C.T.C.S Episode 218 Fuggly Christmas Sweaters Western Union Con Jobs And Eating Bad Food

You, me and Tuscany is a brand new rom-com from Will Packer,

the guy who produced Girl's Trip.

The movie stars Hallie Bailey and Reggae Jean Page

and has all the ingredients of your favorite rom-coms.

Heart, huge labs, and sizzling chemistry,

set in the enchanting vineyards of Tuscany.

It's the movie escape we've been waiting for,

and the perfect film for date night

or a night out with the girls,

get your rom-com on with you, me and Tuscany,

directed by Cat Coro, only in theaters April 10th.

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There you are, my name is CT.

When I'm not busy being ARRO, the podcaster,

I live in the real world.

I mean, everybody has to have a job, right?

Mine just happens to be CS, customer service,

solutions, relationships.

Well, keeping your team motivated and pumped up

to keep that constant connection with each and every person

who has chosen to stop into your location.

Episode number 218, fugly Christmas sweaters,

Western Union conjobs, and the art of eating bad.

This is CTCS.

Transition walk, day number one out of three.

Have a live performance this Saturday night.

The final live show of this year.

What?

How is it possible?

How did it go by so quickly?

Oh, yeah, we're busting ass right now,

trying to make sure that we're on stages throughout 2026.

So very difficult.

And that's one of the hardest things about being at CS

is that I have a life within a life within a life within a life

within a life, there's so many different circles.

And I mean, just like I'm just coming out of the podcast studio.

If I was not in that studio by 530 this morning,

there's no way that I would be on this transition walk right now

because of the interviews I was with actor Danny Houston

and so many other people today.

And it's a blessing.

It's a blessing to share stories.

It has nothing to do with, oh, I talked to it so and so.

Sharing stories, baby.

That's what it's all about.

And so is CS and customer service.

Share stories, locate solutions outside of that.

Put up the pain that's in your legs and back and get on with it.

Oh, so cute.

The closer we get to the big magical day of December 25th,

everybody's all decked out in their Christmas gear.

I mean, we've got some really fugly sweaters.

People put a lot of pride into their fugly sweaters.

Now, I'm not saying ugly.

There's a difference between an ugly Christmas sweater

and a fugly Christmas sweater.

And these are some seriously out of control, fugly sweaters.

Do you go up and talk to them?

I mean, what are you doing in a situation like that?

Do you ever just go up to them and say,

oh, hey, whoa, come on now.

That's pretty damn fugly.

I think one of the best sweaters I've seen so far

is one that reads most likely to be run over by Santa Claus's reindeer.

It's different than that song, right?

Grandma got run over by a reindeer.

Yeah, well, this teacher said,

hey, I'm most likely to get to be that one

that gets run over by a reindeer.

People just want to have fun.

They want to be jolly.

You know, how do you define jolly

at a grocery store other than just make someone else laugh?

You don't have to make yourself laugh.

Just make somebody else laugh.

Our store has a bar and it's a beer and wine bar.

And tonight is the fourth annual Christmas party.

They've got all of the breweries that are coming in

and they're gonna be giving away free samples and everything.

But it's always fun to see the true community

of this location in the way that when the people

who make the beer come here to sit with the people.

Not to me, I'm an image person.

That's valuable to me when those that make your escape

inside this world come in to sit down with you.

That is powerful.

So it's gonna be very fun to see who's gonna win all these prizes.

I mean, my God, they've got so much stuff to give away.

I mean golf clubs and different trips and dinners out

and all that, oh my God, it's gonna be a wild ass party tonight.

We just made a big bust on Western Union.

This guy comes in and the people will get their stuff

together big time.

They make it look so professional.

They mean they cross their eyes and doctoratees.

I mean, they do everything.

And I know I said it wrong because obviously they've

done something wrong because it didn't go through.

But the gentleman was sending $2,500 to himself.

In all my years at a grocery store associated with Western

Union, I have never been associated with somebody

who is sending money to themselves, especially $2,500.

And to have this amazing paperwork right there in front of me.

Everything signed and oh my God, it looks so, so cool.

I'm thinking this is gonna be an easy one.

No sweat.

Oh no, oh no.

Modern day technology with AI and all that.

It found out what this dude was up to.

Obviously he's been busted before because it shut down

and it ain't happened.

$2,500.

So it makes me wonder all these newbies that come up to see us.

Would they have stopped or would they have continued?

Because there were red flags all the way through it.

Why didn't anybody else see it before me?

I just check in with the Christmas party over there at the

beer and wine bar because you know, you're hearing a lot of

sounds, you're hearing a lot of cheering.

Well, that's because they're giving away a ton of prizes.

But man, anybody who is not associated with this store

who has no idea of the attitude of this particular store.

I mean, we do have that kind of a rocky edge attitude.

Alternative attitude in the way of just being a free spirit.

Do what you want.

Have a great time.

As long as you don't get arrested for it.

And if you do, make sure they spell your name right.

Here's the thing about it is it looks like that there's a huge bar

party going on right now.

And somehow somewhere in the middle of all of that is a grocery

store because you would never think that this is a grocery store

right now because the party is that big.

Please do not move.

There's more CTCS right around the corner coming up next.

Why do you think I smoke pot when I don't?

I'm wearing my real name tag real name and eating Vietnamese cookies.

Oh God.

You me and Tuscany is a brand new romcom from Will Packer,

the guy who produced Girl's Trip, the movie stars,

Halle Bailey and Reggae Jean Page and has all the ingredients

of your favorite romcoms.

Heart huge labs and sizzling chemistry set in the enchanting

vineyards of Tuscany is the movie escape.

We've been waiting for and the perfect film for date night

or a night out with the girls get your romcom on with you.

Me and Tuscany directed by Cat Coro only in theaters April 10.

Hey, thanks for coming back to CTCS up next.

I don't smoke pot.

I may have long hair.

I don't smoke it though wearing my real name on my real name tag.

That's a shocker.

Plus taking the chance on Vietnamese cookies.

Oh boy.

Transition walk day number two out of three.

Do not let this nice weather inside this forest fool you today.

Oh, no, no, no.

First of all, yes, we have the sunshine here in Carolina.

But man, with that temperature at 41, I know what's happening

in the next couple of days and this grocery story is about to get

pommled.

We're going down to the mid teens and to a southerner with all this

humidity in the atmosphere.

Oh, man, it's going to feel like there's ice crystals growing

out your butt.

So I expect to see a lot of people in melted minds of madness

because they're going to try to figure out a how to put food

on their damn table, be how to pay for the electricity or the gas

running to their house and see, did I buy a warm enough coat?

I'll see you and see us.

My entire life.

People take notes of your long hair and for some reason right

away, they just associate it with you must smoke pot.

No, I don't.

I really don't.

I never have smoked pot, but it's very interesting how people

who do smoke the weed will approach me here at the store.

And it's just one of those things where it's like, okay,

what on me is telling you that I'm a pot smoker.

There's nothing wrong with that.

It's just that you're fit into a genre that has nothing to do

with the cover of the book that you're bringing forward.

And so, but that's one of the things.

And so it's amazing how many people who physically smoke pot will

come up to me and start talking about things.

I have no idea what they are.

And I can't imagine what my facial expressions are when they

start talking about how they burn their pot.

I have no idea even what I just said, but it's just really

interesting how people associate my long hair with pot smoking.

When if you were to check out my system, it ain't happening.

I tried to pull off another joke today that was based on me

wearing my real name on a name tag because I got a good reply

from a guest and so they tend to reward you about those things

when you come to the store.

But instead of to CT, the reply or the congratulations or

the acknowledgement was to Clarence and Bill writes to me,

new guy Bill and he goes, he says, the fuck is this all about?

And so I thought, okay, what a great time to wear the Clarence

name tag.

So I wear it as a fricking joke.

And then when I get here, I'm about ready to put

CT back on because people are asking me, what the hell is that

name that you got on there?

And they and everybody's going, well, I like to name CT better.

Well, shit, huh?

And so then what happens is I look for the CT name tag.

I put it in my pocket.

I lost it between home and here.

It's gone.

So my joke has turned into a real knock against the head.

So who's the person put my name on that evaluation thing and

use the other name?

That's not that wasn't an evaluation.

That was the customer survey they did on you.

How would they know?

I'd really name it because you fucking had on your Clarence name tag.

That particular day, it had to be because did you work yesterday?

No.

Yeah, I did.

Yeah, but it wasn't a Clarence one.

You sure?

I guarantee it because you have it in your pocket today.

Well, no, because I was wearing it today because I was going to be a real smart

guy somewhere to you.

And then you don't even recognize it a second time.

Well, I don't, I just look to see if there's a white butt piece of plastic.

You could say fucking Namier, Julie and I fucking wouldn't.

No, no, dude, they probably did it last week.

I get a surveys on you four or five days after you're here.

And I'm like, this motherfucker ain't been here for four days.

And he has the survey turned in.

I'm here like every day and I just my mom.

She's doing it from the grave.

Well, so if I get there, there are two surveys I always get with no names on them.

And one says, gentlemen, get long hair.

It was extremely nice.

And I always know that you.

Oh, God.

And then the other one says middle aged man.

And I know that one's fucking always being.

And then one day someone added balding to it.

No, and I was like, oh, all right, middle aged balding man.

So that could be 10, 10 people in here.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it is what it is.

None of these women.

No, we wear a fucking name tag.

So they don't.

Yeah, well, I wish they would wear knee tags.

Yeah, no, not me.

And you're expected to like, you know, I don't mind talking a little bit,

but I don't want to get to know about it because that were the case.

No, whatever get out of this fucking store.

So it's Vietnamese.

It looks like a dang McDonald's biscuit.

This is Bon Pia Che.

Bua Sao Rying vegetarian Pia cake.

Handan durian.

But you said that durian smells.

Is this is this smell?

No, not at all.

Shit.

Not at all.

It's safe looking.

See if we can do this.

It's going to be difficult because it's a weird.

Wait, it looks like a biscuit.

It's a weird texture because I just had to move that little piece off of it.

Billy, you're going to try it.

It looks heavy.

It's heavier than I thought it was going to be.

Okay.

Try this Vietnamese cake with us.

All right.

It does stay.

Yeah, because it's durian.

Don't smell it.

It's durian.

Durian fruit is real.

It smells like a dead body, but it's just for you.

I don't know, man.

It smells like a fucking...

Why is it just like me?

I wonder if you're wrong.

Wow, but it does stay.

Oh my gosh.

It smells real good.

Really.

The real durian fruit smells like a rotten dead body.

That's what he said.

Oh my God.

Well, this doesn't smell pretty good.

Don't smell it.

It's really a mouth.

You're not supposed to smell the fruit.

You're supposed to eat it.

Oh, that's real.

I don't know about that.

Oh my God.

That's right.

It has potential, but it's like...

I can smell it now if it's in my mouth.

Now read the warning on the side.

Yeah, I can't do it.

We need the water.

Throw that away.

Panther and reproductive harm.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

And now CT's pet peeve of the week.

Nothing gets underneath my skin quicker than something like this.

We're a coworker, upper-end management.

Looks at another employee and says,

we need to go somewhere and have a conversation.

We're going to talk.

And, you know, but we got to go someplace where it's private.

And I'm thinking to myself,

you had to say that in front of me.

You couldn't have just gone up to him.

You couldn't have said, hey, can I just see you?

But you really kind of dig in and said,

oh man, not only should there be a conversation,

it should be a private conversation.

Because now you're thinking,

are you going to be talking about me?

Which is human nature.

That's how humans feel.

You know, when you pull off a stump like that,

you say, oh, we got to go.

We got, ooh, big talk, big talk.

I'm not supposed to talk in front of anybody.

Then why don't you bring it that far?

Because now you're creating a mystery.

Now you're creating doubt.

And you're making the people around you feel like crap

because we're not part of that conversation or that meeting.

The downside of working in a grocery store

is that when your department is down,

you know what, if there's two of you,

that's all you get, you get two.

When another department at a grocery store is down,

guess what?

They take from R2.

And now you only have one.

That's what they do.

They put the kind of pressure on you that,

hey, look, the front end hires a lot more people.

Therefore, we're going to take from the front end

so that the rest of the store can get things done.

I get it.

I get it.

But what's not fair is the fact that

you're losing team players up front.

You've got six and seven people in line

on a Friday night with one person.

How is that good business?

What's the imaging issue on that situation?

One of these days, I would like to sit down

with a group of bartenders, food servers,

other people who are smack dab right

in the middle of the community.

I just want to sit down with them

and I want to talk about one thing.

What is it like to be a professional psychologist

or psychiatrist?

They're all going to look at me and they're going to think

I'm strange and I go, but we are.

We listen, we activate not only that,

but we give people ideas.

They shoot back things at us and we go,

wow, that's interesting.

I just had that experience and this is what happened.

See, that's the thing about it is.

It's almost like you're a life coach

when you're servicing people, but you don't have the title.

And it's like, okay, so where do I get the title?

Well, you got to go to school for that, right?

Or you get into bartending, you serve food,

even if you're doing it once or twice a week,

you get into customer service or you just go and you,

and you do a registered grocery store.

Your life is going to change like nothing on earth.

Sure, you're going to have those days where you feel like shit.

But the thing is though, is that you've got a connection.

Please do not move.

There's more CTCS right around the corner.

Arrow on tour.

Yeah, you're going on the road with me.

And I say something really bad and didn't even know it.

Plus a scandal unveiled.

You might not be able to drop everything and book a ticket to Italy,

but you can go to the theater on April 10th for you, me and Tuscany.

Will Packer, the guy who produced Girl's Trip,

brings us a brand new rom-com with all the ingredients

of your favorite classics, heart, huge labs and sizzling chemistry,

set in the enchanting vineyards of Tuscany.

You, me and Tuscany is the escape we've all been waiting for.

The movie stars, Halle Bailey and Reggae Jean Page.

And it's the perfect crowd-pleasing film for date night

or a night out with the girls.

Get your rom-com on with you, me and Tuscany directed by Cat Coro

only in theaters April 10th.

Hey, thanks for coming back to CTCS.

Let's get into that conversation.

Arrow on tour.

I said something bad and a scandal has been unveiled.

It's just after 6am, wedding day,

the final performance of the entire year.

My God.

It's hard to believe that you can look at a calendar and say,

okay, this is exactly what's going to be happening over the next 12 months.

And then you get to that final month and that final performance

and it just kind of gets inside your heart going.

Did we really do that?

Yeah, we did.

We really did.

So it's time to load up the music.

We've got a long, long road in front of us today.

And we're way out of town.

So it's going to involve the actual ceremony itself,

as well as the reception.

It's not like we haven't done this before over the past 32 years.

It's just that I think it's associated with the connection,

the compassion, the love, the empathy, the celebration,

the everything that goes into a wedding,

which I started prepping for on this one.

I mean, physically getting the music and everything ready two weeks ago.

So this doesn't just fucking happen.

It's something that you put your entire life into.

We've actually done weddings in the month of December outside

here in the Carolinas because everybody's banking on,

well, it's a Carolinas man.

I mean, it's not going to be that cold.

And in reality, although it was like 31 degrees or so this morning,

it's going to be 62, 63 for the high.

So I mean, it's like I'm sure I'll be peeling off half these clothes,

but you've got to go layered.

You've got to be prepared for it.

We are not outside today.

That's the good news.

We're in a building that was actually constructed back in the mid part

of the 1800s.

And so it's going to be very nice.

I love that room.

And the reason why is because it's real wood.

It's real acoustics.

And my god, I love to play off the echo in that room,

that reverb.

It really gives me a sense of, you know,

like unique sound is what it does.

We've arrived at the venue three hours ahead of time,

which is perfect for me because, you know,

three hours really is six hours too late.

That's the way that I run my book.

And so, you know, it's going to be very interesting.

I mean, the temperature is starting to warm up a bit up here.

You know, when I love about this wedding parties,

they're all just dressed up with their jammies right now.

And I thought, damn, if we could all wear our pajamas,

I'm going to wear my pajamas then.

I wish I would have known that.

We've had our performances in Uptown,

Charlotte before, where they've had taste of Charlotte

and all these other music festivals that are going on.

And we've had to walk in three, four blocks in order to get to the venue

to do a performance.

Today, I don't know.

Maybe it was a stroke of luck, but I mean,

there's a huge, huge, huge Christmas parade going on right now.

There would have been no way in hell that we could have gotten

to this venue at all, even walking,

if we would have gotten here when the parade was going on,

because everything is closed down.

This is a shock to me.

And once again, I bitch and moan about having to leave

as early as I do.

Well, now you know why.

The bride actually went out into the parade itself.

She walked out in the middle of it, started dancing

and just being cheers from everywhere.

Even the fire engine turned on the sideways and stuff.

And the people that were in the audience,

they never say who can be at her as a day of celebration.

So it was fun to see the bride get out there in the middle of that parade.

Transition walk.

Day number three at a three.

Press from a live performance.

It is cold as hell in this forest today.

It's very windy.

Temperatures this morning when we woke up at 5.30.

It's 57 degrees out here, which is kind of nice.

Very nice.

We live in the south, so warm weather is our thing.

But throughout the day, it's going to drop down to 15 degrees.

15 above zero.

So the temperatures are dramatically following because of these winds.

So I got to take this transition walk because it's still very psychological in the way of learning

how to put up with the storms because solutions around the opposite side.

So often I blame my radio career on my very dry and I mean dry humor.

And what happens is that with this dry humor,

I'll shoot out a line and people will look at me and it's like,

you're being an ass today.

I said, what do you mean?

I was just going for the laugh, you know, the funny.

The thing is going to make you just kind of get away from what you were just thinking about.

And they're going, no, I took that absolutely wrong.

I'm going holy shit.

I said, I swear to God it's because I'm a radio guy and you say stuff

in order to get your partner inside that studio to react to it and people laugh about it.

But God dang it, man.

I mean, I guess real world people don't think like that or do they.

And I'm just hanging out with kind of a team that is not in tune.

There's always a line that's drawn in the sand here in the South when it comes to the winter months.

And that line is this.

It's either hot, it's cold, it's freezing, or it's just kind of chilly outside.

The Northerners are the ones that say, you guys here in the South,

you just can't put up with it, which is the reason why they drive like wild monkeys out on the highway

when there's a little bit of ice going on.

So that's what the battle is at the store today where the Northerners are making sure that they let the southerners know.

Oh, quit it.

Quit it.

Oh, it's not going to be that cold.

Oh, what's 15?

What's 13 degrees?

Oh, man, when I'm up in New York or I'm in Cincinnati.

Oh, man, this is nothing.

I get it.

I'm from Montana.

52 below zero is the coldest I've been in.

But I also left Montana because I didn't like 20 degrees above.

And now I'll see T's pet peeve all the week.

We have a huge scandal going on in one of our businesses here in town.

And it's one of those through the power of association.

Something has gone wrong, but because there is an association,

then the name of the business and the product from the business has got a huge black eye.

And of course, you know, people are going,

oh, man, did you just stop selling the product?

I mean, are you guys going to sell it more?

What are you going to do?

Are you supporting what's happening?

And you can't give any answers because you don't want to get pulled into something

where they say, you're not supposed to be talking at all.

You got the scandal going on.

And people are coming in to see if we have the product.

And I always want to look at them and go,

were you buying the product before the scandal?

And what would bring you here now to see if we have the product?

And if we had it, would you buy it?

Because the majority of this product, people are selling it all right.

But they're also donating the money to the victims of this particular situation.

What would you do?

That's one of my pet peeves, is that you'll come in and look for something

if it's a bad, bad world.

But what about when things are great?

Do you support that too?

The power ball lottery is up to $1.1 billion.

Where are we just here recently for mega?

And the last time we were with Power Ball being over $1 billion,

holy crap.

You know, it's stuff like this that really gets my attention.

And I wish that, you know, that some journalist somewhere would say,

I think it's time that we investigate this.

Because how is this feasibly possible?

Are we really throwing that much money into it?

Just give me a story, that's all I want.

Because if you can't give me a story as a journalist, what happens?

I assume.

And then I talk like this where it looks like I'm a total buffoon.

Okay, I'll admit to that, I'm a buffoon.

Hey, that's going to do it for another edition of CTCS.

Do me a favor, create your own podcast.

In the way of creating a conversation that we can all share together.

Because I think sometimes it's such a pissing contest about who's who and what's what.

And what are we going to do and what happens if this doesn't happen?

That we don't forget that we're all human beings and we all have to have a job.

So, you know, create a podcast and let's not be listening to it.

I would love to know what's going on.

Show me the wizard behind your curtain.

I'll see you next week on the CTCS.

You, me and Tuscany is a brand new romcom from Will Packer, the guy who produced Girl's Trip.

The movie stars Hallie Bailey and Reggae Jean Page and has all the ingredients of your favorite romcoms.

Heart, huge laughs and sizzling chemistry.

Set in the enchanting vineyards of Tuscany.

It's the movie escape we've been waiting for.

And the perfect film for date night or a night out with the girls.

Get your romcom on with you, me and Tuscany.

Directed by Cat Coral only in theaters April 10th.