Bloomberg Businessweek Weekend - August 8th, 2025

23:32Carol Massar:We've reinvested, you know, a significant portion of that back in the customer experience in the form of price, in the form of delivery experience. And so we've held that gross margin at 30 to 31, but structurally we've been able to drive it higher and instead give it back to the consumer and then float that through and ultimately, cover off on that fixed cost basis. I wonder how you deal with tariffs because you have so many suppliers, but furniture making in the United States of America is far from its peak these days. So do you get suppliers to kind of eat that? Are you taking some of it into your margin?

24:10And how much are you passing on to the consumer?

24:13Carol Massar:Yeah, you know, we talked about actually, you know, in May, when Carol and I spoke before was that we thought the benefits of our marketplace model would help us manage the tariffs. And that's because we are able, you know, as you point out, Matt, we source from over 20 ,000 suppliers, right? So we were able to have a very wide range of goods with suppliers from all over the world, including some from the U.S., and we're able to then position within a given class or category, say like this chair that I'm sitting on now, we're able to position the products that we believe are best for the consumer.

24:46Carol Massar:So most price competitive, can get to her quickly, you know, are high quality. We're able to position that first in the sort order among many very similar products. So if a product gets relatively more expensive, other products will then move up within the sort order so the consumer is able to see the product that is most price competitive. And that means there's a tension within the marketplace where suppliers actually want to maintain their price competitiveness. They do not want to lose that volume, particularly in a category, as we spoke about earlier, that's been under pressure for some time.

25:20Carol Massar:And you're seeing that pan out. So what we said on the call was on a like for like basis for the products that are on those first few pages of the sort order when you search for, you know, sort of lounge chair, you're going to continue to see and you are seeing prices relatively stable on those first few pages. And that means that the products that the consumers are buying, they're not yet seeing, you know, pricing changes flow through. And I do think that's due to that, you know, breadth of suppliers that we work with and the competitive nature of the marketplace. We are talking about Kate Gulliver.

25:53Carol Massar:She's the chief financial officer of Wayfair joining us from Boston. Hey, Kate, so what do you know about the type of shopping that consumers are doing? You know, when they're buying, are they buying more items? Are they buying fewer items? Are they give us some idea in terms of some of the trends that you're seeing in terms of the actual shopping going on? Yeah, it's a great question. So when we think about our average order value or AOV, that's really comprised of three different pieces. One is like for like pricing, like you just spoke about. One is items per order to the question you just asked.

26:27Carol Massar:And then last piece is mix. And we actually are seeing a little bit movement on items per order and mix. So in items per order, we're seeing a little bit of increase, nothing major, but sort of moderate. But where we're really seeing momentum is on mix. And what we mean there is that we're seeing mixing in brands of ours that are actually sort of higher value. So Paragold, which is our highest end, our luxury brand, we're seeing ongoing really nice momentum there. Our specialty retail brands, so All Modern, Joss and Main, Birch Lane, again, these operate a little bit above that mass segment that the Wayfair.com business operates at.

27:06Carol Massar:Those are also seeing nice momentum. And then our B2B business where we sell to professionals and the trade, we're seeing nice momentum there. All of these are much higher ticket values than the sort of core Wayfair.com business. The other thing I'd add is, you know, we're obviously newer to the physical retail game. We have our first sort of large format Wayfair store opened a little over a year ago. And we're seeing nice momentum in categories like storage and org and small kitchen accessories in the physical space as well. Do you want to keep continuing to add in terms of the physical stores?

27:39Carol Massar:I know you guys have some more expansion going on. Yeah, no, great question. We're thrilled with the performance of that Chicago store. Really two key things that we see there. One is the halo effect. So the sales that we get in the surrounding region from having the store there. And then two, within the store, we're seeing nice momentum in categories that maybe sort of underpunch a little bit online, like storage and order, kitchen accessories, small appliances, that kind of thing. And so as we look at it, we see significant opportunity from a growth perspective in expanding stores. We've actually announced three additional leases.

28:14Carol Massar:Two will open in 2026, one in Atlanta and one in Denver. That's our first store in sort of the Mountain West region. So we're very excited about that. And then early 27, we have a store opening in Yonkers, New York. So you can see us starting to build some of the momentum here. I will be there. Yeah, that'll be a little closer to home for you guys. Yeah. Hey, I wonder about your view on rates, because, you know, maybe if you're buying just one chair or a side table, you can afford that. But I'm sure a lot of Americans are putting stuff on a plan or borrowing money. And today, the tenure is pretty low.

28:50But the idea, I think, is that rates tend to go are going to tend to go up from here. What's your view?

28:56Carol Massar:Yeah, you know, I would actually say in our business, actually, the average order size is only around$300. So, well, you know, rates have an impact on the consumer overall in terms of the housing market. In terms of our purchasing with us, it's largely not financed. All right. Couldn't leave it there. Always fun to check in with you and get a really great view of what's going on with the consumer. Kate B. Well, Kate Gulliver, she's the chief financial officer of Wayfair. This is the Bloomberg Business Week Daily Podcast. Listen live each weekday starting at 2 p.m. Eastern on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app.

29:32You can also listen live on Amazon Alexa from our flagship New York station. Just say Alexa, play Bloomberg 1130.

29:40Carol Massar:Shares of MercadoLibre, Latin America's biggest company by market cap, fell as much as 8.3 % this past week on the day it gave a financial update. Company's second quarter earnings fell short of estimates, a consequence to rising costs tied to an expansion of free shipping policy in Brazil. Still, revenue growth remains strong and executives doubled down on their plans to keep expanding across the region. MercadoLibre Chief Financial Officer Martin de los Santos expects growth opportunities ahead He joined me alongside Bloomberg's Matt Miller and Bloomberg News senior editor Nina Trantman. Yes, we had a great quarter really in terms of the results that we delivered.

30:18Carol Massar:Revenues grew by 34 % year-on-year. We delivered a record operating income of$825 million. But more important than that, we continue to grow our user base both on our commerce and fintech platform. Our buyers on the commerce platform grew by 25 % year-on-year. on fintechs grew by 30%. Credit book doubled year-on-year. GMB, which is the volume to extract the market of the Libre, grew by 29%. In Brazil, 32 % in Mexico. In both cases, we continue to gain market share. So very good, very strong operating metrics. And like you said, this particular quarter was a quarter of investments. We opened two new fulfillment centers to add to the more than 30 fulfillment centers that we have throughout the region.

31:05Carol Massar:We also made a big change in terms of lowering the free shipping threshold in Brazil, which is a strategic move that we have been doing for many years and is paying off very nicely. And also we continue to invest in the credit card. But very excited not only about the results, but more important than that, about the future and the opportunity that we have ahead of us both in commerce as well as fintech. You mentioned Brazil, threshold for free shipping in Brazil as one of the contributors, I think, to you missing estimates for net profit as well as core earnings. I'm just wondering, as a CFO of a fast growing business, how do you think about profitability and how do you manage the short versus long term?

31:49Carol Massar:That's it. I mean, we talked about this, Nina, I remember talking to you a few quarters ago. that's it we'll try to balance right we try to balance short-term profitability with the growth opportunities that we have ahead of us so we want to make sure that we do not miss those opportunities when you look at commerce penetration of e-commerce in latin america is roughly you know mid-team so 15 percent compared to maybe 25 30 or 40 percent even in china or in the us so there's plenty of room to continue growing the fintech side of the business the same thing happened most people in in Latin America have not been financially included by the financial system.

32:25Carol Massar:So we see a large opportunity to expand our footprint on the fintech side of the business on Mercado Paro. So at the same time, to capture that opportunity requires investments. Some of those investments might put some short-term pressure. And I think this is a good example. When we lower the free shipping threshold, it does put pressure in the short term. But we have proven over time, and we've been doing this since 2017, when we introduced free shipping in Brazil, at that time the free shipping threshold was 120 reais. We brought it down to 80 and now we brought it down to 20. So we have proven all the time that by lowering the free shipping threshold, we eliminate the most frictional point in terms of buying things online for people.

33:12Carol Massar:So we're eliminating that friction, really generates a lot more volume. And then eventually that translates into profit. So I think it's a strategy that has paid out to us and the long term investors of MercadoLibre understand it. And we are very comfortable with the investments that we're doing. You mentioned Brazil. It's, of course, an interesting market. Just in the current tariff debates that we're seeing with the Brazilian government so far holding out to Trump and basically not giving in on the Trump tariff suggestions for Brazil. Just wondering, how far are you seeing that play out in terms of consumer confidence and consumer spending?

33:51Are you seeing any impacts in countries like Brazil? I know you're also doing business in Mexico and in other countries, all of which will face higher tariffs as part of the U.S. renegotiation of tariffs around the world.

34:04Carol Massar:Yes, this is something that we are monitoring closely. Obviously, we do not export into the U.S., so there's no direct impact on our business. but it can have secondary effects on the economy, as you mentioned. We have not seen that so far. As I mentioned earlier, we're growing by 29 % of GMB in Brazil. As a matter of management, which is the amount of money invested, our users invest in MercadoLibre, more than doubled in Brazil year on year. Our credit card book has grown by 118%. The profitability or the asset quality of our credit book continues to be very solid in Brazil. So we have not seen any deterioration on macro or consumption, but obviously it's something that we are monitoring closely.

34:48Martin Buendia, Matt Miller here in the studio with the ladies. I was really blown away by the growth at Mercado Credito. And I wonder if you're watching closely for signs of credit stress there, because I think you had like 90 % growth.

35:06Carol Massar:That's correct. That's correct. Thank you for your question. Yeah, obviously, when we look at credit, we take it very seriously. We are very careful in the way we manage credit. By the way, I used to run the credit business before taking the position of CFO. So the first thing we look at is the health of our book. We saw that NPLs, and we disclosed this number, are the lowest record, lowest number since we've been disclosing the metric. The NIMAL, which is the measure of profitability, is also improving quarter on quarter. So we see very healthy signs in terms of our book and in terms of our profitability.

35:41Carol Massar:So the reason why you're seeing 91 % growth in our credit book is because we are seeing good results in terms of our models, predicting default rates, and the quality of our credit book continues to be very healthy. If we did see something different, we will slow down because we are very cautious with the way we manage our credit business. We are talking with Martin de los Santos. He's the CFO of Mercado Libre, joining us from Uruguay. We should also point out that this is the largest company. We should point Latin America's most valuable company, if you think about market cap. So really significant.

36:18Carol Massar:We were talking about fintech and, you know, you were talking about kind of the health of that portfolio. But what can you tell us more, Martin, when it comes to the mix of customers that are in that portfolio? out? I think what we're seeing is we're seeing all the different type of customers within the economic segments of the populations. Keep in mind that we acquire most of our users, most of our credit users from the marketplace and all types of people using our marketplace. So we have the advantage of having the distribution of Mercado Libre, but also the the buying information that those people have on our marketplace.

36:57Carol Massar:And we use that information through AI and machine learning models to score people. And we have models that are very accurate at predicting credit risk. So you will find people of all kinds of social levels within our ecosystem. So there are like half of the people that we offer credit to, we offer credit for the first time. They never had access to credit. but also the other half are people that are moving their fintech business to us because we offer a much better user experience than the traditional banks. Martin, one question in terms of earnings. I noted that you also pointed out the impact of the Argentine peso on your results.

37:37Of course, we've seen Javier Malay make various changes in Argentina in recent months, including making changes to the country's currency, which has resulted in basically the spread between the official and unofficial rate falling apart. Just wondering how that's impacting your business. And specifically also, are you changing your hedging strategy for Argentina?

38:02Carol Massar:Yeah, I think the headline for Argentina is that we continue to see a big recovery. I mean, unique buyers in Argentina grew by 30 % year on year. Our GMB grew by 75 % in local currency or 35 % in dollars. The items sold in the platform grew by 46%. So very strong recovery as we see inflation coming down, consumption improving. And also, as you mentioned, the FX market being normalized also helps our business. The open economy, so we're bringing more products from the U.S. into Argentina as well. So most of the businesses are performing extremely well in Argentina. And we're very happy with the way things are going for our business there.

38:42You mentioned, Martin, you ran credit before at Mercado Libre. You ran also strategy at Intuit and you were at Bain before that. So, you know, strategy up and down. I want to know about your strategy regarding ad revenue, because it was also surged like up 38 percent. Is that a profit center for you, a future profit center? Or do you view that more as a tool to drive your core marketplace growth?

39:10Carol Massar:Yeah, our advertising business is roughly a$1 billion business. It's growing at 38%, as you mentioned, and it's a profit business for the company, but it has tremendous potential going forward. If you look at the number of people interacting with our ecosystem, last year, we had more than 100 million people buying on MercadoLibre. We have 68 million monthly active users of our fintech platform. So in terms of the number of eyeballs within Latin America, We are the third largest pan-regional platform, and that gives us a great opportunity to continue distributing advertising. We also can leverage all the first-party information that we have on our users to target marketing campaigns.

39:51Carol Massar:So we see a big, big, very large opportunity. I think there's more future than past in advertising business. We're just getting started. But as you mentioned, we have been growing very rapidly for the past several years. There's plenty of growth going forward. Martin, just got about 20 seconds. We always like to, when we got lucky enough to have someone like yourself, a global CEO, how would you describe the global outlook? And just quickly. Yeah, I think, well, obviously we operate in Latin America. And, you know, depending on the country, some countries have some tough micro situations and some others might be in a better condition.

40:26Carol Massar:We're talking about Argentina recovering. But at the end of the day, I think in our business in particular, the trend of people moving online is so much stronger than macro that we have plenty of opportunities ahead of us. And the same thing on fintech, right? Where we're operating in America where penetration of fintech products is very, very low. We play a big role in terms of generating financial inclusion throughout the region. So we are very optimistic about macro, at least on our region. So glad we could get some time with you. Martin de los Santos, CEO of Mercado Libre, CFO, excuse me, of Mercado Libre.

41:02Carol Massar:I gave him a little bit of a promotion. And Nina Tretman, thank you.

41:12Carol Massar:This is the Bloomberg Tech Minute brought to you by ChatGPT. Now with ChatGPT work. I'm Carol Masser. DoorDash, the largest food delivery company in the U.S., is building its own delivery drones and has gained the necessary FAA approvals to operate them commercially, the latest in its effort to delegate more orders to robots as a way of cutting delivery times. Bloomberg's Natalie Lung reports the company says it has been conducting pilot programs with various restaurants, some of which have seen their order volume grow during the test period. The effort marks an expansion of DoorDash's in-house robotics efforts to reduce reliance on human couriers for some orders, as their wages constitute a key expense to the business.

41:54Carol Massar:Drones are also a way for DoorDash to cut delivery times on orders from more remote locations that some dashers may not want. That's the Bloomberg Tech Minute, brought to you by ChatGPT. Put ChatGPT to work on your most ambitious ideas and projects. Get started at ChatGPT.com today by selecting Work Mode, available on Plus and Pro Plans. Aging is real And so are the benefits of adding Vital Proteins Collagen Peptides To your daily routine New Vital Proteins Collagen Sparkling Water Your daily glow up Now in three fresh flavors Strawberry blossom, lemon lime and blood orange Improved skin health in as little as 30 days Thanks to collagen peptides Cheers to that Or go with our classic collagen peptides So you can stay vital, stay you Visit VitalProteins.com to learn more and where to buy These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.

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43:15to market efforts. Elevate your wins with Adio. Start your free trial at adio.com slash iHeart. So there's a lot of noise about AI, but time's too tight for more promises. So let's talk about results. At IBM, we work with our employees to integrate technology right into the systems they need. Now, a global workforce of 300 ,000 can use AI to fill their HR questions, resolving 94 % of common questions. Not noise, proof of how we can help companies get smarter by putting AI where it actually pays off deep in the work that moves the business. Let's create smarter business. IBM. You're listening to the Bloomberg Business Week Daily podcast.

43:55Catch us live weekday afternoons from 2 to 5 p.m. Eastern. Listen on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app or watch us live on YouTube.

44:05Carol Massar:Let me head in our second hour of the weekend edition of Bloomberg Business Week. From sports to spirits, more insights from the C-suite. The CEO of the NBA basketball team Dallas Mavericks stopping by. Plus, we talk bourbon, gin, rye, ready-to-drink cocktails, and yes, tariffs with the CEO of U.S. Spirits brand Kraft Co. First up this hour, as we mentioned earlier, it was another uber-busy earnings week. In fact, Uber and Lyft both reported those details on the Bloomberg and at Bloomberg.com. One company, though, that came out with results recently, and it has definitely been on our radar, is Generac.

44:39Carol Massar:It's a power equipment company and maker of residential and industrial generators and battery storage systems. That's now expanding into the data center space with plans to power them with diesel generators, a segment potentially valued at several billion dollars for the company. The stock, by the way, jumped about 20 percent following its latest financial update and is up about 25 percent year to date. Aaron Yachtfeld is the chairman, president and CEO of Generac. He joined us along with Bloomberg's Matt Miller. Yeah, it's never a dull moment when you talk about backup power. You know, every time I travel, I get on a plane, you sit down next to somebody, you do that.

45:15Okay, what do you do? What are you, you know, what's your job? Where do you work? I talk about Generac and all of a sudden, you know, people are like, well, that's a product we have to have, you know. I think what we've come to find just as Americans, you know, we struggle with power quality in this country and we have for many decades. This is not a new issue. I think, you know, what's worrisome is just the number of outages that are happening and how long they're lasting. And this is a growing problem both for homeowners as well as businesses. Yeah, so how much, Aaron, of your business is me and Carol out in the suburbs and how much of it is a company, midsize or even larger, looking to back up its data?

45:57Yeah, about 60 % of what we do is in the residential market. So that would be, you know, out in suburbs, you know, for homeowners who are looking for a solution for their family, for their property, protect those things. Businesses, you know, this is a business decision, right? With homeowners, it's a little bit different. It's a little bit more emotional, right? Just the loss of power and what can happen in your home. Certainly, there's things that can go wrong. There's damage that can happen to your house. But largely, you know, that's an emotional decision. Whereas a business, the loss of revenue, spoilage of inventory, some kind of interruption of a critical process, especially as things get more critical in business with power, the need for that, we see about 40 % of our business leaning that way.

46:36But that is a very large opportunity for us. And in particular, in some of the bigger applications where we play up in the data center market, it's an incredibly hot space.

46:47Carol Massar:Well, dig into that for us, Aaron. How much growth are you seeing in that space? How many calls are you getting about that? Give us an idea of some of the demand and what that kind of gives you an indication of how much more that market could be for you guys. Yeah, the market for data centers. I mean, obviously, you guys cover this very broadly. Yeah, it's massive, right? I mean, the capital spending that is going into these facilities and all the equipment that goes alongside of them is enormous. And of course, the power needs themselves are enormous. But you can imagine the backup power, right?

47:17These are critical installations. If the facilities go down, we don't have access to the cloud. We don't have access to some of these critical things that are happening in data centers. So every single data center that goes in has emergency backup power. And so we're a relatively new entrant to this market. Our product lines have been smaller. We've served small business and smaller data centers for many, many years. The telecommunications space, in an example, is we provide backup power to a lot of the major wireless carriers out there. So this is a bit of a new space for us. We just entered it in April.

47:48We opened up our order book and we've already booked$150 million worth of new business. We talked about that last week on our call. I think that was part of the reaction that you saw in the stock. But we're seeing just an incredible amount of demand for these types of products. I'm always interested in where you're building these things. And I guess you have a new facility in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, that's supposed to open up space to build those big diesel generators, more of the big diesel generators in Oshkosh. Tell us about your manufacturing footprint, because tariffs are obviously a huge issue these days.

48:22Absolutely. And, you know, we've been a longstanding U.S. manufacturer. We just opened our sixth facility in the state of Wisconsin. We have seven here stateside. Those six facilities in Wisconsin, a good chunk of those facilities are focused on these larger units and on the commercial and industrial products. So those products for backing up businesses. But we're also a global company. We have facilities worldwide. We have a facility in China, a facility in India, Brazil. We have three facilities in Europe, two in Italy, one in Spain, have another facility down in Mexico. So, you know, we're a global company, but we see, you know, the demand for backup power growing really across the globe.

49:00But we see what's going on here in the U.S. The addition of the Beaver Dam facility was a critical part of expanding additional capacity for these systems because the growth is just, it's enormous right now. How much? So I look at cars all the time. Ford builds more cars in America for sale in America than any other producer. You'd think that would help them avoid tariffs. But in the end, they get absolutely crushed with tariffs on steel, tariffs on aluminum, tariffs on foreign made parts, tariffs on magnets out of China. And it really makes up then more of a tariff hit than somebody building a car in Japan or somebody building a car in South Korea for export.

49:38Do you get hit with those kind of nickel and dime tariffs, too? We do. We use a lot of steel. We use a lot of aluminum. We use a lot of copper in every single gen set. So, in fact, you know, it's interesting you brought up the automotive industry, Matt, because it's a real good proxy for, you know, a lot of our input costs, you know, in terms of the components, in terms of the commodities, the things that we're exposed to. So, you know, we have a lot of those similar exposures. And I think just like Ford and others, you know, we're trying to do what we can to minimize the impact of tariffs, but it's difficult.

50:07I mean, we've all developed over the last, you know, 40, 50, 60 years, global supply chains, right? I mean, there are areas of the world where, you know, certain components, certain commodities are only available, right? They're just not widely available in other parts of the world. So it's going to take time to recalibrate those supply chains and to try and create a more domestic manufacturing base. And I get it. I understand the need to do that, in particular around things that are, you know, associated with defense, maybe pharmaceuticals, things that are truly critical. I'm not sure, you know, when you look at the broader base of things that we're putting tariffs on that, you know, like tennis shoes and Barbie dolls, if that's maybe the right place to do it.

50:45You know, I think we've got to be selective and we've got to be strategic in how we use tariffs. But I know the administration's, you know, working through all that with all these different trade partners. Well, some things, I mean, like magnets or rare earths out of China, we're never producing those here. It's like not an option, not in decades. It's challenging. And you must use those. Are you getting enough? We are. You know, we're fortunate that we have some, we have the ability to kind of substitute for some of those super rare earth elements that I think are really critical in aerospace and defense.

51:16Not as critical maybe in the automotive and, you know, in smaller quantities they are. But we have access to them today. But, of course, that's a concern because, as you noted, you know, there are only a few areas of the world where you can get those types of materials and those types of components. So it presents a really I mean, it's a it's a very complicated situation, very complicated conversation. I understand what we're trying to do. But again, I think we've got to be we've got to be super strategic about how we implement these these trade agreements and these tariffs.

51:46Carol Massar:We are talking with Aaron Yachtfield. He is chairman, president and CEO of Generac. Hey, a couple of things that you said I want to follow up on. You are mostly selling here in the United States, but you did talk about what you guys are doing around the world, Aaron. Does it make sense to pivot even more so international with the energy storage solutions to places like Europe and China, given that the U.S. policies are now less friendly to something like solar? Well, those are big markets to begin with, right? So, you know, obviously we want to be successful with our energy products, you know, the storage products, in particular battery products.

52:19You know, Europe is a very well-established market. The U.S. is a good market as well, but obviously the policy changes that we've now codified here recently are going to have an impact on the U.S. market for solar and for storage. Now, a lot of the things we're looking at, though, even with the loss of those incentives and the loss of support here in the U.S., the economics of putting a solar system on your rooftop, depending on where you live, the cost of energy continues to rise. This is one of the things we've talked about. We started out talking today about the quality of power. The cost of power is another element here that needs to be talked about, because as power costs go up and the cost of these technologies around solar and storage continue to come down, the economics, the payback, the raw economics of investing in your own power production on your rooftop or a geothermal loop or however you want to produce your own power and store some of that power continue to improve.

53:12And the loss of support, you know, it may impact the industry for a year or two, but it will get back on track because, again, power prices are going up.

53:20Carol Massar:Yeah, it does feel like we're headed towards a power war, certainly here in the United States, considering the amount of power needed to really support all the AI that's going on. Having said that, you talk about these loss of these residential tax credits. You've got some new home standby generators, my understanding, is coming to market. Is that going to help offset, though, some of the loss that you are seeing from those residential tax credits, especially when it comes to your energy storage business? Yeah, absolutely. So on the energy storage side, the loss of the credits, that's going to impact that business here short term.

53:49Our home standby business, that business doesn't it's never benefited from tax credits to begin with. So, you know, it's the kind of thing that you again, if you and Matt out in the suburbs, you've got you want one of these products to back up your home so that, you know, you protect your property, protect your family. There are unfortunately were no tax credits available, even though the administration, when when when President Trump was on the campaign trail, you know, he had mentioned maybe perhaps offering a generator tax credit. We're still waiting on that. We think that'd be smart policy, but we haven't seen it yet.

54:19It certainly wasn't in the one big, beautiful bill. But those products don't have tax credits. We do have a new product line coming out, which has got some great features and benefits packed in it. But those are the kinds of products that, again, you're really buying and investing in those products to protect your home, to protect your family, to protect your business from a power outage.

54:38Carol Massar:And what I really meant is those new products kind of offsetting anything you're losing from the energy storage business because of the loss of the tax credits. One other thing I want to ask you about data centers. What about the imminent launch that you guys are expecting of large diesel generations for data centers? What can you tell us about capacity? How much do you guys have for that? And are you investing to boost that capacity? And what is the pipeline of new orders looking like? Yeah, so the pipeline is very strong. You know, again, about 150 million already booked in backlog. In terms of capacity, just raw capacity here, you know, kind of globally, about a$500 million capacity number for 2026.

55:15So if we get the orders, we think we can have a really great year next year as a way to increase our commercial and industrial business. But we're already thinking about 2027 beyond. This is a market that, again, you kind of have to go back to what do you see in terms of CapEx spending for data centers? Is this going to be truly a bubble, something that in the next year or two, you're going to see a retrenchment or retracement of all of that spending? Or is this secular? Is this going to go on for the next decade? And we definitely, like others, believe that this is certainly a longer term trend and one worth leaning into.

55:49So we're already starting to think about adding capacity so that we can take that$500 million number to something much higher in the years ahead. For me, it's the residential products because this is like -

56:01Carol Massar:Matt just wants a diesel generator, Eric. I'm just going to lay it out for you. You know, what we do here is just what Matt needs to buy. And that's what this is - Not even me, but if you're like a hedge fund guy and you just made your first couple of million and you're putting up a place in Millbrook so you can be next to Michomik, you want to have a sweet diesel generator out back. Well, I'll tell you, what people don't think about, right? Like if you think about your home today and right, so you talk about that hedge fund manager or anybody else who's got a home, the amount of technology that's entered your own home, right?

56:37Think about it, like from security cameras to just the, you know, from control of all of your, you know, a lot of your audiovisual equipment, your lighting. But a lot of the, you know, the safety equipment that goes in your homes, your security systems, these systems are non-operational when the power's out. We get notes from people who are like, you know, look, I didn't even realize that my garage door wouldn't open. You know, I've got a garage door opener. The power's out. I can't even back my car out of the garage. You know, everybody, if your power's out and you want to open the garage door, you got to reach up and grab that red handle, right?

57:07Nobody wants to do that ever in your garage because you don't know what's going to happen next, right? So people are like, I didn't think about it. I didn't think my sump pump. What happens when you're sump pumping?

57:16Carol Massar:My husband keeps doing all these systems. Like our lights I have to turn on with like these technical systems and everything. Nothing switches or anything anymore. And it's like I fear for when the lights go out. I don't live in suburbia. I live just outside New York City. But we talk about a generator too. But there's so much. We talk about a generator too. Even the food in your refrigerator, but the deer in the freezer downstairs, you know? And what happens if you can't heat the pool in the fall? You know, you need to have, what is the hottest product, Aaron? What is the thing that, you know, the dude at the end of the cul-de-sac absolutely has to have?

57:49What are you selling out of? Well, I'll tell you, it's our 26 kilowatt home standby generator, which can cover your entire house. A good sized home for everything you need. Basically, if the utility goes down, you don't even notice that the utility is not present, right? I mean, you see a momentary loss of power, and then the generator starts up. And you can basically run indefinitely on a natural gas pipeline, or if you have propane at your home, you're going to be able to last a long time on a generator. And I think one of the things, the other thing that we're seeing, huge trend, right, is people who have home medical equipment, GLP-1 drugs.

58:23GLP-1 drugs have to be refrigerated. So if you lose refrigeration with medications, certain kinds of medications spoil very quickly. And so, you know, these trends, these overarching trends are, again, you know, a lot of the medical infrastructure is starting to move into the home. We see Americans who are trying to stay independent and stay in their homes much, much longer. But a power outage, you know, when you get older in your 60s or 70s and you lose power, it's a very different situation than if you're a younger American, 30s and 40s. You know, it's the indoor camping. You get out the monopoly, you know, and everybody has fun and it's great until, you know, everybody gets sick of that after about an hour.

58:58But if you're older, I mean, the danger that comes from not being able to regulate temperature, the loss of some of the function of some of the medical devices, just not having the lights operate, as you mentioned, Carol. I mean, those are very serious situations for older Americans. And that is a huge part of our demographic for home standby generators.

59:15Carol Massar:Yeah, it moves from being a discretionary to a staple. Not to mention the wine cellar. Matt, stop. Aaron, he's now Googling what you just suggested. And so, you know, there might be a purchase coming or something in Matt's future. Aaron, thank you so much. Aaron Yechfeldt, he is chairman, president and CEO of Generac. Delighted to have him here on Bloomberg Business Week Daily. This is the Bloomberg Business Week Daily podcast. Listen live each weekday starting at 2 p.m. Eastern on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app. You can also listen live on Amazon Alexa from our flagship New York station.

59:51Just say, Alexa, play Bloomberg 1130.

59:53Carol Massar:Well, four months after the Dallas Mavericks fans held a mock funeral for the franchise outside its arena following the trade of star forward Luka Doncic, they rushed back to the team's home court to celebrate what they hope will be its rebirth. It happened just about a month ago as about 6 ,000 people watched from the stands of the American Airlines Center as the team selected Duke University's Cooper Flagg with the top pick in the NBA's draft. Well, we've got a lot to talk about, and we've got the perfect guest. Rick Welts is with us. He's the CEO of the Dallas Mavericks, and we also have with us Bloomberg News Texas Bureau Chief Julie Fine.

1:00:27Carol Massar:Both of them in our Dallas Bureau. Julie, Rick, great to have you here with Tim and myself. Rick, got to start with Cooper Flagg. You were with him when he first got to Dallas. The team had such a slim, slim chance of getting that first draft pick. How has he kind of melded into the organization so far? Would you call a slim chance 1.8 %? Super slim. Of chances, super slim. He's been great. He arrived in town with his parents, his brother, grandparents. You know, he's a testament to great parenting. I experienced that at Golden State, my last job with Steph Curry and what great parenting can mean.

1:01:13He's the most decorated 18-year-old in the history of the game of basketball at this point, coming in with incredibly high expectations. But really, everything you could see being around him for a few days, from mindset, from attitude, from work ethic, everything you can see gives you a lot of hope. He's going to be everything that basketball fans expect him to be and maybe a little more.

1:01:38Carol Massar:You know, Rick, he comes here to Dallas after a pretty tumultuous time for the franchise. At this point, from a business sense, are you doing OK? Did you lose season ticket holders? How about sponsorships? So I got here January 1st. You know, I'm here because Dallas is such an amazing market. The history of fan support here is just incredible. We have an expression here, Mavs fans for life. And I walked into that trying to, you know, just being thrilled to represent the Mavericks in this market. But trading Luka, which happened on February 1st, pretty much broke the Internet. And it was not something that our fans expected and certainly not something that they embraced.

1:02:21And so we went through 100 days of grieving, you know, with our fan base, understanding what this kid meant to Dallas. But, you know, now with Cooper here, I think the focus again on the future sponsors are probably ringing our phone a little bit more than we've ever had before. Season ticket holders are back in greater numbers than they were last season. So, so far, so good.

1:02:48Carol Massar:You know, we talked a little bit earlier about time in forgiveness after something like that happens. I mean, now when you look back a few months later and moving forward, how do you feel? Feeling great. You know, we're going to start the season with three number one historic, three number one picks. Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving and Cooper Flagg, all number one in the NBA draft. a third another future hall of famer in addition to anthony and kyrie is clay thompson we're feeling great about the team that we're going to feel next year and we're feeling great about the momentum that cooper has brought to the mavericks rick apart from winning how else can you continue to rebuild or redevelop that trust between the organization and the fan base you know i think it's a great question.

1:03:39I think what I'm walking into is an organization that probably has set the standard in terms of community engagement. Not rehashing the past, but the Mavericks had a pretty existential crisis six, seven years ago when there were a lot of media coverage of what was really a broken culture here at the Mavericks. Sint Marshall came in as chief executive officer at the time and spent the last six, seven years rebuilding the relationship between fans, civic organizations, religious organizations, government organizations in Dallas, and the Mavericks. It became a point of pride again to be associated with the Mavericks.

1:04:20So that reservoir of goodwill still exists. We're going to combine that with that time-tested formula of time and winning. And I think it gives us a reason to be super optimistic. By the way, at a time when we're talking about building a brand new arena and entertainment district in the city of Dallas, that'll be home for the Mavericks for decades to come.

1:04:45Carol Massar:And Rick, we want to talk about the arena. I got to go back though to Luca. And I'm just curious, like, we've all done things where we're like, if I could do that over. And you talked about the hundred days of grieving. Do you have any regrets or did you learn anything, especially, you know, based on your fan reaction? But first of all, any regrets in making the trade? You can't have fear or regrets in this business, right? It's all about how you move forward. And, you know, so it doesn't really serve a purpose to have regrets. What I will say, I learned about the depth of the connection between Mavericks fans and this team.

1:05:22And that to me was glass half full because I knew we could restore that over time. I didn't think it would happen quite as quickly perhaps as this happened. I would also say I'm incredibly proud of how the organization presented itself for Luca's first game back at American Airlines Center when he was a Los Angeles Laker. I think if you watch that game, It was an opportunity for fans to say thank you. I think you saw the emotion on Luka's face. You saw the way that night unfolded in tributes to Luka. I think he'll always be such a big part of the history here. And, you know, we wish him nothing but good luck, but we also hope we beat his team every time we play him going forward.

1:06:08Carol Massar:So do well, but not too well. We get it. You know, I want to touch back on the stadium. Your current lease is up in 2030. So I know you're looking for new spaces. How committed are you to doing it in the city of Dallas? So we publicly said that we are going to exhaust every opportunity to place the new Mavericks Arena in the city limits of Dallas. That's 100 % of our focus right now, working with the city manager's office and the mayor's office, identifying potential sites, evaluating those sites for how they work for transportation, how they work for accessibility to our season ticket base. So we're in it all the way with Dallas.

1:06:49I expect we're going to be successful in finding that location.

1:06:52Carol Massar:When do you think you will have an announcement by when we've located this? Are you putting a deadline on yourself? Well, I know six years sounds like a long time. in my view, we're on the clock. It takes this long to build a project of the magnitude that we're talking about building. This isn't just an arena. This is a 35 to 40-acre entertainment district. It'll have hotels. It'll have all kinds of restaurant options. It'll have other things that fans are going to do when they attend a Mavericks game, and it'll be the most amazing place ever to watch an NBA basketball game. So we're on the clock.

1:07:24We're hoping that by the end of this calendar year, at the latest first quarter next year, that we'll be able to have a flag in the ground, if you'll excuse the expression of where the new Mavericks arena is. Rick, the building of stadiums throughout the country has been a pretty fraught process over the last couple of decades. In Buffalo, the state of New York kicked in funds for a new stadium. Kansas City is working on state funding, but in both instances, taxpayers had a lot to say about billionaires getting their money. Is this stadium going to be a private project? Well, certainly the majority of it would be a private project.

1:07:58It depends on where we land, what the challenges are going to be from a transportation and infrastructure standpoint. I think one very fair ask everywhere in projects like this is that the city or whatever the governmental entity is assists in helping fans get there and helping create an infrastructure that works really well. But I don't expect the level of funding that you've seen in some of the other projects. and we're not asking for that. We actually haven't asked for anything at this point. It's going to be very site-specific on the things that the city could do or is prepared to do. It'll have to be something that's very acceptable to the city government of Dallas, whatever that might be.

1:08:40Carol Massar:All right. Acceptable. So do you think that they might change the whole state, if you will, when it comes to gambling? And I only bring that up because Bloomberg News did talk with Patrick Dumont, when he first bought the club, he wants to see gambling in the state. They're spending money on lobbyists. We know gambling is illegal in Texas, but you talked about this new stadium, this new arena being an incredible entertainment space. Would you like to see gambling be a part of it? The two are absolutely not connected in any way. This project going forward is 100 % focused on creating a sports entertainment district that does not include a casino or gambling component.

1:09:21So we're full speed ahead with that. That's the Sands Corporation. This is the Dallas Mavericks. And we have a project that we envision that does not include any sort of gambling component.

1:09:34Carol Massar:You know, oftentimes when you talk about the NBA, then you go to the WNBA. And I frequently hear people saying, oh, the WNBA is having a moment. The WNBA has been around for a while, but now there's a lot of new eyes on it. And of course, Paige Beckers here in Dallas, along with Cooper Flagg, but with your experience working in the WNBA, what's your reaction to what we are seeing now in terms of the growth? You know, I'm smiling because I can't, you know how I feel about the WNBA. I was at the NBA league office and was critical part of launching the WNBA. I love everything that's happening right now.

1:10:11I will say, you know, taking a step back, this is a 28-year overnight success, okay? This isn't something that just happened. And I'm so happy for the players, the executives, the coaches that over the last 28 years have built a foundation that has allowed a Kaitlin Clark and a Paige Beckers to come in now and ignite the kind of interest and enthusiasm there is around the WNBA.

1:10:37Carol Massar:You know, we're seeing now with all leagues media rights in the way of the future. I mean, the Mavs, you have a local, you show the games locally, but you also have Mavs TV. What do you envision the future of media being for basketball? Well, Julie, you're hitting on the biggest local issue that we have right now in the economics of the NBA. That said, we're also next year launching a brand new national television agreement that more than triples the rights fees that teams will receive. based on the new partnerships we have at the NBA, but at the national level. But locally, the model's broken.

1:11:15The Regional Sports Network model is broken. And whether you're in baseball, hockey, or basketball, every team right now is trying to find a way to replicate the kind of economics and take those valuable local broadcasts. We haven't done it yet. At the Mavericks, we have a direct-to-consumer offering, Mavs TV, which has more subscribers than any other comparable system in the NBA. We also have two over-the-air broadcasters, but it doesn't begin to replicate the economics. It does for reach, which is great. We got to figure it out, and we haven't figured it out yet. Hey, Rick, before we let you go, we touched on media just now.

1:11:55We've touched on the new stadium, and we've touched on, of course, the players. What else is the organization, and what are you doing at the organization to raise your valuation and to grow the business? Very briefly. Well, I think a lot of that is, frankly, top down. I think the NBA is the best managed league in sports with Adam Silver and Mark Tatum. I think our Players Association is the most progressive with Andre Godala, David Kelly running that. And a lot of the valuation is really driven by what the NBA is as a league. And I think I've never been more excited. This is my 47th year of involvement in the NBA.

1:12:32What's happening internationally with the NBA right now is just different than the opportunity that any of the other traditional American sports have. And I'm so excited that our league is focused on growing the growing the sport of basketball and the business of the NBA internationally. nationally, those things, that tripling of national television revenue, those are the things that are big, big components of driving valuations that, you know, are eye-popping these days.

1:13:01Carol Massar:Well, good luck with the season, Rick. Thank you so much for finding so much time for us on this Monday. Rick Welch, CEO of the Dallas Mavericks, joining our Bloomberg News Texas Bureau Chief, Julie Fine. They are both in Dallas, and Tim and I are back here at Bloomberg headquarters in New York City. Rick, be well. Thank you. Thank you.

1:13:21Carol Massar:This is the Bloomberg Tech Minute brought to you by ChatGPT. Now with ChatGPT Work, I'm Carol Masser. DoorDash, the largest food delivery company in the U.S., is building its own delivery drones and has gained the necessary FAA approvals to operate them commercially, the latest in its effort to delegate more orders to robots as a way of cutting delivery times. Bloomberg's Natalie Lung reports the company says it has been conducting pilot programs with various restaurants, some of which have seen their order volume grow during the test period. The effort marks an expansion of DoorDash's in-house robotics efforts to reduce reliance on human couriers for some orders, as their wages constitute a key expense to the business.

1:14:03Carol Massar:Drones are also a way for DoorDash to cut delivery times on orders from more remote locations that some dashers may not want. That's the Bloomberg Tech Minute brought to you by ChachiPT. Put ChachiPT to work on your most ambitious ideas and projects. Get started at ChachiPT.com today by selecting Work Mode. Available on Plus and Pro Plans. Aging is real. And so are the benefits of adding Vital Proteins Collagen Peptides to your daily routine. New Vital Proteins Collagen Sparkling Water. Your daily glow-up now in three fresh flavors. Strawberry Blossom, Lemon Lime, and Blood Orange. Improved skin health in as little as 30 days thanks to collagen peptides?

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1:16:04Catch us live weekday afternoons from 2 to 5 p.m. Eastern. Listen on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app. Or watch us live on YouTube. I promised some alcohol, Carol. So some good news in the world of spirits for those investors who are at least long Davide Campari Milano. This is the parent company of Campari, Aperol, Grand Marnier, Wild Turkey and more. Reported better than expected profit and revenue for the first half of the year. Not out of the woods yet, though. And it's because of tariffs.

1:16:34Carol Massar:I was thinking about Grand Monnier and Margarita. I think it can make it extra special. Sorry. Yeah, so you didn't listen to any of that. All you were thinking about was that one drink. I know. Okay, that's fine. I know Tariffs and Trader front and center. We're going to talk about that. I want to bring in Allie Anderson. She's CEO of Craftco. It's a company that has a portfolio that includes more than two dozen spirits and liqueurs. Think bourbon, gin, ready to drink cocktails and more. The company also does co-packing for other brands. Allie's back with us from Alexandria, Virginia. Allie, how are you?

1:17:04Carol Massar:I'm doing great today. How are you, Carol and Tim? We're doing pretty well. I know Carol wants a drink after this week. Hey, I want to start with tariffs because you're known as a company that doesn't import and you do your own distilling here in the US. As a result of the tariffs that have been placed on imports of liquor from around the world, have you seen an increase in your domestic sales? Well, I would like to say that I have, but the reality is that when the tariffs, tariffs, the threat of tariffs, especially the back and forth on that. What it did was it caused U.S. distributors to use up that budget to purchase those imports out of fear that they wouldn't be able to get those going forward or get those at a different, at a higher price.

1:17:45Carol Massar:So that didn't leave a whole lot of budget for craft suppliers like me to be able to get our products out there. So I think it's shaking out right now. I think we have lots of signs of hope on the horizon, but it definitely constrained things for a long time and does continue to affect our suppliers as well. Ellie, drill down a little bit. What does that mean in terms of the restrictions that you guys have had or your suppliers? What specifically? Well, things like packaging, bottles, which we do get overseas, glass bottles. We actually saw this coming and switched up our suppliers a little bit.

1:18:22Carol Massar:And so imported barrels are another one. We actually would like to export more of our barrels. That's not going to be as easy to do, as you know. But even equipment abroad for us, there's some changes to our can line that we'd like to make. And some of that means we've got to look for different suppliers. So, you know, we're flexible, we're nimble, we're able to do that. I recognize that not all suppliers are able to do that. But, you know, we're seeing it and we're feeling it, but we're also adapting to it as well. So, you know, it's funny because I always I don't say I always forget. But but, you know, when I say something is actually made in the U.S., the things that you're bringing up are a lot of international products, whether that's barrels, whether it's parts of the machinery that you need, whether it's parts of the cans.

1:19:12What is what portion is actually made in the U.S.?

1:19:17Carol Massar:Well, for us, it's it's it's everything is made in the US. It's bourbon. We do. We do mainly bourbon. Can all your ingredients, all your ingredients from the US, too? Ours are definitely ours are. But that doesn't have to be the case. Right. You could import rye from Europe if you wanted. We don't happen to do that. But yeah, you absolutely could. Now for us, we're you know, we get our labels. We keep as much local as we can from our boxes to our labels, our corks, but big things like glass, that can be a little tougher. I'm also curious about consumer spending. You guys are a great window into that.

1:19:55Carol Massar:And we've gotten a couple reads. We even got some consumer sentiment from the UMICH, University of Michigan. We did see sentiment actually go to a five-month high. A lot of that had to do with the rally that we saw recently in stocks. We saw inflation expectations easing. What's your read on the consumer right now? I think the consumer is fatigued. The consumer, you know, they want value. They want bang for the buck. They expect us to be very transparent with not just how things are made, but, you know, they want to know if you're selling a four pack, they want to know what goes into that. They're very savvy.

1:20:35Carol Massar:and they're tired. I think of, you know, we hear a lot about shrinkflation as well. I think they're fatigued by that. So that's one thing that we definitely try to keep in mind when we're developing new products. We had this discussion on our editorial call today about whether or not we should consider alcohol a staple or a consumer discretionary item. And I guess it depends on, it kind of depends on the way you think about a drink after work. I don't know. I think it's person dependent. How do you view it as somebody who creates this product? Do you view it as something that, especially in the part of the market that you play in, do you view it as something that people will buy regardless of how the economy is, or is it a treat?

1:21:20Carol Massar:I think it depends on the situation. It depends on so many factors, you know, sociopolitical economic factors, for one. It depends on how you were raised, where you come from, what your experience is and how you view something like alcohol. Like we're seeing all kinds of trends with the low and no proof, right? People trying to make different lifestyle choices. So I think it's definitely situational with your relationship to spirits, to drinking, to alcohol, to how you celebrate, to how you mourn, to how you transition through life. Are you doing any no or low right now? We are. We are. We've got Thatcher's Organic liqueurs, which we're super proud to be organic.

1:22:00Carol Massar:That's kind of a hard certification to get. So we've got organic liqueurs that are low proof. And personally, I like, you know, just a seltzer, like a La Croix and a bit of Thatcher's Elderflower is a great way to just have a little bit of spirit, but not have to, you know, drink a hundred proof whiskey either. Now there's a place for that. Don't get me wrong. But yeah, we do dabble in that. We recently reduced the proof on our canned cocktails because that's what the consumer wanted. They're looking to be more sessionable, to enjoy for a little bit longer. And so we listened to that and delivered.

1:22:33Carol Massar:Well, that's what I wanted to ask you. Your portfolio, as Tim mentioned in the lead to you, more than two dozen spirits and liqueurs, bourbon, gin rye, ready to drink a lot. And you are thinking about the low or no alcohol market. Where's the growth? Where are you spending time in terms of, and you want to spend time, not only time, but money and effort when it comes to product development? The growth is really in innovation. Whatever your category is, what customers want is to be dazzled. They want something new. Like I said, they're fatigued. Sure, they're fatigued by price, but they also want something new to try.

1:23:13Carol Massar:So I think if you're primarily into canned cocktails, I think you should be innovating around flavors. What's the culinary scene doing? Are you paying attention to that? What are you picking up from that. If you're into high-end whiskeys, which we very much are, we're looking at what kind of different finishes can we do? What kind of different blends can we do with higher-aged whiskeys? Because the consumers definitely want different. They want to continue to be kind of entertained at the shelf by what we're doing. I mentioned that you do co-packing. Can you explain that side of the business and what you're hearing from clients?

1:23:46If you watch Shark Tank, you would know what co-packers do. I know what it is.

1:23:51Carol Massar:Sorry, go ahead, Adam. Wow. Well, they always do. They're like, do you have a co-packer yet? Or I've got a co-packer. Sorry, Alex. Carol. No, co-packing is honestly, it's a new part of our business. But when we looked at what our strengths were, it was in product development. We've developed products for the Lions, products for the Orlando Magic. We're pretty great at being nimble and developing new things for when people come to us and say, you know, I'd like to do this. We say, great, Tell us more. We think we can help you out with that. And so co-packing is our response to utilizing our capacity.

1:24:26Carol Massar:We had a little bit of excess capacity and being able to say, what do you want to create? We can help you navigate that. You know, alcohol is one of the most highly regulated industries in the United States. It's not easy to navigate that. And so we're able to kind of Sherpa new brands, new the world brand through the process, using our experience and our resources as well. You mentioned regulatory. What might come from the administration potentially that might help or hurt you guys beyond maybe what we've talked about tariffs and trade? Yeah, you know, I'm definitely not a policy expert here.

1:25:00Carol Massar:What I'm just looking to do is really urge President Trump and the negotiators to just very quickly resolve the tariffs. You know, there's there's one point seven million workers that depend on a very vibrant U.S. spirits industry. That's farmers, that's hospitality workers, that's drivers, that's us, right? I'm reopening my tap room here in September, and I want to be able to do that successfully. I want people to come through those doors and be able to drink American spirits. Well, you mentioned workers. What are you seeing when it comes to the U.S. labor market? Are you guys hiring? Are you holding on to workers?

1:25:36Carol Massar:Are you trimming back your workforce? What can you tell us? I'm hiring right now. Like I said, I'm opening our taproom, which has been closed now for several months by our own decision. We really just wanted to reimagine it to be something that was more in line with what Craftco is and who we are. But we're definitely looking to hire hourly staff. We just hired a taproom manager. We're hiring line cooks, bartenders. So we're definitely in a growth mode. But, yeah, is it a little difficult to find that right fit in the labor force? Yeah, it is just a little bit. What kind of pricing powers do you have with your product line?

1:26:13Carol Massar:Well, we're very diverse. So we've got very high-end whiskeys,$150 plus, all the way down to canned cocktails, which are$12.99 for a four-pack. So there's something for everybody in our line. And I think that speaks to where everybody is right now economically. You can find something for a deal for sure. Going to leave it there. Good stuff. Always appreciate getting some time with you. Allie, take care and have a good weekend. And Allie Anderson, she's CEO of Craftco. As we mentioned, they have quite a portfolio, spirits in the cores. Yeah, fun stuff. A great insight into an industry as well as a smaller business.

1:26:51Carol Massar:She joined us from Alexandria, Virginia. This is the Bloomberg Business Week Daily Podcast. Available on Apple, Spotify, and anywhere else you get your podcasts. Listen live weekday afternoons from 2 to 5 p.m. Eastern on Bloomberg.com. the iHeartRadio app, TuneIn, and the Bloomberg Business app. You can also watch us live every weekday on YouTube and always on the Bloomberg Terminal.

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1:28:38That's Odoo dot com.

1:29:03Visit VitalProteins.com to learn more and where to buy. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

1:29:11Carol Massar:Healthcare doesn't always work great. If you've ever waited on a refill or couldn't schedule an appointment, you get it. That's the kind of stuff Optum is changing. They're using data and technology to integrate patient care, pharmacy, and everything else. So healthcare is connected, not complicated. What's that look like? Cheaper prescriptions that are easier to get and care that looks at the whole person. how you need it. Optum is helping make healthcare work as one for everyone. Learn more at business.optum.com.