Douglas Soclof of the Douglas Soclof Experience Live in the Studio on JM in the AM

Well, we promised you an interesting conversation with our good friend Doug Sakoff. And sure enough, he's in our studio here at JM in the AM. That's your headphone and that's your mic. And this is your favorite morning Jewish radio show. No, the other way. The other way. There you go. And this is your favorite Jewish morning show to say the least. >> Good morning, sir. >> Welcome back to JMA, Mr. Doug Suckloth. >> Thank you. Great to be here. >> So, uh, any big plans for Thanksgiving Day? Always a lot going on, you know. It depends. Uh, >> you have a wedding tomorrow? >> Uh, actually no wedding tomorrow. A night as >> I wonder if tonight's a bigger wedding night than tomorrow is. I wonder which has more Jewish weddings. The Wednesday night era of Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving Day itself. >> I'm going to say definitely demographic driven. So I think probably like in the Lakewood area, tomorrow is probably definitely a lot of weddings. >> Tomorrow's bigger. >> Yeah. And tonight, a lot of weddings all over. >> Everywhere. >> Everywhere. Everywhere. Wednesday night's uh big night. Big wedding night >> with plenty of traffic. >> Um do you have a wedding tonight? >> No. >> You know, so it's one of those things like, oh, you're invited to a wedding like oh really on Wednesday night at Thanksgiving. >> It's rough. >> But if it's a local, you know, but if it's you don't really have to go that >> I have a very quiet Thanksgiving weekend. I don't know how that developed like that, but uh tonight it looks like not much going on. Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, it looks like uh football and chicken wings. Uh Friday, Era Shabas looks pretty quiet, although we did get a wonderful invitation out to friends for Friday night, which I'm looking I always look forward to being invited out Friday night during the winter. I don't like being invited out Friday night, March to October. I love being invited out uh during the winter months. >> I love the rules. >> Meal starts 5:30. >> What do you mean? Oh, you like my rules? It's a good rule. >> It's guidelines, not rules. guidelines. >> I like the 5:30 start to the to the meal. 5:30, 5:45. I like that. I like the fact that you're 2 hours in and still plenty of time to get a good sleep. >> I like that whole thing. And then and then and the only time I like that and that's the general rule I'll use your word that's the general rule in the seagull home over the over the decades is that during the uh the summer months or the more you know the longer shabases if we have an invitation we'll accept it if it's shabas day and then during the winter months we'll accept it if it's shabas night but I'm also now sort of getting into the space listen to this one where shabas day during the winter I will encourage the acceptance of an invitation for lunch, especially if that lunch begins late. Let's say people da at 12:30 and then sit down at one o'clock for lunch and you could assume it's going to be a 2 three hour meal. If you do that and we can have a really nice good quality time and Shabas is almost over when the meal ends, I'd head in that direction as well. So now you have the whole thing. Now you got the whole playbook >> and then and then if um the one and only Mrs. Seagull looks at you after Shabas and says, "Are we going out? Are are are you game?" You know where you're where you're very into going out on Saturday night >> where >> American dream. >> Oh yes. >> Do you think it's a cabaya? >> Well, especially if you live like in the Bergen County. Um >> yeah, but even from New York, you said it's a good recommendation to go out there on a Saturday night. >> Absolutely. >> Lot of kosher food options. A lot of good Jewish shopping options >> and a fun atmosphere. >> Great atmosphere. A fun atmosphere just to walk around and the vibe is great. Like you said, so many so much kosher there. And uh even more getting ready to open. >> Did you ever What do you mean getting ready to open? >> Uh I think there's one more. Uh >> oh, there's more coming up here. >> One more. One more that's like going to be opening soon, which I think is going to be a huge game. >> Did you ever think something like this would exist? Forget about the fact that it's a mall, but just that you'd have a retail establishment that's really meant for the general public. I'm not talking about West Anglewood Avenue, which is meant for the Jewish community, but I'm talking about meant for general public. I would have so many kosher and Jewish options. >> No. Never. And when you see it play out, it's so interesting to see the demographics at that at that mall. And >> and if I would go with Mrs. Seagull on a Saturday night, I have to budget what how much money do I need to budget for? >> It's not bad. >> Can I do it for less than 100 bucks or not? >> Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it it's just so interesting because if you you kind of have to plan it out because the mall's so big, >> you need to know what you want to do. >> You don't want to backtrack. So, you got to start with like where do you park first, you know, and make sure you're like right in the middle. you don't have to park walk too far because the worst is, you know, you finish up what you're doing and then you got like 3/4 of a mile of a walk to to, you know, to go to your car and then remember where the car actually is, right? >> Uh, but it's an amazing place. >> Um, highly recommend it. >> Yeah. No, that I get I I have I have a running joke with a friend of mine who I dive in with every shabus morning. I'm getting to an age where because you said, "What are you doing Saturday night?" And frankly, I'd much rather do something Sunday than Saturday night. tell you Saturday night even if it's an early shabas I'm just like you know >> no no no interest in going anywhere so I have a running joke with someone I do with on shabas morning when I'm leaving shul after domining I'll say to him which pizza shop are we not going to tonight >> because you plan and you think and then when it comes push comes to shove no one's going anywhere you know what I'm saying >> yeah so the the youth who's tuned in can't relate to this >> definitely if you want to if you want to be reunited with people that you haven't seen in a long time go American Dream on Saturday. >> The other thing is that someone mentioned to me, you remember the old J2 Kosher Delight Saturday night in Manhattan? >> Someone told me that Bravo in Midtown is like that now on a Saturday night. Now, I don't know cuz I haven't seen it, but they reported back to me about it and they go to Bravo 7:304 to 8 Saturday night and the lines are uh are extensive. >> So, that's pretty cool that there's a little bit of that vibe still there in Midtown. >> It's it's funny when you go back to that nostalgic direction of Broadway. like 36 >> kosher delay >> and kids say they don't even know what we're talking about. Like we tell them about what it was like to be there on a Saturday night. They can't relate to it. >> Well, it's also because >> obviously there were no phones back then. So there's no that's where you're like your melting pot was >> without connecting. You knew you'd connect there. >> You know, I called I called a Shabas text. You know, like when you're walking and all of a sudden you just run into somebody thinking about whatever that was like the the J2 Kosher Light Mr. Broadway area was like the texting world way before texting. >> I'll give you two other examples of that from the prephone world. >> Yeah. >> Yankee Stadium if you were meeting someone you knew you were meeting at the bat, right? That was always we'll meet you at the bat and that and that big bat, the smoke stack was the place everyone met. And then of course the original social media was and I you may be a drop younger than me. So I don't know if you could relate as much. Richie Pizza Jerusalem the the the bulletin board at Richie Pizza. That's where you would post any message cuz you knew that the person you needed to connect with would see it there if which is amazing when you think about it. Now it's so easy. It's crazy. >> My first apartment that that we rented in New York City, just jumping to more domestic >> at Lincoln Square, there used to be a huge bulletin board >> and there was no like looking things up on computer or Craigslist or online thing. And that's where we found our first apartment. like you would go into the bulletin board and everything from real estate and babysitters and tutors and whatever you wanted. >> Now let's say somebody >> wanted to take a weekend, Thanksgiving weekend, Shabas Khan, January vacation, Washington's birthday, even the entire holiday of Pesak and turn it into one big family reunion or one big meet and greet with people that you really wanted to reunite with for God knows how long. What would Doug Sockoff recommend? Well, people want to Shabas Khan's coming up. You people want unique adventures on Pesak. It's not like the old days. No, >> it's not like the old go to the Catskills and you know and and go and go enjoy the hotel. Now people want exotic and interesting experiences and not just to travel but to do it on their own. To do it on their own in homes that they rent, properties that they visit, etc., etc. What does Doug Zacklo say about the year 2025 when someone wants to do what I just described? >> Absolutely. So, you know, the because of social media, the world is wide open at the click of people's fingers >> and and small. Um, you know, we often get phone calls from people. I like to say it's a dollar in a dream. They call up like, "Oh, we want to go someplace, you know, exotic, someplace different." Then I give them my three questions. You know, uh, do you need a minion? Do you need this? Do you need that? Like, uh, yeah. Yeah. And yeah. And I'm like, well, you're very limited then, you know, unless unless we're sending a >> What are the three questions? Minion. >> So, really really a big one, right? A minion, a place where, you know, it's not too far to, you know, be near something Jewish. >> And people usually want nice weather, >> right? >> So, that that's usually, you know, the top. That's usually the criteria. So, when people call if they want to stay domestic, you know, if they want to stay domestically, you know, sometime Montana, you know, Utah, things, you know, things like that. um sounds amazing. It's great. But if you and then and then somebody will be like, "Oh yeah, no, no, it's okay. We only need a minute for a few." And then they call back and out like, "Oh yeah, I forgot my brother-in-law saying cottage. He needs a minion." >> Um you know, and in certain situations we do create dominion, you know, for for people if they are short. Um I have a situation going on uh January Dominican Republic um where we will >> How many people? >> Uh not enough for a minion. It's you know family of 20, but they don't have enough for a minion. and we're coordinating, you know, for them to be able to have a minion. Uh, for sure. >> What's the largest family reunion you've ever done? >> So, >> have there been a hundred people at at a grandparents anniversary? >> Yeah. But then, but then there's no house. Then we shift to the hotel. Absolutely. Um, and then, you know, there's certain hotels. >> And do these hotels work with you? Like, do they accommodate all the needs of these uh >> of these groups? Because we can be very, >> what's the word? We can be very needy. >> Um, yeah. It's um um you know I was talking to somebody the other day and at a hotel and and the sales person had really the right word. They didn't use like oh we were overs so we had a very healthy booking the night before. >> Um so you know the criteria for for a a hotel is different for every family. You know every family and that's very unique to what I do. I customize every single thing. People sometimes oh can you tell me about this? I'm like, "Tell me what you want and we'll make it happen." You know, everything is customized. And in today's day and age, families have so many scenarios going on. Whether it's, you know, grandparents needs, kids needs, daughter, daughter-in-law, son, son-in-law's needs, everybody wants to be happy. And within that, you have specialy. Everyone's always thinks about, everyone says to me, "Oh, the food, the food, the food." I'm like, yes, the food is always important, but it's the 20% of the 100% what we do. We deal with a lot of allergies, and I don't mean food allergies. You know, people are allergic to dust or certain fabrics that we have to make sure or grandparents situations. We need to >> But if you need a ramp, that's a basic thing that people don't think about, >> right? So, a ramp is is is actually a pretty a pretty easy pretty pretty easy to make it happen. But, you know, there's other situations that come up. You know, >> what if you need a bouncy house on the front lawn? >> And that that's like um that's easy. That's that that's 101's. That's on speed dial. Um >> what if you need a swimming pool? >> What do you mean an indoor swimming pool? >> What about a lifeguard? What about you know, there there's certain things. >> And there's also a lot that people um you know, as much as they think that they know what they want, they kind of don't realize how it all comes together and and makes it happen. You know, for example, you talk about Shabas, you know, Shabas Khan come coming up. >> Three Toras. What if we need three toas? Can you make that happen? >> Yeah. Three Toras or if you're a family of 20 25 people and and the majority of everybody wants to light a minora and you got to set up the minoras. You know, especially before Shabas, it's you know, there's a lot of pressure to, you know, to get things done. Even though people say, "Oh, we like to do it. We like to do it." But then they're like, "Oh my gosh, it's so overwhelming. We haven't had everybody together in, you know, in 5 years." And the family's grown by a third since the last time we've had everybody together. And uh you know it's it's very nice to be able to go through these stages and celebrations whether you know it's a family gathering whether I always like to say Bubby's uh 50th anniversary or 70th birthday. >> Before we continue how do people reach you and your company to start the conversation about these wonderful events? >> Absolutely. So, first of all, on uh Instagram, it's the Douglas Sockoff Experience and they're all my contact or um douglas exp.com on um the worldwide web. >> Doug Sakoff's here. So, Shabasconica, I don't know if you could reveal this or not, but could you give us an example of some of the locations you're using this year? >> Yeah, look, um houses Orlando's always a visa. Shabas Khan because a lot of schools are off >> Thursday to Tuesday. >> How does the Jewish presence Shabas Khan in Orlando compare to the Jewish presence on Pesak in Orlando? >> Different. Totally totally different. >> 5% or >> I wouldn't say 5%. It's busy but nowhere but nowhere near >> but it could be 20%. >> Yeah. Look, this is this is no secret. Orlando >> I got to start living. >> Orlando, you know, a lot of people I don't want to go to Orlando. when when when when you think about it or when somebody um does their research, there's very few places like Orlando for the from family because even if you forget about the parks, forget about the attractions, the homes there just work really well for from families. You get a 10-bedroom house, a nine-bedroom house, 11, whatever it is, everybody has their own space. They have their own bathrooms. There's plenty of room for everybody. and the infrastructure from the um from the local day school, the O, you know, um OTAA is is unbelievable what they've put in into place down there >> um for people to get away and make it as as simple as as it could be. >> Um but it's the infrastructure is definitely is is definitely there in in in Orlando. It's easy to get to from, you know, especially larger families who are looking to bring people in from all all over the country, all over the world at times. Um, it works really well as as does many communities here in the tri-state area. If you're looking just to go an hour or two hours away, >> give me one example. >> Lakewood is tremendous. >> They have rentals in Lakewood. >> Lakewood is tremendous. And and and the best is if I get a phone call from somebody who's not familiar with Lakewood and I'm like, "Trust me, you you've never seen anything like this." I said, "Forget the house cuz there's amazing amazing amazing homes in Lakewood." Um, but I'm like, if you're coming from, let's say, the Midwest or from California and you've never experienced, you can't even think a place like Lakewood exists, uh, with all the Jewish kosher, you know, crazy population and the things that you could go do, the stores. It's a it's a real it's it's it's a you talk about Saturday, people go out Saturday night, they're like, we haven't gone to sleep on a Saturday night at 2:00 in the morning. We were out running around all over the place saying, you know, we couldn't stop we couldn't stop running, you know, running around. Um, and then you have upstate which is a which is also a really really um popular destination even in the winter. >> Pretty cool. >> Yeah. >> Douglas Sakov experience and the final topic of course is Pesak and this industry. We know how the um hotel and uh and Pesak program industry has grown over the years. I never dreamt that house rental and that industry would grow the way it has. And it's Orlando and it's other places also, right? Or it's everywhere. >> All over. Orlando, Miami. >> People talk to you about it now in November. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. Every year it kind of starts earlier and it really goes to families getting larger. There's more to coordinate. Um, more to think about. People are living all over the place. I mean, you know, I I I know you always have the people from Nafas here, but it's so true. every time, you know, I speak to somebody like, "Oh yeah, my kids made aliyah or we have more people or my parents made aliyah." Um, and we also do Israel speaking about aliyah. We also have our our feet on the ground really well uh in Israel. You know, one of the hardest things when you deal with some of the Don't worry, I have I have my guy in Israel. You know, everyone everyone has their guy, but again, things have become so much more complicated and not just easy uh to get things done. And that's really where we step in. And pesto obviously is way more complicated than anybody could think about, especially once when you're a larger group. >> And realistically, it's funny that you said you start with a certain number of questions. None of them were what's your budget? Like, do people have to know that they better be at a certain level budget-wise to pull any of this off? >> So, it's a great question. I always I always tell everybody, you know, we are we execute what the client wants. So, if they want to keep it simple, they want it middle of the road, they want it high-end, they want a combination of all three, or for us to come up with something, or they just want to sit around and and and and enjoy and keep it basic. We do everything. It's not um we take the marching orders from from from the client. >> So, you don't need 100 grand to do everything. >> No, you do not. >> There are people who uh who do it on a much lower budget. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. It's um there there's a lot of there's a lot of options for people for people to explore out there. I think a lot of people do get you know overwhelmed because there are so many options. Um you know by next uh I I I have some clients who are like okay we're ready we're ready to get going with Pesto. I'm like well there's nothing out yet to get started with you know um as far as like you know different catering and options. You know, obviously the most important thing is to get the house done nice and early so everyone knows where you're going. >> But after that, really like after Hanukkah January, that's when things really kick in. >> Uh Douglas aloff experience on Instagram. The website is >> douglasexp.com. douglasexp.com. The greatest beneficiary of the Jewish uh invasion of Orlando on Pesak is Costco. Would that be an accurate statement or there's someone who benefits even more from that whole >> That's a great question. Is Costco overrun? Do they know about it? Do they know to expect massive >> overrun? >> Everybody always talks about in Orlando and it's actually fascinating to see um if you've seen the pictures of like the Coke and the Diet Coke, they like clear the the main there's no kosher grocery store >> in Orlando. >> Um or I should say mainstream grocery store. There's a couple little things that have opened up over the last year or two, but in the Wind Dixie, which is about 45 minutes or so away from like these resort communities, >> they try to do a really really good job on on bringing in, you know, culture products in general. >> Soda and but for the soda that they bring in, they clear like a third of the store away and they just bring in Coke and Diet Coke. Coke and DO Coke like like thousands of bottles of each. It's uh it's actually it's actually fun. So Costco? Yeah. I don't know. It's it's that's it's a really >> Well, your staff down there does a lot of Costco. No. >> So the the truth be told, we do not do Costco. >> Meaning what? You're in a regular supermarket. >> It depends. It depends where what you know um Orlando come Pesak time. You know, if if you were standing on the highway and watching the amount of trucks coming in from the New York tri-state area, >> you'd notice it. >> You you would you would you would be amazed. Um or if you if you're able to go to some of the um consolidation places where all the trucks kind of show up >> and they warehouse >> can I name you 10 12 grocery stores that ship down there and and >> but Florida has its own infrastructure of kosher food. >> Um kosher it definitely does. That's like for another conversation. Um because pretty much everything's coming from here down to Florida. >> Even on the wholesale level. >> Yeah. Even on the wholesale level. Yeah. Yeah. So um the amount of >> distribution of kosher starts in New York. >> Yes. >> In this country. >> Yes. Yes. >> Was it always like that? >> I believe so. Yes. Yeah. And you wouldn't believe me if I told you there's moving companies that let's say uh Exactly. Like like you know, forget forget your forget your luggage. It's people sending like their lazy boy chairs or uh you know um what's kind of humorous that I've seen. >> Not dining room tables. I hope >> not dining room tables but like um definitely people sending tons of stuff whether it's boxes of sarum whether it's like table linen I mean what you see go it's yeah it's and that and that's include and when I say there's a great infrastructure in Orlando itself um you you you'd be surprised shocked how many cars you know go back and forth and people monitoring the what what's it 95 and somehow I got into that WhatsApp group >> of minyanim on 95 heading down for pace. I don't know how I got into that group, but it's it's crazy. >> Yeah. In 10 minutes, let's meet at this rest stop and and form a >> MA. Yeah. Yeah. And um but you also hear about great things also, you know, when someone's car breaks down and the people helping and all that kind of stuff. So, it's very interesting. Um and yeah, so it's it's a it's it's a great time of year. As I always like to say, as much as I love the summer, I also love, you know, I love YTF time. I love inching in, you know, Thanksgiving and Shabas Hanukkah, winter vacation, Porim Pesak, >> a lot of good things on the Jewish calendar. >> A lot of incredible things on >> That's true. that that we have to be thankful for. >> Absolutely. >> Uh Douglas, I thank you and happy Thanksgiving. >> Thank you. Happy Thanksgiving to you. >> The Browns are not playing tomorrow. I don't think >> they are not playing. No, >> but they'll play this weekend at some point. >> Time to put out of our head already. >> Really? I always say I could sympathize. I always say, listen, and I think uh everyone, there's nothing like week one of the NFL when those few seconds, those few seconds that everyone's tied. >> Yes. As Jet fans, we say we win every Super Bowl in May. >> Uh but that's about it. >> As long as you're not asking me for a Super Bowl prediction this early on. >> Oh, yeah. >> Maybe I'll be invited back. >> I hope so. Remember those days? >> That used to be a tradition. >> Remember those days? >> Oh god, how many people I see ripping you off now. It's unbelievable. And that I, by the way, I would never say that publicly, but it's so blatantly obvious. >> Often imitated, never duplicated. That's that's what we always say. >> Correct. >> And it's it's the greatest uh form of a compliment to see. >> That's true. >> To see that and other things that >> imitation, the greatest form of flattery, but the younger generation wouldn't have a clue that all of that Super Bowl stuff started with you. >> Yep. Yep. >> Simple as that. All right, Doug Sakoff. Go to Doug Saklo Experience on Instagram, douglasexp.com. and happy Thanksgiving. Hey,