Chewing the Fat with Jeff Fisher - Jeffy's Corner: Penny Thief

Episode Date: April 23, 2016

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You're listening to the Jeff Fisher Show. The founder of this company 10 years ago was trying to sell his house and went through real estate agent after real estate agent, and they were all talking a great game. And this guy who is selling his house, the founder of this company, he's kind of an important guy and should get the best treatment. And he said to his wife, if this is what it's like for us, how do people who have no clout ever get around this?

So he started a company and it went into business, I think, three years ago. Their deal is, their word is their bond. And they are just like you. Now, how can I say that? Because I'm the founder of the company. We have a thousand agents across the country and they are people that listen to the show. And so when you go through real estate agents, I trust, it's sent to somebody who already, you already know their sensibilities. They already are cut from exactly the same cloth.

There's got to be a better way. There is. Real estate agents, I trust.com. The penny arcades pulled from branches at the TD Bank. And this is the story I've had in the stack for a while because it's fascinating to me that these machines, and what they're talking about is the machines that they have at the bank where you bring in, you know, your bags or buckets or plastic bottles or whatever of change. Pockets full of change and you pour it in the machine.

And the machine, you know, sucks up your coins. and it comes back with you. That was $1.25. That was $82. And so apparently those machines were wrong. A test found in one case, you put in $300 of coins and got $256.90 back. So they removed them because no,

they believe that you should be able to get the exact amount for whatever change you put in there, the machines should be right. Come on now. Aren't they supposed to make a little money from it? That's supposed to be a free service? Now, they said they tested the CoinStar counting machines, which you see in grocery stores and supermarkets and some area banks, I think, the CoinStar machines. They were perfect.

But it brought up an interesting thing in my mind reading this story. is that how many times we trust what we're told on things? Just off the cuff, we trust it. We trust it. Boom. You know, that's right. And I wonder if there's going, you know, there's a time when maybe we shouldn't. Like, I don't know.

Do you ever think to yourself when you buy your trash bags for the house? and the box says 50 bags or 300 bags or whatever. You know, you go to the local, you know, bulk store, Sam's or whatever. You get the box of, you know, 8,000 trash bags. You ever think maybe there isn't 8,000 trash bags in that box? I mean, very few times do you find yourself counting whatever the amount of trash bags are in that box, right? I mean, if it says there's 300, okay. I mean, do you realize that you've,

you've count them? That box only gave me 298 trash bags. Those people are thieves. Well, actually, they are. When I worked, and that's worth a lot of money, you think about that. Two trash bags. And just let's just say, for example, there were 2, you know, 95 trash bags in that box and not 300. Five trash bags of box. That's a lot of money. Over a year, for that company, huge.

Huge amount of money. When I worked, I remember working in, when I worked for a grocery store, stocking shelves. When I first started, I remember we'd get pallets of cereal in. And, you know, you'd get a, you know, the store would get a deal on a pallet of,

of frosted flakes. So on the pallet comes 12 cases of frosted flakes. So I remember stocking the shelves and building displays of the frosted flakes. But every sixth box on that palette, so two of the boxes on that palette, there was a missing box of frosted flakes. Okay. So every sixth box, one box missing. Now, as a shelf replenisher, I could give a flying crap about that missing box of frosted flakes.

I'm not saying anything. That's one last box I got to put on the shelf. That's one last box I've got to use to build, put on the display, right? So you open the box and go, huh, one missing. gone, break down the box, move on to the next box. Next box, they're all there. You don't worry about the last box. Five more boxes.

Huh, there's another one missing. Weird. Maybe I ought to say something. I've got to get this stuff built. I've got to get this on the job. That happens all over the country. In the course of a year, that's a lot of money. I'm not saying that the companies do it on purpose,

and I'm not saying that they wouldn't own up to it because they might say, oh, my gosh, we had a machine malfunction and we didn't catch it in time. So, you know, 800 boxes were minus a box of Frosted Flakes or, you know, this particular number, code number of trash bags or minus five bags a box. So come in and, you know, we'll give you a free trash bags or call this number and we'll send you trash bags or whatever. They'll make good about it. And if you were to call as just a single person, they would say, oh, my,

gosh, you know, they would probably believe you whether you were telling them the truth or not and send you a free box of trash bags. Because in the long run, unless it's some kind of big, huge class action lawsuit, sending a few people a box of trash bags is a heck of a lot cheaper and worth less money than the money they're making on pulling out less trash bags in the box. And I'm not picking on trash bag companies because I'm sure that they're going to, you know, wave count our bags and those boxes are 100% correct. I got it.

Okay. And your cereal companies, I'm sure it was a mistake that those cases on the palates that I happened to run across every six boxes were empty. I've ever had one box missing. I'm sure it was just a mistake. I mean, I'm sure it's not possible at all that every sixth box on your chain of filling boxes of frost and flakes. would miss a box. No way that could happen. Right?

Right. Right. What are the cases of cereal that is in a year? I mean, it's just unbelievable. And who, no one, I mean, who is going to complain about that? The guy that complains is the guy that buys the one case of cereal. Not the pallets, you know, just the one case. And he opens up the box and expects 24 boxes.

of whatever product is in that case. He opens it up and there's 23. He's pissed. So he complains. And he either gets another case. They send him another box. He gets credit for the box. Whatever.

You know, they work it out. Still, cheaper in the long run, though. So it just is amazing to me when things, and I know that's regular, you know, the government makes sure that we're all safe. I got it. But when you buy, you know, just anything. You know, Tylenol.

and it says they've got, you know, 200 pills in there. Do you count them? I mean, I don't. When it says, you know, you buy shampoo and it says, you know, worth 800 shampoos, is it? I mean, did I use too much? Did I use not enough? Am I getting 900 or am I getting 600?

I mean, what's, you know, do I have to spoon it out into a little cup every morning and make sure that I get 8,000 shampoos out of this big bottle of shampoo? I don't know. I'm just saying, who tests it? How do I know? So we just believe. We just believe. So when you're putting your pennies in the machine and you pour it in, you just believe that your $300 is really $256.90.

And the penny machine owner, oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Did we short you $3.10? Oh, my gosh. we are so sorry. You're listening to the Jeff Fisher Show. The Blaze Radio Network. The founder of this company 10 years ago was trying to sell his house

and went through real estate agent after real estate agent, and they were all talking a great game. And this guy who is selling his house, the founder of this company, he's kind of an important guy and should get the best treatment. And he said to his wife, if this is what it's like for us, how do people who have no clout ever get around this? So he started a company and it went into business, I think, three years ago. Their deal is, their word is their bond. And they are just like you.

Now, how can I say that? Because I'm the founder of the company. We have a thousand agents across the country. And they are people that listen to the show. And so when you go through real estate agents, I trust, it's sent to somebody who already, you already know their sensibilities. They already are cut from exactly the same cloth. There's got to be a better way.

There is. Real estate agents, itrust.com.