Ever Onward Podcast

The Untold Story of Albertsons LLC with Andy Scoggin | Ever Onward - Ep. 63

• Ahlquist. • Season 1 • Episode 63

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In this enlightening episode, we sit down with Andrew J. Scoggin, founder, CEO, and Chief Investment Officer of Scoggin Capital Investment (SCI), to delve into his extraordinary journey from law to corporate leadership, with a significant focus on his transformative work at Albertsons LLC. Andrew’s career began as an attorney at a San Francisco Bay law firm, but in 1993, he and his wife Elizabeth relocated to Boise, Idaho, where he joined Albertsons Corporation. Over the years, he became an integral part of the company’s success, ultimately joining a small group of former Albertsons executives in 2006 to form Albertsons LLC, a private equity-backed supermarket turnaround company.

Under Andrew’s leadership, Albertsons LLC underwent a remarkable transformation. The company, which was struggling at the time, was restructured and repositioned for success. During this period, Albertsons LLC not only revitalized its operations but also grew to become the largest privately held company in the U.S. Andrew shares behind-the-scenes insights into the company’s acquisition of American Stores and how strategic decisions, including effective leadership and corporate management, were pivotal in reshaping the grocery giant. He also discusses how the grocery landscape has evolved over the years, with an emphasis on how businesses must adapt to changing economic conditions.

In 2020, Albertsons LLC went public as Albertsons Companies Inc., marking a major milestone for the company. That same year, Andrew founded Scoggin Capital Investment (SCI), an investment firm with a diversified portfolio that spans commercial and residential real estate, as well as various business enterprises. While building SCI, Andrew remains passionate about the importance of corporate responsibility, emphasizing the need for businesses to connect with their communities and employees to thrive sustainably. For him, success is about more than just profits—it’s about legacy, relationships, and building a meaningful corporate culture that prioritizes people over numbers.

Join us for this captivating discussion with Andrew as he reflects on his leadership journey, the turnaround of Albertsons LLC, and the lessons he’s learned along the way. Whether you’re in business or just starting your career, Andrew’s insights will inspire you to think bigger, lead with purpose, and make a lasting impact in your professional life.

Andrew J. Scoggin is the founder, CEO, and Chief Investment Officer of Scoggin Capital Investment (SCI). He began his career as an attorney at a San Francisco Bay law firm and moved to Boise in 1993, where he joined Albertsons Corporation. In 2006, Andrew and a small group of former Albertsons executives formed Albertsons LLC, a private equity-backed supermarket turnaround company. Under their leadership, Albertsons LLC grew to become the largest privately held company in the U.S., before going public in 2020. In that same year, Andrew founded SCI, where he continues to lead investments across real estate and business ventures. He is also an active director on corporate and nonprofit boards. Andrew and his wife have four children and six grandchildren, all of whom live in Boise, Idaho.

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Speaker 1:

Today on the Ever Onward podcast, we have a very special guest, longtime friend, andy Scoggin. Andy Scoggin is the founder and CEO chief investment officer of Scoggin Capital Investment SCI. He has a storied career and we're going to get into details with him. Started as an attorney, but then joined Albertsons, was with them for a long time and then was part of the founding Albertsons LLC that ended up saving Albertsons, keeping it here, incredible, explosive growth, ultimately ending in the acquisition of Safeway and then an IPO in 2020. He's going to tell that story today. It's a phenomenal story. Andy has continued on to be one of the biggest philanthropists and thought leaders here in the Valley. He's just an incredible guy. He's on every board and does leaders here in the Valley. He's just an incredible guy. He's on every board and does so much for our community. I'm really excited to have him on today, to have him share his story and talk more about what he's up to. Prior to hearing from Andy, we're going to hear from Mark Cleverley and Holt Haga on an Allquist update.

Speaker 2:

Good morning Mark Cleverley here, chief Leasing Officer with Allquist. We're here for another Allquist update Holtega, vp Leasing Allquist Development. We thought it'd be good to spend a few minutes here and talk about triple nets and just because it comes up a lot during lease negotiations and as tenants kind of look at our buildings and we we've tried to go, our office buildings we've, you know, historically in the valley they've been full service, full service, less janitorial leases in all office buildings and we've tried to get away from that and go to more of a triple net lease. And with that it always comes up from a tenant like, well, what's my all-in number, right? And so we thought it'd be good to just kind of walk through what that means for someone, because we quote them a rate and then you've got to add something to that right. Yeah, exactly, and you were on the property management side.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah, I dealt with Cam's when we were at.

Speaker 2:

Gardner Company and know all about all the dirty details. So walk us through some stuff that you would tell a tenant and kind of get them comfortable with the triple nets.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and so when we say triple nets, I think it's basically just synonymous with operating expenses CAMS would be another word to describe it, but we typically refer to it as triple nets. And the reason I think it's come up a lot, you know, in the last, you know, 24 months, is just because costs have increased. You know there's been inflationary pressure kind of across the board. But we see it on the operating side of real estate through the cost to manage a property and operate a property. And so one of the things that we, when we look at how to control triple nets, it's really a measure of how efficient are you as a landlord in managing your building. And so we as a company take kind of top to bottom approach and say what are the key drivers? Right, some of these are controllable, some of them aren't.

Speaker 3:

But you're talking, you know total, you know property taxes, janitorial, electricity, building maintenance, admin. I mean you've got kind of these line item expenses. But the key drivers, you know always property taxes a huge expense, janitorial has become a huge expense. It's like you know always property taxes a huge expense, janitorial has become a huge expense. It's like you know 20% to 30% of the total. You know triple net cost, the all-in number, and so there's ways that you can, as a landlord, really influence those numbers. Property taxes are tough.

Speaker 2:

So you brought up controllable versus uncontrollable. So controllable expenses are ones that we control like a janitorial, Exactly that we can go out and get bids on and hard bid that every year. Uncontrollable, non-controllable expenses, as called out in our leases, are taxes. We have no control over that and it's just a pass-through to the tenant right.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, snow removal utilities, things like that that are just direct pass-through to us, yeah, exactly, we can't control.

Speaker 3:

But the things that we can control I mean we can control property taxes only in the sense that if we feel that the property taxes are high, we will go through the appeals process to reduce that cost, appeals process to reduce that cost.

Speaker 3:

But the controllable operating expenses for groups that have larger portfolios, you know we're able to control costs very effectively and a lot of it is through relationships and economies of scale. So when we're negotiating a janitorial contract, we're not just negotiating for one building, you know 150,000 square foot building, we've got a full, you know, portfolio that we're we're negotiating and so you know, we've been fortunate in that sense to be able to, you know, come out with uh, uh, incredibly competitive, um, you know contracts, uh, and so, um, the tendency that on our side, so our triple nets, um, you know, relative to the market, are very, very low. So when we get asked about it and it comes up in the lease negotiations, we share historicals, we share kind of our process for how we, you know, manage our expenses. But relative to the market, we are very, very efficient.

Speaker 2:

We build great buildings, very efficient buildings, our hvac and and it helps too that a lot of our buildings are new yeah, right, I mean, and we can kind of control more the utility side, just because it's, uh, you know, our, our mechanical equipment, our hvac equipment is, is new and it's more efficient than a lot of the old buildings and so we are able to control those a little bit more. And I agree, when companies hear what our triple net expenses are, when brokers hear what our triple net expenses are, they always kind of like really, you guys are that low. We're like, yeah, we are, and we can show you. I mean, we'll open book everything with you, right, cause we have to with a tenant, we have to show them line by line, uh, what those expenses are and what they're getting for those services.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, so it's interesting, it's. It is it's like kind of that, put that give, take, where are we? You know, if you're talking about a triple net expense, it's, it's typically well, hey, you know it's um. You know I as a tenant, now have to potentially pay more or have more susceptibility to um market conditions with triple nets, um versus like a full service gross lease, cause the difference between a triple net and a gross lease is, or a full service lease is, you know, base rent plus triple nets equal. You know, your, your full service growth, so uh. But when we do show them, you know we show tenants and our and our partners what we're actually achieving. It is it's like it's actually a. It's actually a um uh benefit and and a competitive advantage for us. So, um, yeah, good stuff. We work hard, doesn't? It doesn't hurt that we've got, uh, your brother, rain man Ryanley overseeing our accounting and finance.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, he's the smart one. He's the smart one of the family. I'll take the good looks. That's right. Okay, man, good stuff. Thanks, holt.

Speaker 1:

Andy, thanks for coming on.

Speaker 4:

It's my pleasure, this is going to be fun.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, they're all fun, but this one's going to be great. Yeah, really appreciate you. We did a little formal bio before this. That will be recorded so we'll get right into it. But you've done so much here in this town I don't even know where to start. But can we start at Albertson's? Yeah, do you want to start before that? Um, you want me to tell you how I got here? Yeah, tell us, tell us how you got here, because I think, um, I don't know how many people I know in my kind of circle who knows the Albertson's LLC story and how that went, and but but tell us how you got here absolutely so we'll start really set the stage that I'm a east coast transplant, so I grew up in the east coast what town?

Speaker 4:

south, born in Rhode Island. As a kid we moved down to New Orleans and then to Florida and had a short stint in San Diego. But junior high and high school were in New Jersey. So really, jersey was a. Why did you move so much? Navy, navy, yeah, that was in the Navy, that was in the Navy. So that was my world.

Speaker 4:

And you know, my dad grew up in Colorado so I always had this romantic view of the West and so I came out West, went to college, went to law school, ended up in San Francisco at the law firm and knew I didn't want to do that for the long term. It was a phenomenal education, a great experience, big city, lots of interactions, lots of challenging, complex kind of problems that you're dealing with. But I did not want to be a lawyer in a law firm and a partner and doing that kind of living, that kind of life live your life basically in six minute increments is what I used to do, you know, and you're in battle most of the time in the kind of law I was doing. So a friend of mine, actually, that was in the law firm knew that and she'd seen an ad in one of the legal magazines for a firm that was looking for people in the Intermountain West, didn't know where it was. And she shot that over to me and I said, okay, I'll send something in, sent it in, didn't hear anything for a few months, in fact I forgot that I'd done it.

Speaker 4:

When my wife on a Saturday morning gets a phone call in the office which all associate attorneys are on Saturdays and somebody says to her hey, I'm calling about a job possibility. I want to talk to Andy, is he there? No, he's over his office. And he said okay. And then she said can I ask you where you're located? And he said boise, idaho, and she said oh. And he said oh, no, you don't like boise. She quickly, you know, backed that up and said oh, I don't know that much.

Speaker 4:

But you know, both of us said she lived in Portland, oregon, and she and her family on trips had gone through the Flying J and kind of that was what they knew of Boise and wasn't that much there, and so we were pretty sure this was not a place we'd end up. But I thought, you know, I'll go out, do a little interviewing, see what that's like and chalk it up to experience, and then we'll keep looking for someplace we really want to go. So I got here, uh, in a on october gorgeous day you know what the fall days are and boise, you know, sun is shining, leaves are changing, weather's perfect and ended up.

Speaker 4:

The guy that wanted was going to interview me and wanted to fill this position was smart enough to take me the long way to Albert's headquarters from the airport and this is in 1992 and so we go through the downtown, we go up to the mesa. It kind of takes me all the way around and we end up the office and on a break during that long you know it's a full day, it's eight hour day of interviews he gives me a chance to make a call home and said you know, if you got to see this place, this is amazing, I had no idea. And so I ended up took that job with Albertsons, not as a lawyer, really involved in negotiations and doing things that were much more business angle, which is what I wanted to learn, what I wanted to get involved in, worked in labor relations.

Speaker 1:

What year was that then?

Speaker 4:

So this started January 3rd of 1993. Okay, yeah, and so Albertson said you know, I think you know a little bit of the story, but it started in 1939, amidst the Depression. Incredible story. 1959, it goes public at the New York Stock Exchange, 50s, 60s or 60s, 70s and 80s has this meteoric rise. The stock splits every other year. The Wall Street Journal in the mid-80s has an article called the Stock Buy of the Century. The Wall Street Journal in the mid-'80s has an article called the Stock by the Century.

Speaker 4:

And then by the time we get to the 90s, when I come to the grocery industry, the grocery industry as an entity had thought it owned the American consumer because it had for decades. And a number of other nascent players start to come into the industry, right, so Walmart yeah, on the very low end, starts showing up. They really weren't doing anything grocery-wise because they didn't need to through the 80s and into the early mid-90s. And then they started to think about how do we drive traffic into our stores? Because right now people come when they need something big, they need tires or they need household appliances or they need something like that. We're only going to do that once or twice a month, maybe less. But if I need food, I'm coming every week. And while I'm there, oh, I might just grab this other item. So Walmart starts thinking about that, and on the other end you've got this little kind of fruit and nuts player out of Austin, texas. Whole Foods starts to get a little bit of traction and we here.

Speaker 4:

You know, I'm just new to the grocery industry, but I hear all the veterans say well, hey, walmart will never sell groceries because they don't know how to do that. They're terrible at that. They, you know they transport bikes and they transport, you know, sofas and stuff. They don't know how to do refrigerated. They don't know how to display it on a market. We're the geniuses, we're the only ones that will ever be able to do this. We're the only ones that will ever be able to do this. And nobody wants organic foods, and that's a very, very small segment of kind of weirdos that are never going to amount to anything. So we're just going to ignore those guys, right?

Speaker 4:

You've seen this story in a lot of industries. So this is the story coming into our industry. Well, that ball starts rolling, or those balls start rolling down the hill faster and faster and faster, and so by the late 90s it's clear to senior execs at Albertsons and to the board that something's got to be done and that something their thought is is you got to grow volume, because now you're getting especially the Walmarts who are buying at a better price than anybody else because of how much volume they can drive. And so Albertsons ends up engaging in a multibillion-dollar merger and acquisition, so acquires a company called American Stores, which is a fascinating Idaho story.

Speaker 4:

If we had time just to tell that story I'd tell it. But it was started by LS Skaggs and LS Skaggs was Sam Skaggs' father. Sam Skaggs was running American Stories through its meteoric rise, but LS was one of the Skaggs brothers out of America Falls, idaho. His brother started Safeway. Ls was Joe's partner in starting Albertsons and then sold out to Joe about 10 years into the Albertsons deal to go start his drug stores.

Speaker 1:

So you look at the Idaho roots in grocers.

Speaker 4:

Safeway you know you look at, obviously. So American stores had owned Jewel Osco in the Midwest. I don't know if you're familiar with them, but Osco was the largest drug store chain in the Midwest at the time and still one of the most significant ones. That was started by OP Skaggs another Skaggs brother, by the way.

Speaker 1:

So anyway, and there's just because we don't really talk about it. People don't know. But AJ Belukoff's wife, susie Sam Skaggs' daughter, sam Skaggs' daughter. So the philanthropy side of that part of the grocery world certainly is still alive. And you look at what Susie and aj have done here for decades. Their fingerprints are on almost all community events and significant philanthropic donations.

Speaker 4:

Quiet, but very quiet and that's just one brother ls of these six brothers so love to tell a story sometimes started in one little shed next to the railroad, siding with a little store that grew into world-changing retailers. And there's several other chains that they're involved in Save on Drug, long's Drugs. But where that circles back to us is now. Ls died early. His son, sam, took over His little drugstore chain, turned into American Stores there never was an American store.

Speaker 4:

It was the overall holding company for Lucky Stores in California and Julasco, acme Stores that were in the tri-state area of New Jersey and Pennsylvania and Delaware and there were some other chains and then a couple of big drug chains and Albertson said we're going to acquire them. A couple of big drug chains and Albertson said we're going to acquire them. Sam had left and sold it and he was out of that. So Albertson's did that in 1999. Within a year it was clear that this merger was destined for disaster. It was not coming together. There was not a good mixture on the board. There was not a good mixture at the senior levels.

Speaker 1:

How long into that Because I remember that happening. It's about a year into it, about a year into it At least internally, we were clear that the synergies that were promised weren't working.

Speaker 4:

There were a lot of challenges mostly, as I think happens in many, many troubled mergers it was sort of the cultural challenges between the two companies that had not been resolved or considered before the deal got done. And how are you going to deal with just the way that you charge back on your supply chain? You know one's a profit center and one's a cost center in the two companies and we can't agree on that. And so you've got all these camps. You know divided camps with the company. So the company you know, eventually Gary Michael, a phenomenal leader and CEO, leaves and he's the one that had been the architect of that merger and the company board brings in a leader who was not productive probably one of the most difficult leaders I'd ever dealt with as the new CEO and over the next few years the company continues to spend too much and grow too little, to the point where it's clear that something's going to happen and the company ends up on the auction block, so to speak. Wow Right.

Speaker 4:

In a relatively short time. Yeah, so this is by 2004, 2005,. This the company's up for sale and part of the company. So let me just give you a quick perspective. You got something like a thousand drug stores. Those pretty easily sold to CVS, so that's gone. The rest are grocery stores. It's close to 1,800 grocery stores.

Speaker 4:

600 and some odd of these grocery stores are doing terribly. They're losing over 100 million bucks a year. You can kind of package them. This CEO they brought in actually continued to call them the non-core stores, which for those people probably didn't feel real good. So that wasn't helping to grow there or turn them around. But they're in real trouble. But you've still got 1,100-plus stores that are actually doing really well but they're weighed down by this, you know, lead balloon around their neck of these 600-some-odd stores.

Speaker 4:

So the board at one point realized we can't sell the whole thing, so we're going to have to split up. The BOARD AT ONE POINT REALIZED WE CAN'T SELL THE WHOLE THING, so WE HAVE TO SPLIT UP. So WE TAKE THESE, package THOSE 1100, almost 1200 STORES. About TWO THIRDS OF THE GROCERY STORES SAY THESE STORES ARE WORTH SOMETHING. Let's GO SELL THEM. A MOSTLY WHOLESAILER OUT OF MINNESOTA DECIDES THAT THEY CAN SUPERVALUE THAT. They decides that they can super value, that. They can make a go of those because they have a small group of retail stores and they've been pretty successful. So they make a bid and end up buying those for $12.1 billion. The board's still got to get rid of the other 640, 650 stores. So what are they going to do with those? Nobody wants them. So I become incredibly fortunate to join together with seven other former Albertsons partners and a former company called Albertsons LLC, and with some backing from five private equity and real estate investors out of East Coast and Midwest, we are able to buy those for $300 million.

Speaker 1:

So think of the disparity in value here. It's an incredible story.

Speaker 4:

Think of the disparity in value $300 million. So I don't know that I've ever heard For 650 stores versus $12 billion for just twice that many.

Speaker 1:

So the thought you had. So nobody wants them. So, first of all, you had really smart people. You can talk about those.

Speaker 4:

Well, I'll start with, we all thought we were going to fail. We thought we can do this and these investors asked us to do this. So we thought, hey, you know we could do this. We had one ace up our sleeve, which is that the guy who was kind of putting a group together is a guy named Bob Miller. I think you've met Bob. Yeah, yep, one of the most legendary retail executives in the last Half century century. Probably. Bob's a little bit like the Wizard of Oz. He's phenomenal. He's one of the best people I've ever worked with and we worked very closely together for 15 years.

Speaker 1:

We still talk. Very few people have met him or know him. He's behind the scenes, but everyone you talk to says exactly what you just said Brilliant.

Speaker 4:

Nobody like him. His story would be one of the best podcasts you could ever do. His story would be one of the best podcasts you could ever do. So, born in Mississippi, ends up, family moves in the 50s to Southern California and he contracts polio. Yeah Right. So he's in an iron lung at the age, I think, nine years old. This guy faces an incredible odds. You know single mom family and he has to get a job. After work he becomes a football player with one short leg and a bad hip from polio and becomes captain of the football team.

Speaker 4:

You know these kind of stories you hear about Bob. He gets a job at a grocery store which eventually is acquired in the 60s by Joe Albertson. But he's working Eventually. He was acquired in the 60s by Joe Albertson but he says his job was to just sort pop bottles back when those were worth a penny or whatever per bottle for the store. So he had to sort all those and then go back to school every day and graduate. So he had this idea. He tried to go to college without, you know, without a whole lot of money or a whole lot of ability. But the people at the store had a different idea because they really saw something in him and he eventually they said hey, we'll promote you, we'll promote you. And he made his way up through, stayed with Albertson's for 30 years, became an executive VP in operations for the company and then in 92, ends up going to a struggling Northwest retailer called Fred Meyer.

Speaker 4:

We all know him now, but they were you know, and they had been acquired by KKR and so big you know takeover firm and some other private equity so big you know takeover firm and some other private equity. And so they were looking for somebody to fix this thing and he had a good reputation already through his 30 years with Albertsons. Ends up going there and in a few years rolls that up with other acquisitions all the way up and down the West Coast Ralph's down in Southern California, Smith's in Utah, et cetera and creates this Western chain, sells it to Kroger who we're hearing a lot about recently because they've been trying to and they won't buy Albertsons but they're a behemoth out of Cincinnati and he sells it for the highest, I think, stock value of any grocery chain to this day. Phenomenal deal for his investors and for him he becomes vice chairman of the board over kroger, chief operations officer. He's there for a short time and a right aid who at that time, um, just before he did that deal, had been the darling of the grocery industry, of the drug industry, and was, you know, building stores like at a rate of two a week across the nation. Um, you know, their stock was through the roof and it turned out there was a good reason for that and that is that they'd been cooking the books and their CEO, I think, goes to jail, their CFO goes to jail their head of HR for stock option validation.

Speaker 4:

Something happens there. I don't recall all the detail, but all of a sudden a bunch of investors that had put a lot of money into Rite Aid were in trouble and they needed someone to fix that. And Bob gets another call. Hey, we don't know anybody else that can do this. We've seen, you know, we know you through our investments over there in Fred Meyer et cetera. And Bob, who didn't need to, went and did that and within three to six months he's got the ship righted again. Wow. And he brought some of his team over with him from Rite Aid. Mary Sammons she was awesome brought her as president. She ends up replacing him after a couple of years at Rite Aid, once they've got that rolling again and he's kind of done, he's had a phenomenal career.

Speaker 4:

When he gets a call again from these investors who say, hey, we got this group of broken Albertson stores and we need somebody to turn around. Do you want to put together a little team and do a couple of your stint? And we know you're done. You know you don't need any more work. And so I get a call in the spring of 2005 or 2006 from a friend who was a former treasurer, I think at Albertsons, and he says, hey, you want to have dinner with somebody up at Hillcrest Country Club. I said, if you're asking Rick, I'll go. I don't know who it is. So I show up there and it's Bob Miller.

Speaker 4:

I'd never met Bob Miller because I started in 93 and BOB MILLER BECAUSE I STARTED IN 93 AND HE LEFT IN 92. But I KNEW ALL ABOUT HIM IN FACT. I HAD A CARD I USED TO KEEP A CARD. I KEEP QUOTES IN MY PHONE. I HAD THIS CARD IN MY POCKET WHEN I MET HIM.

Speaker 4:

On IT WAS A QUOTE THAT I PULLED OUT OF A SUPERMARKET NEWS news magazine from a guy named Bob Miller that had said, when he was asked by the reporter how do you keep people moving forward in this right aid turnaround when everything is against you? You're a week from bankruptcy, You're all this. He said we don't get distracted, we don't get discouraged. We know what we need to do. We go do it every day. That's my quote and I'm sitting now across the table from this guy that I wrote that down because I thought you know that is so simple but makes so much sense. And he looks across the table. He says to me you know I don't need another job. I've done more than I ever thought I would in my life, but I started my career here. I know these stores, I know these people, I know their families. And he said I'd like you to come join us, a small group of us. I think we can save tens of thousands of jobs. I think we could have some fun together doing it and we might make a little money. But I can't promise that one.

Speaker 4:

Now, on the other side, I got an offer from Super Value, who's buying all the good stores. You know be an officer, get stock, have a title, be the blah blah in this. You know what's going to be the second largest chain in the nation at that point in time. So very secure, but not that exciting. And then I got this guy saying hey, let's go save jobs, let's go change the world. And I'm a risk averse guy and I'm sitting. I said, let me get back to you and I spend a week calling friends I trust and people. And then my wife one night comes in. She sees me sitting on the sofa in the dark thinking what am I gonna do. She says I think it's time you took a little risk in your life. Great advice, huh. I called him that morning.

Speaker 1:

That should go on your quote wall. I know she, wow, she's wise, and so I.

Speaker 4:

I called him that next morning, said I'm in and over the next. So we, we started on june 2nd of before.

Speaker 1:

I don't want to take your time.

Speaker 1:

I don't want you to miss this, because if you think about the significance for idaho and the valley here's, here's a legacy company started right here. Right, this legacy brand that, if you think about where it was headed, right, everything was going away. It was going to be this kind of disastrous ending through a set of circumstances. I remember obviously I didn't know you then, but the community thinking, oh, we'll hope this works because this could save a brand. I mean, talk about the community significance, the legacy significance and the heritage that changed in that one moment with you guys.

Speaker 4:

Excellent point and there's three things that I think of with that. One is just Joe's legacy. Yeah, this guy took a risk in 1939 to build something that became nationwide, and he did it based on some incredibly simple but powerful principles. He built a 10,000 square foot grocery store At the time, a&p. Earlier around that time, atlantic Pacific Tea Company they called A&P it was the biggest chain in the nation. They had 10,000 stores but they were like anywhere from 500 square feet to, you know, 2000 square feet were kind of their footprint.

Speaker 4:

People still were going in the 1930s to the baker to grab their bakery and to the butcher to get their meat. And then they go to the grocery store to get their canned goods and their bleach and their flour and sort of those central goods. And Joe said I can change, I'm an innovator. He didn't even know he was an innovator but he said I'm going to put everything under one roof and build a 10,000 square foot store. That just wasn't happening. You know he had an ice cream counter in his store where the kids would come and they had Big Joe ice cream as they called it. And so he's one of those guys that changed an industry and then grew this thing rapidly in the worst economic disaster that the world had ever known, because he created a profit pool for his store directors and department managers. Nobody was doing that, so they were earning if they increased.

Speaker 4:

Just little things we take for granted. Now he was putting these things into action and they were just coming to him as what if and how about action? And they were just coming to him as what if and how about you know? And he, but he was also a guy that got up at you know 4, 30 or 5 all his life, because he was a grocery man, and so that's how he saw the world. As you work hard, you take care of your customers and you, um, you know, you got to look at price, you got to look at quality, you got to look at all that stuff, but you got to personalize. But you also have to be different. Something's got to look at all that stuff, but you've got to personalize it. But you also have to be different. Something's got to be different. So, anyway, you've got Joe's legacy. Now to your point. We've got the jobs that you have in the headquarters, in the stores around here, but not just that. Wherever you have a large grocery headquarters, you've got Procter Gamble sets up an office.

Speaker 4:

And they have 20, you know employees there that now are living there with their families and you know going to the schools and buying products in their city and services and all that stuff. So you've got all of that kind of thing and then you just have. You know, what we care most about is our customers having a great place to be able to go shop and take care of their families. And we have more entrants into the Valley now the Trader Joe's, et cetera than we did then, but there wasn't a lot there. So yeah, it was a labor of love as much as it was a labor of just having a good career and a job we all still wanted to do.

Speaker 1:

Well, but it sounds like for you meeting this kind of legend sitting across from a table from him and the excitement of what could be.

Speaker 4:

And remember the first thing he led with. We could save tens of thousands of jobs, but he led with Not. I can make you rich, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Plus pretty good record of turning stuff around. Great record mitigated risk for you, cause you're thinking, if I'm going to go into battle this guy, I want to go into battle, but he's the most honest person I've ever dealt with Um, you know, at least equal to um.

Speaker 4:

So he said to me and to the two or three other you know, close friends and partners that I had that were coming in together. He sat us down. He said I want you to know that I don't know if you'll have a job in two years or if I will, because this is that bad. We could fail and you can be back out in the street. I'm not gonna lie to you and he won't. He'll never lie to you. So we're going in, you know, with our eyes wide open. Going we got to get in early and work till late every day, find the best people we can, put them in the right spots and then, just, you know, hope that our ideas and practices work. Well, there's good news here. So, first of all, we bought it for $300 million. We start on June 2nd of 2006. We're all sitting in a little rented office space. We didn't have our own offices.

Speaker 4:

Bob's in a cubicle with the rest of us. We're all sitting in a little rented office space we have in our own offices. Bob's in a cubicle with the rest of us, we're all in little cubicles. What a story, yeah, and we're, and within about a month and a half or two months this local chain out of Northern California California family-owned about 200 and some odd stores wants to take over our Northern California stores. So let me give you a geography really quick.

Speaker 4:

We bought Florida, louisiana, texas, new Mexico, arizona, colorado and Northern California. So the good stuff that we didn't get is like Southern California was doing phenomenal, the Northwest Oregon, washington doing phenomenal, intermountain's doing great, midwest and Chicago and all that are doing great. But nobody wants all of every section of the Albertsons company that people who knew the company despised. Northern California was the worst. They had the biggest union problems, pension problems, merchandising problems, customer problems, competition problems. Safeway was the behemoth in Northern California. Nobody wanted to go up against them and we got this part of the chain which we hate and they come and say, hey, we want to buy this from you. And we said, and Bob says no, why? Because we just got it and we know we can make it worth more value. It's like if you went and bought a little house, turned it into a rental and the windows are broken and the picket fence is laying on the ground. Someone comes and says, hey, I'll buy that from you. Well, you know they're trying to get a deal. So you know, give us six months to paint it and put new windows in and carpet it. The guy it's a privately owned family company. It's the son of the founder and he used to get whatever he wants and he keeps coming back. And so finally we enter into discussions with him and in March we end up selling, after a lot of back and forth, the Northern California less than 200 stores of our 650 for $595 million. So we bought the chain for 300, and we sell the worst part of it eight months later for double our money. Wow, so now our investors go oh, maybe these guys aren't that dumb, maybe they might know what they're doing.

Speaker 4:

Well, that was a great start. We were able to give out a dividend, roll money back in. But then, most importantly, is that over the next seven years really in the first year we turned sales around. We got positive. So we had positive sales within a year Within the next seven years, from 2006 to 2013, we returned over two billion dollars to our investors and we trimmed it down to the really 192 best stores. Four billion in sales got positive ebitda. We've paid off pretty much all our debt. We're debt free and we think, hey, we could just run this thing, you know, a couple days a week we'll come in. Well, I don't golf, but if I golf, we go golf whatever you do, because it was just a machine that was just working really well. Um and uh.

Speaker 4:

Then at that same time, super value, who bought the really good stuff, had had seven years of consecutive negative sales every quarter, yeah, 28 quarters of consecutive negative sales. And and so they were heading off a cliff. And some of their stock investors particularly a very activist stock investor that had bought a bunch of their stock came to us and said, hey, into our board? Hey, would you look at SuperVacuum and see what you could do there? What an incredible story. And they were in.

Speaker 4:

We went on due diligence and they were in such bad shape we couldn't even finance to buy. They wanted to sell the whole company to us. Couldn't do it. What we could finally figure out we could do is buy back the Albertsons part They'd have to keep their original company. But we'd buy back the Albertsons and we engineered it and we did this in Wow, which they bought for $12.1 billion right. So we got a significant discount, which we like in the grocery industry. So we bought that back and here's the beautiful story Within one full quarter our division presidents and store directors that we kind of dropped in the best we had, parachuted in behind enemy lines. We were positive on sales which they hadn't been seven years in one quarter Wow. And then we spent quarter after quarter going eight in those stores, eight to 10% sales increases every quarter. And our investors say to us hey, come back to New York, which is where we had most of our meetings. We want to talk to you about another deal.

Speaker 4:

We're hearing through the grapevine that Safeway who's been you know phenomenal history, great company but had flatlined for the last few years and had had some challenges. Just sold off their Canadian division and Chicago they're having to sell because they bought this company called Dominix and kind of drove it into the ground and so they're in trouble. And we say to them look, we just did Super 5U, we're trying to integrate double our size, and you guys want us to go look at another company. And they said we'll put up the money, which is basically, by the way, the money we gave back to them. They're not putting any new money in.

Speaker 4:

So far, they're playing with house money and so we end up doing the Safeway deal. Long story short, they were public. We bought 100% of their stock off the public market, took them private and then merged them into our divisions but kept their names, which is a mistake Albertsons had made is trying to put the Albertsons name on acquisitions too quickly. So we kept Safeway or Vons or whatever the company title might be in those areas, or whatever the company title might be in those areas. And interestingly, we found out a while later that if a customer you know went through an Albertson store in a particular town in Washington and goes I was not happy with that checker, I'm going to cross the street and I'm going to go to Safeway. I'll show them.

Speaker 1:

We go darn, can you so one of the like? It's an incredible story story. I've only heard parts and pieces of it, but it sounds like what are some of the principles you can share on the management side.

Speaker 4:

So I wrote an entire um training, um curriculum for our up-and-coming executives that we would bring in and I call Alberson's LLC secrets, which are not secrets at all. It's an hour so we don't have time, but some of the you know it's very simple stuff. The first thing I wrote was we were very good at decomplicating and I use that word instead of simplifying, because, like any business, we're so complex, so the complexity is going to be there. I consider complications to be something you layer on top of complexity to make it hard or decomplicate something so that you can't make it simple. We're moving billions of little pieces of product into warehouses, out of warehouses onto shelves, through check stands and out into customers' cars every week. That's not easy, and tracking every penny of those billions of items.

Speaker 4:

So it's very complex, but it doesn't have to be complicated, which means all the red tape, all the stuff that slow people down and what you hear is the margin is pretty tight, right. The margin is pretty tight yes, because there's so many things that have to happen, so you can see how You're up to a 3% margin in many things.

Speaker 1:

And then if you've got bad management or something along the way, it's not hard to see how you could get upside down pretty easily.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, so I'll give an example of Super Value by. This IS NOT TO DISPARAGE THEM, but WE WOULD BE TRYING TO DO THAT DEAL WITH THEM. Every DEAL HAD TO BE MADE BY A COMMITTEE. Some OF THEM WERE WE USED TO SAY IT TOOK US ONE HOUR AND THREE PEOPLE TO DECIDE, but IT TOOK THEM ONE WEEK AND 30 PEOPLE TO CONSIDER. Those ARE THE DIFFERENCES. How DO YOU DECOMPLICATE A CO? And those are, you know.

Speaker 4:

The difference is how do you decomplicate a complex structure? So take away the things that you don't have to be done. But you know, some management consultant came in and told SuperValue or IBM or somebody else they had to do Really think about what does the customer care about? Do they care about all this stuff and all those committees and all that stuff, or do they just care about this product? So decomplicating was one that we lived with forever, and so that meant fewer people, quicker decisions, closer to the customer, which is my next one, which is decentralized, which is that most of the companies that we dealt with were centralizing more and more over the 80s, 90s and 2000s, and some companies it works perfectly for, like Walmart, because they want no variation. Exactly Everything needs to feel the same everywhere you go.

Speaker 4:

But for us what happened was Super Value again was centralizing a lot of their purchasing and merchandising. And so we went to a store in Southern California, a great store on I think it was UC Irvine campus a store director, his. Basically he's got students and professors and people that are a lot of them are living on campus, living in these apartments, et cetera, and they shipped him a big order of a hundred dog beds because they got a really good buy on him centrally and everybody had to sell 100 dog beds and he's going what do I do with them? These are kids in dorms Because he wasn't making the decision. So we push our decisions out into the division and they push them out to the stores so that you're going to sell different salsa in Austin, texas than you're going to sell in Seattle Washington. Well, not if you're centralized, but yes if you decentralize.

Speaker 4:

So decomplicate, decentralize, treat your vendors like they are your partner instead of like they're the enemy. This is so consistent and really challenging in industries to see vendors treated properly. Put in very simple bonus, bonus plans. So we would see in our industry bonus plans with sometimes six or eight or twelve different things. You got to get in the quarter or the year and we did them quarterly too hard to have line of sight to how we did quarterly because we want people to be in water pipe.

Speaker 4:

Uh, compartments of a quarter, because we were trying to turn something around. You couldn't wait a year, yeah. So we got rid of annual bonuses, got to quarterly. We had two levers, that's it. It's a profit and a sales, and the profit was the lever and the sales was just a qualifier. You've got to get above this number, but then your profits. What matters? Simplify your profit structures.

Speaker 1:

What about customer service?

Speaker 4:

So you know, the thing is that if you're doing all this stuff right, then all you're pushing out to the customer and you're paying them to sell to customers, then you get out of the way, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Right, because then they want. Yeah, hey, there's a lot of stuff to get to, there's a lot of stuff, but we got us to 2015.

Speaker 4:

We did Safeway. That was a huge effort to bring a great group of people in. We got some great talent from Safeway, but we in the end in 2020, we're able to IPO the whole thing in June of 2020. And I and my partners over the kind of the year before that, for a number of reasons, kind of got a good group of people in place. We still own I still own a lot of equity in that company, but good people in place so we could go on to do our next chapter.

Speaker 4:

We just had Bob's 80th birthday in Palm Springs this year. All of us went to it and we still, to this day, get together quarterly if possible. We call it the Albertsons LLC Old Guys Lunch. Just had one two weeks ago with my buddy. So not only did I have an incredible opportunity to work together we were much more successful financially than any one of us guessed that we might be but also we made these lifelong friends. We admire each other, we respect each other and those, to me, are treasures that are far beyond. You know, whether you have an X amount in your bank account is the people like you meet along the way and get to work with.

Speaker 1:

Let me. I want to, I want to. I want to take you back now because I've known. I've known you for a while.

Speaker 1:

One of the very first I'd got to tell a personal experience, one of the I had a. We had a little get together at my house and you came and you walked in and we had a guitar sitting in the front room and you're like who plays guitar? And I didn't know you very well at this time and I said, oh, my son plays jazz guitar. And you're like, well, is he here? I mean, this is like right, when you walk in the house, we're like in the middle of trying to have this party and I'm like my son and you made a definite impression on him. It's come up dozens of times since then, but you sat with him and you had him play for you and at the time you were becoming a guitarist and that's continued to be one of your passions, but the interpersonal connection.

Speaker 1:

In a really short time, andy, you made a big impression on him and and then I've been around you in a lot of different things. So what I'm trying to get to a question here tell me about what makes you tick, cause you're a pretty unique guy I mean you are. You are a leader's leader. You are people, follow people. Um, you hear of all the success you have now and then we're going to get into what you're doing since 2020. But what makes you tick? Talk about growing up, talk about where you your foundational principles, what makes you who you are? Because it's pretty incredible and that's what I want to dig into with you.

Speaker 4:

Thank you and do any of us know what makes us tick? Because we're on the inside looking out. But I will start with this and I know I shared it with you but also with a lot of your. I've listened to people that you've had on here, phenomenal people. I go out on my walks and my runs and my drives and I'm listening to your podcast runs, or my drives, and I'm listening to your podcast and I think they share with this, which is that you start with I start with that.

Speaker 4:

I believe that we have, you know, what matters to us is really bigger than just the day-to-day stuff. I think that we, you know, have this, um, eternal potential that goes beyond. You know I'm going to die someday, you're going to die someday, but we're building for even beyond that, that we are endowed with these kind of abilities and potential to go do bigger and better and more positive and more things of greater value than we realize we can for the people around us. And I'm always trying to figure out how do I find people like a Tommy Elkwist, how do I find people that have tapped into some of that and just listen, learn from them about what is it that can continue to improve and refine and have fun while you're doing it right. Life should be an adventure. Life should be full of challenges that drive happiness and joy for us and the people around us. But it shouldn't just be you know the struggle, or it shouldn't just be you know a checklist, or it shouldn't just be a you know a scorecard of who am I beating and you know, or did I? You know, do I have the most toys, or whatever it is. It's really what am I building in my life and who I'm trying to become, and I look at it in a kind of a, for a long time, a five-segment life life.

Speaker 4:

I spent years, every you know january, writing out kind of what I want to do for the next year, and it goes all the way back to my teenage years of you know, looking at those, these sections that we all think about, which are our intellectual or mental, what am I doing to learn things that are physical? What am I doing for my physical, body and health? You know what am I doing socially to physical, body and health? You know what am I doing socially to, you know, improve the relationships I have with people around me, both the ones that you know, I love and they're great, and also the ones that are challenging and improving. So you know the social piece of it, you know the spiritual piece, the sort of what's bigger than just me, you know. And then finally, of course, the temporal, financial. How do I, you know, provide for myself and maybe be able to give back to the broader community from those five things? And for a long time I had them as five segments?

Speaker 4:

I had this breakthrough about seven or eight years ago where I realized that I had it kind of wrong, where I now drew a circle with four quadrants in it, which is still the physical, the mental, the social, the financial, and I drew a circle around that whole thing, which is what I'd call kind of the spiritual or the higher value, and then said that should touch each of these.

Speaker 4:

So why am I doing this physical? Am I doing it just to look better on the beach, or am I doing it because I want this body to be able to continue to work and do things for others? Why am I doing this financial? Is it because I want to have the biggest bank account and the coolest car, or because I want that to touch that outer ring? So how is my social touching that outer ring? So how is my social touching that outer ring? So if the outer ring is touching those four qualities, then that drives me to make different decisions and I think for me, much more healthy, much more exciting and positive decisions about why I'm learning, why I'm growing, why I'm giving, why I'm earning, why I'm doing all those things I'm growing, why I'm giving, why I'm earning, why I'm doing all those things. So I like to make really big goals. I grew up like a lot of people that you and I meet that have done well in a pretty lower income world, but in some ways that made me really want to prove myself.

Speaker 4:

So, while all the other kids were, I was a cross country runner and where I was wearing Kmart shoes, they were wearing Nike, which was a cool new brand, you know, and so I'm going. Okay, I'll show you. Yeah, and I started that way and I've probably not quit.

Speaker 1:

I think that's a super powerful and one of the things that comes up. It's always interesting to me because I've never done kind of a deep dive on some of this stuff with you. And then when I sit here listening to you, I think it's important for people listening that may be younger than us that when you talk to an Andy Scoggin and you find out what drives you and how you organize your life, you're pretty methodical about paying attention. You organize your life. You're pretty methodical about paying attention, like what you just outlined, the way you plan your year, the way you look at your life, the way you try to keep. I think balance is a hard word because I'm sure there's times when you were in, when you were down in San Francisco working a law firm, and you're working on Saturdays, or sometimes you're with Albertsons LLC, where you may not have the time balance, but you've got the same priority balance wrapped around your goals at all times. But the point, the bigger point, is we never stop learning, we never stop growing, we never stop creating for ourselves, our family and our legacy. At this point, andy, what you're all about and that growth is exciting and when you get with people like you. I think there's a every time I'm with you. We had lunch not too long ago but I left that lunch thinking, gosh it just. I love being around people that make you think and make you want to be better. Right, and that's. People follow people and they think, wow, there's just.

Speaker 1:

I think there's a lot of value in understanding that when you're younger, that it's not, there's not a point of arriving, it's always a growth thing. You never stop and hopefully that drive and hopefully it just gets bigger and maybe with some wisdom, comes later on how you can reflect a little bit. I think you said a couple other things today, like business, creating jobs. I love the story about Bob telling you it's about the 10,000 jobs. That's what it's about. It's also about doing business with people that you want to do business with people you want to grow, with, people that you want to interact with. I think of the relationships you must have as you get together now with the Albertsons old guys. I mean, what a life, what a life Did you ever think?

Speaker 4:

No, I just worked towards. But I will say that much of what you just described I didn't invent. You know that you didn't invent what the best parts of us we learned it from people that we knew were wise, that sometimes aren't the flashiest, but they're just the people that get stuff done and think in this much. You know higher level, I think and you just want to learn from them and be around them and try to absorb some of that. So I'm the product of being able to be around, or in books or in person or in videos or in whatever setting is people that truly drive you to be. If you listen and if you put it to work, you know better than you were yesterday and better than and you're going to be better tomorrow. I will tell you.

Speaker 4:

The other thing I think is important is to have big goals, challenges, adventures ahead of you and I know that's you With you and projects I look at and I go. I don't even know how he can conceptualize some of the things that you not only conceptualize, you go and make happen. These are dreams that most people don't even make into reality, but every year you're setting something out there that, hey, this is going to be really hard and I want to. So I've got to prepare myself physically or mentally or whatever it might be to go meet that next big thing. And I've watched people that I really admire that are always setting their big annual thing, their big 10 year thing, and going and getting it done.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think I talked to a lot of people that don't maybe write stuff down or aren't so goal oriented, um, and they do, just fine too, but I can't, I can't imagine living my life that way, because I think it's just always the vision and what's next and how are we going to get there? I also think one of the things that have come up multiple times today is the importance of the people that are with you. I mean, I think, as you sit here and I can hear it in your voice as you talk through these different steps, who was by you and who came in, and the people, um, ultimately, that's the richness, is, is, is how and who we do all this with, um, the families that become part of our families, the friendships that become more than friendships, those bonds that last forever, and that's the beautiful thing about what we get to do. I mean, I think that, ultimately, if I think of America and the opportunity I've had I'm given a talk Thursday night for Operation Military Blessings and I always get a little squeamish when I give I don't know if it's guilt I almost went to the Air Force Academy out of high school and I didn't, and we had a big legacy in our family of people that had served in the military. So when I'm ever asked to go speak at Mission 43 or go do something for the military, I always just feel inadequate. It's just part of what I do. So in preparation this week I thought I'm going to do something different and I've spent the last five days um talking to.

Speaker 1:

I had an uncle his name was uncle Daryl, farmer, and he was a Lieutenant Colonel, colonel in the air force and has this heroic. He was like the guy for me growing up that was larger than life. I mean Daryl. Uncle Daryl was. He was an action figure and I've been talking to his kids this week and getting pictures sent in that I'm going to use in my talk. But my point is, if you think about all of us and where we're born and how we're like, the opportunities that we have and then the opportunities that are afforded us in this life to do so many amazing things, the joy is in the journey and the joy is with the people you're doing it with, whether it's him in the military, and I'm hearing these heroic, amazing stories of how these became friends for lifelong friends.

Speaker 1:

The other thing I just learned about him this week and I knew this from a kid. He lived in Pueblo Colorado and I remember going and visiting him and you got to remember when I was growing up this guy was my this was just was GI Joe. To me this was the guy that would fly these missions into Vietnam and I had pictures of him and I remember when I was a kid he gave me a model of an F4E, phantom 2. And I built that model and he was like he was like bigger than life. And then I went to Pueblo Colorado to visit them with our family and he was working in a Kmart and I remember thinking I was probably 12 or 13 at the time.

Speaker 1:

He's working in a Kmart and he took me to his store that day and I watched him. He had a red I'll never forget. He had a red vest on and he walked around the store and introduced me to all the people there and when I was preparing for this talk this week, I looked and he ended up working for 22 years at that Kmart after he retired from the storied military career and when I talked to his kids this week, that part of his life was as important, if not more important, than this storied military career working at the Kmart in Pueblo, colorado. So I hear those things and I'm like man, that's just gosh, just inspires you to try it and I will bet he brought to that job what he brought to his military career.

Speaker 1:

I'll bet he did too. I know he did. I actually looked up last night um the comments in his obituary and almost all of them were from people who he had interacted with.

Speaker 4:

That came or I thought, man, there's just, uh, some good people in this life that do some wonderful things well and you talk about relationships and you know we're now seeing stories in the wall street journal and certain general and others about this epidemic of loneliness, and so one of the great wealths we have that we need to be very cognizant of and appreciative of and grateful for is relationships, the people that we get to spend time with. People like you that I get to know, and whenever we get together it's like, oh, we're talking about stuff that matters together and so those aren't going to happen by accident. So you have to cultivate people and take care of them and watch out for them and recognize the things that they do that are good and be their cheerleaders and show them love. Be their cheerleaders and show them love, because love is kind of that thing that we don't talk about in business because, yeah, we're about P&Ls and balance sheets, but if you don't love the people you're working with, go find another job. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Hey, this went by so fast, but I did want to mention State Board State.

Speaker 4:

Board of Education. State board of education.

Speaker 1:

You did so much you do. You're on almost every I think of the philanthropic things you're doing, andy, and it's, it's, it's everywhere. Um, I think you're one of the thought leaders in this place, everything that matters. I hear of work you're doing and I just want to tell you thank you for that. Can?

Speaker 4:

I bring that back to what I started with, yeah, which is I didn't want to come to Boise because I didn't think it was in. We got here and found out it was the most perfect place for us and our family and I believed and it just really hit me hard about 10 years in that if you feel fortunate to be in a place, wherever that place is, For us it's the Treasure Valley in the broader state of Idaho and this is where they will bury me, because I will never leave Is if you feel that way and you're not giving back, then what you value you're going to lose.

Speaker 4:

And so every person who feels that way needs to be not just waiting for the next good thing to happen in your town, but being part of helping to make that. And I want to do my little piece, like you're doing your bigger piece, to make where we are. You know we're living in this little bubble of of great stuff every day. I got to do a little bit to help give back to that so that my grandkids experience as well. So I came to a place I didn't want to necessarily be ended up finding out. It's the perfect place and I want it to be that way for the next generation and the generation after that. And you only get that if you're willing to put in the work.

Speaker 1:

I love that last thing. So you founded SCI.

Speaker 4:

So that's your capital investment and, uh, you're having fun.

Speaker 1:

One of the other things I love about it is this idea I mean, there you go, like you're Brundage mountain, right, so you're investing in lots of things. Um, you're investing in businesses, you're investing in real estate and you're taking probably, lessons and wisdom learned from a long time. You're choosing partners that you want to do things with and you're having more fun now than you ever have.

Speaker 4:

Yes, yes, I am, I'm having a blast and I'm, you know, I feel very blessed with that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, hey, this again went by way way too fast. We're gonna have to do it again. This was fantastic. Thank you for putting these on.

Speaker 4:

These going out into the world. This one maybe no one will listen to, but they're listening to a lot of the rest.

Speaker 1:

They're phenomenal.

Speaker 4:

There's a lot of less than uplifting media going out in the world, and then there's this contingent, like you're putting together, of stuff that actually brings positivity into the world. I hope, thank you I hope.

Speaker 1:

I hope everyone enjoys like I. I just love this because I learn and, um again, as you get old, you're like what are the things I want to do with my time? This is certainly one of them. So I love you, man. Thank you for your example, thank you for what you do for the state and will always do, uh, you and your wife and your family. Thank you so much and keep it up. I'm honored to be here. Thanks, everybody.