So imPORTant: Bananas, frogs, and... Bob's??
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This is planet money from npr. My eyes have been opened. I M, I changed men and IT all stems from just a few days last week when there was a port strike, a port shutdown.

Of course, this was not the first port disruption we have dealt with recently. Look at at you covered ports mess. But yes, you may recall the long sherman on the eastern sea board walked off the job. Those are the people in charge of basically everything to do with loading and unloading cargo containers.

And those cargo containers are like the the blood cells of our entire economy. And you know, AManda IT is very scary when the old blood cells stop pumping suddenly.

which, of course, was the point of the strike.

Yeah, no, exert economic pressure and and pressure they exerted. You know, people were freaking out during this shutdown like what this caused, toilet paper shortages, what this cause, inflation. Is this going to .

ruin Christmas Candy? You are saying people, but I think actually, maybe you are, are freaking out possible.

Mean, did I pile dog food and dies? Staff meetings, raving about ports, who can say? But I did start making a lot of port related phone calls.

Hello, Kenny. Hello, Steve. Thanks for reaching out. You are pitch to me as the man who knows all there is to know about ports.

okay? Now i'm really in .

the Stephen flin is a professor of political science at northeastern university, a former coastguard officer, and has become a ports obsessive. I visit about .

every part in the world, in a major part in the world.

something like eighty percent of the world's stuff by volume, moves by ship in and out of ports, a constant water valley of commerce to to keep food and fuel and and life moving .

like and incredibly complex but efficient system that everybody is taking for granted.

Unless, let's say, it's suddenly stopped overnight or something? Yes, yes. And and look when that ports strike ended or or was suspended, IT was about three days in, and then I found a place to store my, my panic purchase, dog food and amenda.

I decided I am not going to take ports for granted. Like, like, yes, in deeper, you know, IT really matters. And I had thought about that way. But also in the way that you suddenly see new beauty and fascination after a near death experience .

and near death Candy. Yeah really. I mean, maybe .

overstating IT, but I do I do find myself stopping to smell the the port roses to appreciate the system more like, for example, when I was talking to Steve flin, he had these great little bit about ports that I cannot get enough if I cannot stop telling people about them. And when would you would you like to hear some of them? yes.

okay. Uh, number one, yeah. Did you know the luxury goods often ship in refrigerated containers?

So what are we talking about?

What's Lucy good? Oh, I guess leather handbags, fancy belts, fancy shoes and things that are very expensive.

Okay, maybe leather, maybe smells if it's not refrigerator.

That was my guess also.

But no, maybe they do that.

Think that. Are you intrigued? I am trigged. Okay, okay.

IT is not because you need a cold. They're not necessarily even using refrigeration. IT is because.

Steve says, because on a ship and on a terminal, the boxes you keep track of are the refrigerated contains. Better idea is put IT in box that doesn't need refrigeration, but just that you have the assurance that along the way there is control refrigerator containers.

get more monitoring, have more safeguards.

okay. And is that I assume that A D ship.

that s but the goods are so expensive, don't care.

Okay, very interesting fact. Port fact one, I love IT. What is I would like another port fact.

please. wow. Hello and welcome to plan of money. I'm Kenny .

alone and i'm ironic .

today on the show ports. I learned so much about ports during the shutdown and I cannot keep .

IT all of myself today. We investigate why so many of our bananas come from delivery, did not know.

We discover a way to see virtually every single thing that gets shipped into the country and learn how cookies and ice cream built a furniture empire. And AManda, are you game to hatch? Learn some hashtag pod facts through this hashtag episode. You.

I am. Yes, I we're going to have .

a little sound for every port. Fact we have it's consort like this insert here. That's the sound of commerce， baby.

wow. Commerce is lw course.

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Okay, let's make a distinction right now because I can feel the anticipation. Yes, you're gonna have some hashtag port facts. Sprinkle through this episode. They are amazing, and I have been saving them up to surprise. Michoel anda.

can't wait. I I know nothing of port facts. Very excited to learn more.

You do not sound excited.

I am excited. I am excited by your excitement, Candy, and you are excited.

Okay, what facts that's going to be the seasoning through this episode. But the meat, the meat is really I just three questions that that we had when we were suddenly reading lots and lots about the ports when they were shut down.

right? We began with the first, and I guess the most obvious question, what is on those boats?

Yeah what's coming in? Can we know specifically like what is getting imported through the ports? And to answer this, we got in touch with Michael cco, C E.

O of a company called import genius. Me, ask, argue, the titular import genius. Our users are the import genius. Spoken like a true CEO.

Import genius is a company that provides import and exports data to its users.

And and to give us an example, Michael and I pull up this big old spread sheet that is apparently a list of some of the stuff that came in through the new york, new jersey one day back in september. So what am I looking at? Tell me what these fields are.

The product description is the the general description on the shipping manifest of what's in that shipment?

okay. So so i'm looking there and I can see like quote a holstered furniture and then another column IT says that there's almost thirteen thousand pounds worth of a poster furniture ah another calm says that came from turkey and another says that IT was imported by a company called .

empire USA but also that very same day you can see a big shipment, a food biscuits .

purchase order number seven, six, four, three, one.

seven coming in from spain going .

to goy a foods love .

go a biscuits. Happy those are coming in glad to see .

IT also that same .

day bubble milk tea drink .

bot and eighty six thousand and shipment of just the bob s are the t do you know I don't .

know it's other IT might be other stuff too. Like some of these fields are not totally clear, but like you know, you can see a hotel soap and shampoo being imported by the hired in time square.

needed garments coming into vera bradlee. Bathroom stuff coming in for big lots.

I think, to sell, not to put in their bathrooms for customers. Although IT doesn't say I have no idea, I don't either. And in one line item is literally just thirty six thousand pounds of, quote.

men's slim jeans, just a bunch .

of tight genes coming in. And I totally .

unnecessary a qualifier that is that cb p does not care whether they're slam or begging.

right, that C, B, P, customs and border protection IT occurs me .

that you get when you look at this stuff and if you guys you're looking at this stuff, you get it's almost like seeing the matrix code for the whole .

economy is endlessly fascinating. And that's a good analogy.

Now the reason mike has all of this is because, according to federal law, import information is technically public information. But like it's public.

it's not free and it's unusable in the form APP that IT comes in. And for years, the data came to us by CD RAM delivered by mail every day from so my office and northern Virginia. yeah.

And apparently some records are paper only still. So some guy called grant is in charge of getting those for the company once a week.

But you can see why collecting all the data and making usable is a business model. Import genius is one of a number of companies that do this than other companies pay money to have easy access to all of this information.

Like, look, looking at that big spreadsheet with the CEO of a tech data company. This feels very modern. But in fact, Michael says this is one of the like, oldest traditions in america. Strange elly.

back in the seventy one hundred ds, the local newspapers and gaz tz, in the port towns during the colonial era, would publish shipping manifests detAiling what's about to arrive on a vessel.

So be like here, here, new shipments of, I don't know, cured beef have armed for .

all exactly how I .

imagine he is shocking, not far off. We, we found a copy of a newspaper from seventeen ninety five and front page quote imported in the ship Sophia and CarOlina hip .

gene in tasks.

cables and korda's looking glasses.

And then obviously.

the best thing here, quote velvet for lining and caps.

Uh, you can make such a deer cape if you just have the right lining.

Not enough cape.

any? No, we all need to wear more cakes.

Now, look, obviously you can understand why this information was in the newspaper. Like, since virtually everything was imported into the country back then, customers would be wondering, like, hey, when can I finally line my cape .

or whatever carb dm for the gapes? But also, this information would be really useful to other merchants to know what they should be importing, like what do their competitors already have, what things aren't .

being imported. And really, that is the same role this data plays two hundred years later today, when companies use a service like import genius. And, oh, wait h what is what's that? AManda? Do you hear something?

The sound of our.

we've probably got to turn that down. All we were going to cross the cars. That is the sound of our next hashtag, port fact.

Are you, when my ears stopped ringing, I will be ready OK ready.

okay. So Michael and some of the other folks at import genius sent me a list of a very specific kind of shipment that they have noticed happening over time. And I would love to show this to you. Can you see this?

I mean, IT s live bullfrog.

IT does a live l frog. Because about six times a month, shipments of live ball frogs come in. why? Well, well, for for eating for frog, frog legs. No, you don't like that hat.

Take part. I don't like, I don't. I don't like frogs legs like I should take.

Fact, there are giant of both frog's coming in monthly. Like this is what's happening.

This is just what happening. unbelievable. IT is a lot of both frogs.

okay. Port question number two is about but bananas. Yes.

if you look at the import data, you will see a pecus banana pattern. A huge chunk of the company bananas come through a single port. Wellington.

dear. Now most of america's bananas come from central america. And like, maybe this is naive, but but I guess I must have assumed that they would then come into the country through, like florida or some ports on the gulf, but but no willing ton delaware, of all places.

So our producer, sam, spoke with someone just outside of wilmington. Sam, john is now, hello, sam. Hi Candy by AManda. Sam is waving over zoom. You cannot hear that.

But yes, was welcome. Sam's, sure.

I do wave. yeah. So I want to touch with Tracy. Livan opened up a ripening cell er, on dark street. Bananas would come off the ships. We would cut them off the stocks and right them in a seller.

So why wilmington? Why do the bananas go through wilmington?

Well, first, the logistical answer, if you just use a porton florida, yes, that is close to where the banas come from, but wilmington is close to where the bananas need to ultimately go to population hubs.

There are centrally located. People from new york actually come down to port of wolin ton to pick up bananas here. People from canada come down to port of wilton to big bananas here. People from Virginia and north CarOlina and south CarOlina are still also coming up here to pick up bananas .

at the port of warmington. AManda, your canadian childhood bananas may have come amazing.

I've learned so much.

okay. So location good for wilmington. This is great. yeah. And back in the one .

thousand nine and seventies, del monte foods first started sending most of their bananas to port of willing ton, that central location. But here is what I think is the more interesting lesson, once you have in, is going through a port that did something special. And here's how I think about IT.

Let's say you are shipping something different like skinny jeans or pencils s once those hit the ports, they are more or less ready to hit the shelves. But items like fresh produce need another stage before they end up in your, in my smoothes. They need to ripe, and that is where traces Operation come in. They are fourth generation ripon ers. And to do that, they have special ripening rooms for bananas.

So people, when they see they are kind of blown away by the entire process. What do you mean you've ripe in bananas? They don't just appear on the shelves.

Gallow husband and I started coming into willing ton. A bunch of ripening centers cropped up to support that incoming produce. And now that those ripon nes were nearby doll and chicken to, you know, famous binna companies, they wanted to take advantage of those two. So they also set up contracts with port of wolverton.

I I love this. This is the classic icon idea of the cluster effective if banana ripening infrastructure gets built around the port of wilmington. Well, now the region around wilmington has a comparative advantage for banana pending. And please and tell me that you got access to open in a meeting room. I think I need to know everything about .

yeah so kid I did get to visit one of the ripening rooms.

We are looking at bananas that are um placed three tears high um air flow is going around them. There is ephori gas in the room as we speak. Um you can kind of smell IT it's a little sweet.

Now ethon gas is just a gas and and has already produce as they write in. So the idea is that the bin on a chip firm in Green, so they travel well, and then once they arrive, you add more of this gas to help them ripped in quickly and consistently. And that's when they go .

into these ripening rooms.

Every single piece of this banana room was designed for optimal banana.

The room itself sort of looks like a giant walking cool with stacks and stacks of bananas in box. And it's chilly, around seventy degrees. But IT feels colder. It's very windy.

It's like in a wind tune.

And I will say that sounds very windy. IT sounds like you are any windy place.

yeah. That winds, though, is important. The boxes are actually designed to allow for the gas to flow in them.

And between the banana, uh, Tracy, I do have a confession, and I shall have told you earlier, i'm actually allergi C2Bananas. To this again, i'm allergic to eating them to the, to the, to the fruit. yeah. okay.

I don't know ve ever heard anyone be allergic before to bananas themselves, but I have heard people being allergic to the m and in some senses.

the worst reporter that they could have sent along to to .

do this story seems like throw us into the bus. I, this is the first i'm hearing about bena allergy. We would have not sent you, and if we thought you could be harm, saying this unfair.

I am okay. Thank you for asking. But back to why I was risking life and live in the first place, Tracy did tell me that bananas aren't the only produce that needs a whole production ecosystem, know? Mangoes, tomatoes, apples, pair plus voco s and key is all have their own special ripening facilities near their top ports.

okay? So bananas come in through whelming ton in part because I at this point, all the banana infrastructure is now cluster around warmington. And sam, thank you so much for, I guess this hook e reporting. We didn't know, but thank you.

Yeah, sure. And Kenny, uh, time to peel out.

No, he did not do that.

Get out. go. A. Fact.

it's so loud, okay.

but i'm recovering. Yes, I read them. It's a shame. You know, read them because of the sound .

of just a little trigger ing. But book covers fine.

So while sam was at the old banana ripening place, he talked to a guy named the luu who has been there for ages, and said, in the old days, there was a risk of banana shipments also coming with. I was going on a pallet bananas, and I heard like a scratching noise. And there goes a scorpion frade rate in the banana x.

We have to take whole part apart. Finally found IT, and we kept up for a pet for a while. Then then he died in the jar. scorpion. Bian, yes.

of course you love .

IT has to take court fact.

I mean, do I love IT? Will you keep me awake tonight?

Yes, both. Look after the break, a final port mystery about A A surprisingly big importer. And also we'll talk about cookies and ice cream have candia come.

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And we're back. So for a final segment, we're going to name a bunch of companies for a reason. We'll become clearing a second.

One of them is amazon, uh, which is among npr financial supporters. And pace to distribute some of our content with that out of the way. Our final port question IT IT stems from this thing that we kept seeing out a list that we kept seeing.

Yes, there was a list of the biggest importers to the eastern sea board. And actually this was calculated using import genius data.

Shut out import jets again. So the biggest importer on this list was walmart, which makes sense. They are the .

biggest retailer in the country after the rankings was amazon. Again.

giant company in is also in the top twenty. They ship a lot of beer from europe, so sure, bring IT through the eastern sea board.

but admitted we were pretty surprised to see that. Number four on the list was roll the campy and bob discount .

furniture h it's bob's discount furniture. IT was bobs discount furniture.

Bobs discount furniture. What you're putting .

the emphasis on the wrong well, its bob's discount furniture. However, you say that I think our final big ports question kind of boiled down to like really bob.

bob s is a big company. I mean, bobs is a two billion dollar business .

that is bill means estimate. He's the editor in chief of the furniture trade publication furniture today.

I'm kind of a furniture geek.

Why do you love furniture so much?

How do you not like furniture? Does anybody furniture in their house? Think about.

yeah, think about IT. And I thought about IT. It's true. P, we all like.

okay, but yes, so you thinking bobs .

is much bigger than I knew. They are massive, one hundred and eighty six stores, mostly on the east coast.

I also did not know this. These are stores that bills says also famously serve snacks, popcorn.

a cookies. Not a lot of folks have done that before. So you have a little snack .

while you shop.

The smart st. Thing about IT is most parents shop kids, right? And you know, if somebody y's target on your shirt com, I want to go.

I want to go at this cookie.

Kids at this cookies. Have some popcorn. Isn't this fun?

I did reach out to bobs for the story and and they wanted to clarify that the food offerings are actually cookies, Candy and ice cream so so no popcorn. But look, the bottom line is that that bobs is is bigger and snacks er than I knew and that's on me. But like look here is what really caught our attention is like a port insight.

So I kia, for example, they are a massive east coast importer, the second biggest one. And that makes sense. I keep shipping from europe, and so importing to the east coast make sense.

But bobs, they are making discount furniture, which is largely made in asia, china, vietnam, malaysia. Bill says our question is.

is IT not in practical to have to ship that stuff all the way to the east coast? Like why not just landed in california? And I will admit, did not expect this answer from bill.

Furniture is is kind of like a cold, so you don't want to touch to do one. So every time you move a piece of furniture, you run risks. You run the risk of IT breaking um you add an expense because in order to move in, that means somebody is moving a contained right. And every time you touch IT.

IT costs you more money. Yeah, the reality is IT is just so much cheaper to keep things moving on a ship, because a ship is a bulk method of transportation.

Cargo is measured with the industry T, E, use or twenty foot equivalent units, which is half of one of those big old metal containers that you're probably picturing. A cargo ship can Carry twenty four thousand T E use.

That is so many giant metal cargo containers all IT wants moving in bulk. I think the .

average person you think go well, bring A A big container ah and you think of get in terms of one I well, if I was shipping one container from china to new york, the shortest way is to ship at the california and then take IT and move IT drive IT over, right? That might be true if you do at one time.

but if you're the fourth largest importer on the east coast, like bobs, we are talking so many cargo containers worth of stuff, it's just a different scale. And keeping all those containers ownership for as long as possible just makes sense.

And you know, I mean, I think this actually really gets at what I have come to appreciate, maybe most from my short lived port strike, port shutdown, panic, which is the when I thought about how the world's economies have become globalized, I I guess I was really picturing like zooming jets and beling airports. But but IT is all about moving things cheaply on ships to and from the ports. And for Better and worse, like that is what turned the entire planet into one giant marketplace, where customers and importers and and can scour the globe for a place that makes the cheapest widget, which AManda brings us to our final hash take port fact, I was ready .

for that down that time. Okay, play IT on me.

alright. So this one comes from the professor that that I first called when I was stockpiling dog food, freaking out about ports or whatever that is. Professor Steven flint and Steve had this example that that I think is kind of globalization in a nut show.

There are places in china where they stack the cloth in the container, exactly how they are gonna come out of the container onto the retail shelf.

As in you like, send this place a carefully put together list. You don't just load these shirts on the container really nilly. I want them loaded IT in the exact order that they're going to go onto our shelves or iraq or whatever.

Yeah, I want these dresses of this size being put in these colors, and that is sorted through. That is very too low labor cost. Uh, overseas.

Yeah, he is just that much cheaper to have someone in another country spend the time organizing the things instead of having american workers do IT here.

mobilization in the night.

This episode was produced by sam yellow horses ler. They was edited by Audrey queen and fact checked by dis to lon engineering by scene of fredo and quasi league with assist from valentino Rodriguez sanchez. Its good mark is our executive CER this week to will chase for tracking down so many banana fax.

Who knew there are many banana x so many facts.

I think there's a hatch anax.

No, I think you came up with our next episode.

And I .

mander iron chic. This is M. P. R. Thanks for the same.

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