Ohio’s grand experiment starts today. Recreational marijuana sales have begun: Today in Ohio (2024)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Nearly 100 Ohio dispensaries have been cleared to open for recreational marijuana customers today.

We’re talking about a monumental day in our state on Today in Ohio.

Listen online here.

Editor Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with editorial board member Lisa Garvin, impact editor Leila Atassi and content director Laura Johnston.

You’ve been sending Chris lots of thoughts and suggestions on our from-the-newsroom text account, in which he shares what we’re thinking about at cleveland.com. You can sign up here: https://joinsubtext.com/chrisquinn.

You can now join the conversation. Call 833-648-6329 (833-OHTODAY) if you’d like to leave a message we can play on the podcast.

Here’s what else we’re asking about today:

Today begins recreational marijuana sales in Ohio. What do we know about it?

In what likely is the biggest story of the week, Google has been declared an illegal monopoly of search engines and online advertising. Ohio played a role in the case. What was it? (Information on Yost’s role coming.)

Robert Kennedy is not the only third party candidate who will be on Ohio’s ballot – when he’s not dumping bear carcasses in New York City’s Central park. Who else will be on our presidential ballots?

Joe Biden is out of the presidential race, but Donald Trump remains, and he is not a young man. We talked to some senior citizens for their thoughts on whether age might preclude someone from being president. What did they tell us?

JD Vance’s wife is defending his cat lady comment, which has cost the vice presidential candidate dearly since it emerged. What does Usha Vance have to say?

MetroHealth’s acting CEO made a startling announcement to is staff Monday. What is it?

We have not heard much from U.S. Senate candidate Bernie Moreno of late, but that is changing. What’s he doing to spread his name?

We published another story about him yesterday, about some legal troubles from his past. What does it say?

We are in the first week of August, almost three months before Halloween. So why are Halloween decorations already in stores, and what is this Summerween nonsense?

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Read the automated transcript below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it contains many errors and misspellings.

Chris (00:02.12)

A day that will go down in history. No, not because of the choice of a vice presidential candidate. It’s the first day of legal recreational marijuana sales in Ohio. One of the things we’re talking about on Today in Ohio, the news podcast discussion from cleveland .com and the Plain Dealer. I’m Chris Quinn here with Elisa Garvin, Leila Tasse and back from her short break, Laura Johnston.

who needs a new cell phone, new key fob, and all sorts of other things, because she was reckless at the theme park. Maybe we’ll get to that later. Lisa, like I said, today begins recreational marijuana sales in Ohio. What do we

Lisa (00:41.091)

Well, there are 98 medical marijuana dispensaries that can open their doors to recreational customers today. Customers who go can buy up to two and a half ounces of flour and 15 grams of extract. But these dispensaries may have to limit their purchases because they have to make sure that there’s supply for their medical patients. And they promised the state that they would have enough product to serve their medical patients.

The Marijuana Policy Project, which is a DC -based organization that helped fund the initiated statute that made recreational legal here. Their executive director, Matthew Schweick, says, today is a time for celebration and it’s a milestone that will generate substantial economic benefits, but will increase personal freedom and end injustice of cannabis prohibition. So there’s a list on our story on cleveland .com, but in Northeast Ohio,

Some of the ones that should be opening today, there’s Amplify, which has locations in Bedford and on Coventry Boulevard in Cleveland Heights. The Landing on West Third in Cleveland. Tarasana in Garfield Heights. Citizen by Clutch, which has stores in Canton and Lorraine.

Air, which is in Woodmere on Chagrin Boulevard, and then the Botanist, they’ll be opening locations in Cleveland, Wycliffe and Akron. And here’s one with a cute name. Italian Herbs is going to be opening in Ashtabula. And then Rise, which has dispensaries in Cleveland, too, in Lakewood, and also Lorraine and Toledo.

Chris (02:09.194)

me go in a different direction here. Will today mark the day that we started to end the mental health issues of the pandemic? We all know that the pandemic created all sorts of anxieties for people. Is this the way out? Will all these people that are still so traumatized by what happened in the pandemic, all the people that are still struggling, will they use this as the path to back to

Lisa (02:33.603)

But you know, there are legions of stories of people who are on anxiety meds and opioids too, that were able to get off those drugs because of marijuana. So it’ll be interesting to see. And I think there’ll be a lot of pot -curious people that’ll be showing up to dispensaries, maybe not today, but certainly in coming weeks and months. I’m actually going to drive, there’s three of them that are close to me. So I’m going to drive around and see what it’s like there. I know you’re sending reporters out to some of them today.

Chris (03:02.112)

But hey, send us a note with what you see. Look, there are a lot of people who are interested in this, as we know from our website. But a lot of people just don’t want to break the law. Ohio was filled with decent human beings that just don’t believe in breaking the law. you believe that marijuana should have been legal all the time, they just don’t want to do it if they don’t have permission. And now they have permission. So you wonder how much this is going to happen. And as an employer,

I gotta say, I’m wondering, is this going to affect the workplace? are a whole bunch of people going to be using this in their off hours and how might that affect the way the work flows for us and every other employer? I mean, today marks a significant day in Ohio history. This is almost like the end of Prohibition in that we don’t know where we go from here and it could have ramifications beyond our wildest imaginations.

Lisa (03:49.771)

Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.

Lisa (04:00.717)

Yeah, it’s going to be interesting to see. course, you know, you probably, you know, work with, you know, almost everybody probably works with somebody who smokes regularly and you probably couldn’t pick them out of a

Chris (04:12.094)

No, I know. I know. just it’s a big day. That’s why I say it’s the biggest day, the biggest news story that we’re going to see. This is huge and we’re going to try and cover the ramifications of it. I think it’ll take quite some time for it to emerge. I was still getting emails yesterday from people saying this is an entry drug. This is going to create more heroin addiction, yada, yada, yada. I’m not buying that, but but only time will tell what this really means for the state

Lisa (04:33.048)

Mm -mm.

Lisa (04:38.14)

And just one final tip for people who are going to dispensaries, they only take cash.

Chris (04:43.412)

You’re listening to Today in Ohio. In what likely is the biggest story of the week nationwide, Google has been declared an illegal monopoly of search engines and online advertising. Laila, Ohio played a role in this case. What is

Leila (04:58.054)

Yeah, Ohio attorney general Dave Yost had joined nearly every other state attorney general and the U S department of justice in this case against Google, which concluded this week with a federal judge’s ruling that Google has unlawfully maintained a monopoly over internet search engines. It’s being considered one of the most significant antitrust victories in the last 25 years. This was a trial that lasted 10

testimony from top executives at Google, Microsoft, and Apple. Yost and the other plaintiffs argued that Google maintained its monopoly power through anti -competitive contracts and conduct. They claimed that this deprived consumers of competition, which could lead to greater choice, innovation, and better privacy protections. So this was a ruling that was quite a setback for Google and its parent company, Alphabet Inc. They argued that their search engines dominance was really

of its high quality and consumer preference. They noted that the word Google has become basically a verb that means online research. That’s how dominant they’ve been and how much people prefer their service. However, the court found that Google’s tactics stifled competition, which led to higher advertising prices and reduced consumer benefits. Most of Google’s revenue comes from advertising and last year it earned nearly $240 billion.

The plaintiffs argued that Google’s monopoly allowed it to charge advertisers artificially high prices and then invest even more heavily into its search engine, ultimately hurting consumers. So Google is expected to appeal this decision and that could eventually reach the US Supreme

Chris (06:39.698)

Yeah, I don’t see how they aren’t a monopoly. They have grown into one. I think there’s some truth to what they say. It’s because they are so good at what they do, everybody gravitates them. I how many people go on to Bing to do a search? On the other hand, they have cornered the market on online advertising, which has user notifications for businesses like ours who are advertising based as well. I don’t understand how you break that up in past monopolies. You break it into pieces that each have to live on their own.

I’m not sure I’ve seen a plan on how you would break this into different pieces on search or advertising. And like you said, it’ll go through the appeals and end up at the US Supreme Court. But it’s revolutionary. This could greatly change the way all of us use the internet. also comes at the very moment AI is developing and unsettling the whole search engine world. As people go online to ask questions now, it’s likely that an AI

combing illegally through all of the other sources on the internet just answers the question. So we’re about to enter some very very new territory and how we engage with the internet in part because of

You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Robert Kennedy is not the only third party candidate who will be on Ohio’s ballot when he’s not dumping bear carcasses in New York City’s Central Park. Who else will be on our presidential ballots, Laura?

Laura (08:05.051)

Libertarians, they are officially recognized as a third party in Ohio for the first time in four years. So we’ll see Libertarian candidates for president, U .S. Senate and other offices this fall when we vote in November. So they had to get a bunch of signatures to be able to do this. got nearly 49 ,000 of the 88 ,000 they got were validated by election officials. They needed 42 ,000.

And what this does is it gives recognition as a minor political party. So that means that party can hold primaries and their candidates need fewer petition signatures to get on the ballot because anybody can run as an independent, but this gives you a party platform and it’s known for limited government and free market principles. And if it comes to, we don’t really expect any of these candidates to win, even though they, that’s why they’re running.

but they could probably take some votes away from Republicans more so than Democrats.

Chris (09:01.46)

Yeah, I’m just, it’s sad that people feel the need to vote for these kinds of candidates when there are two viable candidates. It’s almost like you throw your vote away. They can’t win. They won’t win. Either, either Harris or Trump is going to win this thing and having these other choices. It’s really for people who are frustrated, right? Because they, you know, there are issues that they don’t feel are being addressed.

And it’s good for people to have options, but let’s face it, if you vote for one of these candidates, you’re basically not voting for...

Laura (09:33.051)

Well, and that’s what they said is that some of times it doesn’t really affect the end of vote that much because these are people who wouldn’t otherwise vote. And so it’s bringing out people who would otherwise stay home and not vote for either major party candidate. Last time there was a libertarian candidate for president on our ballot in 2020 in Ohio, Joe Jorgensen received about 1 .1 % of the vote. So, I mean, that can swing something maybe if you have a close enough race.

Chris (10:02.964)

The sad thing is how many people say they support Kennedy because that guy is completely cuckoo. He can sound halfway normal sometimes, but if you look at his history, he is as wacko as can be. And yet there are people, because of the Kennedy mystique, are going to vote for him

Laura (10:19.097)

Right. It’s just the name, right? You’re just like, ends the whole Camelot thing that comes along with

Chris (10:26.166)

But he did. He dumped a bear carcass in Central Park 10 years ago, creating a mystery. And the story just came out. The New Yorker found it. It’s unbelievable. This guy is wacko. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Joe Biden is out of the presidential race, but Donald Trump remains. And he is not a young man, Leila. We talked to some senior citizens for their thoughts on whether age might preclude someone from being president. What did they tell

Leila (10:51.672)

In a nutshell, Chris, they said that age is just a number when it comes to most aspects of life, but the presidency isn’t necessarily one of them. Corey Schaeffer spoke to several Northeast Ohio octogenarians and all of them said that they felt that they themselves would be too old to run for the highest office in the land and that they would support some kind of age limit on running for president.

In Rocky River, 83 year old Carol McCabe shared that it’s not just the age of Joe Biden or Donald Trump that concerned her, but their cognitive abilities. She said they both display varying degrees of incompetence. Steve DeJohn, who recently turned 80, suggested an age limit somewhere in the sixties. And he noted that while he could handle the stresses in his seventies, it might be unwise for someone to try to do that in their eighties.

Carol McCabe proposed a cutoff at 65. She acknowledged that while not everyone slows down at that age, it’s generally a time when physical and mental acuity begin to decline. And 88 -year -old June thought an age limit in the early 80s could be appropriate, given how demanding the nature of the job is. Fran Andrews, who’s 83, emphasized that the responsibilities and stakes of the presidency are so intense, and she suggested an age limit around 75.

considering the likelihood of diminishing health and cognitive abilities over the four year term of the presidency. And both McCabe and Andrews agreed that Biden made the right decision by not seeking reelection, recognizing that it’s important to hand over responsibilities to someone younger. I’m actually not doing justice to the story that Corey wrote. It’s a really charming insight into one slice of the electorate. I think everyone should go check it out on Cleveland

Chris (12:39.862)

Yeah, I agree with you. And look, I do think it’s important to hear from people in that age group about what they think. know, Maureen O ‘Connor had to stop being an Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice because she hit 70. 70 is a good kind of line. We ought to have that kind of rule. You can’t be an Ohio Supreme Court justice, but you can be president. Donald Trump is too old to be president. Joe Biden too old to be president. We ought to have restrictions. We have restrictions on youth.

It’s just we don’t have it on old age. And I think these folks get it. They’re at that time of life where there are pressures that come and the body does start to break down. Good stuff. And it was so human in the way it came together. It’s not mean. It’s not there’s no outrage. It’s just a kind of a nice discussion about what happens as you age and how that gets in the way of big jobs. You’re listening to Today in Ohio.

JD Vance’s wife is defending his cat lady comment, which has cost the vice presidential candidate dearly since it emerged, I should say, since we started recording. Kamala Harris has picked Walsh as her vice presidential candidate, to contrast the JD Vance. What does Usha Vance have to say about that cat lady comment, Lisa?

Lisa (13:55.555)

Well, Usha defended her husband’s 2021 statement that Democrats are a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable and want to make the rest of the country miserable. She said that he made a quip to illustrate a larger point. He was trying to say that it can be hard to be a parent in America and some policies are designed to make it even harder. And she said, why is that true? It’s a conversation we should have.

She, and just a little background, Usha Chilakuri Vance met JD at Yale Law School. They married in 2014. They have three kids. And when her husband became the nominee, she actually left her job at the law firm of Munger, Tolleson, Olson. And she’s saying, you know, she and her husband have regular political disagreement. She said it’s part of the fun of being married.

Chris (14:41.718)

Okay, but she says he’s trying to demonstrate the difficulty of parenting in America when he’s the guy that stands against universal child care. He comes from the state that’s dead last in helping parents with child care. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t say on the one hand, childless cat ladies, they have no stake in America. I want people to have kids. When you’re one of the ones making it almost impossible for people to pay for their children, the contrast with this guy just keep coming out.

He doesn’t stand for anything. He’s all over the map. Either you want to help people have kids and raise them or you don’t. You can’t do what he’s doing, which is going both

Laura (15:22.299)

Plus some of these people he’s talking about have really supported child -friendly, family -friendly policies. it just, and I don’t think her explanation really touches on the disparaging part of that comment. And yeah.

Lisa (15:38.891)

No, she was definitely dissembling there a little bit, but you know, she’s defending her husband. She has to keep a unified face now that they’re constantly in the press and they’re going to get a lot of negative attacks. mean, but apparently what she said is that their children are really not going to be part of the campaign. So they’re keeping them out of the fray.

Chris (15:56.662)

Look, I said this on MSNBC yesterday. This was entirely foreseeable because almost nobody in Ohio is registered in a party. More than 70 % of us are registered in dependents. A tiny percentage of people are registered in the parties. And to get their votes, you have to say wacko stuff. So JD Vance, during his campaign for Senate, trying to get Donald Trump’s attention, trying to appeal to those fringe voters that picked the candidate,

said one wacko thing after another. Now, as a vice presidential candidate, all this stuff is coming back to haunt him because most people aren’t wacko fringe right -wing people. They’re in the center. And what he said was really offensive. We’re seeing the same thing. Bernie Moreno’s doing it right now, running around the migrant crime wave and all of his ridiculous stuff. You know, that’ll come back to haunt him eventually, just like it’s haunting JD Vance. You’re listening to Today in Ohio.

MetroHealth’s acting CEO made a startling announcement to its staff Monday, Laura, what was

Laura (17:01.253)

that they’ve got to cut costs. And they’re saying layoffs are not currently part of this plan, but they do need to, quote, tighten the belt. These are not very specific ideas coming from Dr. Christine Alexander Rager. She’s the chief medical officer and acting CEO while Erica Steed is on leave. But she told employees in a weekly newsletter that despite these positive trends of more revenue and less expenses, the financial performance of the hospital is not where they expected

or need it to be. They’re acting with a sense of urgency, not panic, and they’re going to do course corrections. So they’re going to reduce all travel expenses, reduce unnecessary expenses, including purchased and contracted services, and they’re going to pause job searches for administrative roles that are not in the final stages. Also, they are going to prioritize hiring for the patient -facing roles with the strongest opportunities for growth. So they’re

The people who interact with the patients, that those jobs are not going to be affected, no one’s getting laid off. But this is a trend. We’ve seen stuff happening in obviously. They’re having a tough time with their financials too, that they have to figure out how to make money and not go

Chris (18:16.106)

Well, we’ve talked about this for a quarter century, that Cleveland cannot support three enormous hospital systems, that eventually the economies of the healthcare industry are going to squeeze one of them out. So went through its layoffs and had its issues, as you mentioned. The fact that Metro Health is losing a ton of money, not surprising, everybody’s losing money. The Cleveland Clinic in total is not losing money because it’s making money at some of its sites outside of Cleveland, but it’s

I bet it’s not making money in Cleveland. Eventually there’s going to have to be a retrenchment. These hospital systems have expanded and expanded and expanded and we can’t afford it. It’s like the drug stores. Remember about 15, 18 years ago where the drug stores bought up every street corner. So you had Rite Aid, Walgreens, CVS everywhere. And now what do you see? Rite Aid is shrinking way back because we can’t support that many pharmacies. It’s the same thing here.

Laura (18:53.029)

Mm -hmm.

Lisa (19:01.643)

Mm -hmm.

Chris (19:12.478)

I’m not surprised that they’re in dire straits. What I don’t know and don’t understand yet, how much of this is based on the billion dollar capital project they did? They got a lot of debt that their former CEO Akram Butro has put on them. When you add those debt payments to all the other costs, is that going to make MetroHealth the weak sister, the system that eventually collapses?

Laura (19:23.781)

Mm -hmm.

Laura (19:35.931)

That’s a really good question. So they’re trying to grow their revenue. They increased from 1 .6 billion in 2022 to 1 .8 billion in 2023. But their income, they went from 18 .1 million in 2022 to a 19 .7 billion loss in 2023. And so that’s just dealing with what’s coming in and out. That’s not even dealing with debt service. Salaries and wages are rising. Think about how much more people are making just since the pandemic.

and the inflation on the spending on supplies increased from $284 million to $354 million. So that’s a big jump just in a year. But Chris, I know what you’re talking about, and I would drive south on 77 to go to Akron to see my family. almost at the same time, and Metro Health put up giant facilities on either side of 77 at the Brexville -Broadview Heights interchange.

at Route 82, massive, massive facilities. I don’t even know if they’re in different towns because the dividing line is right about there. But you’re like, what are we doing?

Lisa (20:40.735)

You know what I find interesting? Don’t you find it interesting that this big decision was made by the interim CEO?

Chris (20:47.646)

Well, I was going to talk about that a little bit because as we discussed a week ago, there was all sorts of weirdness about the announcement of the leave of the current CEO. And then to send this to the entire staff, seems like a public relations move. It’s one thing to let your managers know, hey, we need to get a hold of travel. We need to get a hold of expenses. But sending this out in a blanket way, it’s almost like they’re sending a statement about

the current CEO and you wonder she’s supposed to come back in a week or so. It’s going to be interesting if she actually comes back or if there’s some weirdness going around in the background. There’s so many red flags on what’s happening here and they’re not being really transparent. I thought it was extremely odd that they sent that to their entire staff. Because what happens? We get it. I mean, there’s a lot of people there. One of them is going to tell us about it and we’ll find it. You’re listening to Today in Ohio.

Lisa (21:26.135)

Yeah.

Chris (21:43.956)

We have not heard much from US Senate candidate Bernie Moreno of late. That is changing. Layla, what’s he doing to spread his name?

Leila (21:53.23)

Well, Bernie Moreno has kicked off a new phase of his US Senate campaign. Politics writer Andrew Tobias was out in Chillicothe this week where he witnessed a 40 -foot bus featuring Moreno’s face parked around the corner from a giant inflatable cat smoking a cigar, clutching a bag of money in one hand and a hard hat wearing worker in the other. So the campaign stop turned out to be a bit of a showdown between Moreno and his detractors before he gave a campaign speech.

He tried to greet the protesters who were there, but he was interrupted by a local pastor who highlighted lawsuits that had been filed against Moreno by former employees. So this is how he’s kicking off a week long bus tour where he’s going to travel across Ohio to meet his supporters and to get media coverage. In an interview, Moreno emphasized his commitment to visiting every corner of the

He compared his efforts with those of his opponent, Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown. Moreno criticized Brown as old and tired, and he suggested that he belongs in a retirement home rather than in the Senate. In his speech, Moreno attacked Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democrats on issues like border security and rising prices. Moreno’s strategy seems pretty clear. He’s trying to rally Ohioans who supported Trump in 2016 and 2020 to vote for

in the Senate race. It’s all part of the Trump bootlicking parade. Moreno also made a false statement that Harris wants to ban red meat. That was based on a misinterpretation of a 2019 statement where she encouraged eating less red meat. He ended with a call to enjoy a hamburger for Kamala. As Andrew Tobias pointed out, this was a campaign stop that was made for social media.

Lisa (23:28.961)

Ha

Chris (23:49.93)

Well, we published another story about him yesterday about some legal troubles from his past. Laura, what does that story say?

Laura (23:56.891)

Well, he’s got a lawsuit that he’s dealing with basically saying that he didn’t pay an employee what he promised to. And we all know he used to be this hiring car dealer, an employee at the dealership said he was stiffed out of money, that he was promised when he was hired. His name is Michael Falcone, and this was in 2012 when he left the company. He sued in 2014 two years later.

But he said that he was supposed to be paid a percentage of the dealership’s profits, but he never got this money as a sales manager of the Porsche dealership in North Olmsted. And he said he was retaliated against by being fired and he signed a termination document under duress. And then he said this was improperly altered so that he couldn’t get unemployment. So Moreno has denied any wrongdoing. This case was settled out of court in late 2016. It’s never been reported, but this is

one of a number of cases that are coming out now that Merino is in the spotlight.

Chris (24:56.854)

Yeah, this is something that had gotten a lot of traction. I Channel 3 did a lot of reporting on this earlier this year. It was kind of ugly because he portrays himself as this self -made guy and he’s done all these wonderful things to build his businesses and these put a very different take on how he treated people and didn’t pay them what they were owed and he didn’t do well in this case.

Laura (25:21.123)

No, and he’s addressed it in public before. He said that you settle because it’s cheaper than going to court, right? That you don’t want to go through a trial and said that he didn’t do anything wrong, that it was an employee disagreement, and this is nothing, which is of course what he’s going to say. He’s saying this is disgruntled employee.

Chris (25:42.814)

Yeah, I get it, the settling to save money, but you also, if you are principled and you believe in what you did, sometimes you pay the extra money to stand on your principles. You would hope somebody seeking to be in the US Senate would be somebody who knows how to stand on principle.

Laura (25:59.227)

And when, you know, it’s kind of that idea of when there’s smoke, there’s fire. There are a lot of these lawsuits, you know, there in January, the dispatch reported on starting in 2017, he was sued 15 separate times in Massachusetts for a car dealership, said he improperly withheld overtime pay. I believe that’s the one Sherrod Brown is using in his ads. There’s a different case that Marina was ordered to pay $416 ,000 in November 2022 and was sanctioned for improperly destroying payroll records.

Chris (26:28.446)

Okay, you’re listening to Today in Ohio. We’re in the first week of August, almost three months before Halloween. Lisa, why are Halloween decorations already in stores and what is this summer ween nonsense that we wrote about?

Lisa (26:42.409)

It’s all about the money, honey, but it’s also mirroring changing shopping trends really. So in actually I posted this on Facebook last year. I remember going to a TJ Maxx in the first of August and there was still Halloween stuff. So I put it on my Facebook page, but stuff was in TJ Maxx before August. So it’s getting earlier and earlier. and you know, experts are saying that you’ll probably see Halloween or summer ween happening earlier and earlier in the future.

At home stores, president Jeff Evans says, we identified summer wean as a key market trend. And he says, for some people, Halloween’s not just a holiday, it’s a lifestyle for some very passionate consumers. And Rob Will, who’s the merchandising officer for Joanne Fabrics, they decided to put out their merchandise in July a couple of years ago. And that’s about one and a half months earlier than they normally do. They said, customers went crazy. Stuff flew off the shelves. And you know, they said that

This year, all of their Halloween inventory is going to be on Joanne’s shelves by the second week of August. So right about now, they’re going to have Christmas in the stores by mid -September. The National Retail Federation says 2023 Halloween spending was projected to be about $12 .2 billion. That’s up over $2 billion from 2022. it’ll be interesting to see. know, Case Western Reserve business professor Michael Goldberg says that they’re changing holiday shopping trends. He says,

You know, they want consumers to spend more and earlier and they want to move that inventory earlier. And, you know, they say that Black Friday sales that were done for years on Thanksgiving weekend, you know, by Walmart and Target kind of kickstarted this trend. And I will say that if you’re going to be shopping for Halloween stuff in October, you’re not going to find much.

Chris (28:29.57)

I guess my question is, where does it end? I do you get to the point where Easter’s over and you have Halloween decorations? There’s got to be some end point. I would have thought August is way too early for Halloween decorations, but it’s not. So do you go back to July then as school is letting out, but we see pumpkins in Target stores? You just have to figure that at some point the trend has to stop. And a lot of people...

Do you know many people that want to go buy Halloween decorations? Laura is the most prepared person on the face of the planet. Do you already have your Halloween decorations?

Laura (29:05.209)

do not enjoy Halloween. am sorry. I do decorate for fall, but not until Labor Day has passed. I mean, not until I stopped swimming in the lake. So give me till the end of September before you tell me it’s fall.

Lisa (29:11.575)

Mm -hmm.

Chris (29:17.184)

But your Christmas shopping is done, right? All right, interesting story. Check it out. It’s on cleveland .com. You’re listening to Today in Ohio, and that’s it for the Tuesday episode. Thanks, Lisa. Thanks, Leila. Thanks, Laura. Thank you for listening. Come back Wednesday for another discussion of the news.

Laura (29:19.512)

No, I do have a couple of things, but it’s definitely not