Shoppin' Around the Christmas Tree

Jeff Matevish  0:12  
Hey, welcome to Bank Chats: 2 Cents, a shorter Bank Chats episode where Drew and I talk a little bit about what's happening in the news financially, or any cool topics that we just find.

Drew Thomas  0:24  
But that's by our definition of cool, which may or may not be your definition of cool.

Jeff Matevish  0:29  
We're hoping you're on the same page if you're listening to this. So, we're breaking into the shopping season the holidays. Oh yeah, yeah, Halloween is finally over. So, the next two months...

Drew Thomas  0:39  
What do you mean finally over. You love Halloween.

Jeff Matevish  0:41  
I love Halloween, but I love Black Friday, too.

Drew Thomas  0:45  
Fair enough. Okay.

Jeff Matevish  0:46  
We're breaking into the shopping season and the retail season. So, what does that mean for businesses? What does that mean for big businesses, small businesses, consumers? How do people spend their money?

Drew Thomas  0:55  
Yeah, yeah, no, I think that's a good point, because, you know, a bank will hold your money, a bank will be able to hopefully pay you interest, to offer you a loan, but at the end of the day, your, your money is being spent somewhere, right? So, and that goes for businesses too. You know, if you're a business, you're spending money. You're, you're buying inventory, you have overhead costs, you have employees to pay who also want more money this time of year to be able to go out and buy more stuff. And so, I think you're right, this is a big time to spend money. And I think both consumers and businesses have some, some things that they could learn from, from this. Yeah. So, I guess the question is, where are consumers spending their money most? Are they buying stuff online still? Are they buying stuff in store? Are they looking for deals? I mean, everybody's looking for deals. That's a whole point of Black Friday, right? I mean, yeah, right.

Jeff Matevish  1:41  
So, I was a huge Black Friday shopper. I mean, I'd get up at two o'clock, three o'clock in the morning. I was that guy that would stand in line for two, three hours in front of the store.

Drew Thomas  1:50  
You were the guys I hated whenever I worked in retail that was like making me...

Jeff Matevish  1:53  
You probably waited on me at Circuit City, I mean, there was, there was a year there, you know, I was there at four o'clock in the morning buying giant, I was that kid that had the giant subwoofers in the back of his Honda Accord.

Drew Thomas  2:03  
Oh yeah, yeah, we installed a lot of those back in the day.

Jeff Matevish  2:03  
Oh no, I installed it myself.

Drew Thomas  2:10  
Oh, did you?

Jeff Matevish  2:10  
My uncle's an electrical engineer, so that was, he was in heaven installing a capacitor and big amplifier.

Drew Thomas  2:16  
Yeah, but that's cool. You had no trunk space, but you had right, but you had base, right. Yeah, no, yeah. I, I spent a lot of years in retail, and that was, that was the thing back in the day, like, they didn't even do that as much anymore, I don't think is, like the 2am openings and no stuff like that.

Jeff Matevish  2:33  
Now, everything opens on Thanksgiving, yeah.

Drew Thomas  2:37  
Yeah. Well, and, like, the last couple years, though, even some of them have stopped opening on Thanksgiving, because I think there was because I think there was a lot of pushback from people saying, look, these people need time with their families too, like I can't, you know, but with online shopping, I think a lot of that craziness has gone away. You can go online, and you can buy a TV at a good price from Amazon from your living room. You don't have to stand in line and do whatever. But I think that really comes to kind of what we wanted to talk about today, which was the idea that every year, Small Business Saturday, now, right, since 2010, we have Small Business Saturday on that that weekend. So, there's you have Thanksgiving, then you have Black Friday, then you have Small Business Saturday, and then you have, apparently, a day off in the middle, yeah, and then you get Cyber Monday.

Jeff Matevish  3:21  
You get Sunday, the day of rest then Cyber Monday.

Drew Thomas  3:22  
Yeah, you know, somebody started, I think trying to call it Green Sunday at some point. Oh, okay, but it didn't take off. Okay? November 30th this year is Small Business Saturday, which is late in the year. There's, this is a shorter holiday shopping season too, by the way, than, than what we've been used to in the last couple years. Because Thanksgiving is late.

Jeff Matevish  3:41  
It is this year.

Drew Thomas  3:42  
It's like the 28th of the, of the month, which means that there's only really, like three and a half weeks.

Jeff Matevish  3:48  
Thank goodness that Amazon is one to two days for Prime.

Drew Thomas  3:51  
Yeah really, no kidding.

Jeff Matevish  3:52  
But there's a cut off. I mean, you know, they say, you know, what is it like, two weeks before Christmas? Like, that's your guaranteed shipping day.

Drew Thomas  3:52  
Oh yeah. Because, I mean, I, you know what I gotta be say, if you're not tipping your FedEx, UPS, mail carrier, this time of year and you're ordering a bunch of stuff online, shame on you, yeah, yeah.

Jeff Matevish  4:11  
Thank your driver on Amazon, yeah, card in the mail, yeah, yeah.

Drew Thomas  4:15  
Because my gosh, those, those people, those men and women, they, they are hoofing it, yeah, I'm telling you, yeah. So, shout out to all the, all the, if you're listening to this while you're driving around in a, in a delivery truck, you're, you're awesome. No, so I think that you know, if you are a small business and you're, you're trying to get in on this Black Friday shopping stuff, maybe there's, there's ways to do that, and maybe it's, it's okay if you're not as big as you think you should be by now, that kind of thing, you know? I mean, because marketing is interesting around this time of year, and that, that was really the, the topic that you had originally floated was marketing for, like, that's an unintentional pun, because we're going to talk about the Macy's Day Parade, yeah. But, you know, I think of it this way too. Like, even with this podcast. You know how many times I've said, like, oh, I wish we had like, more listenership, or I wish we had, like, more downloads, or I wish we had more, but I have to understand that, you know, we're a year in, yeah, and it's taking some time to find our footing, to find out what works, what doesn't work, and, and small businesses probably get frustrated like that too. You know, you, you want your business to take off. You want your business to be this huge thing, right? And you might be three or four years in, and you're like, it's, it's not turning into what I want it to, but as long as you're making steady progress, you're, you're doing what needs to be done. You're not going to have a 100-year parade on year three. Yeah, yeah, right.

Jeff Matevish  5:35  
So, depends on what you're, what you have into the business when, when you first started too. You know, if you are in a business that has a storefront, that you have a lot of overhead, you know, you, you sunk a lot of money into this business and, but it's going to take you five, six years to turn a profit, yeah, it's a little discouraging, yeah, you know.

Drew Thomas  5:54  
Yeah. And small businesses, although I don't know this might not be true anymore, but small businesses generally are brick and mortar, small, town businesses? Yeah, I bet. I don't know anymore, but I guess there are probably entrepreneurs that are doing a lot more stuff online only to start.

Jeff Matevish  6:07  
Yeah, I can open an Etsy store in 20 minutes and start selling, you know something.

Drew Thomas  6:12  
Yeah, but you're also selling what a lot of other people are selling, right? So, how do you differentiate yourself? Yeah, it's saturated, right. Yeah, so that's interesting. I watch Shark Tank sometimes on Friday nights, and it's basically an hour long commercial for three or four new products. But I do see a lot more entrepreneurs that they start out like direct to consumer. They're not trying to get their stuff into big box stores and or things like that. They're trying to sell directly from their own website and stuff because it's more cost effective, yeah. But you were saying something that I thought was interesting, which is you said that the Gen Zers are actually starting to want to do stuff more in person.

Jeff Matevish  6:49  
Yeah, they want to have the product in their hands, as opposed to window shopping online, yeah. And I think the statistic was something like 30% of those Gen Zers shop in brick-and-mortar stores because they don't want to wait for the shipping. Even though shipping now is, you know, one to two days. That's not fast enough.

Drew Thomas  7:07  
We talked about it, when I was a kid, it was shipping and hand. First of all, there were shipping and shipping, right? So, you had to pay for shipping and handling, and it was usually, like, $19.99 plus $5 yeah, right, right. And then you got, you got it in like, six to eight weeks, yeah. You forgot you ordered it, yeah? And it would show up on your front door. And then by then, you were kind of like, why did I order this thing? Because it's actually a piece of crap that I looked at, at 3am and there's the newer version out already, yeah. So, two days is just not short enough of a time now, apparently, you know. It's that instant gratification.

Jeff Matevish  7:40  
Yeah, you know.

Drew Thomas  7:41  
But here's the thing though, you're, you may start seeing more small businesses taking the lead, because stores, department stores, like traditional department stores, you know, your your Sears stores, things like that, right? They had a little bit of everything, yeah, but their square footage limited you to your selection. You couldn't have 100 different televisions to choose from. You had to pick from, like, 10 or 12, right? So, it's gonna be an interesting balancing act to see how small businesses sort of maybe take that lead of, like, all right, well, I don't have to be all things to all people, but I can have a lot of variety in one thing.

Jeff Matevish  8:19  
It's gonna be more specialized, yeah? So, yeah, have a TV store, like you had said, yeah, that's gonna have the 50 TVs, but they're only gonna sell TVs.

Drew Thomas  8:27  
But that's, that's very 1950s. Yeah, very, yeah. Like 1950s, 1960s where it was, like, you had the TV store, the music store, the whatever store, the dress shop, whatever, that had the variety, but they only carried that one thing. It was, and then these, these Kmarts and Sears and stuff that wanted to be all things to all people. Maybe those things stay more online. But if you want something in, you know, instantly, you're going to actually be looking at small businesses, because it takes a lot for a Walmart to open. Like, you know, Walmart has to build a building, and there's overhead, and there's insurance, and there's trucking, and there's all this stuff that has to go into filling that store. Yeah, that costs a lot of money. A lot more money than just direct shipping it from a warehouse in Montana to your front porch. Yeah. So, I think...

Jeff Matevish  9:13  
But they keep the prices low. So, how do they do that? I mean, how do you, I think it's got to be volume. It has to be volume, yeah.

Drew Thomas  9:14  
So, that's an interesting question. Is Gen Z willing to pay a premium to have it now, right? You know, is it going to be the reverse? Is it going to be, you know, we paid $19.95 to have it plus, plus $5 to have it shipped. Are they going to be willing to pay a premium, whatever it is on that item, to get it now? Yeah. Because you probably are going to pay more in a store than you would online, but you have the satisfaction of getting it immediately. That's interesting. Last holiday season, people spent over $105.2 billion. I don't even know how to say that. That number is so large, $105.2 billion spent between November 1st and November 27th of 2023. So, in one month, people spend over $100 billion is that just in the United States, or is that worldwide?

Jeff Matevish  10:06  
I don't know. It has to be worldwide.

Drew Thomas  10:09  
That's crazy. Before buying, 80% of shoppers are influenced by something they see online. And then during the holidays, bid prices can jump by 140% compared to the rest of the year. So, my guess is that's on things like eBay.

Jeff Matevish  10:22  
I would assume, yeah.

Drew Thomas  10:23  
Because you're finding that old thing that you're, I don't know, wife or whatever, like, grew up with, and you're trying to find, I would yeah, like, what are you bidding on, on eBay?

Jeff Matevish  10:32  
Um, so I used to help out a guy, a guy, he used to sell a lot of stuff on eBay, and I would do his inventory and do all the research, and he, he would buy up all of these antiques. And so, I became, like a little antique expert, but yeah, different seasons...

Drew Thomas  10:46  
The Jeff Matevish Roadshow, yes, we're going to have it. We're going to have a live in-person podcast recording, and Jeff is going to appraise your stuff.

Jeff Matevish  10:54  
Yes, yes. But, I mean, he was just a local guy, and he had marketing tactics as well. He would start pushing more products in November, he would discount everything that he had 20%, 10% to 20%. He would make sure that any holiday related vintage decorations, like Christmas decorations, oh yeah, those are online, and those prices were at a premium. So, I mean, yeah, there's a season for eBay shopping and that kind of stuff. And I could see the, the prices jumping on certain items.

Drew Thomas  11:06  
You sell trains and stuff like that?

Jeff Matevish  11:27  
I never sold trains for him. I sold toy cars for him. But no, not trains.

Drew Thomas  11:31  
Well, trains were all, I mean, trains were always big around Christmas, whenever I was a kid, like around the tree, and stuff like that.

Jeff Matevish  11:36  
Lionel, so expensive.

Drew Thomas  11:37  
Yeah, my dad has some Lionel stuff at home. He doesn't put it out anymore, but I'm sure it's, it's, and it's, like, vintage Lionel, yeah.

Jeff Matevish  11:39  
Oh, I have too. We have a cat, so I don't put mine out either, yeah.

Drew Thomas  11:45  
Yeah. And I what was the other one that my dad has? He has a, he has a Lionel, and then my grandfather had some other kind. And I'm blanking on what it was not, but it was, it was like, even older than Lionel, okay, and he has one of those. I don't know if it still works, but he has one of those in a box somewhere, too. So, I mean, so yeah, so we tend to think of the holiday shopping season is like a good time for deals, but sometimes it's actually a good time to make some money, depends on what you're looking for, yeah, or you're an entrepreneur or sell, or a person like that that's selling stuff on eBay. You know, people are willing to pay a little bit more this time of year. And we've even talked in on the cybersecurity episodes about how this time of year you got to be careful too, sometimes about where you're shopping. Because people will stand up a website and, you know, try to coax you in with some really good price or really good deal, and it's all, it's all fake, right? You know, and you end up losing money. So, be careful. And like, shop, shop where you normally would shop, you know, if you're shopping on a big, you know.

Jeff Matevish  12:46  
Yeah, if you don't normally get an email from, you know, a Kohl's or something like that, but all of a sudden, you're getting flooded with emails from Kohl's, you know, maybe second guess, clicking on those links.

Drew Thomas  12:57  
Yeah, figure out why you're on that list all of a sudden, right, right, yeah, and make sure you're not going to like, C, O, A, L S, yes, yeah, instead of K, O, H, L S, yep, because it's, it's crazy what people will do. In store shopping insights, 60% of people prefer in store shopping to see and touch products. I kind of get that, like you were saying about that with the Gen Zers, and you know that they want to, like, see stuff and touch stuff. But, like, I used to joke all the time, that Circuit City and/or Best Buy was just Amazon's showroom, yeah, because people would want to come in and see whatever it was that they were going to buy, especially televisions, or they'd want to hear a speaker and hear what it sounded like. But then they would leave and go home and buy it online.

Jeff Matevish  13:41  
Yeah, I guess it depends on the product, yeah, and the price too. I mean, it's yeah, but I'm opposite. If it's something expensive, like a TV or a sound system or something like that, I want to buy it in the store because, yeah, no, it's safe. It, you know, it wasn't jostled around on a UPS truck and all that kind of stuff.

Drew Thomas  14:01  
It was jostled around while I got to the store, though.

Jeff Matevish  14:03  
Less chance of being broken, I guess.

Drew Thomas  14:05  
I worked retail. Those things get abused.

Jeff Matevish  14:08  
Well, but yeah, bigger stuff I'd prefer buying in store, which was weird. Yeah, now it's kind of 50/50.

Drew Thomas  14:11  
Yeah, I kind of, I get what you're saying, though.

Jeff Matevish  14:12  
It also depends on how easy it is to return. So, that's a big deal. If I can return it as a big item, and I could return it easier in store, I will definitely buy it in store.

Drew Thomas  14:27  
Yeah, you're absolutely right. That's a big deal. And things like clothes, clothes and shoes.

Jeff Matevish  14:31  
I've never bought clothes online.

Drew Thomas  14:32  
Yeah, it's hard. Yeah, it's really difficult. Even though they put sizing charts and things like that on there, it's hard sometimes to buy clothes.

Jeff Matevish  14:39  
Everything is cut differently. I mean, you could, you can have two or three pairs of pants that are the exact same sizes, but they all fit different.

Drew Thomas  14:45  
Yeah, all due respect to like, Zappos and stuff, which has made a huge I mean, Zappos, is awesome, yeah. Their customer service is fantastic, and all that stuff, but still buying unless, you know, and even shoes, like, I mean, I'm an adult, I've worn the same, my feet have been the same size for the last thirty years, but yet, depending on the type of shoe, I'll range anywhere from like a 12, 12.5, 13, and to have them shipped to your house, then find out they don't fit, and then have to send them back. It's a pain. Yeah, yeah. 42% of people favor local businesses over national chains, which I think that's interesting. That's good. Yeah. And only 9% of people this year plan to shop entirely online, which, I think that's really low. Yeah, it is a really low, because everything you see in the news is just more and more people shopping online, but only, only now it says entirely. That doesn't mean they won't shop online; it just means they're not gonna buy everything.

Jeff Matevish  15:38  
Yeah, I'm curious what that stat was right after like COVID, like has that, yeah, changed drastically since then, or was it still around?

Drew Thomas  15:46  
You know, that's a really good, that's a really good question. And honestly, I bet COVID has had a lot to do with a lot of the shift back toward wanting to do stuff in person, because people got really tired of just being in their own house, staring at the walls and shopping online. I mean, I know I did. I got I mean, I'm not, I'm, it's not like I'm the, I'm not the type of person that is out at the restaurants or bars or whatever every weekend or going to some big function all the time. But, man, I was getting tired of being at home, like, constantly, yeah, yeah. And sometimes it is. And you know what? Here's the other thing, shopping in person, I think, this may sound counterintuitive, I guess because there's so much variety online, but shopping in person gives you the opportunity to stumble on something that maybe you didn't expect to find.

Jeff Matevish  16:33  
Yeah, like a treasure, you know, yeah, you know, there's more of a thrill of the hunt type thing.

Drew Thomas  16:37  
Yeah, yeah, maybe that's it. It's, you know that you go into a store looking for curtains and you end up walking out with something completely unrelated, yeah, you know what I mean, and it's because you had the opportunity to kind of walk past and go, oh, that's neat, yeah.

Jeff Matevish  16:52  
Or you, yeah, you found a sale. Wasn't like something that came flooding into your email or, something like that. You found a specific sale on a specific item, yeah, you feel good about it, yeah.

Drew Thomas  17:02  
So, maybe there's something, something to be said for that too. Could be, yeah, yeah.

Jeff Matevish  17:06  
So, according to this, 30% of shoppers start shopping as early as October. I remember growing up, we were not allowed to buy anything for ourselves after October started.

Drew Thomas  17:16  
Oh, well, that's probably a good rule. I wish my mom followed that rule.

Jeff Matevish  17:21  
And I know my wife, she'll, she'll start shopping as early as Christmas the year prior. Like we have a, we have...

Drew Thomas  17:21  
Probably get some good deals.

Jeff Matevish  17:26  
We, we have, we have a drawer in our house that eventually turns into a closet in our house of stuff she has acquired over the year, but, but she doesn't stress at the end of the year shopping. She's got, yeah, her shopping done. But she's also that, that person that likes to go out the day before Christmas and get the last-minute deals, or, you know, I have three items for Person A and four items for Person B, so we gotta get one more item for Person A.

Drew Thomas  17:54  
Yeah, I understand where you're coming from, there and then, and you're always trying to guess like. So, what do you and your wife do? Do you and your wife buy each other, like, do you, like, have like, a set rule that, like, we each get each other, like, two things or three things or something, or do you...?

Jeff Matevish  18:08  
It starts like that, but it never, yeah, it never ends like that, yeah.

Drew Thomas  18:12  
Yeah. So, yeah, yeah. Although there was one year that we actually stuck to it, we decided to get ourselves, like, some upgraded, like, phones, and an Apple watch, yeah. And we just said, like, look, this is our gift to each other, because it was, it was a sizable expense, yeah, oh, yeah. And so, so we did that, but, but yeah, there's usually this sort of, I don't want to know what you got me, but I wonder how many things you got me.

Jeff Matevish  18:12  
Exactly, yeah, yeah, yeah. Me and my wife shop different too. I'll do all of my shopping for her for Christmas, usually online, and she'll do everything in stores.

Drew Thomas  18:47  
So do you have to have it shipped to, like, your parents’ house or something, so that she doesn't open the package when it comes?

Jeff Matevish  18:51  
No, I just, I just tell her, don't, you know, if it's got my name on it, it's for me. I disable all of the notifications on my Alexa devices, so it doesn't say, you know, hey, such and such package arrived. It just, yeah, hey, you got a delivery.

Drew Thomas  19:03  
Yeah, just letting you know, so that whenever the porch pirate came by and took it from you, you can hunt them down. Yep, yep. See, I have the advantage where I can, I can have stuff shipped to my parents, or...

Jeff Matevish  19:14  
I have done that before.

Drew Thomas  19:15  
Yeah, especially if it's bigger. But because I'm one of those people like, I like the surprise. I get more, I get more of a charge out of the surprise of giving something to somebody than, than I do, like, really getting a whole lot. Yeah, yeah, so, but if she knows something showed up, then she kind of already knows, like, oh, that box is about this big or, like, so I, this way there's no...

Jeff Matevish  19:35  
 Sherlock Holmes, okay.

Drew Thomas  19:36  
She, yeah, she's, she's, she's a snooper, she really is.

Jeff Matevish  19:40  
Do you guys share an Amazon account? Does it make it harder?

Drew Thomas  19:43  
Yeah, yeah, so, but she's a bit of a snooper, so I gotta be careful about that stuff. But what else you got?

Jeff Matevish  19:50  
31% use buy now, pay later services. We wanted to touch on the buy now, pay later.

Jeff Matevish  19:51  
Yeah, we talked, we talked a little bit about that in one of, we actually did an episode on buy now, pay later, yeah.

Drew Thomas  19:56  
Yeah, it's becoming more popular. Yeah, again. Have never used it, even to date, but.

Drew Thomas  20:05  
It's basically reverse layaway, though, right? Yeah, we kind of like talked about, like it's a payment plan, yeah. But I remember lay, I remember layaway in department stores. I remember going to, I don't remember using them, but I remember them, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was pretty young to actually be using them, but I remember, I remember my, my grand, my grandparents were big on layaway, yeah, yeah. Like, I remember traveling with my grandma to go and like, we got to stop and pay the layaway, yeah, yeah. Okay, you know whatever that means.

Jeff Matevish  20:30  
56% of Gen Zers look to TikTok, and 38% of Boomers use Facebook when, when shopping online. My parents, I know last year, used Facebook, they I don't think they bought on Facebook, but they got ideas from Facebook and bought elsewhere.

Drew Thomas  20:44  
So, like the ads on Facebook, or like the Facebook marketplace?

Jeff Matevish  20:47  
The ads on Facebook. Okay, so advertising on Facebook and TikTok.

Drew Thomas  20:51  
I think it's funny how social media has developed, these silos between generations. I think it's really funny because at one point, with social media was just for the young people, yeah. And then now it's like, well, platforms like Facebook are for the older, you know, older Gen Xers and Boomers. Yeah, you know, you have your...

Jeff Matevish  21:10  
I'm kind of stuck in a middle. I hear my parents saying, hey...

Drew Thomas  21:13  
You're on Snapchat is that you're saying?

Jeff Matevish  21:15  
Yeah, well, yeah. So, I'm too old for, for buying stuff on TikTok, but I'm too young for buying stuff on Facebook. Yeah, it's weird hearing my parents say, oh, I got that idea from Facebook. Yeah, yeah, it should be something I should be saying.

Drew Thomas  21:31  
That's true. I get you, yeah. So, so let's talk marketing, about this stuff, because marketing is also a big part of, of what causes consumers to buy, and what, what businesses use to get you to buy? Yeah, sure. So, you know, when we talk marketing, you had brought up a really good point, and I think this is interesting, the Macy's Day Parade is probably one of the biggest marketing platforms.

Jeff Matevish  21:55  
Yeah, next to the Super Bowl, definitely.

Drew Thomas  21:57  
Yeah, which for the, for the context we're using Super Bowl as, as a non-marketing term, because I want the NFL coming at me, sure, but the big game, like, that's the, do you know that the Super Bowl is actually trademarked? Oh, I the name the Super Bowl

Jeff Matevish  22:10  
Oh, I'm sure.

Drew Thomas  22:11  
Yeah, you're not allowed to use it without the NFL's permission. I'm sure it's crazy. You have to say everything has to be like the big game, or something like that when you're talking about stuff like that. But anyway, yeah, the Thanksgiving Day Parade for Macy's is obviously a big spectacle, and everybody likes it, and it's a big holiday tradition, and everybody likes the parade, the balloons and the bands and but it's, it's a huge marketing platform, it really is.

Jeff Matevish  22:37  
But it didn't start out that way. It was much smaller.

Drew Thomas  22:40  
Yeah, and, and it was for Macy's specifically.

Jeff Matevish  22:43  
Right, but it included zoo animals. I mean, there was no floats, there was no balloons. It was zoo animals walking down the street.

Drew Thomas  22:50  
Really? Yeah, wow, that's cool. I knew that they had balloons relatively early on, and they used in the 20s, yeah, and they used to just let them go. They used to let them go at the end of the parade, and then Macy's had a promotion for a short time where, if you found one of the balloons after it came down and you returned it to Macy's, you got, like, a gift certificate to the store.

Jeff Matevish  23:10  
I wouldn't want to carry, I don't have, of course, I don't know how big they were back then, but I wouldn't want to have to carry one of those balloons back to Macy's.

Drew Thomas  23:16  
I guess it depends on how big the gift certificate was for it. Well, I guess, but, but that was kind of a, that was kind of a marketing gimmick in and of itself. Yeah, you know, if you found a balloon around and you returned it to Macy's, you got, like, a little something, yeah, yeah, what else you got?

Jeff Matevish  23:30  
I think that's all I have.

Drew Thomas  23:31  
And that wraps it up.

Jeff Matevish  23:33  
Yeah, happy shopping.

Drew Thomas  23:35  
Thanks, Jeff.

Drew Thomas  23:44  
This podcast focuses on having valuable conversations on various topics related to banking and financial health. The podcast is grounded in having open conversations with professionals and experts with the goal of helping to take some of the mystery out of financial and related topics, as learning about financial products and services can help you make more informed financial decisions. Please keep in mind that the information contained within this podcast and any resources available for download from our website or other resources relating to Bank Chats is not intended and should not be understood or interpreted to be financial advice. The host, guests, and production staff of Bank Chats expressly recommend that you seek advice from a trusted financial professional before making financial decisions. The host of Bank Chats is not an attorney, accountant, or financial advisor, and the program is simply intended as one source of information. The podcast is not a substitute for a financial professional who is aware of the facts and circumstances of your individual situation.

Drew Thomas  24:51  
Thank you for listening. Please check out our full library of episodes, which can be found on the ameriserv.com website. You can also download or stream the podcast from your favorite podcast app.