Esther: Welcome to a dreidel-spinning edition of The BusinessMakers Overtime Show. We are your hosts, Esther Steinfeld –

Katie: And Katie Laird.

Esther: And Hanukkah starts this Saturday, so start buying your gifts now. And you might consider buying a gift from today's guest, Brenden Macaluso, the founder and CEO of Recompute, a company that designs sustainable desktop computers made out of cardboard. Find his interview in segment two, The BusinessMakers Breakdown.

Katie: In segment three, our special features will focus on gifts you can give your boss that'll make you look like a complete hero. Plus, we'll divulge the worst gifts that we've ever gotten – and they're pretty bad.

Esther: Uh huh.

Katie: So first, let's dive into the weird, wonderful world of business from dropping champagne prices to how much it'll cost you to buy your sweetheart a partridge in a pear tree and what really happened on Black Friday. It's scary out there, so hang out with us for a bit and reenergize.

Esther: That is right.

Katie: (Laughter)

Esther: And we are so excited to talk to you about stuff that's going on in the world today. I mean it's just – there's a lot.

Katie: Exactly. So we're coming fresh off of Thanksgiving feasting time –

Esther: Ugh.

Katie: And so I wanted to mention a real short little article from The Seattle Times called "Bargains Abound in Champagne and Sparklers," just to kinda keep the bubbly holiday spirit going. So Paul Gregutt, who is a wine writer – he's actually the Wine Advisor for The Seattle Times, wrote this great piece specifically trying to help people realize that champagne doesn't have to be this high-end, uber celebratory, let's get married tonight honey, kind of drink.

Esther: Right.

Katie: Which I think is really cool, especially during the holidays, when maybe you're going to your office Christmas party or boss has asked you to, I don't know, you know, a Hanukkah celebration dinner or something. You know why not grab a bottle of champagne instead of a boring bottle of red wine?

Esther: Absolutely.

Katie: So he actually says that prices are coming down rapidly in the champagne world; meaning that it's an incredibly affordable way to kinda get your drink on. And he mentions a few things for whenever you're thinking about what the heck you're gonna buy in the bubbler world. First of all, and I think we've heard this time and time again, find a reliable wine guy – whether it's at hey, your grocery store, because it happens. There's some really knowledgeable folks there.

Esther: Uh huh.

Katie: Whether you're going online to do some research or if you have a great guy at your liquor store that's just passionate about his champagne and wine – and make sure that he kind of guides you through what producers and growers are, you know, really rockin' the champagne world right now. And second of all, look for half bottles. There's no reason that you have to buy full bottles, especially if it 's just you and your spouse or significant other.

Esther: It doesn't keep very well.

Katie: You know you can definitely splurge. It doesn't keep well but what's really cool is that there are some really excellent, excellent champagnes out there, like Duval-Leroy whose been around 150 years. You can buy a half bottle of brut for $18.00.

Esther: That's a good deal.

Katie: That's an awesome deal. So goin' out there for all of our business guys and gals that are, you know, wanting to bring up a little something sparkly and exciting –

Esther: And the best part about this –

Katie: Go champagne!

Esther: - apparently, earlier this year, some of the, the larger champagne houses tried to control production of champagne because –

Katie: Demand. The demand is going down.

Esther: - right, because the demand was so down –

Katie: Yeah.

Esther: - they still – apparently, there's 1.2 billion cases of champagne sitting in caves that nobody's purchased and nobody needs right now. So, this is good news for us because when demand is down, prices go down.

Katie: Yay!

Esther: So –

Katie: Champagne-drinkin' goes up!

Esther: - the price – yeah, the prices of champagne – the prices have been going down about 10 percent right now. So take advantage of the low prices for your holiday. I mean, why not?

Katie: Why the heck not?

Esther: It's delish.

Katie: Who needs boxed wine? (Laughter)

Esther: Absolutely. So another way to celebrate the holidays, and this I just think is hysterical, is to buy your sweetheart all the items of the 12 Days of Christmas.

Katie: (Laughter)

Esther: I've never heard of this before. It's unbelievable. Maybe I – maybe because I'm Jewish, I don't know. Is this something that people do? Buy –

Katie: I've never, ever heard this.

Esther: Never heard of it but it's unbelievable. So, apparently, if you wanna buy your dear loved one all the items it is gonna cost you $87,403.00 – and that is actually slightly up –

Katie: It's barely up. Less than one percent. $794.00.

Esther: Yeah up.

Katie: From last year.

Esther: From last year, yeah.

Katie: Yeah.

Esther: And the reason that it is up be- is because of gold. The price of gold, the rings – the five rings of gold – would've cost you $150.00 last year. This year, they'd cost you $500.00.

Katie: Oh!

Esther: But the price of the partridge and the price of the pear tree is down, slightly.

Katie: (Laughter)

Esther: Unbelievable! This is crazy!

Katie: This is like the weirdest thing we've ever talked about on our show. (Laughter)

Esther: I know. It really is. Where, where would you even begin to look for eight maids a-milking?

Katie: (Laughter)

Esther: Where do you get that?

Katie: Duh. Wisconsin. Dairy farmland.

Esther: Oh. Oh, of course.

Katie: Well what about the lords a-leapin'? We don't even have lords, you know?

Esther: (Laughter) Where did you –

Katie: I mean, like -

Esther: Actually, the article said – the article that we read on MSNBC – said that the lords a-leaping are gonna cost you about five grand.

Katie: Oh man.

Esther: I don't know where they came up with that number but –

Katie: Five grand? I mean is that like hourly? Does that include –

Esther: Maybe they're just – maybe they're about to go out and hire like Alvin Ailey's dance troupe or something and that's, that's some kinda interpretation of lords a-leaping.

Katie: (Laughter) Yeah, this is, this is every interesting. So total 12 Days of Christmas cost, $87,403.00.

Esther: If you do this for your loved one, please, please, please send us an email.

Katie: (Laughter)

Esther: Please let us know. We want you on the show. We wanna talk to you. I wanna know what you're thinking.

Katie: Exactly. (Laughter)

Esther: How your mind works. This is unbelievable. But I'm glad I, I – yeah.

Katie: (Laughter)

Esther: Anyway. So in other shopping news, Black Friday. Black Friday was, you know, couple weeks ago.

Katie: Uh huh.

Esther: Pretty interesting. You know we don't need to rehash everything that happened on Black Friday. We know.

Katie: People went shopping. (Laughter)

Esther: Everyone went – yeah, exactly. We went shopping. So you know –

Katie: Spent money.

Esther: - it kinda like came and went and to me, what's truly amazing is that retailers seem to actually meet their margins this year.

Katie: Yeah. They did.

Esther: Actually did okay. And you know, obviously, shopping is down. Spending is down from two years ago but profits were slightly up from last year and I think has, according to this article, it has a lot to do with the way retailers purchased merchandise this year. They didn't over-purchase this year.

Katie: Exactly.

Esther: They were very conservative and they also didn't put everything on sale.

Katie: Exactly. They were really selective so you had these Black Friday crazies, or shoppers, depending on what group you fall into. (Laughter)

Esther: Yeah.

Katie: I'm not getting up at 3:00 in the morning. (Laughter) But I mean, so they have these folks standing in line, standing in line, going in and yeah, I mean sure enough there are only certain areas of a store. You know, even like Bloomingdales and Macys – it wasn't all a blowout, buy, buy, buy, buy.

Esther: Uh uh.

Katie: You know, of course they were buy, buy, buy, buy, buy. But –

Esther: Right.

Katie: - yeah, much conservative is a great, is a great word.

Esther: Exactly. So instead of two dollars for anything you want and free shipping and free this and free that and 50 percent off the whole store, it was 30 percent off of this select merchandise –

Katie: And I think –

Esther: - which is safer.

Katie: - and, and depending on what stores or, you know, what areas you were trying to purchase and to shop for, a lot of bargains were a lot stronger on the Web.

Esther: Absolutely.

Katie: I mean, it seemed like in, in-store, in-house – I mean I'm sure that there were great deals to be had but you know, it was those Web junkies, like myself, got some great deals, lemme tell ya. (Laughter)

Esther: Yeah, yeah.

Katie: That really benefitted.

Esther: Absolutely and actually Cyber Monday has only been around for a few years. I think 2005 was the first year of Cyber Monday but this year, online spending on Black Friday was up 40-something percent.

Katie: Wow.

Esther: I mean that's really interesting because Black Friday is the day where you go to the store and Cyber Monday is the day where you go get online at your computer when you get back from vacation and start making those purchases but it really shows a trending towards just buying everything online all the time because also the retailers online had great sales going on on Friday, which is different, you know?

Katie: Ah.

Esther: A lotta retailers stated their holiday sales and their, their Cyber Monday sales early.

Katie: Yeah.

Esther: To take advantage of their Black Friday shoppers and they did. I think they did a great job this year. There's a lot of cy- I noticed a lot more Cyber Monday sales and promotions this year than ever before.

Katie: Yeah. Oh yeah. They're, they're really tapping into the, to the nerd within.

Esther: Yeah.

Katie: The consumerist nerd within. (Laughter)

Esther: Exactly. Those, those stealthy shoppers.

Katie: Exactly, exactly. (Laughter) So moving on to something sort of related but kind of completely not at all related – how's that for a segue? (Laughter)

Esther: Yeah, good segue.

Katie: Esther, you found a story on MSNBC about a Canadian woman who was sick, actually she was on sick leave for depression, and was receiving monthly payments from her, from her insurance and her company was covering this, who because of her activities on Facebook, actually totally lost all of that –

Esther: Yep.

Katie: - completely and totally lost all that. You, you wanna tell us a little bit about poor Ms. Natalie Blanchard?

Esther: Well she was on sick leave. You know, feel very bad for her. She was – had horrible, crippling depression and recently she said she was gonna fight her insurance company's decision to cut her benefits, after her agent found photos on Facebook of her vacationing at a bar and at a party. So this Natalie Blanchard lady said that she was diagnosed with this major depression and she was receiving all this, these monthly benefits and she went to Chippendales or something.

Katie: Chippendales! (Laughter)

Esther: A kind of crazy strip club and took pictures and this is on the advice of her psychiatrist – told her, you know, you're just doing terribly. You should take a vacation, get away, go see friends and she did that and her insurance agent was snooping around on Facebook looking for exactly this and found damning evidence against her.

Katie: But I think this is really dangerous territory for this company to tread in because I mean who is to say – you know, she even says here that she'd gone on these mini-vacations to lift up her spirits. Like you said, doctor recommended. Doctor ordered.

Esther: Absolutely.

Katie: Like who's to say the fact that she was smiling and having a good time in Facebook photos doesn't mean that her depression's still around or, you know –

Esther: Right.

Katie: - like what, what are the stipulations?

Esther: I think it's really – I think maybe there's still like a stigma about depression and whether or not it's a condition that prevents you from working.

Katie: Yeah.

Esther: That could be it. That's how I see it, anyway. I think maybe an employer might not be quite as understanding about –

Katie: Yeah. It would be frustrating -

Esther: - depression. If you have, you know, you have meningitis you can't come to work but if you have depression you can come to work. Whether or not you're gonna be a productive employee is another story but you could, technically be there –

Katie: Right.

Esther: - doing your job if you – or maybe not if your depression really is that bad, which for her, she's saying it is. So.

Katie: Yeah, so long story short, regardless of what it is that you're battling – don't post it on Facebook publicly.

Esther: Please be careful.

Katie: When are we gonna learn this?

Esther: Facebook is ruining lives.

Katie: It really is. And actually, it wasn't even that long ago, I spoke at a breakfast club a couple weeks back and I was talking to a couple guys that work for the city, so of course we're in Houston, the City of Houston, and they actually came out – right out and said that they do regularly look on Facebook for people talking about selling drugs – you know like very specific offenses and they're using this and we've – we've talked about news stories.

Esther: The FBI.

Katie: The FBI. The – yeah, they're seeing who's evading taxes. I mean it's just so obvious what people need to do and it's just to be smart and to not go crazy and to learn about the privacy features on Facebook, people. (Laughter)

Esther: Seriously. You don't have to let everyone see what's going on with your profile.

Katie: Exactly, exactly.

Esther: Just be careful.

Katie: And unless you've gotten really good Black Friday deals, in which case you should totally share that. (Laughter)

Esther: Share with everyone, which I did.

Katie: You good girl.

Esther: Yes. So with that, we're gonna get to segment two, our Buisnessmakers Breakdown with Brenden Macaluso, the founder and CEO of Recompute. This is gonna be awesome. His computers are completely sustainable.

Katie: So cool.

Esther: Maintainable and he's gonna tell you all about that in segment two. You're listening to The BusinessMakers Overtime Show, heard here and online at thebusinessmakers.com. I'm Esther Steinfeld –

Katie: And I'm Katie Laird.

Esther: - and we will be right back.