A lot of demand for steak but not the supply hence higher prices, says Stew Leonard's CEO
December 24, 2025 • 4m 6s
Kelly Evans (Anchor)
00:00.070
joining
us
to
discuss
is
stew
leonard
junior
the
CEO
of
grocery
chain
stew
leonard
you're
not
in
the
premise
one
are
you
welcome
Stew Leonard Jr. (CEO)
00:07.720
kelly
no
i'm
in
norwalk
Kelly Evans (Anchor)
00:09.120
right
now
i
see
the
the
classic
and
i
i
grew
up
there
yeah
sort
of
it's
a
long
story
good
yeah
so
what
what
are
you
seeing
simplified
baskets
what
are
please
don't
tell
me
people
are
cutting
back
on
holiday
traditions
and
what's
in
what
form
Stew Leonard Jr. (CEO)
00:22.240
you
know
what
people
are
not
cutting
back
on
how
holiday
tradition
we've
had
just
a
a
really
good
year
at
stew
leonard
this
year
and
you
know
what's
interesting
you
you
mentioned
beef
prices
and
this
is
like
our
number
one
item
in
the
store
right
now
it's
a
tenderloin
the
filet
Stew Leonard Jr. (CEO)
00:37.870
mignon
and
most
people
prepare
that
for
the
holidays
that's
up
about
fifteen
percent
in
cost
but
it
doesn't
have
anything
to
do
with
tariffs
it
doesn't
have
anything
to
do
with
cost
overall
but
but
what
it
has
to
do
with
the
supply
and
demand
like
you
mentioned
herd
prices
in
Stew Leonard Jr. (CEO)
00:55.190
america
are
fit
are
at
a
fifty
year
low
so
there's
a
lot
of
demand
for
stakes
but
not
the
supply
so
that's
why
prices
are
up
Kelly Evans (Anchor)
01:05.070
yeah
one
of
our
viewers
just
told
me
he
spent
two
hundred
and
fifty
dollars
on
an
eight
pound
prime
rib
yesterday
two
hundred
and
fifty
dollars
Stew Leonard Jr. (CEO)
01:13.270
i
know
it
it
it's
it's
a
twenty
two
twenty
three
dollars
a
pound
depending
on
how
big
the
prime
is
but
here's
the
good
news
these
things
are
down
like
a
dollar
fifty
a
dozen
right
now
eggs
are
you
know
butters
down
a
dollar
a
package
you
know
milk
right
here
is
down
a
a
dollar
a
Stew Leonard Jr. (CEO)
01:32.080
half
gallon
right
there
and
then
but
you
know
what
they
don't
mind
spending
money
on
things
like
this
which
is
we
have
this
cookie
milk
OK
it
sort
of
tastes
like
creme
brulee
a
little
bit
but
anyway
talk
about
social
media
and
i
know
you
just
talked
about
AI
but
and
i
want
to
Stew Leonard Jr. (CEO)
01:50.950
mention
some
of
the
things
we're
using
with
AI
but
with
this
cookie
milk
it
went
viral
on
on
tiktok
how
smart
and
we're
going
to
sell
sixty
thousand
bottles
of
of
this
cookie
milk
you
know
where
did
that
come
from
you
know
it
just
hit
us
from
left
field
Kelly Evans (Anchor)
02:10.110
yeah
it
shows
that
the
the
experimentation
could
really
pass
you
know
i
made
the
mistake
of
going
into
a
stew
leonard
's
around
christmas
time
a
couple
years
ago
i
will
never
do
that
i
i
could
not
believe
the
stew
it
was
i
think
it
was
like
an
hour
wait
just
to
get
to
the
front
Kelly Evans (Anchor)
02:25.230
of
it
i
i
was
blown
away
and
i
thought
wow
you
know
i
should
have
realized
this
like
this
is
like
thanksgiving
for
you
guys
i
mean
people
really
are
packed
into
the
stores
Stew Leonard Jr. (CEO)
02:35.070
yeah
well
kelly
that's
a
good
thing
with
AI
and
i
heard
your
conversation
earlier
with
chat
GPT
and
so
forth
one
thing
we're
using
it
for
is
is
things
like
what
you
just
mentioned
we
had
a
crunch
of
of
of
people
at
one
time
you
know
what
items
were
they
buying
maybe
what
what
Stew Leonard Jr. (CEO)
02:51.950
things
were
taking
some
time
i
mean
we
know
from
when
they
placed
the
order
to
when
it
gets
picked
up
so
maybe
we
didn't
have
everything
ready
for
catering
and
that's
why
it
took
you
so
long
to
get
the
parking
lot
we're
using
AI
for
that
the
other
thing
my
dad
you
know
when
when
Stew Leonard Jr. (CEO)
03:07.990
i
grew
up
i
was
remember
the
old
suggestion
box
would
like
to
pen
on
it
he's
at
the
back
you
know
well
that's
gone
now
and
a
lot
of
people
are
doing
their
customer
comments
online
so
we're
having
chat
GPT
go
out
and
scour
the
entire
you
know
reddit
that's
amazing
google
and
give
Stew Leonard Jr. (CEO)
03:28.950
us
everyday
customer
comments
so
we
can
react
to
them
right
away
and
the
other
thing
that's
really
helping
us
is
production
planning
i
know
one
thing
everybody
wants
the
fresh
right
you
want
it
made
right
now
you
want
a
hot
bagel
you
want
it
whatever
so
one
of
the
things
AI
can
Stew Leonard Jr. (CEO)
03:48.710
help
us
do
is
go
back
and
look
at
years
of
sales
history
say
on
the
day
before
christmas
like
today
how
how
many
villas
did
you
sell
how
many
of
them
did
you
sell
and
it
can
give
us
some
predicting
on
how
how
much
to
cut
fresh
that
debt
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