‘Slurpee Day,’ Minimum Wage Struggles & the End of Chicken Soup For The Soul

ICYMI: Hour One of ‘Later, with Mo’Kelly’ Presents – A look at the importance of the 97th Annual 7-Eleven ‘Slurpee Day’…PLUS – Thoughts on California fast food franchisees cutting hours in response to the $20 per hour wage increase AND the impact of ‘Chicken Soup For The Soul’ liquidating the company and all assets in their chapter 7 bankruptcy shift - on KFI AM 640…Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app

Episode Transcript

(00:21):
Ok if I am six forty islater with Mo Kelly. We're live everywhere
on the iHeartRadio app. It's stillhot. It's still hot, hot,
hot out there. It's still reallyreally hot. It's to the point where
it's difficult to sleep at night.It's great leaving the office, but outside
of that, it's hot. It'sunbearable, it's uncomfortable, and you know,

(00:45):
Mark Runner is probably going to justturn into a ball of flames in
just a moment. No, butI'll tell you it's making everybody cranky,
especially me. I went to opena bank account earlier in the day,
and every single time the person atthe bank said I had to sign something
else here, there was some otherstate we had to go through. I
wanted to flip over the desk.Can I just get out of here?

(01:06):
True? Can we expectite everything today? But did you actually want to leave
the bank branch? Because leaving thebank branch, which I assume had air
conditioning, would mean that you'd haveto go outside into the elements. No,
that's true. My entire existence isnow sprinting from one air conditioned environment
to the next and trying never tostay outside more than an instant longer than

(01:27):
I have to. And this isunseasonably warm obviously for southern California. Yes,
I know it does get up totriple digits every now and then.
Yes I know it is a dryheat, but this is still say it
with me, unseasonably warm. It'snot normal. There's no debating it.
Nope, not at all. Well, since we got that out of the

(01:48):
way, we always have to startoff with the weather. Well, we
have to also talk about what's goingon in the fast food industry. People
have touched upon it, but Ihave not touched upon it yet. How
fast food workers. We've talked abouthow they now earned twenty dollars per hour,
and I've long said that fast foodis going to adjust where they have
always been, moving towards automation.Well, this is not necessarily going to

(02:12):
mean that fast food worker is goingto lose their jobs, but it will
mean that fast food franchisee owners willcompensate because they're going to make sure that
their bottom line is not going tobe any worse off for where and so
that means they're going to be cuttinghours for a lot of these fast food
employees. We'll talk about that andmore bad news we have our friends at

(02:35):
Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment.Just in case you haven't seen the story.
Unfortunately, the company was liquidated asof yesterday. And what I mean
by liquidating means everyone was let goeveryone And the worst part of the story
we'll get into that employees did notknow until late June that they're mele was

(03:00):
not being paid for by the companyfor a good month and a half.
Well, unfortunately, have to getinto that. As of course, our
regular commentator and contributor in Front ofthe Show, Chris Woolsey, was directly
impacted by that, so we haveto talk about that and other layoff.
CNN is laying off about one hundredpeople as CNN is consolidating to what they

(03:23):
call the one newsroom strategy. Idon't know if that's going to help,
but I'll give you my insight assomeone who didn't work for CNN, but
did a lot of commentaries for CNN. So some of the players on the
inside I do have a little bitof familiarity with. And hey, Mark,
I think you might be interested inthis if you can get off tomorrow

(03:45):
night. It is tomorrow night.Though we have not one, not two,
but three pairs of tickets we're givingaway tonight for tomorrow night's show of
Drunk Theater La. You know,a comedian takes five shots of whiskey in
a row and then tries to performand improvise play with five sober comedians.

(04:08):
It's probably fun for the drunk comedian, not so much for the sober comedians.
That's going on tomorrow night at theSanta Monica Playhouse and Group Theater,
which is in Santa Monica, ofcourse, but it's tomorrow night. We're
giving away three pairs of tickets tonightfor tomorrow night's show. In fact,
it's their one hundredth show here inLos Angeles. And I'll tell you right

(04:31):
now, we're giving him away.In the third hour. We have a
seven eleven update as well. Whenwe come back. It's Later with mo
Kelly. So much to do,so much to tell you about. We're
live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.You're listening to Later with mo Kelly on
demand from KFI AM six forty.And I have to be honest, I

(04:54):
can't remember the last time I actuallyhad a slurpee. Now, I can't
remember the last time I even walkedinside of seven eleven, But that's beside
the point. But a slurpy asa kid, shoot, you couldn't get
much better than that. And wheneverI wanted to get a slurpee, for
some reason, the slurping machine neverwas working or had never had cherry because

(05:16):
I only wanted cherry. I didn'twant Coca Cola. It seemed like it
was only cherry or Coca Cola,and the Coca Cola was the only one
I was ever working. That wasmy experience. But I was pretty fond
of having a seven to eleven Slurpyback in the day. And of course
you know by now it's Slurpy Daywhere you can get a free slurpy.

(05:38):
Days not over. It's the ninetyseventh annual Slurpy Day and this year seven
to eleven teamed up with the nonprofitChildren's Miracle Network to offer a free slurpy
and also a special drink cup designedby one of the group's young ambassadors and

(05:58):
cancer survivor, whose name is Nolan. Customers can support Children's Miracle Network and
its pediatric cancer initiatives through an instore fundraising campaign at seven to eleven,
and also a speedway and stripe storesacross the United States. Do they have
speedway and stripes in mission? Excuseme, Washington Mark. I don't know

(06:19):
about it. I thought they were. Maybe they were, Maybe they're East
Coast and southeast. Yeah, becausethey have seven elevens in Aria. Yeah,
yeah, I know of them.I just don't know where they are.
But anyhow, this is what seveneleven had to say. Well.
Sorpy Day is our annual celebration ofseven eleven's birthday and our iconic frozen drink.

(06:40):
It's a day of joy, community, and good old fashioned summer fun.
We are thrilled to share the nostalgiaand create new memories with Children's Miracle
Network hospitals and our customers who cherishthis tradition so dearly. And when I
was in Korea, seven elevens everywhereeverywhere. I don't know why. You

(07:04):
know they have such a foothold inAsia, specifically South Korea, but they're
everywhere. They are as plentiful inSouth Korea as they are here in southern
California, no exaggeration, but saferperhaps. Oh yes, you do not
have to worry about taking a bulletto the dome in South Korea when walking

(07:26):
into a seven eleven. And eventhere, I didn't even walk in.
I walked by. I took apicture in front of it. Look old
habits die harding. Seven eleven isLook, it's not a place I want
to walk in. But you know, even on Slurpy Day, I had
to think about, well is itis it? Am I willing to brave
the dangers of a seven eleven fora free Slurpey? Do you get a

(07:50):
free dressing for your wound along withthe free slurpy? I'm not so sure
you do. They didn't say thatin the press release. I have a
friends and co workers who went toseven eleven today to get free slopers.
They didn't get stabbed or accosted.I even got coffee at seven eleven.
Oh you wait a minute. Youwent to seven eleven this morning? Yeah?

(08:11):
I got to like, I'm here. What was it like walking through
the doors? Was there anyone standingoutside like a homeless person and begging for
money? There was not. Therewere no homeless people outside. This isn't
Chatsworth. This was on the cornerWorth. Oh no, no, no,
because and no in Chatsworth, inour area, there's lots of meth
addictions okay, and uh, andI'm sure there's some porns being shot somewhere.

(08:35):
There's a mattress somewhere in the stysomewhere somewhere as a mattress, but
there were there were none of thatin front of this seven eleven, right
there on the corner of Devonshire andTopanga. I know someone's probably gonna hit
us up on the app and sayno, there's there's homelessness all around there,
and murder and mayhem and all ofthat. I get it. There
are always police cars and sirens blaringaround that area. But I didn't get
stabbed. I just got my coffee. Okay. Just because you didn't get

(08:58):
stabbed on the Metro, it doesn'tmean that Metro is safe. Just because
you didn't get impaled at seven eleven, it does not mean air Go seven
eleven is safe. I the absence, yes of mayhem, doesn't mean that
there isn't a propensity for mayhem.But I think that it's also unfair to

(09:20):
just blanket blame seven eleven for alltypes of mayhem and murder. No,
no, no, I'm not blamingseven eleven, you know, or there
a lack of security or their attractionto mayhem and murders. I don't know
what do we say? What canI say? Seven eleven doesn't kill people?
People kill people, all right atseven eleven. I'm not going to

(09:43):
blame seven eleven. All right,It's not like we're going to outlaw seven
elevens. Get your free slurpees,help with a child with cancer. It's
for a good cause. Well,here's what should be outlawed is the ungodly
combos that Fush was talking about mixingslurpies or I don't know if you heard
that before you started, but he'stalking about like mixing banana and cola and

(10:03):
stuff. Fush, you belong behindbart what they did. I did go
to several elevens back in the day, and we would get suicides. Do
you know what those are? Uh? No? What? How do you
not know what suicides are? Don'tyou turn this on me? How we
all know and you don't know exactlywhat you're talking when you just put everything

(10:24):
into the cup? Yeah kind ofyeah. Yeah. You go to the
to the beverage machine and you goleft to right or right to left,
and you get a little bit ofeverything. So it's like a Long Island
iced tea. It's for amateures,except there's no alcohol again, par amateurs.
Mark, just because you went straightalcohol when you were a kid,
Yeah, explained, when did youhave your first drink in the womb?

(10:45):
Okay, in the womb? Hemight be telling the truth, I know,
and one of the success stories offetal alcohol syndrome. I want you
to I want you to show somerespect, oh, Mark, But also
real quick, I was the oppositeof you, Mo. I only wanted
coke, and every time I win, the coke was out. But the

(11:09):
cherry worked. Cherry's the only flavorthat matters. And then on top of
that, blue raspberry always worked,and no one ever till I never ever
touched it. To my life,I don't think I've ever had blue resp
I don't think I have either it'scherry or nothing. Yeah, well,
it's not like the blue raspberry isnasty or anything. I wouldn't know.

(11:31):
It's a distant second to cherry.I wouldn't know. If I'm in the
mood for Slurpee, as I wouldpossibly be on Slurpy Day, I'm going
to get cherry. And even whenthey have it at the movies, it
seems like they never have working cherrySlurpy. I think that as a child,
I was half comprised of Slurpy becauseI don't know if you remember this,
they had the superhero plastic cups.Of course, I got every one

(11:54):
of them, and duplicates of plentyof them. I rode my bike to
seven eleven every day and plunk downmy quarter for one of those. Well,
here's something else which has changed orbeen added to. I know times
have really changed my two bits anda side of beef. Here's something else
that they've added to seven eleven.Just in case you are willing to run

(12:16):
the gauntlet and risk your life.This month, shoppers will find new menu
items in seven eleven. They addedchicken nuggets yep, breakfast skillet takeitos,
Yes, they have Philly cheese steaktakeitos, and the best of all personal

(12:37):
breakfast pizzas so health food. Imean, yeah, well, what did
you expect? This is seven eleven. I have seen the taquitos. They're
like sausage, egg and cheese filledtaquitos. And the breakfasts are good.
I get those back in the day, I did, right, Yeah,
and the breakfasto it's almost like likea like a scramble on a slice of

(12:58):
bread. The only thing healthy inseven eleven are the the overripe bananas at
the register, all three of them, which are turning brown. They have
produce at even they do right atthe register, right in the front.
Yes, which is ironic because it'sright when you walk in. But no
one touches, No one touches it. I've never seen anyone buy any produce

(13:20):
from seven eleven greg in my life. In my life. They have eggs,
and they have already boiled egg Theyhave hard boiled eggs, hard boiled
green apples, but I don't knowif those are safe to eat. So
these teketos you're talking about, thebreakfast taketos, they are yummy. Do
you recommend eating them on the toiletor in the shower? Which one?

(13:43):
No, no, no no.You have to eat them in rapid succession,
and you have to make sure andthey and they exit you at a
high veloci. No no, no, you'll probably be constipated before anything.
Okay, it have some it's gonnahave some trouble moving through your system.
It doesn't go out easy. That'swhy you get all different, aren't we?
Seetli for in coffee, so wehad to do coffee healthy past Yeah.

(14:07):
See all these helpful hints on thisthe ninety seventh Annual Slurpy Day.
It's Later with mo Kelly. Let'stalk fast food and minimum wage when we
come back. You're listening to Laterwith Moe Kelly on demand from KFI AM
six forty. Now we have moredata, Now we have more information.
Now we have a little bit moreperspective about this minimum wage law with respect

(14:31):
to fast food workers, which wasraised from sixteen to twenty dollars an hour
back on April first, sixteen totwenty dollars an hour. That's a significant
increase, and the general discussion iswhether that would lead to workers being laid

(14:52):
off, and the data shows thatthat has not been the case as of
yet, but but it has ledto or at least if you BELI leave
the franchise z owners, they willtell you, by and large, maybe
not everyone, but bind large,they will say that it's led to higher
prices on the menu and that costis being passed along to customers. And

(15:15):
these same franchise z owners, againthis is general most of them, from
all the information I've seen, they'vesaid that it's led to cutting of hours
of existing employees, which means thatfranchise z owners are trying to make sure
that their bottom line does not change. They are not going to be left

(15:39):
to suffer because of the increase inthe wages that they would have to pay
each and every worker. But there'ssomething else I think which was left out
of the discussion, but it's relevant, it's important, and it's impactful.
Don't think that just because you raisethe the minimum wage from sixteen dollars to

(16:02):
twenty dollars an hour for your basicworkers, entry level workers, that's who
we're talking about, that doesn't havea cascading effect on your other employees.
Let's say you're working at McDonald's andyou've worked there for five years or so,
you're not any longer bottom of thewrung employee. Let's say you're a

(16:22):
floor manager or something like that,and you're making back in March. Let's
say you're making nineteen seventy five anhour, a good three dollars more than
the people who just got hired afew months ago, who were entry level,
who just came in the door.And your nineteen seventy five an hour

(16:44):
floor manager is then looking at peoplewho just started working at McDonald's or some
other fast food place making twenty dollarsan hour. Are you going to tell
your floor manager, well, Ican't give you a raise because I gave
everyone else a raise. Now you'reprobably going to have to raise the wages
of your floor manager. I don'tknow, the person who is the senior

(17:08):
manager of fries, whoever, theperson who's responsible for the apple pies,
whatever specialized duties, and of courseyour store manager. Everybody probably will get
a raise. Is this fair?It's probably fairer to your existing employees,
it's probably unfair to the customers.And I know if I were to ask

(17:32):
Mark Runner and I would agree withhim on this. I think it belies
the truth as to where these franchiseeowners are making or losing money. Now.
I know the margins may be slimmer, but I don't know that just
because of raising wages, that allof a sudden has turned their business model

(17:55):
upside down. I keep seeing complaintsabout this and claims that place have to
close because of this new minimum wageraise. But what about the places that
have say automated or self checkout.The prices are no cheaper, there no
not at all. And since wetalked about McDonald's specifically McDonald's, I would
probably say they're the one outlet whichhas mostly the ones that I've been going

(18:21):
to the past few years. Theyhave mostly automated checkouts. They have at
best correct me if I'm wrong,Stephan. When I go on to McDonald's,
I'll be lucky if I see morethan one person on one register.
It's literally one person when the onethat I go to, and sometimes they
even have to go in and helpin the kitchen. Yeah. So like
because sometimes I get a food formy dad and the person will come,

(18:45):
Well, I'll do the self checkout, but I'll do the kiosk. Yeah
okay, so he they'll come andget my order and then they'll go back
and do fries. So yeah,yeah, and that wasn't different after April
first. That's how it's been fora while. Now. I know that
one person is probably making four dollarsan hour more assuming they are making minimum

(19:08):
wage prior to But as far aspassing along just the cost to customers,
I don't know if it's an honestconversation because you're not acknowledging that you already
had a few employees. You alreadycut back the employees to begin with.
I think you're right, and Ithink every time a business says that they're

(19:30):
in doing a hardship because they haveto pay people a living wage, they
deserve to be looked at with someskepticism. It's just the reason that there
is a minimum wage is because ifthere wasn't, they'd be paying less than
them. No, they would paythem zero, they would pay as little
as they could get away with,and right now, the minimum wage is
the least they can get away with. Right it would be China, you

(19:52):
know, we always talk about Chinaor slave labor. That's what these businesses
would do if you remove the minimumwage. I don't know what a living
wage is here in southern California.I'm being honest because there are multiple factors
in it. I don't know ifyou can actually afford housing on twenty dollars
an hour a single income. Idon't think that's possible. No, And
you know, if somebody who isinvolved in a big company like McDonald's wants

(20:17):
to complain about paying people a higherminimum wage, then you know, let's
be honest and forthcoming about the thirtyto forty million dollars the CEO makes and
all that other stuff, You've gotto factor it all in. All of
that has to be factored, andthat's why I think it's a dishonest conversation.
Yes, I understand that if youincrease the cost of labor, that
cost has to be offset somewhere,But no, I don't think it should

(20:41):
always fall on the shoulders of customers. To Mark's point, if you had
a better allocation of some of thesesalaries, if you look at the salary
structure of these upper level executives,and I'm not talking about socialism, I'm
just talking about this is just beingridiculous. No one person is possible for
forty million dollars worth of salary plusstock options. Do you think a CEO

(21:07):
works hard enough so that they deservelike five thousand times more than their workers.
Absolutely not, No, not atall. And they're not as responsible
for the success of the company.Now they are burdened with the responsibility if
it does fail. But if youthink about what the McDonald's CEO probably makes
and how much that person is activelyinvolved in the day to day or the

(21:30):
success trajectory of McDonald's, probably verylittle. It gets kind of tedious that
we always always have to stipulate thatwe're born capitalists and we're not dirty pink
o commies. But one thing thatwe have to acknowledge about our system is
that in that system, there's nosuch thing as enough. No, there's
never enough. But people want tohave it both ways. They want to

(21:52):
talk about, well, this isa capitalistic society and you know you're going
to be paid your worth, andthey want to complain about homelessness. They
want to complain about the how highrent is or how high inflation is.
It's all connected. You can't sayI love capitalism and you want to talk
about how anything else is socialism orcommunism and not also acknowledge the price gouging

(22:18):
and the unfair labor practices, whichare also part of the equation. You've
got to acknowledge the price gouging andthe greed, or it's an incomplete conversation.
And for you to say, well, it would be okay, or
we wouldn't have this problem if wewould keep wages low, you are trading
one problem for another. If you'reworried about homelessness, you can't say that
we're going to fight homelessness and peoplepay pay people less. Well, you're

(22:44):
exactly right. If you want tokeep wages low, like say Walmart,
it doesn't go away that people needfood and housing. Taxpayers wind up picking
that up. You and I paythe difference, and there is a correlation
between the press ages depress, laborcosts, and crime. You can't have

(23:06):
it all if you have a populacewhich is struggling economically and financially disproportionately.
Not trying to rhyme, you willsee a correlation between rising crime, rising
inflation, rising disenchantment of people,and rising frustration. If you want to

(23:26):
talk about, oh my gosh,I can't believe the inflation going on in
America right now, and not talkabout the rising costs of rent, which
is another degree of inflation. Youdon't want rent control, then you don't
understand how all these factors of productionfit together. And it's not one thing
controls everything, but everything does cometogether. And talk about this one thing

(23:49):
talking about the economics and the problemsthat we as Americans have. It's not
going to get better by paying peopleless that much. I know. Later
with mo Kelly ca if I amsix forty, we're live Everywhere on the
iHeartRadio app and talking about the badeconomic situation and news and people losing their
jobs. We've got to talk aboutCNN huge layoffs going over there as they

(24:14):
try to redefine their mission or somethinglike that. And also red Box slashed
chicken soup for the Soul Entertainment liquidatingfiling Chapter seven. We'll tell you about
it with Live Everywhere on the iHeartRadioapp. I never worked for CNN,

(24:44):
but I did do rather consistent commentariesguest appearances on CNN over the past twelve
years or so until I started doingcommentaries for Spectrum. They've been paid a
dime, but again, did giveme some insight as to how CNN internally
worked, and I saw a progressionand evolution of CNN where when I was

(25:07):
there under Jeff Zucker he was thepresident at the time, it was one
hundred percent hyper political focus. Itwas opinion and editorial. And I'm talking
about CNN domestic. People don't knowthat there's CNN domestic and there's CNN International
and the international you don't see toomuch in the United States. You'll see

(25:29):
it on late at night, likemaybe midnight until three in the morning,
but mostly you'll see what it's calledthe CNN domestic channel. That's what you
and I and everyone else will seewhen we turn on our streaming or cable.
It's seeing in domestic But if youcatch CNN in any other country or
you go to the airport, you'llprobably get the international feed. And that
is not political, that's actual news. It's just straight, unadulterated, non

(25:56):
opinion news. And there's always beenthis push pull at CNN as far as
how they should marry the two goingforward and also not be ignorant of the
importance of ratings, especially on thedomestic side. That's part of the reason
why CNN keeps going through these changes, because they can't find the right recipe

(26:17):
or the proportions to appeal to theparticularly American audience where we're hyper focused about
the politics and the presidential race.But outside them of America, people don't
give a damn at all, butCNN. When I was going there,
I would go to the bureau onSunset Boulevard in Hollywood. They had a
studio back then, So I wantto say, like this is maybe like

(26:40):
twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen, theyhad a bureau a studio in which they
had shows being produced out of LAThey had shows being produced out of Atlanta,
Washington, DC, and New York. And when Chris Lick came in,
that didn't work. And now theyhave another CEO, Mark Thompson,

(27:00):
and he had no relation this.Mark Thompson has this one newsroom strategy.
So I said all that, soyou have given a sense of what it
means to have one newsroom, onemain central location for all of CNN domestic
programming. And it's supposed to mergetheir linear and digital news gathering. And

(27:21):
because of that, they will eliminateabout one hundred employees. I haven't gotten
the list of who those people are, but I'm quite sure I know some
of them. The CNN worked forworkforce is about three hundred thirty five hundred
people, so it's not a hugeamount, but it's still a significant amount
if you know how news gathering andnews dissemination works. They tried CNN their

(27:45):
subscription streaming service that really never worked. They've tried the addition of fast channels
like see it in Originals and cen Espanol. They've tried a number of
things, but nothing has actually workedall the time. Time but that's when
you read that CNN is laying offpeople and they're trying this one newsroom strategy.

(28:06):
They're trying to consolidate all of theiroperations, and I think it's going
to be in New York. They'vehad locations in Atlanta, but I don't
think they're going to be doing thatin Atlanta going forward. So that's the
first thing, and also have tobe very quick because we're over last segment.
I'm really disappointed to read the newsabout Chicken Souit for the Soul Entertainment.

(28:29):
One of the big supporters of ourshow, Chris Woolsey, who would
join us every other week. Hewas responsible for all those red Box codes,
and you know Redbox is owned byChicken Suit for the Soul Entertainment.
And I talked to Chris today.I can't divulge what we talked about,
but I can say just from publiclyavailable information, that Chicken Suit for the

(28:49):
Soul Entertainment completely liquidated filing chapter seven. It was originally chapter eleven, and
then the judge said, no,this is going to be Chapter seven,
and we're going to liquidate all assetsto be able to cover some of these
debts. And that means a workforceof a thousand people already have been let

(29:10):
go. And it's even worse because, and this is also publicly known information
that employees were not getting paid forthe better part of a month, and
their health benefits were not being paidfor more than a month. And the
employees obviously knew about the paychecks notcoming in, but they did not know

(29:36):
or they were finding out in thecourse of trying to use their healthcare that
their medical was not being paid foreither. It's a very, very sad,
and I would say an angering situation. You can only imagine if you're
in something like that. I've beenin something similar and it always blindsides you.
You can always hear rumors, butuntil it actually happens, it is

(29:56):
usually worse than what you thought wasgoing to happen. It puts a puts
a really really bad taste in yourmouth. But Chris is still a friend
of the show, and he willbe back in some other capacity, I'm
sure in the future. But thisis something if you've ever worked at entertainment,
this is always something which looms onthe horizon. Entertainment companies they go

(30:19):
through these these periods where they expand, they contract, and they do so
very quickly. Sometimes they expand toofast, too soon, and sometimes they
overcorrect and contract. And I willsay this when Red Box, when they
were still trying to invest more inthe DVD DVD business for red Box,

(30:44):
that seems strange to me. Itdidn't seem like that that was going to
be the technology of the future orthat was going to be the cash cow
to help the company along. ButI'm on the outside looking in, and
then when I see something like thishappen, I wonder if there wasn't something
else a foot going on that we'renot exactly sure of, But if there
was, I'm quite sure that willbe made public in the future, and

(31:06):
we'll keep you informed. Talk Withoutthe Tilt k f I and the k
O S t HD two Los Angeles, Orange County live everywhere on the radio.