Speaker 1: It's Nightside with Dan Ray on WBZY, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: Thanks very much, Gal, nice to work with you tonight.
Speaker 2: Help Hello everyone, and welcome on into a Wednesday night
Speaker 2: edition of Nightside. My name is Dan Ray, host of Nightside.
Speaker 2: Rob Brooks, our producer for many years, is back in
Speaker 2: the control room in the big broadcast facility in Medford, Massachusetts.
Speaker 2: He'll begin to answer your phone calls when we start
Speaker 2: taking phone calls in the nine o'clock hour. We're going
Speaker 2: to be talking at nine o'clock with Boston City Council
Speaker 2: at Flynn about the nephism ethics reform. It's a bit
Speaker 2: of an understatement at the Boston City Council. Maybe we
Speaker 2: need some ethics perform at Boston City Hall generally. And
Speaker 2: then we are going to talk with a really interesting guest,
Speaker 2: but not that at Flynn won't be interesting, but an
Speaker 2: interesting guest talking about what happened on Wall Street today.
Speaker 2: A complete one hundred and eighty degree turnaround by the
Speaker 2: folks on Wall Street, A big day on Wall Street.
Speaker 2: If you were waiting for the walls for the markets
Speaker 2: to bump back up, today was today. And we will
Speaker 2: be talking with Jaredillion. He is a founder and principal
Speaker 2: of a company called Jared Dillion Money, and he's an
Speaker 2: author of several books, some of which you may have read.
Speaker 2: He's a money guy, and we'll get a sense from
Speaker 2: him as to what happened, why it happened, and what's
Speaker 2: likely to happen tomorrow and going forward, simple as that.
Speaker 2: But first, as we always do with the eight o'clock hour,
Speaker 2: we have four interesting guests for you to listen to,
Speaker 2: and they will tell you and me what's going on
Speaker 2: in this world. Again, some of these stories are very
Speaker 2: big stories. Some of them are not so big, but
Speaker 2: all of them do have some impact on your life
Speaker 2: in mind. So that's the way we start tonight. And
Speaker 2: I'm delighted to introduce John Vincent. He's going to talk
Speaker 2: to us about the tariffs impact on cars. Now, the
Speaker 2: tariffs have sort of been or some of the tariffs
Speaker 2: have been put on ice for about ninety days, so
Speaker 2: you know that's that's a situation that has just changed.
Speaker 2: So let's talk with John Vincent about today. John forget
Speaker 2: for the moment, the turnaround in the stock market. What's
Speaker 2: perhaps more important to car dealers is that these tariffs
Speaker 2: have been put on ice here for at least what
Speaker 2: we're talking three months. John Vincent, Welcome to Nightside. How
Speaker 2: are you.
Speaker 3: I'm good. Do you have whiplash yet?
Speaker 2: Yeah, a little bit, I'll tell you, boy. Yesterday up
Speaker 2: fourteen hundred, down three hundred by day's end. Yeah, there
Speaker 2: was a pretty good amount of whiplash taken place yesterday.
Speaker 2: Today was like a rocket ship. It just it kind
Speaker 2: of was, you know, a little up, a little down,
Speaker 2: and then vavoom, it took off.
Speaker 3: Except for the car industry because the car industry is
Speaker 3: excluded from that ninety day extension.
Speaker 2: Oh so, so cars from Japan or cars from Canada
Speaker 2: will be impacted, will be impacted anywhere. Okay, Well, that
Speaker 2: that's a big industry. Why do you think that it
Speaker 2: happened that way?
Speaker 3: I have no idea, and I don't know whether anybody else.
Speaker 2: Well that's a good answer. That that's that. I love
Speaker 2: guests to give me honest answers. So let's talk about it.
Speaker 2: You're a senior editor and carrespondent for vehicle testing on
Speaker 2: the Auto teams at US News and World Reports. So
Speaker 2: you've covered this for a while.
Speaker 1: How long?
Speaker 2: Let me ask you this question, how long will it
Speaker 2: be before we begin to see increases on dealers new
Speaker 2: cars on the lots, you know, around the country and
Speaker 2: around New England as a consequence of the tariffs. I
Speaker 2: was under the impression, and thank you for correcting me,
Speaker 2: that that everything was put on hold for ninety days.
Speaker 2: But as you said, car tariffs are are still in effect.
Speaker 2: So when will we start to see that impact.
Speaker 3: In your opinion last weekend, they're already hitting dealer prices
Speaker 3: because a lot of people are getting into the market
Speaker 3: thinking they need to get a new car right now.
Speaker 3: And when there's more demand chasing the same supply, prices
Speaker 3: go up.
Speaker 2: So let me ask the car dealers taking advantage of
Speaker 2: their customers. At this point, obviously there has not yet
Speaker 2: been a tariff paid by a car dealer. That seems
Speaker 2: a little cynical.
Speaker 3: Buying a car in America. Is you know what the
Speaker 3: market will bear?
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 2: I do understand that that's capitalism, But I got to say,
Speaker 2: if I go to my car dealer and all of
Speaker 2: a sudden, I see that that bumped up the price
Speaker 2: four five thousand dollars, that four or five thousand dollars,
Speaker 2: and I assume that's what we're talking about correct. On
Speaker 2: you know, a thirty five forty thousand dollar car, we're
Speaker 2: talking about a bump of four or five thousand dollars.
Speaker 3: Probably not that much yet, but you're probably seeing a
Speaker 3: tightening to MSRP, so you're not going to see a discount.
Speaker 2: Okay, So what you're saying the dealer, if we go
Speaker 2: this weekend, they're likely to say, I can't do anything.
Speaker 2: MSRP is what it is. If you want to buy
Speaker 2: the car, go ahead. If you don't, I got five
Speaker 2: guys coming in the door.
Speaker 3: Behind you, exactly, and they're probably busy enough that you know,
Speaker 3: they'd rather just find that customer who will give them
Speaker 3: that sticker price than somebody who's going to take an
Speaker 3: hour to dicker.
Speaker 2: Yeah. No, I do understand that, but there's just something
Speaker 2: about that that seems a little swam swammery to me.
Speaker 3: I agree, I agree, But that's the system we have.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, it is a system we have, but
Speaker 2: also the system your integrity as a seller of any
Speaker 2: product is important for the long term. You know, if
Speaker 2: you're gonna charge me a couple thousand dollars extra for
Speaker 2: the thread of tariffs as opposed to the actual implementation
Speaker 2: of teriffs, I might look at you a little differently.
Speaker 2: Am I trying to go find a different dealer to
Speaker 2: be really honest with them? I'm I'm kind of surprised that.
Speaker 2: See that seems to me downright cynical, because look, if
Speaker 2: the new wave of cars come in and it's cost them,
Speaker 2: what's it going to cost them on a tariff? Would
Speaker 2: you say on a let's say a forty thousand dollars car.
Speaker 3: It's hard to say because it depends on where that
Speaker 3: car and its components are built. It could be a
Speaker 3: few thousand dollars. It could be fifteen thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: Well, theoretically, it could be nothing if it's an American
Speaker 2: built car.
Speaker 3: Well, the most American built car in the US is
Speaker 3: the Tesla Model three Performance, and it is eighty seven
Speaker 3: percent US parts, So thirteen percent that's parts will be tariffed.
Speaker 3: There is not a single single car sold in the US.
Speaker 3: They will not be struck by these tariffs.
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, I'm told I'm told that, for example, BMW
Speaker 2: has a factory in South Carolina, and I'm told by
Speaker 2: someone that the cars before they have finished, they're essentially
Speaker 2: constructed here. They they're taken by boat back to Europe
Speaker 2: and then they come back as the finished product. Is
Speaker 2: that true?
Speaker 3: That's not true.
Speaker 2: You bet that's not true.
Speaker 3: That is not true. Hey, you guys who would never
Speaker 3: make money off those cars if they had to ship
Speaker 3: them across the ocean twace.
Speaker 2: Well, well, they were saying it's built here, shipped over there,
Speaker 2: and then brought back. So you're saying, if it's built here,
Speaker 2: there's no way that's going to be sent to overseas
Speaker 2: for anything. However, some of the parts of the car
Speaker 2: that is built here, even though it's physically built here
Speaker 2: in America, because certain parts of that car were shipped here,
Speaker 2: that will reflect a percentage of the car. Okay, I
Speaker 2: get it.
Speaker 3: Say we're talking about a BMW X three, where its
Speaker 3: transmission might come from Germany, its tires might come from Mexico,
Speaker 3: other components might come from Canada. All those different components
Speaker 3: are going to be teariffed at different rates, and those
Speaker 3: different prices are going to have to be built into
Speaker 3: that car.
Speaker 2: Okay. So I think what Trump is saying is that
Speaker 2: that we have tire manufacturers in this country. Maybe what
Speaker 2: they have. What he's trying to do is convince them
Speaker 2: to put American tires on cars manufacturing in America.
Speaker 3: If America could make enough tires to fit all of
Speaker 3: the cars that are made in America, that would be great.
Speaker 3: But it's a very it's a very interconnected supplier ecosystem,
Speaker 3: and so the factories that supply all the parts to
Speaker 3: the cars built in America are all over North America,
Speaker 3: and the United States on its own cannot support the
Speaker 3: number of parts to go on every car built here.
Speaker 2: Okay, So how long will it take for America to
Speaker 2: in effect bring this stuff home and say we're going
Speaker 2: to build cars in America in your opinion.
Speaker 3: So, some manufacturers who have excess plant capacity, like GM
Speaker 3: with their truck plants, can do it relatively quickly, and
Speaker 3: relatively quickly quickly means six months to a year, because
Speaker 3: it's not just you know, GM deciding to put a
Speaker 3: third shift on, it's bringing all of their suppliers along
Speaker 3: to build the parts that have to go into the factory.
Speaker 2: Okay, so and they so if GM is ahead of
Speaker 2: the game here, aby, GM will be able to sell
Speaker 2: cars more cheaply or less expensively, to put it that way,
Speaker 2: than some other car manufacturers, And maybe that will give
Speaker 2: GM a little bit of an invite.
Speaker 3: A little bit of a damage, except that the excess
Speaker 3: capacity is in the pickup truck plants, which are some
Speaker 3: of the most expensive and high margin vehicles they make.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, Well, look.
Speaker 3: Nissan Versa from Mexico with a Chevy Silverado.
Speaker 2: Yeah no, I'll tell you. I've been a Vovo guy
Speaker 2: for a long long time. I'm going to intentionally go
Speaker 2: shop for American cars. I've got an eleven year old
Speaker 2: Vovo which has served me well. I'm going to try
Speaker 2: to make my next car an American car.
Speaker 3: So you can buy a Volvo ex ninety built in
Speaker 3: South Carolina.
Speaker 2: Well, if it's truly built in South Carolina and it's
Speaker 2: not customer money extra money, that's that sounds good? Hey John, Thanks,
Speaker 2: thanks very much. I assume folks can read your stuff.
Speaker 2: You sound like you're on top of your game. Senior
Speaker 2: editor and correspondent and US News and World Report, John,
Speaker 2: we went a little over in time. I thank you
Speaker 2: for your patience. You've been a great guest. Thank you
Speaker 2: so much, very much. I appreciate your time. Thanks John
Speaker 2: Vincent of US News and World Report. And we get back.
Speaker 2: We're going to introduce you to a Boston Globe correspondent
Speaker 2: who is going to talk about Boston's first and only
Speaker 2: pod hotel. Wait, do you hear this story? This is
Speaker 2: going to shock you.
Speaker 1: Night side with Dan Ray, I'm telling you Boston's News.
Speaker 2: Radio delighted to welcome Adelai Parker. She's a Boston Lolbe
Speaker 2: correspondent who has actually experienced pod hotels in Japan, so
Speaker 2: she really has some experience. And now Boston's first pod
Speaker 2: hotel is in existence. Adelaide for those of us who
Speaker 2: have never stated a pod hotel, which means probably ninety
Speaker 2: nine nine percent of my audience, what exactly is a
Speaker 2: pod hotel?
Speaker 5: Yeah? Well, first of all, thank you for having me on.
Speaker 5: A pod hotel is sort of this hotel idea that
Speaker 5: was first pioneered in Japan in nineteen seventy nine, and
Speaker 5: it tries to save the maximum amount of space, so
Speaker 5: it literally only gives you the bare essentials, which means
Speaker 5: that it essentially puts you in this coffin or mri
Speaker 5: sized pod that has a mattress, a pillow, and then
Speaker 5: you get in there and you sleep and there's oftentimes
Speaker 5: not even enough space to sit up in and so
Speaker 5: it's meant to be kind of like a hostel, you know,
Speaker 5: low cost auction for when you're traveling that really only
Speaker 5: provides you with the basic necessities.
Speaker 2: I assume that if you're claustrophobic, this could be a problem.
Speaker 5: I think it could be a problem with your claustrophobic.
Speaker 5: When I was staying in pod hotels, though, I actually
Speaker 5: found them to be a lot better than I expected.
Speaker 5: The ones I stayed and had really good ventilations, so
Speaker 5: they didn't feel stuffy at all, and inside they actually
Speaker 5: seem a lot bigger than they look on the outside.
Speaker 2: So you got to kind of crawl into them, right
Speaker 2: if you don't walk into them.
Speaker 5: Yeah, no, you can't walk into them. You have to
Speaker 5: kind of crawl. You have to, yeah, like go in
Speaker 5: and go in head first and then and then crawl
Speaker 5: a little to get to the end.
Speaker 2: Okay, So now the ones that I have seen primarily
Speaker 2: like at Japanese train stations, which is crazy. It almost
Speaker 2: looks like like a big bunch of mail boxes or something.
Speaker 2: You know, does how much privacy do you have? I
Speaker 2: assume there's a door that you can close and can
Speaker 2: lock from the inside.
Speaker 5: Ah yeah, yeah, So normally you're in this little pod.
Speaker 5: One of the ones I stayed in in Japan looked
Speaker 5: like an MRI machine, And so you go inside and
Speaker 5: there's normally a blackout curtain that you can lower over
Speaker 5: the mouth of the pod, and then it'll be black
Speaker 5: on the inside. It normally doesn't lock, because it's more
Speaker 5: of a curtain, but you have the curtain for darkness
Speaker 5: and for privacy, and then they're all be a locker
Speaker 5: under the pod or somewhere else in the building where
Speaker 5: you can securely store your stuff.
Speaker 2: Okay, so how's the pod hotel in Boston. Is it similar, identical,
Speaker 2: or a little different than the ones you stayed at
Speaker 2: in Japan.
Speaker 5: It's pretty similar in that you know, it's a pod
Speaker 5: hotel and so it has these beds in pretty small spaces,
Speaker 5: but the esthetics were very different. The one in Japan
Speaker 5: was very smooth, very plastic, lots of like white plastic surfaces,
Speaker 5: and then the pods themselves are a bit smaller, while
Speaker 5: the one in Boston had these wood paneled square pods
Speaker 5: rather than the rounder ones in Japan, and the pods
Speaker 5: themselves are actually a bit bigger as well.
Speaker 2: Okay, so where is the pod hotel in Boston, assuming
Speaker 2: someone would like to experience a pod hotel or they
Speaker 2: would like to utilize it if they have a friend
Speaker 2: of these visiting Boston.
Speaker 5: That's called Mecco Hotel and it's in the West End.
Speaker 5: It's actually less than a block away from p D
Speaker 5: Garden on just a little side street, the branch of
Speaker 5: off of the main street that TV Garden is on.
Speaker 2: Okay, so now the big question is what's it cost
Speaker 2: per night? Does it vary whether it's the Bruins with
Speaker 2: Celtics or home or or is it a standard charge.
Speaker 5: I don't think it varies by night. It's a standard charge,
Speaker 5: but it can vary by the kind of pods that
Speaker 5: you get. They have smaller bunk deed pods, which are
Speaker 5: essentially just bug beds with curtains you can close over
Speaker 5: an opening. And then they also have larger single bed pods,
Speaker 5: which are sort of like a bunk bed, but they
Speaker 5: don't have a bunk on the top, so you have
Speaker 5: a higher ceiling.
Speaker 2: Okay, so what's the top price if you really want
Speaker 2: to go crazy and you want a single room as
Speaker 2: opposed to shooting a room with a stranger.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so the one I stayed in, which was one
Speaker 5: of the larger pods, was eighty five dollars tax included.
Speaker 5: And then I think, if you want your own room,
Speaker 5: you just have to go to a non pod hotel.
Speaker 3: Unfortunately, yeah, we're not your own room.
Speaker 2: So when you were there, how many other people were
Speaker 2: within your area? And did any of them snore loudly?
Speaker 5: It was pretty empty. I actually only saw one other
Speaker 5: person while I was in the hotel, staying on my floor,
Speaker 5: and she was talking on the phone a little bit
Speaker 5: before I went to bed, but I ended up just
Speaker 5: closing my curtain and I turned on my stand and
Speaker 5: that totally drowned her out.
Speaker 2: Would you recommend this? This this sort of again, I
Speaker 2: realized that economics are involved here. It sounds to me like,
Speaker 2: is anyone worried about you know, you get into a
Speaker 2: situation where there's somebody who is either belligerate. I mean,
Speaker 2: you know, if you're in a regular hotel and somebody's
Speaker 2: loud in the next room, you can always call down
Speaker 2: to the front desk and say, hey, they have party
Speaker 2: in the next room. Can someone go up and you know,
Speaker 2: quiet them down? Did you think about that? You're in
Speaker 2: a situation and there could be three or four people.
Speaker 2: Did that you could have some you know, some drunk
Speaker 2: college guys having a a a great time, and you
Speaker 2: wouldn't have wouldn't get a good night's sleep.
Speaker 5: I thought about that a little bit. I was on
Speaker 5: a women's only floor, which like ease my worries a little,
Speaker 5: and I think that it kind of just carries the
Speaker 5: same risks as staying in any hostel. I think it's
Speaker 5: really more comparable to a hostel than a traditional hotel.
Speaker 5: So you will be in a room with other people,
Speaker 5: you might be disrupted, but you treat that for being
Speaker 5: a bit less expensive than a normal hotel.
Speaker 2: Wow, and this is the first one in Boston. Do
Speaker 2: you think that what's the capacity in terms of this location,
Speaker 2: between all the different types or whatever? How many people
Speaker 2: can they accommodate on any given night?
Speaker 5: And do they can accommodate a couple hundred people? Although
Speaker 5: I'm not quite sure what the capacity is, but I.
Speaker 2: Think it's like number that's a big yeah, yeah's a
Speaker 2: great And in this building is it a new building?
Speaker 2: Was it a building that they know? There's a lot
Speaker 2: of older buildings down in that portion of the Lower
Speaker 2: West End, The old West End. Was it a new
Speaker 2: building or a building that they basically refurbished an older
Speaker 2: building refurbished?
Speaker 5: The building looked relatively new when I was there, but
Speaker 5: I'm not sure if it was completely new or if
Speaker 5: it was maybe an older building that had the facadically furbished,
Speaker 5: but inside looks very new.
Speaker 2: Okay, So now the question is when does this piece
Speaker 2: hit the Globe or has it hit the global already?
Speaker 2: Because I want to go read the piece now.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so the pieces hit the global already and you
Speaker 5: can find it online if you go to Globe dot
Speaker 5: com under our Travel section, which is under our Broader
Speaker 5: Lifestyle section.
Speaker 2: Okay. Has it been in both the digital in print
Speaker 2: or just the digital.
Speaker 5: I believe it actually comes out today in the print
Speaker 5: issue because a lot of the travel pieces come out
Speaker 5: on Wednesday.
Speaker 2: Well, I got my Globe. I haven't read the travel section.
Speaker 2: I'll be reading it right after the show. Adelaide, I
Speaker 2: really enjoyed the conversation. Adelaide park Or, a Boston Globe
Speaker 2: correspondent who shared her experience with Boston's first pod hotel.
Speaker 2: You're great, sport, Thank you very much. It's your adventuresome.
Speaker 2: You got some great journalistic congratulations and thanks for being
Speaker 2: on with us, and I hope to have you on again.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Great to talk with you. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: Thanks Adelade, you were wonderful. When we get back right
Speaker 2: after the news, at the bottom of the air, we're
Speaker 2: going to talk about the preparations for Salem's four hundredth anniversary.
Speaker 2: Salem is actually older than Boston. They're underway ahead of
Speaker 2: twenty twenty six. My name's Dan Ray. This is Nightside.
Speaker 2: We hear every money through Friday night from eight and
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Speaker 2: three hundred and sixty five days a year, twenty four
Speaker 2: to seven. It's like you're at home. My name's Dan Ray.
Speaker 2: Back right after the news at the bottom of the hour.
Speaker 1: You're on Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm WBZ, Boston's
Speaker 1: news radio.
Speaker 2: For many people do not realize that the city of
Speaker 2: Salem is older than the city of Boston. With us
Speaker 2: as Salem Mayor Dominic Pengalo maya Begalo, Welcome back to Nightside.
Speaker 2: How are you.
Speaker 6: I'm well, Thanks Dan, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean Boston. We I guess we're sixteen thirty.
Speaker 2: If I'm not mistaken, I think that will be our
Speaker 2: four hundredth and.
Speaker 6: You guys are young, yeah, but you're yeah.
Speaker 2: By four years, by four years. How was it that
Speaker 2: Salem got themselves established and became a city in advance
Speaker 2: of Boston. I mean, you guys just smarter and said, hey,
Speaker 2: let's be a city.
Speaker 6: I think it was just the timing of the arrival
Speaker 6: of the Europeans that landed here and settled this on
Speaker 6: of this land. You know, we were calling our celebrations
Speaker 6: Salem four hundred plus, because we're also recognizing that there
Speaker 6: was certainly many centuries of indigenous history here before the
Speaker 6: European arrival. But savteen twenty six of the year that
Speaker 6: we're marketing the four hundredth anniversary of next year in
Speaker 6: twenty twenty six, So.
Speaker 2: Tell us about some of the activities that everybody, it's
Speaker 2: just not pop not Salemites, but everybody can go up
Speaker 2: there and join with the population of Salem and celebrate
Speaker 2: the anniversary. What do you get planned?
Speaker 6: Yeah, we've been working on planning for this for quite
Speaker 6: some time. We started back in twenty seventeen, setting some
Speaker 6: money aside in the budget in twenty nineteen, really getting
Speaker 6: in our mist and some signature park investments are most
Speaker 6: beloved larger parks, providing a twenty million dollars bond to
Speaker 6: invest in those and really upgrade them in anticipation of
Speaker 6: twenty twenty six. So the year ahead, we're going to
Speaker 6: be starting it with a big volunteer celebration, trying to
Speaker 6: encourage people to spend the year thinking about how they
Speaker 6: can get back to their community, and then there'll be
Speaker 6: signature events throughout the year. The first muster of the
Speaker 6: National Guard is always an annual celebration we have here
Speaker 6: in Salem in April, the especially powerful In twenty twenty six,
Speaker 6: we'll be celebrating the fourth of July with some special
Speaker 6: activities on fourth of July that year, and we'll be
Speaker 6: bringing back to Heritage Day's Parade, which happens in August.
Speaker 6: It happened for many decades. Those of us who grew
Speaker 6: up in Salem remember the Heritage Days Parade is a
Speaker 6: great community celebration. It's been gone for a number of
Speaker 6: years now. We're going to bring it back for the
Speaker 6: sale point or plus celebrations, and then Mayor's Night Out
Speaker 6: in September celebrates the fall season here and we wrap
Speaker 6: up the year with the closing event in December. But
Speaker 6: really we're encouraging people if they're affiliated with a group
Speaker 6: here that does a festival, that does an event you
Speaker 6: know other times throughout the year, go to Salem four
Speaker 6: hundred dot org. Take the volunteer pledge first of all,
Speaker 6: because we want people to sign up to volunteer hours
Speaker 6: and over the course of the year. But if you're
Speaker 6: with an organization add your events to the community calendar.
Speaker 6: We want to really populate that calendar with opportunities for
Speaker 6: people to come out and celebrate all year long.
Speaker 2: So there are going to be and again when just
Speaker 2: you know, people can forget. We're talking about twenty twenty six,
Speaker 2: which is next year, so you still have some planning time.
Speaker 2: So you mentioned certain specific dates, and I assume a
Speaker 2: lot of them are going to revolve around weekends. I
Speaker 2: assume correct.
Speaker 6: Yeah, absolutely, those are the dates that we're focusing on
Speaker 6: for some of the signature events, but our festivals happen
Speaker 6: throughout the year and many days, many days of the week.
Speaker 6: We have a special thing that we're adding for next
Speaker 6: year for the four hundred called Parks Day. It's Parks
Speaker 6: Days and September twelfth to the thirteenth, where we'll be
Speaker 6: opening up all of our parks. People can book them
Speaker 6: and the fees are waived if you want to have
Speaker 6: a special event, neighborhood gathering, any kind of community celebration.
Speaker 6: We really want people to get out and enjoy the
Speaker 6: amazing open public spaces that we have in the city.
Speaker 2: You know, it's a great city. Of course, when we
Speaker 2: think of Salem, oftentimes you think of Halloween celebrations. Have
Speaker 2: been saying, am all of that is the four hundredth
Speaker 2: in October of twenty twenty six, Is that going to
Speaker 2: be one of the major events? I mean, if anything,
Speaker 2: that's that in October obviously October thirty first, Is that
Speaker 2: going to be the final big event or will you
Speaker 2: treated just as a regular Halloween.
Speaker 6: Yeah, so we the Mayor's Night Out celebration is on
Speaker 6: the final Friday of September, and it's kind of the
Speaker 6: kickoff or the community for the October season, and then
Speaker 6: October is going to be just a regular that happening
Speaker 6: is fun, you know, there's nothing specific to sale four
Speaker 6: hundred during the month, although we certainly invite anybody planning
Speaker 6: events in October and Salem to add them to the
Speaker 6: community calendar so people can find them and see how
Speaker 6: they're affiliated with the quad centennial celebrations. But the closing
Speaker 6: event will be in December as the end the year
Speaker 6: and reflect on the history, the moment that we're in
Speaker 6: now and then what happens in the future in the
Speaker 6: decades and the centuries to come for our city.
Speaker 2: Well, it has to be a real honor to be
Speaker 2: the mayor of a city like Salem or Boston or
Speaker 2: wherever on one of those special years, whether it's the
Speaker 2: three fiftieth. They did the three fiftieth in Boston back
Speaker 2: in nineteen eighty as I'm sure you know, and that
Speaker 2: time Kevin White would have been mayor, so you'll you'll
Speaker 2: be remembered as the mayor for the four hundredth. Do
Speaker 2: you have any idea or projections as to how many
Speaker 2: folks not only from around the country, but from around
Speaker 2: the world will decide to put Salem on their travel
Speaker 2: calendar for that year for twenty twenty six, any idea
Speaker 2: what sort of a bump you're going to have in
Speaker 2: terms of tourism.
Speaker 6: It's hard to say for sure. I mean, there's been
Speaker 6: a few cities that have already had their four hundredth
Speaker 6: celebrations over the last few years, starting with Plymouth. The
Speaker 6: timing for Plymouth was a little unfortunate for them. It
Speaker 6: was in twenty twenty, and so, you know, the pandemic
Speaker 6: really kind of threw them a curveball in terms of unfortunate. Yeah,
Speaker 6: that was tough. Yeah, So it's really hard to say.
Speaker 6: Salem is certainly a destination for many people. Every year,
Speaker 6: we welcome close to probably around four hundred million visitors
Speaker 6: for a city of forty five thousand people. It's it's
Speaker 6: a you know, it's a place that people love to
Speaker 6: visit and we love to share our stories with the world.
Speaker 2: You said four hundred million.
Speaker 4: Did I hear you in for close to four million?
Speaker 2: Yeah? What did I miss? Yeah? That's now that's a
Speaker 2: pretty big nomber million four million.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and you know, about fifty percent of them come
Speaker 6: between mid September and the end of October, so it's
Speaker 6: certainly the busiest season for us.
Speaker 2: Okay, last question, and I'm sure you would have anticipated this.
Speaker 2: How are you going to deal with Every city has
Speaker 2: great history, bad history? How are you going to deal
Speaker 2: with the history of the witch trials? Will you ignore
Speaker 2: that or will you deal with it in some way?
Speaker 2: That's going to be a tough a tough part of
Speaker 2: the history to deal with, obviously.
Speaker 6: It is, but I think it's an important part that
Speaker 6: we acknowledge and we reflect on it and we think
Speaker 6: about how it informs our values as a city today.
Speaker 6: You know, we we're proud to be a welcoming place
Speaker 6: that really wants to learn from our history, grow from it,
Speaker 6: and also share our story with the world and with
Speaker 6: our you know, with our visitors, so they understand our
Speaker 6: contributions to our system of justice and jurisprudence, you know,
Speaker 6: the courts of law that we have today in this country,
Speaker 6: and how they were informed by the history that happened
Speaker 6: here in sixteen ninety two.
Speaker 2: Well, good, good answer to a tough question. And I'm
Speaker 2: sure you expected. I forgot to save it to the
Speaker 2: end so it wouldn't be mad at me if I
Speaker 2: asked it too early. Yeah, mega, Thanks very much, your
Speaker 2: good sport, best of luck. Something for folks to look
Speaker 2: forward to and plan. Is there a website up yet
Speaker 2: where people can start it to look at it and
Speaker 2: maybe market on their their calendar for next year that
Speaker 2: we can direct people to.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
Speaker 6: The wide is a Salem four und dot org. That's
Speaker 6: the number four hundred, so Sale four.
Speaker 2: N Yeah, you dropped out there, so Salem four hundred
Speaker 2: dot org. Okay, just want to make sure we get
Speaker 2: it right. Thanks, Mayor, I really do appreciate it. Mayor
Speaker 2: Dominic Pangalo, the mayor of Salem, Massachusetts. By the way,
Speaker 2: which number, mayor are you? In four hundred years? How
Speaker 2: many mayors have Salem had.
Speaker 6: I am the fifty second mayor. We've only had mayors
Speaker 6: a city since eighteen thirty six, but we've been I
Speaker 6: incorporated the town since sixteen twenty six.
Speaker 2: That's quite all right, I just I had to ask
Speaker 2: thanks again, Salem Mayor Dominic Pangalo. All Right, we get back.
Speaker 2: We're gonna talk to you about something that affects everyone.
Speaker 2: If you own a credit card, it's going to get
Speaker 2: more expensive the use of credit cards. And I'll tell
Speaker 2: you why. We will. We will be told why by
Speaker 2: Doug Canter, who's general counsel for the National Association of
Speaker 2: Convenience Stores. Trust me, this is one you want to
Speaker 2: listen to. We'll be right back on Nightside.
Speaker 1: You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's
Speaker 1: news radio.
Speaker 2: All Right, our fourth and final guest this hour is
Speaker 2: Doug Canter. He's the general counsel for the National Association
Speaker 2: of Convenience Stores. Doug Cantell, Welcome to Nightside. How are you, sir?
Speaker 4: Thank you for having me on.
Speaker 2: You're more than welcome. It's going to get more expensive
Speaker 2: for people to use credit cards. What's going on?
Speaker 4: Well, we have this strange system where Visa and MasterCard
Speaker 4: tell all the banks that give us credit cards how
Speaker 4: much to charge the stores, and without price competition among
Speaker 4: those banks, the fees have gone out of control.
Speaker 2: Okay, So let's talk numbers here. Okay. So if I
Speaker 2: go into a restaurant and I use my Visa card
Speaker 2: and it costs me one hundred bucks before the tip,
Speaker 2: Let's say it's a hundred even, you know, including taxes.
Speaker 2: How much of that one hundred and let's say I
Speaker 2: pay the waiter waitress cash as a tip. So how
Speaker 2: much of that one hundred dollars is eaten up by
Speaker 2: the bank or the Visa or Visa homever Because it's
Speaker 2: bank and Visa who run the credit card Elon's I
Speaker 2: think it's Elon Financial Services is the person I write
Speaker 2: the company I write to check to every month? How
Speaker 2: much four percent? Two percent? What is it?
Speaker 3: It's two?
Speaker 4: About two thirty five goes to the bank. About three
Speaker 4: dollars in total goes to the bank and Visa MasterCard together,
Speaker 4: and that adds up. Last year, the fees averaged almost
Speaker 4: twelve hundred dollars per American family for the year.
Speaker 2: Okay, So the twelve hundred dollars goes to the to
Speaker 2: the credit card company and to the bank. So it
Speaker 2: sounds to me like, it's a three percent, you said
Speaker 2: two thirty five in the balance, it's about three bucks, right,
Speaker 2: that's right. Okay, So where's it going to be a
Speaker 2: year from now or six months from now. Where's that
Speaker 2: number going to jump to?
Speaker 4: Well, what we know is between twenty twenty and twenty
Speaker 4: twenty four, the Visa master Card credit card fees went
Speaker 4: up eighty percent. So we're talking about double digit increases
Speaker 4: every single year.
Speaker 2: So I'm doing the math in my head here. It
Speaker 2: probably was I'm guessing maybe a buck seventy five and
Speaker 2: to increase that eighty percent you need, it probably went
Speaker 2: from buck seventy five per one hundred dollars to three dollars.
Speaker 2: And so that might mean when is the next round
Speaker 2: of increases likely to hit. I don't know.
Speaker 4: We just had an increase in January from Visa of
Speaker 4: about another one hundred million dollars. They've been doing these
Speaker 4: almost every year for the last few years.
Speaker 2: So my understanding is that the restaurants and stores, and
Speaker 2: of course this applies more than restaurants. It applies to
Speaker 2: retail stores and all of that. When you're at you know,
Speaker 2: Target or Walmart's or whatever, us and convenience stores. Are
Speaker 2: some of these restaurants and some of these other retailers,
Speaker 2: are they now going to start to break that out
Speaker 2: so people realize that more and more of their money
Speaker 2: during the credit card transaction is not going for the
Speaker 2: products or the services that they've received, but an increasing
Speaker 2: amount is going to the card company and to the
Speaker 2: bank that backs up the card company.
Speaker 4: Yeah, more places are feeling forced to do that. They
Speaker 4: don't like to do it because a lot of times
Speaker 4: customers don't actually know about these fees, and they blame
Speaker 4: the store and get upset about it.
Speaker 5: But the truth is we.
Speaker 4: Pay them either way. Just sometimes we know and sometimes
Speaker 4: we don't know.
Speaker 2: Okay, so the fees will go up, but the store
Speaker 2: itself just as beginning now, because of the level of
Speaker 2: fee of fee that will be charged, they're going to
Speaker 2: let the customers know. Now other than maybe making the
Speaker 2: customer a little more understanding, are they hoping that the
Speaker 2: customers might turn around and change their credit cards? I mean, obviously,
Speaker 2: you know. Just I'm trying to figure out what the
Speaker 2: purpose of telling the customer, oh, yeah, your check is
Speaker 2: one hundred dollars, but as an additional four dollars for
Speaker 2: credit card fees, and maybe some people will say, what
Speaker 2: are you talking about credit card fees and they'll explain
Speaker 2: it to you. Is it a public relations thing or
Speaker 2: is it an effort to maybe to get people to
Speaker 2: find some credit cards that are that are charging a
Speaker 2: lesser percentage of fees to the providers.
Speaker 4: Sure, a lot of places would prefer you pay cash
Speaker 4: or or use your debit card. Either of those are
Speaker 4: cheaper than the credit card. They know sometimes that can't work,
Speaker 4: but they're still trying to let people know as best
Speaker 4: they can and try to recover some of the money.
Speaker 4: Just to give you a sense of how big it
Speaker 4: is for the stores, it's their second highest operating cost
Speaker 4: on average. What they pay their employees is number one.
Speaker 4: Credit card fees is number two. It's more than they
Speaker 4: pay to rent the store.
Speaker 2: Okay, now, I'll tell you. I am of the belief
Speaker 2: that when credit cards came along, it was very beneficial.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about restaurants, because it's one thing. If I'm
Speaker 2: in a restaurant and at an expensive restaurant and they say, well,
Speaker 2: you know, your dinner for you and your wife tonight
Speaker 2: was two hundred and fifty dollars, how would you like
Speaker 2: to pay that very few people walking around with two
Speaker 2: fifty in their pocket and cash, So credit cards became
Speaker 2: a convenience. And I think that credit cards, the use
Speaker 2: of credit cards, has frankly inflated prices. I don't know
Speaker 2: if you agree with that. You probably don't, But I
Speaker 2: do believe in that because I think it's real easy
Speaker 2: to say, oh, give me the check, let me put
Speaker 2: a twenty percent tip on here, no problem, and you
Speaker 2: just do that. At the end of the bud you say, wow,
Speaker 2: we spent four thousand dollars last month of my credit card.
Speaker 2: Did I where did it go? Do you buy that argument?
Speaker 2: And no, that by using cash people might become a
Speaker 2: little more cost conscious and that might come back to
Speaker 2: haunt the restaurants a little bit.
Speaker 4: Look, there's no doubt there's some of that dynamic with
Speaker 4: credit cards, and there's no doubt there's some benefit to it.
Speaker 4: But no matter how beneficial something is, we usually don't
Speaker 4: let all the competitors agree on how much to charge
Speaker 4: for it. We call that price fixing.
Speaker 2: And have an How about an antitrust action exactly?
Speaker 4: There's been one for a long time. The credit card
Speaker 4: companies have so much money to spend against it. They've delayed,
Speaker 4: it's gone on for twenty years now.
Speaker 2: Wow, Wow, this is fascinating. What advice would you would
Speaker 2: you suggest to consumers? I mean, when you can pay cash,
Speaker 2: pay cash.
Speaker 4: Look, that's actually an often good budgeting technique that that
Speaker 4: people recommend because we do tend to think of it
Speaker 4: as funny money if if we don't see it in
Speaker 4: front of us, there's there's no doubt about that. Look,
Speaker 4: we're trying to push legislation that would require these credit
Speaker 4: card companies to compete with each other on on price
Speaker 4: and service like everybody else does. We think that would
Speaker 4: make some sense, but you know, the truth is the
Speaker 4: system is not well designed for everybody, and we tend
Speaker 4: to get sucked into it anyway, you know, chasing after
Speaker 4: rewards or what have you.
Speaker 2: This is this is a tough one because the consumer.
Speaker 2: Not only are the restaurants really uh incurring a cost
Speaker 2: that's an ever increasing cost, but the consumer is going
Speaker 2: to pay that that ever increasing cost as well. That's
Speaker 2: it's it's really a tough spot that the credit card
Speaker 2: companies have put all of us in. Maybe we need
Speaker 2: to shop the credit card companies a little bit more
Speaker 2: I've had the same credit card for probably fifteen years,
Speaker 2: and just there's inertia to change your credit card company
Speaker 2: and all of that. It's time consuming, So therefore we
Speaker 2: stay with the same credit card company, you know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's definitely true. At the same time, on these fees,
Speaker 4: shopping your credit card company doesn't really help because this
Speaker 4: is what they're charging to the merchant, and they're all
Speaker 4: agreeing to charge the same thing. That's why we do
Speaker 4: need Congress to step up here and do something about it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and of course Congress accepts a lot more campaign
Speaker 2: contributions from credit card companies. I'm sure that they do
Speaker 2: from consumers, so that's a bit of a dilemma as well.
Speaker 2: I really you explain this really well, Doug. Thank you.
Speaker 2: I understand that not much better, and hopefully my audience
Speaker 2: understands it much better. And maybe people when they're going
Speaker 2: out to some of the more you know, some of
Speaker 2: the more family oriented, less expensive restaurants, not the high
Speaker 2: ends the restaurants, but the ones that are a little
Speaker 2: bit more reasonable, maybe maybe they'll have some cash in
Speaker 2: their pocket and they will help themselves and help the
Speaker 2: restaurants as well.
Speaker 4: Those local family businesses will definitely appreciate it.
Speaker 2: I love local, I love diners, and I love local restaurants,
Speaker 2: and I believe me. Hey, Doug, thank you very much,
Speaker 2: Doug cantor can we get more information from Is there
Speaker 2: a website you want to send people to for more
Speaker 2: information on this?
Speaker 4: Yes, for the Merchants Payments Coalition dot com. They'll be
Speaker 4: able to find all the background on this.
Speaker 2: Merchants Payments Coalition dot com. Doug Cancer, thank you very much.
Speaker 4: Thank you, You're very welcome.
Speaker 2: Coming up, we're going to talk with Boston City Council
Speaker 2: and Ed Flynn about some ethics reform in the Boston
Speaker 2: City Council. Hey, let's say that entire City Hall of
Speaker 2: Boston could use some ethics reform. Back on Nightside, after
Speaker 2: the nine o'clock news,