In this episode of Supply Chain Now, Scott and Greg share the top stories in supply chain for the week for the Supply Chain Buzz.  In this week’s episode, Scott and Greg welcome Andrew Kelley with BoxLock to the podcast.

Intro – Amanda Luton (00:00:05):

It’s time for supply chain. Now broadcasting live from the supply chain capital of the country. Atlanta, Georgia heard around the world. Supply chain. Now spotlights the best in all things. Supply chain, the people, the technologies, the best practices and the critical issues of the day. And now here are your hosts.

Scott Luton (00:00:29):

Hey, good afternoon, Scott Luton, Greg white with you here on supply chain. Now. Welcome to today’s live stream, Greg. Good afternoon. How are you doing? I’m doing quite well. Scott Luton. How are you? Your mom, may Ernest T bass. How you still see today, man? So, well, we’ve got a great show teed up. We’ve got a great featured guests. We could have spent three hours in the warmup session, you know, picking his brain. So stay tuned again. We are outclassed and out educated. Uh, and so speaking of, uh, Andrew Kelly, the third, the chief commercial officer at box law is going to be our special guest here around 12, 15, 12, 20. So stay tuned because he is a leader on the move and you’re not going to miss him like to issue a challenge. Since I see a bunch of people signing up Andrew Kelly, the third, I would like people who are in the stream to guess where Andrew Kelly, the third might have gotten one or more college degrees.

Scott Luton (00:01:33):

You could be right twice a boy. And, uh, good morning. Uh, let’s see here, uh, say LA, uh, Benjamin, Stephan, um, Robert and Jeffrey. Good morning, everybody. And Stephen, by the way, uh, Andrew hails from the Dallas area. So, uh, he is a neighbor of yours, so he’s and also Stephen that’s. Right. Alright. So with no further ado, Hey, this is all about supply chain buzz, right? Some of the latest and biggest developments across global supply chain, uh, Greg and I, our aim is to help you increase your supply chain Accu. So stay tuned as we knew that, Hey, quit programming up. Before we dive into the first story, uh, Greg, if folks enjoy these lobstering episodes, they should check out our podcast today, Greg, uh, we published an outstanding conversation with Keith Saunders, a senior blockchain executive with one of your favorite companies. Zip, first of all, I just love the name of the company.

Scott Luton (00:02:34):

And, um, Keith has a ton of experience. I mean, he’s worked at some fantastic companies, listen up. That’s right. He’s has to say huge. Not only did we dive into his journey, but he really weighed in with some perspective on his approach when it comes to procurement sourcing. So great episode, you can check that out wherever you get your podcasts from. Okay. Holy cow. We’ve got a bunch of folks. I’m not gonna be able to recognize all of them. Um, constant, uh, Constantinos attuned in from Greece via LinkedIn Muhammad also turned in via LinkedIn. Good morning to you, both Melanie. Good morning and Sylvia, Sylvia. Great to have you back look forward to having you, uh, I believe on a live stream in a couple of weeks, um, uh, Teva, Tamer, AA professor Mohib good morning, uh, to you and the Plains there. See that that’s that’s that guy right there.

Scott Luton (00:03:27):

That is right. Uh, professor Mohib is in the air capital of the world in Wichita, Kansas. So great to have everybody, uh, Vermont too is tuned in. So great to have you, I’ll tell you we’ve gotten so much, um, uh, feedback on your perspective last week on the live stream. And just want to give you another high five, love your take on leadership. You’re meaningful and moving the needle. No lip service is all about real action oriented leadership and, uh, really enjoyed you being here with us. Okay. So Greg, let’s dive into the first story of the day. How about that? Let’s do that, right? Yeah. So, you know, uh, I hate to kick things off on some, on some really bad news, but the, the biggest story in the biggest tragedy from last week is this explosion in the port of Baruch, uh, Beirut.

Scott Luton (00:04:20):

Um, so yeah, I’ve got some interesting insights here as this story continues to develop. So unfortunately, 154 people now at least have died with thousands of injuries. Rescue recovery efforts are still underway. Those numbers of course could be further impacted, but the investigation into exactly what triggered massive blast is also making progress. So it’s being reported that a vessel carrying of course, a huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate arrived at the port of Beirut in September, 2013, but it was abandoned by its owners and crew, according to, I think Al-Jazeera, um, it’s cargo was offloaded after it was abandoned into a structure of course called hanger 12, but we’ve all heard so much about, you know, seven years back, uh, Lebanese customs officials, uh, didn’t lose any sight or visibility of this cargo. This is the, really, this is just the really frustrating part of this, which, you know, it could’ve all been avoided.

Scott Luton (00:05:18):

So it’s being reported that the customs officials sent six letters, uh, over the years to an unnamed judge asking for the port to take action and warning about the danger that the ammonium nitrate posed. So, so many opportunities, um, and to give folks context in case they’re new to the port of Beirut, 60% of Lebanon Lebanon’s imports come through this port. So huge, huge, tragic setback here, extraordinary impact for the Lebanese people. So on CBS news, Greg, uh, over the weekend, I believe Lebanon’s UN ambassador, mr. Amal mood, da lolly mentioned. One of the areas impacted is the availability of food in the country. Evidently he said that large stockpiles of

Greg White (00:06:06):

Were destroyed

Scott Luton (00:06:08):

All the other, um, destruction in the blast. So I’ll tell ya all the best to the Lebanese people. Uh, w he also in that same interview talked about just how difficult the last 30 or 40 years has been in Lebanon. And, and, and I don’t, I’m paraphrasing here, but he’s like, Hey, we deserve a break. The Lebanese people need a break, and this is just the latest, uh, tragedy and setback that they’re having to deal with. So, um, any thoughts, have you been tracking the story?

Greg White (00:06:39):

Well, Greg, a little bit. So as it turns out, uh, one of the largest groups in Wichita, Kansas, which AA can attest to is a huge Lebanese population. So you, I know many, many people who still have, uh, connections to the old country. And, uh, the, I know this, the government has been in shambles for decades. Um, the, you know, it’s well known that it’s poorly run and very corrupt. Uh, I had heard something about, uh, and you might know more about this. There was some sort of fireworks or welding or something going on in the facility next to this. And for folks who don’t know ammonium nitrate is fertilizer. It’s just a very it’s or it’s a component of fertilizer. It’s just a very, very, um, unstable component of fertilizer until it’s mixed with the other chemicals to stabilize it for fertilizer. So, um, and this was a huge amount of, of product. So I know it’s harmed the ability for the S for the, obviously I think it has ceased at least temporarily the ability for the port to operate. And I don’t know that they know, I don’t know that anyone could know because ministers are dropping so fast in terms of, of resignations that the, you know, again, a government that was, um, already in disarray is losing members of the cabinet and there’s calls to eliminate the cabinet as well. So this will be a big disruption, obviously. Massive, uh, in addition to the human tragedy. Yeah.

Scott Luton (00:08:30):

Yes. Clay mentioned, uh, of course our, one of our quarterbacks, the dog here at supply chain now 27,500 tons of ammonia, natural

Greg White (00:08:41):

In that hanger 12. Okay.

Scott Luton (00:08:42):

And to put it, in some context, the OKC, the Oklahoma city bombers use two tons and we all saw the destruction there. So I tell you that the video that the various videos that have been proliferating out, uh, since the blast, it is just it’s mind numbing, uh, from, from the actual blast itself to of course, just, just how widespread that destruction has been. So our prayers and thoughts are certainly with the people of Lebanon, um, that the good news is here. There’s always good news. If you look forward, uh, in that same art, uh, interview with CBS news, the, um, mr. Moolah, uh, Moodle lolly talked about how overwhelmed it’s been, see all the support coming in from the international community. So that, that really is a much needed and a good way to put a cap on the story for now. So for change there, one can only hope, right.

Scott Luton (00:09:35):

That’s right. So Jeff Jeffrey comes in with a quick clarification, he’s saying 27, 20 700,000. Yeah. I think that was a little slipper, the turn here on my end. That’s right. So almost 3000 metric, tons of ammonium nitrate. Okay. So let’s move on to something that is much, much, much lighter. Uh, and, and, you know, here being here in the Metro Atlanta area, of course, we hear a lot about the home Depot all the time. Um, but they made big, a big splash across the business community with their news last week. Uh, Greg. So they are, have announced their plans to continue expanding their supply chain footprint, um, as reported by the one only supply chain dive home, Depot’s gonna be adding three distribution centers all in the Metro Atlanta area, uh, as part of an effort by the company to continue to ramp up its ability to meet growing demand, uh, in the, do it yourself market, you know, everyone’s home.

Scott Luton (00:10:38):

And so I saw it put either an article or somewhere else that you start seeing all the improvement opportunities when you’ve been home for several months. Um, so three facilities, and this, this is how they’re gonna, they’re gonna operate the largest site. Greg’s gonna focus on store replenishment mainly in the Southeastern us. The second site is going to serve as what they called a flatbed delivery center. So all about a next day delivery of bulky older orders. And then third site is going to be focused on same and next day delivery of maintenance, repair, and operations products. All for business to business customers expect a timeframe for all three to come online is 18 months. A project is part of the $1.2 billion being as in with a B as in Bezos, uh, investment in its distribution network, which was announced back in 2017. So get this, Greg, this is a interesting quote here. Uh, we were talking pre-show about speaking with confidence, uh, and, and our listeners are gonna see that momentarily, but in late may at an industry conference, home Depot CEO, Craig Menear gave an interesting quote quote through all of this. For the most part, we’ve been able to maintain the continued development of the supply chain. You’ll see us move forward through 2020, pretty much as planned in quote, how about that for competence?

Scott Luton (00:12:04):

All right. One last point here. I’m going to get you to weigh in Greg and we’ll, we’ll take some comments from the audience. Home Depot seem to get a headstart in the retail industry on really investing in their supply chain infrastructure, which started in 2017, really as a, as they reappeared on the Gartner top 25 supply chain rankings. Right? So we, maybe we need to borrow their crystal ball. Right. Wait, what do you think?

Greg White (00:12:26):

Well, they desperately needed it in 2017. I mean, they had been lagging pretty significantly. They had some leadership changes in that area. We’ve actually met one of their top supply chain leaders. Um, she was on the first U S bank, uh, freight payment index discussion, right. And, um, clearly they have up-skilled in that area and they knew they needed to, um, I won’t claim in, I won’t name any names, but I have some inside information on supply chain and supply chain tech at home Depot. And they have been, they have been upgrading for nigh on a decade now. And just finally, I think so two, three years ago finally reached that inflection point where they’re bringing things into a much, much more modern phase and just in the Nick of time also so well done on their part and this, uh, their ability to be agile and do this is impressive. And of course, it’s really easy to stay on plan when your sales go up dramatically rather than down, because you have all that capital and stock appreciation that allows you to do that. So I’m glad to see it happening for any company, but particularly for big orange and, um, you know, and particularly as it frankly, benefits the Atlanta area

Scott Luton (00:13:47):

Agreed. So, and we’ve reached out again, you know, we’ve had a variety of, of home Depot leaders own the, uh, the program with us we’ve reached out and we’ll see if we can get one of their supply chain leaders owned to speak to just this latest round of investment. So good stuff there. Um, a couple of great comments from the audience, Jamie is, is here with this. Uh, Jason had a great first episode in the logistics and transportation, uh, series last week. Uh, Jamie says the home Depot has definitely been leading the way and seeing their supply chain as an area to leverage as a company

Greg White (00:14:21):

Advantage. That’s a great point. And

Scott Luton (00:14:23):

Our four story today near the end, we’re going to be talking about that, especially in light of all the retail struggles. Uh, Chris Barnes says the home Depot has a good distribution network already curious to see the project they did analyze the effect of adding in three new facilities, great stuff there from mr. Supply chain is boring.

Greg White (00:14:42):

That is good. That’s a really good point because there are other retailers who are adding to their supply chain network. And I would, I would argue that one particular case we discussed several weeks ago, target putting sort of a interim fulfillment center between the store and the consumer that still confuses me. Um, but this still, this, uh, both, all three of these locations seem like logical and logically separated, right point that the consumer business or doesn’t get stepped on by the commercial business. Hmm. That’s a good point. Uh, Claudia, it makes a great point. You know, being declared essential was key. Um, great point there, Claudia. And one more here. Uh, Jeffrey says not to detract from home Depot success, but demand forecasting and anticipation is less complex for the sector than for others. Market signals and counterbalances are easier to analyze and they’ve been profitable in the past couple of years and all true, but as usual Jeffrey, I, I have, I have a counter to your point, Jeff, and I we’d go back and forth offline all the time.

Greg White (00:15:52):

So that is a good point. But the uplift in, in, um, consumer business is really significantly difficult to forecast, particularly as per COVID. And we also just a quick note, we are hearing anything about Lowe’s excellence in supply right now, right? Although, uh, ACE hardware is kicking butt. Right. Right. So, so I don’t think it’s coincidental. I don’t think that it’s to Jeff’s point, I don’t think it’s necessarily an indicator of, of excessive excellence over the competition. It’s just that some teams are better than others and I can value what the teams at both ACE and home Depot. Great point, great exchanges there. Okay. One last comment before we bring in our special guests. So evidently there’s a trend taking place called hashtag hire Ben. And I think he’s talking about Benjamin gold clang, who I think will be graduating soon. And Joseph Valentine is taking it upon himself to start this massive advertising campaign.

Greg White (00:16:57):

I like that too. Who originated higher Latiya was that you Scott? Great. What may, um, we like these trends. I mean, we’ve got great people, talented people and this listing audience, and there’s going to be companies that are going to really benefit from their thought leadership and just their, their sheer talent. So, uh, we’re with you, Joseph Valentine, we’re we’re big fans of the higher been movement. Yeah. Um, okay. So let’s with no further ado. I’ll pull this out here. Uh, we’ve got a great guest here today. Uh, you’re in for a treat. We’re going to be welcoming in, uh, Andrew Kelly, the third chief commercial officer at box lock.

Speaker 4 (00:17:41):

Hey, good

Greg White (00:17:42):

Afternoon, Andrew. How are you doing, sir? I’m doing fantastic. Thanks for having me on guys. I appreciate it. Yeah. Welcome aboard.

Greg White (00:17:50):

I have to tell you, I, I don’t know if you were listening backstage, but I put, I put the challenge out to our audience to try to express where a guy named Andrew Kelly, the third might have gone to college and nobody really took me up on it, but I figured it would be obvious with the third that you went to some pretty prestigious schools. Yeah. Well, lot of good mentors that I found along the way, a lot of hustle, a lot of debt.

Scott Luton (00:18:23):

All right. So Greg, we can’t leave him in alerts. So Andrew and we were talking, uh, prior to coming on, we should have recorded that conversation on the front and released that. And I think that would have been an intriguing discussion, but you know, before we talk more about box lock for a second, let’s, let’s get a little bit of your background. I mean, you’ve got an incredible pedigree, but tell our audience a little bit about yourself.

Andrew Kelley (00:18:44):

Yeah. So I grew up on the Eastern shore of Maryland on a working produce farm. So pink cannibal, watermelon, corn, sweet potatoes, uh, cucumbers, um, grew it all. There is no greater motivation to go to school and do well, um, than being in the growing season from sunup to sundown repeating every single day through the growing harvest. So went to NC state for undergrad mechanical engineering and then straight to grad school to MIT worked in three D printing lab, uh, back in the day, and then went to the dark side, uh, to, uh, the other side of the Charles river to get a business degree from Harvard. And so, you know, that’s to be fairly well, but in my heart of hearts, I’m a startup guy and there’s a part of me that thinks that I didn’t need any of that education. And I could just kind of grind it out and figure it out along the way, but I’m still happy.

Andrew Kelley (00:19:33):

I have the degrees where I can tell you that it doesn’t hurt to have the degrees. Um, but it is still grinding it out and start up. Isn’t it? Haven’t you you’ve also seen the light side, right? You’ve you’ve seen the good side of the force and, um, and probably having been in Boston so long, you’ve seen the dark side of the force as well. Those being the VCs and PE companies. So you can, you can take care of Brad and rusty and the team at box lock really well, knowing what they’re, they’re dealing with. You, you know, I was a corporate venture capitalist for a little bit. Right. And so know a little bit about how those guys think, and, you know, you mentioned Boston, right? So the Bay area, Israel, China, those are places where a lot of venture dollars get deployed into early stage companies. And so I think I have a decent understanding of it from both sides of the table. And so hopefully that helps me a little bit.

Scott Luton (00:20:29):

So Andrew, um, you know, box lock is a company that folks are to hear a lot more about in, in the months to come. And we, we, we had Greg and I were fortunate to sit down, uh, back at mode X when, you know, last week before the world changed here in the States and learn a lot more about the box lock story. Um, but for folks that may, you know, the four to three people that had not heard of box lock, tell folks what it’s been.

Andrew Kelley (00:20:52):

Sure. So basically box lock got started in 2017 because the founder’s parents kept getting their parcels stolen from their porch. And so this product did not exist, was created and it basically defeats porch pirates. I came in three months ago because on the B2B side, I think there’s a tremendous opportunity as opposed to selling one or two per household. We can sell one or two dozen per business location or opportunity. And so on the business side in healthcare and logistics and manufacturing in, uh, private fleets, there’s the opportunity to secure assets that are high value or high criticality, and also, uh, combined the connectivity that we have so that we’re basically replacing physical keys with digital keys in a smart way. Right? And so our customers come to us because they have a security need. They have an unattended delivery need, they have an inventory management need, and we can do all of that. I think that’s really cool. Andrew, the coolest thing about it for me is that your ups driver, your FedEx, Amazon prime driver, whoever they can just scan the lock, pop it open, drop it in, lock it back and walk away. And you don’t have to worry about the neighbor kids, right. Taking your brand new chief’s Jersey off your front porch. I’m not saying that’s happened. I’m going to do like real tight.

Andrew Kelley (00:22:16):

Right. And so, you know, they scan the lock, right. Um, there’s a barcode, right, right here. And the log pops open, you know, it’s just that easy, right. So that’s your five second demo right there. Guys love it. I’m so glad you did that. I just, I just need to see that every once in a while,

Scott Luton (00:22:36):

Uh, Michael from procurement Foundry is where the certainly Michael up is fine. Joel, he makes a great point here. Smart stuff could be used in a lot of the shared office space as well. Is that an area Andrew that you’re seeing?

Andrew Kelley (00:22:48):

So in a shared office space, not as much, but for sure we can secure any cubic volume. Right. So if it’s a shared office space where for example, somebody got, um, a particular, um, items that they want to control, it could be laptops. It could be actual, um, uh, gear that they use for their particular business. And if you’ve got, let’s say 10 different companies or people kind of rotating in and out of a space and you want to secure like a cabinet or a locker or a cage or something like that, we can absolutely do that. Right. So in manufacturing, you know, security tool cribs is w you know, one of the things that were purpose made for the doctor and seeing one of the little white boxes where they put your blood sample in after the fact, well, you know, those things are typically pretty flimsy, right? And some places they’re not even really bolted down to anything. Right. And so, you know, we can secure those so that your specimens. So for example, um, in the state of New Jersey COVID samples that older than five days have to be retaken, right. But you may burn a whole day just on the logistics and collections and going to empty specimen boxes that doesn’t make sense in this day and age with the technology that we have. Right. And so we can secure any cubic volume anywhere with our connectivity and barcode scanner.

Scott Luton (00:24:01):

Hmm. It’s it, you know, uh, Greg and I are big fans. Uh, we were back when we first saw a pant, you know, uh, in person several months back, it’s fascinating in the growth that we’re watching box lot go through is fascinating. You’ve added a lot of talent to the team. Uh, Andrew, we’re talking about that. Pre-show so it’s, it’s exciting. We’re going to keep you on our radar and, and, and see the Heights that box lock is going to be, uh, reaching in the months to come. So let’s shift gears a little bit, Andrew, uh, cause, um, Greg and I both are really looking forward to you kind of weighing in and telling us what’s on your radar. When you, when you look at global supply chain and in the business world and this unique environment we’re in, in 2020, and what are some of the things that sticks out to you?

Andrew Kelley (00:24:43):

Yeah. So no question it’s e-commerce right. So, um, I haven’t been on a plane since February. So the last in-person show that I actually spoke at, uh, was parcel forum in October. And I remember telling my audience then that Pitney Bowes had said that basically the average American gets about 23 parcels per year. Right. The audience looked at me as though I had two heads. What are you talking about? I get that many a month. Right. And now we’ve COVID right. That number is probably skyrocketed. And so thinking about ground execution and supply chain in general, right? We’ve all seen this sort of reduction in length of haul for full truck load or over the road trucking. Right? The average length of haul has been declining for the last 15 years or so. And now it’s probably about 400 miles, right? And this is because there are more warehouses and distribution centers and sortation centers that are dotting the landscape on the periphery of dense urban environments where those, that inventory, those parcels need to get to.

Andrew Kelley (00:25:35):

And so I think that what’s starting to happen is we’re moving from full truckload to LTL, to parcel. And e-commerce clearly is one of the major drivers of that, right? So that’s direct to consumer, that’s also, you know, folks that are crowdsourcing their delivery. It’s kind of all permutations of, um, just shy of putting inventory in your house, which of course, you know, Amazon and Walmart actually want to do. And if you sign up for that, they’ll figure out a way you can have them put, um, have someone put groceries in your fridge, you know? And so people may not be ready for that. Right. But for sure, like one of the things that’s starting to happen is that inventory and micro inventory is getting closer and closer to end consumption. And so that’s in the middle shift, that’s been happening in supply chain for a while.

Andrew Kelley (00:26:17):

Right. And so I think that’s pretty important. Um, the other thing is, uh, you know, obviously the news cycle has moved on a little bit, but PPE or personal protective equipment, right. So that’s not a new term in healthcare and manufacturing, but it’s a new term for most Americans. Right. And if you look at Google trends, which is sort of like the analytical tool that will allow you to figure out like what words are trending. So PPE is not been trending as much, but, you know, when I talk to folks on the frontline in healthcare, and they’re telling me about, um, how their linens and laundry business is going through the roof, because they’re trying to rewash PPE, or when I talk to, um, sort of, um, uh, global three PLS that have stood up businesses to import PPE from anywhere, they can get their hands on it across the planet, because it’s still in short supply.

Andrew Kelley (00:27:01):

You know, these are, that are like right on the front lines, doing the dirty work that you’ll probably never hear about. Right. Stuff where, you know, occasionally we’ll see something on the news where it’s, you know, it’s, it’s a doctor or a nurse or talking about like these kinds of things, but it’s, it’s happening every day, all over the place. Right. So in supply chain, in, in supply chain, healthcare in particular, you know, there are lots of areas, whether it’s at hospitals or ambulatory surgical centers or, uh, you know, labs, um, they’re in, um, or it’s, you know, kind of other providers, there are lots of things in the supply chain that are not maybe as efficient as they ought to be. Right. And so there was those top 10 hospitals in the world that had tens of thousands of employees down to, I think, in the U S ridden with the, maybe about a hundred or a couple hundred like community clinics.

Andrew Kelley (00:27:48):

Right. Because it’s been such massive consolidation. And so real complexes are kind of exactly that these days they’re big business. Right. And so due to all that consolidation, theoretically, the supply chain should be tighter, but there are lots of moving parts in order to deliver care. Right. So that’s another thing. And then I think finally, you know, in supply chain, you know, one of the things that has been happening is, you know, there’s a confluence of visibility and data and security, right. And the customers about like what keeps them up at night. Um, security is almost always a top three. Right. And so it’s the security you see in the security you don’t see. Right. So one of the things that seems like it’s a baited in 2020 is these massive data breaches where you hear like credit card company, X or bank, Y just lost a million records of consumer data. Right. So, you know, that’s more on the logical security side. There’s also a physical element of this as well. Right. And so if that’s, you know, risk management for lab companies, or if that’s HIPAA compliance for healthcare providers, um, or if that’s just, you know, kind of not getting your, your, your personal electronics stolen, right. As they’re kind of coming to your house or your, to your business, um, you know, security is a huge element in all of those different use cases.

Scott Luton (00:29:05):

All right. So Greg, we’ve got a couple of questions from the audience, but I want to get you to weigh in on the knowledge that Andrew just dropped on him.

Greg White (00:29:11):

Well, I think, I think those are all important points, right? And the final ones security is the one that really jumps out at me. And I, I mean, I don’t mean to loop us back to what it is box lock does, but I know Brad and, and we’ve actually talked with you before. So, uh, I’m curious about this question that Mervyn Daniel is asking. And I also have a question around, I know that the physical lock is not, it’s, it’s a part of your business, it’s the consumer part of your business, but you’ve also got a more enterprise type solution in mind as well. So can you answer Mervin’s question and then maybe address that particular thing? So his question is, is box box lock applicable for freight operations to like in, in case of a customs or trailer seal? It absolutely is. And we’re talking directly to full truck load companies about sealing trailer doors or sealing containers.

Andrew Kelley (00:30:13):

You know, so my experience in the import export business is if the border patrol or the customs enforcement agents need to kind of get into a container there, they’re typically going to cut that seal off right now, the benefit of our law is that it’s able to be opened and anywhere so we can deliver a onetime digital key to a customs agent or in, um, in over the road trucking. Uh, we can text that code to the receiving dock manager, you know, at the destination for that trucker, right? So in order to do a trucking, typically, you know, it’s not going to be as, uh, multi-stop as your, you know, your Pepsi trucks, your FedEx trucks who may make, you know, 200 plus stops a day. Maybe there’s gonna be five stops, you know, in a full truck load, you know, 53 foot dry banner or reefer.

Andrew Kelley (00:31:00):

Right. And so in those cases where you want to know who actually had access to that truck, where, and when we could actually tie that to a specific employee or a badge number or shipping receiving manager, so you’ve got a better chain of custody and an audit trail overall. Right. And so you can also limit who can have access to it. I mean, so exactly right. The days of cartons of cigarettes falling off the back of a trailer are over with box, right? Because, you know, the way to secure that loaded. So it could be cards of cigarettes. It could be, you know, alcohol, it could be munitions, it could be food and beverage. It doesn’t really matter. What’s inside of the, the, the trailer, uh, you know, we can secure it all right. And even if there is a change inside of that trailer, you know, there’s another layer of security that can be applied on top of that as well, but we can do all of that.

Scott Luton (00:31:50):

All right. Uh, so clearly folks are intrigued just like we knew they would be with the solution and all the various applications, uh, Lisa, uh, and good morning, Lisa, we’re going to have to, and Lisa says, wow, this is a great idea to use, to replace,

Greg White (00:32:06):

Well, having watched the Irishman, right. I don’t know if anyone else has watched that movie, but if you haven’t, do you know what I’m talking about, Andrew? I mean, you were wiping stuff all the time on his way to his deliveries. And he had a second even had a second tag. Right. Never caught now, every single opening is accountable. Right. So more common here, Andrew, you know, probably, you know, Huntspoint in New York and probably long beach in California are probably a couple of like hotspot ports for theft. Right. For obvious reasons. Right. You know, criminals, they go where the volume is. They go where the money is. Right. Um, and then separately, you know, freight watch international, um, they’re like a global security firm. They put a, like a heat map of like some of the other countries where security is like a big problem globally.

Andrew Kelley (00:32:54):

Right. And it’s where you might expect, right. It’s Brazil, it’s, uh, South Africa, you know, it’s other places where, you know, there’s high value cargo. There is the ability to kind of intercept it and, or, um, you know, uh, those goods now, of course, you know, in trucking, there’s also, there’s, there’s cargo insurance. And here in the U S there are a lot less fatalities, but I can tell you, like, in going down to Brazil and talking to, you know, freight operators down there, you know, the odds of drivers coming home after a hijacking, or a lot less than they are in New York or in California,

Scott Luton (00:33:26):

I’m not laughing at you. Andrew. I’m laughing at Jeff Jeff’s comment. He just says here, Greg says cigarettes falling off the back of trucks. Is Greg talking again about his teenage enterprise

Greg White (00:33:37):

Goodfellas? I’m talking about Goodfellas gangster movies. What can I say?

Scott Luton (00:33:46):

You’ve got it. You were going to ask a question or comment, Greg, to Andrew. Just talk to me.

Greg White (00:33:51):

Um, I wanna, I know there is a, um, more virtual, a less physical aspect of your enterprise solution. So can you explain that to folks, Andrew? Sure. So, you know, we happen to make a log, but we’re really in the recurring revenue business. Right. Because the reason that our customers come to us is because they need that ongoing security. They need that ongoing audit logging. It may be a month or at the end of the quarter, or even at the end of the year, they want to look back and they want that data to kind of figure out like, what is their security posture? Right. Um, they want that ability to send digital keys, huge their employees or the people that are interacting in and around their locations. Right. And so it could be a cleaning crew who’s coming into a manufacturing plant who needs certain access to the cleaning, um, uh, materials.

Andrew Kelley (00:34:38):

It could be, um, you know, an HPAC crew that’s coming into, um, in ambulatory surgical center. Right. They need access to a certain area. Right. Um, obviously, um, for, you know, lab logistics, right. It’s the collection companies, uh, it’s the medical couriers that are picking up these specimens. And so think, uh, you know, urology, toxicology, dermatology, right. All the allergies. Right. So those specialists that are testing for particular types of, um, benign or otherwise, um, uh, samples, you know, from, uh, from folks, and let’s be honest, like right now, it’s almost all COVID all the time COBIT is crowding out a lot of that other business. And for good reason, we need more testing. And that’s, hopefully that helps us save some lives. Right. But, you know, from a very practical perspective, it’s really the ongoing, um, data availability that our customers come to us for. And that’s what really drives us to a recurring revenue business model. Uh, and we happen to sell the locks as well. Yeah. Fascinating.

Scott Luton (00:35:39):

Uh, Antonio says, say without data, businesses are lost. That’s a great point, Andrew.

Greg White (00:35:44):

Yeah. Chris mentions what’s that data is the new bacon. That’s not, yeah,

Scott Luton (00:35:52):

That’s right. Chris referenced a previous guest, uh Spotsy uh, Angela Angie over there at Spotsy and says how, if you combine Spotsy and box lot, you can have that perfect delivery. That’s an interesting thought.

Greg White (00:36:06):

So think about this. I mean, as long as we’re talking about past guests, let’s take three of the most mundane things that all of us take advantage take for granted every day, a lock right. Verticality, which is what spots, right. Is it right side up, um, and, and tracking the pallet that the stuff is on. I mean, imagine the pallet Alliance and their digital pallets and Spotsy, and this all together to combine to make sure it gets there on time, unmolested and unbroken. That is a great, great combination. And we, and that gets us this close to paperless. It’s funny because one of the articles that I was researching didn’t select, but researching was how, um, how important paperless is becoming in, in the new environment. Right. Because it’s not, it’s not about whether you can actually communicate, um, COVID or any other, any other disease by physical touch, but it’s about people’s comfort with that physical touch. And frankly, don’t, we all think it’s time for paper to go away. I’m with you,

Scott Luton (00:37:19):

I’m with you. I hate touching anything if I know

Scott Luton (00:37:22):

Even one person, especially Greg, Hey, quick question here. Uh, Andrew, from your

Scott Luton (00:37:29):

Fellow, uh, what they call folks live in Dallas? Is it Dallas, Dallas, Dallas sites? Well, regardless Stephens and one of your neighbors, I don’t know either, but we’ll see if he’ll look it up. Uh, he says, does box lock only provide the locks and the tracking or

Andrew Kelley (00:37:46):

So lock visibility with locations and movements the ladder and more right. And so the lock enables a lot of things because we’ve got, you know, electronics inside. And so that’s how we get connectivity, right? So we have wifi right now. Um, at labor day, we’ll have, uh, cellular connectivity, right? And the barcode scanner allows us to scan either a one dimensional, vertical barcode or a QR code, which is basically a two D barcode, which is, I think like three kilobytes of data. So it’s a more data dense, uh, codes where there’s more information that’s in it. Right. And in terms of the, um, uh, the, the data that we can provide, um, you know, uh, you mentioned a position, so, you know, latitude, longitude, and elevation, you know, that’s going to be, you know, in the solution that comes out after labor day, right. And so, you know, if you are in the container storage business, right.

Andrew Kelley (00:38:37):

And so, as we were talking to customers there, they may drop a container, you know, anywhere in the country. And, you know, they just want to know where it is to be with pickups, or if you’re in the multi-stop routing business and you are routing customers either for like logistics, like I talked about, or for, um, you know, food and beverage, or for any kind of common tutorial math problem where you’ve got multiple vehicles, multiple stops and it gets super complicated and you can’t do it on a whiteboard, you know, um, you know, we can provide information back to that routing, so you can get closer to on demand, uh, pickup and delivery, which is going to save you fuel. It’s going to be more efficient and you’re going to get more stops per day, which is what you want for routing company.

Scott Luton (00:39:20):

I love it. Uh, Hugo, which is a first time livestream participant here with us, uh, supply chain. Now he hails from Colombia and South America. He says this innovation represents a great opportunity for the security of high cost medicines. And, you know, that’s what we’re hoping to be in a lot more, uh, in the, in the, in the months to come. So, uh, interesting applications to be found there,

Andrew Kelley (00:39:42):

A quick point on that. So we’re talking to, uh, clinical research, uh, or, um, organizations or CRS, right? Who are, are in the business of running those clinical trials that deliver medicines to, uh, uh, patients for kind of improve healthcare. And so, yes, that makes a ton of sense to us.

Scott Luton (00:39:58):

Yup. And Claudia weighs in clutter. I hope this finds you well, uh, this product is a great example of IOT and smart cities, uh, good stuff

Andrew Kelley (00:40:07):

As cities move from just thinking about cars only to also thinking about mopeds and bikes and pedestrians, and sort of multimodal transportation, particularly in dense urban environments, right. Uh, whether you need to lock up any of those modes of transportation or, uh, things at a particular, um, uh, stop where people can congregate, um, socially distance, of course, uh, and securities, they may need as you kind of reimagined, you know, morning for you.

Scott Luton (00:40:32):

All right. So Stephan ways in going back to what we were asking, what, what you call folks live in Dallas and Stephan who lives in Dallas says we’re called Cowboys or partners.

Greg White (00:40:43):

How about that? It’s botnet right with a D

Scott Luton (00:40:48):

Andrew. Uh, I hate to tamp down the conversation here. We want to have you back a fast, you know, fascinating technology. And I’m, I’m more intrigued. You know, we knew the product was, was, was very unique and innovative, but then the talent that y’all have been able to, you know, between you and some other, uh, fairly new members of the team. I mean, Holy cow y’all really are combining it’s the perfect storm really quick. One last question, before we, we make sure folks know how to connect with you. You’ve hired, you’ve made some hires here recently. Talk about the talent market in a reader’s digest manner. What is your quick observation there?

Andrew Kelley (00:41:24):

Yeah. So, you know, I go out of my way to be helpful to people that are searching right now, because there are so many people out of a job, right. And frankly, for my first hire, I try to pay back my LinkedIn network and I posted it there. I was like people for everybody who’s helped me along the way in my journey now is the time if you’ve got a friend or a friend of a friend who is looking for an opportunity, please hit me up. Right. And so, you know, the reality is there is a ridiculous amount of talent on the street right now, some of who to no fault of their own. Right. All the time last hired, first fired, just pure happenstance, you know, for the two sales makers I just hired last month. Um, I interviewed 35 different candidates, right. So that’s like an acceptance rate that is, you know, um, harder than MIT’s acceptance rate of like 7%.

Andrew Kelley (00:42:10):

Right. And like the guy behind the guy was amazing too. I wish I had more job recs. Right. So I can hire more of the people that I actually saw. Right. And so the overall hiring environment right now, um, I’d say it’s, it’s certainly an employers market, but don’t abuse that. Right. Because the last thing you want to do is sort of like over leverage your position and pull someone kind of out of the market and like undercut them on salary or bait and switch them. And trust me, that will come back to bite you because culture eats strategy. And if you’re going to build a culture, that’s based on distrust, you’re not going to be around I’m with you. I am. Yeah,

Scott Luton (00:42:47):

You’re absolutely right. And we’ve all probably at one point or other, if we haven’t worked in, we’ve at least rubbed elbows with companies that had no trust in the culture and you see the expression on the people’s faces they’re miserable. And especially, I would argue that in 2020 and moving forward as bad as those cultures, those, those organizations and the cultures behind them were,

Scott Luton (00:43:11):

It’s going to be twice as bad because, um, folks, aren’t going to put up with it and moving, moving forward,

Scott Luton (00:43:17):

Andrew I’m really enjoyed it. Let’s make sure we we’ve got all of your information will be in the show notes and then certainly on the podcast version of this conversation, but, but how can folks?

Andrew Kelley (00:43:27):

Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, it’s get box lock.com if you like to check out what we do. Um, and for me personally, you can just hit me up on my LinkedIn,

Scott Luton (00:43:38):

Just that simple. And you do want to, uh, I’ve enjoyed your, um, your, uh, cartoon features your, your animations, uh, each weekend, uh, folks you want to be following or connect connecting following you name it. Andrew Kelly, the third chief commercial officer with box lot, Andrea pleasure. And we will have you back really soon.

Greg White (00:43:57):

Sounds good. Bye guys. Thanks Andrew. Take care. Uh, I have a quick note. Alright. Note for rusty Wiley, and that is, uh, talk to some of those folks in the comments feed. There, there are a lot of questions around box lock, right? Yeah. I think they see what we saw when we met Brad or talked to Brad even before we met him and then met him, uh, Brad roughness, the CEO at, um, at mode. So obviously building a team

Greg White (00:44:32):

There with Andrew. I have, I’ve never heard somebody say combinatorial math so beautifully.

Scott Luton (00:44:40):

Hey, better. You know, I can mispronounce John Smith.

Greg White (00:44:43):

So I was practicing in my head so I can try to say it as well.

Scott Luton (00:44:48):

So Hey, Sam greetings from transport and logistics, middle East in Dubai, uh, Sam hope this finds you well, great to have you tuned in via Facebook also real quick before we get back to some of the news of the day, uh, Daniel Hartnett, who, um, over the past couple of days had shared some insights on some of our programming on LinkedIn is joining us here today. Daniel hope this finds you. Well,

Greg White (00:45:10):

I agree with you. I’m, I’m a big fan

Scott Luton (00:45:12):

Of that culture eats strategy, a perspective that the Andrew shared. Okay. So Greg, we’re going to keep driving as much as we enjoy that. And Andrew, we, we, you and I both knew that he was going to bring it and that he would get the juices and the audience, you know, moving. And it really, I mean, we couldn’t, there was a couple of questions we couldn’t get to them.

Greg White (00:45:33):

Yeah. There’s a few. Um, so I’m not getting rusty, I’m talking to you, uh, if you wouldn’t mind get in there and because they’re almost all about box lock. So rustling, rusty Wiley is one of the quality hires. One of the two out of 35, is that what Andrew said? He hired, um, that he actually, um, actually got the job at box lock, so, uh, get to work rusty. Alright. Um, so Hey, next story. So we are, Oh, Scott’s frozen, isn’t he? Um, so we are talking a lot about the P word pivot, right? So we’re going to talk about that a little bit again, and that is, uh, some of these companies that, uh, have had to, had to change how they operate in, in this new world or at least even in the interim world. So look, we’re talking about reinvention in a lot of cases here.

Greg White (00:46:37):

So let’s talk about one of the markets that has changed really, really dramatically lately. And that is the food industry. And particularly, I want to talk about food service and, uh, restaurants and their suppliers. So we’ve all heard or seen stories about just masses of, uh, restaurants, shuttering sometimes for good. Um, but let’s talk about a couple of survival’s stories and how some of these companies have made their way in the world and how they, uh, continue to, to, uh, evolve, to make, make things happen. All right. So, um, one, one story in this article right here. Good timing, Scott, it’s a story of a wine bar in Indiana and, uh, what the owner did there was, she partnered with, uh, with our food service distributor to sell consumer size meats, bread, milk, uh, produce, and other things. So knowing after, after restaurants were closed and then reopened people, didn’t, didn’t rush back to get into restaurants.

Greg White (00:47:45):

I think we can all account for that, right. But in order to scramble and help, uh, not only her business, but her distributors business and the consumers, uh, she started distributing as a grocery store would to her own customers. Right? So a couple of things I want to distinguish in the rest of this conversation between food service and food distribution. So some of you know, that I’ve dealt with this industry for quite some time, food service services, restaurants, anywhere that food is made for you, food distribution services grocery. So it’s a distinctly different business and their fates have been polar opposites, food distribution, and grocery. Of course, we all know most of us are, are cooking at home or at least warming things up at home. Um, so that business has taken off and the inverse effect, Scott, I know, you know, this, uh, because you guys only eat out or have it delivered right.

Greg White (00:48:49):

Maybe once a week or so. Um, and I still think that back by the way, Scott, I still think fondly of the burgers at station side, right? When your video are King plow studio and in West Midtown in Atlanta. Um, yeah, that’s a great burger anyway, I’m sorry. Um, but people are not going to restaurants like that. And I believe that station side is still closed, has not opened up and who knows if it ever will at this point. But anyway, food service is half of the food industry, food service being restaurants and that sort of thing. And they are expecting a 33% reduction in revenues in 2020 in April industry sales, depending on the segment, even of the food service industry. And I’m gonna address that here in just a second, between 60 and 90%, imagine a scenario where your demand drops 90%. The only other industry I can think of is air travel, right?

Greg White (00:49:50):

Um, where demand has dropped that much, right. And an important, another important aspect of food service that’s, uh, that needs to be the surface is that they typically, we have 10% gross margins and 1%, or sometimes even negative net margin. So one of the products that we provide at blue Ridge is a Ford buying tool. It’s hedging inventory. And, and, um, that is the way, the reason that we own the food service industry is because that is the almost way that a lot of those companies make profit is by Ford buying inventory when they get a discount or when they get, even when they get advanced notice of an upcoming price increase. So those companies are really scrambling to make money as it is. You drop their business by 33 to 90%, obviously any company is going to struggle. So, um, so just to give you an idea who else, besides restaurants, just food service, service, hotels, they serve as hotels.

Greg White (00:51:03):

By the way, as, as Chris Barnes acknowledges, they’ve been hit pretty hard by this, anything in the travel industry. We know that Hertz recently went bankrupt also. Um, but they, they surface they service and I’m going to go slow here because I want everybody to be able to internalize this. They service schools, they serve as hospitals, prisons, amusement, parks, stadiums, colleges, and universities. So think about where their business is. And also think about the fate of those portions of the industry and where what’s the likelihood that that business is coming back. So some, some food service distributors already have not made it a company named Maines paper closed it’s broad line, meaning broad line means selling to mom and pop restaurants and several others, this beautiful Navy blue, red, and yellow truck. And I’m sure people probably recognize these trucks. They probably didn’t recognize the name, but I’m sure you’ve seen these trucks around your town.

Greg White (00:52:10):

Some of you, um, so interesting, they lost 65% of their business laid off workers. And even the ones who stayed took pay cuts, but get how they shifted. And this, you may have heard about this in your town. And the point of this is there is opportunity here. Even if that opportunity is just survival and kicking the can down the road until you can pivot again, or, or, you know, business comes back or whatever happens. They, uh, started selling grocery and created a website in a weekend over a weekend. They created wow to sell direct to consumers, right. They repackaged to consumer sizes because a food service company sells like that. Like you see on that truck, they sell in case packs. And even in pallet quantities, they even deliver delivered to neighborhood homeowner’s association facilities like the pool house or clubhouse or whatever. If you have such a thing in your neighborhood and use that as a distribution point, because so many people, even though grocery was open and booming did not want to go to grocery stores.

Greg White (00:53:19):

So, um, it’s not much, but it did keep the door open. And, and then they also adapted another part of their business deli meats and started providing that to other food service distributors and grocers. And that part of the business is actually up. So this continues to be a struggle for restaurants and for food service distributors, food service distributors have to get what’s called long in inventory. They have to buy inventory assuming that someone is going to consume it. And as that is difficult for restaurants, now they’re even extending credit to those, to those restaurants in probably one of the worst environments that they’ve seen. So look, the point of this is these are resilient people, but they’re only so resilient. So I’m going to encourage you to visit or order from your local restaurant because the entirety of the survival of the food service distribution industry is based on food, going out the door at all of these restaurants or food service facilities. So we, consumers can do our part. We can’t open schools. If the schools aren’t going to open, we can’t open six flags, although I’m really missing Batman ride, wow, that’s a blast from the past, isn’t it, but seriously, get, go out. If you’re not already pick one night a week and, and rotate it, if you have to, but pick a restaurant and support that restaurant, particularly the mom and pops the small independent shops

Scott Luton (00:54:56):

Outstanding. And that’s an outstanding challenge to put out there because, uh, you know, despite their most creative and innovative, uh, and, and effort, uh, uh, field, uh, uh, ways that they’re trying to reinvent their model and, and serve and drive revenue, they need us the consumer to help, uh, at least on some level. So I love that, love that sentiment.

Greg White (00:55:20):

How often can you do good for somebody by having a tasty delicious meal delivered to you while you’re streaming Netflix? Right.

Scott Luton (00:55:32):

Alright. So, uh, love that story, Greg. Uh, and we will keep tabs on that. I think, as we’ve talked about nonstop, the, the innovation and the, Hey, we’ve got to figure out different way to get it done, that some stories out there as part of this, this, this hugely uniquely challenging time, there’s gonna be so much innovation that comes out of this period. That’s, that’s part of the big silver lining here.

Greg White (00:55:53):

Okay. So in our files

Scott Luton (00:55:55):

Story, and thanks for my, uh, thanks for covering for me. Our data pipe out here is, is, has been down for sure.

Greg White (00:56:01):

15 minutes or so. So we are operating via our five G technology. We’ll see, we’ll see how long, fortunately, no one’s burned and sin, Comcast, the bill. Seriously.

Scott Luton (00:56:16):

Fortunately, no, one’s burned our five G towers out here in Walton County yet, but we’ll see. Okay. Uh, our final story of the day and thanks to all the great comments, Holy cow, we can only get about 20% of them may be, uh, this, between the stories and what Andrew is sharing the box lock story. It really generated a lot of conversation, a dialogue here today. So appreciate that to our audience. Okay. So in this last story, really neat article, uh, you know, a big theme for today’s show is retail. It seems like that’s been a big theme for a couple months now, especially our, our supply chain buzz, great article from the wall street journal, uh, Suzanne Kapner, uh, who wrote on the changing retail landscape. So Lord and Taylor, a prominent 194 year old retailer is close to being no more. Now I’m kind of new to the Lord and Taylor, you made Greg you’re the more fashionable of the two of us.

Scott Luton (00:57:09):

You may be well aware of Lord and Taylor, but this was a new one for me. I’ve never went there, but there was one next to the JC Penney’s in our mall. So that makes sense. That makes sense. Last week, the company’s lender said they plan to liquidate their holdings if they can’t find a buyer for the company. Uh, but as we both know, Lord and Taylor find themselves with plenty of company in the situations that they, uh, are in right now and may 20, 20 alone. We saw JC penny Neiman Marcus and stage stores, all file for bankruptcy that joined thousands of others. Uh, in fact, uh, just doing a little Googling this morning, a Forbes report from a month ago said that the current count was over 12,000 retailers out of business in 2020 thus far industry executives and article talk about the need for department stores to reinvent themselves just like the last store you were talking about, especially here in the U S.

Scott Luton (00:58:08):

So the article really drew distinction between how retail is done here in the U S and how it’s done in Europe and Japan and other places. So if they’re gonna survive, uh, these, uh, analysts, industry analysts and, um, retail veterans, we’re all talking about how much it’s gotta change. One former retail CEO said that the issues for retailers here in the States goes back to the eighties, quote, the focus became more about how to take care of the corporate office, not the customer. The same gentleman went on to say, quote, I was shocked at the lack of knowledge executives had about their customers. They spent too much time in the central office in quote. So these insights come from Allen Questrom, Questrom former CEO of a variety of big retailers, including Neiman Marcus. I think he exited the industry in 2004, uh, Rachel Shechtman, which is Macy’s former brand experience. Officer thinks she exited in June, says, quote, two things that made department stores great were amazing customer service and great merchandise that you couldn’t find elsewhere. It’s almost impossible to name a store that does that today in quote, very true. Some executives in the article and elsewhere point that supply chain and how supply chain can help save us retailers. Hey, it’s saving the world. It might as well save retail too. Right? Right.

Scott Luton (00:59:36):

In the article, Steven [inaudible] who’s former CEO of Saks incorporated. He says retail leaders should embrace a hybrid wholesale retail model that is popular in Europe. So the points to galleries Lafayette, as a perfect example, of course, you’ve got to have, you’ve got it. You’ve got to have the creative fortitude to adjust your model, but you’ve got to have the ability to deliver, uh, and, and, and partner to, to establish a model like that. So Greg reading this article for some reason, and, and you mentioned malls earlier, that’s what this, that’s what this made me think of. Cause when I was growing up in the eighties, the mall and really early nineties, perhaps a mall was a place to be, you know, I grew up in Aiken, we finally got an akin mall back in the day and it was like, Oh, we’ve made it. Oftentimes folks will go to Augusta, the Augusta mall and the now defunct Regency mall. And it was a vibrant, vibrant, um, uh, environment and shopping experience. Right. And then I was thinking when, and we’ve got plenty of great models in the Metro Atlanta area. I’m not sure the last time I’ve been set foot inside a mall. And, and while there are certainly different dynamics between the mall and, and, and general retailers and department stores, this article speaks to, but there is a lot of overlap.

Greg White (01:00:59):

Oh, Verizon has let Greg go ahead.

Scott Luton (01:01:04):

What are some of the thing is that this are, are calling these quotes and, and the, so what’s your article here?

Greg White (01:01:12):

Yeah, let me, uh, so let me tell, let me qualify this Scott by saying, uh, I am a longtime retailer and I come from retail stock. My father was an executive at a company called Kmart back when they used to matter, which was a long, long time ago. Um, and, and let me start with some recent news and work back into this discussion. So Simon, the, one of the largest mall operators and Amazon just announced today that Amazon is, is considering a partnership with Simon where they’ll start to put, um, they’ll start to put fulfillment facilities in JC, penny and sales, uh, Sears stores in malls. If that doesn’t tell you how far malls have fallen, I don’t know what possibly could awaken you to that. It doesn’t seem that long ago that we were, we were worried about all the kids hanging out in the malls.

Greg White (01:02:12):

Doesn’t that seem like a hundred years ago now. Um, but all of all of that news has to give you an example of where some of these formerly innovative retailers are that has a Sears and JC penny stock soaring today up 25%. So penny stock is up 25% to almost 30 cents a share. And Sears stock is up to almost 25% to almost 18 cents a share. Look, the days of these retailers being considered innovative or competent or customer caring are over and they have been for a long time, they’ve been limping along for as long as they could. And that’s why people feel so comfortable flooding away from these stores to bargain stores like Walmart or, or mid-price stores like target and Belk and, and Kohl’s and companies like that. It’s because these companies ceased to add value a long, long time ago, and they’re really just getting their comeuppance one, uh, one other point on, uh, the argument that Stephen [inaudible], uh, not to contradict what the hell I’m going to contradict the former CEO of Saks incorporated.

Greg White (01:03:38):

I don’t disagree that we can learn something from a European retail, but we have to be really, really careful because the density of population in Europe is substantially greater than the United States that might work in certain city centers, but it won’t work universally throughout the United States. And I can get, and I can give you a list of 100 plus retailers from Europe, who’ve come to the States and failed to prove the point. Excellent. You’re right, absolutely. Right. Um, and love here. And, you know, frankly, I forgot I was talking with a retail champion with someone with your degree of experience. I bet.

Scott Luton (01:04:20):

I bet this is a, um,

Greg White (01:04:23):

Right. How challenging of a time. I bet it’s just a fascinating time for someone that’s been in retail, as much as you have and, and to see just how far we’ve gone, uh, gone away from what worked for so long, perhaps well, as, you know, as angry as I probably sound, it is. I mean, frankly, I am a little bit frustrated with companies that should have learned this lesson literally decades ago, literally decades ago and, and having come from an industry, which is completely counterintuitive to have been having an advanced merchandising and supply chain strategy with the automotive auto parts industry. Um, we, some of the problems we solve, literally I have to check myself here more than two decades ago. Right? All of our regular listeners will know what that means more than two decades ago. I’m frustrated to see

Scott Luton (01:05:18):

A lot of these retailers begging for assistance for something they could easily have solved easily more than two decades ago, easily, more than a decade ago. And some of them, and some of them we’ve talked about before have been milking the government with multiple bankruptcies and milking their suppliers with multiple, um, bankruptcies and other ploys to stay afloat. And frankly, they deserve to die. So there are some there, well, I’ll just name a Macy’s. I don’t mean all of them, but like, I’m really worried about Nordstrom, which is possibly the greatest retail organization on the history of the plant and the history of the planet. And I’m worried about others that do deserve to continue on. Um, but this is a great time to call the herd and to uplift and bring business to the best operators in the industry and cut out the ones who are non contributors to their supplier base or to the consumer. All right, good stuff there. We’re going to keep driving percent opinion in case anyone was wondering that’s right. Supply chain now, uh, does not claim the a hundred percent, whatever disclaimer, we need to have just consider it said. Right.

Scott Luton (01:06:41):

But you know, uh, folks expect

Scott Luton (01:06:44):

Frank analysis and perspective here. And Greg, I appreciate you delivering. Um, okay. So real quick. I know we’re a few minutes over our, our typical runtime, uh, evidently the durable that’s on the wheel, that’s powering our internet is really getting worn out. So we’re gonna wrap up here quick. Uh, Greg, so, you know, supply chain is boring and this weekend business history, two of our new newest series, we invite our audience to check those out. Last thing, last livestream. We also talked about tequila, sunrise. Uh, all of these are getting great feedback. Supply chain is boring in particular, Greg, uh, Chris sat down on a two part series with John Hill who is a data analytics and WMS pioneer, and a ton of really interesting feedback on that. Uh, two part podcast interview. So good stuff there, Chris and I did consider data analysis boring. Now it is one of the most sought after jobs in industry, in any industry data that is definitely worth listening to place. Clay says, you sound like I’ve drunk.

Scott Luton (01:07:52):

All right. So a great series supply chain is boring. You know, Chris is doing some great work there. It’s fascinating to hear some of the folks that he’s sitting down and talking with. And then this week in business history, it’s so different. It’s 15, 20 minutes kind of a frankly I’m not even watching sometimes. Right. That’s right. And part of the inspiration, there is, uh, the rest of the story about the and great Paul Harvey, where it was just a great story in a, in a brief amount of time delivered, like only he can, uh, could. Um, so really if you’re ever curious if you’re a big history dork, like I am, especially when it comes to business and kind of getting the story behind the story, that’s kind of what we’re after there. So the one with the episode we published here today, we, we went into the monopoly game, which really you could call that landlord’s game. Cause the person that got all the credit was not the person that actually invented the game y’all might want to look up Lizzie McGee mag I E fascinating woman that lived decades ago with dove into the FedEx story. And Fred Smith learned some things about the one or only Fred Smith that I did not know. And Leo fender, Leo fender, uh, the founder of course, of fender, the iconic musical instrument company,

Greg White (01:09:07):

Just of the Telecaster and the Stratocaster to the greatest solid body guitars of all time

Scott Luton (01:09:14):

You are right, sir, you are right. Uh, and I learned some things there. So hope you’ll check that out again. Uh, it’s more of a broader approach. W would dabble a little bit of supply chain on this weekend business history, but you can find each both of these new series. And of course the tequila sunrise series, which is all about an investment and, and, and w what Greg, in, uh, in a 32nd soundbite, what is tequila sunrise about?

Greg White (01:09:38):

It’s all about supply chain tech and the people who love start follow and invest in those companies. It’s, um, you know, it’s a lesson about, uh, what companies are making waves in the industry and who’s investing in how they do it. So there’s some insights there, if you are a founder and

Scott Luton (01:09:59):

Yeah, I love it. Perfect niche. Greg was born for that, for that podcast amongst other things, but he was born for that. Um, quick, uh, one of the things who’s your daddy, one of our latest, uh, uh, record recommendation writers, maybe I’ll call it. Uh, he says about supply chain is boring, quote, anything but boring. Chris is a supply chain pro and he challenges his guests to prove him wrong and show that supply chain is not boring. If you’re looking for valuable information on what is right and wrong with the industry processes and approaches, this will not bore you.

Greg White (01:10:35):

Isn’t that the point? That is the point on another front, please, for any of those series, supply chain is boring this week in business history, tequila, sunrise, or Jamison’s of the Jame and experience also go to wherever you get your podcasts rate reviews, subscribe. Yes, this is a shameless promotion.

Scott Luton (01:11:01):

Wait, but we bring the promotion. We bring it with an opportunity to get better at what you do to know more, to increase your supply chain Accu, which segwaying this webinar on August 19th is an excellent opportunity. Of course, everyone is talking as Andrew put it earlier. It’s all about his COVID-19 24 seven, right? And Franklin should be, uh, so there’s no shortage of conversations around what post COVID-19 supply chains, how it’s gonna work. What’s what’s gonna, it’s going to take how’s it going to change, but here we’ve got the unique rod Scherchen and Kelly Barner who will be offering, been there, done that perspective. And especially from procurement standpoint. So sign up for that free webinar. And we’re going to sweeten the pot a little bit. Great. We’re not talking cannabis, we’re gonna sweeten the pot a little bit. We are going that’s right. And folks that caught the buzz last week, that might mean something to them.

Scott Luton (01:11:59):

Um, alright, so we are going to give away XE beans, coffee, a little gift pack, and we’re going to make a drawing out of the folks that register from here until next Monday, and we’ll recognize a winner on the bus. So, so register and who knows you might get some excellent coffee from Ecuador, from the company it’s based right here in Georgia and making Georgia, but all the coffee beans come from Ecuador. Good stuff there. Alright. So Greg, if folks can’t find something, where do they go? Yeah, they should do what we do. And they should just reach out to Amanda, Amanda at supply chain. Now, if there’s ever anything we can’t done get done. We either reach out to clay and clay does not want to be contacted or our chief marketing officer, Amanda, that is right. And that supply chain now radio.com. You’ll be able to find all the past podcast episodes, live streams, the webinars, and some other things there.

Scott Luton (01:12:55):

Uh, and, and Hey, um, if there is an episode focus on a particular subject that we haven’t covered, that’s really relevant to you in the industry. Hey, we welcome your feedback. We enjoy it helps make us better because, you know, we don’t want to be like a, the folks that the former, uh, ni Nina Neiman Marcus CEO’s talking about, because for us, it is all about the customer and the audience. That’s why we’re here. So, um, and clay even puts in the, uh, the heck breaking records here, breaking records. And Hey, can I, uh, one more shout out Scott, and then let you wrap up. And that is, um, happy 125th birthday to the Wichita state university go shocks. Absolutely absolute. We’ve got to get professor Mohib AA on the show at some point soon. Talk about van an anniversary that said big thing. Thanks to our guest, Andrew Kelly, and the box lock team.

Scott Luton (01:13:55):

We had a couple of bucks lock folks, uh, with us as well, including rusty Wiley. Uh, congrats, rusty on your, uh, uh, your, uh, new position with box lock company on the move. Fascinating story, technology, culture, you name it. Um, big, thanks to the audience. Love the comments, energy. I mean, you couldn’t tell this a Monday. Of course, most folks may not know it’s Monday, right, Greg, but kidding aside, um, Hey, you know, do good. Give forward, be the change that’s needed. Help somebody take a ticket, take a page at an Andrew’s book, help somebody. And with that said, we’ll see you next time here on supply chain now. Thanks everybody.