The Economics of Everyday Things
00:06:17 · Zachary Crockett, Wayne Winton
[00:06:17] S3: a flat fee to show up for a job. And once they're on-site, they bill an hourly rate to fix the issue. Helping people with lockouts is a big part of the job, and it requires a deep level of knowledge about many different locks. [00:06:31] S4: When something new hits the market, I will literally go to the hardware store and buy it to reverse engineer it and figure out how to defeat it and be the first person to come up with that new knowledge. [00:06:43] S3: Winton says the most familiar lock is the classic pin tumbler that's found on front doors of typical houses and apartments. Inside one of these locks, there's a series of vertical pins of differing heights connected to springs. When you put the correct key into the lock, its unique ridges push those pins up in just the right alignment to allow you to turn the bolt and unlock the door. [00:07:08] S4: But in the event that you forget your key, a locksmith has another way in, a technique called lock picking. What lock picking is is taking advantage of the microscopic imperfections in that lock or tolerances in that lock to open it without the [00:07:28] S3: actual key. A skilled locksmith can exploit this by applying tension to the lock and using picks that look like little dental plaque scrapers to push the pins up individually. There's a lot of mystique around this process. On YouTube, lock picking videos have millions of views. [00:07:48] S4: How easy is it really to pick a lock? Super, super easy to pick this lock. This is a no brainer.
00:07:48 · Wayne Winton, Zachary Crockett
[00:07:48] S4: How easy is it really to pick a lock? Super, super easy to pick this lock. This is a no brainer. [00:07:54] S3: I'm a professional bad guy, and today, I'm gonna show you how I pick locks. [00:07:58] S4: How to pick a lock with a paper clip. Okay. [00:08:01] S3: But these social media experiments are often done on brand new locks. It's a lot harder to pick one out in the wild. [00:08:10] S4: It's dirty. It's gritty. People have sprayed graphite and w d 40 and made concrete inside of that lock. If I'm picking a lock and I haven't got it after ten minutes, we'll just drill it, and I will replace it on my time and dime, and I will only charge you the lockout fee. [00:08:29] S3: Not all locksmiths are so considerate. When you search for locksmith on the Internet in your city or town, it's likely that some of the top results are unlicensed operators who use local keyword advertising to get to the top of listings. [00:08:44] S4: You're in a panic. Right? You're gonna click on the first solution presented to you. You usually see a low price in 1999 or a 2999 or some ridiculously low price that nobody could work off of and survive. So that's a big giant red flag. I don't even put my pants on for less than a $100. [00:09:06] S3: These scammers will often create listings for multiple fake businesses with different names. When you dial the phone number they provide, the calls all route to a central operator who dispatches someone from a network.
00:09:06 · Zachary Crockett, Wayne Winton
[00:09:06] S3: These scammers will often create listings for multiple fake businesses with different names. When you dial the phone number they provide, the calls all route to a central operator who dispatches someone from a network. [00:09:19] S4: Somebody shows up in an unmarked car with no uniform, with a basic paper invoice that doesn't have any company information on it. They tell you that it's a high security lock. They drill it. They destroy it or damage your vehicle or damage your home lock because they're not skilled, and then they try and bully you into going to the ATM and getting cash or paying them a ludicrous sum of money, $5.06, $700 plus. So these guys, [00:09:45] S3: their game is to basically offer you a really low price and then just drill out your lock and upsell you on the hardware. [00:09:51] S4: Bait and switch. [00:09:53] S3: Winton says these scammers are taking a big toll on the locksmithing business. For every nefarious listing that gets boosted in search results, a legitimate operator is losing business. Anybody who knows how to manipulate Google can rise to the [00:10:09] S4: top of the Google ladder, and that is probably the single biggest problem in the industry today. A lot of the older guys out there that have shops, they simply don't know how to operate that stuff, and you've made it a technological game that is basically set up for us to fail. [00:10:32] S3: A lack of technical knowledge isn't the only thing to blame for these problems. Only 13 states require locksmiths to have a license.
00:10:32 · Zachary Crockett, Wayne Winton, Philip Mortolero Sr., S7
[00:10:32] S3: A lack of technical knowledge isn't the only thing to blame for these problems. Only 13 states require locksmiths to have a license. [00:10:42] S4: When I unlock people's vehicles, one of my favorite one liner jokes is, you have to have a license to drive your car. I do not have to have one to break into it. [00:10:52] S3: The industry has created its own mechanisms of trust. The Associated Locksmiths of America certifies businesses they deem to be reputable. But sometimes, the best option to find a trustworthy locksmith is to walk into a shop on the street and talk to one in person. [00:11:12] S6: The outside is covered in keys. The door is covered in keys. I have a chair that I made out of keys, which is in here right now. And the inside, there are hundreds of thousands of keys. This is the key Temple. This is Key Mecca. Okay? [00:11:27] S3: That's coming up. Ad[00:11:32] S7: No two businesses run the same, so banking for your business shouldn't be one size fits all. That's why Atlantic Union Bank offers knowledgeable guidance and tailored solutions designed around your goals. Whether you're managing cash flow, moving money, or protecting your business from fraud, we make banking for your business both personal and easy. Call, visit us online at atlanticunionbank.com, or stop by one of our local branches today. Atlantic Union Bank, any way you bank.
00:11:32 · S7, S2
Ad[00:11:32] S7: No two businesses run the same, so banking for your business shouldn't be one size fits all. That's why Atlantic Union Bank offers knowledgeable guidance and tailored solutions designed around your goals. Whether you're managing cash flow, moving money, or protecting your business from fraud, we make banking for your business both personal and easy. Call, visit us online at atlanticunionbank.com, or stop by one of our local branches today. Atlantic Union Bank, any way you bank. Ad[00:12:03] S2: The Economics of Everyday Things is sponsored by Wix. Vibe coding is all the rage these days. The idea is simple. Tell AI what you want, and it builds it for you. And now thanks to Wix Harmony, you can vibe code an entire website. Just describe what you want, then Wix Harmony creates an immediately functional professional website with the business stuff built in, ecommerce, scheduling, payments, all of it. Plus, you are not locked into what the AI creates. Wix Harmony is a hybrid editor, switch between AI and hands on editing anytime to customize any detail. And Wix Harmony comes with ARIA, an AI agent trained in web design and business strategy. You can click anywhere on your site and ask ARIA to make a specific change. No back and forth prompting. It all runs on Wix's tried and true infrastructure so your site performs as good as it looks. Wix has been pioneering website tech for twenty years and powers millions of businesses around the world. Try Wix Harmony for free at wix.com. That's wix.com.
00:13:04 · S8, Zachary Crockett, Philip Mortolero Sr., Philip Mortolero Jr.
Ad[00:13:04] S8: If you wanna listen to people talk about true crime, fantasy football, the history of obscure inventions, or anything really, there's a podcast for that. But if you wanna be listened to, NJM Insurance is here for you. Whether you have questions about your policy or need to file a claim, NJM takes the time to hear you out, answer your questions, and walk you through your options. It's just one of the many ways they go to great lengths to do what's best for their policyholders. Stop dreading your insurance and relieve your insuranoia with a quote from njm.com today. [00:13:37] S3: Along 7th Avenue South in New York City's Greenwich Village, you'll find the impossibly tiny storefront of Greenwich Locksmiths. It's owned by a father son duo, both named Phil. [00:13:52] S6: My name is Philip Mortolero senior, and I'm the owner of Greenwich Locksmiths along here with my son, who, when I kick the bucket, will get it. [00:14:02] S5: I'm Philip Mortolero junior and been a locksmith my whole life, studying and working under my father. [00:14:11] S3: Phil senior got into the locksmithing trade back in the nineteen sixties. He dropped out of school after the eighth grade, worked as an apprentice, and eventually bought a tiny building in Manhattan for $20,000 where he set up his own business. Today, it's a neighborhood institution. [00:14:28] S6: We do a lot of repairs on antique locks. There's two locks that are sitting here. They're from Grace Church eighteen forty six, and I'm rebuilding them. Let's go put the key in the lock. That sounds good.