July 14, 2025 • 23 mins
(July 14, 2025)
Nations find that neither anger nor appeasement deflects Trump’s tariff threats. The pants cost $20…they explain $86BIL Costco sales. Elon Musk updated Grok. In America’s return to the office, women are falling behind.
Nations find that neither anger nor appeasement deflects Trump’s tariff threats. The pants cost $20…they explain $86BIL Costco sales. Elon Musk updated Grok. In America’s return to the office, women are falling behind.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
KFI AM six forty Bill Handle. Here it is a
Monday morning, July fourteen. A couple of stories that we
are following. First of all, we're waiting for the President
to make a quote major statement on Russia, and the
expectation is going to be We're going to fund a
lot of defensive weapons going over to Ukraine.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
I mean, if you look at the.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Stats, was it last week there were eighteen hundred drones
flown into Ukraine by Russia? This past twenty four hours
thirty five hundred drones, I think, ninety missiles, one hundred
and twenty aerial bombs. I mean, this has gone up
dramatically in the last couple of days. All right, moving over,
(00:51):
tell you what else is going on. I want to
spend a couple of minutes talking about that is the
tear of threats once again, the tear of threats start.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
What day is today? Monday, which means we have a new.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Round of tariffs coming in and we'll see what happens
by tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
This is the fun part of tariffs. You talk about
a unilateral.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Decision that any president can make. Especially now. I mean
there used to be some controls. Those don't exist anymore. Literally,
and Donald Trump can and does wake up and while
he's having breakfast saying, you know what, let's throw a
thirty percent tariff on this country or that country, and
then by three o'clock in the afternoon, nah, we'll make
(01:31):
it twenty percent or will increase it. And the rest
of the world is spinning because the US is still
the financial juggernaut of the Western world, and countries are
grappling how do they respond to an administration that uses
trade policy not only for political and economic objectives.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
But for personal objectives.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
So Trump sent letters two dozen countries last week threatening
further tariff escalations if they don't sit.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Down and cut a deal.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
By the way, cutting a deal is not negotiating, it's
a take it or leave it. At this point, you
either stop these tariffs retaliatory tariffs, and that's what Trump wants.
You charge us to twenty percent, will charge you twenty percent
on any given product. The problem is a lot more
complicated than that, a lot more complicated.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
We've already we have already have tons of teriffs in place.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Last week I did a story on how you can't
buy a Chinese manufactured EV in this country because the
tariff's over one hundred percent already in place, and the
best EV on the planet is made in China for
half the price of what we buy our cars here.
For they have one EV that turned three hundred and
(02:53):
sixty degrees.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Talk about parking.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Well, if they're half the of what we pay here,
and it's a hundred percent or maybe not a half
the price, maybe it's just a third less.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Okay, maybe a third less, but doesn't matter.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
There are all there are other kinds of other kind
of barriers in place. It's not just financial, but you're right,
it's probably there.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Well, let me put it this way.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
I retract their cheapest EV model, which is a very
good car, goes for under ten thousand dollars. Try doing
that in this country, and it's as good as any lower.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
End EV that we have.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
So what's going on around the world, Well, countries are
doing one of a couple of things. Number One, the
European Union is saying, okay, we're ready to go with
retaliatory tariffs, because what Trump is saying is we don't
have a deal by the end of the week, then
that ten percent tariff that's now in place, goes up
(03:55):
to thirty percent tariffs. And the problem is is there
are ships right now on the seas, let's say between
China and the US, that are going to be docking tomorrow,
and the tariff can change between now and tomorrow, and
(04:17):
the tariff hits as soon as well the goods go
into these bonded warehouses taken off the ships, and then
when they are shipped off, that's when the payment, that's
when the tariff is due. And for those of you
that think that it is the other countries that are
paying the tariff, you are dreaming, it's you. It is
(04:41):
the manufacturer, it is the distributor, It is the retailer
who is buying from a Chinese entity. We for example,
my partner and I, we buy from Chinese factories. Well,
the tariff is hit because you know the government doesn't
pay for it.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
We pay for it. We write a check, a tariff check.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
And if you look at the news at all, last night,
there was a story I think was on NBC where
there was an interview to a lady who.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Runs a toy store.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
She has a couple of them, and she said, I
don't know how much it's going to cost. All I
know is my cost of goods, and she's buying now
for Christmas.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
My cost of goods. I have no idea I have,
but I pay the tariff. We pay the tariff. Well,
you know, is it going to work? Who the hell knows.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
We haven't really really been hit by the tariff backlash
yet or the fallout of the tariffs, and then the
other part of it that you know. I can look
at Donald Trump and say, all right, there's a method
to his madness, whether it works or not. I can
see the philosophy of reciprocal tariffs. If a country charges
(05:55):
x dollars or x percent and the United States follows
it and said we'll charge the same there is a
method to that madness. Whether it's madness or not. Maybe
it's gonna work. I have no idea, but I'll tell
you what is really troubling, and that is threatening Brazil
with a fifty percent tariff simply because they have indicted
(06:17):
and are trying their former president Bolsonario for corruption, a
Trump supporter, a friend of Donald Trump's, who is being
charged for corruption in quote a witch hunt. This is
the Brazilian government charging a Brazilian former president with corruption,
(06:38):
and our president said, this is a witch hunt. And
if you continue on, it's a fifty percent tariff on
Brazilian goods, which is stupid because that hurts us. We
buy far more from Brazil than they buy from US.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Okay, we're done with that.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
And we are waiting for the Trump statements regarding Ukraine
and Russia.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
I mean he's actually making them right now, oh is he? Okay?
Speaker 4 (07:06):
He basically said that we're going to supply patriot missile
systems to Ukraine via NATO. So we're going to make
them send them to NATO, and the European Union is
going to pay for them. And the NATO Secretary General
is with Trump right now in the Oval and has said, Yep,
this is what we're doing, and it makes sense and
(07:26):
it's a big deal and it's more to come.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
How is that different than what we've been hearing all
weekend that that's exactly what would be coming.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
I don't think it is.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
I think it's just no, it's exactly yet.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
We knew what was happening, and that's exactly what's happening.
Let me tell you about a lawsuit, and I love lawsuits.
This one is against Costco. How unusual company that big
getting sued, and this lawsuit is for selling cheap knockoffs?
Speaker 1 (07:53):
And who is the plaintiff here? Lululemon?
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Is that the way you pronounce it, Lululemon? These are
men's pants came out about a decade ago and cost
one hundred and twenty eight bucks, wildly popular, comfortable, and
a few years Costco looked at Lulu Lemon and said,
you know what, We're going to make a Costco version,
a Kirkland version, and it's going to sell for twenty bucks.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Lulu Lemon I thought were like women's.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
They are, but there's a men's There seems to be
a men's version. It's like, you know, Tony Bahama, you know,
with the shirts you go to Costco and you get
the knockoffs which are fifteen dollars, and the real Tony
Bahamas are how much one hundred and twenty bucks?
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Tony is the knockoff? Oh Tommy is the real guy?
Oh yeah, Thomas, Tommy, Tony. It's all the same, you know, I.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Know the Costco knockoffs are Jack's ja x X and
you can see a whole closet full of Hawaiian knockoffs
in my closet. So here is the lawsuit, and that
is these pants that you are selling Costco are so
close to us, and we have our own signature parts
(09:11):
of the pants. For example, there's a crotch part that
lets your balls swing. How do they call it? There's
a great word for it here.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Even they advertise it. Where is it? I'm going to
come to it and I'll tell you it's fabulous.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Anyway, So Costco begins selling a version for twenty bucks
and Lululuman goes crazy.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
And it had to do with Kirkland. That's the real
story here. I'll tell you.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
We'll talk later about what happens, but it's all about Kirkland.
And you know how Kirkland Brands came about. Here's the
history part, and that is the CEO, the co founder
of Costco, who I interviewed, by the way, came up
with the e idea and this is back I think
in the nineties, and he looked at knockoffs and Neil
(10:07):
will talk about knockoffs, for example, knockoff foods. You know,
remember the blue label food the generic foods, and they
were horrible. They weren't of any particular quality. They were
a lot cheaper, but they weren't very good. Costco Joe Senegal,
This guy said, you know what, there is a market
(10:30):
for knockoffs that are as good or better quality than
what the name brand products are.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
And because Costco.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Is so enormous, and because they can sell at insane
volumes and their model is so unique, their membership model,
that what they do is they sell brand products, brand
name products at no more than fourteen percent of what
(11:04):
they pay for it. In other words, the markup is
fourteen percent, except for Kirkland products, they let themselves mark
it up to fifteen percent over the cost. And since
Kirkland does no marketing, since the packaging is Kirkland's own,
(11:25):
and since we're not talking about an entire new marketing
division that a major brand has.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Guess what Kirkland can do, or Costco can do is.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Produce that same product or similar product at better quality,
at far less money. Case in point, olive oil. As
Neil has said, olive oil from Costco Kirkland brand is
substantially less money than any other major brand, even minor brand,
(12:01):
and yet the quality is as good or better than
anything out there for the money you'd have to go
into the super insanely expensive Premiere Olive oils.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
My understanding is anything Kirkland at Costco they say has
to be at or better quality, then it's equivalent.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
It's name brand equipment, right.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
And if they can't do it at the price point,
then they sell you the brand name product.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
That's it. They're very honest about it. You know, they
tried their own toothpaste.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Can't beat crest Or, Colgate can't do it, so we'll
let them do it. Bear the same thing, except they
came out with one logger that actually worked. They tried
a bunch of stuff. Okay, back we go. Lawsuit by Lululemon,
the men's pants that sell for about one hundred and
twenty eight dollars. Costco knocks them off for twenty bucks. Boom,
lawsuit hits and it's Kirkland. It's a Kirkland brand. I
(12:57):
told you a little bit about Kirkland brand, but I
want to give you some history because it's just absolutely fascinating. Kirkland,
which is named after the town where Costco started, Kirkland, Washington.
They moved down the road a little bit, but it's
still Kirkland brand that accounts for about a third of
Costco's revenue, and it's growing faster than the company itself.
(13:20):
Costco's sales have almost doubled since twenty seventeen, doubled, and
Kirklands have tripled. It's actually bigger than many of the
world's biggest companies. Kirkland brings an eighty six billion dollars
a year, more than all of Procter and Gamble, for example,
(13:41):
with everything P ANDNG sells. And not only are is
Kirkland insane quality. I'll tell you about that in a minute.
The price, of course is Costco price, but it brings
down the price of other brands. Kirkland comes out with
something the entire sector is shaking.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
It's like when the president.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
You've heard that, when the President sneezes, the whole world
catches a cold.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
That's the same thing here. And here's as.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
I said before, Kirkland products they're able to be marked
up for fifteen percent over cost, where name brand products
are fourteen percent. And since Kirkland caused Costco so much
less money. As a matter of fact, and we know
that Kirkland products are absolutely great. And even the Costco
executives who dreamed up. Kirkland never thought it would be
(14:34):
this lucrative and this important, And it all started with
Jim Senegal, who noticed something. He was the CEO, noticed
something about a business. Even when the cost of raw
materials went down, the price of brand name products kept
going up. And so he goes, we have an opportunity
here and he launches in nineteen ninety five Kirkland. And
(14:56):
from the very beginning, the thing that mattered the most
about Kirkland was their quality, far more than price. When
the company was just beginning to think about a house brand,
he sends a memo to Costco executive and lists why
he thinks Kirkland brand is going to work. He says,
(15:17):
quality house brands, that's really important, and as you said, Neil,
that it's as good or better than any product out
there that they are selling. What Kirkland does is not
only gain acceptance in the marketplace, but engenders intense loyalty
(15:38):
to Costco. And he's absolutely right. So the company holds
Kirkland products to the same standard as any other item,
even though it's company product itself. It compares itself to
the other brand names that it covers, and if it
doesn't do as well it's gone. If it doesn't maintain
the quality, it's gone. It doesn't give itself any favoritism.
(15:59):
There's no nepotism from Costco to Kirkland. That is the
way they do business. That's why it's so insanely successful. Also,
look at the Costco model. Can you imagine going into
a Walmart and they've tried it. Now we're going into
(16:19):
a supermarket and you're going to get great prices with
their own brand. But you have to pay one hundred
and fifty dollars a year to be part of the club.
And how many club members does Costco have? One hundred
and forty one hundred and fifty million, with the average
membership cost one hundred bucks. That's why they can afford
(16:43):
to do what they can. It is absolutely brilliant. And
so Lululemon is suing them for stealing, stewing Costco for
stealing its intellectual property and quote sweat equity and is
arguing that they're going against retailers who.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Have chosen to copy rather than compete.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
And here's what Costco did is rip off several features
of the pants, the ABC pants, the stretchy fabric and
crotch guss it. They are non functional and protected, like
let's say the coke bottles distinctive shape or the red
sole that you see on Prada shoes. Now, that's kind
(17:31):
of interesting. You got a crotch guss it that doesn't
do anything. The whole point of it is to have
your well, if you're.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
A man, have your gusset.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
Doesn't doesn't it? I'm sorry, doesn't it guss it?
Speaker 2 (17:46):
I think it does. I've never even heard of a
crotch guss it. Do you have a crotch gusset? I
don't have a gusset, not for you, but for men.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
By the way, you know what ABC stands for literally,
and this is for real.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
It's proprietary design and they call it the anti ball
crushing design.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
That's the ABC. That's true. I'm not making this up.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
It's something that I wish I could make up, but
I don't.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
So there you go.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Okay, America's return to the office. We know that major
companies have said you're done with remote work. Here at iHeart,
you're done with remote work. And we're talking about the
sales and management people. I mean for us, I mean, obviously,
being on the air is a very different story, And
so here's what happens, the good side and the bad side.
(18:47):
The good side of remote work is sort of your
hours unless you clock in, which no one does, and
you have family time and you just enjoy.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
And you're not commuting at all.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Well, for example, when I'm here in the at my
studio at home, and I broadcast in two different places today,
I'm at home, I have a thirty foot commute. I
go downstairs in the morning. I'm not driving. I still
leave my pajamas on. When it's really hot in the summer,
I don't wear pants, and my gonads are swinging, you know,
(19:23):
because it's it's just cooler, you know, no sweaty sweaty
balls concept.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Now, if I have to come.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Into the to the office, if I'm coming into the studio,
I've got a shower. Even when I lived right next
door to the studio, I got a shower. I gotta
get up. You gotta say hello everybody. All right, you know,
how are you? You know? The same crap. The point is,
there's a lot of advantages of working from home. They're wonderful. Now,
what are the disadvantages of working from home? Well, you
(19:53):
don't connect with people at work and connecting is really important,
and even more when the promotions are happening. It's a
lot harder to get promotions when you're working at home
because you're not in front of management spaces. They don't
pay attention to you as much. Just the creaky wheel
(20:14):
kind of the squeaky wheel business. It's harder to prove
how good you are when you are working remotely. You
can't throw an idea out just you see your boss
walking down, or you talk to a colleague and going, hey,
what do you think of This just doesn't work?
Speaker 1 (20:31):
And who gets nailed the most? Women? Women? The gender
gap is widening with women.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Women love working at home, especially of moms, and they
don't want to come into the office unless they have to.
And now I'm being you know, obviously it's a very
broad brush here, but what women give up when they
work at home is all those opportunities. Also, if there
are children involved, you know, there's childcare that's not deductible.
(21:08):
So there's a story in Wall Street Journal about this woman,
Kate Guadrirama.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
She's thirty one years old.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
I just lost her human resources job, the remote one.
Her husband still works in person for a school board
and she said, I wasn't able to show how good
I am at my job, and she was laid off.
She turned down one hundred thousand dollars job she would
have to go in the office. Why is that? Childcare
is half of it? So let's say she's in the
(21:39):
thirty forty but let's say she's in the forty percent
tax bracket, which means out of one hundred thousand, she
takes home sixty. Well, what do you think child care
costs twenty five thirty thousand dollars a year, especially for
two kids?
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Is it worth it? No?
Speaker 2 (21:55):
But the bottom line is it's the long term process
in which you get more money, more opportunities, move up
the food chain. And that is simply, unfortunately taken away
from women. Women get screwed a lot, they really do,
and they have been. And the uh not only is
(22:15):
the gender gap there still even though Equal Rights Amendment
has yet to pass, which I don't understand why we're
not passing it, but women still get less money.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Women still get less money than men.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
I mean, Amy, let me put it this way. The
day you retire and someone comes in and takes your place,
and it's a male, it's you know the male is
gonna get twenty five percent more than you are.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
You know that I'm never retiring.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Well that's a different story, but I'm telling you less
that's true. I mean, that is absolutely true. For the
most part, women, women do not make as much as men.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
And it is, I mean, horrifically unfair. See.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
I never had a problem in my business in the
surrogacy business, because all I had was women employees. I
didn't have male employees, so I could underpay everybody and
there was no one to compare them to and it
worked out beautifully. Okay, I think we're done, guys. All right,
we are back again tomorrow. Strangely enough, it starts at
(23:25):
five am with wake up call. Amy is back with
Will and Neil and I come aboard at six am.
They're Shannon running around there and Cono and an An's
running around someplace.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
All right, we'll catch in the morning.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Everybody. You have a good one. Gary and Shannon up next.
KFI AM six forty. 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.
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
KFI AM six forty Bill Handle. Here it is a
Monday morning, July fourteen. A couple of stories that we
are following. First of all, we're waiting for the President
to make a quote major statement on Russia, and the
expectation is going to be We're going to fund a
lot of defensive weapons going over to Ukraine.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
I mean, if you look at the.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Stats, was it last week there were eighteen hundred drones
flown into Ukraine by Russia? This past twenty four hours
thirty five hundred drones, I think, ninety missiles, one hundred
and twenty aerial bombs. I mean, this has gone up
dramatically in the last couple of days. All right, moving over,
(00:51):
tell you what else is going on. I want to
spend a couple of minutes talking about that is the
tear of threats once again, the tear of threats start.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
What day is today? Monday, which means we have a new.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Round of tariffs coming in and we'll see what happens
by tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
This is the fun part of tariffs. You talk about
a unilateral.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Decision that any president can make. Especially now. I mean
there used to be some controls. Those don't exist anymore. Literally,
and Donald Trump can and does wake up and while
he's having breakfast saying, you know what, let's throw a
thirty percent tariff on this country or that country, and
then by three o'clock in the afternoon, nah, we'll make
(01:31):
it twenty percent or will increase it. And the rest
of the world is spinning because the US is still
the financial juggernaut of the Western world, and countries are
grappling how do they respond to an administration that uses
trade policy not only for political and economic objectives.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
But for personal objectives.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
So Trump sent letters two dozen countries last week threatening
further tariff escalations if they don't sit.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Down and cut a deal.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
By the way, cutting a deal is not negotiating, it's
a take it or leave it. At this point, you
either stop these tariffs retaliatory tariffs, and that's what Trump wants.
You charge us to twenty percent, will charge you twenty percent
on any given product. The problem is a lot more
complicated than that, a lot more complicated.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
We've already we have already have tons of teriffs in place.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Last week I did a story on how you can't
buy a Chinese manufactured EV in this country because the
tariff's over one hundred percent already in place, and the
best EV on the planet is made in China for
half the price of what we buy our cars here.
For they have one EV that turned three hundred and
(02:53):
sixty degrees.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Talk about parking.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Well, if they're half the of what we pay here,
and it's a hundred percent or maybe not a half
the price, maybe it's just a third less.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Okay, maybe a third less, but doesn't matter.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
There are all there are other kinds of other kind
of barriers in place. It's not just financial, but you're right,
it's probably there.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Well, let me put it this way.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
I retract their cheapest EV model, which is a very
good car, goes for under ten thousand dollars. Try doing
that in this country, and it's as good as any lower.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
End EV that we have.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
So what's going on around the world, Well, countries are
doing one of a couple of things. Number One, the
European Union is saying, okay, we're ready to go with
retaliatory tariffs, because what Trump is saying is we don't
have a deal by the end of the week, then
that ten percent tariff that's now in place, goes up
(03:55):
to thirty percent tariffs. And the problem is is there
are ships right now on the seas, let's say between
China and the US, that are going to be docking tomorrow,
and the tariff can change between now and tomorrow, and
(04:17):
the tariff hits as soon as well the goods go
into these bonded warehouses taken off the ships, and then
when they are shipped off, that's when the payment, that's
when the tariff is due. And for those of you
that think that it is the other countries that are
paying the tariff, you are dreaming, it's you. It is
(04:41):
the manufacturer, it is the distributor, It is the retailer
who is buying from a Chinese entity. We for example,
my partner and I, we buy from Chinese factories. Well,
the tariff is hit because you know the government doesn't
pay for it.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
We pay for it. We write a check, a tariff check.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
And if you look at the news at all, last night,
there was a story I think was on NBC where
there was an interview to a lady who.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Runs a toy store.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
She has a couple of them, and she said, I
don't know how much it's going to cost. All I
know is my cost of goods, and she's buying now
for Christmas.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
My cost of goods. I have no idea I have,
but I pay the tariff. We pay the tariff. Well,
you know, is it going to work? Who the hell knows.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
We haven't really really been hit by the tariff backlash
yet or the fallout of the tariffs, and then the
other part of it that you know. I can look
at Donald Trump and say, all right, there's a method
to his madness, whether it works or not. I can
see the philosophy of reciprocal tariffs. If a country charges
(05:55):
x dollars or x percent and the United States follows
it and said we'll charge the same there is a
method to that madness. Whether it's madness or not. Maybe
it's gonna work. I have no idea, but I'll tell
you what is really troubling, and that is threatening Brazil
with a fifty percent tariff simply because they have indicted
(06:17):
and are trying their former president Bolsonario for corruption, a
Trump supporter, a friend of Donald Trump's, who is being
charged for corruption in quote a witch hunt. This is
the Brazilian government charging a Brazilian former president with corruption,
(06:38):
and our president said, this is a witch hunt. And
if you continue on, it's a fifty percent tariff on
Brazilian goods, which is stupid because that hurts us. We
buy far more from Brazil than they buy from US.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Okay, we're done with that.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
And we are waiting for the Trump statements regarding Ukraine
and Russia.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
I mean he's actually making them right now, oh is he? Okay?
Speaker 4 (07:06):
He basically said that we're going to supply patriot missile
systems to Ukraine via NATO. So we're going to make
them send them to NATO, and the European Union is
going to pay for them. And the NATO Secretary General
is with Trump right now in the Oval and has said, Yep,
this is what we're doing, and it makes sense and
(07:26):
it's a big deal and it's more to come.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
How is that different than what we've been hearing all
weekend that that's exactly what would be coming.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
I don't think it is.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
I think it's just no, it's exactly yet.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
We knew what was happening, and that's exactly what's happening.
Let me tell you about a lawsuit, and I love lawsuits.
This one is against Costco. How unusual company that big
getting sued, and this lawsuit is for selling cheap knockoffs?
Speaker 1 (07:53):
And who is the plaintiff here? Lululemon?
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Is that the way you pronounce it, Lululemon? These are
men's pants came out about a decade ago and cost
one hundred and twenty eight bucks, wildly popular, comfortable, and
a few years Costco looked at Lulu Lemon and said,
you know what, We're going to make a Costco version,
a Kirkland version, and it's going to sell for twenty bucks.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
Lulu Lemon I thought were like women's.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
They are, but there's a men's There seems to be
a men's version. It's like, you know, Tony Bahama, you know,
with the shirts you go to Costco and you get
the knockoffs which are fifteen dollars, and the real Tony
Bahamas are how much one hundred and twenty bucks?
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Tony is the knockoff? Oh Tommy is the real guy?
Oh yeah, Thomas, Tommy, Tony. It's all the same, you know, I.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Know the Costco knockoffs are Jack's ja x X and
you can see a whole closet full of Hawaiian knockoffs
in my closet. So here is the lawsuit, and that
is these pants that you are selling Costco are so
close to us, and we have our own signature parts
(09:11):
of the pants. For example, there's a crotch part that
lets your balls swing. How do they call it? There's
a great word for it here.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Even they advertise it. Where is it? I'm going to
come to it and I'll tell you it's fabulous.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Anyway, So Costco begins selling a version for twenty bucks
and Lululuman goes crazy.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
And it had to do with Kirkland. That's the real
story here. I'll tell you.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
We'll talk later about what happens, but it's all about Kirkland.
And you know how Kirkland Brands came about. Here's the
history part, and that is the CEO, the co founder
of Costco, who I interviewed, by the way, came up
with the e idea and this is back I think
in the nineties, and he looked at knockoffs and Neil
(10:07):
will talk about knockoffs, for example, knockoff foods. You know,
remember the blue label food the generic foods, and they
were horrible. They weren't of any particular quality. They were
a lot cheaper, but they weren't very good. Costco Joe Senegal,
This guy said, you know what, there is a market
(10:30):
for knockoffs that are as good or better quality than
what the name brand products are.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
And because Costco.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Is so enormous, and because they can sell at insane
volumes and their model is so unique, their membership model,
that what they do is they sell brand products, brand
name products at no more than fourteen percent of what
(11:04):
they pay for it. In other words, the markup is
fourteen percent, except for Kirkland products, they let themselves mark
it up to fifteen percent over the cost. And since
Kirkland does no marketing, since the packaging is Kirkland's own,
(11:25):
and since we're not talking about an entire new marketing
division that a major brand has.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Guess what Kirkland can do, or Costco can do is.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Produce that same product or similar product at better quality,
at far less money. Case in point, olive oil. As
Neil has said, olive oil from Costco Kirkland brand is
substantially less money than any other major brand, even minor brand,
(12:01):
and yet the quality is as good or better than
anything out there for the money you'd have to go
into the super insanely expensive Premiere Olive oils.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
My understanding is anything Kirkland at Costco they say has
to be at or better quality, then it's equivalent.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
It's name brand equipment, right.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
And if they can't do it at the price point,
then they sell you the brand name product.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
That's it. They're very honest about it. You know, they
tried their own toothpaste.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Can't beat crest Or, Colgate can't do it, so we'll
let them do it. Bear the same thing, except they
came out with one logger that actually worked. They tried
a bunch of stuff. Okay, back we go. Lawsuit by Lululemon,
the men's pants that sell for about one hundred and
twenty eight dollars. Costco knocks them off for twenty bucks. Boom,
lawsuit hits and it's Kirkland. It's a Kirkland brand. I
(12:57):
told you a little bit about Kirkland brand, but I
want to give you some history because it's just absolutely fascinating. Kirkland,
which is named after the town where Costco started, Kirkland, Washington.
They moved down the road a little bit, but it's
still Kirkland brand that accounts for about a third of
Costco's revenue, and it's growing faster than the company itself.
(13:20):
Costco's sales have almost doubled since twenty seventeen, doubled, and
Kirklands have tripled. It's actually bigger than many of the
world's biggest companies. Kirkland brings an eighty six billion dollars
a year, more than all of Procter and Gamble, for example,
(13:41):
with everything P ANDNG sells. And not only are is
Kirkland insane quality. I'll tell you about that in a minute.
The price, of course is Costco price, but it brings
down the price of other brands. Kirkland comes out with
something the entire sector is shaking.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
It's like when the president.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
You've heard that, when the President sneezes, the whole world
catches a cold.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
That's the same thing here. And here's as.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
I said before, Kirkland products they're able to be marked
up for fifteen percent over cost, where name brand products
are fourteen percent. And since Kirkland caused Costco so much
less money. As a matter of fact, and we know
that Kirkland products are absolutely great. And even the Costco
executives who dreamed up. Kirkland never thought it would be
(14:34):
this lucrative and this important, And it all started with
Jim Senegal, who noticed something. He was the CEO, noticed
something about a business. Even when the cost of raw
materials went down, the price of brand name products kept
going up. And so he goes, we have an opportunity
here and he launches in nineteen ninety five Kirkland. And
(14:56):
from the very beginning, the thing that mattered the most
about Kirkland was their quality, far more than price. When
the company was just beginning to think about a house brand,
he sends a memo to Costco executive and lists why
he thinks Kirkland brand is going to work. He says,
(15:17):
quality house brands, that's really important, and as you said, Neil,
that it's as good or better than any product out
there that they are selling. What Kirkland does is not
only gain acceptance in the marketplace, but engenders intense loyalty
(15:38):
to Costco. And he's absolutely right. So the company holds
Kirkland products to the same standard as any other item,
even though it's company product itself. It compares itself to
the other brand names that it covers, and if it
doesn't do as well it's gone. If it doesn't maintain
the quality, it's gone. It doesn't give itself any favoritism.
(15:59):
There's no nepotism from Costco to Kirkland. That is the
way they do business. That's why it's so insanely successful. Also,
look at the Costco model. Can you imagine going into
a Walmart and they've tried it. Now we're going into
(16:19):
a supermarket and you're going to get great prices with
their own brand. But you have to pay one hundred
and fifty dollars a year to be part of the club.
And how many club members does Costco have? One hundred
and forty one hundred and fifty million, with the average
membership cost one hundred bucks. That's why they can afford
(16:43):
to do what they can. It is absolutely brilliant. And
so Lululemon is suing them for stealing, stewing Costco for
stealing its intellectual property and quote sweat equity and is
arguing that they're going against retailers who.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Have chosen to copy rather than compete.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
And here's what Costco did is rip off several features
of the pants, the ABC pants, the stretchy fabric and
crotch guss it. They are non functional and protected, like
let's say the coke bottles distinctive shape or the red
sole that you see on Prada shoes. Now, that's kind
(17:31):
of interesting. You got a crotch guss it that doesn't
do anything. The whole point of it is to have
your well, if you're.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
A man, have your gusset.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
Doesn't doesn't it? I'm sorry, doesn't it guss it?
Speaker 2 (17:46):
I think it does. I've never even heard of a
crotch guss it. Do you have a crotch gusset? I
don't have a gusset, not for you, but for men.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
By the way, you know what ABC stands for literally,
and this is for real.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
It's proprietary design and they call it the anti ball
crushing design.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
That's the ABC. That's true. I'm not making this up.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
It's something that I wish I could make up, but
I don't.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
So there you go.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Okay, America's return to the office. We know that major
companies have said you're done with remote work. Here at iHeart,
you're done with remote work. And we're talking about the
sales and management people. I mean for us, I mean, obviously,
being on the air is a very different story, And
so here's what happens, the good side and the bad side.
(18:47):
The good side of remote work is sort of your
hours unless you clock in, which no one does, and
you have family time and you just enjoy.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
And you're not commuting at all.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Well, for example, when I'm here in the at my
studio at home, and I broadcast in two different places today,
I'm at home, I have a thirty foot commute. I
go downstairs in the morning. I'm not driving. I still
leave my pajamas on. When it's really hot in the summer,
I don't wear pants, and my gonads are swinging, you know,
(19:23):
because it's it's just cooler, you know, no sweaty sweaty
balls concept.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Now, if I have to come.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Into the to the office, if I'm coming into the studio,
I've got a shower. Even when I lived right next
door to the studio, I got a shower. I gotta
get up. You gotta say hello everybody. All right, you know,
how are you? You know? The same crap. The point is,
there's a lot of advantages of working from home. They're wonderful. Now,
what are the disadvantages of working from home? Well, you
(19:53):
don't connect with people at work and connecting is really important,
and even more when the promotions are happening. It's a
lot harder to get promotions when you're working at home
because you're not in front of management spaces. They don't
pay attention to you as much. Just the creaky wheel
(20:14):
kind of the squeaky wheel business. It's harder to prove
how good you are when you are working remotely. You
can't throw an idea out just you see your boss
walking down, or you talk to a colleague and going, hey,
what do you think of This just doesn't work?
Speaker 1 (20:31):
And who gets nailed the most? Women? Women? The gender
gap is widening with women.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Women love working at home, especially of moms, and they
don't want to come into the office unless they have to.
And now I'm being you know, obviously it's a very
broad brush here, but what women give up when they
work at home is all those opportunities. Also, if there
are children involved, you know, there's childcare that's not deductible.
(21:08):
So there's a story in Wall Street Journal about this woman,
Kate Guadrirama.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
She's thirty one years old.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
I just lost her human resources job, the remote one.
Her husband still works in person for a school board
and she said, I wasn't able to show how good
I am at my job, and she was laid off.
She turned down one hundred thousand dollars job she would
have to go in the office. Why is that? Childcare
is half of it? So let's say she's in the
(21:39):
thirty forty but let's say she's in the forty percent
tax bracket, which means out of one hundred thousand, she
takes home sixty. Well, what do you think child care
costs twenty five thirty thousand dollars a year, especially for
two kids?
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Is it worth it? No?
Speaker 2 (21:55):
But the bottom line is it's the long term process
in which you get more money, more opportunities, move up
the food chain. And that is simply, unfortunately taken away
from women. Women get screwed a lot, they really do,
and they have been. And the uh not only is
(22:15):
the gender gap there still even though Equal Rights Amendment
has yet to pass, which I don't understand why we're
not passing it, but women still get less money.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Women still get less money than men.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
I mean, Amy, let me put it this way. The
day you retire and someone comes in and takes your place,
and it's a male, it's you know the male is
gonna get twenty five percent more than you are.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
You know that I'm never retiring.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Well that's a different story, but I'm telling you less
that's true. I mean, that is absolutely true. For the
most part, women, women do not make as much as men.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
And it is, I mean, horrifically unfair. See.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
I never had a problem in my business in the
surrogacy business, because all I had was women employees. I
didn't have male employees, so I could underpay everybody and
there was no one to compare them to and it
worked out beautifully. Okay, I think we're done, guys. All right,
we are back again tomorrow. Strangely enough, it starts at
(23:25):
five am with wake up call. Amy is back with
Will and Neil and I come aboard at six am.
They're Shannon running around there and Cono and an An's
running around someplace.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
All right, we'll catch in the morning.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Everybody. You have a good one. Gary and Shannon up next.
KFI AM six forty. 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.
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