Retail game changer ....

[Testarossa]

And here is where the retail thread crosses with the insurance thread. I need a 55-gallon drum to make a burn barrel. Some locals recommend ventilating the barrel with a pistol.

[Lannis]

You live and learn - but the most important thing is to learn how to learn, and keep doing it.

A smart man once said:

"Education is what is left when you have forgotten everything you learned".

Sort of another way of saying it.

It really is amazing how many people, when technology or changing market does away with their job and their skills are no longer in demand, just sit where they are and DEMAND that someone fix it!    Make the company go back into business!   Give me money to live on!

When it happened to me, I either learned something new that someone in my area DID want, or I upped stakes and went where the work was.    We've been able to do that ever since the Black Death killed 1/3 of the feudal lords in England and the serfs found that they could move around and work for someone who would pay them ....

Lannis ("Who Moved My Cheese?")

[Testarossa]

  We've been able to do that ever since the Black Death killed 1/3 of the feudal lords in England and the serfs found that they could move around and work for someone who would pay them ....

Don't forget that the Black Death killed 1/3 of everybody. When the supply of labor was cut by 1/3, guess what? The price of labor rose.

[Lannis]

Don't forget that the Black Death killed 1/3 of everybody. When the supply of labor was cut by 1/3, guess what? The price of labor rose.

Yes, very true.   I was, however, referring to the "side benefit" that once the serfs realized that there weren't enough people to keep them 'down on the farm', legally tied to a specific manor, they could then move around and sell their labor to the highest bidder at the new prices ....  Sort of a watershed moment ....

Lannis

[Testarossa]

No argument from me. It is a complex and fascinating topic.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2013/10/economic-history-1

[ITSec]

No argument from me. It is a complex and fascinating topic.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2013/10/economic-history-1

A great source.

I'm one of those rarest of all animals - an extreme leftist who's favorite mags include The Economist! 

[Penderic]

Competition for tiny parking spaces, lots of rows coupled with a bad memory. Lovely.


Oh dear, I think someone is not having a good day.


Don't park, don't park, don't park so close to me!

[ITSec]

Competition for tiny parking spaces, lots of rows coupled with a bad memory. Lovely.


Oh dear, I think someone is not having a good day.


Don't park, don't park, don't park so close to me!

Don't park so close to my karma?!?

[charlie b]

Interesting that many who won't put a foot into a Walmart will shop Amazon?

Might check with some people who work for Amazon.  Not a nice place to work.  Amazon is just the Walmart of the internet world.  And Walmart is trying to catch up to them.

I laughed when Amazon started.  How could a company survive that way?  They don't do anything except act as a go between.  I can buy from the mfg just as easily as from Amazon.  What changed?  All the small mfgs (and some not so small) found they could turn over all their retail sales to Amazon.  No more customers to deal with.  Just get the order through Amazon and ship it. 

An economist predicted Target is going to start down.  His comment based on Target's nod to the future was putting in self check out lanes instead of investing more in their internet business.

Yep, 90% of the brick stores will be going out of business sooner rather than later.

[GearheadGrrrl]

A lot of companies won't sell stuff like barrels to the general public for liability reasons. Back when I worked for a chain of wholesale bakeries, they went through a phase of trying to sell all kinds of surplus stuff through the thrift stores, including 55 gallon drums that baking ingredients had come in. They quit when they saw what buyers were doing with those drums- making stoves out of them, storing hazmat, etc.. Though it cost us nothing for the drums and we had empty space in the semitrailers to haul them to the thrift stores, the $20 or so we got for them wasn't worth the risk of someone doing something stupid with them that causes a multi million dollar accident, then the heirs get a lawyer who traces the barrel back to the bakery company and sues them. This is why a lot of old stuff like Post Office Jeeps, fuel and oil tanks, etc. never make it to market- It's just not worth the liability.

[Lannis]

Interesting that many who won't put a foot into a Walmart will shop Amazon?

I'm one of them.  WalMart has nothing that I need, when I balance their presence against the cost of actually driving Service Oriented small businesses out of town.   I used to patronize the little brick-and-mortar shops that provided me a local retail service that neither WalMart nor Amazon could provide.   

When WalMart first comes to town, the stores are clean and nice and well-staffed.   After the local "mo' money, we need mo' money" guys are hooked, the stores go downhill fast.   It's already happening to ours.   And since they have a policy of NEVER confronting shoplifters who are walking out of the store with carts full of electronics and rib-eyes, our court system gets loaded with theft cases, ones that never happened before WalMart.   I've sat on recent Grand Juries and know how it works.

Now, Amazon MAY go that way.   They may, in a blind green-eyeshade quest for higher profits, cut their service levels, start hitting me with unidentifiable fees, get orders wrong, make my life more difficult.   If they do, I'll drop 'em like a hot 55 gallon drum .....

Lannis

[Antietam Classic Cycle]

Amazon has been "dropping the ball" of late for me. March 1st I ordered a pair of K&N air filters and a package of 12 Knorr rice side meals (a flavor that I can't find anywhere local). Two weeks go by, neither has shipped. I cancel the order for the filters and buy them for the same cost locally (Advance Auto). The rice sides still haven't shipped! Call just now to find out WTF is the hold-up. "Oh, we somehow missed that order and apologize". Now it's backordered and they *think* it would ship sometime the end of May! Told then just to cancel that too.  They did give me a $20 credit towards a future order.

[bacongrease]

check Amazon  prices thoroughly . 
I read in CR , or somewhere Amazon will (hide) an item that  sells cheaper on the site than the one sold by Amazon.

ya gotta really search for it.

[Lannis]

Amazon has been "dropping the ball" of late for me. March 1st I ordered a pair of K&N air filters and a package of 12 Knorr rice side meals (a flavor that I can't find anywhere local). Two weeks go by, neither has shipped. I cancel the order for the filters and buy them for the same cost locally (Advance Auto). The rice sides still haven't shipped! Call just now to find out WTF is the hold-up. "Oh, we somehow missed that order and apologize". Now it's backordered and they *think* it would ship sometime the end of May! Told then just to cancel that too.  They did give me a $20 credit towards a future order.

Uh oh, could be the start of it.

A company comes up with a great business model, executes it, gets rich.

Then the analysts and "experts" set "expectations" for quarterly earning and equity results.   If you don't "meet the expectations", then you look bad and the short timers quit investing.

So the green eyeshades start getting involved, "cutting overhead", making service "more efficient", replacing real people on the phone with robots and non-English-speakers, and for a while, until customers start getting hurt, earnings go up.

But then it catches up to them, and they start falling and can't figure out why.   

Only a few companies have avoided that path.    Look up companies that have had good earnings and reasonable growth over 20, 40, 100 years and you can see how it's done ....

Lannis

[Chuck in Indiana]

I mean, it was exactly the same thing happening.   Packaging changed, they started putting crackers in cellophane, people had cars to drive to town ... and there aren't any more traveling salesmen.   I don't think anyone regrets that ... And the salesmen found something else to do.

Let me tell you a traveling salesman story, Lannis. No kidding, this is true.
In the early 90s Dorcia and I were finishing dinner at the table, and I told her I need to get a new grill brush, my old welder's brush was worn out. She said, " Too bad, there's no Fuller Brush man any more.." In less than a minute, there was a knock on the door.
You guessed it. (Cue Rod Sterling) He was a little gnome of a guy with a bowler hat. (!) We bought a grill brush.
Don't believe me? Ask Dorcia some time.

[Lannis]

Let me tell you a traveling salesman story, Lannis. No kidding, this is true.
In the early 90s Dorcia and I were finishing dinner at the table, and I told her I need to get a new grill brush, my old welder's brush was worn out. She said, " Too bad, there's no Fuller Brush man any more.." In less than a minute, there was a knock on the door.
You guessed it. (Cue Rod Sterling) He was a little gnome of a guy with a bowler hat. (!) We bought a grill brush.
Don't believe me? Ask Dorcia some time.

The bakery man used to come to our door every day, leaning hard to one side toting a big tray of bread, donuts, and other baked things for my Mom to pick from.

The ice cream truck used to come down the street and we'd run out with our nickels and dimes.

The milkman used to drop off six quarts of milk every week and take the empties.

I don't guess anyone does that sort of thing any more.

BUT ... the Snap-On man and the other tool vendors DO still drop by the shop and the employees all come out to trade or buy tools ... that's sort of like a Fuller Brush man!

Gone, Gone with the hogsheads casks and demijohns ....

Lannis

[Moto]

Let me tell you a traveling salesman story, Lannis. No kidding, this is true.
In the early 90s Dorcia and I were finishing dinner at the table, and I told her I need to get a new grill brush, my old welder's brush was worn out. She said, " Too bad, there's no Fuller Brush man any more.." In less than a minute, there was a knock on the door.
You guessed it. (Cue Rod Sterling) He was a little gnome of a guy with a bowler hat. (!) We bought a grill brush.
Don't believe me? Ask Dorcia some time.

I believe you! The same Fuller Brush man, maybe, visited my house in the early 90's in Madison, WI. He looked like he had stepped out of a Popeye cartoon. I was stunned. I bought a brush and a multi-pants clothes hanger.

I figured later that he was deliberately dressing to imitate the old styles, but when he showed up it was Twilight Zone time in my head too.

Moto

[Antietam Classic Cycle]

The milkman used to drop off six quarts of milk every week and take the empties.

Lannis

There's a local creamery ( http://www.southmountaincreamery.com/ ) that will deliver milk and more right to my door. When the farmer that owns it announced plans to open the creamery and do that everyone thought he was nuts. But, it's turned out to be very successful and he's expanded the operation a little each year.

[Lannis]

There's a local creamery ( http://www.southmountaincreamery.com/ ) that will deliver milk and more right to my door. When the farmer that owns it announced plans to open the creamery and do that every one thought he was nuts. But, it's turned out to be very successful and he's expanded the operation a little each year.

George Barber's family made a good thing out of it for sure!   And good thing too, for the motorcycling community ....

Lannis

[Penderic]

Retailers could come up with a few improvements with the in-store experience, to bring in more shoppers.


 

[Aaron D.]

To have a real chance at being successful, a store needs to have a STORE of the merchandise it plans to sell. The attraction of going to a STORE is one can purchase the item and drive home with it.

If the STORE has to ORDER the product, why, you are paying someone to type on a computer. That isn't too hard anymore, so fewer people go to such establishments.

I recognize the difficulty and expense associated with being a STORE, and in fact have tied my fortunes to their success over my career.

I like to support local business. Surprisingly I have noticed that local businesses often will make purchases based on price, not on the vendor's proximity to their business. Funny, that.

[sidecarnutz]

Locally we have to head south over the NC line for steel barrels. Local Bubba's down there sell them for good prices. They don't seem to exist up here on the Va. side.
Last year I got a couple from a guy on Craigslist. He had them left over from doing foam insulation work. They contained the foam resin at one time. Still sticky inside. His property was stacked with these barrels! No good for storage but excellent for burn barrels. I got two for $30 plus about $10 worth of gas round trip to go fetch them. I drilled some holes in one to use as a burn barrel and later passed the second one along to a neighbor for $20. He bitched about the price. But he was too lazy to drive down there to get his own!
I've run into a number of folks who think "They're used! They oughtta be free!" But Nope! They're a commodity. They retain some value. The farmers and tradesmen down over the NC line do a part time business moving these after their primary use is done.

[Lannis]

Locally we have to head south over the NC line for steel barrels. Local Bubba's down there sell them for good prices. They don't seem to exist up here on the Va. side.

Well thank goodness someone else noticed that.   I was starting to think that I was the only one who couldn't step next door and buy a truckload of them for a few bucks ..... !

Lannis

[Penderic]

Race you to the checkout! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0OHmiwGI98

[John Ulrich]

" Too bad, there's no Fuller Brush man any more.." In less than a minute, there was a knock on the door.

How many buy from the Swan's Man?...(meat, ice cream, pizza, sold out of a truck)   Had dinner with a neighbor who worked at Corporate until a few years ago.  Same story, door to door is dying.
Now that I'm a retired fart, it's amazing how an open garage door in a neighborhood of two income families (everyone's at work 8-5) attracts a variety of salespeople during the day.

[Lannis]

How many buy from the Swan's Man?...(meat, ice cream, pizza, sold out of a truck)   Had dinner with a neighbor who worked at Corporate until a few years ago.  Same story, door to door is dying.
Now that I'm a retired fart, it's amazing how an open garage door in a neighborhood of two income families (everyone's at work 8-5) attracts a variety of salespeople during the day.

My Mom used to, when she was living alone in her 70s and 80s.   She lived a mile from her next neighbor and 10 miles from the store, she liked the convenience, and didn't mind paying a little more to get stuff she liked, the guy put it right in her freezer.

I've thought about it, I don't like grocery shopping much, but I probably won't.   

I'd forgotten about them when I was talking about the Snap-On truck!

Lannis

[charlie b]

I'm one of them.  WalMart has nothing that I need, when I balance their presence against the cost of actually driving Service Oriented small businesses out of town.   I used to patronize the little brick-and-mortar shops that provided me a local retail service that neither WalMart nor Amazon could provide.   

When WalMart first comes to town, the stores are clean and nice and well-staffed.   After the local "mo' money, we need mo' money" guys are hooked, the stores go downhill fast.   It's already happening to ours.   And since they have a policy of NEVER confronting shoplifters who are walking out of the store with carts full of electronics and rib-eyes, our court system gets loaded with theft cases, ones that never happened before WalMart.   I've sat on recent Grand Juries and know how it works.

Now, Amazon MAY go that way.   They may, in a blind green-eyeshade quest for higher profits, cut their service levels, start hitting me with unidentifiable fees, get orders wrong, make my life more difficult.   If they do, I'll drop 'em like a hot 55 gallon drum .....

Lannis

Well, Amazon is doing EXACTLY what you accuse Walmart of.  You may not have been a victim of the bad service, but, wages, working conditions and driving out local small businesses is exactly what they are doing.

And, they are accomplishing that WITHOUT hiring ANYONE locally.  At least Walmart does provide some local jobs, even it they are paid sucky wages.  And some of our Walmarts are still clean and have good customer service, especially the rural ones.

And, local Walmarts are starting to feel the pinch of Amazon, since even a Walmart cannot carry everything for everyone.

WE will get what we deserve.  Everything will be shopped online.  Once clothes mfgs figure out body sizes the retail stores will be in trouble.

[Aaron D.]

Clothing stores are already in trouble, with the return policies. And shoes..very hard to find a shoe store anymore.

Things change.Whether they are for the better depends on how old you are..

[Lannis]

Clothing stores are already in trouble, with the return policies. And shoes..very hard to find a shoe store anymore.

Things change.Whether they are for the better depends on how old you are..

The "Jake Wilson" bike site has a no-cost return policy - order it, try it on, if it doesn't fit send it back and get the right size for free.   Very tempting! 

Can't do shoes that way though.   I like having perfect fitting shoes, and I do that in an old-fashioned shoe store with that thing that measures your feet both ways .... Maybe someone will invent technology where I hold my foot up to my webcam and they make a shoe just for me ....

Lannis

[Lannis]

Well, Amazon is doing EXACTLY what you accuse Walmart of.  You may not have been a victim of the bad service ....

And that's why it's not exactly the same.   Service is everything to me, and if local stores can't or won't provide it, I go elsewhere.   Local stores where they say "LANNIS!" like they used to say "NORM!" when he walked into "Cheers" will always have my business ....

Lannis