Speaker 1: This show is produced and hosted by Mark Webber.
Speaker 2: The show is sponsored by G three Aparo.
Speaker 1: The views expressed in the following program are those of
Speaker 1: the sponsor and not necessarily the opinion of seven ten
Speaker 1: wor or iHeartMedia. Who is Mark Weber. He's a self
Speaker 1: made business executive here to help you find your success,
Speaker 1: from the New York City projects to the Avenue Montaigne
Speaker 1: in Paris. His global success story in the luxury world
Speaker 1: of fashion is inspirational. He's gone from.
Speaker 2: Clerk to CEO twice.
Speaker 1: Mark is classic proof that the American dream is alive
Speaker 1: and well, here's your host of always in Fashion, Mark Weber.
Speaker 3: Mark Weber.
Speaker 4: I have been living by a quote Benjamin Franklin. I
Speaker 4: love it. Made it my operational business to use this quote.
Speaker 4: Well done is better than well said. I became a fan. Yes,
Speaker 4: I hear what you're going to do, Just show me.
Speaker 4: I don't want to hear. I want you to show
Speaker 4: me all the best plans, just that plans until you deliver,
Speaker 4: they're just words. I have little patience in hearing what
Speaker 4: you're going to do. I'm only interested in what you do.
Speaker 4: I voted for a president on his positions and promises,
Speaker 4: my fingers across, hoping that he delivers. I don't like humans.
Speaker 4: You listen to the show, you know that it's just
Speaker 4: too many disappointments. I've learned, in turn not to expect anything,
Speaker 4: because that guarantees disappointment in the end. Like most things,
Speaker 4: it's about character, your character, living up to your promises,
Speaker 4: doing the right thing. Having integrity is not a concept,
Speaker 4: it's a choice. There's no version of the truth. There's
Speaker 4: only truth. Who you are, who we are, who a
Speaker 4: brand is. How companies behave toward their customers. It's all
Speaker 4: about character and who I, who we, who they are?
Speaker 4: How do companies behave and react to their constituents. There's
Speaker 4: so many hopes, so many aspirations, wishes, promises. They all
Speaker 4: sound so good, They feel so good, look so good.
Speaker 4: The question is is life good? From far? But far
Speaker 4: from good? I wonder. I have to admit you might
Speaker 4: not like where. I first heard this quote when I
Speaker 4: was young, a teenager, actually a close friend went out
Speaker 4: on a date and showed me her profile, her picture.
Speaker 4: After the date, I asked them the next day, was
Speaker 4: she as pretty as the photo? And the exact quote?
Speaker 4: I never forgot it all these years, she was good
Speaker 4: from far, but far from good. Now, before you start
Speaker 4: calling me a chauvin as, first of all, it wasn't me,
Speaker 4: it was him, And then of course it could have
Speaker 4: been a woman saying about a man, So give me
Speaker 4: a break. The point is, how often does the reality
Speaker 4: live up to the promise? I could tell you not
Speaker 4: often enough. People are often wrong, but they're never in doubt.
Speaker 4: How often does one phone call solve your problem of
Speaker 4: the day. Used to be you made an appointment, and
Speaker 4: you had an appointment. Now this follow up emails, follow
Speaker 4: up reminders, the threat of canceling on time, the threat
Speaker 4: of getting charged if you don't show up. Now, don't
Speaker 4: get me wrong, I'm not complaining about this or anything.
Speaker 4: I think it's a good thing. But then you get
Speaker 4: to the doctor's office, after all of that, and you
Speaker 4: wait for an hour good from far but far from good,
Speaker 4: waiting for your haircut, your nails, ladies, after all of that,
Speaker 4: not good tonight, she they him them It looks good
Speaker 4: from far, but it's far from good. A throwback to
Speaker 4: my early years. Now joining me, he who looks good
Speaker 4: from far but even better up close. The lawyer on
Speaker 4: my show, My co host my son Jesse Weber. And
Speaker 4: by the way, Jesse, the camera loves you.
Speaker 2: That's very very nice of you to say.
Speaker 5: You know, one of the I gotta compliment once that
Speaker 5: was I don't know if you consider this a backhanded compliment, but.
Speaker 2: Tell me what you think of it.
Speaker 5: At one point in my life, I did acting school
Speaker 5: and one of the classes that I did was acting
Speaker 5: on camera.
Speaker 2: And every day the professor, the teacher.
Speaker 5: Would film different skits and he looks at the footage
Speaker 5: and he looks at me and he goes, you know,
Speaker 5: you're one of those rare people. You look so much
Speaker 5: better on camera than you do in person.
Speaker 4: Oh great, life, you don't look good. It's a banded compliment.
Speaker 2: I go, thank you. He goes, it's in this career,
Speaker 2: it's better to be that way.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I was like, all right, for acting school, not for life. Good.
Speaker 5: Yeah, well, oh, thank you, very very kind of you
Speaker 5: to say thank you, But you know, putting the looks aside.
Speaker 2: But I like that I'm getting credibility.
Speaker 5: Over the last few years, I built up credibility in
Speaker 5: the legal space, the political space that I'm able to
Speaker 5: break down these complex topics.
Speaker 2: And by the way, I.
Speaker 5: Will tell you that it's not only kind comments I'm
Speaker 5: getting from people online, and I also get some hate
Speaker 5: mail too.
Speaker 2: Let's call it what it is. But I can't reveal who.
Speaker 5: But I have been having very well notable people, celebrities
Speaker 5: in fact, reaching out talking about my coverage and actually,
Speaker 5: in one instance, a celebrity I won't tell you wanted
Speaker 5: me to cover one of their cases. And it's incredible
Speaker 5: that people who I know and admire and have watched
Speaker 5: and love for years apparently are watching my content now
Speaker 5: reaching out. It's a very surreal experience. You said it
Speaker 5: to me once before. I think when we were first
Speaker 5: starting out in radio, you never know who's listening, You
Speaker 5: never know who's watching. You really don't, and so you
Speaker 5: always have to give one hundred and ten percent. And
Speaker 5: by the way, by the way, Joe Rogan, if you
Speaker 5: ever listened to Joe Rogan when he first started, nobody
Speaker 5: was watching him.
Speaker 2: Nobody was watching him.
Speaker 5: But because he put in the effort, because he created
Speaker 5: an enjoyable show, he got a following and it built up,
Speaker 5: and it built up and it built up. So whatever
Speaker 5: you do, you have to put in the effort, even
Speaker 5: if you think that you're not getting the return that
Speaker 5: you want to meet.
Speaker 4: Well, Joe Rogan is a funny guy. I never knew
Speaker 4: he's a comedian until you took me to one of
Speaker 4: his concerts in Vegas. But I didn't realize how smart
Speaker 4: he is. He's very articulate, and he's very knowledgeable on
Speaker 4: a lot of subjects and certainly has a point of view.
Speaker 4: So he deserves it. But you know me, I was
Speaker 4: back in Bloomingdale's and I got an update for you
Speaker 4: of my obnoxious you know.
Speaker 2: Can you explain that? Can you explain what happened? So
Speaker 2: everybody remembers, Yeah.
Speaker 4: I went into Bloomingdale's a couple of weeks ago and
Speaker 4: I was paying for something and the guy looks up
Speaker 4: at me and he says, are you Mark Weber? I said, yeah,
Speaker 4: I just gave you my credit card. He says, no,
Speaker 4: are you Mark Weber? From the radio And I'm looking around.
Speaker 4: What is this candid camera? Someone has taken a picture.
Speaker 4: I said, yeah, that's me. I knew it from your
Speaker 4: name and I heard your voice. My family, we love you.
Speaker 4: We listened to you every Saturday night at seven o'clock live.
Speaker 4: It's amazing. We think you great. So it just so happened.
Speaker 4: When I bought, I had to bring back. So I
Speaker 4: went back the next day and I brought it back
Speaker 4: and he said, I told my wife that I met you.
Speaker 4: She was so excited. And he shows me the email.
Speaker 4: He says, let me show you what she wrote me,
Speaker 4: and the email says, is he obnoxious? I still haven't
Speaker 4: gotten over it. So anyway, I'm back in Bloomy Dale's.
Speaker 4: I waved to the guy. He sees you come running
Speaker 4: down the hole to see me, and he says, man,
Speaker 4: oh man, I've listened to your show. You were talking
Speaker 4: about innoxious. You took it the wrong way. We love you.
Speaker 4: We don't think you're obnoxious that hey, you know. You
Speaker 4: show me an email and the only thing it says
Speaker 4: is you're asking if obnoxious. Well, my wife she thinks
Speaker 4: all celebrities innoxious. We love you.
Speaker 2: So anyway you are.
Speaker 5: You are such a baby. You are such a baby
Speaker 5: that you needed this. I'm glad the guy said something
Speaker 5: to him. Glad he tried to calm things down. By
Speaker 5: the way, By the way, talking of this, it kind
Speaker 5: of relates to something else.
Speaker 2: I am starting a new show.
Speaker 5: I'm starting a new show where I call out celebrity,
Speaker 5: mostly politicians, people in media, not that they're necessarily babies,
Speaker 5: but I call him out for things that they say
Speaker 5: and do it. So I'm glad that you got called
Speaker 5: out for things that you say and do. It's a
Speaker 5: show that I'm starting with another one of Dan Abram's companies.
Speaker 5: It's called Mediaite. So the show is currently called The
Speaker 5: Spin Room and it's gonna be on YouTube.
Speaker 2: But this is it.
Speaker 5: It's you would be a prime candidate. I would have
Speaker 5: loved to cover this. You talking out about this, and
Speaker 5: I would have loved to cover it on our first episode.
Speaker 4: It's not too late to do it. Meanwhile, I too
Speaker 4: have a new show called The Ceo Exchange if we
Speaker 4: ever get the deal signed. It's gonna be on Saturdays
Speaker 4: and one to two where I interview CEOs. In fact,
Speaker 4: my next CEO is the chairman of SAX Global, the
Speaker 4: guy who just bought Neiman Marcus and bergdoff Goodman's and
Speaker 4: put it together with Sachs. So we got a lot
Speaker 4: going on in that. Yeah, but you're the big shot.
Speaker 5: I'm just why I'm not interviewing the head of SACK
Speaker 5: So you didn't really, It's funny.
Speaker 2: For the first interview, that's a that's a big get.
Speaker 4: Well, actually the second interview. The first interview you remember
Speaker 4: was a fellow named Jamie Salter, the CEO of Aumhantic
Speaker 4: Brands that owns thirty billion dollars worth of company. And
Speaker 4: it was a very articulate guy, and I thought he
Speaker 4: handled himself well. But the concept of my show is
Speaker 4: me a CEO talking to another CEO, Mono Tomano, with
Speaker 4: a different perspective than any other pundit might have because
Speaker 4: they don't really run businesses.
Speaker 2: So that was a great interview. That was a great
Speaker 2: first episode of the show. With the one with Tom Well,
Speaker 2: it was.
Speaker 4: Great because he was so articulate because he was able
Speaker 4: to talk about his business. He didn't need much prompting
Speaker 4: and we have a history together, so it's nice. But
Speaker 4: back to being called obnoxious, I don't like it. I'm
Speaker 4: getting over it. To my friends in Bloomingdales, I'm forgiving you.
Speaker 4: You know, you tried to make right. But either way
Speaker 4: I would tell you that I think being vulnerable never
Speaker 4: goes out of style, particularly when you're on the border
Speaker 4: of taking a stand. You know, when we stand up
Speaker 4: and we give our opinions. We're taking a stand, and
Speaker 4: in my case, I'm demanding new ways of doing things,
Speaker 4: which is another way of saying change. I'm offering help.
Speaker 4: It's upfront and personal. But you have to look who's
Speaker 4: changing change more than the president. President Trump is leading
Speaker 4: massive government changes and taking heat. And the question I
Speaker 4: ask on tonight does he look good from far? But
Speaker 4: he's far from good. Let's break it down, Jesse with
Speaker 4: some common sense, because cons common well, on that we
Speaker 4: agree Trump. I want to talk about Trump. Trump is
Speaker 4: one of the world's great communicators. He sells everything. He
Speaker 4: sells everything. Certainly, he's the best politician communicator that I
Speaker 4: think I've ever heard. He's always selling Maga hats, sold
Speaker 4: millions of them, Trump Golden Sneakers, I don't know how
Speaker 4: many sold. He even sells Trump time and watches. But
Speaker 4: now he's selling change. He's changing America into the Golden
Speaker 4: Age of America. The issue is Trump is selling Trump change.
Speaker 4: The question is he's selling are we buying it? Now?
Speaker 4: Before we get started here, let me get this out
Speaker 4: of the way. The Democrats shamefully, embarrassingly, stupidly a buying nothing.
Speaker 4: He's offering The majority of Americans are ready for change.
Speaker 4: What's for sale under President Trump? I gotta admit it
Speaker 4: looks good from far, but I'm questioning whether it's far
Speaker 4: from good. So let's you and me, Jess take a
Speaker 4: few of them apart for a second, because I guess,
Speaker 4: let's see where we are the war. Is he doing right?
Speaker 4: Does he look good? And is it far from good?
Speaker 4: Or is great?
Speaker 2: Difficult to say.
Speaker 5: If he can create a lasting ceasefire, how could you
Speaker 5: say it's not a good thing. Some people will say, well,
Speaker 5: you know, in the long run, is it a good thing?
Speaker 5: I don't have the answer. But if he could put an.
Speaker 2: End to the violence immediately, how could you say it's
Speaker 2: a bad thing.
Speaker 4: I'm with you. I would make it very simple. His
Speaker 4: position on the war from day one has been the same.
Speaker 4: People are dying. I don't want to see people dying.
Speaker 4: They're dying needlessly. This war will not end perfect. Russia's
Speaker 4: not going to go away. It's not a question that
Speaker 4: Russia did wrong. You want to think that Russia did wrong, great,
Speaker 4: you believe Russia did wrong. Great, did Russia do wrong?
Speaker 4: It's not for me to say. It's not for me
Speaker 4: to say. I don't want to talk about that. What
Speaker 4: I want to talk about is an ending. He's the
Speaker 4: only one in two years that's talked about a ceasefile.
Speaker 4: Enough is enough. There's got to be some compromise to
Speaker 4: end this thing. So from a far or from up close,
Speaker 4: I give Trump a ten for trying to get it done.
Speaker 4: Now vers Selenski behaved, bought properly, and now Russia's behaving improperly.
Speaker 4: We got to get them both back on track. Stop
Speaker 4: the killing. It is devastating. Let's go to number two.
Speaker 4: Immigration good from far, but far from good.
Speaker 5: What do you say, Jesse, If you look at the numbers,
Speaker 5: if you look at the way I understand it, the
Speaker 5: US Border Patrol arrested a lot less migrants than it
Speaker 5: has in the past. I think in February it was
Speaker 5: a lot lower than it had been. I mean, I'm
Speaker 5: looking at this from Reuters, right.
Speaker 2: So the Border.
Speaker 5: Patrol's monthly enforcement stats, they go back to two thousand.
Speaker 5: The lowest monthly total on record previously was April twenty seventeen.
Speaker 5: They rested a little over eleven thousand they arrested in
Speaker 5: February after Trump took over eighty three hundred. So there's
Speaker 5: less people that they need to arrest. And then then
Speaker 5: if you look at the migrant arrest, it was a
Speaker 5: steep drop from over one hundred and forty one thousand
Speaker 5: migrants they picked up in February of twenty twenty four.
Speaker 5: Now it's much different now, so it seems to be effective.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think he's doing a great job. I think
Speaker 4: the world is seeing the borders being closed and it's
Speaker 4: almost down to a trickle. So you got to give
Speaker 4: him a lot of credit for that. And on top
Speaker 4: of which, the Biden administration was doing nothing. The borders
Speaker 4: were poorous, they were open, nobody cared. So the building
Speaker 4: the wall, the stopping at the giving ice, the giving
Speaker 4: the head of Homeland Security the power to enforce a
Speaker 4: sport of laws. I think it's great. So I think
Speaker 4: good from far, but it's good up close as well.
Speaker 4: And then of course let's go number three. Doge what
Speaker 4: does those stand for?
Speaker 2: Department of Government Efficiency?
Speaker 4: Uh?
Speaker 3: Huh?
Speaker 4: What do you think?
Speaker 5: I think the spirit in the goal is right to
Speaker 5: try to cut down on fraud, waste, and abuse, which
Speaker 5: mostly seems more if you hear elon Musk, is mostly
Speaker 5: waste than it is fraud.
Speaker 2: I think the goal is great.
Speaker 5: The way they're going about it, how quickly they're going
Speaker 5: about it, the legal mechanisms, their way they're going about it, obviously,
Speaker 5: I think is a concern. They might need a little
Speaker 5: bit more transparency and a little more clarification on what
Speaker 5: they're doing. To be clear, it's not like Dozeho's doing
Speaker 5: it on itself. They're providing recommendations and then the Trump
Speaker 5: administration is doing it again. Question about how they do it.
Speaker 5: I think the spirit of it is the right way
Speaker 5: the biggest concern, And this is one of those things
Speaker 5: time will tell you. Hope they're not cutting things and
Speaker 5: doing and taking initiatives that are going to negatively affect
Speaker 5: the country moving forward. He won't know that maybe until
Speaker 5: time will tell you. Don't want to be like, oh,
Speaker 5: all these people were let go when they provide a
Speaker 5: really important service to the country. But as of right now,
Speaker 5: things they're uncovering are definitely a sign of waste that
Speaker 5: needed to be cut.
Speaker 2: And why wasn't a cut in the past. That's a
Speaker 2: good question.
Speaker 4: Well, first thing you said was about the speed. I
Speaker 4: can't imagine why they would go slow. I think it's
Speaker 4: amazing what they're uncovering. I think they're doing a great job.
Speaker 4: I know he's afraid of the fraud. I mean, Eli
Speaker 4: Musk even said he's going to be assassinated if he
Speaker 4: keeps going on the fraud component, which is scary to
Speaker 4: think about. He's one of the world's smartest individuals. A
Speaker 4: year ago, two years ago, he was the darling of
Speaker 4: the world, the darling of the Democrats. He was great,
Speaker 4: and now he's hated for doing a job, by the way,
Speaker 4: which all he could do is recommend. He has and
Speaker 4: has been serving at the desire of the president. He
Speaker 4: has no power except to do what he offers up.
Speaker 4: He's finding, so I think they're doing an amazing job
Speaker 4: of unculavering nonsense. I can tell you any company that
Speaker 4: I've ever gotten involved with, any company I've ever acquired,
Speaker 4: any company I've involved with merging, any company that ever
Speaker 4: went in in a new position. I have thirty positions
Speaker 4: in my first twenty five years at PVH. So there's
Speaker 4: always change. There's always room for your structure, always places
Speaker 4: to save money. Sometimes it was people, sometimes it's the
Speaker 4: way you spend money. So I don't want to waste
Speaker 4: any time. And if it looks like it's coming fast
Speaker 4: and furious, so be it. This is about change. John
Speaker 4: Kennedy said, you can't stub your toes standing still. We
Speaker 4: all know you can't make an obilet without breaking some eggs.
Speaker 4: So they're making it complicated. There's a lot to deal with,
Speaker 4: so many things to uncover. Why throw away money? I
Speaker 4: live by. I don't mind spending money, but I hate
Speaker 4: wasting it. And there's a lot of waste in this government,
Speaker 4: and it's time for it to stop. And I love it.
Speaker 4: I give them big, big marks. For example, they offered
Speaker 4: the work force the government worked for us pretty much.
Speaker 4: Anyone quit your job will pay you seventy thousand dollars.
Speaker 4: You remember that test, oh I do?
Speaker 2: I do remember that.
Speaker 4: We have no idea how many people took it. We
Speaker 4: have no idea if it was successful. We don't now
Speaker 4: have any idea if they're going to do it again
Speaker 4: or offer more money, so that bothers me. I'd like
Speaker 4: to know. And then the question is how many agencies
Speaker 4: have been closed, which one, how many people, how many
Speaker 4: people will put out of work? And then of course
Speaker 4: how much money we're going to save and less, but
Speaker 4: not at least on this subject, I'm not saying slow
Speaker 4: it down. I'm not saying do anything different. What are
Speaker 4: the unintended consequences with masses and the number of people
Speaker 4: put out of work? They're talked that a lot of
Speaker 4: veterans went into government after serving, should they be let go?
Speaker 4: I don't think so. Anyone who served this country in
Speaker 4: the military should be able to work for the country,
Speaker 4: and therefore, maybe they have to be reassigned, maybe they
Speaker 4: have to be looked at, maybe they have to be
Speaker 4: handled specially. I know, once you say that, then those
Speaker 4: other people who should be considered. I know, But when
Speaker 4: it comes to the military, I feel different than anything else.
Speaker 4: But the things that those are doing, I got to
Speaker 4: give them very, very high marks. Which then brings me
Speaker 4: to tariffs and the question of whether in the tariffs
Speaker 4: are working. There's a lot of market and certainty. I
Speaker 4: can tell you the retail and fashion luxury community are
Speaker 4: really struggling, really struggling. But I want to hold that
Speaker 4: off for a minute. I have a clip from a
Speaker 4: speech that Ronald Reagan made back in the day on tariffs.
Speaker 3: At first, when someone says let's impose tariffs on foreign imports,
Speaker 3: it looks like they're doing the patriotic thing by protecting
Speaker 3: American products and jobs, and sometimes for a short while
Speaker 3: it works, but only for a short time. What eventually
Speaker 3: occurs is first homegrown industry start relying on government protection
Speaker 3: in the form of high tariffs. They stop competing and
Speaker 3: stop making the innovative management and technological changes they need
Speaker 3: to succeed in world markets. And then while all this
Speaker 3: is going on, something even worse occurs. High tariffs inevitably
Speaker 3: lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of
Speaker 3: fierce trade wars. The result is more and more tariffs,
Speaker 3: higher and higher trade barriers, and less and less competition.
Speaker 3: So soon, because of the prices made artificially high by
Speaker 3: tariffs that subsidize inefficiency and poor management, people stop buying.
Speaker 3: Then the worst happens. Market shrink and collapse, businesses and
Speaker 3: industry shut down, and millions of people lose their jobs.
Speaker 3: The memory of all this occurring back in the thirties
Speaker 3: made me determined when I came to Washington to spare
Speaker 3: the American people the protectionist legislation that destroys prosperity.
Speaker 4: So to put things in perspective, right now, you've now
Speaker 4: heard Ronald Reagan talk about the issues of tariffs and
Speaker 4: the pitfalls. Tonight we're discussing things are good from far,
Speaker 4: but are they far from good or are they doing well?
Speaker 4: I want to take a moment, We'll have a break,
Speaker 4: we'll come back, and I want to talk to you
Speaker 4: about tariffs in detail.
Speaker 2: Always in fashion spent.
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Speaker 4: certainly if you want on the street because it's that
Speaker 4: well done. The quality of DK why is nothing short
Speaker 4: of exceptional. And why shouldn't it be because it was
Speaker 4: born from the idea of luxury made affordable for women
Speaker 4: of America. DK and Why a true lifestyle brand that
Speaker 4: takes you from day and tonight, from the week into
Speaker 4: the weekend. DCN Why You can find DCN Why and
Speaker 4: Macy's DKY dot com.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Always in Fashion. Here's your host, Mark Webber.
Speaker 4: When I was a teenager, a friend of mine went
Speaker 4: out on a date. He had a picture of this girl.
Speaker 4: It was kind of like a blind date. It's profile
Speaker 4: on the internet. And I asked him the next day
Speaker 4: whether she was as cute as she was in her photo,
Speaker 4: and he looked at me and he said something I
Speaker 4: never forgot all these years later. She was good from
Speaker 4: far but far from good. Now, ladies, don't get mad
Speaker 4: at me. You could have been you saying it about
Speaker 4: a man. So let's be an equal opportunity offender here.
Speaker 4: And I'm probably not finished offending tonight.
Speaker 5: Oh, don't worry, you'll I'm sure more people will think
Speaker 5: you're obnoxious by the end of this.
Speaker 2: Don't worry you'll.
Speaker 5: Get more comments about that. Hey, listen, I got to run.
Speaker 5: I gotta go do a show tonight.
Speaker 2: So it's fun.
Speaker 4: I know.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry I'm not on the show more.
Speaker 5: I feel bad, but I love being able to do
Speaker 5: it as much as I can with you. So sorry,
Speaker 5: I have to run, but have a good rest of
Speaker 5: the show.
Speaker 4: Okay, Yeah, thank you, thank you, thank you. Talk to
Speaker 4: you later. Okay, everyone out there, if you're tuning in,
Speaker 4: I want to talk about tariffs, whether or not they're
Speaker 4: working or not. I played a clip before of Ronald
Speaker 4: Reagan when he was pressing talk about tariffs. Let me
Speaker 4: play it again.
Speaker 3: At first, when someone says let's impose tariffs on foreign imports,
Speaker 3: it looks like they're doing the patriotic thing by protecting
Speaker 3: American products and jobs, and sometimes for a short while
Speaker 3: it works. But only for a short time. What eventually
Speaker 3: occurs is first homegrown industry start relying on government protection
Speaker 3: in the form of high tariffs. They stop competing and
Speaker 3: stop making the innovative management and technological changes they need
Speaker 3: to succeed in world markets. And then while all this
Speaker 3: is going on, something even worse occurs. High tariffs inevitably
Speaker 3: lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of
Speaker 3: fierce trade wars. The result is more and more tariffs,
Speaker 3: higher and higher trade barriers, and less and less competition.
Speaker 3: So soon, because of the price is made artificially high
Speaker 3: by tariffs that subsidize inefficiency and poor management, people stop buying.
Speaker 3: Then the worst happens. Market shrink and collapse, businesses and
Speaker 3: industry shut down, and millions of people lose their jobs.
Speaker 3: The memory of all this occurring back in the thirties
Speaker 3: made me determined when I came to Washington to spare
Speaker 3: the American people the protectionist legislation that destroys prosperity.
Speaker 4: Ronald Reagan made some very interesting points, and Donald Trump
Speaker 4: has made some very interesting points about tariffs. But now
Speaker 4: we're in it, and it's starting to look like serious
Speaker 4: trade war where there's a lot of reciprocal behaving. No
Speaker 4: one's backing down. I never expected President she to back down.
Speaker 4: He's toughest nails. That guy from China, that premiere president
Speaker 4: of China, he's the real deal. But he can be
Speaker 4: reasoned with. And that's what Trump is saying he's hoping for.
Speaker 4: And I'll come back to that in a minute. The
Speaker 4: guy from Canada, new president, he got to show himself
Speaker 4: as a big shot. Don't you threaten me? And by
Speaker 4: the way, when fifty percent of our oil and gas
Speaker 4: come from Canada, you better be careful who you're pushing
Speaker 4: and bullying. And once again, there needs to be reason
Speaker 4: in tariff. The idea of talking to Mexico and Canada
Speaker 4: about threatening him over the fent and ol that's coming
Speaker 4: into this country, good plan, good dialogue, How we gonna
Speaker 4: stop it, what needs to be done? All well and good,
Speaker 4: But the question of tariffs basically come down to the
Speaker 4: history of tariffs. They were always about protecting American industry.
Speaker 4: Now here's where I'm at. And if you listen to
Speaker 4: the show, I've mentioned this before, and I want to
Speaker 4: come back to tariffs in this way. First I'll tell
Speaker 4: tell you that when you protect American industry. You are
Speaker 4: to be protecting it for a good reason. If you're
Speaker 4: going to put tariffs on apparel and all the products
Speaker 4: coming in from China. T shirts that are nine ninety nine,
Speaker 4: Polo shirts that are nineteen ninety nine in the discount
Speaker 4: price points, pants that are twenty nine ninety nine, you
Speaker 4: better have ability to make them here in this country.
Speaker 4: I can tell you right now, with minimal exception minimal,
Speaker 4: you can't afford to manufacture those products here and make
Speaker 4: them at those prices. We just can't compete. It just
Speaker 4: can't compete. Look, when it first came out that there
Speaker 4: was an after the North American Free Trade Agreement, what
Speaker 4: it was supposed to be treating Canada and Mexico and
Speaker 4: the United States. We're supposed to be able to import
Speaker 4: an export amongst ourselves, with us being able to share
Speaker 4: in each other's good fortune. We would ship fabric to Mexico,
Speaker 4: they would in turn make it. They in turn would
Speaker 4: make the products with our fabric send it back to
Speaker 4: the United States, so the textiles would make a lot
Speaker 4: of sense, and the same for Canada, and on and on.
Speaker 4: The truth be told, American fabric was not available to
Speaker 4: make the products we had and the quantities we had,
Speaker 4: it just didn't work. What also does it work is
Speaker 4: America is one of the richest countries in the world,
Speaker 4: if not the richest country in the world. Why because
Speaker 4: our minimum wage is such that itffords families the ability
Speaker 4: to live. Now, we could argue with minimum wages never enough,
Speaker 4: but minimum wage was designed to give a family of
Speaker 4: two or four the ability to live in this country
Speaker 4: and thrive. There's always been opportunities to grow. This is
Speaker 4: the land of America where there's opportunity everywhere. But between
Speaker 4: minimum wage and benefits, our standard of living is higher
Speaker 4: than the people we're importing from. That's just the way
Speaker 4: it is. If you go to China and you look
Speaker 4: at workers making a peril. The wages are so low,
Speaker 4: the health benefits are so low. The government may subsidize
Speaker 4: it with playing with the currency, or may provide food
Speaker 4: and other benefits, but price to price, we are just
Speaker 4: not competing. So if you put tariffs up protecting apparel
Speaker 4: here in this United States, whether we don't have the
Speaker 4: manufacturing capability, we don't have the textiles, we don't have
Speaker 4: the parts because we disassemble those industries, right wrong or
Speaker 4: indifferent because we're not competitive. If you're going to protect
Speaker 4: what are we protecting? And there is a real question
Speaker 4: mark here right now. Now, I'll come back to this
Speaker 4: in a moment. I want to talk to you about unions.
Speaker 4: When unions were established in this country, they were established
Speaker 4: to help the individual worker. There were sweatshops, there were
Speaker 4: abuses that the people that built this country in the
Speaker 4: Industrial Revolution were worried about putting up buildings, putting up railroads,
Speaker 4: building facilities. They weren't worried necessary at the work. An
Speaker 4: individual worker in those days was treated unfairly. The unions,
Speaker 4: someone had the idea of bringing collective bargaining into place
Speaker 4: and bringing all these laborers together and giving them a
Speaker 4: bigger voice so they could fight for themselves and improve
Speaker 4: their working conditions and their lives. And at that time,
Speaker 4: it worked, It helped, and it changed the world to
Speaker 4: changed the United States forever. I for one, had grown
Speaker 4: up in a union family. My father was a worker.
Speaker 4: He worked in the printing business. My father was a
Speaker 4: hard working guy. He wasn't able to negotiate for himself,
Speaker 4: but he belonged to a union and he pretty much
Speaker 4: had a job for life and when anything ever got
Speaker 4: mechanized when he was doing type work and they put
Speaker 4: it on computer. They found another job and trained him
Speaker 4: in another capacity to be a worker, and he worked
Speaker 4: for his entire life for the union. At one point
Speaker 4: he was offered buyout, like the American people in government
Speaker 4: were offered biots. My father took the buyout. I was
Speaker 4: too young to understand why he did it. I was
Speaker 4: too undersdostand whether it would work or not. I only
Speaker 4: know he had to get another job after he got
Speaker 4: that money, for far less pay, far less dignified. He
Speaker 4: became a greeter in a restaurant. There's nothing wrong with that,
Speaker 4: But why did he leave a job where he was
Speaker 4: making five times the amount to do that? I just
Speaker 4: don't think he was sophisticated enough. But it was his choice.
Speaker 4: I remember him and my mother talking about it. But
Speaker 4: the union saved our lives. It gave us a life,
Speaker 4: and I grew up with that. When I went into
Speaker 4: business myself and I started to become an executive, I
Speaker 4: realized that the unions had different functions, that the unions
Speaker 4: protected their own, that the unions were in between the
Speaker 4: management of the company and the workers. And as an executive.
Speaker 4: It started to become a parent to me that the
Speaker 4: rules had changed. Now I'm not saying it wasn't good
Speaker 4: for our factory workers. I'm not saying it wasn't good
Speaker 4: for warehouse workers. It probably very was. I only know
Speaker 4: that in the southern factories that we worked in the
Speaker 4: Southern warehouses, unions and workers versus the owners of the
Speaker 4: company had conflict. Fortunately for me, I never got involved in.
Speaker 4: I never had to learn it, Which brings me back
Speaker 4: to industry. Interestingly enough, the United Order Workers make automobiles.
Speaker 4: They're a union shop and they make automobiles for the
Speaker 4: Big three in this year United States. And they make cars.
Speaker 4: They make good cars, they make them profitably. They put
Speaker 4: in a position that they could deliver. And I would
Speaker 4: say to you that kind of industry can support protection.
Speaker 4: They can support having a union that's looking out for
Speaker 4: the workers. Because the price points are higher. There's enough
Speaker 4: in that system to support a union. I can tell you.
Speaker 4: I just read that Louis is going to start manufacturing
Speaker 4: in the United States. Why because they eat handbags and
Speaker 4: their quality of handbags is extraordinary, and they believe in
Speaker 4: American labor. And there's so much markup to be had
Speaker 4: when you're a fine luxury brand. Louis Vuitton is not
Speaker 4: the only one. There's many luxury handbag makers that in
Speaker 4: fact make their handbags out of plastic. They triven them
Speaker 4: in leather. They sell for three thousand dollars. They make
Speaker 4: a lot of money. And those products can be bought
Speaker 4: here in the United States and can be manufactured here
Speaker 4: for export around the world. So when it comes to
Speaker 4: the unions, I've always been a fan. I recognize that
Speaker 4: the unions can be problematic when it comes to price
Speaker 4: oriented products. So the real question is what are we protecting?
Speaker 4: Is their protection in the apparel and luxury industry, And
Speaker 4: I will tell you there's a problem right now. I've
Speaker 4: talked or heard many conversations that the industry is in
Speaker 4: a state of flux right now. They don't know what
Speaker 4: to do. They're going to be hit or have been
Speaker 4: hit by ten or twenty percent of growing tariffs on
Speaker 4: the products they're importing from the United States. They're importing
Speaker 4: them buying large because there's very little industry back here,
Speaker 4: and they're getting the advantage of price and they're passing
Speaker 4: it along to the American consumer. Right now, with those increases.
Speaker 4: Can they go back to their vendors who supply these
Speaker 4: goods from China or Taiwan or Career and ask for
Speaker 4: them to reduce the price. Yes. Is it going to
Speaker 4: be easy? No? Are they going to be able to
Speaker 4: collect everything they want to offset those tariffs? No, they're not.
Speaker 4: These are going to raise prices. Are the retailers going
Speaker 4: to eat these price increases?
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 4: If you're a manufacturer, you're buying from China, you're bringing
Speaker 4: it in. You're a brand and you're selling to Macy's
Speaker 4: and you told them this is the price for your
Speaker 4: shirts or your sweater or your dresses or whatever, and
Speaker 4: now going to try and go to Macy's or Blooming
Speaker 4: those anyone else for that matter, and tell them that
Speaker 4: they have to raise the price. No way they going
Speaker 4: to do it. The only one who's going to pay
Speaker 4: is the consumer. And the problem I'm having is this
Speaker 4: tariff good from far but far from good. I'm starting
Speaker 4: to wonder. I've been a staunch supporter of the President,
Speaker 4: I still am. I am hoping they're looking at the
Speaker 4: unintended consequences between raising tariffs across the board or raising
Speaker 4: them strategically. And I have my doubts if you want
Speaker 4: to deal with free trade, if you want to deal
Speaker 4: with fair trade. Although in this world fair is a
Speaker 4: word that I believe is for kids, it doesn't exist.
Speaker 4: I believe that the President should go to Canada very simply,
Speaker 4: not with punitive damages, not for fentanyl, not for these
Speaker 4: other things. But when it comes to trade, gentlemen, ladies,
Speaker 4: we buy six hundred billion dollars worth of products and
Speaker 4: goods and services from you every year. We want you
Speaker 4: to buy from US an equivalent amount six hundred billion dollars.
Speaker 4: We're your closest trading partner. We share a border of
Speaker 4: thousands of miles. We're close to each other. We're partners
Speaker 4: in this world. We live together. I want you to
Speaker 4: buy an equal amount of goods from me that you're
Speaker 4: buying from the rest of the world. So if you
Speaker 4: are not buying your buses, your airplanes, your trucks from America,
Speaker 4: tell me why before you give any orders to anywhere
Speaker 4: else in the world. Satisfy our needs, balance trade between
Speaker 4: the two countries. Buy our products. We'll be competitive. If
Speaker 4: I have a factory and you want to buy from me,
Speaker 4: and I have to make less money, I'm going to
Speaker 4: make less money selling it to you, to keep my
Speaker 4: factory busy. Mexico, you're on our border. We share a
Speaker 4: border of one thousand miles. We're close, we're friends, we
Speaker 4: share a common heritage. This is our country, this is
Speaker 4: our continent, this is our our hemisphere. We're together. If
Speaker 4: we're buying a billion dollars worth of goods for you
Speaker 4: a year, or one hundred billion, or five hundred billion,
Speaker 4: we want you to buy the same from us. Buy
Speaker 4: our crops, buy our flooring, buy our textiles, buy our planes,
Speaker 4: buy our electric cars, buy whatever it is. Buy an
Speaker 4: equal amount that we're buying from you, and the same
Speaker 4: goes for China. Whatever quantity of business we're doing with
Speaker 4: you by importing your products, import from us before you
Speaker 4: worry about someone else. Once again, we're each largest trading
Speaker 4: product partner, and we need to be friends. We need
Speaker 4: to love each other, we need to work together. Why not?
Speaker 4: Why not?
Speaker 3: See?
Speaker 4: I believe in a theory. I've often said the only
Speaker 4: argument I ever want to get into with another person
Speaker 4: is when that person is in an indefensible position. They
Speaker 4: can't defend what they're doing. So if we're saying a
Speaker 4: trillion dollars worth of goods from China. China, you are
Speaker 4: a huge consuming nation, you have billions of people. You're
Speaker 4: the most populous country in the world. You have to
Speaker 4: be able to buy a trillion dollars from US. Why
Speaker 4: wouldn't you give me a reason defend your position. I
Speaker 4: guarantee you, President Trump, I guarantee you all of the
Speaker 4: people in the US government, if you focus on what
Speaker 4: is indefensible if we buy from you, buy from US.
Speaker 4: Forget everything else. That will solve the trade war. Stop
Speaker 4: with the tariffs, Stop with all these things. Because President Trump,
Speaker 4: I want you to look good from far, but I
Speaker 4: want you to look even better close up. That's the
Speaker 4: theme for tonight. Take a break, Make trade not war
Speaker 4: back in a moment.
Speaker 2: Always in fashion.
Speaker 4: As one of the world's most celebrated fashion designers, car
Speaker 4: Lagerfeld was renowned for his aspirational and cutting edge approach
Speaker 4: to style. His unique vision of Parisian shit comes to
Speaker 4: America through car Lagafeld Paris. He has women's collections, men's collections,
Speaker 4: ready to wear, accessory, shoes and bags. The fashion house
Speaker 4: Carlagofeld also offers a range of watches I Wear in
Speaker 4: premium fragrances. You can explore the car Lagovol collection at
Speaker 4: car Lagofelparis dot com. But it's more than that. I
Speaker 4: for one, love to shop. I love going around and
Speaker 4: seeing what's happening and what catches my attention, what would
Speaker 4: make me feel good to wear now. I don't wear
Speaker 4: the women's wear obviously, but I can appreciate it, and
Speaker 4: they look amazing. If you want to look right, you
Speaker 4: want to have clothes that fits you well. You want
Speaker 4: to look like you're wearing something that's very expensive, that's
Speaker 4: exclusive for you and yours. You can find it at
Speaker 4: very affordable prices at Macy's Orcarlagafel dot com Paris. The
Speaker 4: women's ready to wear fashion is extraordinary, as well as
Speaker 4: the handbags and the shoes. I for one wear men's clothes,
Speaker 4: unlike my appreciation of women's clothes. I'm a modern guy.
Speaker 4: I wanna look current. I want to look the way
Speaker 4: I want to feel. I go out at night, I'm
Speaker 4: in black and Carl Lagafel is my buddy. Carls are great,
Speaker 4: they fit great, and they have little tweaks and touches,
Speaker 4: whether it's a stripe on the sleeve or button at
Speaker 4: the neck or on the shoulder. There's a lot of
Speaker 4: details that go into Carlagafel because he's always been, he
Speaker 4: always had been one of the world's great designers, and
Speaker 4: this legacy and goes on and on. I can't speak
Speaker 4: enough about it except to say to you, you want
Speaker 4: to feel good about yourself. You want to know that
Speaker 4: you're dressing properly. You want to clothes that fits you well.
Speaker 4: Carl Lagafeld Paris, Carl Lagofeldparis dot com. I love polar fleece.
Speaker 4: It's lightweight, takes colors beautifully, It's comfortable, keeps you warm
Speaker 4: and even if it's warm out, it doesn't hamper you.
Speaker 4: It doesn't make you perspire. I love polar fleece. I
Speaker 4: also love sweatshirts and sweatpants, love them, love them, love them.
Speaker 4: I'm a big fan of khaki pants and a big
Speaker 4: fan of a golf clothes. And I'm a big fan
Speaker 4: of Izid. I used to be the head of Iszid.
Speaker 4: In fact, my company bought it and out of bankruptcy,
Speaker 4: and the CEO of the company asked me to come
Speaker 4: in and fix it, and he said to me, mark
Speaker 4: the future of the company's in your hands. Can you
Speaker 4: do this? And I said, I will do it. I
Speaker 4: put everything, my heart and soul into making Eyesid the
Speaker 4: powerhouse that it is today.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 4: I left a long time ago, and the company just
Speaker 4: continues to thrive. ISOT is one of the great sweater makers,
Speaker 4: pant make a shirt makers, knit shirt makers, Polo shirt makers.
Speaker 4: They're incredible company. The colors are great, the fabrics are great. Guys,
Speaker 4: you ever wonder what you should wear, I'll make it
Speaker 4: easy for you. If you're going to be casual, go
Speaker 4: in and look at ISID. Now that doesn't say that
Speaker 4: they don't have dress shirts and they don't have suits.
Speaker 4: You go find them. ISOD is a collective brand that
Speaker 4: offers lifestyle apparel to everyone in America. And it's true,
Speaker 4: it's a fun brand, but it's also priced at fun
Speaker 4: prices everyone can afford it. I love this brand. Of
Speaker 4: all the brands that I'm involved with, and you can
Speaker 4: name them, think about PVH and LVMH and all the brands,
Speaker 4: Isaoda is the one that's most personal to me because
Speaker 4: I was involved in crafting the future of this brand.
Speaker 4: The close of great, fullest Great. They're doing well. Isa
Speaker 4: Dot com isaacat jcpenny go look for it. I think
Speaker 4: you're going to be very happy. And ladies, those of
Speaker 4: you the shopping for the guys in your lives, take
Speaker 4: a look. I think they'll be very happy with your choices.
Speaker 2: Isaad for men, welcome back to it always in fashion.
Speaker 2: Here's your host, Mark Webber.
Speaker 4: I started this show tonight with a comment that a
Speaker 4: friend of mine made when he was a teenager. We're
Speaker 4: talking about a young girl he met online, looked at
Speaker 4: a photo, and I asked him did she look as
Speaker 4: cute as a photo? Innocent question. He answered me she
Speaker 4: was good from far but far from good. I thought
Speaker 4: it was the funniest thing I'd ever heard, and it
Speaker 4: was a statement in life about promises and delivering. I
Speaker 4: have to tell you, at the risk of being controversial,
Speaker 4: I want to talk about driving cars for a moment,
Speaker 4: in particular females driving cars. I should start with. I
Speaker 4: don't know about the rest of you, but I've noticed
Speaker 4: Stanika Patrick doing commercials. I think she's in her forties.
Speaker 4: She is beautiful. She's so well spoken. She's such a
Speaker 4: pleasure to listen to. I tell you, when I watch her,
Speaker 4: I just wow. I think she's special and yeah, on
Speaker 4: the fact forget you know, the way she looks and speaks.
Speaker 4: I can't help if I'm being. I don't know what
Speaker 4: I'm being. She drives cars. She's a race car driver,
Speaker 4: which I find incredible. What a talent, what a set
Speaker 4: of skills, particularly because my experience has been that, uh oh,
Speaker 4: here we go, that female drivers are unique. That's the
Speaker 4: best way I could say it now, before you all
Speaker 4: start screaming at me. Ladies, if you're a great drivers,
Speaker 4: you could find me on Instagram and they're always in fashion.
Speaker 4: Or you can find me on LinkedIn and complain to
Speaker 4: me that I have no right saying that I find
Speaker 4: your driving questionable. Now, I'm picking this subject because I
Speaker 4: think it's fun. This week alone, I can tell you
Speaker 4: I avoided three three close calls with women drivers. Men
Speaker 4: are obnoxious, Okay, all you guys out there and me included,
Speaker 4: we're obnoxious. We think we own the road, we think
Speaker 4: we could do whatever we want. And I get it.
Speaker 4: But you know, I'm in the city. I'm watching people drive.
Speaker 4: It's impossible to drive in New York City. I was
Speaker 4: in New York City the other day, which got me
Speaker 4: thinking about this, and I met a bunch of people
Speaker 4: and we were hanging out, and one young lady said,
Speaker 4: I have to practice my driving. I said, what do
Speaker 4: you keep a car here? I said, yeah, Would you
Speaker 4: let me drive your car? I said, no, is why not?
Speaker 4: I said, you know, my experience with female drivers hasn't
Speaker 4: been all like great. I'm a great driver, trust me.
Speaker 4: I just need some driving time I have to make
Speaker 4: I have to go downtown. Can I borrow your car?
Speaker 4: Said no, but I'll come with you. So, with all
Speaker 4: due respect to ladies, let me just be careful here.
Speaker 4: My experience with female drivers has not been all that good.
Speaker 4: And I say to you, on the other side, my
Speaker 4: experience with men's drivers. I get cursed at, I get
Speaker 4: screamed at, I get the finger, I get everything. So
Speaker 4: I don't like men drivers either. But anyway, I'm back in.
Speaker 4: And I offered the woman a chance to drive the car.
Speaker 4: But I had to be there. I'd go downtown. I
Speaker 4: hadn't been downtown. Oh, I had to go to Brookfield Center.
Speaker 4: Get in the car. The first thing that happens, the
Speaker 4: car's driving. First thing that happens, first stop sign. She
Speaker 4: goes right through it. I said, there's a stop sign.
Speaker 4: She said, oh, it's nothing. So we're following the GPS.
Speaker 4: And I said, now where the GPS won't be the
Speaker 4: best way to go. You got to make a left
Speaker 4: at this corner. She makes the right turn. I said,
Speaker 4: that's not left. But the thing that got me more
Speaker 4: than anything was we're driving down the street. She had
Speaker 4: to change lanes, and she changed lanes without looking. And
Speaker 4: I said to her, after I finished screaming, we missed
Speaker 4: the car next to us by two inches. If I'm lying,
Speaker 4: it's five inches. I mean, I said, what was that?
Speaker 4: She said, Look, when I want to change lanes, I
Speaker 4: know the other guy will move over. I'm saying to myself,
Speaker 4: I've drive knowing that if I'm a good driver, I'm
Speaker 4: more worried about the other drivers. I was screaming. I
Speaker 4: was beside myself, and anyway, kudos to Danica Patrick and
Speaker 4: my experience in driving. I got that out of the way.
Speaker 4: If I've offended the female community, give me a break, please, Okay.
Speaker 4: On the issue of screaming for my life, I'm worried
Speaker 4: at the moment about that future of retail, luxury and fashion.
Speaker 4: There have been more and more difficulties had Hudson Bay
Speaker 4: and Canada, the largest running retail, the largest operational business
Speaker 4: sixteen seventy established in Canada, just filed for protection under
Speaker 4: the equivalent of bankruptcy. It looks like they'll still be operators.
Speaker 4: What makes it concerning is the parent company of Hudson
Speaker 4: Bay also owned Sacks, Demons and Bergdoff Goodman. And in fact,
Speaker 4: I have such great and high regard for the CEO.
Speaker 4: The next CEO Exchange interview for this show will be
Speaker 4: with the CEO of that company. But the issue is
Speaker 4: what is going on. I've been shopping a lot. Part
Speaker 4: of my ability to function on this show is staying
Speaker 4: current in the business that I grew up in, luxury
Speaker 4: fashion and retail. I've been in the malls. I was traveling.
Speaker 4: I was in one of the malls in Long Island
Speaker 4: a friend of mine and I said, the place is packed.
Speaker 4: He says, yeah, business must be great. And I looked
Speaker 4: at him and I said, you're not from this industry.
Speaker 4: Look closely. Is business great? And he looked at me
Speaker 4: and he said, yeah, the place is packed. I said,
Speaker 4: is it doing well? Is you know? Mark? What what
Speaker 4: are you talking about? I said, very few people are
Speaker 4: carrying bags. And he stopped in his tracks and he said,
Speaker 4: you're right, very few people are carrying bags. What does
Speaker 4: that mean? I said, it means that they're not doing
Speaker 4: as well as the mall is. They're coming here for
Speaker 4: different reasons. Shopping malls are still entertainment. There's still theater.
Speaker 4: There are place to go, there are a place to
Speaker 4: have lunch or a drink, the place to hang out
Speaker 4: with your friends. That doesn't mean that everybody here is
Speaker 4: here at a shop. And it caught his attention, and
Speaker 4: it caught mine again because I know about this business,
Speaker 4: and yes, a lot of business is online now. I
Speaker 4: remember when I was operating before I retired and went
Speaker 4: into radio and podcasting, that retails were becoming stronger and stronger.
Speaker 4: They were all consolidating, they're all buying each other. In
Speaker 4: my day, there was a huge corporation called Macy's Zinc
Speaker 4: and the huge corporation called Make Company, and both of
Speaker 4: them headed out and beat it up head to head.
Speaker 4: They fought off every more. Robinson's May versus Macy's in
Speaker 4: San Francisco, and that's the way it went, and the
Speaker 4: two powerful giants four billion each at one point were
Speaker 4: consolidated under the Macy's Corporation. And now all of a sudden,
Speaker 4: once they did that, they came to me whatever company
Speaker 4: I was running, said, the rules are going to change. Now,
Speaker 4: these are the new rules. We're going to want more markup.
Speaker 4: We're going to want you to take back merchandise, We're
Speaker 4: gonna want, We're gonna want, going to want. And even
Speaker 4: though make company didn't exist anymore, or they basically used
Speaker 4: to have a saying it's the main way or the highway.
Speaker 4: You do what we tell you, or you're not gonna
Speaker 4: do business with us, and they took and exerted in
Speaker 4: tremendous pressure over us in the wholesale side. I've been
Speaker 4: thinking about the tariffs. I mentioned them before. Tariffs are
Speaker 4: raising prices and what does that mean. I'm gonna make
Speaker 4: it very simple. When retailers do a sales plan. If
Speaker 4: last year they did one hundred million dollars in men's
Speaker 4: apparel at Macy's, they planned to grow from one hundred
Speaker 4: million to one hundred and five million this year. The
Speaker 4: problem is they buy in retail dollars. Therefore, if you
Speaker 4: make things more expensive, they will buy less items. They
Speaker 4: buy less items there's less chance for you to be
Speaker 4: as successful. They're going to be buying less from you.
Speaker 4: So this whole situation of retail and wholesale is getting
Speaker 4: to be a concern. I remember going through this whole
Speaker 4: thought that we said at the time, in the end
Speaker 4: of the day, there's going to be one retailer and
Speaker 4: one manufacturer or wholesaler, and the retailer is going to
Speaker 4: say to the wholesaler, we don't want to buy from
Speaker 4: you anymore. That was the end of the industry. That's it.
Speaker 4: It's over. And when you watch what's going on right
Speaker 4: now with the advent of online shopping, which is extraordinary.
Speaker 4: You know, anything I need, the first thing I do
Speaker 4: is I look to Amazon. But I will tell you
Speaker 4: when it comes to fashion. Unless I'm looking for a
Speaker 4: commodity iron like a T shirt that I don't care
Speaker 4: what brand it is, I'm not going to Amazon. Amazon
Speaker 4: has brands, but they don't have the full assortment that
Speaker 4: you'll find in a department store or a specialty store.
Speaker 4: If you want a Nike sneaker, Amazon very well may
Speaker 4: have a Nike sneaker, but they won't have the range.
Speaker 4: You go to Champ you'll see everything from Nike if
Speaker 4: they want to buy it. So Amazon has its place,
Speaker 4: but it's only so far. I've been reading that Coles
Speaker 4: is struggling. Coals is a discount department store that is
Speaker 4: in eleven hundred stores around the United States, and they're struggling.
Speaker 4: The CEO is just let go. It wasn't clear. They
Speaker 4: were a few skating on whether he was terminated or
Speaker 4: let go by choice. But in the articles you read
Speaker 4: about why he's no longer there, they talked about that
Speaker 4: he forego their private label programs in favor of brands
Speaker 4: and it was not serving them. Well, so what's the
Speaker 4: future of brands at Coals. I'm sure they'll have them.
Speaker 4: Some of my favorite brands, some of the brands that
Speaker 4: I work with my whole life, are there. I hope
Speaker 4: they survive. The off price business is extraordinary. You want
Speaker 4: to talk about exerting pressure. They live to give the
Speaker 4: consumer a discount. They don't live to like the manufacturers.
Speaker 4: They live to get deals for their consumers. I'll never forget.
Speaker 4: After spending a week in Harvard Business School with one
Speaker 4: of the senior retailers, the CEO of TJ Max at
Speaker 4: the time, asked to see me About three weeks later,
Speaker 4: it came up with his team and he said to me,
Speaker 4: I hope you're the greatest merchants in the world. I
Speaker 4: hope you have to. I hope you have people that
Speaker 4: know how to plan merchandising, because anything you stuck with
Speaker 4: I'm going to own you. I'm going to need fifty
Speaker 4: billion dollars worth of merchandise, so I'm going to be
Speaker 4: a great customer. But for that business, you're going to
Speaker 4: pay the price. So the less problems you have, the
Speaker 4: better off. It's going to be once again exerting pressure
Speaker 4: over the wholesale To his credit, if I was TJ Max,
Speaker 4: I would be only. I would be the toughest negotiator
Speaker 4: in the world. I wouldn't make it easy for any manufacturer. Yes,
Speaker 4: I would covet your brand. Yes, van Usen is great
Speaker 4: for my custom but if it wasn't van us And,
Speaker 4: I'd find a different brand. Unless you are smart, unless
Speaker 4: you know how to manage the business, you're going to
Speaker 4: have your hands full going into the future. There's no
Speaker 4: channel of distribution that hasn't struggled at one point or another.
Speaker 4: Walmart this year said they're taking down their earnings number Walmart.
Speaker 4: They never have problems. The future of retailing is going
Speaker 4: to be from the brands, multi brand stores like Macy's,
Speaker 4: like Coal's, like Targets like Walmart, like Bergdoff's, like Sachs,
Speaker 4: like Neemans, like Nordstrom, all of these retailers putting together
Speaker 4: the best assortments with the best brands and having the
Speaker 4: best working relationships with their vendors to maximize those businesses.
Speaker 4: Will they remains to be seen. The future of retail
Speaker 4: is also in the hands of people who have their
Speaker 4: name over the door. They have one brand in this store.
Speaker 4: It's called Zara, it's called H and M, it's called
Speaker 4: the Gap, It's called American Eagle Outfits who looks great
Speaker 4: continuously after season. It's called my own name above the door.
Speaker 4: Specialty stores and in a luxury sector you know the
Speaker 4: more Viton, Gavanci dioor they're there somewhere in all of
Speaker 4: this is going to be a combination of multi brand
Speaker 4: stores and stores that are specialty stores with their name
Speaker 4: over the head of the door. And someone each of
Speaker 4: these stores, any department store, any specialty store, is online.
Speaker 4: And the world has yet the scene where this is
Speaker 4: all going to end. The question I asked tonight, Are
Speaker 4: you smart enough to position yourself to be good from
Speaker 4: far but not far from good? I love this show.
Speaker 4: I hope you enjoyed it. Back next week. Talk to
Speaker 4: you soon.