Wikkler
Well-Known Member
Try 2 weeks before Halloween...
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Spirited News, Observations & Thoughts IV
- Thread starter WDW1974
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Wikkler
Well-Known Member
GymLeaderPhil
Well-Known Member
I would avoid it, along with every other major holiday.
Instead, spend time with your family doing traditional American practices. Watch television all day (Macy's Parade, Dog Show, and football) and watch Uncle Eddie catch something on fire trying to deep fry a turducken. God Bless the USA!
Wikkler
Well-Known Member
You've experienced Talk Like a Pirate Day? Arbor Day? Grandparents Day? Bring Your Dog to Work Day?
njDizFan
Well-Known Member
Amazon is in itself evil. With their scorched Earth form or capitalism. They are single handedly killing the publishing business. Sometimes taking huge losses in order to outprice everyone so in turn putting them out of business. They have no brick and morter footprint so they have such a small percentage of employees it's staggering(less than 10% overhead of a independant store). Not to mention the breaks they get on sales tax from being an online retailer.
It's places like Best Buy that are getting hurt the most(besides the publishing business), since these stores need to create these elaborate displays and train their emplyees on the spec and such...then people go home and buy that product through Amazon at a discount.
With 1/3 of all online purchases and 3/4 of all books sold in America are done through amazon, They are on their way to outsell Walmart by the end of the decade. Not to mention the lawsuits arising from the employees of the 69 warehouses and the poor working conditions.
Which is the lesser of the 2 evils...?
MerlinTheGoat
Well-Known Member
Walmart still has groceries to entice people to come into the store (in fact there are grocery-specific Walmart markets out there), and many people will probably just go shopping in the rest of the store for non-grocery items while they're already at the store assuming they need or want other things. I think the amount of people ordering groceries online is still pretty minimal. There's services like Plum Good (which I assume is still around) and Schwans that deliver food ordered online, but the in-store grocery business still seems to be the primary way people like to shop for food. Online food ordering is going to have to come a very long way before it can match the diversity of food types and brands, and especially the prices that instore groceries still provide. So far even after years of these online food delivery services, they still don't seem to have caught fire in popularity or improved that much in the items they provide either (pricing as well). Still seems like a niche market compared to physical groceries. Heck, look at how uncommon milk delivery has become nowadays (a once common practice decades ago, we even still sometimes got milk delivered when I was little).
So until online grocery stores can match instore for speed of delivery, price, item/brand diversity etc (none of which has occurred yet even though online food delivery has been around for years now), I don't see instore groceries getting kicked to the curb anytime soon. Not saying this won't eventually happen (it probably will), but the growth of online food delivery has been slow at best. And from the two states i've lived in during the past 5 years, it doesn't seem to be growing at all. If anything it seems to be getting less common to see the more popular food delivery trucks such as Schwans or Plum Good.
Here in Naples (Florida) at least, there seems to be a grocery price war going on between Publix and Walmart. And shockingly, Walmart isn't just ignoring it by laughing it off as they usually would. Publix I think not too long ago (within this past year is the time I first started noticing it) began putting out signs near its entrances that was basically a "screw you walmart" in that it lists what items were at Publix for cheaper than Walmart that week (whether due to cut prices or buy one get one deals). But even more recently as a response, Walmart struck back with a flier near its own entrance that said they'd match the price of buy one get one deals from Publix, Sweetbay and Winn Dixie. I'd say this was due to snowbird season, except Publix was doing this for months well before snowbird season began.
So until online grocery stores can match instore for speed of delivery, price, item/brand diversity etc (none of which has occurred yet even though online food delivery has been around for years now), I don't see instore groceries getting kicked to the curb anytime soon. Not saying this won't eventually happen (it probably will), but the growth of online food delivery has been slow at best. And from the two states i've lived in during the past 5 years, it doesn't seem to be growing at all. If anything it seems to be getting less common to see the more popular food delivery trucks such as Schwans or Plum Good.
Here in Naples (Florida) at least, there seems to be a grocery price war going on between Publix and Walmart. And shockingly, Walmart isn't just ignoring it by laughing it off as they usually would. Publix I think not too long ago (within this past year is the time I first started noticing it) began putting out signs near its entrances that was basically a "screw you walmart" in that it lists what items were at Publix for cheaper than Walmart that week (whether due to cut prices or buy one get one deals). But even more recently as a response, Walmart struck back with a flier near its own entrance that said they'd match the price of buy one get one deals from Publix, Sweetbay and Winn Dixie. I'd say this was due to snowbird season, except Publix was doing this for months well before snowbird season began.
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Darth Sidious
Authentically Disney Distinctly Chinese
So I saw Thor 2 last night and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Here are my random notes after seeing the film:
- Tom Hiddleston steals the show
- Marvel is good at weaving together their universe
- Disney was careful to not attach any logos to this movie, just a mere text line after the movie that stated "WALT DISNEY MOTION PICTURES"
- Disney also made a new sweep for the Marvel production
- I am interested to see what they do on SHIELD since the next episode relates to Thor
- I love Natalie Portman
- Disney already used Lucasfilm for parts of a production, though many films do because of Skywalker Sound and effects - Lucasfilm was in the credits.
- The flying vehicles used in the near opening battle scene were reminiscent of Star Wars both in sound and visually
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ford91exploder
Resident Curmudgeon
How do you make boiled peanuts in a Turkey Fryer - Yes I am serious DW loves them!
GoofGoof
Premium Member
The greater evil for me is fighting crazy people in long lines in the middle of the night on Thanksgiving. Amazon allows me to avoid all that nonsense.
Amazon provides me with what I want as a consumer. The products I want at good prices, delivered right to my house. The sales tax loophole has been closed in a large number of states including PA where I live and NJ where I work so I can't take advantage of the tax free shopping anymore unless I wanted to open a PO box in Delaware or something extreme like that. I can't kill Amazon for being innovative and revolutionizing retail sales. The kindle may have been the best thing to have happened to the publishing business. Not so good for Barnes and Noble.
I am not too familiar with the lawsuits you mention. I did see something recently about a lawsuit over being paid for passing through security checkpoints when leaving work. I think the procedure is the employee clocks out then passes through a metal detector and security to get out of the warehouse. This sometimes takes up to 20 minutes if the detector goes off and security needs to do an individual search. The lawsuit claims that Amazon should be paying the employees while they pass through security. Seems reasonable to me to pay them, but in the end I'd hardly call it poor working conditions.
ford91exploder
Resident Curmudgeon
'Arr me personal preference day be 'Talk like a Pirate Day' matey!
ford91exploder
Resident Curmudgeon
Amazon - makes it so easy to get even industrial supplies next day, I buy more for work related purposes than I do for personal items. Preferred brands good pricing there next day if needed free shipping if willing to wait 2
days not even worth going to Graingers or Wesco .
ford91exploder
Resident Curmudgeon
BBY trained staff, elaborate displays - you have got to be kidding, BBY has trained chimps that ask 'do you want a service contract with that cable' or you need the overpriced 'Monster Cable" because the cheap one you are buying will not give you optimum performance because it does not have a layer of cheap gold plating.
I've forgotten more about electronics than the collective employees ever knew in any given BBY Store (with apologies to any engineering student working there to pay college bills)
BBY is a store of last resort for any electronic product.
JenniferS
When you're the leader, you don't have to follow.
Our local Costco starts trotting out the Christmas trees and decorations (for sale) mid-August, and the Sears Christmas Wish Book always appears on my doorstep before the end of the school year (end of June).
On another note, the Sears Spring & Summer catalogue should be be here before Christmas.
GoofGoof
Premium Member
Sears still makes a catalogue? I remember going through the Sears catalogue picking out toys for Christmas presents as a kid. I haven't seen one in years.
njDizFan
Well-Known Member
I was using Best Buy as an example of the big box stores that soon will no longer by viable. They have a huge over head with size and staff. Training, well as you said not quite top notch but other retailers do actually have employees that know their stuff. These type of stores are just becoming display models for the purchaser to look at the product maybe a get a slighlty informed opinion but then head head and make their purchase online.
JenniferS
When you're the leader, you don't have to follow.
In Canada, yes. Don't know about the States.
Every year, I get the following:
2 giant issues (500+ pages) - Spring & Summer, Fall & Winter.
A 300+ page Christmas Wish Book.
3 or 4 300+ page mid season catalogues
At least a dozen 100+ page clearout/white sale/end of season catalogues.
As long as you make a fairly minimal ($100?) purchase from any catalogue once every 18 months or so, you will get them all delivered to your doorstep.
ford91exploder
Resident Curmudgeon
I don't think the specialist retailers are going anywhere, Most of the consumer electronic big box stores all made the same mistakes, Circuit City started circling the drain when they fired all their well compensated non-commissioned salespeople and stopped carrying high end home theater gear. The high end gear got people like me into the store and I bought stuff. When they started carrying only the commodity cheap gear they were then competing with Amazon and WalMart - you KNOW how that one is going to end.
The Big box guys got hung up on how fast SKU's moved out the door and stopped carrying items which move slowly but attract the big fish. The big fish are not going to there to buy a $399 AV receiver for the guest room - they will buy that on Amazon and never walk into store. They might buy a couple for the guest rooms when it's time for a new amp for 5-7K Yes you are not going to sell more than 3-4 of any item like this in a month, But if you DONT have them you have no shot at that customer's money
Radio Shack almost went out of business before learning this lesson and starting to carry a complete line of electronic components once again, They move relatively slowly but they are insanely profitable AND they get a class of consumer who is relatively price insensitive to buy stuff there. H--- they might even buy a phone! (and the service contract...)
And when you need 1 more SMA or N connector than you have on hand - well they are worth almost any price... when 24 hours is too long to wait.
BrianLo
Well-Known Member
I'm guessing a certain something that was chasing birds in the very, very last scene of post-credits.
I also really enjoyed the movie. I like that it didn't take itself so seriously (aka Superman) and they constantly broke up the action with humour and fun easter eggs.
I'm still watching SHIELD, which was decently good last week, but it still hasn't really hit its stride. OUAT in Wonderland is far more engaging so far.
I'm also surprised no one is talking about the Marvel-Netflicks deal. They are really leveraging the brand as of late.
Funmeister
Well-Known Member
When it comes to Amazon being "evil" please keep in mind that Amazon itself is just a gateway for other retailers. They are a different beast when you compare them head to head with Wal Mart or Target. The way they work is "Bob's Computers & Electronics" uploads products to thier Amazon sellers account. Bob then has the choice to ship the items to the customer himself when an order comes in through Amazon or send his inventory to Amazon and let them handle fulfillment.
In some ways Amazon has actually helped many small businesses flourish. I cannot comment on the publishing aspect because I do not know enough about it but from what some of my friends have told me it is the best self-publishing option out there. A close second would be lulu.com.
I know some indie retailers that have an outlet through Amazon, ebay and thier own personal website and they love the fact they can compete with larger companies online. I hate big corporations and I guess it is the lesser of two evils when I decide to buy from Amazon versus Wal Mart.
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