The Grocery Aisles

**Discussion begins at 8:00**

Have you ever been to a grocery store?  Have you ever looked at the brands?  Well if you deep dive into each brand, and the parent company that owns those brands, you are going to find a common denominator.  Every single brand in the grocery store, including condiments, sauces, dressings, feminine hygiene...they are almost all dominated and owned by the same three investors, and a handful of parent companies.  Now, for this particular episode we were inspired by a Tik Tok - where the creator went through each aisle and divulged who owned what company aisle by aisle, and it was absolutely mind boggling.

Source Material & Additional Content

Cancel This Clothing Company

Transcript

How y'all doing?

Happy Father's Day to all our fathers out there.

First of all, can we just talk about the fact, I already told you this, everyone knows we were already over X'd Twitter, right?

Elon Musk was supposed to be the king of First Amendment.

Yeah, and we got blocked as soon as we went on Twitter for a month or whatever, and we were like, forget this.

Then I just realized when I checked the Reddit the other day, we have been flagged on multiple posts of our trailer.

It was language that could potentially be offensive to certain groups of people or something, and then it was something else about potentially inflammatory language.

Because when I went into our primary source for today's episode, he also talked about a lot of the social media that he's being blocked on.

First Amendment rights.

The other thought I had, Harry sent me a text message just before we met to record.

So she and my brother, no, they've been watching the Patriots documentary on Apple.

And I guess last night they were watching and they finally got to like Aaron Hernandez and was talking about that.

And they were, so this morning, everyone was like asking questions.

But anyway, Colleen, you're probably also an Aaron Hernandez expert here.

But my mom's texted me and goes, I've been going down this Aaron Hernandez rabbit hole now that I watched that episode last night.

And I went on Wikipedia, and she sent me a quote from Wikipedia that says, regarding his suicide.

Shampoo was found covering the floor.

Cardboard was wedged under the cell door to make it difficult for someone to enter.

And there were drawings in blood on the walls showing an unfinished pyramid with an all-seeing eye of God and the word Illuminati written in capital letters underneath.

My God, did Illuminati kill him?

Were they involved in Aaron Hernandez's death?

I don't know.

I would assume so.

Did he have a history of mental illness?

Well, now we think he definitely has some CTE.

Oh, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh.

What I always heard, he was pretty much part of the Kraft family.

He was going to dinner, and everyone loved him, but they said in the documentary yesterday that it kind of implied that everyone knew he was pretty all right.

I would not classify myself as a Patriots fan.

I do not by choice know a lot about the Patriots because I wouldn't even say my family is a Patriots fan.

My Grammy is, my Grampy was, and I think it's something that everybody just does here.

But no, I do feel like bossa sports is a cult, and I think it's funny that they were watching that documentary.

Just a reminder, guys, don't forget to check out our Facebook and Instagram page, the 3SchemeQueens.

That's the number 3, SchemeQueens, all one word.

We are also on Reddit, same username.

If you want to check out our website, go to 3schemequeens.com, and you can find links to our social media accounts, our Buzzsprout page, all of our episodes, additional content, and our contact page.

There's also a discussion board where you can engage with us and share any updates about the topics we've discussed.

Let us know how we're doing and what you want to hear next.

There's also opportunities to financially support us.

There are links to buy us a cup of coffee, links to our recently updated merch store, and affiliate links.

And as always, if you choose not to financially support us, we appreciate the follows, the downloads, listens, the likes.

Kait, what should the people do?

The people, they should do this.

They should scroll on down, leave us a five-star review, leave us a comment, share us with your friends and family, share us with that annoying coworker, share us on your Instagram, share us on your social media.

I was perusing the merch store this weekend because I was obviously ex-loving the podcast and my family, and my little cousin, Nedson, shout out Nedson, he's listening to this right now.

He'd like to do an episode with us.

He wanted to purchase some merch, and so he went on the merch store and perused it together.

You should be constantly looking on our merch website because Megan has uploaded some really cute-

I'll want for Nedson to do a podcast with us.

Yeah, he would get a kick out of that, so I balanced that.

And Roslyn also, she should be our shout out for the week because my cousin, Roslyn, she said she left us a review a month ago.

Never got to it.

So I don't know where-

Did she tell you where she left it?

Because I always check before we record and I haven't seen any.

And I do know on Apple, it usually takes about a week to go through.

Maybe that's why.

It was probably Spotify.

Spotify, I'll let you, Spotify has let you leave a review.

It lets you leave stars.

You can like five star.

Maybe that's what you meant.

Okay, just to clarify, I can see that we have like 20 some five star ratings, but I can't, I don't know who left them.

So we can't shout you out, but we do appreciate it.

Keep doing that.

But the only way I'm gonna be able to, we can really like read your thing and shout you out is if you do something like on Apple Podcasts or one of the other podcast sites that allows you to actually leave a comment.

Or send us an email.

Or yes, oh my gosh, we love the, I get so excited when we get a-

An email.

Yeah.

Okay, you guys gonna know what I made for dinner.

What?

What?

Okay, I made some really good oven wings.

I've been into making wings lately.

Like you get them from the store, not like in a frozen package, but I have a whole recipe.

Pioneer Woman, shout out.

And you know what, I may complain, because everyone likes to choose like their different sauce that they put on it.

And so Joey likes of course, can, what else?

Patch, like sweet baby rays.

And what is Bourbon Boy like?

Bourbon Boy's ranch dressing with Frank's Red Hot.

Right.

You know what he should switch to?

Probably, it's just straight up Tabasco.

We'll talk about that today.

And I hope you're using Ken's Ranch and not Hidden Valley.

We only buy pens.

So is it time for our drink check?

It is Ocean Spray cranberry juice with a hint of lime.

That is so good, because Ocean Spray is a collab.

You guys, this is so perfect for tips.

What are you having over there, girl?

I just went down to the 7-Eleven and got myself a Cascade Ice.

And I'm pretty unhappy to report that I just don't like it.

It's very sweet.

It's too sweet.

Well, I'm happy you're supporting a family-owned company.

Yes.

Oh, why?

I went up to my CBS because, I gotta be honest, I was getting ready today for this episode.

This is Colleen's episode, but I told her she sent me the TikTok, and I just went down the rabbit hole.

And I was like, I don't wanna learn about this.

I want you to teach me, but I cannot stop.

It's Colleen.

It was really addicting.

It was.

But I went into this whole side story I'll share with you guys about Arizona iced tea, and we wanna support them.

So, did you know that you could still get an Arizona iced tea despite the inflation and everything?

99 cents, 24 ounces of Arizona iced tea.

I actually got an Arnold Palmer.

Oh, I love that.

Arnold Palmer.

It is delicious.

And delicious.

Delicious.

But for our listeners who have no idea why we're getting excited about, you know, cranberry juice and iced tea, shall we get into it?

Yeah.

We think we shall.

This evening, I will start the presentation.

Guys, do you know what store I hate?

What store?

The grocery store.

Oh, I will pay for Instacart to help me avoid the chaos that is the grocery store.

I love the grocery store.

I do pay for Instacart at the moment of my life.

Right.

However, That's full.

Yeah.

Right, right, right.

I'm not gonna talk about that.

It's not my whole personality, okay?

But like before, you know, the time of my life, I loved going to different grocery stores and like walking down the aisles and seeing what they had and like shopping new organic brands.

I also loved going to the farmer's work.

Okay, we're here for that.

We don't have to Colleen's well crap intro though.

Wait a minute, it's private.

You think Kait's gonna have an interesting perspective on all of this?

I don't know if I would call this episode a deep dive into a conspiracy or if it's just a deep dive into the outrageousness that is American businesses.

I mean, I think it's a bit of a conspiracy in that it's just gonna-

It's a control factor.

Yes, the control.

I think we are presenting the conspiracy.

The data I have is not a conspiracy, but my thoughts on the data is the conspiracy.

Your critical analysis of the literature.

It's gonna be a people to mind down now, so mine is surprising.

Yeah, so the store I hate the most in the entire world is a grocery store.

I've hated the grocery store pre-anti-anxiety medication.

I've hated the grocery store post-anti-anxiety medication.

I do not like the grocery store.

I'm revoused for this.

I've gone into Costco with Colleen, and it's like an idiot.

Like, no, like she's like not in her eyes.

Yeah, fear.

Yeah, the only grocery store I semi-like is Market Basket, but I still get severe anxiety.

They just sell Brigham's ice cream, which is doing things.

Okay, I was like, is this a New England store?

Anyways, so my issue is, have you ever been to a grocery store?

Have you ever looked at the brands?

I always, Kait reads labels.

I gotta be honest, not so much.

I'm like trying to get in and out.

Well, if I have time, I will look at the ingredients, see what the ingredients is.

You're crazy.

Yeah, well, if you deep dive into each brand, in the parent company that owns those brands, you are going to find a common denominator.

Every single brand in the grocery store.

And I'm not just talking food.

I'm talking condiments.

I'm talking sauces.

I'm talking dressings.

I'm talking the feminine hygiene trial.

What?

They are all, not my feminine hygiene, you're going to be whoppy.

You're going to be happy about that.

I did think about you with the feminine hygiene.

Even to the extent of the feminine hygiene trial, are all dominated and owned by the same three, fluctuating a little bit, but mostly the same three investors in parent companies.

Now, for this particular episode, if you're following our Instagram, you know that I was in fact inspired once again by TikTok.

And I deep dived into this gentleman's profile, which he had a series called like Tore the Grocery Store Isle with me.

And he went through each aisle and divulged who owned what company, aisle by aisle.

And it was absolutely mind boggling.

I want to take a moment just to say, because Colleen and I were talking before this, and she was texting about like, she always sends me her sources.

And she said, I've got a couple sources, but to be honest, it's all on a one-size-fits-all guy.

And I said, that's mostly what I looked at.

I did find a couple articles.

So we put whatever we've sourced on the website, but we got to give a shout out to this guy.

He's got a website.

And actually, Kait, you should go check this out.

So everyone go check this guy out.

CancelThisClothingCompany is his handle.

He's on YouTube and Instagram.

I think he said he's on TikTok, but sometimes his TikToks get banned.

But yes, if you go to cancelthisclothingcompany.com, he actually has created spreadsheets of like, he said in the year 2023, he went down 1,400 grocery aisles in one year and just analyzed what was in there.

And then he keeps this ready list so he could tell you what is small business and whatnot.

And then he actually has a lot of like, affiliate links with some of these like, small family owned companies.

So, pretty cool source.

Thank you to him for bringing this to our attention and for doing all this research.

His tagline, which I'd like to just point out for some of our favorite listeners is, follow the money.

So this theme for the episode today is our thoughts on what his research has discovered and our conspiracies in regards to that.

And also, once again, shout out to the Cheese episode, but supporting Spon businesses.

Yeah, shout out to Spon.

I am reading, well, I'm not reading right now.

I'm listening to Funny Story on audiobook right now.

We're at book club.

I sent the meme, everyone jumped on board.

I hear that there are people who get judged for audio booking.

Oh, yeah.

We're all, don't say I'm not reading, I'm listening, okay?

Oh, well, I just wanted to clarify because I don't have time to read, so I really just listen.

I wish I was reading it.

I wish I had my own.

I don't like audiobooks because I think that they, even if I like 2.5 speed, I can read so much quicker.

So I actually think it's more of a commitment to audiobook if you ask me.

I like doing it because I can do other things while I'm, well, like I've listened to two audiobooks for book club, and both of them have enjoyed the book and the story, hated the voice actor.

Yeah, you gotta find the good ones.

Yeah.

So I'm reading Funny Story Right Now by Emily Henry.

It's like one of her newest books.

She's the same person that wrote The People We Meet On Vacation, Beach Read, Book Lovers, like those books.

I read Beach Read for a different book club.

I love Emily Henry.

Her characters are always so fleshed out.

But anyway, in the book, they were just talking about going to all the local farm stands and buying different, one was green beans, one was asparagus, the other was only lavender.

And so anyway, I was like, the dream is to buy everything local, right?

But I'm looking at it a little bit for you because the farmers markets normally come from the factories that also support the grocery stores.

I do believe that because the government has to pay the farmers.

So the farmers are being paid, and I am not sorry about that.

I'm not sorry to still support a farmer.

No, I agree.

But a lot of the vegetables that you're eating aren't, some of them aren't even farmers.

Some of them just buy their produce.

Like a bush, you would have marked up.

Yeah.

And all the farmers markets?

Most of them, at least in this area.

Yeah.

So you should be looking at the marketing around the stall and make sure it markets what farm you're getting it from.

Well, because it gets suspicious because the farmers market near our apartment, all the vegetables are there all year round no matter what the season is.

Oh, yeah.

Now, that's what I'm talking about.

Digressing from markets and moving towards grocery stores.

This guy breaks it down.

He goes down by aisle by aisle and topic by topic, and then talks about the big investors.

And there's one that is pretty much in every single aisle.

BlackRock, Incorporated.

That's the number one.

And there's Vanguard.

Vanguard?

Mm-hmm.

State Street.

We have stocks with Vanguard.

State Street.

All three of these are like investment companies.

But the one that I found the most interesting, the number one's BlackRock, period.

Yeah.

The one that I've kept seeing in his videos, that I was like, what the fuck?

They own this Pepsi.

The three investors you described.

So Vanguard, BlackRock and State Street.

BlackRock is like worth $10 trillion.

They are number one.

They are the number one, world's largest asset manager.

And then Vanguard, like you said, worth $7.7 trillion, so it's like the number two.

Again, an American grocery investment advisor, large provider of mutual funds, second largest provider of exchange trade funds.

And then State Street is actually a Boston bank.

It's worth $3.7 trillion.

That makes sense, State Street.

Yep, it is the second oldest continually operating US bank, 14th largest bank in the US.

So like you said, these three are like big three asset management firms.

And I also thought it was interesting, when I went on Wikipedia briefly, it said there are conspiracy theories.

Listeners, Kait really wants to cover COVID, and I kind of feel like it might be a...

Too dramatic.

A polarizing topic, just because I know that people did lose people during COVID.

I will just say, New York Times just did an article on COVID.

Okay.

And if New York Times is doing it, we can do it.

But all I'm saying is that when you go on Wikipedia, it says that there are all these theories that since these three companies control like three quarters of the US gross domestic product, that they are somehow involved in like orchestrating COVID.

So, anyway, those are the big three, but the reason I went into this, Colleen, is because you mentioned Pepsi.

I then found like a website that broke it down.

It says like, so those are just the big investors, right?

Right.

A separate site that's like here 11, the 11 companies that own like umbrella companies, and Pepsi is number three.

What we're gonna talk about is the company that owns the product, which is one side, and then the investors investing that company.

So the top three investing companies is Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street.

And then there's the top companies.

So Pepsi, General Mills, a lot of Nestle.

I believe that.

Of these 11, the number one, Nestle, were $89.79 billion.

So this includes Toll House, Gerber, Poland Spring, Stouffer.

Nestle is the number one owner of things in your grocery store.

The next one is Johnson & Johnson.

Worth $76.45 billion.

And that's again, like a Vino Clean and Clear Band-Aid.

Clorox.

Oh God, Clorox is scary.

Clorox is terrifying.

Do you know who else?

Do you know what Clorox also makes?

Baby food.

Hidden Valley Ranch.

And I think Hidden Valley Ranch is the most disgusting ranch.

Now like, yeah, are they using the same recipe?

I don't know.

Is it chlorinate it?

Yeah.

And then, but then the number three is Pepsi, $65.53 billion.

And I think the interesting thing is that Pepsi, in addition to the drinks, also snacks.

Frito Lay, so the entire Chip Isle, I believe, is Pepsi, right?

Pepsi dominates the entire beverage and snacking.

And then Quaker and Tropicana, yeah.

Knocks it out of the park.

I think one aisle that was disturbing when I was watching the video was the cereal aisle, because there is just no cereal company that's small business.

There was one cereal company that is small business, and it's like the Panda Box.

It's Nature's Path, which thanks Panda Puffs.

But I did what I was like, Nature's Path, what is that?

And then you know what I realized, Colleen?

The organic Pop Tarts are Nature's Path.

And we do like those, right, Colleen?

I like Nature's Path.

They make vitamins and stuff too.

Nature's Path, well, vitamins is a whole other episode coming soon, but Nature's Path, shockingly, yeah, the only cereal company.

That was the only cereal that wasn't dominated by these trillion dollar companies.

I'm not as surprised as you guys.

We haven't gotten into it yet.

We haven't gotten into it yet.

Okay, so let me just list my top shocking facts.

So I didn't finish his entire series, but he literally goes down every single aisle.

The dressing aisle, happy to report, two actual small family companies.

My number one, Kenton's.

Yes, we're happy to report.

Yeah, we love Kenton's.

Originates in, I think, Lynn, Massachusetts.

Feminine Hygiene, happy to report.

Cora, small business.

They are not sponsoring us.

I want them to sponsor us so bad.

Before we even aired an episode, Kait was like, can we get Cora to sponsor us?

And I was throw this.

I swear to God, Cora is the only Feminine Hygiene product that doesn't itch, doesn't make it burn.

It doesn't.

So it's still small business, but it's foreign.

It's all women owned, and every time you buy something from Cora, they ship Feminine products to third world countries, for women to have in third world countries.

So yes, to support.

Speaking of women owned, Kait, if you go back to the spreadsheet that I referenced, that I told you that guy made on his website, he also does identify these are women owned businesses or whatever, and they have a whole color for that.

So it's just fascinating if you're someone like Kait, who really cares about who you're supporting.

If you truly want to shop small, and you truly care about the origin story of your companies, this gentleman's spreadsheet is phenomenal.

But yeah, Cora was a big one.

And I will say in his series, he's not just looking at one grocery store, he compares Target, his local grocery store, national wide grocery store.

So he has-

What about like Aldi and Trader Joe's?

He doesn't think he has those.

We've got a Trader Joe's.

He said Trader Joe's is kind of challenging because most of Trader Joe's is like a Trader Joe brand.

Yeah, so he does have like an asterisk to his searches in that he is only listing the name brand companies because the store brand companies, it's like you can't really track them off, right?

And so Trader Joe's buys products and then relabels them.

So it's hard to source them.

So shop at your own.

The Snack Isle, absolutely.

Every product in the Snack Isle is Pepsi.

The Bevragino Isle, happy to report Polar Bubble Water is a fourth generation family run.

We love it Polar, I'm proud, sir.

Black Cherry, I just know one of them.

That's right before we said that.

Waterloo, is Waterloo acquired by Lexus Capital and E-Aerozeo brands?

So Waterloo is not owned by one of those big three.

Oh, Bubbly, Bubbly is owned by Pepsi.

I believe that.

Here's the deal, Kait.

Okay, Waterloo is not owned by one of those top three, but it was sold in 2020 to a large investment group.

So it's still not like a private or family.

Do you blame these people?

What were your, Megan?

The things that I was surprised by.

I kind of told you, again, I was impressed.

I was glad to hear about Ken's, which you mentioned.

I've written that.

So Ken's dressing was founded by Ken and Florence Hanna in 1941.

It's owned by like the same families who founded it.

In 2005, they bought Sweet Baby Ray's barbecue sauce, but that's it.

But that's it.

They own Ken's and Sweet Baby Ray's, and that's all they do.

That's probably why I like them so much.

Yeah, and then them and Newman's Own.

Newman's Own, still owned by Paul, yeah, still owned by Paul Newman's family.

I think there have been some bites to keep in the family, but like it stayed in the family.

They have donated over $600 million to charity.

Oh, it's no lie.

It is still 100% of proceeds.

And I think Newman's Own is still one of the better brands.

Yeah, I agree.

Tabasco, just like the normal Tabasco, remains family owned.

Oh, and there were not a lot of those.

So that's why I said Bourbon Boy might need to try some Tabasco at his ranch.

So we switched from Tabasco to Frank's Red Hot during our Whole30 phase.

Frank's Red Hot is just like cayenne pepper and vinegar.

And Tabasco has sugar in it.

So, I'm a label reader here, guys.

When this guy's going through his companies, a lot of them are family owned, but still huge.

So, like, he does enforce that info when he's talking about it.

He's like, it's still family owned, but it's also making this much money.

The chip style you also mentioned, Snack, almost all by Petty.

There was only one chip brand.

Love chips.

There was only one family owned chip company.

Siete Foods.

Siete Foods is family owned.

Well, he did not find that.

Juanitos, or Juantonios, which depending geographically on your area, is a small family owned business.

And the only thing in his entire chip aisle that was family owned.

Wow.

Oh, Pet Food.

There was only one Pet Food.

Yeah, that was crazy.

Yeah, Bill Jack or something.

Okay, Siete Foods is still owned by Veronica Garza.

And it's a mission based company.

And so, yeah, they are not owned by any of these big companies.

Okay, there you go.

Shout out.

I like Siete Foods too.

One that surprised me is that I think everyone is raising their kids on Annie's, right?

Oh, yeah.

Annie's is a lot family owned.

So Annie's was founded by Annie and her husband.

And Andrew Martin in 1989.

And then in 2002, they sold, they gave up their control of the company to Solera Capital in 2002, who turned around and sold it to General Mills for $820 million in 2014.

So just interesting that it's like everyone, you think like, oh, Annie's, or it's just like this small organic company.

And it's like General Mills, who's also making Sharia checks, Betty Crocker, Bisquick.

They're worth $15.62 billion.

Kraft Heinz was another interesting one.

They are the, let's see, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

The ninth most common brand in the grocery store.

Warren Buffett owns it.

Warren Buffett.

He still owns it.

He bought Heinz in 2013 and then merged it with Kraft in 2015, worth $18.22 billion.

And yeah, you know what they make?

They make those lunchables that Kait's son really wants and Kait won't let him have.

So good on you there.

Kraft mac and cheese.

What about Applegate?

That's a good question.

That's a good question.

Oh no, Applegate is owned by Hormel.

That's interesting.

That is interesting.

Because I think of Hormel as like cheap meat.

And I think it's like good, high quality, high Applegate meat.

I'm upset.

They sell that all.

Guys, I have like legit been thinking, like I just want to go to a local farm and pick out my own pig and my own cow and just I want to buy them.

You please do what you have to do to get me the meat.

I don't want to be a part of that process.

And then just have like a deep freezer.

And then that's just like where I get my meat from.

I have legitimately thought about this.

And I think I can go.

There's farms all over Virginia.

Do either of you know Nara Smith?

No.

She's an influencer who's married to a model who was big in the 2010s.

Whatever.

She has become absolutely famous on TikTok and I think Reels too, because she no longer buys any snack food, pre-made food.

She makes her own dumb...

She makes her own pastries, she makes her own bread, she makes her own cereal.

She does not buy anything pre-made.

That is also a goal, but also I'm like...

I don't have time for that.

Right.

That is...

I mean, she's an influencer.

That's her job.

That's what she does now, and it's insane.

I would love that, but also, again, how much can we actually control?

I always like...

Let's take it back to the ChemTraw episode where I'm like, guys, you gotta go outside.

There's always so many things you can control.

And also, it's all about balance, right?

So you want to have the most quality ingredients and feed your family and yourself the most wholesome ingredients that you can.

But also, there is such a thing as convenience.

Sometimes it's just okay to go and get your kids some...

And eat what you want...

.

old fish, you know?

I had the kids.

Bourbon Boy was golfing with a friend.

We went to the gym.

And then on the way home from the gym, I was like, you know, if you guys go to the gym with me, because I didn't want to go, I was like, I will go through McDonald's and get you an ice cream.

And they were so excited because, number one, I never go to McDonald's.

And so they were like, okay.

So then I was going to be like a big treat.

So I go through McDonald's, I get them an ice cream with like hot fudge on it.

It's like a hot fudge sundae or something.

And both of them on the way home, Patch...

Now, first, Kait sends a selfie where they have big grins on their faces.

Yeah, probably holding their sundaes.

Core memory is happening right now.

And then two seconds later, what did Patch say?

Patch was like, Mom, is this ice cream?

And I was like, yeah.

And he was like, it tastes fake.

Yeah, and then she goes, yeah, I don't know if I like it.

I've only ever met a treat she didn't like.

No, which is surprising.

And then she said McDonald's ice cream.

But then I made a joke like, Kait, it's probably because they like that organic stuff you spend so much money on.

And she was like, well, as a matter of fact, would you like to go to Jenny's in Old Town?

I was like, the most expensive ice cream.

Do you guys know about Jenny's, though?

What?

They're not a nice company.

They purposely open up storefronts near and close to small town ice cream shops to sell out their customers and clothes.

That's why we very rarely went to Jenny's.

It was only whenever I wanted ice cream because they do very free stuff.

But we really would go to Pops in Old Town, which is like the best ice cream.

My other Colleen friend who lives in New Hampshire Colleen and Dan, shout out to them.

Whatever, I would go see them in Old Town.

We would go to Pops to get ice cream.

Pops was like their go-to ice cream spot.

Pops is so like free.

Me realizing that I got hives from dairy, I would go to Pops, and it was so good.

Well, if you want to buy some ice cream or some dairy from the grocery store, you know what brands you should go for?

Tillamook.

Oh, that's one of the ones I buy.

And Organic Valley.

They are both owned by Dairy Co-op, so it's all farmer-owned.

I think Tillamook is one of the better ice creams, so that makes sense for me.

But the Organic Valley, I don't usually...

I mean, I was thinking about when I go buy cream or something.

Oh, yeah.

I don't think I've ever seen them have an ice cream flavor.

I'm talking about dairy in general.

Tillamook is ice cream, but Tillamook also has other dairy.

And the Organic Valley is a big dairy company.

These all do cheese and cream.

They do grass milk, where the cows are only fed grass, and the grads are fed grass finish.

Yeah, but definitely...

I mean, I've done the Tillamook cheese and Tillamook ice cream.

In Organic Valley, I've gotten one where they're out of cream or something, and I've particularly enjoyed them.

I like that brand.

We haven't talked about feminine hygiene, but the big ones, the only ones he found, again, it was mostly, none of them were really small companies, but I haven't heard of most of these.

Korn was the big one, which we already talked about.

August, Honey Pot and Lola are the other ones.

Oh, I've been to some.

You've been to Honey Pot?

I don't like Honey Pot as much as Korn.

And then Baby Food is a shocker, because you would think these would all be like...

Yeah, you would think these would all be like, yes, I don't know, small family-owned business, making organic foods.

But no, like you said, you're making household cleaners and you're making baby food.

And one of the companies he called out is in a current lawsuit for putting heavy metals in their baby food.

The only company I'm very devastated by is Primal Kitchen right now.

Baby food-wise, Plum is a baby food.

I don't have babies.

I don't know.

Kait's the only one here who's had a baby.

But Plum, it's owned by Sunmade, the raisin group.

And we're going to get into the very last thing I'm going to talk about is the juices.

But those are actually pretty good because it's all owned by the growers and the co-ops.

So Plum is good.

Sarah Belli is one that this female neurosurgeon has three kids and she created this food for her kids.

And she has maintained ownership.

So that's the other one.

But then she talks about the shampoo aisle that like all the shampoo is owned by the same companies.

And then when you go online, it's like there's lawsuits happening because people are claiming the shampoo is making them lose their hair.

But don't worry, you just walk down the aisle in the same company.

Hair growth, making work gains.

Fallen hair growth.

But the juice was a big winner, honestly.

Juice is, for the most part, like, Faley Farmer owned.

So the big Ocean Spray is owned by 700 Co-op Faley's Farmer.

I love that.

They're the ones with the commercials that are like, yeah, at the Cape Cod Grand, isn't it?

Yeah, and when I was like, oh my gosh, I have seen the commercial where they're all sitting in the cranberry.

Or whatever it is.

If you go to Cape Cod, like, you can drive past cranberry bogs and just, like, see them.

That's what they're called.

It's like, they grow the plant, then they flood it with water, and the berries float up.

I was obsessed with cranberry juice going up.

So we said Ocean Sprite Welches also is owned by 700 to 1,000 farmers.

It's another co-op.

Welches Sun, great sun-kissed.

Sun-kissed is a co-op.

Martinelli is the apple juice.

It's still owned, fairly owned.

Treetop apple juice is still washed in Oregon co-ops.

What they did say about the juice aisle, though, is that any of the organic juices, no good.

All owned by the big three of the big companies.

So, like, honest company?

So anyway, mix the organic juices and stick with the good old Ocean Sprite, the Welches, and support the farmers.

You know?

Honest is owned by Coca-Cola, and it was a spin-off of Honest Tea.

Interesting.

Like, I don't buy juice that much for my kids, but because my kids like kombucha.

Is that annoying?

That's so annoying.

That's so annoying.

My favorite kombucha is still owned by the sole owner.

GT's Living Foods is still owned by George Thomas Dave, GT.

Yeah, that's my favorite kombucha.

Go to your...

It's sold everywhere.

It's my favorite.

Go.

We never had drinks in our house.

It was water, milk, or cranberry juice in the fridge.

And like, that was it.

Sorry.

Do you know what dairy I do enjoy?

What?

What?

Fair life.

Oh.

So I just thought I'd give that a quick Google.

Coca-Cola.

Nothing is safe.

But guys, think about these people who are like, I am making these good ideas.

I'm coming up with these companies.

I'm putting my effort into recreating these products that I really feel good about.

And they do it, and they put so much time into it.

And then they're making money, but not great money.

And then somebody comes up and they're like, we love your product.

We want to buy it.

It's like a Shark Tank episode.

No, it's why Fred said you got to have the idea, you got to execute the idea by yourself, and you got to maintain ownership by yourself.

Okay, but I'm going to be the first selling it.

But you just know that once Coca-Cola buys FairLife, it's probably not being made with the same love and-

It's not on the quality.

Yeah, yeah.

People need to be more observant in what they're buying, because Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and their investors, is that people need to understand that these investor companies are essentially just controlling what we have available to us.

Yeah.

That drives me crazy.

I don't necessarily care about the ingredients.

I know that's your ride or die.

To me, it's the fact that I'm like, these people dominate what is in my store.

And you know what else is out there.

And this neurosurgeon who has created this brain fuel for her children, how can she compete with the Warren Buffett?

Warren Buffett out here just making more money.

And how are we supposed to find these companies if it's not funded by state guard or blackmail?

I also want to be clear.

I am not just anti big money.

Amazon changed my life.

People hate Bezos.

And I am just like, but my life is easier because of him and who cares?

I love Amazon.

And Teresa's employees, right?

That's like, or like, you know, Costco is a big, I'm reading a book about Costco right now.

And that's interesting how they came to be.

But the last story, I rounded my notes, and I'll give it to Colleen for any final thoughts since I like stole her episode.

But again, I really tried, really was like, I'm just going to sit back and let Colleen talk.

And then I just, it was like so fascinating.

You couldn't with this topic.

Yeah, he just kept releasing more and more info.

And I was like, there, another one gone.

And everyone gone.

I was like, and he does the illustrations where he like color codes them.

So you could actually visually see like, I got that entire aisle is red, which the other drink that was interesting to me, you know what is still family owned, small business owned?

Red Bull.

Oh, I knew that.

I haven't had a Red Bull since.

A Jager Rock.

I would say right after college, when I lived in Charlotte and we would still go to the bar to watch the Gamecocks play every weekend.

Yeah.

But it was like, I'd pick an 11 AM game.

And it was like, man, it's too early to drink.

So it was like the espresso martini, you know.

Okay.

Arizona iced tea.

It was a story I wanted to tell you though.

Don Veltagio, he created it and he still maintains ownership.

So anyone in this guy's website, he's like, you guys should really look into Don Veltagio.

I don't know if I'm saying it right, but look in the Arizona iced tea story.

So I looked into it.

How did Arizona come to be?

So he started working for his dad's war buddy doing in-store displays for Peels, which was a local brewery in New York City.

And then in the 70s, this brewery folds, and he goes into distribution.

And he initially got a start because he would, he would, one of these little bodegas, but they couldn't afford to buy, like, the minimum amount of beverages from these big companies to sell them, right?

So he would, like, let these little bodegas all pool together to get an order in, and then he would go distribute them.

And while he was doing the Meats of Sky, John Farolino.

And so they had this band.

They just, like, loaded up with beer and drinks.

They'd go to these little sketchy neighborhoods.

They talked about how they were robbed over a hundred times.

They were, like, running this out of Don's house.

So then in 1985, they developed a malt liquor called Midnight Dragon, and they advertised it because they had a poster of a woman in lingerie drinking out of this bottle with a straw saying, I could suck on this all night.

Brand takes off because of the advertising, not necessarily because of, like, the quality of the beverage, but it was such a success.

He's like, we're not even distributing any other drinks.

We're just gonna, like, distribute our Midnight Dragon.

Then, and I tell you, too, they launch Crazy Horse small liquor.

And it was all Old Western themed.

And people got real mad because Crazy Horse is this Sioux warrior.

So all the Native American groups came for him and were like, you cannot do that.

And they appealed to Congress.

Congress banned them from using Crazy Horse on any kind of alcoholic beverage.

So he ends up changing the name to Crazy Stallion, but it takes over a decade for the settlement with all these groups to come through.

And so in the meantime, he's just selling Midnight Dragon.

And while he's there unloading his Midnight Dragon, this Snapple truck rolls up in the middle of winter, unloading all of the Snapple iced tea.

And he's like, I cannot believe Snapple is killing it.

Like it's dead of winter and look at how much iced tea they're selling.

And so then he's like, we should get into this.

He and his buddy go to a factory to try to price out like how much is it gonna cost to get these glass bottles with lids and stuff.

And it's just like cost prohibitive.

So like, you know what, forget it.

They kind of give up on this whole plan.

They're not gonna do it.

And then they are in a store many months later, and they see a can of Gatorade, a 24-ounce can of Gatorade.

And he's like, oh my God, I was a distributor.

I know we already sell these malt beverages in these cans.

So he's like, wait, if we can sell this in a 24-ounce can, we can sell it for the same price for those 16-ounce bottles of Snapple, but we're saving so much money because we're using like an aluminum can instead of a bottle.

Like this is gonna be a moneymaker.

They picked the name Arizona because they thought Arizona gave this vibe of like dry air and like healthy living.

And they were like, they just said labels.

He paid nothing to publicize Arizona because he was like, if we, I'm looking at these labels, everyone is the same color.

No one is like pastel or anything.

Why don't we just have a crazy label?

But when you walk in and you're looking in the fridge, like your eye is gonna go to Arizona and you're gonna buy that in two seconds.

He didn't have marketing.

No marketing, yeah.

But it sounds like he was like a marketing genius.

They sold 18 million cases in their first three years.

By 2008, they had surpassed Apple.

2002, he negotiates to produce Arnold Palmer.

So like Arnold Palmer, the golfer, obviously everyone knows this is his drink, but no one is like selling an Arnold Palmer.

And so he gets the rights to do this.

It's like Arnold Palmer's face on the label.

And he's like, honestly, I just thought that like people would buy it at a golf course, but I didn't think it was gonna like take off.

It's like now they're number two selling beverage.

So they sold half a billion units in 2016.

And the other thing he gets credit for is that he was like, I want to maintain this 99 cent cost, even though we've got inflation.

So he actually worked with the factory to fill in the aluminum cans by 50%.

So it would require less aluminum so they could save money.

Then his co-founder is like, I guess he gets, they've got all this money coming in.

Now he's golfing, he owns a golf course.

He doesn't really want to be involved in Arizona.

And the owner is like, I love the day to day.

Why don't we just, we're going to keep doing 50-50.

I'm going to split everything with you, but I want to keep like running the show.

And he's like, okay, sounds good to me.

So that's how things went.

So the same guy is running, making all the decisions, running the show.

Barolino comes out and says, you know what?

I'm kind of done.

I'm ready to sell.

Let's sell.

Voltaggio is like, I don't want to sell to these big three investors and have them like take over my company and lose my company.

And it ends up being over a decade of legal proceedings.

And then the court says, Voltaggio, you buy out Barolino for $1 billion.

You'll get his 50% stake.

You will have 100% ownership.

Oh my goodness.

There's some kind of negotiation that ended up confidential.

So we don't know how much was actually paid, but he said, hold this guy allegedly around $1 billion.

And maintain complete ownership of this company.

And now the company is him and his two sons, like both work within the company.

It's worth like $4 billion.

But anyway, it's just an interesting story about like he made, he started at nothing.

He's like running this business out of his house.

He builds it up.

And then he's like, he had this option to sell it and make all this money.

And he's like, no.

Yep, it's for him.

Colleen.

What else?

Anything else from?

No, it just actually goes back to the fact that we don't really have a choice in what is marketed to us.

These companies are controlling the stores and you gotta be an active shopper.

Yeah, but I'm still probably not gonna be an active shopper because I don't have the energy.

But I do know that now when I'm like, I feel like some iced tea, what do I want?

I'm gonna be like, oh, Arizona.

Or, oh man, I really need some cereal.

Maybe I should get some Pay-At-The-Puff, you know?

Yeah, and so our specialty aspect, like, Kait's big on ingredients.

There are certain things that I look for.

I'm a big use of reduced reuse.

You know what I mean?

I like a good recycled plastic, so I look for that.

And I care a lot about my hair product, and I care a lot about my face product.

I will be actively looking at this guy's list going forward to see, like, updated on products as far as that.

So, it's changed my perspective a little bit on how I'm gonna shop.

Okay, Kait, tell us, told you so.

Tell us what you know.

You know, no, he was right.

I don't know, it's not so much as, like...

Kait, take a moment.

I'm just here, and I have been sitting here gloating this whole time, like, yeah.

Kait, Kait's favorite phrase to hear is, you're right, so we'll just give you that moment again right now.

Kait, you're right.

Thank you, guys.

Thank you.

But you know what's new when we did talk about Poppy?

Poppy's having a whole thing right now, too.

They actually, to have actual effects of GI assistance, you'd have to drink like 48 cans of Poppy a day.

Yeah, I've a little flat for names.

I've long to put GI, they never put, they don't put prebiotic.

Not anymore.

Well, I said, I am very pro, we've had this conversation with Steph also, right?

Like why do people need to have super yachts?

And I'm like, you know what?

If they work hard and they bought themselves a super yacht, and you know, as my dad would say, people were employed to build that yacht, people are employed to maintain that yacht, and like, that doesn't bother me.

So I'm not like an anti people with money, I'm not a socialist spread the wealth, but I do kind of feel like, how can farmers, how can a mom and pop business possibly compete with Warren Buffett controlling the entire grocery?

No, and that's what I was saying earlier, that's why they sell out, right?

So they can enjoy some of the profit.

And again, so how can you fault them for that?

They worked really hard, they wanted to do that, and good for them, good for the people that really believe in the product that they're doing and wanting to continue it within their small business.

Well, you could be someone like the Campbell Soup girl.

So Campbell Soup, and he talks about this, that it's like it is owned by these, I think perhaps some of these big companies, but the big investors, but the decision maker, the majority shareholder is still descendant of the Campbells, whatever.

And I'm like, I think that's good.

Make some money, but maintain some sort of ownership.

So you can maintain the quality of your product, because you know these big investors don't care about what they're putting out there.

No.

Again, it's like these companies, they want them to invest in the company so that they can create more.

So is that a problem?

Like, no, good for them.

I don't know.

I guess that's where I am on this.

Well, it's not really a quiz on this one this week, huh?

Kait, what should the people do?

The people, they should scroll on down, leave us a five-star review, leave us a comment, send us an email.

Colleen will read it in the accent of your choosing.

Okay, well, that was fun, guys.

That was fun, guys.

Thank you so much for listening.

I hope personally as a person who cares about what they buy and where they buy it, I hope, which is sort of ironic, given the fact that I'm like, if they want to sell out, they can.

But I hope that this episode has sort of helped you want to look into the products that you're buying and research them and see where that's going.

I think that that's a great thing to learn.

Mm-hmm.

It was fun calling, it was a good one.

You always come up with the best ideas.

It's the TikTok.

You're always like, you said you have a cool idea.

That's a very anti-TikTok, but it's full of inspiration.

I just don't understand it, you know?

Yeah, no, I am anti.

I'm a very anti-TikTok.

China, China is the...

I don't brain a lot.

China is brainwashing us, and I don't well get.

Also, what I was gonna caveat on on your TikTok is that when we do Mandela Effect next week...

Oh, heck yeah.

That is kind of wild thinking about how these stories perpetuate, and we get, we take, you know, fiction becomes fact because we see it on social media, and it's all part of Mandela Effect, and I think that'll be interesting to talk about.

Goes along with your TikTok, Kait.

Kait will tell us about the various timelines, the time travel, we only have about 15 Loki references, probably, right?

Maybe a lot of Loki reference.

We even had an alert in Hawaii.

Don't worry, it's coming back because you know what?

Premiered tonight, the first episode of House of the Dragon.

Thanks for listening, bye.

See you next Tuesday.

See you next Tuesday.