Eye Contact At Starbucks

Quake Waves: SF Chronicle. Serial Squirrel Attack. Fight Against Bougainvillea.  Eye Contact at Starbucks. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Gary and Shannon and you're listening to kfi
AM six forty, The Gary and Shannon Show on demand
on the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Gary and Shannon kfi AM six forty Live everywhere on
the iHeart Radio app.

Speaker 3 (00:15):
Gary Shannon, This is Ang in Ontario.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
And No, I didn't just google do bear's poop during hibernation?

Speaker 3 (00:23):
Okay I did? Yes?

Speaker 4 (00:24):
You did?

Speaker 3 (00:25):
Yes? Did? The answer is no, they do not.

Speaker 5 (00:28):
See.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
People always catch us at these times, not when we're
saying something smart, smart, few and far between you. Joe
Kwan texted that her husband yelled out, your friends are
talking about bear poop on the radio. Why are people
that listen when we're doing stupid?

Speaker 3 (00:44):
And you don't have to tell on us? Just yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
In the news today, a man representing himself in federal
court against charges that he tried to assassinate President Trump
last year at his Florida golf course told jurors.

Speaker 3 (00:56):
He didn't intend to kill anyone that day.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
Jurors, I've begun deliberating charges against Ryan ruth says he
could have shot Trump or a Secret Service agent if
he intended any harm. Today, prosecutors urged that he spent
weeks plotting to kill the president before aiming a rifle
at him. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of
attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer,

(01:22):
several firearms violations. Saw an interview this morning with this guy.
This is the guy who's representing himself. This guy is
not walking with two feet on the ground. His daughter,
the crazy nut, doesn't fall far from the tree because
she says, this whole trial is a sham, but your
dad has decided to represent himself in federal court.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
Yeah, that's a pedigree. AKA.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
Well, there is a little boy that has gone viral.
His name is Weston and Weston Schrader was in speech
therapy when his parent Stephanie and Joe came up with
a clever idea record him speaking to help him practice that.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Clever It seems could be pretty common if you're trying
to help a kid with speech.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
You know, I don't remember anybody, well, I wouldn't be
cognizant of it when I was growing up. Two of
my nephews were in speech therapy when they were little,
and one of my roommates in college that was her
major was she was a speech therapist for kids. But man,
great work they do. But anyway, yeah, parents, Stephanie and
Joe said, we'll record him.

Speaker 3 (02:33):
I'll have them practice. Around the same time, the family.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Had just moved just a close distance from Highmark Stadium.
That's where the Bills play up there in upstate New York.
And both parents love football, so of course Weston is
going to love football. And since there's such this emphasy
emphasis on his speech therapy, they.

Speaker 3 (02:55):
Overlapped, shall we say, yeah, what he did.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
What they did was they started getting you know, there's
little mini helmets you used to get out of the
bubblegum machines.

Speaker 3 (03:02):
Kids there used to be ways never mind, and they
still do it.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
My nephews, even though they didn't grow up with the
bubble gum machines, love those many helmets, just like my
brother and I did to collect all of them to
have the whole league.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
I would hope, I would hope. So, yeah, I just
don't know where you'd get them today.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
But the internet sad but true, true, but you you
get all thirty two teams, you get their little helmets,
and what you know, this.

Speaker 3 (03:27):
Is a problem now on the internet, you can.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
Order like the set as opposed to when we were kids,
you'd have to have the bubble gum machine, and you'd
have like three of the New York Giants and none
of the forty nine ers.

Speaker 3 (03:38):
Or baseball cards.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
It was a crap shoot, right, you throw the gum
away because it was nasty and break your teeth. But
in this case, Weston will take all of the three
two helmets and set them up next to each other
to represent this week's schedule of games months from the
Thursday night game all the way through the Monday night game.
And then he'll sit there and you'll pull out the
two helmets and he'll say, for example, the Cowboys are

(04:01):
playing the Eagles.

Speaker 3 (04:02):
Here's who I think is going to win.

Speaker 4 (04:05):
Last play issued Sursday Night book Buck Now, last year
that's doted ut.

Speaker 3 (04:15):
Bike It dangle lost that one. Sorry, Ken, yell at it.
Western ID be better, all right, that's good suck. You're
out messing around here to the Vikings. We're gonna win that.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
Game one, and you west you're losing mommy's money. Mom
Stephanie not losing money, she says. It's been incredible. Fans
are actually requesting that we post his picks early so
they can place their bets for the week based on
his choices. Some are saying that Weston is the reason

(04:55):
that they're team won last week, not the Vikings. Even
the verified NFL TikTok count liked one of those videos.
He went thirteen and three on the one on the
video that went. I don't know if it was that
one specifically, but he went thirteen and three one week.

Speaker 1 (05:11):
That's that's a pretty greaty pretty good, pretty good for
six year old Weston.

Speaker 4 (05:16):
There.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
When asked about his favorite players, he said, it's a
tough question. He chose Josh Allen, number one, Khalil Shakir,
Kean Coleman, and he said one day he wants to
be a wide receiver so he can catch a touchdown,
which is his favorite part.

Speaker 3 (05:32):
Wish in one hand Weston. Oh wow, this kid is
just trying so that I'd.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
Send him to Vegas, make him an odds maker over
being a wide receiver. Just trying to help the little
one out. It looks like he's doing a good job
charting his course with making bets.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
Anyway, Hey, Gary, I apologize for what I said yesterday.
I called in and.

Speaker 3 (05:58):
Regarding one of your comments. I called you a bed word,
and I I apologize. It wasn't a nice thing to say.
And you know, it's about time.

Speaker 1 (06:10):
People make things a little more civil, and so I
should have said it, and.

Speaker 3 (06:17):
So I hope you have a good day. Wow nice.

Speaker 1 (06:20):
You know what, that happens more often then you probably
know about where somebody says something out of emotion or
heat or what have you, whether it's on social media
or talkbacks. And if you just reach out and go, hey,

(06:42):
I see you, Like, I hear what you said. That
wasn't cool. People have a one to eighty like he
did of you know what that wasn't cool?

Speaker 3 (06:53):
Well right, well that.

Speaker 1 (06:55):
Was yesterday, yesterday, And I bet he heard himself back in.
I was like, you know what, I don't need to
be that ugly, like I don't need to be like
I don't need to be hurtful like that.

Speaker 2 (07:04):
Hey, listen, it takes a thousand little stitches to mend
this torn quilt.

Speaker 3 (07:11):
You don't have.

Speaker 1 (07:14):
The gift of impromptu analogies, but I think you could
get there.

Speaker 3 (07:20):
I could work as a first draft. The seeds.

Speaker 1 (07:23):
The seeds are there, they just need a little water
and a little fertilizer and they will bloom.

Speaker 3 (07:28):
Hey, there's a reason why.

Speaker 1 (07:29):
People up in Berkeley woke up before that earthquake that
hit in the middle of the night. It's creepy. We'll
tell you about it. There's s waves and there's pee waves.

Speaker 3 (07:39):
Is this about bears again? No, don't make it dirty.
Gary and Shannon will continue.

Speaker 4 (07:47):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
AM six forty.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
What is this women only commune that we're going to
be talking about.

Speaker 2 (07:58):
It's not just that it's a way and only commune,
it's where it is.

Speaker 3 (08:02):
That was surprising to me. Oh okay, yeah, Oh I'm
excited now. And I don't know. Don't allow men in? Uh?
Is this like your Lilith fair redo abe? And would
you want that?

Speaker 2 (08:18):
I mean, I'm sure there are some women who would
be like, yes, it would be pleasant to not have
to be around men. But I also think that there
are for a time, for a time that sounds like hell.

Speaker 1 (08:28):
I remember when I was told to cover the Women's
Leadership Convention or what have you. It was in Long
Beach when I was a reporter years and years ago,
and I walked into the Long Beach convention Center, and
it was overwhelming, the amount of estrogen going on. I
mean I put in about twenty minutes there and it
was like I got to get out of here. It

(08:49):
was just too much. Women are so powerful, it's over
it's overwhelming. So to just have women only in a
common you gotta have guys around so you can just
like relax and be a dullard.

Speaker 3 (09:02):
You know, wait a minute, what does that mean? I
get it way. You're making fun of men. No I'm not,
but you know, they're just easy. Men are easy. I
would not argue that. Yeah, it seems okay.

Speaker 1 (09:21):
So we reported about a four point three quake centered
under Berkeley that got a lot of headlines. I think
one of the reasons is because it was centered right
under Berkeley, wasn't off the coast or anything like that.
And this has shook just before three am, but a
lot of people said that they woke.

Speaker 3 (09:40):
Up before the shaking began. Is that possible? Exactly? Exactly?

Speaker 1 (09:46):
The reason why is earthquakes send out multiple types of
seismic waves. There are the primary waves wave PEA waves.
They travel about twice as fast through the Earth compared
to the secondary waves, known as S waves. When you
are at an earthquakes epicenter, the waves arrive at nearly

(10:08):
the same time, but further away, those faster traveling pea
waves can get their seconds before the S waves do.
And that's what happened on Monday morning. For some people
who woke up the pea waves, they say, squeeze and
stretch the ground like an accordion.

Speaker 3 (10:30):
If you clap your hand.

Speaker 1 (10:31):
A sound wave travels through the air like pea waves
travel through the earth, and then the S waves what
you feel that side to side shaking generally associated with earthquakes,
So you get the vibration of the pea wave before
the S waves starts shaking.

Speaker 3 (10:48):
And you go to that as an earthquake.

Speaker 2 (10:49):
We've talked about these different kinds of waves before and
the different characteristics they have, but I don't think we've
ever seen it, or we ever talked about it in
the context of one getting there sooner, getting there sooner
to the point where you wake up of these But
I wonder if there's so if you're okay, so that

(11:10):
might actually be something. If you're unconscious, if you're asleep
and you're still you would be much more receptive to well,
I mean if you're still, you'd be more receptive to
even the smaller, you know, movement. But if you're unconscious,
you're not aware of it. It'd be different if we
were sitting here or if we were sitting on the floor,
because I think the chairs would probably absorb some of it.

(11:32):
You were sitting on the floor and you felt that
first wave, you might not even perceive it as something.
Your body feels it, yeah, but imperceptibly, I mean yet,
but it doesn't trigger an actual reaction of oh no,
it's just a feeling. But if you were asleep, it

(11:54):
would be enough to wake you in some instances, and
then you feel the S waves come right, and that's
when wave of S then also comes. Yes, depending on
how the earthquake is one of the geal geologists who
looks into this ang lux, No, she's the person who
felt it. One of the geologists said, the stronger, more

(12:15):
damaging shaking happens with the S wave arrival. And those
different waves actually are what make earthquake warning systems work, right.

Speaker 1 (12:26):
Which now I get it. I didn't understand earthquake warning systems.
But if you can measure the S wave or you
can just pick up on it.

Speaker 2 (12:37):
Yeah, it says the little jiggle might be the P wave.
We're interested. What we're interested in is making sure that
you get the alert before the S wave arrives, and
that's what would really cause potential damage, causing more issues.
So there was, like you said, there was a four
point three up in Berkeley that hit just yesterday. There
was an aftershock to last night. It was about three

(13:00):
after shock happened about six o'clock in the evening. So
we've had a nice quiet seismic time here in southern California.

Speaker 1 (13:08):
But a few people have sent me the story about
the squirrel putting people in the emergency room up in
northern California.

Speaker 3 (13:18):
And I tell you, you laugh.

Speaker 1 (13:20):
You've laughed for years about my problem with squirrels, primarily
the squirrel we had downstairs who has since been.

Speaker 3 (13:27):
Eradicated with it.

Speaker 1 (13:29):
I'm pretty sure that squirrel's gone okay, because he was
a chairs. It was like an Osama bin laden terrorist
that has been taken care of, okay, because if he
had not been taken care of, he'd still be trying
to terrorize us.

Speaker 3 (13:42):
That's true. That's how I know he's dead.

Speaker 1 (13:46):
But that squirrel was aggressive and territorial and you would laugh.
But there was a reason why I felt the way
I felt about that squirrel. It's because my spidery sense
knew that that squirrel could land me in the emergency room,
the way this squirrel up in Santra Fel landed people
in the emergency room.

Speaker 3 (14:07):
I was just around here. I was just around that
area a couple weeks ago. Maybe that's the same squirrel.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
They relocated it out of Burdbank, took it up to
northern California, and that would make a good movie.

Speaker 3 (14:20):
What's the life span of a squirrel? I'm going to
say four or five years. Yeah, that's why I think
the squirrel downstairs is dead. All right, Well, we'll come
back and give you all the squirrel updates.

Speaker 1 (14:32):
Well, I mean, I think everyone's dying to know what
the life span of a squirrel is, and we'll tell you.

Speaker 3 (14:38):
Yeah, we come back. Gary and Shannon will continue.

Speaker 4 (14:42):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
AM six forty.

Speaker 1 (14:49):
The Secret Service uncovering a large network of electronic device
is capable, they say, of disrupting cell phone networks in
New York. Apparently, they did not share evidence of a
specific plot or threat against the UN's gathering, but that
the potential for damage was significant, according to the Secret

(15:10):
Service director, we'll dig into that.

Speaker 2 (15:11):
I also saw that there's a potential for other server
farms around the country that would do the exact same
thing that have been prepositioned for something. What we don't
have we need to get is some good way back music,
a little thing that reminds us to look back in history.
Because I have a question for you, and it's about

(15:34):
your history, and I'm sure we've talked about it before.
We're getting to the point in our old age where
it's time to relive things for the first time.

Speaker 3 (15:43):
When was this.

Speaker 1 (15:44):
I hate squirrels, man, they freak me out. I don't
think they're cute at all.

Speaker 3 (15:49):
They're like big rabbits or rats with big teeth.

Speaker 2 (15:53):
I am assuming based on the sound quality that was
you on an our PU.

Speaker 3 (15:57):
Unit or something like that. So that could have been circa.

Speaker 2 (16:00):
Two thousand and eight, complaining to somebody in the newsroom
that was.

Speaker 1 (16:05):
Rolling on my offhanded comments and then saving them to
where they come back and bite me right in the
fat ass in twenty twenty five. That's hurtful, But I
see younger me, and I agree with younger me that
squirrels are still diabolical. My voice sounds different, sounds very different.

Speaker 3 (16:23):
I hate squirrels, man, they freak me out.

Speaker 2 (16:26):
You sound like you're well, You sound like you're nervous.
It might be a little stressed.

Speaker 3 (16:30):
Maybe there was a squirrel attacking.

Speaker 2 (16:32):
Well, clearly something had happened that prompted you would even
say that there was. I don't think it's just random
thoughts that rolled through your head. You're footing together. Something,
something had happened some right around about I don't know,
city councils, something something.

Speaker 3 (16:48):
Right and all of a sudden after you it's terrifying.

Speaker 2 (16:52):
That was a nice trip down memory lane in San Rafel,
up in northern Oh.

Speaker 3 (16:56):
How long do squirrels last? You were right, Gary, about
three to six years.

Speaker 1 (17:02):
That squirrel downstairs lasted a full six years and maybe
a little bit of bonus.

Speaker 2 (17:09):
Neighbors in San Rafel say they've been the target of
mauling by one of the local squirrels.

Speaker 3 (17:15):
The city.

Speaker 2 (17:18):
City's an hour north of San Francisco. Oh, it's in
People magazine.

Speaker 3 (17:21):
I see, yes, it's not an hour north of San Francisco. Well,
twenty minutes.

Speaker 2 (17:25):
I guess if you get stuck in travers shabby, Yeah,
Joan Heblack has been taking. I took a morning stroll
in Lucas Valley when she said, the squirrel clamped onto
my leg. The tail was flying up here. I was like,
get it off me, get off me. I didn't want
to touch it. The squirrel came out of nowhere.

Speaker 1 (17:45):
Lucas Valley is where George Lucas has his compound. It's
a very densely wooded area that does have residential places.
But you're gonna expect that. And it's not like you
know in seat Well and Sino has some areas. It's
not like North Hollywood where a squirrel would be out
of the You know it wouldn't it would. It should

(18:07):
not surprise you that wildlife exists where you live.

Speaker 2 (18:11):
Yes, She said the squirrel did substantial damage to her
leg by sinking its claws into her skin. She said
the ordeal was very scary as you tried to figure
out how to free yourself from its grasp.

Speaker 1 (18:21):
I would just take my leg with a squirrel, just
whack it against a tree and just whack in that squirrel, whack, whack.

Speaker 3 (18:29):
I don't think so. But I saw my grandmother one time.
Is this Dixie?

Speaker 2 (18:35):
Yeah, when a mouse ran up her pant leg, she
shot it. She I have never seen a grown woman
react in that way. She screamed like theatrical scream, Dixie, Yes,
this shocks me. And she didn't know what to do.

(18:55):
And I remember, I distinctly remember, I know exactly. I
was standing on the in my kitchen and we had
a door that opened up to like the back patio,
back porch area, and that's where she was.

Speaker 3 (19:06):
She was doing laundry or something.

Speaker 2 (19:08):
Like that, and she she screamed as loud as she
could and then stopped her foot.

Speaker 3 (19:15):
Yes she did.

Speaker 2 (19:16):
And that mouse, yeah, came at his maker, came out
of her pant leg, and she tried to step on it. Yeah,
she kept going, I'm coming after you, and it ran away,
but man, and she was she was pretty jacked up
for a couple of couple of minutes after that.

Speaker 5 (19:33):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (19:35):
I distinctly remember that.

Speaker 1 (19:38):
Have you ever had a bird price She didn't reach down,
pick up that rat and take a bite out of
it and then spit it out and say, never come
for me again.

Speaker 3 (19:47):
Have you ever had a bird attack you?

Speaker 2 (19:49):
No, that is also very It's because you're not expecting
it and you don't know what the plan is. Like
you if you look down, if you were Joan and
this squirrel latches onto your thigh, you don't know what
that squirrel is thinking, right the squirrel you, I mean,
when you think about it later, the squirrel's probably scared

(20:11):
and thought you were a tree or something and then
realize they weren't and freaks out, And it's probably just.

Speaker 3 (20:17):
That scared of you. You de escalate the situation. No,
not at all. The squirrel's intent is irrelevant at that point.

Speaker 2 (20:24):
Because your your immediate response is this thing is here
to kill me and you don't.

Speaker 3 (20:30):
Now I have rabies? Maybe well there is.

Speaker 2 (20:33):
There have been five attacks reported and they believe that
the same gold brown squirrel is responsible for us.

Speaker 3 (20:41):
All shoot it. You got to shoot it.

Speaker 2 (20:43):
Another one, Isabelle Santrafel, resident, said she and her niece
were outdoors in the same area they were attacked by
the squirrel, making it hard for them to enjoy their neighborhood.

Speaker 1 (20:53):
Do you want to talk about using the way way
back machine for you now about the time you were
attacked by a bird?

Speaker 2 (21:00):
I was I was walking. I believe I was walking
to school. We do have music, well, we have some music. Yeah,
it's not really like way back music. And my friend
Frankie Johnson used to live on the corner.

Speaker 1 (21:16):
Frankie Johnson sounds like he was a friend of Conways.

Speaker 3 (21:19):
He might have been. I don't think that right in
the same circles. I mean, he was up in northern California.

Speaker 1 (21:24):
But Frankie, Frankie Johnson have a gambling problem eventually.

Speaker 3 (21:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (21:29):
Yeah, he was one of those kids who had at
one point had two broken arms. Yeah, exactly profiled him.
He was a stunt He was a stunt man before
that was cool. They had a group of trees in
their in their front yard and I would have to
go around that corner, following the fence line to walk
to school, and there was a nest in one of

(21:50):
those trees, and apparently I looked like a threatening eight
year old and the bird came and did the thing
where it goes wow and goes after your and you
don't know where it's coming from, and first you don't
see it, but then it just is relentless until you're
far away from the nest.

Speaker 3 (22:09):
That I was terrified.

Speaker 1 (22:12):
How do you think that that has manifested in the
subsequent years.

Speaker 2 (22:17):
I went through a time where I was killing birds.

Speaker 3 (22:22):
I don't know why that's funny. I don't know why
you're laughing at that.

Speaker 2 (22:26):
I thought I was just gonna be honest and open up,
and then all of a sudden, it's joke time.

Speaker 3 (22:30):
I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 (22:32):
Okay, if I asked the questions, I should be ready
for the ANSWER's ready for.

Speaker 3 (22:36):
Careful what you're.

Speaker 1 (22:36):
Asking, Why has your Starbucks barista been so friendly lately?

Speaker 3 (22:41):
We have an answer. Garyan Shannon will continue.

Speaker 4 (22:46):
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI
AM six forty.

Speaker 2 (22:54):
Gary Shannon AM six forty Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 3 (23:00):
Stories are so antichomactic. Oh, poor missus Hoffman. I think
we can all agree with it. I hate squirrels.

Speaker 5 (23:09):
I cannot tell you how much I hate squirrels. Spraying
with the hose, I let my dogs off on them.
I hate them a one time my grandmother took a
brick to a squirrel. I'll never forget that moment, and
neither will.

Speaker 3 (23:22):
Be neighbor took a bricked Wow. See that's some Dixie stuff. Yeah,
maybe we're related.

Speaker 2 (23:33):
We will talk more at the top of the hour
swamp Watch about what's going on, including the the new
devices that apparently were seized in or near the UN
meeting that could have shut down cell phone networks in
that area, and we'll hear from the Secret Service about
what that would mean. Jimmy Kimmel Live is coming back
to ABC, but one of the other major broadcasters is

(23:55):
going to refuse to air the late night talk show,
so when it comes to local ABC stations, specifically, Next
Star and Sinclair have said they are not yet putting
Jimmy Kimmel back on the air. So Nexttar operates twenty
eight stations around the country. Sinclair has thirty eight stations,
which means that there are sixty six stations around the
United States not airing Jimmy Kimmel Live, at least not

(24:19):
for the foreseeable future. Now that the Nextcar Next Star
has also picked up.

Speaker 1 (24:24):
We were in Vegas when I say we, The Chargers
played on Monday night in Vegas and I noticed something
on We take the employee elevators sometimes when the team
comes in, they go in through the back way there,
and I noticed something that was printed on the employee elevators.

(24:45):
I'm trying to find the picture now that I took,
and it was something to the effect of like a
checklist for employees. Oh here it is a smile and greet,
appear approachable, make eye contact, greet the guests before they
greet you. And that was the second time that I

(25:05):
had seen in recent.

Speaker 3 (25:08):
Days a push to restart eye contact.

Speaker 1 (25:14):
About how it was I think it was an article
in the New York Times or something about how it's
the easiest way to show somebody that you're listening, or
that you care, or just being present in the moment,
make eye contact. That it's something that is dwindling. People
aren't making eye contact. They're not as comfortable with making
eye contact as they once were. And apparently this is
a new push at Starbucks. They've been told the bristas,

(25:37):
make eye contact. It's cheap, it's easy, it's a good
customer service, cheap and easy way to make the customer
feel appreciated.

Speaker 2 (25:46):
And why it has to be put into writing, I
think is weird.

Speaker 3 (25:50):
But Wall Street.

Speaker 2 (25:51):
Journal got to look at this new training material from Starbucks.
Employees should be present with customers, even if they are
multi asking, even if there's a mishap Baristas need to latte.
They need to listen, apologize, take action, thank and ensure satisfaction.

Speaker 1 (26:12):
Now that is a surefire way to get me to
hang up. My apron is if you put me through
a training exercise at Starbucks and they use the acronym latte,
Oh my goodness.

Speaker 2 (26:25):
Starbucks is having a more competition, or an increased level
of competition than they had before. If you remember Seattle's
Best and Pete's they you know, they were kind of
started down the road that was definitely plowed by Starbucks.
Now they're getting a couple of different competitors, specifically Luck

(26:47):
and Coffee from China and Dutch Bros. Which is now
making it's an expansion very present. I suppose in other
parts of the country. They're going to be in La
pretty soon. But those chains and others. Duncan is another one.
The shoppers will prioritize speed and price over interaction and ambiance.

(27:09):
So those places are saying they're going to get the
quick coffee drinkers. But if you've been to a Dutch Bros.
There ain't nothing quick about that. You're in a line
for quite a while.

Speaker 3 (27:19):
I'm embarrassed to admit something.

Speaker 1 (27:22):
But like Pete's was, Pete's cares about the coffee, right,
That's always been the Pete's thing. There were Peats more
than there were Starbucks when this whole coffee on the
corner shop kind of thing happened in Seattle at least,
and then Starbucks just took off like wildfire. But Pete's
doesn't do what Starbucks does so well, which is what

(27:43):
you were saying, the fast, the easy, the convenience factor, right,
And I think that that's underestimated. Yes, people want good coffee,
and that's why people love Petz. That's why I love pets.
But do I love it enough to where I love
convenience less? No? Was my answer when I was stopping

(28:03):
for I do it once in a while. I'll stop
at a Pete's coffee on my way to work once
a week or something like that, and I go to
pull up the app on Pete's and it's not working,
and I go, well, f that. If I can't order
my PiZZ coffee from my home, I know I'm going

(28:25):
to be there in about eight or nine minutes, then
I'm just not going to get it.

Speaker 3 (28:29):
That's the new me. The old me is like, what
are you talking about.

Speaker 1 (28:33):
You can't use the app, so go to the coffee
place and order your cup of coffee and get it
and leave. But the new, newly programmed me, with convenience
being the number one thing on my agenda thanks to
all the apps, is well, if I can't use the app,
then I'm not going to do it. And that was
shocking to me, as being a person who knows myself

(28:54):
like that was odd that that was my reflex of, oh, well,
if I can't use the app, I'm not going to
get it from there. I'll go to Starbucks, where I
know the app never fails.

Speaker 3 (29:03):
Right.

Speaker 2 (29:04):
I'm curious about this the idea that Starbucks. If you're
a manager at a Starbucks, okay, and you have to
kind of one of the things you're required to do
is set the tone for your cafe. Is that what
they call it, or store whatever they call it. One
of the things that you should do as the manager
is make sure that you're hiring people that would just

(29:25):
do these things without being told in a manual that
came from corporate that they should smile and they should
thank the customer, and they should be nice, and they
should fix the problems, and they should welcome them when
they walk in.

Speaker 1 (29:35):
There's the difference between corporate and mom and pop. Mom
and pop hires those people. Corporate doesn't care. You're just
you're not people your names and salaries.

Speaker 2 (29:45):
Yeah, I guess, but it just it would worry me
if there was a place. It would worry me if
there was a place that you walk into and that
stuff is not prioritized already.

Speaker 3 (29:59):
Yeah, I mean it's they talk about who they hired.

Speaker 2 (30:01):
They hired former Taco Bell Global chief operating officer to
come out of retirement, and his job was literally to
go into different Starbucks stores to figure out how to
make them more welcoming. So he visited one hundred and
fifty different Starbucks and said he found that baristas were
too often slammed to welcome their customers. They're just busy

(30:22):
because of everything that's going on. So with his first
few months on the job, he picked a store in
the Willis Tower in Chicago, relatively small location, about two
hundred drinks every thirty minutes at its peak, and it
was one of five stores to test the service model. Again,
you're doing the very basics. Why do you need a

(30:45):
test that you're not putting out like ketchup potato chips
where you need to test and see if anybody is
gonna like them. You're literally asking people to smile and
thank their customers. What's the test?

Speaker 1 (30:57):
Yeah, it's actually shocking to me. Notable now when I
go to a place and people are like that, when
they're just nice and they're smiling and they want to
they want to take care of you, they want to
make sure you get what you're there for, It's like, Wow,
I love that place. They were so nice. It's like
almost remarkable now.

Speaker 2 (31:14):
Or the stores or restaurant or cafe whatever you walk
as soon as you walk in the door, somebody behind
the counters like, hey, welcome in.

Speaker 1 (31:21):
Yeah, that's nice. I'll go back to that place. It
speaks volumes to me because we're old now, and that's
what old people say. She said, writing a check in
her check book. I hate you.

Speaker 2 (31:35):
You've been listening to The Gary and Shannon Show. You
can always hear us live on KFI AM six forty
nine am to one pm every Monday through Friday, and
anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app