Business Weak

The Death of Dell

2007-05-31T22:20:00.000-04:00

Anyone remember when "Dude you're getting a Dell" meant you were getting a quality computer with great service?

Then Dell made the fatal mistake of abandoning service. Many of its loyal customers found themselves both ordering from and trying to get service from foreigners with thick accents who couldn't help even when you could understand them.

Sadly, Dell has never recovered. After owning four Dells, I finally switched to another company who offered a better laptop cheaper. I imagine many have done the same thing.

Recently Dell announced what will probably be known as the moment it ceased being a legitimate computer company. They announced they were going to sell PCs at Wal Mart. Nothing says quality and service like putting your product in a store known for grumpy and poorly trained employees selling cheap shit that may last you through the season. What distinguishes a Dell from an HP, Acer, or E-Machines at this point? Couple that with Dell's decision to layoff 8,000 employees, and you have the makings of the demise of a once great company.

Don't get me wrong, both companies now seem made for each other. Both abandoned the ideals that made them success stories long ago. Now they can say they were there for each other on their inevitable downward slide.

RIAA -- Those crazy pirating kids......

2007-05-14T12:09:00.000-04:00

Once again, the RIAA misses the point.

As a person who has acquired 99% of his music legally (and the other 1% is files of 45s that I own but couldn't find in digital format), I don't necessarily side with the piraters here, but I certainly don't side with the RIAA.

I grew up in the 70s and 80s, and went to college in the early 90s. At that time, most of us college kids were spending $15 a shot for CDs to acquire new music, pick up stuff we had on cassette on CD, and if you were like me, sometimes repaying to get new remastered CDs of the stuff you bought on CD a few years earlier.

The CD pricing was originally based on the cost of manufacturing a CD. The digital process was expensive because there were few pressing plants, they required clean rooms, and the process created about as many defective discs as good ones. And they shoved them in those ecologically friendly long boxes that probably added a few cents to the process. But once prices of manufacturing went down, the price charged for them never did.

So, when CD burners began to reach a decent price point and broadband Internet became a necessity, there became no real economic reason to purchase a CD for most people. Why pay $15 for a CD with one song when you could copy someone else's or pay $1 for the song on I-tunes?

Yes, the RIAA is legally in the right. But suing college students for $3,000 a pop isn't going to bring back the revenue they had when they were gouging consumers for CDs.

So how do they fix it?

The first step would be to reduce the price of CDs to $5 or less apiece. Yes, this sounds backwards, and dangerous, but it works. Just ask the MPAA. At most big box retailers you can buy movies from major studios for $5 or less. If a movie that cost $100 million to make can be sold for $5, surely a CD from the latest American Idol reject can come in for those costs.

Second step is to rethink marketing. Embrace file sharing. Dump the new single for everyone to download for free, but tack on a commercial to the file (or put the commercial before you download it). Advertise the album it comes from.

Third step is to go after people in the 30+ range. While many of us will buy the occasional CD, it seems as record companies have abandoned this audience for the most part. New CDs from artists we used to love are now coming out from independent labels, and those that are still on major labels are being given little promotion.

Fourth step is to stop the stupid lawsuits. These lawsuits are still seen as something that happens to other people, and no kid is going to stop sharing music in some form or fashion if the risk of getting caught is perceived as low. You're only alienating the future audience, who won't suddently go buy the new Sanjaya CD because they're afraid of being sued (although having to admit to that in court might scare ME straight).

So RIAA, shape up, or watch your profits continue to decline.

-- Music piracy crackdown nets college kids
05/13/2007 1:50 PM, APLINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — At first, Sarah Barg thought the e-mail was a scam.
Some group called the Recording Industry Association of America was accusing the University of Nebraska-Lincoln sophomore of illegally downloading 381 songs using the school's computer network and a program called Ares.
The letter said she might be sued but offered her the chance to settle out of court.
Barg couldn't imagine anyone expected her to pay $3,000 — $7.87 per song — for some 1980s ballads and Spice Girls tunes she downloaded for laughs in her dorm room. Besides, the 20-year-old had friends who had downloaded thousands of songs without repercussion.
"Obviously I knew it was illegal, but no one got in trouble for it," Barg said.
But Barg's perspective changed quickly that Thursday in March, when she called student legal services and found out the e-mail was no joke and that she had a pricey decision to make.
Barg is one of 61 students at UNL and hundreds at more than 60 college campuses across the country who have received letters from the recording industry group, threatening a lawsuit if they don't settle out of court.
"Any student on any campus in the country who is illegally downloading music may receive one of these letters in the coming months," said Jenni Engebretsen, an RIAA spokeswoman.
Barg's parents paid the $3,000 settlement. Without their help, "I don't know what I would have done. I'm only 20 years old," she said.
At least 500 university students nationwide have paid settlements to avoid being sued, Engebretsen said. Students who don't take the offer face lawsuits — and minimum damages of $750 for each copyrighted recording shared if they lose.
UNL officials have been told 32 more letters are on the way. At least 17 UNL students who did not take the settlement offer have been sued, according to the RIAA, although the university has been asked to forward only five subpoenas.
But the students coughing up the cash question why they're the ones getting in trouble.
"They're targeting the worst people," UNL freshman Andrew Johnson, who also settled for $3,000. "Legally, it probably makes sense, because we don't have the money to fight."
Johnson got his e-mail in February, with the recording industry group's first wave of letters targeting college students. He had downloaded 100 songs on a program called LimeWire using the university network.
The money to settle came from the 18-year-old's college fund. He'll work three jobs this summer to pay back the money.
Johnson compares what he did to people driving 5 miles per hour over the speed limit.
"It's not like I downloaded millions of songs and sold them to people," Johnson said.
But just one song can bring a lawsuit, Engebretsen said.
"It is important to send the message that this is illegal, you can be caught, and there are consequences," she said.
The industry realizes attitudes need changing, and money from the settlements is reinvested in educational programs schools and other groups can use to spread the word that song sharing can have severe consequences.
Some of the programs are tailored to start with third-graders.
"We do recognize that by the time students reach college, many of their music habits are already formed," Engebretsen said.
Earlier this month, members of Congress sent a letter to officials from 19 universities, including UNL, asking for information about schools' anti-piracy policies.
According to the letter, more than half of college students download copyrighted music and movies. The information requested is intended to help assess whether Congress needs to advance legislation to ensure illegal downloading "is no longer commonly associated with student life on some U.S. campuses," the letter says.
Barg is still angry about her letter from the recording industry group, which she calls bullying. But she agrees sharing music is common, and that other students don't understand the consequences.
"Technically, I'm guilty. I just think it's ridiculous, the way they're going about it," Barg said. "We have to find a way to adjust our legal policy to take into account this new technology, and so far, they're not doing a very good job."
Barg thinks the university should send an e-mail to all students, warning them that the recording industry won't look the other way.
As campus clears out for the summer, UNL officials are considering launching a new educational campaign in the fall.
"If we can do anything to help educate students about what illegal file-sharing is, we're willing and interested in doing that," said Kelly Bartling, a university spokeswoman.
Bartling said no one wants students to have to worry about how to pay tuition because of an expensive settlement. "It is a hugely expensive lesson," Bartling said.
Johnson, the UNL freshman, doesn't think the threats from the recording industry group are going to solve the problem. Friends who know he got in trouble still share music online.
"People are still going to do it until they get caught, and they can't catch everyone," Johnson said.
___
On the Net:
Recording Industry Association of America: http://www.riaa.com
University of Nebraska-Lincoln: http://www.unl.edu --

Branding AT&T

2007-01-24T07:12:00.000-05:00

One has to wonder what is going on in the boardrooms of AT&T. While the AT&T brandname certainly has worldwide recognition given its 120+ years of existence, the latest move to rebrand Cingular and Bellsouth after the merger with them seems puzzling.

AT&T is associated mostly with negatives. It was a monopoly for decades, eventually split up into several "Baby Bells" in 1982. Then, it became associated with high pressure long distance sales tactics.

My primary experience with AT&T has been solidly negative. In college, I was forced to take their long distance by the University. Their customer service was horrible and the service was more expensive than a calling card in some instances (this was in the days before prepaid long distance). Their Internet service ripped me off for months of service after I cancelled it. AT&T Wireless (ironically, purchased by Cingular) was also horrible, with terrible coverage in Louisville and indifferent customer service.

By contrast, my experience with Bellsouth and Cingular has been mostly positive. Bellsouth internet was great when I had it, and the customer service representatives were always helpful. Cingular has given me some issues, but the CSRs there have been polite and they have doggedly worked with me to resolve the issues I've had. The Cingular brand name would seem to be a huge asset in mobile phones and telecommunication services, and one more associated with high tech than the ancient AT&T brand. By renaming them AT&T, you call attention to what I believe many see as the least beloved company in the trio. Coca-Cola they ain't.

Dell In Fortune Magazine

2006-09-10T01:35:00.000-04:00

There is an article in the latest issue of Fortune about Dell's woes. According to the article, the problems stem from Dell betting too heavily on cost reductions, not embracing AMD chips, design, and lastly.... ignoring the customer.

For me, Dell's downfall can be traced to its outsourcing of its previously excellent service overseas. Nobody wants to call for service on a complex issue and reach someone you can barely understand explain concepts that you can barely understand. My own experience in ordering a computer a few years ago did little to inspire confidence as a sales person in India was overly confident about Dell's ability to get the computer to me in the time frame I needed. He didn't understand my concerns about the shipping methods used and an upcoming holiday that may have resulted in other delays. Almost everything he told me was untrue.

Unfortunately, the article contains a glaring error. It indicates "(l)ast year the company launched a high-end sub-brand called XPS." I own an XPS from a few years back and a simple Google search shows the XPS line goes back several years."

Riding the Solutions Rocket Straight to PR Mediocrity

2006-08-22T21:50:00.000-04:00

Check out the news release below. Repeat after me... "The word solutions means NOTHING." Saying you sell solutions or provide solutions is like saying you sell stuff. I've highlighted my favorite bits below with comments.

GreenPages Sharpens Solutions Focus

(URL: http://www.crn.com/sections/vista/vista.jhtml?articleId=191801251)

By Steven Burke,

5:14 PM EDT Mon. Aug. 07, 2006

GreenPages is riding the solutions rocket.
The Kittery, Maine-based integrator has sharpened its solutions focus over the last year, with professional services-based solutions now accounting for 40 percent of sales, up from 12 percent a year ago, said GreenPages President and CEO Ron Dupler. And he said he expects a 30 percent increase in annual sales to $100 million this year.

What exactly is a "solutions focus"? Is that something you get when you read Encyclopedia Brown very intently? And why repeat this meaningless word twice?

"The technology solutions business is growing exponentially," Dupler said in an interview at the GreenPages Solutions Summit 2006 conference in Portsmouth, N.H., which brought together 70 of the company's customers and 42 of its vendor partners.

What exactly is a "technology solution"? Does that mean technology is your problem? If so, then maybe an abacus would work for you.

"There is a tremendous opportunity for our clients to leverage technology to drive their business. There are also significant challenges, because the technology is complex," he said.

Why use something when you can "leverage" it. How fancy of Mr. Dupler. Not only is the technology complex, the words used to describe it are complex.

Over the last year, GreenPages has doubled the size of its solutions architect staff, increased its project management staff to seven (up from four) and added field engineering talent.

Oohhhhhh... They're not consultants, they're solutions architects.

The company's solutions march was accelerated by its April acquisition of TenCorp, a solution provider based in Needham, Mass., that had a robust state/local government and education business. The deal also brought GreenPages a wealth of technical talent and an ISO-certified advanced project and configuration center.

The solutions march. Didn't Souza write that?

Even with its stepped-up solutions push, GreenPages isn't turning its back on its reseller procurement business, according to Dupler. In fact, the company has tripled the size of the ISO-certified center.

Just what the hell were they doing before they did solutions? Oh wait, they're in the reseller procurement business. Huh?

Dupler said that when he took the GreenPages top job nearly two years ago, he envisioned a 50-50 products-to-solutions business mix. But now he sees the solutions business exploding, noting that ultimately, "the external market will dictate what we look like as a business."

What are we up to, six uses of this meaningless word? Considering that a garbage man offers a sanitation solution and a car salesman offers a transportation solution, isn't a solution essentially a product?

"There's a tremendous hunger for our solutions expertise," Dupler added. "We're also good at supply chain, logistics and e-commerce."

Actually, I think there is a hunger for PR clarity.

The procurement side of the business is now "table stakes" for customers, who are increasingly relying on GreenPages to solve business problems with the best technology available, Dupler said. "The difference between GreenPages and the rest of the market is our solutions capability. We are farther down the road with the evolution of our business. We have an amazing technical staff that can guide our clients through the maze of choices available to them." At the heart of GreenPages' business model is a vendor-agnostic philosophy that puts the interest of the client above any single manufacturer, Dupler noted. "We weed through all the hype and select the best technology. Our first commitment is to the customer," he said.

Table stakes? A gambling term? Now I'm even more confused. As for solutions capability, what exactly does that mean? It doesn't define a difference.

As for vendor-agnostic, let's look at the definition of the word "agnostic" on m-w.com

1 : a person who holds the view that any ultimate reality (as God) is unknown and probably unknowable; broadly : one who is not committed to believing in either the existence or the nonexistence of God or a god
2 : a person unwilling to commit to an opinion about something

Okay, either they're saying they don't have a committment to the vendor being or not being a god, or that they're unwilling to offer an opinion on a vendor. If they won't give an opinion on a vendor, then exactly to they honor their committment to the customer?

In an age where many manufacturers are seeking vendor exclusivity, GreenPages has chosen to work with multiple vendors. Among the company's partners at the summit were Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Lenovo, VMware, EqualLogic, 3Com, Radware, Internap, ScriptLogic, Fortinet, Zixcorp, Foundry and Utimaco.

As part of its professional services onslaught, GreenPages has reorganized its professional services group into practice areas, said Tobi Evangelisti, vice president of solutions at GreenPages. The company also has added telephony, wireless/mobility and technical staffing as new practice areas, she said.

Ewwwwww... a VP of solutions. Sweet.

In addition, GreenPages has revised its data management, disaster recovery, compliance and managed services practices. Other practices include security, network operating systems, network infrastructure and virtualization/server-based computing.

Including the TenCorp acquisition, Evangelisti said the data management practice is expected to hit $12 million this year, up from $1 million last year.

The solutions summit for the first time featured a demo center and IT lab. "This is a live network environment," said Glen Jodoin, vice president of operations at GreenPages. "Customers can play with and test new solutions like VoIP or an iSCSI SAN."

Great, I've always wanted to test new solutions. But if I have to test it, then is it really a solution?

Also this year, the summit featured more breakout sessions hosted by GreenPages solutions architects, covering topics such as "Getting To VoIP," "Data Management" and "Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity Planning."

Man, I'm hopin' they can build me a solutions buildin'.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2006 CMP Media LLC.

It's Ford's Fault

2006-08-19T22:41:00.000-04:00

While watching coverage of work shutdowns at local Ford plants one worker summed up the situation perfectly. He said that Ford has relied too much on gas guzzling SUVs and Trucks at the expense of developing smaller and more fuel efficient money makers.

I've read that domestic car companies make little if any money on the small car segment. Indeed, the competition is brutal, with Toyota, Honda, and Nissan putting out nice small and midsize cars that are relatively cheap and reliable. Ford's Focus was introduced to great reviews, but Ford's bad habit of keeping the same sheet metal on cars year after year (Taurus anyone?) without a major redesign makes them look dated. Oddly Ford's Mazda has some very sharp looking cars that look fresh year after year.

While it is easy to blame unions and gas prices for domestic automaker's woes, the reality goes much deeper. Domestic models are still not as reliable as their foreign counterparts, their exteriors are often uninspired and their interiors often look, feel, and are cheap. Technology that comes standard on foreign models is optional or non-existant on domestic models. Heck, even something as simple as an interior opening fuel door is tough to find on domestic models.

While I hope Ford recovers, I don't think they'll do it by praying for a miracle or keeping their extensive model lines intact. And I certainly hope things work out for the people they employ and support.

Ebay -- Raising Fees Yet Again

2006-07-19T22:16:00.000-04:00

Okay, I read this several times, but the basic message seems to be that Ebay stores for nickel and dime items was a big mistake. What I get out of this is that Ebay is frustrated with the low priced and therefore, low profit to Ebay items that are posted in their stores. I would imagine that this effort is probably more about pushing these sellers out of the stores and into higher margin auctions.

It's probably not a bad idea the more that I think about it. If you're someone who posts auctions of cheaper items, the reality is that there are probably 1000 people ahead of you with Buy It Now items already out there. These items clog out the auction people and frustrate them as much or more as these higher fees will frustrate store owners.

Dear Seller,

Since its debut in 1995, the eBay marketplace has continually evolved to meet the needs of the eBay Community. For the most part, the behavior of buyers and sellers has naturally adapted to changing conditions -- over time, we've learned to allow the marketplace to direct itself as much as possible. On some occasions, though -- in the interest of the eBay marketplace's long-term vitality -- we've had to step in and implement new policies, introduce new formats, or make changes to our fee structure to create needed incentives for eBay members.

Put simply, we at eBay have two basic roles: to deliver the best overall value for buyers, and to maximize cash flow for sellers. As eBay has grown over the years, we've added various enhancements and tools to the site -- but in essence, our "products" are two types of listings:

Core listings (auction-style, auction-style with Buy It Now, and Fixed Price) deliver the signature eBay buying experience. For sellers, they're the fastest way to sell inventory on the Internet -- the only place where items typically sell within about two weeks.
Store Inventory listings were introduced in 2001 and intended as a low-risk way for sellers to display large amounts of product in their eBay Store. This format employs low insertion fees and higher final value fees to encourage an abundance of inventory on the site.
Amid all this change, one thing has remained constant: auction-style listings are the foundation of eBay. Auction-style and other core listings made eBay what it is today -- and they'll always be front and center on eBay.com. They account for about 91% of the gross merchandise value sold on eBay.com. But recently, we've been wrestling with some troubling facts:

Store Inventory listings now comprise about 83% of active eBay.com listings on average.
While eBay.com core listings typically sell in about two weeks, Store Inventory listings on average take 14 times longer to sell. In some media categories, Store Inventory listings take more than 40 times longer to sell than core listings.
And, when you compare our operations costs for an average Store Inventory listing and an average core listing - factoring in the duration of each - our cost to host a Store Inventory listing is more than 50% higher than for a core listing. In fact, current Store Inventory insertion fees don't cover eBay's costs for hosting them.
It's vitally important -- to your business and ours -- that we maintain a healthy balance between listing formats on the eBay marketplace, and ensure that inventory conversion across the site remains strong. So we're taking action.

Today, I want to inform you of changes we're making to eBay.com -- changes intended to rebalance the overall eBay marketplace by further distinguishing the roles of core listing formats and our Store Inventory format. In short, we're improving the advantages of selling in core listing formats -- and taking action to manage the proportion of Store Inventory listings -- to ensure that the buying experience on eBay stays true to shoppers' expectations.

Core Listings
Core listing fees will remain unchanged. So for the vast majority of eBay sellers who use only these formats, their fees are not increasing.

And we'll be providing greater exposure for core listings on eBay Express. In late August, we'll begin displaying auction-style listings with Buy It Now on eBay Express for qualifying sellers. Also in late August, core fixed price and auction-style Buy It Now listings that qualify for eBay Express will be advantaged over Store Inventory listings.

Also, in response to the requests of many large sellers, we're raising the 10-item multiple listings limit to 15, effective Aug. 22.

Store Inventory Listings
For those of you who operate an eBay Store, we're making changes to Store Inventory listing fees, as well as to the on-site exposure we provide for this listing format.

We'll begin charging variable insertion fees for Store Inventory listings, as we do for core listings. Beginning Aug. 22, eBay.com Store Inventory format insertion fees will be tiered with an item's starting price.

These Store Inventory format insertion fees take effect Aug. 22, 2006:
Starting Price New Insertion Fee Current Fee
$0.01 -- 24.99 5¢ 2¢
$25.00 and higher 10¢ 2¢

Some Store Inventory format final value fees also will also increase, effective Aug. 22, 2006:
Selling Price New Final Value Fee Current Fee
$0.01 -- 25.00 10% 8%
$25.01 -- 100.00 7% 5%
$100.01 -- 1,000.00 5% (no change) 5%
$1,000.01 and higher 3% (no change) 3%

Please note that for current listings, the new final value fees will apply only after these listings are renewed.

For more detailed information on these fee changes, please see our fee changes overview.

For some time, we've been working to identify the best way to display Store Inventory listings on the site. In the spring, we pledged to sellers that we would test a variety of ways to mingle their Store Inventory listings with core listings on eBay.com. We've tested several alternatives and these tests showed the ideal approach is how we're doing it today - that is, when a buyer's search returns 30 or less core listings, we display up to 30 Store Inventory listings. This is what we'll stick with going forward.

However, starting in about a month, we'll also include an unlimited number of Store Inventory listings after all matching core listings, when the buyer clicks the Buy It Now listings tab at the top of every search results page. When the buyer hasn't selected this option, eBay.com will display Store Inventory listings along with core listings as described above.

Half.com Listings Added to eBay.com Search Results
I recognize that sellers in the Books, Movies, Music and Video Games categories will have unique challenges with the changes we're making. As many of our media sellers have requested, starting in late August we'll again provide visibility for Half.com listings in core search results, by bringing back the Half.com listings merchandising feature we used previously (click here for an example). We're also exploring additional ways to promote Half.com listings in search results on both eBay.com and eBay Express.

How These Changes Affect You
I'm confident the actions we're taking are the right thing to do for the overall eBay Community. We'll more effectively deliver on our buyers' needs and expectations. And for sellers, these changes will ensure that eBay remains a differentiated and distinct e-commerce channel with fast inventory turnover.

I know there's a lot to digest here, and that you're probably most interested in quickly determining if and how these changes will impact your business.

A typical eBay Stores seller who uses Store Inventory format -- making no adjustments to his or her selling strategy following these changes -- will experience an overall fee increase of less than six percent, based on our analysis of all June selling activity. Of course, you need to clearly understand the impact on your business -- which could be greater or less than six percent. To get started, please visit the seller resources page or consult the Frequently Asked Questions we've prepared. Also, use your seller support resources in Customer Support. Our CS teams are fully prepared to help you understand the effect on your business, and discuss your options for adjusting your eBay selling strategy to minimize impact to your bottom line.

In addition -- to help eBay Stores sellers make informed decisions about any changes to their selling strategies -- we're making eBay Marketplace Research Basic available to them at no cost for eight weeks, starting today. Through September 19, eBay Stores sellers can use this data to compare selling formats or determine how best to price inventory on eBay. You can access eBay Marketplace Research here.

I'll be hosting a Community Town Hall discussion on Thursday, July 20th at 4:00 p.m. Pacific time, where I'll answer your questions. Please click here for more details on the Town Hall, or to submit a question in advance.

Sincerely,

Bill Cobb
President
eBay North America

Meet the Beatles

2006-07-18T07:09:00.000-04:00

One of the most puzzling aspects of the Beatles legacy is the lack of product in the past 20 years. It's been 20 years (20 years!!!!) since the Beatles CDs were released on CD, and with the exception of an uninspired Let It Be remaster, Beatles 1, Live at the BBC issue, and the 3 Anthology sets, some expensive boxed set reissues of the american versions and a new soundtrack to Yellow Submarine, I don't think anything else has come out. In that time, I've counted at least 3 versions of Tommy, and 2 or more versions of most Who albums. Rolling Stones CDs have been reissued 2 or three times. Led Zepplin's had 1 upgrade.

Considered the original CDs. The booklets, with the exception of Sgt. Pepper, were horrible. The sound was just okay. Neither benefited from the time and attention that even some one hit wonders from the 80s have received in their reissues.

Why? Surely Apple, Capitol, EMI and everyone involved could get together and create new remasters of these albums. Each could be a two or three CD set, including the original mono masters (which, according to Geoff Emerick, had much more care put into them), the original stereo masters, and the cuts from the US versions. Detailed booklets with recording history of each song could be added as well, with historical essays. Even with slumping CD sales, I would guarantee that these new CDs would be a hit, and wouldn't cost that much to produce.

Of course, every Beatle fan has been waiting for the very same thing for years. One has to wonder why the Fab Two are more willing to approve a Las Vegas show than reissuing their classics in a manner befitting their status.

New York Post on Ken Lay -- Tell Me You Weren't Thinking the Same Thing

2006-07-06T22:57:00.000-04:00

Soda Thoughts

2006-05-15T07:35:00.000-04:00

$2.19. $2 freakin' 19. For a fountain coke!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! That's what I paid at O' Charley's yesterday. I have to wonder where restaurants have their head these days as they raise the prices on high profit items through the roof. For those of us who love a coke with our meals, we'll pay it. But for a large portion of people (at least in good ole' Kentucky), the more you charge, the more likely we are to order the dreaded water with lemon.

Considering that they probably pay about 10 cents a glass at most, I'm having a hard time understanding why restaurants would want to raise the price to the point where people switch to something you charge nothing.

And while we're at it, why aren't there more diet flavored soda offerings and more caffeine free soda offerings at restaurants?

UPN & WB = CW?????

2006-05-15T07:30:00.000-04:00

UPN and WB are merging into one network called CW. CW sounds like the name of a cable network devoted to Country and Western Music. Not sure why you'd build up whatever name these two have established and then kill it for two letters that sound like nothing together.

CBS Makes Mistake -- NBC Poised to Make One?

2006-04-06T07:27:00.000-04:00

If CBS thinks that its news will magically recover because Katie Couric joins it, I think they're sadly mistaken. The move will cost them far more money than it will cost the Today Show viewers. Katie tends to polarize people, isn't exactly at her best doing hard news, and has little to add to the dying 6:30 newscasts.

As for NBC, if they go with Meredith Viera, I will be scratching my head. Meredith is a person that people either love or hate on a show that people love or hate (the View). It seems much wiser to go with Campbell Brown, Natalie Morales or even the not so bright Ann Curry. Let Matt Lauer shine a little more, bring in someone less known (and who will stay younger longer) to do the show and make a name for herself for the Today show.

CBS admits it doesn't listen to its own programming by suing Stern

2006-03-03T06:41:00.000-05:00

CBS Radio has to be nuts. I've heard Les Moonves is an egotistical jerk, but does he really think he'll win suing Howard Stern for plugging Sirius while he was on CBS?

The problem here is that essentially CBS could and did control his content. With all of the FCC garbage, surely there were at least a few CBS execs listening to the show. Is any judge, jury, or other interested party truly going to believe that CBS didn't realize what Stern was doing? Even a visit to his own fan sites would have made them aware that Stern was playing up his move to Sirius.

The solution was simple, fire him, restrict him harshly, or take him off the air for the duration of his contract. CBS did NONE of these. Why? They wanted to milk Howard for as long as possible, and even if he was doing everything he's accused of, CBS knew their ratings were going to tank as soon as he left.

My advice, drop the lawsuit and focus on bringing in some talent for the shows. Sue the guy who thought David Lee Roth would be a good DJ.

Ah, the joys of monthly service

2005-12-06T07:08:00.000-05:00

AOL is apparently starting to bill for the end of my six month free trial. Everytime I log in to cancel, the billing page does an endless loop of reloading, never taking me to where I want to go, which is to see when my trial expires. SO now I have to call them to cancel, because God knows the greatest internet service in the world can't let you cancel by actually logging into the service itself.

And, my good buddys at Stamps.com decided to change my plan, $4.99 plus 10% of postage to a $16 a month plan. I'm sorry, but at $16 a month, I'll drive my butt to the post office and wait in line.

So can I cancel online? Hell no. Gotta call them too.

Moral of the story..... cancellation is your last chance to leave a good impression. If you don't it's rare anyone will come back.

Wal-Mart -- Always Low Prices -- Sometimes

2005-11-28T07:10:00.000-05:00

It's not tough to see inflation is creeping in if you keep tabs on your local Wal-Mart. I've noticed a few food items moving up in price, and yesterday, their own brand of trash bags (which are quite good), moved up about 30 cents in price.

I've heard many people comment recently that they're finding items cheaper at stores other than Wal-Mart. While Wal Mart has always tried to stay ahead of the competition through "ALWAYS Low Prices", evidence is mounting that Wal Mart's lead might be ever so slightly eroding. (Of course, we're talking about the erosion of Mt. Everest.)

XBOX 360 -- Back where Microsoft started, Crash Central

2005-11-25T14:49:00.000-05:00

A Microsoft product crashing is almost a cliche these days. My wife asked me a few days ago if I had any interest in the Xbox 360, and I said, "Yes, but I'll wait a few months to a year for the bugs to be worked out and the price to get more reasonable."

Boom.... XBox 360 is crashing, based on information found in several fan sites.

Word to the wise kids.....

Any new gaming system is going to have problems these days. The technology is unproven, the chipsets and everything else inside have not been mass produced in the millions yet, and there is new technology and software running the whole shebang. If you want to be a first adopter, you're taking the risk that things will go bad. Playstation 1 & 2 had defects in their first batch, and had problems with overheating and other issues. I've heard the original Xbox had its own share of glitches. Do yourself a favor and wait until the companies work the kinks out, THEN buy them.

Still, you have to think that this gives MS a black eye, and have to wonder if they couldn't have done a little more real world testing. Even the USA Today reviewer encountered some crashes.

Sony Says No To Spyware! Sort of!

2005-11-13T12:23:00.000-05:00

In response to criticism from bloggers, security experts, and Homeland Security (!), Sony has decided to remove its controversial XCP technology from CDs. The technology, which apparently prevents more than a few copies being made, eliminates the ability to transfer the music to your IPOD, and enables Sony to tell what you're listening to, has been attacked as spyware, not only because it installs without you knowing it, but because it can be used to hide attacks on its computer.

Have these idiots learned NOTHING? Lets see.... People aren't buying our CDs. What can we do about it? I know, we'll put malicious software on them that ensures they'll never trust another CD from us again and will be more likely to get a pirated copy from a friend. The record industry needs to realize that things have changed. While some people (myself included) continue to buy CDs, others will either copy (which is illegal) or pay only for songs they want from a legitimate service. If your business model is broken by technology, you need to adapt in a consumer friendly way, not one that alienates them further.

Too bad, because I'd heard great things about the new Neil Diamond album. I might have bought it, but not if it's going to attack my computer. The idea a Neil Diamond album worth buying attacks my sensibilities enough.

Those who do not remember the RIAA's past are condemned to repeat it.

2005-11-02T12:40:00.000-05:00

In the news story below, the MPAA is suing a grandfather for the illegal downloading of his 12 year-old grandson. While I'm certainly not condoning the acts of the 12 year old, I think the MPAA needs to be very careful in its pursuit of these cases. With the industry reeling from a supposed downturn in box-office business (none of which can be blamed on downloads), they need to keep their public image in mind. The more grandfathers they go after, the more people will feel no qualms about trying to screw them anyway they can.

Plus, the movie download scourge is nothing like the music download problem. Music is easily compressed and quickly downloaded. Movies are huge, complicated to download, and the end result is (from what I understand), far inferior to purchased product. I think that the downloading is mostly segregated to people who want to build up huge movie collections to impress friends or people who do it for the thrill. I've never seen that $3 or $4 is a barrier to someone renting something they want to see.

The movie industry has been wise about how it entered the home market. After years of high prices for most movies on VHS that were intended for the rental market, they saw that people were willing to buy a movie at a sell through price, especially when the cost of the DVD was often the same or less than the price of two adult tickets. Rather than continue inflated pricing (see the RIAA) for their product, they continue to reduce it, realizing that they're going to see a return in increased purchases.

As a footnote, I love the "estimated 5.4 billion". This number has more margin of error than a Florida election, and assumes that every film downloaded would have been replaced with a legitimate purchase or rental, both of which are most likely false.
Grandpa Is Sued Over Grandson's Downloads Wed Nov 2, 8:42 AM ET

A 67-year-old man who says he doesn't even like watching movies has been sued by the film industry for copyright infringement after a grandson of his downloaded four movies on their home computer.

The Motion Picture Association of America filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against Fred Lawrence of Racine, seeking as much as $600,000 in damages for downloading four movies over the Internet file-sharing service iMesh.

The suit was filed after Lawrence refused a March offer to settle the matter by paying $4,000.

"First of all, like I say, I guess I'd have to plead being naive about the whole thing," he said.

"I personally didn't do it, and I wouldn't do it. But I don't think it was anything but an innocent mistake my grandson made."

Lawrence said his grandson, who was then 12, downloaded "The Incredibles," "I, Robot," "The Grudge," and "The Forgotten" in December, without knowing it was illegal to do so.

The Racine man said his grandson downloaded the movies out of curiosity, and deleted the computer files immediately. The family already owned three of the four titles on DVD, he said.

"I can see where they wouldn't want this to happen, but when you get up around $4,000 ... I don't have that kind of money," Lawrence said. "I never was and never will be a wealthy person."

Kori Bernards, vice president of corporate communications for MPAA, said the movie industry wants people to understand the consequences of Internet piracy. She said the problem is the movies that were downloaded were then available to thousands of other users on the iMesh network.

"Basically what you are doing when you use peer-to-peer software is you are offering someone else's product that they own to thousands of other people for free, and it's not fair," Bernards said.

Illegal downloading costs the movie industry an estimated $5.4 billion a year, she said.

Video Ipod -- Bombs Away?

2005-10-15T16:59:00.000-04:00

Apple's Video Ipod was greeted with much fanfare after its introduction this week, including the "shocking" revelation that Disney would allow ABC and Disney channel content to be downloaded off of I-Tunes.

Methinks once the initial "gotta have it" crowd buys the thing, there won't be huge sales for this, nor will there be much demand for downloads of Desperate Housewives.

The problem is that there is no clear target for this thing that isn't already being serviced elsewhere (including the Nano). The tiny screen and lack of compatibility with existing video content (namely DVDs), means that business people and adults over 25 probably won't be falling overthemselves to have one. The expensive price, complexity of use, and lack of compatibility with existing video content will probably keep people from buying one for their kids. Besides, there are already small video players for kids these days.

Some might argue it would be great for people with long commutes. Possibly, but having a pricey gadget like this in your possession makes you a target in many public transportation settings.

The problem for Apple is that many people already have a portable player, and those who want it just for music probably don't have the collection to warrant the more expensive Ipod, and will opt instead for the cheaper (and cooler) Nano.

Motorola ROKR -- Should be BOMBR

2005-10-13T06:41:00.000-04:00

Motorola's ROKR phone, the first to combine an I-Tunes player with a phone is apparently a stinker, both in sales and with critics. The system is said to not be much of a phone or player, with slow load speeds for songs and a VERY limited capacity.

But an article I read on Salon.com I believe hit the nail on the head. A guy said words to the effect of "I use my I-pod to get away from my cell phone. Why would I want to get calls on it?"

But looking at that very statement shows where Motorola went wrong. Most people want to separate business from pleasure, and with alleged partner Apple introducing a tiny, cooler Ipod, carrying a phone you really like and a music player you really like truly isn't a burden.

I still think a phone based MP3 player isn't a bad idea, but it makes more sense on a phone that couples lots of features already, and it shouldn't overwhelm the capabilities of the phone, which is still why people buy a mobile phone in the first place.

The Oracle at Delphi

2005-10-12T06:54:00.000-04:00

So Delphi is in Chapter 11, and predictions are that GM will go with it.

The bankruptcy of GM would be a terrible blow to the economy, but I think GM needs to do something drastic to survive. While I'm a big supporter of workers and worker rights, the fact is that GM has allowed themselves to enter into contracts that they can't possibly support and stay a viable company. Having cut costs in all the wrong ways (cheaper materials in the cars, cannibalized designs among several product lines, lackluster designs), they now have to get rid of the albatross around their neck, the ridiculous amount they pay the people who make the cars and the people who used to make the cars.

Yes, these people worked hard, and yes they should have something to retire on, but the fact is, they helped dig this hole, and trying to play hardball with GM won't fill the hole back in. GM cannot compete. Their only profitable vehicles are ones that nobody buys when energy prices are high and the economy is in the tank.

If I were GM, I'd start talking to the union now, and advise them that the situation is dire. I'd start looking at Chapter 11 sooner rather than later. Then I'd start some drastic cost cutting. Kill off a few of your brand lines. Get rid of cars that nobody is buying. Start looking for niche markets you can fill. Start designing cars that are reasonably priced without incentives AND get good mileage. Look to the Japanese (or even Hyundai, who pulled themselves out of a huge hole) and see what they do well and why. Plan for the next 20 years with thoughts that gas will be expensive.

Bizspeak article -- Amen!

2005-10-04T22:43:00.000-04:00

This one speaks for itself.

Seattle Times

Job Market
Commentary: Bizspeak is an important foreign language today

By Larry Ballard
The Des Moines Register

There's a lot of talk in the business world, most of it in English, that the next generation of workers should be required to know a foreign language.

Educators, using government grants, have studied this issue for years. They've hired consultants, written "papers," conducted hearings, organized seminars, scheduled a few snow days and dined at fancy restaurants until they forgot about the whole thing.

That is, until the next report came out that showed U.S. schoolchildren score behind the Chinese on standardized tests.

Business leaders, in turn, complain constantly about young workers whose language skills are limited to: "So, like, how much, like, vacation time do I get after, like, the first week?"

That's why, every few years, there's another "call for reform," after which someone like former California Congressman Leon Panetta sums up the problem:

"I believe it is in the highest national interest to guarantee to the maximum extent feasible that the people of our country have been exposed to other peoples and languages, that they comprehend the limits of unilateral action and the growing necessity of international cooperation on this small, measurable, finite planet.

"Now, where are we going to eat?"

That speech was from 1979, the same year a presidential commission concluded that "Americans' incompetence in foreign languages is nothing short of scandalous, and getting worse."

I feel the time for lip service is over.

Every American should be forced to study a foreign language so he or she will be better equipped to compete in the global economy.

As Des Moines Register political columnist David Yepsen put it: Americans can buy in English, but we must sell in the customer's language.

First, some ground rules: Pig Latin does not count as a foreign language. Neither does attaching "izzle" to every other word, my frizzle.

And you can forget about that "special" language shared by you and your twin sister, which is as weird as it is creepy.

No, we mean a completely foreign tongue.

Trouble is, the language most foreign to Americans these days, at least those in the workplace, is English.

You know what I'm talking about. Or maybe I should say: "You're cognizant of what I'm referencing."

They call it bizspeak, the weird words and funky phrases that spread among offices and cubicles like a bad head cold.

Most of us speak it. Few of us know what we're talking about.

I got an e-mail with some great examples, courtesy of America Online (screen name: bigpimpdaddy1).

The list was stolen from Forbes, which is a big magazine in New York where my boss says they eat guys like me for breakfast:

• "Paradigms." I always thought it meant you were a nickel short of having change for a quarter. I have since learned the true definition: More than one paradigm.

• "Synergy." A great name for a stripper, but meaningless otherwise.

• "Out of the box." Everyone wants to be "out of the box." Bet they'd change their tune if the box had a minibar and satellite dish.

• "Effort." As in: "We really need to effort this idea." The next person who says it should be "fisted" in the nose. The same goes for anyone who wants to "grow" their business.

• "Hey, were you just rummaging through my desk drawer, freak?" (Actually, I heard this phrase for the first time only recently, but I'm sure it will catch on.)

The point is, bizspeak is just as important as any other foreign language when it comes to success in the workplace.

Without a firm command of bizspeak, our best and brightest will be outpaced in the global arena.

On the bright side: "Welcome to Burger King" is pretty much the same in any language.

Copyright © 2005 The Seattle Times Company

Skype Hunting

2005-09-17T23:13:00.000-04:00

I wonder if I'm the only one who questions why Ebay is agreeing to by Skype in a close to 4 Billion Dollar Deal. Has the fact that their revenues are starting to slow to normal levels turned them into your average run of the mill idiot publicly traded company buying anything within the ballpark of their business hoping to drive the stock price up?

What benefit is there really in a VOIP service for Internet auctions. Ebay envisions people talking to each other about their trading, asking questions, completing transactions, etc. Do they really think that I'm going to spend time either answering or asking whether that Boba Fett in the blister pack is really in mint condition?

In terms of purchases, PayPal it ain't.

The Wonder Why Years

2005-08-28T01:36:00.000-04:00

Now here's a business I'd love to invest in, especially given the fact that Jason Hervey, formerly of the Wonder Years and most recently of that reputable firm Healthsouth, is a main investor.

RTVStar.com Brings Reality TV Casting Online and into the Future
Monday August 22, 9:09 am ET
Casting Website Turns TV Dreams into Reality

HOLLYWOOD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 22, 2005--RTVStar.com, the website that makes reality TV dreams come true, today unveiled its advanced reality TV casting service. RTVStar.com streamlines the application process for would-be cast members, and simplifies the casting search process for reality TV producers. The simple yet powerful website is located online at www.RTVStar.com.
"RTVStar.com does for reality TV what the `common application' did for college applications," said Brian Ostrovsky, CEO of RTVStar.com. "Our service dramatically improves the application experience for potential cast members, and eliminates significant chunks of time and expense for producers. RTVStar.com is a classic business example of how the intelligent application of technology can benefit an inefficient market."

RTVStar.com charges a $24.99 annual membership fee, which entitles a user to complete a comprehensive casting application and upload a digital video and three photographs. Access to the RTVStar.com database is provided free of charge to established reality TV casting executives, who can search for potential contestants by virtually any parameter, including age, sex, location, relationship status, hobbies, interests and other attributes. RTVStar.com is a supplement to the traditional reality TV casting process, rather than a replacement for it.

Several television producers, reality TV stars and casting executives were involved in the design and implementation of the service. Producers Eric Bischoff and Jason Hervey of Bischoff/Hervey Entertainment ("I Want to Be a Hilton") are co-chairmen of the RTVStar.com advisory board. Chip and Kim McAllister, winners of "The Amazing Race," have joined the online reality service RTVStar.com as spokespeople, and will give expert advice to RTVStar members.

At the core of RTVStar.com is the RTV-profile, which is an amalgamation of the types of questions featured on applications for all genres of reality programming, including adventure, personal makeover, home makeover, lifestyle/documentary, dating, sports, intellectual pursuits and others. Reality TV casting applications tend to be 75% identical to each other and 25% genre or show specific. The RTVStar.com application rolls all of the genres together, while giving applicants the choice to select specific genres or pursue all of them. Because it is completed online, the application is more user friendly to the applicant and the casting executive who screens it. RTVStar.com also features an advanced video hosting and streaming system, and Verisign's industry-leading SSL encryption technology.

The inspiration for RTVStar.com came when Ostrovsky's wife spent the better part of a month and over $100 applying to just three reality TV series. After following her through the repetitive process, handwritten applications, video production and scurrying to meet submission deadlines, he knew there had to be a better way.

There are more than 100 reality TV series airing this season or coming soon, and more than one million reality TV casting applications were submitted industry-wide in the last year, according to trade media reports and RTVStar.com research.

About RTVStar.com

RTVStar.com makes reality TV dreams come true. RTVStar.com is a website that gives aspiring reality TV stars an inside track on the reality TV casting process by streamlining the application process for would-be cast members and accelerating the process for casting professionals. RTVStar.com was founded in 2005 by Brian Ostrovsky and is headquartered in the Sacramento, Calif., technology corridor. On the Web: www.RTVStar.com.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact:
Beck Media & Marketing
Todd Beck, 310-689-7363
todd@beckmedia.com
or
Chris Talbott, 310-689-7227
chris@beckmedia.com

We can't lock up the criminals, so let's lock up what they steal

2005-08-01T07:06:00.000-04:00

The article below details how stores are becoming victims of more widespread theft with the intent to resell. As someone who visits flea markets occasionally, I always wondered how the people there got such a huge selection of drug store items. I always assumed they were either out of date or from places that closed their doors. Maybe I was wrong.

At any rate, I have a couple of suggestions for retailers. Some of them may have already been done, but maybe not.

1) Open less stores and/or hire more people. It seems as though every retailer wants to be located on every available corner these days. A recent trip to Home Depot on a weekend (which should be prime time for them)had one person working the register and 15 people in line. You could have walked out with a busload of stuff if you wanted to.

2) Secondary barcodes on all products with serial numbers (or a new barcoding system with it built in). This wouldn't stop theft, but would make it much easier to track. You would not only know what brand and model were taken, but what individual piece was taken. If you tied it in to a national database of retail theft (which could be built by the retailers), you could track the movements of items stolen and help build cases against the people that supply the items.

Retail Gangs: A New Breed of Thieves By Margaret Webb Pressler, Washington Post Staff Writer
Sun Jul 31, 1:00 AM ET

At CVS, the diabetic test strips and the perfume are now behind locked glass cabinets, with a bell to ring for service. Nearly all over-the-counter medicines are behind plexiglass panels that customers must reach over to get their Advil or Pepcid. And most razors and refills are in clunky, noise-making dispensers that won't let you put back what you take out.

The new displays are part of a larger effort by chain stores to combat what has become a significant problem for the retail industry: organized theft. Retailers say rings of habitual shoplifters are proliferating nationwide, but particularly in urban areas such as Washington, where retailers and malls are packed close together and there is easy access to highways.

"We're seeing an incredible amount of activity from organized retail theft gangs from the New York area all the way down into Richmond," said Robert Wade, vice president of loss prevention for Hecht's.

Losses from organized retail theft have topped $30 billion annually, triple what they were a decade ago, according to the National Retail Federation, leading to higher prices, frequent out-of-stock problems and a more cumbersome shopping experience for consumers.

Companies are spending millions of dollars on security systems to tackle the shoplifting rings, from software that tracks patterns of theft regionally, to complicated fixtures that prevent the removal of multiple packages at one time. Retailers are increasingly using racks that lock for a period of time after one unit is taken, cabinets that beep if they're open too long, and hangers that lock to a jacket or suit. Some of the nation's biggest retailers, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp., Lowe's Cos. and Limited Brands Inc., have formed organized crime divisions to focus on the issue.

"A store could lose its entire inventory of a popular item by one professional shoplifting ring, making it now unavailable when there should be a week's supply on hand," said Joseph LaRocca, vice president of loss prevention for the National Retail Federation. "Stores are being forced to do something about it now because they're not only losing the items, now they're also losing sales."

Increasingly, retail theft cases are being prosecuted by federal law enforcement, such as the Secret Service, because the crimes are large-scale, cross multiple jurisdictions and often involve the online selling of stolen merchandise.

"We have a lot of shopping malls and outlet malls in this area, and they're all vulnerable," said Ron Perea, assistant special agent in charge for the Washington field office of the Secret Service.

In June, for example, an alleged fencing operation in Landover was raided. Prince George's County had its officers on the scene "just to provide a uniformed presence," said Lt. Terence Sheppard, but the operation was handled by the Secret Service.

"Locals have their hands full with a lot of street crime. If the feds can come in with our resources and take this off their hands, that's helpful," Perea said. "We are working with a number of jurisdictions in D.C., Virginia and Maryland on very similar crimes like this."

Organized retail theft has been around for years, especially in some high-profile products such as infant formula. But it's always been a difficult concept for retailers to accurately measure, because when a product disappears, it's hard to know exactly where it went: Did an employee steal it? A delivery driver? A shoplifter? As a result, retailers have largely treated all shoplifters much the same, with the occasional prosecution leading to little or no penalty.

But theft has been growing so fast that retailers are only now recognizing the role that organized crime is playing in the industry's growing losses. Wade of Hecht's said sometimes a major theft will go unnoticed until the store does inventory and finds, for example, 400 missing ties and 200 missing shirts.

"The problem with external theft is it's a ghost," said Jerry Biggs, organized retail crime section coordinator for the drugstore chain Walgreens Co. "It's been a ghost for so long that it is now like having something that's been dormant and all of a sudden it's grown under the carpet and it's big ."

Retailers and theft experts say criminals have discovered that large profits can be made relatively easily, and without much risk, by stealing merchandise from crowded, understaffed stores. They say the most stolen items tend to be high-priced, widely used products that are routinely sold in chain stores: over-the-counter medicines, razors, film, CDs and DVDs, baby formula, diapers, batteries, hair-growth and smoking-cessation products, hardware, tools, designer clothes and electronics.

Shoplifters might spend all day going from store to store, then sell the goods they've stolen to the fence for 10 or 20 percent of their retail value, said Chuck Miller, a retail security consultant in Great Falls and author of "Organized Retail Theft," a handbook published this month for industry professionals. Fences then aggregate the products from multiple shoplifters and sell them at flea markets, online or to bodegas and convenience stores, he said.

In department stores, thieves will work together, with one distracting a sales clerk and another stealing clothes. Some schemes involve creating high-quality fake receipts in order to return stolen goods for cash. At home improvement stores, a shoplifter might take an inexpensive item out of its box, fill the box with higher-priced goods from all over the store, then seal it up and pay only for the cheaper item that was originally in that box.

"The common criminal would rather have a situation occur at the register where they plead ignorance, so to speak, rather than do straight shoplifting and risk being apprehended by a loss prevention detective," said Claude Verville, vice president of loss prevention for Lowe's. Shoppers found with phony bar codes or stuffed boxes, he said, usually say they don't know anything about it.

Lowe's has responded by beefing up its in-store camera systems and installing more-sensitive electronic sensors at the exits, while also requiring that employees respond within 12 seconds if an alarm sounds.

Yet catching the sometimes loosely organized rings of individual shoplifters remains notoriously hard because gangs tend to hit numerous jurisdictions. When a chain store is robbed, managers may not realize another store was hit by the same group earlier in the day.

"It's very hard to connect the dots," said Thomas S. Saquella, president of the Maryland Retailers Association. "They may hit a store in Frederick, a store in Prince George's and a store in Montgomery in one day."

Retailers are beginning to work together, establishing a joint database of crimes so that companies can prove the scope of theft by a particular group, and thereby lead to more forceful prosecution by law enforcement. Individually, loss prevention executives focus on gathering enough evidence to elevate organized theft cases to the federal level.

"I'm going after a guy right now that's been arrested 56 times," Walgreen's Biggs said. "I've got to put together a case that can show this isn't your typical little shoplifter."

The day after making that statement, Biggs called back to say he had just arrested the same shoplifter for the 57th time.

Box Office Blues

2005-06-08T06:45:00.000-04:00

The Box Office is now in a "slump." Here's my recipe for fixing it.

1) All Hollywood executives should have to go to one movie where they pay the same percentage of their income for a ticket as the average movie goer does. The popcorn, candy, and everything else should be priced the same way. For fun, have 100 different cell phones ring during the showing, show 20 ads, and have a crying baby or two.

2) Let exhibitors see a higher percentage of ticket sales in exchange for lowering their prices.

3) WAIT for the DVD. At the very least, don't announce the date it will ship while the movie is still in a few thousand theatres. If I know that I can buy the movie for the same or LESS than two tickets (and rent it for far less than that) in only a few weeks, then why would I go to the theater?

4) Make good movies. Very few movies I see trailers for these days say "you must see this", at least not enough to make me WANT to see them in the theater.

5) Make movies for adults. Not 2 hour snoozefests, but good thrillers and/or action movies that work better on the big screen than at home.

Denny's Grand Slam PR Mess

2005-04-30T10:48:00.000-04:00

Personally, I think that Denny's has never discriminated. They offer bad service slowly to people of all races, colors, and creeds.

In this day and age, I can't believe the following:

1) There are business managers who would still openly discriminate (assuming this is true)
2) People still go to Denny's expecting decent service.

Seriously, I didn't even realize they were still in business. But I guess you have to have somewhere to go at 4 AM when you're drunk and hungry.

Of course, who knows, maybe Osama has a hankerin' for a Grand Slam or Moons Over My Hammy from time to time. I've seen more unsavory looking characters than him sipping coffee there in the middle of the night.

Florida Denny's Sued After Bin Laden Remark By Jane Sutton
Thu Apr 28, 4:14 PM ET

Seven Arab American men filed a $28 million lawsuit against a Denny's restaurant in Florida, saying the manager kicked them out and told them, "We don't serve bin Ladens here," their lawyer said on Thursday.

They sued the restaurant owner, Restaurant Collection Inc., and former manager, Eduardo Ascano, saying they were harassed, humiliated and refused service at the Denny's in Florida City, southwest of Miami, in January 2004.

Lawyer Rod Hannah said the men had not ruled out an additional lawsuit against the Denny's chain, which paid about $54 million in 1994 to settle a discrimination suit filed by black customers.

Denny's said the allegations were without merit. Restaurant Collection could not be reached for comment.

The Florida lawsuit said the men visited the restaurant early in the morning of Jan. 11, 2004, and after long delays, were seated, given menus and served drinks.

After waiting more than an hour for their food while later customers were served, they asked twice about their order. The lawsuit said Ascano told them "Bin Laden is in charge of the kitchen." Asked about the reference to the al Qaeda leader, he swore and told them, "We don't serve bin Ladens here" and ordered them to leave, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit said that violated Florida's Civil Rights Act by discriminating in public accommodations and that the owner was negligent in retaining a manager with a record of treating customers rudely and in a discriminatory manner.

The lawsuit was filed in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court on April 22 and asks for $4 million for each of the seven men, who live in the Boca Raton area. They are of Egyptian, Lebanese and Syrian descent and all but one are U.S. citizens, Hannah said. One owns a restaurant.

"They are all earning a living and are respectable and respectful citizens," Hannah said.

CONFLICTING ACCOUNTS

The two sides gave conflicting accounts of police involvement in the incident.

The lawsuit said a police officer who was a patron in the restaurant shouted at the plaintiffs to "Get out! Get out" and threatened to arrest them when they asked her to make out a police report about the restaurant manager's behavior.

Denny's Corp. said "the guests became so enraged with the franchise manager trying to address an unfortunate delay in service that a police officer who happened to be dining in the restaurant during the late-night incident found it necessary to eject the party for their extreme behavior."

No arrests were made and the plaintiffs' left after paying for their drinks, their attorney said.

Restaurant Collection is a Florida company that owns the Denny's franchise where the incident took place. Denny's Corp is a chain based in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and has 549 company-owned and 1,036 franchised restaurants in the United States.

Denny's Corp. said in a statement that the discrimination allegations were without merit and that it was confident the company would be vindicated.

After the 1994 settlement with black patrons who said they were denied service or made to pay in advance, Denny's apologized and has greatly increased minority ownership of its franchises and minority hiring at restaurants and suppliers.

The men first filed a complaint with Florida's Commission on Human Relations, which said in January there was reasonable cause to believe they had been discriminated against.

A real article about the movie industry....

2005-04-20T06:43:00.000-04:00

The article mentioned below was an April Fools joke. But, maybe it won't be soon. It seems that the movie industry is up in arms over bad box office the past few weeks.

While I doubt this trend will continue (There's a little sequel to Star Wars just days away from the theaters), perhaps the industry has itself to blame.

Has anyone in Hollywood actually priced out a trip to the movies these days? Unless you eat before hand, smuggle in your own food, or have the will power to abstain, the price of the ticket is the least of your worries (although $11 for two people at a matinee is still steep). When a popcorn in a small lunch bag costs a little less than $4, a soda is in the $3 range, and a bottle of Aquafina (tap water, for crying out loud) is the same, you're lucky to get out of the theater for less than $25 bucks for two people, probably closer to $40 if you have a family. Then you have the ultimate humiliation of paying that much money to sit through 10 minutes of commercials (not trailers, commercials), including one for that $3 bottle of purified tap water they'll sell you in the lobby.

For the same price you can buy a box of microwave popcorn, buy a new release on DVD, buy a few 2 liters of soda, and half a dozen assorted movie boxes of candy, and have enough money left over to rent a second movie for a double feature. Plus, you can skip the commercials, pause the movie, and see the film with the proper color and aspect ratio that your local theater never seems to be able to reproduce. And if you don't want to keep the movie, put it on Ebay and make some of that money back.

Hey, the picture's lousy, adjust the tracking!

2005-04-04T23:28:00.000-04:00

According to my favorite DVD review site, DVDFILE, the movie industry is worried that they may fall victim to the piracy that has allegedly reduced music sales, is going to extreme measures to protect High Definition DVDs against piracy. The plan, detailed here indicates that the discs will be encoded with serial numbers that will be tracked at the point of purchase.

I'm not sure I believe this is actually true, but if it is, I don't imagine that the plan will go far. Copy protection is one thing, but having a serial number follow you wherever you use the disc won't fly with your average consumer. Besides, how would this work in the rental business, where the same copy would be used by tons of different people.

The movie industry has done a smart thing with their sell-through prices, so much so that I doubt your average movie viewer is going to be making copies of every disc that comes down the pike. If the HD discs match the DVDs currently in use, it will be some time before a HD DVD burner is affordable and useful to the public. And since you can buy a DVD for cheaper than two tickets to the movies, I don't think people who didn't pirate before are suddenly going to now.

Would you like to supersize your bypass?

2005-03-31T20:38:00.000-05:00

Never let it be said that Burger King is not shrewd. The fast food restaurant, which has been lost in the wilderness recently has been generating some publicity. First, for its new Tendercrisp Bacon Chedder Ranch Chocolate Creme Brule (or whatever the hell it is) commercials, which feature Hootie, Hooters, and a guy in a creepy king costume. And most recently, for its Enormous Omelet Sandwich, a cardiologist's nightmare at 730 calories, 47 grams fat, and 415 milligrams cholesterol. Yeah, everyone and their brother has been criticizing BK for unleashing such an irresponsible dietary choice on the public. But what a PR windfall, hours of airtime devoted to a new sandwich, much of which is certainly heard by people who now are rushing there to try it. With people on the downward side of the latest diet cycle (let's face it, low carb is on its way out), people are eating again, and what better way to thumb your nose at society than by eating enough fat to keep Crisco in business for a year.

Jaguar to Discontinue Cheaper Line of Jags....

2005-03-30T21:49:00.000-05:00

Jaguar is discontinuing its cheaper X line of cars, according to the USA Today to "regain an image of exclusivity and the profit it hopes that brings".

I'd like to make a suggestion to Jaguar and its parent company, Ford. Perhaps the key to reviving Jaguar is to make a car that doesn't look like a rebadged Taurus with lots of chrome. I realized they'd lost their distinctive look when I saw a nice looking new Jag from a distance and pulled up to realize that I was admiring a new Hyundai Sonata.

Identity Theft -- Time for the industry to act

2005-03-28T22:34:00.001-05:00

In the past few months, data has been compromised at numerous companies and universities, causing potential identity theft for thousands and possibly millions of individuals.

Unfortunately, these companies and organizations, as well as our Government seem not to really care about protecting this data or doing much about those who steal it. It's estimated that individuals who have their identity stolen face hundreds of hours trying to put things in order, including a back and forth game with law enforcement, credit card companies, and credit bureaus.

Here's what I think could be done to stem this tide.

1) Impose heavy penalties on identity theft. Prison time plus manditory restitution and penalties equal to or greater than the restitution.

2) Place restrictions on how companies can collect and share personal data. If they can do this for pharmacies, doctors, and hospitals, they can do this for agencies that handle data. Impose fines for those that fail to properly safeguard this information.

3) Devise software to spot telltale signs of potential identity theft on credit applications. Surely things like a name being spelled incorrectly, incomplete or inaccurate information on applications, or an address that is different than one that is currently on your file is a good way to spot this. If the software spots something potentially wrong, the credit should be flagged and an attempt to contact the individual should be made immediately at the existing address/phone number.

4) Require manditory reporting to government agencies ANY time the same social security number is given for two different names. I once had access to a database to investigate fraud where you would often find the same Social Security number tied to seven or eight people.

5) Credit companies should provide a free notification service for any changes to your credit report via e-mail.

I'm sure there are other ideas, but something must happen soon. Credit Bureaus, Banks, Colleges and other people who hold personal data must start holding themselves accountable before the government and/or lawsuits do.

General Motors -- Time to Downsize

2005-03-17T20:55:00.000-05:00

I'm not one for encouraging anything that might cause people to lose their jobs, but it's time for GM to go on a diet.

They're predicting a negative cashflow of about 2 billion dollars, per the USA Today, which also reports that $2000 of EVERY VEHICLE goes toward healthcare expenses.

The problem with GM is that for years they've been producing numerous model lines with little to distinguish them except questionable reliability and cheap looks and feel. The one brand that they managed to make some headway with, Saturn, was undone by its seeming unwillingness to update the style of its vehicles. Its reliability slipped, as did GM's apparent desire to maintain it, and now it's just another nameplate for the company.

It's time for GM to consolidate its model lines and its models from the reported 80 to a much lower (and more manageable) number. They should take a lesson from their Japanese competitors and reduce the lines down a few nameplates with distinguishing traits (entry level, middle of the road, luxury for example), and concentrate on making cars that people want to buy because they're good cars, not because they have hefty discounts or favorable financing. A greater focus on quality (which is all over the map, per Consumer Reports) wouldn't hurt, as would some nice looking entry level models that rope in young buyers and keep them buying GMs as they get older.

Hate your job? So does India!

2005-03-15T21:11:00.000-05:00

Couldn't stop laughing at NPR's Marketplace report that the people working the call centers in India hate their jobs, are getting burned out, and turnover rates are huge. It's getting so bad that they're having to go to less qualified people who have trouble speaking English.

To listen to it here.

An overture for tortured buzzwords

2005-02-23T22:58:00.000-05:00

While looking for advertising for my blogs, I found this brilliant piece of copy on the website of Overture.com under "Partner Solutions".

"Achieve superior monetization for your site with our customized solutions."

Apparently the person who wrote this got paid by the syllable. Guess "Get paid with our customized advertising" didn't sound professional enough. The saddest part is that the word "monetization" isn't even used correctly.

Per m-w.com:

Main Entry: mon·e·tize
Pronunciation: 'mä-n&-"tIz also 'm&-
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form(s): -tized; -tiz·ing
Etymology: Latin moneta
1 : to coin into money; also : to establish as legal tender
2 : to purchase (public or private debt) and thereby free for other uses moneys that would have been devoted to debt service
- mon·e·ti·za·tion /"mä-n&-t&-'zA-sh&n also "m&-/ noun

Screw the $21.4 Million, I want 3 Months of Tech Support.

2005-02-15T22:51:00.000-05:00

NPR had an amusing take on the points in bold during their business report this morning. You can hear it here.

Carly Fiorina to get $21.4m severance pay
By Scott Morrison in San Francisco in the Financial Times
Published: February 13 2005 20:09 | Last updated: February 13 2005 20:09

Carly Fiorina will be paid a $21.4m severance package after being fired as chief executive of Hewlett-Packard last week. She will also be able to keep her computer and receive free tech support for three months.
The controversial Ms Fiorina, considered one of the most powerful women in corporate America until her departure, will get $14m of her severance in cash, equal to 2.5 times her compensation last year, and receive another $7.38m in performance related bonuses.

Ms Fiorina was asked to resign after the computer and printer maker's shares fell 50 per cent and her $19bn acquisition of Compaq Computer in 2002 failed to generate promised profits.

The terms of the severance agreement, which were detailed in a regulatory filing late on Friday, include the vesting of her 6.07m Hewlett-Packard share options. The average exercise price of those options is $35.73 per share, well above HP's closing price of $21.30 on Friday. She has one year to exercise the options.

The company also provided her with a number of other severance related benefits, including $50,000 for financial counselling, legal and outplacement services. She will also receive administrative support for a six-month period, maintenance of home security for a one-year period and an undisclosed cash payment for the balance of her unused vacation time.

She received $1.4m in salary, a $1.57m bonus and options in the fiscal year to October 31 2004, down from her total compensation of $6.64m the year before.

Even after jumping almost 7 per cent on the day of her departure, HP shares have fallen more than 9 per cent in the past year. The group trades at a significant discount to its rivals due to concern about the company's ability to execute its strategy profitably.

Ms Fiorina, who was hired in 1999 to shake up the “gray old lady of Silicon Valley”, dropped a bombshell in late 2001 when she announced her intention to buy Compaq, the struggling PC maker. That touched off a high-profile proxy battle with Walter Hewlett, then board member and son of co-founder William Hewlett, who said the deal would dilute the value of HP's printing business.

She won over investors by a narrow margin and earned the grudging respect of doubters by integrating the two companies ahead of schedule. But the acquisition failed to boost earnings and HP gave up its lead in the PC market to Dell. HP's corporate computing division has also struggled in the wake of the merger.

Her business career began at AT&T, where she rose to be a vice-president by the early 1990s, impressing with her intelligence, professionalism and style. She made her name when AT&T took the decision to spin off its telephone equipment business in 1995, now known as Lucent Technologies.

One way to keep a Wal Mart out of your neighborhood

2005-02-13T15:38:00.000-05:00

This wonderful story from Canada, courtesy of USA Today and the AP:

Union Plans to Sue Wal-Mart Canada

TORONTO, Feb 11, 2005 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- A union Friday said it will file charges against Wal-Mart Canada for exhibiting "bad faith" during its first-ever contract talks by secretly planning to close the affected store.

Earlier this week the Canadian unit of retailing giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said it will close the store in Jonquiere, Quebec, in May.

In October, a few months after the store received automatic union certification by the Quebec Labour Relations Board, the company revealed the store wasn't making money.

The company said union demands wouldn't allow the store to operate efficiently and profitably, compounding its already "fragile" economic state.

At a press conference Friday, Michael Fraser, the Canadian director of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, questioned whether Wal-Mart ever had any intention of reaching a collective agreement with the union.

"Wal-Mart made its decision to close the store months before we sat down at the table with them. They made a decision the day the labour board certified the union. Everything since then has been a charade," he told reporters.

The union, which is also skeptical about the company's characterization of the store's economic condition, will be filing unfair labor practice charges. The union plans to ask the province's labor board to force Wal-Mart to prove the store wasn't profitable.

Fraser said it's "quite a coincidence" that the first Wal-Mart store to be unionized in Quebec is also losing money. He said the store's closure is really meant to send a message to Wal-Mart employees in Quebec and across Canada.

Wal-Mart Canada spokesman Andrew Pelletier said the company would provide the store's financial data if requested by the labor board. He noted the union could have seen the income statement for itself, as company negotiators brought it to bargaining meetings.

Pelletier also dismissed allegations that the company bargained in bad faith. In fact, he said the conciliator acknowledged that Wal-Mart Canada bargained in good faith, and he expects the conciliator's report to say so when it's released in the coming weeks.

"We're not the ones that walked away from the bargaining table," Pelletier said, adding that the company initiated the bargaining process and asked for a conciliator. However, in applying for binding arbitration, he said the union was effectively telling the company it wasn't prepared to budge from its monetary demands, which on top of a struggling store made the situation "untenable."

Fraser said the union was not calling for a boycott of Wal-Mart stores as it's engaged in organizing other locations across the country.

It would be interesting to see how many stores Wal-Mart has closed because they are unprofitable anywhere. I'm guessing the number is few or none. There have been other stories of Wal-Mart taking drastic action to quell unionization in the past, including switching to prepackaged raw meat instead of meat cut inside the store to keep its meat department from unionizing.

So, the message is clear to all the communities across the country that don't like the affect that Wal Mart has or will have in their community. Just help organize a union in your local Wal-Mart, and they'll be gone in a hurry.

Fired and forced to live on 21.1 Million

2005-02-10T19:08:00.000-05:00

Poor Carly Fiorina. The now ousted CEO of HP will have to walk the streets knocking door to door with her resume hoping to find work, forced to live day to day on a measily severance of 21.1 million.

Perhaps she can look to the buddies that have gone before her, the thousands of people laid off since she took over the company. Maybe they can help her find another CEO position where she can do her best to bring a company down.

Carly was yet another in a long list of CEOs more concerned with their own well being and public stature than in understanding and improving the companies they work for. Carly's completely misguided merger of HP with Compaq created, like most mergers, was less than the sum of its parts. How she thought it was a good idea to merge HP with a company whose biggest asset was one that they already held (namely, a PC business on a downward slide) is a mystery to many.

What kills me is that the price of failure is a 21.1 million windfall that she'll enjoy until some other company picks her up and allows her to lead them down the path of nothingness.

2004-11-24T02:29:00.000-05:00

Subway -- Jared is right. Subway's a healthy alternative to the wax paper wrapped heart attacks at other restaurants. I enjoy their sandwiches quite a bit, even if they have less meat on them than Kate Moss on a hunger strike. Having visited 178 Subways in my lifetime (all within a mile radius of my house), I've noticed that almost all of them have the following in common:

1) Awful bathrooms. I think one of them near me was used to film Trainspotting.
2) Sub Nazi owners. My local one has a husband and wife (I assume) who act like you're trying to rip them off when you ask for an extra napkin.
3) The Subway half measure and/or Elastic Veggies. The half measure is when your "sub artist" takes a large handful of vegetables and taunts your sandwich with them, holding them over, as though blessing your sandwich with them, but then only puts half of them on your sandwich. The rest go back in the bins. Elastic Veggies is when the worker grabs a tiny amount of vegetables and pulls them apart with both hands as though willing them to fill the entire length of your sandwich.
4) The one sub, one napkin rule. This rule seems universal. While most fast food places will allow you to pull a ream of napkins out if you want, Subway keeps them under lock and key and has its workers parcel them out like they're giving out gold bullion. I wonder if Jared has to ask for more than one
5) The gloves. I have never figured this one out. They're doing sandwiches, not surgery. For all I know, the guy just swabbed the toilets with his elbows just prior to slipping on the gloves. A thin layer of plastic (which that person grabbed all up and down while slipping on his fingers) isn't going to protect me from Mad Sub Disease or any other sub bourne illness.

I can only figure that Subway is 1) run by the biggest tightwad franchisees in the business or 2) charges so much for its supplies that its owners have to pinch every last penny or go under. All of the above are minor annoyances, but I'd love to once have a sub where I didn't have to ask them to put more vegetables on.

2004-11-23T09:37:00.000-05:00

When Black Friday comes.....

Black Friday. I had never heard this term for the day after Thanksgiving until last year. Now there are whole websites devoted to talking about the sales (and leaking sale prices) on that day.

Now I can't say I've ventured out to REALLY shop on this day recently, especially not at 6 AM.

Which leads me to this thought....

Why in the world do all of these companies start their sales at 6 AM? I understand the thinking that you want to catch people before everyone else does, and that if they happen to come late, maybe you snag them for the stuff that isn't ridiculously low. But......

Why not promote opening your stores at noon? If you're a big enough store (like Target), the promise of a crazy sale later in the day will have people holding money back for you, and probably snag more people who find the idea of getting up at 6 on the day after Turkey Day insanity.

Or maybe not.

2004-11-19T06:37:00.000-05:00

As a decade long Diet Coke drinker, I've occasionally only had the regular kind available to me. Whenever I drink it, I think, "This was the stuff I loved as a kid?" Never was quite sure why it didn't taste as good. The story below might answer my question. It also makes me wonder why Coca Cola doesn't seize on this opportunity to make the true Coca Cola Classic (made with sugar) available to all of us. They could put it out in smaller bottles or charge a premium price and I'm sure they'd make enough to pay for it.

<<Mexican Coca-Cola taking root in U.S.

The Associated Press

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. - Deep in the heart of Coca-Cola country, there's at least one place where the iconic caramel-colored fizz doesn't reign supreme - or at least the version most Americans know.
At Las Tarascas Latino Supermarket, 30 miles from the soft drink giant's world headquarters, store manager Eric Carvallo adjusts prized bottles of Mexican Coke displayed prominently at the front of the store.

He then briefly points over his shoulder to a noticeably smaller display of American Cokes tucked in the corner.

Carvallo notes that his store goes through 10 to 15 cases of Mexican Coke each week - his entire stock - while he's barely able to push the five cases of the domestic version he orders.

"Sometimes I have it left over. Sometimes a case, case and a half. So it's a lot of difference," he said.

Taste is the main reason why his discriminating shoppers buy Mexican Coke - they say the cane sugar sweetener used in Mexican Coke has a sweeter, cleaner flavor than the high-fructose corn syrup in the American version. Many are willing to pay $1.10 per 12-ounce bottle for the imports, even with cans of American Coke sitting nearby for 49 cents each.

"You drink it and taste it - it's something you tasted all your life," said Carvallo, referring to the many immigrants who prefer Mexican Coke over its American counterpart.

While the flavor of Mexican Coke provides a taste of nostalgia for immigrants hundreds of miles from home, its retro green-tinted contour glass bottles have also caught on among some baby boomers, who can recall a time when their cola was made with sugar - before rising costs drove U.S. bottlers to switch to corn syrup in the 1980s.

With a niche market for Mexican Coke taking root in the United States, The Coca-Cola Co. and its bottlers are quietly looking to block its passage across the border.

One reason the Atlanta-based company wants the drink to have a low profile in the United States is that bottlers here don't profit from sales of the import, which are produced by independent Mexican bottlers. Mexican Coke, brought in by third-party distributors and retailers, infringes on franchise territory rights of the U.S. plants.

John Craven, editor of BevNet.com, an online beverage industry newsletter based in Cambridge, Mass., suggested Coke also might want to quell any potential demand for a formula that would cost more to produce.

Martin declined to specify what action the company has taken to curb the gray market trade of Mexican Coke, saying only that "our bottlers discourage that practice."

Discouraging the imports may be all they can do, since Mexican bottlers legally produce the drink and third-party distributors and retailers aren't bound by contracts between Coke and its U.S. bottlers.

"It's very tricky for them to enforce," Craven said. "It's not a product that they can get Customs to stop at the border since it's not a counterfeit."

Coca-Cola said it has been unable to track exactly how much Mexican Coke is sold in the United States, although some industry observers say the company's concerns are unwarranted since sales likely pale in comparison to its American counterpart.

"If there's a tiny amount of Coke from Mexico sold in the U.S., it's a pin drop compared to the ocean of American Coke sold by the U.S. bottlers," said John Sicher, editor of the New York-based industry publication Beverage Digest.

Craven agreed, but noted the company's resistance to this budding niche market. "Consumers are starting to wise up to a lot of these smaller brands that are out there, these regionally premium sodas," he said.>>

2004-11-17T23:55:00.000-05:00

Last night PBS presented an excellent show about Wal-Mart, details of which can be found here. The show addressed my concern about how Wal-Mart shifted from "Buy American" to selling stuff produced mostly overseas, stating that the change came when Wal-Mart started to see its stock price drop and wanted to increase profits. They flooded their stores with hundreds of cheap imported items with high profit margins. The strategy worked, and continues to this day.

What the show also made clear is that Wal-Mart now ropes its suppliers into a deal with the devil that can hurt ill prepared companies who cede too much up front. Former Rubbermaid executives discussed how that company originally enjoyed a great relationship with Wal-Mart, one in which their sales skyrocketed. When Rubbermaid's costs skyrocketed due to the cost of raw materials going up, they tried to pass this on to Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart advised Rubbermaid that they would either have to eat the costs or see their shelf space dwindle. When Rubbermaid refused to lower the prices Wal-Mart went elsewhere to get similar products and cut its shelf space devoted to Rubbermaid way down.

As a result, Rubbermaid lost lots of money, and eventually was taken over by Newell. THe town of Wooster, known as the home of Rubbermaid, lost its plant, which was sold in pieces, with much going to overseas producers.

Of course, you can argue this was Rubbermaid's fault. After all, someone was able to step in and do what Rubbermaid did cheaper and better. And you wouldn't necessarily be wrong. But, as this story and one about Vlasic on Fast Company (here) demonstrate, Wal-Mart forces the hand of companies both big and small to play ball or suffer. Wal Mart believes that prices should go down, not up, and believes its suppliers should help its "rollback" policy by lowering or keeping their prices the same year in and year out. They even go as far as to suggest that they move their production overseas to keep the costs low.

The end result of this is anyone's guess. You have to think that low prices aren't necessarily good if more and more of the country has less disposible income, especially in the small towns that Wal-Mart made its bones in.

2004-11-17T20:55:00.000-05:00

Blue Light Special In Craftsman Tools

When I heard the news today that K-Mart was buying Sears, I thought, WHAT? That's kind of like MC Hammer buying Donald Trump, isn't it? To see two formerly huge names in retail get together in an attempt to survive/compete with other, more successful retailers was somewhat alarming.

The "synergies", to use a buzzword, don't seem to be there, other than both are retailers. K-mart was, of course, the Wal-Mart of its day, where you went for cheap day to day purchases and Sears was where you went to buy well made inexpensive clothes and long lasting big ticket items. Crossbranding would seem to create serious issues for the most valuable parts of the Sears brand, Kenmore Appliances and Craftsman tools, both of which are associated with high quality. Assuming that K-Mart slaps either name on cheap garbage, the value of these names will diminish greatly.

Additionally, I can't imagine K-mart having much to add to the Sears line, except maybe Martha Stewart's name (which they already had in paint), assuming that name still has value. With Sears trying to pick up its image in recent years, adding a retailer whose name is synonymous with both bankruptcy and "blue light" specials won't suddenly bring shoppers through the doors.

Of course, I hope I'm wrong. As a kid who loved the Sears catalog and has fond memories of trips to both stores in my childhood, I want to see both succeed. Maybe combining forces will give both a needed shot in the arm.

2004-11-01T22:33:00.000-05:00

I'm one of those lucky people to have been blessed with a Wal-Mart in my neighborhood for going on 3 decades. Wal Mart opened its first store in the Louisville, KY area 20+ years ago in Crestwood. The store, which would probably fit nicely into the clothing section of the SuperCenters built today was a wonderful place to shop. Open from 10 to 9, the store was a perfect discount store for a small town, with good prices and friendly people.

I thought of this today as I grabbed a pack of cups out of my cabinet to get some water. They were the Wal-Mart brand, which I bought because it was cheap. I looked at the back and saw they were "Made In Mexico".

Nothing new, of course. Cups, toothpaste, housewares, clothes, and other items have been increasingly coming from across our borders for the past several years.

However, this put the spotlight on something that Wal-Mart used to carry in its back pocket as a great reason to shop there. It was saving American jobs. The Wal-Mart of my youth played up this fact in posters displayed throughout the store. Wal-Mart prided itself on giving contracts to television makers, bicycle makers, and garment manufacturers and rescuing the jobs there. I remember the signs counted the jobs that were saved.

The irony, of course, is that as Wal-Mart killed K-Mart and became the discounter in this country, the aggresive business tactics it championed eventually ensured that the jobs it saved would go elsewhere. Conspicuously absent from Wal-Mart these days about buying American. Save for the occasional note on the Sam's Choice products, the only American jobs that Wal-Mart is willing to hold onto seem to be the ones in its stores.

What also seems to be lost, at least in my experience, is the idea of the "hometown" Wal-Mart that is such an important part of their ads. As Wal-Mart has grown, it has gone from a nice place to shop to a place you go because you have to. My local Wal-Mart where I live now was built small and expanded, and still seems too small. The people that work there are less than friendly, the store is filthy (as are many in the Louisville area), the shelves are a mess, and the checkout lines are almost always backed up.

It's no wonder that Target has come on strong. Cheap chick has become the alternative of choice to those of us fed up with Wal-Mart. Target's clean, brightly lit stores, while not always as cheap as Wal-Mart, are places where the budget conscious among us can go and shop and enjoy ourselves.

Granted, Wal-Mart will not suffer financially anytime in the near future, and I'm probably in the minority of people who really have begun to hate shopping there. But I think that its general shift away from the things that once made it a pleasurable place to shop.

So what can Wal-Mart do to improve?

1) Clean up its stores. I've been to Wal-Marts that are nice and clean in other states, but most of them seem to be in smaller areas where the competition for labor isn't as great. In areas such as Louisville, where low paying jobs are a dime a dozen, Wal-Mart seems to get by with skeleton crews. Because the stores are open 24 hours and remain relatively busy that entire time, the stores have to be stocked, cleaned, and reconfigured on the fly. While it may not be feasible to shut down overnight, even a simple closure for a few hours once a week would work wonders to make the stores more pleasant to shop in.

2) New uniforms. Okay, this may sound dumb, but Wal-Mart's uniforms are absolutely horrible. They are 300% polyester and seem in danger of turning their wearers into human torches if they get to close to a heat source (like a warm blanket). Gas station attendents are better dressed.

3) Stock the crap you know people buy. I drink a LOT of soda. Because of this, I buy lots of cheap Sam's Choice Soda. Apparently lots and lots of people do the same, because they are ALWAYS out. Now Wal-Mart got where it was by tight inventory management. But I have to think that having enough Dr. Thunder on keep the shelves stocked throughout the course of the week isn't going to throw Wal-Mart on the downgraded stock list anytime soon.

4) Build more grocery only stores. We just recently got a new Wal-Mart neighborhood grocery, and I like it. The shelves are usually nicely stocked, the prices are great, and the store is much more pleasurable to shop in than the Super Duper Centers that combine groceries, housewares, gas stations, mortgage companies, paintball arenas, and OB/GYN services under one roof.

5) Get off your moral soapbox. On a recent trip to Wal-Mart, I found I could buy Grand Theft Auto (a violent, profane, sexist videogame full of sex, violence, and profanity), Body Double (a movie full of much of the same), and a number of Stephen King novels (chuck full of the same as well). For some reason, if you decide to sing about any of these same themes, Wal-Mart doesn't want you. WHile I appreciate Wal-Mart wanting to look out for children, I think I'd rather have my child have access to Eminem's latest than a movie where people are killed by a power drill or a game the main theme is how many crimes you can commit. Yeah, this probably won't save or make Wal-Mart much money, but it certainly does annoy me.

2004-10-08T01:05:00.000-04:00

I wonder if I'm the only one slightly saddened by Howard Stern's announced departure from broadcast radio to the unchartered territory of satellite radio on Sirius. One imagines that in 5 years, Sirius may be crying too.

Certainly to Howard, the 500 million dollar deal makes sense. After all, it's 500 million. Years of taking crap from the FCC, his bosses, critics, and religious groups has probably taken its toll. Given the draconian measures of Michael Powell and the FCC (who seem to respond only to complaints, not to people who tell them they AREN'T offended), Stern probably got tired of having to censor his material down to half the intensity of what he could do even a year ago.

I'm even sure his fans are applauding. Finally, we can hear bits as their meant to be heard, unfiltered conversations, clips that couldn't be aired, skits that were deemed too offensive previously.

But therein lies the problem. Pushing the envelope is usually more entertaining than obliterating it. There is a certain sense of amusement in listening to people try to get away with as much as they can. Without the threat of censorship, the show essentially would lose the edge it once held. Because they can get away with more, it isn't hard to see the show going for more cheap easy laughs than actually working to be humorous. Add to this the fact that being crude for the sake of being crude gets old quickly. And one would have to guess that the guests who already were fearful of going on there will now run the other way when they know the show is no holds barred.

What is also missing in the equation is that radio for most of us is background noise wherever we are. Most of us started our day with Howard in the shower, Howard for breakfast, Howard on the drive to work, Howard until 11 O'Clock at work. While the show was crude, seldom was it such that you couldn't listen to it in mixed company. With the move to Sirius, if Howard decides to let the f-bombs fly and turn the naughtiness up a notch, the potential for the same audience he enjoys now dwindles considerably. I can't see many people wanting to pay $12 a month solely for programming they will only be able to listen to for 30 minutes to an hour a day.

Still, I hope I'm wrong. Howard has proven to be a survivor, and I would have to imagine his ego wouldn't let him exit radio a failure, as though a man with 500,000,000 could ever be considered a failure.

(c) 2004 Rob Mattheu

2004-06-15T20:39:00.000-04:00

EBAY Beware

I have been a longtime fan of Ebay. Like most people who have found the site, I've enjoyed myself selling my stuff for a little money and searching its pages for bargains and hard to find stuff.

I recently had my first real experience with fraud at Ebay. I'd managed to damage the cord to the very laptop I'm typing this on. Rather than pay a ton from Dell to get a replacement, I went to Ebay and found the exact same model number from a seller with a high feedback rating (over 10000). Taking this as a sign that he was an honest seller, I ignored the few hundred negative and neutral comments.

The seller sent me a box that had the wrong AC Adaptor in it. It had a three prong plug and a two prong adaptor box (I'm not sure what you call it). It was of no use to me, so I wrote to the seller who asked me to ship it back in a certain way (that wound up costing $7) and he would ship me the right item. I was promised I would get a refund on the return shipping, but only up to $6.

I sent it back. About a week later I came home to my wife using the adaptor that was sent back. She started having problems and the power went out to the laptop. I looked at the adaptor. Wrong model again. Fearing it would damage the computer, I unplugged it and wrote an angry letter to the seller demanding that he ship me what I ordered immediately along with a refund of my shipping charges and a prepaid mailer to send the second mistake back.

The seller responding by asking me my model number and laptop model and not replying to my request. I figured he was going to tell me that the one I got would be okay with my computer and I was right. He replied by saying he didn't understand why it wouldn't work, but he would refund my money.

I began to read his feedback. Negatives and neutrals were sporadic but consistent. He seemed to have a habit of shipping the wrong item and/or an item that was not in the condition he represented in the auction.

I posted my own negative feedback. He replied by lying in his. I filed a request for refund with Paypal and reported him to Ebay. Paypal said essentially, "You got a package, you don't deserve a refund." Ebay said that it would investigate but it couldn't tell me what it was going to do. Apparently there decision was nothing, judging by the member's numerous auctions.

What disturbs me is that Ebay and the Ebay owned Paypal seem more concerned with the short term profits provided by big dishonest sellers than they are in creating a sustainable community of sellers and buyers where honesty is the rule. Reading through pages and pages of comments by Ebay users on their own bulletin boards, I discovered that there are hundreds of smaller sellers that are completely disgusted by Ebay's lack of concern and self policing. My own personal experience shows that their Customer Service is a joke, consisting of extremely hard to find reporting mechanisms and form letter responses with conflicting information.

Of course, like Microsoft, Ebay is almost a monopoly. Unlike Microsoft, there don't seem to be any real contenders to replace it. Yahoo and Amazon have dabbled in auctions, but both are like trying to sell President Bush medallions in a strip mall in Tikrit. Given the general frustration brewing at Ebay, both might be wise to start building their sites back up.

2003-08-09T01:12:00.000-04:00

The RIAA wants to make us think that mp3 files are to blame for the recent rapid decline in CD sales, and feels that by suing the people who happen to have these files on the computer, somehow they'll put a stop to copying, trading, and "sharing."

And maybe they're right.

I, for one, have stopped. It's not worth a legal battle just so I can download that disco hit from the 70s I was too embarrassed to buy.

But what the RIAA has failed to realize is that their problems are not the rise of CD burners, MP3 players, and p2p networks. What's led to the RIAA's members hard times is a series of incredibly stupid decisions coupled with intense greed.

CDs are almost 20 years old. The little silver discs were heralded as a revolution for their flawless sound. When the first players hit, CDs were hard to come by. The manufacturing process was expensive, with most discs made in Japan in clean rooms and many discs rejected for each one allowed to leave the plant. The record industry acted accordingly, pricing discs as much as 7 or 8 dollars more than a vinyl LP or cassette.

Of course, many of us fell in love with the shiny things. Over the course of time since I got my first player in 88 and now, I'd say I've amassed 1 to 2 thousand of the shiny buggers, all purchased legitimately. In those 15 years, I've watched as the industry has released some artist's catalogs once, twice, three times and more. I know that at least three versions of the Who's Tommy have been out (I owned them) and that many other artists have had seemingly more compilations than they had songs. As the production went up, obviously, the costs of production went down. Because CDs enabled record companies to reissue many catalog artists, they saw their fortunes skyrocket as many people did what I did, rebuying their old LPs, cassettes, 8 tracks, and even their early CDs. Since the costs of making and promoting these catalog albums was almost nil, these discs were almost pure profit.

Throughout the 90s, the record industry began doing something almost unheard of. It began ignoring profitable established artists looking for the next big thing, either in the form of "alternative" music or beautiful young male and female artists who gave good cover, but often made disposable pop. Many people, like me, stopped buying CDs, because, quite frankly, little interesting music was coming out on the major labels.

Enter CD burners and MP3s. There is no doubt in my mind that this has hurt the industry. But the effects of this have been because the industry was too stubborn or stupid to respond. What exactly were people downloading rather than buying. Yes, I'm sure there were lots of trades of songs by people like me, looking for that obscure live tune, or that classic one hit wonder that you've never been able to find on CD. But I don't think we were the ones giving them fits. Instead, the computer savvy and music savvy teens of today are looking at the sheer bulk of CD product that's being issued, realizing it makes no sense to pay $18.99 for a CD when all you like is the hit, and trading the hell out of those files. The record companies need only look at the sales of the 500 different WOW collections to know that in the disposible pop world they've created, nobody wants an album anymore unless it's by K-tel.

What the RIAA should have done is realized that it was putting out crap. It also should have realized that there were many of us out there who weren't buying the Justin Timberlakes of the world, but who would download an MP3 or 2 of an artist we'd only recently heard and wind up buying the whole album legitimately. In fact, I would venture to say that while the RIAA probably hasn't rung up stellar sales for the teenybopper and cRap artists that they thought would hit it big, they've probably far exceeded expectations on any number of less promoted artists who have seen their work traded over the internet. Perhaps if the record companies had learned the lessons of the movie companies (who learned to survive both videotape and DVD by adapting their philosophies) and just embraced MP3, they could have seen sales skyrocket while their costs plummeted.

Do I think the recording industry will die? No. Do I think that the RIAA will ultimately be successful in their lawsuits? No. I think eventually it will be determined that a song you've purchased is yours to do with what you want in the privacy of your own home and that merely placing the song on a publicly accessible harddrive is no more illegal than a library buying a copy of a book and placing it on a shelf where others can read it without paying for it. I also think that smaller record companies will begin eating the RIAA's lunch, providing more entertaining music to more people for less money than ever before. All I know is that I wouldn't want to be the idiot who's been advising the RIAA for all the money in the world. Time will tell that this course of action was about the most ill advised they could have taken.

2003-08-05T23:40:00.000-04:00

Maybe it's just me, but I'm getting tired of academia, dorky business gurus, and anyone with a pulse pushing their own business theories that fly in the face of common sense. My hope is to share my observations about business, companies I like, companies I don't, the ridiculous books and beliefs that seem to drive the underconfident CEOs to creating the latest Dilbert Company.