Nissan Wins Ghosn’s Yacht, Walser Invests In Techs, Retail Locked Up

Paul J Daly: 0:02Good morning, September 25 you know, we're only three months away from Christmas.

‍Kyle Mountsier: 0:08

Stop, right?

Paul J Daly: 0:09

It's the 25th it just triggered that in my mind. Is that true? That's true. I don't know. We're not going to talk about Christmas.

Kyle Mountsier: 0:16

You know what? I'm gonna I'm gonna give this one to you, because copy and paste failed us this morning. It's 2626 but it's okay. Yeah, there's a 31 day month in there. So you could argue that it's exactly 30 day three months. I'm

Paul J Daly: 0:33

the one that copy and pasted it. I'm the one that didn't change it. We have the so we have a document that we build the show in every morning, and everybody kind of jumps in. And whoever's the first one in there, they like copy and paste the last days, couple first lines in the format right, showing it. I was the first one into today, so I copy and pasted it. I changed the day to Thursday from Wednesday, and then I just kept on going.

Kyle Mountsier: 0:57

I love it. Look. There's something about going with speed, you know, who really cares what day it actually is? I

Paul J Daly: 1:03

mean, no one's gonna listen to this podcast and be like, hey, wait a minute. I just listened to the

Kyle Mountsier: 1:07

25th dang it. I thought that we were on Wednesday. Go ahead. Yes. Have you

Paul J Daly: 1:11

got, have you gotten the new Apple intelligence yet? No, I know you can. You can just, just, like, go in and it just like, little button says, join the white list, and then, like, you'll get a notification. A notification saying, yes, let me just say this. This is the most useful use of AI, probably I've had yet, and it basically is. It summarizes your messages and emails. So when you look at your emails, it's got a little indicator letting you know that it summarized it, but and then it gives you a summary of the most important point of the email, oh, like, it'll like one, one example, like my electricity usage. Usually it's like, from the national grid, the power company. And it was, and basically it said, instead of saying it was from this, which is usually a dumb header, and they don't think about what they write, it was basically the summary was, your electricity usage from last month was this, which is x percent over or under whatever that was the line that I saw. Wow. I was like, I don't need to read that email now. I don't even need to open it. Amazing. I know I just I can't get it.

Kyle Mountsier: 2:13

I don't have I'm not the one iPhone a year ago. It's

Paul J Daly: 2:18

on its way. It's on its way. I said that yesterday, and you said that yesterday. And if I was real devious, I'd bring it up every day. On purpose. You are gonna bring it up. And I know now I might, but it was totally unintentional, because I don't usually remember,

Kyle Mountsier: 2:29

you know what's crazy? I mean, this is what's so interesting to me. Like, when, okay, this has a real relevant point to it.

Paul J Daly: 2:38

We're gonna talk about stuff, we promise. We're gonna talk about ghosts and texts and retail and things like that.

Kyle Mountsier: 2:44

But so, you know, Apple's like, don't forget, set up your pre order so that you don't basically get hosed, right? I know about the I know what you're about to say.

Paul J Daly: 2:53

I set up the pre order. Me too, right? I know where this is going, because I bet I'm in the same boat as you set up the whole thing.

Kyle Mountsier: 2:59

I was flying plane on Friday morning, when it was ready, and I was like, Oh, it's okay. When I get off the plane, I remember, well, I got off the plane and it was like, email, email, Slack, Slack, text, text. And all of a sudden, two days later, I finally remember to go back into my pre order and hit that thing. And instead of getting the thing delivered on September 20, which is what everybody that did it in that first hour got mine will not be here till October 8 to 16th. What is this? Yeah,

Paul J Daly: 3:32

that's the weirdest thing, right? Like Jordan Cox just putting the text pre order go to the store on day one. I here's the comment I'll put up on the screen. I didn't even know that was a thing. Like, I did the pre order. I mean, I didn't do it. Like, immediately it sent me the second email. Like, oh, here's your you know, like, you're gonna lose, like, I'm gonna do it, because that was uncertain. But I'm on, like, the upgrade thing, I just pay per month, and, like, right about it, yep. And so I did it. I'm like, Cool, it'll be here. And then I'm like, I don't even pay attention to release dates, right? Because I'm like, waiting for it. And then it's like, oh, the new phone's released. I'm like, sweet, October, something. Yes, you can go in the store and buy it now. You can actually get it from Verizon, right now,

Kyle Mountsier: 4:09

you always walk into the store. They've all got them there. Yeah, done. Mess this one up. Apple, that's what's that's my thing, right? Is like, hey, look, if you're gonna allow people to do it online, you better get them all. You know,

Paul J Daly: 4:22

they argue their most loyal, biggest fans, and flip them the bird. Oh, that's how, that's how I feel. You know what's going to happen? I'm still going to get the next one, next one. That's what brand does for you. That's what brand does for you. Paul, product and an ecosystem and all the things. Oh my goodness. We had an amazingly fun webinar yesterday with dealers. It was so compliance has never been so much fun. We almost got in trouble, but we kept from getting in trouble. Kept from getting trouble. We got another webinar. When's the next one? I saw a thing for the next one? Yeah. It's with our friends at wikimotive. It's maybe it's in two weeks from now, but either way, we're still on the one we did yesterday. So, um, listen, go to, can you still sign up on the website? I should know this. Yeah, how do you get this? Go to the website. Go to the website. Go to asotu com. You can get it. You don't want to miss it. And there's probably things going on in your store that you really wish you knew about, and you're going to find out about some of them in that webinar.

Kyle Mountsier: 5:24

Yeah, let's get into it. It's time for iPhones too long. We apologize, fam. But you know, there's there's passion, it's retail, it's consumer care. You

Paul J Daly: 5:33

know, if you're still here, it's probably one of the reasons you show up. So in a long standing legal dispute, Nissan finally secured a court victory against former chairman Carlos gozen, who was found guilty to have illicitly used company funds to buy a luxury yacht the British Virgin Island court ruled. Ruling requires him to give back surrender the 121 foot super yacht

Kyle Mountsier: 5:58

satchow. You

Paul J Daly: 6:00

name it. I guess you name both and pay millions in damage. Additionally, basically, they found that he funneled $32 million from Nissan CEO reserve fund through intermediaries including Nissan Middle East to purchase the yacht. It's a custom line Nevada. 37 yacht features five main cabins, four crew cabins and seven bathrooms on the boat folks have led to Japan in 2019 to escape the criminal charge. Criminal charges. Now lives in Lebanon, and he's denying all the accusations. Nissan is excited about the decision as part of their broader legal efforts to recover funds misappropriated, and the company sent a statement. Nissan will continue such efforts to make Carlos goes unaccountable for his misconduct. They don't usually cover stuff like this, but it's

Kyle Mountsier: 6:45

a big deal. All right. This is a big deal because, like, when you look back and you look at like, what Nissan was going through, whether

Paul J Daly: 6:53

you know, and every Nissan dealer right now is like, Yes, look, it's

Kyle Mountsier: 6:56

just when you have leadership that's acting in this way. We've seen this with many tech companies in auto, outside of auto, that when you have leadership that's acting in this way, whether it's known or unknown, during the time, the trickle down impact of what that company is doing, how it's performing in the market, how The employees, how the dealerships are being run, organized, operated, all of that type of stuff. It always, no matter what reflects leadership at some level. And we saw years where Nissan dealer dealers were kind of like holding up a fist, going, what is going on? And sometimes you just, you can't find the answer, because it's hidden and it's deeply rooted in, like, core psyches in 120 foot yacht, and it is just sitting in the British Virgin Islands right there. They

Paul J Daly: 7:51

should, they should let the dealers use the boat. I

Kyle Mountsier: 7:54

think that'd be smart. That'd be really fun, just like, right

Paul J Daly: 7:57

now, the party would be so much better, right like, put some awards. Let's, let's deploy this boat as an amazing experience for dealers and customers. Let's do that. That's

Kyle Mountsier: 8:06

a really smart idea. Hey,

Paul J Daly: 8:08

if you need some help Nissan figuring out how to make that hot, you can just let us so do know, we'll put our team on it. And if you know a no party, like in a soda party, we're gonna make a good time. Imagine that. That'd be a great way to do it, speaking

Kyle Mountsier: 8:20

like, let's

Paul J Daly: 8:21

change let's change the vibes. We're going to talk about some amazing things. The Walzer automotive group took a major step in addressing the nation's skilled auto tech shortage by partnering with WSU tech to renovate its automotive service facility in Wichita, Kansas. Basically, that's this is so cool, and the picture is really cool. It's part of a $3 million renovation at the school the new 30,000 foot space includes expanded automotive program capacities, a heavy truck area. They also referenced the study showing a three to one demand, supply to demand to supply ratio for techs, three to one with over 600,000 needed by does that right by 2024 like we're in 2024 Oh,

Kyle Mountsier: 9:02

yeah. I mean, I remember talking about this two, three years ago, we were talking about this issue and, and, and the truth still remains, like, I I've not talked to a dealership that doesn't want or need more techs, right? Like, No, that's true. It's rare to find one. Even the ones that have great techs, have great retention. Are still like, Where can I find the next one, please?

Paul J Daly: 9:25

Well, Randy lamel Walzer, SVP of dealer operations, said, quote, WSU, Tech has been a vital partner in supporting our Tech's growth. Strengthening our relation with them was an easy decision. And this is, you know, we see a lot of technician partnerships more and more coming to the surface. And that is, yes, if you're watching this, this is an indicator that if you're not heavily involved in one of these, it's a very smart place to be. And even if it's like, it's great for right now, right? Because you're going to start the flow, but it's also great for two years from now, three years from now, four years from now, yeah, I

Kyle Mountsier: 9:58

don't, I don't know how, how we can say it. And. Enough times, like dedicating personnel within your organization to be specifically paying attention to what you're doing for tech recruiting local tech support, like how you are building that funnel your career pathing within your technicians already training retention models. Like how you care for that employee. I like how you can't have someone dedicated to that persona. The ROI, if you have a mid to large size group, is crazy. You got to be doing that. What's

Paul J Daly: 10:33

one of the most beautiful things about the service side of the business is the ROI is so easily, too easy to calculate technician hours Bay, multiply it. There's your problem, there's your solution. And who does the draft day? Like, the dress is that? Is that CMA,

Kyle Mountsier: 10:50

or is that CMA does? Yep, CMA does the Draft Day. And they, they even have, like, a retail and recruiting environment in a local mall, like, yeah, Beth. Beth has has it down.

Paul J Daly: 11:02

We're gonna highlight some of that. I feel like West Herr is just very football connected. They should do a draft day bring Josh Allen in, like,

Kyle Mountsier: 11:10

especially right now. Anything to do with Josh Allen is like, the winner,

Paul J Daly: 11:14

a winner. All right,

Kyle Mountsier: 11:18

speaking of not winning, because they're speaking well,

Paul J Daly: 11:24

that's a good insight to consumer psyche right here,

Kyle Mountsier: 11:27

right here. In response to rising concerns about shoplifting, many retailers have resorted to locking items in display cases. However, a new consumer world survey suggests that this approach may be harming sales as much as it prevents just 32% of shop shoppers seek out an employee to unlock a case when faced with a locked product. That means that 48% or No, no, sorry, 58% 6868 for 68 I can't do math. Don't even go get someone. They're like, forget it. I'm out of here. 55% just see a buyer, and 13% opt for a different product in the store. They don't even buy that type of product. Retailers like Target have begun locking more items, citing organized retail crime, but recent data suggests concerns about theft are decreasing. Amanda Mull of Bloomberg pointed out a growing frustration, saying stores that lock up too much stuff become giant vending machines with no place to insert your money. Oh, I, I That's good. I feel like that's relatable. That's you know, good. It,

Paul J Daly: 12:33

it would make much more sense. I'd be much Okay, so let me just say this is a highlighter on things that consumers do that they don't tell you. And this happens every day in dealerships. This happens every day in service departments. Consumers are doing these things that we don't know about, which are the most dangerous things. Here's one that we've all experienced this. I walk away from a product if it's locked up, unless it's an emergency, I'm like, Nah, I get it later. I'll get it somewhere. I'll get it on Amazon. On Amazon, whatever it's the same. I'd be much more likely to buy it if it was a giant vending machine. You're in there and you're like, oh, scan your little gives you the thing you need. I know. I mean, it's a tough problem to solve. And like, this isn't us trying to say, like, Hey, this is how you can solve this retail industry. I think this story is here just so we can think about what is the customer thinking that we're not we don't know,

Kyle Mountsier: 13:20

yeah, yep. I think that that's key. And one of the things that I mean honestly, one way to solve for this is to send your employees mystery shopping, even retail environments, thoughtfully, thinking about, like, how would this impact the people that I'm coming in the contact every single day, right? Because we're in the dealership every single day, seeing every single item its place, how it feels, and we get used to it. It becomes normal. But a consumer, a client, walking through the door, especially a first time second time client, it's overwhelming. It's confusing. It may cause like anxiety to be in certain environments and wonder, what do I do next? And so thinking about that consumer journey and the decisions that they're making that they're not telling you about, has to be on the plate. Listen, thanks

Paul J Daly: 14:11

for spending some time. We went iPhones, we went super yachts, we went locked up retail products. The point is this, pay attention to the people in the industry. Pay attention. Keep doing that. You'll be fine. We'll see you here bright and early. You.

‍