We Fixed It, You're Welcome - Crowdsourced Fixes: Audience Solutions Explored

Episode Date: June 3, 2025

In this episode of "We Fixed It, You're Welcome," the hosts tackle crowdsourced fixes from listeners. They explore ideas for Starbucks to introduce healthier, family-friendly drinks and mocktails, leveraging the Teavana brand. The team discusses Costco's checkout process, suggesting ways to streamline it for customers with fewer items. They also address the challenges of magazine subscription cancellations and propose solutions for more sustainable takeout packaging. Throughout the episode, the hosts balance creativity with practicality, considering operational challenges and consumer behavior. The discussion showcases the podcast's unique approach of reimagining business practices through collaborative problem-solving. https://wefixeditpod.com/ A quick disclaimer. We are going into this somewhat cold and nothing we say should be construed as legal advice, financial advice or anything that would get us in trouble. These are our views and opinions. We're here to ask the kinds of questions everyone's thinking. Have an engaging conversation and maybe come to some conclusions that we feel are worth exploring. By the end, if we fixed it, you're welcome. All trademarks, IP and brand elements discussed are property of their respective owners. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All right, here's how this works. In each episode, we pick a company we all know that has something going on right now. Then we put ourselves in charge and see if we can fix it. You'll be hearing from Melissa and Operations, Chino on people in culture, and me on marketing. My name's Aaron. As always, a quick disclaimer, we are going into this somewhat cold and nothing we say should be construed as legal advice, financial advice, or anything that would get us in trouble. These are our views and opinions. We're here to ask the kinds of questions everyone's thinking, have an engaging conversation, and maybe come to some conclusions that we feel are worth exploring. By the end, if we fixed it, you're welcome. All trademarks, IP, and brand elements discussed are property

of their respective owners. Welcome back to We Fix It, you're welcome. Today's episode is dedicated to crowdsourced fixes. That's right, we've been asking you for your own fixes and you delivered. We pulled some submissions, they're still hot, and we're going to hear them and weigh in on This is the first time we're doing this, but it won't be the last. We'll do this again. At the end of the episode, we'll tell you how you can send in your own fix to this very show for consideration on a future episode. And before we get into our crowdsource fixes, we're not going to do this alone. Today, your fearless fixers will be joined by our equally fearless producer, Eric Rutherford. Eric is an in-demand podcast producer, podcaster in his

own right, and all-around smart dude. So we may as well stack the deck in our favor if we're going to take on who knows what. How's it going, Eric? Hey, thanks, Aaron. Thanks for the kind introduction. Glad to be on this side of the mic. Thanks, Eric. And along with Eric, you've got your regular fearless fixes. You got Chino, Melissa, and myself. Now, Eric's going to play us one submission at a time and share some of the proposed fixes we've received. At the end of each one, we'll all talk about it. Maybe we'll endorse it wholeheartedly. Maybe we'll plus it up and put our own spin on it. Anything can happen. So, Eric, let's get into it. Let's hear our first fix and who it's from.

Hey, Aaron. Here's my idea. It is regarding Starbucks. So Starbucks has been innovative in the past, but I feel like they haven't done anything neat lately. And, but there's these trends where people are trying to drink more like non-alcoholic drinks. There's mock tales are really popular. And then also too, I think people are trying to get away from sugar and not, but there's so many Starbucks drinks that are laden with sugar that have way too much sugar in them. So if they could come up with some healthier drinks that appeal to, gosh, I was thinking like maybe the entire family because we don't want kids drinking alcohol, obviously, but they are healthy, tasty. Like they had Teavana.

They had bought Tevana and I love Tevana because I love coffee and tea. So if they could do something in that direction, that would be great. I like it. So this is from Christine. She is an executive coach and LinkedIn master and Starbucks and Tevana and mocktails. What do you all think? I think so. As someone who occasionally has, you know, treats myself to a Starbucks, you know, I do remember

when they brought out their refreshers, which essentially was like a guilt-free, you know, not a juice, but not a tea, not a coffee, particularly in the summer. And I think, again, you know, there's so many options when it comes to Starbucks. I think we talked about that on our podcast in that episode of, you know, they do need to streamline a little bit versus just, you know, reaching for different things from a operations perspective. But I do think maybe exploring more on the refresher and offering different types during the summer months as a test can be a really great option. So I like the idea.

I do think they would need to really make sure that they streamline that from an operations perspective. Do you think customers drive time coming home 5 o'clock hour? Do you think they could be trained into getting a mock mojito or mock margarita from Starbucks? Does that jive? I don't know. I mean, I think that the idea around the brand of Tivana, right? So they closed those stores, which were really kind of fun stores if you had ever gone into one of those, right? but they still own the tea and the brand.

And so they offer that within their Starbucks. So I think that this is actually not a bad idea is like utilizing the healthiness of tea, right? Like the herbal, organic kinds of things. And then rebranding it to be more family-friendly. I think there were a lot of ideas here that Christina was sharing, right, around like less sugar, something that's family-friendly, you know, like, less caffeinated maybe for the afternoon, Aaron. I love, you know, I love a drink in the afternoon. So I, you know, and I love mocktails too. But I don't know that like, because I think of Starbucks as kind of

my morning, you know, get me going place, would I think of that? And Tachino, to your point, I remember, you know, my kids when they were like in, you know, middle schoolish, always love those Starbucks refreshers, right? The fruity drinks. They love the pink drink. right, which is the refresher with coconut milk or something in there, right? I don't know what makes it pink. It's kind of gross to me, but I do think that that's something that they could lean into. And it would almost be this like revitalization of a brand that they bought and really kind of leaning into that, which is, you know, which is interesting to me that they bought it and then

they kind of shuttered it in a weird way. I mean, they shuttered the locations, but like they're not really pushing forward the two. the Tevana component of it. Right. Yeah, and those Tevana stores were nice. And they had a different feel than Starbucks. And they were able to create a nice environment. And I'm feeling it.

But I do think, you know, maybe it is a spinoff, like a Tevana type of place where you get your, your smoothies, your mottails. It's, everyone knows it's a Starbucks family, you know, kind of chain company. But it's maybe a different environment than a Starbucks. And maybe more, you know, it's got more of a loungy vibe. or after after work mingling kind of vibe? I don't know. Well, and I think that there also is the potential with Tivana to do the mottails.

So like maybe sparkling tea infusions, right? Like something like that that is, you know, kind of feels fresh but also feels like adultish. And then promoting like those unsweetened teas, right, ice teas and family, you know, you know, You could also look at it as, you know, Christina mentioned family friendly, right? But like even what about like family sized, you know, like, you know, when I don't know, my parents used to make sun tea, you know, in the summers and stuff like that. But like what if you could go through the drive-thru and get a big gallon of tea, right? Sure.

I also would add two, right? It's Friday today. And most offices, right, like, you know, you come in the morning, you have your coffee. sometimes you get those like big office size coffee. Well, you know, in terms of branding, could they not as well? You know, you get your morning coffee jug from Starbucks, but then your afternoon happy hour, you get the Tiavana mocktail as an option as well. So I think from an office perspective, like when we think happy hours, it's usually in person,

you know, not everybody drinks, which is great. And so I think encouraging, to Christina's point, having mocktails and using that as the refreshers or maybe it's a Starbucks slash Ti-Ivana branded Happy Hour special that, you know, you don't have to come back to Starbucks, buy it on the morning and have it stocked up ready to go for your, you know, four o'clock Friday after, you know, happy hour. Yeah. Well, and we talked about it in our Starbucks episode, but Starbucks grew out of the Italian coffee culture and in Italy, everyone stops what they're doing sometime in the afternoon and goes and gets, you know, coffee or a drink at the bar.

So, and Starbucks has experimented with, with wine bars and things like that. But not to say it has to be mocktails only. They could do things that are, you know, not super heavy, but beer and champagne cocktails and things like that, that, you know, there's nothing prohibiting them from going in that direction again if they can find a way to make a stick. Yeah. And I think that, like, I like what you said, Chino, because, like, I know that from a branding perspective that sometimes Starbucks does a thing where, like, you can get a free real refill

at certain times of the day, right? So I would prefer not having a fully loaded coffee at 2 p.m. But if you were offered, you know, just to get it going so people understood, oh, look, we've got, you know, these mottails made out of sparkling tea and like, you know, or like in conjunction with a refresher or whatever it might be, that might be a good way to get it started. So people start thinking about Starbucks more than just the morning stop. And they think about it like, you know, to your point, Aaron, like afternoon on the way to a soccer practice, you know, those kinds of things. And that there's there's something really, you know, sorry for the pun, but refreshing about having an afternoon, you know, cocktail or drink or tea from Starbucks.

I love that. And I think stealing from McDonald's because, you know, they really blew up from their, like with their coffee and that branding because in the summer they offered dollar coffees. So I love the idea, Melissa, of, you know, having a promotion where it's, okay, if you had, you know, you bought your morning coffee here for a dollar, show us your receipt. And, you know, we'll give you a refresher or a mockdale to try it out. And it's between this certain time to entice people because, you know, when you look at McDonald's, you look at other fast, you know, QSR places that have been kind of introducing new drink menus, they always start with some type of promotion at a limited time to. get hooked. And then you come back afterwards. And I think that's a really great opportunity to explore what this looks like without having to burden yourself with the cost of, you know, expanding this to every location where in a time they also still very much need to streamline. No, that's really smart, Chena. And I, you know, if you've ever been to a Starbucks close to

closing time, it's pretty, it can be pretty quiet. So, you know, doing that incentivizing to come back toward the end of the day, especially if they can get something where it feels like, you know, more, I won't say a party atmosphere, but somewhere that you, you know, you can be seen at, that could, that could help revitalize the end of, that dreary end of shift type of thing and turn it into a place you'd actually want to be. Right. What do you think, Eric, would you get your cocktails and mocktails from Starbucks? You know, it's funny because, you know, I think from a, from an operational standpoint, it depends on how many steps they have to put in and how much they have to maintain. I think one of the challenges that QSR restaurants, and I worked with

McDonald's specifically for several years, one of the things that killed them is they just made their menu too complicated. And so that killed drive-through times. That killed everything. And so that's one. The other challenge is you got to be careful that you don't lose your brand. You know, I think I use McDonald's as the same example. I think they tried to be everything to everybody. And then they became nothing to everybody. And I think they haven't recovered from the 2000s when they did that. And they made their menus super complicated.

And it's just a challenge. And so I like the idea of the Tevana trying to branch out with that. As a coffee drinker who drinks it black, like I drink my coffee black. I drink my tea unsweetened. Like, I drink coffee, seven, eight at night. Like, I just, I don't drink sweeten drinks anyway. So from that vantage point, it's difficult for me to identify specifically. But, you know, I think if they can keep the operational aspect of it clean, do some of those

limited time offerings, figure out what works. Right. And then try to leverage that. Or you'll create their whole new season. I mean, the whole reason we have pumpkin spice is because Starbucks decided that was going to start after Labor Day and end Thanksgiving. I think it just depends on what they decide. So, yeah, I think it just depends at the core, though, what can they deliver well without making it more complicated on their own stores. Eric, you bring up such a good point because that was actually the topic of the conversation when we had the Starbucks call was they were trying to get back to that.

like coffee centric coffee shop thing because they had done the same thing that expanded to all of these different types of things. And I love the idea of testing into it like seasonality. Like maybe it's like iced teas, you know, but to your point, you know, complicating a menu is what we're finding, you know, we were just talking about that with Subway. We're talking, you know, what is your real identity and Starbucks is all about the coffee? So I, I, I, I agree. agree with you. I think that there's a certain aspect of that that is less attractive. And I think that's, to be honest, I think that's why, you know, really mom and pop and neighborhood coffee shops are thriving because people just want a really good cup of coffee, right? And they don't want all

the other shenanigans. And so, and if you're going to be spending five, six, seven, eight dollars on a cup of coffee, right? You don't need all the other stuff. Maybe it would need a spin-off like a Tvana, but centered around moktail culture and things like that so that we don't get too diluted because Starbucks is already going back to menu simplification and cutting and working on the operational side of it. And we don't want to overcomplicate things. So love the fix, Christine. There's a there's a way at it. I think we're all in favor. It's just how it actually gets carried out.

All right. Eric, what's next? Hey, Aaron. Adam W. Barney here, energy coach based in Boston. This fix is about something I think about every single week. Slack. I'm in about 30 different Slack communities where I find opportunities, job posts, support founders, and that's even where you and I met in one. Here's the problem.

Slack search is great within a single workspace, but it's a dead end when you need to cross-check. I'd love to see a third-party tool built on top of Slack, something like Slack mesh, that allows cross-community search. Say, I send a client five job links, and one came from a Slack thread I saw last week. week, but which workspace, which channel? It's a total black box unless I keep obsessive notes. We need searchable memory across workspaces, making it easy to tag, trace, and recall that thread across all the slacks I'm plugged into. It would save hours and save my sanity. So what do you all think of that fix? Good one, Adam. So Slack and Teams, I don't know your experience, but the search tools on those are pretty lacking. So the company I used to work with, with four, a

They actually built Slack back in the day. And I think, again, it has expanded so much since, you know, even in the last two, three, four, five years, right? And I love this idea of, you know, you can be, you know, in multiple different communities and work spaces. But how do you centralize it all for yourself, particularly in a time of AI? And I think this is an opportunity for Slack as well as other programs like teams to find ways where if you have one email and you know that I'm on three different Slack

channels, because I am. I'm a part of different communities as a consultant and as a business owner as well as my own internal one where if you can get an AI where I can search and kind of find and it can pull different messages for me to do or similar to like a LinkedIn, you know, when you have different, you know, posting. If you have different company pages, you can actually toggle down and like respond to your associated company page that you want to so I can sometimes respond as myself or via my company or an association I'm a part of and I think having that feature would be really helpful and of course leveraging AI to help con grom I can't say that word I'm not going to try congruent the kind of all of the data there would be really great so I think it's a

really great idea and would be very helpful particularly with folks who are in multiple workspaces. Do you think from an operational perspective, what was the purpose of keeping them private? So do you see what I'm saying is like, is there a privacy component about keeping the community separate? Or do you think it's okay to do a search across all? And I only, you know, I agree. I think, you know, because Slack and teams has become so prevalent in all of the business world, right? This is how we communicate. It's now more than even emails, you know, those kinds of things. But is there a reason to keep it somewhat private so that when you're searching, you're only searching in one community? You know, I got to put my HR hat on. I was thinking and talking as a

business owner and making my life easier. So there's that. And I think a personal tool for that would be great. You're absolutely right, Melissa, from a compliance standpoint, because each community has their own rules. Some of them you need to buy into. So if I'm, you know, using a different profile, it's like, well, is that profile also being charged the monthly amount that is to be a part of this, like, exclusive community? There's a lot of those compliance concerns that you would need to address. However, I do think if there's a way to almost like create a profile for yourself and say, okay, well, this is my email and I'm a part of these three. you know, communities where, you know, you need to know what the community guidelines and rules are

to use them. And if I'm aware of that and, you know, you've had all that onboarding, if there's like a personal tool that can help you search between the different communities you're already a part of, that's great. I do think you bring up a really good point from the HR hat. And so that would be the one pause as to why maybe Slack hasn't done that so far. Yeah, I mean, we've, I've, I've been in a Slack community that was like a, and I think every company has this, I'm sure, where if you've left the company, there's a Slack community of all the people that have left, right? You know what I mean? That kind of thing. And there were things being said in that Slack community, which were obviously not always the most positive lens of that company. And it got back. And

one of the people that was kind of in it, who was still at the other company, got, let go because of something that they commented in Slack. That's why I would be, you know, so like if just, I'm just saying, you know, you're going to be extra careful. Yeah, you're a business owner. And if you just said, hey, I want to look up what people are saying about me or saying about like cappuccino, right? You know, you put it in the search bar and then you see some client saying something and

you'd be like, whoa, wait a minute, right? you might, you know, have those kinds of feelings. And so that's to me, the one thing is that I totally agree that the search function needs to be better. And I think that that just goes beyond Slack. I mean, because we're so used to it, like in Google and other places where you have a really robust search function, that seems like it's an opportunity. But I think that there's some sort of understanding the privacy of these communities, right? And the safety. around that that I would be concerned with.

Yeah, I take your point, but at least the search feature with AI, you know, to be able, maybe you will wind up discovering things you're not supposed to. But if you could say, you know, have a little AI integrated widget where you can say, tell me about my interactions with, you know, these individuals or give me a replay of my history, that type of thing, whenever I take on a client, I beg them not to add a new channel. You know, there's Slack, there's teams, there's Google, there's WhatsApp, and, you know, they always do. And it's one more place to mess up. It's one more place to be, where were you?

You know, we binged you. Oh, okay, I wasn't there. So, you know, that's bad enough. And I'm sure there's aggregators that pull all those into one feed and, you know, you can go drive yourself nuts doing it that way and responding from the wrong persona at the wrong time for the, you know, mess up there. But at least if you're in the platform and you're trying to say, which platform was I interfacing on at the time. I had this conversation.

It's very pertinent to what I'm, you know, my deliverable or whatever I'm set out to do. Help me find it. You know, those, those, there's just something missing about those search features.

Yeah. And the threads, right? Like so. Threads, yeah. Especially as you're like in in Slack and then people are replying and replying and replying and then adding documents and things like that.

And you're just like, you get lost in like all of it. So absolutely. Yeah. I really like. But I do think, and again, right, I feel like sometimes you have all these tools that you adopt. And it's really hard to really onboard yourself with them because I do know that Slack does have a tool where it can summarize. Like there's an AI to like give you a quick summary of like what's been going on for the week, which you can set up for yourself.

Right. And so that would be really helpful. So I wonder if there's a profile individual setting where it says, okay, all these different groups that you're a part of, you know, here's what's going to. going on in these different communities, which could be really helpful if they don't already have that. But I do agree. It can be really challenging, especially if you're going between different things. Of course, you know, we've talked about it in a, what is someone saying something bad? Of course someone would say anything bad about like cappuccino. But in the other hand, it could also be, and I've also missed messages where someone's reached out and said, hey, we need like

cappuccino support on a recruit. And I didn't see that until like two weeks later because it was so buried in between things. And so I see there being a need for it. It can be used for good and bad. But I think what everyone should always remember is, you know, anytime you write anything down, it's written down somewhere. And like, you know, if you're using Slack within a workplace, I always say, assume that everybody can see this and just be mindful that way. And that's, I think, how everyone should kind of, should be the working theory with any of these tools. But having an aggregate as a summary, be really helpful. So I like the idea. I think there's already something that's happening, but it would be great to make it more personal to you. Discord does something really good with this.

I don't like Discord, but you're able to have one login and connect to multiple discourse through the same login. So you can always see on one side, are there any messages? Did you get ping? Something like that. So they have some functionality that Slack could pick up from. The one thing I think Slack challenged from a corporate perspective is how much proprietary and gets dumped into your Slack on a corporate. And if I'm a company, I am not letting any, there will be no search function outside of my company that gets access to, because I think of all this, I think from slide decks to quotes to everything,

I think that's a hiccup that could be, you know, that could be a problem. But that's true. Discord's letting you use single user interface to access multiple Discord. So there is some possibilities there. Okay. But the trick would be keeping individual environments airtight and separate from one another unquestionably and giving some flexibility on the user side to at least make those in-channel searches better, if not the cross-channel ones.

Right. I think that it's, Eric, you bring up a really good point too. Like maybe, you know, locking down what the rules are, administrative rules for a Slack channel based on what the profile is. So if it's a company Slack channel, right? You would say, okay, you're not part of any of those kinds of searches. But if it's a community, Erin, for example, if you're in CMOs of the world or something like that, Slack channel. Right.

That's something that's more open. And you could put in the rules, hey, this is part of, you know, generalized integrated search function. So be careful what you post in here if you don't want to have that pop up, right? But I do think that I love the idea of having a more advanced search function because I Slack just it used to just piss me off all the time because I knew you know and then the other thing is like as soon as you read it, it's gone. So Slack take a page from Discord and Teams too and maybe figure out you know how you keep your sensitive information locked down but also give users the searchability that they're looking for and help add them out. What's up next, Eric?

Hey, Erin. This is Christine. I'm a fractional chief of staff in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. So I have a love-hate relationship with Costco. And I don't think I'm the only one. While I love going there to do a big shop, there are oftentimes that I just want to pop in for like one, two things. The problem is that the checkout lines can be huge. At least twice in the past year, I've put back what I had in my hand because I didn't want to wait in line for just one thing. So I have an idea that will help to capture those lost sales. A cart free checkout lane. So one checkout lane, whether it's self-serve or not, should be reserved for people who do not have a cart.

No like eight items or less. Just if you can carry it in your arms, then you can check out there. Because the lane wouldn't need to accommodate their oversized carts, it could be smaller and it could even be closer to the exit, keeping congestion at bay. So what do you think of my fix? So it's not even 10 items or less.

This is whatever your whole thing. holding in your hand laying, right? I love this idea having just come back from Costco this morning and needing to buy just two things and having that exact same experience. And also shout out to my fellow Canadian. I do think they are missing. And I watch it all the time where you go and you're really going in for, you know, eight items or less.

And I'd always turn around or I take things out because I'm like, this is just not worth the panic of waiting in these lines. and I'm finding, you know, I've tried to go at different times and it's, I don't know if it's maybe my Costco. It's constantly busy. The parking lot is insane. And, you know, when I just want to buy like one carton of like 1830 eggs versus, you know, a whole cart of different things, I think being able to go in and out would be great. They have the infrastructure. It's not really adding anything. Maybe it's like a specific self-checkout, you know, point of sale system that they have close to the exit, but I think it's brilliant having literally

just been waiting for 40 minutes to literally check out 30 eggs. So my Costco's got a self-checkout, but it's not limited to those without carts only. And I think you'd need an enforcer standing there saying, no, no, you've got a cart. Go to the other side of the store. Yeah. So the auditing process is what is important. I think that like Sam's club, does a scan and go or something similar to that where you can use your app to do that. So for tech savvy customers, that's workable. But it doesn't always appeal to everybody else. And when you think about Costco, it's really about these bulk items.

So to your point, like how often are you really, you know, you're not going to take a pallet of toilet paper, right? You know, through. But I do understand. Oh, okay, Chino will. But I do understand this need because it's. That is a frustrating. I think all of us have probably done that where the line has just been too long.

And even if you had just like four things in your cart, you were like, forget this. I can't, I can't wait. But I do think it's a great idea that they've got to figure out some way to, you know, especially because Costco is now growing in its memberships because people have been boycotting Target and other places. So I think that Costco really needs to take advantage of having the, this influx of new customers and really making sure that they are taking care of. I mean, it could be a challenge, right?

Like, can you go in Costco and spend less than $50? You know, like maybe. Well, that's one thing Costco's really good at is the impulse buy, right? You go in for one thing and you leave with seven and, you know, a box of crackers. You've never tried and, you know, just pick it up on the way out. So do they want, would Costco want to implement something that gets you in and out with one or two items when their model is built on, you know, explore and discovery and fill the cart.

You know, that's kind of their thing. I agree. And I think, you know, that is your base of customers at Costco. That said, with this influx of more people shopping there for political reasons, boycotts, et cetera, et cetera, again, cheaper deals because the cost of motivation is so much higher. So for me, I'd much rather spend, you know, $10. on 30 really good quality eggs and spend $8 on 12 eggs that I literally just ran out of. So, and I am that customer that I don't mind going in and getting the bulk toilet paper

or paper towel or whatever it is because it is such a cost saving. And so I think, you know, what they can do because we also have self-service and there is two or three people usually manning self-service is just dedicating one cash register saying if you're walking and you have no cart right here. And that just, you know, again, you're either losing the customer, you're losing the sale or you're getting the sale at that point. If someone's coming into your store,

they're likely there to buy. And it's particularly with Costco as a membership where you have to scan a card, you know? You have like you're, you're there because you're purchasing something. And so I think if they can really streamline that and get people in and out, you're only going to see sales increase.

Yeah. Sam's, go ahead. Oh, I was going to say, I think to Aaron and Aaron, your point about auditing, they could use enhanced AI, like, you know, cameras to validate the receipts versus what you have, just like Amazon does in their stores. So I think that there is an opportunity for them to be able to do a little bit of the best of both worlds. Sorry, Eric.

Oh, no, you're good. Sam Scan & Go is a life changer. Like, you walk around and you scan your item and you punch it. how many you've got. So if you only want to get eggs, you scan it, you walk out the door, they've got some type of AI functionality at the door, because they don't always check your cart. You'll pull up, they give you the QR code. They'll say you're good. They won't look at it. Like, I haven't been through a line at Sam's in forever because I just walk around and I scan my stuff, and I just walk right out the door. You're talking about Sam's Club.

Camps Club. Yeah, it's like it is like if if Costco hasn't adopted that, they are missing out on on a ton of customer ease abuse. No, you still get your receipt checked with a Sharpie. Yeah, I'm like you're shopping in 2030, Eric. I don't even I don't even I don't know. I don't get a paper receipt. I don't get anything like it's just all in app through email and I don't have a physical car. at Sam's Club. It's all through the app. So like, yeah. Well, let's let's try this. I like what you're saying, Eric. There's the technology route. What Costco is a member model, you know, they sell memberships. That's where they, I believe, make the majority of their, their revenue, or profit at least. I'm not saying this with full conviction, but what if there was, you know,

if they don't want to go full tech route? What if there's a membership tier where you pay for premium checkout, you know, is one of the perks? Last time I was at Costco, the gentleman in front of me paid with $100 bills, and he paid $1,200 in cash for whatever he was buying. He would up his membership model for fast checkout, priority checkout. What do you think of that as adding it to a gold plus member tier? You know, I'll say because, I don't know, I'm cheap. I'm not going to lie.

I'm not paying for it. I'm going to, I'm there for the deals. And so I don't mind waiting. But I think, you know, there is something to be said. if there's just one cash register I can get in and out, like, I don't want to have to pay to do your job, especially if I'm self-checkouting that as well. But, you know, if you can just get me in and out quickly, again, for a year so that you have more people to shop, right? Like, I am a waste of space for Costco to be there if it's just me grabbing one thing of eggs or

toilet paper. So get me out of there as soon as you can so that I'm not in your hair. So I think there's something there. I wouldn't pay for that. I didn't spend a long money at Costco. I will not give them a dollar to do their job. Sorry. Fair point, Gina. All right, Eric, should we get past Costco and go on to the next? Thank you, Christine. Hey, Aaron. This is Michael San Diego. I love the show. The thing I'd like you to fix is that I feel like magazines have gotten addicted to playing games with their subscribers. I'll give you three examples. They'll show you an introductory price, but make it really

hard to find the renewal price. Or they'll have a relatively high renewal price, but as soon as you cancel, they'll offer to knock it down 80%. But the one I really hate is making it semi impossible to cancel. I've particularly noticed this with business magazines. I don't know if it's a thing generally, or maybe I just noticed it with business because that's what I read. But anyway, I will particularly call out

the economist, which I've read for many years, for making it hard to cancel. I had an online chat when I went to cancel that went almost 15 minutes. I think it was with a person, but I wouldn't swear. But in any case, I had to ask over and over and over to cancel. And the agent would say that they could do that for me,

But first, could I tell them what I liked by The Economist or was I, did I know about the podcast benefit or, you know, why was I canceling? I'm wondering if they were trying to goad me into losing my temper so that they could hang up on me and thwart the cancellation. I felt like it was beyond rude. So I have no idea how you would fix this, but that's my beef. Hey, Eric. All right. The old can't cancel maneuver. I can't cancel.

And I also like that as soon as you renew, they start sending you renewal notices. Again, so you like they they put all the numbers like in four font next to like your account number. So you don't even know when you're actually needing to renew. Right. Like it could be 20, 30. I don't know. But like they just keep sending you the renewals all the time. So I think it's I think it's an interesting thing.

And I think also because, you know, I feel like magazines and these tactile things are like going away. You know, like it's, you know, you're, you're. not seeing that as much anymore either. But I agree. I think anytime, like, it's impossible also to cancel something you've done an app, right? Like the New York Times on your phone, like you can't cancel it. Yeah, it's not just magazines. It's subscription models when they make that make the cancellation so tedious. And I appreciate, you know, they're in the business of retention. So anytime you leave, it's hard to get you back and they may as well keep you while you're there. And I, you know, I do appreciate sometimes if you're on the fence about something and they say,

no, stay with us. Here's 50% off. Stay with us for a little while and we'll prove our value. You know, even if it's automated, I appreciate that. But when you've made up your mind and you just have to go through the hoops and it's one after another and the burdens on the customer to get out of something, that's not right. It isn't. And, you know, I think, you know, thank you for this question because it is something that we all have to deal with, but you always, I sign up for so many free trials to watch that one show. And then I have to remember really quickly, you know, by the end of the week to cancel it, because I don't want to be spending, you know, $300 a month for each subscription service. I literally just canceled one yesterday. And it is in a weird way, their job

to make that harder. They're not incentivized to let you cancel. They don't want that. And I think, particularly in the, you know, magazine, physical, you know, direct mail things, it's a little bit harder to do that. I'm pretty sure that was like the AI you're speaking to. The fix there, I don't really know if there is one. I think that's kind of their business model of making it harder for you to cancel. And it's how they keep people engaged.

And sometimes you won't notice until a year later. And it's the onus, as Aaron just shared, is always on the customer to cancel. That said, there are some places where, you know, online, you can cancel. And as you're undershare, too, like you can get a discount if you continue or they ask you why. And sometimes they'll follow up. Like I was using class pass and I had to cancel. So I was out of town for, you know, three months.

And so I said, okay, you know, I want to come back, but I need to cancel. And they gave me a really great offer. I was going to cancel, but I decided to stay. So I think having an option to do that, but it's hard with a quote-unquote dying industry like direct mail. And I don't know if that's ever, I don't think they're ever going to incentivize us to cancel anything. Yeah, I totally.

Yeah, I totally agree, Cheno. I think you get three questions, right? Do you want to go on pause? Do you want to, do you want a discount? Do you want to drop to a lower tier? But then you have to let your customer out if they want out. But, you know, I agree. know what the fix is from the company level. It's, you know, when you're in the business of

retention, you're going to hold on as long as you can, you know, with your claws in. I think the fix has to come from consumer protections and making those as solid as they can be and making them enforceable so companies can't skirt around them. I like the idea of having it done also like virtually all online without having to talk to anybody. Yes, you know, and I come from a business where we had cancellations and one of the ways in which you could do a cancellation online is you had to give a reason, right, and where you went. So I think that like if you had something structure like that, you could also get all those data points, Aaron, for usage and insights about what the customer behaviors are and what's driving them to churn and to leave. But I think that like,

you know, and the options are just different, right? Not interested, price, you know, whatever, whatever, whatever. And so I think that that's the thing that as somebody who gets magazines and is frustrated why the subscription process, whether it be renewal or whatever, or cancellation, I think that would be something that I would be happier with. I mean, I think one of the things that you see with, like, digital subscriptions for like Netflix and things like that, it's much easier. Like, you can just go in there and just cancel and then they'll tell you like, well, it's not always easier. I mean, some of them are like, well, you already paid for the next three months, so you get the next three months, and then we will stop your subscription.

Or they'll say you'll get a credit and you're out. You're done watching Paramount Plus or whatever you're on. So I feel like there are certain places that have made it simpler, and they're probably using those data points to see, okay, people are canceling after the free trial or go la la la la la you know and so because of that customer experience this old school magazine subscription process is really frustrating i think because we're so used to being able to have personalized responsiveness happen right away totally yeah and i don't i don't mind the win back strategy like i said you know if they're going to honor the length of your subscription and it expires

in two months, you've got two months to win me back as a customer. So if you want to, if I didn't get the digital subscription because that was a separate, you know, add on, maybe I get that included for two months. And then I see how great your magazine actually is. And I'm getting the full benefit of it. You know, as a, as a customer, as a representative of, you know, what I perceive the customers to want, I don't, I don't mind the fact that it's on the line for two months and keep, you know, keep throwing stuff out me.

Maybe I'll stick around. But that aggressive, you know, hide the unsubscribe button, hide the cancellation button, can't find it. And I won't give it to you until we've worn you down. I will never go for that tactic. You know, it's not a good one. And that's where consumer protections comes in. But I will say, because it's direct mail, unquote, a dying industry, maybe it's that they don't have the customer service people there anymore because it's not digital, right? people who are often, you know, had lifetime subscriptions like National Geographic or the

economist or whatever. It, you kind of did it before and that's likely not digitized as well. So I'm sure there's a gap from like an operation standpoint of being able to kind of digitize your profile because it was probably somewhere physical because it is a physical thing. And so for a company, maybe looking into that as making sure that they have those same pillars there where you can at least have a conversation with those customers saying, okay, let me like buy you back or sell you back somehow. But, you know, here you're talking to somebody, whether that's AI or not. I think that might be a gap. They might have just missed it

because there's not many people that are, you know, having tangible physical direct mail anymore. Yep. All right. Eric, any words? Thanks, Michael, for for listening and we're throwing that at us. No, I think it just comes down to what kind of impression you want to leave on your customers. And I think that's, and, you know, I get the tactics. I don't agree with them. If you're doing a print subscription, you kind of have a website. Nobody doesn't have a website anymore. If I can sign up electronically, I should be able to cancel electronically.

But I deal with software that does the same thing. I can sign up electronically, but I got to send an email and talk to somebody to cancel. So, yeah, drives me nuts. We have the technology. I think we got time for one more, yeah? Hey, Aaron. This is Sam Warren. I'm the CEO at Rank Pay, a San Diego-based marketing agency.

I'm routinely bothered by the wastefulness of takeout boxes. It makes me feel terrible every time I order takeout. I feel like there has to be a better way. So I was thinking my fix is, what if restaurants partnered with a service like Grubhub to only deliver food in traditionally fully reusable containers like Pyrex? Now, the person ordering the food would select at checkout whether they're buying the Pyrex with the meal or if they're exchanging an existing branded Pyrex, which again, Grubhub would get to brand the Pyrex so they get free branding in the house. And then people at home would rinse it out when done, hand it over to the delivery person at the next food drop off they get in order to not pay a fee or they'd have to buy another Pyrex. And I feel like that there are enough environmentally conscious people to who would be willing to do this service, even if it meant if they messed up, they'd have to pay an extra fee.

I know that I would. Curious to hear your thoughts. Thanks. So almost the brewery model, you know, where you bring your own growler in exchange. It works there. I don't know. But is there something different at a restaurant where you, you know, bring? It's like giving your cutlery back or something.

Is it from your house? Is it across a line or are we comfortable with it? I, so it's interesting. Warren, I think that's actually a really great question and thought and fix because we've talked about this in multiple episodes about how the market and certain demographics are very conscious about being sustainable. And so I do agree that there is, you know, a market for doing that. The challenges is food safety, right? The way I wash something is not necessarily the way someone else washes something. And the impact for a is if it's not up to standard, okay, well, do they have to rewash everything? What does the operational impact for them mean? Does it just make more sense to just have like reusable things? My fix to this, because I do agree that there's a lot of waste. The worst is when it's like plastic waste. You know, I'm again in Canada. It's hard. I don't even think we're able to do the black plastic kind of takeaway containers, which is horrible, although they're recyclable, are

systems for some reason can't pick it up. Don't quote me on that. That might have changed. But if we're using, you know, recyclable, you know, takeaway containers, I feel better about that just because then you can recycle them or, you know, we've started to, you can see multiple restaurants they've moved to wooden forks and spoons. And although my partner hates, hates that, because hates the feel of like popsicles and things like that. It's an alternative option to stay sustainable. I do think it's a challenge when you're looking at food safety. And again, the implications for a business in case it isn't wrong, you know, people sue. So if I'm receiving a Pyrex that is dirty or, you know, wasn't cleaned and I, you know, get food poisoning because of this, it's not worth it for that

company. So as much as I love the idea, I think it's really hard to execute. It's a very small market size. And to be honest, people are lazy. You're getting takeout, right? Then just cook. And I'm one of those lazy people. But I think using recyclables would be the better alternative. Yeah. And those compostable like takeaway boxes like you're talking about. I think the other thing is that there are a lot of other little things that come with it. And so like to not offer all the little condiment plastic packages of ketchup and mustard and whatever, right? And also even the utensils. So like if you think about like Grubhub, DoorDash, all of these, you know, there should be something that says no utensils, right? Like, and you get a little credit for that or you get like a happy apple for the earth or whatever,

you know, and you get something. But like not having all that weight. right like all the napkins all the things I mean napkins are paper hopefully so that's fine but you know when you think about all the waste involved in these deliveries I think that that's something too I do love the idea of like having a more durable takeaway but I don't think to your point I from a cleansed perspective I don't know about that like you know I don't that would work yeah Sam I like the idea and I like the thought about reducing waste. Logistically, I'm trying to figure out how to do it. Because they would have to go maybe Melissa to some kind of centralized cleaning purification plant facility and then get parceled out back to the restaurants.

It's just, I don't know if that could work. Well, I mean, you think about Starbucks, right? So Starbucks offered you to buy their cups and then they and then refill them, use them again. So like it would be it's, you know, the convenience thing. for most people that use DoorDash or GrabHub or these kinds of places is that they don't want to leave their home, right? They want it delivered. But if you were able to go someplace and bring your own and then they put the meal in there,

that would be one thing. But I don't think that's the point of what those services are. So that's what makes it kind of a difficult situation, right? Yeah. And then I would agree, too, with like, the people picking it up. Like, again, I love that idea. but for that delivery person, I'm okay to deliver, you know, fresh food packaged up. I'm not okay to take people's like dirty dishes necessarily, right?

And so it's again, like a hazard and people perspective, like a work safety. What does that look like? Right? It just adds, again, a lot more complexity to just work, you know, implications and compliance where I think as a business I wouldn't necessarily want to take it on. However, I do think, yeah, Melissa, you're a point on, is there an option we can say, like, I don't need 50, you know, individually plastic wrapped forks and in cutlery? No, like, don't do that to me. Or, like, you know, I have my own ketchup at home, which I do know there's an option for that in most services as well.

So, you know, that'd be great to you. And again, using packaging that's more recyclable. Like, I do feel much better when I can reuse it. And sometimes I wash them myself and use them as my own topware. because again, I am lazy. I think it's easier to do. You can never find the lid. So if they can give you something that's a little better in some places do, awesome.

Well, and if you had a more durable, like what he mentioned earlier about like a DoorDash, a branded Pyrex, right? Maybe then that would require you to have drop off stations so that it's not the delivery guys problem, right? But like there might be like a couple drop off stations. in your town or whatever where you could drop off yours. And then at that point, you know, it's like kind of like the Amazon where you do a return and it's all computerized, right?

You drop off how many you have and you get four credits, right? So the next four deliveries, you can have Pyrex delivered for free, right? Because you pay for it the first time, but then after that, it kind of credits out if you bring them back. That might be something. I mean, I agree with you, Chino. I don't want to, you know, I don't think that's what delivery you drive. They don't make enough anyway.

And then to have to pick up dishes from people, like, I don't think that's going to happen. I want to make it work. Melissa, you're talking. I like what you're saying about the gamification or, you know, doing something that's beneficial to the planet. So you're not going to, you know, don't give me napkins. I've got a bunch of napkins and things like that, which, like you said, may be a feature already in some of the apps. but I do like the option to only give me what I need or make things by request only. But I wonder maybe there's an option to have something that's DoorDash branded.

And maybe it's, you know, dishes or cutlery sets or things like that that you can buy them with your door dash order. They come with your meal. Maybe that's your takeout. You know, you reuse them. They're not quite paper. They're not quite, you know, your fancy china. They're somewhere in between and you use them for your takeout.

And that just becomes, you know, if you're picnicking and you got them to go, if you want special dishes for your takeout because they're easy. Maybe there's a nice little branded upsell in there for DoorDash. But the one thing I wouldn't do is take them back. Yeah. And I also like the idea because Warren, he mentioned that he had a marketing agency, especially when you're doing those big orders. You have a client coming in. Maybe you're hosting an event. I think that's an opportunity as well where if you're doing a bulk order, maybe it is.

more sustainable cutleries so that you can have, A, it looks a little fancier, and B, you're helping out the environment and maybe you can keep those dishes and maybe for like a nominal cost, it's, you know, hey, let's make your catering look a little more upscale and maybe that's the branding. So I do see there being a place for it. I think it's a little harder to do when it's kind of more on an individual level. Brander scale events, I do think there's an option there. Yeah. And if DoorDash, let's say there's DoorDash dishes or forks something and they look cool and branded, people are going to want them around. You know, they could turn into a thing. What do you think, Eric? Yeah, I think just logistically, it's a challenge. There's a lot just, I appreciate the idea. Melissa, I like your idea. Can we flag some things not to get if I, you know, if I don't need all that stuff. Chino, I reuse the plastic stuff they send us. I totally get it. I'm right there. I think it also depends on how many people you think will actually. use it, you know, is your restaurant geared towards people who that is a high value? Okay, then that's maybe different than other restaurants that aren't. It's just, yeah, the health issues,

the scalability. I know if I'm running a business, I don't want to mess with it. Oh, my word. From a business standpoint, that is, there is not enough money in it to, to do with that. And that's, That's just the realities of doing business. If it's really hard to manage that because suddenly there's just a lack of uniformity. It's really hard to escape. But like I say, yeah, I don't need forks. I don't need any of that. Yeah.

If you can flag that, that's great. Or ask for it either way. All right. Well, thanks, Sam. Great idea. Great motivation. We just have to figure out what exactly the play is and how do we keep the dishes once delivered in the home?

That's our fix. Five fixes up, five fixes down. Thank you. Any final thoughts on those? Three questions. Yeah. Keep them coming. Absolutely. Well, thank you. That does it not only for this episode, but this season. If we fixed it, you're welcome. That's right. This is the last show of the season, but fear not, we will be back. Thank you to everyone who sent in fixes. We hope we got your names right. If you played along at home, thank you too. We are already deep into production for season two. and preparation. We're going to do this again. A big giant thank you to my fellow fixers, Melissa and China, for being amazing always. And to our awesome producer, Eric Rutherford. If you need a podcast produced, get in line. He's your guy. Season two starts later in June. Until then, we'll be handpicking some of our favorite early episodes and releasing them weekly. So if you're a new listener, you'll have a chance to catch up. If you're already a fixaholic, and you've been telling your friends, coworkers, neighbors, random people on the street,

and sharing how much you like the show, we appreciate. appreciate you. If there's a company you've been dying to have us fixed or you have a fix of your own to share, send it to MyFix at we fixedetpod.com. We're on the web at we fixed itpod.com, and we will see you very soon. This podcast is produced by Straightforward Media Group. All rights reserved. If you'd like to learn more about how a podcast can help your company establish authority and generate leads, please email us at Eric at straightforwardmg.com or go to straightforwardmg.com for more information.