0:00

It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBS Costin's Radio. We are talking about

0:07

self service kiosks. You know, you go to a supermarket, you go

0:11

into a big store like Target or Walmart, you can either go through a

0:16

line with cashiers a human being, or or you can take your items to

0:22

a self service kiosk and try to pray for those items. Good luck with

0:29

that. We're finding out that those kiosks now are losing popularity. According to

0:35

an article by Hiawatha Bray, it was kind of a back and forth tomorrow

0:40

in the Boston Globe. Hiawatha Bray likes the kiosks and Carabaskin, a Globe

0:44

correspondent doesn't like those kiosks. But apparently, only about one third, according

0:52

to Hiawatha Bray, of consumers are self checkout fians like him. The rest

0:57

are either indifferent or actively hostile. Apparently, there are now a lot of

1:00

stores that are removing the kiosks because people have figured out that you can pill

1:07

for some items and do it fairly easily at a self service kiosk, and

1:12

maybe some of those people are rationalizing that and saying, well, I'm doing

1:17

the work of a store employee. Why shouldn't I take a five finger discount?

1:23

So far all of my callers, like me, are not fans of

1:26

the self service kiosks. We are going back to the phones. We will

1:30

get later on tonight. To the question of Robert F. Kennedy Junior's vice

1:36

presidential suggestion or nominee, let us go to Luca in Framingham. Luca,

1:42

you are next on nightside. How are you good, Dan, How are

1:45

you? I'm great? Thanks for holding on. You held through the news.

1:48

Luca. Love to know what you think about this, Whether you agree

1:51

or disagree, go right ahead, So I do agree. I have one

1:56

thing to say about thirty twenty years ago. I was a manager for the

2:00

Home Depot in Speen Street and we were one of the first stores in the

2:07

area to row self checkout out. And it was a night need to begin

2:14

with. But they're still there, the four units, and I'm long gone

2:22

from there. But as a manager viewpoint, I have to say, they

2:28

never called out sick, they never gave you any lip. They're always there.

2:34

You know, they showed up at work every day, right, none

2:37

of them related to work. But look, I just got to tell you

2:40

that probably thirty years ago when I lived out in one of those western suburbs.

2:46

I used to be a reliable customer at home Depot. And I don't

2:52

know if you were the manager then, but the home Depot on Speen Street

2:55

was great. As a matter of fact, they were so great, And

3:00

one day I went home and bought some home Depot stock and the stock went

3:05

up. I made a good amount of money on that investment, and I

3:09

eventually sold the whole depot stock. Now when I go to home depots,

3:15

it's nothing like the home Depot on Speen Street thirty years ago. You walk

3:22

in now and you go up to somebody who's wearing the orange home Depot outfit

3:27

outfit you to ask, can you tell me where this is or that?

3:30

And they look at you like you're speaking a foreign language. And I often

3:36

will say, I'm sorry, I thought you might have worked here. I apologize. I mean, what has happened to the training at home depot?

3:46

Well? That lets it was a phenom. It was one of the number

3:53

one retailers in the world as far as you know home improvement. But like

4:00

thirty years I was in it. I worked for a company called Grossman's.

4:03

Prior to that, oh I know, as a matter of fact, I

4:08

used to go to Grossman's and when Grossman's closed, that's when I became a

4:10

custom of home depot correct. And it's just over the years. Yes,

4:16

I talked to old managers and we talk about it that it's it's not the

4:21

depot of old. And you know, through the years, everything changes.

4:28

It's a excuse me, it's a sad thing, but you are correct,

4:31

it's not the depot of old. But I hate the self checkouts. I

4:36

have to tell you the reliability of them. A few callers you had before

4:43

they were correct. You know, there were issues with it. But you

4:48

know, as a as a bottom line person, we we looked at it

4:54

as as you know, a godsend because of the uh you know, the

5:01

no call outs. They were, like I said, they were always there.

5:05

And I did a twenty year stint with a company PJX. I retired

5:10

recently, and they would never think of the self checkout because like you said

5:17

that at five finger discount, it's rampant in these retail stores and it's just

5:25

and there's a funny thing going on in TikTok right now. It says I'm

5:30

going back to you know, I spent four hundred dollars at Costo. Now

5:34

I'm gonna go through the self checkouts and it will only be forty three dollars

5:40

and fifty cents. Yeah, I got it. I got it. So

5:46

are you retired fully, Luca? What's your status? No? Right now,

5:49

I do work for a local town. I'm I'm a custodian. Now.

5:55

To be honest with you, I retired from that. So I got

5:59

a part time job being the custodian. Good for you, Good for you,

6:03

Good for your honest hard work. I was a custodian when I was

6:06

in college for one summer, and I know what hard work that is.

6:11

Luca, Thank you so much. This is your first time calling you. No, uh no, I called a little while ago, a couple of

6:15

years ago. But always listen to you on the way home from work.

6:19

Well, do me a favor. Get one of those radios that they can

6:23

put him in the house and you can listen to me in the house too.

6:25

Okay, you got it, Thanks lucod doctor. You soon have a

6:30

great night. Six seven thirty six one seven nine thirty. We're going to

6:35

get every of this. These lines are going crazy, folks. I don't

6:41

want people to wait. So I'm gonna take Ron from Newton real quickly here

6:44

so he doesn't have to wait through the news we're on. You were next

6:46

on Nightside. Go right ahead, Ron, Hi, Dan. You always make me smile. I detest these self checkouts, and I can give you

6:55

an economic argument. At CBS, for example, I always somehow don't see

7:01

the coupons and when they expire, and the folks that I know, they

7:08

smile when I come in. They they helped me make the most cost effective

7:15

purchase. Last night, I saved sixteen dollars on a purchase. That's us

7:21

and that happens to me almost every time. On the way, that's not

7:28

that so good that you said. That was CVS. That was CVS.

7:33

I know all the folks there, and there's one particular person that taught me.

7:40

She said, make sure you face those products when when you take one

7:44

off the shelf. So she trained me. So now I'm facing the products

7:47

not only at CBS, but stop it shop Star Market. I just feel

7:55

I just feel like, you see it's a good thing to do for you.

8:00

Well, look, if you're going to go in the store, treat

8:03

you well. CBS I think has its good stores and bad stores, and

8:07

I think CBS stores they have this this desire every three or four months to

8:13

change the store around, which to me makes no sense, no sense at

8:18

all. I don't know if you've experienced that in your cvs, but uh,

8:22

it's like, just leave the stuff where it normally is so people who

8:26

are regular customers can go in and see what they want. Uh, you

8:33

know. And I grew up in a family of eight can so it's it's

8:37

indeuibly covient to my neural network to be sociable. I just I have to.

8:43

I have to be around people and uh uh they so that's also recovering

8:54

from surgery. I go in and they help, you know, I'm telling

9:00

them that I can't pick up anything greater than a gallon of milk, and

9:05

they helped me with bags. And that's well pay that. That's that's the

9:11

personal I mean, there's no Kiosk which is going to help you with the

9:13

bag as far as I know. And I have to say it before we

9:18

uh before pause. You're the one that got me thinking about, about,

9:24

you know, possibly taking someone's job. So every time I go in there,

9:28

Dan raise in the back of my mind. Hey, Ron, I

9:33

appreciate that much immensely. Thanks buddy. We'll talk soon, Okay, I

9:37

hope you feel better. Talk to you later. I got a couple of

9:39

lines at six one seven. We got who we got coming up? We

9:43

got Leanne, your next, Chris and Natick uh and we got one more

9:50

coming up. I think it's mission. It's Mike and Newton. Okay,

9:52

we got Leanne, Chris and Mike. We'll be back on nights Side right

9:56

after this. It's Night Side with Dan Ray, Boston's news radio. All

10:05

right, let's go. We got Leanne in Edinburgh. Leanne. So far

10:11

every one of my listeners is not a fan of KIOSK. Where do you

10:13

stand on this pressing issue. Well, I'll be your first caller in Hiawafae

10:20

camp. Okay, that's great, Hiawatha. You have a supporter here with

10:28

Leanne. Help me? Why Leanne? Two reasons? They're fast and I

10:33

can bag my items exactly the way I want them bagged. No bag is

10:37

too heavy or or three items in it. It's just the way I want

10:43

it. Well, you know, I bag my own items at stores,

10:48

and it's the may at grocery stores, I bring my grocery bags with me

10:52

and I bag my items. And the reason is I used to do that

10:54

professionally when I was younger. I was a bag boy at Stop and Shop

10:58

back in the day, and I love the science. You know, put

11:03

the heavy stuff in the bottom, make sure you put your stuff that is

11:07

square whenever possible, maximize the use of space. I mean, there's there's

11:11

some geometry to this. Yeah. And it's a bit of my OCD too,

11:16

because I put everything up on the conveyor belt at Market Basket, where

11:22

I do all of my grocery shopping, and as you know, they do

11:26

not have self checkouts because they want you to have the personal experience. I

11:31

put everything on the conveyor belt, you know, paper goods together, canned

11:35

goods together, freezer stuff together so that they can be bagged accordingly. And

11:39

for years, Market Basket had head and shoulders above all the other stores with

11:45

their baggers. They were perfect baggers. I used to joke and say,

11:50

oh, you must send all your baggers to you know, bagger University,

11:52

because they do the best job around. But not anymore, not anymore.

11:58

Just the other day, when I was in young kid was filling up the

12:03

bag and I said, please, don't make them too heavy because I can't

12:07

carry them. I have a bad shoulder. And he picked up the bag

12:11

that I knew was too heavy because all of my Candi goods were in it.

12:15

Yeah, and he says, it's not too heavy. It's like him

12:18

and he puts it in my car anyway, you know, And I just

12:22

told him, I said, you know, in the future, if the

12:26

customer asks you to please make them light, let the customer be the judge

12:30

of what's you know, too too heavy or light, because some people might

12:35

need help. You know. What happened to the old adage that the customer

12:39

is always right? Well, we're not here. And like I said,

12:43

market Basket used to be the best, but not anymore. Friday Night,

12:48

I think on Friday night at eleven o'clock we're going to run a pole.

12:52

And now, unfortunately there'll be a lot of the people who are listening in

12:56

the far away states who won't be able to participate. But I think we'll

12:58

run a poll on what is the best grocery store in New England? And

13:03

I think you know, we all know Stop and Shop. I think we

13:05

all know Market Basket, Roach Brothers, and there were some others Shaws.

13:11

And I'd be interesting to see if there is a consensus amongst my listeners as

13:16

to which which grocery store overall, you know, whether whether prices or what's

13:22

important to you are convenience or whatever. I think it might be a fun

13:26

poll to run on Friday night at eleven, so hold me to it.

13:28

Yeah, I'd be interested in that. Yeah, and to me, market

13:33

Basket hands down has the most budget friendly prices. Let me ask you this,

13:37

how close do you live to a market basket? I don't live real

13:41

close. That's my problem. I know. I heard just say that that's too bad. I live about a mile and a half from my market basket.

13:48

Yeah, yeah, which is also an a plus in my book.

13:52

You know, but I used to travel before it was built here in Attleborow.

13:56

I used to stop at the one in West Bridgewald or rain them whenever

14:01

I was in those areas, so you know I didn't They also treated there.

14:05

They also treated their employees well, you know, there was the big

14:09

market basket strike that everybody get back and yes that made history. Yeah,

14:16

and their employees are the most well trained employees as far as knowing their store

14:22

and where any item is. Yeah. And that's that's a big help when

14:26

you when you want to, you know, get in and get out.

14:31

I mean, I enjoyed going to the store. I enjoy talking to people

14:33

at the store, but I don't want to spend the entire day there,

14:35

you know. I mean it's a start, right right, one of many

14:39

stops. Leanne as always thank you so much. I don't hear from you

14:43

often enough, but thanks for checking back every once in a while. Call

14:46

more often. Okay, I will thank you. Thanks, Leanne. I

14:50

enjoyed it. So Leanne is with Hiawatha Bray hi Watha. It's about eight

14:54

to one here, Okay, it's a route. Let's go to Chris and

14:56

Nati Chris next. On nights, I gott ahead, Hey Dan, hope

15:00

that you're having a good night. I'm gonna be with LeAnn on this one.

15:05

That ties it up a little bit. That's good. Tell me why,

15:07

okay, So family of five and my family is mostly gluten free.

15:11

So I find myself maybe going to a couple of different places like Trader Joe's,

15:16

stop and Shop, Roach Brothers, Market Basket, occasionally Shaws, Wegmans.

15:22

I'm all around and for me, like I want to be in and

15:26

out, and generally it's not like a ton of items. It might be,

15:30

you know, twenty twenty items at a time. But I find that

15:35

you kind of know that you know at this point like there's a scale,

15:37

right, So as long as you know the self checkout line generally is the

15:41

shortest, and as long as you'll understand that it's a scale, I never

15:46

have a problem. Now. So of those ten times that I use that,

15:50

I might, you know, I actually have the twenty five times they

15:54

use it, I might have a problem one of twenty five. If you

15:58

just understand that you have to balance it. Everything you put on one side,

16:02

it expects that you're going to put it and that you're not going to

16:04

steal it at most places. So as long as that you can understand that

16:07

part of it, you generally can kind of get through pretty quick. So

16:11

I just wanted to mention that, and then I guess one other thing.

16:15

I occasionally go to Aldi's and I don't know if this was outlined by anybody

16:19

before, but they have trying to figured it out that they have one cashier

16:26

or a couple of cashiers, but they have a system where they have like

16:30

a barcode on multiple sides of products, and that seems to be pretty effective

16:37

for them to kind of help get through that line pretty quick. I wish

16:41

like some of the other stores had that a similar system where you know,

16:45

they mandated that the manufacturer added, you know, a barcode on not just

16:49

one little place of the bottom of the box or the side of a box

16:53

or the top of a car, and it's actually on multiple places. I

16:56

think that would help. Like Quicken the you know, some of the lines

17:02

with the cashiers, the recommendation I wanted to throw out there as well.

17:06

Well. I think I think that is that's very smart because even when I

17:08

have, upon rare occasion, gone to one of these kiosks, and it's

17:14

always frustrating, and I always end up asking for some help, and you

17:18

will have the managers, you know, the assistant manager come over and sometimes

17:22

they don't know where the barcode is. They're better at it than I am,

17:26

obviously, yea, but yeah, it's Look, you make it,

17:30

try to make it convenient for everybody. I guess that's what That's what I

17:33

would say. Try to make it, try to make it convenient. Look,

17:36

I appreciate it. Great to hear you Chris, thanks for calling in and you're giving some support to our friend Hiawatha Bray. Hiawatha, it's only

17:44

eight to two now, so you're coming back. You're coming back, my

17:47

man. Okay, thanks, thanks Chris, Thanks Dan, I appreciate it. Good show, you bet you talk to you soon, all right,

17:52

good night. Six one seven thirty, triple eight nine nine ten thirty and

17:56

six one seven nine three ten thirty. Both of those lines are open.

18:00

I think what I'd like to do is see if we can finish this hour

18:03

on this topic, and then we will go to rfk's vice presidential choice,

18:07

well who should he choose? He will make that announcement. Believe it's next

18:14

Tuesday. Schedules to be made in Oakland, California. But for now,

18:18

I want to know, are you a fan of the automatic checkout kiosks that

18:25

are now losing their popularity. There'll be a sort of a mini back and

18:30

forth tomorrow in the Boston Globe between our guest from the first hour, Hiawathabray

18:36

of the Boston Globe, he's their technology guy and he loves those kiosk and

18:40

Cara Baskin, who's a Globe correspondent. She will take the other side tonight.

18:44

Most of my listeners are saying, no, we don't love them,

18:48

and so I'm going to ask you to join this conversation. Let me know

18:52

if you like him, fine, if you don't. So far, of

18:56

the ten callers, it's about eight to two opposed. And by the way,

19:00

a lot of these stores are now having second thoughts about those kiosks because

19:06

of Pilfridge. A lot of people apparently are taking advantage of the kiosk,

19:11

and there's slipping an item or two through the system without actually registering at the

19:18

kiosk. So there's some leakage, as they would say, in the supermarket

19:22

business or in whatever business, and that is causing some stores now to have

19:26

second thoughts. We will have second thoughts right after the news at the bottom

19:30

of the hour. And my name is Dan Ray. This is Nightside.

19:33

We may I think we will let me change that. We will on Friday

19:38

night in our twentieth hour at eleven, I think I've decided I want to

19:41

do just a poll. We haven't done a poll in a long long time.

19:45

At eleven on Saturday night. Your favorite grocery store and why, and

19:51

the favorite grocery store could be Whole Foods, it could be Wegmans and some

19:53

that don't get mentioned, or it could be some of the more popular ones.

19:56

But we'll do that on Friday night. Right now, do you utilize

20:00

kiosks or are you, like me, a troglodyte and you would prefer to

20:04

stand in line and actually interact with a human being, a cashier. And

20:08

if you happen to be a cashier at any of these stores, we would

20:12

love to hear from you. I can't imagine you're rooting for the kiosk because

20:15

you're going to put yourself out of business, but maybe some of you feel

20:18

that way. So just the lines are the lines are be. The only

20:22

line open right now is six, one, seven, nine, three, one, ten thirty. Back on Nightside. We will cut this off at

20:26

eleven, because I did promise we'd do something on jf RFK. Junior's vice

20:33

presidential pick to be announced next Tuesday. Back on Nightside. After this,

20:40

you're on night Side with Dan Ray. I'm WAZ Boston's news Radio. All

20:45

right, we've got the lines filled back up. Let's go to Mike and

20:48

Newton. Mike, you are next on Nightside. Your thoughts on checkout kiosks

20:52

at supermarkets and elsewhere. Go right ahead, Mike uh oh Dan. I

20:56

love checkouts. I go to open shop, and I think the gentleman who

21:02

just spoke before before the other woman there was absolutely correct when you say you

21:07

have to know what you're doing. You walk in, you do it.

21:11

You put in the code for the bananas, put in the code for the

21:14

apples, and it's very easy. And I love that. And the other

21:19

thing that I want to talk about is that you're funny because I was a

21:25

checkout person too, back in the Wise store Wise markets back in Matersale,

21:29

Pennsylvania, back in high school. So I did bagging, I did check

21:33

out things like that. So I wanted also to touch on home depot home

21:38

depot. If you go to the right person, the right person in home

21:42

Depot will tell you where to go, where to find the things. I've

21:47

had very a lot of success in the Denham home Depot. You walk in,

21:52

you ask where can I find this? They will walk you to the

21:55

aisle. So yeah, my experience, my experience has been the opposite.

21:59

Do I think I think that there are some people who do who are good.

22:03

Yeah, but most of them they kind of give you that look. You know when you go to ask someone ever been in another city or you're

22:08

lost and you're asking for directions. I know everybody has GPS now, but

22:12

you pull over to the sidewalk and you say, hey, can you tell

22:15

me where city Hall is? And the person looks at you with like this

22:19

look of what language are you speaking? I want someone who going to see

22:25

me? Oh, city hall? Here? You go three blocks up, take a left, and it's your third right, you're right there. But

22:30

when they look at you and they're like thinking, my reaction is thank you

22:34

very much for your time, but I'll find it on my own. But

22:38

when you go into home depot, you got to go to the like the

22:41

paint store. The guys in there that have been around the block, there

22:45

have been that's not there. That's not their first job, that's their last

22:49

job, and you ask them and they know exactly what you're talking about.

22:53

All right, Well, that's good to know. We got a little defensive

22:56

home depot here. I just I haven't had good luck. I find the

23:00

first person with the orange apron or whatever, and for the most part,

23:04

you get kind of this blank look. It's either down in the aisle.

23:08

It's anyway. I think it might be between seventeen and twenty three. Good

23:12

luck. Thank you very much. You got to look for the guy or

23:18

the woman with the gray hair. I'm with you on that. I'm with

23:22

you on that. Experience is an important thing no matter what you're doing.

23:26

Mike, appreciate your callers always. Thank you much. Thanks Dan. Love

23:30

love listening to you. Bye bye, right back. Yeah, thank you

23:32

very much. Love when you call. And by the way, Hiawatha Bray now is moving up. He's down eight to three, but he's got a

23:37

possibility he could tie this thing up. Margie up in the Catskills, Margie,

23:42

is it snowing up there? Tonight? We had the weirdest weather.

23:48

We had a blizzard, like sixty mile an hour winds and it lasted ten

23:52

minutes and the sun came out. That's my sort of blizzard, Margie.

23:57

I want to agree with you about the kiosks. They're terrible, but I

24:03

want to take it to my grocery store, not a supermarket. A grocery

24:07

store. You're gonna walk in. There's one counter. John Doherty's behind the

24:11

counter because he owns the store. Now, you don't do anything. You

24:17

hand him your written list. This is old school list. He walks around

24:22

the store and he has one of those grabbers that he could get things off

24:26

of top shelf. He comes back to the counter, counts up your stuff,

24:32

rings it up on his cast register, bags it, puts it in

24:36

his cartons, walks it out to your car, puts it in the trunk.

24:41

How do you like that kind of shopping? You can't beat that service.

24:45

That's unbelievably. And then you drive down to the gas station and the

24:52

man with the uniform and the cap comes out. You sit in your car.

24:56

He pumps gas, he washes your windshield, in your rear window,

25:00

checks the oil, and you just sit there. Wow, boy, I'll

25:06

tell you you got it made well. You have to be in the nineteen

25:10

forties because that's when that happened. So wait, you're telling me that doesn't

25:15

happen anymore or not? Are you? You know? We are? So

25:22

technology has not done much. Oh no, I was hoping that there might

25:26

have been one last vestige. I thought you were telling me the truth,

25:30

Margine. I love John Doherty's store. No one carried anything. He carried

25:37

everything out to the car. Put I'm assuming that John is no longer.

25:42

John came over. This is amazing. He was one of those Irish bachelors.

25:47

He rented a room right up the street from my family. He came

25:52

over from Ireland, had his grocery store for about forty years, saved all

25:56

this money and moved back to Ireland. When did he move I'm just curious

26:00

when did he move back? I would say this was during the nineteen forty

26:06

so he was gone before nineteen fifty. Wow. Wow, but we all,

26:11

we all. I have a good friend in my name, Jack Darty.

26:15

He's probably related in some form of fashion anyway. Remember all the things

26:21

that were done for you back in the day. Oh well, we'd be

26:26

here all night with that, Margie. Okay, thanks stand so much.

26:32

Bye, talk soon. Well maybe we'll do that on a Friday night too. Thanks Margie. Have a great night. The good old days. Where

26:37

we're gonna go next? I have, I got bought, I got Robert

26:42

and Wellesley. Hey Robert, we're moving along here. That's not a long

26:45

wait for you. Go right ahead, Robert. Oh, very interesting topic.

26:51

I thought i'd give a plug to Trader Joe's. They don't have the

26:55

Kiosk and you're the second one back. Yeah, you're the second one to

26:59

plug traded. But are you would I assume you're not a Kiosk person.

27:04

I'm fifty to fifty sixty forty I eat. It depends on on the situation

27:10

if they if it's a card only, then I'd rather go to uh,

27:14

rather go through the cashier. And it depends on how many items I have.

27:18

You know, that's sort of that sort of thing. And so therefore

27:22

I'm going to put you down as a neutral because I can't I can't claim

27:25

you on my side and I and I'm not going to give you the higher wauthor either, my guess last hower, Okay, right, have you ever

27:33

read I Robot by Isaac Asimov? No, I haven't got to not to

27:41

put you on the spot, but this this kind of a human engineering approach

27:45

to the computers. And you know, if you if with orientation, you

27:52

can sort of think of them as the computer is an electronic brain, and

27:56

try to think of it as a person trying to do a job for you.

28:00

Just now, I get that, I get that. I just don't

28:03

like the idea of taking jobs away from people, that's all. And I

28:07

mean, we see it on the assembly line in Detroit. You have all

28:11

these great jobs that men had, that men and women had that could support

28:15

their families, and now they're going away, and I don't think that's good

28:21

for the economy. Yeah, I agree with you. And I think that

28:23

some stores possibly put more training into their cashiers than other stores too, and

28:29

I think that can make a big difference, you know. I think that

28:33

I think that can be so that you I think that's in a situation like

28:37

that, you can prefer a cashier, you know, to using the kiosk.

28:45

Yeah, I'm with you, Robert. So I'm putting you down as

28:48

a newtral because you're the first person that told me they were fifty to fifty

28:52

sixty forty and so I still am carrying the day here with the Iawatha.

28:59

But that's okay. A lot of stores are now backing off the kiosk idea,

29:02

and so we'll see maybe maybe they were just a little too soon.

29:06

Thank you, Robert, Yep, thank you Balck you soon coming back on

29:08

Nightside Final Break. We'll wrap this up between now and eleven. If you

29:12

want to get your voted six one, seven, two, ten thirty.

29:15

The only line that is open and after eleven, we're going to talk about

29:19

who do you think? RFK Junior will not And again he doesn't have to

29:25

nominate. He will just name who his running mate will be. He'll be

29:29

announced next Tuesday. And I just thought that tonight we might take a shot

29:32

at that and see if somebody can actually who would you Who would you think?

29:36

We'll talk about that after the eleven back on Nightside. Right after these

29:38

few messages, you're on night Side with Dan Ray. I'm telling you Boston's

29:45

News Radio. We're all right, let's keep rolling here. We're going to

29:49

go next to Who's up next? Chris and Bill Rica? Chris next on

29:53

Nightside, go right ahead, Hey, how you doing doing good? Screat?

30:00

I so thirty eight years ago this month. I've never called here before.

30:04

And this was fortuitous because I was shopping at the market Basket. I

30:07

was ordering my groceries and I had an event happened and I was just like,

30:11

geez, you know, I was I was upset and I heard you

30:15

on the radio and I'm like, they're actually talking about grocery stores. It

30:18

was the first time I've ever called so thirty eight years ago, the first

30:22

time you've called the show Chris, we got to give you a round applause

30:26

from our virtues to the audience. Thank you very much, right hey,

30:30

thank you. So thirty eight years ago, I started as a sacker at

30:33

market Basket and I lived in Tewkesbury, Massachusetts, and we actually had a

30:40

I've been listening to the show all night. We actually had a little pamphlet

30:44

that told you how to be a sacker. So that's why the customer service

30:48

was so great at market Basket for years and years because people like me it

30:52

was their first jobs coming in and I loved working there. Got four bucks

30:55

an hour. We got paid a little bit more than the Purity Supreme up

30:59

the road. It was a great place to work and there was just such

31:02

just great camaraderie between the front end staff, the cashiers, the sackers.

31:07

It was great. And the family there. They treated everybody like a family.

31:12

And I was there for about a little over four years and I went

31:17

out to college and there was just one day where we had a we had

31:22

to do some inventory. It's a long story short I ended up leaving the

31:26

job because I missed inventory because I was out of college at UMass and I

31:29

didn't even know there was an inventory that day. But I always loved that

31:32

job, and I loved it so much that I actually got into communications,

31:36

wanting to get into scriptwriting, and I wrote a story that became a script

31:41

called Supermarket, and I tried to shop it around, never went anywhere.

31:44

Here's where I am on this because of the event of what happened today.

31:48

Where I went into the store, I got my groceries. I was there

31:52

toward the end of the day. I said hello to the cashier and I

31:57

said hello to the sacker, and neither one of them said a thing to

32:01

me. I said it again, and the cashier looked at me, and

32:08

the food and the items were all wrung up, and she just kind of

32:14

looked at me, and there was no actual things saying the charge, like

32:17

how much everything costs, which is normally on there, what what I normally

32:21

see. And she's like, it's done, That's all she said to me. I go, okay, So I put in my cards. The ladies

32:28

sacking the groceries. She sacked the groceries. I helped out a little bit.

32:31

I put my French bread in there, and one bag that was sitting

32:36

there didn't get put in, so I just grabbed it myself and I said thank you, thank you so much. Nobody said a word to me.

32:43

So what was that? Was that a market basket? That was a market

32:50

basket? Yeah, I don't want to say which market basket. Things have

32:52

changed, things have changed, yeah, so uh no, Normally I would

33:00

be like, I'm all for you know, keeping everybody there. Yeah,

33:04

I'm really for what hiawathas says. I love going to a kiosk because I

33:09

don't want to be angry at the end of my visit. All right,

33:14

Okay, Hiawatha is making a comeback. I don't. I don't know.

33:17

We're we're still up. I think nine to four. I'm not sure he's

33:22

going to catch us at the end here, but he's making a strong showing in the second hour. Let's put it like that. It was my favorite

33:29

job I ever did to this day. Okay. I've had so many different jobs over the years, and every time I go in and I think about

33:35

the grocery and all the friends and family that were there, I just loved it. It's my you know what I do. You'll appreciate that. Fortunately,

33:40

I don't think that job exaxists anymore. You know. Here's the deal.

33:44

I pack my own bags. And the reason I like to pack my own bags is I want to make sure things don't get crushed, okay,

33:49

And plus I know I packed, you put the heavy stuff on the bottom.

33:52

All that right, okay. And to me, it's kind of a challenge do it nice and neat and cleanly and you know, utilized space.

33:58

So normally I'll say I bring myn bags. I say, I'm all set,

34:02

give you a little bit of a break. And sometimes the kids will

34:06

look at me, you know, the younger people, and say and like

34:08

with this this quizzical look in their face. And I'll say, well,

34:12

I used to do this professionally, and of course I don't know that they

34:15

understand what I'm talking about. And then I amplified and I said, I

34:19

was the bagger of the year back in uh, you know, sixty eight.

34:24

Serious And I said, yeah, I want to I want a college

34:28

scholarship. But I was named bagger of the year state wide. Of course

34:30

I'm lying through my eighth but they're looking at me like, you want a

34:35

college scholarship. Bagger of the year. Yeah, it was great job,

34:37

great job, you know, I absolutely loved it. It was such it

34:42

was such a fantastic place to work with. And every six months we got

34:45

an extra quarter. If you were there six months, you got a quarter raise, which doesn't happen in any job anymore. You're lucky if you get

34:51

a one percent raise and somebody else gets two percent next year. You know

34:53

it. Let me tell you that's five or six percent. Back in those

34:57

days, Chris loved the call. Oh you got to call again, man,

35:00

come on, don't make this one and done? Okay, thanks so

35:04

much. I was nervous. I was nervous. You did a great job.

35:07

You did a great You must have been a great packer because you did a great job. Clara in Connecticut, Clara, welcome, How are you?

35:15

Oh? Well, you know what's going on? Dan? Anyway,

35:21

famil you with that? Hang in there, my friend. Okay, yeah,

35:23

it's it's to go anyway. I prefer going to a cashier and I

35:30

strategically place things on the conveyor belt yep, and so I know, you

35:38

know, or it shows how they should the bagger should back the things.

35:44

Well, the thing that bunts the hell out of me is that they'll fill

35:49

a bag and then there's an extra one of my shopping bags and there'll be

35:53

two items, so I don't get it. And I myself was a bagger

36:00

Star Market in same way in seventy eight. That's where we That's how that's

36:06

the first job I started out, and then I was promoted to CATS.

36:09

Yeah, I used to shop at that Star Market that no longer is there.

36:14

I used to stop at that Star Market around that time. So I

36:19

might have seen you or met you back then. You might have. And

36:23

the thing is it was a wonderful place to live to work. But back

36:30

then, you know, we had to know all the codes for the products.

36:35

Yeah, and then we had to It wasn't like the CATS register would

36:39

tell you how much money to give back. You had to figure it out

36:45

and count it out yourself. Yeah, that's what I took. I had

36:49

one yesterday and it was like twenty three dollars and thirteen cents. So I

36:52

gave them twenty five dollars and thirteen cents. And they're looking at me like,

36:55

why you give me this extra money? Because I want two dollars to

36:59

change. I gotta get two more in here, okay, in there,

37:04

hang in there, okay, keep in touch, Oh right, okay,

37:07

take thanks, thanks letter. Okay, Captain, I got about a minute

37:09

for you want to get you and I want to get John from Pennsylvania in

37:13

where do you stand on this this? I'm a hiawa I'm a Hiawatha girl.

37:19

You were with Hiawatha on this? Okay? You chios I do?

37:22

I love him at it Wegmans. It's really quick and they have somebody there

37:27

right there to help you if you need anything. I just like being back

37:30

in proco school. I just raised my hand. They come running over and

37:34

yes, and that's wonderful. And then the other one is, uh Costco.

37:39

I check out there and so you know, they checked the slip on

37:43

the way out of the store, so they know that you haven't stolen anything, so they don't have that problem there. You've made it ten to five.

37:52

Hiawatha is still down, but he's he's had a good second hour here.

37:55

Okay, great, I hope he gets five more. Bye bye.

38:00

We're going to run out of time, but that's okay, Thank you very much, captain. Okay, last of the hour. John in Pennsylvania.

38:07

John, are you pro kiosk or anti kiosk? Oh? Very much pro

38:10

kiosk. It's quicker and listening to the other people. You know, the

38:15

cashiers are not that polite necessarily anymore, but they're also not that competent,

38:21

so I can do most of my stuff. However, there's a little bit of a caveat Dan. I only get ten to fifteen items. My wife

38:28

would get maybe three times that, and she would go to a cashier.

38:31

So little bit of a difference there. But I think going to a Kiosk

38:37

is a wonderful thing. And when I go to cashiers, they don't bag

38:42

anymore. We just don't have baggers. It's some of the stories that go

38:44

to, yeah, well I have baggers, but I choose not to.

38:47

This has been a great two hours, John. It was eleven to six

38:52

in my audience, eleven with me they don't like kiosk, and six were

38:55

with you and with Hiawatha. And so we'll do this again sometime. This

39:00

was a fun hour. This was a fun couple of hours, actually,

39:04

John, Thanks very much. You call any time. Okay, all right,

39:07

thank you, bye bye. Okay. Here, that takes care of

39:09

the eleven o'clock the ten o'clock hour. Eleven o'clock hour awaits, and we're

39:14

going to ask you the question, who should Robert F. Kennedy junior pick

39:17

as a running mate