warren shoulberg (00:01.656)
Hi everyone, welcome to another session of Retail Unwrapped. And I’m pretty sure that this is the first business session that you’ve ever ever tuned into that talks about explosive diarrhea. Well, we’ll be discussing that along with all kinds of scientific, political, and social issues surrounding the latest food-related contamination Cyclospora. and it’s got a longer name, but I’m gonna I’m gonna call it Cyclospora.

in in lettuce. and who better to try to sort it all out than than my companion here, Phil Lampert, well known as the supermarket guru and someone who knows more about the grocery and food business than any human being probably should ever or admit to. on our retail unwrap session today, we’re gonna talk about all of this and try to sort it all out. and and and

Give some heads hands-on advice about what you can do about it if you’re in a business that is being affected about by all of this. I’m Warren Schulberg, I’m another Robin Report contributor, and I’ll be helping Phil while trying to stay away from the salad. this is by no means the first time we’ve seen a fast food chain. It’s Taco Bell in this case, and a food supplier, Taylor Farms here, caught up in a contamination crisis. McDonald’s.

Chipotle, Wendy’s have all been in the same position over the past few years. And going back even further, some of us old timers remember when when Perrier saw its market share crashed when it didn’t handle its contamination water problem well. But the the textbook example of a company that did handle a situation like this well w was Tylenol, which did all the right things.

and came out of it in perhaps even better shape than they went into. So some good examples, good, bad and ugly, and we’re gonna get all into this. So Phil, I think best place to start is is bring us up to speed on the stories so far. Wha what’s happened and where are we?

Phil Lempert (02:16.204)
Well Warren, what’s so interesting to me is this is not a story about lettuce.

It’s not a story about food safety. It’s a story about the government screwing up the FDA, the USDA, the inspection service. You know, since this administration has come in, you know, FDA has lost about twenty percent of all their employees. Number one. Number two, the people who left were the smartest, most experienced people, which is one of the reasons that it’s taken so long for us to discover what’s going on.

warren shoulberg (02:38.627)
Yeah.

Phil Lempert (02:50.864)
Now, as you point out, Taylor Farms de Mexico, their Mexican division, is probably, you know, not definitively, but probably the source of shredded iceberg lettuce that was given to or sold to Taco Bell. Now it’s in five states where Taco Bell has removed this product. Taylor Farms has been removing product. And I want to say, even though Taco Bell,

When this news first broke out, their stock price went down. They’re the winner here. they’re the winner because they’re handling it properly. they’re being really upfront. Taylor Farms, not so much. And it really, you know, doesn’t make too much of a difference to Taylor Farms because it’s privately owned, versus Taco Bell, which is owned by Yum brands. but to your point, you know, we’ve seen these examples time and time again. We’re always gonna have food safety nightmares.

if you would, and especially when we’re importing product. And you know, when when we have an FDA, USDA inspection service that is not up to speed, my fear, and what’s keeping me up at night is we’re going to see more of these.

warren shoulberg (04:09.835)
What is Taco Bell doing right?

Phil Lempert (04:13.048)
They’re being upfront. They’re being honest. You know, they’re they’re saying, okay, we’re gonna remove this product. they they have a heart and soul in it, and you know, it’s just all about communication. And I think that this is a lesson for all retailers. And when I say all retailers, you know, most retailers sell food of some kind, whether it’s you know, Macy’s with with their seller, they sell food, whether it’s Costco.

They sell food, whether it’s our traditional supermarket. so everybody should be watching this very carefully because with the government the way it is, frankly, retailers are gonna have to step up, and there are certain retailers that do. Costco, for example, does more meat inspections and they have for decades than the entire government does. Walmart has very strict standards, not only for their store brands, but for consumer package goods companies that

have to adhere to food safety you know regulations. And what we’ve seen with this administration is they’ve you know rolled back the food traceability rule that was supposed to take place this year and they’ve put it off for a couple years.

warren shoulberg (05:29.107)
w well I know I’m I’m here in Atlanta and a lot of my neighbors work or did work for the C D C which is just down just down the road, about two miles from where from where we live. And and so the C D C has been part of this as well, right? In terms of agencies that should be monitoring all of this.

Phil Lempert (05:47.555)
Yes. Ab absolutely. And you know, you just can’t gut, you know, even though Elon Musk thinks that you can, you can’t just go in with a chainsaw and gut all these employees who have

much experience and and really understand this. And you know what what happened this past you know weekend where, you know, the FDA then came out and said, we had a false positive on on the lettuce. it’s just confusing to consumers. And what we know is when these mixed messages come out, people stop buying foods. And it’s not just iceberg lettuce and you know

Keep in mind that Taylor Farms, their iceberg lettuce is just one of their products. They’ve got a vast array of products. And people are just, you know, I was up at Cornell University in Ithaca last week. And talking to the cafeteria people there, people are now ordering sandwiches without lettuce. You know, and it has nothing to do. And this is before we knew that it was Taylor Farms and and so on. And sales are gonna be down.

At Taco Bell. Sales are going to be down in supermarkets for all kinds of bagged lettuce. And frankly, I, you know, the advice that FDA is putting out saying, you know, make sure if you buy iceberg lettuce, you’re buying a whole head of lettuce versus, you know, shredded lettuce or or bagged lettuce. I’m not sure that’s the right advice to be giving people as well. what we really want to do is prevent these kinds of problems from happening, and that’s what

They should be focused on. And you know, certainly Wall Street noticed this with the decline in the stock price for Yum brands. Taylor Farms, their main distributor, has you know decided not to sell Taylor Farms. this is gonna have major repercussions for for the entire supermarket industry.

warren shoulberg (07:53.826)
And it’s not just the six states or h however many states it is, right? I mean this there’s like a mass hysteria at at this point, right?

Phil Lempert (08:01.726)
Absolutely. Everybody in all 50 states are going crazy about this because what you said before, nobody wants to get severe diarrhea from eating lettuce. Yeah, we we really don’t. And it’s it’s critical for us to point out. and again, you know, what the Robin Report stands for is you know truthful information that’s going out there both to consumers and and to retailers.

But what we really want to point out is that the problem is not just with Taylor Farms. It’s not just with Taco Bell. It’s with the system that we now have created in Washington for the Animal Plant Health Inspection Service, for you know the Food Safety and Inspection Service. I mean, all these people are down. You mentioned CDC. CDC, I think, has has lost almost a little over four thousand.

thousand Stafford. I mean how how can we run our our food supply with this? And again let’s not forget that one of the biggest problems that we have as it relates to our food supply is climate change. So we’ve seen it affect our prices with you know the the price of chocolate this past year with the price of coffee this past year but also if we look at what’s gone on with orange juice

warren shoulberg (09:02.379)
Yeah.

Phil Lempert (09:31.393)
You know, orange juice has been affected where all the orange groves in Arizona and in and Florida have been infected. and you know, they they just don’t do an output. And we moved all of our orange juice production to Brazil. Well now they’ve got the same infection there. so we really have to sit back and reimagine what the food industry is, how we grow our food. and I’m not suggesting that we all have like a little blue pill for breakfast and a little green.

Pill for lunch. No, that that’s not the way to go. We love our food. We want to have food that tastes great. But the government has to stand up. And and in fact, you know, if if you take a look, USDA Inspector General reported that consumer complaints about the safety of meat, poultry, and egg was up 40% last year. So yeah, I mean, we we have a serious problem. And and what what this administration has done.

warren shoulberg (10:02.537)
Ha ha

warren shoulberg (10:23.223)
Wow.

Phil Lempert (10:31.296)
You know, just to give you some idea, USDA has a budget of about one point four billion dollars. So this administration in the new budget has added five hundred and eighteen thousand dollars. That’s it, to to improve USDA. Come on, I mean they’re they’re blowing on on the war in Iran, you know, a billion dollars a day, and and to protect our health and and wellness as a relationship.

warren shoulberg (10:45.237)
Yeah.

Ayy, aye.

warren shoulberg (10:57.303)
Yeah, yeah.

Phil Lempert (11:01.146)
leads to food, we’re gonna get a half a a half a million dollar increase? That’s absurd.

warren shoulberg (11:08.011)
That won’t even cover the gold leaf decorations for the for the agency offices. And

Phil Lempert (11:11.054)
Right. Exactly, exactly. It it won’t pay for one sign that they put outside.

warren shoulberg (11:18.893)
And as you pointed out, the layoffs, you know, it it wasn’t just the kid in the mailroom or or somebody who was the assistant to the assistant to the assistant. This was a lot of senior people, the people who know where where where the bodies are buried, right?

Phil Lempert (11:35.631)
Exactly. And you know, those are the people that we want to retain. Those are not the people we want to leave. And they just didn’t want to deal with this administration and and the you know the nonsense that goes on back and forth with whether it’s tariffs and and so on. And and let’s not forget, you know, when you put tariffs on imported products and we don’t have inspectors inspecting that, you know, we’re we’re really at risk. So retailers are stepping up. I mentioned Walmart.

their program, but whether it’s ShopRite, Wegmans, HEB, Publix, all of them have food safety inspections. they have vans that go from store to store. However, most of what they look at is their own store brands. But my call to action for them is you can’t just rely on that anymore. We can’t depend on the government. what you’re gonna have to do is you’re gonna have to step it up, and you know, whether it’s produce, whether it’s meat.

eat any product, your food safety teams are gonna have to inspect all of that.

warren shoulberg (12:41.833)
I remember back in the day when JCPenney was was such a big player in apparel and and home products, they had inspectors that went to the factories and to the fields in India and China and and elsewhere and even in the US. And they they

certified that what a product said it was was in fact true. That whether it was the thread count on a sheet or or the amount of of of cotton in a in a t shirt, that it was real. And I’m pretty sure they don’t do that anymore. But that held their suppliers to a standard.

And because again, back then Penny was a was w one of the couple of biggest retailers in the country, they kind of raised the bar for everybody. The the the suppliers knew that to satisfy Penny th they were gonna end up doing this across the board. So that’s that’s kinda what you’re suggesting here, right?

Phil Lempert (13:44.747)
Absolutely, and there’s retailers who are doing it. Trader Joe’s does it. They’ve got a whole field force that’s out there. Aldi does it. I mean, you have to have this extra layer in place. You know, I I grew up in the food business. My grandfather’s a dairy farmer, my father is a food manufacturer, and importer and then a broker. I grew up in the Hunts Point market and the and the Newark market, you know, selling canned hams. And and I would walk into

warren shoulberg (14:08.907)
Wow.

Phil Lempert (14:14.68)
their their stalls and you’d see these butchers with blood all over the place with a meat cleaver and I would walk in with a suit. I mean I just graduated college. I mean no wonder they wouldn’t buy from me. But those days, every one of those stalls, regardless of the size, and a lot of them were small, maybe you know 20 foot wide by fifty to a hundred feet deep with a you know refrigerator in the back kind of thing

warren shoulberg (14:28.125)
Pretty much.

Phil Lempert (14:44.56)
Every one of them had a meet inspector sitting there the entire time that they were open.

We don’t have that anymore. We don’t have that. And then if you look, also what this administration has done is they’ve relaxed the rules for poultry processing so they can run, you know, poultry lines faster. Well, what that means is, you know, more more workers get hurt, number one. And number two, from a food safety standpoint, you know, we up the risk of of all these things. So we really have a call to action here.

warren shoulberg (14:55.052)
Hmm.

Phil Lempert (15:23.184)
And you know, retailers, again, like Walmart, like some of the ones that I talked about, really have to demand, if you would, from their suppliers that they have very strict adherence. Because certainly with this administration, we’re we’re not gonna see it. And we’ve got to have these retailers communicate clearly, like Taco Bell’s doing. I give them a lot of credit. Taylor Farms, not so much. If you go to the Taylor Farms website, you

Right right on top. You know, it’s it’s some disclaimer of whatever. I mean, it it’s in all the news, but they’re doing it. We can’t force them to do anything. but you know, we we really need better information. And also when we have this information leaking out of FDA that it’s you know all clear, that you know it’s a it’s a redacted lab test. Okay, we still have

warren shoulberg (15:58.542)
Ha ha

Phil Lempert (16:23.0)
Haven’t found the problem here. And and that that’s what has me worried. Just because they did one test on one sample, false positive. Well, what about all the rest? What about the 1600 people who are sick as a result? Now, fortunately, and Warren, I say this with with all my heart and soul, fortunately, we haven’t had anybody die from this outbreak.

warren shoulberg (16:51.394)
Yeah.

Phil Lempert (16:52.88)
and my hope is that that we don’t. But that’s not the answer. You know, we we just can’t ignore this stuff.

warren shoulberg (16:56.141)
Yeah.

warren shoulberg (17:01.803)
Well, hoping that it doesn’t get worse is is is hardly a a realistic solution. And you know, I was thinking about the the the fast food salad guys. They they’ve gotta be getting creamed right now, right?

Phil Lempert (17:16.278)
Absolutely. And anybody who sells salads and I’m in I’m in New York City and the past few days, you know, I went to my little Korean grocer and and you know talked to them and you know, ha are people, you know, ordering salads and stuff like that? No. No. Everybody is afraid. And we’re afraid because nobody’s communicating properly to us. The FDA isn’t, USDA isn’t, Taylor Farms isn’t, you know, to to be

warren shoulberg (17:19.853)
Yeah.

warren shoulberg (17:34.401)
Hmm.

Phil Lempert (17:46.222)
honest with you that I feel safer going into a Taco Bell than I do, you know, going into a supermarket and buying a bag bag lettuce.

warren shoulberg (17:51.169)
Mm-hmm.

warren shoulberg (17:55.906)
the the federal government has really not issued any reaction or statements or g new guidelines about any of this, ha ha has it?

Phil Lempert (18:04.845)
No.

You know, all all that they’re doing is they’re reporting and the and they’re saying that they haven’t been able to discover, you know, the source. but again, they can’t discover the source ’cause they don’t have anybody there to go discover it. You know, who who to your point has the experience of C D C, of you know, F D A, US D. A. These senior people have all left. and this affects brands, you know, and and again,

not not just Taylor Farms and Taco Bell, but every brand of lettuce that’s out there.

every fast food restaurant who puts lettuce on sandwiches, every supermarket who sells lettuce. This affects the entire supply chain. And if you go back to when, you know, you had mentioned the the McDonalds recall of of, you know, I think it was twenty eighteen, what we saw are sales were down considerably of all lettuces. and and they were down, you know, six months later, they were still down like sixty percent.

So this has major repercussions for the industry. And again, even though my focus is supermarkets, anybody who sells food, you know, Macy’s, Costco, anybody who sells any kind of food is at risk for all this. So, you know, we at the Robin Report are really, you know, looking to retailers to step up their game and to be, you know, cognizant of

Phil Lempert (19:42.717)
The situation that we have. And it’s not enough just to write a letter to your congressman or call your senator and say, you know, we need to fix this. The retailers have to fix this. They’re the only ones who are going to be able to fix it. And as a result, it’s going to increase costs. You know, when we do more inspections, it increases costs and so on. And that means you and I, Warren, are going to have to pay for it.

warren shoulberg (20:00.226)
Got to, right?

warren shoulberg (20:08.437)
And it’s a tricky thing to pull off. you know, it’s not a direct comparison, but there’s a classic marketing story about when when Ford Motor introduced seat belts in the late nineteen fifties and they thought they were doing a big deal and talking about safety. it turns out that consumers didn’t wanna know that the car they had just bought could

could crash and burn and that they had to have this seatbelt. So it turned out to be a marketing disaster. So how do the stores and the groceries and the fast food guys, how do they navigate this by saying, here’s what we do to protect your food safety, and are they in fact spooking the the shopper even more? What do you think?

Phil Lempert (20:34.67)
Sure.

Phil Lempert (20:56.834)
Well, what spooks the shopper is when they put up a sign that says this product has been recalled, so we’ve taken it off our shelf. That’s what spooks everybody. What they need to do is say where they get their shredded and bagged lettuce from. Is it connected to Taylor Farms at all? Is it coming from Mexico? Is it imported? and again, let’s not forget, you know, we’re talking about lettuce, but a lot of our produce is actually imported from China. So we’ve got to be transparent.

warren shoulberg (21:05.75)
Uh-huh.

Phil Lempert (21:26.768)
We’ve got to be truthful. We’ve got to be upfront and honest. We also have to prove that they’re testing it, similar to what Costco does, similar to what Walmart does. That communicates safety to a consumer. And also just saying that you’re following FDA and USDA guidelines doesn’t reassure anybody.

warren shoulberg (21:54.197)
Not enough, yeah.

Phil Lempert (21:56.641)
What a retailer needs to do is say, here’s what we’re doing differently. Here’s what we’re doing better than USDA. One of the things, and I I know I keep on harping about Costco, but I love Costco. one of the things that they installed probably twenty, twenty-five years ago.

warren shoulberg (21:57.069)
Yeah.

Phil Lempert (22:16.518)
is a robocall that if a product was recalled, you would get because you’re you’re a member, they know who you are, you would get a robocall that says, Don’t consume this product, bring it back to the store for a full refund. That’s what we need to do. And Costco again has been doing it for for decades. and then again, you know, with with FDA, you know, just saying that you know it’s it’s a redacted test and stuff like that. No

No, push back. As a retailer, don’t assume that everything is fine because it’s not. And this really points out a much bigger problem than just lettuce from Taylor Farms or lettuce at at Taco Bell. This is a warning sign, and we’ve seen many warning signs in in the past year and a half or so. But this one, you know, can kill people.

As as we’ve seen, you know, with a lot of the cuts for USAID, killing

or leading to six hundred thousand deaths of of kids, this is another warning sign for us. And we better stand up as consumers, we better stand up as as journalists, we better stand up as retailers to say this doesn’t work. So we’re gonna put in a better system that doesn’t depend on on the government because the government at at least for the next, you know, two and a half years is not gonna get better.

warren shoulberg (23:52.248)
You can’t depend on it, yeah. So it does Costco do anything in store to t to to get this messaging across to their customers?

Phil Lempert (24:00.984)
Yes. now again I don’t believe that Costco sells Taylor Farms, but I could be wrong about that. but yes, anytime there’s a recall from from Costco, a clear sign goes up, not just saying we’ve removed this from the shelf, but here’s why we’ve removed it from the shelf. And that builds trust. especially in a membership organization like Costco. you don’t want to lose trust.

warren shoulberg (24:29.389)
Well and I know some guys outside the food business in the in the fashion business have are starting to talk about traceability. you know, they’re telling the consumer, here’s a barcode or here’s something, scan this and you’ll see where this product was made, where the raw materials were grown. I mean is that a realistic choice in food?

Phil Lempert (24:55.114)
Absolutely. and and in fact next year the new GS1 barcode comes into effect. And Proctor and Gamble has already put it on all their cosmetic products. There’s some wineries have done it. So instead of just having a 10-digit barcode, the first five digits represent the manufacturer, the second five digits represent the product. The the new QR code, and and it’s a QR code, can have up to 3,000 characters on it.

So what that will have for a consumer with just scanning your phone is it’ll have the source of it, who made it, the farm that it was on it, expiration date, nutritional information, a whole plethora of information that that we we’ve never had before. and I I am a big proponent of what GS1, you know, is doing. And you know, again, PNG led the way, putting it on all their products, Unilever has it on some of theirs, and we’re gonna see it on.

warren shoulberg (26:00.524)
And when those big guys do it, they again, like we talked about before, they raise the bar and kind of forces everybody to do it, right?

Phil Lempert (26:08.372)
Absolutely. whether it’s your store brand, whether it’s a national brand, everybody, you know, is going to be giving us more information. And frankly, in today’s era, especially for Generation Z and millennials who have grown up with technology, information is the key. they want more information probably than than they can handle, but they want information. And it’s out there. You know, if you look at what Walmart, what Frankianis

did when he was at Walmart with IBM with the blockchain. I mean, that that was the start of all of this, saying, you know, if we have a food recall, what we need to be able to do is trace it back. And Frank had shared with me, you know, before, and I might get the number wrong, Warren, so bear with me. But before blockchain, it would take Walmart something like three weeks to be able to find, you know, the source of a food safety

warren shoulberg (26:45.037)
Yeah.

Phil Lempert (27:08.266)
thing. Once blockchain was in effect, it took something like 30 seconds. You know, that that that’s what we need. We need this proper, correct, accurate information out there. And then people who know how to manage it.

warren shoulberg (27:13.719)
Wow.

warren shoulberg (27:24.779)
And you think shoppers I mean this is not just gonna be a headline for a couple of weeks and then that shoppers are gonna stop paying attention to this. I mean, you think we’re looking at a a fundamental change in in how next how next gen customers look at this?

Phil Lempert (27:43.811)
Unfortunately, no. I think that that the headline is gonna, you know, get buried in in a couple weeks. You know, people will forget about it. the only way that we’re gonna have change is for folks like you and I to be able to keep the conversation going, to keep on saying, here’s here’s the problem. It’s not about lettuce, you know, it’s about FDA, USDA, you know. it it’s about Center for Disease Control.

warren shoulberg (27:45.525)
Okay.

Phil Lempert (28:13.624)
It’s for all these bodies that have been stripped of their intelligence, of their workforce. That’s our problem. And frankly, you know, I’m also deeply concerned that within a week of, you know, of the administration pushing back the food traceability program, which was set for probably 10 years to take effect, everybody on board that Taylor Farm.

you know, donates a couple million bucks. you know yeah no coincidence. No coincidence whatsoever.

warren shoulberg (28:48.961)
Hmm. No coincidence. No. No, no, no. You know, you hate to start believing conspiracy theories, but it was just too convenient that that Taylor has been a big supporter of the administration. And it’s it just it whether it’s true or not, it creates this this doubt in the consumer’s mind that that they can believe anything that they’re seeing and

Phil Lempert (29:18.594)
Yeah, and and to be honest with you, I was shocked, surprised, and pleased that this morning on Fox News they reported this about Taylor Farms donations. So it it it’s even on Fox. So Yeah. Yeah.

warren shoulberg (29:29.975)
Wow. Wow.

Wow. When it hits Fox you know you know where it’s where it’s going. So kinda what happens next? is this just die down? I mean or or assuming there’s no more outbreaks, d does

Taco Bell y you know, next month introduce three tacos for a dollar promotions and and kinda makes the consumer forget about this. I mean, w kinda w what should we expect next here?

Phil Lempert (30:09.71)
Well, I believe that, you know, the contaminated lettuce has been removed from Taco Bell and from all of Taylor Farm’s outlets and distributors. So that’s the good news. So I don’t think we’re gonna see any other illnesses. number one.

warren shoulberg (30:26.711)
Okay.

Phil Lempert (30:29.846)
As I said before, my hope is that we don’t have anybody who actually dies from this. If somebody does die, it’s back in the headlines. I think the Taco Bell has handled it properly. I don’t think that they’re gonna be opportunistic enough to have some kind of promotion to bring people back. however, I do think that we’re gonna see all leafy greens down in sales for probably a good two to three months. People are nervous.

People don’t want to die, people don’t want to have severe diarrhea from you know eating a eating a salad. And and I think that as time goes on it’ll ease up. but my my other concern

frankly, because they’re a major trading partner for us with food, is that at some point somebody in the administration is gonna blame Mexico for this. And you know, and it’s it’s not Mexico, it’s the inspectors who are not on the border anymore checking this stuff. That’s the problem. and, you know, if in fact the administration points to Mexico and

warren shoulberg (31:27.767)
Yep. Yep.

Phil Lempert (31:46.195)
and we do that, it’ll sti it’ll be in the headlines for a while. And just as we saw with now, you know, fifty percent tariffs from Canada because of the smoke that that came in, you know, we’ll see, you know, five hundred percent tariffs on lettuce from Mexico or some nonsense.

warren shoulberg (31:56.437)
Yeah. Correct.

warren shoulberg (32:05.867)
Not be surprised. Well, I vowed to eat just cheeseburgers and fried chicken until this whole thing stops, you know. You’re not gonna catch me. So so I the the takeaway I’ve got here, Phil, is that is that this is in the retailers this is the retailers’ ball. It’s up to them.

to take the take the the lead on all of this because the government’s not gonna do it and the consumer is looking for somebody and it’s the retailer.

Phil Lempert (32:37.844)
Absolutely, and it and it’s a great advantage for a retailer to do it, to step up. The same way we’ve seen retailers add registered dietitians, add health clinics, add pharmacies. You know, this is this is a a plus for retailers to be able to stand up and say, you know, we’re here for you. We’re gonna protect you. we have this in place for for decades. We’re now gonna expand it and we’re gonna tell you what we’re doing. And I think

the retailer wins as a result of it. And, you know, a lot more detail in in the Robin Report. So, you know, if if you’re watching today, you know, go back to therobinreport.com and look for even more information in more detail.

warren shoulberg (33:26.529)
You will find some juicy stuff in the in the Robin Report, not just from from Phil and I. So I think that that’s good advice. any last thoughts, Phil? I mean I think again, I’m I’m here in the it i the retailers need to do this and it will blow over, but th there’ll be another one, right?

Phil Lempert (33:49.249)
Absolutely. There there’s always gonna be another one. You know, when it comes to food processing, there’s so many touch points that can can have bacteria, that have pathogens and so on. So we as consumers have to be smart, we have to buy from brands we trust, we have to store foods properly, we have to not waste foods, we have to you know, forty percent of all of our food in this country is wasted. you know, people always say to me, how can

Can I save money at the grocery store? And I say, stop wasting food, you know, and and you’ll save a lot of money.

warren shoulberg (34:27.821)
Now if that if that’s not the best advice, then I don’t know what is. So well thanks, Phil. as I said, the Robinreport.com is your source for really provocative and challenging commentary on what’s going on in the broad retail business and worth checking out.

There’s no cost to be a subscriber, and there’s posts. I think I think we’re putting up posts almost daily now. So stories, videos, podcasts, the whole schmear. So stay well, everybody. thanks, Phil, and we’ll see everybody next time. Bye.

Phil Lempert (35:10.018)
Thank you.