In this episode of the Supply Chain Buzz on Supply Chain Now, powered by OMNIA Partners, hosts Scott Luton and Greg White, and guest Amanda Luton, discuss the top news in supply chain this week.

Intro/Outro (00:00:03):

Welcome to supply chain. Now the voice of global supply chain supply chain now focuses on the best in the business for our worldwide audience, the people, the technologies, the best practices, and today’s critical issues. The challenges and opportunities stay tuned to hear from those making global business happen right here on supply chain now.

Scott Luton (00:00:30):

Hey, good afternoon, Scott, Greg white with you right here on supply chain. Now welcome to today’s live stream, Gregory. How are we doing?

Greg White (00:00:39):

I’m doing well. How are you

Scott Luton (00:00:41):

Doing fantastic. I love, you know, you raised the standard on, um, colorful shirts as, as with your lavender or purple t-shirt today. Thank you. And I had to meet that standard. So I went up to with, uh, almost like, uh, uh, Joseph’s Technicolor coat here today, all the different colors. Okay.

Greg White (00:01:04):

I feel like there might be a little purple in there. We’re kind of color coded today. Um,

Scott Luton (00:01:09):

So, well, by the way, we’ve got a wonderful Halloween costume idea, uh, mannequin with what we’ll wait until after the show to dive into that. But Hey, today is about the supply chain buzz about some of the biggest stores, most important stores that you need to be tracking across global business. And we offer the buzz up to you every Monday, 12:00 PM, Eastern time. And today’s show Greg is powered by our friends at Omnia partners, where they are reshaping the future of purchasing aren’t they,

Greg White (00:01:39):

Well, you know, I, I think about this frequently ever since we have had our, our Islamia and on, and some of their other folks that we’ve talked to, I think their slogan ought to be, why would you go it alone? Right? I mean, there are a group purchasing organization for anyone who doesn’t know, but, um, you know, the power that, that presents and not just negotiating power, but the opportunity to have additional vendors that you haven’t found or thought of. I mean, there’s just so much power in that. And thinking about where small businesses are today, it feels like it’s the right time to get into these kinds of communities to really start to, you know, improve the results that your company can have. So many people are outsourcing or multi-sourcing or communalized thing. So many things. This just seems so sensible. I can’t believe I’m saying that, but it does seem so sensible, right?

Scott Luton (00:02:36):

Yes. Agreed. We’re going to say hello to everybody momentarily. I want to bring Gary’s remark in. Gary says, Hey, everyone not used to seeing Greg on the left. What gives I’ve been demoted? Uh, Gary, I have been demoted.

Greg White (00:02:49):

No, you know, you are one of us when you notice that difference.

Scott Luton (00:02:53):

That’s right, Gary, I hope this finds you well and great to have you left

Greg White (00:02:56):

Handed Gary. So we’re trying something new, right? Yeah.

Scott Luton (00:02:59):

All right. But we were talking about Omnia partners a second ago and they’ve got a big event coming up in September in Miami connections, 2021. So Greg get this. So it’s free to attend for supply chain and sourcing and purchasing leaders. They’ve got keynotes, expos, networking, you name it 400 plus attendees. What they’re expecting to have down in the magic city. We’re going to be broadcasting live on Monday the 27th. And we’re going to be, uh, knocking out, uh, several interviews down there while we’re amongst the connections 21, 20 21 community. So you can join us though September 27th through 29th in Miami. And you can learn more about checking out the link we’ve got in the show notes. You’re ready to head down to Miami, Florida.

Greg White (00:03:47):

Who’s not ready for that. I mean, I feel like there ought to be a fourth bullet there, learn network, grow Miami. Maybe you should start with Miami.

Scott Luton (00:03:57):

I love Miami

Greg White (00:03:58):

In September. Okay. People Miami in September and all, and this huge collection of knowledge around, around procurement.

Scott Luton (00:04:07):

Well, you know, Omnia partners are one of those groups that they’re in the, um, a short list of companies that really invest in, uh, content and, and facilitating those best practices, uh, kind of building a community and there’s gonna be tons of market Intel and, and knowledge and, uh, expertise exchange down there. And, and you know, that doesn’t come cheap to be able to put on events like this. So, so big thumbs up to our friends, Omnia partners. We’re looking forward to being down there as Greg says, learn network, grow Miama. So I love that. We’ll see you soon. Okay. Let me share a couple of other, uh, events that need to be on your radar. August 18th, we’re partnering with our friends at Quip and alloy, uh, learn about quips omni-channel evolution. We’ve got Amrun Patel. You’re not gonna want to miss it. Greg. One of Amanda Luton’s favorite companies long before this webinar ever came about, you know?

Greg White (00:05:01):

Yeah. And you can tell by her shiny teeth just how effective this device is. So Quip is an electric toothbrush that they started selling direct before they started selling into retail, and now they sell through all these retail channels. So it’s a great juxtaposition. Let’s just try that word on for size Scott juxtaposition. Well, I mean, it’s a great combination of, of traditional retail and e-commerce retail direct to consumer. Um, so there’s a lot to learn here because there is a lot of that going on. Most companies seem to be coming for physical retail, into e-com or, or brands coming from even distribution into direct to consumer. And this is a great example of how all of that works together.

Scott Luton (00:05:50):

Join us August 18th at 12 noon, the link to join is in the show notes. And finally, of course, Larysa Siri, a huge supply chain insights, global summit coming up in September. We are very proud to be the exclusive virtual provider of the, of the, uh, digital feed of the event. But you got to register and it’s, it’s not an inexpensive event, but it’s going to be jam packed two and a half days. I believe September 7th and ninth, learn more at the link we’ve got in the show notes. All right. So Greg, you ready to say hello to a few folks?

Greg White (00:06:23):

Let’s do, there are a few folks out there.

Scott Luton (00:06:25):

There are SRE. Nevus is back from India once again. Uh, he’s always not

Greg White (00:06:30):

On, I noticed over the weekends, so usually I’m not on LinkedIn so much over the weekend, but I noticed that he is he

Scott Luton (00:06:38):

And I want to pose a question to always learning, I think. Yeah, I think so. We want him to share it. So share nevus, uh, from a supply chain standpoint, you know, what’s, what’s one big topic that’s been on your mind, whether it’s, you know, related to the, um, Indian markets there. And of course, um, we’ve heard some progress made from the COVID spikes from, uh, you know, 45 days or so ago, but tell us what’s the, the big, the big practitioner issue that you’re working through. We’d love to hear from you. Uh, let’s see here, Mustapha. Hey, he loves, he loves her purple t-shirt Mustaf. I love that.

Greg White (00:07:16):

So on the lighting, actually it’s pretty faded.

Scott Luton (00:07:22):

Kelvin says hello from Zambia. Great to see you here. Kelvin, look forward to your perspective being shared.

Greg White (00:07:28):

Why don’t we kind of add or re up a country here and there. I mean, that is fantastic that there are so many people across Africa, so engaged in global supply chain, right?

Scott Luton (00:07:39):

Greed, Hey, Mustapha, uh, afraid to start his own business. Hey, tune in to tequila, sunrise, you get some of the best entrepreneurial leadership founder advice ever. And where can they find tequila, sunrise, Greg,

Greg White (00:07:53):

I can find it wherever they get their podcasts or on YouTube. And if you are just starting out, one of the, um, you know, I’m just gonna, I’m just gonna pitch one, um, one episode, the seven things you need to do for, to build a three-minute pitch. And there’s nothing like that makes you understand your business, like having to communicate every aspect of it in three minutes. And it really doesn’t matter whether it’s a tech business or any other business. It really forces you to understand both what investors are looking for and what you need to know about your business to make it successful.

Scott Luton (00:08:26):

Love that. And it’s okay to be scared, use that as fuel. So, uh, thanks for joining us here today. Yeah. If you’re

Greg White (00:08:32):

Not, if you’re not scared, it’s you’re just, just playing crazy. You got to get a little bit crazy to be an entrepreneur, maybe a lot crazy to just plain crazy. If you’re not scared,

Scott Luton (00:08:42):

Be a bot might be a bot. If you’re not scared, Hey, precious is tuned in Vietnam. Geria. Great to have you here. Precious. Look forward to your perspective. So is back with us, uh, via LinkedIn. So she’ll back. Great to have you, oh, Aaron SMI tech is back Erin she’s back. It’s been a long time. Great to have you back, uh, looking forward to hearing your perspective here today, as we walk through four stories. And with that, that’s a perfect segue because with that, Greg, we’re going to get to work. Are you ready? Let’s do it. All right. So let’s bring this back into the stream here. So story number one, gray, we’re talking about one of Greg’s favorite topics, China, um, in particular is talk about the manufacturing industry in China. So Greg, according to this report via route, uh, Reuters manufacturing activity in China in July, well it expanded, but at the slowest pace they’ve seen in the last 17 months, analysts expected it to slow down from June to July, but the numbers came in lower than they had expected. So several factors, they identified bad weather as central China had record flooding in July. That’s never good, uh, higher raw material costs, of course, equipment maintenance and associated activities, surging logistics, logistics costs, of course. And one of the big signals stood out from the data. The new export order index was at its lowest level since July of 2020. So Greg, when it comes, uh, the manufacturing market in China and its activities, what, what are you tracking there?

Greg White (00:10:21):

Well, um, I think that we’re seeing this globally, right? And China is seeing the impact of it. Even at their relatively low labor rates. It was hard to get labor in to the shop to work because of the flooding. Um, and because of all the impacts that are hitting the rest of the supply chain, they’re hitting, they’re hitting China, even at a greater order of magnitude because China is still the largest producer, so many things in, in the world. Um, it’s natural to see that happen when you see global commerce kind of slowing because of all these cost factors. I think really this is a ripple effect of consumers. Um, recognizing that at least in, I think it’s like 21 states in the U S that they won’t be continuing to get the, um, pandemic unemployment assistance. The federal government’s extra three to $600 a week that were being sent to, to folks to stay home.

Greg White (00:11:27):

Um, and the clock is ticking in, in all of those states. Most of those states cease to get that cease, to accept that on June 1st and then state unemployment kicked in which only lasts for eight weeks and has of course on unlike pandemic unemployment has the requirement that you actually searched for a job. So, uh, with so many jobs on the line, I feel like this is a temporary thing. It will back because people will start getting back to work and all of these logistics costs and the difficulty in completing maintenance and that sort of thing will start to come down. We’ll start to, um, loosen up and, and we’ll be able to get more work done. So I just think it’s just a big impact on the world. And China is one of the biggest places you can impact in that regard.

Scott Luton (00:12:17):

Excellent, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. Let’s uh, let’s keep tracking. I, I, I want to touch on this second issue. This is pretty cool. And I know this is one of the stories you dove in a little deeper on, on LinkedIn earlier.

Greg White (00:12:30):

It’s available by the way, it’s almost like a mind-meld Scott. I think we’ve done this three weeks in a row, right. Where you’ve picked, um, you’ve picked something that, that wound up in my little daily paper, right?

Scott Luton (00:12:42):

We try, we try very hard to keep up with you, Greg. It can be challenged and more challenging. I’m not sure

Greg White (00:12:48):

Who’s copying who I may have copied you on

Scott Luton (00:12:50):

This. All right. So in story, number two here. So talking tractors and related provisions, one of Greg’s favorite words and story. Number two as tractor supply company is accelerating its investment in its supply chain infrastructure. So according to Edwin Lopez over supply chain dive one of our favorite publications, the growing company plans add three new distribution centers to its network over the next five years. So by that time, once they add three more, there’ll be at 11 distribution centers. The first of these three new ones though is already under construction. They broke ground in Navarre Ohio, I think is how that said Navarre in a, B a R R E Ohio, Greg, any ideas of why they chose that part of the country?

Greg White (00:13:38):

Well, I’m guessing Ohio has a really strong physical, I mean, workforce, right? I don’t mean physically strong physical workforce, but there are a lot of people who are good with distribution and manufacturing and all those sorts of things in that part of the country. Am I right?

Scott Luton (00:13:54):

Workforce talent and logistics efficiencies, you know, Ohio is also known for its its logistics environment and network, no word yet on where are they going to break ground on the two sites? This is part of a plan $2.5 billion with a B as in Bezos and capital expenses over the next five years. But they’re making the investment earlier, which is, is, is, is a big reason why it’s a story here today. So the goal they say they want to provide one day delivery to 99% of their customers while improving profitability tractor supply company has also Gregg been opening a lot more stores to take advantage of BOPUS activity. One of our favorite acronyms around here. So Greg, I’ll tell you an old colon, colon Yankee, and the team are showing how it gets done. Am I right?

Greg White (00:14:42):

They are, and this is not new for, for, um, tractor supply. They have been a strong logistics supply chain organization for a long time. I mean, I did business with them ages ago, long, long time ago. I don’t remember exactly when, but I remember they had those little characters in their commercials back then. So, which still, I think are some of the greatest commercials ever, but now they’re not, you know, and they were just sort of a big farm and fleet store, meaning in farming and around farming communities and that sort of thing. And now there’s one up the street from me, not near any farming whatsoever, they have become like an ACE hardware or even a smaller home Depot, um, with some, you know, some additional, uh, other, other things that you don’t get. I mean, imagine being able to go someplace where you can get the stuff you want to work on use to work on in your backyard or your, your garden and dog food. Right. Right. I mean, it’s kind of like that. So, uh, it’s a great concept. It apparently is working in retail or in, uh, in urban areas or relatively urban areas, at least suburban. And in addition to the urban or the rural areas ban, wait this guy up in addition to the rural areas that they’ve always been in. And, um, and how about calling Yankee? Is that not the most ironic name for a guy who lives in Nashville?

Scott Luton (00:16:10):

We were talking about Colin Powell last week and you’re right. It is Colin Yankee, not colon my apologies, uh, Collin, um, but

Greg White (00:16:20):

You know, probably not as ironic as yang, right.

Scott Luton (00:16:25):

And we’ve had a couple of great interviews with column one just a couple months ago. So we’ll have to do a check-in, uh, with him and get it here, kind of from the horse’s mouth, what what’s going on behind some of these press releases, but it’s exciting. I love the acceleration. I love how they’re leveraging their stores, um, uh, in a, in a modern day retail way and as part of their overall supply chain, uh, plan. So a lot of good news coming out from tractor supply company. Now let’s say low to few of the folks that have joined us since mans. You tuned in via LinkedIn from Nova Scotia, be here. Gosha where it’s already winter, I think, Hey, okay. That sounds great. To me. It was pretty hot this weekend. We’re going to get

Greg White (00:17:10):

Some relief in the next couple of days, but you’re right. It was 97 degrees. So 1% humidity in Atlanta

Scott Luton (00:17:17):

Stay tuned for weather on the top of the hour right here, right over here, job high pressure center that jet stream just keeps on coming. And they’re from up test is where this feeling to and great to see you. John hope this finds you well, he’s got a little purple, you know, maybe today is just purple, purple, Monday. Um, great to see you, John, uh, Aaron Smith Smith tack was talking about, you know, who the countries are handed out money like the U S one year, um, favorite topics, Greg, but we won’t get, there was a time

Greg White (00:17:53):

And a place for it. Right. But that time and place has long since passed with millions of jobs open, right? Yes.

Scott Luton (00:17:59):

Not saying speaking of mains jobs, opening in supply chain where Ms. Yu is starting her career in supply chain. So congrats mans. You’re telling me working

Greg White (00:18:09):

In the states because that’s a good, there’s a job for you.

Scott Luton (00:18:14):

Uh, if you like, uh, what you’re doing, uh, as you start your career in supply chain, we’d love to learn more from where you are there in Nova Scotia. Uh, Catalina is tuned in via Columbia and LinkedIn. Great. See a Catalina. Welcome back. Uh, let’s see here. Oh, you know, who’s back with us, right? Oh, Mohit. Oh, great to see.

Greg White (00:18:38):

Yeah. Thank you. And thanks for the shout out this weekend, by the way, Mohit. I appreciate the nudge there. Where’s your net. Where’s your name tag? Oh my gosh. Where is it? You know, I’ve been moving stuff around in here and I it’s on the wrong shelf. I can tell already

Scott Luton (00:18:55):

Mervyn tuned in from Dublin. Great. And cm, Mervyn, hope this finds you. Well, Dr. Vias is back with us. Simon is back. He’s got new head shot, Simon, how you doing? I like, um, I liked the new head shot. My friend, he’s smiling in this one. He wasn’t smiling. And that last one, Hey, life is better. I like this better. All right. So let’s move right along to the next story here today. Let’s see here now, Greg, you know that we like our lists around here, right? Especially Amanda loves a good list. She loves right now a good list. So industry week recently rolled out it’s 20, 21 50 best us manufacturers list. So, um, I want to share a little background first and then we’ll talk about some of the companies. So the, the top 50 list Greg comes out of their annual top 500 publicly held us manufacturing company list, right?

Scott Luton (00:19:51):

The factors for these rankings include revenue and revenue growth inventory turns, profit margin, asset turnover, return on assets and return on equity. It’s a three-year review, but the current year is weighted the most. Thanks weighted like 50%. Um, the number one company owned the list this year is BWX technologies. The prod of Lynchburg, Virginia now. Oh, cool. Little sidebar here, Rick McDonald and our friends at Clorox come in and number six. So, uh, I know you love a good list and I’m not sure if you’ve seen the, the full top 50, but, uh, any thoughts that you saw?

Greg White (00:20:33):

I’m curious what the heck it is that BWX does. That’s what I can’t figure out right now. I’m doing it right now. Yeah. So, oh, nuclear operations group. So they have a nuclear operations group. Yep. Nuclear components and fuel to the U S government. How about that? So hopefully, hopefully, hopefully we are building power plants, not the alternative Iran will have something to say about that if we are building the alternative, I’m sure. Um, but yeah, I, I think it’s, it’s interesting. I really liked the way that they, um, that they attack the ranking. Right. It sounds very Loris to Siri ESC in terms of how efficient and effective they are in, in, in and around supply chain. I mean, they’re not just saying best quality, but they’re also talking about how, how effectively they turn over their inventory, their profit margins and return on assets and things like that. So those are good, um, measures of an effective manufacturer.

Scott Luton (00:21:42):

Okay. Greed and speaking to the Larysa Siri, uh, you know, we’re going to be having three executives from the supply chains. We admire list, which has great research, uh, that Laura puts out Laura and the team puts out each year. Um, speaking at the conference in September at the global summit, let’s see if, uh, Amanda or Jayda or clay, if we can drop the link to, uh, the supply chains to admire [inaudible] we admire research and the comments that’d be wonderful and, and big, thanks to clay and Amanda and Jayda behind the scenes a day, helping us to make the buzz happen. Okay. So Greg, look here, Mann’s use it responding. So she’s starting her internship with grace. Oh,

Greg White (00:22:27):

With gray bar. Wow. Also a good supply chain organization. I mean, did business with them way back when more, more than two decades ago. So a really seriously powerful team there. Yes.

Scott Luton (00:22:44):

She’s got 16 plus years in the Atty business development space. So now she’s applying that to the worldwide supply chain market. I love that Manju. Congrats.

Greg White (00:22:55):

Yeah. That reminds me of when we were in Austin a couple of Novembers ago. Right. And we just saw us, it was like that show. We saw so many people, it was a Reuters show. I think w we saw so many people that had come to supply chain from physics and mathematics. And I don’t even remember what all, but that diversity of knowledge is so, so powerful. And I think is it continues to up-skill the, the, um, practice, the craft. That’s what I’m supposed to call it.

Scott Luton (00:23:28):

That’s true. Well, Hey, best of luck, man. You look forward to putting our finger on the pulse and seeing how it goes. Um, so Simon, back to the story, and we’re talking about the, uh, industry week 50 best us manufacturers list. He says, I guess sustainability is not high on the top 50, then, you know, it, they didn’t, um, from the story itself, they didn’t spell that out as a, one of the key factors. So I don’t know, he may

Greg White (00:23:56):

Be speaking of, of nuclear. Right, right. Specifically.

Scott Luton (00:24:02):

And precious says Simon, Jonah. I think so too. And sustainability is key. We agree with you. Precious. I agree. That’s true. Okay. So Greg man, we’re rolling through these stories, uh, very quickly today. Yes. So, uh, this last story, this is kind of a, this, this may be in your blind spot, a liberal, a little bit of this was certainly in my blind spot. So as reported by CNBC, a big acquisition recently closed in the last few days, powered by the growing B N P L market, perhaps Greg, a new acronym, sir, for some folks around here, buy now pay later, be NPL, certainly not a new approach by any means, but this deal, so Jack Dorsey’s square company will be acquiring the Australian FinTech company after pay. Uh, Greg Afterpay offers at 16 million customers Tang the ability to pay for their items in, for interest free installments.

Scott Luton (00:25:06):

So get this, the market that it serves a market, these platforms plan the B NPL technology and platform market. Well, that was valued at 7.3 billion in 2019. And it’s expected to grow to 33.6 billion in 2027, lots of players already in the market in, in this, uh, niche market, affirm PayPal, MasterCard file serve. Some of those apple is getting into this, this space here. They’re going to be launching an installment lending program with Goldman Sachs in the months ahead. Now here’s some surprising, perhaps surprising information for you. So according to payments.com and that’s kind of abbreviated P Y M N T s.com. I only know how to pronounce it if it was a payments, right? Um, more than 26% of millennials and nearly 11% of gen Z consumers had tapped B and P L to finance their most recent online purchases compared to only 7.5% of older generations who had done the same one B in P L doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. Does it, um, industry executive says that most of their customers referring to these numbers own a credit card, but prefer to use it only for emergency expenses and want more flexibility with their standard monthly expenses. So, Greg, I would say what’s old is new again, but I do find these shifting whatever we’re calling that these days, the shifting retail dynamics would be really intriguing your take.

Greg White (00:26:43):

I think it’s trouble. Um, yeah. I mean, if you can pay for, I, I get why you would, of course the incentive is incredible. If it’s no interest and you can pay over four months or some other period of time, rather than all at once. Um, why would you not? I mean, all the economics would say that you should write what my concern is. And I’ve seen this as more than a slight cultural trend for these generations is that because, because, um, there are many who don’t manage their money very well. They’ve only got enough to pay for a quarter of it right now. And they’re hoping they’ll have enough to pay for a quarter of it down the road three other times. And that is a recipe for disaster. Right. Um, so I don’t know, honestly, I don’t know how these companies make money if they’re not charging interest.

Greg White (00:27:41):

Is there a fee, is there a fee to the seller because that seems the motivational, is there a fee to the user? It doesn’t say so. Does it? So it doesn’t seem like there is, and I haven’t studied it much, but, uh, I don’t know about this. Remember layaway, when you say that, which is old, is new, again, remember layaway layaway, you didn’t get it until you’ve paid for all of it. Right, right, right. The motivation was definitely there to pay it off or, or risk your own money by having paid and then not paying it off.

Scott Luton (00:28:16):

Right. Yeah. It will be interesting to see all that the BNP FL uh, model applies to. Right. Um, and any supply chain ramifications. Uh, so we’ll see, we’re gonna keep our finger on the pulse clearly

Greg White (00:28:30):

Ramifications too, right. I mean, I mean, I think this is just free debt is arguably free debt. Right. But it is nonetheless debt, you know, it’s, it’s funny because you just made me think of something. And that was, I don’t know, it was one of, one of my, um, supply chain commentaries, where we were talking about new ways of, of retailers and shippers, right. Paying for goods and how that wasn’t being treated as a debt on the balance sheet. And yet was overburdening. These companies were debt, even though the vendors were paid, but the companies that were paying them were not yet. So you’d have to, I mean, I see something very similar. It doesn’t look like debt on the balance sheet of a human being, but it is nonetheless death agreed,

Scott Luton (00:29:21):

Agreed. Um, we’re gonna, we’re going to keep, you know, clearly there’s a, this is a growing sector, right. And, and you can tell just by some of the names that are getting into and, and now are leveraging, uh, their, uh, customers and giving them one more program, uh, you know, to, to, to increase that stickiness. So we’ll see, we’ll see how it plays out, but you know, where my brain went to when I read this and be in PL um, you know, it takes me back to 1996 and in 1996, I had separated from the air force, my first go round cause I got a scholarship. Right. So I was going to college for the first time. And you had to have, you know, those, those necessary things you have to have in college, uh, you know, textbooks and pencils and adult beverages and stereo systems.

Scott Luton (00:30:14):

Right. Exactly. Well, get through this as a, as a, you know, a twin, uh, uh, I don’t know, 20 year old, I guess, walking through a now bankrupt department store. And I see one of these new fangled 3d three disc, uh, uh, stereo systems, right. And this is the fact that I was able to Google and find just about, this is just about the exact thing that I purchased at this retailer. And only 277 payments later. It was all mine. It was all it probably, I can’t imagine the interest I’ve paid on this thing, but, you know, as I thought about this, and this is almost looked exactly like this, but really I was thinking about, you know, uh, that urge I had as a, as a, as a young consumer to get access to that credit and then apply it. And, and, and I made a lot of bad decisions. Right. And it, it’s, it’s really cool to kind of, kind of put that perspective around how the folks that are tapping into BNP PL you know, an interest free, um, you know, kind of, um, I wish we had maybe a, kind of a new, new take own, uh, access to that back when I was bebopping through that series. But Hey, you know, uh, the concept’s been around quite a while and we’ll see how we’ll see, what’s powering this, this niche sector.

Greg White (00:31:39):

Um, I made by an item on, uh, affirm is the one I see most prominently advertised. And also I refuse to give any more money to Jack Dorsey. I don’t, I don’t think, I think owning to DECA billion dollar companies is sufficient, don’t you? Right. Um, um, but, but I might try it because my suspicion is, as you were talking there, my suspicion is as, uh, as it often was with, with other financing schemes in the past, in the eighties and nineties was that you paid more for the product, right? And I wonder if the price doesn’t go up just enough to cover the, you know, the convenience of the payments. And also I think about the, you know, the usual argument for spreading out payments, even without interest is the ability to, uh, you know, to make money on that cash. And I wonder if people are really doing that, if you’re not making money on that, then you are paying only slightly less because a week or a month, or whatever later, even inflation hasn’t significantly impacted the value of your money yet.

Greg White (00:32:49):

So it’s not like you’re paying with tremendously less valuable doll dollars. So, and it’s a very short timeframe in which it would be very risky to make a significant amount of money on the free cash that you didn’t spend. So I’m not sure what the real attraction there is. I don’t think there’s a, um, let me preface this with, I am not an economist and I can show you the grades in my college classes and economics to prove it. Um, but the, you know, just the base economics, don’t, don’t seem to bear out. It seems more like a convenience or a cash management thing and cash management, because you don’t have, the cash is always a dangerous and slippery slope.

Scott Luton (00:33:37):

Yeah. And well, as Mohit says, here is debt for consumer and account receivables for the company is great for both parties at first glance, but risk and reward have to be well calculated and monitored. So it does not get out of hand, excellent point there. And then a Manju. I’m glad you can relate to my, um, the $300 sound system that I probably ended up paying $1,200 for.

Greg White (00:34:04):

You don’t have to play it. Right. I mean, it feels like it that’s a big thing in, in south America. When I was doing a lot of business in south America, we saw frequently you could buy a table and chairs and finance it, and what wasn’t effective, you’d go on payments. And the, the let’s just put it this way. The interest rate that they charged is illegal in the United States of America. And, and several of those companies that were doing that were brought under extreme scrutiny by the governments of their respective countries in south America. So it, there, there is something, um, something wicked this way comes right. In little opinion.

Scott Luton (00:34:50):

Well, so precious says, I think teaching children, financial management early would help in preventing future generations from walking that path, because this is so relatable. I agree with your precious and, you know, uh, not too long ago, um, a few weeks back, I saw a commercial for go Henry. And it was really, it’s a neat platform where you get it. You don’t give your children a credit card, but you’re able to enable with, with restrictions, certain e-commerce, and you can control how much, you know, they’re basically you can give them their allowance and, uh, digitally, you know, and let them with controls, apply that to different e-commerce decisions and spending decisions and whatnot. I think that’s pretty cool. I have not enrolled. And by the way, go, Henry is not a sponsor at all here at supply chain now,

Greg White (00:35:41):

But prove that, let me highlight another, there’s a company based here in Atlanta called Greenlight. And it’s precisely that it’s a debit card for kids that also teaches them financial responsibility, as well as enabling reasonable and rational spending. I think when, you know, when you’re doing this kind of thing, yep. It’s responsible to say, what else could you do with the money? Right. Um, and, and I, I think a vehicle or, uh, uh, a card or whatever it is that says, Hey, here’s, here are the economics of the decision you’re making. Here’s what else you could be doing with the money. So

Scott Luton (00:36:24):

Agreed. And Mohib says a graders work for B graders in a company owned by C graders financed by D graders.

Greg White (00:36:36):

Oh, I love that. How true, how true? Um,

Scott Luton (00:36:41):

Well, Greg, you know, we were so efficient getting through our, uh, stories here today. And I think it’s here at the start of a month, sometimes, uh, the live streams at the very start of the month, everybody’s wrapping up the previous month or planning the current month. Um, but what else, you know, since we have a little extra time, you know, what else is on your radar? Or what’s a good question. You want to throw out there to our folks in the sky boxes, cheap, cheap sheets, cheap seats, you name it. What’s on your mind, Greg this morning. That’s, it’s a very dangerous question, but what is it?

Greg White (00:37:16):

Well, it’s a very mundane answer as you would not expect. And that is, um, being an empty nester and no longer having to worry about these things. I’m fascinated by what the impact of back to school has been. Now, it hasn’t started everywhere, but Scott, I think your kids went back today or go back tomorrow. Is that correct? That’s right. Tomorrow bright and early. Yeah. So you know what, one of the things that I’ve seen in the news, and this is, this is as regards to supply chain, but I’m really interested more in how it’s impacting individuals, consumers, whatever we want to call ourselves. But one of the things I’ve seen recently is that because of the hiccups in the supply chain, that there may, may, may be no peak season in the states and peak season. Traditionally starts though. We think of it as kind of the Thanksgiving to Christmas holidays, new years, uh, until return season on December 26th, uh, boxing day in Canada, um, I’ve never seen a match, not one on the 26th of December in Canada.

Greg White (00:38:23):

That’s a whole different kind of boxing. Um, but, but what is not commonly known in retail is that the back to school typically kind of starts the peak season. And it is a peak for certain businesses in and of itself because you sell a lot of dorm fridges and backpacks and pencils or whatever kids use to write these days. If kids even write these days, they quit teaching cursive so long ago. I’m not sure that it’s even worth it for kids to write. Um, but you know, laptops and who knows what right. New shoes and whatever else. So I’m really interested in that dynamic. And yes it is. And maybe you, and maybe we can bring on Amanda, or maybe you can speak to what kind of, uh, upheaval or you know, or impact it’s having on your household right now.

Scott Luton (00:39:18):

It’s a great question. Let me, let me see in the green room, if Amanda gives us the thumbs up or the thumbs down for joining us, Amanda, would you like to speak to some upheaval? Okay, well let’s whoosh Amanda Luton into the stream.

Greg White (00:39:37):

Hey, Amanda, man, on the spot, how you doing for anyone who doesn’t know completely unplanned, but yeah, you can hear all that, right, Amanda. So, oh, wait. You’re muted.

Amanda Luton (00:39:51):

Of course. I am see. I’m totally unprepared. I’m being behind the scenes. Yes. I can hear everything now. Speak

Greg White (00:40:00):

Good. Yeah. Give us an idea of what’s going on in your household with back to school. And

Amanda Luton (00:40:07):

So what I was actually in the middle of typing before y’all invited me live, um, which is kind of unique for our school system. Walton county schools in Georgia has actually taken their federal dollars and all of the money, the relief dollars and everything. Um, that’s been provided by the government and have, uh, purchased school supplies for every single student, um, throughout the whole county. Um, also taken, I don’t, I’m not sure of the exact government agency, but whatever money that they were provided also to, to paper, um, lunches and breakfast, you know, food for kids, they have paid they’ve provided enough money so that all kids can have three, um, breakfast and lunches at school every single day throughout the whole school year. So are wow.

Scott Luton (00:40:59):

Which by the way, our three kids, I haven’t seen them celebrate school,

Greg White (00:41:05):

School lunch.

Amanda Luton (00:41:06):

They love it. I mean, I, I, I guess that, that speaks to how quickly and, and, and effortlessly I put together lunches. I just throw a couple things in their lunches, but they love getting school lunch. So that’s like a huge deal in our household, but the amount of stress and pressure that, that has that the school supplies being provided and the breakfast and lunch being provided has taken them enormous pressure, you know, off of my shoulders in particular, but, but our shoulders, um, as a household, because that stuff gets expensive, you know?

Greg White (00:41:42):

Well, yeah, and this year, then it’s a crush to get all of that stuff bought. Right.

Amanda Luton (00:41:46):

Well, and we have three kids, you know, I think about it all the time. You know, I have friends that have four and five children, um, and you know, you’re paying for not only for pens and pencils and stuff, but especially this year, Clorox wipes, you know, hand sanitizer, we were providing it a lot in the past, but, um, particularly this year and luckily, you know, we’ve kind of every time we see it in the store, we picked some up. So we’ve been stockpiling it for a long time, you know, thinking that when they go back to school after pride provide more, but, um, you know, depending on, on where you are different locations, there can be, um, you know, that stuff can be sold out still at this point in time, but,

Greg White (00:42:23):

Hmm. So, um, you made me think that that’s really interesting and wow. Um, I wish, and I bet a lot of people right now wish they were as prepared as you getting stuff way ahead of the season. And knowing that you’re a prepared parent as regards to the holiday without giving away any secrets, like what the gift is, are you, I mean, because you’re kind of tuned into what’s going on in supply chain and I think we can largely expect there to be great shortages of things for the holidays. Are you planning ahead for that as well?

Amanda Luton (00:43:01):

I typically, I plan, let’s say I play more than Scott does Scott, the Christmas Eve shopper, but I definitely usually, but, but typically, you know, I don’t plan too far. I start shopping after Thanksgiving. You know, I like to, to give myself a little bit of, uh, um, time, but not a ton, but this year I definitely I’ve already asked the kids to start their Christmas lists. Um, getting some ideas, um, you know, looking on Amazon, looking on, um, you know, Walmart website, looking on specific stores in particular, um, doing a little bit of shopping in person already, which I mean, typically, like I said, I don’t start shopping until November and I’m already starting now just anticipating those delays. I don’t like it, but I think it’s, we’re going to have to it, especially like with our kids, you can’t just say, you know, I want Barbies this year or I want Legos, Bennett picks out the very specific set of Legos, you know, that he wants. And, you know, the girls have, um, very specific ideas in mind. So it’s, it’s not like I could just go out, pick out a Barbie and pee, you know, and just be fine with it. They’re kind of picky. So I’m having to, um, to ask what they’re, you know, ask what they want now, seek it out. And, and a lot of times just go ahead and get it now.

Scott Luton (00:44:29):

Very active feedback cycles, very, very active. I’ve experienced that. Um, I’m, I’m glad Greg, I appreciate that this is on your mind and it’s neat to hear Amanda’s perspective as a school and holidays. And clearly, um, I don’t have a stat handy, but, um, in our head it’s really interesting. Uh, the females in the family have the purchasing power. Amanda’s one making all of those decisions. You know, I’ve seen some, some procurement statistics not too long ago, maybe from Kelly Barner around that, but it just kinda hit me right now, Amanda. I mean, you’re, you’re the one making a lot of the ton of whether it’s retail or other consumer decisions.

Amanda Luton (00:45:15):

Yeah. That’s, that’s for sure. Um, honestly, I don’t know why that’s not focused on more, you know, cause not only is it school supplies, but it’s, um, it’s our weekly lunches or our weekly, you know, grocery shopping. I’m the one that makes all of those purchases, any school clothes or any clothes in general, I make those, you know, I’m in services. Yeah. So yeah. Um, that’s interesting to think about, and I think there’s, um,

Greg White (00:45:43):

I think there are retailers that are aware of that, that, that you Amanda and, and other women and families typically make the plans and purchases and that sort of thing. I wonder. And I wonder if you’ve seen any of this in the, you know, some of the preparatory shopping that you’ve been doing. I wonder if you see that retailers are prepared for this early surge of shopping, which, I mean, I think you’re, you’re an exceptional planner and maybe it won’t be like a big, big impact on, you know, by consumers, but some people are gonna see this and go, Hey, I hadn’t thought of that. Right. And yeah, I wonder if you think that retailers are prepared for an early surge of shopping with, with consumers being ever more aware of, of the supply chain impact on availability and availability. Yeah.

Amanda Luton (00:46:38):

If my in store shopping experience over the summer has been any indication, they are horribly unprepared. Um, you know, we’ve, I’ve been in several stores and you know, we’ve been kind of our kids’ birthdays are during summertime. And so we’ve been shopping for clothes, you know, all throughout the summer in different things here and there. And there’s a couple of stores in particular that we go in and the shelves are just vacant and you would really, yes, it’s, it’s frustrating because I I’m trying to shop in person. I don’t want us to do all of my shopping online, especially with, like I said, um, picky, picky girls in particular, you know, looking for, for clothes and yeah, just accessories in general. But, um, there are just some empty shelves and it definitely makes me nervous and it turns me to, to e-commerce know even more.

Amanda Luton (00:47:30):

Cause I know that I can get, I can find what we’re looking for. Um, I mean this could go into a whole bunch of different directions as far as reverse logistics and returning things and all of that stuff too. But, um, it does, it makes me nervous and, and once I see empty shelves, um, I start not going back to the stores because, um, it takes a lot of my time, you know, to get the kids out, to go out to the stores where I don’t have to leave the house to shop online and I can, you know, it’s a much easier purchase for, for me for busy moms in general. But, um, man, I think, I think it’s going to be rough. I think it’s really going to be rough.

Scott Luton (00:48:07):

So let me share a tool here has a, and I think if I said it wrong, please let us know how we say it. Right. A tool says, great question on school supplies, any stats on overall uptake on costs and spend by school administration only increasing the budget to meet that uptick now really quick. I did some Googling very dangerous sometimes, but the United States census bureau released, uh, data in may that public school spending per pupil increases by the largest amount in 11 years, uh, here in the U S 11 years. So, um, there’s more information. We’ll try to drop this into the comments, but a great question. And a tool also says we see construction costs up by 30% due to commodity price and supply chain issues. Is that happening in other sectors? I would say absolutely. Greg, what are your thoughts? So,

Greg White (00:48:59):

Uh, I read a report that, that, um, lumber prices in particular specifically are back down to their normal levels maybe at, at the plant or a mill level, but I haven’t seen him quite come back to normal levels in store. Um, but I think it will start happening. So this is a dynamic we discussed earlier, earlier on the show. It seemed like now it seems like the show has been going really long, Scott, but you know, now that people, because B, because certain states are not taking the federal unemployment assistance anymore, the clock started ticking and these people will have to get back to work, which means production will come up. And, and in many, many cases, this is a strange irony here. The employed will soon be earning less than they were as the unemployed because of the, the federal unemployment assistance and their budget for spending will go down.

Greg White (00:50:05):

So I think we’ll start to see equilibrium later this month. Let me just preface this or stuff this with, with another, this statement one more time. And that is, I am not an economist, but it does seem to make sense. People are getting back to work. They have less time to spend people are, their kids are getting back to school. As those activities start there. In many cases, I cannot remember what the percentage is, but it was a huge percentage of people on pandemic, unemployment assistance. Their pay will actually go down after they’re not working or not, not working for the government. Um, so I think we’ll start to see demand start to balance out from that standpoint and bring some of the prices down on some of that, uh, incremental, uh, spending things like building houses, buying RVs boats, right. But if, as Amanda says, and I think it’s, I think it’s, you heard it here first. Just remember you heard it here. Amanda Luton shoppers are shopping earlier to get what they want so they don’t run out. I mean, think about when we have the toy of the year, right. And everyone buys it early and then start selling it on eBay this year. You’re going to have to buy it early just to be able to get it for your own kids, not even it to your arm. Right. Liquid

Scott Luton (00:51:31):

Ziggy says here, we’re talking about other costs, increases and Ziggy. Great to have you back via LinkedIn in the lubricants industry, 30% is minimum on the increases due to supply chain material challenges. Yeah. How about that? Uh, also Jenny Froome is with us. Hello, Jenny, uh, leader of say, picks says, isn’t that just supply chain though. So many different things making up the end result and Janine says, great to hear you, Amanda. So great to have you with this. Jenny and Jenny. Um, Jenny and I just knocked out an interview not too long ago, Greg and Amanda with, uh, sheesh, FA uh co-founder and CEO with a group called bank Q. Oh yeah. Wonderful. I’ll tell you what, if we hooked up a sheesh to, um, the power grid? I don’t think we would address much of our infrastructure. Uh, he’s got that much energy and just charisma and passion and the whole bank. You can’t, I won’t go into it, but the whole name came from yeah. Yeah.

Greg White (00:52:31):

I saw his story on a post from him on LinkedIn or something like that. Yeah,

Scott Luton (00:52:37):

It’s great. It came from a financial, uh, banker saying, Hey, I, I can’t allow you to have an account, but I can bank you to the point in a sheet show. Uh, so Jenny looking forward to releasing that here this week, but back to the topic at hand and Amanda, we’ll wrap you first and then we’ll wrap up the buzz here today. What’s um, what’s one other piece of advice maybe, or observation as that you would like to share as we get into while we’re in the back, back to school mode really early here in Georgia, especially compared to other parts.

Amanda Luton (00:53:13):

Um, gosh, another, another bit of advice or I’m not sure. You know, one thing I have noticed too, um, is increasing, you know, like I said, I do all of our food shopping and everything I’ve noticed increases in food prices, even at my bargain basement stores that I like to shop. I, we shop from all the, you know, I still, I, I was an Instacart, um, enthusiast before the pandemic. And matter of fact, um, I’m placing my, I was in the middle of placing my Instacart order for our, our peanut butter. Would you mind, Hey, I’m a multitasker, right. But, um, I’ve noticed prices going up. I’ve noticed lots of outages in the stores. Um, but the key to, to shopping, I think for our family is just flexibility is, is making sure that we have lots of up or making sure that everybody is open to lots of different options.

Amanda Luton (00:54:14):

Um, luckily, you know, we have lots of shopping options in our area. Instacart will pick up and deliver from just about everybody around us, but, but it’s taking, um, it’s taking extra work and it’s taking extra time, um, to plan and to think about it, you know, we meal plan all week long and, um, uh, it’s just taking a little bit extra time and, you know, I’m trying also to be really patient with those retail workers, those people that are placing deliveries, um, then, you know, giving lots of grace, um, because I know that they are working super hard. Matter of fact, uh we’ve we placed a pizza delivery order last week that they had to then call me, um, to say that, you know, they don’t have enough delivery drivers and they had to cancel our order. Um, and so I’m just, I’m trying to be very thankful and very appreciative for the people that are working right now and the people that are, you know, probably dealing with a lot of personalities and a lot of things right now,

Greg White (00:55:11):

I have a feeling you’re not getting a lot of empathy from some of our listeners viewers around the world. I mean, seriously, these are seriously, not just,

Amanda Luton (00:55:20):

Not just first world

Greg White (00:55:21):

Problems, but they are us problems. I mean, the level of service that we have come to expect in the states is unbelievable. And it is significantly compromised right now. And I, I got to tell you in the same moment that I am so irritated by the fact that it took them 10 extra minutes or five extra minutes or whatever, to get to our table at, at the restaurant, we went to Friday night, I’m like, right. We’re at a restaurant. We’re not making our own food.

Amanda Luton (00:55:49):

We’re not foraging for it. Right. I mean, yeah. And it’s one thing to expect a level of service because I think we’ve, we, you know, we’ve gotten used to a high level of customer service, but we need to appreciate it. We need to be thankful for it. And we need to be grateful to the people that are providing it, you know? So I think that’s, that’s where I’m, that’s where I am right now. I guess. No

Scott Luton (00:56:10):

Truer words have ever been spoken than what the great freight Sage

Greg White (00:56:14):

Lodge. Yeah, no kidding. So who came to visit this weekend? My brother who came to visit this weekend was quoting an article or something that said America is five missed meals away from anarchy. It’s even fewer missed pizzas,

Scott Luton (00:56:33):

But you know, Jenny also says the restaurants are open that’s to be grateful, especially

Greg White (00:56:38):

In South Africa. It is right. So,

Scott Luton (00:56:43):

Uh, all right, Amanda, we’re gonna switch you back out. Thanks so much for popping into the stream and sharing some of your POV here today. Yeah. We’ll see you here just a moment. All right. Thanks guys. All right. Hey, uh, one of the things I wanted to share with you, Greg, before we wrap, so the national retail Federation and F our friends over there, John gold and the team they estimate, according to this NPR report, that families will be spending an average of $849 on Batten to school. That’s 60 more dollars in last year. Wow. And it’s supposed to be the back to school. Shopping overall is supposed to set a record this year, uh, a whopping $37 billion. And of course the entire industry’s got their finger on the pulse of that school as an overall economic indicator. So we’ll see, we’ll see where the tallies.

Greg White (00:57:34):

Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, I did a lot of business with staples back in the day, pre 2000 and back when they used to matter and not just mattered. I mean, they were the go-to place for back to school and they had an entire logistics strategy around getting back to school goods, staging them in inappropriate and economically appropriate way and being available for back to school in the various regions. And, um, it’s no small logistics challenge because the demand uplift for back to school is so dramatic, even more dramatic than, you know, the Thanksgiving, Christmas to Christmas holidays in, uh, in the states. So it was a nightmare. Um, frankly, well,

Scott Luton (00:58:24):

We’re going to have to, uh, draw some of the stories out from you in the later episode, uh, but really have enjoyed today’s buzz. I enjoyed chatting through with you these four stories then of course, surprisingly bringing on Amanda to talk about back to school and she shared some of the experiences. There it

Greg White (00:58:40):

Is. Yeah. The lesson there, everyone, everyone in supply chain needs to get the lesson there. You are not predicting the items. You are predicting Amanda Luton. And in all seriousness, I mean, in supply chain, we have to recognize that we are not predicting the items. We are predicting the consumer, right? And the consumer is going to do something and clearly is doing something different already. And that’s why we have to, we have to bridge this gap from understanding what the item is doing and instead understand what the consumer is doing and what is motivating them to buy what or return what, and that is when we will have a quantum leap in terms of effectiveness in supply chain.

Scott Luton (00:59:28):

Right? Real, real, real agility. When we get to, when we start doing that and acting on that very consistently, Hey, Kim winner, appreciate your comments here. It was his evening meal entertainment, sorry, sorry. Huge food security movement here. Uh, the UAE, uh, the government self sustainability is a target. So, um, look forward to learning more about that. You know, Kim and I were on a veteran voices episode recording last week that we look forward to releasing soon with mark. Ormrod a lot of powerful story there, but Kim hope this finds you well and great to see here today. Precious says, Hey, so a lot of, a lot of what Amanda spoke to, it’s not just a us thing. She’s experiencing some of the same in Nigeria. It’s great to hear precious. Um, okay. So I want to wrap up just one friendly reminder, uh, folks be sure to check out Omnia partners, connections 2021. As Greg said, learn network, grow Miami, September 27th to the 29th. We’ll be there in person looking forward to broadcast live on that first day. And then some subsequent followup conversations it’s free to attend if you’re a supply chain sourcing and procurement leader. So y’all check that out. The link is in the comments. Okay, Greg, I feel like you’ve shared your top thing to keep in mind from some discussion here today. Anything else that you’d like to share before we, uh,

Greg White (01:00:49):

Big thanks to Amanda for coming on, like with absolutely no notice and sharing that that was a fantastic insight. I really think that is powerful stuff. That connection to those people that are making the decisions to make the purchase is what drives supply chain. This consumer is the beginning and the end of the supply chain

Scott Luton (01:01:10):

Love that. Um, and also, uh, loved her take on, we got to hug on the retail and the service industry folks, you know, um, they’re, they’re thankfully starting here in the states, at least getting back into, uh, the ability to, to make a living and after, you know, being shut down for so long, so gotta gotta be extra considerate and patient whatnot, even if you don’t feel like it, those, uh, after the, the, um, you know, the daily commute or what have you, or the stresses of

Greg White (01:01:40):

The day, French fries show up late.

Scott Luton (01:01:43):

Right. But Hey, to all of our friends that showed up across, across the world, really from Kim and Jenny, uh, uh, is it Gras girl? Rauf Guarav. Sorry. My apologies. Um, I need another cup of coffee on that one. Gorav great to have you back feed LinkedIn. You don’t have to go back and check out some of our conversations here today. Precious really appreciate your comments from, uh, your perspective. They’re not geria and, and so many others, but heap, of course, in Wichita, the cap, the air capital of the world, always a pleasure to have Mohib join us, but folks take a page out of Amanda’s book there, and most important thing you can hear today, I think at least act on today and buy off our entire team. Hey, do good. Give forward. Be the change that’s needed. Put it in your actions, make it happen. And with that said, we’ll see you next time. Right back here. Well,

Intro/Outro (01:02:36):

Supply chain, thanks for being a part of our supply chain. Now community check out all of our programming@supplychainnow.com and make sure you subscribe to supply chain. Now anywhere you listen to podcasts and follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. See you next time on supply chain. Now.