>> closed captioning of "nevada newsmakers" is brought to you by the nevada trucking association, trucking moves america forward. this is "nevada newsmakers" with host sam shad, a no holds barred political forum. now from the "nevada newsmakers" broadcast headquarters, here is sam shad. >> back on "nevada newsmakers," we are pleased to welcome back mary lau, she's the president and ceo of the retail association of nevada, one of our proud sponsors. pleasure to have you back on the program. >> thank you, sam. >> we've been looking at polling across the country and once again, the polls have been notoriously bad in calling the elections and doing caucuses and primaries, etc. you do polling for retail association about various issues and it seems to me having been privy to some of the polls, there seems to be greater deal of accuracy in your polls, why do you think the national polls are getting it so wrong and yet when an organization

a more accurate picture of the eloktorate? >> the smaller the microcosm, the easier to get accuracy. we're polling within nevada and you contract for a huge number of calls to get a certain number of hits. so if you have 500, you may have to call 1500 people to get 500 good answers and stuff like that because your poll category go down the line and all of a sudden there's a question they say, i'm done. well, then that whole person has to be thrown out because you don't get accurate reporting. nationally, it's more spotty, it's less in depth and they leave themselves to inaccuracy, plus or minus five to eight. i've never seen eight this, is hiperbowly on my part, stronger level of inaccuracy because less of level of investigation. >> and how does cell phones play

now a lot of people have given up their land lines, how do cell phones -- >> they have a certain number of cell phone in the mix, the mix is becoming larger. one time, small amount, 20% cell phone mix, like that. as you see that entry toward not having land lines, then you're calling more and more cell phones. even offices now you're getting so you don't have to have a land line in your office, you call an office number and it diverts to the cell phone. >> do you think that it's necessary for the political process to have all these horserace? we've seen so many times, even with reagan mundale, it was a horse race until it turned out to be 49-1 in terms of states. do you think the media political world drives this horserace attitude? >> yeah, i think it's gone overboard now. like 16 or something, i don't know how many candidates and

to generate excitement and stuff, it's not news reporting now, it's showcasing. it's amazing, but i don't think it is helpful to the process, it is injecting too much emotion. >> and that brings me to the next question, which is, there seems to be palpable anger in the country on both sides. do you recall a time you've seen it be this strong? >> i prefer to use the word frustration, anger denotes anger and creates a situation that is unnecessary, but people are frustrated. you're confused by the process totoegin with. i don't know if you have ever caucused or not, sam, but -- >> i can't. >> that's true. it can get exciting, people argue over mundane stuff, should we be back on the gold stapd and we should probably, in a republican caucus, get out of the united nations. what does that have to do with

that kind of stuff goes on. it's frustrating not knowing the process, not trusting the person, frustration about seeing no action done and while we love to destroy our leaders because that makes us feel better about our own lives, we've lost our heroes, too. >> do you think that if you had, for example, a congress that got lots of things done, there would be more frustration? >> i don't know because what's00 autofrustration is the type of stuff being done. why are we into social issues? it is nice to talk about social issues, but meantime, we have bridges crumbling, have to get back to government doing what government is supposed to do. infrastructure, protection of the public, the gubernatorial -- the government of this country is gone and we're now in everybody's business in the country. if they get back to that, and they do their jobs now, then we again.

know, political correct speech created this frustration, too. because you can't even have dialogue anymore. >> that is interesting because it seems to be the most obvious thing to me, infrastructure helps on every level possible and with the price of gasoline so low at this point in time, the congress would have the courage to raise the federal gas tax enable us to be able to move forward with projects. >> that is back to the emotional level, you have to sign no tax pledge, why would you do that? why would you sign something that limits your ability to govern when you do need -- now gas is cheap now and you're going to take and bite the bullet, eventually it will raise up. but we do need to have some infrastructure projects, i mean, you know, we have people sitting around that need jobs. danny thompson would love to see people out there working again, you know, union labor on the roads and stuff like that.

done and we can't get them done

own way to do >> closed captioning of "nevada newsmakers" is brought to you by the nevada trucking association, trucking moves america forward. >> now back to "nevada newsmakers" with sam shad. >> back on "nevada newsmakers," point out we're tape thanksgiving on february 3rd, as we're moving studios here. we're taping shows in advance, we have mary lau, president and ceo of retail association of nevada. what is the future of retail as we've seen? you know, another holiday season has gone by and amazon continues to just get bigger and bigger, is retail going to have to substantially change the way it operates? >> well, retail has changed the way it operates. amazon is a retailer. you are talking about mainstream retail and mainstream retail has

back to our government, we haven't straightened out the tax issue where the taxes are due and governments aren't getting what they need to have done, but i think people are tactile, they want to come in. you will see multiple changes and see futuristic stuff. you walk in the door, shades of minority report and it says welcome back, mr. sam shad, your suit is available in three different sizes, this kind of stuff. technology and buzz is having to come into the retail setting. >> couple years ago i read an article that was fascinating about the beginnings of retail at the end of the 1800 s, beginning of 1900 s, somebody would go to a store, say macy's, come in and shop for two hours and they put in a restaurant and people shop for two hours, have lunch and shop two more hours. then they added piano player, peep compel in shop for two

hours, sit down and have tea and listen and shop for another hour or so. they extended the day that way. we have gone in the opposite direction, you go into department stores and it is hard to find somebody to help you, let alone have the entertainment facilities, is that something that would make sense to bring people back into bricks and mortar store? >> people don't have time anymore, they have to get kids to soccer or you are jumping in from being on the job and in those days a woman was primarily the person that did the shopping and shopping was social experiment. you know, you sat there and you didn't have tea by yourself, you had tea with your neighbors, your friends, you know, this kind of stuff. knew him. we don't have that luxury anymore and don't have social structures anymore. so i don't think any of that will come back. it's like you in las vegas,

people say, i wish he would play lower so we could talk. people are constantly rushed now. i don't think that format would work, it is convenience and quality and you can see the changes that are coming out. there's more of casual stuff come nothing for dress, you know, couture is fun and there is a certain element of people that will go to crystal's and you will never see them in macy's. food is changing now, nongenetically modified organic stuff is coming. retail responds to social trends, we don't really set them. >> are you surprised at the success of the crystal mall? those who may not know, this is high-end mall city center in las vegas, i remember when it opened, i walked around, it was almost empty, but the stores were so expensive, if they made one sale a month, they were taken care of. it is expanding into the old harmon area.

because the area around there was built for that kind of stuff. if you come and stay at an area, excuse me, your expecting to go to crystal's to shop. i don't think you will find somebody out in north las vegas running into crystals to grab a handbag real quick. that was built for certain clien teleand that clien teleis tourists, no, i'm not surprised. it answered the need that was there. we have people that go into europe to shop, why wouldn't they come to las vegas to shop? >> yes, depending on the price of a dollar, is whether we're going from new york to london or london to new york to do shopping. >> absolutely. look at some airports and in europe, it is like, my goodness, they are shopping malls. >> well, yes, that is becoming more and more the experience, i was reading an article yesterday talking about how some of the hotels are getting away from the

that to go to a spa is a whole big deal, have you to take off your clothes and put on a robe and spend time, they are offering 12-minute massages in much more accessible areas in airports and hotels. it's the wave of the future. >> yeah, except there is always going to be that series of hotels that are for that purpose, i mean, last year was in hungary with a girlfriend from the area and every place we went, the hotel was a spa. so -- >> all right, let's turn our attention to target. target has now hooked up with cv s and cv s has taken over their pharmacy, what does this mean for tarring snet >> they didn't hook up with cv s, they sold pharmacy operations. target is going back to their roots and stuff. you said it, business in college

when a company gets away from their roots that they start having trouble. that is what happened with sears, you had too many services under the roof of sears and it collapsed under that weight and stuff like that. interestingly enough, target has sold off their pharmacys because they weren't attending to them that well and that is not their core principle. at the same time, going back to earlier question, tarring set offering wine when you come in to shop at their stores. >> seriously? >> seriously. they have a test market of offering wine. i've gone into grocery stores, especially in mexico, and sampled tequila and believe me, i did happy shopping. we'll see what is going to happen. >> interesting trend, if you take that to legalize marijuana, that could be a whole interesting experiment. >> sip and eat brownies and never make a decision. >> let's take a break, more with mary lau, she's here for the

>> "nevada newsmakers" is brought to nupart by the tahoe

group management, and the r >> we have mary lau here for the whole show. i brought up marijuana. let's talk about marijuana in the workplace. you know, how employers deal with this? >> well, we don't know yet. i mean, the department of labor is having to look at it, there's going to have to be regulation, promulgated, because if you are in impaired worker, then you're a danger to yourself and other workers and it's medical marijuana and there's an argument there that says, well, i'm on painkillers and i'm able to work and function, so what is the level of impair sxment stuff? it is creating a conundrum, it will take stud and he work to get it right.

done is setting a standard, federal or by state, the metab light system is not fair, somebody could smoke a joint on friday and be at work on monday and be tested and it would show they were impaired when they wouldn't be at that point. chris hicks, the da in washoe counties it is up to the legislature to set the standard. do you think -- >> the legislature is going to have to rely on some bureaucrats and agencies and stuff and even universities and things to be able to really determine what happens and how and i mean, what do you do, finger stick? you know, there is so many questions evolving around this. and it's especially if recreational passes, right now medical is a whole other thing because it is kind of isolated situation and you know, ada says you can't take anybody out of a

safely do. you make accommodations, you know, it is like wherever possible, kind of stuff and it is like with marijuana, it's medical condition, so you've got to make accommodations and have to keep worker safety in first thought of your mind, not only that person, who may be impaired, but the people that rely on them doing things safely. >> do you think there is any doubt in your mind, certainly in nevada, we'll see recreational marijuana? >> it will be interesting to see because part of our polling, which we talked about earlier, it was trending down. at the same time, where colorado trended up and washington trended up and nevada, the state of nevada was trending down. so we'll see how that holds, we haven't gone out in the field yet, we're talking about going out and i'm sure that is a question. >> it would seem once the liquor industry got in with three-tier

interesting, i call it marijuana policy project we've been in contact with over the years as they have been trying to promote sale of marijuana in nevada and they said, you know, we don't care, we're fine with it, it will raise the price of consumer, because liquor industry will spend millions to fight this and now they won't. >> right. >> yeah. i mean, that again follow the money. public policy, but follow the money. >> let's talk about walmart. you know, obviously one of the most successful companies in the world, let alone america, closing a lot of stores. do you think this ties into minimum wage being pushed higher and higher across states? >> well, walmart has moved beyond other states doing minimum wage laws and they have done their own minimum wage enhancements, so they're actually bringing people up a little at a time.

the last time i was in bentonville, mcdonald had the sign that said million burgers sold, it bentonville, it says a million employees and who knows how many now. a $1 per hour per employee is a huge amount and not all of those are hourly peep and he will stuff. statistically it doesn't work out. but you also have to constantly consider your portfolio, when you're in business and your performing areas have to be adjusted. sometimes you can take underperforming store and move it down two blocks and you've got a better process. you know, maybe the street over here got blocked and they can't get there anymore, so many factors go into it that because they are going to open more stores, too, it is really checking the portfolio and doing what is best for the store, the policyholders and the customers. >> where do you think the whole minimum wage thing is going?

see minimum wage being raised in nevada? >> i wouldn't -- it is going to be very, very hard because it is going to have to be amendment to our constitution again. and in order to do that, it is not going to happen this time and it is a go tv kind of effort by plan to put it on the ballot, to get people to get out and vote in the presidential election and stuff. so it may pass this time, but the next time not. so you don't know, this is more and more evidence because this is the first time i have seen the press cover closures like walmart and stuff and saying this is what happens when you artificially impose minimum wage that doesn't match the economy. so one of the things that happened to nevada's minimum wage, there was nothing there in case the economy tanked. it is just like property tax,

the academyeconomy tanked, now catch up on the property tax situation, horrible deficit. >> also reno, between the federal and state, if the federal goes up, we have to be dollar higher than the federal. >> right. >> but that sort of then becomes gold standard is federal, if you will. so it is not like various states and stuff. new mexico is struggling now, with it, they have local control and different, you know, you could work in albuquerque and make different wage than in sante fe people compute back and forth, they are working part time. it is a conundrum for them. >> on the word conundrum, we have to leave it there. we'll be right back. >> to get a copy call

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