The Hidden Supply Chain Making Every Menu Feel Familiar

Austin Frerick (0:02)

Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio, news.

Tracy Alloway (0:18)

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots Podcast. I'm Tracy Alloway.

Joe Weisenthal (0:21)

And I'm Joe Weisenthal.

Tracy Alloway (0:23)

Joe, I have a question.

Joe Weisenthal (0:24)

Go on.

Tracy Alloway (0:26)

What is your favorite chain restaurant? It has to be a sit-down chain restaurant.

Joe Weisenthal (0:31)

A sit-down chain restaurant. That's a really good question. You know, I actually really like Chili's. I think they have, their fajitas are absolutely legit. And I say this as someone who has eaten quite a lot of Tex-Mex fajitas from my time in Texas. And so I think I have credibility. And as a kid, and I haven't been there in years, but I still think my memory of the food is really good. I love Cracker Barrel.

Tracy Alloway (0:52)

Ooh, breakfast at Cracker Barrel is really, really good. Well, I bring it up, because today, we are going to be answering the question of where all of these restaurants actually get their food from.

Joe Weisenthal (1:02)

That's a great question. I don't know anything about it. I don't know anything about sit-down chain restaurants. I mean, I don't know anything about most chain restaurants, period, let alone fast food ones, but the world of sit-down ones that are real restaurants, or there's waiters, waitresses, et cetera. I don't know anything about it.

Tracy Alloway (1:17)

You're not interested in my favorite restaurant?

Joe Weisenthal (1:19)

Oh, sorry.

Tracy Alloway (1:20)

This is how it works. I ask you a question and you reciprocate.

Joe Weisenthal (1:24)

I was going to, and I was planning to, and then you like turned a 90 degree angle to talk about how like, to talk about we were going to start answering the question of where these come from. I was like, oh, okay. I guess we're going on to some new direction here. We could just keep talking about favorite restaurant. Tracy, what is your favorite restaurant to sit down in?

Tracy Alloway (1:40)

I actually have many.

Joe Weisenthal (1:41)

Okay, go ahead.

Tracy Alloway (1:42)

Red Robin.

Joe Weisenthal (1:43)

Oh, I've never been to one.

Tracy Alloway (1:44)

I used to love that place. They had a salad that was basically just a plate of chicken tenders. It was so good, but billed as a salad. Fridays, I used to love that place.

Joe Weisenthal (1:52)

That's so American.

Tracy Alloway (1:53)

I know, and there was one in London, and it was like my anchor to America in the early 2000s, and chilies. Chilies with my boys.

Joe Weisenthal (2:01)

You like chilies too?

Tracy Alloway (2:02)

Yeah.

Joe Weisenthal (2:02)

Yeah, it's legit. Keep going. We're gonna make up for the fact that I didn't ask you, but now I'm just, keep going, let's just keep going.

Tracy Alloway (2:08)

Well, one thing I did realize recently, I've never been to an olive garden. I don't know why that is.

Joe Weisenthal (2:13)

I've been a few times. It's not terrible. I don't think like, I've even been to the one in Times Square. Yeah.

Tracy Alloway (2:21)

I feel like it's very hard to make carbs badly, right? It's just pasta and bread.

Joe Weisenthal (2:26)

Yeah. It's good.

Tracy Alloway (2:29)

Okay. All right. I am going to move the conversation on now.

Joe Weisenthal (2:32)

Applebee's have been to the one in Times Square there, it's solid.

Tracy Alloway (2:35)

I do not like Applebee's.

Joe Weisenthal (2:36)

Why do we have to move the conversation on? I don't get it. Why can't we just keep talking about sit-down restaurants? All right.

Tracy Alloway (2:41)

Well, we'll get back to them. We'll get to our recommendations. But on a serious note, one of the reasons we are interested in the subject is because we did a series last year called Beat Capitalism, where we talked a lot about agriculture and the chicken industry specifically, and antitrust and monopolies and things like that. And one of the things that stood out to me from that series was a comment from Doha Mekki, who is the former Assistant Attorney General, where she talked about the tyranny of the middleman in the economy. And I think this is something that people are perhaps just waking up to. There are all these companies out there that you have probably never heard of, but have massively dominant positions in the economy and charge a lot for their services. And one of those happens to be a very large company that provides food for all these sit-down chain restaurants.

Joe Weisenthal (3:38)

You know, I'm going to play devil's advocate on this episode because, as you know, Because you love chili so much. Because I love chilies, and I love food production at massive scale, and I love all of this. But it is true that there are all these companies that are really important that sort of sit between whether the retailer, the customer, or more, in the case of food, more frequently the farmer and the retailer, the farmer and the restaurant. Do we literally know nothing about, and they're huge, and they're massive, and they don't get any attention. And so I am very interested in this topic.