Rivian Grows Normal, Indie Service Creeps on Franchised, Food Junk Fees

Intro [Music] yo first Friday of May coming in hot which means the first Saturday of May is coming everyone's excited today we're talking about rivan getting normal Indie service creeping on franchise service and food junk fees junk food not junk food fees know what those are after everybody Paul everybody out here coming after I know everybody out here coming after everybody I saw a post yesterday and this isn't one of the stories today but something about like the cars rule estimated implementation is is like 60 days away or something like wait what I don't something like that I can't remember I have to that must have been the original one because yeah it was like July 1 was the drop okay I have to figure it was like a reliable source it wasn't like a noname whatever it was but it was just a post on LinkedIn you know that's it's just a post on LinkedIn good morning to everybody Adrien Gibbs is on the live stream this morning and she is going to be if you don't follow Adrian Gibbs on Adrian Gibbs will be at ASOTU CON! LinkedIn you are doing yourself a you're missing out her m game is on fire it is the chef's kiss it is Sublime and she is going to be at a sodon this year we are so excited to be with her at a sodon and so many of you hundreds of you actually uh tickets keep coming in uh the hotels all over now are starting to book right it's not just the event hotel the other hotels speakers are excited they're sending us videos I saw um I saw a couple more deers by tickets yesterday who I know and I've been wanting to meet them in person and now I'm going to get to meet them in person they don't know I know maybe they know I know and they assume we know who buys tickets but I was so excited um look go toon.com and check out everything that's going on special thanks to our presenting sponsors Gooba goo Reynolds and Reynolds for helping us put this thing on also our other sponsors ASOTU CON Presented by Reynolds and Reynolds and Gubagoo industry Partners collaborators we like to call them are ready to contribute right they're not going ready to Hound you they're going to be in the panel conversations and listen and come up with new Solutions because a sodon is a place actually where industry Partners get together and come up with new solutions to serve the dealers in the industry like what else could we ask for I don't know a pool a swimming pool did you know there's no s know that on the effective podcast stage this year that's right in the middle of the conversation Hall good yeah did you know that there's over I think it's over 30 conversations ASOTU CON Podcast Stage in collaboration with Effectv that are going to be happen way wow we only had like 18 last year no no no no no 27 or something like that 28 it's GNA be that's a whole other stage this year it's wild that's a whole other stage like last year it was more of like a secl it wasn't secluded but you know it just wasn't set up to be a stage and a we got it it's going to be a stage this year so um and those are some of my both of ours we've said some of our favorite conversations it's like one of the few podcasts that I listen to during a year no absolutely I go back and for the next like 30 days after soda con I'm at least listening to one of those a day CU we have a bunch of different hosts the conversation is like a little more free for it's great all right let's get into it Paul we got talk cuz we're going over to all things used cars Clubhouse room as soon as we're done here in no more than 12 and a half minutes so as Tesla is cutting jobs Eevee startup competitor rivan is set to EXP and its Normal Rivian Expanding Illinois Plant To Make R2 Illinois plant adding 500 jobs to produce the new R2 crossover it's like the small SUV leveraging a significant $827 million incentive package they just got from the state of Illinois um it's not a cash infusion but it does include 75 million uh from a deal closing fund and 634 million in tax incentives over 30 years with a commitment to maintain uh rivan's commitment to maintain at least 6,000 jobs there um it diverged from their initial plan to actually build in Georgia instead they're putting more into consolidating their plant in Illinois and uh you know the company adds they've invested 2 billion in Normal Illinois which has generated 3.9 billion of value ad for the local economy CEO RJ scaring said Governor pritsker has always been a strong advocate for providing EP economic opportunities for Illinois residents and business owners alike there's three things that really surprised me about this story one the fact that this story got you to say normal more than three times I know where you live normal I live in normal normal just normal says nobody ever the second one is I just remember back to all the conversation that we were having about you know Georgia and whether or not Georgia was going to kind of let rivan in and if I'm Georgia right now I'm looking at this and expanded interest and continue to press in into the local economy of Illinois and going totally missed out the other piece of this and this is kind of the you know the rub right at the beginning of the story that I think is um important to note is that rivan is expanding they're adding jobs you know they they've kind of been honestly in the the news radar over the last we'll call it year except for the release of the R2 crossover kind of a little you know sleeping giant you know just consistently growing you know maintaining enough ground stock to where people can get them quickly and you you just like I know a few people with rivian in the Nashville area they absolutely love them they are obsessed with the quality obsessed with the drive style all of that stuff so like that one's G to be I have a feeling about rivan I they're not they're not they still have to figure out they've have to figure out how how to be profitable they've put a lot of their eggs in the R2 um and the other one was the R1 no the R3 the other one the small one that they surprised everybody raled ever they're doing a great job with the brand overall they have now really established a loyal customer base who understands what it is to drive a rivy and it's about Adventure it's kind of like if Tesla was a Jeep you know what I mean and they've kind of like positioned rivi in that way um seem like they're doing okay with quality it's can they be profitable enough um because they're still burning a ton of cash right so they're not they have the same question that carvana had like five months ago oh my gosh we almost talked about that carvana's uh Ernie Garcia and and dad like up up their wealth by 11 billion yesterday because of the stock jump I know but but yeah I would definitely not count them out after the I just like N I would never look at AR rivan but like now it's like looking at the truck like seems like a nice vehicle you know it seemed like the one with the weird headlights but now it's like actually maybe and I I saw a post yesterday it was it was like Tesla's social media and or Tesla in the news and then it was meanwhile rivan and rivian had like posted a picture of the the R1 pickup and it would like the frunk was like loaded with puppies I was like I saw that oh I saw that picture oh it was genius absolutely genius they their brand their brand team is on point and you know I don't think Tesla has a brand Team anymore they've just you know it's fired all of them supercharger team brand Team the whole nine yards uh speaking of brand teams seg let's talk about franchise service and Independence JD Powers recent 2024 study highlight aftermarket service stations gaining on JD Power Study Shows Independent Service Are Gaining on Dealerships franchise dealership service uh departments in a customer satisfaction in the area of customer satisfaction being driven by easier access and quicker Service uh here's a quote from Leonard Martin from JD Power he says this is a key opportunity for aftermarket providers not only to compete with franchise dealers on price but also to add customer value with quicker and easier service experience so uh it's heating up younger customers particularly gen Z report lower satisfaction level with aftermarket Services though JD Power suggests enhancing service advisor interaction so um basically saying that hey the better service advisor interaction you have the higher service uh score is going to go especially with Gen Z they also went on to say and this is I think a real important Point providing photo or video documentation of recommended repairs significantly increases customer approval of the work get this 51% of customers who receive such documentation go on and proceed with suggest Ed repairs while only 24% who do not that is more than a 100% increase if you're trying to pay attention I can vouch for this like real time yep impact it is without a doubt the highest V value value impact to everything when it comes to customer service when it comes to dollars per Ro when it comes to appr approve approved lines per recommended lines like that as a customer service piece is also something that a lot of the independent shops are not leveraging in their technology so franchise has an opportunity to get back ahead as they're losing because yeah because of convenience and access right yeah you know we see we see the best dealers or not the best dealers but the ones who are paying attention like quick service is important and it takes a heavy lift to convince people you can get in and out of a franchise dealership yes right it's just it's a heavy lift because the conversation alone and it's buried like you just think from a physical location standpoint you see a Jiffy Lube here's the road here's the entrance there's the service Bay franchise dealership here's the road that goes in it's way back there somewhere in the midst of you've heard me talking about for years and years the fact that I believe that oems need to do a lot better job at standing up quick Service locations with their franchise dealers across the city you know when you have uh you know two Mazda dealerships one Audi dealership two Lexus dealerships you know know a couple Chevy dealerships and if you're not like in a major Metro like a like a Chicago the access for the regular user on their everyday is just not possible standing up these micro shops is just a necessity to compete I'm thinking of Ford particularly and the opportunity to put up uh a retail gas station size plot have some superchargers have some quick service oh my and have some coffee I just don't understand why it isn't and Network I know you already have it PL they know how to run service build build a little box that you can put on a piece of real estate and you know and and the speed to get that oh great we're going to go ahead and take care of your thing we've got a couple loaners outside we're going to take it back to the main shop because we can't handle that here like boom customer service done by way by the way this is what your car is worth um you know so however franchise dealerships uh were rated as more trustworthy in areas uh because they used more technology to en the efficiency um repair so franchise dealership trust in the service department is higher than independent trust and if you've been to some independent service centers like it's kind of understandable speaking speaking of things that are a little dicey segue you didn't even see that one com until I I dicey food you get it on your boy's California To Eliminate Hidden Fees and Surcharges in Restaurants birthday July 1st California is going to mandate the elimination of unexpected charges we've never heard that before on not not something that you would have expected on restaurant bills the plan excludes taxes and re requires full disclosure of any fees in advertisements or menus so uh obviously the opinions of many people are quite mixed with some appreciating the potential for a simplified bilding process while other worries are worri other people are worried about significant price increases due to the adjustments with the new law um basically the law aims to get rid of of the service charges that at some uh restaurants uh especially like in San Francisco and the big cities can be as high as 20% of the overall Bill uh between like assessed tips or service charges or delivery fees or anything that is not baked into the price of uh of the item um this is a food expert Marcia gagari uh go gogly dude that was great go there you go I was close uh said she this is just a great quote just when you thought your pork chop was already really expensive guess what we're going to be seeing higher prices because there's nowhere else these restaurants can put these fees and higher wages in order to maintain these employees there you go I mean the lesson here is like everything's got to be paid for and the consumer wants to know what it is they're paying for when they buy it they don't want line after line after line of surprise after surprise after surprise especially in an industry like this right it's a service fee it's like uh yeah like paying for service is a part of your overhead which should be baked in the price of your product yeah what what what would you would you rather pay the higher price like see inflation hit the prices absolutely same thing like don't add it as a line just change the price of the thing yeah the flip side is that I would rather that but I would not be the person that's trying to factor in plus plus plus when I decide whether or not to buy thing so I mean from like a business standpoint the consumer might be upset about it but most of them probably won't be when the higher prices of the items will probably be talked about but I mean realistically how much higher are we talking if you're buying an expensive pork chop and say you're spending $40 for a pork chop meal and that that $41 turns into 4425 are you not going to get it like this place is an outr get out of here not blinking but if it gets added afterwards you're blinking you're like man bad taste in your mouth which is not what you want when you're EA not sure if you recognize this but there's some relationship to our Good automotive industry and the way that consumers feel about the prices that they're looking at yeah relationship between our industry and their love for a big slab of high quality meat had more stakes in this business I think than any other business besides the beef business we hope you have an amazing weekend we'll see you tomorrow morning for the Saturday episode in the meantime check out aon.com [Music] the right