Surprise Strike Point, 72 Hours for $7500, Chick-Fil-A Slow But Still Great

Paul Daly: 0:01All right. It's Monday it feels like fall for like the first time. I think a lot of people are experiencing this. But we're talking about a surprise strike development over the weekend. 72 hours for 7500 And Chick fil A, and how their drive throughs are the slowest in the industry.

‍Kyle Mountsier: 0:20

measure that. Well, they did one way or the other slowest. We're gonna talk about that. We're gonna I gotta pick it. I got opinions already. So yes,

Paul Daly: 0:28

yes, yes. Oh, man, it is Monday. And if you're watching, we've had a little debate over this in the pre show. I am not in front of a virtual background. Just so you know.

Kyle Mountsier: 0:38

I am not either. Either, right.

Paul Daly: 0:42

This is due to over the weekend and I am at home because we're about to embark on our annual Fall camping trip with my wife's family. And so I just set up in front of this nice stone fireplace but it's real. It's real night not anybody with a virtual but wait a second it. Reynolds says a virtual background Paul, Billy Reynolds just said it's 60 degrees in Central Florida.

Kyle Mountsier: 1:04

Even Central Florida is getting fall.

Paul Daly: 1:07

Which means there's bugs and scarves and ski hats and gloves

Kyle Mountsier: 1:11

told me they don't have bugs in Florida. Just tell me at six. Like it's gonna snow. Oh, speaking of Florida, we're gonna be in Florida this week. We're going to the name of the conference annual conference that's going to be amazing.

Paul Daly: 1:26

Did you look at the temperature not 60 degrees, not 60 Now if you put the six upside down and you get a nine it's gonna be a 90 That's exactly what it I don't know that I'm excited about that. Frankly, I'm just getting in Fall mode. I got like Verizon like I gotta calibrate ready and all that stuff. Hey, before we get into the show today, kind of like flipping from our our usual excitement. We just want to express that our hearts and our prayers are with a lot of our brothers and sisters in automotive, or a lot of tech companies based in Israel. We don't know of any significant like issues with health or safety. Like specifically, but generally speaking, certainly an elevated time and we have relationships over there. Kyle, you traveled over there this year, just to say Yeah,

Kyle Mountsier: 2:11

absolutely. And I mean, we you know, we know that like a lot of the UVI company, a lot of the full path company is based over there fuse. So and multiple other tech companies born and based out of out of Israel. I saw that Iran Horowitz who is the CEO full path was saying hey, a lot of their team members are actually being caught up into the military, because there's just a different requirement on the military there. So you know, there'll be tech companies impacted but it's real lives that are there. So just like Like Paul said, Our thoughts and prayers and I know that the automotive community will will rally around that as much as we possibly can for sure.

Paul Daly: 2:53

Without a doubt without even thinking about that being called in the military. So um, yeah, if you need any connections or with any anybody in any of those companies or want to ask out please feel free to reach out to us you can DM us or send an email to crew@asoto.com and the soda community is going to do with the soda community. Yes, that's right. Just just really reflection of the broader automotive community. We got a lot of content coming out from a soda con so I think one that was featured in Steve greenfields newsletter this morning is the panel that Kyle you had with Steve and Mike Stanton, president of nada, lies, Abortionists, and Damon Lester, who we're gonna see later this week, an amazing conversation on the future of the industry. So you can check that out also, the next generation to the auto industry, you had a great conversation around, you know, succession with Jamie butters and Alan Haig and Rick record that we looped into the conversation last minute and boy that

Kyle Mountsier: 3:48

he just that really was such a great conversation. It really was. Yeah,

Paul Daly: 3:52

it was fun. I have to say that was probably one of the most fun times I've ever had on a mainstage panel, just because it felt like it kind of felt like I was like super familiar with all three guests. I knew their angles on the industry. And I was able to just be in the moment. So I had a lot of fun on that pedal too. That's fun. I hate more than cars premiere. I know last week, we talked a little bit that we were going to release it on the 11th. We actually bumped it a week, because we wanted to make sure we were ready for it and that everyone gets to see it. So it's actually going to be on October 18. We're going to have a link in event up for it soon. If we don't already do

Kyle Mountsier: 4:23

it, you can go to our LinkedIn, you can find the event right there and check it out. So on the 18th, one o'clock Eastern, go to the LinkedIn event, find it and make sure you there.

Paul Daly: 4:33

And let's let's just say this, a lot of people are always asking us, how can I help like get the word out about a soda more how can I get more people into this community? And this is a major way you can help is by just being on the live stream to watch the premiere, because that's an indicator of people showing interest which helps our LinkedIn algorithm it also helps organizations like nada and other organization we're trying to get to support the project to see the that there's actual desire of the industry to see more content like this. And we'd also be remiss if we didn't shout out Dan shine a fixed ops editor at automotive news for putting a little spot about it in Fridays, and Fridays newsletter that went out about Episode Two comm. I spent a lot of time in the fixed ops departments on Episode Two. That's also alive on auto auto news.com. So we really want to thanks. Thank our friends at auto news for all their support and care for the dealer community and getting stories out. Bam.

Kyle Mountsier: 5:27

Absolutely. Speaking of getting stories out, segue Oh, yeah,

Paul Daly: 5:32

you don't we needed a break from the sad trombone on. I

Kyle Mountsier: 5:34

don't have the sad trombone. So that felt better.

Paul Daly: 5:37

We don't have I'm glad you don't have it because we don't need it. That's so sad worker strike enters its fourth week with a focus on the negotiations. It's extending beyond just wages, UAW, Shawn fain has opted to forego additional walkouts. This kind of came up late Saturday late on Friday, singling progress into Detroit three, here's the surprise. He commented on recent developments saying we had a major breakthrough with GM over compensation for workers at electric vehicle battery plants. GM has agreed to include the battery plants under its national contract. So that hadn't gotten a lot of press, but now it's getting a lot of press. Until recently there UAW demands didn't explicitly list those things, unionization and battery factors of factories. But, you know, obviously, it's a surprise move by GM that now puts pressure on foreign hands to Lantis they're like, oh, right now just as a part of the conversation, and like a second part to the story, so that's like good progress. It sounds positive. You know, whenever Shawn Fein isn't, isn't slinging insults like we're in a good spot, I guess. Meanwhile, this is a nice little nuance to the story posted in automotive news, the big three have maintained their October incentives. So they haven't cut incentives, cold turkey, they set signals optimism about the ongoing strike, notably GMs offers offers mirror the same offers they had from September. And they did do kind of a rare thing and say, well, these incentives are only good for two weeks. So they're obviously hedging a little bit saying if we have to pull them, we're not committing for the full 30 days. But um, you know, overall, it sounds pretty positive.

Kyle Mountsier: 7:12

Yeah. I mean, there's still plenty of ground inventory. Like I said, we're in that we just said the fourth week, which I've been saying all along, if we can get a notable progress in the fourth week and not see additional strikes or a pullback on strikes into the fifth week. I really think that we're going to see you know, inventory both on part Supply and on ground stock be be in an okay, place. The question mark will be this week, this is kind of I think, the crux week on whether or not we can accomplish something big, where maybe they start putting workers back on the line because they see the progress. Or maybe we see some deals reached that would be that would be really cool. You know, this is this was kind of this was exciting. You know, they did the whole like who gets the rose on on on Thursday. And that was hilarious. So it's this up and down drama. It's kind of interesting. But but cool to see progress. The shocking thing being that they're extending this to the Evie plants. I don't think anyone saw that coming, especially amidst push pressure, social pressure from Tesla and Elon Musk and how he was citing the differences in in the cost of produce a vehicle between the legacy manufacturers and Tesla. So, you know, that's, that's a it's like, I don't even know how they're going to do it. But they figured out I guess,

Paul Daly: 8:32

speaking of I don't know how they're gonna do it. And if anything's true, you can trust everything that government says what happened. US car dealers are offering we're offering federal tax credits being used Evie purchases can anticipate the government saying a 72 hour reimbursement in 2024 says the US Treasury Department. This announcement follows new guidelines set by the Treasury and IRS addressing dealers concerns on the smooth implementation of fast government payback for this$7,500 credit the Treasury the IRS. The new guidance says starting in 2024 eligible Eevee buyers can transfer these credits to dealers and use them as a downpayment. Here's a quote from the actually Wall Street Journal article under the proposed rules the US Evie sales price will be determined before this is about used will be determined before any trade in value is applied and defined as the total sale price agreed upon by the buyer in the dealer in a written contract of sale. So and they say they're going to separate out any taxes or additional fees required by law, and that's kind of to help the sales price cap. So dealers here's important part of your dealer, listen up if your GM Listen up, dealers can register on the IRS energy credits online portal. If you click into the show, there's a link to the exact portal this month. By January 1 registered dealers can start submitting evey sales data electric ironically, and receive payments for transferred credits. So

Kyle Mountsier: 10:04

I guess this is huge. We ran the story a few weeks ago where there are a lot of dealers and people just wondering, Hey, are we going to see a reflection of 2008? When when incentives are hard to come by and get Reek and get recouped during cash for clunkers? And this is the government saying, Nope, 72 hours, we're going to have those rebates and incentives in the dealer's bottom line. That is a massive help and change. You can also if you don't go to the show notes here, you can go to our daily email today. I think it's the third story down retiree recaps a little bit of exactly what's required for the EB tax credits also links to the online portal where you can go register, but you got 90 days to make sure you register it up all your team is educated on exactly how to get taken out. Yeah, don't

Paul Daly: 10:49

wait. There's like, Yeah, and if you don't get the daily email, it's a nice, like complement to the show different different stories. You can get it at a so to.com just 1000s of people opening this thing every single day, loving on it, so just little plug there.

Kyle Mountsier: 11:05

Speaking of 1000 people 1000s of people every single day. Segway 1000s of people a lot despite having the industry's slowest test, slowest sorry, not test drives, slowest drive throughs put an asterix there, Chick fil A continued to win the hearts of customers, or recent QSR magazine survey found that while patrons might wait longer at Chick fil A drive throughs the chains unmatched accuracy, food quality and exemplary service satisfaction more than make up for the extended wait times. So the drive throughs for Chick fil A according to this survey are the industry slowest averaging a five minute and 12 second wait time. Some people get their food that fast at longhorn steakhouse. Taco Bell atop the list is the quickest drive thru, followed by Wendy's and KFC despite the way Chick fil A led in accuracy, food quality and customer satisfaction. Here's here's the real numbers though. In 2022 Chipotle sales reached 18 point 8 billion a 12.8% increase from the previous year. based on measurement mystery shopper visits for Chick fil A, this is the way that people feel 91% say well it's friendly.

Paul Daly: 12:23

You know what, when we talk about the way people feel so I think the fastest drive thru time and there was Taco Bell at three minutes or 42 seconds. Just gonna throw some slop in the shell wrap it up, throw it out the window. Here's the difference. The difference between being long and feeling long are completely separate things because when you get You're greeted at the drive thru and we're like, hey man again, Jake, Your Honor. Yep. Well, it just feels like it goes on forever. But when you pull into a Chick fil A there it's almost like a little show. You have multiple lanes. Oh, yeah. All these enthusiastic smiling people running around in their little safety vest with their tablets like smiling go into cars, this and that. I've never felt like it felt long in a chick flight fillet drive?

Kyle Mountsier: 13:05

Well, here's my question. And I don't know I maybe we need to look at the survey a little bit longer, but to be like, just under three and a half minutes for a taco bell like that. Most Taco Bells hardly ever have three people waiting in line at a time ever. Compared to Chick fil A that typically have 30 to 50 people waiting in line every single time. There's got to be like a metric that they could.

Paul Daly: 13:28

There is something similar to that in there. It's not adjusting the time but they said like the throughput of vehicles like vehicle per time, right is like Chick fil A wins that race like how fast they can get vehicles through the drive thru. Like that's, I think the the metric that that you're looking for that is there. And Chick fil A is like, very,

Kyle Mountsier: 13:47

very crushes. Right? And so I think that this is this is like you said, How does it feel? If you have to be there for five minutes and 12 seconds? You know, you're going in and you know, you're gonna be 20th in line? Does it feel good? By the time you get through the line? Do you do is your order accurate? Is this is the food hot so that the satisfaction on the other end of that is like I waited for this for a reason. Right? And

Paul Daly: 14:09

this is this tie this back to what's happening in every dealership across the country every day. Maybe Maybe you have your sales process in your rockstar, and you're 45 minutes to an hour getting people out the door. That's great. Make that experience great. The time is always in your favorite people are going to feel great. If you're not there yet, if you're working on it, and you're still at two hours or maybe more than two hours. There are a lot of things you can do that make it not feel like two hours because that two hours is going to feel like six hours if you're not communicating well, if you're not being attentive to their body language and their needs, and you're just running them through your process without empathy. So I mean, Jesse Cole was like, Hey,

Kyle Mountsier: 14:45

he was like, why not make it longer?

Paul Daly: 14:47

That's so great that people want to stay longer, right? Yeah, like

Kyle Mountsier: 14:50

and I think that that that we can take that and whether you want to whether you want to be at a 15 minute process, or a three hour process. What are you doing in that timeline? To where people don't feel like they're ready to leave by the minute they get there. And if we can execute that as as an auto like as auto, we're gonna win.

Paul Daly: 15:09

I think that's the way to end it. Hope you have an amazing Monday. I'll reach out pay attention, pay attention of customers and make make your day feel like it was only half as long

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