Good news, Dear Reader: my Christmas shopping is done. I did it in fifteen minutes while playing an online game and updating my Facebook account. I know that writing it that way makes it sound like I put no thought into the presents I will be giving out, but that is actually far from the truth. I pretty much knew what I would be buying for each person before that fifteen minutes started.
I was asked by several people if I would be going out on Black Friday. All of the retailers made enticing offers to bring shoppers into their stores for the event and, overall, the results have been positive sales figures sharply contrasting with same store sales numbers going into the holiday.
In my early thirties, I opened a lot of stores and I ran a lot of sales events to promote those openings. The key was always to make it into an event. I pushed the local managers to get a local radio station to do a live broadcast so shoppers could meet the on air personalities and maybe even win some promotional items. Get the mayor or a county legislator in there to cut a ribbon or tour the store for a press release. Have the boy scouts cooking hot dogs out on the sidewalk. Do a couple of door prizes to work up the crowd. Throughout the opening event, stay on the load speaker with unadvertised fifteen minute specials to encourage people to hang around longer.
The key to all of that was to make it an event to get people to come in and then hang out as long as possible. Get them used to being in the store and to finding bargains in the store so it would be easy to make shopping there part of their routine.
The current way that Black Friday is promoted does not make much sense to me. It generates a higher top line sales figure, but little of that tickles down to the bottom line of the profit and loss statement. It moves people in and out of each store quickly chasing loss leaders. Almost every sale seems to generate the illusion of planned shortages in which the customer has to beat out the competition to win their treasure.
At some point, shopping became a full body contact sport. People look forward to fighting for their purchases. It has become the American version of the running of the bulls except that people are hurting other people instead of a provoked animal hurting people.
I wonder if that Wal-Mart store clerk on Long Island knew he was signing up for a death sport when he took a minimum wage job to feed his family. If he was not playing, then he should have simply told the women who broke down the doors and trampled him to death that he was just trying to earn a living and they might have stepped around him to buy their Northface knock offs for an extra ten percent off and marked down flat panel televisions.
Thirty-four year old Jdimytai “Jimbo” Damour came to this country from Jamaica looking for a better life. He was hired by a temp service to work in the Valley Stream Wal-Mart and on Black Friday he was placed at the doors both because of his size and because his workmen’s comp was not covered by them. The store placed a “Blitz line starts here” sign up to encourage a running of the bulls atmosphere and five minutes before the store was set to open, shoppers bloke down the doors and killed man.
The saddest part of this story is that this was not just one isolated incident; it was simply the most horrific of a widespread trend. People were injured in incidents like this all across the country. Also worth noting, the television marked down to $750 from $1000 had been previously marked down to $798 and was widely available online at the $750 price on Friday without the trampling.
So I do not feel like I missed anything by skipping the Black Friday crowds and shopping at home from Amway partner stores. I believe I would pay money to escape a prison riot so I do not see why I would pay to shop in something just as vicious.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Thursday, December 18, 2008
20081116 Thanksgiving 08
Cynicism can take on the aspect of coolness when you are young. I spent years believing that I did not really have anything to be thankful for; everything that I had was the direct result of my being so cunning and clever. As a result, my observance of Thanksgiving has been less than authentic over the years.
Ames broke ground by being the first mass merchant to throw tradition out the window and open on Thanksgiving Day and, newly divorced and full of cynicism, I always set myself up to work that day. By the time I moved on to Big Lots, nearly every retailer had joined the new holiday shopping tradition and I was able to keep my cynical tradition going.
Granted, I think that I have been a better than average steward of my future. However, in many ways, I am an incredible idiot. I have had good guidance and good fortune. I have much to be thankful for. At the risk of sounding boastful, there is no better time than Thanksgiving to take inventory of good fortune which has befallen me.
Apparently, most people do not believe that I had anything to do with the first item on the list. People constantly tell me that I am very lucky to have retired in my thirties. While I do realize that there were countless factors outside of my control that made this possible, I am human and it would not hurt to stroke my ego by giving me a little bit of the credit. I decided to set straight a friend of mine who was, I thought, getting scammed by Amway and ended up becoming an independent Amway business owner. I ignored my friends who told me it would never work. I shrugged off my parents who would never think of shopping from Amway instead of going to the stores they visited out of habit. I refused to give in when others quit including the friend who I originally tried to help but who became my sponsor and his sponsor who had become like a big brother to me.
So I am lucky that I do not need to go to work and can live my life like a character from Brideshead Revisited only slightly less gay. I have a nice warm house off in the woods and the mortgage was paid off in thirty months. I have thoroughly planned out the house I will build in a couple of years which will allow me to never need to buy electricity or heating oil again. I have no debt and income that is guaranteed no matter what the economy may hold. Three times a year, I go to Florida for two weeks or so to spend time with my father and see that his affairs are in order. Apart from that I take nine vacations a year, generally staying some place where the concierge takes care of things for me.
I would like to be given some credit for what I have. I live sensibly and spent years denying myself any extravagance. When I worked for a living I brown bagged it every day and never bought myself a latté. I have two Chevrolets and no BMWs.
What I am most thankful for is family. I have a son who, at fifteen, still thinks that I am the coolest guy around. I have a very beautiful girlfriend who accepts all of my quirks. No one ever meets them or hears about them and tells me that I am lucky. For some reason, I do get credit for them as if I created them. I might be able to give my ex-wife credit for my son but he is simply a good kid and would be under any circumstances.
I have come to realize that I am lucky to have what I have so this year Thanksgiving has more meaning than in past years. Because of that, the turkey is going to be moister and the cranberries twice as sweet. I hope that you, Dear Reader, have a very special Thanksgiving.
Ames broke ground by being the first mass merchant to throw tradition out the window and open on Thanksgiving Day and, newly divorced and full of cynicism, I always set myself up to work that day. By the time I moved on to Big Lots, nearly every retailer had joined the new holiday shopping tradition and I was able to keep my cynical tradition going.
Granted, I think that I have been a better than average steward of my future. However, in many ways, I am an incredible idiot. I have had good guidance and good fortune. I have much to be thankful for. At the risk of sounding boastful, there is no better time than Thanksgiving to take inventory of good fortune which has befallen me.
Apparently, most people do not believe that I had anything to do with the first item on the list. People constantly tell me that I am very lucky to have retired in my thirties. While I do realize that there were countless factors outside of my control that made this possible, I am human and it would not hurt to stroke my ego by giving me a little bit of the credit. I decided to set straight a friend of mine who was, I thought, getting scammed by Amway and ended up becoming an independent Amway business owner. I ignored my friends who told me it would never work. I shrugged off my parents who would never think of shopping from Amway instead of going to the stores they visited out of habit. I refused to give in when others quit including the friend who I originally tried to help but who became my sponsor and his sponsor who had become like a big brother to me.
So I am lucky that I do not need to go to work and can live my life like a character from Brideshead Revisited only slightly less gay. I have a nice warm house off in the woods and the mortgage was paid off in thirty months. I have thoroughly planned out the house I will build in a couple of years which will allow me to never need to buy electricity or heating oil again. I have no debt and income that is guaranteed no matter what the economy may hold. Three times a year, I go to Florida for two weeks or so to spend time with my father and see that his affairs are in order. Apart from that I take nine vacations a year, generally staying some place where the concierge takes care of things for me.
I would like to be given some credit for what I have. I live sensibly and spent years denying myself any extravagance. When I worked for a living I brown bagged it every day and never bought myself a latté. I have two Chevrolets and no BMWs.
What I am most thankful for is family. I have a son who, at fifteen, still thinks that I am the coolest guy around. I have a very beautiful girlfriend who accepts all of my quirks. No one ever meets them or hears about them and tells me that I am lucky. For some reason, I do get credit for them as if I created them. I might be able to give my ex-wife credit for my son but he is simply a good kid and would be under any circumstances.
I have come to realize that I am lucky to have what I have so this year Thanksgiving has more meaning than in past years. Because of that, the turkey is going to be moister and the cranberries twice as sweet. I hope that you, Dear Reader, have a very special Thanksgiving.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
081005 BJR Press Release
Press release from BJR Property Management
Principle member of BJR Property Management, LLC, Jim Avery congratulates Weldon Adult Homes on their newest Lansingburgh facility. Weldon Adult Homes has the distinction of being the highest rated of the group homes used by local government agencies responsible for at risk adults and maintains one of the highest retention rates for local facilities.
“We are very excited to be doing business with Weldon,” said Jim Avery at a recent board meeting. “They operate quality homes and both Weldon Adult Homes and BJR Property Management should profit from our partnership at the Rosamilia location.”
Prior to being converted to a group home, BJR Property Management operated Rosamilia as a multi-family apartment house. The building was undergoing capital improvements when a representative of Weldon first approached Mister Avery. Weldon Adult Homes has taken a five year lease on the property and will house a maximum of twelve adults.
Principle member of BJR Property Management, LLC, Jim Avery congratulates Weldon Adult Homes on their newest Lansingburgh facility. Weldon Adult Homes has the distinction of being the highest rated of the group homes used by local government agencies responsible for at risk adults and maintains one of the highest retention rates for local facilities.
“We are very excited to be doing business with Weldon,” said Jim Avery at a recent board meeting. “They operate quality homes and both Weldon Adult Homes and BJR Property Management should profit from our partnership at the Rosamilia location.”
Prior to being converted to a group home, BJR Property Management operated Rosamilia as a multi-family apartment house. The building was undergoing capital improvements when a representative of Weldon first approached Mister Avery. Weldon Adult Homes has taken a five year lease on the property and will house a maximum of twelve adults.
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