Undercover Boss (2010) s06e07 Episode Script

Rocket Fizz

Since premiering to nearly more than 70 bosses Oh, my God! Have posed as subjects on a fake show to get honest feedback from their employees.
All right.
It's been shocking.
A lot of people smoke pot.
It's been challenging.
It's not the homeowner's fault that I get paid peanuts.
But it's inspired them to change their employees' lives forever.
I've decided to invest around $3 million because of you.
Thank you.
For real? Like, this is real? Without a doubt.
I am going to give you your own store.
Yay! Probably the best thing somebody ever did for me.
I have a check for $250,000.
Oh, my God.
Tonight, the latest boss to risk it all is Rob Powells Mwah.
Ugh.
The co-founder and president of Rocket Fizz, the fastest growing soda pop and candy shop franchise in America.
- Hi, nice to meet you.
- Hi.
It's nice to meet you too.
By joining his employees on the front line Go fast, fast! Make sure you're very outgoing, like, always hyper.
This young-at-heart boss meets the people who are keeping his company's future sweet.
No, keep the blades up.
No, you're going dropping it.
Yeah, no, I know.
Truck driver's getting frustrated.
Along the way, he discovers that the candy isn't the only thing that's stuck in the past.
Initial order in the store, it was this thick.
I was ready to leave.
And what will happen when he can't keep up Gonna get backed up on you.
And fizzles out? And you're jammed.
Find out next, on Undercover Boss.
Based in Camarillo, California, Rocket Fizz is the largest candy and soda shop franchise in America, selling thousands of candy varieties and hundreds of soda pop flavors.
This company reconnects people with the treats that made their childhood sweet.
Thank you very much.
Have a great day.
Guiding the ship to greater and greater heights is one man.
I came up with the logo of Rocket Fizz.
It's an old-fashioned, 1950s, Flash Gordon-type rocket.
That little boy is me, yeah.
My name is Robert Powells, and I'm the co-founder and president of the Rocket Fizz soda pop and candy shops.
Rocket Fizz specializes in old-fashioned candy, hard-to-find candy that remind you of your childhood.
When you walk into a Rocket Fizz store, it's entertainment.
You're entertained by just crazy stuff.
We sell about 500 different sodas, of which 105 are Rocket Fizz bottled sodas.
We have flavors like bacon flavor, buffalo wing, ranch dressing, key lime pie.
We do a lot of celebrities' sodas as well.
Judge Wapner root beer, Snooki's wild cherry soda, Rowdy Roddy Piper's bubble gum soda.
Hey, Roddy.
- Hey, how you doing, buddy? - Hi.
Celebrities love to have their names on merchandise that's sold to the public.
We want to do I love you.
- Mwah.
- Ugh.
And we love to bring their brand through Rocket Fizz.
I told you, dude.
My bad.
Ryan Morgan and I are the co-founders of the Rocket Fizz company.
In 2007, I went on a road trip with Ryan, and on that road trip, Ryan and I talked about putting our own soda pop and candy shop together, but we knew we needed money to grow the business, and 13 banks refused to loan us money.
So Rocket Fizz was financed guerilla style.
Ryan and I decided to jump onto an airplane and fly to Asia, and in Asia, we picked up 10,000 pieces of fake dog poop.
Within six months, we sold all the dog poop.
Rocket Fizz is partially financed by fake dog poop, and it's the truth.
Right now, we're the largest soda pop and candy shop franchise in America, and we bottle about 240,000 bottles of soda every month.
We have 48 stores in 18 states, over 1,000 employees.
Our annual revenue is over $35 million.
We want to have over 1,000 franchise stores all over the country.
We also intend on spreading our brand overseas, to Europe and to Asia, and to other places as well.
I run Rocket Fizz from my home office in Northern Nevada.
I work 80 to 100 hours a week, and the times that I don't work, I'm outdoors.
I love the solitude of the mountains up here.
I'm single, I fly solo, and people are very surprised when they find out that I don't have any kids and that I've never been married, but I came close once.
I had a girlfriend up in Lake Tahoe, and she worked up there.
That day, I got back to my house, and there were just a bunch of people on my doorstep, and I just knew.
She committed suicide in the very, very early days of Rocket Fizz.
There are so many signs I did not see, things that she had said to me, actions she was undertaking, just things she was doing.
I didn't know, and since then, I've just been sort of living in life autopilot.
You know, loss is hard.
Maybe I've walled up, you know, to To protect myself.
And so I really put my energy into Rocket Fizz.
So what are we doing today? I'm thinking of doing something that is almost the complete opposite of really who I am.
Nobody would expect me to be looking too conservative.
Okay.
We're gonna give you a lot more hair.
I kind of need that at this age, so this is a start.
Exactly.
The reason I want to go undercover is because Rocket Fizz has grown so much, so fast, that it's a real big challenge for us to grow the infrastructure to keep pace with the growth of the retail stores and our bottling.
It feels awkward, yes, absolutely.
Okay.
While going undercover, I'll be posing as a reality show contestant named Lee Reed, a failed realtor.
My employees have no idea that the real show is Undercover Boss.
With growth comes mistakes, challenges, and we need to get ahead of it.
Man, I can't look at myself.
You have any glasses I could wear, sunglasses? Today, I'm meeting a sales associate at a Rocket Fizz location here in Vista, California.
What makes this store unique, it's a family community.
There's a lot of people, a lot of kids around here.
- Hi, is Kim here? - Yeah, she's right there.
I want to spend time with a sales associate because they are the face of Rocket Fizz.
They represent the fun that the Rocket Fizz stores are all about.
I want to make sure they give the customers a really good experience.
- Hi.
- Hi, Kim.
- I'm Lee, how are you? - Hi, my name's Kim.
- Welcome to Rocket Fizz.
- Thank you.
I'm going to be your coach today.
- Okay.
- I call myself a "fizzateer.
" So basically, it's cash register, customer service When I first saw Lee, I didn't think he really looked like the kind of person that would be in the sweets industry.
He looked like kind of the person that would be, like, behind the desk.
I don't think he's very competitive.
You want to make sure you're very outgoing, really out there, exciting.
I can tell you are, so yes.
I work with candy, you know.
Like, always hyper.
Um, keep that in mind all day, okay? Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, it's great, okay.
So now, we're gonna go to the cash register.
- Okay.
- Hi, guys.
Welcome to Rocket Fizz.
Hi.
Okay, this is a really old-school register.
So you actually have to manually put every single little thing in.
- Okay.
- But I'll show you how it works.
Okay.
So this is $2.
99, so what you're gonna do is just press the 2, the 9, and the 9.
You don't have to put any, like, decimal, - or anything like that.
- Okay, okay.
And then, you're gonna push "candy department," okay? - Okay.
- And it comes up $2.
99.
- Got it.
- Push the "total" button, take their money, type that in, and then it will tell you the change.
- Okay.
- So do you want to try it? - Sure, okay.
- Okay.
Don't go too far.
Trying to learn this whole system here.
I won't I won't overcharge you, I promise.
I'm careful about that.
Sorry.
Is that okay if I dropped that? - You you.
- Uh, no, that's okay.
- Okay.
- Okay, sorry about that.
When I first saw him ringing people up, it seemed you could tell he was, like, uncomfortable.
He seems, like, very uptight.
He just needs to kind of relax, and I mean, it's a fun place to be.
Like, you can You can have fun here, you know? And you have two sodas.
That's 9 Uh, soda, whoops.
Soda, okay.
Then soda.
Actually, you just do these.
When I worked the register, I didn't like it, because there's too many darn buttons I have to push.
And it's like a little puzzle you got to push and make sure you hit the right button, otherwise, you have to back up and redo it again.
It's too labor intensive, and it needs to be streamlined.
There's your change.
Whoops, sorry about that.
Let me get this in a bag for ya.
Should be $9 $9.
72.
$9.
72? Okay, I overpaid you.
I appreciate the honesty here.
Am I doing okay? Trying Trying to talk a little bit, so it's okay.
You're a little iffy on the cash register.
So I know sometimes it's hard.
Yeah, I'm just kind of getting used to this.
I would not hire Lee as a fizzateer here at Rocket Fizz at all, no.
We're actually gonna make a couple gift baskets today.
Gift baskets are really, really important for us, because it's another way for us to get our names out there, maybe someone who's never been to the store.
Okay, so the first thing, you're gonna want to put the sodas on two different sides, and you want the label to be sticking out so people know where you bought it from.
Do you go to school also, or do you work here full-time? I do, I actually go to school full-time and work here full-time.
I'm going to school for sign language interpreting.
- Really? Why? - So yeah.
- I want to be an interpreter.
- That's pretty neat.
I transfer next semester.
To where? Northridge, so, like, LA area.
- Yes, yes.
- And then hopefully - Yeah, I heard of that school.
- I'm only there for two years, then I will be done.
Why'd you choose that? I actually have a step-brother who's mentally challenged.
- Okay.
- He talks, but he signs way better than he speaks.
- Okay.
- So that's kind of another reason I got into it.
- What's his name? - Brad.
- There we go.
- So it's CSUN? - That what you call it, CSUN? - Yes.
That's That's Yeah, I've heard of that.
- Cal State, Northridge.
- That's very interesting, okay.
- So you have two years there? - Mm-hmm.
- You gonna miss working here? - Yes.
I mean, there's a institute in Riverside, - there's a deaf institute.
- Yeah? So if I could, I'd love to open up a Rocket Fizz and make it so everyone knows sign language.
Interesting.
In Riverside, or where? Yeah, I would think Riverside would be a good place.
When I learned that Kim wanted to teach sign language and go to school for it, I thought that was great.
She has a big heart.
I like Kim's enthusiasm.
She's very passionate for her job.
She loves Rocket Fizz.
She loves everything.
And we're going to put a bow on this.
This is actually a really nice job.
Thank you.
If all the Rocket Fizz stores were filled with Kims, I probably wouldn't be doing Undercover Boss.
- Let's go back out there.
- Thank you.
- Oh, double fists.
- You did a great job.
- Thank you, let's go out there - Thank you.
And help these customers.
Fast, fast, fast, fast, fast, you got to go fast.
All right, you got to do it again.
The boss cracks under the pressure.
Gonna get backed up on you.
This is insane, how fast this goes.
Here they come, Lee, come on.
That's what we don't want happening, Lee.
And later Growing up was tough, man, sleeping in the streets.
He meets a worker unable to support the medical needs of his wife.
My wife has lupus, she's in and out of the emergency room, and Yeah.
Sometimes I wish I could have the illness, bro.
Today, I'm at the Rocket Fizz bottling plant near Lone Pine, California.
I'll be working with our Rocket Fizz bottling operations manager.
Our bottling plant is very crucial to the growth of Rocket Fizz.
We bottle about 240,000 bottles of soda every month.
The reason I'm here today is because I want to discover what the problems are here at the bottling plant.
We've had the wrong glass used for the wrong soda pop flavors, the wrong labels used on the glass, the wrong caps put on the bottles, and I want to find out what's going on.
- Hi.
- Hey.
- How you doing? - Good, are you Ben? No, Ben? You'll find Ben over here.
Oh.
We're going to be doubling our capacity in the near future, and I want to make sure our bottling plant can keep up with the pace.
- Hey, how's it going? - Good, are you Ben? I'm Ben, nice meeting you.
How you doing, sir? It's good to see you.
I'm Lee, nice to meet you.
How you doing? I'm here to be your coach today.
I'm gonna teach you everything it is to do regarding making and bottling soda today.
When I first see Lee, he kind of looked a little dorky to me.
Okay.
See our product going right here? That one's cleaning 'em.
- Flips 'em upside down.
- What cleans 'em, this? Yeah, see how they're shooting water? Yeah, this one cleans it.
That one's gonna fill it up.
So see, we come out, and then there's our product.
Oh, okay.
So now, we need bottles.
They come upside down.
What we need to do, put them the right side up.
What we're gonna do Watch me.
Grab them in front of you, be careful, 'cause they might fall.
If it falls, it's all right.
So what you got to do, just give it a quick, boom.
- Okay.
- Pick it up.
See, and just make sure they don't fall.
Next thing, now we're gonna put some product into this bottle.
So now, when we do that, we run the machine.
We hit the button.
See how everything's going, right? You got your bottles, everything going, going, going.
You got to multi-task, make sure you watch everywhere.
You understand, 'cause see how there's bottles over there? So if you want to drop some bottles? Okay, yeah.
Go for it.
Now, you got to be fast, though, 'cause if it empties out right here, we're no production going on, man, we need some bottles.
See? You gotta be fast, you gotta be fast, you gotta be fast.
Okay.
Uh, sorry.
If you don't go fast enough while flipping the boxes, the bottles will fall.
Go fast, fast! - Now pick it up fast.
- Oh, that's what I'm doing.
Pick it up fast, fast, fast! You gotta go fast.
Come on, we need some more, Lee.
Okay, okay.
All right, you got to do it again.
Making mess over there, Lee.
No, you got to do it fast.
There you go, pick it up fast.
There you go.
See that? And then another thing too, the "filler" it is, the easier to do, 'cause the bottle won't fall.
It'll hold onto these ones.
I suck.
I truly suck.
Okay, now, we're gonna grab four, and you want to get You don't want to get backed up, so just grab like this, like I'm doing.
Tape 'em.
Put a label on it too.
Gonna get backed up on you.
Here they come, Lee, come on.
You got to do four of 'em.
That's what's gonna happen, - you don't do four.
- Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I know, I know, I know.
That's a pretty fast machine you got there.
Working the line was like swimming up Niagara Falls.
What happened with this one? I'll get it, I'll get it.
I gotta keep up with this.
- It's not easy, huh? - This is all day long? Yeah, all day.
It's all-day process that goes on like this, Lee, come on.
I was getting my butt handed to me left and right.
Oh.
Can you stop? I broke some boxes.
And you're jammed.
That's what we don't want happening, Lee.
We're bottling so much soda.
Our machinery is just moving so fast, and one little glitch, it stops the whole line.
It's jammed up.
When it jams up, it stops this wheel from spinning, we can't do no production.
You bottle too much soda here.
No, you just gotta be fast.
You gotta be on it, you gotta be on it, man.
I can't believe how fast that goes.
Man, you hungry, or something? You want to get - something to eat? - Yeah, let's go, yeah, yeah.
Let's get something to eat, man.
Yeah, let's see.
Thank you.
So so you do this every day? This is your Yes, sir, Monday through Fridays.
Weekends too sometimes? Sometimes, if they need product, and like I say, Rocket Fizz is getting Their guys is getting huge.
They're always wanting something.
They'll want shipments, always wanting shipments distributed, so the bigger they get, we're gonna do more production.
As you can see, that's why we can only push so much.
Soda pop accounts for about 45% of the sales for Rocket Fizz stores, and it's only getting bigger.
- There you go.
- Yeah, thank you.
Our order capacity is just maxed out, and we're putting way too much pressure on these guys.
You're busting your chops on that machinery.
I can't keep up with you.
I'm just a hyper kind of guy, man, I don't know.
So what's up, Lee? You got any kids, man? No, no kids.
Got two kids, a five-year-old and an eight-year-old, Corrina and Mark, yeah? - Boy and girl.
- A boy and a girl.
Yeah, I love it.
I love having my kids, man.
I want the best for my kids, you know what I mean? I want them to have a better job, better career, better everything.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
Do you have sisters and brothers? Yes, sir.
I got a a brother.
Um, he got shot.
What's his name? - Sergio.
- Sergio? My brother's awesome.
He was awesome, man.
He took care of his I mean, he loves his kids, you know what I mean? It's just It's hard when someone leaves, they never come back.
- That's why I'm yeah.
- You have all these reminders of them, music and songs and clothes and things.
That's why I Yeah.
"This reminds me of" You know, just - It's all around you.
- Yeah.
I never take life for granted, man.
You never know when you're gonna be gone, man.
That's why I just try to be positive, happier, try and have fun with my kids, family man, know what I mean? I'm really sorry to hear about that, that's really bad.
- Oh, it's you know.
- That's really bad.
But you know what I mean, that's nothing too.
That's kind of Made me strong.
I can't always just be all bummed out, - you know what I mean? - How's his family? And he's in a better place, you know what I mean? Ben lost his brother, and I think his kids are the ones who are the sunshine in his life.
He has a great attitude, considering that tragic event that happened, and that's something we all can learn from.
I know you love it, so come on, let's finish it up.
Yeah, let's go get us Go do another pallet.
One pallet? Come on, Lee, I told you, we do, like, ten a day.
I'm at Rocket Fizz in Tampa, Florida.
Today, I'll be working with franchise owner Marianne.
Okay, what do we need? Candy cigarettes.
Can anyone on this planet be a Rocket Fizz franchisee? Absolutely not.
We love people who are just friendly, outgoing, talkative, and just love our brand.
Welcome to Rocket Fizz.
- Hi.
- How are you? Good, good.
Is Marianne here? Yes, she's right back there.
Just go straight back, and you'll see her.
One of the reasons that I'm here is to see what is happening inside these stores, stores that are especially Hi, are you Marianne? Uh, no, she's We're unable to get out here every day, or every week, or every month.
I'm Marianne.
- Hi, nice to meet you.
- Hi, Lee.
Nice to meet you too.
I'm the owner here at the Rocket Fizz in Tampa.
So what I'm gonna be showing you today is what it takes to run a candy store.
And So what do you think? Whew.
It's candy.
Yeah.
My first impression of Lee is that he's kind of, I don't know, a little out there.
I put me to work.
This is it's I know.
I'll be putting you to work.
He seems a little crazy.
You ready? - Well, follow me.
- I'm all ready.
So as you can see, we got a big shipment in, so what we're gonna do is, we're gonna start with pricing things and taking some inventory of our shipment.
We make sure that what we ordered is in here, and then we put a price on it, and we actually will price things with a pricing gun.
- Give you that - Each thing? - Every single thing.
- The whole - So everything.
- The whole thing? So we just open the box, and then we see all the goodies in here.
We're gonna take everything out of the box, and then we're gonna check it on our inventory.
If you order two, sometimes they maybe ship you one.
You have to make sure you get what you ordered.
So there you go.
So there's your lunch bag.
- It's all gummy.
- This is candy, right? It's all gummy candies.
So we try to find it on here.
Is it alphabetized right there? No, that's what's hard with these.
- So you could look at it by that.
- Gummy dinner or lunch? - The eFrutti.
- eFrutti, okay.
So eFrutti.
So there's two different So let's see.
It's not the gummy jalapenos.
It's not the Nerds.
It's a lunch bag.
Okay, so it's not it's not on there.
See if we go individually to see where it is.
Mm-hmm.
Here's the gummy eFrutti alphabet.
That's not it, so you keep going.
There's eFrutti Lunch Bag right there.
Oh, there it is.
So now you would take your highlighter Gosh, this is crazy.
I know.
This way of receiving inventory with the type of invoices that arrive with it is rather archaic.
Uh where's the lunchbox thing? Uh, you found it.
Right here? Yes.
It's slow, time-consuming, tedious, and it's taking our time away from the store.
This is, like, a whole forest of paper you have here.
Oh, initial order in the store, it was this thick.
I mean, there was days that I was ready to leave, 'cause it was just so overwhelming.
I just walked in here ten minutes ago.
- Yeah.
- This is crazy.
Gosh, this is crazy.
I know.
I mean, I would I was in tears.
Is there a system coming? Um, yes.
The system is coming.
It's a kind like, a point of sale system.
The new stores, it's included in the price of the You know, owning a franchise, and we actually have to buy the scanning system.
So, it's I mean, it's expensive.
It's hopefully coming soon, - but it's not soon enough.
- Yeah.
Right now, I'm frustrated, because we need to keep implementing our POS system, which is coming out, but it's not coming out fast enough.
It should be going a lot faster than it is, and that's my fault for not implementing that.
Okay, so now we This is the pricing gun, okay? How you move it is, you take that little window there and you put it over the number, and it goes up and down, and then once you get your price, you push it shut.
The candy's old-fashioned, but our pricing system seems to be as old-fashioned as the candy.
- Finish pricing those - Okay.
And then get started on all that.
You need your computer system.
I'm gonna go check on my customers.
Okay.
Whew.
All I'm thinking about is, "Man, here I go again, "back to the early days of Rocket Fizz, those grueling times of Ahh.
And I hated it.
We started as a young company with this system, and we need to get our new system implemented in all of the stores, not just the new stores that are being built up.
Whew.
Enough is enough.
All right, you doing okay? - This is just crazy.
- I know.
This is so much stuff.
I know, and also, being back here really takes time away from me being with the customer, which is being with the customer, to me, is what Like, why I did this.
Like, I love talking to people.
That's my favorite part, and so when I'm back here and when I have to do this all day, it takes away from that.
The amount of time that Marianne is spending pricing those candies, she should be spending that time with her family and also engaging customers when she's working.
It's time to get this POS system out here.
Don't you like my chair? This is a great chair.
I've sat on curbs a few times in my life.
I've traveled a lot and slept in crazy places in different countries, so I haven't been out of the country.
- You haven't? - I mean, I've been all over the country, but I haven't been - out of the country yet.
- Well, if you can go to any country in the world, where would you go to? - I would go to Spain.
- Spain.
- So that's where I would go.
- Spain would be cool.
You came from Camarillo? "Cama-rillo"? Yeah, so everyone says "Cama-rillo," but it's Camarillo, California.
I grew up there, born and raised.
- I met my husband in high school.
- Wow.
And we were in Camarillo on a vacation, visiting family, we went to Rocket Fizz, and we kind of talked about opening one, and we heard they did a franchise, and then we did it.
My kids are on board.
You can't win unless you try, right? Yeah, right, and it's funny that you say that, 'cause that's what kind of prompted me to do this, was that, um like, a couple years ago, my brother passed away suddenly.
I-I don't want to cry.
I'm sorry.
I'm supposed to be your coach.
- But - It's all right.
But anyway, I brought I bring it up because it really changed my whole outlook.
It made me want to do stuff that I want to do and be there for my family.
- You know what I mean? - Yeah.
So I miss him, but What's his name? - Joe.
- Okay.
And so I kind of started living life more like, "Well, - just go for it," you know? - Right, exactly.
When people pass away, you certainly learn You certainly learn a lot more about mortality - and how things are, like - Yeah.
You know what, it could happen to anybody, yeah.
Yeah, I lost my girlfriend.
Oh, you did? Oh I'm sorry.
Just a few years ago, yeah.
It's all good.
I lost her.
She committed suicide.
Oh, I'm so sorry.
When my girlfriend passed away, it made me work harder, you know.
I get lost in my work and building my brand and my company and I wouldn't have to think of anything else.
I probably missed out on a bunch of things over the last few years.
But you didn't finish inventory.
Okay, yeah, well We might have to go do that.
Thank you for spending the time with me.
Oh, sure.
I enjoyed it.
I'm here today in Camarillo, California, at the Rocket Fizz warehouse where we ship out our taffy bins, all of the wood that we use in our stores, all of the fixtures to all of the new locations.
One of the places we pull workers from is from our distribution center.
There's a similar work ethic.
They're using fork lifts, they're doing manual labor and lifting things and putting things together.
How you doing? You Daniel? - Yeah.
- Hey, I'm Lee.
- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you too.
What are we doing here today? Actually, I work for the Rocket Fizz distribution, but today, I'm actually helping with the prop warehouse.
So we're gonna bring down the props, place them on a pallet, and get the props out, ready to go on a truck.
So you stack all those onto the pallet? - Yeah, exactly, so - Okay.
What Up and down each time? Up and down, up and down.
Why go to a gym? Just get a job in a warehouse, and you're Usually, we try to get one at a time, bro, because you don't want to fall off, - you know what I mean, so - Oh, yeah, yeah.
Oh, man, this is hard work.
Man.
Lee is not dressed for the work.
He came in a collared shirt, tennis shoes, and that's not the proper attire.
He looked like he's about to go to Starbucks, or something.
We're almost through, bro.
Halfway there, halfway there.
Uh, halfway doesn't sound too good.
I was not sweating bullets, I was sweating hand grenades.
I was getting my butt handed to me.
Mission complete.
Truck's waiting, all right, so our next task is gonna be loading this with a forklift.
Sounds good.
We're gonna primarily use these two levers.
- Okay.
- To raise the forks, press the "neutral" button.
And "forward" is to go down.
We got to tilt.
Is that the same one you're using? Yeah, the same exact one we're using.
Forward, you're going forward.
Okay.
Reverse.
Always look back, bro.
Never assume you're clear.
Yeah, a lot there's a lot of mechanisms here.
Yeah, yeah.
I have confidence in you, Lee.
I'm glad someone does.
Right here? Is that right? Let's get the forward and reverse going first.
Okay.
- Second gear.
- You're in neutral still, Lee.
Um - Push this, right? - Yeah, forward.
Oh, no! I was pretty nervous, teaching Lee how to drive the forklift because you don't want to damage property or injure anybody.
- Reverse.
- You want me to go in reverse? I'm looking so look in the rearview mirror.
Oh, Lee, always Lee, you always got to look back, bro.
Yeah, I got you, I got you.
Pick up your blades.
Your blades are dragging.
- Is that okay? - No, you don't want your blades up in the air, you want them to tilt.
No, keep your blades up, but tilt.
No, you're going Dropping it.
No, tilt down.
Yeah, no, I know, I know.
Truck driver's getting frustrated, we're here all day.
Lee, wow, he's a disaster.
He was making me nervous.
I was sweating.
I was hoping he'd get it.
All right, Lee, I'm gonna take over, 'cause the guy's getting impatient.
You're slow as a snail, brother.
The best thing about Lee, about the forklift, he just when he turned the machine off and got off.
You're a smooth operator.
My stress level went down.
Yeah, you're a good teacher today.
Good job.
I appreciate it, brother.
- Well, thank you, man.
- Yeah, yeah.
You you taught me how to drive a forklift, - first time ever in my life.
- Yeah.
I didn't hurt anybody, that's the important thing.
Just a little more practice, you'll be all right, bro.
So what else happens in your life when you're not fork-lifting around? Oh, well, I go home to see my family, bro.
It's, like, the best thing ever, bro, you know what I mean? - Wife and kids? - Wife and kids.
I got my wife, I've been with her over 15 years now.
Wow.
You grew up in L.
A.
? Yeah, I grew up in Los Angeles, yeah.
Growing up was tough, you know.
I didn't have a role model growing up, you know? My father, he always used to beat my mom up, and - Did he? Wow.
- You know, and I resented my father for many You know what I mean? - Well, yeah, I mean, that's - Just kind of hated him growing up, bro, you know? And when he did finally pass, bro, a drug overdose, you know, my mom, she kind of went her way, and me and brothers went another way, - and - So Kind of fending for ourselves, you know, growing up.
It was tough, man, sleeping in the streets, you know, sleeping in alleys, sleeping in cars.
- Oh.
- But then, you know, by the grace of God, I met my wife.
She saved my life, bro, 'cause I could've ended up the same way as my father, you know what I mean? She kept you on the straight and narrow pretty much? - Yeah, pretty much.
- Good wife - Good wife could do that for you.
- Good wife, man, good mother.
You know, we've been through a lot, you know? During times I been Well, I have this thing.
My wife has lupus.
She's my She's my inspiration, bro.
She has lup whoa, okay.
How old is she? Yeah, she's 35.
- That's young.
- Yeah.
I almost lost her last year, bro.
For from lupus? Yeah.
Yeah, what Yeah, I'm sorry to Yeah, I'm sorry to hear that.
What like, what She almost had a heart attack, bro.
They had to start her heart again, because it was pumping three times the normal heart rate, bro.
And she went in the hospital? Just She had to go to the emergency, they stopped her heart, they had to restart it.
- Wow.
- It's tough, man.
She's in and out of the emergency room, and - Yeah.
- You know, the You know, her insurance doesn't cover the bills all the time.
It's overwhelming, bro, and Yeah.
It's tough, man.
Yeah.
Yeah, no, I'm sorry to hear about that.
No, it's It's somebody you love so much.
Sometimes I wish I could have the illness, bro.
She's a good woman, man, she don't deserve that.
Daniel is having a hard time dealing with seeing his wife suffer so much, and I can certainly relate to that.
I've suffered through the loss of my girlfriend, and so there's a connection there, and by knowing that I'm actually not alone, and hearing other stories, brings a sense of healing.
But I appreciate it, though, just listening, bro, you know what I mean? It's all good, man.
I'm here for you.
Right on, bro.
Coming up, his employees think they're going to meet with a panel of judges to decide if Lee deserves to win a life-changing prize.
How will they react when the boss reveals his true identity? My name is Rob.
I'm the co-founder and president of Rocket Fizz.
I'm so confused.
No way.
Are you kidding me? Yeah, this journey has enlightened me as to the inner workings of Rocket Fizz.
There's a heck of a lot more work that needs to be done on a personal and a business level.
It's a lot to digest.
What's up, Daniel? What's going on, Lee? Do you know who I am? You look like Lee.
My name is Rob.
I'm the co-founder and president of Rocket Fizz.
No way.
Are you kidding me? I'm so confused.
Like, I have no idea what's going on.
TV show that you're on is called Undercover Boss.
No way.
Mary, you are just beyond amazing.
Really, I genuinely mean that.
Thank you.
Oh, my gosh.
There's a lot of work back there.
- You're working hard.
- I know.
Get started on all that.
You need your computer system.
I'm gonna go check on my customers.
Okay.
Whew.
You're running a great store.
Thank you.
One thing I learned, though, at your store, the pricing system that you have - Oh, yeah, yeah.
- That we have, - It's archaic.
- Yeah, it is.
- There's a ding, ding, ding.
- I know.
So we have a point of sale system kind of - That we've implemented.
- Yeah.
And so we're gonna give you a whole brand-new POS system - for free.
- Really? Yeah, and I'm gonna speed up the process - as quick as possible.
- Thank you.
Oh, my God.
I'm so excited.
I'll be able to be out in the front more with the customers, where I want to be.
Thank you.
When when we went out back, we took a break, and we sat on the curb, you were talking to me about your brother.
It's just it's a big part of who I am now, and so it made me kind of live more for my family and my kids and my husband, and it's just something that, you know, you live with and you I think about him all the time.
What I want to do to honor your brother Joe is I want to bottle a soda in Joe's honor, and I want you to give us a picture, any picture you want of Joe.
You're gonna decide on what flavor you want it to be, and we're also gonna donate proceeds of the sales to a charity on Joe's behalf.
It's a way of keeping Joe's legacy alive.
- Thank you so much.
- Really, and you'll see his picture, you'll see him in your store - every day.
- Every day.
Thank you so much.
Also, I learned that you sure work a lot in that store, and you work more than you should, and I learned that you need a vacation, and I asked you, "If there's any place on the planet you can go to, where would it be?" That's right.
You said Spain, so I want to give you and your husband a trip to Spain.
No, you don't.
Thank you so much.
Oh, I can't believe it.
Can I give you a hug? Yeah, of course.
Come on, of course.
Come here, of course.
I'm just so shocked, and the best part of the whole thing is he's gonna do a soda with my brother's picture on it, and they're gonna put it in all the Rocket Fizz.
I can't even believe that.
This picture, it's gonna be there every day when I come to work, and my kids will get to see it.
I mean, if you knew my brother, he would just absolutely love it.
Ben.
- You bust your chops, man.
- Thanks, bro.
You're just running around, just It's like, you don't see the whole Ben, you just see, like, a streak of Ben going there.
Lee, come on.
We knew that sometimes the wrong caps go on, - and the wrong labels can go on.
- Mm-hmm, yeah, yeah.
It's not your fault, it's our fault, and so we're gonna consider adding more machinery in there to make this happen, to make your life easier.
Awesome.
Awesome.
Two bottle lines is better than one.
You know? That's cool, I love enthusiasm, that's awesome.
I love what I do, brah.
I love it.
So we were talking about family and stuff and your kids.
I just love my kids, and that's why I do everything.
You know what I mean, I work.
A very, very, very proud parent.
So what Rocket Fizz has decided to do is to set up a A college fund for your kids.
And then every year, we're gonna add to it, and add to it and then add to it.
This is This is crazy, man.
Thanks.
I cannot believe this, it's I cannot believe this still.
Pinch me.
No, just kidding.
But I'm not done yet.
When we were sitting out there talking, and you were talking about your brother Right.
Just talking about Just hearing his name, it just gets You know? - It's - Yeah, I know you do.
It's just really hard.
That's the hardest thing that's ever happened in my life losing a brother.
It's tragedy that can never be, unfortunately, taken back.
Exactly.
But I'd like to try and make some sort of difference.
What I want to do, I want to give you $20,000, because it'll help you in your life, help you with your family, your brother's family.
This is no way.
This is crazy, Rob.
I can't No way, this is Are you serious, Rob, man? Come here.
It's all good.
This is insane.
This is insane.
I can't even believe it.
It's crazy.
I feel like I'm gonna be worry-free, honestly.
I don't even know I never knew what that felt like.
I can breathe.
Seriously, I can honestly breathe.
Rob, thanks again, man, you You're a good guy.
My brother's he's probably here right now, just looking at me like, "You deserve it, bro," and I know Kim, so how did I do at the cash register? Um, slow.
I wouldn't have ever been that slow maybe when I first started, but - Yeah.
- That was rough.
Here's your change.
Whoops, sorry about that.
Should be $9 $9.
72.
$9.
72? And so when I was at the cash register, you pointed out the system that we're using, it's slow.
- You push the numbers and - Mm-hmm.
- It's a little old.
- Mm-hmm.
And I have a point of sale system that Rocket Fizz has developed - and designed.
- Okay.
It's gonna be implemented throughout our system.
It's gonna make your life easier.
I'm gonna accelerate the point of sale system rollout - in at Rocket Fizz.
- Yes! So it's barcoded, scanned That's so great.
When you told me you wanted to study sign language, I guess I don't think I've met any person who has gone to school for sign language, and I think that's pretty cool.
- Yay.
- So I want to pay for your tuition of $20,000 for college.
- For both years? - Mm-hmm.
Like oh, thank God.
Thank you.
You just, like, helped me out so much, like, you'll never even know.
Oh, so awesome.
So when you graduate CSUN, you had mentioned that you wanted to live out in Riverside.
Riverside we don't have a Rocket Fizz out in Riverside.
- Yeah.
- And so, my thoughts were, I want to help you get your own Rocket Fizz franchise, and I'm gonna waive the $54,000 franchise fee.
Oh, my gosh, that's insane! So yeah.
Wow.
Just because you Oh, my gosh.
- Can I give you a hug? - Mm-hmm.
Is that weird? Oh, my God, thank you so much.
Well, at first, I just loved my job, but now, Rocket Fizz has literally made it so I can pursue my dreams, which I didn't think was gonna happen.
- Can I give you another hug? - Yeah, of course.
- Okay, thank you.
- Of course.
Ohh, I'm just so happy.
Oh, it's like warms my heart.
Ohh.
Daniel.
Now, you worked me pretty hard.
- Well - Still feeling it.
Yeah.
That was a disaster, right? - Don't hold back.
- Yeah.
No, keep your blades up.
No, you're going Dropping it.
No, tilt down.
Yeah, no, I know, I know.
All right, Lee, I'm gonna take over.
I was hoping you'd catch on, but Basically, I was awful.
Yeah, awful, let's get it straight.
It's all good.
It's all good.
You were telling me a lot about your family life.
You know, my wife, she has lupus.
You know, she's always in pain.
Just feel like I'm just trying Just barely keeping my head above water.
You know, my wife, you know, she has her medical expenses, and you know, my car's breaking down.
The "check engine" light's on all the time, and just living day-to-day.
You've taught me a lot, just even in that one day.
- Wow.
- And what I want to do for you and for your wife is I want to bottle a soda with your wife on it.
No way, bro.
And donate the net profits to you and to your wife.
- Oh, bro.
- The money that this can generate can be $1,000 or hundreds of thousands of dollars.
This means so much to me, bro.
Thank you, bro.
You all right, man? Well, no one's ever done anything for me, bro.
Wow, bro.
Wow.
Ugh.
You mentioned a few minutes ago that you your car breaks down, and you have issues with You know, with whatever it is you have issues with.
Yeah, my "check engine" light is consistently going on, and It just gets me A to B.
That's all that matters.
Right, well, A to B is sometimes not good enough.
You need to go to C, D, and E once in a while as well.
- Exactly.
- So what I want to do is get you a car.
No way, bro.
Wow, bro.
Wow.
Still not quite done yet, though.
Whoa.
Wow.
I gave it some thought, and what I want to do is I want to just give you some money to help you out.
No way, bro.
$25,000.
Whoa, bro.
You're an angel, bro.
This is gonna help my family greatly.
Greatly.
Everything I do is for my family, bro.
That's all that matters in this world to me.
Words can't even express how I feel right now.
So grateful for this, man, you know, and no one's ever gave me a helping hand in life, you know, it's always It's always been a struggle.
Thank you, man, thank you.
I'm very grateful for Rob, what he's doing for me.
Actually, he's doing for my family.
It's been a really intense time, I mean, really an emotionally intense time, because I met people who I can identify with, who had tragedies and losses in their lives that I-I get.
Come here, bud.
Oh, God.
One thing I've learned here is if you live your life by fearing a loss, you never really move ahead and can enjoy the gain.
How you guys doing? Oh, wow.
What's going on, bro? How you guys doing? This is my new buddy.
This is Rob.
Hey, how you all doing? Now that the journey has come to an end, I've realized that, you know, maybe I should not be so So consumed with my business.
Hey, you're part of the family now, bro.
- Thank you.
- I appreciate it.
Thanks, I got to darken my hair a little bit I guess.

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