Cyber Monday Smashes Records, Ryan Declares War on Elf on the Shelf, and Social Media Crackdown for Teens!

0:00This is Right About Now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. We are the number one business show on the planet with over 1 million downloads a month. Taking the BS out of business for over 6 years and over 400 episodes. You ready to start snapping next and cashing checks? Well, it starts right about now. Welcome to December. It is right about now. It is Friday, December 6, 2024. Ho, ho, ho. Brianna what's up hey no Chris today just us a little under the weather hats off or a shout out whatever you do to someone sick uh get well soon bud yeah pat them on the back with the broom yeah food uh poisonings uh no fun so our thoughts with Chris just Brianna and I today here in G Vegas that's Greenville South Carolina to anyone who doesn't know great place to be just come visit You don't have to stay, though.

1:06We want you to visit. Except for Brianna. We wanted her to stay. How's it been? Okay, you're almost six months, right? Five, six months. You have amnesia of timelines. Almost five. I round up. I mean, so five or six months. Okay. Brianna moved from California to South Carolina. So, you know, one of those migrators that, you know, can't blame her. You know, just saying. There's so many things that, you know, are amazing here. Things that, you know, we didn't have in California. Kind people, lack of homeless people, clean streets. You can walk down in the city and feel safe. And that's great. But, yeah, I'm definitely getting used to it and ready to explore kind of more parts of the state.

1:59Do you think it's, if I can imagine the family side of it, you know, missing family support and all that. If you could extract that, do you feel like it's better? I do. And I think if you ask my husband, my husband's much less emotional and he like loves it. He thinks it's so much better. I'm definitely struggling with the family piece. I've really missed my family. I really miss my mom. And so, but I'm more emotional. You know that. Yeah. Yeah, women are more emotional, typically. Yeah. I've met some that aren't, but, you know, my wife's not too emotional. I don't deal with emotion that well.

2:36Most men don't. Yeah. Unless I'm being emotional. You know, that's how it works, like, for men, right? Yeah, yeah, totally. Yeah. So, you know, it is better, I think, like, in terms of certain things. I really like my kids' school. I like, you know, that they learn about, you know, Jesus and that they have a relationship. My son is, you know, praying at the dinner table every night. And I love that. You know, we're just getting, we're still getting in the swing of things though. Trying to figure out where everything's at. I was angry last weekend when we went to get a Christmas tree because there is just different here.

3:10We had to go to a tree farm, which we've never, you know, really done that before. We usually go and cut one down in the forest. People said you could. You can. You can. Might get shot. You might get shot. But you got to know whose land you're on. Yeah. You know, we actually protect our land here in South Carolina. Yeah. So, well, we paid 10 times more for a Christmas tree here than we did last year. How much are Christmas? Yeah, this is a good economy question. You know, so this is business. We're taking the BS out of business. How much are Christmas trees going for these days? You want a real, what did I get?

3:46How tall? Frasier fir. Frasier fir. That's a real Christmas tree. Seven feet. Seven feet. Pretty tall. $120. Okay. That's about where they were, I feel like, the last time I bought one was probably 10 years ago. I tell you what. I don't feel like they were much cheaper than that. You know what I paid for my Christmas tree last year? Seven or eight feet tall. Beautiful Doug fir. What? $10. What? Yes! $10. Yeah, but how much did you pay for gas? Well, okay. It was an hour drive to the National Forest. And you buy it every day or every week. Yeah. Oh, yeah. $7 a gallon. Yeah. $7 a gallon every week.

4:20I mean, jeez. You go to the gas. Think about this. Back, and it's been a while, I'll admit, but like high school days where, you know, I might have$5 to my name. And, you know, that'd get me five gallons of gas. I mean, that's a couple weeks of gas. You're a Cali. You got five bucks in your pocket. That ain't getting you. And you got to drive pretty far around there, especially where you live, right? Yeah, pretty rural. It ain't getting you far. No, it used to cost. So in my SUV, it costs about$97 to$100 to fill it up once a week. And here it's like$35. Yeah. So that's real nice. Yes. Yeah. The gas is supposed to be going down, though.

5:00Yeah. Yeah. I think I will say overall, and I read this before I came in, and I've certainly felt it. And just for the record, my crypto is doing really well. And so the sentiment of the economy seems to be much higher. and I guess we're all in our own little bubbles and so it's not that it's necessarily that there's been an impact to my wallet or the company's wallet yet but it does seem like the sentiment about overall economy stuff next year seems a lot more positive. I think so and I think that you know in one of our articles that we're going to discuss today that's reflected with the biggest U.S.

5:44online shopping day for Cyber Monday, a record-breaking$13 billion spent from U.S. consumers. So I think people are optimistic about, you know, what's coming next year because they're willing to spend. And, you know, it's different for everybody for sure. But it sounds like - I mean, 7 % is significant year over year. Yeah. So that's definitely a sign of people taking money off the shelf, so to speak, and feeling confident that they are going to make it again. Yep. Exactly. That's kind of what happens. Like, I mean, definitely there's all levels to this, but sometimes people, I don't know that you could oversave.

6:31So I don't want to say that they're oversaving, but they're not as, they're much more judicial in what they purchase. I would say from July to November, people were really holding. Yeah, it seemed that way. And I think all the retail numbers sort of supported that. So now it's just everybody just let it go. Yeah, they really did. They really did. They were like Christmas shopping. Yeah. Let's go. I think my wife did. The packages hidden like in the closet under the bed. Like I'm opening drawers. I went literally last night. Nicole was at her holiday party, and I go into the laundry room, and getting ahead on a little laundry.

7:12Hey, I'm that kind of husband, you know. I was selfishly just washing something I needed. But I opened the thing. I opened the cabinet, which is kind of high, so it is a place where the kids wouldn't get. And I was just doing those kind of turned to the side, open, and I crunch into, like, boxes. we've got boxes wrapped gifts already jammed up in this i'm like what in the world is this so uh the economy the offered economy is definitely on i love open back up i love having little kids because my son doesn't like he really thinks that you know everything's and it is right it is coming from the north pole um so what do you mean what are you implying i'm not implying anything I'm saying it's coming from the North Pole.

7:57I thought you were implying that Santa Claus isn't real. All I'm saying. Clearly you haven't been in South Carolina long enough. All I'm saying is that moms across America are Santa Claus. Oh. What? No. I have a whole table in the garage, right? And it's covered. And nothing's wrapped yet because I haven't had any tape this week. So I need to get some tape. But nothing's wrapped. But my kids are still young enough that I just have a blanket over all the boxes. And they don't know to look. yeah i do remember those days it was a lot easier to hide them now it's like a little harder at least my wife says it is i've you know the cool thing about when your kids get older though is i feel like the presents get smaller like well let me tell you it's not smaller another instance this morning i went out because i had a package delivering uh that wasn't a gift for anyone except for me and i about it was kind of still dark out in the morning you know it's pretty early, but I guess I don't know if it delivered really early this morning or last night or whatever.

8:55I go out and I about tripped because like to your point, there was a box about four feet high and three feet wide right on the front porch. And it was a certain gift. I don't think my kids listen to the show. I don't, you know, but we just in case it was a large gift for them right on the front porch that daddy about fell over. I did not expect right at the, again, just sort of walking. and uh yeah so i fell over on that one oh my gosh yeah well i feel like yeah when they're little right they've got like these tracks and these train tables and all this stuff and like as they turn into teenagers and they want like little games and i don't know they get more expensive but smaller yes so potentially until they want a car that's pretty big the did you do any black friday shopping i didn't my husband did i didn't um i did all my shopping in november well in early November.

9:52Yeah. They, I, my, my wife took the boys out. She went to the mall. I stayed home and did nothing, but I was like, you're crazy. They, they went to the mall at like noon and came back like two hours later and looked exhausted. And I'm like, yeah, that's what I'm telling you. I want to, but I just, you know, this year was a big year for us. Um, we did a very expensive move, purchase a house, all sorts of stuff. So we're on a, the whole household is on a waiting till January kind of budget. Understood. And I see something, you know, this article, we'll stay on the Cyber Monday, the, the, the Black Friday theme here.

10:33I see an item on here that I would like to stranglehold the creator of that is exists in our house. And that would be the creator of elf on the shelf. What? I freaking hate that creator. I would like to, uh, if I could go back in time and allow them not to think of that invention, I would do it. I love elf on the shelf. I'd like to choke that elf. Like, cause here's what it does. All it does is add stress to families. Yeah. The kids might like it, but parents, you know how many times in the middle the night i get broken up i didn't have the elf you know like worried because you know we still have an eight-year-old who you know yep loves that elf and has looked for him every morning i was gonna pull up i have i mean i get waking up at least five times i was you know and my wife bought buys these kits the economy that's driven by how often stuff she buys the kits now with all the stuff for every day.

11:32Talk about a racket. I need to, I'm going to create the right about now elf on the shelf package. A little sweater, a little steak. No, it's going to be a, a more like a noose. Uh, you know, one of those, one of those things you get in. That's the, uh, the, the old guillotine. No, I think it'd be like elf on the shelf. I have a better idea. Yeah. It's a branded bills hot. It's a branded bills sweater. It's elf size and it's a holding a plate of steak. Yes. And it's the Ryan Alford on the shelf special. That Fodger, I'm telling you, I don't like him. I punch him like secretly. And like when I'm sort of joking, but I flick him in the face when I walk by because, you know, you're not supposed to touch him or whatever.

12:18And when my kids aren't looking, I thump him right in the head. This is my calendar that I have every day on my husband and I's shared calendar. Move the elf. See, that's what i'm saying stress added stuff to do this is not helpful people this is not the way it's supposed to be one more thing to worry about it's fun for one person only or one depending on how many kids you have i mean yeah it's just stress added stress that's all elf of the shelf creator did shame on you you should be ashamed shame to yourself i kind of like it no i'd like it if i didn't get woken up or i'm worried look i got a flashlight about more guns.

12:57So you don't want to come in my house. And let me say, my wife makes noise in the middle of the night that I didn't help. Then I have to open out of that bed and ready to shoot somebody. And it's just, oh, I forgot the elf. Oh, Jesus. Let me go back to sleep. Oh my gosh. Yeah. I hate that guy. Anyway, I'm glad he was one of the top selling units. You know, that was toys, Elf on the Shelf dolls, Lego sets, and Harry Potter figurines. Two of those three can go straight to you know where. I don't have any love for Harry Potter either. Probably get some hate mail for that. I know a lot of people do.

13:33Come on. But I just got nothing for Harry Potter. Yeah. It's an American classic. He's a funky wizard. You know. They're going to come for you. That's all right. It's okay. I don't hate Harry Potter. It's just not my thing. I hate elf on the shelf. And hate's a strong word. I don't like to hate things. I don't hate many things. I'm pretty, but this I'm passionate about because I really do think it has caused more issues than solved. Joy should not come at the expense of others. Yeah. My four-year-old is already asking way too many logistics questions with the elf. See, there you go. And you got to lie.

14:15He creates lies. No. This is, I mean, this is not good for anything. You know what I do have to say though, is I love Christmas for the reason of, it does feel like as Americans and I think in the world, but definitely in America, we're so divided on so many things. But one thing that I absolutely love is how for the most part, and I know there's outliers to this, but it does seem like for Christmas and the lie of Santa Claus and the elf on the shelf, we come together. We like unify to really. You had me at Santa until you brought off them. Nobody wants to lie about that fucker. They do, but they don't.

14:56Everybody acts like they like it, but they don't. There's some people listening right now. They're shaking their head. They know. They know I'm right. And I'm not humbug. I love Christmas. I love all the decoration. I love all the pageantry. I am not a humbug. But that little elf. Elf. He's going to come into your house and smile. No, he's not. Fly in with a little tiny pillow. The first thing that goes as soon as Nash is too smart is that guy. When Nash figures it out, done. We're going to have a little exercise called a bonfire in the backyard. Oh, my God. What age is the age where the magic dies a little bit?

15:40Ten? I think it's getting pretty close there. I don't know the child. I may have four boys, and it's been a little different with each one. Clayton's my oldest. He's 15, going on 71. Very stoic, very smart, intelligent, and no nonsense. And, you know, he played along because he's always had the younger brother. you know and but the gig was up around nine or ten for him yeah he played along i knew when he knew but he didn't tell me he knew because he's very thoughtful yeah and he didn't he didn't want he knew that it mattered to the parents to us that he still believed and i but i could tell he he knew you know what i'm saying yeah but that's how he is he wanted us to still enjoy it because He knew he had younger brothers.

16:35Yeah. So, but like Hogan, who's 13, turning 13, he's already, I mean, certainly in the know now. Yeah. But he was late. I think, I just don't think, I don't think he wanted, even when maybe he, it was possible. He was like, he didn't want to believe that it wasn't real. Clayton and Hudson, pragmatic. Nash is probably me like Hogan a little bit wanting to hang on. but he's the baby yeah so you never know yeah i know i'm like four is too young he's gotta still like believe in the full the full picture of all of the match we're at a good time though like and it's it's fleet it's going fast you know but we're in a good spot where we don't have all the bullshit you deal with with three-year-olds four-year-olds that you're going through that's wonderful but terrible you know you know what i'm talking about like just they're just young and you have to do a lot for them so the mine are very self-sufficient but they have fun they're still joy because of nash and the others playing along but like it's it's getting to different phases you know and they're all fun but i am having more nostalgia over it because i am i you know i know these moments you know much i don't like the elf i like everything else and i'll look back I can go, man, because it flies.

18:01Yeah. Like, I just remember the kids being, you know, two and four before Nash. And then Nash comes along. They're 6-4-1. Yeah. It was, it goes fast. Yeah. And then it's going to, you know, it'll be a whole new season of college. Bunch of kids in college. That's right. And if you're watching college football, the playoffs are coming. We won't talk about the game this past weekend. And, you know, the bad guys beat the good guys. It happens sometimes. South Carolina beat Clemson. I gave them credit. The old rivalry. They played better. They were the better team for at least a moment. They had the one better player.

18:40I think that's what it came down to. But Clemson could backdoor their way into the playoffs. That's what I heard, yeah. On Saturday. So, you know, Sawyer and Brianna, Sawyer's our producer at our holiday party on Saturday night. That was, you know, going to be one thing. Now it's a football party. Football watching party. We'll still have all the other holiday stuff, but it will be on, and I will be paying attention, at least partially. That's good. My husband will be there. He'll like that. We'll see what happens. Clemson plays SMU for right to go to the college. I don't know if we've really earned it, but who's to say what earns?

19:15It's a weird year. A lot of strange things happening. A lot of money being handed around. I know that with the players and otherwise. But speaking of a lot of money, what's up with Tesla? Elon. Let's see. I got to get down to it. Elon loses a bid to get$56 billion pay package. Who is making$56 billion? I had to like double read that. 56 billion pay package. What? Not a million? What kind of pay package is that? 56 billion. Like, is that like over time or is that annual? Like, what? But it says, despite the legal setback, Musk's net worth has surged by$43 billion since Donald Trump's election victory.

20:01Like, would you even notice if you had an additional$56 billion?

20:08It's getting to be a lot of zeros for me. What could you even buy with that? It's not really the point at that point. It's sort of a, I don't know, what can't you buy? He bought Twitter for damn sake, you know? It's true. Um, so it sounds like there was one thing that I wanted to say on this and that was that as a visionary, right. As the person who, you know, acquired Tesla built SpaceX has done all these different things. It's interesting to think that like you can be an entrepreneur and do all of these amazing things, but like, what is the line between your social responsibility and like, you know, leveraging this money for yourself?

20:50I think it's a personal decision. If you make that money, you earn it. You innovate. I would have, me personally, I do a lot of good with that money. You know, I would feel not even like it's my responsibility. I think I'd just be like compelled personally. And look, there's no telling how much Elon Musk gives away or does his charities. easy. You know, he does. All those guys do. It's just, he may not, just because he doesn't run headlines, you know, about it. And I know like Bill Gates and all them, you know, all you see is the headlines for how much charity they do. You know, I don't know that Elon Musk puts the PR releases out the way others do for every donation he gives, but I've seen certain remnants of that occasionally.

21:39And I think I'd be compelled to want to do it. So I know that I would give a lot of way because you have once you get to that level. But at the same time, it's a personal decision. Well, you're a free country. I mean, you know, if you want to put all that in a bank account and go live in a cave by yourself, it's your right to do so. Yeah. It sounds like he gives away about$5.7 billion to charity each year, including$160 million in nonprofits,$55 million to St. Jude's Children's Hospital and various different charities. And do you ever see that in the headlines? No. I had to dig. I had to dig. Ask this question to Google twice.

22:185.6 billion a year. But he doesn't run PR releases on every one of them. So who's the better servant? The Bible would tell me one, you know, if you believe in that book. Yeah, it's definitely very interesting. Like why, depending on where you look and like what you type into Google, the answers that you'll get on Elon Musk. It's not you're not saying it's slanted, are you not saying it's biased? I'm saying it definitely does not paint him in a positive light. Yeah, of course it doesn't. But, you know, I saw one positive light that was a non-positive light that surprised me on this next article, which is dollar stores struggling.

23:06What? What? It didn't make sense to me at first. Like, okay. But then I read further and it kind of does. The people most impacted. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and it is crazy. See, this is one thing that I kind of wanted to touch on with like the American dream segment is the vast differences, right? Like we just talked about Elon Musk and a$56 billion pay package. He's able to give away, you know,$5 billion a year to charity. And then versus like certain, you know, people in a completely different living situation right now. You know, there is a lot of lower income shoppers that are about 60 % of the dollar general sales coming from households that earn less than$30 ,000 a year.

23:50Yeah. And I don't know. I go in those stores. I feel like a couple of things have happened. One, I don't like that. I like to stop in those places. But I feel like the packaging has gotten smaller. like me personally i don't go to them anymore because i feel like the selection's gotten a little worse and the packages got smaller i used to go in there and hey i'll i get this shampoo with this deodorant they've gotten wise they've shrunk it down to like the miniature size i'm like okay well i mean i could buy that size at the drugstore for a dollar 50 and not have to drive over here to the middle of nowhere to get to it yeah and in last year i think it was 2023 the dollar tree they raised their prices by 25 percent yeah dollar 25 you can't say I mean you gotta have a whole name change you can't be the dollar tree if you're dollar 25 yeah you know exactly yeah dollar quarter tree is just doesn't ring as well you know I know I know it doesn't and it's like you don't think about it being like a lot but I used to go to the dollar store and I would buy a whole basket full of you know stuff for the kids and toys and different things just to like make up, you know, an Easter basket or something like that.

24:59It'd be like 20 bucks for a whole shopping cart full. And then they raise their prices by 25 % and you're like, oh, no, it's 40 bucks. Yeah. Why does it seem like it went up half 50 %? Yeah. That's five, five quarter tree. I mean, like none of these things, I'm trying to come up with a name for them and none of them ring. It's like 25 % too much. And look and go, go lo and behold, their sales are off 30 % or whatever it is. Yeah. Yeah. Well, poorly maintained stores, overworked employees. Yeah. I mean, you're not going to be successful. You're going to get shattered if you, you know, don't serve your demographic correctly.

25:39Yeah. And I think it'll be interesting like next year. Like if the economy doesn't prove if these numbers go up. But I think they need to relook at the size of those packages for me. Because that box of cereal, you aren't fooling me. You reduced the size of it. I know you did. I go to pour that cereal or whatever it is, and it fills up like one bowl. I'm like, wait a second. This is hold it up to one in the cabinet. They're tricky. Packaging people. Those marketers. They call it shrinkflation. Yeah, shrinkflation. I'm telling you, go into one of those stores and go like take a normal size item with you or something, like a bar of soap or something.

26:19Everything's a little smaller now. Plus, it's 25 % more. You ain't fooling us, Dollar Tree. You ain't fooling us. All right. Enough of that. I know we didn't even start there. What was our first article today? Oh, yeah. You got to talk about this. Oh, yeah. This is good. Australia is banning social media for people under 16 years of age. The question is, could this work elsewhere or will it even work there? This is a new social media ban passed by the Australian Parliament. And it targets platforms like TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat. And it goes into effect next year. so the purpose of the ban is to protect children from online harm including inappropriate content social pressure bullying and mental health issues i mean i'm all for it keep those kids off social media but what do you think this is this is a tricky one like with as a father of four boys i like the thought of this but then i think a few things how are they going to force it Is it just going to create FOMO?

27:28Thus, they're going to seek it out and try to do it more, try to do it different, like in worse ways, like some of the behaviors, like in getting it. And then I think like, OK, what's their right, you know, with free expression, all these things. And, you know, as a teenager, I struggle with, you know, someone that believes heavily in free speech and doing all that and having a show like this. But at the same time, you know, it's our job to protect our children. And 13, 14, 15 year olds are not adults yet. Yeah. And the behaviors that social media can lead to for that demographic have been proven to be negative in a lot of ways.

28:15I think that if you look at some of the science, it's just as dangerous as smoking. It's just as dangerous as drinking alcohol. It's just as dangerous. Right. So in terms of like the habits, the habitual nature of social media, how addicting it is, how it changes your brain. um so in that aspect i would agree with this ban um but on the aspect of like them being able to have free speech i mean they're but they're not adults so do they have the right to free speech yeah i mean i don't know i don't know yeah i think you you maybe but not without oversight yeah the thing is is i mean i think like looking into what access to the internet looked like in the early 2000s you know there there were things that you know we did um there was this one was it like i don't know it's some kind of like chat roulette or something and you would like put in like age sex location or something asl remember that yeah and then they would type in like whatever and you were totally chatting with strangers on the internet yeah unsafe unsafe um myspace you know a little bit different you're just like you know putting a song to your profile to tell people how you really feel and rating your friends in order of importance yes i do think it will be interesting the how this plays out yeah and how much backlash versus enforcement and everything like how are you going to keep them from bypassing it does it just create does do children trying to bypass it create more dangers than just allowing them to do it well you know yeah it's such a interesting question because yeah to your point like making it, making something, um, off limits drives the desire to want to do it.

30:16Um, two points that I have top of mind are, do you remember Finstagram? It came out like a couple of years ago. It was called like a, do you have a Finsta and it was a fake Instagram. So kids, all these kids, 13, 14, 15, they would have their real Instagram that their parents followed. And then they'd have a Finstagram, which was their fake Instagram, which was like what their friends followed. Oh, so that was a thing like two, three years ago. Um, and then the other thing that's top of mind for me is, uh, Instagram recently, uh, released their updated terms and conditions for 2025. And in that terms and conditions, you cannot have an Instagram account if you are registered sex offender.

31:00Well, I support that. Yeah, me too. Yeah. I mean, I don't know how it's regulated, but. Yeah, I don't either, but I support it. I will say we live in a global environment though, in a global world and America, you know, sort of has influence on a lot of the rest of the world. So again, in trying to shut this off, you know, 13, 14, 15 year olds in Australia, I would imagine look to the U.S. and sort of the trends there. And so if it's not turned off everywhere. Again, I don't know how you're going to sort of dial this back, especially the demand and desire for it. And I think all you're doing likely is pushing more traffic to YouTube.