Episode Transcript
Transcripts are displayed as originally observed. Some content, including advertisements may have changed.
Use Ctrl + F to search
0:02
Building a business may feel like a big
0:04
jump, but on-deck small business loans can help
0:06
keep you afloat. With lines of credit up
0:08
to $100,000 and term loans up to $250,000,
0:11
on-deck lets you choose the loan that's right
0:13
for your business. As a top-rated online small
0:15
business lender, on-deck team of loan advisors can
0:17
help you find the right business loan to
0:20
fit your needs. Visit on-deck.com for more information.
0:22
Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan
0:24
may be issued by on deck or Celtic
0:27
Bank. On deck does not lend to North
0:29
Dakota. All loans an amount subject to lender
0:31
approval. Never a
0:33
dull moment in this
0:35
economy, is there? From
0:37
American public media, this
0:39
is Marketplace. In
0:50
Los Angeles, I'm Kai Risdahl. It is
0:52
Wednesday, today, the 16th of April.
0:54
Good as always to have you along,
0:57
everybody. First of
0:59
all, stocks. I'm sure you've seen
1:01
or heard by now another day
1:03
of tariff and trade policy -induced malaise.
1:05
We will get there when we
1:07
get there, as we always do.
1:10
Second, though, and more
1:12
substantively... means it probably should have
1:15
been first, huh? The big thing that happened
1:17
in this economy today was Fed Chair Jay
1:19
Powell doing a Q &A at the Economic Club
1:21
of Chicago. He said, among other
1:23
things, that it may well
1:25
come to pass that the Fed's really
1:27
going to get stuck between a rock
1:29
and a hard place. Rising unemployment, the
1:31
policy prescription for which is cutting interest
1:33
rates, and rising prices, the policy prescription
1:36
for which it's raising interest rates. A
1:38
challenging scenario, the Fed Chair
1:40
called it. Now, why is
1:42
this? What Powell's worried about?
1:44
These are very fundamental changes in,
1:46
you know, long held in some cases
1:48
policies in the United States. And
1:51
there's not any real experience. I mean,
1:53
the Smoot -Hawley tariffs were actually not
1:55
this large and they were 95
1:57
years ago. So there isn't a modern
1:59
experience of how to think about this.
2:01
Anyone? Anyone? Powell? Anyone? Jay
2:05
Powell did say that the central bank
2:07
is happy to stay where it is
2:09
on interest rates for now. Monetary
2:12
policy, of course, does get all
2:14
the headlines when it comes to the
2:16
Fed, but it also does a
2:18
ton of economic research. All the PhD
2:20
economists there do. Reports, analysis, data
2:22
of all kinds, of which we got
2:24
some today. Their March report on
2:26
industrial production. The data is
2:29
a little noisy, but the bottom
2:31
line is that the industrial sector
2:33
does seem to be slowing. Here's
2:35
Marketplace's Mitchell Hartman. Industrial production in
2:37
decline, not a promising sign for
2:39
economic growth. Except, says analyst Jonathan
2:42
Secreta at CFRA Research. There certainly
2:44
is a bit of noise here.
2:46
The decline is really driven by
2:48
utilities just due to a warmer
2:50
period of weather. Manufacturing,
2:52
a subset of industrial production,
2:54
was actually positive, led by
2:57
durable goods like autos and
2:59
business equipment. We're seeing this
3:01
as really being driven by
3:03
tariff -led pre -buying activity, manufacturers
3:05
trying to get ahead of
3:07
any kind of punitive levies. Aerospace
3:09
manufacturing was up, driven by
3:11
strong demand for commercial and
3:14
military aircraft, says Richard Abulafia
3:16
at Aerodynamic Advisory, which helps
3:18
Boeing after quality problems and
3:20
a strike hampered production. But...
3:22
Just when we were getting
3:24
back on track, people were
3:26
pulling back because of the
3:28
uncertainty associated with tariffs. So
3:30
here's the central theme from
3:32
economists today. Yeah, the manufacturing
3:34
data from last month looks
3:36
pretty good, but it's already
3:38
in the rearview mirror, explains
3:40
Oren Klatchkin at Nationwide. Once
3:43
that front -loading impact eventually
3:45
fades, we're not in for
3:47
a particularly encouraging environment when
3:49
it comes to industrial activity.
3:51
Meanwhile, the burgeoning trade war
3:53
poses a rising risk to
3:55
major U .S. exporters, says CFRA's
3:57
Jonathan Secreta. Think about heavy
3:59
machinery coming from companies like
4:01
Caterpillar, Deer & Co. as
4:03
far as large -scale harvesters.
4:05
Also a lot of components
4:07
that go into commercial aviation. Production
4:10
of all that could slow,
4:12
says Secreta, if European and
4:15
Asian countries escalate retaliatory tariffs
4:17
or just stop buying American.
4:19
I'm Mitchell Hartman for Marketplace. Wall
4:22
Street midweek? Well,
4:25
no. We'll have
4:27
the details when we do the numbers. President
4:45
Trump's tariffs are changing how we consume.
4:47
We are racing to buy stuff to
4:49
get ahead of the price eggs that
4:51
do seem to be in the offing.
4:53
Essentials for sure. but discretionary
4:55
purchases, too. Marketplace's Savannah
4:57
Peters talked with some people about the
4:59
nice -to -haves that they are stocking up on.
5:02
Aaron Weber is the cook in his
5:04
family of six. He says he keeps
5:06
things simple, which is sort of hard
5:08
to believe when you hear about the
5:10
seasonings in his rotation. This is
5:13
going to sound so pretentious,
5:15
I'm sorry. Albanian sage, Turkish
5:17
oregano, Mexican vanilla, Vietnamese... Lots of
5:19
fancy imported stuff that used to
5:21
be hard to find in Kansas City,
5:23
where he lives. Turkish bay leaves.
5:25
It's nice to be able to
5:27
pick from the world's menu, right? And
5:30
I do not want to go back. After
5:33
the first and steepest April tariff
5:35
announcements from the White House,
5:37
Weber, who works in marketing and
5:39
sales, decided to stock up.
5:41
I asked him to share how
5:43
much he spent. Oh, God,
5:45
yeah. As long as my wife didn't
5:47
hear this. Yeah,
5:49
it was probably around, I
5:52
think it was about 160. Normally,
5:55
Weber looks forward to perusing the
5:57
aisles of his local Penzi's spice store,
5:59
but this time he was
6:01
shopping under pressure. It's very
6:04
easy to feel resentful. Consumers right
6:06
now really may feel kind
6:08
of helpless against the economic forces.
6:10
Says Christine Whelan, an expert
6:12
on consumer well -being at Emory
6:14
University. And so when we feel
6:17
that way, we try to
6:19
solve it. Whelan says even she
6:21
feels the impulse to spend
6:23
as a way to claw back
6:25
some control, especially on the
6:27
treats that make her family comfortable.
6:30
One of the ones that
6:32
I'm really wrestling with as a
6:34
mom of five children is
6:36
toys. Some 80 % of which
6:38
are manufactured in China. But she
6:41
says there's a crucial distinction.
6:43
Between buying a birthday gift that
6:45
you would need for your
6:47
kid anyway. versus filling
6:49
your basement with random toys just
6:51
in case. Whelan says
6:53
you really have to know yourself
6:55
and your spending habits to resist
6:58
the urge to panic shop. If
7:00
you, like, forego buying something, prices
7:02
might shoot up the following
7:04
day. That's Raymond Olgato, and his
7:06
tariff -induced FOMO buy was a
7:08
fancy new road bicycle. He
7:11
says the upgrade will help him
7:13
get outside his LA neighborhood
7:15
on longer rides. My original plan
7:17
was to buy it around
7:19
May or June. But instead, he
7:21
moved the purchase up to
7:23
early April. Olgato, who
7:25
works in e -commerce marketing, cashed
7:27
out some stocks to afford the
7:30
$5 ,000 expense. Sort of
7:32
a last hurrah splurge before
7:34
he foresees reining in his discretionary
7:36
buying. But that word, discretionary,
7:38
means different things to different consumers.
7:40
I work in education, so
7:42
I don't make money, so this
7:44
is not good. Regina
7:47
Krause in Austin, Texas keeps
7:49
a pretty tight budget, but she
7:51
likes to treat herself to
7:53
skincare from Korean and Japanese retailers,
7:56
especially sunscreen. It's sunny here
7:58
in Texas, I use a
8:00
lot. In early April, Krause
8:03
bulk bought about 10 bottles,
8:05
plus some face wash and
8:07
moisturizer online. The total was
8:09
about $130, which hurt,
8:11
especially after the tariff
8:13
outlook changed. At first, I felt,
8:16
like, really angry that I did the buy. But
8:18
then at the same time, I was like, you
8:20
know what, I'm not going to risk it because
8:22
clearly nothing stays. The back
8:24
and forth on tariffs is giving
8:26
Krauss some whiplash and turning purchases
8:28
that used to be about self -care
8:30
into a new source of stress.
8:33
I'm Savannah Peters for
8:35
Marketplace. We
8:48
were in the business district of
8:50
Altadena, California yesterday, talking to business
8:52
owners as they start the long
8:54
road to rebuilding after the Eaton
8:56
fire. I've never had to deal
8:58
with anything that was a total
9:00
loss. So it's kind of a
9:02
learning curve for me. We're looking
9:04
for a temporary place. You
9:06
know, there's not a lot of
9:09
commercial buildings left. Today, we're about a
9:11
mile east of there at one
9:13
of the biggest employers in town. Altadena
9:15
Town and Country Club. is a
9:17
five -minute drive from the business district.
9:19
Driving there, you pass full neighborhoods burned
9:21
to the ground, people in hazmat
9:23
suits cleaning up debris, and burned -out
9:25
cars, just metal frames is all that's
9:28
left. We pulled into the small
9:30
parking lot at the back of the club's entrance. No,
9:32
we're going to be good. It's not going to rain. It's not going
9:34
to rain. Hey, I'm Kai. Hi, Craig. Nice to see you, Craig. How are
9:36
you? Tell me who you are and where we
9:38
are. Craig Sloan. I'm the general
9:41
manager of the Altadena Town and Country Club
9:43
here in beautiful Altadena, California, or what used
9:45
to be beautiful Altadena, California. is still beautiful.
9:47
I mean, it's a tough day today, raining
9:49
cold, but it's still a beautiful place. Can
9:52
we walk in the gate there
9:54
and just describe for me what we're
9:56
seeing? Sure. This is what we
9:58
consider our member entrance with close access
10:00
to the tennis courts and the
10:02
pool area. I'm just going to say
10:04
it here that I know we're
10:06
talking about a country club. And with
10:08
everything that Altadena lost, rebuilding a
10:10
place like this might not seem like
10:12
a top priority. But what
10:14
you have to know is the Altadena Town
10:16
and Country Club was central to the
10:18
local economy. It had about 120 employees the
10:20
day the fire started, most of them
10:23
from the area. Local teenagers would
10:25
get their first jobs here, working
10:27
after school and on the weekends as
10:29
lifeguards and kids club staff and
10:31
food busters. Now, only six employees are
10:33
left, Craig included. We did our
10:35
best to try and place as many
10:37
of the employees as possible with
10:40
other clubs and other locations. A
10:42
lot of them have found jobs on
10:44
their own. Some of them have decided
10:46
to go back to school. Many
10:48
of them have said, let us know in three
10:50
years when the clubhouse is rebuilt, we want to
10:52
come back. So we've got a lot of really
10:54
dedicated, loyal employees. Craig's been the
10:56
general manager for the last 20 of
10:59
the 27 years that he's worked here.
11:01
Before the fires, the club had about
11:03
640 members when you count partners and
11:05
kids. The total number of people who
11:07
were part of this club was closer
11:09
to 2 ,000. Tennis courts,
11:11
swimming pool, to the
11:13
left, and then the
11:15
remains of... What was
11:17
a 28 ,000 square
11:19
foot clubhouse. Wow. Wow.
11:26
So what are you going to do?
11:28
We are going to rebuild. Are you?
11:30
Yeah, absolutely committed to rebuilding and continuing
11:33
to support the community in Altadena. 17
11:35
% of members lost their homes in the
11:37
Eaton Fire. Craig has been displaced as
11:39
well. His home in Altadena was damaged. He
11:41
hasn't been able to move back in
11:43
yet. Down some steps we went into
11:45
the patio. I'm just coming around
11:47
the corner here. This place was huge. I
11:49
hadn't really been able to get a sense of
11:51
the scale. Yeah, this is what we're seeing
11:53
here. The fitness center in front of us was
11:56
our lowest level, kind of our pool level,
11:58
and then we had our terrace. To our right
12:00
is the main building, the clubhouse, or what's
12:02
left of it, really. The fire
12:04
ripped through the two top floors and
12:06
left behind a jumble of melted
12:08
and twisted metal, now rusty from the
12:10
rain. The bottom level is still
12:12
standing, but when you look in through
12:14
the windows, all you can see
12:17
are piles of crumbled drywall. So the
12:19
pool's intact. The courts are intact.
12:21
I mean, the water's all green and
12:23
gross, but that shouldn't be too
12:25
tough, right? No, I think... Resurfacing, probably,
12:27
and whatever? We will drain, replaster,
12:29
do cleanup of the tennis courts, the
12:31
pickleball courts. We also have
12:33
a spa and a toddler pool off
12:36
on the right there that will get
12:38
cleaned up and playground beyond that. So
12:40
we'll be able to come back somewhat
12:42
operational over the course of however many
12:44
months it'll take us to clean up.
12:46
Could be four months, six months, eight
12:48
months. The golf course is now a
12:50
debris staging area, so we'll have to
12:53
determine how safe it is to bring
12:55
members back. L .A. County owns
12:57
the golf course. And they've been letting the
12:59
Army Corps of Engineers use it as a
13:01
staging area for debris removal. It's not just
13:03
me, but I can't imagine somebody wanting to
13:05
come to the toddler pool with their kid
13:07
with a bunch of fire zone debris on
13:09
the golf course right next door. Well, word
13:11
came out this week, earlier this week, that
13:13
they're only going to be placing clean debris
13:16
there, clean concrete. Well, that makes me feel
13:18
much better as a parent, I've got to
13:20
tell you that. They will be doing some
13:22
demolition of that concrete so they can place
13:24
it into larger trucks and haul it away.
13:26
So it will be a staging area for
13:28
that. Catch is, the Army Corps
13:30
isn't doing free cleanup for everybody.
13:32
We found out a couple weeks ago,
13:34
even though we opted in originally
13:37
to the Army Corps debris removal, we
13:39
found out that they were not
13:41
going to be doing any debris removal
13:43
for commercial businesses. So we pivoted,
13:45
and we've actually contacted a lot of
13:47
private debris companies, and we hope
13:49
that within the next couple of weeks
13:52
we'll have landed on a company
13:54
and we'll start the cleanup process. As
13:56
they start to bid on contractors,
13:58
this club's going to be in competition
14:00
with other commercial properties, like Joey's
14:02
from yesterday, that need their debris removed
14:04
as well. Let's go up the
14:06
stairs, see what's going on. Oh
14:09
man, here's a Christmas
14:11
decoration. Yeah, we still have
14:13
a few Christmas decorations. The
14:17
club had been planning to reopen
14:19
on Wednesday, January the 8th. But
14:21
now all you see is a
14:23
place stuck in time. There's a
14:25
brick chimney with a pair of
14:28
fireplaces, one somehow above the other.
14:30
The floor that used to sit
14:32
between them no longer exists. Situate
14:35
this club for me in the Altadena
14:37
ecosystem, right? I mean, it's, you know,
14:39
not everybody in town belonged here, and
14:41
it's sort of up and away from
14:43
the business district. Where do you fit?
14:45
Where did you fit, and where do
14:47
you hope to fit? Well,
14:49
we were a pretty integral part of
14:51
the club. We had organizations that met
14:53
here on a regular basis. For example, Rotary
14:56
Club had been meeting here for well
14:58
over 50 years every Thursday. Chamber
15:00
of Commerce held numerous events
15:02
here at the club. Many
15:04
of the local nonprofits in the
15:06
area, the churches, held fundraising events
15:08
here. It was a private club,
15:10
but everybody was welcome here. Craig
15:13
told us rebuilding the 28 ,000 -square -foot
15:15
clubhouse is going to take upwards
15:17
of $20 million and three years. Are
15:19
you insured for this loss? Yes.
15:22
So you're going to be all right?
15:24
I mean, it's
15:26
hard to tell what construction costs are going
15:28
to be going forward, what the cost
15:30
of labor is going to be, what the
15:32
cost of materials are going to be.
15:34
So it's hard to know if the insurance
15:36
that we have is going to cover
15:38
everything. But we will manage through this. So
15:41
you're a long -time
15:43
resident. You're a long
15:45
-time employer, right? You
15:48
run a business. And
15:50
even though you're going to
15:52
rebuild, it's going to be different.
15:55
And I want you to tell me what you
15:57
think is going to be lost because of this
15:59
fire. That's
16:02
a tough question. I would hope nothing would
16:04
be lost, but of course there will be something.
16:07
I think we're going to lose a
16:09
number of our families. who are
16:11
not going to be able to stay
16:13
in the Altadena community. I mean,
16:15
I could name a family who they
16:17
lost their home, they lost their
16:19
club, and they lost their children's school.
16:22
So where do you go from there? They're
16:24
currently living down in Manhattan Beach, and I
16:26
don't anticipate they're going to come back. I
16:28
think as we go through the process, we
16:31
get further down the road, I think we're
16:33
going to be hearing more and more of
16:35
those stories. But we are going to be
16:37
here. We're going to rebuild. We're going to
16:39
bring back our... many current members as possible,
16:41
and then we're going to bring in new
16:43
members. New people will be living in Altadena
16:45
and building homes here, and hopefully we will
16:47
be attractive for them as well, and they'll
16:50
come and join the club as the vacancies
16:52
become available. The clubs stopped billing
16:54
members for their monthly dues, a couple
16:56
of hundred dollars a month, up to about
16:58
$450 or so, and it's obviously not bringing
17:00
in new members. Those fees can run in
17:02
the thousands. In the meanwhile,
17:04
they've worked out a partnership with clubs nearby
17:06
so that members can go for free
17:08
and the kids' swim team can still practice
17:10
this summer. Swim team, I understand, was
17:13
pretty good. Not bad. 31 years in a
17:15
row, championships. And, you
17:17
know, we're going to have swim team
17:19
again this year, and we're hoping to get
17:21
our 32nd. As long as they're
17:23
closed, obviously, they're not bringing in any
17:25
revenue. And Craig says they're going to have
17:27
to dip into savings to make up
17:29
what insurance can't cover. But
17:31
building back is their only option
17:33
because this business only works
17:35
in this location. The Altadena Town
17:37
and Country Club can't be
17:39
anywhere but in Altadena. If
17:42
you want to see some video of what we
17:44
saw while we were up there, we have it on
17:46
our website. It is, of course, marketplace
17:48
.org. Coming up on
17:50
the program tomorrow. Immediately,
17:52
people started calling me asking me,
17:54
you can come and use my
17:56
space. Running a business out of
17:58
a temporary location. Coming
18:21
up. When she asked me what I wanted
18:23
to be when I grew up, I always
18:25
said a garbage man. So I'm out here
18:27
living the dream. One man's trash, another man's
18:29
treasure. First, though, let's do the numbers. Dow
18:33
Industrial is off $699
18:35
today. One and three
18:37
quarters percent, 39 ,669.
18:39
The Nasdaq dropped 516
18:41
points, three and a
18:43
tenth percent, 16 ,307. The
18:45
S &P 500 down 120 points,
18:48
two and a quarter percent,
18:50
5275. The rush to buy,
18:52
buy, buy before tariffs hit push.
18:54
Retail sales up 1 .4 % February
18:56
to March. That's the biggest increase
18:58
in two years. Cars, sales thereof,
19:00
up 5 .3 % today. Bonds up,
19:02
yields down 4 .28 % on the
19:04
10 -year. You're listening to Marketplace. Building
19:24
a business may feel like a big
19:26
jump, but OnDeck small business loans can
19:28
help keep you afloat. With lines of
19:30
credit up to $100 ,000 and term
19:32
loans up to $250 ,000, OnDeck lets you
19:34
choose the loan that's right for your
19:36
business. As a top -rated
19:38
online small business lender, OnDeck's team of loan
19:40
advisors can help you find the right business
19:43
loan to fit your needs. Visit OnDeck.com for
19:45
more information. Depending on certain loan attributes, your
19:47
business loan may be issued by OnDeck or
19:49
Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North
19:51
Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender
19:53
approval. Prescription products
19:55
require completion of an online medication consultation
19:57
with an independent healthcare provider through the
19:59
LifeMD platform and are only available if
20:01
prescribed. Subscription required. Individual results may vary.
20:03
Additional restrictions apply at LifeMD.com. Read all
20:05
warnings before using GLP -1s. Side effects may
20:07
include a risk of thyroid C cell
20:09
tumors. Do not use GLP -1s if
20:11
you or your family have a history
20:14
of thyroid cancer. Should GLP -1 weight loss
20:16
medication like Wegovia and ZepBound cost thousands
20:18
of dollars? We don't think so. TryLifeMD.com
20:20
helps provide insurance access to the leading
20:22
GLP -1 medications. Visit TryLifeMD.com and check
20:24
your eligibility for GLP -1 medication with copays
20:26
as low as $0. Listen
20:28
to Bridget's story after losing 55 pounds
20:30
and using her insurance for coverage.
20:32
LifeMD helped me get covered with my
20:35
insurance. Finding out that it was
20:37
covered was huge. I've lost 55 pounds.
20:39
I am so much healthier now
20:41
that I've lost the weight. I would
20:43
never be able to do it
20:45
without them. Get started today and check
20:48
your eligibility for GLP -1 medication with
20:50
co -pays as low as $0 at
20:52
TryLifeMD.com. That's T -R -Y -L -I -F -E -M
20:54
-D.com. This is Marketplace. I'm
20:56
Kyle Rizdahl. We've been talking about safe
20:58
havens quite a bit since the
21:00
tariff palooza of April 2nd, places that
21:02
investors put their money when the
21:04
world turns to chaos. There is U
21:07
.S. debt, U .S. Treasuries, right? Backed
21:09
by the full faith and credit of
21:11
the United States. But
21:13
even that's considered less safe than it
21:15
used to be. We saw bonds sell off
21:17
after those tariffs were first announced, right?
21:19
There's gold, the OG safe haven, if you
21:21
will. It hit yet another record high
21:23
today. In 2025, there
21:25
is also Bitcoin, which Cryptotypes would
21:27
love to tell you is
21:30
going to be the future digital
21:32
gold. Marketplace's Matt Levin's
21:34
on that one for us today.
21:36
In the last couple of
21:38
years, when the stock market threw
21:40
a temper tantrum, Bitcoin seemed
21:42
to have an absolute hissy fit,
21:44
like back in the summer
21:46
of 2022 when the Fed started
21:48
raising interest rates to fight
21:50
inflation. We had a large decline
21:52
in Bitcoin associated with a
21:54
pretty large decline in the Nasdaq.
21:56
Lee Drogan is at Starkiller
21:58
Capital, a crypto investment firm. He
22:00
says that's because investors have
22:02
viewed Bitcoin more like a risky
22:04
tech stock than as an
22:06
actual currency capable of storing value.
22:09
But in the past few weeks,
22:11
we've seen a significant amount
22:13
of relative strength that Bitcoin's shown
22:15
to other risk assets. It's
22:17
been less volatile. When Bitcoin cost
22:19
around $84 ,000 right before those
22:21
massive April 2nd tariffs, and
22:24
after dipping some, it's now right
22:26
back at around $84 ,000. Bitcoin
22:28
true believers say that's a
22:30
milestone. Bitcoin is a teenager from
22:32
a literal perspective. Matt Hogan
22:34
is chief investment officer at Bitwise
22:36
Asset Management. It's, you know,
22:39
14, 15 years old. And so
22:41
it's going from this early
22:43
start as this risky asset to
22:45
its eventual adult life as
22:47
a hedge asset, just like gold.
22:49
Bitcoin backers argue that because
22:51
it has a limited supply that
22:53
can't be tampered with, Bitcoin
22:56
should be immune from, say, the
22:58
inflationary impacts of tariffs or
23:00
eroding faith in the U .S.
23:02
dollar. Lee Reiners at
23:04
Duke University is skeptical. You could
23:06
apply that logic to any
23:08
asset with a fixed supply, right?
23:11
If that's, you know, if that's
23:13
your thesis, like, why not, like,
23:15
why not beanie babies or like
23:17
baseball cards or something, you know,
23:19
or something else? Reiner says Bitcoin
23:21
is still far more correlated with
23:23
risky tech stocks than actual gold
23:25
and worries that embracing crypto as
23:28
something safer than it actually is
23:30
could endanger the non -crypto economy. I'm
23:32
Matt Levin for Marketplace. There's
23:38
an Adam Smith quote that I
23:40
like to trot out from time
23:42
to time. Adam Smith, Wealth of
23:44
Nations, 1776. Consumption, Smith wrote. is
23:47
the sole end and purpose of
23:49
all production. That is, the only
23:51
reason we make stuff is so
23:53
that people can use that stuff,
23:55
which, fine, we can argue about
23:57
that. But one of the great
23:59
challenges of this consumer economy is
24:02
what happens after we use all
24:04
the stuff that we use. That's
24:06
the setup for today's installment of
24:09
our series, My Economy. I am Joshua
24:11
Costa of Sleep Well Recycling in
24:13
Burlington, Vermont, Vermont's only mattress and box
24:15
spring recycling facility. I've been in
24:17
the waste industry since I was a
24:19
young boy. My first job was
24:21
in precious metal recycling, and I've always
24:24
just been interested in garbage. If
24:26
you ask my mom, she says when
24:28
she asked me what I wanted
24:30
to be when I grew up, I
24:32
always said a garbage man. So
24:34
I'm out here living the dream. When
24:39
I started in 2020,
24:42
the main garbage company up here
24:44
was charging $15 .95 per mattress.
24:46
And so I came in
24:48
at 18 and I said, hey,
24:50
just for $2 .05 extra, we
24:53
will recycle 75 to 100 %
24:55
of these items and keep
24:57
the contents, the foam, the topper,
24:59
the metal, and the wood
25:01
out of the landfill. So
25:08
we got the warehouse in
25:10
August of 2020 and we had
25:12
our fingers crossed to get
25:14
77 mattresses to pay the bills
25:16
for the warehouse. And that
25:18
week we ended up getting 900
25:20
from one hotel in Southern
25:23
Vermont. We
25:25
paid our rent, needless to say,
25:27
but then we had to learn
25:29
how to do mattress recycling at
25:31
a quicker pace than what we
25:33
had thought of before. We've
25:38
slowly increased our prices with
25:40
the market price to throw it
25:42
away just because we spend
25:44
seven to 10 minutes per mattress
25:46
and box spring disassembling it,
25:48
sorting it out. So right now
25:50
we are right around $35
25:53
per mattress. A
25:58
lot of our employees, or
26:00
at least 50 % of our
26:02
employees, are new Americans. So they're
26:05
either in refugee resettlement programs
26:07
or just folks around town that
26:09
haven't necessarily been given a
26:11
great shot at retaining a good
26:13
job. During the spring and
26:16
summertime, our busy time, we can
26:18
get up to right around
26:20
12 to 15 employees. Just
26:26
moving one mattress is enough for most
26:28
people in a day. But today we've
26:30
moved over 125, not to mention rip
26:32
them up and recycle the contents. So
26:34
it's a really difficult business. But honestly,
26:36
I just love doing a good thing.
26:38
And when people come in and they
26:40
see the hard work my guys are
26:42
putting in, they go, wow, I am
26:44
so glad that you're here in our
26:46
state doing this. And I say, well,
26:48
you're welcome. Joshua
26:53
Costa, Sleepwell Recycling in Burlington,
26:55
Vermont. How about that guy? No
26:57
matter where you lay your
26:59
head, we need your stories to
27:01
make this series work. Get
27:03
them to us at marketplace .org
27:05
slash myeconomy. All
27:11
right, we got to go. No time
27:13
for a final. I had to get that
27:15
Jay Powell cut in there. It's my bad.
27:18
All right. Our media production team includes Brian
27:20
Allison, Jake Cherry, Jessen Duhler, Drew Jostad. Gary
27:22
O 'Keefe, Charlton Thorpe, Juan Carlos Torado, and
27:24
Becca Weinman. Jeff Peters is the manager of
27:26
media production. And I'm Kyle Rizdal. We will
27:28
see you tomorrow, everybody. This
27:38
is APM. If
27:42
there's one thing we know about
27:44
social media, it's that misinformation is
27:46
everywhere, especially when it comes to
27:48
personal finance. Financially Inclined from
27:50
Marketplace is a podcast you can
27:52
trust to help you get serious
27:54
about your money so you can
27:56
build a life you've always dreamed
27:59
of. I'm the host, Janelia and
28:01
each week I ask experts
28:03
important money questions, like
28:06
how to negotiate job offers,
28:08
how to choose a college that you
28:10
can afford, and how to talk about
28:12
money with friends and family. Listen
28:15
to Financially Inclined you get
28:17
your podcasts.
Podchaser is the ultimate destination for podcast data, search, and discovery. Learn More