Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The opinions and information expressed and discussed on The Doctor
Doug Ramsey Show or for informational and educational purposes only.
It is not intended to provide, and should not be
relied upon for accounting, legal, tax or investment advice. Please
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applicability of this information to your situation.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
All things financing business leading you to success at work,
at home, and in live. It's the Doctor Doug Ramsey Show.
And now here's your host, Doctor Doug Ramsey.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Welcome to the Doctor Doug Ramsey Show. I'm your host,
Doctor Doug Ramsey's broadcasting Themojo Fibo Radio Network. It's been
a couple of weeks since I've been on the air,
working on a deal, kind of getting in the way
work always seems to do. That. Got some good stories
(00:58):
that rounded up here with the last two weeks. And
this first one's about Starbucks and it's interesting because they've
got this new CEO in there, and it talked about
the commute issue where he's flying to work three days
a week up in Seattle and then flying back to
Newport Beach on a private jet and Starbucks is paying
(01:19):
for it. Not a lot of people are happy with that.
But this article, it's from Ink and it's about a
week old. It talks about the combinations just running the
operations in a Starbucks, says starbucks new CEO needs to
(01:42):
clear out the clutter to save the company. What should
you clear out of your business in life? When you
go to Starbucks? What do you order? Gets set something
like a vente ice caramel machiato with almond milk and
an extra shot of espresso. You're not alone. When former
(02:04):
Chippotele CEO Brian Nickel took the helm at Starbucks a
few weeks ago, he faced a host of difficulties, including
a slumping stock price, long wait times for customers, and
cranky employees. But one big challenge lies downstream for many
of these struggles starbucks wildly complicated menu, which offers customers
(02:27):
upwards of and get this, this is not a I'm
not messing this number up. It is one hundred and
seventy thousand possible drink orders. It's insane. Making all those
double shots, swirls and flavors, slows down orders, noise staff,
(02:47):
and puts a drag on the company's finance. Starbucks says
there are more than one hundred and seventy thousand possible
drink combinations available, but outside estimates have put the number
at more than three hundred bills, and the person in
front of you always seems to be ordering one hundred
million of them. In Editor at Large Bill Saparto has
(03:10):
joked in The New York Times, Yeah, it kind of
seems that way. I got behind one lady and I
think she ordered for the entire office and had like
twenty nine orders. She put in unbelievable. If you're stuck
in the line behind someone with a fifteen point coffee order,
(03:32):
it can be no laughing matter, however, which is why
Starbucks fans will be watching closely to see if Nicol
can streamline the company's menu and operations. But starbucks over
complicated menu isn't just worth watching if you're hoping to
get your caffeine quicker. It's also an essential lesson and
the often overlooked power of simplicity to solve all sorts
(03:56):
of tough problems. According to Stanford management professor Bob Sutton.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
On LinkedIn.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Recently, Sutton catsually labeled the problem plaguing Starbucks.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
Addition sickness.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
As Huggy Heya, griev A Row and I show in
our twenty twenty four book The Friction Project, many organizations
make this problem worse by rewarding people who add more
and more stuff to organizations at ignoring their punishing those
who resist adding complexity. He wrote, the issue goes deeper
(04:38):
than just businesses accumulating layers of bureaucracy and complexity. In
a twenty twenty one study published in Nature, researchers used
a series of puzzles to show that when faced with
tough problems, humans naturally tend to favor solutions that involve
adding more stuff. That's true, even when removing something is
(05:00):
object objectively better solution to the problem. Additive solutions have
sort of a privileged status. They tend to come to
mind quickly and easily. Study co author Benjamin Converse summed up,
subtractive solutions are not necessarily harder to consider, but they've
taken more effort to find. Which is the real lesson
(05:24):
here for entrepreneurs and everyone else really. From Starbucks' menu
struggles Yes to Sutting notes, business leaders should remind themselves
to look for and eliminate all kinds of blot. As
this doesn't come naturally to most humans, Starbucks leaders might
try applying the rule of halves to the problem. Cut
(05:45):
fifty percent of the options so by their account to
get the number of drink combinations of under one hundred
thousand possibilities. You can apply this rule that you're meeting,
software apps, email length, and the number of direct reports
to suddenly suggests. But the problem of preferring the addition
(06:05):
over subtraction goes beyond the business spere. We do it
in our everyday lives too. Adding commitments, stuff goals emotional
baggage when cutting things out would actually do more to
bring us peace and happiness. While Sutton's rule of has
works in the professional spere, Harvard happiness researcher Arthur Brooks
(06:28):
didn't know there was a happiness researcher Harvard, but I
guess Arthur Brooks is it. He has suggested a reverse
bucket list to help you remember the power of traction
in your personal life. The idea is to make a
list of all the things you want or crave, and
then remove all of them that aren't moving you closer
(06:49):
to your own vision of a good life. Starbucks' overstuffed
menu is a huge drag on the business and the
huge drag when you want to grab a quick cop
in the morning too.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
It's also a.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Good reminder to all of us to ask ourselves regularly
what unnecessary complications might be dragging down our business in
our lives. All right, some good lessons there things to
think about. But that's just crazy. And if you ever
took if you're business major, were math major, you took
(07:26):
intro to statistics, and you go over the formula that
has the factorial thing which gives you all possible combinations.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
If you usually use.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
The lottery ball example, you got ball, number of balls
in the barrel, you spin them around, you draw them
in one combination formula, you replace the ball back in
so you have all the balls available on every spin.
The other one is when you draw a ball it
(07:59):
is out. You've got you know, N minus one for
the next spin, and N minus two for the third spin,
and N minus three for the four spin. So it
but if you remember that those combination formulas, that's how
you can come up with these estimates here of one
(08:19):
hundred and seventy thousand drink orders. It's all right, do
you put whatever with cream on every single drink that
might take it? Do you put you know, one shot
of espresso in every single drink that might it might
be requested for. So you just come up with this
(08:44):
ungodly number of combinations. All right, twenty three and Me.
A lot of people have done the twenty three and
me deal. But that company is in all sorts of
trouble right now. It's from Business Insider, and it says
(09:05):
twenty three and Me's entire board of directors entire board
resigned over co founder and CEO and.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
Shickies what was Shiky?
Speaker 3 (09:20):
I don't know how to pronounce that ongoing plans to
take the company private. In a letter to What was
Shiky on Tuesday, which is also posted by the company
as a press release, the board wrote it had yet
to receive from you a fully referring to her the CEO,
(09:41):
a fully financed, fully diligenced, actionable proposal about the plans.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
So let's talk about this for a second.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
It's you're talking about a management buyout, in this case
the CEO making the offer, but you probably keep a
bunch of team there. And when we did, we took
oil and gas production companies private twice, and the second
(10:11):
time it was really interesting because what we wound up doing.
I was on the board of directors at the time.
We took two of the board members and they set
up an independent committee and we funded. We allowed them
(10:32):
to hire their own legal counsel and their own investment bank,
and this all happened.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
I mean, i'll give you the kind of the setting
for this.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
So we're at a board dinner at Magiano's in Dallas
in one of the private rooms upstairs, and the CEO
of a company he handed out a letter and it
was an offer from him to take the company private,
(11:06):
and so he had a stock price on there, and
it was to buy all the public shares. And when
you buy all the public shares, you got to finance it, obviously,
but you wind up delisting and going private if the
(11:28):
transaction goes through. That's why it's called the go private transaction.
So he had an offerer on the table for the company,
and we played it from a corporate governance standpoint right
down the middle of the fairway, and we let that
independent committee to hire Merrill Lynch, and we effectively put
(11:53):
the company up for sale and said, hey, anybody anybody
can come in and bid for the comp company, and
if somebody out bids our CEO, then they get the company.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
So we put it up for.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Sale and we set up a data room and we
had prospective buyers come in and we got a couple
of offers, but none of them were higher than the
CEO's bid. So then independent committee presented all that and
the board made a decision said, hey, the best offer
(12:31):
that was made for the companies from the CEO, so
we're going to sell to him.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
And that's how that deal got done.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
But we and when the announcement came out, we got
a shareholder lawsuit the next morning by about ten am
because our company receptionist on the main floor she called
(12:57):
my phone and said, hey, there's some I up here
with like ten envelopes, and I went up there and
it was a guy with a ponytail.
Speaker 4 (13:07):
He was just like a.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Courier for the law firm.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
That was all he was.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
And it was every envelope there was one each to
all the directors on the board, and then the rest
were to the CEA level, the CEOs me as CFO,
and then our chief operating officer, but and then our
(13:32):
general counsel, and we.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
Got the.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Litigation person from Haines and Boone in and we said, hey,
we did this right, telling him to go pound sand
because what these law firms will do is they'll find
somebody that's got over one thousand dollars of the stock
and held it over a year, I think of the requirements,
and they wind up just using their name and then
(14:04):
file on their behalf. But it's just kind of a joke.
And they you know, they always say there's inadequate consideration.
And we said, well, look we put it up for sale.
That was the best price we could get. And even
that price was a premium to the market price of
(14:26):
the stock on the stock market. So who wouldn't want
to make more than what you could get if you
just sold them in the open market.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
So we stood firm.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
Oh and it was really interesting because that lawyer said, look,
just settle with them two hundred fifty thousand dollars usual
dno insurance, you know, and they go away And it
turns out that it's just a club deal.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
These share o their litigation attorneys.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
They just keep trading two hundred and fifty thousand dollars
offers back and forth. When they're on the other side
of the deal and just it's ridiculous. We said no,
we're not doing it, and we stood firm, and the
attorney nonsuited the action. So that means they just effectively
(15:19):
canceled the lawsuit and we paid zero dollars other than
our legal fees to that litigation specialist. But we didn't.
We settled for zero because we did it right. So
let me keep going here. So she's got this offer
(15:39):
on the table, the board doesn't think she's got the
financing to support it, that she's under due diligence, and
so they made this very public with this press release.
Let's see, let's keep going. So in April, woge Shiki
(16:03):
said she wanted to buy the once hot DNA company
and take it private. But in August, a special committee
formed by the board, well there they go. They formed
their own special committee as well. By the board rejected
her proposal, saying it provided no premium to the closing
price per share, that's a problem. It lacked committed financing,
(16:27):
that's a problem, and was conditional in nature. I don't
we don't know what the conditions are, so not sure
that we can form any opinion there.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
In August, the.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Board said it would give woj Sicki a limited amount
of additional time. On Tuesday, the board said time was up.
While the board wrote in its letter that it supported
twenty three means overarching mission of personalized health, it diverged
with woj Shiki on strategy that in turn presented a
(17:01):
distracting difference of view given the concentration of her voting power,
the board wrote. Boshiki, who serves as chair the board
and its only current member, responded to the resignations in
an email to twenty three and Me employees, writing that
she was surprised and disappointed that the company would immediately
(17:22):
begin to create a new board. Here's her full memo.
It's not too long, so I'm gonna go ahead and
read it. Here says I'm surprised and disappointed by the
decision of the directors of ISIGN. I've been committed to
the mission of twenty three and ME for the last
eighteen years and believed strongly in the potential for genetic
information to transform healthcare and the therapeutic discovery process. I
(17:45):
remain committed to our customers, my employees, into our stockholders
to achieve our goals. I continue to believe that we
will be better positioned to achieve our mission and goals
outside of the short term pressures of the public markets,
and then taking twenty three and meters private will be
the best opportunity for long term success. We will immediately
(18:08):
begin to identifying the independent directors that join the board.
I want to thank the directors for the service to
the company and its stockholders. Once worth billions, shares at
twenty three and meters had a market capitalization of one
hundred and seventy six million dollars Thursday, with shares trading
have thirty five cents a share. The Nasdaq had previously
(18:31):
said it would delist the company of shares remain below
a dollar. Now if that happened, if twenty three meters
got delisted, their action they would take is they go
over to the OTC.
Speaker 4 (18:48):
And get listed over there.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
A representative for Roajsiki did not immediately respond to request
for comment for Business Insider. Twenty three meters Haven issues.
All right, let me get to the top of this
next story. Golf balls a story about golf balls. It's
(19:18):
from CNN Sports, and this talks about the golf balls
that get lost every single year. Tiger Wood scrunches his
face in frustration as he watches his ball splash into
the Pacific Ocean. The momentary aberration is little more than
a footnote to what will be regarded by many as
(19:39):
the greatest performance in the history of the sport, which
is staggering. Fifteen shot victory at the two thousand US
Open in Pebble Beach, California showed a level of a
mastery that may never be matched, and yet Woods lost
the ball. His hook shot from the eighteenth t sank
(20:03):
some forty feet to join the other white, pink, and
yellow orbs scattered across the seafloor of Stillwater Cove.
Speaker 4 (20:11):
If the world number.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
One and future eighty two time PGA Tour winner could
surrender a ball to the environment at the peak of
his near superhuman powers, just how many do the millions
of mere mortal golfers across.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
The globe lose each year? The short answer a lot.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
A record forty five million people played the sport in
the US during twenty twenty three.
Speaker 4 (20:40):
That's huge.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
According to the United States Golf Association the USGA, there
were another thirty one point six million unregistered and registered
golfers across one hundred and forty six countries. Last year,
according to the RNA, twenty nineteen, the US boasted forty
(21:05):
three percent of the world's golf courses, with sixteen thousand,
seven hundred and fifty two courses.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
The RNA reported that's more.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Courses than the number of Starbucks and McDonald's stores across
the country, and the stage for a record five hundred
and thirty one million rounds of golf nationwide in twenty
twenty three. That's crazy. That's according to the National Golf
Foundation the NNGF, as an amateur who has picked up
(21:41):
a club will know the chances of finishing a round
with the ball you started with her slim. While a
myriad of factors can affect those odds, chiefly skill in
the topography of the course.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
Estimates for the number.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
Of balls lost by the average golfer per round typically
vary between one and five found golf balls. CEO Sean Sheenfield,
whose company recovers and resales millions of lost balls across
the US and Canada each year, told CNN that E
gauge the average to be between three and four each
(22:17):
round using Sheenfield's low estimate, that's over one and a
half billion balls lost in the US every year since
twenty twenty. If those balls were laid in a row,
they would extend around the Earth's circumference more than one
and a half times. Add in the rest of the
(22:42):
planet's golfers and the number of lost balls could be
much higher. According to Torbin Castra Peterson, course manager for
Danish Golf Union, which has researched the environmental impact of
lost balls. While precise global essemers are challenging, the worldwide
th figure could easily exceed three to five billion golf
(23:04):
balls lost each year. Peterson told CNN that's nuts. With
courses president eighty four percent of the world's countries, there
are a few environments that have not become unintended lodgings
for a golfer's aerrant shot Tea drives have been struck everywhere,
(23:27):
from the icy plains of Greenland to the billowing rims
of Hawaiian volcanoes, and from the peaks of South African
mountains forty five hundred feet above sea level to beside
the well filled waters over Norwegian Fords. It doesn't take
a course to lose a ball either. In two thousand
(23:52):
and nine, US scientists searching for evidence of the Lotanus
monster via submarine were stunned to make an entirely different discovery,
relurking himid the depths tens of thousands of golf balls.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
It was thought that.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
Locals and tourists have been using the Scottish Lake as
an alternative driving range for years. Submerged and silt some
seven hundred fifty feet down on the inky black bed
of the lock, the balls were beyond hope of retrieval
without extensive equipment and expense. A lifelong lover of all
(24:31):
things marine conservation biologist Matthew Savoca had been closing in
on his PhD in ecology at the University of California, Davis,
when in twenty seventeen he received a detailed scientific inquiry
from an unlucky source. A high schooler, Alex Weber, junior
at Carmel High School, asked Savoca, the author of various
(24:56):
papers on the impact of plastic pollution on ocean wildline,
for his advice regarding what she'd found snorkling at Monterey Bay,
a National marine sanctuary, in her Pebble Beach curiosity peaked
Savoca was blown away when Weber lifted the doors on
her parents' garage to present her loot barrel upon barrel
(25:20):
overflowing with golf balls. By that point in the early
twenty seventeen, Weber and friend Jack Johnston had collected around
ten thousand balls. Over the next year and a half
to do a recruited friends and family to pluck almost
thirty thousand more from the shoreline in shallow waters off
Pebble Beach and nearby coastal courses Cyprus Point and Carmel Rivermouth.
(25:46):
Some employees from the world renown Pebble Beach Course joined
the effort. Savoka recalled adding roughly ten thousand balls to
take the total haul of fifty six hundred and eighty one, or,
as Sefoka puts it, a startling two zero point five
to six tons of plastic debreathe the weight of a
small pickup truck. The finans were compiling a peer reviewed
(26:08):
joint paper that the team hopes would serve as a
blueprint for tackling the issue on a mass scale. Sevoka
estimated that at Pebble Beach alone, as many as one
hundred and eighty six thousand balls or nine point four
to two tons of debris end up in the waters
each year. That's each year. If we want this issue
(26:29):
to be mitigated, to be dealt with, what we need
is a blueprint where the pollution is, how much pollution
is out there, what are the collection methods at work,
and what are the consequences if we don't do collections
Sevoke til CNN. Those consequences, Siboka said, could be dire
for the harbor seals and endangered California sea otters. That
(26:53):
whatever wat's playing around the swell golf balls, as well
as countless other species humans included. Modern golf are typically
composed of a synthetic rubber polybutadine core. In case with
a synthetic polymer, you're a thing lastomer uh and that's
(27:16):
a polymer cover manufactures, Sevoke explained, adds zinc oxide, zinc acrylate,
and benzoil peroxide to cores to boost flexibility and durability.
Substances acute we toxic to marine life. Intact golf balls
(27:37):
pose a little threat, but as they slowly disintegrate on
the sea floor, these chemicals join tiny plastic particles seeping
out into the ocean. These particles just get smaller and
smaller until they eventually get in the food web and
eventually get into us. Sevoke explained, once they the golf
(27:57):
balls become those microscope type fragments, there's basically no cleaning it.
It's there forever. He added, But you have an opportunity
when the materials are big enough to actually retrieve them
to prevent a type of pollution that's impossible to deal
with later decades or even centuries from now. So Vok
(28:22):
estimates at roughly twenty eight kilograms or sixty one point
seven pounds of irrecoverable the breeze had been lost to
the sea from the balls they retrieved near Pebble Beach alone.
The popularity of coastal golf courses worldwide means a globally
that number will be much higher. So here's the solution,
or any solution. Mitchell Shoals, founder of Canada based biodegradable
(28:48):
golf balls, put a very conservative estimate for North America
one million balls lost the oceans annually. He estimated another
one hundred thousand balls or lost the sea each year
in each of the next five biggest golf markets Japan,
South Korea, England, Germany and Australia. Consider the coastal golf
(29:09):
courses or themselves vastly outnumbered by those located inland, and
the implications of billions of balls bouncing in the environment
are almost too much for Sevoka to compute. Just in America,
you're talking about tens of thousands of tons of this
debris every year. It's really hard to wrap your mind
around a. Sovoka's discoveries built on two thousand and nine
(29:31):
testing by the Danish Golf Union, which found golf balls
released a high high quantity of heavy metals when decomposing,
but dangerous levels of zinc discovered in the synthetic rubber
filling used in solid core balls. Potential solutions have serviced
(29:53):
in recent years. Spotting a gap of the market, Shoals
launched bio degradable golf balls to offer an eco friendly,
guilt free alternative for golfers playing around and even on
the water. They are made with a water activated body
grading compound that means the balls dissolved within four weeks
of contact with water, releasing non ToxS at corn starts
(30:16):
in polyvinyl alcohol PVA, A water soluble synthetic pomer, which
similarly disintegrates if left on land. The balls could take
between one and two years to buioty grade.
Speaker 4 (30:29):
Shoals added the.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
Company's target market includes coastal resources and events, boat owners
and cruise ships, but not the average golf for the
lack of a rubber core contributes to a roughly thirty
percent distance loss compared to the typical ball, Shoals explain,
meaning the balls are best suited to usage. Just as
hitting targets near or in the water, you got it'd
(30:54):
be good driving range of balls.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
In a similar story.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
This is a similar story for Albus Golf, a Spanish
golf ball manufacturer that designed the Eco bioball and the
Eco Rall ball, which dissolve upon contact with water or
at least fish food and coral food respectively, within forty
eight hours. Their single use lifespan and performance drop off severely.
(31:25):
It limits their uptake among regular players. So there you go.
It's I didn't realize the problem was as huge as
it is until I came across this article. So speaking
of golf courses, back when banks for having a lot
(31:48):
of trouble and fdices taken over a bunch of them.
We found out about an ftscafering that was a golf
course just outside of Saint Louis, and it was a
golf course a real estate development, so it was lots
(32:09):
that hadn't been sold off yet and a lake, and
the lake had a water contract with Oland Corporation. So
I was tasked with valuing the whole package, so the
golf course. I didn't know anything about valuing a golf course.
(32:31):
And we brought in a friend of our CEO who's
was a big golfer and I guess he managed courses before,
so he went over the you know how tos. But
it's it wound up being really simple because it's just
basic projection, or how many rounds of golf are going
(32:51):
to get played? What's the price per round? And you
got to look at each day or their discount days
or their discount hours, so you've got to factor that in.
So when you're saying, you know how many, you really
got to say how many rounds apply to each different
every time there's a price change in the window across
(33:14):
the day, and you do that revenue forecast. You know,
merchandise sells the rounds of golf revenue. If you've got
any food and beverage sales, you know, all that stuff,
club dues and everything, throw it all in in the revenue.
(33:38):
And then you've got to go through and show what
the corresponding expenses are to maintain the course, water it,
your grounds crews, fertilizing, doing all that stuff. And then
you've got your your food and beverage costs, you got
(34:00):
your labor, all that stuff.
Speaker 4 (34:03):
So at the end of the day, it was.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
Just a big, you know, revenue and expense forecast and
then discount that back to time zero.
Speaker 4 (34:14):
So that wasn't too hard. The real estate lots, we had.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
Comps because a number of the lots had sold already
and they're all kind of in the same subdivision, so
we had a pretty good number on the real estate.
Then there's the lake, and as the first lake I
was valuing, I had no idea what I was doing.
(34:42):
So it turned out the way to value the lake
is what's that water worth? Well to figure that out
of had to look at that contract with the old
corporation and all incorporation was buying x amount of water
a year at certain rate, forecast sat out discount and
(35:06):
add it all up, get the value of the water
contract and extrapolate that to the lake. So that's how
I put the three pieces together, and then we made
our bid. We didn't we didn't win the bidding process,
but that was a lot of fun. But that's just
another golf story here. It was pretty interesting at the time,
(35:33):
all right, Hearthouse.
Speaker 4 (35:36):
I didn't know this Kevin Hart.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
He had a small restaurant chain called the Harthouse and
spelled a j r T like his last name, says
Kevin Hart's vegan. This is from let's see afro first
article I've done from Affrotech. Kevin Heart's vegan restaurant chain
(36:05):
has quickly closed. As Afrotech previously reported, the comedian launched
Hardhouse in twenty twenty two the promise of opening more
alongside what he called the premier lineup.
Speaker 4 (36:17):
Of associates and industry pioneers.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
Its first location opened in Westchester, California, near the Los
Angeles International Airport. A thrill to announce that I have
collaborated with an all star team of partners and industry
leaders to create an industry changing restaurant called Harthouse Heart
Road on Instagram at the time, this thing is going
to be huge. We're going to serve delicious, sustainable food
(36:43):
that delivers can't believe it flavor in every bite. Will
be opening our first few locations in the LA area,
but we will be expanding quickly. Harthouse did deliver on
its word to grow the business. By twenty twenty four,
Harthouse had extended its portfolio with three additional California locations
on Rovia University Park in Hollywood. The draw has also
(37:10):
been simple to ensure communities could have a healthy alternative
to fast food at an affordable cost. Menu items included
plant based burgers, chicken sandwiches, salads, tenders, prize tots, and milkshakes.
The whole mission of Hearthouse is to bring affordable, quality,
(37:30):
plant based food to everyone. We want to ensure we
are bringing Hearthouse to communities that need more food options.
Hard toold after teching an email interview, despite having good intentions,
Harthouse has now closed abruptly after just over two years
of operation. Thank you to our team, guests, and community
(37:52):
who helped make the change. We all craved a heartfelt goodbye,
heart felt being spilled like his last name for now
as we start a new chapter, The company wrote on Instagram.
The response to the products has been incredible. We thank
(38:12):
our committed team, our customers, and our community partners for
helping make the change we all craved, and for their
unwavering support of Harthouse.
Speaker 4 (38:23):
So there you go.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
His restaurants are gone. The restaurant business is just getting
crushed these days. Inflation is killing the ingredient costs, food costs,
and labor, and it's just a tough go. People were
(38:47):
senching up their budgets. Well, I don't know that I'd
be starting a restaurant group at all ever in my lifetime.
All right, let's see what we got here. Let's skip
that article. Let's go to the AP. He's got an
(39:10):
article about Rome is Trevy Fountain. So if you've been
to Italy and you've been to Rome, you know on
a lot of people's itineraries the Trevy Fountain. But like anything,
there are costs to manage and run, even the Trevy Fountain,
(39:31):
and so the Italians are trying to figure out how
to deal with it. So it says seemingly every tourist
in Rome knows the key to returning to the eternal
city is to toss a coin into the Trevy fountain
to make a wish. The result hordes of visitors packing
the baroque monument any given day, taking selth he's embedding
(39:52):
on a return trip. Officials are now considering a plan
to manage tourism to one of Rome's most visited sites,
a two euro ticket to access an open air fountain
that has always been free of charge two euros about
two hundred and twenty five two dollars and twenty five
(40:13):
cents US. The proposal by city's top tourism official, Alessandro Norato,
comes after the Italian lagoon city of Venice tested a
controversial five euro day trip or access fee to the
city this summer and must be deliberated by the city
(40:33):
council before it takes effect, but the city's mayor, Roberto Gualtieri,
has already voiced support. The two euros is more or
less the same amount that people toss into the fountain
to make a wish, Honorato told the Associated Press. Cities
(40:54):
across the globe were grappling with how to manage the
ever growing number of tourists who fuel the economy but
can create inconveniences to residents by converting on the same
top sites we have to avoid, especially in a fragile
art city like Rome, that too many tourists damage the
tourist experience and damage the city. Onorado said, we need
(41:18):
to safeguard those things that tourists don't experience chaos and
its citizens can continue.
Speaker 4 (41:25):
To live in the center.
Speaker 3 (41:29):
Honorado City hopes to test the entrance fee, which would
be managed through a reservation system in the QR code,
in time for the twenty twenty five Julee Holy Year,
and have the system operational by spring. Passionby in the
piazza overlooking the fountain will not have to pay. The
(41:50):
fee would be charged only to those entering the nine
stone steps leading up to the fountain's edge.
Speaker 4 (41:57):
It would be free to Romans.
Speaker 3 (42:00):
So the system would also help discourage people from eating
on the steps overlooking the fountain and feeding pigeons, or worse,
from reenacting Anita Ekberg's plunge into the fountain in Fellini's
Le dulce Vita, a frequently repeated offense that carries a fine.
It would happen less, or maybe it wouldn't happen at all,
(42:22):
because whoever would enter, we would know their names and
where they live. It becomes more complicated. Set that is right.
So you're scanning your QR code and they got all
your info.
Speaker 4 (42:40):
All right?
Speaker 3 (42:41):
Seven eleven seven eleven The owners have rejected a thirty
eight billion dollar buyout offer. This is from the BBC,
the Japanese. Well, I should ask this before it just
said that. I was gonna say, do you know who
(43:04):
owns seven to eleven? Probably most people would think it was,
you know, some US company that owns it and you know,
be located here in the States, But it's a Japanese owner.
They have rejected a thirty eight billion dollar takeover bid
(43:27):
from Canadian rival.
Speaker 4 (43:30):
Elementation cow Cachet Tard.
Speaker 3 (43:36):
I guess I don't know how you prin it's a
In a letter address to the prospective buyer, seven and
I Holding said the Circle K owners offer grossly undervalue
the company was fraught with regulatory risk. The seven eleven
owner added, however, that it remains open to negotiations and
ready to consider a better proposal. If successful, the buy
(44:02):
out would create a one hundred thousand strong global convenience
stored giant. Stephen Daucas, the chair of the seven and
nine board, considering the deal, set in a letter that
the proposal was opportunistically timed. The proposal, mister Dakas added,
Groscy innervalues the Japanese retail giant, and it's potential to
(44:26):
generate more value for shareholders. Alimentation the short the abbreviation
is ACT. ACT, which is based in Quebec, runs around
seventeen thousand shops across North America, Europe and Asia under
the Circle K and cow sh Tard brands. The initial
(44:51):
offered by the prospective buyer valued seven and nine at
fourteen dollars and eighty six cents per share. That's more
than twenty percent above it share price before the offer
was announced. So the offer was at a premium. But
(45:12):
the companies responding and it's still too little and they're
trying to get a higher price for them. Obviously, the
offer came when the Japanese yen is significantly weaker than
the US dollar, making seven to nine more affordable than
foreign buyers.
Speaker 4 (45:32):
Yeah, stronger US dollar.
Speaker 3 (45:35):
Goes further.
Speaker 4 (45:38):
And rejecting the offer.
Speaker 3 (45:39):
Seven and I also flagged up multiple and significant challenges
a deal would face from US competition regulators. Seven to
eleven is the world's biggest convenience store chain with eighty
five thousand outlets across twenty countries and territories. AX footprint
in the US and Canada would more than double to
about twenty thousand sites a deal to go ahead.
Speaker 4 (46:01):
So here's the thing. So they would have to.
Speaker 3 (46:03):
File what's called the Heartscott Redino filing, and the Heartscott
Redino filing what the agency does that reviews that back
there in Washington.
Speaker 4 (46:19):
They're looking to see.
Speaker 3 (46:20):
If the combination would create a monopoly or monopolistic opportunities.
And in some cases where two companies combine and they
control such a big they would control such a big
part of the market, then the merger would not be
(46:43):
allowed to go forward.
Speaker 4 (46:45):
So that's what.
Speaker 3 (46:48):
This person's driving out here is that they think that
by combining the Canadian company that also has you know,
the its own US footprint with seven eleven in all
its US stores, that it would get shot down in
this HSR review process.
Speaker 4 (47:11):
So there you go.
Speaker 3 (47:13):
Seven eleven, you know, started off with those slurpees back
in the day, but that's a huge offer getting turned down,
and probably nobody you know, would have thought seven eleven
is worth thirty eight billion plus. I mean that's crazy.
All right. Let's see one more story here, real quick.
(47:42):
Let me find a good one. Let's talk about Red Lobster.
I haven't eaten there in a long time, but those
biscuits are good what I remember of them.
Speaker 4 (47:58):
So this is fortune.
Speaker 3 (48:02):
Says for food critics common convention to never post your
face on social media unless she be recognized. At a
restaurant you're tasks with reviewing and get preferential treatment with
the same surreptitious style.
Speaker 4 (48:15):
Incoming. Red Lobster CEO.
Speaker 3 (48:18):
Demola adam Olecken frequented locations of the seafood chain months
before he took the helm, assessing its food and how
to improve the company. In May, he began visiting Red
Lobsters around the US, snacking on crab legs, Maine lobster tail,
and it's famed cheddar Bay biscuits. But a statuses of
(48:43):
the restaurant's future CEO was unbeknownst to Red Lobster fellow diners.
He for the most part, enjoyed the food. He spoke
with employees and regular customers better understand if it was
worth taking a dive to lead a seafood joint with
a washed up reputation. Restaurant goers just want quality food
(49:05):
in a comfortable setting and to connect with the history
of the brand. That's the first step. That step will
be more of a leap. Red Lobster file for bankruptcy
in May, shuttering dozens of North American restaurant locations in
optioning off equipment for more than fifty spots. Chain Blaine
to struggles on an unsustainable twenty dollars all you can
eat shrip promotion that wound up contributing to eleven million
(49:28):
dollars in losses, the toils of inflation, sluggish traffic, and
quarrels with the former owner.
Speaker 4 (49:35):
Tie Union Powerhouse.
Speaker 3 (49:38):
Private equity firm Fortress Investment Group tapped him as Red
Lobster CEO in August. The forty nine billion dollar investment
manager company will take over as Red Lobster's parent as
it emerges from bankruptcy.
Speaker 4 (49:51):
All right, we'll see how that goes.
Speaker 3 (49:53):
But that's a good way to see problems firsthand. Go
in there some kind of like undercover boss. Go in
there and just be a regular customer and take copious
notes and see how you're treated and how the services.
(50:13):
You know, what kind of condition of restaurants are in.
They got a lot of deferred maintenance once they probably
do having gone in the bankruptcy and see the quality
of food so great. Idea kind.
Speaker 4 (50:28):
You've been listening to Doctor Doug Rangie's show. You can't
they go without bod
The opinions and information expressed and discussed on The Doctor
Doug Ramsey Show or for informational and educational purposes only.
It is not intended to provide, and should not be
relied upon for accounting, legal, tax or investment advice. Please
consult with a professional specializing in these areas regarding the
applicability of this information to your situation.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
All things financing business leading you to success at work,
at home, and in live. It's the Doctor Doug Ramsey Show.
And now here's your host, Doctor Doug Ramsey.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Welcome to the Doctor Doug Ramsey Show. I'm your host,
Doctor Doug Ramsey's broadcasting Themojo Fibo Radio Network. It's been
a couple of weeks since I've been on the air,
working on a deal, kind of getting in the way
work always seems to do. That. Got some good stories
(00:58):
that rounded up here with the last two weeks. And
this first one's about Starbucks and it's interesting because they've
got this new CEO in there, and it talked about
the commute issue where he's flying to work three days
a week up in Seattle and then flying back to
Newport Beach on a private jet and Starbucks is paying
(01:19):
for it. Not a lot of people are happy with that.
But this article, it's from Ink and it's about a
week old. It talks about the combinations just running the
operations in a Starbucks, says starbucks new CEO needs to
(01:42):
clear out the clutter to save the company. What should
you clear out of your business in life? When you
go to Starbucks? What do you order? Gets set something
like a vente ice caramel machiato with almond milk and
an extra shot of espresso. You're not alone. When former
(02:04):
Chippotele CEO Brian Nickel took the helm at Starbucks a
few weeks ago, he faced a host of difficulties, including
a slumping stock price, long wait times for customers, and
cranky employees. But one big challenge lies downstream for many
of these struggles starbucks wildly complicated menu, which offers customers
(02:27):
upwards of and get this, this is not a I'm
not messing this number up. It is one hundred and
seventy thousand possible drink orders. It's insane. Making all those
double shots, swirls and flavors, slows down orders, noise staff,
(02:47):
and puts a drag on the company's finance. Starbucks says
there are more than one hundred and seventy thousand possible
drink combinations available, but outside estimates have put the number
at more than three hundred bills, and the person in
front of you always seems to be ordering one hundred
million of them. In Editor at Large Bill Saparto has
(03:10):
joked in The New York Times, Yeah, it kind of
seems that way. I got behind one lady and I
think she ordered for the entire office and had like
twenty nine orders. She put in unbelievable. If you're stuck
in the line behind someone with a fifteen point coffee order,
(03:32):
it can be no laughing matter, however, which is why
Starbucks fans will be watching closely to see if Nicol
can streamline the company's menu and operations. But starbucks over
complicated menu isn't just worth watching if you're hoping to
get your caffeine quicker. It's also an essential lesson and
the often overlooked power of simplicity to solve all sorts
(03:56):
of tough problems. According to Stanford management professor Bob Sutton.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
On LinkedIn.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Recently, Sutton catsually labeled the problem plaguing Starbucks.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
Addition sickness.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
As Huggy Heya, griev A Row and I show in
our twenty twenty four book The Friction Project, many organizations
make this problem worse by rewarding people who add more
and more stuff to organizations at ignoring their punishing those
who resist adding complexity. He wrote, the issue goes deeper
(04:38):
than just businesses accumulating layers of bureaucracy and complexity. In
a twenty twenty one study published in Nature, researchers used
a series of puzzles to show that when faced with
tough problems, humans naturally tend to favor solutions that involve
adding more stuff. That's true, even when removing something is
(05:00):
object objectively better solution to the problem. Additive solutions have
sort of a privileged status. They tend to come to
mind quickly and easily. Study co author Benjamin Converse summed up,
subtractive solutions are not necessarily harder to consider, but they've
taken more effort to find. Which is the real lesson
(05:24):
here for entrepreneurs and everyone else really. From Starbucks' menu
struggles Yes to Sutting notes, business leaders should remind themselves
to look for and eliminate all kinds of blot. As
this doesn't come naturally to most humans, Starbucks leaders might
try applying the rule of halves to the problem. Cut
(05:45):
fifty percent of the options so by their account to
get the number of drink combinations of under one hundred
thousand possibilities. You can apply this rule that you're meeting,
software apps, email length, and the number of direct reports
to suddenly suggests. But the problem of preferring the addition
(06:05):
over subtraction goes beyond the business spere. We do it
in our everyday lives too. Adding commitments, stuff goals emotional
baggage when cutting things out would actually do more to
bring us peace and happiness. While Sutton's rule of has
works in the professional spere, Harvard happiness researcher Arthur Brooks
(06:28):
didn't know there was a happiness researcher Harvard, but I
guess Arthur Brooks is it. He has suggested a reverse
bucket list to help you remember the power of traction
in your personal life. The idea is to make a
list of all the things you want or crave, and
then remove all of them that aren't moving you closer
(06:49):
to your own vision of a good life. Starbucks' overstuffed
menu is a huge drag on the business and the
huge drag when you want to grab a quick cop
in the morning too.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
It's also a.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Good reminder to all of us to ask ourselves regularly
what unnecessary complications might be dragging down our business in
our lives. All right, some good lessons there things to
think about. But that's just crazy. And if you ever
took if you're business major, were math major, you took
(07:26):
intro to statistics, and you go over the formula that
has the factorial thing which gives you all possible combinations.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
If you usually use.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
The lottery ball example, you got ball, number of balls
in the barrel, you spin them around, you draw them
in one combination formula, you replace the ball back in
so you have all the balls available on every spin.
The other one is when you draw a ball it
(07:59):
is out. You've got you know, N minus one for
the next spin, and N minus two for the third spin,
and N minus three for the four spin. So it
but if you remember that those combination formulas, that's how
you can come up with these estimates here of one
(08:19):
hundred and seventy thousand drink orders. It's all right, do
you put whatever with cream on every single drink that
might take it? Do you put you know, one shot
of espresso in every single drink that might it might
be requested for. So you just come up with this
(08:44):
ungodly number of combinations. All right, twenty three and Me.
A lot of people have done the twenty three and
me deal. But that company is in all sorts of
trouble right now. It's from Business Insider, and it says
(09:05):
twenty three and Me's entire board of directors entire board
resigned over co founder and CEO and.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
Shickies what was Shiky?
Speaker 3 (09:20):
I don't know how to pronounce that ongoing plans to
take the company private. In a letter to What was
Shiky on Tuesday, which is also posted by the company
as a press release, the board wrote it had yet
to receive from you a fully referring to her the CEO,
(09:41):
a fully financed, fully diligenced, actionable proposal about the plans.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
So let's talk about this for a second.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
It's you're talking about a management buyout, in this case
the CEO making the offer, but you probably keep a
bunch of team there. And when we did, we took
oil and gas production companies private twice, and the second
(10:11):
time it was really interesting because what we wound up doing.
I was on the board of directors at the time.
We took two of the board members and they set
up an independent committee and we funded. We allowed them
(10:32):
to hire their own legal counsel and their own investment bank,
and this all happened.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
I mean, i'll give you the kind of the setting
for this.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
So we're at a board dinner at Magiano's in Dallas
in one of the private rooms upstairs, and the CEO
of a company he handed out a letter and it
was an offer from him to take the company private,
(11:06):
and so he had a stock price on there, and
it was to buy all the public shares. And when
you buy all the public shares, you got to finance it, obviously,
but you wind up delisting and going private if the
(11:28):
transaction goes through. That's why it's called the go private transaction.
So he had an offerer on the table for the company,
and we played it from a corporate governance standpoint right
down the middle of the fairway, and we let that
independent committee to hire Merrill Lynch, and we effectively put
(11:53):
the company up for sale and said, hey, anybody anybody
can come in and bid for the comp company, and
if somebody out bids our CEO, then they get the company.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
So we put it up for.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Sale and we set up a data room and we
had prospective buyers come in and we got a couple
of offers, but none of them were higher than the
CEO's bid. So then independent committee presented all that and
the board made a decision said, hey, the best offer
(12:31):
that was made for the companies from the CEO, so
we're going to sell to him.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
And that's how that deal got done.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
But we and when the announcement came out, we got
a shareholder lawsuit the next morning by about ten am
because our company receptionist on the main floor she called
(12:57):
my phone and said, hey, there's some I up here
with like ten envelopes, and I went up there and
it was a guy with a ponytail.
Speaker 4 (13:07):
He was just like a.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Courier for the law firm.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
That was all he was.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
And it was every envelope there was one each to
all the directors on the board, and then the rest
were to the CEA level, the CEOs me as CFO,
and then our chief operating officer, but and then our
(13:32):
general counsel, and we.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
Got the.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Litigation person from Haines and Boone in and we said, hey,
we did this right, telling him to go pound sand
because what these law firms will do is they'll find
somebody that's got over one thousand dollars of the stock
and held it over a year, I think of the requirements,
and they wind up just using their name and then
(14:04):
file on their behalf. But it's just kind of a joke.
And they you know, they always say there's inadequate consideration.
And we said, well, look we put it up for sale.
That was the best price we could get. And even
that price was a premium to the market price of
(14:26):
the stock on the stock market. So who wouldn't want
to make more than what you could get if you
just sold them in the open market.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
So we stood firm.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
Oh and it was really interesting because that lawyer said, look,
just settle with them two hundred fifty thousand dollars usual
dno insurance, you know, and they go away And it
turns out that it's just a club deal.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
These share o their litigation attorneys.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
They just keep trading two hundred and fifty thousand dollars
offers back and forth. When they're on the other side
of the deal and just it's ridiculous. We said no,
we're not doing it, and we stood firm, and the
attorney nonsuited the action. So that means they just effectively
(15:19):
canceled the lawsuit and we paid zero dollars other than
our legal fees to that litigation specialist. But we didn't.
We settled for zero because we did it right. So
let me keep going here. So she's got this offer
(15:39):
on the table, the board doesn't think she's got the
financing to support it, that she's under due diligence, and
so they made this very public with this press release.
Let's see, let's keep going. So in April, woge Shiki
(16:03):
said she wanted to buy the once hot DNA company
and take it private. But in August, a special committee
formed by the board, well there they go. They formed
their own special committee as well. By the board rejected
her proposal, saying it provided no premium to the closing
price per share, that's a problem. It lacked committed financing,
(16:27):
that's a problem, and was conditional in nature. I don't
we don't know what the conditions are, so not sure
that we can form any opinion there.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
In August, the.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Board said it would give woj Sicki a limited amount
of additional time. On Tuesday, the board said time was up.
While the board wrote in its letter that it supported
twenty three means overarching mission of personalized health, it diverged
with woj Shiki on strategy that in turn presented a
(17:01):
distracting difference of view given the concentration of her voting power,
the board wrote. Boshiki, who serves as chair the board
and its only current member, responded to the resignations in
an email to twenty three and Me employees, writing that
she was surprised and disappointed that the company would immediately
(17:22):
begin to create a new board. Here's her full memo.
It's not too long, so I'm gonna go ahead and
read it. Here says I'm surprised and disappointed by the
decision of the directors of ISIGN. I've been committed to
the mission of twenty three and ME for the last
eighteen years and believed strongly in the potential for genetic
information to transform healthcare and the therapeutic discovery process. I
(17:45):
remain committed to our customers, my employees, into our stockholders
to achieve our goals. I continue to believe that we
will be better positioned to achieve our mission and goals
outside of the short term pressures of the public markets,
and then taking twenty three and meters private will be
the best opportunity for long term success. We will immediately
(18:08):
begin to identifying the independent directors that join the board.
I want to thank the directors for the service to
the company and its stockholders. Once worth billions, shares at
twenty three and meters had a market capitalization of one
hundred and seventy six million dollars Thursday, with shares trading
have thirty five cents a share. The Nasdaq had previously
(18:31):
said it would delist the company of shares remain below
a dollar. Now if that happened, if twenty three meters
got delisted, their action they would take is they go
over to the OTC.
Speaker 4 (18:48):
And get listed over there.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
A representative for Roajsiki did not immediately respond to request
for comment for Business Insider. Twenty three meters Haven issues.
All right, let me get to the top of this
next story. Golf balls a story about golf balls. It's
(19:18):
from CNN Sports, and this talks about the golf balls
that get lost every single year. Tiger Wood scrunches his
face in frustration as he watches his ball splash into
the Pacific Ocean. The momentary aberration is little more than
a footnote to what will be regarded by many as
(19:39):
the greatest performance in the history of the sport, which
is staggering. Fifteen shot victory at the two thousand US
Open in Pebble Beach, California showed a level of a
mastery that may never be matched, and yet Woods lost
the ball. His hook shot from the eighteenth t sank
(20:03):
some forty feet to join the other white, pink, and
yellow orbs scattered across the seafloor of Stillwater Cove.
Speaker 4 (20:11):
If the world number.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
One and future eighty two time PGA Tour winner could
surrender a ball to the environment at the peak of
his near superhuman powers, just how many do the millions
of mere mortal golfers across.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
The globe lose each year? The short answer a lot.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
A record forty five million people played the sport in
the US during twenty twenty three.
Speaker 4 (20:40):
That's huge.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
According to the United States Golf Association the USGA, there
were another thirty one point six million unregistered and registered
golfers across one hundred and forty six countries. Last year,
according to the RNA, twenty nineteen, the US boasted forty
(21:05):
three percent of the world's golf courses, with sixteen thousand,
seven hundred and fifty two courses.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
The RNA reported that's more.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Courses than the number of Starbucks and McDonald's stores across
the country, and the stage for a record five hundred
and thirty one million rounds of golf nationwide in twenty
twenty three. That's crazy. That's according to the National Golf
Foundation the NNGF, as an amateur who has picked up
(21:41):
a club will know the chances of finishing a round
with the ball you started with her slim. While a
myriad of factors can affect those odds, chiefly skill in
the topography of the course.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
Estimates for the number.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
Of balls lost by the average golfer per round typically
vary between one and five found golf balls. CEO Sean Sheenfield,
whose company recovers and resales millions of lost balls across
the US and Canada each year, told CNN that E
gauge the average to be between three and four each
(22:17):
round using Sheenfield's low estimate, that's over one and a
half billion balls lost in the US every year since
twenty twenty. If those balls were laid in a row,
they would extend around the Earth's circumference more than one
and a half times. Add in the rest of the
(22:42):
planet's golfers and the number of lost balls could be
much higher. According to Torbin Castra Peterson, course manager for
Danish Golf Union, which has researched the environmental impact of
lost balls. While precise global essemers are challenging, the worldwide
th figure could easily exceed three to five billion golf
(23:04):
balls lost each year. Peterson told CNN that's nuts. With
courses president eighty four percent of the world's countries, there
are a few environments that have not become unintended lodgings
for a golfer's aerrant shot Tea drives have been struck everywhere,
(23:27):
from the icy plains of Greenland to the billowing rims
of Hawaiian volcanoes, and from the peaks of South African
mountains forty five hundred feet above sea level to beside
the well filled waters over Norwegian Fords. It doesn't take
a course to lose a ball either. In two thousand
(23:52):
and nine, US scientists searching for evidence of the Lotanus
monster via submarine were stunned to make an entirely different discovery,
relurking himid the depths tens of thousands of golf balls.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
It was thought that.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
Locals and tourists have been using the Scottish Lake as
an alternative driving range for years. Submerged and silt some
seven hundred fifty feet down on the inky black bed
of the lock, the balls were beyond hope of retrieval
without extensive equipment and expense. A lifelong lover of all
(24:31):
things marine conservation biologist Matthew Savoca had been closing in
on his PhD in ecology at the University of California, Davis,
when in twenty seventeen he received a detailed scientific inquiry
from an unlucky source. A high schooler, Alex Weber, junior
at Carmel High School, asked Savoca, the author of various
(24:56):
papers on the impact of plastic pollution on ocean wildline,
for his advice regarding what she'd found snorkling at Monterey Bay,
a National marine sanctuary, in her Pebble Beach curiosity peaked
Savoca was blown away when Weber lifted the doors on
her parents' garage to present her loot barrel upon barrel
(25:20):
overflowing with golf balls. By that point in the early
twenty seventeen, Weber and friend Jack Johnston had collected around
ten thousand balls. Over the next year and a half
to do a recruited friends and family to pluck almost
thirty thousand more from the shoreline in shallow waters off
Pebble Beach and nearby coastal courses Cyprus Point and Carmel Rivermouth.
(25:46):
Some employees from the world renown Pebble Beach Course joined
the effort. Savoka recalled adding roughly ten thousand balls to
take the total haul of fifty six hundred and eighty one, or,
as Sefoka puts it, a startling two zero point five
to six tons of plastic debreathe the weight of a
small pickup truck. The finans were compiling a peer reviewed
(26:08):
joint paper that the team hopes would serve as a
blueprint for tackling the issue on a mass scale. Sevoka
estimated that at Pebble Beach alone, as many as one
hundred and eighty six thousand balls or nine point four
to two tons of debris end up in the waters
each year. That's each year. If we want this issue
(26:29):
to be mitigated, to be dealt with, what we need
is a blueprint where the pollution is, how much pollution
is out there, what are the collection methods at work,
and what are the consequences if we don't do collections
Sevoke til CNN. Those consequences, Siboka said, could be dire
for the harbor seals and endangered California sea otters. That
(26:53):
whatever wat's playing around the swell golf balls, as well
as countless other species humans included. Modern golf are typically
composed of a synthetic rubber polybutadine core. In case with
a synthetic polymer, you're a thing lastomer uh and that's
(27:16):
a polymer cover manufactures, Sevoke explained, adds zinc oxide, zinc acrylate,
and benzoil peroxide to cores to boost flexibility and durability.
Substances acute we toxic to marine life. Intact golf balls
(27:37):
pose a little threat, but as they slowly disintegrate on
the sea floor, these chemicals join tiny plastic particles seeping
out into the ocean. These particles just get smaller and
smaller until they eventually get in the food web and
eventually get into us. Sevoke explained, once they the golf
(27:57):
balls become those microscope type fragments, there's basically no cleaning it.
It's there forever. He added, But you have an opportunity
when the materials are big enough to actually retrieve them
to prevent a type of pollution that's impossible to deal
with later decades or even centuries from now. So Vok
(28:22):
estimates at roughly twenty eight kilograms or sixty one point
seven pounds of irrecoverable the breeze had been lost to
the sea from the balls they retrieved near Pebble Beach alone.
The popularity of coastal golf courses worldwide means a globally
that number will be much higher. So here's the solution,
or any solution. Mitchell Shoals, founder of Canada based biodegradable
(28:48):
golf balls, put a very conservative estimate for North America
one million balls lost the oceans annually. He estimated another
one hundred thousand balls or lost the sea each year
in each of the next five biggest golf markets Japan,
South Korea, England, Germany and Australia. Consider the coastal golf
(29:09):
courses or themselves vastly outnumbered by those located inland, and
the implications of billions of balls bouncing in the environment
are almost too much for Sevoka to compute. Just in America,
you're talking about tens of thousands of tons of this
debris every year. It's really hard to wrap your mind
around a. Sovoka's discoveries built on two thousand and nine
(29:31):
testing by the Danish Golf Union, which found golf balls
released a high high quantity of heavy metals when decomposing,
but dangerous levels of zinc discovered in the synthetic rubber
filling used in solid core balls. Potential solutions have serviced
(29:53):
in recent years. Spotting a gap of the market, Shoals
launched bio degradable golf balls to offer an eco friendly,
guilt free alternative for golfers playing around and even on
the water. They are made with a water activated body
grading compound that means the balls dissolved within four weeks
of contact with water, releasing non ToxS at corn starts
(30:16):
in polyvinyl alcohol PVA, A water soluble synthetic pomer, which
similarly disintegrates if left on land. The balls could take
between one and two years to buioty grade.
Speaker 4 (30:29):
Shoals added the.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
Company's target market includes coastal resources and events, boat owners
and cruise ships, but not the average golf for the
lack of a rubber core contributes to a roughly thirty
percent distance loss compared to the typical ball, Shoals explain,
meaning the balls are best suited to usage. Just as
hitting targets near or in the water, you got it'd
(30:54):
be good driving range of balls.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
In a similar story.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
This is a similar story for Albus Golf, a Spanish
golf ball manufacturer that designed the Eco bioball and the
Eco Rall ball, which dissolve upon contact with water or
at least fish food and coral food respectively, within forty
eight hours. Their single use lifespan and performance drop off severely.
(31:25):
It limits their uptake among regular players. So there you go.
It's I didn't realize the problem was as huge as
it is until I came across this article. So speaking
of golf courses, back when banks for having a lot
(31:48):
of trouble and fdices taken over a bunch of them.
We found out about an ftscafering that was a golf
course just outside of Saint Louis, and it was a
golf course a real estate development, so it was lots
(32:09):
that hadn't been sold off yet and a lake, and
the lake had a water contract with Oland Corporation. So
I was tasked with valuing the whole package, so the
golf course. I didn't know anything about valuing a golf course.
(32:31):
And we brought in a friend of our CEO who's
was a big golfer and I guess he managed courses before,
so he went over the you know how tos. But
it's it wound up being really simple because it's just
basic projection, or how many rounds of golf are going
(32:51):
to get played? What's the price per round? And you
got to look at each day or their discount days
or their discount hours, so you've got to factor that in.
So when you're saying, you know how many, you really
got to say how many rounds apply to each different
every time there's a price change in the window across
(33:14):
the day, and you do that revenue forecast. You know,
merchandise sells the rounds of golf revenue. If you've got
any food and beverage sales, you know, all that stuff,
club dues and everything, throw it all in in the revenue.
(33:38):
And then you've got to go through and show what
the corresponding expenses are to maintain the course, water it,
your grounds crews, fertilizing, doing all that stuff. And then
you've got your your food and beverage costs, you got
(34:00):
your labor, all that stuff.
Speaker 4 (34:03):
So at the end of the day, it was.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
Just a big, you know, revenue and expense forecast and
then discount that back to time zero.
Speaker 4 (34:14):
So that wasn't too hard. The real estate lots, we had.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
Comps because a number of the lots had sold already
and they're all kind of in the same subdivision, so
we had a pretty good number on the real estate.
Then there's the lake, and as the first lake I
was valuing, I had no idea what I was doing.
(34:42):
So it turned out the way to value the lake
is what's that water worth? Well to figure that out
of had to look at that contract with the old
corporation and all incorporation was buying x amount of water
a year at certain rate, forecast sat out discount and
(35:06):
add it all up, get the value of the water
contract and extrapolate that to the lake. So that's how
I put the three pieces together, and then we made
our bid. We didn't we didn't win the bidding process,
but that was a lot of fun. But that's just
another golf story here. It was pretty interesting at the time,
(35:33):
all right, Hearthouse.
Speaker 4 (35:36):
I didn't know this Kevin Hart.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
He had a small restaurant chain called the Harthouse and
spelled a j r T like his last name, says
Kevin Hart's vegan. This is from let's see afro first
article I've done from Affrotech. Kevin Heart's vegan restaurant chain
(36:05):
has quickly closed. As Afrotech previously reported, the comedian launched
Hardhouse in twenty twenty two the promise of opening more
alongside what he called the premier lineup.
Speaker 4 (36:17):
Of associates and industry pioneers.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
Its first location opened in Westchester, California, near the Los
Angeles International Airport. A thrill to announce that I have
collaborated with an all star team of partners and industry
leaders to create an industry changing restaurant called Harthouse Heart
Road on Instagram at the time, this thing is going
to be huge. We're going to serve delicious, sustainable food
(36:43):
that delivers can't believe it flavor in every bite. Will
be opening our first few locations in the LA area,
but we will be expanding quickly. Harthouse did deliver on
its word to grow the business. By twenty twenty four,
Harthouse had extended its portfolio with three additional California locations
on Rovia University Park in Hollywood. The draw has also
(37:10):
been simple to ensure communities could have a healthy alternative
to fast food at an affordable cost. Menu items included
plant based burgers, chicken sandwiches, salads, tenders, prize tots, and milkshakes.
The whole mission of Hearthouse is to bring affordable, quality,
(37:30):
plant based food to everyone. We want to ensure we
are bringing Hearthouse to communities that need more food options.
Hard toold after teching an email interview, despite having good intentions,
Harthouse has now closed abruptly after just over two years
of operation. Thank you to our team, guests, and community
(37:52):
who helped make the change. We all craved a heartfelt goodbye,
heart felt being spilled like his last name for now
as we start a new chapter, The company wrote on Instagram.
The response to the products has been incredible. We thank
(38:12):
our committed team, our customers, and our community partners for
helping make the change we all craved, and for their
unwavering support of Harthouse.
Speaker 4 (38:23):
So there you go.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
His restaurants are gone. The restaurant business is just getting
crushed these days. Inflation is killing the ingredient costs, food costs,
and labor, and it's just a tough go. People were
(38:47):
senching up their budgets. Well, I don't know that I'd
be starting a restaurant group at all ever in my lifetime.
All right, let's see what we got here. Let's skip
that article. Let's go to the AP. He's got an
(39:10):
article about Rome is Trevy Fountain. So if you've been
to Italy and you've been to Rome, you know on
a lot of people's itineraries the Trevy Fountain. But like anything,
there are costs to manage and run, even the Trevy Fountain,
(39:31):
and so the Italians are trying to figure out how
to deal with it. So it says seemingly every tourist
in Rome knows the key to returning to the eternal
city is to toss a coin into the Trevy fountain
to make a wish. The result hordes of visitors packing
the baroque monument any given day, taking selth he's embedding
(39:52):
on a return trip. Officials are now considering a plan
to manage tourism to one of Rome's most visited sites,
a two euro ticket to access an open air fountain
that has always been free of charge two euros about
two hundred and twenty five two dollars and twenty five
(40:13):
cents US. The proposal by city's top tourism official, Alessandro Norato,
comes after the Italian lagoon city of Venice tested a
controversial five euro day trip or access fee to the
city this summer and must be deliberated by the city
(40:33):
council before it takes effect, but the city's mayor, Roberto Gualtieri,
has already voiced support. The two euros is more or
less the same amount that people toss into the fountain
to make a wish, Honorato told the Associated Press. Cities
(40:54):
across the globe were grappling with how to manage the
ever growing number of tourists who fuel the economy but
can create inconveniences to residents by converting on the same
top sites we have to avoid, especially in a fragile
art city like Rome, that too many tourists damage the
tourist experience and damage the city. Onorado said, we need
(41:18):
to safeguard those things that tourists don't experience chaos and
its citizens can continue.
Speaker 4 (41:25):
To live in the center.
Speaker 3 (41:29):
Honorado City hopes to test the entrance fee, which would
be managed through a reservation system in the QR code,
in time for the twenty twenty five Julee Holy Year,
and have the system operational by spring. Passionby in the
piazza overlooking the fountain will not have to pay. The
(41:50):
fee would be charged only to those entering the nine
stone steps leading up to the fountain's edge.
Speaker 4 (41:57):
It would be free to Romans.
Speaker 3 (42:00):
So the system would also help discourage people from eating
on the steps overlooking the fountain and feeding pigeons, or worse,
from reenacting Anita Ekberg's plunge into the fountain in Fellini's
Le dulce Vita, a frequently repeated offense that carries a fine.
It would happen less, or maybe it wouldn't happen at all,
(42:22):
because whoever would enter, we would know their names and
where they live. It becomes more complicated. Set that is right.
So you're scanning your QR code and they got all
your info.
Speaker 4 (42:40):
All right?
Speaker 3 (42:41):
Seven eleven seven eleven The owners have rejected a thirty
eight billion dollar buyout offer. This is from the BBC,
the Japanese. Well, I should ask this before it just
said that. I was gonna say, do you know who
(43:04):
owns seven to eleven? Probably most people would think it was,
you know, some US company that owns it and you know,
be located here in the States, But it's a Japanese owner.
They have rejected a thirty eight billion dollar takeover bid
(43:27):
from Canadian rival.
Speaker 4 (43:30):
Elementation cow Cachet Tard.
Speaker 3 (43:36):
I guess I don't know how you prin it's a
In a letter address to the prospective buyer, seven and
I Holding said the Circle K owners offer grossly undervalue
the company was fraught with regulatory risk. The seven eleven
owner added, however, that it remains open to negotiations and
ready to consider a better proposal. If successful, the buy
(44:02):
out would create a one hundred thousand strong global convenience
stored giant. Stephen Daucas, the chair of the seven and
nine board, considering the deal, set in a letter that
the proposal was opportunistically timed. The proposal, mister Dakas added,
Groscy innervalues the Japanese retail giant, and it's potential to
(44:26):
generate more value for shareholders. Alimentation the short the abbreviation
is ACT. ACT, which is based in Quebec, runs around
seventeen thousand shops across North America, Europe and Asia under
the Circle K and cow sh Tard brands. The initial
(44:51):
offered by the prospective buyer valued seven and nine at
fourteen dollars and eighty six cents per share. That's more
than twenty percent above it share price before the offer
was announced. So the offer was at a premium. But
(45:12):
the companies responding and it's still too little and they're
trying to get a higher price for them. Obviously, the
offer came when the Japanese yen is significantly weaker than
the US dollar, making seven to nine more affordable than
foreign buyers.
Speaker 4 (45:32):
Yeah, stronger US dollar.
Speaker 3 (45:35):
Goes further.
Speaker 4 (45:38):
And rejecting the offer.
Speaker 3 (45:39):
Seven and I also flagged up multiple and significant challenges
a deal would face from US competition regulators. Seven to
eleven is the world's biggest convenience store chain with eighty
five thousand outlets across twenty countries and territories. AX footprint
in the US and Canada would more than double to
about twenty thousand sites a deal to go ahead.
Speaker 4 (46:01):
So here's the thing. So they would have to.
Speaker 3 (46:03):
File what's called the Heartscott Redino filing, and the Heartscott
Redino filing what the agency does that reviews that back
there in Washington.
Speaker 4 (46:19):
They're looking to see.
Speaker 3 (46:20):
If the combination would create a monopoly or monopolistic opportunities.
And in some cases where two companies combine and they
control such a big they would control such a big
part of the market, then the merger would not be
(46:43):
allowed to go forward.
Speaker 4 (46:45):
So that's what.
Speaker 3 (46:48):
This person's driving out here is that they think that
by combining the Canadian company that also has you know,
the its own US footprint with seven eleven in all
its US stores, that it would get shot down in
this HSR review process.
Speaker 4 (47:11):
So there you go.
Speaker 3 (47:13):
Seven eleven, you know, started off with those slurpees back
in the day, but that's a huge offer getting turned down,
and probably nobody you know, would have thought seven eleven
is worth thirty eight billion plus. I mean that's crazy.
All right. Let's see one more story here, real quick.
(47:42):
Let me find a good one. Let's talk about Red Lobster.
I haven't eaten there in a long time, but those
biscuits are good what I remember of them.
Speaker 4 (47:58):
So this is fortune.
Speaker 3 (48:02):
Says for food critics common convention to never post your
face on social media unless she be recognized. At a
restaurant you're tasks with reviewing and get preferential treatment with
the same surreptitious style.
Speaker 4 (48:15):
Incoming. Red Lobster CEO.
Speaker 3 (48:18):
Demola adam Olecken frequented locations of the seafood chain months
before he took the helm, assessing its food and how
to improve the company. In May, he began visiting Red
Lobsters around the US, snacking on crab legs, Maine lobster tail,
and it's famed cheddar Bay biscuits. But a statuses of
(48:43):
the restaurant's future CEO was unbeknownst to Red Lobster fellow diners.
He for the most part, enjoyed the food. He spoke
with employees and regular customers better understand if it was
worth taking a dive to lead a seafood joint with
a washed up reputation. Restaurant goers just want quality food
(49:05):
in a comfortable setting and to connect with the history
of the brand. That's the first step. That step will
be more of a leap. Red Lobster file for bankruptcy
in May, shuttering dozens of North American restaurant locations in
optioning off equipment for more than fifty spots. Chain Blaine
to struggles on an unsustainable twenty dollars all you can
eat shrip promotion that wound up contributing to eleven million
(49:28):
dollars in losses, the toils of inflation, sluggish traffic, and
quarrels with the former owner.
Speaker 4 (49:35):
Tie Union Powerhouse.
Speaker 3 (49:38):
Private equity firm Fortress Investment Group tapped him as Red
Lobster CEO in August. The forty nine billion dollar investment
manager company will take over as Red Lobster's parent as
it emerges from bankruptcy.
Speaker 4 (49:51):
All right, we'll see how that goes.
Speaker 3 (49:53):
But that's a good way to see problems firsthand. Go
in there some kind of like undercover boss. Go in
there and just be a regular customer and take copious
notes and see how you're treated and how the services.
(50:13):
You know, what kind of condition of restaurants are in.
They got a lot of deferred maintenance once they probably
do having gone in the bankruptcy and see the quality
of food so great. Idea kind.
Speaker 4 (50:28):
You've been listening to Doctor Doug Rangie's show. You can't
they go without bod
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