Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZY, Boston's news
Speaker 1: radio home.
Speaker 2: Thanks very much, Emmy, you gotta stay warm, baby, it's
Speaker 2: cold outside.
Speaker 3: As they sing in that song, it is cold outside tonight.
Speaker 2: I heard nineteen degrees, but I suspect it feels a
Speaker 2: lot colder than that. So if you're in your car,
Speaker 2: I hope you get the heat turned up. We'll keep
Speaker 2: your company wherever you're headed this mid December weekend. Today
Speaker 2: is Friday the thirteenth, and we're going to talk about
Speaker 2: that later on tonight. Plumb your brain for your superstitions.
Speaker 2: Did you think about it today? Did you not think
Speaker 2: about it today? I get a feeling that there's a
Speaker 2: lot of people out there who wake up on a
Speaker 2: thirteenth of Friday the thirteenth.
Speaker 3: A little more wary than usual. We'll figure that out
Speaker 3: later on tonight.
Speaker 2: Well, also at nine o'clock, I'm going to talk about
Speaker 2: Louis ti on. You know, Louis passed away in October,
Speaker 2: and once again the Veterans Committee on the Baseball Hall
Speaker 2: of Fame chose to pass him by. And I've done
Speaker 2: a little research here. I want to get a little
Speaker 2: bit of a bandwagon rolling for Louis t On.
Speaker 3: This guy deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3: So we'll get to that.
Speaker 2: And there's another subject or two would like to talk
Speaker 2: about tonight, a little bit of New England.
Speaker 3: Nossalasar at ten o'clock.
Speaker 2: What are some of the great institutions that have gone
Speaker 2: on I've passed on here in New England that you missed.
Speaker 2: We'll talk about that, but first off, we have our
Speaker 2: Nightside News update and we're going to start off with
Speaker 2: Katie Johnson, who writes for the Boston Globe, and she
Speaker 2: has an interesting article on the top places to work
Speaker 2: in Massachusetts based on employee surveys. Katie Johnson, I think
Speaker 2: we've had you before. Welcome back to Nightside. How are
Speaker 2: you tonight.
Speaker 4: I'm doing well. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Correct, I think we did speak before, at least once.
Speaker 3: Correct.
Speaker 4: I have done this list for maybe ten years, so
Speaker 4: chances are good.
Speaker 3: Okay, that's great. I'm glad to hear it. Now.
Speaker 2: This is not a survey that you did. This is
Speaker 2: a survey according to enter Gauge is what is ener gauge.
Speaker 2: It makes it sound like it's an energy company because
Speaker 2: we got two g's but know why, So tell us
Speaker 2: what eder Gauge is.
Speaker 4: First, well, Energauge is an employee engagement company, so you know,
Speaker 4: also a play on the name. And yes, they do
Speaker 4: these surveys for publications around the country where they take surveys,
Speaker 4: anonymous surveys of employees at companies and we ended up
Speaker 4: surveying three hundred plus companies and it's like twenty five
Speaker 4: questions that they ask them and then they rank them,
Speaker 4: you know, different weights for different questions and come up
Speaker 4: with a ranking of companies in four different size categories.
Speaker 3: I see that there's the categories.
Speaker 2: Is I understand that are big big companies which would
Speaker 2: be a thousand employees are more Top large companies two
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty to nine ninety nine, that's still a
Speaker 2: big company, Top medium sized companies one hundred and two
Speaker 2: forty nine, and top small companies fifty to ninety nine.
Speaker 2: So you don't this company that does the work here.
Speaker 2: It doesn't drop below fifty. So if you could have
Speaker 2: a great small company with thirty people, happiest place in
Speaker 2: the world, that's not going to show up in the survey, correct.
Speaker 5: Right, They don't do the tiny companies and I think
Speaker 5: the small number makes it harder to quantify the results
Speaker 5: or something like that.
Speaker 2: Okay, so they know the companies they want to do
Speaker 2: they do they survey employees in every company. How do they?
Speaker 2: I know how they do political polls? But I'm interested
Speaker 2: in how they do this.
Speaker 4: Well, they invite companies.
Speaker 5: They invite thousands of companies and then ones that want
Speaker 5: to do it. Then they have to survey a certain
Speaker 5: percentage of their employees and they have to get the
Speaker 5: completed survey, so they have to reach a certain amount
Speaker 5: to qualify.
Speaker 2: So what what I'm doing here is I'm qualifying this myself.
Speaker 2: This isn't on the level survey that they had made
Speaker 2: an effort here.
Speaker 3: So let's talk about the.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about a couple of the top companies that
Speaker 2: maybe people are familiar with. Let's let's why don't you
Speaker 2: take the lead here, let me let me listen attentively, attentively.
Speaker 4: Okay, Well, I can tell you what the number one
Speaker 4: companies are.
Speaker 6: Uh, if that's what you're interested in.
Speaker 4: Okay, So the number one small company is a brain
Speaker 4: Tree insurance agency called Fisher Agencies. The number one mid
Speaker 4: sized company is a Boston business and tech consulting firm
Speaker 4: called s c I Boston, and they do a cool thing.
Speaker 6: Uh.
Speaker 4: You know, we like to call out different things that
Speaker 4: these companies do, and this one they have a bi
Speaker 4: weekly dinner time staff eating at their downtown office. And
Speaker 4: to make it easier for parents to attend, they have
Speaker 4: on site childcare movies and kid friendly food. So you know,
Speaker 4: they they make it easy to bring your kids. And
Speaker 4: it's nice that they think of you.
Speaker 5: As, you know, the whole person. You have a lot
Speaker 5: of things going on besides work.
Speaker 4: The number one.
Speaker 2: Outside the only downside of that would be if you
Speaker 2: have a couple of kids. It's great to be able
Speaker 2: to bring them in, but you've got to get back
Speaker 2: into the city if you live outside of Boston.
Speaker 3: I guess I don't like.
Speaker 4: It, right, Yeah, yeah, let's.
Speaker 2: Get okay, Yeah, I'm only having fun with you, all right,
Speaker 2: and give us the top large company. This is now
Speaker 2: we'll get into the companies that maybe some of us
Speaker 2: will actually have done some business with.
Speaker 4: The number one large company is a Waltham real estate
Speaker 4: firm called the Lamachia Realty and they've won before, I believe.
Speaker 4: And then the largest company that was number one is
Speaker 4: a brain Tree, senior living company called Senior Living Residences. Know,
Speaker 4: these aren't necessarily all household names two people, but it's
Speaker 4: always interesting to learn about new places.
Speaker 2: Now, I'm assuming that you're not that they did not
Speaker 2: release the names of the worst companies to work.
Speaker 4: You know, it's funny you say that, because I've always
Speaker 4: wanted to do that list, but for some reason, you know,
Speaker 4: the leadership team pushes back on that. I don't think
Speaker 4: they'd get much in the way of advertising dollars either.
Speaker 2: Well I'm talking I'm talking about energet Gauge probably has
Speaker 2: a deal with the companies that if they don't turn
Speaker 2: out pretty well, you know that cauld that that won't
Speaker 2: be mentioned.
Speaker 3: I guess.
Speaker 4: So, yeah, they don't release the names of the of
Speaker 4: the bottom once.
Speaker 2: Yeah, sure, yeah, okay, so, and no one knows all
Speaker 2: the different companies that participate. What percentage of companies around
Speaker 2: the state do you think participate in this? Is this
Speaker 2: a really good sample? I mean, obviously they do a
Speaker 2: good sample in terms of the different sizes. I get that,
Speaker 2: But is your sense that this this whole project, this
Speaker 2: seems to be me from what I know about it,
Speaker 2: it's really really on the up and up and on
Speaker 2: the level. And I'm assuming you must believe that as
Speaker 2: well to have written the story.
Speaker 4: We do believe that. Yeah, we do it. We do
Speaker 4: it every year. I mean it's certainly not every company,
Speaker 4: or even the majority of them. I mean there was
Speaker 4: only three hundred and twenty three companies that went through
Speaker 4: the entire process of being surveyed, right, So, so not
Speaker 4: every only companies that think they're going to do well
Speaker 4: will do this to begin with. Right, So the lot
Speaker 4: of the companies kind of select out, and so you
Speaker 4: get kind of the.
Speaker 2: Anyway, well, when you mentioned that number, if there's three
Speaker 2: hundred and twenty three companies competing, for lack of a
Speaker 2: better word, and one hundred and seventy five have been
Speaker 2: recognized as one of the companies with the happiest employees,
Speaker 2: you got about a fifty to fifty shot to Yeah,
Speaker 2: the odds are not dead. No, absolutely not bad. Which
Speaker 2: I could get those odds on my football picks on
Speaker 2: the weekend. But that's another story for another time, Katie.
Speaker 2: When does the story run, and if it hasn't run yet,
Speaker 2: I am embarrassed to tell you I haven't read it,
Speaker 2: but I'm hoping that we can mention that it's going
Speaker 2: to be in the paper at a date going forward.
Speaker 4: Well, it ran last weekend, Dan little late, but that's okay.
Speaker 4: I came out in the Sunday magazine, but you can
Speaker 4: still find it online.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, I appreciate that. Well, I wish we would next year.
Speaker 2: Let's do it ahead of time, because that way we
Speaker 2: can generate little business for the Globe on Sunday. There'll
Speaker 2: be a lot of people.
Speaker 5: I'm serious knowing well, to your producer's credit, they tried
Speaker 5: to get me on last Friday night, but I had planed,
Speaker 5: so they you know, punted for this week.
Speaker 4: So we'll take what we can get.
Speaker 3: We won't tell the Globe.
Speaker 4: They'll never know. It's between you and me.
Speaker 3: You got it all right, Katie, Thanks very much.
Speaker 2: I appreciate you. A good sport. Talk to you soon, Okay,
Speaker 2: thank you, thank you. I like people who have a
Speaker 2: sense of humor and who can kind of play radio
Speaker 2: a little bit.
Speaker 3: Just have some fun with it.
Speaker 2: We come back when I have a little bit more
Speaker 2: of a serious conversation. And these are tips as I
Speaker 2: read this for landlords that anyone should know before they
Speaker 2: rent out their property. So normally, normally you would think
Speaker 2: that someone would be saying beware that person's a bad
Speaker 2: landlord or whatever. No, this is quite the contrary. This
Speaker 2: is tips for landlords to avoid what they characterize as
Speaker 2: the monster tenant. Okay, we'll be back on Nightside right
Speaker 2: after the break.
Speaker 3: My name's Dan Ray.
Speaker 2: This is Nightside on a Friday night of Friday the
Speaker 2: thirteenth here in Boston, Massachusetts. You're listening to WBZ Radio
Speaker 2: ten thirty on your AM dial, Boston's news radio, and
Speaker 2: you can all see always listen to us over the internet,
Speaker 2: just whoever your internet provider is. We're right there WBZ
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Speaker 2: listen to us three sixty five twenty four to seven
Speaker 2: from anywhere in the world. Back on Nightside with our
Speaker 2: next guest right after this.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the window World
Speaker 1: Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: All right back to the conversation of the hour. This
Speaker 2: of course is the night Side News update and our
Speaker 2: next guest. This is sort of a kind of a
Speaker 2: change up, if you will, in baseball parlance. Ten landlord
Speaker 2: tips that anyone, And I assume that means a landlord
Speaker 2: should know before renting out their property. Suzanne Segrament is
Speaker 2: my guest.
Speaker 3: Hi, Suzanne, how are you tonight?
Speaker 1: Great?
Speaker 4: Thanks Dan?
Speaker 7: How are you doing?
Speaker 2: I'm doing just great now. Victim of monster tenants? So
Speaker 2: this is from the perspective of the landlords.
Speaker 7: Correct, yep, that's me all right, So tell.
Speaker 2: Us what the I can imagine there are some tough landlords,
Speaker 2: but I also suspect there were probably some some tough tenants.
Speaker 2: What are the ten landlord tips that people? And there
Speaker 2: are a lot of people who were small landlords. They
Speaker 2: have a three decker here in Boston or somewhere in
Speaker 2: our listening area, and they rent out a couple of floors,
Speaker 2: and not only do they have tenants, but they have
Speaker 2: people living in the same building in which they reside.
Speaker 2: I'm sure a lot of people will pay a lot
Speaker 2: of attention to what you're going to tell us.
Speaker 7: Yeah, well, first they just want to say that we
Speaker 7: had a monster tenant that you cannot believe, who moved
Speaker 7: in and tore down three bedrooms without permission. It was
Speaker 7: absolutely insane. So these tips come from direct experience of
Speaker 7: a really, really bad tenant. The first thing is really
Speaker 7: important is that you have to do a background check
Speaker 7: and a credit report. Even if your broker gives that
Speaker 7: to you. Most people think, oh, the broker is going
Speaker 7: to do all the work and they're going to do
Speaker 7: on the vetting. But nope, it's really up to you
Speaker 7: as a landlord to do that important step. And I
Speaker 7: in some places this is illegal to do, but I
Speaker 7: think it's important to google the tenant's name, and also
Speaker 7: to just google with any kind of thing you can
Speaker 7: think of that worries you arrest or conviction or house
Speaker 7: in court. Just get a look at as many things
Speaker 7: as possible.
Speaker 2: I don't know why that should be illegal, especially if
Speaker 2: it's a public record.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I don't know. I think maybe illegal is the
Speaker 7: wrong term. But you can't, at least in New York,
Speaker 7: where they're very pro tenant, you can't use housing court
Speaker 7: information to make a decision about them something like that.
Speaker 8: It's it's problic.
Speaker 7: Yeah. You might see a LinkedIn profile with a lot
Speaker 7: of great educational background, and that's not going to help
Speaker 7: you unless you're actually call the schools and find out
Speaker 7: if that person actually went there. What's on LinkedIn could
Speaker 7: be made up basically, and that's what happened with our tenant.
Speaker 7: He made everything up Harvard, a master's degree, a PhD.
Speaker 7: Everything was completely made up, and documents were forged and
Speaker 7: we were completely colored.
Speaker 2: Did it take you to evict this person, Well, it
Speaker 2: took us.
Speaker 7: It was three months. We were very lucky. I found
Speaker 7: twenty other victims around the world, and so he's done
Speaker 7: this to a lot of people before, and we were lucky.
Speaker 3: You said that this tenant.
Speaker 2: Destroyed three bedrooms or it was yeah, a party it
Speaker 2: was it a party animal or was it some guy
Speaker 2: who thought that he could they could improve your property
Speaker 2: by taking a wall or two down.
Speaker 7: No, he was actually it was the middle of the pandemic,
Speaker 7: and he was looking for a payout, if you can
Speaker 7: believe that. So he moves into people's places and kind
Speaker 7: of destroys them or does some kind of chaotic things
Speaker 7: so that you want him out, and then he expects
Speaker 7: you to pay him to leave.
Speaker 2: Because in some states it's tough to ect, can take
Speaker 2: months or years to evict even ye.
Speaker 7: Okay, which is the pandemic.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, wow, okay, So there was.
Speaker 7: An eviction moratorium at the time. During the pandemic, So
Speaker 7: there was really nothing we could do. But we did
Speaker 7: finally get him out. It took us four months.
Speaker 2: Four months and so he never paid you any rent.
Speaker 2: And how much damage did he do to your uh,
Speaker 2: to your property that that you you're probably never going
Speaker 2: to be able to sue him for or at least
Speaker 2: sue himself.
Speaker 7: Now there's a lot of he's had a lot of
Speaker 7: judgments ahead of us, so we're way back in the line.
Speaker 7: I'd say it's probably three to four hundred thousand dollars
Speaker 7: worth of damage overall, including legal fees and loss of
Speaker 7: value of the property, just and also putting the bedrooms back.
Speaker 7: I mean, it was just devastating to see my daughter,
Speaker 7: you know, my my darling baby daughter's bedroom kind of
Speaker 7: you know, in pieces on the ground outside, outside the floor.
Speaker 7: It was it was really really tough situation.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, I know you're not supposed to resort
Speaker 2: to us lawyers call self help, but boy, it would
Speaker 2: be great if you had somebody who would be willing
Speaker 2: to go in and just I don't know, you teach
Speaker 2: him some manners would be one way there an instructional
Speaker 2: course in appropriate.
Speaker 7: I like that is that like that's like Boston speak,
Speaker 7: teaching someone manners.
Speaker 2: That was a very subject we would never invoke, imply,
Speaker 2: or suggest any form of violence.
Speaker 7: But uh, well he actually sorry, go ahead, I was
Speaker 7: just gonna say he was violent. I mean we brought
Speaker 7: our architect with us when he ended up punching her
Speaker 7: in the face and breaking both her her hands. So
Speaker 7: he was a really bad guy. He's it's called the
Speaker 7: Monster Tenant. I mean, he's the Monster Tenant. I wrote
Speaker 7: an article about it.
Speaker 2: And where can folks find that article, Susan, It's.
Speaker 7: In New York magazine. And there's a lot of stuff
Speaker 7: I'm sharing on my social media at Suzanne Segerman Instagram
Speaker 7: and Facebook and Susanne Segraman dot com.
Speaker 8: You'll see a lot of.
Speaker 2: Suse Susan s u z A N N E and
Speaker 2: Segrament is s E G G E R M A
Speaker 2: N what a couple of the other in the in
Speaker 2: the two or three minutes that we have left, And again,
Speaker 2: I want people to reach out and be in contact
Speaker 2: with you sound like an awfully nice person. And it's
Speaker 2: it's amazing how how many jerks there are in the world,
Speaker 2: and this guy seems to be a class Uh yes,
Speaker 2: I hope he's going to be doing it to other people.
Speaker 2: So this is this is a cautionary tale. Give us
Speaker 2: a couple of other tips. Obviously, you really want to
Speaker 2: do a background check on someone. You want to find
Speaker 2: out who the prior lords are.
Speaker 1: I would assume that's.
Speaker 7: That's a good that's a really good one. You have
Speaker 7: callow them up, talk to them directly and see if
Speaker 7: you can verify the landlords too, because a lot of
Speaker 7: people just give you the names of friends, so you know,
Speaker 7: you have to figure out who they really are the
Speaker 7: landlord and get their real number and checking references. You know,
Speaker 7: you again want to check their references, but find out
Speaker 7: if you can if their references are real people as well.
Speaker 7: So if you can independently verify what that telephone number
Speaker 7: is and depending on your go ahead, go ahead.
Speaker 2: If I had a chance, between references and checking out
Speaker 2: the former landlords, I mean, references can be glowing and
Speaker 2: they the person might be a buddy of theirs or something.
Speaker 2: But again, if someone like this is the monster tenant
Speaker 2: and they've done this before, well they're going to be
Speaker 2: very likely. This sounds like a guy that truly should
Speaker 2: be indicted for extortion in my opinion, did you ever
Speaker 2: consider filing a criminal charge against him of extortion?
Speaker 7: Well, I went after him, and I sent packages of
Speaker 7: information and all the information I gathered on the other
Speaker 7: victims to various law enforcement agencies, and eventually.
Speaker 6: There's a federal investigation on him.
Speaker 7: Right now, he's on the loose still, so look out
Speaker 7: out there. Don't we think he's overseas, but there is
Speaker 7: an investigation underway.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it would be great because it seems to me
Speaker 2: that when he has a track record of doing this
Speaker 2: to a series of people and.
Speaker 3: Then demanding money for.
Speaker 2: Him to leave the property and stop doing damage, you
Speaker 2: talk about a quid pro quo, and I'm speaking as
Speaker 2: a lawyer, that's extortion, plain and simple, and someone like
Speaker 2: that should go away for a long time if you
Speaker 2: can prove this is a pattern in practice of his activity.
Speaker 2: You sound like a lovely person, Suzanne.
Speaker 4: And.
Speaker 7: I don't think he thinks so well.
Speaker 2: I'm seriously if it was me, i'd be bitter and angry,
Speaker 2: and I don't sense that in your voice. I sent
Speaker 2: That's what you're doing is trying to get the word
Speaker 2: out so that other people who work hard have you know,
Speaker 2: an additional piece of property that they're willing to rent out.
Speaker 2: Uh and and they become the victims victims of extortion.
Speaker 2: That's you're you're a victim of extortion. And uh I
Speaker 2: I'm guessing from your area code you're in the New
Speaker 2: York area.
Speaker 6: Uh.
Speaker 7: Yeah, actually I'm in Connecticut. But we used to.
Speaker 2: In terms of the legislature down there does nothing to
Speaker 2: protect property rights for uh, you know, people who who
Speaker 2: own property, and for landlords. It has always assumed that
Speaker 2: the landlord is the bad person, which is just so unfair. Susanne,
Speaker 2: I really thank you. How can folks they just google
Speaker 2: your name, Suzanne, Segrament s E G G E R
Speaker 2: M A n uh and s U z A N
Speaker 2: N E you said on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook.
Speaker 7: Yeah, we're also google my monster tenant and you'll find
Speaker 7: the article.
Speaker 3: Perfect, perfect, perfect.
Speaker 2: Let's get the word out there, Suzanne, thanks so much
Speaker 2: for doing this. I'm so sorry for what you had
Speaker 2: to go through, but hopefully spreading the word here will
Speaker 2: prevent this guy and others of his ilk from taking
Speaker 2: advantage of decent people and basically engaging in extortionate practice.
Speaker 3: In my opinion, thank.
Speaker 7: You, Susan, Well Thanks so much, Dan, have a great
Speaker 7: holiday you too, Thank.
Speaker 3: You very much. Right back at you before we get
Speaker 3: back at eight thirty.
Speaker 2: Gen Z gen Z actually wants to shop in person,
Speaker 2: and that's helping Mauls make a comeback. By the way,
Speaker 2: I was in a Target today doing some shopping and
Speaker 2: I'm going to ask a couple of questions about this.
Speaker 2: I can't tell you how many items I was stunned
Speaker 2: to see are now walked up between under lock and key.
Speaker 2: But we're going to talk about gen Z first. Maybe
Speaker 2: later on tonight we'll get to that issue. We'll be
Speaker 2: back on Nightside right after this.
Speaker 3: Thanks.
Speaker 6: It's Night Side with.
Speaker 1: Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 4: Here.
Speaker 3: Welcome back.
Speaker 2: We are often on this hour of night Side talking
Speaker 2: about the tendencies of gen Z, and tonight we're right
Speaker 2: back with gen Z. We're talking with Scott Barredale, who's
Speaker 2: an expert on branding and trust. He heads up a
Speaker 2: company called Idea Grove. Good name from marketing company. Scott Baradale,
Speaker 2: Welcome to Nightside. How are you sir?
Speaker 8: Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3: You're very welcome.
Speaker 2: So first of all, we always have to define gen Z,
Speaker 2: make sure we're talking about the same group of people.
Speaker 2: Give us the age range of gen Z today or
Speaker 2: give us the birth year of people who are born
Speaker 2: gen Z.
Speaker 8: Well, you're basically talking about your teens and to the
Speaker 8: mid to eight twenties. To this point, it end at
Speaker 8: about twenty seven.
Speaker 3: Yes, so these are probably.
Speaker 2: People who were born beginning in nineteen ninety six.
Speaker 3: Or or is it later than that.
Speaker 2: That's about right, nineteen ninety six, And so today the
Speaker 2: oldest gen Zs would be probably, as you said, in
Speaker 2: their late twenties, and the youngest I think that they
Speaker 2: stopped gen Z in twenty twelve, so they would be
Speaker 2: very early teens, so early teens, the twenties. So these
Speaker 2: are the folks who traditionally have populated malls, and all
Speaker 2: of a sudden, this group is kind of going against
Speaker 2: the tide. I mean, the tide in recent years was
Speaker 2: to abandon brick and mortars and particularly shopping malls. There's
Speaker 2: more empty shopping malls around the country probably than you
Speaker 2: can shake a stick at.
Speaker 3: What's going on?
Speaker 8: Well, I mean, I think it's part of a larger
Speaker 8: trend where you know, gen Zers who have spent their
Speaker 8: whole lives on their phones are maybe trying to branch
Speaker 8: out a little bit, you know. There they can shop
Speaker 8: on their phones, they can take pictures on their phones,
Speaker 8: they can listen to music in their phones, and and
Speaker 8: what's hot with them now, things like vinyl records and
Speaker 8: the kind of old fashioned early two thousands of digital
Speaker 8: cameras have made a huge comeback. And getting getting out
Speaker 8: of the house and getting back into malls. I think
Speaker 8: it's a healthy trend. You could say it's nostalgia maybe,
Speaker 8: but I think for a lot of these kids, it's
Speaker 8: just experience, experiencing something besides scrolling.
Speaker 2: Is it also kind of a cheap way to get
Speaker 2: out and spend the night? I mean, I'm assuming that
Speaker 2: there was still malls. I was in a Target store
Speaker 2: today doing some Christmas shopping, and I was stunned because
Speaker 2: I had never seen this before in a Target, in
Speaker 2: a Target, that something as things as simple as men's socks,
Speaker 2: we're under lock and key. Now, I get it, you know,
Speaker 2: I'm used to.
Speaker 3: I'm serious.
Speaker 2: I'm used to going into stores where you see, you know,
Speaker 2: some of the you know, the technical equipment that can
Speaker 2: cost one hundred, one hundred and fifty dollars lock and
Speaker 2: key or jewelry, under lock and key forever. But men's
Speaker 2: socks fifteen dollars under lock and key.
Speaker 8: You know, well, in a lot of cities there's been
Speaker 8: real issues with shoplifting, and there's been retailers that have
Speaker 8: taken the approach that, hey, don't do anything, let people
Speaker 8: steal things because we don't want to deal with the liability.
Speaker 8: And this is what it ultimately ends up with. You know,
Speaker 8: everything's locked up in at least the stores shutting down
Speaker 8: in bad neighborhoods, and lots of things happen when you're
Speaker 8: not willing to kind of stand up and frankly do
Speaker 8: it right in terms of security asolutely.
Speaker 2: And it also scars shop is away. But who wants
Speaker 2: to be in a store when when the store is
Speaker 2: being robbed, you're you might you might be part of
Speaker 2: the robbery on the wrong end of the well, there's
Speaker 2: no no good end of a robbery.
Speaker 3: We put it like that. But yeah, this was in
Speaker 3: kind of a suburban mall area. Let's see.
Speaker 2: It's I was surprised to see it, and I gotta
Speaker 2: tell you I'm now as an investor going to look
Speaker 2: at Target and see if by them taking a fairly
Speaker 2: dramatic stance, I mean, because it was like, you're not
Speaker 2: going to steal socks. I mean there was there was
Speaker 2: still you know, large toy items which were not under
Speaker 2: lock and key, but you couldn't walk out with one
Speaker 2: of these, you know, talk of trucks or something like
Speaker 2: that under your arm or a basketball.
Speaker 8: Uh.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it just it just struck me.
Speaker 2: So let me come back to the gen z is
Speaker 2: it Do you think this is something that is going
Speaker 2: to bring malls back or is it the last gasp
Speaker 2: of malls?
Speaker 3: You probably study this a lot more closely than I do.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean, I think it's an interesting question. We
Speaker 8: don't know for sure the answer.
Speaker 4: You could.
Speaker 8: I give you two different comparisons, and it could be
Speaker 8: one or the other. One is final records. You know,
Speaker 8: if you go back to the seventies and eighties final records,
Speaker 8: there were three hundred million plus vinyl records sold a
Speaker 8: year in that era. Then by the early two thousands
Speaker 8: it went down to less than a million, and then
Speaker 8: but now in the last few years it's gone back
Speaker 8: up to thirty and forty million a year, which is
Speaker 8: a lot compared to when it was almost nothing, but
Speaker 8: it's ten percent of when it was at a highs.
Speaker 8: So have vinyl records come back, yes, but will they
Speaker 8: ever be what they were in the seventies and eighties. No,
Speaker 8: because there's lots of other alternative forms of how people
Speaker 8: listen to music. And I think with shopping in store
Speaker 8: and shopping in malls, it remains to be seen because
Speaker 8: is this a nostalgic thing. Is this something where you
Speaker 8: might do it once in a while, but you're still
Speaker 8: going to do ninety percent of your shopping online. Maybe
Speaker 8: it's The other comparison would be the like movie theaters.
Speaker 8: You know, it's been gosh ever since the nineteen fifties,
Speaker 8: there were alternatives to movie theaters when TV emerged, and
Speaker 8: then there's now they're streaming, and now movies that as
Speaker 8: soon as they come out you can get them streaming
Speaker 8: in many cases. So what a theaters do to compete?
Speaker 8: You know, they started with three D, Now they're doing
Speaker 8: you know, D box and things or the seat shake,
Speaker 8: and they continue to have to up their game to
Speaker 8: get people coming into the theaters. Sometimes successful, some not.
Speaker 8: But for the most part, the movie industry, in the
Speaker 8: theater industry has hung in. There's certainly better than the
Speaker 8: final record industry, so it could go in either direction.
Speaker 6: I think, well, I.
Speaker 3: Think it's interesting.
Speaker 2: I know that in my where I live, there's a
Speaker 2: deluxe movie theater where you can go in and you
Speaker 2: pay a little extra, but the seats are pretty comfortable,
Speaker 2: it's immaculately clean. You have the opportunity to have to
Speaker 2: order drinks or dinner while you're watching a movie. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's a very different experience than buying a ticket for
Speaker 2: a ten or ten dollars and sitting there and realizing
Speaker 2: that somebody's spilled you know, I can of coke underneath
Speaker 2: your feet because when you go to get.
Speaker 3: Up your your shoes are sticking to the floor. But
Speaker 3: so is this. Let me you look at this nationally.
Speaker 2: We're a New England where we're Boston and New England
Speaker 2: radio station where we're heard in thirty eight states over
Speaker 2: the year to what we call terrestrial radio. Just an
Speaker 2: old line station that's been around for one hundred years.
Speaker 2: As you may or may have heard of our call letters.
Speaker 2: But w b Z, yeah, well known east of the Mississippi.
Speaker 2: Lots of different people. Are malls coming back better in
Speaker 2: different areas of the country. I'm assuming that if malls
Speaker 2: are going to make a comeback. They're going to more
Speaker 2: likely make a comeback in the Midwest and in the Southwest.
Speaker 2: I should say, where the temperatures are more amenable for
Speaker 2: people who want to drive, is to get to a mall,
Speaker 2: as opposed to the Northeast. I mean, normally when winter
Speaker 2: sets in up here in another places like Minnesota, I
Speaker 2: don't want to go out of the house.
Speaker 3: I just want to wait until spring. You know what
Speaker 3: I'm saying.
Speaker 2: Is this a regional phenomenon or is this something that's
Speaker 2: occurring across the country.
Speaker 8: Well, yeah, I mean I think what's happened is that
Speaker 8: a lot of the kind of experiences that you have
Speaker 8: traditionally had in cities like a Boston or like New
Speaker 8: York where you didn't have kind of that suburban mall
Speaker 8: because you could kind of walk down the street and
Speaker 8: shop a lot. With the big trend over the last
Speaker 8: twenty years or so has been and I live in
Speaker 8: suburban Dallas and so it's been in our area in
Speaker 8: many others where there's been an effort to replicate that experience,
Speaker 8: that kind of walking experience where you kind of you
Speaker 8: have apartments, you have shopping where you kind of walk
Speaker 8: the streets and it's more outdoor as opposed to that
Speaker 8: kind of traditional interior shopping mall. I think the trend
Speaker 8: has been in that other direction. But I think, you know,
Speaker 8: there's been a lot of effort to for just in
Speaker 8: person shopping in general, and malls in particular, to find
Speaker 8: new ways to attract people back in. You know, technology
Speaker 8: has been a big part of it. It's kind of
Speaker 8: like we talked about movie theaters try to come up
Speaker 8: with the you know, all kinds of new technologies to
Speaker 8: get people back into the theaters and new features. That's
Speaker 8: been happening in retail too. I'll give you just one example.
Speaker 8: They've got in some stores now mirrors where you can
Speaker 8: that kind of that kind of where you can kind
Speaker 8: of virtually experience what it would be like to try
Speaker 8: on clothes, for example. Just lots of cool things that
Speaker 8: in the same way that movie theaters have tried to
Speaker 8: compete with TV, stores are saying, gosh, I've got to
Speaker 8: compete with Amazon. Now, I've got to compete with Timu
Speaker 8: and people buying online.
Speaker 2: All all great points. You know, there are some cities
Speaker 2: that have done that. I mean some of the great
Speaker 2: small cities like Savannah in Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina.
Speaker 2: They had that charm. It's tough to create that charm.
Speaker 2: I love Dallas, spend in Dallas many times in my
Speaker 2: career in television and just travel. It's great city, historic city,
Speaker 2: and all of that. Some of it bad history in
Speaker 2: terms of the assassination in nineteen sixty three. But I
Speaker 2: think it's tougher for the big cities. It's getting tougher.
Speaker 2: It's getting tougher in Boston, and I know it's getting
Speaker 2: tougher in New York. So maybe it's back to the malls.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 2: Back to the future, I guess, is what we're talking about.
Speaker 2: I really enjoyed our conversation, Scott, and I'd love to
Speaker 2: keep back, happy back at some point and talk about
Speaker 2: any other trends that you folks see. You sound like
Speaker 2: at a great company that is really on top of things.
Speaker 2: And I'm going to check out Target and see what
Speaker 2: their value is. I'm serious having that experience today. I
Speaker 2: had that happened to me about thirty years ago. Walked,
Speaker 2: you know, a home depot and it was actually got
Speaker 2: great service, put an investment in, made some dough. Basically
Speaker 2: my experience said to me, this is this was this
Speaker 2: was actually more than thirty years ago. It was thirty
Speaker 2: five years ago, and I wish I'd invested more at
Speaker 2: the time. I got in, made some money and got out.
Speaker 2: Might do that with Target, I don't know. Thank you, Scott,
Speaker 2: appreciate all the insights you provided us. Appreciate it very much.
Speaker 2: When we go back, something that's going to excite everybody. Boston.
Speaker 2: Boston has a new attraction. I don't even know where it's.
Speaker 2: Where it is, It's called the Museum of ice Cream.
Speaker 2: It's opening in Boston. I'm ready for this. Let's we'll
Speaker 2: talk to one of the co founders right after the break.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the window World
Speaker 1: Nice Sight Studios. I'm WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: Well, we're going to talk about Boston's new Museum of
Speaker 2: ice Cream with us. Is one of the co founders,
Speaker 2: manishvo the nice Welcome to Boston and welcome to Nightside.
Speaker 3: How are you.
Speaker 6: I'm great, Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2: I see that this Museum of ice Cream is already
Speaker 2: open in a few other cities around the world, Miami,
Speaker 2: in Austin, Texas, and now Boston. Is it currently opened
Speaker 2: I know the tickets are available, or when exactly did
Speaker 2: you scoop the first scoop of ice cream here in Boston?
Speaker 6: The first scoops we just did previous this week and
Speaker 6: tomorrow morning at ten am is the grand opening. We
Speaker 6: opened the doors up to the public for the first time.
Speaker 2: Tell us some of the features, because this is much
Speaker 2: more than just going in and buying an ice cream
Speaker 2: con what do we how's give us, you know, pitch
Speaker 2: me on it. Why it's a great family event?
Speaker 6: Absolutely, I mean, this is a museum of ice cream.
Speaker 6: This is a experience, and this is an experience that's
Speaker 6: going to take you on a journey that taps into
Speaker 6: your inner child. Think Willy Wonka meets your favorite ice creams,
Speaker 6: favorite worlds of Sprinkles. You are going to slide down
Speaker 6: a epic slide, You're going to swim in sprinkles. You're
Speaker 6: going to play in a Fenway Park inspired what we
Speaker 6: call Funway Park Carnival. You are going to discover things
Speaker 6: as secret doors and play games, and most importantly, you're
Speaker 6: just going to eat a ton of ice cream. It's
Speaker 6: unlimited ice cream with your ticket, and there's some really
Speaker 6: funky things to try.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm looking at some of this sprinkle pool, carnival,
Speaker 2: sensory lab, cookie living room.
Speaker 3: This is not.
Speaker 2: This is quite an investment. You located in the seaport, right.
Speaker 2: Everybody knows where the seaport is, but whereabouts.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's right off the seaport of Boulevard, right across
Speaker 6: from the Snowport and where the fairies come. So it
Speaker 6: is right in the heart of it. And it's so exciting.
Speaker 6: I mean, I grew up outside of Boston and Whaland
Speaker 6: and to see the seaport evolve. You know, a lot
Speaker 6: of people think about it as now a night life
Speaker 6: and evening destination, and it is packed at night, but
Speaker 6: we really are going to bring a night and daytime
Speaker 6: attraction for families. And then of course we have a bar.
Speaker 6: We have a ton of adults to come in, and
Speaker 6: it really was always built for adults in mind. First,
Speaker 6: kids are always going to love this because they are
Speaker 6: going to play and they're going to imagine and create
Speaker 6: crazy worlds. But this is about adults. Adults need to
Speaker 6: come in and choose to let loose and forget what's
Speaker 6: happening on the outside world and eat a ton of
Speaker 6: ice cream. Like to the point where you better come
Speaker 6: hungry because you're going to be eating something like even
Speaker 6: a lobster roll ice cream, which is our signature that
Speaker 6: we're featuring it to.
Speaker 2: Start my goodness, Well, I'm looking at other besides ice creams,
Speaker 2: and not that there needs to be, but I'm looking
Speaker 2: at you have one called something called the Cookie living Room,
Speaker 2: which looks to me like people are sitting in chairs
Speaker 2: that are kind of shaped like cookies. But are there
Speaker 2: cookies or is this ice up the moment you arrive until.
Speaker 3: The which you leave.
Speaker 6: Don't worry, We we add some, we add other topics
Speaker 6: and other you know, everything in the universe of ice
Speaker 6: cream is fair game. And the chip Witch I feel
Speaker 6: like growing up in in Whaland I that was to
Speaker 6: me the ultimate ultimate treat when you got that chip
Speaker 6: witch at lunchtime at the cafeteria. And so so this
Speaker 6: is our first time ever making our ow to the
Speaker 6: chip Witch. And and not only you do you have
Speaker 6: to find that chip wich. You're gonna actually have to
Speaker 6: You're gonna actually have to do some work to get
Speaker 6: your chip witch in that room. But there's also a
Speaker 6: secret cookie jar that the half cookie is providing us. Uh,
Speaker 6: their their unbelievable cookies, and so you have to find
Speaker 6: some of these treats. But of course there's people all
Speaker 6: guides throughout the experience that we're there to help you,
Speaker 6: to teach you about ice cream too, because there's a
Speaker 6: ton of ice cream history, and a ton of Massachusetts
Speaker 6: and New England ice cream history, and and Friendlies is
Speaker 6: one of the the ice cream treats that we're welcoming
Speaker 6: you with in this in this first iteration in the museum.
Speaker 6: So all throughout the seasons we'll have new ice creams.
Speaker 6: But there's a lot of great history around ice cream
Speaker 6: in America and in New England.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, you think of Friendlies. I think of Brighams, Yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 3: remember you.
Speaker 2: Know getting you know, you know chocolate shakes at Brighams
Speaker 2: as a kid, and uh yeah, there's there's unbelievable history
Speaker 2: of ice cream. So how did you get involved in this,
Speaker 2: your guy from Whaling to Massachusetts. I'm sure you didn't
Speaker 2: wake up one day or when you were growing up
Speaker 2: in the fifth grade and the teacher said, and Ish,
Speaker 2: what do you want to do when you grow up?
Speaker 2: I want to have an ice cream venue? You know,
Speaker 2: how did you how did you find your way to this.
Speaker 6: I can tell you if any of my teachers from
Speaker 6: Whale Mill Score Whale in high school are listening and
Speaker 6: then then kind of guessed that this was my profession.
Speaker 6: I think we could have they could have won the lottery.
Speaker 3: N like as a bank robber or something.
Speaker 6: I mean, come on, I mean, I mean, I was
Speaker 6: a pretty I was a pretty active I mean I
Speaker 6: was a pretty active student. I was a pretty good athlete.
Speaker 6: I mean, in Massachusetts, it's you know, to me, it's sports,
Speaker 6: culture and ice cream. Those are the three things that
Speaker 6: defined me. And and and honestly, the museums. I went
Speaker 6: today's a lsterirt gardener museum today. I hadn't been in
Speaker 6: a few years. And I grew up on art, I
Speaker 6: grew up on culture, and I grew up on the
Speaker 6: Red Sox. So of course we all did and and
Speaker 6: all of those things that are used in this experience.
Speaker 6: And frankly, you know, I never expected my job to
Speaker 6: be that. My parents are mortified when I found when
Speaker 6: they found out I was going to start a museum
Speaker 6: of ice cream after I left a world in the
Speaker 6: in the business, corporate world. So but I really believe
Speaker 6: that our cell phones and entertainment needs to be heavy
Speaker 6: on hospitality, heavy on design, and that we need to
Speaker 6: be more connected. And this this is not a museum
Speaker 6: of ice cream. It's a museum of ice breaking. It's
Speaker 6: a museum of joy. It's a museum where anybody at
Speaker 6: any age can understand that ice cream is something that
Speaker 6: everybody loves and that's all we need, and we can
Speaker 6: forget about everything that's going on tonight, all our worries.
Speaker 6: It's freezing cold. It doesn't matter what's happening in your life.
Speaker 6: When you enter the Museum of ice Cream. You are
Speaker 6: there to have fun. And if you're not there to
Speaker 6: have fun, you shouldn't come.
Speaker 2: Well, we hope many people have an opportunity. They were
Speaker 2: able to go to your website, which is pretty simple,
Speaker 2: Museum of ice Cream dot com slash Boston. But you
Speaker 2: just go to Museum of ice Cream dot com you'll
Speaker 2: find the Boston the locations.
Speaker 3: Again, you're in New York, Chicago.
Speaker 2: Singapore, Miami, Boston, and Austin, Texas. So those are very
Speaker 2: interesting cities geographically and culturally. And I suspect it's going
Speaker 2: to be a big smash here in Boston. The tickets
Speaker 2: you got to you gotta figure out what time. The
Speaker 2: ticket prices vary a little bit, and uh, and there
Speaker 2: is a there is a break for kids on tickets.
Speaker 2: There's adult tickets and kids tickets, and I think that's
Speaker 2: smart as well. Kids age two and below are free.
Speaker 3: I like that.
Speaker 6: Well that I forgot got to ask you. Do you
Speaker 6: love ice cream? And what's your favorite?
Speaker 3: For me? It's chocolate.
Speaker 2: It's any form of chocolate ice cream. I mean that seriously.
Speaker 2: I'm a big ice cream guy, but it's got to be.
Speaker 2: My best is chocolate with hot fudge and Jimmy's or
Speaker 2: you know, Hershey chocolate pieces on top of it. Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate.
Speaker 2: I'm a chocoholic, that's all. With chocolate, I'd be doing
Speaker 2: time at Conquered State Prison if it was still open.
Speaker 6: Okay, well, maybe we need to make a signature treat
Speaker 6: for you at some point and everyone needs to try
Speaker 6: your signature triple kadruple chocolate.
Speaker 2: More than happy. I would minish my producer would give
Speaker 2: you my direct line. I would be honored. I've been
Speaker 2: around a long time at WBZ, first in television, probably
Speaker 2: when you were a kid I was on.
Speaker 3: TV, and now you're bad.
Speaker 2: I remember, okay, So yeah, feel free. Rob will give
Speaker 2: you my direct number if you want to give me
Speaker 2: a call. I'd be happy to talk. I love ice
Speaker 2: cream and I love innovation because this is something that's
Speaker 2: that's different. And hope I wish you all the best,
Speaker 2: and I wish you great success and look forward to
Speaker 2: me at the out point.
Speaker 6: What an honor, What a pleasure to be on with you.
Speaker 2: My pleasure right back at you have great holidays and
Speaker 2: Rob will take care of you. Give him my direct number,
Speaker 2: and we'll do what we can. We'll figure out what
Speaker 2: we can do again. It's the Museum of ice Cream
Speaker 2: dot com. And it's always great to listen to someone
Speaker 2: from community like Whale in a great community with a
Speaker 2: new idea which I think is going to work here
Speaker 2: in Massachusetts. Back on nights side, right after the nine
Speaker 2: o'clock news for the nine o'clock hour, and we're going
Speaker 2: to be talking about Louis till on another Boston institution
Speaker 2: and he should be in the Baseball Hall of Fame.