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Shout-out to the 412 — we're covering Striking Distance this week in honor of Pittsburgh. After finally explaining the pick and why we're covering it now, Joe reviews the movie's Pittsburgh bona fides. We discuss Bruce Willis as Tom Hardy, Sarah Jessica Parker as “a baddie,” and Tom Sizemore as the film's most egregious red herring. We break down the elements here that work (and the ones that don't), the tumultuous making of this movie, and the killer's illogical frame job on Bruce Willis. We try to make sense of the silly twists and turns in its final act and the film's many red herrings and misdirects. Joe laments something we've lost in modern action movies. Joey notices a reckless disregard for the toxic nature of Pittsburgh river water. We watch the misleading trailer for Striking Distance and stumble across a really bad movie. Who's the best cop now? (Don't forget to vote for the 2 Fast 2 Furious Hall of Fame at cageclub.me/vote!) Email us: family@cageclub.meVisit our Patreon page at patreon.com/2fast2forever. Show your support at the 2 Fast 2 Forever shop!Extra special shout-out to Alex Elonen, Nick Burris, Brian Rodriguez (High School Slumber Party), Michael McGahon, Lane Middleton, Jason Rainey, Wes Hampton, Mike Gallier, Josh Buckley (Whole Lotta Wolves), Michael Moser, Christian Larson, Terra New One, Aaron Woloszyn, and Randy Carter for joining at the “Interpol's Most Wanted” level or above!Intro music by Nico Vasilo. Interlude and outro music by Wes Hampton.
In this episode, we analyze the results at the halfway point of the Men's National Championship Tournament and breakdown the jam packed leaderboard. It is anybody's game still at this point!!
The Atlanta Braves may have fallen to the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday, but still have the opportunity to win the series Thursday with Spencer Schwellenbach on the mound. Schwellenbach has had a couple of rough starts as of late, and should be able to use a below average Reds offense to get back right. In fact, the Braves can use the next 4 series versus the average likes of Pirates, Nationals, and Red Sox to get back right as a team. As of now, the Braves are still 6 games back of the Mets for first place in the National League East, but only 2 games back of the scuffling Philadelphia Phillies for second place. If the Braves can simply win the next 4 series versus the aforementioned teams, they should be able to pull within only a couple of games of first place when they welcome the San Diego Padres in to Truist Park in two weeks. Randy McMichael and Abe Gordon talk more about the Braves young pitching staff learning on the job, and how the next couple of weeks can help shape their season.
Yes, we already did Striking Distance, the most Pittsburgh movie of all time, but this is right up there. Van Damme as a firefighting ex-hockey goalie, making fun of Brad Tolliver and talking French with Luc Robitaille? I'm shocked that he didn't have a paper carton of Turner's Iced Tea in his hand the entire movie. BONUS: Here's the Sudden Death audiobook: https://soundcloud.com/jfoss-157952483/sets/sudden-death-audiobookCopyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research.Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.Important links:Theme song: Strip Search by Neal Gardner. Visit B&S About Movies and email me at bandsaboutmovies@gmail.com. Donate to our ko-fi page.
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Hallo Freunde fürs Extraleben!Diese Episode sind wir nach längerer Zeit endlich mal wieder zu dritt vor dem Mikro. Basti nutzt seinen Urlaub und bereichert uns wie üblich mit exzellenten Ausführungen zu Spielen, die wir anderen (meist) nicht spielen, obschon er dieses mal auch Daniels Spiel des letzten Jahres im Gepäck hat. Das Hauptaugenmerk gilt aber ganz klar Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. Wir halten einen langen Plausch über die Schönheit Böhmens und mehr Mut zu Authentizität. Seid gespannt.In den Nachrichten geht es diesmal um die (enttäuschende) Pokémon Presents von letzter Woche, Auflösungserscheinungen bei WB Games, die Verschiebung von Fable ins nächste Jahr und eine weitere Kooperation von Blooper Team und Konami.Viel Spaß!Dies und das07:39 Die Aufteilung des Kuchens37:06 DA: The Veilguard wird bereits in Playstation Plus geschmissenWas wird denn hier gespielt?48:49 Bastis Eindrücke zu FF7 Rebirth auf PC1:00:34 Manuel mit mehr Avowed1:07:28 Basti empfiehlt Blade of Agony1:21:54 Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 - ein immersives Meisterstück?Nachrichten aus der Spielebranche2:08:20 Pokémon Presents zusammengefasst2:22:28 Krise bei WB Games: Wonder Woman gecancelt, 3 Studios geschlossen2:33:54 Fable wurde auf 2026 verschoben2:39:40 Blooper Team und Konami arbeiten für ein weiteres Spiel zusammen2:48:30 Striking Distance nur noch ein Kernteam?2:54:17 Edge of Eternity Nachfolger angekündigtExtrafreunde@social.colognehttps://www.facebook.com/Extrafreundehttps://www.instagram.com/extrafreundeffelpodcast@gmail.comhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGusrYncNi-relSm6YC8k7Q
Discord: https://discord.com/invite/mzZnJuVwdT | SUSCRÍBETE A NUESTRO CANAL DE YOUTUBE: | https://www.youtube.com/@sonido_boom?sub_confirmation=1 | NUESTRO CANAL PRINCIPAL: | https://www.youtube.com/abuguet | Esta semana Ep. 316: (0:00) - Intro. (1:04) - Patrañas. (4:33) - paulatraides7052: El formato digital es el superior. (26:07) - Cancelado el juego de la Mujer Maravilla. (39:26) - Intentando entender las decisiones de Warner Bros. (51:23) - ID@Xbox. (52:28) - Ratatan. (1:02:53) - 33 Immortals. (1:10:40) - Hotel Barcelona. (1:16:17) - Jump Ship. (1:20:05) - Despelote (aunque no estuvo en el ID@Xbox) (1:24:24) - Amazon intentó destronar a Steam y fracasó. (1:38:04) - ¿Es fácil hacer otro Steam? ===SPEEDRUN DE NOTICIAS=== (1:47:29) - 10 juegos ocupan casi todo el tiempo de juego del mundo. (1:49:10) - Dauntless, el Monster Hunter de Epic f2p cierra sus puertas. (1:50:15) - Balatro ya no es clasificado como “para adultos” en Europa. (1:52:46) - Más despidos en Bossa Games y Striking Distance. (1:53:20) - Confirmado, Call of Duty usa IA generativa. (1:57:18) - Konami y Bloober Team están trabajando en otro proyecto. (2:04:01) - Las ofertas y descuentos de la semana con el Arbano Peps.
Bienvenidas y bienvenidos a Recarga Activa, el podcast diario de AnaitGames en el que filtramos lo más relevante de la actualidad del videojuego en pildorazos de 15 minutos. La Recarga Activa de hoy: Dragon Age: The Veilguard es uno de los juegos de PlayStation Plus de marzo Promise Mascot Agency se publicará el 10 de abril IndieDevDay se convierte en BCN Game Fest y amplía su alcance y ambición Nueva ronda de despidos en Striking Distance, el estudio de The Callisto Protocol Suscríbete para recibir el siguiente episodio en tu gestor de podcasts favorito. Puedes apoyar nuestro proyecto (y acceder a un montón de contenido exclusivo) en Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/anaitreload ♫ Sintonía del programa: Senseless, de Johny Grimes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Welcome to The House of Mario! The South Australian Nintendo podcast that is backed by a 120 Power Star Rating!Drew & Josh discuss the latest updates on Nintendo hardware and software sales as well as what they've been playing.The doors are open!FOLLOW ON YOUTUBEDrew: youtube.com/@iDrewbyJosh: youtube.com/@NintenVaniaFOLLOW ON XDrew: @iDrewbyJosh: @NintenVaniaTHOM: @TheHouseOfMarioSUPPORT IDREWBY & THE HOUSE OF MARIOGain access to Secret Recordings & get your name in the credits all while helping Drew achieve his goal of making 1 working day a week free to create podcasts!Patreon.com/idrewbyWANNA START A PODCAST?Captivate. FM is the hosting platform Drew uses for all his podcasts. With simple yet powerful tools, an in-built marketing suite and plenty of tips to better your show, Drew believes this is the best podcast hosting platform on the internet! Use our Affilate link for a 1 week free trial and if you sign up you help support the show!INVITE TO THE HOUSE OF MARIO DISCORD COMMUNITY!Join the community to chat with awesome people like Mettadox, Ash, Luke, Jamie, Sam, Deejaayy, Delfino and others!Invitation to The House of Mario discord community
DownloadWelcome to Land Of The Creeps Presents episode 410. This is double double episode 53 and its a wild ride for sure. The episode starts with Black Glove Mysteries where GregaMortis and Ian Irza is starting their American Giallo month series. This episode Ian chose 1993 Striking Distance and Greg chose 1984 Body Double. Greg and Ian hope you will enjoy their discussions on these two films. Lastly, Mortis Vision with the Mortis's has the Twisted Temptress Pearl and GregaMortis inviting Horror Movie Fan Boy Brian Scott and Karen Wagner to chat 1980's again. You will lots of 80's music mentioned as well as other topics. We hope you will enjoy this segment as well. Grab your favorite snacks and beverages, sit back as you journey with us through the Land Of The Creeps.HELP KEEP HORROR ALIVE!!BLACK GLOVE MYSTERY MOVIE RATINGS1984 BODY DOUBLEIAN : 10GREG : 9.51993 STRIKING DISTANCEIAN : 8GREG : 8LINKS FOR DOUBLE DOUBLEGregaMortisFacebookTwitterLand Of The Creeps Group PageLand Of The Creeps Fan PageJay Of The Dead's New Horror Movie PodcastYoutubeInstagramEmailLetterboxdTwisted Temptress LinkLetterboxdIAN IRZA LINKSBLOG SITEFACEBOOKTWITTERINSTAGRAMLETTERBOXDLOTC Hotline Number1-804-569-56821-804-569-LOTCLOTC Intro is provided by Andy Ussery, Below are links to his social mediaEmail:FacebookTwitterOutro music provided by Greg Whitaker Below is Greg's Twitter accountTwitterFacebookLespecial FacebookLespecial Website
What if there were a simple, results-driven approach to fat loss that doesn't require hours of cardio, extreme diets, or giving up your favorite foods? Enter The Striking Distance Fat Loss Method—a system designed to help you shed fat effectively while maintaining muscle and keeping your lifestyle intact.In this episode, I'll break down the core principles of this method, including:✅ How to set realistic fat loss goals and timelines✅ The critical role of nutrition—and how to make it work for YOU✅ Balancing strength training with strategic calorie deficits for optimal results✅ Overcoming plateaus with proven adjustments and progressions✅ Staying consistent, motivated, and in control throughout your fat loss journeyWhether you're just starting your fat loss journey or looking to refine your approach, this episode is packed with actionable insights and tips to help you close the gap between where you are and where you want to be.
On the show: Louder than Life festival review, Fortress, Kalifornia, True Romance, and Striking Distance.
In this week's episode, we're watching a vampire movie chosen by the Patróns and it just happens to be set in and filmed in the seedy city of Pittsburgh, PA! It's 1992's "Innocent Blood." Special topics for your consideration include: bars that aren't there anymore, an absolutely batshit cast, a side of Robert Loggia we'd never seen before, and the most hometown movie we've ever covered (and that includes our Patreon episodes on both "Striking Distance" and "The Dark Knight Rises." Vampires! They are everywhere! Maybe just go listen to Episode 355- "Twilight" because lol. The regular lineup of links! You can support us at patreon.com/werewolfambulance and listen to a ton of action movie episodes. This month's selection is the utterly bananas "Masters of the Universe." leave us a message at 412-407-7025 hang out with some cool listeners at https://discord.gg/DutFjx3cBD buy merch at www.teepublic.com/user/werewolfambulance the best place to reach us is at werewolfambulance@gmail.com we're on Reddit at r/werewolfambulance sorta on Twitter @werebulance sorta on Instagram @werewolfambulance www.werewolfambulance.com if you feel you really must lodge a complaint with us, please do it on Facebook at facebook.com/werewolfambulance because we are probably not gonna see that, ever. If you liked this, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen! It helps others find us and allows us to continue to grow. Intro song is by Alex Van Luvie Outro song is A. Wallis- "EMT" Seriously, we have the best listeners, hands down.
A movie about grown ups, who go to work and solve crimes, in shorts.We know pants are important to you. You probably wonder, “how are these movie detectives constantly running around in full length pants??” That's why this week's episode is about 1993's Striking Distance with Bruce Willis and Sarah Jessica Parker. They opted for short pants, because we can all make decisions. Quick question: Is there a distance left to strike? Play along with our drinking games, important questions, and insightful tips on how to have a conversation in the middle of a car chase. This movie is a who's who of “hard boiled” male actors chewing the scenery. Secure the stern line and get ready for a movie where MOST of the people seem to be enjoying themselves, minus Bruce Willis. Probably because of the shorts? Probably because of the shorts. (If you've read this far, you should know that we determined there was no distance left to strike.) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
After completing the season sweep of the White Sox on Saturday, the Cubs find themselves just a handful of games out of a playoff spot once again. Join Kevin Wells and Corey Freedman as they discuss the past week in Cubs baseball, the keys to the Cubs improved play of late, and what lies ahead as the season hits the final turn. An ALLCITY Network Production SUBSCRIBE TO THE EIGHTY FIVE WITH COLE KMET: / @the85withcolekmet BECOME A DIEHARD! https://www.allchgo.com/diehard BUY OUR NEW CHICAGO COLLECTION! https://chgolocker.com/collections/th... PARTY WITH US: https://bit.ly/3SRS03z SUBSCRIBE: / chgosports ALL THINGS CHGO: https://linktr.ee/chgosports WEBSITE: http://allCHGO.com/ BUY MERCH: http://CHGOLocker.com FOLLOW ON SOCIAL: Twitter: @CHGO_Sports Instagram: @CHGO_Sports GET OUR FREE NEWSLETTER: http://www.allchgo.com/newsletter FRIDAY 1:20 CLUB: https://events.humanitix.com/chgo-fri... WATCH YOUR FAVORITE TEAMS: https://www.fubotv.com/chgo Rugged Road: Gear up for your next adventure with Rugged Road Coolers - Your ultimate outdoor companion! Head to https://ruggedroadoutdoors.pxf.io/all... and use code CHGO for 10% off! Go to https://PrizePicks.com/CHGO and use code CHGO for a first deposit match up to $100! Pick More. Pick Less. It's that easy! Family Farms: Experience the flavor that's become a family favorite for generations. Visit your nearest Woodman's, Mariano's, Berkot's or on Amazon or online at https://www.baconwrappedchicken.com or on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/s?me=A2UYC6D59... Indeed: listeners of this show will get a $75 SPONSORED JOB CREDIT to get your jobs more visibility at https://indeed.com/allcity. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? You need Indeed. Ray Auto Group: Get into your next vehicle with Ray Auto in Fox Lake! Learn more at https://www.raycdjr.com or https://raychevrolet.com Better Help: This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Never skip therapy day, with BetterHelp. Visit https://www.betterhelp.com/CHGO today to get 10% off your first month. That's https://www.betterhelp.com/CHGO.. Sunnyside Cannabis Dispensary: Head to https://sunnyside.shop and use code ‘HICHGO' at checkout for 50% off your first 3 online orders on our favorite brands like Cresco, Good News, & more to elevate your first purchase! Sunnyside* Cannabis Dispensary -Bright buys, every day. Only for 21+ or IL medical card holders Head to https://salernospizza.com or call 312-666-3444 for more information - Mention CHGO and get half off your pizza! Let's level up your nicotine routine with Lucy. Go to https://Lucy.co/CHGOCubs and use promo code CHGOCubs to get 20% off your first order. Lucy offers FREE SHIPPING and has a 30-day refund policy if you change your mind. That's LUCY.CO and use code CHGOCubs to get 20% off and always FREE shipping. And here comes the fine print: Lucy products are ONLY for adults of legal age, and every order is age-verified. WARNING: This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical. Penrose is available at your local beverage retailer or visit Penrose's taproom in Geneva. For more information go to https://PenroseBrewing.com or follow them on social media, @PenroseBrewing! Use code chgocubs50 to get 50% OFF your first Factor box and free wellness shots for life with any active subscription at https://FACTORMEALS.com/chgocubs50 Get Blue Moon delivered and see delivery options by visiting http://get.bluemoonbeer.com/CHGO ! Celebrate Responsibly. Blue Moon Brewing Co. Golden, CO Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code CHGO for $20 off your first purchase. Check out FOCO for merch and collectibles here https://foco.vegb.net/CHGO and use promo code “CHGO10” for 10% off your order on all non Pre Order items. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Sean Collier revisits the Pittsburgh movie Striking Distance in honor of its biggest star joining us live in studio, Sally Wiggin.
Melinda Colaizzi, Sally Wiggin-isms, Sean Collier revisits Striking Distance, Animal Scream in for a Virtual Coffeehouse, and more.
The Mikes are moving to Pittsburgh and becoming a couple of "waterdog" cops, laying down the law and drinking too much? Investigating a cop serial killer? Sleeping with our partners? Being investigated by them? Indicting our cousin who is also our ex-partner? Having our dad get shot by our Uncle police officer, because our ex-partner cousin cop was the serial killer, but our best friend/cousin/cop seems more like the suspect? And at the same time a major drug operation via boat is happening under our noses that we're barely going to spend more than 5 minutes on?!?!?!If you're confused then Mike Field and Mike Butler must be watching Striking Distance starring Bruce Willis, Sarah Jessica Parker, and a ton of other actors who deserved better. Listen in as the Mikes discuss how Willis contributed to the story becoming more and more ridiculous and directionless as production went on. They'll also talk about what doesn't work (almost everything) despite them remembering liking this film in the 90's. Despite all that, the film might actually have some decent bones on it.So, grab your popcorn and soda, please notice the exits to the left and right of you and settle down for Forgotten Cinema. Join our FC community on Patreon, it's free to join! www.patreon.com/forgottencinema. If you'd like to support us further, we've also got a merch shop at www.etsy.com/shop/ForgottenCinemaShopSpecial thanks to our Patreon supporters who make this show possible.0:00 - Introduction1:43 - Film Facts7:28 - Film Discussion33:06 - Critic Reviews35:00 - Who Would You Recommend This To?40:40 - Why Is This Forgotten?43:57 - Where To Find Us
Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between. Today we talk about Bruce Willis, one of our great American movie stars. A man with perfect angles and a perfectly imperfect hairline. The man who spoke up for Seagram's Golden when nobody else would. It's wet and it's dry. Play that harmonica, Bruno! Our guest today is the great Jen Johans, host of the Watch With Jen podcast. Our B-Sides include In Country, Mortal Thoughts, Disney's The Kid, and Richard Donner's final film, 16 Blocks. We discuss Willis' early career, his propensity to try new things, and the sad and unfair dismissal of Hudson Hawk. We examine how his acting chops evolved throughout a very turbulent ‘90s decade, culminating in an incredible run of success birthed from a controversial, canceled movie called Broadway Brawler. There's a lot of love for the underrated crime comedy Bandits, that song he did with June Pointer (seek out the album The Return of Bruno and the companion “documentary” if you get a few free minutes today), and the lovely Robert Benton picture Nobody's Fool. And then there's that opening car chase in Striking Distance. Incredible work there. Oh, and that cameo in The Player. And finally, in honor of our subject, please go to https://aphasia.org/ and donate if you are so inclined. Here's to you Bruce, you're one of one. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter and Facebook at @TFSBSide. Also enter our giveaways, get access to our private Slack channel, and support new episodes by becoming a Patreon contributor.
Russian warships arrived in Havana harbor which sits 90 miles from the U.S. border. Former U.S. Marine Scott Ritter says this is already beyond the level of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Are we heading for full scale war?
On this bonus episode of This is Wrestling, Zach McGibbon is joined by "The Intern" Tanner Reil to review C*4 Wrestling's Striking Distance show. The guys go over each of the matches on the show and go through what they liked and didn't like. Special bonus audio to finish off the week! Questions for the show? Make sure to reach out at our social media or send in your question via email at versagelee@gmail.com. Follow on social media: Twitter: @TIW_Audio Follow Zach on Twitter: @RawIsGibby Instagram: @TIW_Audio Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thisiswrestlingaudio Threads: @TIW_Audio --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/this-is-wrestling/message
Is Bruce Willis the Right choice for Striking Distance (1993)? Joining us for this episode is Evan. Listen and find out in this action-packed episode you don't want to miss!
Let's take a trip to Dayton, maniacs, as we close out 2023 and Action December with the guerrilla action flick Deadbeat At Dawn! Joining us to chat about this one is our pal Josh Allshouse, who you may know on Instagram as @joshgoestohell. While we tell some stories of the making of this movie, we also discuss other topics such as Dayton rock radio history, modern day biker gangs, and the time AquaPhor saved Lance's life. Drop that Caramello and check out our Patreon! We're bringing the action vibes to our partons and resurrecting Action Movie Sunday, where we discuss the Pittsburgh giallo Striking Distance. For as little as $2 a month you can get in on the action as well with bonus episodes, Discord privileges, livestreams, exclusive merchandise and more! Want more action/horror hybrids? Check out our previous episodes on Eyes Of A Stranger (episode 24), Ten To Midnight (episode 43), The Killing Hour (episode 54), Trancers (episode 88), Manhunter (episode 113) and Cobra (episode 205).
Welcome to the party, maniacs! Action December is still in full swing and what better movie to cover for the holidays than 1988's Die Hard? Joining us to unpack this one are Ben's film partners, Blake O'Donnell and Ryan Lintner, promoting their upcoming comedy Guerrilla Dogs. Tune in as we break this movie down and talk topics such as Lance's alter ego, Hans Gruber's novelty FBI shirt, and the important question: is John McClane this movie's Urkel? Drop that Caramello and check out our Patreon! We're bringing the action vibes to our partons and resurrecting Action Movie Sunday, where we discuss the Pittsburgh giallo Striking Distance. For as little as $2 a month you can get in on the action as well with bonus episodes, Discord privileges, livestreams, exclusive merchandise and more! Want to hear more action movie talk? Don't miss our most recent episodes as part of Action December!
Prepare your Home Alone traps, maniacs, because Action December rolls on with Death Wish 3 from 1985! We dust off our Bronson impressions and discuss the film as well as topics such as villains as chain enthusiasts, K-Mart Ernest Borgnine, random horse posters, and the unbelievable drip Charles Bronson had in this flick. Drop that Caramello and check out our Patreon! We're bringing the action vibes to our partons and resurrecting Action Movie Sunday, where we discuss the Pittsburgh giallo Striking Distance. For as little as $2 a month you can get in on the action as well with bonus episodes, Discord privileges, livestreams, exclusive merchandise and more! Want more discussions on Chuck? We haven't done much but you can check out our previous episode on Ten To Midnight (episode 43).
Come with us if you want to pod, maniacs! This month we're changing it up and bringing you Action December, and we're kicking it off with a doozy: the 1984 James Cameron classic The Terminator. Tune in as we discuss the iconic flick and other topics such as alternate titles for the movie, Lance's woods confession, and the triumphant return of a beloved segment up front. Drop that Caramello and check out our Patreon! We're bringing the action vibes to our partons and resurrecting Action Movie Sunday, where we discuss the Pittsburgh giallo Striking Distance. For as little as $2 a month you can get in on the action as well with bonus episodes, Discord privileges, livestreams, exclusive merchandise and more! Want to hear us discuss more James Cameron fare? Check out our previous episodes on Aliens (episode 206), The Abyss (episode 250), and Pirahna II (episode 271).
EP312 - Amazon Q3 2023 Earnings Amazon reported another strong quarter across the board for Q3, soundly exceeding analyst profit expectations and retail industry averages. In this episode we break down the AWS AI, Ads, and retail performance. http://jasonandscot.com Join your hosts Jason "Retailgeek" Goldberg, Chief Commerce Strategy Officer at Publicis, and Scot Wingo, CEO of GetSpiffy and Co-Founder of ChannelAdvisor as they discuss the latest news and trends in the world of e-commerce and digital shopper marketing. Transcript Jason: [0:23] Welcome to the Jason and Scot show this is episode 312 being recorded on Monday October 30th right before Halloween I'm Jason retailgeek Goldberg and as usual I'm here with your co-host Scot Wingo. Scot: [0:38] Hey Jason and welcome back to Jason and Scot show listeners Jason it's a Halloween Eve hallow Eve but also we just watch the Mac live presentation from Apple or live presented recorded earlier presentation from Apple about new Macs, so I don't know I think I'm going to ask you about Max first are you going to get a new Mac are you sitting out this upgrade cycle. Jason: [1:07] I am on the fence guy of course I want one I have scheduled a meeting with my family CFO to see if I can, I can justify it so so we'll see I did not order one tonight I'm actually. Still super happy with my M1 MacBook Pro so so I know M3 is at least three times better so so of course I want one but we'll see when I pull the trigger what about you is yours already on the way. Scot: [1:38] I have been a while without an upgrade and running a little long on the tooth on this guy so yes I have a new machine coming they were actually pretty generous on the trade-ins you should just do an experiment before you talk to the CFO plug-in that trade in and see if it. Jason: [1:56] That could be the. Scot: [1:58] You a better presentation also if you have an Apple credit card which I'm sure you do they have a really compelling offer there. Jason: [2:07] All right lots of lots of good good things to consider my nine-year-old has made it clear that we're not allowed to trade anything in it. Scot: [2:17] It's got dibs on. Jason: [2:20] He's very he's very aware of the technology trickle down. Scot: [2:24] Oh man well you can somewhere down the stream there's going to be one that you could trade in but I don't think it may have as much impact as your courage. Jason: [2:32] I I don't know if he's ever going to own a computer device with a keyboard will see but yeah he's actually not that interested in my laptop. Scot: [2:40] Speaking of baby geek or I guess now he's I don't know kindergarten geek. Jason: [2:46] Third grade geek. Scot: [2:47] Third grade geek what's he thinking about Halloween I hear he's kind of outgrown Star Wars which makes me casa. Jason: [2:56] He still like Star Wars but he yeah he is not doing a Star Wars character last year he did a Pokemon character he did Pikachu and this year he's stepped up to Charizard so that. Scot: [3:09] Very rare. Jason: [3:11] Enables well I think it depends on which Charizard butt. That steps up the whole opportunity to build pyrotechnics into the costume. Scot: [3:21] All right watch out for some evil Pokemon people that try to capture. Jason: [3:26] Yeah I think the big debate in our house which isn't hasn't fully happened yet is who's trick-or-treating with Stephen and who's staying behind to try to scare the bejesus out of neighborhood kids. Scot: [3:36] I'm thinking you and a gorilla suit or you could be in the last year's Pokemon suit or Pikachu suit that could be a fun combo. Jason: [3:45] Yeah last year I actually had knee surgery only a few days before Halloween so I won by default because I couldn't really walk but this year I feel like I have no good excuse. Scot: [3:56] Right as the title shows the purpose of this as we have some Amazon news to report on. Jason: [4:02] Amazon news your margin is there opportunity. Scot: [4:15] Well Jason it was a kind of interesting setup coming into Earth earning season this quarter the whole world was focused not on e-commerce not on marketplaces not on omni-channel not on payments some of our favorite topics but also not on ads one of your favorite topics but everyone is now obsessed with AI thanks to the success of chat Juju GPT so coming into the quarter Amazon was kind of on the backside of a lot of the other big companies so we had Microsoft come out and they did really well with AI the their partnership with open a.i. / chat gbt is bringing tons of workloads to azure. How much is their cloud computing platform and then Google really underwhelmed everyone with what they're doing there you know they're they're kind of tiptoeing it's very clear that they don't want to kill the Golden Goose that is Google search by putting too much AI to that so allow their experiments are in Bard which is kind of way off to the side I've tried barred three times I can never get it to have the features that they say it should because my corporate Google account you know either won't have access or it says that feature is not here yet. Um and I think people are really starting to worry about Google on this one. So then that teed it up where all eyes were on AWS to see how are they doing and I think we've covered this but. [5:44] The Amazons approach to this is to be kind of agnostic for lack of a better word so they're kind of like hey if you want to use. Any of these different models we're going to basically let you run them on AWS compute and we're going to have all kinds of different graphic Processing Unit or GPU tears available from you know their own chip set to older Nvidia chip sets to the new ones and kind of be y 0, LM bring your own large language model. [6:18] And then oh yeah also Facebook did pretty well and you know they're definitely through the worst of the Privacy changes that Apple put out and they have an approach to AI that is an open source one so they're basically saying hey we're going to integrate this in our products and what we build we're going to put out there kind of almost scorched Earth in a way saying why don't we just open source this thing and maybe that will slow down our competitors who are going to use this to to generate their own revenue and because they don't have a cloud piece they don't and they're pure advertising it doesn't really, Concord hurt them to do this so they're not making Cloud Revenue off of it but it's become a popular one and it's called llama in case anyone is it from there then, okay so just not to leave everyone in suspense because we usually talk about AWS kind of later in the Amazon update we're going to cover it first so the ended up having a really good ADB is showing so I would say people got kind of panicky and we're expecting it to be down and it kind of came in line. [7:22] But what that people excited was part of the talk track on the conference call Co jassy said that they're winning some big AI workloads they talked about some big deals had close towards the end of the quarter that we're pretty significant and what's happening is as you know what's what a i chat gbt is trained on the broader internet and anything that they can throw into there. [7:49] And that's interesting but what's happening is corporations and. Both big corporations for internal use but then also other corporations they're wanting to train a large language model on their data and they also don't want that data to kind of leak into the broader ecosystem so that's that's really benefiting Amazon because it turns out a lot of the data that companies want to train these lme's are are already in AWS so instead of paying all this money to pull the data out of AWS and then synchronize it back into your LM as as Amazon anticipated with this kind of open bring by0 LM model. People are bringing the LMS to them and using the data because it's already in AWS and it's easier for the llm to just kind of go right there and grab it versus moving the data around. [8:44] That may not make a lot of sense so let me give you kind of a random example let's say you're a big added see like I'll pick up, this one called publicist they're out of France and most people haven't heard of them and let's say that that French Ad Agency wanted to save a bunch of money they could take like. Let's say 3:00 of content from like a podcast transcript or something like that. And they could use that content let's say someone of their company like a detailed digital retail payment strategy vice president general manager type person with a big crazy title like that. They could put that data out there and run an llm on day ws and train that data on it. The llm on that data and then they could have for example just picking something random they could have a retailgeek bye. That was basically as good as the human probably ninety percent so good enough but you know this thing could run 24/7 you could actually you could have as many of them you could clone it on two different processors after you get through the training mode and you were in D quote-unquote inference mode and it also doesn't take breaks it doesn't need, Starbucks vanilla lattes constantly it doesn't have expense reports it just. Does its job and doesn't complain and doesn't ask for raises so that's that's a that's a use case that something like that would work did that make. Jason: [10:08] Specific hypothetical there Scott. Scot: [10:11] Is randomly chosen just kind of picked it out of the are there. Jason: [10:14] It almost sounds like the more words in your title the more vulnerable you would be to AI disruption. Scot: [10:20] I thought about that but it is does make sense because that's essentially more tokens for the AI to learn just like right there in your title you're basically asking for it if you're a robot Overlord you're kind of picking on who to go for a first I would look for large titles person. I don't know I don't know how their training these things. Jason: [10:37] There I know you're the investment guy in our podcast but there's this investment theory that you don't you don't, be the little guy chasing the big Trend that way you want to do is identify the secondary Trend and so in this scenario as soon as it seems like a i is ready to replace the the blowhard Talking Heads everyone should short Starbucks seems like the. Scot: [10:59] Mmm that's a good point yeah I hadn't thought about that. Jason: [11:02] Yeah because when I lose my job and can't afford those lattes I feel like something I would like I'll take some solace in knowing that you made some money on that. Scot: [11:14] Yeah they'll be like on their conference call we're still working on the data but we've isolated it to this to block window in Chicago and we're pretty sure we have an idea what's going on. Jason: [11:26] I feel like my Starbucks footprint is a lot bigger than Chicago. Scot: [11:29] Well you know the the core of your Bullseye answers is going around. Okay but in all seriousness this is a really interesting blurb from the call where they talked about their strategy gaining traction and they said there's multiple businesses are using their gen AI That's short for gender of a i. Apps on AWS including Adidas people in our European list listeners I think they call it a deed us but I'm here in America we call, here in South the southeast caught Adidas booking.com and United Airlines. And while Jenny eyes Revenue contribution remains small management suggested Revenue quote compares favorably. To some of the other leading providers and this is this is interesting because Amazon's always mum's on revealing anything until the SEC forces them to break out stuff like, for the longest time we didn't know at AWS was then we didn't know what ads were and then they became material enough they had to break them out so so Amazon under Bezos would never have said those words I've like even hinting about what's going on. [12:35] But kind of is interesting because there's a new sheriff in town and also it shows you how important it is that they let everyone know that they are not falling behind and that their room new quote-unquote compares favorably with other other Cloud providers obviously they're talking about Azure once Wall Street analyst I did it is back of the napkin and he kind of said all right I think that they're telling us this is always funny because it's like six degrees of. You know separation so who knows but they basically inferred what they were trying to say reading the tea leaves was that it's about a 400 million-dollar business and already two percentage points of AWS Revenue. Which was basically zero six months ago so that's that that is kind of an interesting thing that came out of nowhere and is already a 400 million quarterly business so that means it's a 1.6 billion annualized run rate business. [13:29] If they're reading the tea leaves right on that so that was the AI part so I thought I'd be important for us to get that out because that was kind of like the new cycle really centered around that, and it is interesting you know you and I are watching this very closely there are e-commerce ramifications you know there's all kinds of, The Innovation here is so rapid it's hard to keep up with there's all kinds of a eyes for creating product detail pages and you know all kinds of, e-commerce oriented support Bots and it's just like amazing a lot of AI applications for optimizing warehouses it's just like overwhelming how much is out there we're definitely in the, tippy top of the hype curve and you know a lot of businesses are still sorting through all this but that was the that was the. [14:16] Dean on e-commerce retail side of things and non ads with that behind us the other big win for the quarter I thought you'd want to kind of fill us in on was the advertising part what did you see there. Jason: [14:30] Yeah yeah I want to jump into ads I do want to just say quickly it's interesting on the AWS because they posted solid numbers they posted 12 percent growth for AWS and they announced that they won the whole dialogue was about all these AI workloads that you just covered but they haven't recognized much of the revenue from all of these new AI workload wins yet so the this 12% growth feels like. Kind of a win based on the Legacy Cloud business even before you start to factor in all this new traction they're getting, I'm AI workload so so that does seem interesting but I just want to reiterate what you started out by saying which is, the the bed at Amazon is that you're going to want to bring the llm to your data and not that you're going to want to bring your data to the llm and that, intuitively. [15:24] Makes a lot of sense so it seems like investors were always pretty happy with their the AI Cloud case that they made. Um so that being said. As far as I'm concerned an even bigger win for them was the ad business so so they generated 12 billion dollars in ad revenue for the quarter that's up 26 percent versus Q3 of last year. Year-to-date that means they're had businesses up 23% from the year before so you know we're comparing that to like the 11 or 12 percent growth they get on AWS. Um [16:02] The ad business grew 21 percent last year so it's grown 23 percent this year that impugns depending on how you factor in seasonality like a 46 to 50 billion dollar run rate for the ad business right now, so if you take a conservative estimate for the the the, margin rate on that business that's generating 2728 billion dollars worth of ibadah for Amazon which is a huge. Huge business and much more profitable than a WS by the way. So the ad business was very robust and a couple of injured interesting takeaways. Amazon is adding more and more video properties they have Thursday Night Football you know they announced that they're going to start embedding ads and Amazon Prime and they'll have a premium offering to bypass Those ads. So there's a lot of opportunity for. Kind of top of the funnel linear programming ads at Amazon none of that is in this. [17:09] 12 billion dollar number right now or very little like all of the potential they've they talked about for this for these non Commerce ads. Is all sort of incremental the weather getting right now. At the moment the vast majority of all Amazon's ads are bottom of the funnel the the sponsored product listing is by far the most. Popular ad that that's growing particularly well and with the particular mix of economic headwinds we have at the moment, a lot of advertising is Shifting to bottom of the funnel people are less interested in investing in awareness and more interested in investing in sales and Amazon turns out to be, the best destination to take that that those dollars to put them into digital ads that generate. Bottom of the funnel results so this quarter everyone was really interested to hear from the advertising companies, to see if advertisers were going to be cutting back right and so you know you mentioned meta had their their earnings call Google had their earnings call Facebook I'm sorry. [18:17] Snap had their their earnings call and ads were uniformly up across everyone's earning so metas ads were up 23%, Google's ads were up 11% Google broke out YouTube ads which were up 12% snap ads were at 5%. But nobody's ads were up as much the 26% that Amazon's were and nobody has had the consistently rapid add growth that Amazon's had the last three quarters. Um so the economic headwinds like do not appear to be. Putting a huge crimp in the the digital advertising business and they appear to be disproportionately benefiting, Amazon and so then you go wait next quarter they're going to be selling ads on all of their video programming and that could easily add another 5 billion dollars just for in to this this annual run rate so. A lot of green lights in the Amazon ad business. Scot: [19:21] The I'm not a huge Sports person but you mentioned Thursday night football and have you seen and kind of marrying this back today I think if you seem Prime Vision have you played with them. Jason: [19:31] I have yeah. Scot: [19:33] So for listeners what they do is on Thursday Night Football if you watch from actually I do it on my Apple TV and I'm in the Prime video app. And then you can it takes you to the standard broadcast just like every other thing but you can go in and then you hit down arrow and you can select a different broadcast which is, Prime vision and what it does they've added feature since they did it they started it they've added all these new AI features that are really amazing so during a pass play they'll show you the most likely Target they put like a Madden asked Circle in real time under the player and, he'll flash like green or something if he's a possible Target on the defense though they'll show a potential Blitzer. They'll show you fourth-down probabilities in real time you know and it's just amazing they've added tons of features of that since I've been watching it and I find it like really adds a ton to the game too. Kind of see you can see the strategy in real time mostly broadcasters you know they'll talk about it like Tony Rome or something but it's way after the play after they've had time to put together animation this is doing it all in real time it's just mind-blowing the amount of compute it must be thrown at that and you know I think it's a it could change the way you think about sports and in a really interesting way. Jason: [20:49] Oh yeah increasingly it's a better experience watching the game at home then you can get in the stadium. Scot: [20:54] Yeah the stadium doesn't do that. Jason: [20:56] They side note for soccer at the World Cup they actually did but you have to watch the whole game like through a are on your phone. Scot: [21:05] Let's see you at the stadium watching the game on your phone. Jason: [21:09] Yeah I mean and it was cool right like saying same sort of thing like it's overlaying all this real-time stats and probability was amazing. Like it's not a very good experience to like hold your phone up and have your camera on the whole time to sort of get all these stats and so. Yeah yeah side no Thursday Night Football is the bane of my existence because I do play Fantasy Football and I never have my act together to have my lineups all set before Thursday night so, usually the game starts and I have to pray that I don't have any super important players that I fail the start and then I can enjoy the game. Scot: [21:46] Okay understood anything else on Dad's. Jason: [21:53] No I think that covers it pretty well on ads you know just. We've we've talked about a lot on the show but the overwhelming success Amazon's having with ads has this of course trickle-down effect that every other player and commerce paste is trying to figure out how to monetize their their traffic and get their share and at the moment nobody's getting, anything like Amazon's add, Commerce ratio and of course the audience eyes is start dropping off really quick after Amazon right you know you get a lot less eyeballs at Walmart then you have it on Amazon and a lot less eyeballs it Target then you have it Walmart and you know once you get smarter than that it starts getting real fragmented real fast. Scot: [22:39] Yeah how do you were still there still even though that's a big number they're still like way far away from Facebook right so so number one is Google by a really big margin and number two is Facebook and then it's Amazon and they're like way ahead of everyone else but they have to even though they're outpacing them, a little bit it would be like decades before they caught up in my own remembering that right. Jason: [23:00] I'm not no I'm not going to say decades it's an order of magnitude it's like 102 million 100 to 200 billion dollar annual run rates for those other guys and. Scot: [23:13] But they're kind of getting to half right. Jason: [23:15] Yeah yeah they are like they there with like within 50 percent of Striking Distance of number two. Scot: [23:23] Yeah if you had said that to us five years ago we would not have believed it I would I would not have seen how I've been. Jason: [23:30] Yeah I've been playing that what would you have thought five years ago game a lot and you you know you talked about who all the winners are in AI if you said five years ago the AI is going to become a huge thing what company is going to win like you we would have all been on Google. Scot: [23:43] Yeah yeah or apple or it would not have been startup called open air that was nonprofit that flip to profit no one saw that coming including Elon Musk yeah. Jason: [23:55] And by opening I you mean Nvidia but yeah. Scot: [23:59] One tidbit I saw on ads I love the leak read the Wall Street reports and they largely talked about the same data but a lot of them are good at very good at modeling and they can when Amazon doesn't tell them something like they don't break out they break out the revenue for ads but they don't break out the profit so it kind of gets swept up into this larger number but then they give you enough pieces you can kind of back into it so one of my favorite analyst he's a friend of the show Scott Devitt he modeled back through there and to your point he basically said that the ad business has a 60%, EB de margin so net margin of 60 percent which is basically like just money raining at this like Google's business model which I guess makes sense because Bass. Jason: [24:46] Is it is good. Scot: [24:48] Yeah because it is Google's business model and this ties into you know you know more about this government stuff than I do but Google's in a pretty nasty fight with the FTC, or the DJ I can't remember some government Bureau important entity that that is claiming they have a monopoly on search and they're basically pointing over here and saying look at these Amazon guys they're closing in on us pretty quick and they always reference those stats that show you know like more than half the people start product searches and those online. Jason: [25:19] Yeah no it's super interesting I Scott Devin is way better at Financial models than me but I actually think he might be under estimating the profitability and part of it is. It's. There's a lot of room for gray area like if you think about the the Amazon business it's super fascinating you know the number one digital Advertiser in the United States of America is you know who buys more ads than anyone else. Amazon. 18 billion dollars a year of ads they buy just from Google so they buy 18 billion dollars worth of eyeballs from Google they use those eyeballs to sell a bunch of stuff that they make money on and then they sell 50 billion dollars are the pants to those eyeballs. Scot: [26:05] Ticket Arbitrage. Jason: [26:06] It's amazing eyeball Arbitrage and you know it's. So how much of that acquisition cost are you factoring into the profitability of the ad business versus the like I would argue that these are not separated bubble businesses as much as ever wants to talk about ads as a separate business to me it only exists because you have all this traffic for Commerce and it's it's a core part of the the Commerce math at this point but we shall. Scot: [26:39] Yeah when we did our instacart coverage of this one now instacart been public for a while and you look at their numbers they're basically only being the whole instacart business is being valued a zero except for that so they're basically trading like an ad company so all of Wall Street said okay that grocery part is kind of like that yeah is there we'll put it in like you know. [27:02] A hundred million dollars and then the ad business is like worth date hundred million dollar ad businesses where they gave it a really nice multiple of like 5x so that's interesting I'm sure, you're going to spoiler alert you're going to see a lot more ads on Insta guard the yeah a lot of people there is a negative and you know no one ever talks about this but a lot of people and this usually comes from a Amazon sellers and they always have kind of a love hate hate hate hate hate relationship with Amazon you know a lot of them would say and I hear this from consumers that the customer experience is the user experience is degraded on Amazon because there's just so many darn ads now you know the and I see it too if I'm looking for a specific thing I'm kind of like a dad at okay that's what I was looking for at some point there is cannibalization there and you know what we don't know is what did they lose from yeah doing this like was their product they didn't sell because people couldn't find it or we'll never really know that but you know kind of hope they're smart enough to figure that calculus Alden make it a huge net positive versus the cannibalization getting close to the ebitda contribution. Jason: [28:10] Oh yeah no I think two things like there definitely is an impact on customer experience and every retailer that gets into this space has a different philosophy about that and Amazon's appears to be the monetization is just worth it but you know you think about everyone other retailers that are not waiting and quite so hard, are trying to balance that and then the new interesting thing is if you're any retailer other than Amazon where all your eyeballs really are is not on your website it's in your store right and but you go we'll wait a minute, the these disruptions that people might tolerate as digital disruptions on a website they may not top you know nobody wants to junk a fi, um a physical store experience with a bunch of you know make it feel like you walked into Times Square every time you walk into, retail store so there's all this interesting calculus on where everyone should land on that the other interesting thing to me is for a while there was a. [29:13] An opportunity for the best practitioners to get outside return so there was a subset of all those Amazon sellers that were really good at the Amazon ad, execution right and they did their smart about where they put their bids they were smarter about the attributes they put in their ad there are smarter about the creative they made for their ad and they could get outside Returns versus other sellers on Amazon but the first Trends you mentioned the AI affectation of this whole business. [29:43] Has sort of made the best practices, dummy proof right and so now you know you just hand a product shot to Amazon and it makes the ad for you and you turn over the bidding strategy to Amazon and it optimizes your bidding for you and so it's squeezing more of the potential profit like out of all of these these other businesses that are built on top of Amazon because it's, kind of. Normalizing the the ad business to everyone and it just becomes a pure pay to pay like who's going to be the most for this eyeball. Scot: [30:21] Yeah kind of supports your theory that maybe the Madonna's higher because they don't have a lot of people sitting there at adding images or something like would they used to do back in the olden days. Jason: [30:31] Is that you used to need this thing called what is it called Ad Agency. Scot: [30:35] Yeah good cut the if you can just get one of those Bots I discussed or just like you have a some a I do it for him. Jason: [30:40] Yeah yeah that was a funny example a few minutes ago. Scot: [30:44] Unrelated news Jason is brushing up to c v so hit him up the so just to zoom out to the big picture so so we kind of dove into the to topical things A to B Us / Ai and adds, those together really causing Amazon to beat Revenue that they came in about one percent higher than Revenue so it was kind of like a slight beat / meat but where they really exceeded oh and revenue came in at 143 billion were they really crushed it was operating income and these two contributed to it but also retail did some interesting things that also yeah I think dramatically helped beat expectations operating income came in at eleven point two billion and expectations which is Wall Street consensus is what they say was seven point seven billion you know so that's like what let's like. Five per billion beat you know like a huge be compared to whatever. Jason: [31:49] 35%. Scot: [31:51] Yeah so that push the stock up 10% and then also we'll talk about guidance and that was positive so, it's been interesting Amazon stock has been kind of in a you know. Funk for lack of better words has been con rallying around at the same level and literally for quite a while like 18 months and this was the first Catalyst to cause a big move and that it's market cap a 10% move at Amazon Lester look we'll get one of our researchers here one of the interns I look okay. So you know they were like 1.2 trillion and now they're like 1.4 trillion so that's you know a move like that takes a lot of dollars when you're bigger than a trillion dollar business to move things it's like a lot of. A lot of value creation can happen in a 1.2 trillion dollar company when it shoots up ten percent in five trading days. Jason: [32:44] 10% 0 by a lot of rocket fuel. Scot: [32:46] It will yes a lot of dates with helicopter Pilots as well and a lot of cool new clothes, so there were some really interesting things you know we spend the bulk of our time here on the Pod talking about retail and e-commerce to our favorite topics so Jason there's a lot of really interesting stuff going on in there as well you want to fill us in on that. Jason: [33:08] Yeah everyone just wants to talk about ads and AI but it turns out that Amazon is actually a pretty good retailer. And so the the retail business also had a good quarter and to kind of set the table, every every listener the show knows I love my US Department of Commerce data so that came out last week 4. [33:31] September which gives us Q3 data for the industry so us retail data in September this was up one point year-to-date sales in the United States January through September we're at one point nine percent this year versus last year. It's a 35 percent versus before the pandemic in 2019 so 1.9% is not very good growth by historical standards we would normally expect about 4% growth. So if we just look at Q3 growth the industry was up 2% which again half of what you would typically expect. So Amazon's growth for Q3 is 11 percent versus that that industry number of 2% so 11% growth, is very robust the if you kind of, look at Amazon's growth since the pandemic that Q3 number means they're up 85 percent versus Q3 2019 and their year-to-date number is up 111 percent versus 2019. [34:33] So Amazon is a very large retailer arguably number one or number two retailer in the US now, and they're growing way faster than the industry average, and again depending on how you count Walmart would be the number two retailer which is also growing significantly faster than the industry average so that actually, tells you everything you need to know about the rest of the retail industry is that where you know we're having a significant bifurcation and with winners and losers in the space. [35:07] The other side of the retail business for Amazon is international and historically North America has been a very mature Market that has grown and generated profits, International has not made money for Amazon and I would say it was a mixed bag in terms of their International performance, on a constant currency basis International sales were up 11% which it's a smaller less mature business so you'd like to see it growing faster than the, the mature North American Market, um but they're operating loss is way smaller so last year this quarter they lost 2.5 billion dollars this year they only lost a hundred million dollars so nearly break it even for the quarter. Um the this did not come up in their their earnings and no one asked them about this but Marketplace pulse reported earlier this month. That appears Amazon has. Meaningfully curtailed their International expansion and a lot of markets they had announced they were expanding into they seem to have delayed. Postponed or canceled a lot of international market openings, so International definitely is not the start of the show it is also true of a lot of the other markets that say that Amazon's in still have more. [36:26] Just general macroeconomic headwinds than the United States does at the moment a lot of the world has a more severe version of the same macroeconomic problems that we have. In the US so a couple interesting tidbits. [36:44] But in the discussion about the retail business that you know the CFO Bryant. [36:54] Scot I always pronounce his name wrong alsop ski, um brett-brett else got a soft ski talked about how despite the fact that their they had nice growth in retail that they are seeing a cautious consumer who's generally trading down and more Deal seeking, then usual and that's consistent with, cautions that we've heard from other retailers that actually gives me some significant pause for Holiday which we'll talk about later, the the thing that that Amazon was really touting in the retail business is that they dramatically improve their cost to serve, and their speed of delivery in Q3 and that largely was thanks to an initiative they started a couple of quarters ago, this transition from a single National fulfillment Network. To a regional fulfillment Network where they have eight distinct District regions in the United States, that each sort of operate independently in the goal is to have all the the inventory that that Scot Wingo wants to buy, in his region so the goods have to travel less far are less expensive to get to him, and get to him faster and what they announced in the earnings was that the transition to this this. [38:19] Regional model has gone better and exceeded their expectations they're getting more. Incremental profit and faster speed of delivery than they even projected, um out of transitioning to that so this is. [38:37] I know we talked a lot about how big and what a huge moat Amazon would just accept our but I still feel like this is under appreciated by most Amazon's competitors and their there. They're just opening a bigger Gap in speed of service and one of the things they mentioned is that they see a direct correlation between consumable sales and speed of service when they promised that they can get them there faster they sell more paper towels, so I think it's very clear that that consumers want speed of service, and Amazon has a huge advantage and it appears to be getting even bigger so that's interesting another thing I talk about a lot. [39:20] Um is there's a few new retailers that are also stealing significant share, um very quickly and they're primarily Chinese companies so it's she in and most notably Tim oh, and so well like they certainly didn't come up in the Amazon earnings a lot of the analysts started looking at the the, rapid growth that Tim is getting and trying to figure out if they're stealing share from Amazon and evercore did a big consumer survey, and the results of their survey was that Tim ooh is mostly not stealing share from Amazon that most of its shares coming from, other retailers and in many cases coming from brick-and-mortar value retailers in the US so the dollar stores and it appears that that Amazon is more insulated from the. The growth and profit that they're getting so all of that you know rolls up to be a pretty impressive. Quarter I you've talked about it a lot but it kind of feels like Amazon's got a bunch of knobs that they can turn whenever they want to improve profitability and it feels like, they both added more knobs that can turn this quarter and they turn some of them. Scot: [40:37] Yeah the other thing that's really interesting is if you look at. Amazon and you can't really read because they have so many employees in the Fulfillment centers you can't really tell their employee growth and it's surging right now is they prefer prepare for holiday but another really interesting trend is Google meta and there's one of the other ones Microsoft their revenue per employee is surging so they're they're actually not hiring many people right now and, the assumption is these companies are leveraging AI internally and becoming exceedingly efficient and you kind of wonder. Is Amazon doing the same thing I hear inklings we have kids that are not so far out of college they don't know folks looking for jobs and things I hear inklings that Amazon is not really hiring that much as they kind of were at one point so I kind of wonder, are they also hiding behind that that have like a million employees and it surges like 200,000 for holiday so it doesn't look like they're being more productive but what they don't do is put out corporate versus fulfillment center. Have to have an idea that if we looked at corporate there also. [41:48] One dial they've turned its new is I think they're not hiring as me folk because people are getting a lot of efficiencies from these AI. Systems that these companies are dogfooding internally. And because they're they're a little bit further ahead than kind of like what we see out of the lme's I think they're doing some really interesting things that they will productized and we will we will see what they're doing in a lot of it can be this like really focused you know create an ad you know a lot of the stuff that used to be, kind of out sourced or you would have to throw a bunch of bodies at it I think there's LMS doing a lot of that you know customer support Bots think things like that that you know I think there's a lot of efficiencies going on inside of their that's helping these guys really beat their earnings numbers. Jason: [42:38] Yeah I do think that's true it's not lost on me that just as the retailgeek bought is gonna replace me at poobah says all the other places that might have hired me are also not so my fallback is that I may be washing cars at spiffy so we'll see how that. That all plays out but I promise to work hard of it if it comes to that Scott. Scot: [42:58] Absolutely it also we could just turn this podcast into the entire ads so that could be could be here our second asked yeah. Jason: [43:04] We can monetize the podcast I'm not I'm not doing that to the listeners they advertisers would make us make a shorter podcast Scott. Scot: [43:13] Yeah yeah. Jason: [43:14] I'm not down for that I'm not down for it. Even if I have to wash cars the I think you're certainly right like a lot of these companies and Amazon very overtly has has put some more barriers and in place in terms of corporate hires. The one notable exception being the AI space they're hiring pretty rapidly. Um but I also think in addition anything you mentioned that Amazon's actually finally like really leaning into the Fulfillment center automation so while they've always. Been a leader in in having fulfillment center, not all their fulfillment centers in a big chunk of their fulfillment centers were not highly automated and so I think they're now automating all of them and they're rapidly moving to sort of next-gen automation. Um you know where everyone else is kind of putting their first robots and you know moving things around the warehouse more efficiently. Amazon is like rolling out new technology that's a lot more. Seamless in how the people and the automation work together in a in a safe cohesive way so I do think one of the levers Amazon has is. You know to really add more Automation in those in those fulfillment centers and in that cost to serve. Scot: [44:39] Absolutely it's kind of interesting because we started spiffy, which is my on-demand car care company where you're going to come wash cars people are like AI is you know they'll be a robot that can do this in five years I was like I don't know like you know the Boston Dynamics robots are cool but they're not. Let's just programmed well I don't think it's like that you know it's not thinking and who would have guessed that a I would replace you know the digital retail Talking Heads first and and not. Not the physical things I think the physical stuff is going to take a lot longer but who knows once these a eyes you have there's Tesla has that that demonstration of theirs was The Optimist that you know it kind of is learning things as it goes and making inference in real time so that is kind of you know we who knows where all this is going to go. If we back to it now and not science fiction but your term science fiction so. [45:37] Looking forward for fourth quarter they put guidance out that they're going to see growth in the fourth quarter of 7 to 12% the midpoint of that range which let's see would be 9 and change itself was five and a half percent above the consensus midpoint so this is what we would call A Classic. Meet Top Line Crush bottom line on the current quarter and then raised the next quarter both top and bottom line pretty substantially so that you know. This is an important data point when we kind of swirl it together with your Department of Commerce data it does seem like Amazon signaling they're feeling pretty good about the fourth quarter and everyone felt like this was kind of conservative given I didn't put the bottom line number but they felt like that was pretty conservative given what they just did and you know they felt like dad a lot of room to kind of beat that number and maybe it's going to be more like 14 15 percent growth which would be you have a new post covid reversion hi I guess you would look at it where do you did you leave this feeling more optimistic about Q4 or we are your classic Jason curmudgeon myself. Jason: [46:54] Yeah no I think I'm mostly curmudgeon e not for Amazon I actually I think their guidance seems realistic to me. [47:06] On the top line I think the bottom line is just totally up to their whims like if they want to blow away the bottom line they can if they want to invest at all in you know new. [47:18] New AI capabilities and and keep the bottom line constrain they can do that too but the that, Top Line I think they're likely to hit their guidance and again you know one or two other big retailers might you know have a pretty robust holiday as well but I actually think that that sucks all the, the potential growth out of the market for holiday and so I actually think. That sort of signifies potentially Bleak holiday season for a lot of other traditional retailers so I guess it's a. Little bifurcated it's good news for Amazon will see what a Walmart's Q3 earnings look like they announced on November 16th, but I do feel like endemic lie Amazon and Walmart have some, some inherent advantages that are insulating them from some of the economic headwinds and I think that that really just makes things, that much more difficult for the the rest of retail and so I desperately want to be wrong but I think it's going to be, I kind of disappointing holiday for a bunch of folks there also was sort of some if you really listen to the Q&A portion of the investor call, there. [48:45] The the CFO in particular had some concerns about capacity around Q4 and one of the things he called that was carrier capacity which is interesting because Amazon does so much. Of their own fulfillment now that they're just way less dependent on third-party carriers but if he's worried about carrier capacity for Q4 you can bet that means that every other retailer ought to be really concerned, about carrier capacity for cube Q4, and so we you know we feel like we talked about that every holiday season but Amazon's got a lot of. New fulfillment center capacity that's coming online in Q3 of this year and will even in Q4 and so I guess. If there's one thing that could glitch it Amazon if there's not enough delivery capacity if some of these new fulfillment centers have any, any sort of glitches or delays and coming online that you know that that could be the constraining factor for their Q4 growth. Scot: [49:50] There's so sprinkle of curmudgeon e speaking of holiday where can listeners go if they want to get the best holiday news even though we haven't been potting as much as we want to because our day jobs have been absorbing a fair amount of time this year we are going to have some killer content around this holiday and kicking it off we have our very own jacent live not an AI and you're going to do a little webinar for Commerce next what's that all about and when is it. Jason: [50:22] Yeah yeah so on Monday November 6 which I think is a week from now if I'm not mistaken we're doing a Commerce next webinar where we'll sort of preview the holiday season so you heard the very early preview just now but we'll go into more detail share some of the third-party forecast for Holiday Good News, all the other predictors are much more optimistic than I am so so we'll hit that on November 6 and then of course there will be all the good real time holiday news that will be will be hitting pretty hot and heavy here on the podcast so we'll we'll have some of the best data sources, right before and after the holiday to kind of talk about where things are going and what actually. [51:15] And with that I think it is happen again we've used up all our allotted time as always if this deep dive in Amazon's earnings was valuable for you the way you can repay that value is to jump on iTunes and give us that five-star review. Scot: [51:31] Thanks everyone and Jason until next time. Jason: [51:34] Happy conversing.
On this episode of The GAP Luke Lawrie and Joab Gilroy talk about how Joab loves talking, but he hates it in video games. The games they've been playing this week include GTTOD: Get to the Orange Door, Cyberpunk 2077, Party Animals, Sonic Superstars, Star Survivor, Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles, and more. Over in the news Glen Schofield has left Striking Distance after releasing The Callisto Protocol, more Star Wars Jedi games are on the way, and Valve launches SteamVR 2 into beta. This episode goes for 1 hour and 50 minutes, it also contains coarse language. Timestamps – 00:00:00 – Start 00:07:56 – Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles 00:24:02 – Star Survivor 00:45:37 – GTTOD: Get to the Orange Door 01:09:41 – Cyberpunk 2077 01:21:56 – Party Animals 01:30:13 – News 01:44:23 – Weekly Plugs 01:46:15 – End of Show Subscribe in a reader iTunes / Spotify
Tad Wissel & Jon Bindley play matchmaker with NFL tight ends, celebrate the 30th anniversary of the shot-in-Pittsburgh movie Striking Distance, and do their best to figure out Antonio Brown.
we've officially made it to the last week of the 2023 ProRodeo season. With one last big chance at money left in the season, who sits where and who still has a chance at the 2023 NFR?On this episode of The Short Score, we take a look at the standings, who is going to Sioux Falls for the Governor's Cup, what bubble guys still have a fair shot at the Finals and how the Governor's Cup pays.Must-ReadsThe PRCA Playoff Series? What's that?NFR within Clint Summers' Striking Distance; Bubble Battles to Watch in Final Week of 2023 ProRodeoSioux Falls to Determine 2023 NFR FieldThis episode is brought to you by Mane 'n Tail as part of Women in Rodeo Month 2023. Mane 'n Tai has joined The Team Roping Journal, The Breakaway Roping Journal, BarrelRacing.com and CalfRoping.com in celebrating Women in Rodeo Month to honor the ladies who drive the sport forward.
we've officially made it to the last week of the 2023 ProRodeo season. With one last big chance at money left in the season, who sits where and who still has a chance at the 2023 NFR?On this episode of The Short Score, we take a look at the standings, who is going to Sioux Falls for the Governor's Cup, what bubble guys still have a fair shot at the Finals and how the Governor's Cup pays.Must-ReadsThe PRCA Playoff Series? What's that?NFR within Clint Summers' Striking Distance; Bubble Battles to Watch in Final Week of 2023 ProRodeoSioux Falls to Determine 2023 NFR FieldThis episode is brought to you by Mane 'n Tail as part of Women in Rodeo Month 2023. Mane 'n Tai has joined The Team Roping Journal, The Breakaway Roping Journal, BarrelRacing.com and CalfRoping.com in celebrating Women in Rodeo Month to honor the ladies who drive the sport forward.
Nesse episódio, Bruno Carvalho, Edu Aurrai, Felipe Mesquita e Rodrigo Cunha falam sobre os documentos do julgamento da Aquisição da Activision Blizzard "vazados" pela Microsoft no ; o conteúdo da apresentação do XBox na Tokyo Game Show (TGS 2023); o "pronunciamento" da Unity sobre a decisão polêmica da cobrança por instalação dos jogos que fazem uso da Engine; a movimentação na Indústria envolvendo Crystal Dynamics, estúdio de Tomb Raider, Criterion, de Burnout e Need For Speed, e Striking Distance, de Callisto Protocol; e muito mais. Duração: 107 min Comentados: Vídeos: Reloading #429 – Vazamento da Microsoft (?) - YouTube
Microsoft will add Copilot AI to Windows 11 on September 26, US brings back free at-home COVID-19 tests as cases continue to spike, and Callisto Protocol creator leaves studio after it flopped. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Introduction: Hello, movie enthusiasts, and welcome to another exciting episode of "Everyone is a Critic." In Episode 591, we're diving into the world of cinema to explore the latest releases and timeless classics. Get ready for thrilling reviews of "Inside" (2023) and "A Haunting in Venice." We'll also uncover the brilliance of our Undisputed Classic, "Witness for the Prosecution," and take a nostalgic trip back to 1993 with discussions on "The Age of Innocence," "Striking Distance," and "Airborne." Plus, stay tuned for a sneak peek into next week's episode featuring "Flora and Son" and a classic yet to be revealed. In our 1993 segment, we'll explore the release of "Dazed and Confused." But first, let's dive right into this week's episode! Segment 1: New Movie Reviews "Inside" (2023): Prepare for a journey into the unknown as we unravel the mysteries of "Inside." Our hosts will discuss this new release, exploring its thrills, chills, and impact on audiences. "A Haunting in Venice": Next, we'll venture to the hauntingly beautiful Venice as we discuss "A Haunting in Venice." Join us as we analyze the film's atmosphere and storytelling. Segment 2: Classic Cinema Undisputed Classic - "Witness for the Prosecution": In this segment, we shine a spotlight on the classic courtroom drama "Witness for the Prosecution." We'll discuss its enduring appeal, brilliant performances, and its place in cinematic history. Segment 3: Flashback to 1993 "The Age of Innocence": Our hosts delve into Martin Scorsese's "The Age of Innocence," exploring its period drama brilliance, complex characters, and themes of societal norms. "Striking Distance" and "Airborne": Join us for discussions on the action thriller "Striking Distance" and the sports comedy "Airborne," as we reflect on the films' entertainment value and 90s nostalgia. Segment 4: Sneak Peek - Next Week's Delights New Movies: "Flora and Son" Classic - To Be Determined 1993 Segment: "Dazed and Confused" Segment 5: Connect with Us! Stay connected with us on social media and support the show! Website: www.ihatecritics.com Facebook: facebook.com/EveryoneisaCriticPodcast Twitter: twitter.com/criticspod Instagram: instagram.com/criticspod Patreon: patreon.com/criticspod Tee Public Link: teepublic.com/user/criticspod YouTube: youtube.com/criticspod Jeff's Art: jefflassiter.com Sean's Reviews: seanatthemovies.blogspot.com Conclusion: Thank you for joining us for Episode 591 of "Everyone is a Critic." We hope you enjoyed our reviews of "Inside" (2023) and "A Haunting in Venice," as well as our exploration of the classic "Witness for the Prosecution" and our trip back to 1993 with movie discussions. Get ready for next week's episode, where we'll unveil "Flora and Son" and a classic that's yet to be determined. In our 1993 segment, we'll dive into "Dazed and Confused." Connect with us on social media and support the show. Until next time, happy watching!
It's Die Hard in a serial killer thriller! Or is it Die Hard in a murder mystery? Or Die Hard in a family drama? Or Die Hard in the great American play?! To make sense of all this, Phil and Liam are joined by special guest Sean Fennessey, the host of The Big Picture and a regular guest on The Rewatchables. The plot of Striking Distance speaks to its surprising level of complexity. After he testifies against his own partner for use of excessive force, Pittsburgh homicide detective Thomas Hardy (Bruce Willis) is exiled from the tight-knit police department and ends up working for the River Rescue division, where he becomes embroiled in a hunt for a serial killer who is dumping bodies in the water. As he launches his own unofficial investigation into the crimes with new partner Jo Christman (Sarah Jessica Parker), Hardy comes to suspect that the killer may be the very same man who murdered his police captain father years earlier. As the son of a cop himself, Sean has a particular insight on the film's subject matter, which captures a very specific cultural milieu in co-writer/director Rowdy Herrington's home town of Pittsburgh. They also discuss Sean's feelings about Die Hard, his thoughts on Bruce Willis' complicated career, and his fascinating real-life encounter with Dennis Farina, who plays (Willis' Uncle) Nick DeTillo, in what might be the movie's standout performance, even amongst a stellar supporting cast that includes Tom Sizemore, John Mahoney, Brion James, Andre Braugher, Tom Atkins and Robert Pastorelli. There's also in-depth analysis of the film's possible influences – from iconic 1970s filmmakers like Alan J. Pakula and Sidney Lumet, to great American playwrights like Arthur Miller and Eugene O'Neill – and to the films and TV shows that it may have subsequently influenced – such as CopLand, We Own The Night, Pride & Glory and The Wire. Are the guys giving this largely forgotten film too much credit? Possibly…but that's up to you to decide! The ‘Die Hard Oscars' provide some typically strong candidates for awards recognition, before Sean and Liam compete in the ‘Double Jeopardy' trivia quiz! STRIKING DISTANCE trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PbX4LXD6Es At the time of release, STRIKING DISTANCE is available to rent or buy through Amazon Prime Video, Apple/iTunes, YouTube, Vudu, DirectTV and all the usual platforms. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/die-hard-on-a-blank/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
This week on #TheNerdChat: -Is Final Fantasy back on Xbox? -Are we getting an Oblivion remake? -Will you do self-repairs to your Xbox controllers? -Is DWALLY a Halo sweat fest fan again? -What games are you playing? #seeyouonline New episodes of The Nerd Chat: An Xbox Podcast are livestreamed on Thursdays and uploaded on Fridays. Learn more at www.nerdchatmedia.com Follow @thenerdchat on various social media sites. #ForTheNerds 0:00 Hello and welcome to the show 1:40 Bacon brags about some guy named John Stockton 2:40 Shoutouts - BigBox is NOT happy on our takes about game length and quality... 14:00 Shoutout to Ains and his Halo skills yet again 15:20 Shoutout to Greyson and his T-Rex skeleton set 17:00 Xbox/Gaming News - News #1: Final Fantasy 14 is coming to Xbox 22:30 News #2: Xbox is selling controller parts with repair videos 26:25 News #3: Are we getting an Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion remake? 30:30 News #4: Xbox will have game streaming over Discord 33:25 News #5: Callisto Protocol developer Striking Distance have reported layoffs 37:05 News #6: Respawn is going to port Star Wars Jedi Survivor to X1/PS4 45:20 News #7: What sales are going on now on Xbox digital marketplace? 46:35 News #8: Coming to Game Pass for August 2023 48:00 What have we been playing or watching? 53:20 The best food we had this week 56:15 Closing and end of show #xbox #playstation #gamelength #finalfantasy14 #oblivion #callistoprotocol #starwars #jedisurvivor #pubg #halo #diablo4 #stateofdecay2 #podcast #seeyouonline #forthenerds
Established in 1997 and fueled by the passion of Sean O'Donnell, YOUNGBLOOD RECORDS has remained a presence of consistent excellence in the hardcore scene. From top tier records to the freshest label merch in the game, there's a lot to appreciate from this Lancaster-based gem.Music by:Striking DistanceDesperate MeasuresStatement Of PrideIron AgeIntro music by:Hot ZonePatreon: https://www.patreon.com/GettingitoutpodcastEmail: dan@gettingitout.netWebsite: http://gettingitout.net/Instagram: @getting_it_out_podcastFacebook: www.facebook.com/gettingitoutpodcastTwitter: @GettingItOutPod Get bonus content on PatreonSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/getting-it-out. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
How does Striking Distance's spiritual successor to Dead Space hold up? Let's find out! Time Stamps - 00:00:00 - Start 00:02:00 - Our Callisto Protocol Review 00:07:20 - Housekeeping 00:10:00 - Callisto Protocol In-Depth Review 00:26:23 - Ads 00:29:36 - Back to the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
How does Striking Distance's spiritual successor to Dead Space hold up? Let's find out! Time Stamps - 00:00:00 - Start 00:02:00 - Our Callisto Protocol Review 00:07:20 - Housekeeping 00:10:00 - Callisto Protocol In-Depth Review 00:26:23 - Ads 00:29:36 - Back to the show
How does Striking Distance's spiritual successor to Dead Space hold up? Let's find out! Time Stamps - 00:00:00 - Start 00:02:00 - Our Callisto Protocol Review 00:07:20 - Housekeeping 00:10:00 - Callisto Protocol In-Depth Review 00:26:23 - Ads 00:29:36 - Back to the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Republicans try to redirect the national conversation to crime and it backfires in pretty spectacular fashion. Brian interviews Democratic nominee for the US Senate in Iowa, Mike Franken, about a bombshell new poll showing him within striking distance of unseating Chuck Grassley, and whether Grassley's age (he'd be 95 years old by the end of the term he's running for right now) is a concern to him. The Democratic nominee for New York's 10th congressional district and the lead counsel for Trump's first impeachment trial, Daniel Goldman, also joins to discuss whether Trump will testify for the January 6 Committee, the consequences for failing to show up, and what it'll mean for Republicans to have a Democratic prosecutor in Congress. Support Mike Franken: https://frankenforiowa.com/Shop merch: https://briantylercohen.com/shopYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/briantylercohenTwitter: https://twitter.com/briantylercohenFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/briantylercohenInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/briantylercohenPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/briantylercohenNewsletter: https://www.briantylercohen.com/sign-upWritten by Brian Tyler CohenProduced by Sam GraberRecorded in Los Angeles, CASee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.