INTV DIGI: Stew Leonard Jr.

Bloomberg

a day ago

00:00
How are you guys preparing for the 4th of July holiday? Well, first of all, the whole family's on deck right now. Okay. This is a busy, busy weekend. It sort of comes down a little bit the rest of July and August. A lot of people go on vacation. Well, you know, it's it's busy. Busy. And we know that the consumers, the customers in here will have 100,000 of them this week in all our stores. They feel pretty good. They're buying, you know, And so we we feel people feel good about going into this holiday right now. Do you worry about the rest of the year? Do you see the numbers, for example, for the broader economy on a day like today, jobs are doing really well. A lot of that is government employment as well. At what point does it change and how do you worry about that from your seat? Well, I think and you're seeing this in the overall stock markets and everything, there's a lot of uncertainty out there. I'm talking to other retailers. I'm talking to our suppliers, and nobody's really sure what's going to happen. I mean, there's a potential on July 9th of 30% they're going back for for Europe. So what's that going to do to all our wine and champagne and scotch and beers that we get from from Europe, olive oil cheeses, you know, what does that mean? So we don't know right now. There's a lot of uncertainty. Right now, it it's sort of just like my finger. And I took a test here in the store. I would say people feel pretty good about the economy right now. What do you see about the choices they're making still? My wife is from Spain. She will never buy olive oil from anywhere else. I, on the other hand, have made the switch from German beer to the cannabis infused beverages that you have there. It's do Leonards. What what kind of choices are people making? Well, you know, what you mentioned is a good one. Those those infused sparkling waters would see right now rocking and rolling really, really hot right now. You know, what else is really trending is also non-alcoholic beer that's been up right now. Now, you know what we say to our customers now there's really six ways to save money or to prepare for this holiday. The first most important thing for everybody that you should remember this know, you said you're coming to the store later. Check your propane tank. Okay. The worst thing is you got your burgers or something ready to go and there's no propane. Second thing, we got a lot of specials going on this week. Mac, you mentioned eggs, Good Burger from Pasteurized, which, by the way, I think are much easier than conventional. But these are only 299. So. So look for specials that are out there right now. The other thing we learned from cold weather, you can freeze stuff. Take advantage of the sales and then freeze it. But do it yourself. You know, we have these you can get this all cut up. We have people that have to do that. Same with guacamole. Cut the watermelon yourself. You'll save the money. And the last step there is to walk away from our camels that we have because we're trying to entice you to taste the product and buy it. It's one extra item in your car. It's going to cost you a little bit more. But those are some tips for saving money. Don't freak out over the prices. They're about the same as last year, as you mentioned earlier. That's only ten bucks a head, basically on average for each person. It's a lot less than a restaurant. It's a good point to do it yourself when you come to things like the watermelon or the guacamole. And maybe part of the problem is, you know, the avocados, it's do Leonards have to sing? So it's not just they don't just have to taste good. They have to be on. You got to say I'm totally guilty for sending my significant other out to get another propane tank every holiday. Still, I want to ask you about something else that's happening here in New York City. As somebody who owns a major grocery store chain, you have a mayoral candidate here, Zoran Mamdani, considering a plan to establish publicly owned grocery stores. Of course, this plan is a pilot plan. And of course, he has to win the election in order for any of this to take place. But what do you think of that plan? Well, first of all, this is a business, a very thin margin. Okay. Our family's been in this for 50 years of retailing. Well, but it's not easy running the supermarket. Look at you. Got to run it all weekend right now. We don't get the weekend off like like you would. So I think for the government to think they can run a grocery store, it's about customer service. It's about keeping everything really fresh on the shelf every day. You've got to keep your prices sharp. I mean, you're you're in a competitive mode. We got here. We got to dodge every single day. It's not easy. You know, I was just saying, I know the Wegmans. You know, they have a store in Manhattan. They know the customers. I know Abbey Morgan Williams, which has a number of stores there. They're struggling in New York, even with the issue. And and a lot of others think it's tough to run supermarkets in New York City. I don't know how the government could do it.