Pod Insights The Moneywise Guys 8/6/25 Chapman Chronicles: The Latest on Kern's Business Scene About this episode The Moneywise Radio Show and Podcast Wednesday, August 6th BE MONEYWISE. Moneywise Wealth Management I "The Moneywise Guys" podcast call: 661-847-1000 text in anytime: 661-396-1000 website: www. MoneywiseGuys.com facebook: Moneywise_Wealth_Management LinkedIn: Moneywise_Wealth_Management Guest: Richard Chapman, President/CEO of Kern Economic Development Corporation website: https://kernedc.com/
Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 From the Garo Ellis padded radio room off Stockdale Highway, here is Money Wise. Call or text into the show 24/7 at 396-1000.
0:39 Speaker 00 Here is Money Wise.
0:40 Speaker 01 Money, money, money, money. Welcome to the Money Wise Show. We are live from the Garo Ellis padded radio room off Stockdale Highway on ESPN Bakersfield 1230 a.m., 101.1 FM, and always streaming at MoneyWiseGuys.com. You can call or text into the show 24 hours a day at 661-396-1000. Today, we are your hosts. I'm Sharad Waite and...
1:04 Speaker 02 I am Emily Waite.
1:05 Speaker 01 Hey, Em.
1:06 Speaker 02 Hello.
1:07 Speaker 01 I want to get to a couple of listener messages that we got.
1:12 Speaker 02 Yes, I see them right here. Would you like me to read them for you?
1:16 Speaker 01 Please.
1:16 Speaker 02 Okay, great. "My brother is making $300 to $400 a day just by Ubering, and I was just wondering if they get taxed at the end of the year like a normal job. I'm trying to warn him to stop blowing his money like he stole it, lol."
1:31 Speaker 01 I like that. That's funny, spending money like you stole it.
1:36 Speaker 02 Spending money like you stole it. You haven't heard that one before?
1:38 Speaker 01 I think it's been a while, if I have heard it. What's interesting is this question is saying, you know, how is the income that somebody earns while driving for Uber compared to a regular job? I'm assuming that means, you know, most jobs are your W-2. You're a W-2 employee, which means you're not an independent contractor. You get...
2:02 Speaker 01 You know, your employer is in charge of, you know, pulling out your, your taxes, paying for certain things like unemployment insurance and workers' comp. And, you know, there's, there's a slew of things that the employers are responsible for. And then at the end of the day, your paycheck is whatever's left from your paycheck. That's what you take home. Whereas independent contractors.
2:25 Speaker 02 This is like the gig economy, right?
2:28 Speaker 01 It's the gig economy. And that is, in large part, people are not paid W-2 wages. They're paid as an, as, as an independent contractor. I mean, they're just paid cash from either their clients or from, you know, whatever service that they're providing. And that is also taxable. It's any income that you earn is taxable, no matter what, no matter if you are a independent contractor or an employee of the company.
2:58 Speaker 02 Right.
2:58 Speaker 01 And so, you know, the, the real quick answer is, yeah, you, you have to, you have to pay taxes at the end of the year. But there are some interesting distinctions when it comes to Uber drivers. So, again, they're not employees, so they don't have taxes withheld from their earnings. That means they're responsible to pay the taxes themselves. Usually that's quarterly. So essentially, you're self-employed when you're driving for Uber. And you are still on the hook to pay the normal, not all, but most of the normal taxes and, you know, charges that employers have.
3:41 Speaker 02 Yeah.
3:42 Speaker 01 And that includes paying into social security and Medicare. And if you are an employee, you are, you are paying for that out of your paycheck, and your employer is required to match that, to match that contribution into Medicare and social security. It's about. Just like seven and a half percent, just over seven and a half percent that that has to come out of your paycheck to pay for Medicare and Social Security and the employer pays that again. So that's a total of about 15.3% in self-employment tax that an Uber driver would still be responsible to pay. So they have to pay their own and then they
4:21 Speaker 01 have to match it as if they're their their own employer. And you are responsible for, you know, paying the taxes, which is usually quarterly. And that is a standard practice for anybody who is self-employed. So the good news is that Uber drivers can deduct some of their business-related expenses. For example, mileage, if that's there's a there's a certain amount of money per mile that you are allowed to deduct as sort of the cost for driving around. I believe that in 2025, that's somewhere around 67 cents a mile. But that means that the Uber drivers have to keep track of their mileage.
5:05 Speaker 01 And they're also, they can deduct car maintenance and depreciation, phone and data costs, your tolls, or parking, parking charges. Or if you've got a really good brother or a really good Uber driver, supplies like waters or snacks that they're providing for passengers. This only happened a couple of times to us.
5:26 Speaker 02 Mm hmm.
5:27 Speaker 01 Right?
5:27 Speaker 02 Right.
5:28 Speaker 01 And they're like, wow, this is a fancy Uber driver. When they, would you like a bottle of water?
5:32 Speaker 02 Or some mints or something.
5:33 Speaker 01 Yeah.
5:34 Speaker 02 Yeah.
5:34 Speaker 01 It's kind of nice. So you can deduct those mints or that bottled water. Because it's essentially a business expense.
5:40 Speaker 02 But it sounds like this person needs to have a talk with their brother about that.
5:44 Speaker 01 Yeah, because if they're just spending, that's a
5:46 Speaker 02 Then they're gonna have to pay taxes on it. They're not thinking about that.
5:49 Speaker 01 That's right. Because Uber will send a 1099, which is that tax reporting that goes to the IRS that shows how much they paid out. And so they're gonna have that reported and
6:06 Speaker 02 Right.
6:06 Speaker 01 The Uber driver is going to have to justify, well, you have to reclaim that as income and justify the expenses, but that is one of many reasons why a lot of people don't go into business for themselves. Because you have to be disciplined in making sure you're paying your taxes.
6:25 Speaker 02 Right. You have to set it aside.
6:27 Speaker 01 Yes. Right.
6:29 Speaker 02 Because you know you're going to have to pay it. So $300 to $400 a day, they need to do the math on that and then set that aside.
6:36 Speaker 01 Yes.
6:36 Speaker 02 Pay their taxes at the end of the quarter.
6:38 Speaker 01 Yes.
6:39 Speaker 00 They, she followed up and said, yeah, he denies it and takes it as tips like he's a delivery driver.
6:46 Speaker 02 Oh.
6:47 Speaker 01 We talked about this yesterday a little bit with John Duffield, how tips, part of the new big, beautiful bill is that tips are not taxed as, in most cases, they're not taxed as ordinary income, like taxable income. Just crazy, right? And so, yeah, I mean, some of that, some of that would be tips, but I'm assuming that Uber in their 1099 will break down the difference between, you know, some of these expenses and some of these income, like.
7:16 Speaker 02 They should be helping their workers to figure that out, is what you're saying?
7:20 Speaker 01 Yeah, and they'll have it broken down between what was a tip and what was a fare, what was it, you know, income.
7:28 Speaker 02 Interesting.
7:29 Speaker 01 So that should, my guess is that would be part of that 1099.
7:32 Speaker 02 Okay.
7:33 Speaker 01 So, yeah, that's, that's pretty good money, though. I mean, it's okay money, I guess, three or 400 bucks a day, driving.
7:38 Speaker 02 Yeah, I mean, that's another thing, is you have to be really disciplined about getting out there and taking all the rides and making sure you're, you know, working all those hours, I suppose, but it sounds like this person's doing a decent amount of money.
7:50 Speaker 01 There was a study that came out, I don't know if you remember when California had a ballot initiative to require. Workers in the gig economy, it was mostly geared towards Uber and Lyft and making them W2 employees instead of
8:03 Speaker 02 Yes, I do remember that.
8:04 Speaker 01 Independent contractors. So there was a lot of like ads thrown at us and arguments about, you know, why we should vote one way or another. And during that time, there was a study that came out trying to calculate how much the Uber drivers were actually making on an hourly basis.
8:20 Speaker 02 Yeah, it seemed like it was low.
8:21 Speaker 01 Like below minimum wage.
8:22 Speaker 02 That's what I remember. It was like, ugh.
8:25 Speaker 01 Right, because
8:26 Speaker 02 When you account for all this stuff.
8:28 Speaker 01 Yeah.
8:28 Speaker 02 Yes.
8:29 Speaker 01 Insurance.
8:29 Speaker 02 Gas.
8:30 Speaker 01 Mileage, depreciation.
8:31 Speaker 02 Yes, right.
8:33 Speaker 01 Maintenance.
8:34 Speaker 02 Yeah.
8:34 Speaker 01 Those, those types of things, then you start getting it down. So, but you know, three or 400 bucks a day might, I don't know what it would turn out to, but you're right. You have to be smart about, you know, how much you're taking in and how much you're driving and, you know, how much, you know, all that stuff.
8:51 Speaker 02 Do the maths.
8:52 Speaker 01 Do the maths.
8:52 Speaker 02 Or let your AI robot help you do the maths.
8:55 Speaker 01 That's another great suggestion. It's certainly as good as that.
8:58 Speaker 00 Get back into the robot talk.
9:00 Speaker 01 Oh, gosh. Yeah, we talked a lot about robots yesterday.
9:02 Speaker 02 Okay, so I will steer clear.
9:03 Speaker 01 Well, yeah.
9:05 Speaker 00 They're listening.
9:06 Speaker 01 Yeah.
9:07 Speaker 02 Yeah.
9:07 Speaker 01 Another, another
9:08 Speaker 02 No, I got another one here for you, actually, that just came in.
9:11 Speaker 01 Okay.
9:11 Speaker 02 Throw it out to you. Do the Teslas have a car wash function? I saw a story where a guy washed his Cybertruck and it wouldn't start after he washed it. He contacted Tesla support and they told him he needed to put his truck in car wash mode prior to the wash, which they said was in the owner's manual and there was nothing they could do to help him. He basically destroyed his Cybertruck with a bath, lol. We will see you guys soon for a burger and shake. So this, I had a Tesla, I don't anymore, but there is definitely a car wash mode function and it would take me, every time I would drive up to the car wash, I would freak out a little bit about like making sure I got it in car wash mode correctly. And listen to what I found out from the robot overlords.
9:56 Speaker 01 Uh huh.
9:57 Speaker 02 Tesla vehicles, including Cybertruck, have a car wash mode feature and the story is unfortunately true. Multiple documented cases of Cybertrucks being damaged. They actually don't recommend you take it through an automatic car wash, but they do provide the mode for those who choose to do so. Failure may result in damage. The incidents that this person is referring to have been reported multiple times. In one case, an owner simply sprayed his truck with water at a service station. Within 10 seconds of high-pressure rinsing, the Cybertruck went completely dark, frozen touchscreen, doors that wouldn't open.
10:28 Speaker 01 Wow.
10:29 Speaker 02 Another owner reported $80,000 truck became a quote "paperweight" after a wash.
10:34 Speaker 01 What is it? What, because they don't, when it rains?
10:37 Speaker 02 It's designed, okay, car wash mode is, yeah, good question. It says it's designed to close windows, lock the charge port, disable windshield wipers, and put the vehicle in a safe state for washing. The fact that water can disable such an expensive vehicle so easily has been a source of criticism.
10:51 Speaker 01 Well, yeah.
10:52 Speaker 02 Obviously. No, I don't know. I would be so mad.
10:56 Speaker 01 I, I-
10:56 Speaker 02 Hand washing might be a safer option.
10:58 Speaker 01 I wonder if it's the also, it, the, uh, something to do with the charging port or something like that?
11:04 Speaker 02 Yeah, that's what it said. Yeah. It locks the charge port.
11:08 Speaker 01 So that maybe if it's not locked, but, but I wonder what happens? I'm still confused about what, when it rains or it's pouring down, you'd think you'd have the same issue. I remember with your old Tesla that you used to have.
11:20 Speaker 02 Uh huh.
11:20 Speaker 01 You were, it took you a while to figure out the, the wash mode?
11:23 Speaker 02 I would get so frazzled before I would put it in, yeah.
11:26 Speaker 01 And because you don't, it doesn't have the traditional neutral.
11:29 Speaker 02 It doesn't.
11:29 Speaker 01 Like gear shift.
11:30 Speaker 02 Right.
11:31 Speaker 01 And so it won't free roll unless you put it in that mode. That's wild.
11:36 Speaker 02 Oh my gosh, Sherrod, listen to this.
11:38 Speaker 01 Okay.
11:39 Speaker 02 What about when it rains? That's a question many people have been asking. The contradiction is even more concerning when you look at real-world rain experiences. Some trucks develop orange rust marks in the rain. Um, there've been incidents where Cybertrucks have taken damage just from crossing puddles. Um, Tesla claims it should have no problem, but it's just irony. They don't know why it happens. It's a weird middle ground where normal rain usually doesn't kill it, but concentrated water exposure like a car wash can.
12:08 Speaker 01 That is so weird.
12:11 Speaker 02 Yeah.
12:11 Speaker 01 That is so weird.
12:12 Speaker 02 Okay, back to money stuff.
12:14 Speaker 01 Yes.
12:15 Speaker 02 We hear a lot of political talk about tariffs, but from an economic standpoint, why does the size of a tariff have a bigger impact than the fact that it exists at all? This is a great question.
12:25 Speaker 01 Yeah, it's a good question. It, I, I interpret that question to read, you know, why, why are tariffs, why do tariffs have a disproportionate impact above just whatever they're charging?
12:38 Speaker 02 Right.
12:38 Speaker 01 And we talked, we talked about this again yesterday, yesterday's show, if you've missed it, or maybe it was day before, two days ago, we talked about tariffs and the impact. There's been some interesting studies about the impact of tariffs. There was a trade partnership study, for example, that calculated tariff costs, close to $550,000 per net job gained. So.
12:59 Speaker 02 Wow.
13:00 Speaker 01 And, and then there was a separate, another study that was separate, that was just geared towards the steel jobs or the, I guess, the steel industry.
13:10 Speaker 02 Mm-hmm.
13:11 Speaker 01 And the, the research found that there were approximately, when there were, when there was a steel tariffs that were put in, in the 20 teens, there was an increase in steel prices of about 10% in steel prices in the United States. And that 10% increase in steel prices cost consumers about 11 and a half billion dollars annually. Because remember, a tariff, that, that charge is almost always trickled down to the consumer.
13:52 Speaker 02 Right.
13:52 Speaker 01 Those, those costs and those prices, just we end up paying them.
13:55 Speaker 02 Mm-hmm.
13:55 Speaker 01 By, by the company that just increases the cost of their good, of their product to cover the tariff cost. So the consumer ends up paying it. So in this case, consumers ended up paying an 11 and a half billion dollars more a year for steel. And that saved, the, the steel industry from the tariffs estimated that they saved about 9,000. Three hundred steel jobs because of the tariffs. But if you do the math, that's about nine hundred thousand dollars per job.
14:26 Speaker 02 It's a drop in the bucket. Well, no.
14:29 Speaker 01 Yeah, right. It's it's not many jobs created for that much money.
14:33 Speaker 02 The compare contrast. Yeah.
14:35 Speaker 01 Yeah, it's just it just doesn't make any sense. It's just, there's so many reasons why tariffs just don't work like you might think they do. There was a Yale Budget Lab project that was in 2020, just this year. And they estimated that tariffs were shaving or would shave off from gross domestic product. So the growth of our of our national economy. Point five to point seven percentage percent from the overall economy, which is a lot of money. That's about a hundred and ten billion dollars in annual output.
15:19 Speaker 01 And would lead to about five hundred thousand fewer jobs by the end of 2025. Wharton Budget Model in April of 2025 predicted that a long run GDP decline of about six percent. And wages of a decline of about five percent. With a typical medical middle income household. Facing a loss of about twenty two thousand dollars over their over their lifetime due to tariffs. And that is, I think that's the most important story is that. It's the consumer that ends up paying this. It makes it makes consumerism less functional.
16:04 Speaker 01 It weighs down on the free market economy. And, you know, studies basically show that the they. It's not good for jobs. It's not good for economic growth. And those countries that do have tariffs and higher tariffs. They found a correlation with persistent declines in output growth. So there's just, there's just, I just, there, it's like a.
16:36 Speaker 02 This is pretty... Sorry, go ahead. I didn't mean to interrupt.
16:39 Speaker 01 It's like a medieval tactic, you know, that doesn't... It just doesn't work in today's global economy, tariff.
16:48 Speaker 02 Yeah. Okay, two questions. First, did it ever work?
16:54 Speaker 01 They can work for certain things. Like, I believe that, you know, that the White House is using tariffs right now to push other agendas.
17:05 Speaker 02 That's right.
17:05 Speaker 01 Whether or not that is, you know, is appropriate, or whether it's not even true that there's these issues and that, you know, the tariffs are trying to do that, that's how historically they've been used as, like, in retaliation to some other unfair practice.
17:19 Speaker 02 Right.
17:20 Speaker 01 And there are global trade laws that are violated. And so how do you, how do you, how do you make a country pay the price for that? How do you make them, how do you make a country pay the price for, let's say, artificially inflating the price of some commodity? Or some technology, or some, some good, then you, you know, that I can see how tariffs can do that. But what we're, what we've been facing with this year are tariffs that are just blanket and large and, like, universal across countries and industries.
17:55 Speaker 02 So do you think the intention is still hopeful for that to be the result, some kind of strong-arming?
18:01 Speaker 01 Yeah.
18:02 Speaker 02 But the result is different than that?
18:04 Speaker 01 Yes.
18:05 Speaker 02 It's not, it's not working?
18:06 Speaker 01 It's not working. I don't think it will work.
18:08 Speaker 02 It's pretty well understood that tariffs just affect the consumer, right? Is that a pretty broadly understood?
18:16 Speaker 01 Among economists.
18:18 Speaker 02 Oh, not among the general population?
18:20 Speaker 01 No. I don't think the general population understands how tariffs work. I think they think that it's a tax on the country that's exporting, rather than recognizing that it's a...
18:32 Speaker 02 Everything's connected.
18:33 Speaker 01 Yeah, that you're gonna, you're charging that company in that country...
18:38 Speaker 01 Just to be able to bring their product over to the United States. You don't think the company is going to eventually pass that cost on to the consumers? Like, it's a cost of doing business for that company.
18:50 Speaker 02 Yeah, right.
18:50 Speaker 01 So eventually, it's gonna, of course, it's gonna raise prices, and that's what we see. That's what we always see. And, you know, today, there's a big headline about Apple, which is coming out. There's a press conference, I don't know if it's already happened, but there was a press conference that's announced by the White House, saying that Apple, the company, is going to invest another $100 billion in the United States in an effort to do more advanced manufacturing here in the United States, rather than China and India. And it said, this is on the heels of back in February of this year, when Apple said that it was planning to spend $500 billion and was going to hire 20,000 people in the
19:32 Speaker 01 United States over the next four years and open a factory in Texas that was going to make the machines that were running its AI division. And, you know, Apple has made similar pledges throughout the years under the Biden administration, and then again, under President Trump's first term, but hasn't followed up on a lot of those.
19:53 Speaker 02 Mm-hmm.
19:54 Speaker 01 It's, you know, Apple is just, I think...
19:56 Speaker 02 All talk, no walk?
19:57 Speaker 01 Yeah, mostly. I think it's mostly all talk in this case. And, you know, Apple does, according to Apple, they say that they're supporting more than 450,000 American jobs with thousands of suppliers and partners across all 50 states, and that it relies on more than 3 million workers across its supply network in China, and has recently been expanding production in India. And that's something that I think the president doesn't like.
20:28 Speaker 02 Yeah.
20:29 Speaker 01 All those millions of jobs versus the 450,000 jobs that we have here in the United States, thanks to Apple. And so, one analysis found that...
20:45 Speaker 01 The United States lacks a lot of the engineers, manufacturing engineers that they have in China and India. China and India have, basically have more of these engineers than we do in the United States.
20:58 Speaker 02 Yeah.
20:59 Speaker 01 And that if we were to bring the iPhone here to the United States and develop that workforce, that it would more than double the iPhone prices.
21:10 Speaker 02 Yeah.
21:10 Speaker 01 It would be like $2,000 instead of $1,000 for an iPhone.
21:17 Speaker 01 I don't know. It seems like people would probably still be willing to pay that. They'd just have to keep the phone a little bit longer. All right. Well, there you go, Em. Good job. We're gonna do this, take our first break. We come back, we have Richard Chapman. We're gonna talk about current economic development corporation with him and much more. Don't go anywhere.
21:34 Speaker 00 Are you an employee with a company-sponsored retirement plan? Do you fully understand how you're invested and whether or not you are maximizing your retirement plan's options? For more information on a free assessment, contact MoneyWise's 401(k) specialist, Justin Leland, at 661-847-1000. That's 661-847-1000.
22:02 Speaker 01 Here we go. Welcome back to MoneyWise.
22:07 Speaker 01 We're your hosts today. I'm Sherrod.
22:08 Speaker 02 And I'm Emily.
22:10 Speaker 01 That's Tears for Fears.
22:12 Speaker 03 Did he give you, did he let you know?
22:14 Speaker 01 He let me know. Yeah.
22:15 Speaker 03 What album?
22:16 Speaker 01 I don't know the album, but the, I don't remember the album. This is a deep cut. It sounds like a deep cut.
22:23 Speaker 03 Does that mean a long version?
22:25 Speaker 01 It means it's like hidden tracks.
22:27 Speaker 02 Not the most popular top 40 stuff.
22:31 Speaker 03 Actually, this is on there, that album called The Hurting, which was the precursor to Songs from the Big Chair, which had Shout, Everybody Wants to Rule the World. But this album has some amazing, Jim. This album hit it big in Europe, but not in the US. So you wanna hear?
22:47 Speaker 02 That's the definition of deep cut, by the way.
22:50 Speaker 00 Deep cuts, Jim's.
22:51 Speaker 03 Sorry, I'm not a millennial or...
22:53 Speaker 01 Yes.
22:54 Speaker 03 No, I saw them in 1985 in Baltimore.
22:57 Speaker 02 Very cool.
22:58 Speaker 03 The cool thing is, on YouTube, somebody taped the whole concert.
23:02 Speaker 01 That same concert?
23:02 Speaker 03 The one I went to.
23:04 Speaker 01 And you watched it?
23:04 Speaker 03 Yeah, so I can hear, I can hear it.
23:06 Speaker 02 You can revisit it whenever you want.
23:07 Speaker 03 With the crowd yelling.
23:09 Speaker 01 You got to relive Tears for Fears.
23:11 Speaker 02 I do love Tears for Fears. Yeah.
23:12 Speaker 01 Oh, yeah.
23:12 Speaker 02 They were super pop. Popular when I was a freshman in college.
23:16 Speaker 03 And Oasis is coming next month, right?
23:19 Speaker 01 They're coming to California?
23:20 Speaker 03 Yeah, my best friend is flying from North Carolina just to see him here.
23:23 Speaker 01 Wow.
23:24 Speaker 02 Wow, they're back together to.
23:26 Speaker 03 They might break up.
23:27 Speaker 02 You never know.
23:28 Speaker 01 The brothers that don't get along.
23:30 Speaker 02 Yes.
23:31 Speaker 01 Richard Chapman from Kern EDC, how are you?
23:35 Speaker 03 Great, exciting summer.
23:38 Speaker 01 Yes.
23:38 Speaker 03 As mentioning with the world's largest water ski tournaments in town.
23:42 Speaker 02 What is that about? Like, where is it? How long has it been happening here? I've never heard of this.
23:48 Speaker 03 It's been over 80 years.
23:50 Speaker 02 Oh geez.
23:51 Speaker 03 And they, they were last year in Kern County. But previous two years were in West Palm Beach, my birthplace.
23:59 Speaker 02 Oh.
24:00 Speaker 03 But they, they were in 20 years ago in, in Arvin at the Ski West Village.
24:04 Speaker 02 Okay, gotcha. So they move around?
24:07 Speaker 03 Yes.
24:07 Speaker 02 But they've been in Bakersfield the last couple of years?
24:09 Speaker 03 Yeah, last two years, so.
24:10 Speaker 02 Like Isabella?
24:11 Speaker 03 No, it's, they call it Ski West Village. It's south of Arvin.
24:15 Speaker 02 Oh.
24:16 Speaker 03 And there's parallel lakes, manmade lakes.
24:18 Speaker 02 Okay, gotcha.
24:19 Speaker 03 Open to the public. Go to skiwestvillage.com and we'll be out there on Friday.
24:27 Speaker 02 It'll be real hot, real, real hot.
24:29 Speaker 03 Ah, dry heat.
24:30 Speaker 01 A dry.
24:31 Speaker 03 There are tents.
24:32 Speaker 01 And there's water right there.
24:33 Speaker 03 Slalom, the jump, the Fonzie, you know, the Fonzie jump.
24:38 Speaker 01 Yeah.
24:38 Speaker 02 Right where you jump the shark?
24:40 Speaker 03 Yes, you got, see?
24:41 Speaker 01 They bring sharks out there for people to jump?
24:43 Speaker 03 Um, yes, and, and the record apparently is about 240 feet.
24:48 Speaker 01 Holy cow.
24:49 Speaker 02 So it's a distance record, not a height one?
24:51 Speaker 03 No, no.
24:52 Speaker 02 Okay.
24:53 Speaker 03 And, you know, I was saying, we have the, we have the wave, not in our county, we have the wave pool, right? This surf ranch, Kelly Slater, that's up in Lemoore.
25:01 Speaker 02 Right.
25:01 Speaker 03 People come from all over the world to go on that one.
25:04 Speaker 01 What? I don't know about this.
25:06 Speaker 02 Yeah, it's a manmade wave.
25:07 Speaker 01 A manmade wave in Lemoore?
25:08 Speaker 03 Wave pool. So Kelly Slater, I guess, one of the most famous surfers.
25:13 Speaker 02 Yeah.
25:13 Speaker 03 It can be yours, I think, for a group of 10, it's about.
25:17 Speaker 01 You can reserve it?
25:18 Speaker 03 Six to $8,000 a day. Maybe you'll have your company party there.
25:22 Speaker 01 And you, they're actually surfable waves that you can.
25:24 Speaker 03 Yes.
25:25 Speaker 01 I gotta check that out.
25:26 Speaker 02 And I think they can, they can adapt the kind of wave too, can't they? You can get a, I don't know the types of waves, but yeah.
25:33 Speaker 01 Yeah.
25:33 Speaker 02 Get all the different kinds.
25:34 Speaker 03 I'm sure, Sharon, you would take like the 15 foot wave.
25:37 Speaker 01 Oh yeah, pipeline baby. I'd go all in.
25:40 Speaker 02 I couldn't watch. I couldn't watch.
25:42 Speaker 03 Yeah, and we have, you know, we have Hard Rock, talk about that. Obviously, you all, your iconic Woolworths. We're ready for that.
25:48 Speaker 01 Oh, we're so ready.
25:49 Speaker 03 The summer is ending. You know, the Hard Rock will not be open till the end of the year, but you all are coming up.
25:55 Speaker 02 We're coming up real close.
25:56 Speaker 01 Our soft opening for the Woolworths Luncheonette is going to be the first week of September.
26:02 Speaker 03 Great.
26:02 Speaker 01 So we're a month away, basically a month away from that.
26:05 Speaker 03 Yeah, you're making national, international news.
26:07 Speaker 01 Yeah, baby. We were in the Smithsonian magazine. When was it, like a month ago?
26:11 Speaker 02 A couple of months ago.
26:13 Speaker 01 Couple of months ago? They interviewed Emily like a year ago or some crazy.
26:18 Speaker 02 It was a while ago. I didn't even know if it was coming out.
26:20 Speaker 03 Okay.
26:21 Speaker 02 Yeah.
26:21 Speaker 03 Well, thanks for coming on our show. That was really well received.
26:24 Speaker 02 That was really fun, yeah.
26:24 Speaker 03 People loved that. I mean, that's, we need to, as you all do a great job of talking about these upcoming activities. Economic development, tourism now is big.
26:33 Speaker 02 Yeah.
26:33 Speaker 03 And so this will play new money, right? New money coming to town based on what you're doing, based on the Hard Rock. Lightning in a Bottle, I hear you all went to that.
26:41 Speaker 02 Yes, we did.
26:42 Speaker 01 Yes, we did.
26:43 Speaker 02 Yes, it's so amazing. They have that right in our backyard.
26:45 Speaker 03 Yeah, and they're coming back again.
26:47 Speaker 02 I'm so glad.
26:48 Speaker 01 They signed, they said, already signed.
26:50 Speaker 03 Yeah, you can, they're pre, have pre-sales right now.
26:52 Speaker 01 Is it, is it, did they sign a new long-term contract, do you know?
26:56 Speaker 03 I'm not sure if it's annual or, you know, they do it, keep it doing it on an annual basis.
27:01 Speaker 01 It's hard to know, because when Emily and I were there, there was all kinds of whispering going around, like, oh, this might be the last year, because it was the end of a five-year contract with the county.
27:10 Speaker 02 That's right. It was a five-year contract this time. I don't know if they do five years at a time or if they...
27:14 Speaker 03 They're moving forward.
27:16 Speaker 02 That's great.
27:17 Speaker 03 They've already had pre-sales, significant number.
27:19 Speaker 01 I was very impressed with Lightning in the Bottle's security and just like crowd maintenance. It was just...
27:25 Speaker 02 Very smooth.
27:26 Speaker 01 Very smooth, very chill, and I would say family-friendly.
27:31 Speaker 02 Yeah.
27:32 Speaker 01 And, well, I guess kind of family-friendly.
27:34 Speaker 02 It depends on what you want. Like, you know, there's family-friendly stuff during the day, and then, you know, when it gets a little bit later, it's a different thing.
27:40 Speaker 03 So you guys were kind of the anomaly. The interesting thing is 98% of people that came to this festival did not live in Kern County.
27:47 Speaker 01 It shows.
27:49 Speaker 02 It's true, but we had like a little mini Bakersfield contingency.
27:52 Speaker 03 Okay, you have that delegation.
27:54 Speaker 02 More people, more people out there, right? We want to, we want to get one of those, they call them totems, you're familiar? We'll get the Bakersfield sign.
28:01 Speaker 03 Okay.
28:02 Speaker 02 Right? That's the idea.
28:03 Speaker 01 Yeah, I, we had a couple of friends who invited us and we thought, okay, you know,
28:08 Speaker 02 We'll try it out.
28:09 Speaker 01 We gotta try this out and I think we were both sold on it and it was a group of us Bakersfield people.
28:13 Speaker 02 Oh wow, this is really incredible.
28:17 Speaker 03 What, so did it, it was, what time did it end, in the evening?
28:20 Speaker 02 Well, you can end whenever you want.
28:22 Speaker 03 Okay, right.
28:23 Speaker 02 I mean, some people go, literally go all night long.
28:25 Speaker 03 Okay, you could RV.
28:26 Speaker 02 We camped out.
28:27 Speaker 01 We camped out there.
28:27 Speaker 03 And you can see internationally, we got the number of media impressions, you know, I think it was like 1.5,
28:36 Speaker 03 don't quote me, like billion, or there was just,
28:38 Speaker 02 Wow.
28:39 Speaker 03 There was, there was such amazing, the influencers
28:44 Speaker 02 Yes.
28:44 Speaker 03 Were, were telling the story of lightning in a bottle, well-known influencers.
28:49 Speaker 01 Yes.
28:49 Speaker 03 And, and then saying how much they love Kern County and, I mean, it's the great PR, right?
28:55 Speaker 01 Yes.
28:56 Speaker 02 It's true.
28:57 Speaker 03 To promote our county.
28:58 Speaker 02 Well, and you know, this last couple of years, I'm not sure if you're familiar, but we've had a few, the few, first few Bakersfield musicians have been invited out there.
29:05 Speaker 03 Oh, see, that's, that would be.
29:06 Speaker 02 There was one, two years ago, and this year there were two of them.
29:09 Speaker 01 Right.
29:10 Speaker 02 And they want to have more Bakersfield musicians out there, so get a little, get a little Bakersfield sound going.
29:15 Speaker 03 I mean, there were, there were 200 bands, right?
29:18 Speaker 02 I mean, I couldn't keep track.
29:20 Speaker 01 It was all day.
29:22 Speaker 02 The best part was, we watched our friends perform their country, right?
29:26 Speaker 03 What were they called?
29:28 Speaker 02 Devon Brinsfield.
29:30 Speaker 03 Okay.
29:30 Speaker 01 Devon Brinsfield and Mike Peters?
29:32 Speaker 02 Paige in the Overtones.
29:34 Speaker 01 Oh, yeah.
29:35 Speaker 02 So, but, but the people walking through our stage, it was sort of in the middle of the day. This is not what you typically expect at EDM festivals, this country music, but everyone would stop and just really get into the groove and just loved it. They were being exposed to this totally different music and everyone loved the heck out of it.
29:53 Speaker 03 Yeah, I mean, and that, well, so I know one of the, I didn't know one, there were 200 bands listed, how many did you know out of that list?
30:00 Speaker 01 I think I knew like two.
30:02 Speaker 02 Two, three.
30:03 Speaker 01 One or two, maybe three.
30:04 Speaker 02 Those two from Bakersfield and then one other.
30:06 Speaker 01 Oh yeah, yeah, there are three. It's all EDM, so it's not like, it's not our jam.
30:11 Speaker 02 It's a different kind of, yeah, a different kind of music, but. It doesn't, it doesn't matter. That's not our gem. We still loved it.
30:18 Speaker 01 Yeah.
30:18 Speaker 03 Yeah, again, I'm looking at some of the data from a recent one, a couple of years, like, yeah, a couple of hundred, over 150 million social impressions. The editorial reach is two, two million. And then 159 articles from a couple of years. So that's the point is this is much like your, if you do the deep dive on Woolworths. So this is the thing, we all have to, we all have to, how are we better ambassadors for Kern, Bakersfield? We have awesome story to tell.
30:45 Speaker 01 Yeah.
30:46 Speaker 03 And we can't assume that people know it, like the water ski tournament. People weren't aware.
30:49 Speaker 02 Exactly.
30:50 Speaker 03 Hard Rock, we all know about it, but some, you know, folks say, well, a cafe is coming. Well, there will be a cafe, but there'll be a casino with 3,000 sluts. There'll be four, at least four restaurants to begin, and then the hotel, and then the venue.
31:05 Speaker 01 And the venue will be last?
31:06 Speaker 03 The venue will be the second phase with the hotel, and that will be up to 2,000 seats is from what we hear.
31:12 Speaker 01 That's a nice venue. That's a good sized venue.
31:15 Speaker 02 That's so great. It'll be, bring people into Bakersfield, hopefully.
31:19 Speaker 03 And I, and there, even in LA, you're seeing during the Olympics and the World Cup, this marketing down as the LA casino, right? Because they know, we're going to have people coming over the hill, spending, staying a couple of days and then leaving, right?
31:34 Speaker 02 Right.
31:34 Speaker 03 And so that's new money that we really need.
31:37 Speaker 02 Into town in Bakersfield and we'll show them how cool we are.
31:39 Speaker 03 Yes. I mean, that's what, that's what we're here for.
31:43 Speaker 01 Richard Chapman again, joining us from Kern EDC. You mentioned promoting, and you've done a really great job, Richard, with the Where Business is Boundless, the TV and video series. It's on Channel 17. Is that when it?
31:55 Speaker 03 Yeah, it's on our website, kernedc.com. Emily was, her episode was posted recently. We just had Dr. Harper from CSUB.
32:04 Speaker 01 Nice.
32:04 Speaker 03 Hard Rock is going to come on in a couple of weeks.
32:07 Speaker 01 Sweet.
32:07 Speaker 03 And again, we can never assume that people know what is happening in our own backyard. And we're, we potentially, think about even folks looking for a job. Well, if they're not aware of these projects, the employers are not going to get the resumes they need, and the, our residents are not going to get the opportunities. For upward mobility that they all deserve, right?
32:27 Speaker 01 Right.
32:27 Speaker 02 Yep.
32:28 Speaker 01 And I'm looking at the list. You've had a ton of guests on the show.
32:33 Speaker 03 Emily was a return guest. I think you were.
32:36 Speaker 02 I was one of the first, I think.
32:38 Speaker 03 For a first return?
32:39 Speaker 02 I think that's what you told me, yeah.
32:41 Speaker 03 Yeah.
32:42 Speaker 02 Yeah.
32:42 Speaker 03 Backed by popular demand.
32:44 Speaker 01 Very popular. You've had Hydra Store.
32:48 Speaker 03 Yeah, I was just talking. That project is a $2 billion capital investment in Rosamont. It's going through the California Energy Commission process. Hopefully have conclusions by the end of the year, but that's 500 million a year economic direct and indirect impact.
33:08 Speaker 01 Unbelievable. Is that where they're going to be putting, pressurizing essentially the ground?
33:15 Speaker 03 It's an underground. It's a 500-megawatt, eight-hour storage. So, you know, the priorities we hear, especially at the federal level, are we want energy storage and production. That's happening. Yesterday in East Kern, Aravon had a ribbon cutting. That is a $2 billion solar storage project.
33:35 Speaker 01 $2 billion?
33:36 Speaker 03 Powering about 250,000 homes.
33:38 Speaker 01 Holy cow.
33:38 Speaker 03 All this stuff is happening, mostly in East Kern. Pacific Steel, they've already started under construction.
33:45 Speaker 01 That's the first steel plant in, built in the, in 50 years? In the United States or just in California?
33:50 Speaker 03 In California.
33:51 Speaker 01 Dang.
33:51 Speaker 03 So that's going to be over 400 good-paying jobs.
33:54 Speaker 01 Yes.
33:55 Speaker 03 Construction, I think, finished in 2027. But again, right, we need to have them back on to talk about where they are now.
34:05 Speaker 01 Right.
34:05 Speaker 03 If our, again, our residents aren't aware, I mean, you could drive from Bakersfield, it's an hour away.
34:11 Speaker 01 Right.
34:11 Speaker 03 So why not have somebody have the opportunity to make a good living wage?
34:16 Speaker 01 Yes, yeah.
34:17 Speaker 02 Very, very interesting.
34:18 Speaker 01 So many people just don't realize that, you know, the superlatives that we have here in Kern County, like we're the largest. Solar producers?
34:30 Speaker 03 So how we say it is we have more renewable energy than any county in the country.
34:34 Speaker 01 Yeah.
34:35 Speaker 03 We have the world's largest energy solar plus, it's called solar plus storage facility.
34:41 Speaker 01 Yes.
34:42 Speaker 03 In the world. We have, we're the wind capital of the world. We have a lot in terms of solar farms. I think we have the number two, if I'm not mistaken. So we're leading the nation or world. And again, all types of energy. But renewable energy, we've done more than any county in the country to provide that type of clean energy.
35:05 Speaker 01 We, we had Chad Hathaway on the show a week or two ago. He, a local oil producer. And he mentioned that, and he's not alone. Others have said that the tide seems to be maybe changing a little bit in terms of Sacramento's attitude towards.
35:21 Speaker 03 Well, and.
35:22 Speaker 01 Oil and gas.
35:23 Speaker 03 You know, I always say we have that eight good, good cases to be made about why we should produce locally versus preferring internet or foreign oil.
35:32 Speaker 01 Yeah.
35:32 Speaker 03 And I mean, the main thing is we have the strictest regs in the world to drill.
35:36 Speaker 01 Right.
35:36 Speaker 03 Kern County.
35:37 Speaker 01 Right.
35:38 Speaker 03 But also we're favoring oil from countries that have horrific human rights, environmental rights records. And oh, by the way, we're shipping it half a world away, creating more pollution than all the world's cars.
35:50 Speaker 01 Right.
35:50 Speaker 03 16 oil tankers. That's it.
35:52 Speaker 01 Right. Which I guess oil tankers like really spew nasty stuff. Yeah. Bunker fuel.
35:57 Speaker 03 So, so I, it's, it's a demand issue. So demand is still over 500 million barrels a year. We only produce 135 as a state. So guess what? We need, we need to get it from somewhere. We're an energy island. You can't pipe it in. So I am cautiously optimistic because if we can get the right, you know, to drill.
36:21 Speaker 03 The challenges investment has left, will it come back?
36:25 Speaker 01 Right.
36:26 Speaker 03 New Mexico has tripled their production. And so other states have kind of benefited by, you know, by this, by kind of the regulatory hurdles that have been imposed. But I'm glad to see the acknowledgement. It should be a, it should be apolitical.
36:43 Speaker 01 Right.
36:44 Speaker 02 Right.
36:44 Speaker 03 Local oversight, good jobs tax base. Sounds good to me.
36:49 Speaker 01 Yeah, for sure. Any other exciting projects that, that are coming up in Kern County?
36:55 Speaker 03 I know, I was at the State of the City, that's exciting. Like you all, the retail that's coming downtown.
37:01 Speaker 01 Yeah.
37:01 Speaker 03 I mean, we're getting the quality developments. We're working on some lifestyle centers, like the one on Rosedale. I mean, a lot of people.
37:09 Speaker 01 Lifestyle center?
37:10 Speaker 02 Yeah, what's that?
37:11 Speaker 03 Like shopping centers.
37:12 Speaker 01 Okay, okay.
37:14 Speaker 03 You've heard about the Whole Foods and, you know.
37:16 Speaker 01 Yes, there's a Whole Foods coming on Rosedale Highway?
37:18 Speaker 03 So that's that Rosedale project.
37:20 Speaker 01 Yeah.
37:21 Speaker 03 Right on the corner where the PG&E site.
37:24 Speaker 01 Plant was Rosedale and coffee.
37:26 Speaker 03 We already have quality, we have great quality retail here, but we're building on that.
37:31 Speaker 01 Yeah.
37:31 Speaker 03 We're seeing, of course, the Fuller, the Park Center, the Fuller Homes and Bolt House. That, that, they're going to build, what is it, 530 units? Pretty amazing.
37:46 Speaker 01 Of housing?
37:46 Speaker 03 Yes, because we need rental, right? We need both houses, but we also need the, folks have the ability to rent.
37:52 Speaker 01 Yeah.
37:53 Speaker 03 So that's going to be about 540. I mean, what's happening here is unlike any other place, you know, it's interesting, like the big project, yesterday, they're providing power to LA homes.
38:05 Speaker 01 Uh huh.
38:05 Speaker 03 But where can they build that facility? Kern County.
38:09 Speaker 01 Right.
38:09 Speaker 03 Because LA pretty much limits the ability, wind is prohibited and other types of energy, renewable energy projects.
38:16 Speaker 01 Yeah.
38:16 Speaker 02 Richard, we have a question for you here that came in. First of all, a comment, the pre-sale for the festival sold out already.
38:23 Speaker 03 Okay.
38:23 Speaker 01 For the lightning in a bottle?
38:25 Speaker 02 The pre-sale sold out. They will open up more sales later, but the pre-sale sold out.
38:30 Speaker 01 That's a good sign.
38:31 Speaker 02 That's a really good sign. How would one apply for the Hard Rock?
38:35 Speaker 03 Great question, and they do have a employment opportunities portal.
38:41 Speaker 02 Okay, great.
38:41 Speaker 03 Um, so we can share that with you after the show.
38:44 Speaker 02 Yeah, we can put it in the show notes.
38:45 Speaker 03 Yes, and vendor, if you're a vendor, landscaping, advertising, we want, they want to hire local, right?
38:52 Speaker 01 Yes.
38:53 Speaker 03 We prefer local, so if you are a vendor, please go to the website and put your company name in.
38:58 Speaker 01 That's great.
38:59 Speaker 03 And then, and what your service is and so forth, so.
39:03 Speaker 02 Yeah.
39:03 Speaker 03 There's amazing opportunities for our local company.
39:07 Speaker 02 Big, big, um, things like that, they need all the people to help it run, help it keep going. The cleaners, the, the window washers, the all.
39:14 Speaker 03 Right, it's all the indirect, indirect and induced and, and they're having job fairs, they're having, I think, for dealers. If you want to be a, what, poker blackjack dealer.
39:24 Speaker 01 Okay, that could be fun.
39:26 Speaker 03 IT.
39:26 Speaker 02 We're gonna learn how to do that now?
39:29 Speaker 03 IT, there's IT, jobs, security jobs.
39:32 Speaker 02 Yeah.
39:33 Speaker 03 I mean, they were talking thousands and thousands of opportunities, so.
39:37 Speaker 01 We already know somebody who got a job there.
39:39 Speaker 02 We do, yeah.
39:40 Speaker 01 Out, out, out for the.
39:41 Speaker 02 Yeah.
39:42 Speaker 01 Hard Rock.
39:43 Speaker 02 Exactly.
39:44 Speaker 01 And, um, yeah, no, it's really exciting, it just continues every time we talk, Richard, I'm impressed with how much is going on. It just seems like there's a lot of activity here in the Central Valley.
39:55 Speaker 02 It's really cool. I bet it's fun for you to share all of this stuff that's going on in Kern County.
40:00 Speaker 03 Well, we can share, like, the great thing is, like, these projects, like Pacific Steel, they landed on our desk, like, uh, gosh, over five years ago.
40:09 Speaker 02 Oh, wow.
40:09 Speaker 03 And, so we have project names, uh, sometimes we sign NDAs, right? But a lot of times, these companies, uh, like, you know, Pacific Steel, they said, hey, that your, our first call was to KEDC. I remember getting the call.
40:22 Speaker 01 Nice.
40:22 Speaker 03 And Melinda did a great job of working with them and they were a community partner. So we're kind of like the, the, we know about companies that locates are gonna happen two to three to four years. I mean, look at Cal Dairies, that one is the most advanced, uh, dairy processing plant in the world.
40:38 Speaker 01 Right, over off of Panama, yeah, yeah, it's incredible.
40:42 Speaker 03 So if you, and that's a three-phase project, so we, most of our projects are industrial, in the industrial realm.
40:48 Speaker 01 Yeah.
40:48 Speaker 03 So these are quality, obviously, we've had some. Gas downsizing, so hopefully our resident or those can transfer over to those.
40:57 Speaker 01 Yeah. Well, you seem to like it. You seem to like what you do.
41:00 Speaker 03 Oh, yeah. Well, because we are the business help center.
41:03 Speaker 01 Yeah.
41:04 Speaker 03 So I love it because people call us for help. We're, you know, no fee, no fee assistance. But we're the dot connectors, right?
41:12 Speaker 01 Yes.
41:12 Speaker 03 So we're not like what
41:14 Speaker 02 Fun thing to do. Yeah, sure.
41:16 Speaker 03 But we'll know the people that they need to talk to on the education, government, business side to help them move forward.
41:22 Speaker 01 Right. You can introduce them to the government leaders, the education leaders and go, hey, look, yeah, we're business friendly and let me, let me introduce you to the people who make those decisions.
41:32 Speaker 02 It's one of my favorite things to do in life personally is to connect people that I know, you know, could benefit from knowing one another. So to be able to do that for your job, that's got to be pretty rewarding.
41:41 Speaker 03 And that's true. And I always say, learn three things about each person you work with. Not just business, but hey, what's your favorite sport?
41:49 Speaker 01 Yeah.
41:50 Speaker 03 What's your favorite band? I would say, what's your first concert?
41:52 Speaker 02 Do you wear shorts to the grocery store?
41:54 Speaker 03 Maybe this weekend when I go to the, the, the water ski tournament.
41:59 Speaker 01 Yeah.
41:59 Speaker 03 It did happen last year and I ran into three or four people I knew at the supermarket.
42:04 Speaker 01 And you blushed with your, with your shorts on.
42:06 Speaker 02 Imagine having legs.
42:07 Speaker 03 Oh, yeah.
42:08 Speaker 02 So embarrassing. So embarrassing.
42:10 Speaker 01 So embarrassing. Richard Chapman wearing shorts. Well, Richard, thank you so much for taking the time coming on the show and, and thanks for all your cheerleading that you do for Kern County.
42:20 Speaker 03 Thanks.
42:20 Speaker 01 It's really appreciated.
42:21 Speaker 03 I'm willing to share it.
42:22 Speaker 01 We could tell anybody if they would like to know more about what's going on. You have a very good website. It's kernedc.com. That's kernedc.com. You can find out more about the economic development that's going on. And if you're interested in that Hard Rock job, Google the Hard Rock Cafe to hone.
42:40 Speaker 03 Cafe casino.
42:41 Speaker 01 Just Hard Rock.
42:42 Speaker 02 Hard Rock.
42:43 Speaker 01 Hard Rock to hone.
42:43 Speaker 02 We'll put the right thing in the show notes, huh, Stephen?
42:46 Speaker 01 Yeah, right.
42:46 Speaker 03 Yes.
42:47 Speaker 01 Okay. Anyways, we're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back. Thanks.
42:49 Speaker 00 Don't forget, Money Wise is more than a radio show. We're an independently owned local wealth management firm with 60 plus years of collective experience. Our financial advisors are here to help you, Kern County. Together, let's be smart, be safe, be money wise.
43:15 Speaker 01 Welcome to MoneyWise. I'm Sharad, that's Emily.
43:18 Speaker 02 We back.
43:19 Speaker 01 We back. Richard's such a great guy.
43:22 Speaker 02 Yes.
43:23 Speaker 01 Just fun to talk to, enjoyable. On May 15th of this year, Emily.
43:29 Speaker 02 Yeah.
43:29 Speaker 01 Dick's Sporting Goods and Foot Locker officially agreed that Dick's was going to acquire Foot Locker.
43:37 Speaker 02 Okay.
43:37 Speaker 01 In a $2.4 billion merge.
43:42 Speaker 02 I didn't even know Foot Locker was still.
43:44 Speaker 01 Ah, you're not alone.
43:45 Speaker 02 Around.
43:46 Speaker 01 You're not alone. Did you know Foot Locker was still around, Stephen?
43:48 Speaker 00 Yeah, it's only, it's in the mall.
43:51 Speaker 01 Is it still there in the mall?
43:52 Speaker 00 Yeah.
43:52 Speaker 02 Wow.
43:53 Speaker 01 Employees still wear referee jerseys?
43:56 Speaker 02 Oh, wow, wow. Yeah, those are like the songs of my youth is walking through there.
44:00 Speaker 00 A Foot Locker and a kid's Foot Locker.
44:02 Speaker 01 Oh.
44:03 Speaker 02 Nice.
44:03 Speaker 00 They're barely holding on, just like the mall, but they're there.
44:06 Speaker 01 You don't want kids and adults mingling together buying their shoes.
44:11 Speaker 00 No.
44:12 Speaker 01 Keep that, keep that separate. More importantly though, Emily, do you know the history of Foot Locker?
44:18 Speaker 02 No idea.
44:19 Speaker 01 You know where Foot Locker comes from?
44:20 Speaker 02 I do know that in the 80s, I really liked going in there and pretending like I could afford the shoes.
44:26 Speaker 01 That was your thing?
44:28 Speaker 00 Been there.
44:29 Speaker 02 Then I would go to Payless and get the knockoffs.
44:31 Speaker 00 Yeah, my mom would take me to Mervyn's after.
44:33 Speaker 02 Mervyn's, yes, Mervyn's, heck yeah.
44:35 Speaker 01 Okay.
44:36 Speaker 02 That's my history knowledge.
44:38 Speaker 01 The reason why I'm familiar with Foot Lockers because I, I am aware that they are the last living piece of Woolworths.
44:51 Speaker 02 What?
44:52 Speaker 01 Woolworths created Foot Locker and this happened in 1970, well, the first Foot Locker was in 1974. And it happened in a city of industry here in California and it was the.
45:12 Speaker 01 It used to be called Kenny's. Do you remember Kenny's?
45:15 Speaker 02 Oh wow, that does sound familiar.
45:16 Speaker 01 So Kenny's is what my parents would buy us kids. They were like the super cheap.
45:21 Speaker 00 They had the Kenny kicks.
45:22 Speaker 01 Yeah, Kenny kicks.
45:23 Speaker 00 Yep.
45:24 Speaker 02 Where was it located? Do you remember?
45:26 Speaker 01 Uh, the Kenny's.
45:27 Speaker 02 Were they all over?
45:28 Speaker 01 Yeah, they were kind of, they were kind of all over. And, um, so there was a Foot Locker in 1974. And they were established as Kenny slash Woolworths. They were kind of the specialty chain that focused on athletic shoes. And then 1982, they launched Lady Foot Locker, 1986, Kids Foot Locker. Of course, Woolworths went out of business in the 90s.
45:55 Speaker 02 Yeah.
45:56 Speaker 01 And as part of that, that bankruptcy with Woolworths, they spun off and sold all of their remaining department stores in 1997. And there was a group called the Venator Group that went in.
46:16 Speaker 02 The Darth Vader Group?
46:17 Speaker 01 Uh huh, yeah. Venator. And they were the ones that essentially acquired the athletic retail business, which was Foot Locker.
46:27 Speaker 02 Okay.
46:28 Speaker 01 So it's kind of interesting that that's the, uh, you know, that's the, you know, it all comes from the roots, its roots of, you know, Woolworths selling shoes and then having, they had several successful sort of off-brand spin-off companies. And now Foot Locker is about to be merged with Dick's. However, just today, Senator Elizabeth Warren asked the FTC and the Department of Justice to consider blocking this deal.
46:59 Speaker 02 Oh, really?
47:00 Speaker 01 Because of antitrust concerns, which is, there's two consolidation of.
47:07 Speaker 02 Monopolization.
47:08 Speaker 01 Yeah.
47:08 Speaker 02 Sort of a thing.
47:09 Speaker 01 And that hurts the consumer. I don't understand this enough to really like give any opinion on it, but I'm always skeptical, not always, but this, I'm skeptical in this case, you know, it's like, really?
47:20 Speaker 02 This particular industry, the sports shoes, it seems like. They're everywhere.
47:25 Speaker 01 Yeah, it seems like they're everywhere and it seems like it's inevitable that you're gonna have them kind of merge together, but I guess we don't want just one company that's making all of our shoes or selling all of our shoes, cuz then that, you know, then then we don't have competition and competition is nice because it generally reduces costs. And so.
47:45 Speaker 02 That's how it works.
47:47 Speaker 01 That's how it works. That's right. Uh, also, we're, you know, we're getting a lot of earnings coming from publicly traded companies. And one of those is McDonald's.
47:57 Speaker 02 Oh.
47:57 Speaker 01 McDonald's is, of course, one of the world's largest fast food chains. And they have actually come out with their, with some of their, uh, earnings. And they've done pretty good this last quarter, especially compared to some of their rivals like Yum! Brands, which Yum! Brands owns Kentucky Fried Chicken, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, who all reported lower than expected revenues just yesterday. And same store, same store sales have dropped with these companies. Chipotle also lowered its full year same-store sales guidance after a disappointing quarter. But McDonald's had bucked the trend a little bit and you probably have no idea why. I was gonna ask you why.
48:40 Speaker 02 Uh, let me think.
48:42 Speaker 01 I'll give you a hint. Do you remember, we stopped at McDonald's when we came back from LA a couple of weeks ago. You were kinda out of it, so you may not remember.
48:52 Speaker 01 You were kinda sleeping.
48:53 Speaker 02 Uh.
48:54 Speaker 01 But I I bought chicken strip, uh, the new crispy chicken strip, uh, wrap.
49:01 Speaker 02 Okay, yeah.
49:02 Speaker 01 So this is, this, they, McDonald's has actually attributed their increased sales due to crispy chicken strips, their new.
49:09 Speaker 02 Really?
49:10 Speaker 01 Uh, menu item.
49:11 Speaker 02 Oh.
49:11 Speaker 01 Which.
49:12 Speaker 02 Wow.
49:12 Speaker 01 You would think that they would have chicken strips. Before, they had chicken nuggets, but they didn't have the chicken strips. And they brought them back here recently.
49:19 Speaker 02 Okay, I was gonna ask you, when's the last time you've been to McDonald's?
49:22 Speaker 01 That was it.
49:23 Speaker 02 So it sounds like that was that, but let's say prior to that, cuz we were in traffic. We were driving back from.
49:27 Speaker 01 Oh, it's years.
49:28 Speaker 02 Okay.
49:29 Speaker 01 Prior to that. Oh, actually, I I'll stop, I'll eat breakfast every once in a while. I'll go through the drive thru.
49:33 Speaker 02 What's every once in a while?
49:35 Speaker 01 Couple times a year, I'll have an Egg McMuffin. Their Egg McMuffins are so good.
49:39 Speaker 02 When is this happening?
49:40 Speaker 01 It happens usually when I'm heading out for a hike.
49:42 Speaker 00 They have a spicy one now.
49:43 Speaker 01 I haven't tried that.
49:44 Speaker 00 They are good.
49:45 Speaker 01 You've tried it?
49:46 Speaker 00 Oh, yeah.
49:46 Speaker 01 Their breakfast is unbelievable. And now they're expanding in some of their stores. It used to be you could buy breakfast. There was a period of time you could buy McDonald's breakfast like 24 hours a day. Those were the days.
49:55 Speaker 02 I think they brought it back.
49:56 Speaker 01 I think, I don't know if it's 24 hours a day, but at least it's expanded. The other reason McDonald's is doing well, they credit the Minecraft themed meals that they have, which is.
50:08 Speaker 02 Minecraft is big.
50:10 Speaker 01 Yeah.
50:10 Speaker 02 There was a movie.
50:11 Speaker 01 Yeah, there was.
50:12 Speaker 02 Jack Black.
50:13 Speaker 01 Jack Black. I heard it was terrible.
50:15 Speaker 02 Really?
50:15 Speaker 01 It was so bad, it was good, I guess. All right. Well, thanks for tuning in. Stephen Sot. Thanks for tuning in, everybody. Really appreciate it. If you missed any of these shows, go find out where you listen to your podcasts. Remember these three things. Be smart.
50:27 Speaker 02 Be safe.
50:28 Speaker 01 And always be money wise.
50:29 Speaker 04 Securities offered through LPL Financial, member FINRA, SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through LPL Financial. LPL Financial and Money Wise Wealth Management are independently owned and operated.
Previous 8/4/25 Beyond the AI Hype: Real Talk on Future Careers + Real Estate/Mortgage Report with Allyn Next 8/7/25 Getting Down to Business with Local Attorney, Kyle Jones Page updated November 6, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated
