A sign of our times

If you've had the opportunity to travel around the US much, and if you've been paying attention, you've probably noticed how much one place looks like every other.  If you want to go out for dinner, you'll find lots of Olive Garden's, Outback's, Chili's, Applebee's, McDonald's and Taco Bell's, but you'll have to look hard to find a Mama's Cafe.

Most towns will have multiple branches of Bank of America, Citibank, Chase, and Wells Fargo, but it's doubtful you'll still find a local First National Bank.  You'll find lots of Chevy, Ford, Dodge, and Toyota dealers that may have a sign that says "Proudly serving _____ since 1974", but if you'll Google it you'll probably find it's now owned by one of the hundred-dealer auto conglomerates.

You probably won't find a local Tip Top Grocery, but you'll find plenty of 7-11's, Quick Trip's, and RaceTrac's.  And almost all sell gas, too, which has put the locally owned and operated 4-pump Exxon's and Texaco's out of business.  Grocery stores are now dominated by big names like Walmart and Kroger's.  Find yourself in need of a pair of pliers or a screwdriver?  You'll likely find a Lowe's or Home Depot before you find a Floyd's Hardware.

Have an unexpected day free for some fishing?  You'll burn up a tank of gas looking for Bubba's Bait and Tackle, while you drive right past Cabela's, Bass Pro Shop, Academy, and Dick's.  Need a dress shirt?  Ken's Man's Shoppe is long gone, replaced by Men's Wearhouse, Dillard's, and Joseph A Bank's.  Rick's Furniture was killed off by the likes of Nebraska Furniture Mart and Haverty's, who are themselves now keeping a wary eye on Wayfair.

This is true for every midsize and large city I've been to in recent years.  It may or may not be true if you're in some place like East Bull Turd, Alabama.  Even then, if East Bull Turd happens to be within 30 or 40 miles of a major city, it will soon be a growing suburb and will see this phenomenon, too.  And if it's too far away to attract city commuters, then it will likely continue to just wither away.

The little guys don't stand a chance these days, and even the big guys are now feeling the heat from the 500-pound gorilla in the room....Amazon.  I guess it's true what they say:  "The only thing constant is change."  *sigh*

S

If you have a complaint, go see our Complaint Manager, Helen Wait. That's right...go to Helen Wait.

Imagine this:  You decide you want a new flat-screen TV.  You're in Walmart and you notice they have a nice 75" Samsung priced for less than $1700, and they offer LAYAWAY.  Woohoo!  So you go to the service desk, fill out the paperwork, and make a down payment.  Every month you stop in and make a payment, and in mid-December you go in to make your final payment and pick up your new TV.  But instead of your expected 75" Samsung, they bring out this and hand it to you:

"Whoa!  No...no...this is NOT what I paid for" you say. 

"Sorry sir, but Walmart has realized they under-priced the TV they promised you, and this is all they'll be able to deliver for what you paid."

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This, with little exaggeration, is where Social Security and Medicare are headed.  From the time you began your working career back in 19__ you have been putting money every payday into the Social Security Trust Fund, and Medicare via the Federal Insurance Contributions Act.  But the closer you get to receiving the social benefits you've already paid for, you'll hear "Oooo, sorry, but we may not be able to deliver what we've promised you."
 
Earlier this week the Congressional Budget Office issued their projection for the Federal budget deficit from now through 2028.  They say it will actually amount to $11.7 TRILLION DOLLARS ($1.6T more than they forecast just this past June).  That's a deficit of well over A TRILLION DOLLARS A YEAR, even after figuring in the increased economic growth that was supposed to make up for the tax cut shortfall.

Why so much?  Mainly for two reasons:  1, more people are reaching Social Security and Medicare age, resulting in more tax dollars being spent on those social programs; and 2, yes, reduced revenue to the Treasury due to last year's tax cut.   

You can't tell me Congress didn't see this coming when they voted a TRILLION dollar tax cut last year.  With all the data they had available they should have had no trouble projecting things like this 20 years ago.  But instead of adjusting taxes in anticipation of what was to come, they just kicked the can down the road for fear of losing votes right then.

Soon-to-retire House Speaker Paul Ryan has for years been the chief proponent of both cutting taxes and "reforming" Social Security and Medicare to make them more "sustainable"....that's the code word for "cutting benefits".  The two front-runners to replace him as Speaker are Congressman Kevin McCarthy and Congressman Steve Scalise (assuming Republican's keep control of the House of Representatives), both of whom share Ryan's vision.

But not to worry, they say those Americans now at or very near retirement age wouldn't be affected by any "sustainability" cuts.  Keep in mind these are the same folks who said all our money would be there for us when we retired, too. (Hmmm...could this be the impetus behind gun control?  Nothing scarier than a bunch of pissed off seniors running around with guns, right?)  *chuckle*

Just don't act surprised when, not if, it happens.

S

Not my kids, not my problem

We have become a bargain basement, discount society.  I can remember back in the 1960's when the first "discount" store opened in my town.  I believe it was called "Gibson's Discount", and they had lots of common things a few cents cheaper than our established local stores did.  Soon we saw K-Mart's with their "blue light specials", along with the first Walmart's in the smaller rural towns, and then in the big cities, too. Today even the most exclusive retailers have non-stop sales. 

Today everyone is looking for a deal on EVERYTHING.  In recent years that mindset has moved into politics, too.  Whichever candidate promises to spend the least, and cut taxes the most, wins!  And by looking at the most recent red state/blue state map, Republicans are comfortably on top.  But there are now unintended consequences to our cheapskatedness (take note Webster...new word) that we simply can't conveniently overlook any longer.

Today America's newest, most affluent cities and school districts still have shiny new schools and well paid teachers, but everyone else, not so much.  Teachers in Kentucky and Oklahoma, and I believe Arizona and West Virginia, too, are on the verge of walking out.  I heard an OK teacher today on the news say she has to work a second and third job after school, and she's taken in a roommate to cut personal expenses, just to survive.  

Without PTA bake sales and carnivals and other fund raisers to help out, teachers would have absurdly few classroom supplies to work with.  Recently my daughter, an elementary school teacher in an affluent Dallas suburban district, had to resort to appealing for help on a school fundraising internet site in order to get books for her small classroom library.  REALLY? 

If I haven't already lit your fuse, maybe this will:  Most of this tax cutting fervor is thanks to Republicans.  They want to cut taxes at all costs, damn the consequences.  Then they look surprised when they try and recruit new high tech businesses to locate there and are told, "Sorry, but your educational system isn't producing students with the skills we need."

These cheapskate, tax cut Republicans MUST GO!  The conundrum, however, is that I doubt Democrats have the cojones to do any better.  Oh, they could, but they won't stand up to the bargain basement, discount citizen/voters we've become, either.  

"I've got mine, F__K YOU!"

It looks like we're getting exactly what we deserve.

S

Killing the goose that laid the golden egg

Capitalism is described as "an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit."  That's it in a nutshell, and it's worked better and benefited more people than any other economic system the world has ever known.  But somewhere along the way our system of classic capitalism has been compromised, subverted, and dare I say even perverted.

My brother and I are the owners of a privately held corporation, meaning the two of us are the only stockholders.  On an almost daily basis we do things above and beyond what is required by any regulation because we feel it is the right way to do business.  This costs us a bit more to deliver our product, and reduces our profits somewhat, but we're still doing OK, and our clients say they appreciate our extra effort and attention.  We'll never get rich doing business this way because we're "leaving money on the table", but we sleep well at night.

Today's publicly held corporations can't afford to leave money on the table.  They must lie, cheat, and steal to squeeze every last penny from their customers.  If they don't, their thousands of stockholders will demand a change in executive leadership and/or dump their stock, possibly tanking the company.  If their product can be made the slightest bit cheaper, they'll do it.  Cutting corners has become a fine art.  Profits come first, always!

Consider this:  Pharmaceutical manufacturers employ tens of thousands of brilliant researchers who spend years developing and testing new drugs that improve our quality of life, and in many cases actually save lives.  They're amazing people doing incredible work.  God bless them!

One of their creations was "opiods", drugs that can help those with chronic pain.  This was a godsend for those hurting.  But according to the new rules of what I call "perverted capitalism", pharmaceutical company executives have no qualms at all about turning these miracle drugs into an addictive nightmare for millions (?) of people.  Opiod abuse has now become a national crisis.  Lives and families have been torn apart, all so the drug makers can maximize their profits.  Shame on them!

And, yes, they know exactly what they're doing.  They know they're producing many times more opioids every year than can safely be prescribed and used by actual patients.  Through their lobbyists they even pushed a bill through Congress last year that prohibited the Drug Enforcement Administration (the DEA) from investigating and interdicting massive opioid shipments to "suspicious" distributors.  Had the drug companies failed, the DEA would have put a huge dent in their profits, and to them their profits are more important than peoples lives.  That's just wrong!

Then we have corporate mergers that have the effect of reducing competition and inflating their bottom lines.  Remember when we had Exxon and Mobil and Chevron and Texaco?  Now we have Exxon/Mobil and Chevron/Texaco.  United and Continental merged to form the new United Airlines.  Delta and Northwest merged to form the new Delta Airlines.  American and US Air merged to form the new American Airlines.  Fares are up, and customer satisfaction is down, but airline profits are at record highs.  

Remember when Macy's, Neiman Marcus, Lord and Taylor, Saks Fifth Avenue, and many others were all independent companies?  Now they're all owned by giant retail conglomerates.  Walmart and Amazon have taken over their sectors, too.  Remember local hardware stores, mom and pop restaurants, community banks, and independent car dealerships?  There are relatively few still in business, left behind in the race to merge, "increase synergy", and maximize profits.

And do I even need to mention corporate subsidies, aka "corporate welfare"?  What the hell is that all about?  Did they think we wouldn't notice?

I've heard it said your "character" is defined by how you behave when no one is looking.  If that's so, then many of our players today have terrible character.

It's no longer about doing what's right, but only about what will make the most money and what they can get away with.  At many businesses today doing "right" will get you fired, that's how cold blooded we've become. We're being attacked from within, and we're losing.  Capitalism in 2017 is NOT your daddy's capitalism!

S

Label snobs

We are obsessed with labels.  Sometimes labels can serve a very useful purpose, but at other times they just get in the way.  How...why have we become like this?

When I was a kid in the last century I remember there were Ford guys and there were Chevy guys, and the two would never mix.  Each felt they were always right, and the other side was always wrong.  Fast forward and today we have rock-solid Lexus guys and Mercedes guys.

Wine:  Aristocrats (wannabe or actual) always chose French wines.  California wines were unthinkable.  Labels rule!

Style:  Neiman Marcus vs Saks Fifth Avenue has now deteriorated to Walmart vs Target.  Labels rule!

And of course, philosophy.  We Americans seem hopelessly wed to our labels of either Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative, capitalist or socialist.  Labels rule!

Today there are a few new caveats, however.  A new subset of voters is based on race or gender or sexual preference.  A female candidate will pull in many more than the usual number of female voters.  A black candidate will get the black vote.  An LGBT candidate will likely get the LGBT vote.  Labels rule!

As President Nixon was boarding his helicopter to leave Washington back in 1974, there were still 24% of the American people (mostly hard-core Republicans) who supported him.  Labels rule!

Currently a vast majority of Republicans (but only 35% +/- of the population) feels President Trump is doing a great job.  Labels rule!

Listen up knuckleheads:  LABELS ARE STUPID!  We're being played.  It's a public relations game.  The PR guys can regurgitate on demand all the "facts" that support their point of view, and just conveniently omit those pesky facts that don't.  And if they don't have any facts to support their position, they just make some up.  Why do you think Snopes exists?

Democrats need to understand that Republicans CAN have some good ideas, and vice versa.  Capitalism is great, except when it's hijacked by greed.  Socialism is IMO generally flawed, but can also give us some incredibly useful programs, like public financing of schools, and (some would argue) Social Security and Medicare.

Learn to think for yourself, because if you let someone else think for you, they will own you.  And there's a label for that, too.

S

Real, or is Rod Serling just playing with our minds again?

 

As you may have read in the news, Prez-elect Donald Trump is strongly considering ExxonMobil  CEO  Rex Tillerson to fill the position of Secretary of State.  The argument for him is that he has developed a close relationship with Russia's Vladimir Putin and others of questionable repute, and has a foot already in their door.  The argument against him is that he has a close relationship with Russia's Vladimir Putin and others of questionable repute, and already has a foot in their door.  Those supporting him say that, yes, he is a super-smart businessman and negotiator who has used his skills to benefit ExxonMobil, and he will now be able to use his skills to benefit the USA.

And this, my friends, is the central issue in my dim view of "globalization".  What this argument essentially says is that Exxon is looking out for Exxon, and IBM is looking out for IBM, and Caterpillar is looking out for Caterpillar, etc, and if that means throwing the interests of the United States, the country that has allowed them to grow and thrive, under the bus, so be it.  Shareholders come before fellow countrymen and taxpayers.

I fully understand the Genie is never going back into the bottle.  Globalization is here to stay.  Yes, it has enabled us to buy everyday stuff at Walmart far cheaper than if we made it here, but because of the wet blanket it has put on American worker's incomes, we HAVE to buy stuff cheaper because that's all we can afford.  We're not really any better off.  Well, a few high up the food chain ladder might be, but it has not been across-the-board beneficial to most of us.  We have more cheap "stuff", but at what cost?  More stuff does not necessarily equal a better life.

Have you ever heard of The New World Order?  I have, vaguely, but if I step back and look at where we are today and where it looks like we might be headed, I have to wonder.  Here is the NWO, condensed version:

The conspiracy theorists say The New World Order is a secretive power elite with a globalist agenda that is conspiring to eventually rule the world.  They see this as the culmination of history's progress. Many influential historical and contemporary figures have therefore been purported to be part of a cabal that operates through many front organizations to orchestrate significant political and financial events, ranging from causing systemic crises to pushing through controversial policies, at both national and international levels, as steps in an ongoing plot to achieve world domination.

Worst case, if I stand back and squint just right, I can sorta see some of this happening right now.  Best case, I advise just kicking back and enjoying (?) the ride, 'cause there's no way us peons are going to stop it.

S 

Chameleon Man

It's funny to me how everyone today wears a label of one sort or another, usually "liberal" or "conservative".  I'll write one thing, and my conservative friends will scream, "He's a raving liberal".  Then a few weeks later I'll give another of my unsolicited opinions and my liberal friends will yell, "Oh no, he's sipped at the Tea Party well."  Truth is my opinions are usually based on a longer ranged, common sense, outcome based models.  Consider this:

I saw this in a recent online business journal....

Our income is grossly unequal and needs to become more balanced.

*I knew it.  He's gone raving liberal.*  Look carefully.  Look at the dates of the last time things got this skewed.  1928-1932, the beginning of The Great Depression.  When the massive, consuming middle class is held down, our economic system bursts under the strain.  We almost saw that in 2008, but were saved (temporarily?) to see stock market highs again today grow into the stratosphere.  Can this go on forever?  Does anything?

Look at our most stable period, 1948-1970.  Our largest employer was GM, and their average pay/benefits adjusted to 2014 dollars was over $50 an hour.  Today our largest employer is Walmart, and their average store employee makes $8.81.  Figuring in their executives and salaried workers, their average pay packet is still only $12.78 an hour.  Numbers like those don't have the buying power to keep our economy going indefinitely.

Beginning in about 1970 (see chart) we became enamored with the idea of "trickle down economics"....giving breaks to the more affluent so they can accumulate even more wealth and use it to create new jobs for an expanding middle class, or so the theory went.  As we now see, many of those new jobs were often bottom-feeding jobs, but *big shock* the 0.1% began their rapid rise to controlling 22% of our wealth.  Again, this can't go on indefinitely.  Never worked, never will.

Change tack:

We need to approve the Keystone pipeline ASAP.  *Oh Jeez....now he's a card carrying Tea Partyer.*  Why?  Because the oil will make it south anyway, only more and more will come here via railroad tank cars, traveling through towns and cities, where accidents and terrorism can bring down havoc on us all.  Common sense says moving oil by rail is NOT ideal.

Plus this is just one more component in some day making us energy independent.  That means more US dollars staying at home vs going overseas to countries that do NOT have our best interests at heart.  It will make us STRONGER, and it's at a time of economic strength that we can begin to phase out all the tax breaks, subsidies, and other perks the wealthy have used since the 1970's to gain a strangle-hold on the middle class.  Over time income will begin to level out, and in the long run we'll all be better off for it.

Is the US going downhill?  Unless we do something, yes, we probably are.  But does it HAVE to be this way?  NO, not at all!  We need to sit together, liberals and conservatives, look at things from a longer ranged perspective and not just from a "what's in it for me now" position, dust off our 'common sense' gene, and make some tough decisions.

It's the start of a new year.  Let's begin it with a new, can-do attitude.  Anyone have the guts to give it a try?  Think we can get any politicians to compromise for our common good?

S

Evil lettuce....Blech! Blech!

Have you ever suffered from food poisoning? If you haven't, consider yourself VERY lucky.  But if you have, you know that you'll probably associate the last thing you ate with the gut wrenching (literally) illness, whether it was the real culprit or not.  I once ate an Arby's sandwich, then got deathly sick that night. I can't eat Arby's to this day.

A few years ago after a Christmas party K and I both got violently ill.  So did bro and my SIL and several other people from the same party.  SIL reported this to her doctor and he asked what was served.  She ran down the list, and when she said salad, he said "Whoa. That's it.  Lettuce is notorious for harboring all kinds of nasty 'wee beasties'" (my term).

I've always been extremely careful with lettuce ever since.  I usually buy fresh red or green leaf lettuce from Central Market, then wash it myself and use one of those spin dryer things before I put it away in Tupperware.  Until this week.  BIG MISTAKE!

Tuesday night for dinner we had some grilled home made hamburgers.  They were excellent as always, K and I both having the same thing except I put lettuce on mine.  Lettuce I bought in a hurry from evilWalmart.  (Yes, it's all one word:  evilWalmart.)  It was pre-packaged, sealed, and prominently labeled "Triple Washed". 

Triple washed my ass!

By midnight I had taken up residence in the bathroom.  I'll spare you the details.  It was one of those illnesses where you actually start to think about what kind of accommodations you'll have in your afterlife.

I'm hoping this episode doesn't develop into a personal life-long phobia against lettuce as I do like me a good salad bar now and then.  I am 0 for 2, after all.

You know how they say you should get right back on a horse if you ever fall off?  If that's really true, I'm thinking I'll need to go visit Jason's Deli salad bar soon.

Wish me luck.

S

The Discount Society

We've become a discount society. In fairness, most of the rest of the world is right on our heals, but I think this is one area where we really are still Number 1.

I doubt Walmart started it, but they certainly epitomize it today.  When did this happen?  I can remember when I was a kid we weren't so concerned about beating the other guy down into an "I win, you lose" position.  We did expect to negotiate on the price of a car, but most everything else was priced fairly straight forward.

We bought most of our clothes at the local "haberdasher" (except we didn't call it that).  You wanted a shirt or a pair of pants, you went to Ken's Mans Shop.  An appliance, Hollinshead's.  Hardware....Plaza's.  Groceries....Wyatt's.  Our pharmacy was Payne's.  They posted an honest price right up front and we paid it.  We knew each other, we were neighbors (literally), and we all did pretty well.  "Amazon" was still just a river in Brazil.

Those days are gone.  Today we buy our clothes at mega-conglomerate superstores (Macy's), appliances come from one or the other big box home stores as does our hardware, our pharmacy is more likely to be a huge national chain (Walgreens, CVS), and our groceries come from Kroger, Safeway, or increasingly, Walmart.  Even our shoes come from Discount Shoe Warehouse, and our tires from Discount Tire.  They even put "discount" right up front in their name! 

To make this theme work, the first discounters, among other moves, demanded employees work for much less than they had before.  This meant the business could cut their price, gain market share, yet still make the same profit (maybe more) for their owners.  But they were counting on everyone else still having plenty of disposable income to buy whatever they were selling.

Oops.  That's where it all hit the fan.  It wasn't long before virtually every business became "discount" oriented.  It became an all out war.  Perpetual "sales" became the norm.  Manufacturers were sucked in to the price cut war, too.  Wage and benefit concessions, or at least curbs on raises, were demanded from all.   If they weren't forthcoming, the business relocated to a new low wage location, often overseas. 

At first we loved it. We could buy cool stuff for less than ever.  WooHoo!  But now we've learned the meaning of an increasingly popular term, "unintended consequences".  Now we HAVE to shop at discount stores because that's all we can afford. 

This is the age of Bigger Is Better.  All the small entrepreneurs I know are just trying to build their businesses up to the point they can sell out.  If they get too successful and attract the attention of the Big Boys, they get promptly squashed.

The days of each generation having it better than the previous one are over.  At least that's what the 20-somethings living with their parents while they try to pay off their mountain of college loan debt tell me.  

I have no answers as to how we can make things better.  I doubt there IS a way we can make things better.  The genie is NOT going back in the bottle.

The Discount Society has morphed into today's "Settle Society", as in, "I guess I'll have to settle for that".

The takeaway lesson:  We really do need to be careful what we wish for.  Often times things don't work out as planned.

Hey, it's just an observation.  Don't shoot the messenger.

S

Buy, Buy, Buy!

So I just have to ask....why are you sitting at your computer reading this when there is "stuff" still on store shelves that needs buying?  SLACKER!  

Black Friday has been officially declared a bust.  Sales were down 1.7% compared to last year.  The hope now is that CyberMonday sales can make up for it.  If not, the economies of the free world will collapse, and it will all be YOUR fault!

The statistics guys are trotting out one possible excuse for the poor sales numbers is that, because of the lateness of Thanksgiving this year, there are 6 fewer shopping days before Christmas.  So what?  Doesn't that just mean you're going to have to shop faster to buy everything you'll give to friends and family?  Are you going to just dump a few names from your list because you "ran out of time"?  Are you really going to pick family winners and losers?  Good luck with that!

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Here's something interesting I just heard:  If you're shopping online at, say, Amazon, and you don't complete your order and just abandon your "shopping cart", you're likely to receive an email from them a little later saying that shopping cart item has been miraculously reduced, "hurry, limited time only, act NOW!"  But oddly, people using an Apple computer are generally NOT extended as good of a cut rate price as someone using an old fashioned PC.  That's because Apple users are generally viewed as willing to pay more.  THOSE BASTARDS!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thinking a bit deeper, this is what legitimately concerns me about our shopping habits today:  Our society wants a "deal" on everything we buy.  We seem to forget it's pretty much a "zero-sum" game....for every winner, there's also a loser.  For you to get your deal, someone else takes a hit.  

Sure, some things are getting cheaper because technology is improving, making them less expensive to produce.  But that's also likely to mean someone lost their job to a robot.  Or your neighbor lost his job to someone in China or Bangladesh.  Or someone took a pay cut in order to keep from being laid off.

You say "not my problem, I've got mine"?  But for how long?  If those are the people YOUR company is hoping to sell YOUR product to, and they are no longer able to buy what you're selling, well, it's a vicious race to the bottom.  That's one reason middle-class incomes have been stagnant for the past 20 years (after accounting for inflation).

I'm afraid the one thing Walmart and the other discounters have taught us how to do is shoot ourselves in the foot.  *sigh*

S  

What goes around comes around

I heard just yesterday that a store in Australia will soon institute a $5 "cover charge" to come in and look around.  They say they are trying to discourage people from coming in and trying out whatever it is they sell, then going home and ordering it online.  (If you do buy from them the retailer credits back to you your $5 cover charge.)

Interesting.  I can imagine their frustration with people like ME who look locally, but often buy online.  Not always though....I'll buy locally if the difference is just a few bucks, but for 30% or 40% difference, it's Amazon here I come!

But here's why I don't feel guilty about doing that: The big stores that I shun to order online are generally the same big national stores that blew into town 10-20 years ago and put all the local mom-and-pop stores out of business.  Seems to me they're now getting a taste of their own medicine.  To me this is just retail evolution.

Home Depot didn't shed any tears when they put Plaza Hardware out of business.  Nor did Best Buy show any remorse when they pretty much destroyed Hollingshed's Appliance.  Same with Walgreen's and CVS as they shuttered Payne's Drug Store.  And who killed Larry's Shoes, and do I have to say anything at all about all those little guys Walmart squashed?

Some things I won't buy online or from a catalogue.  Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware both send me a very nice catalogue several times a year full of their new offerings.  I've found their furniture to be of commendable quality, but how do you buy a chair, for example, without sitting on it first?  I don't care what it looks like if it doesn't pass my butt test.

Shoes....I've found that even within the same brand line, shoes can feel different.  I want to try them on in a store and see if a particular style is all-day comfortable.  If so, then it's time to check Zappos, may the best cut-throat mega-retailer win.

And now a plug (unfortunately uncompensated) for my all-time favorite online retailer, LL Bean.  I've just replenished through them my summer wardrobe....3 pair of chino shorts, 3 very nice polo shirts, and 5 (various colored) t-shirts.  And if something is wrong, they make it right, no arguments.  Can't beat that!

If I was a big brick-and-mortar retailer, I'd be scared.  VERY scared.

S

It's "Small Business Saturday"

I don't know where the idea came from, but I like it.  

Today we're encouraged to make a special effort to do business with the mom-and-pop small merchants instead of the giant national big-box retailers in our area.  The trick is to find one.  I don't know how things are in smaller towns or rural areas, but here in the Big City they're becoming as rare as hen's teeth.

Back in the late 1950's-early '60's when I was in my "yout" that's pretty much all we had.  Mom bought her dresses at Stern's, while I was outfitted by Ken's Mans Shop and The Varsity Shop.  Dad shopped at Jas K. Wilson.

The toy store was M. E. Moses.  Hardware was available from Plaza Hardware.  (I worked there as a kid assembling and repairing Schwinn bikes and Lawn Boy and Toro lawnmowers.  I learned about tools there, too.)  The pharmacy was Payne's Drug Store.  If you wanted a casual meal out you went to Harris Restaurant or to the Plaza Cafeteria and saw Mr. & Mrs. Padgett.  Want a hamburger?  Try Lindy's drive-in.  Need a new car?  Go see Ken Pruitt (Buick) or Mr. Jackson (Chevy).

Mr. Tedford owned the Enco station (now Exxon) and would always wash your windshield and check your oil while filling your tank.  We got our furniture and appliances from Hollingshead's, and our tires from Shugart's.  That's just the way things were back then.  You bought from your neighbors.  They knew you and went out of their way to make you happy. It was called "customer service".

Today we have Walmart and Target, Macy's and Toys R Us, Home Depot and Walgreen's, Chili's and the Sonic Auto Group.  Need gas?  Just swipe your card at the pump.  (A complete stop is still required.)  The "owner" is usually in a far-away city somewhere looking at a spreadsheet, and the "manager" was a senior in high school last month.  Neither knows your name.  Or cares.

I understand "economies of scale".  I know we have many, many more choices at much lower prices today than we had back in those days, but something deep inside me says we've lost a whole lot, too.  If you can still find a small local business where you live, go buy something from them today. (Maybe again tomorrrow, too?)  Spend an extra buck or two.  It won't hurt you, and it will mean a lot to them.

S

What if they threw a party and nobody came?

The Christmas season just gets more and more absurd.  Isn't this (especially) the season where we're supposed to display peace and love for all, just like Jesus did?  Apparently Walmart didn't get that memo.

In their headlong chase for the Almighty Dollar Walmart has decided that Black Friday, that absolutely insane first official day of the Christmas shopping season....the day after Thanksgiving....will now begin at 8 pm ON THANKSGIVING EVENING!  That's when they will open the chutes and let the cattle stampede in.  So much for letting their "valued employees" spend the day with their families.  

I contrast that (here in Dallas at least ) with Weir's Furniture.  They are closed EVERY Sunday.  The Weir family is very religious and they close for that reason, but the bottom line is they allow their employees to spend their Sundays doing whatever they want.  It's their time for family, church, football, picnicking, or whatever.  Here's my point:  people know that if they want to buy a sofa or chair or bedroom furniture from Weir's they'll have to buy it on Saturday or Monday, but NOT on Sunday....and their business hasn't suffered a bit.  If fact, many big-name furniture stores have come and gone in the past 64 years, but Weir's is still here.

I can't think of one thing that will be in Walmart at 8 pm on Thanksgiving Day evening that won't still be there at 7 am on Black Friday morning.  Quit being such dicks, Walmart, and let your people have the day off.  

Rant over.  Now go out there and have a nice weekend.  ;)

S

I want THEIR tax guy....

Several news sources reported over the weekend that the most valuable, most profitable company in the world, Apple, is a tax-paying lightweight.  Or to put it another way, Apple is a tax-avoiding heavyweight.  


Last year Apple had profits of $34.2B dollars, yet paid only $3.3B in taxes.  That's a rate of just 9.8%, which is 1/3 less than the average corporate tax paid by other Fortune 500 companies.  By comparison, Walmart paid a rate of over 24% in corporate income tax.


And it's all perfectly legal.  How'd they do it?  By claiming that most of their profits were made by Apple entities located in foreign, low-tax places such as Ireland, the Netherlands, and various post office boxes in the Caribbean.  US taxes are paid based on where "value is created".  If you were making cars or appliances or almost any other tangible product, the place where the factory is located would be where "value is created" and that's where taxes would be paid.  But with intangibles like patent royalties and intellectual property that can be pretty much anywhere they want it to be.  That's why 70% of Apple's profits are made *wink* outside the US.


I don't blame Apple or any other company who takes advantage of this gaping tax loophole.   I blame our congress who created it and does absolutely nothing to fix it.  But with a TRILLION dollar deficit why wouldn't they at least try, you ask? 

Simple....campaign contributions, aka legal bribes.  "Big Bidness" likes our tax system juuuuuust the way it is, thank you very much....subsidies, loopholes and all.  And they make lots of "contributions" to make sure it stays that way.  (And BTW...they're "legal" bribes only because those receiving the bribes are the same ones who get to define "legal".  Pretty sweet, huh?)

S

Will we never learn?

We seem to have it in our mind that "bigger is better".  We Americans like things BIG.  We Texans like thing REALLY BIG.  Trouble is, as we're always prone to do, we take things too far.  


Once this country's largest air carrier American Airlines is today in bankruptcy.  Now comes word that Delta Airlines and US Airways both might make a play to buy American.  We're supposed to have anti-trust laws to guarantee competition, but IMO meaningful anti-trust regulation / oversight  fell by the wayside long ago.  In just the last few years, Delta absorbed Northwest, United absorbed Continental, America West merged with US Air, Southwest snatched up AirTran, and pretty obviously American will be swallowed up by somebody, TBD.  


The same with banking.  I remember hearing experts say 20 years ago that some day there would be only a handful of mega-banks left.  As there was a local community bank on every corner at the time I thought this a ridiculous prediction, but look were we are today.  We're well on our way.  Homebuilding:  Today a handful of national homebuilders control over half the market, and their share is growing.  Retailers:  Think Wal Mart.  'Nuff said.


A hundred years ago we broke up "big railroad" and "big oil", rightly proclaiming it would be good for competition, and therefore for the people.  I understand the principle of "economy of scale".  I also understand the reality of "too big to fail" and "moral hazard".


Once again we're getting run over, and we just sit here and meekly take it.  The people we've elected to look out for our interests are failing us.  I guess we're getting what we deserve.


(Sorry for the boring post.  I guess I read / think too much.) 


S