Greening Up My Act

How to Actually Shop Local (for Your Daily Dose of Joy)

• Kat Cox & Tiffany Verbeck • Episode 82

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Trying to buy less shite from Amazon but feel a little... intimidated by mom-and-pops (like, do you have to talk to people)? Tiff and Kat are here to teach you the basics, like what does shop local mean. Buying local is one way to get the stuff you need — and build community along the way. Learn how they managed to cut through the awkwardness, so you can get started in your hometown. 

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Tiffany (00:01.576)
Hi, Kat. You still jazzed up on that coffee drink?

Kat (00:02.37)
Hi Tiffany. Goodness. Yeah. If you don't know, we record two episodes a night and we just did our coffee episode and I just finished my espresso and tonic. So it's a week later for you. It's been two minutes for us. So if my eyes are going to dilate it, I'm going to start bouncing off the walls during this episode.

Tiffany (00:13.672)
Yeah.

Tiffany (00:17.758)
Yes, exactly. She's still... Right, but don't worry. She will be awake all night. So... No, no, no. That's not gonna happen.

Kat (00:25.714)
All night. Yeah. No, I'll fall asleep around two. It'll be fine.

Tiffany (00:30.48)
Yeah, god. So today, we're talking about buying local.

Kat (00:38.956)
Yes, I'm stoked.

Tiffany (00:41.06)
Yeah. So many consumers are changing their spending habits these days. So they're boycotting Target for abandoning black creators. they're boycotting Amazon for being too Bezos-y.

Kat (00:58.99)
That's a good good word for a villain: Bezos-y.

Tiffany (01:03.038)
And Tesla for being so Musk-y. And others. I think Starbucks is in there too. But a lot of people on Instagram, I wrote Insta, Insta-gram. Well, we really should though, right? They're saying what started as a boycott opened their eyes to their personal overconsumption.

Kat (01:06.567)
Mm, Mm.

Yeah.

Kat (01:17.038)
See, we haven't boycotted them yet, but someday. I know. Yeah.

Tiffany (01:31.954)
Which has been so interesting. I've seen quite a few people say this, that they're like, I stopped ordering everything off Amazon that popped into my head and I realized, holy shit, I buy so much stuff I don't need. And so people are kind of excited about it, it seems like, which is really cool. So targetfast.org was formed by a pastor calling for 100,000 citizens to fast from Target for Lent. Yeah, and also sell any Target stock that they owned.

Kat (01:43.715)
Yeah.

Kat (01:56.413)
Ooh, I love it.

Tiffany (02:02.521)
LatinoFreeze.com had a similar message for the Latino community. And for the week that the Target boycott started, foot traffic fell 6.8 % year over year at Target stores. Target's stock prices as of June 9th, 2025, yesterday, as of the day we're recording, fell 29 % year to date.

Kat (02:14.016)
Well, yeah.

Tiffany (02:28.218)
It's actually, I'm going to take a picture, like a screenshot and put it on Instagram because it's kind of fascinating to just see the graph. Yes. And it is kind of, it's actually like flattened. It came up a little and it's like flattened now, but it ain't coming straight back up. That's for sure. And now there's calls for a permanent boycott.

Kat (02:32.163)
Mm-hmm.

Kat (02:38.21)
The tank. Yeah.

Kat (02:44.119)
It's leveled out.

Kat (02:49.485)
Yeah.

Tiffany (02:54.942)
There's also a class action lawsuit that alleged that Target downplayed the risks of consumer backlash and boycotts stemming from their DEI changes or policy changes. Also, Tesla stock is down 18 % year to date, which has made some rebounds, but it's still significantly further down than it was in the beginning of the year.

Kat (03:06.211)
Mm-hmm.

Kat (03:12.942)
Mm-hmm.

Kat (03:18.061)
Yeah.

Tiffany (03:22.876)
And this presents an opportunity for small businesses who are willing or ready to take the reins and sort of fill the gap. And it's a massive opportunity for us as individuals to take stock and search for local options. Because that's what I've started doing. I'm like, well, where the hell else can I get this stuff that I usually, or if it's something I actually need.

Kat (03:29.442)
Mm-hmm.

Tiffany (03:50.16)
So today I'm going to talk about how I've dipped my toes into buying more local stuff and how much fun it's Welcome to greening up my axe.

Kat (03:56.494)
Mm-hmm.

Tiffany (04:14.662)
You know, I was playing our podcast in the car the other day with Charlie and she's like, I love this song. I know.

Kat (04:20.29)
Yeah. I get it stuck in my head all the time. It's, I'll just be like, dee dee dee. Yeah. It is. It is. Me too.

Tiffany (04:26.862)
Yeah, it's so happy. I'm so glad we picked it. All right, so my sources for today real quick, Forbes, I used two different articles from them. Yeah, Newsweek, they had an article about the boycots. And Mountain West Chamber of Commerce, I think that's somewhere in like Montana. I don't know where, Wyoming. But that was it. So yeah, and then Instagram, but I didn't really like call anyone out specific, so just sort of.

Kat (04:45.014)
Nice. Yeah.

Kat (04:51.079)
nice. Okay.

Tiffany (04:56.976)
what I've been seeing around. Right? Right, right, The general populace. So yeah, I wanted to start off like sharing some of my joy. And I'm curious if you've had any of these types of experiences lately, like buying local or even not lately, but just in general, just buying local because it can be so great.

Kat (04:57.048)
around there. It's kind like when you read Reddit, you're like, who do I, who do I credit for this? Yeah. Someone on Reddit said, huh. Yeah.

Kat (05:25.696)
Yeah, so...

always focused on buying local. My father raised us that way. That was like, so this is funny. I'm wearing a shirt from 2010. I think this, it says Marty, was, Marty was the mayor of Albuquerque for like ever. And then in 2010, he didn't run again. And so was the joke was that it's like, it's like Biggie and Tupac and then Marty. So,

Tiffany (05:31.696)
I love that.

That's awesome.

Tiffany (05:41.662)
Mm-hmm. It looks like it says Marty.

Tiffany (05:48.509)
my gosh.

Tiffany (05:55.751)
my god.

Kat (05:59.374)
2009, I think was when he, he stopped being the mayor of Albuquerque. It was like 15 years though. He was the mayor of Albuquerque forever. And, um, so, um, this is for a guide book that I was the managing editor of called the underground guide to Albuquerque. And we published a book and I have copies of it still from 2010, 2011, 2012 of like locally written guides.

Tiffany (06:16.22)
cool.

Kat (06:29.9)
locally written blurbs about local businesses. And it was supposed to be like, it was originally started by a bunch of slam poets who, when people came to visit the town, they're like, well, where should I go to eat? Where should I buy t-shirts? Like what's good to support? And so they started it as a little guide and it turned into this really gorgeous publication. you know, totally didn't make any money off of it ever, but I was like, yeah, f, yeah, like that's, that's my jam. Like I've

Tiffany (06:32.89)
Awesome.

Tiffany (06:54.098)
Yeah.

Kat (06:59.326)
always, always shop local. That's always been a hallmark of my dad. Like he would always go out of his way to buy from the local. Like again, the coffee roaster. We don't drink Starbucks. We drink from moons. We make our own coffee at home from moons. you know, as often as you can go to the local person. So that is a large thing in my heart. Like

Tiffany (07:13.266)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Tiffany (07:27.474)
That's amazing.

Kat (07:28.534)
to shop local has always been.

Tiffany (07:30.76)
That I want to take that and try to implement that in my own family and like give that to Charlie. Cause it's so cool. It's so special. Totally. That is so cool. Well, you're going to have a lot to say that I'm sure that's exciting. Yay. Very cool. So, we had talked about a couple of episodes ago about me switching to a local pharmacy because Walgreens was God awful.

Kat (07:35.406)
It's a value. Yeah. Yeah, it's a value that I have and that I hold very dear. This is a dear to my heart discussion tonight. Yeah.

Kat (07:58.017)
Yeah.

Tiffany (08:00.166)
And I did it. I'm so proud of myself. It's great. It actually was cheaper. And I'm so confused as to why, because they gave me the non-generic versions of all of my medications and it was still cheaper.

Kat (08:01.612)
Yay. And it and was it cheaper or? Yeah.

Kat (08:13.496)
There's contracts, it's weird, yeah. I think of Walgreens and CVS as almost monopolies, and so they just, they contract really high prices and there's nothing you can do about it, you know?

Tiffany (08:21.018)
Yeah.

Tiffany (08:25.106)
Wow, I didn't expect that. It was more for the customer service because Walgreens is literally... There are signs, because this Walgreens is so bad and I think it's probably everywhere, but there are signs saying, are human too. This is not a direct quote, but the signs say, we are human too. Do not treat us like shit. Because I think it's so bad and people get so pissed off.

Kat (08:29.752)
Yeah.

Kat (08:47.054)
Wow. Well, that's, but, and well, and yeah, that I, I was watching like Alex Falcone. He's that stand-up comedian. Yeah. And he had a whole thing about, yes, I think we've reposted some of this stuff before, you know, and, one of the things he was talking about was that these corporations make us mad at each other when we should be mad at them.

Tiffany (08:57.862)
Yes, I love him. Is it a scam? Yep. Yeah. Yeah.

Kat (09:14.762)
And it's true of like, we're mad at the workers. Like he was talking about, don't be mad at the guy sitting next to you on an airplane that's fighting over the armrest. Be mad at the airline for shrinking the size of the seats. Don't be mad at the flight attendant who can't give you, you know, the cookies. Be mad at the, the CEO who's taking a pay raise so that, you know, by cutting costs, by, you know, cutting, yeah, by giving you no food on the, like, and it's, I think it's.

Tiffany (09:16.828)
Mm-hmm.

Tiffany (09:26.995)
Yeah.

Tiffany (09:39.366)
giving you no food. Yeah.

Kat (09:44.266)
true of like any service industry, pharmacies included. Don't be mad at the workers. They've had their wages cut. The systems that they use are out of date and convoluted. the way that like Walgreens never has my insurance up to date, you know, it's, it's, and it's some corporate computer in

Tiffany (09:55.784)
Mm-hmm.

Tiffany (10:04.061)
Right.

Kat (10:11.08)
somewhere else that nobody has access to and it's run by an AI that doesn't speak English. I don't know. You know, like there's no way to fix this problem. And it's, it's not the workers fault and they're as frustrated as you are, but great reason to go to a local pharmacy. Yeah.

Tiffany (10:16.963)
huh. Yeah.

No, absolutely not. Yeah, totally.

Yes, I know. Yeah, and I would never, God, I don't think I would ever, I consider myself like quite understanding. So I would never yell at somebody because of shit like that, but people do.

Kat (10:38.68)
Yeah.

I've gotten like visibly angry, but I've never, I'll be like, I understand this is not your fault. How can we rectify that? I will get like, I'll start using very big words when I'm angry and it's terrible and it's probably condescending. And it's just because it's like how my brain works is that I cannot deal with this emotion. And what is going to happen is that I'm going to turn it into a person who speaks Latin and yeah. And you know, like all of a sudden I am discombobulated and I need to use $5 words with you, but it's.

Tiffany (10:46.621)
Mm-hmm.

Tiffany (10:51.282)
Mm-hmm.

Tiffany (10:58.299)
Yes.

Tiffany (11:02.055)
a professor.

Yes.

Tiffany (11:09.95)
that's awesome.

Kat (11:11.936)
Yeah, I, yeah, I, and I think my level of anger probably comes off as a lot calmer than a lot of people, but yeah, never yell at someone, assault someone. I can't believe people who can do that are shocking to me.

Tiffany (11:22.778)
Yeah. Yeah. I've seen people around here are like pretty snooty and I've seen people just sort of like standing in line in front of me and I'm just, you know, being calm and they turn around and look at me like, can you believe it? Like they want sort of like a commiseration or whatever. I'm like, I don't give a shit. Like they're look at them. They're busy. And I just completely ignore them. And I'm like, you're an idiot. Just stop. Just get over yourself.

Kat (11:37.923)
Yeah.

They want sympathy. Yeah.

Kat (11:49.216)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Tiffany (11:51.934)
But anyway, this pharmacy was so calm and good customer service. Immediately she was like, just like, yeah, just so nice and so chill. And they had to order, I think all of my medicine, they didn't have it there, but they got it the next day. So it's like, who cares? You're also not hit in the face with like a bunch of shit that you don't need.

Kat (12:13.314)
Yeah. Yeah.

Kat (12:21.368)
Yeah.

Tiffany (12:21.782)
You know, Walgreens is basically mini Walmart. They have two toy aisles now, and I'm like, what is going on? Yeah. Candy aisles.

Kat (12:24.599)
Yes.

Kat (12:28.588)
Yes. Yeah. Why? This is a pharmacy. I know. the, like, there's more candy and more chips and more Gatorade than there is medicine. You're like, wait a minute. So you're causing the issues that you're solving with this. Okay. Yeah.

Tiffany (12:40.327)
Yeah.

Tiffany (12:44.44)
Right. Yeah. Yeah. So it's nice because like when I bring Charlie there, she won't be like, I want that stuffy. And they won't have to be like, no, you're not getting it. It's like, you can have that box of Band-Aids because we'll use those. But that's another really nice thing. it just like, I don't know, we talk on the phone. Like I didn't, I used an app with Walgreens and like

Kat (12:53.559)
Yeah.

Kat (12:59.414)
Yeah. You want some aloe vera? Yeah.

Tiffany (13:13.574)
I don't know, it's just kind of nice to get a call from somebody, which I know sounds very anti-millennial of me, but it is nice, I don't know. Yeah.

Kat (13:19.818)
No, but they're like that human connection is we're missing that in our daily life. like, no, I agree. I've used, I use my local grocery store for most of my mainstream pharmacy stuff, but I use a compounding pharmacy for my ketamine and like the owner is the guy that I talked to and he knows both of my dogs. Cause I bring them in, they actually have a lot of stuff for sale, but it's all like locally produced kind of hippie, because compounding pharmacies are not the same as.

Tiffany (13:36.602)
Okay.

Tiffany (13:45.747)
huh.

I don't even know what that is.

Kat (13:50.7)
They kind of make their own medicines. It's probably not FDA regulated, you know. yeah, we don't have to talk about that. Yep. They compound the ketamine. Yep. Yep. Yeah. So yeah, off label prescription basically, but yeah, just, but lovely, you know, lovely people. yeah.

Tiffany (13:54.445)
Okay.

Tiffany (13:58.438)
Interesting, okay.

Tiffany (14:02.546)
They make their own ketamine? Okay. Okay. Cool.

Tiffany (14:12.456)
So interesting, okay.

Yeah, yeah, that's so cool. Yeah, and then, OK, so I have some other ones that are like, I talked about the paint conversation with the man at Ace Hardware, where he had read studies about this brand of paint and blah, blah, blah, blah. He knew everything about paint. And so that Ace is just like,

Kat (14:40.236)
Or yeah.

Tiffany (14:44.2)
fantastic anyway because every time somebody will say thanks for shopping with us, you know what I mean? It's just very different than Home Depot.

Kat (14:45.27)
Yes.

Kat (14:50.528)
Yeah. Ace, Ace is locally franchised, right? Yeah. So it's not, it is local. mean, it's somebody, a local person owns it. Yeah. yeah. Yes.

Tiffany (14:55.43)
Yes. Yep.

Yeah. Yeah, it's a little different because it's a franchise, I still am like, it's so much but there's another one that's like a actual non ace local hardware store and it's garbage, like just absolute garbage. This one is lovely. So I don't know. But there's like the guy who was Santa Claus at Christmas time is like our checkout guy.

Kat (15:10.35)
Yeah. Yeah.

Kat (15:20.866)
Yeah.

As of it. Yeah.

Tiffany (15:26.362)
Twice in a row we accidentally saw Santa at the hardware store and that was the only place we've seen Santa and Charlie is so excited and but she doesn't recognize him and I think maybe soon she'll be like, wait a minute. You look familiar. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hold on a second.

Kat (15:39.476)
When she's nine, she's going to be like, wait a minute. He doesn't live at the North Pole. He lives at Ace Hardware.

Tiffany (15:46.782)
Yeah, but yeah, he works there. So, I mean, it so Santa-like. It's great. Also, I went to, there's like a local snowball stand that we go to a lot. Snowballs are like ice, free iceys or whatever, slushies. I don't know what people call them. They're not slushies, they're like snowcoats. you. Yes. And they have like,

Kat (15:53.933)
Yeah.

Kat (16:05.674)
Yeah, I see. Yeah.

Kat (16:10.936)
Snow cones. Yeah.

Tiffany (16:17.086)
$2.50 will get you like a giant soft serve ice cream cone. And it's just a little stand. It's outdoors. They have a bunch of seating. You can just go hang out. I go there sometimes in the evening just to chill in my car and listen to podcasts. Just by myself and eating ice cream. It's glorious. Yes, it's so great and so cute.

Kat (16:21.579)
my god.

Kat (16:33.419)
Yeah.

I love it.

my God, that's such self care.

Tiffany (16:47.14)
There's a farm down the road. Actually, recently we went to this farm and they have this giant slide. It's like a weird farm. They were sort of in between farm, like classic farm and then like amusement-y type farm. They have a giant slide that's visible from the road. So of course our four year old was like, give me that slide.

Kat (17:12.75)
You

Tiffany (17:14.972)
So we finally went there and it was actually so fun. Like it was so fun. And there weren't that many people there. And we just had our slide to ourselves and we slid for like 30 minutes at least. And then there's a petting zoo and I signed Charlie up for a week of summer camp there. So she's going to have like a farm camp. That's one of them. She has three. It's going to be complicated. and then, you know,

Kat (17:34.696)
that's for the summer campus. that's fun. Yeah. Yeah.

Tiffany (17:44.582)
I talked to some of the other moms who had their kids in summer camp and it just felt so communal. They have a little farm shop so you can buy all your meat or whatever if you want to from there. It's just so great. And then what else have I done recently? I went to a native flower sale at a local farm. Yeah.

Kat (18:10.254)
Tiffany (18:14.536)
farm located on a monastery that's like five minutes from our house and it's beautiful. There's like monks walking around and there's literally this is like it just feels so stereotypically local but there was a woman who was working at the flower shop but it was sort of like slow by the when we went in the morning. She had a guitar so she was playing old McDonald.

Kat (18:18.821)
that's cool.

Kat (18:22.625)
You

Kat (18:44.017)
my god.

Tiffany (18:44.286)
for Charlie and Charlie was like singing and dancing along and she'd be like, Oh, McDonald had a and Charlie would be like pig. It was so cute. And they had a hammock laying or the hammock hung between two giant pine trees. And we sat there for like 25 minutes, just swinging in the hammock. And it was just so classic and so lovely. It is. Yeah. And it's like every single one of these experiences that I've had this

Kat (18:49.035)
my gosh. my gosh.

Kat (19:04.76)
No. It's idyllic. Yeah.

Tiffany (19:13.662)
spring and summer that have been so lovely have been at local businesses, like local places. I can't say the same. went to McDonald's playground and wanted to kill myself. Like it was so bad. And to be fair, I've been to other playgrounds that are all local and awful, you know. But yeah, it's like, I was just thinking about like, are people feeling these days? So they're pissed off at Target.

Kat (19:24.952)
Mm-hmm.

Tiffany (19:43.608)
and others, largely Target because Target built its reputation on basically like liberal policies. Yes. And being liberal, mean, they're very, they were very openly left leaning. My brother hates Target because of that. Yeah, he refused to shop there because of that.

Kat (19:56.074)
Not being Walmart. Yeah.

Kat (20:01.857)
Mm-hmm.

Kat (20:10.13)
really?

that's so interesting.

Tiffany (20:14.288)
Yeah. So you can see how my brother leans probably, but yeah. And now they're just completely abandoning people. And the leader of the permanent boycott says, if you've got a shop at Walmart or Amazon, which are also places that we boycott, instead of Target, do it. Isn't that amazing? He's like, Target needs to be shut down.

Kat (20:16.708)
Hahaha.

Kat (20:36.652)
Wow.

Tiffany (20:42.864)
And he said, this corporation needs to feel the full power of the people. Which is so funny because I actually do feel that way. Like I would rather go to Walmart than I would go to Target, which is so dumb. It's so dumb, but it's true. It's betrayal. Yeah. And it's like...

Kat (20:46.584)
That's, well.

Kat (20:53.654)
Interesting. Why? Just because of how mad you are at Target? Yeah.

Tiffany (21:02.334)
Yeah, like Target hasn't said anything. There's been no real comments. It's like, we love everywhere. I don't know what the hell. There's, it's just like, it's bull, it's fluff.

Kat (21:07.434)
Nah, think... I mean, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. it's just PR department stuff. Yeah. And like they really scaled back their pride stuff this year too into like

Tiffany (21:16.731)
Yeah.

Tiffany (21:21.957)
absolutely.

Kat (21:26.894)
parody of Pride stuff. I mean, it was pretty overblown before.

Tiffany (21:28.133)
Yeah.

Tiffany (21:31.826)
Yeah.

Kat (21:34.99)
Pride consumerism, I have so many ethical issues with like consumerism around like, yeah, you've got to have your rainbow thing and you

Tiffany (21:38.398)
I know, I know. Bye, Arama.

Kat (21:47.402)
Anyway, pride is an attitude, not an object you purchase at a corporation. it's kind of, it's kind of like, I mean, I always, there was something about like my sister and I would like go to Target and wander around, you know, it was a nicer experience than Walmart generally. but it, yeah, it's gross consumerism, you know, it's always been to me, like, I don't want to shout there, you know.

Tiffany (21:48.102)
Yeah.

Tiffany (21:51.568)
Right. Yeah.

Tiffany (22:00.955)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Tiffany (22:15.367)
Yeah.

Kat (22:16.128)
I'm just giving a corporation money to make junk, you know, and exploit labor and fill up my house with things I don't need. And so it's for me, it's kind of like, yep, felt this way about them for a long time. That's fine. I'm glad.

Tiffany (22:19.376)
Yeah.

Tiffany (22:29.404)
Mm-hmm.

Kat (22:33.632)
Anytime a giant corporation says that they're

Kat (22:39.202)
They, they paint themselves. It's like greenwashing, like pride washing or DEI washing. And it's like, yeah, their true colors just came out. They're just here to make money. And they made an oopsie because they're making money off of our liberal sensibilities. And it felt better than going to Walmart. But the end of the day, all of them are just making money off of us, however they can. And it's nice to be, to see people being like, no, I don't want this, you know, like, but.

Tiffany (22:43.132)
Yes. Yeah.

Tiffany (22:56.902)
Yes, totally.

Tiffany (23:06.364)
Mm-hmm.

Kat (23:08.886)
Yeah, it does. you know, I guess it didn't feel like a betrayal to me because I always knew on the internet. So like in the early 2000s under George W. Bush, you know, there were a lot of healthcare decisions about like, can pharmacists deny women birth control if the pharmacists

Tiffany (23:36.54)
Mmm, mm-hmm.

Kat (23:38.318)
personal beliefs don't line up with their and Target was like, yeah, we let our pharmacists decide. And that was for me. was like, Target's bad. And that was kind of before that was like 2005, maybe 2000. That was before that was before their kind of liberal Renaissance, you know, that has happened in the past 20. Yeah, 20 years. But I have always been like, that's not a decision I'm cool with, you know.

Tiffany (23:40.133)
Right, right, right, right, right.

Tiffany (23:52.102)
Yeah.

huh. Our memory is very short in this country. Right.

Mm-hmm.

Tiffany (24:07.868)
Right. That's crazy. That's so interesting.

Kat (24:08.601)
yeah. So I haven't ever really felt good about Target, I guess. but yeah.

Tiffany (24:16.036)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and a lot of people like I think a lot of people there's a there were a ton of memes of like, go to Target for for some hand sanitizer and end up with $300 out of your bank account. Like that's just like the thing right? I never have done that really. I mean, I'm sure I have like once or twice in my life, but that's

Kat (24:32.219)
yeah, it did the... Yeah.

Kat (24:43.31)
Everything just adds up. Everything's $20. Everything's $30. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Tiffany (24:45.412)
I know, God, you go to the grocery store, you're like, holy shit, how is this 60 bucks? And I got like four things. But I, yeah, I have sort of trained myself to be like blinders when I'm in a store like that. And I'm not as good when I'm really stressed out, but when I'm in like a good head space or a decent head space and I'm like, that's all of this is shit. Like I don't need this shit, you know?

so I've never been like a big like target goer.

Kat (25:17.644)
Yeah, yeah, it doesn't appeal to you that way.

Tiffany (25:20.662)
Yeah, but even still, you know, I still, it's still frustrating because it's like, yeah, not that I actually believed that they were who they said they were, but sometimes. Yeah, yeah.

Kat (25:24.334)
It's, I mean, I've, yeah.

Kat (25:36.512)
It felt good to feel like somebody did. I mean, I'm afraid of the other shoe to fall with Costco, you know, cause they, they have good labor practices. pay the health insurance and pay their, and you know, there, they were invented to bring lower prices to people to buy in bulk when they didn't have the power of a restaurant, you know, but I'm just waiting for it to, you know, some, something to come about the CEO, like

Tiffany (25:42.788)
I know. huh.

Tiffany (25:57.277)
Yes.

Kat (26:04.459)
doing something awful. I'm just like, giant corporations is just what they do. It's absolute power corrupts absolutely. So, but it feels good to buy from Costco, you know, 40 pounds of pancake mix with, know, but.

Tiffany (26:05.788)
Right.

I know. I know. Yes.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And I think actually part of the reason why Target was such a blow to people is that we feel like right now we don't know who to trust in general. Like we used to be able to trust that social security was going to be a thing. Well, okay, that's not a good example, but like that we could go to the

Kat (26:35.212)
rate.

Tiffany (26:42.554)
that we could register to vote or like whatever that we could definitely get a passport that we could yes

Kat (26:45.122)
Yeah. Or that you could go to the pharmacy and get your medicine without a giant. I mean, like just 10 years ago, this was not, I knew the pharmacist at the Walgreens up the street, you know, like it was never a problem. And now it's like, what's up now? What's wrong? You know, we have, yeah, you can't. Yeah. Yeah. Or yeah, our general safety.

Tiffany (27:00.37)
Yeah.

Tiffany (27:04.114)
Right.

or we could protest without fearing for our lives or fearing for our futures.

Kat (27:13.954)
without being disappeared.

Tiffany (27:14.096)
Yeah, so I think that's a big part of it is like we've have put trust into places like Target and we had hoped, which is false obviously, like false hope, but you know, you kind of hope that like who the fuck has our back?

Any target?

Kat (27:33.742)
I think this might be a good time to take a break. Okay.

Tiffany (27:36.047)
Yes, I think you're right. Okay.

Kat (27:53.624)
So I didn't want to cut you off in that last one. That was like a really poignant. You're right. Target doesn't have our back. Have they ever? We felt like it. Yeah. But no.

Tiffany (28:02.982)
huh. Yeah, I'm only just realizing that as I said it. So, yeah, gross. No, I had asked you. I'm like, if I don't take a break, tell me because I need, I need help. It's like, I, I, yeah, I like, forgot to put, put it in. yeah, no, I think that is a big, a big reason, but we've also put way too much trust into corporations. So.

Kat (28:07.148)
Yeah. Oof.

Kat (28:12.948)
Yeah, I'm like, hey, it's a break time. It's been half an hour. The people need their potty break.

Kat (28:27.904)
Yeah, and yeah, that is kind of the big oligarchs of this generation are not interested in founding hospitals or feeding the poor. Yep. Nope. There's no foundations for-

Tiffany (28:37.584)
Yes. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, there's no more Carnegie.

Tiffany (28:46.642)
Well, maybe, okay. Melinda Gates, maybe, I don't know.

Kat (28:50.57)
I mean, Bill Gates has just said he's going to donate his entire fortune to Africa, which is great. Yeah. But yeah, like Jeff Bezos isn't doing anything. Mark Zuckerberg isn't doing it. I mean, they're actively harming us, you know, through social media. You know, it's like, and union busting, you know, all the old oligarchical tricks plus techno fascism. Like it's an added bonus. So, yeah. Who you can't trust any.

Tiffany (28:55.654)
Interesting. Yeah.

No. No. Yes. Yeah. huh.

Yes.

Yep.

Kat (29:20.576)
And all of our options feel like giant conglomerate corporations now.

Tiffany (29:26.002)
Yeah.

And it's hard too, because there are certain things that I think it's because Amazon has gotten so big that you literally can't find locally. Unless you want to go for an absolute like treasure hunt for days. But dumb things like what was something I ordered? I've been, I have not really ordered from Amazon, which is saying something for me because I used to order from them like at least a couple of times a week.

Kat (29:42.528)
Yeah, yeah.

Tiffany (29:58.446)
what the fuck was it? It was like something really small and really dumb. it was my, my camera, my webcam mount. It's a little clippy thing. I looked into, I actually went to Staples and I looked and they didn't have anything like it. And then you go on Amazon and it's like 10 bucks for two of them. I'm like, God damn it, dude. Yeah. Yeah. And it's just because Amazon got so big. I'm sure lots of places used to sell that stuff, but.

Kat (30:17.41)
Yeah, and you can get it overnight. Yeah.

Kat (30:23.084)
Yeah. Yeah.

Kat (30:27.18)
Well, yeah, it's a thing there and they're wiping out the option. Yeah, exactly.

Tiffany (30:30.022)
Yes. Yeah. So it's tricky. It is tricky. But just like do what we can, you know, and that's all we can do. But yeah, it's all. So what started as political has turned personal because people are realizing how much like click to buy, buy now, whatever, or even put it on. It's not called layaway. It's. Yeah. Pay. my God.

Kat (30:52.824)
yeah, the Klarna pay-pay later. Yeah. Which your credit card will do too, but... Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Tiffany (30:59.078)
It's insane. That's so bad. That's just like a massive debt pool for people. Because you don't even remember what...

Kat (31:04.398)
yeah, people are financing. Yeah, people are financing their groceries in the United States right now. Like.

Tiffany (31:10.929)
Right.

Tiffany (31:14.844)
Which groceries is way less insane to me than like...

your 85th mug or whatever, you know what I mean? Like, yeah. No.

Kat (31:22.19)
But it's still, it's like, you shouldn't have to put your groceries on layaway or buy now pay later. Like that's a really bad sign for the state of our economy. yeah, I, it's terrifying to me. I, and I'm not, I'm not saying that like from a, from a personal choice perspective, I'm saying it from like public health and wellness, like human beings should have enough money to buy groceries outright, you know, without having to.

Tiffany (31:32.702)
Totally. Totally.

Tiffany (31:37.415)
Yeah.

Tiffany (31:49.16)
But yeah, totally.

Kat (31:52.553)
now pay later for basic necessities. So that's on our public welfare. That's on our government. And all of the companies making money off of our backs and not paying people a living wage.

Tiffany (31:53.606)
Yes. Yeah.

Tiffany (31:59.492)
Yeah, totally. Totally. Yeah.

Tiffany (32:09.67)
Yes. Yeah, totally. Yeah, because it's like, my next point is sort of like, you don't need so much shit, which is part of it. But you're right that it's like, that is making the problem personal. Rather than.

Kat (32:13.708)
Yeah.

Kat (32:18.678)
Yeah. Yeah.

Kat (32:29.538)
Yeah, it's not. Well, yeah, I mean, it's kind of like the I'm coming from the mindset where people were like, yeah, make your coffee at home and eventually you'll be able to buy a house. Like, that's not how it works. Like the 250 I'm saving by making my coffee at home is not going to add up into a house over time because houses are exorbitantly more expensive than, you know, the cost of living has gone up way more than wages. And that's the bottom line for everyone except CEOs.

Tiffany (32:30.332)
I mean, we've also been marketed to like insane amounts. So.

Tiffany (32:39.398)
Uh-huh, uh-huh. Yeah, yeah.

Tiffany (32:55.994)
Yes. Yep.

Kat (32:58.944)
So yeah, that's the problem, not my avocado toast habit.

Tiffany (33:00.786)
Yep, totally. Yeah. Yes, exactly, exactly. But at the same time, it is nice because people, like I said, people are realizing that they have too much stuff and that they order too much stuff and that they just don't need all this shit. Like there was one woman on Instagram who was like, you don't need new stuff, clean your stuff. She's like, clean the stuff you have. Yes. So I just wash it and then.

Kat (33:07.864)
Yeah.

Kat (33:22.958)
Yeah. Fix it. Yeah. Yeah.

Tiffany (33:29.382)
You'll see it's like new. And I'm thinking about like my shower curtain. I have one of those like fabric shower curtains and yeah, just it's like yellow. And I'm like, I can put this in some bleach and we're good. Yeah. Yep. It smells great. huh.

Kat (33:35.64)
throw it in the washing machine.

Kat (33:42.978)
Yep. Yeah. I wash my shower curtain liners. cause yeah, they get gross. I wash, I just throw them in the washing machine and then you hang them up on the, to dry. Guess what? Automatic dryer. Yeah. It's right there. Yeah.

Tiffany (33:50.982)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, on the shower.

Yes, yes. Yeah, but I love that idea. And... yeah, I never do that.

Kat (34:04.3)
Yeah, wash your curtains. Wash your damn curtains. I don't either. And your pillowcases. Yeah.

Tiffany (34:12.67)
But yeah, it's like instead of buying new sheets or whatever, like just see what it does. Just give it a shot. Like, yeah. And it makes you feel so good too. And people are also really excited about feeling more community. So I saw a reel about how much, actually, I think it was because of the boycotts, this woman was like, I started going to more local places and I felt so much more connected to my town.

Kat (34:15.072)
everything yeah yeah give him a good clean

Kat (34:30.103)
Yes.

Tiffany (34:44.038)
And it was only a couple of weeks, you know? And I'm like, yes, it is absolutely true that this does, that it does do that. And even if it's like a slow burn, know, you don't have to go whole hog. You don't have to completely quit Amazon because I do think in some instances that's not possible. You could, you could. But it's also like, yeah.

Kat (35:10.048)
It's, it'll be harder. It will be difficult. Yeah.

Tiffany (35:12.945)
And it's also like...

even if you cut down 80%, that's great. Even 50%, you know? So why does buying small matter? So...

Kat (35:18.636)
Yeah. Yeah.

Kat (35:28.172)
Yes, this is, this is what I love numbers.

Tiffany (35:31.614)
Yeah, this is less numbery than you might want, but there are some numbers. I see some numbers in here. shopping small or local keeps roughly a 68 out of every $100 in our communities, whereas shopping at a national chain leaves about $43 remaining. So it's like 68 versus 43, that's like over 20 bucks more that stays in your community.

Kat (35:35.189)
well, no.

Kat (35:46.03)
There you go.

Tiffany (35:59.946)
And there's this whole cycle of why, and I didn't really read that much, but it's basically like, you pay your local hairstylist who then pays for their local accountant to do their taxes, who then goes and I don't know, there's like a cycle and it stays anyway. And also actually I have this note income tax or sorry, sales tax. And I don't, where did I put that?

Kat (36:17.366)
Yeah. Yeah.

Tiffany (36:29.618)
But it's like the sales tax, if you're buying it online, sales tax goes to God knows where. But if you're buying it from in your community, then your community is going to have that sales tax. Yeah, isn't it funny? yes, I had it at the next one.

Kat (36:33.198)
you don't get it. Yeah.

Kat (36:42.232)
Interesting.

Tiffany (36:52.838)
Yeah, so that tax revenue goes who knows where if we buy it or even if we go to like the next city and buy stuff, then that's they're going to get those that tax revenue. You're also helping to build a local community, which is, like I said, immediately obvious when you start because, you know, these businesses are only as good as the people who frequent them because a small business can't survive without people.

Kat (37:03.831)
Interesting.

Tiffany (37:21.086)
coming and shopping at them or buying from them or using their services.

Kat (37:25.774)
So they have to be better. Yeah. Competitive. Yeah.

Tiffany (37:27.964)
Yeah, yeah, totally. Yeah, and you're going to get to know probably the owner. You're probably going to get to know at least faces because there's going to be familiar people there. You also feel good. You just feel dang good. You feel better. You feel lighter. You feel more connected. I went in Walmart, which like that was like semi accidentally. It's a long story. And it was.

Kat (37:42.008)
Mm-hmm.

Tiffany (37:56.698)
A nightmare. Like it was absolutely god awful and I left feeling just like bad. I just

Kat (37:57.933)
Yeah.

Kat (38:03.49)
Yeah. I haven't had a good experience in Walmart since I was 20 years old and it was open 24 hours and I went and wandered around at two o'clock in the morning with my best friend. That was the only time Walmart was ever good. And even then it was just cause we weren't old enough to go drinking and we had nowhere else to go at two o'clock in morning. So yeah. yeah, it, the, it's just downtrodden people in

Tiffany (38:12.698)
Yes!

Yes.

Tiffany (38:20.433)
Yes!

Tiffany (38:27.816)
Yes.

Kat (38:29.866)
Everything's in disarray. The people who work there are clearly not paid enough to do what they do. Nobody's happy. No one is happy at all.

Tiffany (38:31.816)
Yes.

Yep. Yep.

Yeah, everyone, it just felt frantic. Like everybody was just rushing to get the hell out of there, which God don't blame them.

Kat (38:44.172)
Yeah. And somehow in the self, everything self checkout too. And it always takes four hours. It's like, how, how, how is like.

Tiffany (38:50.253)
huh.

Tiffany (38:59.71)
Yeah, that's one thing I've noticed is a lot of stores and grocery stores are doing this too. They'll have like one line, one lane open with a real person and everything else is self checkout. And you're like, I have 45 items. I'm not going to do self checkout with this. Yeah.

Kat (39:07.66)
Yeah. Yeah.

Kat (39:12.364)
Yeah, it's going to take me forever. And then you've got to wait for the attendant to come over if you've got like, yeah, the coupon didn't work or like, okay, I need to pay, you know, like if you have a snap benefits card or something in EBT, like for some reason that self checkout never understands it. Like it's always, and it's like, these people just need their groceries and to go home.

Tiffany (39:19.486)
Yeah, because you mess it up and the lights blinking. Yes. Yes.

Tiffany (39:31.057)
Yeah.

Tiffany (39:35.549)
Ugh.

Kat (39:40.364)
Like why does it have to be a production? Why am I doing the job for you?

Tiffany (39:40.528)
Right? Right. Exactly. Why can't this grocery store just pay a goddamn person and then we'll be done with it? Lord. They've gotten a little bit better lately. I think people flipped out, but yeah, but it's just so ridiculous. And plus you put your thing on the scale or like on the

Kat (39:49.528)
I'll tell you why they gotta cut costs, right?

Kat (39:55.736)
People did. Yeah.

Tiffany (40:05.882)
you try to bag it and it's like, put your item on the scale, put your item on the scale. Do not forget to put your item you're like, God damn it. I hate everything. Yeah. It's so bad. huh. Yes.

Kat (40:10.049)
Yeah.

Yeah, you just want to punch it. You're a robot. The checkout person might be taciturn with you, but they're not going to be like, bag that, bag it, bag, put it back. They're just going to do it.

Tiffany (40:23.962)
Like, did you bring your own bag? Yes.

Kat (40:26.984)
once yeah yeah unwarranted item please remove the last item from your line you can't reason with it it doesn't it doesn't know what's happening it a feather fell on it and all of a sudden it's going out of control yeah it got wet and now it's broken yeah

Tiffany (40:37.09)
No, no, it's, yeah, yeah, some dust, yeah, it's bad, yeah. So yeah, you won't experience, fewer self check out probably in local stores actually, but you won't leave for the most part feeling bad about the world, which is great. Like that's a great advantage. You can also usually ask knowledge,

Kat (41:01.068)
Yeah. Mm

Tiffany (41:07.03)
knowledgeable people really niche questions about stuff. Yes. And you're not going to find that in other places. You're just not. So

Kat (41:10.828)
Like the pink guy. Yeah.

Mm-mm. man. We went to Home Depot.

Kat (41:23.182)
Sean needed, Sean bought a pizza oven and he needed wood because we're having someone over this weekend and he had to buy the wood last weekend to make sure we had enough wood. And, uh, he's, yeah, he's great. Uh, yeah, he's, it's great. It's, it's really remarkable to watch. Like, um, and the wood is out of season. You can't buy wood right now because it's not firewood season. Cause it's 102 degrees in Texas.

Tiffany (41:27.422)
Oh yes, I heard. Uh huh.

Tiffany (41:36.274)
I love it. love his planning ahead. It's so impressive.

Tiffany (41:44.53)
Yeah.

Tiffany (41:49.971)
huh. Yeah. Yeah.

Kat (41:52.876)
But he saw that the Home Depot down South had 273 units of this wood. So we went to Home Depot, left the dogs alone for the first time for the record. So we were like, we got to be in and out. We wanted around Home Depot for an hour and we asked four people, where's this wood? And they're like, if we had it, it would be over by the front by customer service. So we go to customer service and we ask, there's an

Tiffany (42:00.999)
huh.

Tiffany (42:05.016)
wow. Mm-hmm.

Tiffany (42:10.939)
No way.

Tiffany (42:17.277)
on opposite side of...

Kat (42:21.23)
You know, like no one on the floor, there's like eight teenage boys hanging out at the checkout. Like no one's helping anyone. asked them, Oh, it'll be outside. Sean's like, wait here. I'll go outside. I had to buy like one little thermo cell mosquito repellent recharger. So I'm standing there waiting for him. 10 minutes go by. I call him. I'm like, do you need help? He's like, no.

Tiffany (42:30.673)
Yeah.

Tiffany (42:38.14)
huh.

Tiffany (42:49.64)
Just journey to the end of the earth.

Kat (42:51.47)
I'll be, I'll be, I'll be back in a minute. I, okay. So finally, after he asked the fourth person in the home and garden center, they're like, okay, it's outside. Sean's like, there's 200 and he shows them online. There's 273. doesn't say what islets and, and, and the guy's like, oh, okay. It's cause nobody wanted it. Okay. Yeah. Nobody wanted wood. We get it. Why do you have 273 units of it that you're not putting anywhere to sell? You know, like if nobody wanted it, you mark it down and you

put it in an in-cap and people buy it, but it was outside of the garden center in like the end of the parking lot where nobody parks because it's like storage. was basically outside of the home. It was in the creek behind the Home Depot. Sean had to get a new basket, you know, and he filled it up with, and all of the, they're all like shrink wrapped bundles of wood and they're all different sizes.

Tiffany (43:22.019)
huh.

Tiffany (43:41.977)
my god.

Kat (43:49.612)
So he gets like a big one, a couple different sizes of them. like only one of them has a barcode on it because he's, you know, that's fine. So he, and he's like, and it smells like pee. So yeah, but he bought it and the, the, you know, checkout person at the garden center, cause it's all the way on the other side of the Home Depot was like, are these all the same? And he's like,

Tiffany (43:52.938)
huh.

Tiffany (43:58.79)
Of course.

Tiffany (44:03.63)
no.

Mmm, pee-peeta.

Tiffany (44:13.555)
huh.

Kat (44:16.61)
So just scan that one barcode three times. That one barcode was for the bundle that had three pieces of wood, not the one that had seven. So he's like, I'm not. don't know. It was so ridiculous. And he came trudging back, and he's like, you won't believe where this wood was. And I was like, that took a half an hour. Yeah, we loaded the wood up, and he drove me around to where it was. He's like, it's back there. And I was like, no.

Tiffany (44:22.386)
Uh-huh, uh-huh. No, that's not his fault. my God. That's insane.

Tiffany (44:37.214)
It's like, let me show you, let's go for a drive.

Kat (44:46.464)
Anyway, yeah, that would not happen at a local store. Someone would have known. Yes, we've got the wood. I know exactly where it is. Let me go get it for you. How many do you need? You know, like this was Home Depot where nobody is paid enough to care. So yeah.

Tiffany (44:48.003)
is insane, no!

Tiffany (44:55.274)
Yes. And no, yeah. Right. And literally every time I go to ACE, they're like, can we help you carry that out? And I'm like, no, I swear I got it. I can push a cart. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. That's insane. I had actually similar experience, not similar, but like a similarly confusing experience at Home Depot where a mailbox was on their website as discounted.

Kat (45:05.1)
Yeah. Yeah, you're like help grandma over there. She needs help, but I'm fine. Yeah, I know.

Tiffany (45:25.34)
And then you click on it and it was full price. And you're like, excuse me. So I went to the store cause I was so pissed off and I was like, what's going on here? And the guy had no power, like absolutely no power.

Kat (45:38.998)
No, exactly. It's a corporate, some corporate IT problem. How do you even complain about it? Who do you complain to? There's no one. Yeah.

Tiffany (45:44.56)
Yeah. And he was like, yeah, yeah. I was like, I'm not going to ruin this guy's days perfectly nice. But he yeah, he was like, well, it looks like they baked the the shipping price into the full price. And I was like, that is not transparent. That is corrupt. And also, if I thought the law was if some if there was a listed price somewhere, they legally had to like hold to it. But

Kat (46:13.42)
Right. No. Nope.

Tiffany (46:14.27)
Apparently not. I'm just like, all right, bye. Right. For the $15. I was like, goddamn.

Kat (46:18.52)
What are you going to start a class action lawsuit against Home Depot for mailbox? Yeah. Does it? No, I've noticed recently I get, like Kirkland brand ramen for when I like absolutely am too tired to cook anything and you just add water and you put it. It's not instant ramen. It's, like a ramen bowl and you add water. It's got chicken. It's like real food. It's frozen, but it's got a plastic cover on it.

Tiffany (46:31.166)
Uh huh. Yes. Oh, oh yeah. Instant ramen's the best. Oh.

Tiffany (46:41.79)
okay. Okay, okay. Gotcha, gotcha.

huh.

Kat (46:47.756)
And they've changed probably due to tariffs. They've changed how the plastic is sealed and it is impossible to get the wrapper. have to like stab with scissors and there's like, you know, and it's a minor inconvenience. It's not, it's not like, this is how I feed my family and it's, know, gonna kill them. It's, it's just something I've noticed. And who do I talk to? Like, you know, at a local place, you could be like, Hey, your packaging is

Tiffany (47:00.19)
huh.

Yeah.

Kat (47:16.28)
Can we talk about your package? It's causing a user error for me and probably all of your other customers. And they care and it would make a difference. And you could talk to someone and they would change it. But if there's something wrong on the website with Home Depot, nope. There's no one. There's not, you can make a complaint to an AI and the AI does nothing.

Tiffany (47:21.106)
Mm-hmm.

Tiffany (47:26.845)
Yes.

Tiffany (47:31.186)
Yep.

Tiffany (47:35.678)
Yes. It's awful. Or like the better business bureau, but that's still not going to get you. Especially these days. it's not going to get you anywhere. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it is crazy. It's really crazy.

Kat (47:41.944)
They don't care. Yeah. They're what better business bureau? They hardly exist. Yeah. Yeah. There's no way to escalate. It's, it's, ever see the movie Brazil? It's about like bureaucracy and it's from the eighties and it's, very, very poignant for today, but it's yeah. Like he's in a house and his pipes are, you know, completely like.

Tiffany (47:55.186)
Uh-uh.

Okay.

Kat (48:11.586)
the heating is on and it should be cooling and he can't make a complaint to anyone. And he does complain and they're like, you need to fill out form 17 and like Robert De Niro swoops in as this vigilante plumber or HVAC guy who fixes things, but it's against the law because he hasn't filled out a form D and he just like reconnects a hose here and does and like swoops out and it's like, he's, he's on the run, but he's just fixing people's like heating and cooling. Like that's how it feels. Like, you know,

Tiffany (48:13.937)
okay.

Tiffany (48:39.431)
Yeah.

Kat (48:41.814)
And it's corporatocracy. It's not like the government. It's, corporations who are standing in the way of us. it's just minor annoyances, but they add up and there's no one to talk to. Yes, it is exactly. Yeah. Like my ramen package is too hard to open. But after like, there's, you know, military boots on the ground to stop nonviolent protesters. And.

Tiffany (48:44.455)
Yeah.

Tiffany (48:50.598)
Yeah, I mean, it's like a Kafka novel. You feel nuts. It's like, yeah.

Tiffany (49:09.468)
Right.

Kat (49:12.046)
No one can get a job because the economy is frozen and the CDC just fired all of their vaccine experts and I can't open my ramen, you know, like it adds up it. And they're all symptoms of the same problem, you know? yeah. So, and I can't call my Senator about the ramen. And even if I call my Senator about the things that are happening, they don't care. So.

Tiffany (49:21.563)
Yes.

Tiffany (49:31.08)
Totally. No, it's so true.

Tiffany (49:39.864)
Yeah, and they wouldn't have any power anyway over Costco.

Kat (49:45.836)
No, know. But I feel as useless with my senators as I do with... I actually probably, if I wrote an email to Kirkland-Brandon and said, your Brahmin is... Can you tell me why this is the case?

Tiffany (49:46.75)
I'm guessing.

Tiffany (49:51.705)
yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.

Tiffany (50:00.454)
Yes, sometimes you might be surprised. Yeah. Do it. I'm so curious. My mom used to complain about stuff like that, and she would get free coupons out the wazoo in the mail. She would send out handwritten letter, and then she would get coupons for a bunch of free shit. Right.

Kat (50:02.742)
I wonder, okay, I will, I will do that report back. Yeah. Cause you know, if Costco's our savior. Yeah.

Kat (50:17.166)
Yeah. It's see, that's the thing. It's not like the product is defective. The ramen's fine. It's just like, I can't fricking open it. There's no grip thing, you know, and I can use scissors, but it's like, it for me, the problem is that like, if it's an annoyance to me, I can imagine that for someone who doesn't have grip strength on their hands, it's an actual problem, you know, and like,

Tiffany (50:28.167)
Mm-hmm. Yes.

Tiffany (50:41.444)
Yeah. An impossibility. Yeah.

Kat (50:45.974)
frozen ramen is a luxury item. This is, this is a very privileged white wine problem I'm having here, but like, I'm guessing it's going to affect other packaging throughout their systems. like, if a mother of seven children is buying in bulk to feed her family and she can't open the chicken nugget thing, you know, yeah. like, so it's not.

Tiffany (50:48.242)
Yeah.

Tiffany (50:51.964)
Right.

Tiffany (51:08.68)
She's gonna lose her mind, yeah.

Kat (51:14.348)
I don't really want like a refund on my ramen, but I- I- you know, there's other implications to it that-

Tiffany (51:16.807)
No, I know.

Tiffany (51:21.83)
Yeah, totally.

Kat (51:24.812)
I want other people to be able to open their ramen too. Anyway. Okay. We'll see if Costco is the good, the good company they say they are. And okay. Anyway, sorry.

Tiffany (51:26.782)
Yeah, exactly. No, do it. I'm so curious. I want to see if they actually respond. Yeah, we'll test it out. Yeah, so the other thing.

Kat (51:42.961)
we were talking about the benefits of.

Tiffany (51:45.112)
Yeah, yeah, the last thing is you can like feel the thing so you can try it on you can touch it. huh.

Kat (51:48.558)
yes. Like we were saying with thrifting that Jin Z likes to like trying on clothes is amazing. Yeah.

Tiffany (51:56.1)
Yes, you can feel its weight. You don't have to return shit through the mail. Like, yes, yes. So that I think is enough to convince me to never buy clothes online again, that's for sure. it's the worst. It's such a, ugh, it's just such a process. And you just know that half of it, like, where's it going? I don't know.

Kat (52:00.448)
You can measure it. Yep. Yeah.

Kat (52:08.14)
Yeah.

I hate buying clothes online. Yeah. Yeah.

Kat (52:17.835)
Yeah.

Kat (52:24.386)
No, no thank you.

Tiffany (52:25.978)
Yeah. So are you going to spend a little more? Probably.

Kat (52:31.126)
Yeah, yeah. Except like you said, at your pharmacy, it was cheaper. Yeah.

Tiffany (52:34.91)
True. Yeah, I was gonna say it depends. It really does depend.

Kat (52:38.242)
Sometimes there's a big corporate markup that we don't even realize. Yeah.

Tiffany (52:40.59)
Mm-hmm. I didn't realize. Damn. But even still, if I'm going to spend more, like for example at the farm, bought, I didn't have the room in my brain to like say no to Charlie. And she picked up this little crocheted bee because they had that farm store. And I was like, all right, fine. $15.

Kat (52:56.44)
Mm-hmm.

No.

Kat (53:06.702)
Oh yeah. I, when I go to the compounding pharmacy, I get the dogs a toy cause they have a little and they put it at dog level. So Ada picks her own toy and it's yeah. Like I think I spent, well, I think I found the for sale ones. got two and it was like 10, $10 though, you know, and it's like Archie came home and immediately destroyed it, which was adorable. Like it was probably the first toy he'd ever gotten.

Tiffany (53:12.59)
Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Yep.

Tiffany (53:22.736)
Yeah, smart. Guide them that way. Yeah.

Tiffany (53:29.956)
Of course. Of course he did.

Kat (53:36.396)
you know, for a trip, you know. So I was, okay. Yeah, he's been really cute with toys lately.

Tiffany (53:39.226)
my God. You're like, destroy it, do whatever you want. That is adorable. I saw the video of him playing with the ball. He was playing by himself. I was like, my God. He's so cute.

Kat (53:48.854)
Yes. Ada does that too. He plays, they play soccer. Yeah. It's a, he, and he's such a, like, if you see him in public, he's like terrified and he's like drooling and he's like, and then you get him home and he's like, he's so cute. So yeah. yeah. It's been two months. So we're still, we're still building up his confidence. So.

Tiffany (54:02.28)
He'll get there in public. Yeah, that's not very long. Yeah. So, yeah, so even if it is a little bit more expensive, like I think I mentioned before I went to a bird feed store rather than buying from like, I don't know, God knows where. Yeah, Amazon. And it's, it was.

Kat (54:25.067)
Amazon.

Tiffany (54:30.942)
It was more expensive. In this case, I needed these cover things for my bird feeders. It was probably twice the cost. But I would rather buy something that's more expensive from a place like that that I can ask the guy, like, okay, bird questions, and cut back elsewhere. And I realized fully that this is a privilege. This is not everybody's life.

Kat (54:48.632)
How does this work? Yeah.

Kat (54:57.858)
Very much, yeah.

Tiffany (55:00.454)
not everybody has that option, but I would rather not do a target hall or not do a Sephora hall or whatever, do any hall, then, and spend a little bit more in that way. So that's just my personal preference because it enriches my life. It really does.

Kat (55:16.856)
here. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And probably higher quality item at the end of the day. I mean, that's something I was thinking about, like Father's Day is coming up this weekend that we're recording this and Sean is talking about getting his dad some things and like one of them is a wallet, you know, that he's going to buy them off Amazon. And I bought Sean a wallet for like Christmas two years ago. And the thing is that like

Tiffany (55:26.472)
Yeah.

Tiffany (55:30.332)
Mm-hmm.

Tiffany (55:41.831)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Kat (55:47.106)
The wallet I bought Sean, I talked to my dad and he had a brand that was, you know.

custom, you know, just nice leather wallet and whatever wallet Sean buys his dad is going to wear out in a year. And he's going to have to buy another one. You know, the wallet I bought Sean could be a family heirloom, you know, at some point. And I spent probably three times as much on this one wallet because I could sometimes, I mean, that's, that's one of the ways that corporations keep the cycle of poverty.

Tiffany (56:03.901)
Yeah.

Tiffany (56:10.61)
Yeah.

Tiffany (56:23.015)
Yeah.

Kat (56:23.034)
is it's the cheapest option and it's all you can afford to buy. So you buy that and then you have to buy another one a lot sooner than you would need to. And, if you, if you had the money upfront to pay for a more expensive, well-crafted version of it, you wouldn't have to buy it again, but they get, they do get, they get their money out of you. You will spend five times as much on that item as you would.

Tiffany (56:31.44)
Yeah. Yeah.

Tiffany (56:46.344)
Yep.

Kat (56:51.576)
just buying the more expensive one once, you know, eventually. I, you know.

Tiffany (56:53.662)
Totally. Totally.

Kat (56:59.912)
It made me very upset.

Tiffany (57:02.941)
Yeah. Yeah. I actually have a leather purse that Joe bought me when we lived in DC from like a local leather shop, basically. And I have had it for a decade. I use it every single day and I have used it every single day for a decade and it's still in pretty good shape. need to go, there's a cobbler actually that does like leather work near me and I need to get like a new clasp on it, but I think they'll probably have that. Um, so, or at least they could find it.

Kat (57:14.37)
Yep. Yep. Yep.

Kat (57:26.144)
Yeah, I'm sure.

Kat (57:31.862)
Yeah, they could make something. Again, they're local. Yeah.

Tiffany (57:31.912)
But yeah, yeah. And it was like, it was a $200, maybe $250 for that purse, but I've used it for a decade. Every day.

Kat (57:40.364)
Yeah. I have a, I have a purse I bought in Italy 13 years ago. You know, like, yeah, the really good, well-made stuff, if you can afford it, get one, you know, and use it for the rest of your life. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Tiffany (57:44.711)
Yeah.

Tiffany (57:51.43)
Yeah. And it's my only purse. I'm not a purse girl. It's it. Like that's it. if, if I take it in, I'm not going to have a purse. Like, so I haven't taken it to the, I guess I'll use my backpack. Yeah. Dog tree bag. Perfect. yeah, but it's so true that like in the end you probably, it's hard to see it now, but you probably will spend more in the end.

Kat (58:01.454)
Yeah. You have pockets. You have like a fanny pack of like the dog treat bag. Yeah. Yeah.

Kat (58:19.042)
Yep. Yeah.

Tiffany (58:21.278)
Also, I will say it can be intimidating to shop local.

Kat (58:26.178)
Yes, again, that personal aspect. People are coming up to you. Yeah.

Tiffany (58:28.478)
Yes, it makes you a little vulnerable. You're like, I was nervous about going into the pharmacy because it's different. It's sort of like, I didn't know what to expect. Like what's going to be new about this place? How will they operate? Whatever. And then I did it and it was sort of like, oh, okay, cool. just, yeah.

Kat (58:45.964)
Yeah. It's not as scary as you think. Yeah, but it, but it is, can be like, there's personal attention spent on you and not the routine of standing in line and where's the checkout counter and you know, yeah. Yeah.

Tiffany (58:53.255)
Yes.

Tiffany (58:59.138)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, so I think I would say like don't go cold turkey. have to do only local. I would like start with one store or, you know, do a little mix of local and you're the ones you're used to if you aren't used to buying local. Yeah, and then pretty soon you'll probably realize what you're missing.

Kat (59:27.842)
Yeah. Yeah.

Tiffany (59:28.348)
what we have all been missing. So that's all. That's all I got.

Kat (59:33.473)
I love it.

Tiffany (59:35.931)
Yay.

Kat (59:37.346)
I'm a fan. Thank you. That was good. Yeah, always. I'm very pro-local.

Tiffany (59:41.348)
Yeah, I'm glad you were so into it.

Tiffany (59:45.966)
man, I didn't realize that about your dad. That is so cool.

Kat (59:48.494)
Yeah, I, you know, my mom too. just remember like my dad was always, he's big time local restaurants and, um, you know, I think he kind of got it from my grandpa and it was because my grandpa was the doctor in the community. And so he went because these were his patients businesses, you know, so.

Tiffany (59:50.257)
Yeah.

Tiffany (59:54.856)
Do know why? Like where that came from?

Tiffany (01:00:02.896)
Okay, see? That's awesome.

Kat (01:00:16.546)
He went to the local pharmacy and he went to, and he supported the high school football team, you know, well into my youth, you know, he would go to the fundraiser at the high school and because this is, these are his people, you know, and there's that tie, which we've kind of lost in our current online ecosystem.

Tiffany (01:00:31.314)
Mm-hmm.

Tiffany (01:00:36.89)
Yeah, but I think with our grandparents that was way more common and so many people haven't kept it, so it's interesting that your dad did. I wonder why.

Kat (01:00:50.178)
He very much, I mean, I can't speak for him. Yeah, the value of community. mean, that's part of, that's always been just a value in our family is that you do what you can to help the people around you as much as possible. and if like, you know, that, that means living your life, not, like becoming a monk and, you know, not extreme.

Altruism, right? But if you can make a choice that will help people rather than harm them, you make that choice as often as you can. and that's, know, yeah, local restaurants are more interesting than chain restaurants.

Tiffany (01:01:20.573)
Mm-hmm.

Tiffany (01:01:29.118)
Yeah.

Tiffany (01:01:36.358)
Yeah, totally.

Kat (01:01:38.668)
Local shopping is more interesting than chain shopping. I mean, my dad is a huge Costco guy. And it's not like he goes to the farmer's market for groceries.

Tiffany (01:01:42.799)
Okay.

Tiffany (01:01:47.268)
Right. Yeah, nobody, mean, who can afford that for everything, right? Like maybe supplement, but.

Kat (01:01:50.582)
I know my God. Yeah. Yeah. but yeah, he, you know, there's the local winery, like there's the local coffee shop. mean, local coffee roaster and it's because they're your neighbors, you know, and you know that you're helping them pay their mortgage without, I mean, there's, there's all this kind of American thing about like, nobody wants charity and like a lot of times

Tiffany (01:02:06.66)
Mm-hmm.

Tiffany (01:02:11.698)
Mm-hmm.

Kat (01:02:18.306)
going to their business. I mean, we had friends when I was growing up and from our church and their dad was the manager at this local, not local as a chain, but first cafeteria. And we went there every Sunday and you know, and it was our way to, and I didn't realize like when you're a little kid, you think everybody's the same, but like, I did not realize that the manager at a local restaurant was making significantly less father money than my

my PhD educated father, you know, but that was a way to support him, give his business money. And you know, people do what my dad does. So other people from the church would go there too. like, they're always making enough money at this restaurant location, you know, to keep our family friend employed, you know, and like, that's just what you did for people that you love. So yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Tiffany (01:02:48.712)
Right.

Tiffany (01:03:02.524)
Yeah.

Right.

Tiffany (01:03:09.34)
Right. Yep. Yeah.

I love that. That's very special. Yeah, we can totally get back to that.

Kat (01:03:17.708)
Yeah. Yeah. That's the other thing. You will make friends and then you will want to support them. You will want them to be able to afford their mortgages and their children's baseball uniforms and their groceries and their, you like, yeah. So, yeah.

Tiffany (01:03:23.324)
Yes.

Yes.

Tiffany (01:03:30.184)
Yep.

Tiffany (01:03:33.586)
Yeah. Nice. Awesome. All right. Cool. So I know it's so funny. I'm not surprised. These are two very like cool, fun. Yeah. So that's fun.

Kat (01:03:35.726)
Well, we spent another hour chatting.

Yeah, big topics for us, yeah.

Kat (01:03:48.888)
Awesome. We haven't decided what we're doing next week yet, I think. So, yeah, I think I might expand on this. like you, we were talking about the joy of being a tourist in your own town. So I think.

Tiffany (01:03:52.358)
Yeah, that's what I thought. That's what I figured. We'll get there.

Tiffany (01:04:04.58)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, I did never go. I said I was gonna do it. I didn't do it. So Yay, do please

Kat (01:04:08.098)
But I'll take it over for next week if you. OK. So yeah, we've only got two episodes left this season, so it flew by. Yeah. But yeah, OK. So next week we'll do the joy of being a tourist in your own town. Yeah. Yay.

Tiffany (01:04:13.03)
I know, I know, that's crazy.

Tiffany (01:04:20.56)
Okay, I love it. That's very exciting. Yeah, and write to Costco. I'm curious.

Kat (01:04:26.126)
Uh, yeah, I'll let you... This isn't a... I don't need a refund. This isn't a major deal, but I just want to let you know. As concerned citizen who doesn't re- I- probably says a lot about my health and my conditions that I probably don't need this ramen in my life. And yet, I just thought it might be an issue for other people. And I wanted to see if you have anything to say about it.

Tiffany (01:04:28.658)
I don't know how you're gonna word it, but I'm so excited.

Tiffany (01:04:35.974)
This sucks. Yeah.

Tiffany (01:04:48.478)
You know what? Yeah. I love it. I love it so much. All right, cool. So follow us on YouTube if you don't already. Because it's, well, you know. It is. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Right. Not yet.

Kat (01:05:01.726)
Yeah, another giant conglomerate that doesn't need our money. hey, if we get our views up high enough, we could monetize it eventually. we don't shildo the masses. I don't know if you all have noticed. We're not we don't have a large marketing budget and we don't use AI to address customer complaints. So yeah.

Tiffany (01:05:20.094)
No, we do not. But yeah, it's kind of fun. I don't usually listen to my podcast people's YouTube versions. Like when I listen to podcasts, I don't usually watch the YouTube, but once in a while I will. And I'm like, oh, this is kind of fun to like just see their faces.

Kat (01:05:35.552)
Yeah, to see I it's hard for I usually just have to because we have YouTube premium. I just put it on and then like shut off the video. Cause I don't want to see my, my face with my horrible resolution on my camera.

Tiffany (01:05:44.462)
Uh-huh. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Everybody, every other podcaster always looks so different than I think they're going to look. I wonder what people think about us. Like, it's so fascinating if they drew pictures of us, would we be blonde? Would we be, what would we be? Yeah, that would be weird. Yeah, who knows? But are they looking at us like, good Lord.

Kat (01:05:53.1)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Kat (01:06:01.964)
I don't know. Do we look exactly the same? we sound exactly the same? Yeah.

Kat (01:06:14.092)
Yeah, Sean was like, if you, if you dolled yourself up a little bit and put on a bikini, I think more people would watch. And I'm like, I'm not that kind of, I'm not an influencer.

Tiffany (01:06:14.512)
Where did they crawl out of?

Tiffany (01:06:22.447)
Can you imagine doing a podcast in a bikini?

Kat (01:06:24.99)
my god.

Tiffany (01:06:27.41)
would be so stupid.

Kat (01:06:27.808)
No, no, I can't imagine doing anything in a bikini. I am 43 years old. Yeah. I don't even like going to the beach in a bikini. I wear a caftan over my bikini.

Tiffany (01:06:31.771)
Also that.

No, I know. Oh yeah, I don't even wear I wear one piece these days. It's more comfortable. Oh, I know they do. You're right. Ugh. Anyway, can't win.

Kat (01:06:40.814)
Yeah, I have one piece that give me wedgies.

Kat (01:06:45.742)
No, maybe I'll shop local and find a bathing suit that's like the 1920s. Thigh, full coverage tank top, thigh skimmer, strongest man in the world uniform kind of thing.

Tiffany (01:06:52.86)
Yes, full coverage. huh. Yeah. Yes, I love it. That would be great.

Kat (01:07:01.838)
I don't have to shave ever again. That would be great.

Tiffany (01:07:04.618)
right. my gosh. All right. So yeah, next week is, what'd you say?

Kat (01:07:07.31)
Alright.

Kat (01:07:12.052)
The joy of being a tourist in your own town. All right. Go to bed, Divanee. Yeah. All right. Thanks for listening, everyone. yeah. Shop local. Bye.

Tiffany (01:07:13.79)
Yes, I knew it. knew it. knew it. It is 10 o'clock at night. Yeah, so we will. Yeah, thank you guys. right. Shab-loko. Have a good one. Bye.

Kat (01:07:35.63)
You

Tiffany (01:07:36.286)
you


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Kat Cox

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Tiffany Verbeck

Co-host