Transcripts For CNBC The Profit 20240712

My name is marcus lemonis, and i risk my own money to save struggling businesses. Were not going to wake up every morning wondering if we have a job. Were gonna wake up every morning wondering how many jobs we have to do. Its not always pretty. Everythings gonna change everything. But i do it to save jobs, and i do it to make money. This. Lets go to work. Is the profit. Milwaukee has some of the best food and drink in the country. Something i know well because i went to college there. Thats me when i had hair. And one of the newer local favorites is the soup market. Stephanie hi, honey. How are you . Lemonis a quickservice chain started in 2004 by chef dave jurena and his business partner. Dave anything else for you, sir . Lemonis dave did the cooking while his partner ran the business. Woman thats good. Lemonis and before long, the soup market had expanded to five locations, with plans for many more. Then daves partner and coowner died suddenly, leaving him struggling to run the company and putting his dreams of expansion on hold. Dave cant do it. Lemonis and thats why he reached out to me. A highmargin, highvolume concept like soup would make for a great franchise opportunity. And with 2 million in revenue, the soup market may just be a few small fixes away from being the next big thing in fast casual dining. Im meeting dave at the soup market location in Hales Corners a suburb of milwaukee. What i noticed right away when i walked through the doors, about the design, well, there isnt any. It looks more like a hospital cafeteria. Stephanie hello lemonis hi. Stephanie how are you today . Lemonis good. How are you . Stephanie good, thank you. Lemonis im marcus. Stephanie nice to meet you. Stephanie. Lemonis stephanie, nice to meet you. How are you . Dave hi, marcus. Im dave. Lemonis hey, dave. How are you . Dave great to meet you. Lemonis nice to meet you. Jill hi, im daves wife jill. Lemonis how are you, jill . Nice to meet you. So, are you both in the business . Jill no, i work awm in athletics. Lemonis oh, you do . Dave but she has worked farmers markets for us. Lemonis okay. Well, ive never been in a place like this, so i wanted to kind of get a feel for it. Dave all right. So, the line where they serve people. Lemonis whats the most number of soups you have in one day, offered available . Dave we do up to nine. So, we have soup, salad, sandwich. Lemonis whats going on on that board . Dave i bought a new one, but its too big. So thats gonna be the new look, assuming its not all faded like that. Lemonis i want to taste what youre known for. Dave okay, well, i would start with the africanpeanut and chicken. Lemonis it does have peanuts in it . Dave yes, Peanut Butter. Lemonis Peanut Butter . Its heavy. Its thick, you agree . Stephanie yeah. Lemonis typically, when i order soup, im looking for a lighter meal. I dont think thats the case here, though. Stephanie this is the hungarian goulash. Lemonis whats in this thing . Dave that is pork cooked in bacon fat. Lemonis im sorry. Dave yeah, you heard me. Stephanie [ laughs ] lemonis its delicious, but it is heavy. I had one bite of 10 soups, and i felt like i had eaten for a week. Its too heavy. Whats the calories in this one . Dave we dont provide that. Lemonis you dont . What if somebody asks . Dave a lot of people do. Lemonis people ask for lighter options . Lemonis healthier options . Stephanie yes. Lemonis id like to see what a customer actually gets. I want the whole presentation. Stephanie the whole presentation. Lemonis thats the bread . Thats a big piece. Stephanie yeah. Lemonis what sort of sales data comes out of this system . By store . By soup . Dave no, we dont have it by soup. We actually do different price levels. Lemonis you need some sort of sales data. How many different soup recipes do you have . Dave 200. Lemonis what you need with good data is to understand what sells best, what sells terrible, what to add to the rotation, and what to take away. We might as well go back to an old fiveanddime store with a metal register with those big keys, because all hes doing is taking money and putting it in the register. What do you think of the presentation of this . Stephanie i like it. Lemonis i hate it. Dave okay. Lemonis i just think it looks this tin here, its all dented, and the tissue paper doesnt have any logos on it. Is this bread frozen . Dave no, we bake it here. Lemonis does it smell a little frozen to you, or refrigerated . Dave im not sure what refrigerated smells like. Lemonis well, this doesnt smell fresh to me. It doesnt taste good. Did you come up with the original recipes . Dave most of them. Lemonis and would you call yourself a chef . Dave yes, because ive gone to school and been trained. I managed a bakery and noticed how much soup they were making. That was actually how i met my late business partner, tim. He passed away a year and a half ago sudden, unexpected, very unfortunate. Lemonis oh, man. Dave i was always the food side of the business, and he handled paying the bills and things like that. I am dealing with his attorney and his estate. Theres no plan in place for succession or anything like that. Lemonis and how much did you guys own . Dave 50 50. Lemonis 50 50. What are they asking for . Dave a little under 100,000. Lemonis what do you think that 50 is worth . Dave i think its worth more. Lemonis well, i wouldnt tell them that. Dave no, certainly not. Lemonis if we could sit over here, that would be great. Soup, first, makes up how much percentage of the revenue . Dave about. 60 . Lemonis did you make that up, or you know that for sure . Dave its pretty close. Lemonis soups one. What would be two . Dave i dont know. Lemonis if you dont know your numbers, you dont know your business. Can i see the different sizes . But i need to do business with somebody, not just eat their food. What does it cost to make this . Dave umm. Lemonis what are the margins on soups . Dave i dont know. Lemonis if your ultimate goal is to have more than five of these is that the goal . Dave yes. Lemonis how many would you like to have . Dave well, 50 is a number that comes to mind. Lemonis whats odd about this place is it doesnt feel like its part of a chain. Theres no real energy to the place, and theres no clear presentation of food, and the menu board isnt clear. Whats even worse is that the owner cant even tell me what sells and what doesnt sell. If this thing was gonna be nationally franchised, theres a lot of work to do. How are you . ¿todo bien . Where are you from . Stephanie mexico city. Lemonis and where are you from . Veracruz . Oh, wow. So, what do you love about this place . Tell me your background. Stephanie my husband and i met dave, and we tried his soups, and we just fell in love with it. Lemonis he works here now . Stephanie yeah. Lemonis so, who do you report to . Stephanie umm. Long story. Um. Lemonis why dont we go outside . Stephanie sure. Lemonis yeah. So, who do you report to . Stephanie dave. [ laughs ] lemonis why do you say it like that . Stephanie uh. Well. Lemonis is there something more to the story . Stephanie well, there is somebody that works with us. Her name is grace, and shes also working along with me with this store. Lemonis oh, she works here . Stephanie i dont know whats going on with her. Lemonis i definitely sensed that her body language changed when this topic came up, and it prompted me to say, are you telling me everything . No . Stephanie no, ii just like i said, im not sure, um, whats her position here. Lemonis stephanie seemed reluctant to tell me exactly whats going on, so im gonna talk to other employees at other locations. Lets jump in the car and get to bay view. Dave okay. You know how to get there . Lemonis yeah. Im a marquette grad. I know how to get to bay view. [ bell jingles ] whoa its a lot bigger. This feels very different. This was the original one . Dave yes, 2004. Lemonis im feeling a little bit better as i visit the bay view location because you can tell theres a little bit more thought that went into this. The space is bigger, you see the full kitchen, it looks clean, but i still dont know what the story is. Like, what exactly is dave trying to sell here . Is it a concept or is it just a local soup spot . How you doing . Im marcus. Kevin good. Kevin. Lemonis kevin oh, hey i think i just met your wife. Kevin yes. Lemonis shes, like, all energetic and excited. So, what happens here . Kevin this is where we make all our soups and products for sandwiches. Lemonis okay. Whos in charge of the kitchen here . Dave mayra. Lemonis are you mayra . Mayra yes, its me. Lemonis how you doing . Im marcus. Mayra im mayra. Nice to meet you. Lemonis so, youre the jefe of the kitchen . Mayra yeah. Lemonis is this bacon . Dave sure is. Lemonis and what is this . Dave these are the dumplings. Kevin secret dumpling, man. Lemonis whats the secret. Kevin well, the secret is very good. I give it a little stir. Lemonis now, how long have you worked here . Kevin ive been here a little over five months. Lemonis what is your role . Kevin its kind of been changing. I was supposed to be regional helping him oversee five locations and get him some structure. Lemonis did he need structure . Is it hard saying it with him standing there . Kevin no, its not. I already told him. Lemonis oh, i know. Kevin i want to create a better people culture throughout the restaurants, and he needs to let me do that. Lemonis what does that mean . Kevin he needs to trust me. Dave i dont want to just turn him loose to go visit the stores. I want to know what hes up to. Lemonis how do the stores get human contact, and who do they get it from . Dave a lot of phone calls, a lot of texts. There is communication. Lemonis humcontact. Who tells them theyre doing a good job . Who gives them a hug . Who does all that . Kevin uh. Grace was helping out with that, as well. Lemonis whos that . Kevin grace. Lemonis she works with stephanie . She handles some other stores, as well . Kevin randomly. Lemonis whats that . Dave shell be leaving, so shes not gonna be a part of this. Lemonis oh. Okay. This whole grace thing is weird. Its like, people are talking about it, but theyre not allowed to talk about it. Daves shushing everybody and telling everybody to be quiet. Whats this grace thing all about . This is low fat . Mayra no, with the cheese. Lemonis and so, if you have a problem, who do you call . Mayra grace. Lemonis does grace work for kevin . Mayra i really dont know. Lemonis its confusing. Mayra yeah. I dont know what happened. [ chuckles ] yes. Lemonis hey, kevin. Kevin yeah. Lemonis what is the grace thing . Kevin i have no idea. Maybe its like a brothersister thing, where they cant get along, and then they get along. Lemonis do they fight here at work . Kevin ive seen arguments. Lemonis you have . Kevin yeah. Its been dysfunctional since i got here. Lemonis it has been dysfunctional . Kevin yeah. Lemonis its odd. Kevin yeah. Lemonis anything else i should dave did you get all your information out of kevin . Lemonis i didnt get a lot of information out of kevin that was useful, no. I learned a few other things, but well talk about those oneonone. So, i want to go to the Public Market. Can we head there . Dave sure. Lemonis the Public Market is a coop of individual vendors. The soup market makes its soup bases for all five locations here. So, this is where you make the stock. Dave yes. Lemonis wheres the. Dave no, we dont stir it. Lemonis just let it sit . Dave no, if you do, youll make it cloudy. Lemonis okay. Is it me, or is it odd that daves wife is here again . Maam, would you like some soup . I know who you are. Are any of these your recipes . Jill oh, i dont cook. I work fulltime, and we have two kids, so. Lemonis youre plenty busy. Jill yeah. Look, i get the fact that daves wife was at hales corner, they were excited, they wanted to meet their potential new business partner. I got that. Nice to meet you. See you soon. But i didnt think it would be, like, two hours from now. How weird is that . Does your wife come to work here every day with you . Dave no. Never. Lemonis why is she here today . Dave support for me. Lemonis is that the reason . Dave and to keep grace away. Lemonis what is that about . Dave im not gonna talk about it on camera. Lemonis but i gotta understand it. It just seems odd to me that, like, youre skirting this issue, and i think the challenge that i have is if were dave you know what . Im not talking about it. Lemonis what is the big secret . I dont care who she is or what she does. I didnt come here to invest in anybody but you. Dave then why is it becoming an issue . Lemonis because everybodys talking about her, except you, and so it makes me uneasy. Dave im not im not gonna talk any more about her. Lemonis did you see how that even makes it weirder for me . Dave next subject. Lemonis why are you getting so angry at me about it . Dave all im gonna say is, i dont want to talk about it. Lemonis why did you call me . Dave cause i thought you could help. Lemonis i am gonna help. Dave but if this keeps festering and coming up, im not interested in talking about it. Lemonis dave, what is it that keeps festering . Dave marcus, i like you. Lemonis well, you obviously dont. Dave i think youd be great for this business, but this does not interest me anymore. Lemonis dave, what did they do to you thats making you so upset . Dave you know what . I appreciate your time, thank you. Im sorry you wasted it. I have no interest in pursuing this now. Lemonis hello, maam. We cant have customers back there. Im sorry . 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Im not sure where you went. Im not sure why you reacted the way you did. I stood around there out of respect to him. And an hour later, he finally calls me back. So, what id like to do is put that behind us. Lets get back to work. The fact that hes giving me this answer that shes gonna be leaving doesnt mean that i just wiped it off my memory bank. I just put it off to the side. Lets dig into the financials, and lets understand the business a little bit. Enough about grace, more about business right now. And so, when i dig into the numbers, its clear to me that youve proven that you could generate revenue. 1,850,000 in revenue, and how much debt is in the company today . Dave 85,000. Lemonis what about any money owed to tim . Dave we had come to an agreement on about a 100,000 buyout. Lemonis so, theres 185,000 of liabilities, and the consolidated margins, probably somewhere around 52 , 53 . They should be closer to 70 , 72 . Look, im a big fan of soup and i love to eat it, but i want to make sure it has really healthy margins. In order to close the gap between 52 and 70 margins, the soup market could use more costeffective ingredients, without compromising quality, and make sure items are priced properly. Right now, dave doesnt even know how much it costs to make a single serving. Making those adjustments would give him an extra 18 points of margin. With the current 1. 85 million in gross revenue, that would be an additional 333,000 of gross profit. Im excited about the opportunity to get in here and work with you but. Let the other people that work in the business do their thing. You got to trust people. I want to do business with you, but im not easy to do business with. We have a 100,000 problem with the estate, 85,000 problem in terms of your debt. And we probably have a 130,000 problem in terms of, we want to brighten up some of the stores and update them a little bit, rebrand them. I want to put a salespad program where you know everything thats happening at all stores. You press a button boom. So, my offer is 315,000, and i want to slide in as your 50 50 partner and just take out the estate. Dave i mean, saying you want to put money into the store id be interested to see what that looks like. I mean, are we gonna get a concept before we. Lemonis no. My offer is 315,000 for 50 of the business, and im 100 in charge of everything. Dave of course. Lemonis of everything. Dave of course. Lemonis we got a deal . Okay. Dave thank you, marcus. Lemonis okay, my man. Im excited. Are you excited . Dave i am. Lemonis oh, okay. Stephanie hi lemonis hello. I thought we could get everybody together and have a little chat. Dave all right. Oh, everybody, come on out. Lemonis so, yesterday, dave and i made a deal for me to invest 315,000 in the business, and well invest in new technology. We want to work on our presentation, we want to change the front of the store so that 5 stores can turn into 50 stores. cause i didnt come here to invest in 5 stores. Thats boring for me. And then were gonna figure out how to make the soups a little healthier. Kevin [ laughs ] lemonis people, when they see these colors, they know that its fresh. We dont tell the story that theres an amazing chef that created all these thats you. Theres no artificial ingredients. You have to tell this story. Everybody excited . All yeah lemonis all right, lets go to work stephanie im ready. Dave thanks, guys. Lemonis before we spend a bunch of time making healthy soup options, we need to find out how unhealthy the ones that he has now are. I wanted to bring you here and test the soups. Whats the calorie intake, whats the fat, what the sodium . Dave ouch. Lemonis northland lab is one of the worlds leading researchers on food nutrition. Good morning gretchen hey. Gretchen. Lemonis im marcus. Gretchen nice to meet you. Lemonis this is my partner, dave. Gretchen hi, dave. Nice to meet you. Lemonis this should be and eye opening experience for dave. So, wheres the goulash . Dave didnt bring that one. Lemonis and the Bacon Cheeseburger . Dave i couldve brought that but. Lemonis you were scared to bring that. Dave yes. Lemonis so, that means you already know its bad. Dave yes. Lemonis were gonna test the africanpeanut soup. Lets do it. Your lifes work being blended up. Gretchen this is gonna tell us the total protein. Were reading the nitrogengas content that comes off of the combusted sample. Lemonis and so the protein here is 6 . Gretchen so, this is how we test calcium, sodium, and iron for your nutrition label. So, this is an automated method for looking at the fiber content. Lemonis so, could you take a soup like ours and then add something to it that could make it have fiber . Dave metamucil. Lemonis i think thats sort of sarcastic and not funny. Is there anything that you think you could add to it to just give it a little bit of fiber . Dave i dont know, but were getting into an area that makes me uncomfortable. Messing around too much with existing recipes, that concerns me. Lemonis have you ever tried . Dave no. Lemonis why . Dave because i dont think like that. Lemonis not even willing to compromise, not even thinking this is a good idea with him, its just all bad. Gretchen this is all of the information that we provide. So, heres your total fat. Lemonis boy, thats high. Gretchen its alphabetical. Lemonis sodium contents higher than i thought it would be. Thats a lot. Gretchen yes. Lemonis it has over 1,700 milligrams of sodium. Thats 70 of what youre supposed have in one day. I dont want to be part of a restaurant that puts so much of something in one thing that it could be harmful to people. Dave you know, i still believe its ultimately their choice. There are people who are gonna want the highest fat. I dont want to limit the things that people have come to expect just because, all of a sudden, weve gone on a health kick. Lemonis were not on a health kick. Were on a responsiblebusiness kick. Dave people expect it a certain way. Im not willing to alter that. Gretchen like, the cheeseburger one, could you do a lowfat version of it . Not get rid of your original. Dave i would rather just get rid of it at that point. That soup is not meant to appeal to the bikini crowd. Lemonis whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You mean the nonheartattack crowd . Can you make a lighter version of it . Dave quite honestly, it doesnt really appeal to me. Lemonis therell be no Healthy Options. Like, you remember the old seinfeld episode. Daves like, no healthy soup for you no healthy soup you will eat a fat soup and you will like it dave theres a lot of things that youre good at and you can bring to the table here, but when you start getting into my area lemonis which is your area . Dave food. Lemonis i didnt know that we had defined areas. I didnt know that we had these lines where im not allowed to bring things up. And by the way, i cook, too. Youre not the only person that cooks in the world. Im really trying to get you to be better and think differently. Hey, bud. So, i have somebody on the way that im partners with in another business. Its gonna help us redo the inside of the store. Were gonna clean up the facade, were gonna look at the menus. Were gonna do all of that stuff. Oh. Dean. Dave. Dean nice to mean you. Dave nice to meet you. Lemonis lets come out in here. So, dean is my partner in a business called precise graphix. What did your business do before we met . Dean 3. 4 million. Lemonis what do you think youll do a year later . Dean close to 11 million. Dave wow. Lemonis my ultimate goal with the soup market is to create a national, scalablefranchise model. Essentially, bay views gonna be our companys prototype. There has to be a consistent look and a consistent feel, and there has to be a wow factor. If i was a potential franchisee and you brought me into this place, id turn right back around and head out. I want this space to lighten up. These fresh, Natural Ingredients that he uses a lot of, i want him and his name to be at the forefront. Dean he looks like he likes that idea. Lemonis do you like the menu board . Dean no, im not a big fan of the electronic one. Everything right now is just flat and bland. Lemonis you feel a little dizzy from it . Dave i like that design. I know that you think its busy. Lemonis if i looked up the word resistant, id see a picture of dave. Its gonna happen fast really fast. So we may have to close for 3, 4 days. Dave yes, and im glad were only doing one. I went to simple greek yesterday. Its very stark. Lemonis the one that sold 56 franchises in four months . Dave its very white. Its very to me its a little cold. Lemonis like the soup market, the simple greek was a struggling familyrun franchise that also had five stores, each with its own design and systems. We created a uniform look that was customer friendly, and, with all due respect to dave, it was relaxing and inviting. Thats how you scale a business. Everything that we do, youre not gonna have full control of. You got to get your head around that. Dave [ clears throat ] sure, surprise me. Lemonis okay, perfect. Thank you. Dave all right. Lemonis trust. Daves constant resistance is exhausting. So im gonna spend some time with kevin to really dig into these operational issues. Where are all the sandwiches at . Stephanie this bodys not working good. Kevin that went on the fritz. Stephanie so we just put them in here for now. Lemonis is there any other equipment not working . Stephanie this one right here is, like, old, and weve been having problems with it. We already fixed it, like, three times. Kevin yeah. Lemonis so, kevin, i have to ask you, if youre the operations guy, and you come here and that doesnt work and this is broken, what exactly are you doing when you come here . Kevin so, i bring that to daves attention, and, i mean, this ive never seen it quite like that. I havent been to this store for a while cause ive been stuck at bay view. Lemonis im seeing a broken refrigerator. Im seeing burnedout light bulbs. If kevins responsible for operations, but hes not in charge of this stuff, then who is . This menu board is broken. Kevin exactly. Lemonis whose responsibility is that . Kevin well, i havent. Lemonis look, i cant help but feel again that people are not giving me the full picture. Hello, maam. We cant have customers back there. Grace im grace. Lemonis im sorry . I cant work in an environment where you and i just cant be straight the whole time. Dave mm. Problem. Lemonis you should be very careful about what youre saying. In a highly capable lexus suv. 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Like a good neighbor, state farm is there. Lemonis hello, maam. We cant have customers back there. Grace im grace. Lemonis im sorry . Let me introduce myself to her. Kevin okay. Lemonis hi, grace. Im marcus. Grace pleasure to meet you. Lemonis im sorry for stopping you when you came through. I didnt know who you were. Grace well, im kind of freaked out, and im shaking right now. So, im here to drop off keys. Our staff doesnt have keys for all the stores. Lemonis okay. What are you freaked out about . Grace umm. Our situation that i find myself in right now. Lemonis what is your role with the company . Grace im the director of operations. Lemonis i thought kevin was the d grace no. Lemonis problem. Everybody needs to get their story straight. What i dont understand is, how come i havent met you up until now . Grace because dave requested it. That i be invisible. Lemonis he told me that you werent even working here anymore. Grace you know, thats hurtful. Lemonis do you still work here . Grace i do. Lemonis do you get a paycheck . Grace i do. Lemonis okay. Something really stinks here. Grace i know why, marcus, but you need to ask him lemonis why is he keeping you away from me . I have, and he wont tell me. Grace it would be foolish of me, and i think it would be also crossing some lin trust were talking about trust. Lemonis with him . Grace all right. The details are this. Hes got a wife who does not, for some reason, trust her husband. He and i have never crossed that line, ever. Theyre making me a problem in their marriage. Lemonis yeah. Grace thats interfering with my livelihood. Lemonis so, wait a minute. Grace is a current employee, and dave has kept her away from me for what . Because hes having problems at home . Whatever it is thats going on, daves been dishonest about it, and its made graces life miserable, through no fault of her own. Do you love this place . Grace i do. I have a really great relationship with all of the employees. Lemonis on a daily basis, who should run the business every day in your mind . Grace myself and kevin. Lemonis you want to work with kevin . Grace oh, kevins a saint. He does come with a great deal of experience. Lemonis and he reports in to you right now . Grace no. Kevin comes in three days a week, helping in the kitchen, helping develop that area. Hes a good man. Lemonis yeah. Im done softpedaling on this issue. Im gonna confront dave, and i dont care if he likes it or not. Yeah, that was interesting. Oh, hey kevin oh, hi. Lemonis how are you . Jill hey. Lemonis as were leaving, who do you think we ran into . How are you . Jill good. Lemonis yeah, again. Isnt that a small world . Jill yes. Lemonis i told you she was lurking. Thats ironic that shes here. Kevin yes. You know what . Lemonis she seems to always be lurking, though. Kevin yes. Lemonis maybe she thought grace was here. Kevin [ laughs ] could be. Lemonis look, the renovations are underway to build the prototype for the soup market in bay view. I gave them instructions to remodel the entire front of the store. But now im wondering if i didnt jump in too quickly after what i just learned about the situation with grace. But all i can do now is tackle this thing headon, and if he isnt straight with me, ill take my losses from the renovation out front, and he will never see me again. Okay. So, i went to hales corner. While i was there, some woman comes barging in, rushes by the counter, and i actually said, maam, you cannot go back there. She said, yes, i can. Im grace. So, thats number one. She proceeded to tell me she was the director of operations. You didnt tell me that. She told me she still worked there. You didnt tell me that. Dave what you have to understand, it was really awkward. Lemonis i cant work in an environment where you and i just cant be straight the whole time. Dave mm. Problem. Lemonis you should be very careful about what youre saying. Grace you need to be brought out and be told, its not okay to treat people like that. Its not. How dare you guys guys safe drivers save 40 safe drivers save 40 safe drivers save 40 thats safe drivers save 40 . It is, thats safe drivers save 40 . Hes right there. Its him safe drivers do save 40 . Click or call for a quote today. Safe drivers do save 40 . When you think of a bank, you think of people in a place. But when you have the chase mobile app, your bank can be virtually any place. So, when you get a check. You can deposit it from here. And you can see your transactions and check your balance from here. You can detect suspicious activity on your account from here. And you can pay your friends back from here. So when someone asks you, wheres your bank . You can tell them heres my bank. Or heres my bank. Or, heres my bank. Because if you download and use the chase mobile app, your bank is virtually any place. 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Lemonis no [bleep] no games, no gimmicks. Did you ever have feelings for her . Dave i did. And i told my wife that, and thats done with. Lemonis and it was over. Dave nothing ever happened. Lemonis yeah. For an employee to suffer just because her boss had feelings for her and he feels awkward about it is just wrong on so many levels. To be honest, i have half a mind to walk away, but for the sake of the business and the other great folks that work here, im hoping we can work things out with grace and move on. Dave maybe ill be more communicative but you have to lemonis or just dont keep stuff from me. I appreciate you being honest with me about it, but let me be super clear. This nonsense with grace stops right now. I wasnt gonna move forward with much more until dave came clean, and we addressed his behavior, but now that we have, its time to get down to business. How are you . Im marcus. Matt hey, marcus. Matt. Lemonis first off, were gonna stop serving that weird refrigerated bread, and were gonna serve up something with a twist. So i brought dave to milwaukee pretzel company. Katie right over there, thats our mixing station. After it comes out of the mixer, it goes through our divider rounder, which cuts it into pieces. Then it comes through this machine, here, and turns it into a string, and then we have twisting and shaping. Lemonis you might think homemade bread is cheaper and more profitable, but baking our bread, were using a ton of labor that we could use somewhere else. By serving these pretzels, we free up our labor, and were able to add something to the concept that increases the perceived value of the menu, giving us the ability to raise our prices. Dave i like it. Lemonis youre open to that . Dave oh, yeah. Lemonis i also wanted to take dave to maglios, one of the largest produce suppliers in all of wisconsin. Sam first process that theyre doing here is picking out anything that just isnt edible. And we have number twos. Lemonis historically, dave would buy gradea tomatoes, the kind you would see in a beautiful salad. But when youre making soup, presentation of the tomato doesnt matter. The quality and the taste do. So, in the past, dave would spend around 5,000 a month in tomatoes, but you can buy gradeb tomatoes and save about 20 . Over the course of a year, dave would save about 12,000. And that extrapolates across all sorts of vegetables. Im taking dave to a local Kitchen Supply store, to improve the presentation of the product. If we invested in some dishware lets say we spent 20,000, and so, if you do 1. 8 million a year we can get an extra 10 on price. It comes back pretty quick. A small investment in plates will give us the ability to raise prices and help us with our soup margins exactly what im looking for. And finally, its time for dave to start working on some healthier soup options. So im taking him to metro market for some inspiration. Dave im gonna try some for you, cause im gonna make it a little healthier than i would normally. Lemonis what is that . Dave thats whole milk. Lemonis what would you normally use . Dave halfandhalf. Lemonis chef dave soup in the jar, available at metro market. Dave shh you want to try my new soup . Lemonis thats it . Dave thats it. Lemonis whats in it . Dave grilled corn, grilled onion, roasted poblanos, grilled chicken, lime juice, cilantro, and yukon gold potato. It doesnt have any dairy. Lemonis whoa. Dave mmhmm. Lemonis he did go back to work, and he told me he created a brandnew healthy soup for the grand opening. Dave what do you think . Lemonis thats good. Maybe hes actually starting to listen. Hey, great job, bud. Dave thanks. Lemonis see you soon. Its been about two weeks since ive seen dave, and im back for the grand opening of the new and improved soup market, and i have a feeling its gonna look amazing. Well kevin whats the word, man . Lemonis what do you think . Kevin i love it. Lemonis looks different . Kevin i love it. Lemonis hey, dave dave how are you . Lemonis proud of you, my man. Dave good to see you. Lemonis what do you think . Dave incredible. Lemonis i spent over 60,000 renovating the soup market. New floors. An entirely new front counter. A new pos system so we can keep track of whats selling and not selling. New displays. We have fresh ingredients right there for people to see. New wall graphics. Daves soup forecast a new facade. New lighting. The place finally tells a story. It talks about the chef that created them, it talks about the freshness of the products, and it even tells the story of the pretzels. And we got our pretzels . Dave we do. Dessert pretzels, an interesting idea. Lemonis yeah, just gives you one more addon. We already were bringing the pretzels inhouse, so all were doing is adding a little bit of garnish to them. More items, more revenue. More revenue, more profit. I invited all the people from the local community to come out and try the new soup market. Hello crowd hey lemonis okay. So, this is dave. Dave thanks a lot for coming. This has been a long process, but were real happy with it, and we hope you are, too. Let us know what you think. Lemonis thats it. Dave thats it. Thats all i got. Lemonis lets go have some soup. Dave all right. Man ill have the mexican corn, please. Ooh, we get pretzels. Lemonis theres 10 types of soups, and its on the house tonight. Theres a vegan gazpacho, theres a vegan mexican lentil. Do you feel like theres enough Healthy Options . Man absolutely. Lemonis so, what do you think . Jill this is awesome. Lemonis you proud of your husband . Jill very. Lemonis suddenly, i see grace hovering outside, and i realized that shes not inside, celebrating with the rest of the staff, and im pissed. You and i. Dave lets do it. Lemonis dave had better not be excluding her, because we talked about this. Okay. Its probably a good idea that, you know, you guys get whatever waters under the bridge behind you. Grace absolutely. You know darn well that i worked really hard to ensure that you would get what is happening today, dave. You did not ask me to come here. Why should i be the one that steps aside because you have some personal problems . And its very hurtful that i get to watch from the outside, everything thats going on inside. I needed to let all this out. You need to be brought out and be told, its not okay to treat people like that. Its not. How dare you lemonis if your business is in trouble and you need my help, log on to. Guys guys safe drivers save 40 safe drivers save 40 safe drivers save 40 thats safe drivers save 40 . 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How dare you lemonis grace, he did tell me you were very helpful to the business, you were an amazing worker hes owned all of it. Grace all of it . Lemonis all of it. Dave yeah, i never talked about your work quality. Things that end badly, you know, theres always regret. I am sorry. Grace thank you. I appreciate that. Lemonis your friendship maybe will rebuild over time, and your respect will rebuild over time. Grace it will. We will. Everything will be fine, marcus. I think we all needed to, like, vent, and get it out. Lemonis look, im glad that dave apologized to grace, but the fact remains, is that he did exactly what i told him not to exclude grace to punish her. Dave all right. Lemonis okay. Lemonis grace, thank you so much. Right now, this grand opening is in full swing, and the only thing that i can think of is that maybe i made a mistake with this guy. Its been about 10 days since the grand opening, and im back in chicago at work. [ phone rings ] hello . Then i get a phone call from somebody in milwaukee. Grace marcus . Lemonis yes. Grace hi, marcus. This is grace. Lemonis oh, hey, grace. How are you . Grace well, i kind of wanted to keep you in the loop of whats going on. My employment at the soup market has been terminated. He walks in and says, you are fired for insubordination. He said, you need to go now. You need to go now. And i refused to accept that. I said, no, im not going to leave. He took out his phone, he dialed 911, and he had the police come and escort me out. Lemonis literally, the police came . Grace literally, the police came. Lemonis after all of this, now he fires her . Grace i want to give you a little bit of a back story because, unfortunately for him, he does have the eeoc hanging over him. Two years ago, um, he made an advance. He had some strong feelings for me. I did not accept the advance, and that was part of the eeoc. I did file one because of the situation. Lemonis so you filed a claim with the eeoc. I knew that dave had feelings for grace, and i knew it wasnt a healthy situation, but to find out that she filed a complaint with a federal agency for sexual harassment, and to find out that hes now terminated her employment after everything thats happened. This is a real big problem. Let me get ahold of him, and ill get back with you, okay . Grace sounds good. Thank you. Lemonis take care. Byebye. Grace okay, byebye. Guys guys safe drivers save 40 safe drivers save 40 safe drivers save 40 thats safe drivers save 40 . It is, thats safe drivers save 40 . Hes right there. Its him safe drivers do save 40 . Click or call for a quote today. With one protein feels like. What getting fueled with three energy packed proteins feels like. Meat cheese and nuts p3. Because 3 is better than 1 meat cheese and nuts for bathroom odors that linger try febreze small spaces. Just press firmly and it continuously eliminates odors in the air and on soft surfaces. For 45 days. As business moves forward, were all changing the way things get done. Like how we redefine collaboration. How we come up with new ways to serve our customers. And deliver our products. But no matter how things change, one thing never will. You can rely on the people and the network of at t. To help keep your business connected. They will, but with accident forgiveness allstate wont raise your rates just because of an accident. Cut is that good . No you were talking about allstate and. I just. When i. Accident forgiveness from allstate. Click or call for a quote today. Accident forgiveness from allstate. Lemonis im heading back to milwaukee cause im gonna confront dave about this phone call that i got from grace. He had the gall to terminate her employment. Im not gonna tolerate this kind of crap from dave. Hi, there. Kevin hey, marcus. Lemonis how are you, buddy . Whats the good word . Kevin everything good. Lemonis what happened to the menu items . Kevin well, on my end, ive been trying to get that done. Lemonis wheres all that stuff . Kevin that, you know, we didnt use enough items. Lemonis hows the new pos system . Kevin um, dave wasnt happy with hhow much work it took to enter the soups every day. Lemonis so what . I mean, its like we need the data, you know . Kevin i know. Lemonis wheres the pretzels at . And whats that . Now were whats this thing . Kevin thats his ice cream. Lemonis i never. Knew that. Is dave here . Kevin yeah, hes in the back. He had to print something up. Lemonis lets just assume that i couldnt have been any more pissed at dave. Well, ive broken a new record. Im more pissed. How you doing . How are you . Dave good, how are you . Lemonis so, wheres everything that was put up here . Dave its down. It was confusing. Lemonis confusing to who . Dave the customers. Lemonis but just to take them off and what happened to all that stuff . Dave you know, these are great ideas in theory or in your head. Lemonis in my head . Or in reality . Dave no, you came up with the idea. Its not practical. Lemonis whats not practical . To change a menu board . Dave i look at the expense. I dont want to do that. Lemonis you didnt pay for any of this i paid for it. You havent taken a dime out of your pocket. Kevin, can you give me a minute with dave . Kevin sure. Lemonis im sorry. Thanks. This was about building a prototype for a soup concept, and then, after all this stuff is done, you basically just dismantled it all. Dave okay. The problem i have, you just come in and you do things without any kind of consultation this just appeared and then on the day of lemonis im sorry. This beautiful store just appeared . You know what else just appeared, dave . A filing from grace. I was able to get over the fact that you were very secretive about grace because i felt like i got the reason why towards the end. What i cant get over is, she says you made advances to her. This [bleep] pisses me off. Dave im working on that. Lemonis what do you mean youre working on that . Dave i have an attorney handling it. Lemonis dave, i gotta tell you, she is gonna light this place on fire. I mean, dave, this is bad. When she calls me and tells me you fired her, its like, come on, man. Honestly, the Biggest Issue i have right now is that you have to respect people, and if these claims about you sexually harassing her, like, i dont want to be partners with somebody that does that. Dave you know what . Its fine. I think i came to that conclusion on my own, as well. Lemonis you came to what conclusion . Dave that this is not a good partnership. Lemonis if you came to that conclusion on your own, why didnt you call me . Because you dont have respect for me either. Nice meeting you, dave. Good luck to you. Ive spent about 100,000 on this business, but i hato walk away. I dont want to be in business with somebody that wont compromise, and while i dont know exactly what happened between him and grace, a federal agency will determine that. Ive seen enough to know one thing this guy does not know how to treat people. At the end of the day, i saw his true colors, so im out of here. Lemonis tonightlori hey. Rofit. Lemonis two years ago, i bought an interest in mr. Green tea ice cream. Young man this is actually amazing. Lemonis and while weve been able to increase sales by nearly 100 . Is that your car . Michael thats my car. Lemonis . Success has spawned a whole new set of challenges. Michael the entire future of the brand is based off of my vision. Richard thats something im not so sure of. Lemonis the owners son is pushing for a piece of the pie. Michael i think 7 to 10 would be more than fair. Lemonis but his cavalier attitude isnt helping his case. Michael who cares about a 10,000 upfront cost . Lemonis i think we all kind of care about the 10,000. And now a family feud is brewing in the business