April 9, 2025 • 39 mins
We began the program with four interesting guests on topics we think you should know more about!
Trump Tariffs: What You Need to Know if You’re Buying a Car with John Vincent - Senior Editor and Correspondent / Vehicle Testing on the Autos team at U.S. News & World Report.
Boston’s first and only pod hotel! What’s a pod hotel? Adelaide Parker – Boston Globe Correspondent – has experienced pod hotels in Japan as well.
Preparations For Salem's 400th Anniversary are Underway Ahead of 2026! Salem Mayor Dominick Pangallo checked in.
Why it's getting more expensive to use your credit cards? Doug Kantor, General Counsel for NACS (National Association of Convenience Stores) explains.
Listen to WBZ NewsRadio on the NEW iHeart Radio app and be sure to set WBZ NewsRadio as your #1 preset!
Trump Tariffs: What You Need to Know if You’re Buying a Car with John Vincent - Senior Editor and Correspondent / Vehicle Testing on the Autos team at U.S. News & World Report.
Boston’s first and only pod hotel! What’s a pod hotel? Adelaide Parker – Boston Globe Correspondent – has experienced pod hotels in Japan as well.
Preparations For Salem's 400th Anniversary are Underway Ahead of 2026! Salem Mayor Dominick Pangallo checked in.
Why it's getting more expensive to use your credit cards? Doug Kantor, General Counsel for NACS (National Association of Convenience Stores) explains.
Listen to WBZ NewsRadio on the NEW iHeart Radio app and be sure to set WBZ NewsRadio as your #1 preset!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's Nightside with Dan Ray on WBZY, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Thanks very much, Gal, nice to work with you tonight.
Help Hello everyone, and welcome on into a Wednesday night
edition of Nightside. My name is Dan Ray, host of Nightside.
Rob Brooks, our producer for many years, is back in
the control room in the big broadcast facility in Medford, Massachusetts.
(00:28):
He'll begin to answer your phone calls when we start
taking phone calls in the nine o'clock hour. We're going
to be talking at nine o'clock with Boston City Council
at Flynn about the nephism ethics reform. It's a bit
of an understatement at the Boston City Council. Maybe we
need some ethics perform at Boston City Hall generally. And
then we are going to talk with a really interesting guest,
(00:49):
but not that at Flynn won't be interesting, but an
interesting guest talking about what happened on Wall Street today.
A complete one hundred and eighty degree turnaround by the
folks on Wall Street, A big day on Wall Street.
If you were waiting for the walls for the markets
(01:10):
to bump back up, today was today. And we will
be talking with Jaredillion. He is a founder and principal
of a company called Jared Dillion Money, and he's an
author of several books, some of which you may have read.
He's a money guy, and we'll get a sense from
him as to what happened, why it happened, and what's
likely to happen tomorrow and going forward, simple as that.
(01:33):
But first, as we always do with the eight o'clock hour,
we have four interesting guests for you to listen to,
and they will tell you and me what's going on
in this world. Again, some of these stories are very
big stories. Some of them are not so big, but
all of them do have some impact on your life
(01:54):
in mind. So that's the way we start tonight. And
I'm delighted to introduce John Vincent. He's going to talk
to us about the tariffs impact on cars. Now, the
tariffs have sort of been or some of the tariffs
have been put on ice for about ninety days, so
you know that's that's a situation that has just changed.
(02:17):
So let's talk with John Vincent about today. John forget
for the moment, the turnaround in the stock market. What's
perhaps more important to car dealers is that these tariffs
have been put on ice here for at least what
(02:38):
we're talking three months. John Vincent, Welcome to Nightside. How
are you.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
I'm good. Do you have whiplash yet?
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Yeah, a little bit, I'll tell you, boy. Yesterday up
fourteen hundred, down three hundred by day's end. Yeah, there
was a pretty good amount of whiplash taken place yesterday.
Today was like a rocket ship. It just it kind
of was, you know, a little up, a little down,
and then vavoom, it took off.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
Except for the car industry because the car industry is
excluded from that ninety day extension.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Oh so, so cars from Japan or cars from Canada
will be impacted, will be impacted anywhere. Okay, Well, that
that's a big industry. Why do you think that it
happened that way?
Speaker 3 (03:36):
I have no idea, and I don't know whether anybody else.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Well that's a good answer. That that's that. I love
guests to give me honest answers. So let's talk about it.
You're a senior editor and carrespondent for vehicle testing on
the Auto teams at US News and World Reports. So
you've covered this for a while.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
How long?
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Let me ask you this question, how long will it
be before we begin to see increases on dealers new
cars on the lots, you know, around the country and
around New England as a consequence of the tariffs. I
was under the impression, and thank you for correcting me,
that that everything was put on hold for ninety days.
(04:16):
But as you said, car tariffs are are still in effect.
So when will we start to see that impact.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
In your opinion last weekend, they're already hitting dealer prices
because a lot of people are getting into the market
thinking they need to get a new car right now.
And when there's more demand chasing the same supply, prices
go up.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
So let me ask the car dealers taking advantage of
their customers. At this point, obviously there has not yet
been a tariff paid by a car dealer. That seems
a little cynical.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Buying a car in America. Is you know what the
market will bear?
Speaker 4 (05:00):
No.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
I do understand that that's capitalism, But I got to say,
if I go to my car dealer and all of
a sudden, I see that that bumped up the price
four five thousand dollars, that four or five thousand dollars,
and I assume that's what we're talking about correct. On
you know, a thirty five forty thousand dollar car, we're
talking about a bump of four or five thousand dollars.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Probably not that much yet, but you're probably seeing a
tightening to MSRP, so you're not going to see a discount.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Okay, So what you're saying the dealer, if we go
this weekend, they're likely to say, I can't do anything.
MSRP is what it is. If you want to buy
the car, go ahead. If you don't, I got five
guys coming in the door.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Behind you, exactly, and they're probably busy enough that you know,
they'd rather just find that customer who will give them
that sticker price than somebody who's going to take an
hour to dicker.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Yeah. No, I do understand that, but there's just something
about that that seems a little swam swammery to me.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
I agree, I agree, But that's the system we have.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Well, I mean, it is a system we have, but
also the system your integrity as a seller of any
product is important for the long term. You know, if
you're gonna charge me a couple thousand dollars extra for
the thread of tariffs as opposed to the actual implementation
(06:24):
of teriffs, I might look at you a little differently.
Am I trying to go find a different dealer to
be really honest with them? I'm I'm kind of surprised that.
See that seems to me downright cynical, because look, if
the new wave of cars come in and it's cost them,
what's it going to cost them on a tariff? Would
you say on a let's say a forty thousand dollars car.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
It's hard to say because it depends on where that
car and its components are built. It could be a
few thousand dollars. It could be fifteen thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Well, theoretically, it could be nothing if it's an American
built car.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Well, the most American built car in the US is
the Tesla Model three Performance, and it is eighty seven
percent US parts, So thirteen percent that's parts will be tariffed.
There is not a single single car sold in the US.
They will not be struck by these tariffs.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Okay, Well, I'm told I'm told that, for example, BMW
has a factory in South Carolina, and I'm told by
someone that the cars before they have finished, they're essentially
constructed here. They they're taken by boat back to Europe
and then they come back as the finished product. Is
(07:35):
that true?
Speaker 3 (07:36):
That's not true.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
You bet that's not true.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
That is not true. Hey, you guys who would never
make money off those cars if they had to ship
them across the ocean twace.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Well, well, they were saying it's built here, shipped over there,
and then brought back. So you're saying, if it's built here,
there's no way that's going to be sent to overseas
for anything. However, some of the parts of the car
that is built here, even though it's physically built here
(08:07):
in America, because certain parts of that car were shipped here,
that will reflect a percentage of the car. Okay, I
get it.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Say we're talking about a BMW X three, where its
transmission might come from Germany, its tires might come from Mexico,
other components might come from Canada. All those different components
are going to be teariffed at different rates, and those
different prices are going to have to be built into
that car.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Okay. So I think what Trump is saying is that
that we have tire manufacturers in this country. Maybe what
they have. What he's trying to do is convince them
to put American tires on cars manufacturing in America.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
If America could make enough tires to fit all of
the cars that are made in America, that would be great.
But it's a very it's a very interconnected supplier ecosystem,
and so the factories that supply all the parts to
the cars built in America are all over North America,
(09:11):
and the United States on its own cannot support the
number of parts to go on every car built here.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Okay, So how long will it take for America to
in effect bring this stuff home and say we're going
to build cars in America in your opinion.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
So, some manufacturers who have excess plant capacity, like GM
with their truck plants, can do it relatively quickly, and
relatively quickly quickly means six months to a year, because
it's not just you know, GM deciding to put a
third shift on, it's bringing all of their suppliers along
(09:52):
to build the parts that have to go into the factory.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Okay, so and they so if GM is ahead of
the game here, aby, GM will be able to sell
cars more cheaply or less expensively, to put it that way,
than some other car manufacturers, And maybe that will give
GM a little bit of an invite.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
A little bit of a damage, except that the excess
capacity is in the pickup truck plants, which are some
of the most expensive and high margin vehicles they make.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Okay, all right, Well, look.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
Nissan Versa from Mexico with a Chevy Silverado.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Yeah no, I'll tell you. I've been a Vovo guy
for a long long time. I'm going to intentionally go
shop for American cars. I've got an eleven year old
Vovo which has served me well. I'm going to try
to make my next car an American car.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
So you can buy a Volvo ex ninety built in
South Carolina.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Well, if it's truly built in South Carolina and it's
not customer money extra money, that's that sounds good? Hey John, Thanks,
thanks very much. I assume folks can read your stuff.
You sound like you're on top of your game. Senior
editor and correspondent and US News and World Report, John,
we went a little over in time. I thank you
for your patience. You've been a great guest. Thank you
(11:13):
so much, very much. I appreciate your time. Thanks John
Vincent of US News and World Report. And we get back.
We're going to introduce you to a Boston Globe correspondent
who is going to talk about Boston's first and only
pod hotel. Wait, do you hear this story? This is
going to shock you.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Night side with Dan Ray, I'm telling you Boston's News.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Radio delighted to welcome Adelai Parker. She's a Boston Lolbe
correspondent who has actually experienced pod hotels in Japan, so
she really has some experience. And now Boston's first pod
hotel is in existence. Adelaide for those of us who
have never stated a pod hotel, which means probably ninety
(11:59):
nine nine percent of my audience, what exactly is a
pod hotel?
Speaker 5 (12:05):
Yeah? Well, first of all, thank you for having me on.
A pod hotel is sort of this hotel idea that
was first pioneered in Japan in nineteen seventy nine, and
it tries to save the maximum amount of space, so
it literally only gives you the bare essentials, which means
that it essentially puts you in this coffin or mri
sized pod that has a mattress, a pillow, and then
(12:28):
you get in there and you sleep and there's oftentimes
not even enough space to sit up in and so
it's meant to be kind of like a hostel, you know,
low cost auction for when you're traveling that really only
provides you with the basic necessities.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
I assume that if you're claustrophobic, this could be a problem.
Speaker 5 (12:46):
I think it could be a problem with your claustrophobic.
When I was staying in pod hotels, though, I actually
found them to be a lot better than I expected.
The ones I stayed and had really good ventilations, so
they didn't feel stuffy at all, and inside they actually
seem a lot bigger than they look on the outside.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
So you got to kind of crawl into them, right
if you don't walk into them.
Speaker 5 (13:05):
Yeah, no, you can't walk into them. You have to
kind of crawl. You have to, yeah, like go in
and go in head first and then and then crawl
a little to get to the end.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Okay, So now the ones that I have seen primarily
like at Japanese train stations, which is crazy. It almost
looks like like a big bunch of mail boxes or something.
You know, does how much privacy do you have? I
assume there's a door that you can close and can
(13:35):
lock from the inside.
Speaker 5 (13:38):
Ah yeah, yeah, So normally you're in this little pod.
One of the ones I stayed in in Japan looked
like an MRI machine, And so you go inside and
there's normally a blackout curtain that you can lower over
the mouth of the pod, and then it'll be black
on the inside. It normally doesn't lock, because it's more
of a curtain, but you have the curtain for darkness
(13:58):
and for privacy, and then they're all be a locker
under the pod or somewhere else in the building where
you can securely store your stuff.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Okay, so how's the pod hotel in Boston. Is it similar, identical,
or a little different than the ones you stayed at
in Japan.
Speaker 5 (14:15):
It's pretty similar in that you know, it's a pod
hotel and so it has these beds in pretty small spaces,
but the esthetics were very different. The one in Japan
was very smooth, very plastic, lots of like white plastic surfaces,
and then the pods themselves are a bit smaller, while
the one in Boston had these wood paneled square pods
rather than the rounder ones in Japan, and the pods
(14:37):
themselves are actually a bit bigger as well.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Okay, so where is the pod hotel in Boston, assuming
someone would like to experience a pod hotel or they
would like to utilize it if they have a friend
of these visiting Boston.
Speaker 5 (14:51):
That's called Mecco Hotel and it's in the West End.
It's actually less than a block away from p D
Garden on just a little side street, the branch of
off of the main street that TV Garden is on.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Okay, so now the big question is what's it cost
per night? Does it vary whether it's the Bruins with
Celtics or home or or is it a standard charge.
Speaker 5 (15:13):
I don't think it varies by night. It's a standard charge,
but it can vary by the kind of pods that
you get. They have smaller bunk deed pods, which are
essentially just bug beds with curtains you can close over
an opening. And then they also have larger single bed pods,
which are sort of like a bunk bed, but they
don't have a bunk on the top, so you have
a higher ceiling.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Okay, so what's the top price if you really want
to go crazy and you want a single room as
opposed to shooting a room with a stranger.
Speaker 5 (15:40):
Yeah, so the one I stayed in, which was one
of the larger pods, was eighty five dollars tax included.
And then I think, if you want your own room,
you just have to go to a non pod hotel.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
Unfortunately, yeah, we're not your own room.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
So when you were there, how many other people were
within your area? And did any of them snore loudly?
Speaker 5 (16:01):
It was pretty empty. I actually only saw one other
person while I was in the hotel, staying on my floor,
and she was talking on the phone a little bit
before I went to bed, but I ended up just
closing my curtain and I turned on my stand and
that totally drowned her out.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Would you recommend this? This this sort of again, I
realized that economics are involved here. It sounds to me like,
is anyone worried about you know, you get into a
situation where there's somebody who is either belligerate. I mean,
you know, if you're in a regular hotel and somebody's
(16:36):
loud in the next room, you can always call down
to the front desk and say, hey, they have party
in the next room. Can someone go up and you know,
quiet them down? Did you think about that? You're in
a situation and there could be three or four people.
Did that you could have some you know, some drunk
college guys having a a a great time, and you
wouldn't have wouldn't get a good night's sleep.
Speaker 5 (16:58):
I thought about that a little bit. I was on
a women's only floor, which like ease my worries a little,
and I think that it kind of just carries the
same risks as staying in any hostel. I think it's
really more comparable to a hostel than a traditional hotel.
So you will be in a room with other people,
you might be disrupted, but you treat that for being
a bit less expensive than a normal hotel.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Wow, and this is the first one in Boston. Do
you think that what's the capacity in terms of this location,
between all the different types or whatever? How many people
can they accommodate on any given night?
Speaker 5 (17:34):
And do they can accommodate a couple hundred people? Although
I'm not quite sure what the capacity is, but I.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Think it's like number that's a big yeah, yeah's a
great And in this building is it a new building?
Was it a building that they know? There's a lot
of older buildings down in that portion of the Lower
West End, The old West End. Was it a new
building or a building that they basically refurbished an older
building refurbished?
Speaker 5 (18:01):
The building looked relatively new when I was there, but
I'm not sure if it was completely new or if
it was maybe an older building that had the facadically furbished,
but inside looks very new.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Okay, So now the question is when does this piece
hit the Globe or has it hit the global already?
Because I want to go read the piece now.
Speaker 5 (18:17):
Yeah, so the pieces hit the global already and you
can find it online if you go to Globe dot
com under our Travel section, which is under our Broader
Lifestyle section.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Okay. Has it been in both the digital in print
or just the digital.
Speaker 5 (18:34):
I believe it actually comes out today in the print
issue because a lot of the travel pieces come out
on Wednesday.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Well, I got my Globe. I haven't read the travel section.
I'll be reading it right after the show. Adelaide, I
really enjoyed the conversation. Adelaide park Or, a Boston Globe
correspondent who shared her experience with Boston's first pod hotel.
You're great, sport, Thank you very much. It's your adventuresome.
You got some great journalistic congratulations and thanks for being
(19:02):
on with us, and I hope to have you on again.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (19:05):
Great to talk with you. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Thanks Adelade, you were wonderful. When we get back right
after the news, at the bottom of the air, we're
going to talk about the preparations for Salem's four hundredth anniversary.
Salem is actually older than Boston. They're underway ahead of
twenty twenty six. My name's Dan Ray. This is Nightside.
We hear every money through Friday night from eight and
to midnight. If you've missed any past night Side, you
(19:28):
can go to Nightside and demand and download and listen
to our podcast. Speaking of pods, every Hour is podcast
is put up on our podcast and available free of charge.
You can share it with friends all sorts of different
interesting topics. Feel free to spread the word. That's for sure.
On a call. So you also know that we're WBZ,
(19:49):
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(20:10):
three hundred and sixty five days a year, twenty four
to seven. It's like you're at home. My name's Dan Ray.
Back right after the news at the bottom of the hour.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
You're on Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm WBZ, Boston's
news radio.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
For many people do not realize that the city of
Salem is older than the city of Boston. With us
as Salem Mayor Dominic Pengalo maya Begalo, Welcome back to Nightside.
How are you.
Speaker 6 (20:37):
I'm well, Thanks Dan, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Yeah, I mean Boston. We I guess we're sixteen thirty.
If I'm not mistaken, I think that will be our
four hundredth and.
Speaker 6 (20:48):
You guys are young, yeah, but you're yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
By four years, by four years. How was it that
Salem got themselves established and became a city in advance
of Boston. I mean, you guys just smarter and said, hey,
let's be a city.
Speaker 6 (21:05):
I think it was just the timing of the arrival
of the Europeans that landed here and settled this on
of this land. You know, we were calling our celebrations
Salem four hundred plus, because we're also recognizing that there
was certainly many centuries of indigenous history here before the
European arrival. But savteen twenty six of the year that
we're marketing the four hundredth anniversary of next year in
(21:25):
twenty twenty six, So.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Tell us about some of the activities that everybody, it's
just not pop not Salemites, but everybody can go up
there and join with the population of Salem and celebrate
the anniversary. What do you get planned?
Speaker 6 (21:39):
Yeah, we've been working on planning for this for quite
some time. We started back in twenty seventeen, setting some
money aside in the budget in twenty nineteen, really getting
in our mist and some signature park investments are most
beloved larger parks, providing a twenty million dollars bond to
invest in those and really upgrade them in anticipation of
twenty twenty six. So the year ahead, we're going to
be starting it with a big volunteer celebration, trying to
(22:02):
encourage people to spend the year thinking about how they
can get back to their community, and then there'll be
signature events throughout the year. The first muster of the
National Guard is always an annual celebration we have here
in Salem in April, the especially powerful In twenty twenty six,
we'll be celebrating the fourth of July with some special
activities on fourth of July that year, and we'll be
bringing back to Heritage Day's Parade, which happens in August.
(22:23):
It happened for many decades. Those of us who grew
up in Salem remember the Heritage Days Parade is a
great community celebration. It's been gone for a number of
years now. We're going to bring it back for the
sale point or plus celebrations, and then Mayor's Night Out
in September celebrates the fall season here and we wrap
up the year with the closing event in December. But
really we're encouraging people if they're affiliated with a group
(22:45):
here that does a festival, that does an event you
know other times throughout the year, go to Salem four
hundred dot org. Take the volunteer pledge first of all,
because we want people to sign up to volunteer hours
and over the course of the year. But if you're
with an organization add your events to the community calendar.
We want to really populate that calendar with opportunities for
people to come out and celebrate all year long.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
So there are going to be and again when just
you know, people can forget. We're talking about twenty twenty six,
which is next year, so you still have some planning time.
So you mentioned certain specific dates, and I assume a
lot of them are going to revolve around weekends. I
assume correct.
Speaker 6 (23:23):
Yeah, absolutely, those are the dates that we're focusing on
for some of the signature events, but our festivals happen
throughout the year and many days, many days of the week.
We have a special thing that we're adding for next
year for the four hundred called Parks Day. It's Parks
Days and September twelfth to the thirteenth, where we'll be
opening up all of our parks. People can book them
and the fees are waived if you want to have
(23:44):
a special event, neighborhood gathering, any kind of community celebration.
We really want people to get out and enjoy the
amazing open public spaces that we have in the city.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
You know, it's a great city. Of course, when we
think of Salem, oftentimes you think of Halloween celebrations. Have
been saying, am all of that is the four hundredth
in October of twenty twenty six, Is that going to
be one of the major events? I mean, if anything,
that's that in October obviously October thirty first, Is that
(24:15):
going to be the final big event or will you
treated just as a regular Halloween.
Speaker 6 (24:20):
Yeah, so we the Mayor's Night Out celebration is on
the final Friday of September, and it's kind of the
kickoff or the community for the October season, and then
October is going to be just a regular that happening
is fun, you know, there's nothing specific to sale four
hundred during the month, although we certainly invite anybody planning
events in October and Salem to add them to the
community calendar so people can find them and see how
(24:42):
they're affiliated with the quad centennial celebrations. But the closing
event will be in December as the end the year
and reflect on the history, the moment that we're in
now and then what happens in the future in the
decades and the centuries to come for our city.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Well, it has to be a real honor to be
the mayor of a city like Salem or Boston or
wherever on one of those special years, whether it's the
three fiftieth. They did the three fiftieth in Boston back
in nineteen eighty as I'm sure you know, and that
time Kevin White would have been mayor, so you'll you'll
(25:16):
be remembered as the mayor for the four hundredth. Do
you have any idea or projections as to how many
folks not only from around the country, but from around
the world will decide to put Salem on their travel
calendar for that year for twenty twenty six, any idea
what sort of a bump you're going to have in
(25:37):
terms of tourism.
Speaker 6 (25:39):
It's hard to say for sure. I mean, there's been
a few cities that have already had their four hundredth
celebrations over the last few years, starting with Plymouth. The
timing for Plymouth was a little unfortunate for them. It
was in twenty twenty, and so, you know, the pandemic
really kind of threw them a curveball in terms of unfortunate. Yeah,
that was tough. Yeah, So it's really hard to say.
(26:02):
Salem is certainly a destination for many people. Every year,
we welcome close to probably around four hundred million visitors
for a city of forty five thousand people. It's it's
a you know, it's a place that people love to
visit and we love to share our stories with the world.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
You said four hundred million.
Speaker 4 (26:16):
Did I hear you in for close to four million?
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Yeah? What did I miss? Yeah? That's now that's a
pretty big nomber million four million.
Speaker 6 (26:25):
Yeah, and you know, about fifty percent of them come
between mid September and the end of October, so it's
certainly the busiest season for us.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Okay, last question, and I'm sure you would have anticipated this.
How are you going to deal with Every city has
great history, bad history? How are you going to deal
with the history of the witch trials? Will you ignore
that or will you deal with it in some way?
That's going to be a tough a tough part of
the history to deal with, obviously.
Speaker 6 (26:54):
It is, but I think it's an important part that
we acknowledge and we reflect on it and we think
about how it informs our values as a city today.
You know, we we're proud to be a welcoming place
that really wants to learn from our history, grow from it,
and also share our story with the world and with
our you know, with our visitors, so they understand our
contributions to our system of justice and jurisprudence, you know,
(27:15):
the courts of law that we have today in this country,
and how they were informed by the history that happened
here in sixteen ninety two.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
Well, good, good answer to a tough question. And I'm
sure you expected. I forgot to save it to the
end so it wouldn't be mad at me if I
asked it too early. Yeah, mega, Thanks very much, your
good sport, best of luck. Something for folks to look
forward to and plan. Is there a website up yet
where people can start it to look at it and
maybe market on their their calendar for next year that
(27:44):
we can direct people to.
Speaker 5 (27:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Absolutely.
Speaker 6 (27:47):
The wide is a Salem four und dot org. That's
the number four hundred, so Sale four.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
N Yeah, you dropped out there, so Salem four hundred
dot org. Okay, just want to make sure we get
it right. Thanks, Mayor, I really do appreciate it. Mayor
Dominic Pangalo, the mayor of Salem, Massachusetts. By the way,
which number, mayor are you? In four hundred years? How
many mayors have Salem had.
Speaker 6 (28:09):
I am the fifty second mayor. We've only had mayors
a city since eighteen thirty six, but we've been I
incorporated the town since sixteen twenty six.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
That's quite all right, I just I had to ask
thanks again, Salem Mayor Dominic Pangalo. All Right, we get back.
We're gonna talk to you about something that affects everyone.
If you own a credit card, it's going to get
more expensive the use of credit cards. And I'll tell
you why. We will. We will be told why by
Doug Canter, who's general counsel for the National Association of
Convenience Stores. Trust me, this is one you want to
(28:39):
listen to. We'll be right back on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's
news radio.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
All Right, our fourth and final guest this hour is
Doug Canter. He's the general counsel for the National Association
of Convenience Stores. Doug Cantell, Welcome to Nightside. How are you, sir?
Speaker 4 (28:58):
Thank you for having me on.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
You're more than welcome. It's going to get more expensive
for people to use credit cards. What's going on?
Speaker 4 (29:07):
Well, we have this strange system where Visa and MasterCard
tell all the banks that give us credit cards how
much to charge the stores, and without price competition among
those banks, the fees have gone out of control.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
Okay, So let's talk numbers here. Okay. So if I
go into a restaurant and I use my Visa card
and it costs me one hundred bucks before the tip,
Let's say it's a hundred even, you know, including taxes.
How much of that one hundred and let's say I
pay the waiter waitress cash as a tip. So how
(29:45):
much of that one hundred dollars is eaten up by
the bank or the Visa or Visa homever Because it's
bank and Visa who run the credit card Elon's I
think it's Elon Financial Services is the person I write
the company I write to check to every month? How
much four percent? Two percent? What is it?
Speaker 3 (30:06):
It's two?
Speaker 4 (30:07):
About two thirty five goes to the bank. About three
dollars in total goes to the bank and Visa MasterCard together,
and that adds up. Last year, the fees averaged almost
twelve hundred dollars per American family for the year.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Okay, So the twelve hundred dollars goes to the to
the credit card company and to the bank. So it
sounds to me like, it's a three percent, you said
two thirty five in the balance, it's about three bucks, right,
that's right. Okay, So where's it going to be a
year from now or six months from now. Where's that
number going to jump to?
Speaker 4 (30:47):
Well, what we know is between twenty twenty and twenty
twenty four, the Visa master Card credit card fees went
up eighty percent. So we're talking about double digit increases
every single year.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
So I'm doing the math in my head here. It
probably was I'm guessing maybe a buck seventy five and
to increase that eighty percent you need, it probably went
from buck seventy five per one hundred dollars to three dollars.
(31:24):
And so that might mean when is the next round
of increases likely to hit. I don't know.
Speaker 4 (31:31):
We just had an increase in January from Visa of
about another one hundred million dollars. They've been doing these
almost every year for the last few years.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
So my understanding is that the restaurants and stores, and
of course this applies more than restaurants. It applies to
retail stores and all of that. When you're at you know,
Target or Walmart's or whatever, us and convenience stores. Are
some of these restaurants and some of these other retailers,
(32:03):
are they now going to start to break that out
so people realize that more and more of their money
during the credit card transaction is not going for the
products or the services that they've received, but an increasing
amount is going to the card company and to the
bank that backs up the card company.
Speaker 4 (32:23):
Yeah, more places are feeling forced to do that. They
don't like to do it because a lot of times
customers don't actually know about these fees, and they blame
the store and get upset about it.
Speaker 5 (32:36):
But the truth is we.
Speaker 4 (32:38):
Pay them either way. Just sometimes we know and sometimes
we don't know.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
Okay, so the fees will go up, but the store
itself just as beginning now, because of the level of
fee of fee that will be charged, they're going to
let the customers know. Now other than maybe making the
customer a little more understanding, are they hoping that the
(33:03):
customers might turn around and change their credit cards? I mean, obviously,
you know. Just I'm trying to figure out what the
purpose of telling the customer, oh, yeah, your check is
one hundred dollars, but as an additional four dollars for
credit card fees, and maybe some people will say, what
are you talking about credit card fees and they'll explain
(33:25):
it to you. Is it a public relations thing or
is it an effort to maybe to get people to
find some credit cards that are that are charging a
lesser percentage of fees to the providers.
Speaker 4 (33:37):
Sure, a lot of places would prefer you pay cash
or or use your debit card. Either of those are
cheaper than the credit card. They know sometimes that can't work,
but they're still trying to let people know as best
they can and try to recover some of the money.
Just to give you a sense of how big it
(33:59):
is for the stores, it's their second highest operating cost
on average. What they pay their employees is number one.
Credit card fees is number two. It's more than they
pay to rent the store.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
Okay, now, I'll tell you. I am of the belief
that when credit cards came along, it was very beneficial.
Let's talk about restaurants, because it's one thing. If I'm
in a restaurant and at an expensive restaurant and they say, well,
you know, your dinner for you and your wife tonight
was two hundred and fifty dollars, how would you like
(34:32):
to pay that very few people walking around with two
fifty in their pocket and cash, So credit cards became
a convenience. And I think that credit cards, the use
of credit cards, has frankly inflated prices. I don't know
if you agree with that. You probably don't, But I
do believe in that because I think it's real easy
to say, oh, give me the check, let me put
a twenty percent tip on here, no problem, and you
(34:53):
just do that. At the end of the bud you say, wow,
we spent four thousand dollars last month of my credit card.
Did I where did it go? Do you buy that argument?
And no, that by using cash people might become a
little more cost conscious and that might come back to
haunt the restaurants a little bit.
Speaker 4 (35:10):
Look, there's no doubt there's some of that dynamic with
credit cards, and there's no doubt there's some benefit to it.
But no matter how beneficial something is, we usually don't
let all the competitors agree on how much to charge
for it. We call that price fixing.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
And have an How about an antitrust action exactly?
Speaker 4 (35:32):
There's been one for a long time. The credit card
companies have so much money to spend against it. They've delayed,
it's gone on for twenty years now.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
Wow, Wow, this is fascinating. What advice would you would
you suggest to consumers? I mean, when you can pay cash,
pay cash.
Speaker 4 (35:57):
Look, that's actually an often good budgeting technique that that
people recommend because we do tend to think of it
as funny money if if we don't see it in
front of us, there's there's no doubt about that. Look,
we're trying to push legislation that would require these credit
card companies to compete with each other on on price
(36:19):
and service like everybody else does. We think that would
make some sense, but you know, the truth is the
system is not well designed for everybody, and we tend
to get sucked into it anyway, you know, chasing after
rewards or what have you.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
This is this is a tough one because the consumer.
Not only are the restaurants really uh incurring a cost
that's an ever increasing cost, but the consumer is going
to pay that that ever increasing cost as well. That's
it's it's really a tough spot that the credit card
(37:00):
companies have put all of us in. Maybe we need
to shop the credit card companies a little bit more
I've had the same credit card for probably fifteen years,
and just there's inertia to change your credit card company
and all of that. It's time consuming, So therefore we
stay with the same credit card company, you know what
(37:21):
I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (37:22):
Yeah, that's definitely true. At the same time, on these fees,
shopping your credit card company doesn't really help because this
is what they're charging to the merchant, and they're all
agreeing to charge the same thing. That's why we do
need Congress to step up here and do something about it.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Yeah, and of course Congress accepts a lot more campaign
contributions from credit card companies. I'm sure that they do
from consumers, so that's a bit of a dilemma as well.
I really you explain this really well, Doug. Thank you.
I understand that not much better, and hopefully my audience
understands it much better. And maybe people when they're going
(38:02):
out to some of the more you know, some of
the more family oriented, less expensive restaurants, not the high
ends the restaurants, but the ones that are a little
bit more reasonable, maybe maybe they'll have some cash in
their pocket and they will help themselves and help the
restaurants as well.
Speaker 4 (38:20):
Those local family businesses will definitely appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
I love local, I love diners, and I love local restaurants,
and I believe me. Hey, Doug, thank you very much,
Doug cantor can we get more information from Is there
a website you want to send people to for more
information on this?
Speaker 4 (38:38):
Yes, for the Merchants Payments Coalition dot com. They'll be
able to find all the background on this.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
Merchants Payments Coalition dot com. Doug Cancer, thank you very much.
Speaker 4 (38:51):
Thank you, You're very welcome.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
Coming up, we're going to talk with Boston City Council
and Ed Flynn about some ethics reform in the Boston
City Council. Hey, let's say that entire City Hall of
Boston could use some ethics reform. Back on Nightside, after
the nine o'clock news,
It's Nightside with Dan Ray on WBZY, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Thanks very much, Gal, nice to work with you tonight.
Help Hello everyone, and welcome on into a Wednesday night
edition of Nightside. My name is Dan Ray, host of Nightside.
Rob Brooks, our producer for many years, is back in
the control room in the big broadcast facility in Medford, Massachusetts.
(00:28):
He'll begin to answer your phone calls when we start
taking phone calls in the nine o'clock hour. We're going
to be talking at nine o'clock with Boston City Council
at Flynn about the nephism ethics reform. It's a bit
of an understatement at the Boston City Council. Maybe we
need some ethics perform at Boston City Hall generally. And
then we are going to talk with a really interesting guest,
(00:49):
but not that at Flynn won't be interesting, but an
interesting guest talking about what happened on Wall Street today.
A complete one hundred and eighty degree turnaround by the
folks on Wall Street, A big day on Wall Street.
If you were waiting for the walls for the markets
(01:10):
to bump back up, today was today. And we will
be talking with Jaredillion. He is a founder and principal
of a company called Jared Dillion Money, and he's an
author of several books, some of which you may have read.
He's a money guy, and we'll get a sense from
him as to what happened, why it happened, and what's
likely to happen tomorrow and going forward, simple as that.
(01:33):
But first, as we always do with the eight o'clock hour,
we have four interesting guests for you to listen to,
and they will tell you and me what's going on
in this world. Again, some of these stories are very
big stories. Some of them are not so big, but
all of them do have some impact on your life
(01:54):
in mind. So that's the way we start tonight. And
I'm delighted to introduce John Vincent. He's going to talk
to us about the tariffs impact on cars. Now, the
tariffs have sort of been or some of the tariffs
have been put on ice for about ninety days, so
you know that's that's a situation that has just changed.
(02:17):
So let's talk with John Vincent about today. John forget
for the moment, the turnaround in the stock market. What's
perhaps more important to car dealers is that these tariffs
have been put on ice here for at least what
(02:38):
we're talking three months. John Vincent, Welcome to Nightside. How
are you.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
I'm good. Do you have whiplash yet?
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Yeah, a little bit, I'll tell you, boy. Yesterday up
fourteen hundred, down three hundred by day's end. Yeah, there
was a pretty good amount of whiplash taken place yesterday.
Today was like a rocket ship. It just it kind
of was, you know, a little up, a little down,
and then vavoom, it took off.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
Except for the car industry because the car industry is
excluded from that ninety day extension.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Oh so, so cars from Japan or cars from Canada
will be impacted, will be impacted anywhere. Okay, Well, that
that's a big industry. Why do you think that it
happened that way?
Speaker 3 (03:36):
I have no idea, and I don't know whether anybody else.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Well that's a good answer. That that's that. I love
guests to give me honest answers. So let's talk about it.
You're a senior editor and carrespondent for vehicle testing on
the Auto teams at US News and World Reports. So
you've covered this for a while.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
How long?
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Let me ask you this question, how long will it
be before we begin to see increases on dealers new
cars on the lots, you know, around the country and
around New England as a consequence of the tariffs. I
was under the impression, and thank you for correcting me,
that that everything was put on hold for ninety days.
(04:16):
But as you said, car tariffs are are still in effect.
So when will we start to see that impact.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
In your opinion last weekend, they're already hitting dealer prices
because a lot of people are getting into the market
thinking they need to get a new car right now.
And when there's more demand chasing the same supply, prices
go up.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
So let me ask the car dealers taking advantage of
their customers. At this point, obviously there has not yet
been a tariff paid by a car dealer. That seems
a little cynical.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Buying a car in America. Is you know what the
market will bear?
Speaker 4 (05:00):
No.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
I do understand that that's capitalism, But I got to say,
if I go to my car dealer and all of
a sudden, I see that that bumped up the price
four five thousand dollars, that four or five thousand dollars,
and I assume that's what we're talking about correct. On
you know, a thirty five forty thousand dollar car, we're
talking about a bump of four or five thousand dollars.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Probably not that much yet, but you're probably seeing a
tightening to MSRP, so you're not going to see a discount.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Okay, So what you're saying the dealer, if we go
this weekend, they're likely to say, I can't do anything.
MSRP is what it is. If you want to buy
the car, go ahead. If you don't, I got five
guys coming in the door.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Behind you, exactly, and they're probably busy enough that you know,
they'd rather just find that customer who will give them
that sticker price than somebody who's going to take an
hour to dicker.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Yeah. No, I do understand that, but there's just something
about that that seems a little swam swammery to me.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
I agree, I agree, But that's the system we have.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Well, I mean, it is a system we have, but
also the system your integrity as a seller of any
product is important for the long term. You know, if
you're gonna charge me a couple thousand dollars extra for
the thread of tariffs as opposed to the actual implementation
(06:24):
of teriffs, I might look at you a little differently.
Am I trying to go find a different dealer to
be really honest with them? I'm I'm kind of surprised that.
See that seems to me downright cynical, because look, if
the new wave of cars come in and it's cost them,
what's it going to cost them on a tariff? Would
you say on a let's say a forty thousand dollars car.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
It's hard to say because it depends on where that
car and its components are built. It could be a
few thousand dollars. It could be fifteen thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Well, theoretically, it could be nothing if it's an American
built car.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Well, the most American built car in the US is
the Tesla Model three Performance, and it is eighty seven
percent US parts, So thirteen percent that's parts will be tariffed.
There is not a single single car sold in the US.
They will not be struck by these tariffs.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Okay, Well, I'm told I'm told that, for example, BMW
has a factory in South Carolina, and I'm told by
someone that the cars before they have finished, they're essentially
constructed here. They they're taken by boat back to Europe
and then they come back as the finished product. Is
(07:35):
that true?
Speaker 3 (07:36):
That's not true.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
You bet that's not true.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
That is not true. Hey, you guys who would never
make money off those cars if they had to ship
them across the ocean twace.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Well, well, they were saying it's built here, shipped over there,
and then brought back. So you're saying, if it's built here,
there's no way that's going to be sent to overseas
for anything. However, some of the parts of the car
that is built here, even though it's physically built here
(08:07):
in America, because certain parts of that car were shipped here,
that will reflect a percentage of the car. Okay, I
get it.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Say we're talking about a BMW X three, where its
transmission might come from Germany, its tires might come from Mexico,
other components might come from Canada. All those different components
are going to be teariffed at different rates, and those
different prices are going to have to be built into
that car.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Okay. So I think what Trump is saying is that
that we have tire manufacturers in this country. Maybe what
they have. What he's trying to do is convince them
to put American tires on cars manufacturing in America.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
If America could make enough tires to fit all of
the cars that are made in America, that would be great.
But it's a very it's a very interconnected supplier ecosystem,
and so the factories that supply all the parts to
the cars built in America are all over North America,
(09:11):
and the United States on its own cannot support the
number of parts to go on every car built here.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Okay, So how long will it take for America to
in effect bring this stuff home and say we're going
to build cars in America in your opinion.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
So, some manufacturers who have excess plant capacity, like GM
with their truck plants, can do it relatively quickly, and
relatively quickly quickly means six months to a year, because
it's not just you know, GM deciding to put a
third shift on, it's bringing all of their suppliers along
(09:52):
to build the parts that have to go into the factory.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Okay, so and they so if GM is ahead of
the game here, aby, GM will be able to sell
cars more cheaply or less expensively, to put it that way,
than some other car manufacturers, And maybe that will give
GM a little bit of an invite.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
A little bit of a damage, except that the excess
capacity is in the pickup truck plants, which are some
of the most expensive and high margin vehicles they make.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Okay, all right, Well, look.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
Nissan Versa from Mexico with a Chevy Silverado.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Yeah no, I'll tell you. I've been a Vovo guy
for a long long time. I'm going to intentionally go
shop for American cars. I've got an eleven year old
Vovo which has served me well. I'm going to try
to make my next car an American car.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
So you can buy a Volvo ex ninety built in
South Carolina.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Well, if it's truly built in South Carolina and it's
not customer money extra money, that's that sounds good? Hey John, Thanks,
thanks very much. I assume folks can read your stuff.
You sound like you're on top of your game. Senior
editor and correspondent and US News and World Report, John,
we went a little over in time. I thank you
for your patience. You've been a great guest. Thank you
(11:13):
so much, very much. I appreciate your time. Thanks John
Vincent of US News and World Report. And we get back.
We're going to introduce you to a Boston Globe correspondent
who is going to talk about Boston's first and only
pod hotel. Wait, do you hear this story? This is
going to shock you.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Night side with Dan Ray, I'm telling you Boston's News.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Radio delighted to welcome Adelai Parker. She's a Boston Lolbe
correspondent who has actually experienced pod hotels in Japan, so
she really has some experience. And now Boston's first pod
hotel is in existence. Adelaide for those of us who
have never stated a pod hotel, which means probably ninety
(11:59):
nine nine percent of my audience, what exactly is a
pod hotel?
Speaker 5 (12:05):
Yeah? Well, first of all, thank you for having me on.
A pod hotel is sort of this hotel idea that
was first pioneered in Japan in nineteen seventy nine, and
it tries to save the maximum amount of space, so
it literally only gives you the bare essentials, which means
that it essentially puts you in this coffin or mri
sized pod that has a mattress, a pillow, and then
(12:28):
you get in there and you sleep and there's oftentimes
not even enough space to sit up in and so
it's meant to be kind of like a hostel, you know,
low cost auction for when you're traveling that really only
provides you with the basic necessities.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
I assume that if you're claustrophobic, this could be a problem.
Speaker 5 (12:46):
I think it could be a problem with your claustrophobic.
When I was staying in pod hotels, though, I actually
found them to be a lot better than I expected.
The ones I stayed and had really good ventilations, so
they didn't feel stuffy at all, and inside they actually
seem a lot bigger than they look on the outside.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
So you got to kind of crawl into them, right
if you don't walk into them.
Speaker 5 (13:05):
Yeah, no, you can't walk into them. You have to
kind of crawl. You have to, yeah, like go in
and go in head first and then and then crawl
a little to get to the end.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Okay, So now the ones that I have seen primarily
like at Japanese train stations, which is crazy. It almost
looks like like a big bunch of mail boxes or something.
You know, does how much privacy do you have? I
assume there's a door that you can close and can
(13:35):
lock from the inside.
Speaker 5 (13:38):
Ah yeah, yeah, So normally you're in this little pod.
One of the ones I stayed in in Japan looked
like an MRI machine, And so you go inside and
there's normally a blackout curtain that you can lower over
the mouth of the pod, and then it'll be black
on the inside. It normally doesn't lock, because it's more
of a curtain, but you have the curtain for darkness
(13:58):
and for privacy, and then they're all be a locker
under the pod or somewhere else in the building where
you can securely store your stuff.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Okay, so how's the pod hotel in Boston. Is it similar, identical,
or a little different than the ones you stayed at
in Japan.
Speaker 5 (14:15):
It's pretty similar in that you know, it's a pod
hotel and so it has these beds in pretty small spaces,
but the esthetics were very different. The one in Japan
was very smooth, very plastic, lots of like white plastic surfaces,
and then the pods themselves are a bit smaller, while
the one in Boston had these wood paneled square pods
rather than the rounder ones in Japan, and the pods
(14:37):
themselves are actually a bit bigger as well.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Okay, so where is the pod hotel in Boston, assuming
someone would like to experience a pod hotel or they
would like to utilize it if they have a friend
of these visiting Boston.
Speaker 5 (14:51):
That's called Mecco Hotel and it's in the West End.
It's actually less than a block away from p D
Garden on just a little side street, the branch of
off of the main street that TV Garden is on.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Okay, so now the big question is what's it cost
per night? Does it vary whether it's the Bruins with
Celtics or home or or is it a standard charge.
Speaker 5 (15:13):
I don't think it varies by night. It's a standard charge,
but it can vary by the kind of pods that
you get. They have smaller bunk deed pods, which are
essentially just bug beds with curtains you can close over
an opening. And then they also have larger single bed pods,
which are sort of like a bunk bed, but they
don't have a bunk on the top, so you have
a higher ceiling.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Okay, so what's the top price if you really want
to go crazy and you want a single room as
opposed to shooting a room with a stranger.
Speaker 5 (15:40):
Yeah, so the one I stayed in, which was one
of the larger pods, was eighty five dollars tax included.
And then I think, if you want your own room,
you just have to go to a non pod hotel.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
Unfortunately, yeah, we're not your own room.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
So when you were there, how many other people were
within your area? And did any of them snore loudly?
Speaker 5 (16:01):
It was pretty empty. I actually only saw one other
person while I was in the hotel, staying on my floor,
and she was talking on the phone a little bit
before I went to bed, but I ended up just
closing my curtain and I turned on my stand and
that totally drowned her out.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Would you recommend this? This this sort of again, I
realized that economics are involved here. It sounds to me like,
is anyone worried about you know, you get into a
situation where there's somebody who is either belligerate. I mean,
you know, if you're in a regular hotel and somebody's
(16:36):
loud in the next room, you can always call down
to the front desk and say, hey, they have party
in the next room. Can someone go up and you know,
quiet them down? Did you think about that? You're in
a situation and there could be three or four people.
Did that you could have some you know, some drunk
college guys having a a a great time, and you
wouldn't have wouldn't get a good night's sleep.
Speaker 5 (16:58):
I thought about that a little bit. I was on
a women's only floor, which like ease my worries a little,
and I think that it kind of just carries the
same risks as staying in any hostel. I think it's
really more comparable to a hostel than a traditional hotel.
So you will be in a room with other people,
you might be disrupted, but you treat that for being
a bit less expensive than a normal hotel.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Wow, and this is the first one in Boston. Do
you think that what's the capacity in terms of this location,
between all the different types or whatever? How many people
can they accommodate on any given night?
Speaker 5 (17:34):
And do they can accommodate a couple hundred people? Although
I'm not quite sure what the capacity is, but I.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Think it's like number that's a big yeah, yeah's a
great And in this building is it a new building?
Was it a building that they know? There's a lot
of older buildings down in that portion of the Lower
West End, The old West End. Was it a new
building or a building that they basically refurbished an older
building refurbished?
Speaker 5 (18:01):
The building looked relatively new when I was there, but
I'm not sure if it was completely new or if
it was maybe an older building that had the facadically furbished,
but inside looks very new.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Okay, So now the question is when does this piece
hit the Globe or has it hit the global already?
Because I want to go read the piece now.
Speaker 5 (18:17):
Yeah, so the pieces hit the global already and you
can find it online if you go to Globe dot
com under our Travel section, which is under our Broader
Lifestyle section.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Okay. Has it been in both the digital in print
or just the digital.
Speaker 5 (18:34):
I believe it actually comes out today in the print
issue because a lot of the travel pieces come out
on Wednesday.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Well, I got my Globe. I haven't read the travel section.
I'll be reading it right after the show. Adelaide, I
really enjoyed the conversation. Adelaide park Or, a Boston Globe
correspondent who shared her experience with Boston's first pod hotel.
You're great, sport, Thank you very much. It's your adventuresome.
You got some great journalistic congratulations and thanks for being
(19:02):
on with us, and I hope to have you on again.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (19:05):
Great to talk with you. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Thanks Adelade, you were wonderful. When we get back right
after the news, at the bottom of the air, we're
going to talk about the preparations for Salem's four hundredth anniversary.
Salem is actually older than Boston. They're underway ahead of
twenty twenty six. My name's Dan Ray. This is Nightside.
We hear every money through Friday night from eight and
to midnight. If you've missed any past night Side, you
(19:28):
can go to Nightside and demand and download and listen
to our podcast. Speaking of pods, every Hour is podcast
is put up on our podcast and available free of charge.
You can share it with friends all sorts of different
interesting topics. Feel free to spread the word. That's for sure.
On a call. So you also know that we're WBZ,
(19:49):
Boston's oldest, the oldest radio station in New England, but
with the most modern two Because we're an iHeart media station.
You can pull down the new and improved iHeart app,
put it on all of your devices and then WBZ
will only be a fingertip away from you make our
us WBZ your first preset wherever you are in the world,
(20:10):
three hundred and sixty five days a year, twenty four
to seven. It's like you're at home. My name's Dan Ray.
Back right after the news at the bottom of the hour.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
You're on Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm WBZ, Boston's
news radio.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
For many people do not realize that the city of
Salem is older than the city of Boston. With us
as Salem Mayor Dominic Pengalo maya Begalo, Welcome back to Nightside.
How are you.
Speaker 6 (20:37):
I'm well, Thanks Dan, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Yeah, I mean Boston. We I guess we're sixteen thirty.
If I'm not mistaken, I think that will be our
four hundredth and.
Speaker 6 (20:48):
You guys are young, yeah, but you're yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
By four years, by four years. How was it that
Salem got themselves established and became a city in advance
of Boston. I mean, you guys just smarter and said, hey,
let's be a city.
Speaker 6 (21:05):
I think it was just the timing of the arrival
of the Europeans that landed here and settled this on
of this land. You know, we were calling our celebrations
Salem four hundred plus, because we're also recognizing that there
was certainly many centuries of indigenous history here before the
European arrival. But savteen twenty six of the year that
we're marketing the four hundredth anniversary of next year in
(21:25):
twenty twenty six, So.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Tell us about some of the activities that everybody, it's
just not pop not Salemites, but everybody can go up
there and join with the population of Salem and celebrate
the anniversary. What do you get planned?
Speaker 6 (21:39):
Yeah, we've been working on planning for this for quite
some time. We started back in twenty seventeen, setting some
money aside in the budget in twenty nineteen, really getting
in our mist and some signature park investments are most
beloved larger parks, providing a twenty million dollars bond to
invest in those and really upgrade them in anticipation of
twenty twenty six. So the year ahead, we're going to
be starting it with a big volunteer celebration, trying to
(22:02):
encourage people to spend the year thinking about how they
can get back to their community, and then there'll be
signature events throughout the year. The first muster of the
National Guard is always an annual celebration we have here
in Salem in April, the especially powerful In twenty twenty six,
we'll be celebrating the fourth of July with some special
activities on fourth of July that year, and we'll be
bringing back to Heritage Day's Parade, which happens in August.
(22:23):
It happened for many decades. Those of us who grew
up in Salem remember the Heritage Days Parade is a
great community celebration. It's been gone for a number of
years now. We're going to bring it back for the
sale point or plus celebrations, and then Mayor's Night Out
in September celebrates the fall season here and we wrap
up the year with the closing event in December. But
really we're encouraging people if they're affiliated with a group
(22:45):
here that does a festival, that does an event you
know other times throughout the year, go to Salem four
hundred dot org. Take the volunteer pledge first of all,
because we want people to sign up to volunteer hours
and over the course of the year. But if you're
with an organization add your events to the community calendar.
We want to really populate that calendar with opportunities for
people to come out and celebrate all year long.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
So there are going to be and again when just
you know, people can forget. We're talking about twenty twenty six,
which is next year, so you still have some planning time.
So you mentioned certain specific dates, and I assume a
lot of them are going to revolve around weekends. I
assume correct.
Speaker 6 (23:23):
Yeah, absolutely, those are the dates that we're focusing on
for some of the signature events, but our festivals happen
throughout the year and many days, many days of the week.
We have a special thing that we're adding for next
year for the four hundred called Parks Day. It's Parks
Days and September twelfth to the thirteenth, where we'll be
opening up all of our parks. People can book them
and the fees are waived if you want to have
(23:44):
a special event, neighborhood gathering, any kind of community celebration.
We really want people to get out and enjoy the
amazing open public spaces that we have in the city.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
You know, it's a great city. Of course, when we
think of Salem, oftentimes you think of Halloween celebrations. Have
been saying, am all of that is the four hundredth
in October of twenty twenty six, Is that going to
be one of the major events? I mean, if anything,
that's that in October obviously October thirty first, Is that
(24:15):
going to be the final big event or will you
treated just as a regular Halloween.
Speaker 6 (24:20):
Yeah, so we the Mayor's Night Out celebration is on
the final Friday of September, and it's kind of the
kickoff or the community for the October season, and then
October is going to be just a regular that happening
is fun, you know, there's nothing specific to sale four
hundred during the month, although we certainly invite anybody planning
events in October and Salem to add them to the
community calendar so people can find them and see how
(24:42):
they're affiliated with the quad centennial celebrations. But the closing
event will be in December as the end the year
and reflect on the history, the moment that we're in
now and then what happens in the future in the
decades and the centuries to come for our city.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Well, it has to be a real honor to be
the mayor of a city like Salem or Boston or
wherever on one of those special years, whether it's the
three fiftieth. They did the three fiftieth in Boston back
in nineteen eighty as I'm sure you know, and that
time Kevin White would have been mayor, so you'll you'll
(25:16):
be remembered as the mayor for the four hundredth. Do
you have any idea or projections as to how many
folks not only from around the country, but from around
the world will decide to put Salem on their travel
calendar for that year for twenty twenty six, any idea
what sort of a bump you're going to have in
(25:37):
terms of tourism.
Speaker 6 (25:39):
It's hard to say for sure. I mean, there's been
a few cities that have already had their four hundredth
celebrations over the last few years, starting with Plymouth. The
timing for Plymouth was a little unfortunate for them. It
was in twenty twenty, and so, you know, the pandemic
really kind of threw them a curveball in terms of unfortunate. Yeah,
that was tough. Yeah, So it's really hard to say.
(26:02):
Salem is certainly a destination for many people. Every year,
we welcome close to probably around four hundred million visitors
for a city of forty five thousand people. It's it's
a you know, it's a place that people love to
visit and we love to share our stories with the world.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
You said four hundred million.
Speaker 4 (26:16):
Did I hear you in for close to four million?
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Yeah? What did I miss? Yeah? That's now that's a
pretty big nomber million four million.
Speaker 6 (26:25):
Yeah, and you know, about fifty percent of them come
between mid September and the end of October, so it's
certainly the busiest season for us.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Okay, last question, and I'm sure you would have anticipated this.
How are you going to deal with Every city has
great history, bad history? How are you going to deal
with the history of the witch trials? Will you ignore
that or will you deal with it in some way?
That's going to be a tough a tough part of
the history to deal with, obviously.
Speaker 6 (26:54):
It is, but I think it's an important part that
we acknowledge and we reflect on it and we think
about how it informs our values as a city today.
You know, we we're proud to be a welcoming place
that really wants to learn from our history, grow from it,
and also share our story with the world and with
our you know, with our visitors, so they understand our
contributions to our system of justice and jurisprudence, you know,
(27:15):
the courts of law that we have today in this country,
and how they were informed by the history that happened
here in sixteen ninety two.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
Well, good, good answer to a tough question. And I'm
sure you expected. I forgot to save it to the
end so it wouldn't be mad at me if I
asked it too early. Yeah, mega, Thanks very much, your
good sport, best of luck. Something for folks to look
forward to and plan. Is there a website up yet
where people can start it to look at it and
maybe market on their their calendar for next year that
(27:44):
we can direct people to.
Speaker 5 (27:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Absolutely.
Speaker 6 (27:47):
The wide is a Salem four und dot org. That's
the number four hundred, so Sale four.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
N Yeah, you dropped out there, so Salem four hundred
dot org. Okay, just want to make sure we get
it right. Thanks, Mayor, I really do appreciate it. Mayor
Dominic Pangalo, the mayor of Salem, Massachusetts. By the way,
which number, mayor are you? In four hundred years? How
many mayors have Salem had.
Speaker 6 (28:09):
I am the fifty second mayor. We've only had mayors
a city since eighteen thirty six, but we've been I
incorporated the town since sixteen twenty six.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
That's quite all right, I just I had to ask
thanks again, Salem Mayor Dominic Pangalo. All Right, we get back.
We're gonna talk to you about something that affects everyone.
If you own a credit card, it's going to get
more expensive the use of credit cards. And I'll tell
you why. We will. We will be told why by
Doug Canter, who's general counsel for the National Association of
Convenience Stores. Trust me, this is one you want to
(28:39):
listen to. We'll be right back on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's
news radio.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
All Right, our fourth and final guest this hour is
Doug Canter. He's the general counsel for the National Association
of Convenience Stores. Doug Cantell, Welcome to Nightside. How are you, sir?
Speaker 4 (28:58):
Thank you for having me on.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
You're more than welcome. It's going to get more expensive
for people to use credit cards. What's going on?
Speaker 4 (29:07):
Well, we have this strange system where Visa and MasterCard
tell all the banks that give us credit cards how
much to charge the stores, and without price competition among
those banks, the fees have gone out of control.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
Okay, So let's talk numbers here. Okay. So if I
go into a restaurant and I use my Visa card
and it costs me one hundred bucks before the tip,
Let's say it's a hundred even, you know, including taxes.
How much of that one hundred and let's say I
pay the waiter waitress cash as a tip. So how
(29:45):
much of that one hundred dollars is eaten up by
the bank or the Visa or Visa homever Because it's
bank and Visa who run the credit card Elon's I
think it's Elon Financial Services is the person I write
the company I write to check to every month? How
much four percent? Two percent? What is it?
Speaker 3 (30:06):
It's two?
Speaker 4 (30:07):
About two thirty five goes to the bank. About three
dollars in total goes to the bank and Visa MasterCard together,
and that adds up. Last year, the fees averaged almost
twelve hundred dollars per American family for the year.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Okay, So the twelve hundred dollars goes to the to
the credit card company and to the bank. So it
sounds to me like, it's a three percent, you said
two thirty five in the balance, it's about three bucks, right,
that's right. Okay, So where's it going to be a
year from now or six months from now. Where's that
number going to jump to?
Speaker 4 (30:47):
Well, what we know is between twenty twenty and twenty
twenty four, the Visa master Card credit card fees went
up eighty percent. So we're talking about double digit increases
every single year.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
So I'm doing the math in my head here. It
probably was I'm guessing maybe a buck seventy five and
to increase that eighty percent you need, it probably went
from buck seventy five per one hundred dollars to three dollars.
(31:24):
And so that might mean when is the next round
of increases likely to hit. I don't know.
Speaker 4 (31:31):
We just had an increase in January from Visa of
about another one hundred million dollars. They've been doing these
almost every year for the last few years.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
So my understanding is that the restaurants and stores, and
of course this applies more than restaurants. It applies to
retail stores and all of that. When you're at you know,
Target or Walmart's or whatever, us and convenience stores. Are
some of these restaurants and some of these other retailers,
(32:03):
are they now going to start to break that out
so people realize that more and more of their money
during the credit card transaction is not going for the
products or the services that they've received, but an increasing
amount is going to the card company and to the
bank that backs up the card company.
Speaker 4 (32:23):
Yeah, more places are feeling forced to do that. They
don't like to do it because a lot of times
customers don't actually know about these fees, and they blame
the store and get upset about it.
Speaker 5 (32:36):
But the truth is we.
Speaker 4 (32:38):
Pay them either way. Just sometimes we know and sometimes
we don't know.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
Okay, so the fees will go up, but the store
itself just as beginning now, because of the level of
fee of fee that will be charged, they're going to
let the customers know. Now other than maybe making the
customer a little more understanding, are they hoping that the
(33:03):
customers might turn around and change their credit cards? I mean, obviously,
you know. Just I'm trying to figure out what the
purpose of telling the customer, oh, yeah, your check is
one hundred dollars, but as an additional four dollars for
credit card fees, and maybe some people will say, what
are you talking about credit card fees and they'll explain
(33:25):
it to you. Is it a public relations thing or
is it an effort to maybe to get people to
find some credit cards that are that are charging a
lesser percentage of fees to the providers.
Speaker 4 (33:37):
Sure, a lot of places would prefer you pay cash
or or use your debit card. Either of those are
cheaper than the credit card. They know sometimes that can't work,
but they're still trying to let people know as best
they can and try to recover some of the money.
Just to give you a sense of how big it
(33:59):
is for the stores, it's their second highest operating cost
on average. What they pay their employees is number one.
Credit card fees is number two. It's more than they
pay to rent the store.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
Okay, now, I'll tell you. I am of the belief
that when credit cards came along, it was very beneficial.
Let's talk about restaurants, because it's one thing. If I'm
in a restaurant and at an expensive restaurant and they say, well,
you know, your dinner for you and your wife tonight
was two hundred and fifty dollars, how would you like
(34:32):
to pay that very few people walking around with two
fifty in their pocket and cash, So credit cards became
a convenience. And I think that credit cards, the use
of credit cards, has frankly inflated prices. I don't know
if you agree with that. You probably don't, But I
do believe in that because I think it's real easy
to say, oh, give me the check, let me put
a twenty percent tip on here, no problem, and you
(34:53):
just do that. At the end of the bud you say, wow,
we spent four thousand dollars last month of my credit card.
Did I where did it go? Do you buy that argument?
And no, that by using cash people might become a
little more cost conscious and that might come back to
haunt the restaurants a little bit.
Speaker 4 (35:10):
Look, there's no doubt there's some of that dynamic with
credit cards, and there's no doubt there's some benefit to it.
But no matter how beneficial something is, we usually don't
let all the competitors agree on how much to charge
for it. We call that price fixing.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
And have an How about an antitrust action exactly?
Speaker 4 (35:32):
There's been one for a long time. The credit card
companies have so much money to spend against it. They've delayed,
it's gone on for twenty years now.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
Wow, Wow, this is fascinating. What advice would you would
you suggest to consumers? I mean, when you can pay cash,
pay cash.
Speaker 4 (35:57):
Look, that's actually an often good budgeting technique that that
people recommend because we do tend to think of it
as funny money if if we don't see it in
front of us, there's there's no doubt about that. Look,
we're trying to push legislation that would require these credit
card companies to compete with each other on on price
(36:19):
and service like everybody else does. We think that would
make some sense, but you know, the truth is the
system is not well designed for everybody, and we tend
to get sucked into it anyway, you know, chasing after
rewards or what have you.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
This is this is a tough one because the consumer.
Not only are the restaurants really uh incurring a cost
that's an ever increasing cost, but the consumer is going
to pay that that ever increasing cost as well. That's
it's it's really a tough spot that the credit card
(37:00):
companies have put all of us in. Maybe we need
to shop the credit card companies a little bit more
I've had the same credit card for probably fifteen years,
and just there's inertia to change your credit card company
and all of that. It's time consuming, So therefore we
stay with the same credit card company, you know what
(37:21):
I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (37:22):
Yeah, that's definitely true. At the same time, on these fees,
shopping your credit card company doesn't really help because this
is what they're charging to the merchant, and they're all
agreeing to charge the same thing. That's why we do
need Congress to step up here and do something about it.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
Yeah, and of course Congress accepts a lot more campaign
contributions from credit card companies. I'm sure that they do
from consumers, so that's a bit of a dilemma as well.
I really you explain this really well, Doug. Thank you.
I understand that not much better, and hopefully my audience
understands it much better. And maybe people when they're going
(38:02):
out to some of the more you know, some of
the more family oriented, less expensive restaurants, not the high
ends the restaurants, but the ones that are a little
bit more reasonable, maybe maybe they'll have some cash in
their pocket and they will help themselves and help the
restaurants as well.
Speaker 4 (38:20):
Those local family businesses will definitely appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
I love local, I love diners, and I love local restaurants,
and I believe me. Hey, Doug, thank you very much,
Doug cantor can we get more information from Is there
a website you want to send people to for more
information on this?
Speaker 4 (38:38):
Yes, for the Merchants Payments Coalition dot com. They'll be
able to find all the background on this.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
Merchants Payments Coalition dot com. Doug Cancer, thank you very much.
Speaker 4 (38:51):
Thank you, You're very welcome.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
Coming up, we're going to talk with Boston City Council
and Ed Flynn about some ethics reform in the Boston
City Council. Hey, let's say that entire City Hall of
Boston could use some ethics reform. Back on Nightside, after
the nine o'clock news,
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