C.T.C.S Episode 238 Classic Rock Gone, Returned V Day Flowers Plus No Self Checkout

0:00I don't know if you know this or not, but arrow.net ARROE.net features 21 different podcasts, one of the biggest ones, music's lost history. You know the music, you know the bands, can you guess them before we share them with you? Music's lost history, only on arrow.net ARROE.net. Enjoy your exploration! You are my name is CT, when I'm not busy being arrow 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, you know, solutions, relationships, keeping your team motivated in an age of constant connections. Each and every person has chosen to stop into your location. Here's the question, what are you going to do to get them to come back? Episode number 238, classic rock gone, valentine stay flowers returned,

1:03and no self-checkout come on. This is CTCS. CTCS. Transition walk, day number one out of three. It has been raining inside this forest, my baby, my disaster artist, Jazzy and I, who usually go through this forest on the path. To just basically, you know, just kind of just go through our transitions, those mental walks. There are more voices in our head than there are humans on this planet. Do you agree with that? I mean, we all do it and that's what this is all about, a transition walk. If I can just get you to take a walk, your day at work is going to be a lot better. Three days this week, I was supposed to have a two day performance at a festival, but not with these storms that are coming through. They pulled back on those monkeys because the weather is so, so bad in the prediction market. So they had to cancel it. I get to be with my, with my baby, Jazzy on Saturday, but where do you think I'll be really? In the podcast studio, because it's seven days a week.

2:06Don't ever think it's a fantasy ride and if you're not putting in a lot of hours, you ain't a podcaster in my book. Oh god. What does this have to do with C.S.? I don't know. The Beatles have always sang that song. The long and winding road. Except they did it in tune. Anyway, that's how I feel when I go from the car into the grocery store. Down this long and winding sidewalk. The long and winding road. Yeah, just once I get inside there, I have no way in hell of ever predicting or projecting what is going to play out again in the next few hours. All I can say is keep my eyes open like my father would say. There's a huge mandatory request that we do not do money orders for one penny. And the reason why is because they're taking that one penny and they're turning it into $100, $1,000, $10,000.

3:09So today as a fricking joke, I'm about ready to do a money order on this new fangled western union. And the guy goes, what's the lowest you guys will go? And I said, I'll do it for a penny. And you should have seen every manager here in CS look at me with fire in their eyes. And of course, as a kid, I'm going as a kid. I'm 64 years old as a kid. But there you go. But as a 64 year old, I'm sitting there laughing on the inside saying, you stupid shits. Really, you really think I would do that. But I just, you know, people are so vulnerable that I'm going to jump all over that in heartbeat. That's the radio guy in me. That's what I'm trained to do every day, man. To put you on the spot, make you sweat, and then we laugh about it. You're going to laugh, right? I still don't hear you laughing. Are you laughing yet? We have a really serious situation in a store. And I mean, it is. It's affecting a lot of people. And people are very upset with this particular location. And, you know, some people might just write it off and think, oh, that's just hogwash. But no, this is a serious situation. We move the bread away from aisle number five.

4:13But on number five, up there hanging from the ceiling is a sign that says bread and rolls. That's over number five. That's on number five. I'm going to say it again. That's on number five. Where are the bread and rolls on number three? So our guests are going, why am I going to number five over and over and over again when I know that you guys moved it? Where did you move the bread? And they're getting irritated. So I said, you know what? Call corporate. Call corporate because they'll listen to you. They ain't going to listen to me. I'm just CT. I'm that guy that does a podcast. I'm the guy that's been in radio. I ain't cracked at these people. Was it or was it not a faux pas? This gentleman, his name is Mike. That's his real name. Mike comes up to the customer service desk. And Mike has been really kind of a royal pain in the ass now for about two or three months because he's pissed off at everybody at the world, basically. And he's trying to figure out why we haven't hired him. And then said, well, because he's pissed off of the world, everything about Mike is that he's pissed off of the world. And the thing is, is that he comes up and I'm going, David, how are you?

5:18And he kind of looks to me kind of strange. And the next thing you know, he's like walking off like he's really super pissed off. And then I realized, holy fuck, I just called him David. Oh my god, his name is Mike. Why would I call him David? And then of course, my mind instantly goes to, was that a faux pas? Or were you trying to piss him off on purpose? Because Lord knows he has pissed you guys off 100 times more than that. I've always been fascinated with this fact. I've been in the store for six years. Six years in a store that has over 100,000 items to choose from. Maybe more. When it comes time for dinner, do you think I can find something to eat? Never. Therefore, I settle. And when I settle, for the love of God, what does it like at your place of business? If you're doing retail, is it something you're going to wear, but you don't wear, but you got to have it, but you know what? You really didn't need to buy it. Did you take it back? Do you wear it? Is it something you're going to play with on the weekend? I don't know. But you get these stores that have everything.

6:19And your heart says, good it's, oh man, you need it. How many of you have got this sad news to share with you? Okay. The sad news is, and you being from Gastonia, this is going to hit your world pretty hard. You're familiar with the term classic rock? Yes. Mm-hmm. High heart radio has now demise, it doesn't exist anymore. Says who? David, that's what they did. None of their radio stations will say classic rock from now on. See what I mean? It affects people our age, doesn't it? I don't like that. Yeah, it's now going to be Charlotte Rock, no classic rock. Yeah, well. We got protested. And we got too. Oh. Should we start it in Iowa, one, the international road? Do you think they'll understand? They wouldn't understand. Okay, so then we got to go all out, we got to go where the barbecue is. Oh, yeah. The meat department. That's it. And then put up a sign. Yes. Got to keep the classic rock. Classic. Wow. Yes, it's kind of sad, huh? That's sad. But, but the here's the good news though, I'm hoping that with them just saying, let's say Charlotte, Charlotte Rock,

7:20that it now means that a lot of these new rocks of bands are going to get some airtime versus before they were pigeonholed and couldn't get in there at all. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? They don't like that. Look, I'll go buy a guitar from a guitar center and I'll just bang it out and we'll call that rock and get on there. Okay. Yeah. I love it. But I need you as the tambourine player. Okay, I'm good at that. The tambourine? Yeah. Good. And the tambourine. Oh, God, you can never have enough cowbells. No. Oh my God. So something major league has happened in radio today. Yes. That is life changing. Yeah. Let me tell the listeners, it's just Todd. Todd does a lot of things on my podcast, using one that does a lot of the things that something our parents would say. So finally, I get to talk with Todd on the podcast. Determ classic rock. Been with us for a while, right? A long time. High heart radio. Demized it. It's gone. What? It's gone. They're pushing for people to just drop it because they just feel that it's no longer needed.

8:22It only describes a certain area when there's been so much more after that time period. You beating the music industry, what do you think? It describes everything from a generational standpoint from where parents to or kids. Yeah. But they love that stuff. Yeah. Where do you put your TV? Right? Classic rock. Put them in classic rock. Yeah. 60, 70s, 80s. Yeah. Yeah, but where do you put three doors down? Not yet, but soon will be classic rock. So yeah. Yeah, they're not looking at it that way. Right. Yeah, they're just, they're calling it rock. And so now when you hear it rock, like Charlotte Rock, it's like what's going to happen to the rock station? You know, 1065. I mean, are they going to have to get rid of their... Oh, 997. Well, that's it. They've already changed it. So a good analogy is a friend of mine who's an old classic rock. Yeah. And we would like play some music and we'd think, what song do you want to cover? He goes, I want to cover whatever song the guy in the back of the room wants to hear. Yeah. Right? Because the guy in the back likes the classic rock.

9:23Yeah. The guy up front doesn't. The other day, I'm on the river station and their vana comes on. Right? It's on classic rock station. Yeah. Yeah. Now, it's more... But it's a classic rock. It was grunge at one time. Yeah. Yeah. And it wasn't. When I was in the 90s, classic rock was still there and their vana wasn't. Yeah. Classic but now they're classic. Yeah. So what's the neat terminal? It's gimme just rock. Just rock. New York. New York. It's rock. Hmm. How do you categorize that? I don't know. That's... I mean, that's what... I don't know if it opens the door for more variety on these stations. But you know, they're still going to be playing the same 15 songs. Right. Yeah, they're not putting anything new in there. Right. They're going to mix zeppelin in. Get the lead out. So when they get the lead out, it comes on. Yeah. And then follow up with Mike in the mechanics. Right. Oh, God. Oh, that's a crash. Hmm. I did. Mike in the broken car. Ooh. Or they're going to come out with Peter Gabriel in your eyes and they... Yeah, this is rock, man. Oh, man. And they'll go, it used to be. It used to be. Yeah, I know. And then it's now. I could never hear that song again because we took a road trip

10:24and collaged down the floor. And we had five of us in my blazer. Yeah. And I had a tape deck. Oh, God. And the tape deck had the scan button. Yeah. And my buddy loved in your eyes and he played it 20. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I threw the tape out the window. Oh, you have to. Yeah. All four minutes and 50 seconds of that. So that rock song, not a classic rock, that rock song. This, my partner, has got to be the best red bull specialty drink I've ever tasted. It's called the summertime edition. And my God, it's a sadachi lime. And we've been doing some research on the sadachi, which is an Asian fruit, is what it is, which has got kind of a lime little tartness about it. But this is pretty incredible. You agree? It's good. It's good. It's good. I like it. Yeah, yeah. It's, uh, yeah. That one, I mean, there's no aftertaste whatsoever. It's sour, but not. But that's a sadachi thing. Yeah. That's why it's lime and sour. Yeah. Mmm. I like it.

11:25I like it too. I like it too. Yeah. Please do not move. There's more CTCS right around the corner. Valentine's Day flowers returned. And oh my God. No self checkout. Hey, thanks for coming back to CTCS this time around. Valentine's Day flowers returned. And there's no self checkout. Welcome back. Transition walk day number two out of three. I call it a transition walk. And yet I'm barely walking through this forest. On what looks to be a building stormy day. But I don't know how I did it. Somehow some way totally unexplained. And this is the way it is in retail all the time. And that is is that I have injured my left foot. My ankle, my heel goes up into the back of my leg.

12:28Sure, you can drop everything right now and run to a doctor. What are they going to tell you? What are they going to tell you? And then when you go to physical therapy, what do they want to do? Come on, we've all been there. And we all know how much money we have forked out when all we really had to do is just go to doctor and Google. Because everything that they teach you or show you in that, you could have found it online. But I understand, I understand, you want to get better. And we all think that doctors can fix us. As I get grocery store, we all think that grocery stores have everything that you want to put on your plate that is not true. And we all think that grocery stores should be held accountable when they don't have the product that you're searching for. But but but but but but but but but but. I hear that all the time. And then I go online and I go, hey, look, if you would went to Google, you would have seen that we don't even carry that product. But but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but I'll see you and see us. I think one of the biggest culture shocks of being a radio personality for all those years, even with podcasting and being basically a performer here at a grocery store because I'm not

13:32an employee. I'm gonna tell you that right now. I come here to perform. It is a performance that I do. Ask me, you see my show prep every day. It's a fucking performance is what it is. But anyway, the big culture shock is that in radio, I would go to my office. I would do all my show prep. I would do everything I needed to do before I would step on that microphone. Never once dealing with another human being. Then I would go into the control room. Never once dealing with another human being. But at a grocery store, the very second I walk through that damn door, I see people's eyes, the people that I work with, the bad moods that they're in, the anxiety that's moving through their head, whatever they're going through. And you want to know what I pick up on that in silly. And that's been one of the biggest challenges for the past six years in being here. Is how to put up with other people's bullshit before I have to turn it on. My, my, my have the times have changed. This time last year, eggs were what? A ton of money. You had to get a bank loan. And then if you were approved for it, you'd probably get your eggs. Well, now they've got eggs. A dozen of them for $3.99, but it's buy one, get one free.

14:34See what I mean? It's all changed so quickly. You can get cheap ass eggs now. So, what do you want me to make you? An egg sandwich? What do you want? You want your hard boiled eggs? I mean, come on, buy one, get one free. We don't have something. I must feel like I should be doing an episode of the Wonder Years, a TV show from the early part of the millennium in maybe even the 1990s, the Wonder Years, which is a flashback show. Because there's going to come a time where people are going to say, man, what was it like to live in 2026? Man, what was the fashion like in 2026? Well, I've got an answer for you. And, and really for a lot of guys, it's really uncomfortable for guys. It's uncomfortable. Because what women are wearing are pants so tight. It actually goes up the crack of their ass. And, and everything that, that, um, new guy, Bill and I have talked about, and even studied into this, you can get one look, and then you cannot look again. Because, and that's going to get you that bad check on your name. But, yeah, that's the fashion show. The tighter the clothes, whether it's the, who-who or the butt, it doesn't matter.

15:34They're showing off the cracks. This is interesting. I'm walking up and down the beer and wine aisle. I've been all over the store today and I really, I'm in a moment of, I, I'm disbelief. I mean, this is May 1st, 2026. I don't know what the date is where you are, but where I am, it's May 1st, 2026. I'm seeing absolutely nothing in the way of celebrating Cinco de Mayo. Nothing at all. Makes me wonder what's going on. And so, when you got home, she made you bring back the vase, and then what you do with flowers. Through, she says, I'm not a sub-cam. I'm seeing the way. Oh no! Yeah, that's through. I'm not a sub-cam. My God, they were beautiful flowers. Are you sure you don't want to go back and get them, and I'll give you your money back? That was 18 dollars. Yeah, that's 18 bucks, man. I didn't want man, you can go to the grocery store. You can go to the grocery store. Just the fact of having to put up a version and I guess, you know,

16:37that would have saved in there. Wow. You sure you don't want to go back and get them? No, no. Okay. When the stories get that real, that's because we get personal. That's our community. This is our city. This is our area. And you get to know these people that close. And it's heart-winging because you're not a customer. You're a family member. You're part of everything that we're doing. And that just shatters my soul. It really does. By the time this airs, I don't know where we're going to be in the world. Or what's going to be going on. But I'm always that guy, that radio guy, no matter where I go. And you're always trying to do stupid stunts to get people to know you, notice you, walk with you, be with you, understand with you, create with you. So what I've done this particular week is having shaped. And the reason why is because it creates conversation. Because I'm always trying to figure out how can I get somebody to engage in a conversation. So people have seen this clean cut long-haired ass asshole that's worked in the store for six years. And then so it's one of those words like, now he's got facial fuzz.

17:40What are you doing? You okay, dude? Everything's feeling fine in your life. And it's like, but that's what it's all about. It's to create a conversation. And my answer usually is, no, I'm just being lazy. Transition walk, day number three out of three. Well, it's supposed to be a day off, but really not a day off because we all live that lifestyle. We have more than one side hustle. And today we're supposed to be a live performance day, which it could have actually been. Because it's going to be sunshine 70 today, which would have been great. It was for a hippie festival. So two days at a hippie festival with my long ass hair and attitude, that would have been awesome. And having a wild ass dog to go along with this. So going into the store today to do CS is 100% by choice. It's not because it's a job. You know, in all honesty, it's always been a choice. But more today than any other time. So I stayed home yesterday, all that rain, all that cold.

18:40And pretty much took in the Kentucky Derby. The most inspiring thing, a horse that was in dead last. Dead last. Wanted. Yeah, I'm taking that into CS because I'm surrounded by a bunch of losers every day that I know are winners. I'll see you in CS. The little things that make me laugh like a child, pulling into the parking lot of the grocery store. And to my right was a girl maybe 14, 15 years old with a little box of cereal and she's feeding the geese. Why that made me laugh is because I'm a bird fanatic. I love my birds. I've been raising birds my entire life. I don't know. Or just seeing the the frickin innocence there. Of a team that could be doing anything and everything, including the ruling the world on social media. And she's taken the time to just share a couple of treats with some geese. I got to like that. I got to really like that inside my soul and I do like it and it did make me laugh.

19:42And now I'm going into the store to basically take on this energy, which is now unbelievably positive. It's never a good thing when you get out of the car at the grocery store. And the first thing that two people say, thank you up to your car CT. CTM, so glad that you're here. They say, oh God. First of all, the first thing out of the car. I mean, I realized I just saw a girl and there's goose, you know, munching down on the cereal. And now it's like CT. CTM, so glad you're here. And of course, I have to hear what the drama is. And the drama is her. No cards on the inside of the store. And they go, you might want to get something done in there. Because it doesn't seem like anybody else is doing any work in there. And I just so badly want to tell one of our guests, you do realize I'm just CT that there is nothing attached to this. I don't want anything attached to it. But I'm going to do everything humanly possible to make sure that you have cards when you come in. So please, we'll walk together. I'll get you those damn cards. Before coming into the store, I read an article or a story on Facebook. Yeah, some people still do Facebook. And it was a woman who said that she never, never, never goes to a registered

20:44grocery store. She's always doing self-checkout, self-checkout, self-checkout. But she openly admitted on social media. She says, I was having a real crap day, a bad day. I just wanted some human connection. So she said that she had to talk herself into going into the register. And she did. And what she did was she developed this friendship with a person that was on the register, the person, yeah, run, run it for the store. And she says, I couldn't believe how human the people are that are there. And, and, and I thanked her for that. I wrote to her personally and I thanked her for that. I said, thank you for recognizing the people on the register. They are very much real people with real stories. And they too would like to have human connection. It's not that we're all craving it. It's just that we needed it. It is a human need. But I thanked her. And I said, you know, I don't work for a grocery store. And reply was, I don't understand. I see you all the time. You do work for a store. I said, I don't, no, no, no. I don't work for that store. I actually come in there to be with people. They gave me two T-shirts for free. And, and I just happened to wear it. Most sure, of course, I do work for the store. But you know what, though, inside my heart,

21:45I come here by choice. I come here because I enjoy being with the community. But it was fun to read that story about how she reacted to being on a register and not self-check out. And now, CTs, Pee, for the week. You don't even know if this even qualifies as a pet peeve. You know, you walk in the bathroom and somebody pretty much has delivered something to the world that nobody wants to suck in through their nose and into the rest of their system. If you know what I mean. But here's what happens. It stinks so bad in there that as that person that just went in there to basically blow their nose. You walk out and if there's somebody wanting to get in after you, guess who did the dirty work? And I'm not talking about a dirty mountain do. What I'm talking about is, oh my God, you didn't create that smell, but you now own it. Pet peeve for the week. Oh, God, if there was just a way. CT, the drug man. Well, every day, every day that I'm here, I'm getting some sort of drug out of my car because somebody has this pain, that pain, everybody's got a pain, everybody's got a pain.

22:46And if I'm not doing that, then I'm getting some sort of bandage for your ankle, for your wrist, for your back, for your groin. You know, that's just what we do. And maybe that's just my age showing. But no matter what goes on in life, it's not, if I get hurt, it's when I get hurt. And when I hurt, how do I prepare myself so I can get over this quickly as possible? I know, let's get CT to give me some drugs. Well, here's something that falls under the category of you stupid dumb fuck. And I'm serious about that. We have steps that are coming down from the main road here. Steps, okay? Concrete steps. And what they've done is they've got one of those scooters that you ride on. And so they've got it on both sides where it's locked in on the handlebars. But you don't see it until the third step. Someone's going to get injured here. So we're blocking it up to where nobody can go up the steps or even down the steps. This is a real dumb fuck decision. Part of the fun of working at a grocery store is discovering new things. And discovering things doesn't have to mean when it's brand new and it first arrives inside the store.

23:46It's when you keep seeing the same product over and over again coming across the cash registers. And one of the things that I've seen a lot of, especially lately, it might be because we're getting into the summer months. And that is a lot of these plant-based hot dogs. And I sat there on my god, my weakness in life are hot dogs. Oh, for the love of god, I love me some hot dogs. So today, what I did was I tried one of the plant-based hot dogs today. Why the fuck did it take me six years to get to a plant-based hot dog? My god, if you're into dogs like I am, you gotta try it. You just gotta try it. It's what you gotta do because you treat it just like a normal hot dog. But then you feel 100% better after you've down that mofo. When you're up in customer service, here in charge of more than just making sure that the floor is playing out right, you've got to make sure that if anything has been suspended throughout the day, you better have an answer as to why it was suspended. And number two, where's the product? If it was suspended and I had nothing,

24:46no groceries whatsoever, we gotta figure out what the hell happened here. Why was 506 saying that there was $82 that was suspended? Where are the groceries? And you've gotta be very serious about that because somebody's gonna ask what the hell happened? Why wasn't it avoided? What happened here? And it's one of those things where it's like, okay, so somewhere along the line, either somebody came in and they basically went through the register again and they started all over. I don't know, I don't know, but that's how we're gonna leave the show this week is the big mystery, the $82 that was suspended. Where is it? Because someone's gonna have to answer to it as what it is. That's gonna do it for another edition of CCCS, the ups and downs to twist the spins, the ends of the outs, the arounds, the above, the beneath. Every place you wanna go, it's probably gonna happen. It's not, if I get hurt, it's when you get hurt. Yes, I did injure my ankle this week. Yes, I mean, holy God, all mighty pain, but you know what? I ate the only one in retail. It's probably you as well. So we'll celebrate pain together. I'll see you next week on CCCS.