there, a fresh taco
made right there, a fresh burritomade right there. I'm having the other
half of the burrito that we boughtyesterday, the breakfast burrito. And it's
not the same as going up toowith stall and saying I want it made
(07:01):
right there. Still not bad,not bad, second day out, Okay,
I'll still take it all right.Coming up, when's the last time
you went to a big department storeMacy's for example, and then the history
of department stores. It's a dyingbreed. And I'm gonna tell you why.
(07:24):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demandfrom KFI AM six forty day before
leap Day, Wednesday, February twentyeighth, and it is hump day that
I can tell you a couple ofstories were following. Remember I think it
was yesterday when I mentioned when Ireported that President Biden said we should have
some kind of a deal between Hamasand the Israelis by the maybe by the
(07:48):
end of the week weekend, byMonday at the latest. That's falling apart.
Not true. The demands of Hamasand Israel are such thet it's not
gonna happen because well, Hamas looksat Israel's position to total destruction of Hamas
(08:09):
and Israel is looking at it's inposition, the total destruction of Israel.
Those are the two sides. Youknow, where do you compromise on that
one? You know, only halfof Israel is wiped out, only half
of Gaza is wiped out. No, all, right, now, I'm
gonna tell you a story and gointo what is happening. This is one
(08:33):
of those look what's happening in Americastory. Yesterday Macy's announced it's closing one
hundred and fifty store, about athird of its total, and that makes
us look at the demise of theAmerican department store. A lot of reasons,
but the department store was the endall be all. Walmart didn't exist,
(08:56):
you didn't have Costco. When thedepartment store was at its heyday,
it was just the neatest place inthe world with these huge anchor stores.
You had Macy's and Neiman's, andyou had Wealth Sears, and Sears is
an interesting company. Sears is oneof the stores, like many others,
that you really don't see anymore.Maybe a couple of Sears out there,
(09:18):
but yeah, you don't see it. Macy's, you know, cut of
one hundred and fifty stores, Searsmaybe five percent of what they have.
JC Penny gone you've got, well, let's look at toys. R US
Payless shoes gone. Now. Asa kid, I remember Sears was down
(09:43):
the street from US and they builtthis huge shopping center where Sears was prior
to that, it was a lot, big, huge lot. And I
lived in North Hollywood at the time. And the one thing that I remember
now. Keep in mind, thiswas the early sixties, in the middle
of the Cold War and the Cubanmi So crisis was going and everybody was
scared to death of the bomb.They actually sold bomb shelters at Sears.
(10:07):
You could buy a bomb shelter andin the parking lot they had built a
bomb shelter. People put them intheir backyards and I remember as a kid,
I was pretty young, going throughthe bomb shelter. They had a
stairway going in, a stairway goingout. On the other side, bunk
(10:28):
beds, food storage, and therewas an air filter that was hand cranked
because it had to filter out thebad air and ostensibly the radio activity,
and they would it's basically they contractedwith swimming pool installers that would build that
would go ahead and dig the hole, and then the bomb shelter people would
(10:50):
come in Sears is great. Searsyou could buy a house from literally in
the twenties they would sell you akit for a house. But that's fun
history. Now, why are Walmartand Costco so successful and these major department
stores falling apart? Well, clearlyprice department stores are not as inexpensive.
(11:16):
You also have department stores. Andhere is something they basically cater to middle
class, which is gone. Sowhat Macy's is doing is they're going into
the high end. High end isdoing great, low end is doing great.
Middle class gone. So department storeswhich catered to that group of people
(11:41):
are gone. And at one pointit was room for dozens of brand names.
But things have changed dramatically for thepandemic. People. A department stores
are in closed spaces, right,They're air conditioned, they feel great,
They're very expensive to run. Soduring the pandemic, people just didn't go.
(12:01):
Did they get deliveries, You betthey did. Did they go to
open air facilities restaurants by the way, this is why the restaurants built these
outdoor areas. And just everything haschanged. Certainly, buying on the internet
has changed everything for everybody. Andso who was able to change, Well,
(12:26):
you look at the big box storesthat are doing just fine because people
go there. Also, you haveWalmart, for example. Not only is
it a department store of massive scale, it also sells food. When was
the last time you would go toa major anchor department store and find food,
(12:46):
a food aal there. You wouldn'tAnd what they have done is moved
well. You have CEOs that havesimply understood what was going on from day
one. Soul Price who started PriceClub, and the Costco people understood from
the moment they opened the stores.And you have the CEOs of these major
(13:09):
department stores and they grew up inthe department store. You start to be
a CEO of one of those,I mean it takes forty years if you're
saying in the same company, andthey got complacent. It was like GM.
You moved up slowly, and itwas almost like the Armed forces.
(13:30):
Armed Forces. You go up thescale as a matter of time, and
if you're not incompetent, you getpromoted simply because you've been there long enough.
Well, you've got stores, thebig box stores for example, that
are nimble that management understands what's goingon very quickly. And again let's go
(13:50):
to Costco, which I obviously goto all the time. They bring in
new products every day and they moveproducts around. So I will buy something
typically that I'll get and it's notin the same place, and I three
days ago this is where it was. They've moved it around. I'm now
(14:11):
walking the store. I mean,that's kind of clever. You don't see
that at major department stores. Youreally don't. And so you see these
department stores and they were and whatdoes it do to malls, by the
way, males are shutting down likecrazy. At first, when the malls
opened up, it was the momand pop, the mom and pop,
(14:31):
not the grocery store. Well,yeah, because you had the supermarket.
So you had the mom and pophardware stores shut down all over the place,
and so the malls came in,the majors came in, and then
the world has changed again. Nowyou have big box stores and the only
one that is where they've done apretty good job is Target. Target is
(14:52):
sort of an outlier. Target isnot the best prices. They used to
be dirt cheap, but they're select. Action is absolutely terrific, and they're
not crazy expensive, and they justknow how to run a store. Sears,
No more bomb shelters being sold inthe parking lot of Sears. Loved
(15:13):
it all right, coming out newsoutlets. Here's another collapsing industry. This
is a fun day. I'm goingto tell you how the world's falling apart.
News outlets are collapsing and why isthat? A bunch of reasons there
too. You're listening to Bill Handleon demand from KFI AM six forty on
(15:35):
a Wednesday morning, February twenty,eighth day tomorrow being leap day every four
years. Some of the big stories. We are looking at five uncontrolled wildfires
in the Texas Panhandle, I meanCalifornia type wildfires, which I've never seen
happen in the Panhandle of Texas.Also, California has joined that FTC commissioned
(15:56):
lawsuit trying to block the proper mergerof Kroger and Albertson's to make one,
of course, if not the largestChaine supermarkets in the country. And the
government is saying there's going to beless competition, prices are going to be
higher. Kroger's and Albertson says no, no, they'll be even though there's
less competition. The consumers will benefitbecause they'll have lower prices. Okay,
(16:22):
fair enough. Let's see what happenson that one. Now a story,
and I'm involved in this and certainlyyou are. And that is the fact
that news outlets are collapsing. Networknews going south. I hate to say
it. Our listenership is not greatlyup over the years. We've had more
(16:47):
listeners over the years. Neil,you're giving me the wrong look here,
But that's radio in general. That'sradio in general. Well, the listenership,
you've got it. Part of that. Part of that is due to
the fact that people have switched tostreaming it. That's true. I mean
that is part of the rest.But I'm talking different. Yeah, but
(17:08):
I'm talking as well. Let mego, I'm talking, let me go
into a business model here and what'sgoing on, and that is where we
are losing. We news outlets.I consider O KFI and news outlets because
if you listen to our newscasts,you don't see opinion. When Amy talks
to you and gives you a report, it's facts. This is what's happening.
(17:32):
These are the votes. This iswhat Biden said. There is no
opinion. It's I consider ourselves anews outlet. I have an opinion,
but I'm not in news. Thispart of the program or this part of
the station is not news. Andwhen we say we're news, there's news.
Well that has sort of shifted becausewhy are people not paying attention to
(17:52):
the news outlets and they're going waydown. You've got the major newspapers where
their subscriptions are a fraction of whatthey used to be. The major networks
ABC, CBS that they rely onjust straight news without opinion. And two
things are going on. First ofall, you've got the cable, You've
(18:14):
got the various stations, BOX andMSNBC, CNN. They do spend there's
no question. They say their newsand they are to an extent, but
it's the way it's interpreted. Thereis pure interpretation. And then you have
the magic of the internet. Andlet's now talk philosophy. If you go
to any person that runs a newsorganization or has moved up, one of
(18:38):
the things that's critically important is credibilityand they believe in the news. I
talk to Steve Gregory all the time, and part of it is how ethical
he is about reporting the news,and I tell him, don't be ethical.
We can sell a lot more ifyou're unethical and he turns me down.
(19:00):
Amy does reporting, no matter howmany times I tell her lie a
little bit, you know, it'sokay, no, no, So let's
now go to the internet. Okay, you've got the news divisions, reporters,
you've got management. They believe innews. Do you think Steve Do
(19:22):
you think Zuckerbird Mark Zuckerberd cares?You think Bezos cares? You think TikTok
cares that it's news? No.What they want to do is they want
to sell advertising, not as ancillaryto the news, but as a priority,
and legitimate news comes way down thelist because what can they do?
(19:45):
They target conspiracy theories go up andnot only here's the part that I found
the most fascinating, but think aboutit. This is logical. Is that
not only does TikTok and Instagram allof that have these conspiracy crazy ass theories,
I mean just insane stuff, youknow, backing up the Alex Jones
(20:10):
of this world. I mean justcrazy stuff. Not only do those platforms
allow that stuff, but the algorithmthat they have promotes that stuff. I'm
not saying that TikTok has a viewthat it likes conspiracy theories or it believes
it the CEO's management. But ifpeople watch it or people pay attention,
(20:34):
and the more they promote it,the more people pay attention, then the
advertisers are there, and of coursemore advertising dollars. And then the other
issue is advertising dollars. In thevery model, we're broadcasters. We broadcast
here at KFI to the very largeaudience. We're not narrow casters. Well,
when you look at the Internet companies, they are narrow casters and advertisers
(20:59):
like that. And how much narrowcasting, Oh, I don't know.
For example, let's say you havethe pizza chain Pizza Hut, and I
don't know if they do this ornot. I have no idea, but
I'm just giving an example here andspeculating they don't have to broadcast. What
they can do is literally target aquarter mile around every Pizza Hut, and
(21:21):
as you drive through the neighborhood,all of a sudden, a pop up
ad says, Hey, you knowthere's a special going on for pizza and
the store is only two blocks away. Why don't you jump in? Try
doing that in the La Times orour station. You can't, and they
pay dollars. So what happens isadvertising dollars are cannibalized and are moving over
(21:47):
to a much more effective way ofadvertising, And how do they get more
people listening watching TikTok? Well,the reality is there are more people that
like the crazy bat crap stuff onconspiracy theories. Right, you have hard
news. Okay, thank you.I'm a news junkie and I'm in the
(22:08):
minority. But man, if thereis a story about the Democrats having a
pedophile ring under a pizza parlor andHillary Clinton watching as Democrats Democratic congress people
are lusting little boys, that isa story I'm interested in. It's just
a lot more interesting than the resultsof a primary. Okay, let's do
(22:33):
another one, and I'm gonna makeyour day even happier. If you happen
to be anti illegal migrant undocumented,you're going to be very upset with this
story, and let's just do it. Okay, it's another fun story I'm
gonna do here on KFI. You'relistening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI
(22:53):
AM six forty. I'm having someof that burrito with top of tia sauce
and it's really getting to me.It's hot, so I love that all
right, Bill handle here on Wednesdaymorning, February twenty eighth tomorrow being leaped.
They you hear Steve Gregory's promo wherehe's having that special and there's a
studio audience and you can go aheadand enter. And would you find out
(23:18):
if they are serving food? Andif so, tell Steve that I'm coming.
Okay. If not, I'll justlisten to it, okay, just
and if they are, what's onthe menu. Steve and I do very
well when we eat. Now,Neil and I do very well when we
eat. The three of us arevery very good eaters. And if we
(23:41):
ever do it together, boy,that's entertainment with a capital e. We
actually get a crowd around us andit's like gladiators and they're cheering, you
know, thumbs up, thumbs down. All right, story of illegal immigration
now, and I've mentioned many timesthere are certain states that don't particularly like
(24:03):
illegal aliens. All you can't saythat undocumented migrants, all right, Texas
is not a great place to beif you're undocumented. California is a great
place to be because we are sanctuarycity, sanctuary state, sanctuary county.
Now there is you're gonna love this. This is California. The California Dream
(24:26):
for All Shared Appreciation Loan program launchedlast March by the California Housing Finance Agency.
First qualified first time buyers get aloan of up to twenty percent of
the purchase price of a house orcondominium. Okay, that's your down payment.
Twenty percent for the best kind ofloan you can get, and you
(24:48):
don't pay it back. The onlytime California gets the money back is when
you sell the house and they getthe amount of the loan back, no
interest, and they get twenty percentof the in increase in the homes value
based on the sale. And thiswas establishing an effort to help low and
middle income individuals by a home.Now there is an Assembly member Joaquining ad
(25:11):
Ambulah out of Fresno, Democrat,of course, introduced Assembly Bill eighteen forty
specifically to expand the eligibility for firsttime buyers who are also undocumented immigrants.
Now Here is a question I wantto ask, and that is most of
us I have a problem with unlessyou're an activists, unless you have family
(25:33):
members who are undocumented, most ofus are not thrilled with undocumented people coming
in. I'm not thrilled because myfamily, my dad applied to coming to
the United States in nineteen forty fiveand he got his visa in nineteen fifty
six. He followed the rules elevenyears to get into this country. And
(25:57):
anybody can the border, claim asylum, wait for a hearing ten years down
the road, and move to Californiaand, by the way, buy a
home with California assisting the undocumented.So why would not at California, Why
(26:18):
wouldn't people pour into California? Andthey do, and you can't blame them
because though most of these migrants simplywant to feed their families, there is
no opportunity in Mexico, Central Americafor poor people. The place is a
toilet. There's no opportunity. Thereisn't I mean, you have no place
(26:44):
to go if you're poor. Youknow, opportunities don't exist like they do
here. So the easier we makeit, the more they're going to want
to come and they can be partof the American dream, which I can
understand because I would be in thesame place. My heart goes out.
However, does that mean no oneshould follow the rules? Let's throw the
(27:06):
rules out come over illegally we're goingto and then the path the citizenship,
which a lot of activists want,path the citizenship, jobs permits, work
permits, and of course now buyinga home if you qualify. Now it's
a small program. Only twenty threehundred applicants were allowed initially in the first
(27:32):
eleven days. It literally hit thislimit in the first eleven days, and
the program was halted. And nowit's in fact being increased. And you
know, I mean, where doyou go with that one? Where do
you go with that one? Youknow, my heart goes out to these
folks. But is there And thisis where the super conservatives are making a
stand. Do we ever reach apoint where the borders are secure and we
(27:56):
say this is enough? We can'tdo it? Eric Adams in New York,
a sanctuary city that accepts invites illegalmigrants to come into the city,
and the city says, will takecare of you. We'll put you in
hotel rooms, we will find shelter, we will give you food. And
guess what pouring in by Abbott GregAbba is taking his huge number of illegal
(28:22):
migrants and just shipping them up,saying, you know what, you like
them? New York is completely overwhelmed, Eric Adams said, okay, all
right, we have to stop this. Is there a limit? I guess
not to this assembly person. Allright, coming up for World Leaders seventy
(28:45):
is the new thirteen? Okay,maybe not, but we've got a lot
of old people running the place.Joe Biden and that's, by the way,
that's not that he's not alone,he's not the outlier. And I'll
explain that entire segment and story withyou when we come back. And then
doctor Jim Kinney down at the bottomof the hour at eight thirty KFI AM
(29:07):
six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadioapp. You've been listening to the Bill
Handle Show. Catch my Show Mondaythrough Friday, six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadioapp.
You're listening to kf I AM sixforty. The bill handles show on demand
on the iHeartRadio app Tomorrow being LeapDay, and it looks like the government
is not going to shut down Saturday. Speaker Mike Johnson and the various other
leadership both in the Senate and theHouse. I had a meeting with the
(00:21):
President and it looks like we're probablygonna have some kind of a deal cut.
Now. I want to tell youwhat's going on in Coasta Mason,
very very interesting and it makes allthe sense of the world. There is
a family, Gonzalez family that ownswell Northgate Gonzales supermarket chain, and it
(00:43):
is a Hispanic change. It's achange. Now there is, for example,
vayat at the market. There's onein the valley that I have gone
to many times, and it istailored to the Hispanic community. Because how
big Latino community we have in southerncaliforn This one is different. This one
approximates the mercados in Mexico, youknow. For example, this one has
(01:07):
a little pond in front of thefront door, waters knee deep, just
for nostalgia's sake. And it notonly provides the kind of Hispanic Latino products.
You know, tortillas, homemade tortillas. They have a tortilla machine there
in their own masa, and youbuy products and you buy spices that basically
(01:30):
come from Mexico, Central America.You've got South America. But within it
they also have the stalls, thelittle stalls where if you go to a
mercado in Mexico, you go toa mercado basically any especially smaller towns,
(01:53):
medium sized towns in South America,you will see both a place where they
sell products and connected to it orright near it is the open market.
Well, this sort of combines thetwo and there's nothing like this in southern
California. And since it opened inNovember, and it opened in Coasta mesa
(02:14):
seventy thousand square foot space and itopened in November, I gotta tell you
it has exploded. It's the firstout post. Well it looks like the
Chordia el Moro outside of Mexico,which is a hugely popular supermarket, and
it just does the same thing.And they just followed that pattern. And
(02:38):
it makes the fact that it tookso long, and the fact that you've
got so many latinos. I mean, I think La is well, certainly
the number one Hispanic. The numberone population is Hispanic. I don't know.
Is it over fifty percent now Latinopopulation in La County. I think
(03:00):
it is, but it's by farthe biggest single group of people. And
the various stores, the retail storesthat are looking at the buying power the
same thing. By the way,here in the radio business, and Neil
and I could talk about this andAmy, it used to be the Latino
(03:23):
market was ignored. No one paidattention to it. It was all catering
to the white market. The advertisers, Well, guess what. Latinos also
buy toilet paper, They also buystaples, they also buy cars, they
also borrow money, and they wereignored. And now you look at the
(03:46):
top ten stations that are listened to. And I always refer to radio because
this is where I live and obviouslywe pay attention to it. Here you
look at the top five stations thatare listened to in the La Metro that's
La Orange County, probably the topten five of them are Hispanic, usually
Latino stations. There are two orthree news talk stations in LA and when
(04:14):
you look at the number of otherstations, you know urban hip hop stations.
I think there are more Latino stationsin one given format than there is
in anything else. And they finallysaid, okay, we get it.
And the same thing is going on. And it's not like the Gonzales family
didn't understand. The Gonzales family isthe family that said, okay, we're
(04:39):
going to take advantage of this.This one is brand new. This is
a full service supermarket and within itthe Mexican style indoor mercado's stalls and vendors,
so shoppers can stop in for groceriesand then walk up to a stall
for a fresh store a god thoughwhich I have no idea what that is,
(05:02):
uh, Neil, you can tellme what an ahol god torta is.
I know what a torta is.I know what an outpost store torta
with pulled pork. Uh a cutof bone? I know which is?
Uh? I understand? Uh tacosal cad of bone, which is a
taco that has activated carbon in itand it's actually very very tasty. No,
(05:27):
do I have that wrong? Thetorta abagado is a torta made of
it made of lawyers. Yes,yes, okay, that's not bad Albogado,
of course, being lawyer. Uh. But it's in the inside the
store are these stalls where you getthese fresh foods made right there and tables
(05:51):
are around. So according to oneof the old uh, one of the
owners said, if you were anewly arrived migrant, you could probably go
to one of these grocery stores.And first of all, of course you
speak Spanish. They speak Spanish.That's the primary language. I don't know
how many people speak English there,very few, and it seems like you
came from your home country there.I'm not going to get into politics about
(06:13):
how many of these migrants are legalor illegal. No one asks, of
course when you go to a store. I mean, I've got a story
of at seven point fifty about undocumentedby migrants, so I'll do that then.
But this is you know why itdidn't happen before. And they're first
out and they have fourteen stores now, these guys are creating a dynasty.
(06:39):
Good for them, and actually Ilove those markets. I mean the thought
of going up and getting a freshshurtro made right there, a fresh taco
made right there, a fresh burritomade right there. I'm having the other
half of the burrito that we boughtyesterday, the breakfast burrito. And it's
not the same as going up toowith stall and saying I want it made
(07:01):
right there. Still not bad,not bad, second day out, Okay,
I'll still take it all right.Coming up, when's the last time
you went to a big department storeMacy's for example, and then the history
of department stores. It's a dyingbreed. And I'm gonna tell you why.
(07:24):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demandfrom KFI AM six forty day before
leap Day, Wednesday, February twentyeighth, and it is hump day that
I can tell you a couple ofstories were following. Remember I think it
was yesterday when I mentioned when Ireported that President Biden said we should have
some kind of a deal between Hamasand the Israelis by the maybe by the
(07:48):
end of the week weekend, byMonday at the latest. That's falling apart.
Not true. The demands of Hamasand Israel are such thet it's not
gonna happen because well, Hamas looksat Israel's position to total destruction of Hamas
(08:09):
and Israel is looking at it's inposition, the total destruction of Israel.
Those are the two sides. Youknow, where do you compromise on that
one? You know, only halfof Israel is wiped out, only half
of Gaza is wiped out. No, all, right, now, I'm
gonna tell you a story and gointo what is happening. This is one
(08:33):
of those look what's happening in Americastory. Yesterday Macy's announced it's closing one
hundred and fifty store, about athird of its total, and that makes
us look at the demise of theAmerican department store. A lot of reasons,
but the department store was the endall be all. Walmart didn't exist,
(08:56):
you didn't have Costco. When thedepartment store was at its heyday,
it was just the neatest place inthe world with these huge anchor stores.
You had Macy's and Neiman's, andyou had Wealth Sears, and Sears is
an interesting company. Sears is oneof the stores, like many others,
that you really don't see anymore.Maybe a couple of Sears out there,
(09:18):
but yeah, you don't see it. Macy's, you know, cut of
one hundred and fifty stores, Searsmaybe five percent of what they have.
JC Penny gone you've got, well, let's look at toys. R US
Payless shoes gone. Now. Asa kid, I remember Sears was down
(09:43):
the street from US and they builtthis huge shopping center where Sears was prior
to that, it was a lot, big, huge lot. And I
lived in North Hollywood at the time. And the one thing that I remember
now. Keep in mind, thiswas the early sixties, in the middle
of the Cold War and the Cubanmi So crisis was going and everybody was
scared to death of the bomb.They actually sold bomb shelters at Sears.
(10:07):
You could buy a bomb shelter andin the parking lot they had built a
bomb shelter. People put them intheir backyards and I remember as a kid,
I was pretty young, going throughthe bomb shelter. They had a
stairway going in, a stairway goingout. On the other side, bunk
(10:28):
beds, food storage, and therewas an air filter that was hand cranked
because it had to filter out thebad air and ostensibly the radio activity,
and they would it's basically they contractedwith swimming pool installers that would build that
would go ahead and dig the hole, and then the bomb shelter people would
(10:50):
come in Sears is great. Searsyou could buy a house from literally in
the twenties they would sell you akit for a house. But that's fun
history. Now, why are Walmartand Costco so successful and these major department
stores falling apart? Well, clearlyprice department stores are not as inexpensive.
(11:16):
You also have department stores. Andhere is something they basically cater to middle
class, which is gone. Sowhat Macy's is doing is they're going into
the high end. High end isdoing great, low end is doing great.
Middle class gone. So department storeswhich catered to that group of people
(11:41):
are gone. And at one pointit was room for dozens of brand names.
But things have changed dramatically for thepandemic. People. A department stores
are in closed spaces, right,They're air conditioned, they feel great,
They're very expensive to run. Soduring the pandemic, people just didn't go.
(12:01):
Did they get deliveries, You betthey did. Did they go to
open air facilities restaurants by the way, this is why the restaurants built these
outdoor areas. And just everything haschanged. Certainly, buying on the internet
has changed everything for everybody. Andso who was able to change, Well,
(12:26):
you look at the big box storesthat are doing just fine because people
go there. Also, you haveWalmart, for example. Not only is
it a department store of massive scale, it also sells food. When was
the last time you would go toa major anchor department store and find food,
(12:46):
a food aal there. You wouldn'tAnd what they have done is moved
well. You have CEOs that havesimply understood what was going on from day
one. Soul Price who started PriceClub, and the Costco people understood from
the moment they opened the stores.And you have the CEOs of these major
(13:09):
department stores and they grew up inthe department store. You start to be
a CEO of one of those,I mean it takes forty years if you're
saying in the same company, andthey got complacent. It was like GM.
You moved up slowly, and itwas almost like the Armed forces.
(13:30):
Armed Forces. You go up thescale as a matter of time, and
if you're not incompetent, you getpromoted simply because you've been there long enough.
Well, you've got stores, thebig box stores for example, that
are nimble that management understands what's goingon very quickly. And again let's go
(13:50):
to Costco, which I obviously goto all the time. They bring in
new products every day and they moveproducts around. So I will buy something
typically that I'll get and it's notin the same place, and I three
days ago this is where it was. They've moved it around. I'm now
(14:11):
walking the store. I mean,that's kind of clever. You don't see
that at major department stores. Youreally don't. And so you see these
department stores and they were and whatdoes it do to malls, by the
way, males are shutting down likecrazy. At first, when the malls
opened up, it was the momand pop, the mom and pop,
(14:31):
not the grocery store. Well,yeah, because you had the supermarket.
So you had the mom and pophardware stores shut down all over the place,
and so the malls came in,the majors came in, and then
the world has changed again. Nowyou have big box stores and the only
one that is where they've done apretty good job is Target. Target is
(14:52):
sort of an outlier. Target isnot the best prices. They used to
be dirt cheap, but they're select. Action is absolutely terrific, and they're
not crazy expensive, and they justknow how to run a store. Sears,
No more bomb shelters being sold inthe parking lot of Sears. Loved
(15:13):
it all right, coming out newsoutlets. Here's another collapsing industry. This
is a fun day. I'm goingto tell you how the world's falling apart.
News outlets are collapsing and why isthat? A bunch of reasons there
too. You're listening to Bill Handleon demand from KFI AM six forty on
(15:35):
a Wednesday morning, February twenty,eighth day tomorrow being leap day every four
years. Some of the big stories. We are looking at five uncontrolled wildfires
in the Texas Panhandle, I meanCalifornia type wildfires, which I've never seen
happen in the Panhandle of Texas.Also, California has joined that FTC commissioned
(15:56):
lawsuit trying to block the proper mergerof Kroger and Albertson's to make one,
of course, if not the largestChaine supermarkets in the country. And the
government is saying there's going to beless competition, prices are going to be
higher. Kroger's and Albertson says no, no, they'll be even though there's
less competition. The consumers will benefitbecause they'll have lower prices. Okay,
(16:22):
fair enough. Let's see what happenson that one. Now a story,
and I'm involved in this and certainlyyou are. And that is the fact
that news outlets are collapsing. Networknews going south. I hate to say
it. Our listenership is not greatlyup over the years. We've had more
(16:47):
listeners over the years. Neil,you're giving me the wrong look here,
But that's radio in general. That'sradio in general. Well, the listenership,
you've got it. Part of that. Part of that is due to
the fact that people have switched tostreaming it. That's true. I mean
that is part of the rest.But I'm talking different. Yeah, but
(17:08):
I'm talking as well. Let mego, I'm talking, let me go
into a business model here and what'sgoing on, and that is where we
are losing. We news outlets.I consider O KFI and news outlets because
if you listen to our newscasts,you don't see opinion. When Amy talks
to you and gives you a report, it's facts. This is what's happening.
(17:32):
These are the votes. This iswhat Biden said. There is no
opinion. It's I consider ourselves anews outlet. I have an opinion,
but I'm not in news. Thispart of the program or this part of
the station is not news. Andwhen we say we're news, there's news.
Well that has sort of shifted becausewhy are people not paying attention to
(17:52):
the news outlets and they're going waydown. You've got the major newspapers where
their subscriptions are a fraction of whatthey used to be. The major networks
ABC, CBS that they rely onjust straight news without opinion. And two
things are going on. First ofall, you've got the cable, You've
(18:14):
got the various stations, BOX andMSNBC, CNN. They do spend there's
no question. They say their newsand they are to an extent, but
it's the way it's interpreted. Thereis pure interpretation. And then you have
the magic of the internet. Andlet's now talk philosophy. If you go
to any person that runs a newsorganization or has moved up, one of
(18:38):
the things that's critically important is credibilityand they believe in the news. I
talk to Steve Gregory all the time, and part of it is how ethical
he is about reporting the news,and I tell him, don't be ethical.
We can sell a lot more ifyou're unethical and he turns me down.
(19:00):
Amy does reporting, no matter howmany times I tell her lie a
little bit, you know, it'sokay, no, no, So let's
now go to the internet. Okay, you've got the news divisions, reporters,
you've got management. They believe innews. Do you think Steve Do
(19:22):
you think Zuckerbird Mark Zuckerberd cares?You think Bezos cares? You think TikTok
cares that it's news? No.What they want to do is they want
to sell advertising, not as ancillaryto the news, but as a priority,
and legitimate news comes way down thelist because what can they do?
(19:45):
They target conspiracy theories go up andnot only here's the part that I found
the most fascinating, but think aboutit. This is logical. Is that
not only does TikTok and Instagram allof that have these conspiracy crazy ass theories,
I mean just insane stuff, youknow, backing up the Alex Jones
(20:10):
of this world. I mean justcrazy stuff. Not only do those platforms
allow that stuff, but the algorithmthat they have promotes that stuff. I'm
not saying that TikTok has a viewthat it likes conspiracy theories or it believes
it the CEO's management. But ifpeople watch it or people pay attention,
(20:34):
and the more they promote it,the more people pay attention, then the
advertisers are there, and of coursemore advertising dollars. And then the other
issue is advertising dollars. In thevery model, we're broadcasters. We broadcast
here at KFI to the very largeaudience. We're not narrow casters. Well,
when you look at the Internet companies, they are narrow casters and advertisers
(20:59):
like that. And how much narrowcasting, Oh, I don't know.
For example, let's say you havethe pizza chain Pizza Hut, and I
don't know if they do this ornot. I have no idea, but
I'm just giving an example here andspeculating they don't have to broadcast. What
they can do is literally target aquarter mile around every Pizza Hut, and
(21:21):
as you drive through the neighborhood,all of a sudden, a pop up
ad says, Hey, you knowthere's a special going on for pizza and
the store is only two blocks away. Why don't you jump in? Try
doing that in the La Times orour station. You can't, and they
pay dollars. So what happens isadvertising dollars are cannibalized and are moving over
(21:47):
to a much more effective way ofadvertising, And how do they get more
people listening watching TikTok? Well,the reality is there are more people that
like the crazy bat crap stuff onconspiracy theories. Right, you have hard
news. Okay, thank you.I'm a news junkie and I'm in the
(22:08):
minority. But man, if thereis a story about the Democrats having a
pedophile ring under a pizza parlor andHillary Clinton watching as Democrats Democratic congress people
are lusting little boys, that isa story I'm interested in. It's just
a lot more interesting than the resultsof a primary. Okay, let's do
(22:33):
another one, and I'm gonna makeyour day even happier. If you happen
to be anti illegal migrant undocumented,you're going to be very upset with this
story, and let's just do it. Okay, it's another fun story I'm
gonna do here on KFI. You'relistening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI
(22:53):
AM six forty. I'm having someof that burrito with top of tia sauce
and it's really getting to me.It's hot, so I love that all
right, Bill handle here on Wednesdaymorning, February twenty eighth tomorrow being leaped.
They you hear Steve Gregory's promo wherehe's having that special and there's a
studio audience and you can go aheadand enter. And would you find out
(23:18):
if they are serving food? Andif so, tell Steve that I'm coming.
Okay. If not, I'll justlisten to it, okay, just
and if they are, what's onthe menu. Steve and I do very
well when we eat. Now,Neil and I do very well when we
eat. The three of us arevery very good eaters. And if we
(23:41):
ever do it together, boy,that's entertainment with a capital e. We
actually get a crowd around us andit's like gladiators and they're cheering, you
know, thumbs up, thumbs down. All right, story of illegal immigration
now, and I've mentioned many timesthere are certain states that don't particularly like
(24:03):
illegal aliens. All you can't saythat undocumented migrants, all right, Texas
is not a great place to beif you're undocumented. California is a great
place to be because we are sanctuarycity, sanctuary state, sanctuary county.
Now there is you're gonna love this. This is California. The California Dream
(24:26):
for All Shared Appreciation Loan program launchedlast March by the California Housing Finance Agency.
First qualified first time buyers get aloan of up to twenty percent of
the purchase price of a house orcondominium. Okay, that's your down payment.
Twenty percent for the best kind ofloan you can get, and you
(24:48):
don't pay it back. The onlytime California gets the money back is when
you sell the house and they getthe amount of the loan back, no
interest, and they get twenty percentof the in increase in the homes value
based on the sale. And thiswas establishing an effort to help low and
middle income individuals by a home.Now there is an Assembly member Joaquining ad
(25:11):
Ambulah out of Fresno, Democrat,of course, introduced Assembly Bill eighteen forty
specifically to expand the eligibility for firsttime buyers who are also undocumented immigrants.
Now Here is a question I wantto ask, and that is most of
us I have a problem with unlessyou're an activists, unless you have family
(25:33):
members who are undocumented, most ofus are not thrilled with undocumented people coming
in. I'm not thrilled because myfamily, my dad applied to coming to
the United States in nineteen forty fiveand he got his visa in nineteen fifty
six. He followed the rules elevenyears to get into this country. And
(25:57):
anybody can the border, claim asylum, wait for a hearing ten years down
the road, and move to Californiaand, by the way, buy a
home with California assisting the undocumented.So why would not at California, Why
(26:18):
wouldn't people pour into California? Andthey do, and you can't blame them
because though most of these migrants simplywant to feed their families, there is
no opportunity in Mexico, Central Americafor poor people. The place is a
toilet. There's no opportunity. Thereisn't I mean, you have no place
(26:44):
to go if you're poor. Youknow, opportunities don't exist like they do
here. So the easier we makeit, the more they're going to want
to come and they can be partof the American dream, which I can
understand because I would be in thesame place. My heart goes out.
However, does that mean no oneshould follow the rules? Let's throw the
(27:06):
rules out come over illegally we're goingto and then the path the citizenship,
which a lot of activists want,path the citizenship, jobs permits, work
permits, and of course now buyinga home if you qualify. Now it's
a small program. Only twenty threehundred applicants were allowed initially in the first
(27:32):
eleven days. It literally hit thislimit in the first eleven days, and
the program was halted. And nowit's in fact being increased. And you
know, I mean, where doyou go with that one? Where do
you go with that one? Youknow, my heart goes out to these
folks. But is there And thisis where the super conservatives are making a
stand. Do we ever reach apoint where the borders are secure and we
(27:56):
say this is enough? We can'tdo it? Eric Adams in New York,
a sanctuary city that accepts invites illegalmigrants to come into the city,
and the city says, will takecare of you. We'll put you in
hotel rooms, we will find shelter, we will give you food. And
guess what pouring in by Abbott GregAbba is taking his huge number of illegal
(28:22):
migrants and just shipping them up,saying, you know what, you like
them? New York is completely overwhelmed, Eric Adams said, okay, all
right, we have to stop this. Is there a limit? I guess
not to this assembly person. Allright, coming up for World Leaders seventy
(28:45):
is the new thirteen? Okay,maybe not, but we've got a lot
of old people running the place.Joe Biden and that's, by the way,
that's not that he's not alone,he's not the outlier. And I'll
explain that entire segment and story withyou when we come back. And then
doctor Jim Kinney down at the bottomof the hour at eight thirty KFI AM
(29:07):
six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadioapp. You've been listening to the Bill
Handle Show. Catch my Show Mondaythrough Friday, six am to nine am,
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